I’m reminded of the apostle Paul saying to the Corinthians he purposed to know nothing in their midst except for Jesus Christ and him crucified.   Why did Paul say that?  It seems like there’s so many thing to know?  Paul says in 1st Cor 2 the preaching of Christ crucified is the demonstration of the Spirit, and the power of God.  The way you demonstrate the Spirit is you unveil Christ and him crucified in the midst of people.  People are filled with the Spirit through the preaching of Christ crucified.  People are led by the Spirit through the preaching of Christ crucified.  Paul says it was through the hearing of faith, which is the setting forth of Christ crucified, the Galatians received the Spirit, and miracles were worked amongst them.  

Jhn 15:9  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love.
Jhn 15:10  If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Jesus is wanting us to be kept by the same love thats keeping him.  We see the conclusion of what Jesus says here in John 17 when he prays to the Father for us to be one just as they are one, him in us, and us in him, so through that we can know the Father loves us in the same way He loves Jesus, and we can be sanctified; set apart; kept from the world. 

Kept from the world, isnt talking about not going to concerts, or movies, or interacting with unbelievers.  To be kept from the world means for your heart to be kept from the fear thats in the world.  Your heart is precious to God.  He’s wanting to keep your heart from the sting of death.  He wants to purge your conscience from sin.  He wants to protect you from the lust thats in the world through corruption.  

The world is trying to question God’s love for you.  The world wants to influence you to leave your first love, and to try and find satisfaction in the arms of another.  Jesus wants us to know the Father’s love in the same way he knows the Father’s love, so we can be kept from the world, through the Father’s loving embrace, that just as we came to know the Father through Jesus being kept by His love, the world might come to know the Father, and the one He sent, through us also being kept by their love.  

Jhn 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.  

This is the commandment of Jesus … Jesus is going to reveal the Fathers love for us, and he wants us to live our lives beholding the Fathers love for us in him.  One of the meanings for the word abide is to be in close and settled union; to be held by something; to be kept continually.  The word abide also speaks of an abode or a dwelling place.  Like a place of refuge or sanctuary.  When Jesus says abide in me, he wants us to behold our lives in his face, he wants us to see ourselves in him, and him in us, so in seeing the Father’s love for him, when He raises Jesus from the dead, the Father’s love becomes our abode, a place of sanctuary, where we are kept from the advances and flirtations of the world.  

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. ***Lest you be enticed by the prince of this world to leave your first love and present your members to him ***

Joy set before Jesus, is that because he and the Father were one, because he  was in the Father and the Father was in him, nothing could separate him from the glory he shared with the Father from the beginning.  Nothing could keep him from seeing the fulness of the glory he shared with the Father from the beginning manifesting in his physical body.  Like as job, this one thing I know I will see God in my flesh.  

When it says Jesus endured, it’s saying Jesus was kept by the Father’s love on the cross. It’s not saying Jesus had to grit his teeth, and grind through the suffering, as if he was alone there on the cross.  One of the meanings of the word endured is to abide.  When hebrews says Jesus endured it means Jesus was dwelling in the bosom of the Father.  John records himself as the disciple Jesus loved, and that love caused John to lean on Jesus’ bosom.  Jesus came forth from the bosom of the Father.  He came forth from the Father’s love.  Jesus was in the Fathers heart and the Fathers heart was in him, and so the Father’s love was his dwelling place.  Thats what it means to endure.  He didn’t leave his first love.  

The word endured is used because a contradiction is also present in the midst of the Father’s love.  Sin was manifesting in Jesus’ body on the cross, trying to get him to leave his first love, and give himself over into the arms of the world.  When we think of the contradiction we want to see it relationally.  What does a contradiction look like relationally.  The Father and Son have a relationship.  The Father loves the Son, and the Son experiences the Father’s love, and loves the Father back.  The death and suffering that came upon Jesus at the cross was trying to contradict the Father’s love for Him.  It was telling Jesus if the Father loves him, how could this be happening.  It was telling him the death he was dying on the cross was inconsistent with love.  How can you say the Father is the lover of your life, look at your affliction.  

Why didn’t Jesus leave his first love.  I mean the cross is some pretty compelling evidence …

Hebrews says Jesus looked to the one who could save him.  Doesnt just mean Jesus looked at the Father.  Just as Hebrews says for us to look unto Jesus, consider Jesus.  Jesus kept the Father’s commandment.  He looked to the Father; considering the word of the Fathers love for him.  Just as Jesus says in Johns gospel, he and the Father are one.  Jesus saw himself in the bosom of the Father.  He knew the Father was in Him and he was in the Father.  Jesus was persuaded the death of the cross couldn’t separate him from the love of the Father.  Jesus came into the earth from the Father’s love, and he knew the Father’s love would raise him up in the glory they shared together from the beginning.  Jesus saw he was alive to the Father and dead to sin.  Although he saw sin and death present there, he didn’t see himself as one with sin and death, he saw himself as one with the Father.  He saw Himself in the Fathers face, and he heard his name on the Father lips … that the Father will not suffer his life to be overcome by the death of the cross, but the Father will glorify him with the glory they shared from the beginning 

the word of the Father’s love dwelled in Jesus’ heart richly, through the Holy Spirit.  The same Holy Spirit that descended on him as a dove in the Jordan River, when the voice of the Father spoke from heaven, saying you are my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased, contained the very words of the Father’s love for him.  The Holy Spirit was in Jesus always lifting the Father up in His sight; reminding him that he and the Father are one; they are braided together; That kept Jesus in the Father’s love.  It kept him from offering his members/body to the world.  And thats really the purging of sin from the conscience.  It’s the purging of the contradiction.  Jesus was kept from the contradiction by the Father’s love.  His conscience was purged from sin.  It was purged from the word that questioned the integrity of the Fathers love for him, by the testimony of the Father’s love.

Remember the commandment of Jesus is to abide in him.  Behold your life in his face, see yourself in him, and him in you, so just as he was kept by the Father’s love in the midst of the world contradicting the Father’s love for him, You can be kept by the Father’s love, when the world tries to contradict Gods love for you, and tries to seduce you into leaving your first love. 

When you encounter the contradiction, which is the evil day/death.  When you encounter something thats contrary to God’s love, something that contradicts Gods love for you.  Something that questions whether He actually cares for you.  Consider Jesus.  Look unto the faith revealed in Jesus, and that will purge your conscience from sin.  What you see in Jesus will purge your conscience from every word that questions the integrity of God’s love for you.  

If we look at Jesus.  That’s what we’re doing together right now.  We are demonstrating the Spirit and the power of God; we are putting on display Christ and him crucified; We see Jesus and we are crucified with Christ.  We are dead to the world and the world to us.  We are dead to sin and alive to God.  Our life is not braided together with the sin and death we see.  You may see some tribulation and calamity, but your life is not hid in there.  God has taken your life from the dust of the ground, the place where the serpent is dwelling, and has raised you up, and hid your life in His bosom.  Hide and go seek … We see Jesus, and we see the Father will not allow our lives to be overcome by corruption.  We see Jesus, and we see even should our bed be made in hell, the Father is with us to pick us up out of the miry clay.  We see Jesus, and we see we are never alone, the Godhead dwells in our mortal bodies.  We see Jesus and we see God loves our lives so much He’s brought them forth … Gods love is found in the word of life.  It’s found in what He’s done to join Himself to your human nature, so you can be one with Him, and partake with Him in His divine nature. 

God hasnt left us alone to bring these things forth by the power of our intellect.  He’s given us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son, the word of the Fathers love is contained within the Spirit of the Son.  We are demonstrating the Spirit, that dwells in you, containing this same testimony.  

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 

Laws, all the things Hebrews just outlined, which were the beginning of the doctrine of Christ, meant to put on display in the midst of the people, the love of God ….. Not saying God will write thou shalt and thou shalt nots … it’s not even talking about handwriting like we think of writing something down.  This is talking about God giving us the Holy Spirit … I will give them a new heart, even a new spirit …. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth … just like Paul says all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained in Christ.  Within the Holy Spirit is the truth that was revealed in Christ crucified.  That Holy Spirit is like a continuous date night within our hearts, containing the faith of the Son of God; all the time exalting the faith of Jesus in our sight; Christ crucified; contradicting the contradiction; purging our conscience from that which tells us God doesn’t love us … comparing spiritual to spiritual.  Ministering the love that is of Christ to us.  

Prayer