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[0:00] Hello. So, I will be reading from John 19, verse 26 to 27. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son.

[0:14] Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. So, Paul gave us a really great context for what Jesus was going through at this point completely abandoned from all of his people.

[0:33] The only people left there was his mom, his aunt, Mary Magdalene, and John, the disciple whom he loved. And so, in this hour, it's easy for one to be going through such pain to put all the focus on themselves, to say, Hey, look at me, I'm dying.

[0:51] Hey, look at me, I've just been flogged. Hey, look at me, everybody has abandoned me. But instead of looking to himself and looking at how much he was going through, Jesus is completely selfless.

[1:05] And so, I'm going to talk about four separate points that I believe are important about this verse. And so, the first part has to do with his selflessness towards his mother.

[1:15] So, instead of having himself on his mind, he only had his mother on his mind. And he bore her concerns upon his heart. And so, he, in that moment, in his final breaths, was like, I've got to take care of my mom because my earthly mother, taking care of her is more important than any needs I have right now.

[1:36] And so, he says to John, This is your mother. Which is important to understand the selflessness of it. But the second part I want to point out is the fact that he calls her woman.

[1:47] I read that and I was like, gee whiz, if I ever said woman to my mom, she would not be very happy. And so, we see this and we're like, Jesus, wow, okay.

[2:00] But what's really important about that is he's separating her from his deity. And so, in that moment, she becomes this earthly woman who was his earthly mother.

[2:10] And now, she's being passed on to somebody else, to somebody else to take care of. And so, she has no deity to her and she has no superiority to her.

[2:21] She is just another human. She is just another woman. She is just now somebody else's mother to take care of. The third point I want to bring up is when one comfort is gone, he raises yet another.

[2:36] And so, Jesus was the comforter for Mary. At this point, it's assumed that Joseph had died. And it's likely that the rest of Jesus' siblings had abandoned them because, well, they weren't there.

[2:48] And so, Jesus being the sole comforter of Mary, being the sole provider for Mary, is now providing another comforter and provider, which is John.

[3:01] And so, in that earthly sense, he's providing another comforter. And then, in a spiritual sense, once Jesus is gone, we get the Holy Spirit, which, in other words, for the Holy Spirit is comforter. And so, Jesus is always prepared to provide something else to comfort us when another situation is gone.

[3:20] The fourth point I want to bring up is the willingness to serve Christ in any way possible. As Jesus is there, he assigns the duty of watching his mother.

[3:33] And we see that as such a small thing. Okay, great, he's watching his mom. Good for John. Now she has somebody to take care of her. Great. But the truth is, John was willing to serve Christ no matter what the circumstance was.

[3:46] Their circumstance was, hey, can you watch my mom because she has nobody else. And he took that opportunity to serve Christ with all that he has. In the words of Matthew Henry, those that truly love Christ and are beloved of him will be glad of any service to him or his.

[4:04] And so, we see that through John. Through all of this, the biggest thing that stands out to me is just the selflessness of Christ and the fact that no matter what his situation, no matter the context, he is constantly dying for his people and putting himself before others.

[4:21] And it's such a perfect example of what our lives need to be every day. And being a newlywed, it's something I'm discovering day in and day out. That serving my wife day in and day out is very hard.

[4:34] And some days I don't want to do it. But then we look to this example and we see Christ, who lost everything, is dying on a cross and is yet still serving others.

[4:44] And what a great example of what our lives should be every day. I invite you to stand in a minute of silence in prayer. Father, once again, we ask that you would make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel and who are learning to live for your glory.

[5:14] And Father, as we're gripped by the gospel, help us to be open and attentive and listening for the assignments you give us. And Father, we know that some of those assignments you give us will be maybe very long-term.

[5:29] And some of them, Father, will be very immediate. And we confess before you, Father, that when we think of assignments that you might give us, we think of maybe doing something really wonderful or remarkable or maybe something that's very easy.

[5:45] But we ask, Father, that you make us attentive to those uncomfortable assignments that you give us to visit maybe a person that we find really, really irritating, to forgive somebody who's hurt us, to serve someone who will be completely and utterly thankless.

[6:06] Father, there are these hard but simple assignments that you also give your people. And we ask that as you make us disciples who are gripped by the gospel, who are learning to live for your glory, that you would open our ears and our eyes to those uncomfortable assignments that do not bring us glory, but are part of your plan and bring you glory.

[6:33]  And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sing. Amen.