Our beloved fathers, deacons, nuns, faithful, both in
this holy church and everyone who is watching
us for live streaming, may the almighty God
the Father and God the Son and God
the Holy Spirit, one in nature, one in
essence, bless you, guide you, protect you and
deliver you from the snares of the enemy,
whether it be visible or invisible in Jesus'
mighty name, we pray.
Today's gospel is our church fathers have chosen
a passage, actually it's an entire chapter from
the gospel according to Saint John and it
is chapter 17 in its entirety, which is
26 holy and sacred verses.
26 verses which will take 26 years if
you're not rushing, we'll explain it for you.
26 verses, chapter 17.
You've heard us say this before, the gospel
according to Saint John is the depth of
theology.
That is why the way it is written,
it is totally different to the other synoptic
gospels being Matthew, Mark and Luke because John
the Beloved is introducing the Lord Jesus to
the entire world and he's saying to the
whole world that Jesus Christ is God himself.
It cannot go any other way.
He is either God or he cannot be
anything else.
He cannot be a prophet only, he cannot
be a holy man only, he cannot simply.
It's either God or nothing.
There are four chapters in the gospel according
to Saint John that are referred to as
the chapters of the Holy Spirit, periclete, the
Holy Spirit or the comforter.
And these four chapters are chapter 14, 15,
16 and 17.
These are the chapters of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus in chapter 14, 15 and
16, he is talking to his 12 apostles
about the father.
And in chapter 17, which is today's liturgical
gospel, he is talking to the father about
the apostles.
So 14, 15 and 16, the Lord is
talking to the apostles, to his disciples about
the father and chapter 17, he is speaking
to the father about the apostles and his
disciples.
26 verses, I will elaborate by the grace
of the Lord on one verse, which is
verse three, 17, John 17, three.
And it says, and this is the eternal
life that they may know you, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent.
This is the eternal life that they may
know you, the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent.
So the question arises naturally, how can a
person live?
The Lord Jesus says, the only way for
any human being, not Christians only, for any
human being, in order for them to live,
they need to know God and Jesus Christ.
If you ask any person, do you wanna
live or die?
Everyone will say, I want to live.
But everyone does not know how to live.
The people of the Old Testament, they tried
frantically to fulfill the law of God.
Why?
For one reason, because they wanted all to
live.
God said to them, if you follow my
rules, my law, and fulfill my law, I
will give you life abundant.
So everybody wants to live, and the only
way to live is to get to know
God and Jesus Christ.
And that is the only way to gain
life, but not life only, eternal life, a
life that ends not.
Now, how do we gain this life eternal?
Through knowledge.
That is the only way to gain life
and to remain living is to know, through
knowledge.
So looks like there is one kind of
a knowledge that gets you to eternal life,
but there is another kind of a knowledge
that gets you to eternal death.
Since there is knowledge that leads to eternal
life, well, therefore, there will be a knowledge
that will lead you the opposite way to
eternal death.
What knowledge leads a person to eternal death?
The knowledge of the world.
And the Holy Bible says that the world
is being placed in the bosom of Satan.
And that knowledge is called the knowledge of
good and evil.
That was the tree that was placed in
the Garden of Eden where God warned Adam
not to eat from.
And the day he eats from it, surely
he will die.
And that tree was called the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil.
Which tree is this?
Me and you.
The human being is that tree.
What God is saying to every single human
being, the day that comes, you manage your
own affairs.
The day that comes, you be in control
of this life on earth.
That day that you become your own God,
your beginning will be good, but your end
will be 100% evil.
And look around you, my beloved.
Every person that chose to live their way,
walk their way, do things their way, look
how they started and look how they ended
up.
Absolute disaster.
At the beginning it was good.
Well, the first time when my friend said,
let's go out, I was on cloud nine.
It was the first time ever that I
was alive.
Why?
Because I did not realize that I was
sentenced to imprisonment called home, controlled by mom
and dad.
And the way I lived at home, I
did it their way.
And their way for me was suffocating.
So I chose to do it my way,
not parents way, not God's way, but my
way and no one else.
So when I did it my way, the
beginning was good because I had fun, I
went out, I enjoyed life to the fullest
the way I chose to dress up, the
way I chose to speak, the way I
chose to eat, drink, dance, jump, go and
come.
It was stunning.
But before I came to really live it
to the fullest, I ended up being in
an evil way.
Either in prison, drug addict, homeless, lost everything.
See, when God speaks, we must pay attention
because God is the truth and everything outside
of him is one big lie.
My son, my daughter, don't ever believe, don't
ever trust anyone that comes and says to
you, you are free and you can do
whatever you wish to do.
This is non-existent, never will be.
Trust in what God, who is Jesus Christ
of Nazareth and what he says.
If anyone says to you, you are free,
you can do whatever you wish, this is
a lie.
No one is free.
There is either the knowledge that leads you
to light or the knowledge that leads you
to darkness.
If you do not choose the light who
is Christ, the light of the world, you
will be controlled whether you like it or
not by the darkness who is Satan.
There are two forces, two powers.
It is either Christ or Satan.
It is either heaven or hell.
It is either the church or the club.
It is either the Lord or you end
up in the bosom of Satan.
And this is the eternal life that they
may know you.
The Lord is talking about his father, that
they may know you, the only true God.
So Christians worship one true living God.
But this God cannot be just one, has
to be three in one.
And one in three.
There is no such thing as God just
being one.
Doesn't exist.
You have time?
And this is the eternal life that they
may know you.
The only true God.
The Lord did not stop there.
And Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
So how do you gain eternal life?
By knowing God and Jesus Christ.
Now who is Jesus Christ?
The son of God.
Well, since Jesus Christ is the son of
God, then who is this God?
The father.
Since he has the son, therefore he is
the father.
Now, Jesus Christ, according to the gospel of
St. John, how does St. John represent Jesus
Christ to the world?
As the logos, the word.
John 1,1, in the beginning was the
logos or the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God.
Now what is this word?
Knowledge.
How do you gain knowledge?
You gain knowledge through words.
When you read a book, when you read
a text, that book is made out of
words.
When you read those words, what have you
gained?
Knowledge.
Through words, you gain knowledge.
You go to school, you study words.
Those words give you knowledge in whatever field
you choose later on.
Wanna be a doctor, a teacher, a scientist,
an engineer?
You need to read words.
Otherwise, you will never be able to gain
the knowledge of medicine, science, whatever field it
is, unless you read words.
Christ, Jesus Christ, is the logos, the word.
He is the only true knowledge that leads
you to the Father, to God.
Outside of Jesus Christ, there is no knowledge
that will ever get you to God.
That's why he is the only way to
God, the only truth of God, and the
only life eternal.
Because life eternal, according to John 17 three,
is gained through the knowledge of God and
his beloved son, Jesus Christ.
So you need to know Jesus Christ in
order to know his Father.
If anyone says, I believe in God, ask
them this question.
Have you seen God?
They'll say no.
Can you ever see God?
They will say no.
Do you know God?
They will say no.
Can you ever see, know God?
They will say no.
Well, you've never seen him.
You cannot see him.
You do not know him.
You can never know him.
How can you believe in a God that
you don't know?
Well, as a Christian, if you ask Saint
Paul, do you know God?
He will say no.
Do you know Jesus Christ?
He will say yes.
When he writes in his epistle to the
Ephesians, he says, all glory to God.
But Saint Paul doesn't stop at the word
God.
He continues and says, all glory to God,
the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Saint Paul, have you seen God?
No.
Have you seen Jesus?
He says, definitely yes.
I was going to Damascus to persecute the
Christians.
And on the way, this brilliant figure appeared
where I lost my vision for three days.
And I heard, I saw this brilliant figure
at the beginning before losing my sight.
And I heard his voice saying, why are
you persecuting me?
He said, who are you that I am
persecuting, Lord?
He said, I am Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
You cannot go against me, Saul.
He says, Lord, what do you want me
to do for you?
When he met Jesus Christ, he gained knowledge
because Jesus Christ is the word.
And through the word, you gain knowledge.
He gained knowledge of divine nature.
And through Jesus Christ, who is the knowledge,
that knowledge led him to the Father.
Now, who is the Father then?
Love.
And so God loved the whole world that
he gave his only begotten son so that
whoever believes within him shall not perish but
have everlasting life, eternal life.
John 3, 16, the center and the heart
of the entire Holy Bible put together.
And so God loved the whole world that
he gave his only begotten son.
Well, since this God has a son, then
he is the Father.
Who loves the world?
The Father.
And who loves the church?
The shepherd, the good shepherd.
Jesus Christ, as the good shepherd, he loves
his own.
But Jesus Christ, as God, he loves the
whole world.
So love cometh from the Father.
It was the love of the Father that
sent Jesus Christ to be the Savior and
the Redeemer of the entire world.
What slain Jesus on the cross, what crucified
Jesus was the love of the Father to
the entire human race.
Now, why Jesus is so central in all
of this?
Because he is the word.
He is the only knowledge to lead you
to the Father.
Why it is so vital and foundational?
My beloveds, what leads to love is knowledge.
What do I mean?
You've heard me saying it many times and
I'll keep on saying it every time the
occasion arises.
Can you ever love someone you never know?
You can only love the one whom you
came to know, isn't it?
How can you love someone you don't know?
You cannot, isn't it?
It's only logical.
But what happens?
Let's say John is out and his eyes
fall on this Rosella and she happened to
be Rachel or Elizabeth or Melissa or Irene.
So he meets this girl.
He doesn't know her for the first time.
He doesn't know her name.
He doesn't know anything about her.
So he walks up, says, oh, hello, my
name is John.
What's your name?
Oh, she says, Rachel.
And then they start talking.
They exchange numbers and they start talking and
talking and then they go out.
And as time goes by, they get to
know each other.
As they get to know each other more
and more and more, they start loving each
other.
You see, what made them love one another
was knowledge.
Without knowledge, love cannot happen.
If you don't know, you cannot love.
You can only love what you came to
know initially.
So what leads to love is knowledge.
Love begins at the point of knowledge.
I came to know the person and as
I came to know them, I began to
love them.
Now, my beloved, let me put it this
way to you.
Jesus Christ came to give us the knowledge
of the Father because he said it, he
said it to everyone.
He said, whoever says, Lord, Lord, will not
enter the kingdom of God.
It is he who does the will of
my Father.
How can we do the will of the
Father if we cannot see the Father, we
only saw Jesus?
So the Lord Jesus came to give us
the knowledge to get to know the Father,
but the Father cannot be known only through
the Son.
There is no time.
These 26 verses of John 17, it will
take ages to explain.
Who's here from the Middle East?
Show of hands.
Oh, quite a number, not bad.
My beloved, if you're not aware of the
Middle Eastern culture, I'll tell you one thing
and maybe it's in other countries, I don't
know, I'm not familiar.
But in the Middle East, my beloved, the
Father is never referred to with his own
name.
He's always referred to by his first son's
name.
For example, the father's name is John and
his son's name is Smith.
In the Middle East, John will never be
called John.
He will always be referred to as the
father of Smith.
How are you?
Abu Flam.
The father of Smith, how are you?
So when you go, you wanna meet John,
who is the father.
You go and ask the neighborhood, do you
know John?
They'll say no.
The moment you say, do you know the
father of Smith?
They'll say, oh yeah, why didn't you say
that from the start and saved us all
the headaches and the heartaches?
Of course we know the father of Smith.
Who doesn't?
Everybody knows who the father of Smith is.
But John, we never got used to calling
him John.
Do you know God?
No.
Have you seen God?
No.
Do you know his son?
Yeah, his name is Jesus Christ.
I saw him, I met him.
Because Jesus Christ, the son, became man like
us.
He put on the flesh and became one
of us.
He's got our figure.
I'm able to see the son.
And what happens, it is through the son,
the father is revealed.
Do you know God?
No.
Do you know the father of Jesus Christ?
Of course, because I met the son.
And through the son, I was led to
the father.
Now this son is knowledge, so vital, because
without knowledge, love cannot exist.
I came to know Jesus Christ, I fell
in love with him.
When I loved him, I realized, he says,
I want you to love my dad.
If you truly love me, love my dad.
And if when you love my dad, you
will do his will.
You will never do someone's directives unless you
love that someone.
When the love is great, the obedience is
also great.
The greater the love, the more obedient you
are.
Mom worked so hard and raised you for
30 years.
Mom and dad.
And mom, for 30 years, tried to get
you to wash your plate.
You never did.
And all of a sudden, you meet this
strange girl and you fall in love with
her.
You wash the dishes, you mow the lawn,
you wipe the floor, you do everything like
a slave.
وإنت الممنون.
This was in Iraq.
I had to slide it in.
You will run like crazy.
Your mom will come and say, son, do
you have a temperature?
Are you okay?
You're acting weird.
How come you didn't do what I said?
Well, mom, I never tasted this love before.
Yes, I love you, mom.
But this Rachel blew my mind away and
took my heart with her.
I am no longer me.
I am all her.
When you come to know Jesus and you
fall in love with Him, you will start
doing things you've never done before.
You will go the extra mile.
You will forgive your persecutors.
You will forgive your enemy so easily.
Before, anybody says a word to me, I'll
chop him.
But now, they not only say things to
me, they are attacking me.
And I'm still forgiving.
Why?
Because when I love, I do weird things.
Love makes you do the impossible.
So when I came to know Jesus, who
is the word, the knowledge, that knowledge naturally
leads to love.
When it led me to love, it led
me to the Father.
Father is love.
Now, why do I need love?
Because love gave me life.
And this is the eternal life.
That they may know you, that you are
the only true God.
But since I cannot know God, God became
man.
So that I can know the man and
through the man, I get to know God,
the impossible to be known.
And when I came to know God through
this man, Jesus of Nazareth, I came to
love Him because when I knew Him, I
began to love Him.
Because without knowledge, there is no love.
So when I came to know this man,
I came to know God.
And when I came to know God, I
fell in love with God.
The moment I loved God, I was given
eternal life.
For love gives life.
And knowledge gives love.
Without knowledge, there is no love.
And without love, there is no life.
You want to live?
You need to know Jesus in order to
go to the Father, to know Him through
Jesus Christ and fall in love with Him.
The moment you love the Father, life eternal
is yours.
Now, how do you know Jesus Christ?
In King's Cross?
In Star City Casino?
In Las Vegas?
In that little white powder?
In gambling?
In alcoholism?
In doing whatever you want to do?
Of course not.
How can you know Jesus in darkness?
How can you know Jesus in evilness?
How can you know Jesus in deception, in
lies, in destruction?
How can you?
Jesus Christ is the truth.
Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
You want to know Him?
You need to come to the light.
Come out of that dark alley.
Come out of that dark you.
And let Jesus Christ be you.
So you start coming to church, no longer
the club.
Stop going to the club, come to the
church.
Stop swearing, start praising.
Stop reading nonsensical books, start reading the Holy
Bible.
You want to have the mind of Christ?
You better read the Bible because the Holy
Bible is the mind of Christ.
You want to receive Jesus Christ fully?
Well, Jesus Christ has got a body, has
got a soul, has got a spirit, and
has got a mind.
The body?
He said, take this is my body and
eat it.
You're receiving the body of Christ.
You want to receive His soul?
The soul lies in the blood.
He said, take this blood.
This is my blood that has been shed
for the remission of sins.
And when you receive my blood, you're receiving
my soul.
For the soul that you have killed in
you, which sin killed it.
So now, your dead body through sin, you've
received the living body of Christ.
Your dead soul through sin, you've received the
life-giving blood.
Body is the living, blood is the life
-giving.
And when you receive the body and the
blood, you need to receive His spirit.
And His spirit is the gospel, is the
Holy Bible.
Because the word is spirit in its nature.
Because it's the word of God and God
is spirit.
So when you receive His word, that is
for your spirit.
But before you do that, you want to
receive the spirit, the Holy Spirit?
Baptism.
Baptism you receive the Holy Spirit.
But when you want to receive the mind
and the thought of Christ, you read His
word, the Holy Bible.
That's why, my beloveds, the sacrament of baptism
and the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist go
hand in hand.
Through baptism, you receive the spirit of Christ.
Through the body, you receive His body.
Through the blood, you receive His soul.
Now you've got body, soul and spirit.
Christ is resurrected in you.
One thing is missing, His thought.
That's why we read the gospel.
The Holy Gospel is the thought of Christ.
And what does this word, the knowledge do?
Transforms you.
Do not be conformed to the world, but
rather transformed.
How do I change from worldly to heavenly?
How?
By transforming my mind, changing my mind.
What will change your mind?
The logos, the word of God.
That is the only way to change your
mind.
And if you want to live, you need
to get to love.
And the only way to love is knowledge.
Jesus is the knowledge that will get you
to love.
And when you love, you live.
Because what gives life is love.
You ask all the religions of the world,
with all love and respect, they will tell
you life precedes everything, including love.
The only place where it says love precedes
life and everything else is Christianity.
And so true.
Because if life preceded love, what would I
do with a life that has no love
in it?
It's an absolute hell.
So what is hell?
A place where there is no love.
That's it.
It's called hell.
Can we taste hell on earth?
While we're in the flesh, yes.
Live a life that has no love in
it.
You're living in hell.
And when you live in hell, are you
alive?
You're dead.
But you're not dead in the sense of
you come to a full halt.
You're still alive.
But even though you're alive, but since there
is no love in this life, as if
you are dead.
I'd rather not live a life that love
is absent in it.
But when I live a life that has
love in it, now that's what you call
life.
What makes life truly life is love.
And what gets you to love is knowledge.
And Jesus Christ is the only knowledge to
God the Father, who is love.
Through knowledge, you gain love.
And through love, you gain eternal life.
You want to live?
Never die.
Get to know Jesus Christ.
Through Him, you will get to know the
Father.
And when you get to know Him, you'll
start loving Him.
And the day you love Him is the
day you live.
You'll never die.
I don't want to talk too much.
You know, when you read in the gospel
according to St. John in chapter 11, the
Lord Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead after
four days.
He was rotted.
You know, some would say raising the dead
is the ultimate miracle.
No, it's not.
Because the very Lazarus whom the Lord raised
from the dead, 30 years later, he died
in Cyprus.
I've gone to Cyprus and I've seen his
tomb, the tomb of Lazarus.
He was a bishop in Larnaca in Cyprus
for 30 years.
So, the Lord raised Lazarus physically and he
died again.
So, if raising the dead is the ultimate
miracle, Lazarus shouldn't have died.
But what is the ultimate miracle that once
you give it to a person, that person
never dies, is love.
When does a person never die?
When the heart is changed.
What changes the heart?
Love.
It's all in the heart.
You know, the Lord Jesus said, and I'm
not talking about the heart that pumps blood,
you know, I'm talking about the core of
your being, the inner person.
The inner person, when that inner person changes,
you'll never die.
But that inner person, no one can change
except God.
But God cannot change you unless you know
Him.
And since you can't get to God, God
became man so He can get to this
man.
Or this man can get to you, rather.
Because Jesus came to do one thing, to
change your heart from stone, dead, to flesh,
living.
Brother and sister were the only ones living
together.
The parents had moved on.
True story.
Brother and sister, they were living together for
a long time.
One day the brother gets married.
The sister remains because she didn't want to
get married because she wanted to be like
a mom to her brother.
So she sacrificed her life for the brother.
Why?
Because love gives life.
So she remains single to look after the
brother.
The brother gets married.
First few years, absolutely beautiful, him and his
wife.
Loving each other, respecting, beautiful life.
Few years later, Satan whispers in this brother's
ear, the husband, and he veers off the
road, and he goes and finds another woman.
While he's still married, he's also living with
another woman.
After a little while, the wife starts having
her own doubts and suspicions because she started
seeing changes in this husband toward her.
So she, she was a best friend with
his sister, the sister-in-law.
The sister-in-law and the wife, they
were more than sisters.
They became more than sisters.
So she went to her sister-in-law
to open up to her because she couldn't
handle it anymore.
She said, Sister, I don't have solid proof,
but my feeling cannot fail me.
I think your brother has got another woman
in his life.
The sister said, Impossible for my brother to
do this.
I know my brother.
I was like a mom to him.
I raised him all my life, all his
life.
I know him more than himself.
No way.
You have married the best man you could
ever ask for in the entire world.
No one is like my brother.
And I know for a fact, he loves
you, he adores you.
But behind closed doors, when she pulled the
brother aside, she shredded him because he confessed
to her that he's got another woman in
his life.
So she shredded him.
But in front of the sister-in-law,
my brother is the best.
She kept on praying and kept and held
on to the secret until one day, your
father who art in heaven, who sees in
secret, will reward you in the open.
He touched the heart of the brother through
the love of the sister she had for
the brother.
Hid the secret, never revealed it because love
hides many errors.
Until God touched his heart and one day
he woke up.
He said, what am I doing?
I've got the best wife in the world.
Where have I lost my mind?
He stops, comes back and continues his life
with his wife.
What kept that life going was the love
of the sister to the brother.
We can't wait when someone makes a mistake.
We blow the trumpet all over the social
media.
Did you know?
Where is the love?
You want to live?
Get to know Jesus Christ in order to
love him.
Because when you get to know the Son,
the Son will give you the Father.
Philip and all of you, truly I say
to you, he who sees me, I Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, sees the Father, for I
and the Father are one.
Wow.
Don't love me, love my dad.
But one thing I will ask of you,
get to know me.
Because I am the word, I'm the knowledge.
And without knowledge there is no love.
And without love there is no life.
Focus on the Lord Jesus.
In him, eternal life is made possible.
Amen.
Let's bow our heads.
In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one
God, Amen.
Our good God and full of mercy, our
good God and full of mercy, whose grace
and mercy is poured upon all, pour, my
Lord, the compassion of the delightfulness of your
love upon your servants, and again transform them
in the hope of renewal to the life
of repentance.
Renew in them your Holy Spirit, by whom
they are sealed for the day of salvation.
Purify them by your compassion from all flesh
and spiritual blemishes, and assure the hope of
their faith by the aid of your grace.
And instill the walks of their behavior and
the paths of righteousness.
Please them along with the saints in your
kingdom by the assurance of the hope of
their faith in the adoption as your children
and in the joy of your absolving mysteries.
Empower them by the aid of your mercies
to observe your commandments and fulfill your will
to confess, worship, and praise your Holy Name,
the Lord of all, Father and Son, and
Holy Spirit forever.
Amen.