You Need to Wake Up Right Now...He is Coming Soon

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? Did you know? 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.