John 17:20-23
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Wow, Jesus prayed not only for those disciples who walked with Him, but He looked down the corridor of Time and saw all of those through the centuries who would come to Him through the words the disciples wrote, which became the New Testament. Jesus wanted all of us to believe the same Truth He taught His followers who walked with Him in Palestine.
There is no "New Christianity" that is the Truth Jesus taught; that sounds like a "new gospel," something different than what the Church taught from the beginning on the Day of Pentecost. Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia that they were "turning to another gospel--which is really no Gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!" (Galatians 1:6-9).
Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us
God is in perfect agreement with Himself: the Father, the Son and the Spirit. And He wants us also to be in perfect agreement with Him, in believing and trusting and living out all that He has given us in His Word, not adding anything to it or taking anything away from it.
Written language is "words that stay," (to quote a line from The Dark Chrystal movie). Words that are written down do not change their meanings, if they are understood according to the writers' intentions. And if these intentions are changed by someone else, then the truth of them is removed and the new meanings are deceptive. This applies to every piece of written material, whether it is ancient Egyptian, original Parchments, our American Constitution, or our Bible.
Jesus tells us why He wants us to be in agreement with Him:
so that the World may believe that You have sent Me.
No one alive has any excuse for not believing God. The Creation itself testifies to God's divine nature and eternal power (Romans 1:19-20). And when Jesus' Body on this Earth, His Temple built of Living Stones, is in agreement with Who God is and what He has said, believing it and trusting in it and living it out in our love for him and one another, then the World around us will know for a certainty that Jesus did come, even if they refuse to believe it.
I gave them the Glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one--I in them and You in Me--so that they may be brought to complete unity.
The glory: the dignity, the integrity, the honor of the Truth. Jesus wanted us to be confident in our Faith, having the complete, finished Bible, and each one of us trusting in the same Truth. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and the Church on this Earth, all One in faith and doctrine.
Then the World will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.
The center of it all is Love. God is Love, He loves what He has made, He loves His own Son, and He also loves us with that same Love. It's Love that makes the world go 'round, and our Love for one another will demonstrate God's love to the World.
This prayer is the most important passage in the whole Bible to show us Jesus' heart for us, God's concern for our good. And it's all about Love.
We will study through the Chapter on Love, after we see the conclusion of this prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, Part 3
John 17:13-19
I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.
Jesus is known as a "Man of Sorrows," but if His life was all sorrows He would not have attracted followers; who wants to hang around a sad sack? Jesus attended the parties, He told jokes; maybe He wasn't the "life of the party," but He knew how to have fun. In the Old Testament He told His people to come to His House (Temple) three times a year for a week-long party! That's what a feast was, a party.
Now Jesus is going to leave Earth, His work here was being completed and finished, but He wanted to make sure to tie up all the loose ends before He left. It was very important to Him to have His followers know the Joy of the Lord in their lives. "The joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10) that we will need in our battles with the evil one, our enemy, just as "for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross" (Hebrews 12:2).
I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
He knows that His joy is what we will need when we face the hatred of the world. Jesus was not of this world, because He came down from Heaven and took upon Himself a human body (Isaiah tells us that the child was born, but the Son was given in 9:6), and as He has caused us to be "born of God," we are not of this world, either. In the world we tend to be afraid of what we don't understand, and in our fear we hate it. The world does not understand spiritual truths, that is where the hatred comes from. That's why the world hates us. We need His joy to counter these attacks.
My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Jesus does not ask the Father to take us out of the world, because He has purpose for us here in the world, to spread His Gospel throughout the world, to find the lost lambs and carry them into the fold. So He wants the Father to protect us from the onslaughts of our enemy while we carry out His mission here.
Sanctify (make separate) them by (to live in) the Truth; Your Word is Truth.
Jesus is asking the Father to separate us from the deceptions of the World by believing and trusting and living according to the Truth of the communication He has given us, His Word. Only the Truth of His Word is strong enough to keep us from being pulled away from what is right by the lies of this world we live in.
As You sent Me into the World, I have sent them into the World. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus has separated Himself from the World so that we, also, will really be separated and protected from the evil and destructive ways of this World.
Jesus is doing everything He could possibly do for us, in His love for us, and wanting us to spend a joyous eternity with Him.
Let us continue our study of this wonderful prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.
Jesus is known as a "Man of Sorrows," but if His life was all sorrows He would not have attracted followers; who wants to hang around a sad sack? Jesus attended the parties, He told jokes; maybe He wasn't the "life of the party," but He knew how to have fun. In the Old Testament He told His people to come to His House (Temple) three times a year for a week-long party! That's what a feast was, a party.
Now Jesus is going to leave Earth, His work here was being completed and finished, but He wanted to make sure to tie up all the loose ends before He left. It was very important to Him to have His followers know the Joy of the Lord in their lives. "The joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10) that we will need in our battles with the evil one, our enemy, just as "for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross" (Hebrews 12:2).
I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
He knows that His joy is what we will need when we face the hatred of the world. Jesus was not of this world, because He came down from Heaven and took upon Himself a human body (Isaiah tells us that the child was born, but the Son was given in 9:6), and as He has caused us to be "born of God," we are not of this world, either. In the world we tend to be afraid of what we don't understand, and in our fear we hate it. The world does not understand spiritual truths, that is where the hatred comes from. That's why the world hates us. We need His joy to counter these attacks.
My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Jesus does not ask the Father to take us out of the world, because He has purpose for us here in the world, to spread His Gospel throughout the world, to find the lost lambs and carry them into the fold. So He wants the Father to protect us from the onslaughts of our enemy while we carry out His mission here.
Sanctify (make separate) them by (to live in) the Truth; Your Word is Truth.
Jesus is asking the Father to separate us from the deceptions of the World by believing and trusting and living according to the Truth of the communication He has given us, His Word. Only the Truth of His Word is strong enough to keep us from being pulled away from what is right by the lies of this world we live in.
As You sent Me into the World, I have sent them into the World. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus has separated Himself from the World so that we, also, will really be separated and protected from the evil and destructive ways of this World.
Jesus is doing everything He could possibly do for us, in His love for us, and wanting us to spend a joyous eternity with Him.
Let us continue our study of this wonderful prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, Part 2
John 17:6-12
I have revealed You to those whom You gave me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me
Everyone who lives belongs to God, He is the Maker and Owner of everything. God the Father chooses who would come to Jesus (John 6:44) and draws them to Him.
and they have obeyed Your Word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. For I gave them Your Words and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
Those the Father draws to Jesus will come to Him and be able to believe what He says, to trust that all Jesus taught was Truth, and that He really is the Son of the Father in Heaven, sent to be Messiah and Savior.
I pray for them.
He doesn't just use His authority over all to cause everything to go well for us, He prays for us.
I am not praying for the World, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Jesus was not praying for all the other people who will not come to Him, or for the World System, either; but only for the certain people who have become His disciples and trust Him.
All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine.
God, Father and Son and Spirit, is Creator and Maker of all Creation. So whatever, everything, that belongs to one belongs to all, to God.
And glory has come to Me through them.
This is another glory that He receives through the people who trust Him. So there is His eternal Glory that He shares with the Father, and there is the glory He receives through His followers.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You.
Jesus says, "I'm leaving, but they're still here." He's concerned for us.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your Name, the Name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are One. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that Name You gave Me.
Jesus is concerned that His Church would remain faithful to the Truth He taught them, as He is leaving, and He knows that the Enemy, the god of this world, will come in to "sift" them. He is asking the Father to watch over them.
God's "Name" is His character. All the "names of God" that we find in Scripture are descriptive of His character qualities, what He is like. This "Name" that the Father gave to the Son is the Personhood of Who God is. That's why He told Philip, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
This refers to Judas, who betrayed Him for the price of a slave. The Scripture said that, "Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me" (Psalm 41:9). Jesus knew every portion of Scripture, since He was the God Who inspired the writers what to write. And as a child, had studied all of the Old Testament. He knew that all the Scriptures pertaining to His first Coming were to be fulfilled, and He did fulfill them all, over 400 of them.
This prayer shows us Jesus' heart for men (and women). He is concerned that we will not be drawn astray from the Truth. Only the Truth is true, every other idea or belief is deceptive. He does not want us to be deceived, so He prays to the Father to protect us, since Jesus won't be here to guard us. Prayer was the weapon Jesus constantly used against the enemy His whole life here.
And if even Jesus needed to be in prayer regularly, how much more do I.
We will continue to study this prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I have revealed You to those whom You gave me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me
Everyone who lives belongs to God, He is the Maker and Owner of everything. God the Father chooses who would come to Jesus (John 6:44) and draws them to Him.
and they have obeyed Your Word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. For I gave them Your Words and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
Those the Father draws to Jesus will come to Him and be able to believe what He says, to trust that all Jesus taught was Truth, and that He really is the Son of the Father in Heaven, sent to be Messiah and Savior.
I pray for them.
He doesn't just use His authority over all to cause everything to go well for us, He prays for us.
I am not praying for the World, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Jesus was not praying for all the other people who will not come to Him, or for the World System, either; but only for the certain people who have become His disciples and trust Him.
All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine.
God, Father and Son and Spirit, is Creator and Maker of all Creation. So whatever, everything, that belongs to one belongs to all, to God.
And glory has come to Me through them.
This is another glory that He receives through the people who trust Him. So there is His eternal Glory that He shares with the Father, and there is the glory He receives through His followers.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You.
Jesus says, "I'm leaving, but they're still here." He's concerned for us.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your Name, the Name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are One. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that Name You gave Me.
Jesus is concerned that His Church would remain faithful to the Truth He taught them, as He is leaving, and He knows that the Enemy, the god of this world, will come in to "sift" them. He is asking the Father to watch over them.
God's "Name" is His character. All the "names of God" that we find in Scripture are descriptive of His character qualities, what He is like. This "Name" that the Father gave to the Son is the Personhood of Who God is. That's why He told Philip, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
This refers to Judas, who betrayed Him for the price of a slave. The Scripture said that, "Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me" (Psalm 41:9). Jesus knew every portion of Scripture, since He was the God Who inspired the writers what to write. And as a child, had studied all of the Old Testament. He knew that all the Scriptures pertaining to His first Coming were to be fulfilled, and He did fulfill them all, over 400 of them.
This prayer shows us Jesus' heart for men (and women). He is concerned that we will not be drawn astray from the Truth. Only the Truth is true, every other idea or belief is deceptive. He does not want us to be deceived, so He prays to the Father to protect us, since Jesus won't be here to guard us. Prayer was the weapon Jesus constantly used against the enemy His whole life here.
And if even Jesus needed to be in prayer regularly, how much more do I.
We will continue to study this prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Jesus' Prayer As Our High Priest
John 17:1-5
This is known as Jesus' High Priestly Prayer. We will begin to study this prayer.
(v. 1) Father, the hour has come.
It's time.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.
"Lift Me up and exalt Me, so that I will be able to lift You up and exalt You, Father."
(v. 2) For You granted Him (Me) authority over all people
"All people" means everybody, every person who has ever or will ever live. He has ownership authority over all of us, both by Creation and by purchase with His Blood on Calvary.
that He (I) might give eternal life to all those You have given Him (Me).
With the ownership authority Jesus has over us all, the Father can now give Him anyone He wants to give Him out of all people. So everyone God the Father chooses out of all people everywhere will come to Him, will seek Him out, will search for the Truth which is Jesus, and each one will realize and understand that He is their Savior, Who took their death on the Cross for them. And by this faith, this trusting in Him, they will receive that real life, the spiritual eternal life to live forever.
(v.3) Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent.
Jesus said that real life is spiritual (John 6:63) because life itself comes from God and He is Spirit. So to "know" God Himself is to believe and trust Him to be Who He says He is and to do what He says He has done and will do. The way we can learn about Him is through language, communication, words; and His Word is the body of Truth that He has communicated to us, the Bible.
(v.4) I have brought You glory on Earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do.
Jesus has given the Father all the credit for everything He said and did while He walked on this Earth: teaching people Who God is, and how God has designed this world to work. And proving that He spoke the Truth by doing all the miracles He did, demonstrating His authority over all Creation to manipulate matter and beings in ways that do not conform to the way things always normally work.
(V. 5) And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.
Now that Jesus is going back to Heaven, He will again enjoy the state of Being that the Triune God had before He began to create. This is the original Glory with which God has been and will be eternally glorified.
Jesus left this Glory for a time to come to this Earth as a Human Man, in order to accomplish the legal requirements on our behalf to enable us to spend eternity with Him. This was excruciatingly painful for Him (see especially Luke 22:41-44, saying the same prayer 3 specific times), but His love for us had Him do it anyway. That's how much He loves us.
We will continue to study through this chapter.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
This is known as Jesus' High Priestly Prayer. We will begin to study this prayer.
(v. 1) Father, the hour has come.
It's time.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.
"Lift Me up and exalt Me, so that I will be able to lift You up and exalt You, Father."
(v. 2) For You granted Him (Me) authority over all people
"All people" means everybody, every person who has ever or will ever live. He has ownership authority over all of us, both by Creation and by purchase with His Blood on Calvary.
that He (I) might give eternal life to all those You have given Him (Me).
With the ownership authority Jesus has over us all, the Father can now give Him anyone He wants to give Him out of all people. So everyone God the Father chooses out of all people everywhere will come to Him, will seek Him out, will search for the Truth which is Jesus, and each one will realize and understand that He is their Savior, Who took their death on the Cross for them. And by this faith, this trusting in Him, they will receive that real life, the spiritual eternal life to live forever.
(v.3) Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent.
Jesus said that real life is spiritual (John 6:63) because life itself comes from God and He is Spirit. So to "know" God Himself is to believe and trust Him to be Who He says He is and to do what He says He has done and will do. The way we can learn about Him is through language, communication, words; and His Word is the body of Truth that He has communicated to us, the Bible.
(v.4) I have brought You glory on Earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do.
Jesus has given the Father all the credit for everything He said and did while He walked on this Earth: teaching people Who God is, and how God has designed this world to work. And proving that He spoke the Truth by doing all the miracles He did, demonstrating His authority over all Creation to manipulate matter and beings in ways that do not conform to the way things always normally work.
(V. 5) And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.
Now that Jesus is going back to Heaven, He will again enjoy the state of Being that the Triune God had before He began to create. This is the original Glory with which God has been and will be eternally glorified.
Jesus left this Glory for a time to come to this Earth as a Human Man, in order to accomplish the legal requirements on our behalf to enable us to spend eternity with Him. This was excruciatingly painful for Him (see especially Luke 22:41-44, saying the same prayer 3 specific times), but His love for us had Him do it anyway. That's how much He loves us.
We will continue to study through this chapter.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Strange Signs
Luke 21:25-28
And there will be strange signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars. And here on the Earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the Earth, for the powers in the Heavens will be shaken. Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near.
I will be looking for the strange signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars; Nations are already noticing the environmental problems, and, not wanting to acknowledge God, are blaming Mankind. I wonder how they will be able to connect human responsibility to the celestial happenings?! Everything is coming together for the revealing of the Man of Sin (the anti-Christ) and the coming of the Lord our King.
May we all be ready.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
And there will be strange signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars. And here on the Earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the Earth, for the powers in the Heavens will be shaken. Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near.
I will be looking for the strange signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars; Nations are already noticing the environmental problems, and, not wanting to acknowledge God, are blaming Mankind. I wonder how they will be able to connect human responsibility to the celestial happenings?! Everything is coming together for the revealing of the Man of Sin (the anti-Christ) and the coming of the Lord our King.
May we all be ready.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, October 31, 2016
Dreams Come True
Proverbs 13: 19
It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them.
It is very foolish to hang on to a bad habit or an illicit relationship and still think that God will help you fulfill your dreams. We must--MUST--turn from our wicked and evil ways and turn toward God, embracing His righteous ways and attitudes, and abandoning all that is contrary to Him no matter how much we feel we must cling to them.
He will give us the power and ability to turn our lives around when we repent and walk away from whatever is keeping us away from Him. His plans for us are so much better than anything we can dream up for ourselves, and He wants to enable us to take hold of those good things He made us for.
Then we can ask Him for what He wants for us, and He will answer us!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them.
It is very foolish to hang on to a bad habit or an illicit relationship and still think that God will help you fulfill your dreams. We must--MUST--turn from our wicked and evil ways and turn toward God, embracing His righteous ways and attitudes, and abandoning all that is contrary to Him no matter how much we feel we must cling to them.
He will give us the power and ability to turn our lives around when we repent and walk away from whatever is keeping us away from Him. His plans for us are so much better than anything we can dream up for ourselves, and He wants to enable us to take hold of those good things He made us for.
Then we can ask Him for what He wants for us, and He will answer us!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, October 30, 2016
God's Faithfulness
Psalm 89: 30-33
But if [David's] descendants forsake My instructions and fail to obey My regulations, if they do not obey My decrees and fail to keep My commandments; then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating. But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep My promise to him.
Even though David's descendants today for the most part do not know God, God will never forget or negate His promise to David; He will one Day save "all Israel in a day," when Jesus returns.
Even when we are unfaithful, God is still faithful. His love endures and will never fail or diminish, for either us Christians or David's descendants. When we pull away and turn to the Right or to the Left away from His righteous plans for us, He will discipline us with the rod and beatings, but His love will still stay just as strong as it always was, and He will draw us back to Himself.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
But if [David's] descendants forsake My instructions and fail to obey My regulations, if they do not obey My decrees and fail to keep My commandments; then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating. But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep My promise to him.
Even though David's descendants today for the most part do not know God, God will never forget or negate His promise to David; He will one Day save "all Israel in a day," when Jesus returns.
Even when we are unfaithful, God is still faithful. His love endures and will never fail or diminish, for either us Christians or David's descendants. When we pull away and turn to the Right or to the Left away from His righteous plans for us, He will discipline us with the rod and beatings, but His love will still stay just as strong as it always was, and He will draw us back to Himself.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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