Month: August 2019

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

I once heard an attorney use the phrase, “drawing a distinction.” The way he used it meant that he was recognizing a difference between two things. Things that had been lumped together. For example, a marketing analyst might draw a distinction between “all people who shop for groceries” and “all people who shop for groceries at Brand X store.”

In today’s passage, Jesus draws his own distinction. In this very special prayer on his last night before being crucified he notes that he is “not praying for the world…” The world is under his authority, but the people of the world are not all destined to be called out of the world. Those who are given to Jesus obey God’s word. (Verse 6) They know that everything Jesus has comes from the Father. (Verse 7) They have accepted the words of Jesus. They are certain Jesus comes from God. They believe God sent him. (Verse 8)

These people that Jesus is praying for are different from those in the world. The world is not a nice place. The world does not accept God, or his Word, or Jesus. The world does not hesitate to ridicule and hate those who believe in Jesus. Sometimes the world kills those who believe.

Continue reading “Distinctions – John 17: 9”

They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

As Jesus continues his prayer to the Father on the night before he is taken prisoner, he says something remarkable. The disciples, who never seem to quite figure out what is going on, actually understood that Jesus came from the Father. More than that, they knew this with certainty.

There is a distinction here that is important. People believe in a lot of things that they cannot know for a certainty. Knowledge and belief are two different things. Knowledge suggests that something has been experienced personally. More than experience, knowledge is based on more than a “one-off” experience. It must be repeatable. One other requirement is multiplicity. Knowledge can be personal, but for something to be considered true the knowledge must be experienced by others.

Belief is different. With knowledge, we accept something is true because we can see that it is true. With belief, we accept something is true without having seen that it is true.

Continue reading “Certainty – John 17: 8b”

For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.

Words play an important role in John’s gospel. In chapter one John begins with,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

Jesus is the Word that John is writing about. God gives the Word to save us from the world. Jesus gives us the words from God.

Some of the words Jesus gives are difficult to accept.

“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’” (John 6: 53)

Yet his disciples accepted these words. Their response?

“Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6: 68-69)

John calls Jesus “The Word.” The Word comes from God and is one with God. The Word created the world and created us. The Word is what saves us from this fallen world.

Food for Thought: How does accepting God’s word affect a person?

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Continue reading “The Word – John 17: 8a”

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.

As Jesus continues his prayer, it is almost like he is giving a report to his Father on what has been accomplished. Perhaps in a sense that is what he is doing. His words are heard, not only by the Father but also by his disciples. His disciple John wrote them down for us. Jesus, knowing that would happen, is speaking to us as well.

What he reports is that his disciples (and presumably others) now know something important. They know Jesus is special because they have lived with him for three years. They know he has abilities to heal that no one else has ever had. They have seen him walk on water and feed thousands with a few fish and loaves.

Jesus’ disciples know about the unusual power that he has. They have heard his amazing wisdom. They have watched him debate the smartest people in Israel and always come out on top. They have seen him purge the temple courts of retailers and bankers.

The disciples now know that all these things, the power, the wisdom and the zeal for God’s temple, all come from God Himself.

Food for Thought: What do you see in your life that has come from God?

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Continue reading “Knowing – John 17: 7”

They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Yesterday we looked at the first sentence in this verse. Jesus says, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” Those whom God gave to Jesus were not pulled from thin air. They already belonged to God.

Think about that for a moment.

God had already taken possession of his people. In giving them to Jesus he glorifies the Son so that Jesus may, in turn, glorify the Father. God has another reason to give his people to Jesus; it is the only way that they can be restored to a full relationship with God.

Continue reading “Obey – John 17: 6b”

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

I love reading through John’s gospel and looking closely at what Jesus says. What does he mean when he says he has “revealed” God to those he has been given? Who is he referring to? Is he talking about the eleven disciples or all the people who came to believe in him? When Jesus says that they have been given “out of the world,” what does that mean?

The language Jesus uses is telling. Who talks like this besides someone who is from another place?

How has Jesus revealed God? Since he and the Father are one, all who have seen Jesus have seen God. Jesus also revealed truth about God, and God’s power over the physical world, and his ability to heal those in need.

Continue reading “Out of the World – John 17: 6a”

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

As we listen in to Jesus talking with his Father, we learn some amazing things. We have talked about what glory means to Jesus and God. We have discussed the fact that the way Jesus talks makes it sound like he is from someplace besides earth. We have watched the Pharisees react in anger as Jesus tells them, “Before Abraham, I am.” (John 8: 58) Now we are witness to Jesus stating flatly that he existed before the world began.

I find these words mind-bending. Once again Jesus speaks as if being human is not the important thing. Much more important, to hear Jesus talk, is simply being. And more important than that is being with the Father.

So what then is the flesh? What is this body we live in? Is this anything more than a temporary dwelling? Both the Apostles Paul and Peter refer to our bodies as a “tent.” (2 Corinthians 5: 1, 4; 2 Peter 1: 13) The body is a kind of covering, Paul writes, that is destined to be destroyed. God will provide a new covering when we are in heaven with Him.

Continue reading “Before the World Began – John 17: 5”

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

Jesus continues his prayer to the Father by saying his work on earth has glorified the Father.

How?

We have been reading along with John for a long time now. How has what Jesus has been doing brought glory to the Father?

Let’s look at what he said again:

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

It is not just by doing God’s work that Jesus glorified the Father. He also finished the work the Father gave him to do. By completing the work of dying on the cross, Jesus validates all the other work he has done for the Father. It is a bit like the logic used by Gamaliel in Acts 5: 33-39. He argues that if Jesus is human and not God, then his disciples will fade away like the followers of past revolutionaries. However, if Jesus is God, then their efforts cannot fail. Because their efforts did not fail, Jesus is glorified, and through him so is the Father.

Food for Thought: How does finishing the work God has given you glorify God?

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Continue reading “Finished – John 17: 4”

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

What do you think of when you hear the word “eternity?” Does the term “boring” ever come to mind?

We live in a temporal frame of reference called time. Our time is based on three basic facts that are unique to our planet. Our day is one rotation of the earth around its axis. Our year is one rotation of our earth around the sun. Our month is roughly based on the cycle of light and dark that falls on the face of the moon. It seems unlikely that there is any other place in all creation that would have the same sense of “time” that we who live on earth have.

In heaven, God is the center of all things. Time in the earthly sense has no place. Scripture equates a day with the Lord with a thousand years* on earth. It might be making a literal comparison, but it seems more likely to be a figurative way of saying that time does not exist in the presence of God. There is no need for it. God is unchanging. He does not have seasons nor does he come and go like the waning of the moon’s light.

Instead of being defined as something in the context of time, Jesus tells us that eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus. Imagine that.

Continue reading “Eternity Defined – John 17: 3”

…that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Sometimes Jesus talks about himself in the third person. He starts out asking his Father to “… Glorify your Son…” Somehow this seems important. The words needed to be said but Jesus wants it known that it is not about him. He does not ask his Father to glorify “Me.” That would seem awkward and self-serving. So, he resorts to the third person, “Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.”

In the same way, he speaks about this authority. This use of the third person voice is also called the “Royal ‘We’.” It is the way royalty speaks because they speak not only for themselves as a person but also for the nation as a whole. They literally speak for all their people when they speak. In the same way, Jesus speaks for the Trinity. He speaks not for himself alone but also for God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He speaks for all his kingdom; his angelic beings, and all who the Father has “given him.”

Then we get to the heart of this passage. God gives Jesus four things in this chapter:

Continue reading “A Matter of Faith – John 17:2b”