Author: Jeff Englund

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”

For you granted him authority over all people…

What does it mean to have authority? Does it mean that nobody ever talks back to you? Does it mean that everyone always does what you tell them? Does having authority give you total control.

Well … no. Actually, it doesn’t. At least not all the time.

If you go before a judge and the judge tells you to be quiet but you keep mouthing off… you might end up in jail. But you still got to say what you wanted to say. So while the judge has the authority to toss you in the slammer, you still can say what you want if you don’t mind a little jail time.

So it is with Jesus. Jesus is the judge. (John 5: 27) God has given him authority over all people. Yet people still retain the right to raise their fist and their voice against God while they are here on earth. It is when they are called to judgment before God’s throne that we will find out how the man with all of the authority deals with them.

Food for Thought: Everyone has some measure of authority. It may be small or it may be large, but we all have some. What do you learn from Jesus about exercising authority?

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Continue reading “Jail Time – John 17: 2a”

Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

As Jesus continues the introduction to his prayer, he begins by referring to “the hour.” We discussed this in the post titled “H-Hour.” He then goes on to ask that God will glorify him so that he, in turn, may glorify the Father.

Strong’s Concordance defines the Greek word dox-ad’-zo as follows:

“to render (or esteem) glorious (in a wide application):—(make) glorify(-ious), full of (have) glory, honour, magnify”

The word, “glory” is a difficult word to define in English. Like so many words it tends to be used casually or in ways that do not help us understand what Jesus is saying. Returning to Strong’s we can get a sense of the original meaning with the words “magnify” and “honor.” For me, the concept of increasing one’s honor helps me understand what Jesus is saying.

If God will increase or magnify the honor believers have for Jesus, he, in turn, will be able to magnify or increase the honor believers have for God.

This is an important point. The Israelites constantly fell short when it came to honoring God. Throughout their history God is faithful, and they are not. They turn to false Gods over and over again. Even in the days of Jesus, with the Israelites existing under Roman rule, they were more concerned about human laws than they were with God’s law.

After Jesus endured crucifixion to redeem us from sin, his honor, his glory, were magnified again and again in the eyes of those who believe. Because of this, we who believe in Jesus honor God with our lives, our words, and our very thoughts.

Food for Thought: How can you and I magnify how we honor and bring glory to God?

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Continue reading “Magnify – John 17: 1b”

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed…

The prayer Jesus prays in Chapter 17 is sometimes called “The Lord’s Prayer” (not to be confused with the prayer he taught his disciples to pray) or also “The High Priestly Prayer.” Jesus prays in front of his disciples. He prays to his Father in heaven.

Today we begin with the first part of the first verse of this prayer. Jesus “looked toward heaven” when he prayed. This catches my eye because as a child I was taught to bow my head when I prayed.

Bowing is what one does in front of royalty. Certainly, this is appropriate as we come before the God of all creation to praise him or ask for something. But Jesus has told us that we are in a different relationship with God now. In John 14: 20 we read:

”On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

In Jesus, we are allowed to be in a very close relationship to the Father. Perhaps we, too, are worthy of looking toward heaven when we pray.

Food for thought: What do you suppose Jesus was seeing when he looked toward heaven? Clouds or something else?

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Continue reading “Looking Up – John 17: 1a”

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

What does the world tell us about trouble? It seems to me that the answer the world gives always has to do with the word, “more.” More money. There’s an answer. If I had more money, I would … What? You would do what? Would you buy your way out of trouble, or would trouble find you because you have money?

The world’s idea of security and peace is elusive. The goal post keeps moving even as you get closer to it. Whether it is more money, better friends or spouse, or a new diet or exercise regime, more is always what is needed but is never enough.

Jesus, on the other hand, has overcome the world. He did that in part by rejecting Satan’s offers of physical satisfaction, power and authority, and pride. (Luke 4: 1-13) The finality of his victory was in letting the world kill him only to discover that Jesus is life itself.

“Take heart!” Jesus says. That is a choice we make when we choose to believe what Jesus says. If we don’t believe, we lose hope. If we do, we take heart.

Food for thought: How does life change when one chooses to “take heart”?

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Continue reading “Take Heart – John 16: 33b”

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus is more concerned about his disciples than he is about himself? Who among us, knowing what Jesus knows about his future, would be concerned about those closest to us rather than our selves?

Imagine that you have been unjustly accused, tried and convicted, and the punishment is death. Not just any death though, a nasty, painful death. What do you do? Do you think about the concerns and feelings of others? Or, do you rail against your fate to anyone who will listen? It puts Jesus’ words and deeds into perspective, doesn’t it?

And then there is the reason he told the disciples the things that he did. He wanted them to have peace. Isn’t that amazing? While Jesus goes to his death, untimely by the world’s standards, he wants to make sure that his disciples, his friends, are at peace.

Continue reading “More Peace – John 16: 33”

A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

In John 15: 14-15 Jesus calls his disciples ‘friends,’ because they have been with him and heard everything that the Father had told Jesus to say. Yet in this verse, Jesus says, “You will leave me all alone.” What kind of friend does that?

Being a friend is a remarkable thing. I think at the heart of friendship is a kind of love. To be a friend you have to like the person. That doesn’t mean you have to be liked by the person you want to befriend. Sometimes that comes later.

Jesus picked his disciples for reasons only God knows, but at the heart of those reasons is love. The disciples love Jesus, too, but in a different way. It is not yet the kind of love that Jesus talks about in John 15: 13 where he says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That will come later.

Food for thought: How does it feel to be left alone by someone you thought was a friend? How does that feeling help you understand what Jesus did for us by going to the cross?

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Continue reading “Friends – John 16: 32”