bethel baptist church

Luke 22:14-23

Luke 22:14-23

Mark 4:35-41

Hebrews 12:1-2, Judges 2:7-10

Psalm 25

Psalm 86:11, Acts 2:42-47

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

Romans 12:19-21

Romans 12:17-18

John 17:20-26

Romans 12:16

Scripture: John 17:14-19

In praying for His own, Jesus asks the Father to do several things for them.  He prays that the Father will keep them (Jn 17:11,15).  He prays that they would experience Jesus' own joy (Jn 17:13).  Next, Jesus prays that the Father would 'sanctify' believers (Jn 17:17,19).

The root of the word 'sanctify' is the word for holiness.  All holiness derives from God's holiness.  The primary idea of 'holy' is to be unique, distinct, separate.  God is utterly unique and separate from His creation.  Since God is separate from His creation, He is, in turn, separate from the corruption of the creation.

For a person to be sanctified or holy is to be separated unto God or aligned with God.  Jesus' prayer is for believers to be separated unto God, to live in accordance with His purposes, just as Jesus kept Himself separated unto God to accomplish His purposes (Jn 17:19).

The mission of this sanctification is that the world may believe in Christ (Jn 17:21,23).  In one sense, Jesus' mission and the disciples' mission are the same undertaking, namely to proclaim the salvation of God in Jesus Christ.

The primary means of the process of sanctification is the word of God.  "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (Jn 17:17).  There is no aligning ourselves with God and His purposes without knowing who God is and what He has said.  And there is no understanding of these things without the revelation of God in the Bible.

Romans 12:15

Scripture Reading: John 17:12-19

In this wonderful prayer for His disciples, Jesus requests four things from the Father.  The first is that the Father would keep those whom He had given to His Son (Jn 17:11).  The second request is that Jesus' disciples would experience Jesus' joy.  "But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they [the disciples] might have my joy fulfilled in themselves" (Jn 17:13; cf. Jn 15:11).

We start with the reality that God is a God who has pleasure in Himself.  He has pleasure in His Son (Mt 3:17; 17:5), who is the perfect reflection of Himself (Heb 1:3).  The Father and the Son have infinite love for each other (Jn 14:31; 17:24,26).

God is a God who has pleasure in Himself and in all He does (Psa 115:1; 136:5; Isa 46:10).  It is stunning to think that He wants to share His joy with us, much like He desires to share His love and His life with us.

The means of our experiencing God's joy are, among other things, prayer and taking in His word.  "Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (Jn 16:24).  "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (Jn 15:11). Jesus wants us to experience His joy.  Can we imagine anything more pleasurable, in all the world, than the pleasure of knowing the joy that Jesus knows? 

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Scripture: John 17:10-17

The first request Jesus makes in this glorious prayer is found in verse 11 … "Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me."  Jesus is asking the Father to hold on to these disciples, keeping them aligned with God's name.  God's name represents who He is.  To be kept 'in His name' is to be drawn to a life which accords with God's character.  This fits with Jesus calling on God as Holy Father.

Specifically here, we are called to  righteousness ("keep them from the evil one" – Jn 17:15) and to unity ("that they may be one, even as we are one – Jn 17:11,22).  God's keeping us is not simply for the ages to come, but for our living now.  Our security, both now and forever, rests on the power and mercy of God to hold us fast to Himself.  This reality is Paul's strengthening assurance in his last letter … "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom" (2 Tim 4:18).

Jesus had kept these men while He was with them and He did not lose a single man … "not one of them has been lost" (Jn 17:12).  There is a contrast being voiced in John 17:12.  The contrast is between the men whom Jesus did not lose and Judas, whom Jesus never possessed as His own.  Though Judas acted in accordance with what Scripture predicted, he is in no way absolved of his guilt (cf. Lk 22:22).

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Scripture Reading: Job 14:7-15 From time immemorial, people have wondered out loud about what happens after we die.  There is a longing in the human soul for immortality because our Creator has set eternity in our hearts (Ecc 3:11).

Job’s question in this passage reflects the desire in his heart for eternal life.  He notes that when a tree is cut down, sometimes a shoot springs up and the tree lives again (Job 14:7-9).  But Job’s reflection is that for a human being, this is not possible.  Death is final (Job 14:10-12,18-22).  But still he asks the question, "If a man dies, will he live again?" (Job 14:14).  It is more than simply wondering.  Job is wishing, desiring, longing for immortality.

Job was one the earliest Biblical books written (maybe the first) and God had not fully or clearly revealed the truths concerning resurrection and eternal life at the time of its writing.  The Bible is 'progressive' in its revelation.  That is, God slowly revealed more information about Himself, His plan, and eternity as more Biblical books were written under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.

There is a Biblical answer to Job’s plaintive question.  There will be a resurrection of all people … some to eternal life and some to eternal death (Dan 12:2; Jn 5:28,29).  Jesus triumphantly declared "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25,26).  This promise answers our dearest longing.  Because of this truth, all who trust in Christ, eagerly and increasingly await the day when our passion for life is completely satisfied, in Him, forever (Rom 8:23; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 3:20; Titus 2:12,13).  

Matthew 28:1-10

Scritpture Reading John 17:6-11

Continuing in His glorious prayer, Jesus turns His focus from the glory of the Father and the Son to the needs of His disciples. He knows they are sorrowful and that their grief will increase the next day.

In this prayer, Jesus is clear that He is not praying for the world but for these men. The foundation of what Jesus says here is that the Father had given these men to His Son and Jesus, in turn, had manifested the Father to them (Jn 17:6). As Christ contemplates leaving the earth, He commits these disciples to His Father … "Holy Father, keep them in your name" (Jn 17:11).

The results of Christ's prayer are remarkable. These disciples recognized who Jesus was, namely that He had come from God the Father (Jn 17:7,8). They had received Jesus' teaching as from God and had been obedient to it (Jn 17:6,8). And though halting and weak, these men had honored Jesus when the world had summarily rejected Him (Jn 17:11). In this prayer Christ encourages our weak faith by commending us to the Father.

"The faith of the Apostles was weak. They had but a confused view of Christ’s Godhead and eternal generation. They knew little of His death, were filled with the thought of a terrene [earthly] kingdom and a pompous Messiah, and understood not His prediction of His death and passion. Though they knew Him to be the Redeemer and Savior of the world, yet the manner of His death and passion they knew not. 'We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.' Yet observe how Christ commends their weak faith! Certainly He loves to encourage poor sinners when He praises their mean and weak beginnings." (Thomas Manton in J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John, 3:135).