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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.

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? 

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).

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).

Scripture Reading: John 17:1-5

This is one of the most exquisite chapters in the Bible.  Though we are told that Jesus prayed often, this passage is the only long prayer of Jesus recorded in the gospels.  Because these are the words and thoughts of one person of the Godhead (the Son) to another person of the Godhead (the Father), there are depths here that we are not able to fathom.

Even though the prayer in Matthew 5:9-13 is called the Lord's Prayer, this prayer could also be called the Lord's Prayer.  In Matthew the prayer is what Jesus taught us as a pattern.  Here in John, we have a prayer which Jesus voiced for us.

In this prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself (vv 1-5), the disciples with Him (vv 6-19), and the disciples who would come after them (vv 20-26).  The occasion of the prayer is significant.  It was just after the institution of the Lord's Supper … just after the upper room discourse … just before the arrest and crucifixion of Christ … at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry.

The main request in the first five verses of the prayer is that the Father would glorify His Son, which Jesus asks twice (Jn 17:1,5).  This glorification is for Jesus to, again, be clothed in splendor as He returns to heaven following His death, resurrection, and ascension to God the Father.  By means of the Son receiving this glory, the Father will also be glorified.

The Father will be glorified by means of the Son having accomplished the work the Father sent Him to do.  Jesus views the work He came to do as virtually finished and He describes the goal of that work in verse 2, namely to give eternal life to all those whom the Father had given to Him.  The salvation of Christians is an everlasting honor to the Father and the Son (and the Holy Spirit, though He is not mentioned in this passage).  

We see in John 16:25 that Jesus has come, among other things, to teach them (and us) about the Father.  This is very significant.  Knowledge of God is the foundation of everything in life, indeed, of life itself.  "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3).  We should make it our life's work to plumb the depths of who God is and live in light of His majestic reality.

John 16:26 does not mean that Jesus does not intercede for us, but that we can come to the Father with the confidence that the Father loves us and does not need to be persuaded by the Son to show us His favor.

Jesus again mentions His desire that we live in peace, even though the world is a place of tribulation.  It is a great encouragement to know that Jesus has overcome (past tense verb) the evil forces in the world.  The implication is that He will share His victory with those who are His. 

In light of His impending death, Jesus continues to encourage His apostles (and us) in this passage.  Here Jesus promises His own joy and answers to prayer.  Referring to His death and resurrection (and ministry beyond His earthly life) Jesus says, "You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy . . . and no one will take your joy from you" (Jn 16:20,22).

The source of this joy is the presence of Jesus Himself.  "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice" (Jn 16:22).  The deepest root of joy in the human heart is the person and presence of the Creator of the human heart.

We are actually commanded to find our joy in God.  "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice" (Phil 4:4).  It is not even logically possible that any source of joy would be better than to truly know the Maker of heaven and earth.  And this joy is an experience that abides and is unassailable by any outside force or person.

Jesus also promises that God will answer our prayers.  "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (Jn 16:23).  Of course this does not mean that God is obligated to answer any request regardless of whether God is honored or not.  But God will answer all prayer that is offered in the Name of Christ, which is prayer that is for the honor of God.  This is a great encouragement for us to make our requests made known to Him.

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:13,14 & Romans 12:6-8 For people who belong to Christ, the Bible answers the profound questions, "Where are we going?" and "What do we do on the way there?"  The Spirit of God is our guarantee, in Christ, that we will be made new on the day of redemption.  And the Spirit equips us to work in the kingdom of Christ along the way.

For Christians, the Holy Spirit has been given to us, by God, as a pledge, a sort of down-payment, reminding us of the glory to come.  To secure this promise the Holy Spirit is called a 'seal'.  "And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee"       (2 Cor 1:21,22).

There are at least three aspects of the idea that the Holy Spirit seals us for the day of redemption … security, ownership, and genuineness  (cf. Eph 1:13,14; 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5).

On the way to our eternal glory, we labor in Christ's vineyard, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.  The Spirit gives gifts to the church.  There are four main passages in the New Testament in which spiritual gifts are mentioned:  Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28-31; Ephesians 4:7-16;       1 Peter 4:10,11.  

A spiritual gift is a God-given ability to be used for service to Him in the church.  The purpose for spiritual gifts is twofold: (1) to bring glory to God       (1 Pet 4:11), and (2) to build up the church (1 Cor 12:7; Eph 4:12-16).  Many different needs exist in a church, requiring many different kinds of people with differing talents to produce the environment in which everyone is growing in Christlikeness.

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:9-20

The background to this section of 1 Corinthians 6 is the occurrence in the church in Corinth of church members taking other church members to court.  Paul reasons that believers must not take other believers before a state judge because, for the most part, these judges are unbelievers.  "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?" (1 Cor 6:1).

This text is forbidding believers from taking other believers to a civil court, with the reasoning that the church, given authority by God, has sufficient wisdom to judge its own people.  "Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?" (1 Cor 6:5,6).

Paul buttresses his argument by highlighting a difference between Christians and unbelievers, namely that unbelievers will not inherit the kingdom of God.  "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" (1 Cor 6:9).

What follows is a list of some sins of which unbelievers are guilty.  Of course, Christians remain sinful people while on this earth, but the idea here is that people who are characterized by their sins are "the unrighteous" … and have not been changed by God's awakening power … and such "will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Corinthian Christians had been such unrighteous people, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11).  This is the wondrous tribute to God's grace and power concerning every one of us who belong to God.

Scripture Reading: John 14:25-31

The concept of 'peace' is a major theme in the Bible, especially in the New Testament.  The word 'peace' occurs 95 times in the New Testament and is found in every book except 1 John.

Few passages in Scripture are as sweet and comforting as this familiar promise of Jesus in John 14.  There is, in the Bible, the objective standing of peace with God.  "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1; cf. Col 1:20).  The breech of relationship between sinful man and an infinitely holy God has been taken away by the cross of Christ for those who believe in Him.

Flowing from the fountain of peace with God, in John 14:27, is the subjective experience of the feeling of peace in the mind and heart.  This is peace from God.  This is the feeling of security and contentment and well-being.  One of the wonders of this statement is that Jesus promises to give believers His peace … "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you."  Is there any better peace?

This peace from God is not the elimination of problems or pain, but it is to have emotions and thoughts that are settled and stable in the middle of difficult circumstances. By truly resting in Christ, contemplating His wondrous work on our behalf, we can know the truth of the blessing "The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace" (Num 6:26).

John 14:12-17

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:15-20

It is highly significant that, from the time of Christ, the Holy Spirit inspired passages like today's passage.  This section reveals, in glorious description, the nature of the Son of God.  For two thousand years there have been multiplied false ideas about who Jesus is.

Passages like Colossians 1:15-20 help us to clearly understand who Jesus is.  He is God the Son, which means He was not created.  Here the Son is "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15).  This means that Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God to a world which could not otherwise see Him.

Jesus is the "firstborn of all creation"   (Col 1:15), which means that He is supreme over all creation … not a part of creation.  The word 'firstborn' can mean 'first son in a family.'  But it can also mean 'first in position.'  Israel is called God's 'firstborn' (Exod 4:22) and David is called God's 'firstborn', meaning the highest of kings (Psa 89:27).  Colossians 1:16 makes it clear that Christ is outside of created things because "by him all things were created."

Further, "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1:19) and "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Col 2:9).

We do not honor Christ properly or worship Him properly if we do not come to Him as He is … God the Son, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and with God the Holy Spirit.  Such a sacrifice was necessary for our redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. 

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:25-35

We all know that Christmas means more than eggnog and emotion, cards and commercials. But it is so easy, in the lunacy we call December, to lose sight of the Son of God. Usually the star in the Eastern sky is dimmed by the flashing of department store lights.

How refreshing it is to return each year to the word of the living God and let the gospel writers focus our hearts on the King who was born. The whole meaning of Christ, in concise form, is found in the declarations of Simeon, the old man in the temple. He took Jesus in his arms and declared, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace . . . for my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:29,30).

Simeon's remarks precisely bring into focus the purpose of Jesus' coming. Though there are many wonderful emotions which we experience at Christmas time, Simeon's declarations keep us from a nebulous, undefined sentimentalism.

Jesus came to be a light shining in the darkness (Lk 2:32) and this light brings a sharp division, separating all people into two groups. On one hand, there are those who rise in Christ's redemption, and on the other hand, there are those who fall under His judgment (Lk 2:34). Every person either embraces the King or rejects Him. Judas rejects and Peter repents … one thief blasphemes and the other confesses his sins. There is no middle ground.

Because of Christ's coming, the heart of every person will ultimately be revealed. The response, deep in the soul, to the Son of God is the fundamental question of life. No other question even comes close.

Scripture Reading: John 13:10-30

The story of the life of Judas is one of the saddest stories in the Bible, indeed in all of human history. Judas had spiritual privileges beyond our wildest dreams. He lived with Jesus for three years, listening to His divine wisdom, beholding acts of omnipotent power. Yet in the presence of divinity in human form and in the face of divine perfections, Judas's heart remained unchanged and rebellious.

When Satan enticed Judas (Jn 13:2) and finally possessed him (Jn 13:27), we ought not imagine that this was a good man who had gone bad. Judas had been a thief all along (Jn 12:6) and Jesus had known that the heart of Judas was corrupt from the beginning (Jn 6:64,70,71).

Judas is fully responsible for his actions. He did exactly what he wanted to do and God held him accountable for his sinful actions. Luke 22:24 says ". . . woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." This could only be true if Judas was punished by the penalty of hell.

In all the actions of Judas and the others in the death of Christ, God's plan was worked out exactly as He had determined it to be accomplished. "But the Scripture will be fulfilled, 'He who ate my bread has lifted his head against me'" (Jn 13:18). God's sovereignty rules even the sinful acts of wicked people and weaves them into His wise and holy tapestry for His everlasting glory.

We see in the life of Judas an example of someone who pretends to be a follower of Christ, but who, in reality is no follower at all. Judas looked like the other eleven disciples. He did the same things and said the same things. Judas represents all those who profess the Christian faith, but do not possess Christ.

Scripture Reading: John 12:36b-50

John does not record the scene in Gethsemane when Jesus prayed the night before His crucifixion, but this passage captures the same emotions Jesus had as He faced His work on the cross. Jesus is ever aware that He has come to the earth, taking on human flesh, to do the will of the Father who sent Him.

Here Jesus prays, "Father, glorify your name." God the Father responds with the declaration, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again" (Jn 12:28). We see here the truth that God, Himself, is committed to the glory of God.

In this passage the cross of Christ glorifies God in at least three ways. First, the cross of Christ is the basis of judgment on the world. "Now is the judgment of this world" (Jn 12:31). The death of Jesus is the dividing line between the justified and the condemned.

Second, the cross of Christ is the basis for the judgment of Satan. "Now the ruler of this world will be cast out" (Jn 12:31). The cross is the decisive defeat of the devil. The blood of the lamb stripped Satan of his one condemning weapon, our unforgiven sin.

Third, the cross of Christ is the means of drawing people from every tribe to Himself. "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (Jn 12:32). This 'all' is not all individuals without exception, but all people without distinction.

Scripture Reading: John 11:45-57

Though it is not mentioned in word, the gospel of Christ is at the center of this passage. The rejection of Jesus has now taken institutional form. John 11:47 says that "the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council." This is a reference to the Sanhedrin Council in Israel and it is the highest authority in the Jewish community. The High Priest himself, Caiaphas, pronounced a death sentence on Jesus saying, "It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish" (Jn 11:50).

John focuses on the words "one man should die for the people" and calls on his readers to consider the substitutionary nature of the death of Christ. Yes, indeed, did Jesus die for the nation of Israel and not for them alone, but also "to gather into one the children of God who are abroad" (Jn 11:52) … Jews and Gentiles alike.

The death of Christ was both substitutionary in its nature and global in its extent. The penalty for sin is death. Because of the notion of justice … divine justice, no less … God cannot sweep rebellion against Him under the proverbial rug. Crimes against the Almighty must be punished. For Jesus to drink the cup of God's wrath is the only penalty that completely satisfies divine justice.

It will be an everlasting honor to God for Him to have gathered into one, through the death of Christ, a people from every tribe and tongue.

Scripture Reading: John 11:1-16

John has deliberately selected some of the miracles of Jesus to include in his gospel as 'signs' pointing to the identity of our Lord as the Son of God. Perhaps the most spectacular 'sign' is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. J. C. Ryle says that this chapter in John is "one of the most remarkable in the New Testament. For grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity, nothing was ever written like it" (Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, 2:166).

The circumstances leading to the actual act of raising Lazarus are as instructive as they are surprising. At the center of this account is the glory of God. "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (Jn 11:4).

John sets up the scene by establishing the unusually close relationship between Jesus and the siblings Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" (Jn 11:5).

It is the next verse that is both surprising and deeply enlightening … "So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was" (Jn 11:6). The word 'so' connects verse 6 with verse 5. Because of Jesus' love for Lazarus and his sisters, He stayed where He was, thus allowing Lazarus to die and be buried.

The reason why this was a greater display of love than if Jesus had healed Lazarus is given to us in John 11:14 …"Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe." The display of Jesus' love for these siblings is seen in Christ's deepening their faith … which was accomplished more forcefully through suffering than it would have been through the delight of healing Lazarus.

Scripture Reading: John 10:30-42

In the discourses between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, in the gospel of John, we are brought into the glories and mysteries of the infinite God.  Jesus says things that can only be true if He is God in human flesh.  "Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (Jn 5:19).  "Before Abraham was, I am" (Jn 8:58).  On both occasions, the Jews wanted to put Jesus to death.

In today's passage the leaders had the same reaction to the same implication in what Jesus was saying.  The implication in Jesus' words was His equality with God and the reaction is a desire to kill Him.  Referring to God as His Father, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30).

This is not to say that the Son and the Father are one person, but one entity.  We can, and must, distinguish between the Father and the Son, but we cannot, and must not, separate them.  In John 10:38 Jesus says, "The Father is in me and I am in the Father." The mystery of the Trinity is that there are three persons in one Godhead.  There are three distinct persons, but with such a unity that there is only one God.

Lest we think that this mysterious doctrine is irrelevant to our lives, Jesus connects the unity of the Godhead with our salvation and our eternal security.  He follows the declaration "I give them eternal life and they will never perish" with "no one will snatch them out of my hand" … "no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.  I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:28-30).  Our everlasting safety rests on the union of God the Father and God the Son.  Can there be any greater reason for us to feel safe, both now and forever?

Scripture Reading: John 10:19-30

The good shepherd promises to do several things for His sheep in this passage.  He calls them to Himself (Jn 10:3) … He leads His sheep (Jn 10:3) … He gives them abundant life (Jn 10:10) … He lays down His life for His sheep (Jn 10:11) … He knows them (Jn 10:14).

John 10:28 contains another wondrous promise which Jesus declares concerning His sheep … "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."  This is the promise of rescue from everlasting damnation ("they will never perish"), the promise of the experience of life forever ("I give them eternal life"), and the promise of unconquerable security ("no one will snatch them out of my hand").

There are no promises imaginable that are greater than what Jesus is promising to His sheep.  The staggering blessings described here are rooted in the act of God the Father, who gave these sheep to His Son.  "The Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."

Repeatedly, in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks of the Father giving him some people (cf. Jn 6:37; 17:2,6,11,12,24).  Let us be thrilled that this is how our salvation has come to be.  God, in his grace, gave us to the Son.  Jesus laid down His life to bring His sheep to Himself and grant them eternal life.  This is the Father's will and design and He is greater than all.  Christ is our only hope in life and death and no one is able to separate us from the love of Christ.  No earthly security comes close to matching that strength-producing delight.