SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/14/2017
10:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Substance of This Prayer
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:1b
Message of the
verses: “glorify Your Son, that the
Son may glorify You.”
Jesus had mentioned earlier to His disciples that He was
about to go back to the glory of being with the Father and that they should be
thankful that this was going to happen, but we mentioned that they were only
thinking about themselves and therefore were not joyful that Jesus was going to
go back to the glory that He had before coming to earth. Philippians tells us what it was like for
Jesus to leave the glory of heaven and the glory of His Father “5 Have this
attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He
existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be
grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-8).” That phrase “emptied Himself” speaks of the
glory that He had set aside while He was in appearance as a man, and now He was
asking the Father to glorify Him. To
have the Father glorify Him meant that He would receive glory for doing the
will of the Father, that is coming to earth to die on the cross for the sins of
those who would accept His work of forgiveness, and by glorifying the Son, the
Son would likewise glorify the Father for His obedience.
Jesus was continuing to seek to bring glory to the Father
throughout His entire ministry while on the earth as seen in John 7:18 “"He
who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of
the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” John 13:31-32 states “31 Therefore when he
had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;
32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in
Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” We can look at other times when Christ would
bring glory to God like when He was born as seen in Luke 2:14, 20, or when He
was doing His teaching in Matthew 5:16; John 15:8; when He was doing miracles
(Matthew 9:8; 15:31; Mark 2:12; Luke 5:25-26; 7:16; 13:13; 17:15; and 18:43). His death and resurrection would bring glory
to God (John 12:23-28) “23 And Jesus answered
them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life
loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant
will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what
shall I say, ’Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to
this hour. 28 “Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of
heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."”
John MacArthur writes “It is fitting that His ministry would
climax in a majestic prayer that emphasized the very thing that characterized
His entire life. The theme of God’s
glory, stated in verse 1, is echoed throughout this passage. Just as the Son glorified the Father through
His faithfulness on earth (17:4), so the Father would glorify the Son together
with Himself, with the very glory that the Son shared with Him since before
time began (17:5). The disciples too
would be those who glorified the Father by bringing glory to the Son (17:10);
they, along with all who would believe in the Son, would share in His glory
(17:22), eternally praising Him for the glory that He received from the Father
(17:24). Furthermore, the plan of salvation
would certainly be fulfilled in the cross since God’s glorious reputation; His
name was at stake (cf. 17:6, 11, 12, and 26).”
We have looked at the division of the prayer as it is in
three sections as Jesus prays for Himself, (vv. 1-5), His disciples (vv. 6-19),
and His church (vv. 20-26). MacArthur
adds that “throughout all three sections, the focal point is the glory of God,
being manifested through the cross. As
Frederic Godet explains,
…when Jesus prays for Himself [in
vv. 1-5], it is not His own person that He has in view, it is the work of God…;when He prays for His
apostles [in vv. 6-19], He commends them to God as agents and continuers of
this work; and when He extends His regard to all believers present or future
[in vv. 20-26], it is as if to the object
of this work, in other terms because these souls are the theatre where the
glory of His Father is to shine forth; for His work and the glory of the Father
are for Him one and the same thing. (Commentary
on John’s Gospel, 883).’”
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “To
prison” (Genesis 39:20).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘My father, my
father, the Chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof’?”
Answer
in our next SD.
2/14/2017
11:15 AM
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