SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/18/2017
9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 Intro to John 17:1b-5
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:1b-5
Message of the
verses: “"Father, the hour has
come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him
authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give
eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 “I glorified You on the earth,
having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father,
glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before
the world was.”
I want to continue with the quote from John MacArthur
that we began in our last SD:
More specifically, as Jesus’ beautiful prayer in this
chapter indicates, this divine promise was made from one member of the Trinity
to another—from the Father to the Son.
As a tangible expression of His infinite love for the Son, the Father
promised Him a bride (cf. Rev. 19:7-8), a company of redeemed sinners who would
honor and glorify the Son forever. In
eternity past, the Father recorded their names in the book of life (Rev. 13:8;
27:8), and pledged them to His Son as a gift of His love. Thus Jesus could pray, ‘Father, glorify Me
together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world
was. I have manifested Your name to the
men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me’
(17:5-6). A few verses later, Jesus
again underscored that believers are a gift from the Father, given out of His
love and for the purpose of His Son’s glory:
‘Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me
where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You
loved Me before the foundation of the world’ (v. 24).”
I want to interject now at this time some thoughts that I
have about this prayer and what it means as far as eternity past, present, and
future, along with a bride for the Son.
This all stems around the words “Father, the hour has come.” We know little about eternity past except
from what God has revealed to us through His Word. We know that in eternity past that God
promised a bride for His Son. Now when
we were studying the book of Revelation we talked about this subject and in
that conversation we stated that the Jewish wedding ceremony is a picture of
God giving a bride to His Son. Jesus
spoke a parable in the 25th chapter of Matthew that talks about the
wedding ceremony. So as we see in
eternity past that God promises a bride for His Son the payment for the bride
has to be made and so when we see “The hour has come” this speaks of that payment
for the bride being made by the Son as He will die on the cross for the sins of
those whom God has chosen for Him in eternity past. Now the rest of the ceremony will take place
in the future, but we see the payment is about to be made by the Son and this
is a part of this prayer that the Son is offering up to the Father. At this present time the bride is still being
sought out by the work of the Holy Spirit using believers to tell the good news
to the ones whom the Spirit leads them to.
This will continue even into the Millennial Kingdom as those that
believe then are also a part of the bride for the Son. I want to now continue with the quote from
MacArthur’s introductory commentary on these verses from the chapter he has
entitled “Jesus’ Prayer and the Eternal Plan of God.”
“Earlier in the gospel of John, Jesus had already made
reference to the fact that believers are given to Him by His Father. After He fed the five thousand, He told the
crowds, ‘All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to
Me I will certainly not cast out…This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of
all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day’ (John
6:37, 39). He further taught that ‘No
one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him’ (v. 44). According to God’s sovereign design, the
Father draws to the Son those whom He has chosen to redeem, in keeping with His
eternal promise. The Son, in return,
receives and protects all those whom the Father draws. Because they are a gift to Him from the
Father, He would never refuse them or allow them to be lost. He will raise them all to eternal glory.
“Sinners, then, are saved not because they are inherently
worthy of salvation, or wise enough on their own to choose it (cf. Eph.
2:1-10), but because the Father lovingly draws them for the purpose of giving
them as a gift to the Son. In response
to the Father’s love, the Son eagerly receives all those who are drawn because
they are a gift from His beloved Father.
The Son opens His arms to sinners, not because they either deserve to be
embraced or seek such, but because He is exceedingly glad to receive the gift
His Father prepared for Him from beofe time began, and then sought and saved.
“Romans 8:29-30 provides additional insight into the
glorious salvation purposes of God: ‘For
those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of
His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom
He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.’ Then the Father, in eternity past, decided to
redeem sinners, He did so with the ultimate intent of conforming them into the
image of His Son (cf. Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2). Because they will be like Christ in their
glorified state, the redeemed will forever be a supreme tribute to the Son—reflecting
His perfect goodness and proclaiming His eternal greatness.
“First Corinthians 15:24-28 foretells the remarkable
conclusion to God’s sovereign plans.
There Paul writes,
‘24 Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to
the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The
last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN
SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in
subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in
subjection to Him. 28 When all things
are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One
who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.’
The day is coming when
Jesus Christ, the true Lord of Lords, will reclaim the universe that rightfully
belongs to Him. He will reign by His
Father’s authority until He subjects every enemy to Himself, including death
(vv. 25-26). When that takes place, at
the end of time, the Son will hand His kingdom back over to His Father (v. 24),
and will Himself ‘be subjected to the One [Father] who subjected all things to
Him, so that God may be all in all’ (v. 28).
The Son will give everything, including Himself and those who are in
Him, back to His Father. Thus, the
Father’s love gift to the Son will be reciprocated by the Son, and the
redemptive purposes of God which were formed in eternity past, will be fully
and finally realized. God will be ‘all
in all’ (v. 28) and salvation history will be complete.”
I will stop here but there is much more in this
introduction and I desire that all who read this will understand these
important truths and that is why I am quoting them here.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Honor thy father and mother”
(Ephesians 6:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “What was the subject of Jesus’
illustration of ‘a sheep falling into a pit on the Sabbath day’?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/18/2017 10:45 AM
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