SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/15/2017
10:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Substance of this Prayer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:1b
Message of the
verse: “glorify Your Son, that the
Son may glorify You.’”
We are trying to get our arms around this wonderful
prayer and we want to look at the second part of that the substance of this
prayer is all about. John MacArthur
writes “Jesus’ prayer highlights His absolute confidence in and submission to
the perfect will of God, even though He knew perfectly what it would cost Him.” Now before we continue with some more of this
quote let us think about the first part of this statement, the rest will come
latter. This goes all the way back to
before God created the heavens and the earth, back before Genesis 1:1. There was only the triune God then, and I
have to resist using the word “time” for there was no “time” at that time, for
God is the One who created time when He created the world. As we peak back into eternity past we know
that there was a plan by God the Father to give an inheritance to God the Son,
and they way that this was to be done was that God would create the world, and
the people in the world and after the people He created fell into sin God would
send His Son into the world to purchase those whom He chose before the
foundation of the world. Hard to
understand, but none the less true as our human brains would probably explode
if we understood some of the things of God.
Remember the verse you need in times like this “"The secret things
belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our
sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law (Deuteronomy
29:29).” Now as we fast forward to the
time that John is writing about we see that the Lord has come up to this time
of fulfilling what was discussed in eternity past. Jesus would go to the cross and die for the
sins of those who would accept the forgiveness that He offers and this would
bring glory to both the Son and the Father.
Now back to our quote: “Therefore
He prayed that the Father’s will would be done, that the master plan of
redemption would be accomplished, and that the Father would bring to reality
all the promises He made to His disciples.
Knowing the will of God did not cause Jesus to fatalistically forego
praying. On the contrary, it promoted
Him to ask the Father to do what He had said He would do (cf. Daniel’s prayer
in 9:4-19, which was prompted by his understanding of Jeremiah’s prophecy that
Israel’s captivity would last for seventy years [Dan. 9:2-3]). Not only did Jesus impart the truth to His
disciples, but He also prayed that God would energize it in their lives. Teaching the truth must always be coupled
with prayer; a lesson that the disciples themselves would later put into
practice (Acts 6:4).” “"But we will
devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."”
We have mentioned that after chapter sixteen Jesus had
little interaction with His disciples as this was a change in His ministry as
after this prayer He would go on trial, be crucified, and then would rise from
the dead in His glorious body so that He would move from the redemptive part of
His ministry to transform to His heavenly intercession as seen in Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore
He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since
He always lives to make intercession for them.”
The book of Hebrews, a book that I am posting onto my other blog at this
time from Spiritual Diaries written in 2003 reveals rich theological truths
regarding the Lord’s intercessory work as the mediator of the new Covenant as
seen in Hebrews 4:14-10:25. We can see a
personal glimpse of our Lord in His role as the Great High Priest as He intercedes
for His people. As we look at this
prayer in John 17 it is actually known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer and so
the book of Hebrews is very important in understand Jesus’ role as our Great
High Priest.
The words in this prayer are simple and straightforward,
nothing that is difficult to understand even though this is the longest of
Jesus’ prayers recorded in the Word of God.
John MacArthur writes “One might expect the words of an
inter-Trinitarian prayer to be utterly incomprehensible. But that is not the case. As James Montgomery Boice rightly observes:
‘This prayer contains the
simplest of sentences, though the ideas are profound. It is proof that the difficulty we have in
understanding God’s truth is not in the complexity of the truth itself or in
the language with which it is conveyed (as if it were logarithms or German philosophy) but in our own
ignorance, sin, and spiritual lethargy.’”
Jesus was concerned with the glory of God so much that He
viewed the cross from an eternal perspective.
Jesus knew that in doing the Father’s will He would both bring glory to
Him as well as glory to God the Father.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: To have this
attitude that was in Christ Jesus as Paul speaks of in Philippians chapter two
is something that I would like to continually have, but I realize that life,
the life of a believer, is not only difficult, but impossible to live in the
way that Jesus lived while on earth.
Paul note of his struggles in the seventh chapter of Romans, a chapter
that I have read on different occasions, especially when I am struggling with
my walk with the Lord, and from this reading I am encouraged by what he writes
at the end of that chapter “24 Wretched
man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be
to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my
mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord to enable me to live a
life that is pleasing to Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Elisha” (2 Kings 2:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was called the ‘Weeping
Prophet of Judah’?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/15/2017 11:29 AM
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