SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/1/2017
9:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to John 17:6-10
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:6-10
Message
of the verses: I mentioned in our
last SD that I wanted to quote the introduction to these verse from a recent
sermon that John MacArthur used in his message and because I am running a bit
late to go to a Bible Study this morning I have decided to do this quote this
morning.
“For
this morning, it’s John 17, it’s John 17 to which we return, having already
examined verses 1 through 5. We find ourselves now at verse 6 of this really
remarkable chapter.
The famous and familiar
Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6 – it’s called the Lord’s Prayer – is a prayer that
Jesus would never pray. It’s a prayer that He could never pray, because it’s a
prayer that asks for forgiveness of transgressions and debts. That does not
apply to Him. So what we call the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer He could not pray.
But John 17 is the true Lord’s Prayer, because He prayed it; and this is a
prayer that no human could ever pray. That becomes reinforced to us as we study
each of these verses.
From beginning to end,
this chapter is the Lord’s Prayer; He prayed it. It is pure prayer, and it is
for us, it is for us. It is the Lord Jesus praying for us, praying for His
people. And because it is for us, it is an incomprehensible priviledge to have
this prayer written down in Scripture. The eleven disciples heard Him pray
these words. But in the purposes of God, they were written down so all
believers through all time could also hear. This is a firsthand opportunity to
hear what’s on the Lord’s heart for His people. This prayer was prayed deep
into Friday morning in the darkness as the disciples walked toward the garden
of Gethsemane where our Lord would pray, and be tempted, and overcome that
temptation, and then be arrested by a crowd led by Judas; and later on that
Friday, He would be crucified.
These are the last hours
before the cross, and this is when He prays that prayer. He has said everything
He wanted to say to the disciples in the upper room earlier on Thursday night
when they were celebrating Passover and when He was instituting the Lord’s
Table, and then He said even more things as they left the upper room and walked
through Jerusalem and beyond Jerusalem, headed toward the garden of Gethsemane.
He’s now through speaking, and what He’s been saying – recorded in 13, 14, 15,
and 16 of John – is promises; promise, after promise, after promise, after
promise: promises of peace, promises of joy promises of blessing, promises of
persecution, promises of death, promise of all promises – the Holy Spirit would
come, and the Holy Spirit would fulfill in them all the promises that our Lord
gave.
The legacy of Jesus is
given to His disciples and to us in chapters 13 through 16. And now in chapter
17, He prays that God the Father will fulfill all these promises, and fulfill
them in an ultimate way by bringing His own to heaven. These are the Lord’s
final words to the eleven before His death, and what we have here is a preview
of His new heavenly ministry which is about to begin.
It won’t begin yet. It
won’t begin until He ascends into heaven, 40 days after the resurrection. But
when He does ascend into heaven, He will begin His new ministry, and it is a
ministry of intercession. He will not be the sacrificial Lamb, He will be the great
High Priest. He will be the advocate between His people and God, and He will
intercede for them.
He is soon to be
arrested, soon to be executed, and He makes this long and loving petition for
His people. He prayed out loud surely so the eleven could hear; and it’s
written down for us to hear as well. The moment is a critical and long-awaited
moment in redemptive history, and even in the life of Christ.
In chapter 17, verse 1,
we read this statement: “The hour has come. The hour has come.” So many times
He said, “The hour has not come.” There were times in His life when threats
were made against His life and people were ready to kill Him, but the hour had
not come. The hour now has come.
What hour is this? Well,
He says it is the hour that He would be gloried. “Glorify Your Son.” What does
that mean, the hour of His glorification? It means the hour for Him to fulfill
everything He came to do, and that is to die and rise from the dead, and then
ascend into heaven, and then take His place at the right hand of the Father in
exaltation, begin the ministry of intercession. In other words, the Son is to
be glorified by accomplishing His redemptive work and then moving into that
work that follows, the work of intercession.
His work of intercession
gets overlooked an awful lot, an awful lot. We’re going to talk about it a
little bit this morning. He prays, in the opening five verses, that He would be
glorified; and then in verses 6 to 19, that the disciples would be glorified;
and then in verses 20 to 26, that all believers through all time would be
glorified. In other words, He’s praying that He be glorified; and through His
glory, we all be gloried; and through that, God be glorified.
He’s praying then for
glory for Himself, for us, and ultimately, for the Father. That’s why in verse
1, He says, “Glorify Your Son through death, resurrection, ascension, and
exaltation, so that the Son may glorify You.” At the end of all things is that
God would be glorified; and God will be glorified when the Son is glorified,
because the Son has accomplished the work that will bring the saints to
glorification.
Now, I want to say
something that you may at first not understand. We look at His cross work, the
work on the cross, and we elevate that, and rightly we should. We look at the
resurrection and we exalt Him for His resurrection, and rightly we should. But
He has a more glorious work. It is the work of intercession that is the truest
and fullest expression of the atonement.
It was as Aaron that He shed His blood; but it is
as Melchizedek that He now lives in the veil to continue His work. Since
Melchizedek is more glorious than Aaron, it is the work of intercession that is
the more glorious work.
Yes, Christ died to pay
our debt of sin; but even more importantly, He lives to bring us to glory. He
lives to make intercession. Hebrews 7:25, “He ever lives to make
intercession for His people.”
The apostle Paul
understood that intercession was more than atonement. Look at Romans, chapter
5. Romans, chapter 5 – familiar words – verse 8, “God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Then notice the next
phrase: “Much more then.” Wait a minute. How can anything be more than that?
How can anything be much more than that? But he says, “Much more then, having
now been justified by His blood, we shall be being saved from the wrath of God
through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be being saved by
His life.”
What is much more than
His death? His life. His death provides the sacrifice for sin, but He ever
lives to make intercession for us to bring us to glory. That’s the much more.
That’s the much more. He goes on interceding for us.
From verse 6 on in this
wonderful prayer, we have a glimpse of His intercession. We have His prayers to
the Father that intercede for the saints through all redemptive history. Here’s
an illustration of His prayer: He prays for the future glory of His people. He
prays first for His own glory, verses 1 to 5, and then for the disciples to be
brought to glory, and then for all believers to be brought to glory. So when
the Lord said on the cross, “It is finished,” the work of sacrifice was
finished, the work of atonement was finished, the penalty for sin was paid in full.
But His work on behalf
of elect sinners wasn’t finished. It’s going on even now. It had only begun. It
began when He went back to heaven and took His place at the right hand of God
to intercede for us.
That’s the much more of
Romans 5. He became our advocate. He became our intercessor. He became our
great High Priest at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly Holy of Holies. He
is always, all the time, at the supernatural work of intercession for the
strength and security of His redeemed people still struggling on earth. And
because He was in all points tempted like as we are, fully man, at the same
time fully God, He knows our weaknesses, He knows our temptations, He knows the
enemy’s strategies; and so He intercedes for us with full understanding as our
caretaker, our protector, our defender, and the shepherd of our souls, and His
intercession is to assure that we come to glory in the end.
It’s one thing to say,
“Well, I believe if you’re saved you’re going to go to heaven.” That is true. But
the reason if you’re saved, you’re going to go to heaven, is because Christ
intercedes for you. There is a means by which God brings us to glory.
He’s different than any
other priest. The priests of earth fail. Why do they fail? Because they die. But
He is a great High Priest who lives forever to make intercession. He keeps on
interceding. He keeps on, 1 John 1, cleansing us from all sin. He keeps on
advocating our place before the throne of God.
First John 2, verse 1,
puts it this way: “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous one.” He is there at the side of the Father advocating for
us.
This is the present
ministry of the glorified Son. It is accompanied by the present ministry of the
Holy Spirit in us, because “we don’t know what to pray for as we ought – ” Romans
8:26 says “ – the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings that
cannot be uttered; and He always prays according to the will of God, and it’s
always fulfilled.”
So we have an advocate
in heaven at the right hand of the Father. We have an advocate living in us,
the Holy Spirit. Both the Holy Spirit and the Son interceding on our behalf to
bring us to glory. He is our blessed Lord, and He is doing His mediatorial
ministry for us.
This then, this chapter
is sacred ground. It is the Holy of Holies. Grace allows us into the Holy of
Holies where we should have no right as sinners to go. This is pure prayer for His
glory, the disciples glory, our glory, and ultimately the Father’s glory. And,
again, though the ministry of intercession didn’t begin until the ascension
forty days after the resurrection, this is a preview that intercessory
ministry.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Gamaliel” (Acts 5:34-39)
Today’s Bible question: “What do we mean when we say that God is
omnipresent?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/1/2017 9:20 AM
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