SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2017
9:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Intro
to John 17:11-19
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
17:11-19
Message of the
verses: “11 "I am no longer in
the world; and yet
they themselves are in the
world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name
which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. 12 "While I
was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I
guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the
Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “But now I come to You; and these things I
speak in the world
so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 “I have given them
Your word; and the world
has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not
ask You to take them out of the
world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. 17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your
word is truth. 18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 “For their
sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”
John MacArthur entitles this the chapter which goes along
with these verses “Jesus Prays for His Disciples—Part 2: As Those Whom He is
about to Leave.” As you can see there
are nine verses in this section that we will be looking at which means that
this section will take us some time to get through. You can also see that “the world” is used
eleven times in these verses so we can get a pretty good idea that the subject
of “the world” will come up as we look at these verses. Another thing is that MacArthur’s introduction
is as long, or longer than the last section of verses we looked at so that too
will take us some time to get through that.
I am working my way through the reading of the Old
Testament looking at the children of Israel coming to Mt. Sinai where the Old
Testament Law was given to them in the book of Exodus, and the Tabernacle was
built exactly as God showed Moses while up on the Mountain. The Lord chose the tribe of Levi and the
family of Aaron to make them priests and to do the priestly duties of killing
the sacrifices for sins. The reason that
I bring this up is because as we look back at this we see that the Old
Testament way of coming to God has been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and
now as believers in Jesus Christ we can: “Therefore…draw near with confidence
to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in
time of need (Heb. 4:16).” What a
difference this is for us as believers compared to what believers had to do
under the OT Law. As believers we were
once enemies of God, but now we have been reconciled to God: “17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now
all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:17-18).” The book of Romans tell us that we have been
adopted into the family through faith in Christ along with what is also found
in Galatians. MacArthur writes “Because
they are His children, the glorious God of the universe graciously, willingly,
and lovingly responds to their prayers, no matter how small or feeble they may
seem.” Remember when we were studying
the sixteenth chapter of John we saw similar things as Jesus was giving
promises to His disciples, things that He is no praying about for them, things
that the Father will answer for them, and for those today who are believers in
Jesus Christ.
Prayer is brought up a lot in the word of God as we see
that we can pray for others along with praying for ourselves. In many of Paul’s letters he begins them with
prayer for those he is writing to, and then at the end of his letter he brings
up specific prayer requests for himself that he wants them to pray for.
This month as I go through the devotional Bible with the
devotions written by John MacArthur the theme is on prayer as I think that I
have mentioned before. The “Lord’s
Prayer” along with Daniel’s prayer in chapter nine are the sections that he is
using to teach about prayer, and he also mentions this prayer that we are
studying in this 17th chapter of John. Prayer is so very important in the life of
believers as it was in the life of Jesus Christ while He was on planet earth,
and although we see very little of what He said in His prayers to the Father in
other places, this chapter we are studying is shown to us and it is so full of
wonderful things showing how the Lord first prayed for Himself, then His
disciples and then praying for all who became believers through the ministry of
the disciples, which means all believers in the church age.
For a moment let us look at Paul’s closing prayer as seen
in the sixth chapter of Ephesians, verses 18-20:
18 With all prayer and
petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the
alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be
given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery
of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming
it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
John MacArthur writes “Having just warned his readers
about the reality of spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10-17), Paul stressed the
critical importance of making supplication ‘for all the saints’ (v. 18). ‘Pray for us’ is a recurring theme throughout
his letters (1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Heb. 13:18; cf. Col. 4:2-3; 1 Tim. 2:
7-8). Like Paul, the venerable Spurgeon
acutely understood the importance of intercessory prayer. He addressed his congregation with these
dramatic words:
‘Oh! May God help me, if you
cease to pray for me! Let me know the
day, and I must cease to preach. Le me
know when you intend to cease your prayers, and I shall cry, ‘O my God, give me
this day my tomb, and let me slumber in the dust’ (Charles Spurgeon, ‘Prayer—the
Forerunner of Mercy,’).’
“The intercession of
Christians for each other is an essential element of the church’s spiritual
life, and the New Testament contains numerous examples of it (e. g., Acts 12:5;
20:36; 21:5; 2 Cor. 1:11; 9:14; Eph. 1:16; 6:18-10; Phil 1:4; Col. 4:12).”
As we look at Romans 8:26 we learn that other believers
are not the only One who prays for believers “In the same way the Spirit also
helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit
Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” I have to believe that as I pray for others
that it is possible that the Holy Spirit may say “strike that: and “add this”
to make my prayers better as I am only human and there may be times when I pray
that they are in the wrong motive or selfish because of my humanness. I am thankful that the Holy Spirit prays for
me as He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God as seen in
verse 27: “and He who searches the
hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the
saints according to the will of God.”
In our next SD we will look at another who prays for
believers and as you may know it is the Lord Jesus Christ, as we look at that
truth in our next introduction to John 17:11-19.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: To understand
that the Lord Jesus Christ prays for me and that the Holy Spirit prays for me
gives me much more confidence in my attempt to pray for the desires that I have
on my prayer list and also as I try to do a better job in praying throughout the
day.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to help me through some of the
difficult things that are going on in my life at this time, to give me wisdom
and to intercede with groanings to deep for me to understand.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He came back to life” (2
Kings 13:21).
Today’s Bible
question: “When do rich men heap
treasures together?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/10/2017 10:37 AM
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