PT-1 The Representation of True Unity (John 17:21b-23a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2017 8:15 PM

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  PT-1 The Representation of True Unity

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 17:21b-23a

            Message of the verses:  “even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity,”

            John MacArthur writes “The unique intra-Trinitarian relationship of Jesus and the Father forms the pattern for the unity of believers in the church.  This prayer reveals five features of that unity the church imitates.”  Now before we begin to look at this five features I want to look at truth that this unity of nature that Christ was praying for reflects that of the Father and the Son which can be seen in the following “You, Father, are in Me, and I in You,” as seen in verse 21b.  Now by stating this in His prayer Jesus is surely stating that He is deity as surely as the Father is.  In the fifth chapter of John after healing someone on the Sabbath Jesus got into a dialogue with the Jews who were telling Him that it was not right for Him to heal on the Sabbath.  In that dialogue beginning with verse 17 Jesus claimed to be God come in the flesh, now that is not exactly what He said, but what was implied as Jesus claimed to have the same authority, purpose, power, honor, will, and nature as the Father.  So you can see what these Jews were upset.

            Now we will begin to look at the five features of the unique intra-Trinitarian relationship that Jesus and the Father had which forms the pattern of the unity of believers in the church.

1.     “The Father and the Son are united in motive; they are equally committed to the glory of God.”  We can see this from the very beginning of this prayer in verse one “"Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.”  Let us look at verse four “"I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”  This shows that Jesus glorified the Father throughout His earthly ministry, and verse five adds “5  "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”  Now let us jump ahead to verse 24 “24  "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.”  This verse speaks to the Father His desire that all believers will one day be with Him.  This is a very important subject.  When a person becomes a believer in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ and then comes to live with them.  We are “in Christ!”  When a believer dies he goes immediately to be with the Lord as Paul wrote “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”  When the rapture comes then those who have died before the rapture will receive their new bodies and believers who have not died will go directly to be with the Lord.  This is also true with the Tribulation saints who died in the Lord during the Tribulation period.  When the Kingdom comes believes will be with the Lord helping to rule during the kingdom age.  When eternity begins all believers will be with the Lord.  I suppose the question is why does He want us around?  Sometimes I truly do not feel worthy of this great promise of being with Christ for eternity.    As we have looked at the gospel of John so far we have seen Jesus bringing glory to the Father on many different occasions and just before this prayer began Jesus told His disciples “"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 (John 17:31b-32).”  Now the point of these features is to show that this relationship that the Father and the Son have is will form in the church, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).”  Now we will continue looking at these features in our next SD.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘He must increase, but I must decrease?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/26/2017 8:47 PM