SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/11/2017
9:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro to John 17:11-19
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:9-11
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.”
We mentioned in our last SD that in this SD we were going
to talk about Jesus who prays for us, as He is our Great High Priest. Colossians 3:1 states that Jesus is seated at
the right hand of God and then Hebrews 7:25 states that He “always lives to
make intercession for [His people].” We
have mentioned that John 17 can be described as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer as
in this prayer He is making intercession for Himself, His disciples, and also
for those who His disciples lead to Him for salvation. It is a preview of what Jesus is doing in
heaven at this time as Hebrews 7:25 teaches us.
We know that Satan is accusing believers to the Father and because of
what Christ has done for us on the cross we are forgiven of all of our sins and
now have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us and so the accusations
that are brought up against us by Satan are nullified because of Christ’s work
on the cross. “My little children, I am
writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1John 2:1).” “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
"Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the
authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been
thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night (Rev. 12:10).” John MacArthur writes “His mediatorial work
of intercession is as real and indispensable as His work of atonement. It was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
that gave believers eternal life; it is His intercessory work for them that
sustains that life, bringing them from justification, through sanctification,
to glorification (cf. Rom. 8:30). His
intercession is the guarantee that undergirds Christ’s promise, ‘All that the
Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly
not cast out…For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the
Son and believers in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up
on the last day’ (John 6:37-40).
“Christ’s prayer in this chapter provides a priceless
preview of His current intercessory work, which did not formally begin until
after His ascension. In entrusting His
followers to His Father, interceding on their behalf just a few hours before
the cross, Jesus vividly displayed the profound depths of both His communion
with God and His compassion for His own.
As one commentator observes, the sublime magnificence of this aspect of
the prayer
‘surpasses all literature in
its setting forth the identity of being and power and love in the twofold
personality of the God-Man. We are
brought by it to the mercy-seat, into the heaven of heavens, to the very heart
of God; and we find there a presentation of the most mysterious and
incomprehensible love to the human race, embodied in the Person, enshrined in
the words, of the only begotten Son. (H. R. Reynolds, ST. John, The Pulpit Commentary, ed. H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S.
Exell [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981], 17:340).
“This petition marks the
transition from His earthly to His heavenly ministry. After completing His work of redemption on
the cross and triumphing over sin, death, and the forces of hell, Jesus
ascended to heaven. There, He
continually ‘intercedes for us’ (Rom. 8:34) while seated ‘at the right hand of
God’ (Col. 3:1; Heb. 10:12; 1 Pet. 3:22; cf. Matt. 22A:44; 26:64; Acts 2:33-34;
5:31; 7:55-56; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 12:2).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As the news of my
99 year old father-in-law came that he is in the hospital at this time, I am
thankful for the message that this SD has given my family.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give us strength as
we see the outcome of what is going on at this time with my wife’s father.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The last days” (James 5:3).
Today’s Bible question: “What three persons did Jesus raise from the
dead?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/11/2017 9:55 AM
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