SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/2/2017
9:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 Intro to John 17:6-10
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
John 17:6-10
Message of the
verses: “6 “I have manifested Your
name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave
them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7
"Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is
from You; 8 for the words which You gave
Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I
came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on
behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
10 and all things that are Mine are
Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.”
Look for a moment at verse six as we see a transition
there from verses 1-5 where Christ was praying for His glory and the glory of
the Father, and now turns to begin to pray for His disciples which actually
goes all the way to verse 19. MacArthur
writes “Of note in this verse [6] is the interplay between the human side and
the divine side of salvation. Christ
subsequently expanded on each of those topics, as He established the disciples’
believing response on the one hand (in vv. 7-8), and God’s sovereign election
on the other (in vv. 9-10). The verse
itself provides a thesis statement of sorts for the verses that follow, introducing
the reasons why Jesus knew the Father would ensure His previous promises to the
disciples (in chapters 13-16) and answer His subsequent requests for them (in
vv. 11:19).”
In verse six Jesus defines to whom He is praying for by
using the word “manifest” an word that according to MacArthur comes from the
verb form of “phaneroo” and this word
means to reveal, or to make known or to show.
MacArthur adds that this verb is in “the aorist tense” and this “denotes
that this was an accomplished fact, on that Christ had perfectly finished
according to the Father’s plan.” Now as
we move forward in verse six we see the word “name” which refers to the name of
the Lord, and when you do that you are referring to His character, and His nature,
along with His attributes. We read in
Psalm 9:10 “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You,
O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.”
The psalmist is saying that those who know the character, nature, and
attributes of the Lord will put their trust in Him. Psalm 20:7, a Psalm of David states “Some
boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the
LORD, our God.” And David again writes
in Psalm 22:22 “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the
assembly I will praise You.” There are
many other references to the name of God in the Word of God.
What is the supreme manifestation of the name of
God? It was the Lord Jesus Christ who
came to earth as God in human flesh.
Jesus said to Philip “if you have seen me you have seen the Father,” and
that is why He came to manifest God to those whom saw Him, but sorrowfully not
all saw that and not all see that today.
Another verse from our study in Colossians, fits in here is Colossians
1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
Another verse from Colossians is 2: 3 in
whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
In the Ten Commandments we read that we are not to take
the name of the Lord our God in vain, and so the Jewish people would not even
speak His name for fear they would take it in vain. When Moses was on the mountain for the first
time when he saw the bush that was burning but not consumed by the fire he
asked the Lord what His name was and the Lord said “I Am who I Am. For this we get the letters, WHWH (Ex.
3:14-15) and when the vowels from the word adonai (Lord) it results in the word
“Yahweh” which is rendered “Jehovah” in older English translations. Jesus had no problem in speaking this name as
we for example in John 8:24 and 58 we read “"Therefore I said to you that
you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."” “Jesus
said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."” Needless to say this did not sit well with
the Pharisees who were listening to Jesus at this time.
The gospel of John is famous for seven “I am” statements
and we have seen all of them in our study of John. Jesus said to His disciples “I am the way,
the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me,” and “I am
the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out
and find pasture.”
When we looked at the introduction to John 17 as was
written by Warren Wiersbe he mentioned that the word “world” is seen frequently
in this chapter and we see in it verse six “the men whom You gave Me out of the
World” (“"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of
this the world hates you [John 15:19].”)
We see here that these men were a gift of the Lord given by His
Father. MacArthur writes the following
about the “world” “The world is the evil, godless, satanically ruled system
composed of all the unredeemed and all that opposes God and His kingdom.” When a person is born-again they are no
longer part of the world as Colossians 1:13 states “For He rescued us from the
domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Jesus had stated earlier that evening that “18 "If the world hates you, you know that it
has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would
love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because
of this the world hates you (John 15:18-19).”
The world cannot get at Jesus because He is in heaven, gone there after
the resurrection, and so the world persecutes those who belong to Him.
Looks like one more part of this introduction will be
needed to finish it and we desire to do that in our next SD. I have to say that there are some very heavy
things in this 17th chapter of John’s gospel. Pray for me as I desire to bring glory to the
Lord through the study of this all important chapter.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Remembering that
I am not of this world system and that Jesus has defeated the world, the flesh,
and the devil does bring comfort to me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Keep these truths in my mind.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Everywhere at the same time.”
Today’s Bible
question: “After the contest on Mount
Carmel what did Elijah tell Ahab?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/2/2017 10:14 AM
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