PT-2 "The Fellowship of Future Glory" (John 17:24a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2017 10:20 AM

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  PT-2 “The Fellowship of Future Glory”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 17:24a

            Message of the verse:  “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.”

            I wish to begin this SD by looking at Ephesians 1:4a “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”  So we see that God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world which goes along with the prayer that Jesus is praying in verse 24a, as it is His desire that the ones that God chose before the foundation of the earth and were then given to the Son as a love gift from the Father would be with Him forever.  I know that in a sense He, through the Holy Spirit are with us at this time, but Jesus is praying that all of His that the Father has given to Him will be with Him throughout eternity.  This begins at the Rapture of the Church and as mention earlier goes on throughout eternity, including the Millennial Kingdom, so where Jesus is we will be with Him.

            As we look at Matthew 6:10 “your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven,” we see that true prayer is always consistent with God’s will, so what Jesus is praying here is of course in the will of the Father.

            Let us look at the word “desire” which is used in this prayer by our Lord:  “1) to will, have in mind, intend; 1a) to be resolved or determined, to purpose;  1b) to desire, to wish; 1c) to love; 1c1) to like to do a thing, be fond of doing;  1d) to take delight in, have pleasure.”  Now as a believer I understand very well why I want to be with the Lord.  Why would I not want to be with the Lord?  However as MacArthur writes “it staggers the imagination to realize that He wants them to be with Him,” and I could not agree more with that statement.

            As we look at this verse we see that it is the desire of Christ to be with all those that the Father chose and have given to Him to be with them.  Like a wonderful wedding is this picture we see here and I have mentioned that this prayer is prayed by our Lord in fulfillment of what was planned in eternity past which is similar to what a Jewish wedding is about.  I mentioned that in the book of Revelation, when I studied it a couple of years ago that this point was brought up “Now as I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur on this section I was very interested in how this next phrase has great meaning:  “made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”  What we are seeing in this phrase is how marriage was done in the OT times and so I think it best to let MacArthur explain this.  “The city is pictured as a bride because it contains the bride and takes on her character.  The imagery is drawn from a Jewish wedding, which typically had three parts.  First was the betrothal, which was like a modern engagement, but more legally binding.  The betrothal of the Lord’s bride took place in eternity past when God pledged to His Son a redeemed people.  The next stage was the presentation, a time of celebration and feasting leading up to the actual wedding ceremony.  The presentation of the bride took place following the Rapture of the church, when believers are taken to heaven.  The third stage was the ceremony, which for the Lord’s bride began at the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:7-9) and stretched through the millennial kingdom.  The final stage was the consummation, which corresponds to the eternal state.  John saw the bride adorned for her husband because it was time for the consummation.  Adorned is from the verb kosmos (‘to order,’ or ‘to arrange’); the related noun kosmos (translated ‘adornment’ in 1 Peter. 3:3) is the root of the English word ‘cosmetics.’  The bride has become appropriately ordered in all her beauty.  By this point in Revelation, the bride concept expands to include not only the church (as it has since Acts 2), but also all the rest of the redeemed from all the ages who live forever in the eternal city.  This is the moment described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:28: ‘When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”  This came from my Spiritual Diary from 10-26-2015.

            John MacArthur writes “What will make heaven so glorious for believers is not its gates of pearl, or streets of gold, but the presence of the Lamb.  Their supreme joy will be to ‘dwell in the house of the Lord forever’ (Ps. 23:6), experiencing perfect, intimate, holy fellowship with Him and all the saints forever.”

            The following is the lyrics to a song by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir entitled “I Bowed My Knees and sang Holy,” and we will conclude this SD with this.

I Bowed on My Knees and Cried, "Holy"
Words and music by Jimmie Davis

I dreamed of a city called Glory,
So bright and so fair.
When I entered that gate I cried, "Holy"
The angels all met me there:
They carried me from mansion to mansion,
And oh what sights I saw.
But I said, "I want to see Jesus,
He's the One who died for all."

Chorus
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
"Holy, Holy, Holy."
Then I clapped my hands and sang, "Glory,
Glory to the Son of God."
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
"Holy, Holy, Holy."
Then I clapped my hands and sang, "Glory,
Glory to the Son of God."

I thought as I entered that city,
My friends all knew me well.
They showed me the streets of Heaven;
Such scenes too numerous to tell;
I saw Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Mark, Luke and Timothy.
But I said, "I want to see Jesus,
He's the One who died for me."

Repeat Chorus

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Blessings and curses proceeding out of the same mouth” (James 3:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus say was the second most important conmmandment?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/1/2017 11:15 AM