SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2017
12:15 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Foretaste of Future Glory
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
17:25-26
Message of the
verses: “25 "O righteous
Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have
known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will
make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in
them."”
As we come to the conclusion of this wonderful chapter we
come to what this chapter is all about and that is love. The 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians
is called the love chapter, and in the fifth chapter of Matthew we have what is
called “The Lord’s Prayer,” however the 17th chapter of John is
truly the Lord’s Prayer, and the love chapter for in this chapter Jesus is the
one who is praying to His Father making it the Lord’s Prayer, and what He is
praying about for Himself, His disciples, and for us makes it a demonstration
of what Biblical love is all about, that is doing something for someone else
who does not deserve it or cannot earn it.
We can see the confidence in our Lord in these last two
verses, confidence that His Righteous Father will answer what He is praying
about. Let us look at Psalm 145:17 “The
LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.” In this verse we see that God is righteous in
everything that He does. Psalm 19:9
tells us “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are
true; they are righteous altogether.”
Psalm 119:7 “I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When
I learn Your righteous
judgments.” Romans 2:5 “But
because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for
yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”God’s ordinances
are righteous “At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You Because of Your
righteous ordinances (Psalm 119:62).”
God’s Word is righteous “119:123 “My eyes fail with longing for Your
salvation And for Your
righteous word.”
The following verse speak of God being righteous John
17:11; Deut. 32:4; Psalm 7:9; 11:7; 50:6; 71:19; 116:5; Isa. 5:16; 45P21; Rom.
3:22, 25; and Rev. 15:3.
Once again we see that Jesus is not praying for the
world, but is praying for His own, and we talked about this when we looked at
verse nine. Remember that those in the
world do not have the right to receive His special care or the Son’s
intercession. Those who have not
accepted the saving works that Jesus did for them on the cross only have
eternal judgment to look forward to. Jesus
warned in John 3:18 and John the Baptist in John 3:36 “"18 He who believes
in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” “36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal
life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him."”
We are reminded by Jesus that He had known the Father,
and we know that this goes back to eternity past, that is forever He has known
Him, something we do not truly understand “"The secret things belong to
the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever,
that we may observe all the words of this law (Deu. 29:29).” Jesus is also saying that He has made His
name known to His disciples and eventually to all His followers too. We all who are true believers know that the
Father had sent Him as can be seen in John 17:6; Matt. 11:27; John 1:18; 15:15;
and 1 Timothy 2:5). Luke 19:10 says “"For
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost,’” and we see
in this verse the mission of why Jesus came to earth, to lead lost sinners into
a personal relationship with God. John
MacArthur writes “Jesus initially makes the Father known at the moment of
salvation, continues to make Him known to believers through the process of
sanctification, and finally ushers them into the Father’s heavenly presence at
their glorification. His goal is that
even now they might experience ‘the love with which’ the Father ‘loved’ Christ,
and by knowing ‘the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that [they might]
be filled up to all the fullness of God’ (Eph. 3:19). God’s love is poured out on believers at
salvation (Rom. 5:5), continues in them as Christ indwells them (cf. John
14:23), and is fulfilled perfectly in them in heaven.”
MacArthur then concludes his commentary on this 17th
chapter of John by saying: “Christ’s
requests in this the greatest prayer ever prayed may be summed up on seven
words. The Lord prayed for believers’ perseveration
(‘Holy Father, keep them in Your name’ v.11), jubilation (‘that they may have
My joy made full in themselves,’ v. 13); liberation (‘keep them from the evil
one,’ v. 15); sanctification (‘sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth’
v. 17); unification (‘that they may all be one,’ v. 21); association (‘Father,
I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am,’ (v.
24); and glorification (‘that they may see My glory’ v. 24).”
I truly have to say that I am in many ways sad to leave
this wonderful prayer, a prayer like none other found in the Scriptures where
we have the opportunity to hear two of the members of the trinity, Jesus
praying to His Father who listens to Him, and I suppose we can say that the
Holy Spirit was also involved in this because it was by His inspiration that John
received as he penned this prayer, and for that matter the entire book of John,
along with the entire Bible.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I must always be
thankful the not only did Jesus pray for me in this prayer, but also prays for
me even today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give me the grace to
put together this 17th chapter of John so that the Lord will be
glorified as I depend on Him to teach this in a few weeks.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The sea.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What woman did Saul go to for
advice when he was in trouble?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/4/2017 1:11 PM
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