"The Foretaste of Future Glory" (John 17:25-26)

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 13^th 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 17^th 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 17^th 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 17^th 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

PT-1 "Asceticism" (Col. 2:20-23)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2017 10:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Asceticism”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Colossians 2:20-23

            Message of the verses:  “20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)-in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”  (NASB)  “20  So if, through your faith in Christ, you are dead to the principles of this world’s life, why, as if you were still part and parcel of this world-wide system, do you take the slightest notice of these purely human prohibitions— 21 "Don’t touch this," "Don’t taste that" and "Don’t handle the other"? 22 “This," "that" and "the other" will all pass away after use! 23 I know that these regulations look wise with their self-inspired efforts at piety, their policy of self-humbling, and their studied neglect of the body. But in actual practice they are of no moral value, but simply pamper the flesh.”

            I have just opened up my commentary from Warren Wiersbe and so I want to quote from it on what he wrote for verse twenty as we begin this Spiritual Diary.

“Asceticism has to do with the rudiments of the world and not the riches of the kingdom.  Earlier we saw the word rudiments (KJV) and learned that it meant ‘the fundamentals or ABC’s of something’ (Col. 2:8).  In this case, ‘the rudiments of the world’ refers to rules and regulations about foods.  As Christians, we are dead to all of this because of our union with Jesus Christ in death, burial, and resurrection (see Rom. 6; Col. 2:12-15).  Though we are in the world physically, we are not of the world spiritually (John 17:15-16).  We have been transferred into God’s kingdom (Col. 1:13), and therefore we govern our lives by His laws and not the rules of men. 

“This is not to suggest that Christians are lawless.  A student is a Christian school once told me it was ‘unspiritual’ for him to obey the rules!  I reminded him that Christians always respect the authority of those over them (1 Peter 2:11ff), and that he knew the rules before he arrived on campus.  If he did not like them, he should have stayed home!  Paul was not counseling us to be rebels, but he was warning us not to think we are spiritual because we obey certain rules and regulations that pertain to the body.”  

            John MacArthur defines “asceticism” as “an ascetic is one who lives a life of rigorous self-denial.  In a addition to practicing legalism and mysticism, the Colossian errorists were attempting to gain righteousness through self-denial.”

            In verse twenty Paul asks a question to the Colossian believers that if they had died with Christ to these elementary principles of the world, then why are you acting like you are living in the world?  Then he gives some examples that they were following like “do not handle, don not taste, or do not touch.”  Now since all believers are in union with Christ they are set free from man-made rules that are designed to promote spirituality.  Paul stated that if one adopts a worldly system of religion, base on the elementary principles they are practicing asceticism.  Now I am not sure what Dr. Wiersbe name his “be book” for Colossians, but it may be “Be Complete” as that is the theme of what Paul is writing to the Colossian believers.  Well I just looked it up and that is the name he chose for the Colossian commentary.

We will look at verse 21 in our next SD.

4/3/2017 11:29 PM

PT-2 "The Focus of Future Glory" (John 17:24b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2017 10:10 AM

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

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 17:24b

            Message of the verses:  “so that they may see My glory which You have given Me”

            I have stated that understand God’s glory is a difficult task for me, but as we look at the glory that Christ has which was given to Him by the Father, and I have to believe that this is speaking of while He was on earth.  God’s gracious plan for all His children will be that we not only see the glory of Christ when in heaven, but we will share it:  “20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Phil. 3:20-21).”  “29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29).”  “49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49).”  “2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).”    John MacArthur states that the song of the redeemed as seen in Revelation 5:12-13 will be sung as we behold the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ:  “12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."”

            John MacArthur writes “This request complements the statement the Lord made back in verse 22:  ‘The glory which You have given Me I have given to them.’  In the incarnation, Christ had manifested ‘His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father’ (John 1:14; cf. 2:11).  Believers also receive Christ’s glory through His indwelling of them through the Holy Spirit (vv. 23, 26; 14:20, 23).  In that sense they have His glory—His attributes and essence—within them.”

            We have this glory at this present time, but Christ is not speaking of that glory we have at this time, but that we will be able to see His glory once we get to heaven.  On earth as we have learned Christ’s glory was partiality veiled as we saw when we looked at Philippians 2:7, however when Jesus returned to heaven He would once again have His full glory on display.  John 17:5 Jesus said “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”  Once again we see the principle of praying for something that was certain to happen.

            I remember a conversation that I had with my Pastor a few years ago along with a missionary friend of his who has also become a friend of mine.  The subject of will we be able to see God the Father in heaven came up, and Pastor Jacobs stated that he did not believe we would, and I thought that it is possible that we would.  Listening to a sermon from this last section of John 17, John MacArthur stated that we will only see Jesus Christ in heaven as the Holy Spirit is invisible and also he believes that we will not see God the Father.  It was not long after that that Pastor Jacobs, a very dear friend of mine went to be with the Lord and my thoughts were that he knew the answer to the question we were discussing.

            Believers have the hope (noun, not verb) of seeing Christ’s glory in heaven either through their death or through going to heaven at the rapture.  Pastor Burns, a former pastor of mine stated that he was looking for the upper-taker, and not the undertaker.  I certainly have to agree with that statement.  As we now take a look at Revelation 5:11-14 we can praise the Lord because of the overwhelming manifestation of Christ’s glory will be only praise to Him:

“11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." 14 And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.”

            Why God will, and why is God continually giving us blessings now and in the future?  It is because of the reality that the Father loved the Son “before the foundation of the world.”  MacArthur concludes that “From all eternity the Father and the Son enjoyed perfect fellowship (John 1:1), love, and shared glory (17:5).  As indicated throughout this prayer, based on that mutual love, the Father chose a people (Eph. 1:4), gave them to the Son, and prepared an eternal kingdom for them (Matt. 25:34) where they will behold His glory forever.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord as I begin to prepare to teach Sunday school beginning on Easter Sunday.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peter” (Matthew 17:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “The four great beasts mentioned in Daniel 7:3, came up from where?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/3/2017 10:49 AM

PT-3 "Mysticism" (Col. 2:18-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2017 10:10 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  PT-3 “Mysticism”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Colossians 2:18-19

            Message of the verses:  “18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”

            As we look at the end of verse 18 we see the words “inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,” and this is speaking of those false teachers.  Paul did not want the Colossians believers to be intimidated by them because of the false claims they were making.  I just finished listening to the 8^th chapter of the book of Acts where there is a man in that chapter whom the Bible states that he believed the gospel.  However this is stated this man named Simon who was kind of a big shot in this Samaritan town asked Peter to buy some power so that when he laid hands on people they too could receive the Holy Spirit.  He was sternly rebuked by Peter.  People like to follow people like him even though he was wrong and that is the case in the Colossian church where people were being greatly misled by these false teacher because of the power that some of them were showing, even though I believe that this power came from Satan. 

            These false teachers were devoid of the Holy Spirit and so they were going beyond the teaching of Jesus Christ as seen in 2 John 9 “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.”  As Paul writes these men were not “holding fast to the head,” and of course, that head is Jesus Christ as we saw in Colossians 1:18 “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  Jesus Christ is described in verse 19 as He is the One “whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”  If we are to grow up in Christ we must realize that it comes from union with Christ.  John wrote the following words that Jesus spoke in John 15:4-5 “4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

            John MacArthur writes “There is a tendency in human nature to move from objectivity to subjectivity—to shift the focus from Christ to experience.  This has always intimidated weak believers and threatened the church.

            “Today this brand of mysticism is most commonly seen in the charismatic movement—where Scripture is a distant second in importance to visions and revelations.

            “When such intimidation came from the sixteenth-century mystical charismatics of Martin Luther’s day, the great Reformer was very firm with them, clinging to biblical revelation and the centrality and sufficiency of Christ.  In particular, the followers of Thomas Munzer and the radical Anabaptists gave great prominence to the work and gifts of the Spirit—and to mystical knowledge.  Their cry expressing their supra-biblical experience, was ‘The Spirit, the Spirit!’  Luther replied, ‘I will not follow where their spirit leads.’  When they were granted the privilege of an interview with Luther, they gave their cry ‘The Spirit, the Spirit!’  The great Reformer was not impressed and thundered, ‘I slap you spirit on the snout.’”

            Now we have been learning in this letter to the Colossians that Christ is complete, He is all we need for salvation, growth, and victory in our lives, therefore we should never listen to people like these false teachers that were in the Colossian church.

4/2/2017 10:35 PM

 

PT-1 "The Focus of Future Glory" (John 17:24b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2017 7:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “The Focus of Future Glory”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 17:24b

            Message of the verse:  “so that they may see My glory which You have given Me.”

            I suppose that of all the theological words found in the Word of God that glory is the one that is the most misunderstood of them all for me.  I used to have a device called a “Kindle” that you could download books onto it and then read them on the devise.  I once got a free book that spoke about glory and it was over a thousand pages long, and I must say it was a bit over my head so I did not read much of it.  I pray that one day the Lord will answer all of my questions about this word glory.  At any rate Jesus is praying that those who were given to Him by His Father as a love gift will one day see His glory, glory that the Father had given to Him.  Let us look at a few verses that may help us and the first one is John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  This verse speaks of the glory that Christ had on earth in the incarnation.  However as we look at Philippians 2:5-8 we will see that His glory while on earth was veiled “5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Just to make something clear from this passage and that is that the word “bond-servant” is not translated correctly as that word should be translated as “slave” but most English versions of the Bible do not translate it the correct way for the word slave gives off the wrong idea of what we should be thinking about that word.  I have mentioned that I am reading a book by John MacArthur titled “Slave” and he goes into details about this word and what it means, as the truth is that all believers are slaves of Christ and just as it was with Christ when He came to earth to be a slave He had a wonderful Master, that being the Father which makes being a slave much different than having an awful slave master.  The truth is that all believers had a wicked slave master as we were all born slaves to sin, but Christ freed us from that and now we are slaves to God, the most wonderful Master of all.  Now we want to look at a couple of verses that teach us that only in heaven will it be truly manifested to us, His people, that is His glory will truly be manifested to us.  “2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).”  “12  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known (1 Cor. 13:12).”  “9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).” 

            In our next SD, for this one is shorter because it is Sunday, we will look at the fact that not only will we see Christ’s glory but we will also share in His glory.  I know, it just keeps getting better as we go from being slaves to sin to given salvation, making us slaves to God, and then to sanctification meaning we will be used by God as we grow and mature to serving God as He matures us, and then finally going to heaven receiving a glorified body when Christ returns so that we can see and share in His glory.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12:31).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Let us make here three tabernacles; on for You, on for Moses, and on for Elijah?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/2/2017 7:57 AM

PT-2 "Mysticism" (Col. 2:18-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2017 7:29 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  PT-2 “Mysticism”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 2:18-19

            Message of the verses:  “18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”

            I promised to give a view more verses that talk about the angels worshiping God, and so this is another reason to show that it is wrong to worship angels as the false teachers in Colossae were trying to teach the true Colossian believers.  John writes the following in Revelation 5:11-12:

“11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."”

            So we have learned that the false teachers were practicing false humility and worshiping angels, but they were also taking their stand on visions that they had seen as seen in verse eighteen.  They were stating that they were seeing visions and as we even look at the cults today we see that some of them have been started by someone seeing false visions.  I got the following article from a online website which talks about the origins of the Mormon “religion.”

“In Fayette Township, New York, Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, organizes the Church of Christ during a meeting with a small group of believers.

Born in Vermont in 1805, Smith claimed in 1823 that he had been visited by a Christian angel named Moroni who spoke to him of an ancient Hebrew text that had been lost for 1,500 years. The holy text, supposedly engraved on gold plates by a Native American historian in the fourth century, related the story of Israelite peoples who had lived in America in ancient times. During the next six years, Smith dictated an English translation of this text to his wife and other scribes, and in 1830 The Book of Mormon was published. In the same year, Smith founded the Church of Christ–later known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–in Fayette Township.” (From “This Day in History Website.) (Italics added)

            Here is what the Word of God in both Hebrews and also in Revelation states:  “1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world (Heb. 1:1-2 Italics added).”  “18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book (Rev. 22:18-19).”  There is only one more verse in the Word of God after these two verses and so we see here that what God has written to us through His Word is all there is that He wanted to say to us.   The following verses I got from my Online Bible program which goes along with the verses in Revelation 22:18:

“De 4:2  "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

De 12:32  "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

Pr 30:6  Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

Mt 15:6  he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Mt 15:7  "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:

Mt 15:8  ’THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

Mt 15:9  ’BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"

Mt 15:13  But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.”

4/1/2017 8:03 PM

 

 

 

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