John

Safe and Sound (John 17:9-10)

Do we truly realize what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us?

Our Lord gave us life. Scripture teaches that Christ was the Word which was in the beginning with God, and was God. That all things (ourselves included) were created by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The Lord created man and gave him life, so that he became a living soul. Our consciousness, creativity, dreams, and problem-solving ability are all effects of this life that the Lord gave us.

And when man rebelled against God, not only through disobedience, but through an attempt to overthrow God’s power and authority through that disobedience, the Lord redeemed us from the death and condemnation that came as a result.

To do that, He became man, lived the life of a man, endured the same trials and tribulations we do on a daily basis, yet He did so without sin (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Scripture says He came into His own, and we didn’t receive Him, nor did we recognize Him. In fact, we rejected and betrayed Him, turned Him over to the Romans and had Him crucified.

That is the greatest sin ever perpetrated in the history of the world, the sin of rejecting Christ and nailing Him to the cross.

Yet, even in that, He endured the wrath of God on our behalf, so that we could be cleared of all guilt and could stand faultless before God. He even prayed, “Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Having paid for our sins on the cross, the Lord resurrected on the third day, conquering death and the grave, and later ascended to the right hand of the throne of God where He ever lives to make intercession for us. He maintains our salvation by continually putting our cause before the Father in Heaven.

So, in John 17:9-10, it makes perfect sense that Jesus would clarify to the Father that He is praying for us. He said, “ I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.”

In that statement, Jesus said that He prays for us, that we are securely His, and that He finds glory in us.

Jesus prays for us. He earnestly pleads before the Father on our behalf, and He advocates for us. He stated that He prayed for “them,” and not the world. “Them” are His disciples, and not only His disciples, but all those who would believe based on their words. Therefore, since we have all become believers based on their words, then this prayer is for us as well.

And we know that Christ prays for us, because Hebrews 7:25 says that He “ever liveth to make intercession” for us. He intercedes, advocates for us. Advocacy… we don’t often associate that word with Christ, but it is truly what He does for us.

1 John 2:1-2 says “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

John told us to sin not. That means to leave sin behind, to leave the sinful lifestyle behind, to leave “the life.”

However, if anyone sins, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He truly is our advocate.

His advocacy is one reason we are secure in our salvation, if we know Him as Savior.

Jesus said in John 17:9-10, “all mine are thine and thine are mine.” We belong to God, and in John 10, Jesus said, “no man is able to pluck them from my hand.” We have been passed from death to life, from condemnation to salvation, from guilt to innocence.

Then Jesus concludes this verse by saying, “and I am glorified in them.”

When Jesus said He was glorified in His disciples, it means His disciples bring him honor, renown, and cause Him to be well-known in a good day. This was something Jesus said had already happened. Simply by following Him, remaining faithful to Him even when all others walked away, and preaching His Kingdom, the disciples had already glorified Jesus.

When we remain faithful to the Lord, we glorify Him as well.

So, in light of this passage, knowing that Jesus prays for us, has secured our salvation, and is glorified in us, let us spend time in prayer, trusting in His forgiveness and redemption, and promoting His Gospel.

The Deity of Jesus Christ

What does it say, when Jesus Christ was preparing to go to the cross, where He would bear the wrath of God for the sins of the world, that He was praying for us? As Jesus prepared to go to the cross, He was thinking about us.

Thus, as He prepared to sacrifice Himself to redeem us from sin and death, He prayed for us. He prayed for our protection and well-being. He prayed for our unity, that we would be empowered to carry the Gospel throughout the entire world, and that we would bring Him glory.

In this, we see the love that the Lord has for us. Love can be verified by action, and when the Lord went to the cross, He expressed the highest, and deepest level of love for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God’s will is for us to be redeemed. God’s will for us is for us to be saved. He wants us to enter Heaven, and to live with Him in His Kingdom.

His desire for us is strong, and His desire for us is Heaven.

Seeing that God’s desire for us is Heaven, anything less is menial. We need not be concerned whether God intends for us to have certain jobs, cars, houses, or financial blessings. Knowing that His desire for us is Heaven, we should know that God intends the best for us on the highest levels. Thus, we can trust Him, even when the tangible things of this world do not materialize.

Knowing that God’s will for us is to receive us into Heaven, how do we respond to His will?

In John 17:7-8, “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.”

These verses demonstrate a few things about Christ. First, they demonstrate the deity of Christ, that He is God in the flesh. Secondly, they demonstrate that Christ was sent from God to complete the plan of salvation. And finally, the words Christ spoke were the very words of God.

Check out Pastor Leland Acker’s message, posted via YouTube above, and let us know what you think.

Rescued…

It’s not you, this world really is fallen, broken, and condemned.

The fallen nature of this world began when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By doing so, they sought to expel God from the lives that He gave them. Thus, man not only began the process of dying, but the impact of sin entering the world affected everything. Suddenly, animals turned carnivorous and began hunting each other. Disease entered the world. The first murder happened, and Cain set out to establish a completely Godless society.

This sin led to brokenness, from Lamech marrying two wives in Genesis 4, to the world being full of violence in Genesis 6. Today, we see this brokenness in the form of a broken society, broken homes, and broken people. And this broken, fallen world stands condemned before God. Consider the words of Romans 3:10-19:

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

The entire world has fallen, is guilty before God, and will be condemned, unless they find His salvation through Jesus Christ His Son. Romans 3:23-26 goes on to say:

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

Sure, the world may be fallen, broken and condemned, but it doesn’t have to be. Redemption, healing and salvation are found through faith in Jesus Christ.

So, in His prayer in John 17, when Jesus said, “I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world,” He was indicating that He was not only the manifestation of God on this earth, but through His Gospel God’s people were rescued from this world. Check out the above-posted video of Pastor Leland Acker bringing a powerful message of redemption and grace.

And Now… the EPIC Moment!

The Greek language has a beautiful aspect to it… it puts the central thought of the message at the beginning of the sentence. So, when Jesus said in John 17:5, “ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,” the central thought was “And now…” meaning “This moment.”

Christ was asking God to glorify Him in that moment, not the same way an impatient child wants their birthday present “right now,” or the way I wish my download would complete “right now,” but rather, Jesus was saying, “In this moment, glorify Me.”

The moment Jesus was talking about was the Gospel, His death, burial and resurrection for our sins, according to the scriptures. It is in the Gospel that Christ is truly glorified, because in the Gospel, His mission is completed. In the Gospel, His claims of Messiahship are validated. In the Gospel, He has His complete victory.

The Gospel is the culmination of all the promises God made in the Old Testament. It is the fulfillment of the Law, and it was the subject of the prophets. It was the inspiration of the Psalms. When Jesus Christ died for our sins, redeeming us from condemnation and shame, completing that redemption with the resurrection, the disciples saw their faith become tangible. From that moment, they could keep silent no more.

Because of the Gospel, Jesus Christ is the central figure in human history. Secular history can neither deny the existence of Christ, nor can it deny His impact on the world. While secular history ingores the divinity of Christ and His redemptive work through the Gospel, secular history records how the teachings of Jesus have influenced the greatest philosophers ever since. The teachings of Jesus have also influenced Western literature, and if we are to be honest, the ministry of Jesus is the foundation for Western civilization.

You read that right.

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Without Jesus, there would be no Western civilization, at least not as we know it. Northern and Western European peoples were barbarians before the conquest of the Roman Empire. Secular history records that fact. Furthermore, the Roman Empire was heavily influenced by Christianity. With the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire (much of it in that first generation after Jesus rose to be at the right hand of the Father,) Roman culture was heavily influenced by the faith. And when Constantine had his conversion a couple hundred years later, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The conquered barbarians were now civilized, living by Christian values, even if those values were forced upon them. The influence of Christianity then gave rise to literature, architecture, education, the Sistine Chapel, art, and culture.

It was Christianity which motivated the pilgrims to seek a new life in the new world, and serious historians cannot deny the influence of Christianity on the American colonies and the new nations emerging in the Americas. They may deny or disagree with the faith, but they cannot deny its influence.

With this influence apparent, it becomes evident that without Jesus, there would have been no Western Civilization. What more glory could the Lord ask for than to be the bedrock of our culture’s history? I tell you, it is to be the foundation of our faith, which He is. Hebrews 12 says He is the author and finisher of our faith.

Christ was truly glorified in the Gospel, in the moment that He asked God for the glory. Next, Christ will be glorified when He returns. When Christ returns, there will be no debate about Who He is or What He is. There will only be the decision to surrender to Him, or to fight against Him. And many, unfortunately, will choose the latter.

So, with that, the glory of Christ is truly that He is the turning point of human history, the beginning of Western Civilization, but more importantly, the foundation of our faith, a faith which looks to God for forgiveness and righteousness, and trusts Him for redemption when He returns to this world and establishes His Kingdom on Earth. That truly is epic.

The Power of Christ

After instituting the Lord’s Supper, and preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, our Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes to our Heavenly Father and began to pray for us. In this prayer, often called the High Priestly Prayer of Christ, or the great intercessory prayer, our Lord prayed that we would be sanctified, protected, and that we would be able to carry our testimonies throughout the world.

True to the form He taught us in the Model Prayer, Christ praised God for all that He had done. In John 17:2, Jesus praised God for the power He gave, saying, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.”

The power Christ referred to is the authority God gave Him. In fully realizing the beauty of His words, let’s take a closer look at the power God gave.

First, the power (authority) all belongs to God. Psalm 24:1-4 says, ” The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

God has all the power in the world because He created the world. He made it, He owns it, He makes the rules.

He spoke the world into existence. He formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life so that we became living souls. He is the source of our life, the source of our consciousness, the source of our creativity, dreams, hope and aspirations. These are all attributes of Him, and characteristics of the life that He has given us.

Therefore, it follows that we actually belong to Him, and that He is in control.

Man’s first act after being created was to rebel against God. Satan tempted Eve in the garden, saying that in the day she disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she and Adam would be as gods. Adam and Eve’s sin of eating the fruit went beyond simple disobedience, it was an all-out rebellion against God’s authority in their lives.

They sought to dethrone God so that they could do as they please. It was a sin similar to Lucifer’s rebellion that led to His ejection from Heaven.

Yet, God, in His power and grace did not expel man the way He did Lucifer and the angels who rebelled. Instead, He gave His only begotten Son in order to redeem man, and create a way for man to ascend into His Holy Hill and stand in His Holy Place.

God’s power and wisdom are infinite, which is why God says His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). That’s why, regardless of how hard it may be to understand what God is doing, it behooves us to trust Him and His plan.

It is that great power and authority that God gave to Jesus. Jesus prayed in John 17:2, “As thou hast given Him power over all flesh.” God has infinite authority over us all, and He gave that authority to Christ.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth.” That word power means authority. Jesus has all authority over all who live. It is He who will judge us, and He who will hold us accountable for whether we believed, and it is He who will decide whether we enter Heaven.

Jesus was crystal clear in His teachings. Those who believe will be saved, and those who believe will be welcomed into the Kingdom. On that note, we take a look at the power (authority) that He gave us.

In John 1:12, scripture says “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

To those who believe, that is, those who receive Him, Christ gave the power (authority) to become the sons of God. To those who believe, Christ gave the right to become the sons of God. This is an unalienable right endowed upon us by our creator, and our Lord.

Have you exercised this right? Have you realized this right? Do you know Christ as your Savior?

Furthermore, Christ gave us the authority to further the Kingdom on Earth. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, ” All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

After proclaiming that God had given Christ all the power (authority) in Heaven and Earth, He commanded us by that authority to make disciples, to baptize the believers, and to teach the disciples all that He taught us. We are to spread His Gospel. Not only are we directed to go, we have been given the authority of the Lord to do so.

Given the power and authority of God, given to Christ and extended to us, where should we place our faith, and what should the focus of our days be?

The Hour is Come

In John 17, Jesus is with His disciples in the upper room following their observance of the Passover, and the institution of The Lord’s Supper. Judas has been sent away to betray Christ, and our Lord spent chapters 14-16 preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, and their lives after His ascension into Heaven.

At the conclusion of his discussion with His disciples, Jesus lifts up His eyes to God and says the most epic prayer ever recorded. In opening the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:”

This word, “glorify,” is translated from the Greek word doxoza, which means to honor, to make renown, to make to be well-thought of. Basically, to be made famous in a good way for great things you’ve done. It is from this word comes the title of the hymn, “Doxology,” which is simply referred to in many Christian denominations as “The Doxology.”

Indeed, God’s name has been made great throughout all of human history, from the creation, to redeeming Adam and Eve, to His raising up of Israel, to His chastisement of Israel, to His reconstruction of Israel, to bringing forth Jesus, born of a virgin, and giving Him to be the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. God’s glorification continues with the resurrection of Jesus, His victory over sin, and will come to full fruition when He establishes His Kingdom on Earth.

Jesus prays that God would glorify Him, to make Him great and renown, so that Christ, in turn, can do the same for the Father.

But first, He says, “The hour is come.”

The hour is this moment, when Christ would fulfill the Gospel and redeem His people. God’s entire plan with mankind centered around this moment. This is the moment that Jesus Christ would undo the inherent sin and death brought by Satan into the world. He would undo the damage done by Adam and Eve in the garden.

In this hour, Christ would pay for the sins of the world, bringing forgiveness and redemption to mankind, and saving all those who believe to the eternal life God originally intended back in the beginning. For Jesus, it’s time!

In this hour, mankind had a decision to make. In Luke 19:42 Jesus said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

Jesus had come to Jerusalem to complete God’s plan of salvation, but the Pharisees only saw a threat to their personal prestige, power and desires. So, they had Him crucified, and sealed their judgment. Hence, Jesus says in Luke 22:53, as He was being arrested, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

To complete the Gospel and pay for the sins of mankind, Christ handed Himself over to sinful man. And man was told He had one hour, to do unto God (who was in the flesh in Jesus) what He wished. Man treated our Lord as shamefully as he could.

No compassion.

No mercy.

The compassion and mercy we desire was denied to Christ, both by man, and by God.

Thus, Isaiah 53:4-6 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The punishment Christ endured on the cross settled the sin-debt for all mankind. Man’s rebellion against God came to full fruition on Christ as He was beaten and tortured prior to the crucifixion.

And God’s need for justice was satisfied on the cross, as Isaiah 53:11 says, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” 

Now, with the hour of salvation complete, it’s now your hour, and you have the same choice to make.

Will you see Christ as a threat to your happiness, pleasure, fun, prosperity, autonomy over your life. Is He a buzzkill?

Or will you see Him as salvation, the source of life, and the One to whom you will give your faith and trust?

What is your decision?

Having proclaimed that the hour has come, Jesus then prayed that God would glorify Him so that the glory could be returned to God. God answered that prayer by resurrecting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection, the Gospel was spread throughout the world, and the name of Jesus Christ has been remembered throughout the centuries.

Because of the resurrection, we have a confident expectation of salvation, of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and a life without pain, sin or adversity in His Heaven.

Because of the resurrection, we can comfort each other at funerals.

Again, there is a choice to be made here. To believe, or to reject. What is yours?

Praying for Glory, How Jesus Opened the Most Epic Prayer
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As Jesus prepared for His arrest and crucifixion, He lifted up His eyes to God and prayed the most epic prayer. Recorded in John 17, this is often referred to as “The High Priestly Prayer.” In it, Jesus prays for the glorification of God and Himself through the crucifixion, and He prays for His disciples that God would protect and maintain them in His absence.

It is really profound that our Lord, Who was God in flesh, lifted up such a prayer. It teaches us of the role prayer plays in our faith. It is an exercise of faith, and it is an alignment of our thoughts, desires and plans with God’s. To see Christ, Himself, do it is truly powerful.

Jesus opens this prayer in John 17:1 by saying, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:”

He prays that the plan of salvation, our redemption through the cross, would truly be glorifying to God. And when you discuss the glory of God, truly you must discuss the cross, because it is in the cross that the full righteousness of God is on full display (Romans 1:16-17), and in the cross that God obtains final victory over Satan.

It is in the cross that our hope lies, for without the cross, we have nothing beyond this life to look forward to. Without the cross, we are left as enemies to God, living a life of frustrated divine conflict before a death leading to eternal punishment. However, with the cross, we are redeemed and reconciled to God, made friends of God, blessed to live life in His presence with His provision and guidance, before a death that leads to eternal blessings in His Kingdom.

The glory of the Lord is ubiquitous in scripture, and throughout all of human history. God was glorified in the creation. He was glorified in the creation of man. He was glorified in ejecting Satan from heaven following his revolution there. He was glorified in providing man a way of salvation after man joined Satan in that rebellion. He was glorified in raising up a nation after Himself, then using the enemies of that nation to refine them into the people He intended on them being. He was glorified in how He led them out of Egypt, and how He led them into the promised land.

God was glorified in the birth of Jesus Christ, the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His glory is such that, even non-believers have to acknowledge the incredible events that He performed, from the darkness on the earth when Jesus was on the cross, to the resurrection, to the impact Christ had on human history, even from a secular point of view.

And in the Gospel of John, we’ll see that glory come to it’s apex when Jesus pays for our sins on the cross. The glory of the Lord will come full circle when He returns and establishes His Kingdom on earth. This is deliverance for us, which should have us all praying for the glory of God. For it’s only in that glory that we have any hope.

For John, It Was Personal

Later in his life, the Apostle John continued to minister, serving as pastor of the church at Ephesus, proclaiming the Gospel, and even being imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos, where he penned Revelation. John, one of the closes friends to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preached His gospel, not only out of duty and faith, but from a deep abiding love for our Lord.

So, when new theories and doctrines began to arise concerning Jesus, John was moved by his passion for the Lord, and more importantly by the Holy Spirit, to confront these new theories. From this passion, we got the The Gospel According to John, and The First Epistle of John, more commonly known as 1 John.

In these books, John noted how he personally knew Jesus Christ, thus giving him the expert authority to declare who Jesus really is. He then boldly proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the incarnation of God, yet, was fully human. He proclaimed how Christ paid for our sins on the cross and the forgiveness that is freely available to those who believe.

In modern times, we again face new theories about Christ, and new doctrines that seek to redefine Christianity. We also face old traditions that de-emphasize Who He is. To re-center on the Lord, we began a new sermon series back in July called “The Real Jesus Christ.”

“The Real Jesus Christ” seeks to set aside the religious politics of our day, and get back to the core beliefs that make us Christian. This series seeks to truly teach Who Jesus is, and by doing so cultivate the faith of all who hear. As of the writing of this post, we are in the middle of John 6, as Jesus feeds the multitudes. You can catch up with our series by listening to the playlist here: