John 17: Capture
the Unity & Depth by Kelly
Durant 3-30-14
2. Today you
and I will take into account Jesus' longest prayer before he goes on to his
death and resurrection. He will challenge our epistemology! His prayer makes no
sense to the unbeliever. You know “Our Father” is only about 3 minutes long but
prayers have more to do with the quality of content than they do with how long
they are! Let’s explore the importance of Jesus prayer, glory, power and
connection to the Father, and how that relates to those of us who believe Him.
Before
anything, I think we all love puzzles, right? With every statement someone
makes, we discover, like an onion, there are many layers behind the statement.
For example, if someone says, “My toes are black and blue because of my wife”,
the biggest problem we have is that most listeners just form an opinion and
believe what’s in their own mind about the matter and this is what creates disunity
and communications problems! The average unwise reasoning person is not guided
by truth, or God, or the Holy Spirit, but by their own imaginations which
almost infallibly are false impressions! When someone is “assuming” something,
please correct them! Discernment and reasoning gifts are necessary!
The statement
above could mean that the wife dropped the iron on the toes or she stepped on
them and they are bruised, or it could even mean the man kicked the wife and
bruised his toes in the process! It could imply an accident, or something
malicious, but you do not know until you learn more by asking questions, and by
also taking into account the persons past record. It could even mean that she
painted his toenails with black and blue nail polish as a joke! Do you see how
no statement should go past you without a deeper inquiry to learn the truth! We
have already witnessed that some people leave the church because they only
listen to their own minds and not what is actually being said!
3. Here is
something I want you to learn, when reading the Bible, together with praying
and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you, learn to capture the depth of the inferences
of what was set up in the past, and what is deeper between the lines.
John 17:1
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:
For one, why
is Jesus asking His Father to glorify Him? Hasn’t He already been glorified in
his birth, in his baptism, in the miracles, and in everything up until this
point? So why does He ask to be glorified? This is the question?
God inspires
answers. I see it like this, if a person trains to win a competition, this
person could win on the state and the national levels, but despite the victories
and accomplishments this competitor is not content because the focus is on the final
prize of winning the Gold medal to be the best in the world! What Jesus is
inferring is this, He has already been glorified but not totally yet, He is
aware He still has to endure more: the death on the cross, and then return in
an ultimate glory never witnessed before, the glory of being in His resurrected
body!
4. 2 As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent.
What is
understood here? It is inferred that Jesus is confirming that God is delegating
His authority of the future fate of all humans to Jesus so that after being
glorified, He will then have total power to decide whether a human spirit after
death can have access to heaven through eternal life or not: Eternal life that
is tangent upon the acceptance of Himself (Jesus). It was only He that broke
the curse of death and He was sent by God to break it and the glory is… He did
it!
It is
confirmed in scripture many times that Jesus is the one (only one) who gives
eternal life. How did Jesus gain this ability? He was the chosen one, but He
also did not fail in “His obedience and by the things He suffered”. Hebrews 5:8
When you
review the Old Testament you discover that none of God’s men, His prophets, or
chosen ones (Moses, David, etc.) were perfect enough to come back to life,
granting them the power to control this eternal life power by being the first
one to dominate it. Death was brought in as a curse, and many of you know about
curses, but it was undone by Jesus, so only He has the authority and control!
Only He decides who gets eternal life and who not! You and I love Jesus but we
also must fear Jesus’ authority as He has access to heaven or hell!
5. Jesus
accomplished what no one had ever done before, and neither has anyone ever
since Him ever gotten close to resurrecting like Him! Some people, however, believe
they are gods but they are far from it and like the bumper sticker that says,
"The next time you think you are perfect, try walking on water!"
It resonates
true that none of us, not one of us of the human race will ever be so perfect,
so close to God that we will do miracles or have power over eternal life in the
way that Jesus did!
Divine yet
human Jesus, by living obediently, righteously, and Holy, having the ability to
do miracles, by his suffering, death, and resurrection, gained the status of
being God’s right hand ruler and this means that He is over all humanity: Every
person is subject to Him! No preacher, no wealthy star, no president, no
dictator should ever be honored because all honor is due to Jesus! Philippians 2:10
“That at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth;” The name Jesus is synonymous to His power of
resurrection and it is the proof that He revealed His Father’s glory to the
world.
6. John 17:4 “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do.” First Jesus
asks to be glorified, then he is claiming to have finished the work, what does
this mean?
Jesus is
talking in past tense, in other words, He is inferring He completed everything
up to this point and the next step He counts as if it is done already. He has
so much faith he is counting on the future as if it were past! Time is His!
That is confidence
and strength! All of us have trials and tribulations but imagine if God
revealed to you that you will die a horrible death, as He did with Jesus, would
you still have faith and unquestionable obedience to God despite your fear and
anguish and say to God, “Not my will, but yours be done?”
7. 5 “And now, O Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was”. So think about what this infers. Jesus was around before our
world was! It was His design with God to create our world and it was full of
glory! There still is an amazing harmony of glory out there when you discover
the vast amazing things in macro space, and then observe the vast complexity of
the creation design in the DNA micro space. God’s glory revealed in the
physical, measured with our modern instruments, proves He made and keeps
maintaining a harmonious perfection in life & energy, a perfection that is quadrillions
of light years beyond our creative capacities and understanding!
What we must
assume from Jesus statement is that God’s Kingdom (of another world) is perfect
and full of glory and that it existed before our world did. It is instilled in our nature to know that
there is a spirit world that is glorious and never ending, and we conclude that
each one of us are existing in a temporary world that is broken, full of life
but also full of death and suffering.
One can only appropriately
assume that a certain glory has been lost in creation as we know it. Obviously
in heaven with God on the throne, no glory has been lost in that realm, but
here on our earth there has been a lost glory of the original creation because
sin and death came into the world by disobedience. Jesus came to erase this sin
and to undo the curse of death so God’s glory could be restored but it is only
for those who believe and accept it through Him.
8. The obvious pretention of Jesus is to restore
glory to the souls of everyone!
John 17:12 13
12 While I was
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the
scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now
come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my
joy fulfilled in themselves.
Verse 12
refers to Satan himself. In other words, anyone, anyone can be saved except
Satan who went too far because he brought death into the world so He has to be
punished with his own curse, so he will never obtain salvation: but anyone else
can! Jesus came not to condemn but to save whosoever will!
Verse 13
mentions that we will have joy and it is true, we have great joy in Jesus in
this life because He forgave our sins, gave us peace, and filled our hearts
with love! But in reality our joy will not be complete until we join Him in
heaven!
9. John 17:14
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil.
16 They are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
If you are
following Jesus, then you are being rejected by those of the world like He was!
We can’t do anything about living in this evil world, we are here and we have
to interact with all kinds of people all the time, usually with people devoid
of understanding, but the good thing is, if you and I stay close to Jesus, He
will protect us from the world’s evil, keeping us strong in faith!
What is
established here is most people in the world are blind and evil, while we are
other-worldly and heavenly. Our relationship will always be as oil and
vinegar.
10. John 16:17
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As
Salvationists we believe in sanctification, which is the lifelong process of
becoming cleaned through the Holy Spirit, and the He speaks to you and me
through the Word of God, which is the only absolute truth! Knowing Jesus as
truth is the greatest blessing we can ever have in life because the majority of
people are (2 Timothy 3:7) ‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth’.
You and I have
to be careful because “lies” can appear to be “truth” because they come
disguised in many ways. I reflect on my own personal mistakes: I believed I was
gaining holiness, truth, life, and happiness at one time through the teachings
of gurus. But there always comes a time when you will have to wake up and
experience the real “truth”. No spiritual teacher (angelic or demonic), no
politician, no person of glamour or power has any meaningful words at all
compared to those of Jesus! Those who accept Jesus and are obedient to Him, who
pray through Him, have a power that no human or demon can stop!
You and I are
similar to dumb sheep and we can easily be tempted by words of teachers or
persons in power who entice us to become “enlightened”, and to gain a secret
“wisdom” that only a few elect can have. How egocentric! But if you investigate
deeper the rituals, the processes, and the false promises offered, they do not hold
up under the light of truth which reveals their deceitful shallowness.
11. History
has taught us that no human can ever produce teachings that will bring you to a
higher truth, or power above the truth and power of Jesus! But sadly today people
get misguided very easily by indoctrinators in certain cults or religions, by political
propagandists, and by professors in ‘so called’ prestigious colleges fueling
the mindless ‘endless trains of faithless’.
21 “That they
all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
What a tragedy
that innocent people suffer consequences due to our society being severely
divided by those who absorb and repeat lies instilling inconvenient immoral policies
with no critical thinking applied. But Jesus expects his saved ones to apply
analysis and critical thinking to fully absorb deeper truths so they will be
preserved as one in Him until the end rejecting lies. The herds of the shallow
misguided apply no depth of research to understand any consequences of what it
is they live out and promote.
Those without
Jesus’ truth do not do any personal introspection (or if they did they would
conclude that they are evil) as to why they defend popularized trends and positions.
They become puppets of those with manipulative agendas intent on destructions! But
true Christians have a “one-ness’ of thought, purpose, and mission and the
“truth has set them free!”
12. John 17:22
“And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one,
even as we are one.” Jesus prayer covers many more points than what we don’t
have time for here but the main point in the end is that each of us to learn to
be One with Him, Jesus believing in Him as sent from the Father. He is one with
the Father being in part divine and human, and knowing Him provokes imitating
His heart, mind and soul!
The ultimate
truth is we will never have unity with those of the world, but we must have it
amongst ourselves because Jesus prayed for us to have it! The world is made up
of 2 breeds, the sheep of Jesus, and the goats of those who “do as they please.”
Those of us who have Jesus understand and walk in truth and see all lies for
what they are, but the deceived ones, who are entrapped and slaves to their own
passions, never make any sense of life or of anything! Confusion=hell.
So what did
you learn from this? That applying reasoning and questions is imperative to
knowing truth! And that only Jesus has power over eternal life! We learned that
worldly people haven’t learned anything in life at all: they are shallow by ignorance
and choice lacking in depth for rejecting Jesus! And without Jesus as truth
leading you and me into deep insights one exists purposeless, sad, and
confused, not just for now but forever! Absorb all of Jesus, study well His prayers
and He will change and enlighten you!
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