John 17 Capture the Unity & Depth

John 17 Capture the Unity & Depth                             by Kelly Durant 3-17-24  

 

John 17 (Whole Chapter)  

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 the truth being told!

 

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.” Goats butt heads all their lives! 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! He will save your soul as well!