Friends,
Luanne Oleas shares this story -- When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school. That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it. "Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" they offered. And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much more unique than Heather's or Sun Ray's. At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?" He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. A lot of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony." Aaah, oh well. The lessons we learn, right? Names are important, as they more closely identify us than anything else we own.
So, it is with this in mind that we further come to understand the unique relationship between the Father and the Son here in John 17:6-12…and how the Son carries the name of the Father. The Old Testament Jew knew God has Jehovah, the Great I AM (Exodus 3:11-14). Jesus takes the sacred name I AM and makes it not only personal, but meaningful for His disciples. “I AM the Bread of Life” (John 6:35), “I AM the Light of the World” (John 8:12), “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11) all reveal that Jesus is everything that they need. But, the Father’s name includes much more than this, for Jesus also teaches His disciples that God, the Great I AM, is their Heavenly Father. “The Father” is used 53 times in John 13-17, and 122 times in John’s gospel. We get the picture as to who is in the picture here. Jesus makes it clear, repeatedly, that it is the Father who sent Him, that He is equal to the Father, and that His words and works come from the Father. He makes a clear claim to the fact that He is deity, but they refuse to believe. By saying that He has “manifested the name of the Father”, He reveals the very nature of God. One of the ministries of the Son is to declare the Father (John 1:18, 14:7ff). It is through His living the life of service, that He gradually…by His words and deeds…reveals the nature of His Father in a way that they are able to more readily grasp it.
It is because we believe in the name of God and the power of salvation that comes in His Son, that we understand that we, as believers, have safety. Peter and John believed in this, as they proclaimed the power of the name of Jesus is Acts 3-4. God took care of them. God takes care of His own people. The Father purchased us through His Son, and He is not going to allow us to have to fend for ourselves. As we discussed in chapter sixteen, God gives to us His Holy Spirit to guide and protect us in our walk with Him. Furthermore, God’s people are the Father’s gift to His Son. Would the Father present His Son with a gift that would not last? Whenever you feel down or as if the Lord has somehow forgotten you, read Romans 8:28-39. The Father is near…He is present…He cares for us and what is going on in our lives. The Spirit helps us to understand better the presence of the Father for us and through us.
We come back to the theme of glory once again. With all of their faults and failures, the disciples still receive this word of commendation – that Jesus is glorified in them. As I mentioned last week, we need a Savior, because we are going to blow it, we make mistakes, we sin. But, the Lord God knows this. This is why He would send his Son to rescue us from ourselves. And no one can take this away from us. Once we have received salvation in Christ, the only way that we cannot have it is to walk away from it. We must be faithful to Him who called us out of the darkness and into His glorious light.
Finally, we have fellowship and unity (v.11)…a theme that He is going to come back to shortly. Wherever we find saints, we find fellowship. We have the most important thing, and in this case, the most important person in the world in common – Jesus Christ. The Father knew that we would need one another. After washing their feet and up until the time of His crucifixion, Jesus knows that they are going to face trying times and that they are going to need one another. We are able to be overcomers in this life, because we share in the life of the One who has overcome sin, flesh and even death itself. So, even though one day we are going to die, it will be as if passing through a gate from one form of spiritual/eternal existence to another. Jesus is going to be waiting for us, by the power and authority of the name of His Father. What a marvelous thing!
Bruce Larson, in Believe and Belong, tells how he helped people struggling to surrender their lives to Christ: "For many years I worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. 'Now that's one way to live,' I would point out to my companion, 'trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.' "On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort he is holding the world in one hand. My point was illustrated graphically. "We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, 'I give up, Lord; here's my life. I give you my world, the whole world.'"
In a sense, this is the message that Jesus is sharing with His disciples…then and now. You and I can try to take on the world, put it all on our shoulders and see how long we are able to bear up…or, we can let it go. We can trust in the power of the name of God, and the authority of the name of Jesus to take care of us. It is in the strength and power found in Jesus that we are going to find victory and overcome this world, religious trappings, and other matters that seek to weigh us down. There is a song that came out recently that really captures this wonderful thought, and I fell in love with it quickly, because it helps us to gain some perspective on life. It is called “Just Say Jesus.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWbYo6H0WiI
Blessings, Don
Showing posts with label glory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glory. Show all posts
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 2013
The Lord’s Prayer – The Personal Version, pt.1
Friends,
James Chandler shares this story – “I was driving the other day with my family when a car cut me off. I pulled out to go around him. As I sped up so did he. Faster and faster we both accelerated. Finally I put on the brakes so I could let him go. AS I slowed down, he also slowed down. Now I was furious. (Stop me if this has never happened to you). I looked over at the driver so I could give him a piece of my mind and when I did, I saw a good friend and church member driving the car. He was laughing hysterically. Sometimes on the highway of Christianity, we allow little things to annoy us, to distract us, to make us forget where we are going and why we are going there. I know that I have better days and “worser” days in relationship to this. Sometimes, spiritually speaking, we need to pull over at a rest stop, look at the map and make sure that spiritually we are going the right direction to reach our destination." In a sense, this is what Jesus is modeling by offering His High Priestly prayer on behalf of Himself, the apostles, and for all of His followers. He certainly knew precisely where He was going, as He shares with Thomas and the other disciples back in chapter 14. But, He wants to be certain that we know where we are going, and He offers some significant encouragement along the way. This prayer has been an inspiration to untold millions of people. If we want to be successful in reaching our destination, we need to make what is closest to His heart close to our hearts.
This is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer ever recorded in the Word of God. This chapter is what one has described as “the holy of holies” of the gospel record, and we much approach it with a spirit of humility and reverence. This is all especially fascinating in that we are all privileged to listen to the Son’s conversation with His Father just before He is about to give His life up for (all) sinners. Jesus has just encouraged His disciples by telling them that He has overcome the world. (16:33) And now He prays for their security, their joy, their unity and their future glory. Jesus’ final session of equipping is to ask the Father to be present in a very real and personal way for all of them. As mentioned, He is also praying for us. This is not a cultural thought, but a message with universal and eternal ramifications. He knows that we, likewise, need encouragement.
R.A. Torrey shares, “A prayer for self is not by any means a selfish prayer.” Jesus’ burden was the glory of God, and this glory is going to be fully realized in His finished work on the cross. And the servant of God has every right to ask His Father for the help needed to glorify His name. “The hour has come” reminds us of the divine timetable that Jesus was living according to while He was on the earth. Jesus has known this from the beginning of time as we know it, and He knows that He has been in the will of the Father.
The important word glory is used eight times in this prayer, so we know that this is an important theme. Jesus glorified His Father through the various miracles He performed…but, His greatest glory was thorough His sufferings and death. From our perspective, this is difficult to understand, because Calvary was a terrible display of man’s sin. But, from a divine point of view, the cross revealed and magnified the grace of God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV) Jesus anticipates His return to heaven when He says, “I have finished the work that You have given me to do.” (17:4) The word give is also an important word, as it is used in one form or another, seventeen times in this section. A number of these uses are related to the fact that Jesus says that believers are the Father’s gift to the Son. We are accustomed to thinking that Jesus’ is the Father’s love gift to us, but the Lord affirms that we are the Father’s love gift to His Son…which is pretty amazing. He is the bridegroom and we, as the church, are His bride.
Yet another important theme is eternal life. It is also mentioned seventeen times. This is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son. The Father gave His Son the authority to grant eternal life to those whom the Father gave to the Son. From a human perspective, we receive this gift when believe in Jesus Christ and obey the gospel. Eternal life is not something we earn by character of conduct...it is a gift we receive by admitting that we are sinners, who repent and believe on Jesus Christ. Going back to the end of chapter 16 once again, and coming full circle – because we share His life, we are overcomers, for we also share in Jesus’ victory! As John also shares in his first letter, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4 NIV) This is Good News indeed!
“Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, wear a feather in their hat or are dressed in a fine suit of clothes. Who does not see the folly of this? If there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird and the tailor.” St. Francis de Sales. It is good for us to remember such things. It is not our place to glory in ourselves, but to accept and live for Jesus’ glory and to magnify Him. It is on the basis of Jesus’ finished work, that we believers have the gift of eternal life. And we are called to the life that our Savior lived. He shares with the disciples back in chapter 13 that a student is not greater than His Master…if He was going to be persecuted and suffer, that we will as well. The matter of suffering and glory must be kept in proper perspective. The Christian experience is not one of grim determination which causes one to face a life of suffering and sorrow with glory to follow later. The Christian life is the abundant life (John 10:10b). It is one of joy and peace...right now! In times of difficulty, our faith is deepened, our fellowship with God is enriched, and we experience deep joy in the midst of difficulties (John 17:13; 1 Peter 4:13; 2 Corinthians 12:10). It is through suffering and adversity that we come to appreciate God as our great reward, as well as our Rewarder. When all of our human resources have been spent, we find our sufficiency in Christ alone (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
As one person has shared, "We have a good measure of life’s pleasures and fulfillments. These the Lord sweetens with His presence and peace, blending the bitter and the sweet in such a way as to bring about His glory and our good." We can rest in these things.
Blessings, Don
James Chandler shares this story – “I was driving the other day with my family when a car cut me off. I pulled out to go around him. As I sped up so did he. Faster and faster we both accelerated. Finally I put on the brakes so I could let him go. AS I slowed down, he also slowed down. Now I was furious. (Stop me if this has never happened to you). I looked over at the driver so I could give him a piece of my mind and when I did, I saw a good friend and church member driving the car. He was laughing hysterically. Sometimes on the highway of Christianity, we allow little things to annoy us, to distract us, to make us forget where we are going and why we are going there. I know that I have better days and “worser” days in relationship to this. Sometimes, spiritually speaking, we need to pull over at a rest stop, look at the map and make sure that spiritually we are going the right direction to reach our destination." In a sense, this is what Jesus is modeling by offering His High Priestly prayer on behalf of Himself, the apostles, and for all of His followers. He certainly knew precisely where He was going, as He shares with Thomas and the other disciples back in chapter 14. But, He wants to be certain that we know where we are going, and He offers some significant encouragement along the way. This prayer has been an inspiration to untold millions of people. If we want to be successful in reaching our destination, we need to make what is closest to His heart close to our hearts.
This is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer ever recorded in the Word of God. This chapter is what one has described as “the holy of holies” of the gospel record, and we much approach it with a spirit of humility and reverence. This is all especially fascinating in that we are all privileged to listen to the Son’s conversation with His Father just before He is about to give His life up for (all) sinners. Jesus has just encouraged His disciples by telling them that He has overcome the world. (16:33) And now He prays for their security, their joy, their unity and their future glory. Jesus’ final session of equipping is to ask the Father to be present in a very real and personal way for all of them. As mentioned, He is also praying for us. This is not a cultural thought, but a message with universal and eternal ramifications. He knows that we, likewise, need encouragement.
R.A. Torrey shares, “A prayer for self is not by any means a selfish prayer.” Jesus’ burden was the glory of God, and this glory is going to be fully realized in His finished work on the cross. And the servant of God has every right to ask His Father for the help needed to glorify His name. “The hour has come” reminds us of the divine timetable that Jesus was living according to while He was on the earth. Jesus has known this from the beginning of time as we know it, and He knows that He has been in the will of the Father.
The important word glory is used eight times in this prayer, so we know that this is an important theme. Jesus glorified His Father through the various miracles He performed…but, His greatest glory was thorough His sufferings and death. From our perspective, this is difficult to understand, because Calvary was a terrible display of man’s sin. But, from a divine point of view, the cross revealed and magnified the grace of God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV) Jesus anticipates His return to heaven when He says, “I have finished the work that You have given me to do.” (17:4) The word give is also an important word, as it is used in one form or another, seventeen times in this section. A number of these uses are related to the fact that Jesus says that believers are the Father’s gift to the Son. We are accustomed to thinking that Jesus’ is the Father’s love gift to us, but the Lord affirms that we are the Father’s love gift to His Son…which is pretty amazing. He is the bridegroom and we, as the church, are His bride.
Yet another important theme is eternal life. It is also mentioned seventeen times. This is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son. The Father gave His Son the authority to grant eternal life to those whom the Father gave to the Son. From a human perspective, we receive this gift when believe in Jesus Christ and obey the gospel. Eternal life is not something we earn by character of conduct...it is a gift we receive by admitting that we are sinners, who repent and believe on Jesus Christ. Going back to the end of chapter 16 once again, and coming full circle – because we share His life, we are overcomers, for we also share in Jesus’ victory! As John also shares in his first letter, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4 NIV) This is Good News indeed!
“Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, wear a feather in their hat or are dressed in a fine suit of clothes. Who does not see the folly of this? If there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird and the tailor.” St. Francis de Sales. It is good for us to remember such things. It is not our place to glory in ourselves, but to accept and live for Jesus’ glory and to magnify Him. It is on the basis of Jesus’ finished work, that we believers have the gift of eternal life. And we are called to the life that our Savior lived. He shares with the disciples back in chapter 13 that a student is not greater than His Master…if He was going to be persecuted and suffer, that we will as well. The matter of suffering and glory must be kept in proper perspective. The Christian experience is not one of grim determination which causes one to face a life of suffering and sorrow with glory to follow later. The Christian life is the abundant life (John 10:10b). It is one of joy and peace...right now! In times of difficulty, our faith is deepened, our fellowship with God is enriched, and we experience deep joy in the midst of difficulties (John 17:13; 1 Peter 4:13; 2 Corinthians 12:10). It is through suffering and adversity that we come to appreciate God as our great reward, as well as our Rewarder. When all of our human resources have been spent, we find our sufficiency in Christ alone (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
As one person has shared, "We have a good measure of life’s pleasures and fulfillments. These the Lord sweetens with His presence and peace, blending the bitter and the sweet in such a way as to bring about His glory and our good." We can rest in these things.
Blessings, Don
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