Advent- December 8
Listen:
Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” John 17:3
Eternal life is to know God. We don’t have to be afraid anymore because when you have believed in Jesus, you can know God and His love for you. That’s how much He loved us- that He would send His own Son to show us His love. He did not want us to wonder whether or not God loves us. He told us how much and showed us by how He lived and how He died. And then, He gave us His Spirit to live inside of us to teach us, guide us and remind us that we are God’s kids.
It’s the greatest gift!
Adults:
The prayer Jesus prays to His Father is one of John's most beautiful pictures of God’s heart for us. Jesus knows His time has come to die, and He is content that His disciples have seen that the Triune God is One and that He is Christ (the Anointed One).
Abraham knew God as El-Shaddai (All-Powerful). Moses knew God as YHWH (Covenant keeping God)., But Jesus revealed God as Abba-Father. We have seen this over and over in our study. There is no fear in love; Abba-Father is love, so there is no fear in our Heavenly Father. He lavished His love on us by sending His Son to bear the separation and delusion that kept us from seeing Him as Father.
In His prayer, Jesus reached into time and interceeded that we would get the revelation of the Father’s love because He demonstrates it. The way Jesus prayed for us was that of tender care. He prayed for our protection and that we would be one by knowing Him. His desire for us-His kids was that we would love one another as He and His Father loved each other.
Those that believe will face persecution. Talking about God’s love often causes anger in those that view God religiously. Jesus told us it would happen. It happened to Him. Religious leaders preach the law. It is a heavy-handed message rich with condemnation and sin-consciousness. A message based on Grace is a message that opens blind eyes to the love of God, but not everyone will receive it. Suffering is a promise because the gospel's message is hated, especially by the religious. Yet Jesus prayed for you! “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves."
Knowing Jesus is still praying for us while seated at the right hand of God should bring us great joy! God anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness. Because Jesus is anointed with gladness, we have been anointed with that gladness. If you lack joy, it is because you have not tasted His gladness. Do not worry; Jesus is praying for you even now so that you will not give up, and He is confident that you will know this joy. God is confident in you because He is confident in His Son.
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”
The evil one wants us to live in condemnation, fear, sickness, poverty, and oppression. He brought that with him when he became the “god of the world.” Jesus died to forgive us, to make us one with the Father, and He also took on himself the destruction death caused so that we would have the power over it. It would no longer have power over us. Because we live in this world, we will face trouble, but that trouble will not overcome us because of the authority and power Jesus gave us and because He defeated death. Even in physical death, we find life because to die is to live in the very presence of God. The evil one is not opposite to Jesus in power. He was not a fallen god; he was a fallen angel. His power does not match Jesus’, nor ever has. Jesus defeated him and stripped Him of power, so the only authority he has in this world is one he has been allowed to have with our agreement. The Spirit of Christ living in us has given us power over the evil one.
“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
To “Sanctify” means “to separate.” To be sanctified is to separate what was once in darkness and move it into light, to separate from evil to good, from sin to righteousness, etc. We are sanctified by the Truth of the Word- Jesus Christ. We move from unbeliever to believer when the veil which kept us from seeing the goodness of God is removed. We are sanctified when strongholds of wrong belief are torn down, and we enter into believing that all Jesus paid for is not an abstract idea that is fulfilled once we are in Heaven. It is a reality we can live in today- while we live on this earth.
It is not healthy for a believer to be isolated from other believers. Yes, sometimes there needs to be a separation from a church that teaches “law” and “judgment" Those seasons should be temporary. Believers should be “washed by the water” of the preached word and be strengthened in the family of God. That only happens when you are present. Either be a change agent in a church that preaches law or create a place for it if you can’t find a body of believers around you. Not everybody in a church is a mature Christian, so we need one another. A family matures as each member does its part- sometimes, that is as simple as serving, hosting, and befriending others. As one matures, one may step into ministry opportunities such as prophetic and prayer teams, and then when one is ready, it might mean moving into the five-fold areas to strengthen the church.
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. I in them, and You in Me; they may be made perfect in one, and the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23
Jesus lived in the consciousness of the Father’s love. We cannot know the Father without the Son, and we cannot know the Son without the Spirit. The Triune God is not in competition with one another. They each point to the other so that each would be magnified. They love each other and are in such a union that there is no beginning and end to the other. This is the kind of love Jesus prays that we would know. It is a boundless and everlasting love. The Father loves us the same way He loved His Son!
Jesus prayed that we would know and live in the same awareness as He did of that love.
God’s glory is His reputation. In Christ, we share in that glory. We are ambassadors of Christ, which means that we reveal the nature of God by how we live and love one another and those who have yet to believe. Jesus prayed that we would know this love and invite others to know it.
The evil one wants to rob us of this awareness. He wants to make us aware of our sin, unworthiness, loneliness, and inadequacies.
For the young person, the evil one wants to get your eyes off God’s love and onto the approval from the world. For the young mother, he wants to get your eyes on your worry and busyness rather than on your strength in God. For the young Father, he wants to make you more aware of your financial lack than of God’s provision; for the older empty-nester or widow, on your loneliness rather than God’s comfort.
To know the love of the Father is to look at the Son, and everything Jesus felt regarding the Father’s love is what He prayed you would know. He was not lonely, rattled, worried, or lacking. He lived confidently in His Father, and so can you. If it were not so, He would not have made this His final prayer.
Now, because of Christ, you have nothing to prove, nothing to earn, nothing to compete with, nothing to fear, and nothing to earn. You are complete in Him. - an excerpt from a Study on the Gospel of John