Know This! - John 17:1-11 - Seventh Week after Easter

 

John 17:1-11 NIV

17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Know This!

Gather to pray together. Disciples have a calling and a mission to carry out as we are anointed by God to proclaim the Gospel of God’s salvation to all the world. So, as we are called, we gather, and we appoint one another to fulfill God’s will until He comes again in glory at that final resurrection. Come, Lord Jesus, come…

God rises up and brings salvation to all the hopeless, the poor, the needy, and the people of this world lost in sin. God rises up from this earth and reigns in His Kingdom, now and forever.

Jesus, doesn’t sugar coat what it is like to be His disciple. There is no promise of ease. There is no promise of comfort. In fact, He is open and honest about how the world will treat His disciples. After all, look how the world treated Him. Yet we can still have comfort when we cast all of our anxieties upon God. God will comfort those who are faithful to His will and His way.

Prayer is a big deal. I love how Jesus, on this night, before His crucifixion, prays so intimately. He demonstrates how prayer is a primary connection to His Father. Like a family member, and He draws all of His disciples right into this close conversation and prayer, with pleas of thanksgiving, and obedience to following God’s will in the Father’s own way, even down to this meaning of this “hour” as Jesus puts it. When it’s time it’s time.

And then to proclaim loud and clear that Jesus is God and the Father is God and authority to grant eternal-life exists in God for all the world. How could you not believe, while hearing or even as we do now, reading, these very words of God in Jesus?

All of these statements of giving. We are given to Jesus, Jesus is given to us, authority is given to Jesus to GIVE eternal life. How humbling to witness these words of Jesus.

James 4:10 NIV

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

That’s chilling stuff there, that warms a disciple’s heart to the core! Thanks be to God!

When we think of eternal life, many of us think of something in the future. But here, Jesus points out that eternal life is here and now. How’s that? In the knowing of God, we experience eternal life. To know God in this sense is a deep relationship with God. Jesus comes to us and becomes One with us, in flesh and blood. That is God’s deep knowing of what He has created in mankind. That is God knowing the created by becoming One in us and with us. So, when we “know” God, we have eternal life.

In Jesus’ carrying out the Father’s mission to redeem His created; Jesus showed obedience in always “Pointing to the Father.” Likewise in our lives as disciples, we “Point to Jesus.” It’s through this priority of God the Creator and God the Redeemer, that we become One with God. We should never fail to recognize that we ARE NOT God. We are the created people of God throughout time to “Point to Jesus.” Show and speak to the world, and all those God places into our lives, what God has done.

Just as Jesus fulfilled the will of the Father, we are called to obedience in fulfilling the will of Jesus, with the gifts from the Spirit. That’s our work in this world. To love, serve and obey God.

Then Jesus takes us right back out of time, in glorifying God the Father through His obedience, He goes back from now to before the Creation to be One with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus moves in and out and all-around time. It’s God’s eternal presence that He calls us and gifts to us through what God does. We can’t do that on our own, that’s all a gift of God, out of His love for His creation.

As we have gone all this year, hearing Jesus’ ministry and teaching, over and over again, Jesus has made it known that the Father sent Him into this world, AND that Jesus IS the Messiah, Jesus IS God as well. It’s comforting to hear that the Father gave us Jesus to forgive and love us back to life in God.

So, daily recall your baptism knowing full well that you ARE a Child of God. And yes, now we know that everything that Jesus granted to us comes from the Father. What a gift!

As a gift from God through Jesus, we receive. Wow! God gives life to us, even though we deserve the death that Jesus is about to suffer for us. And we can believe. So, not only is faith a gift from God, but the ability to believe comes from God as well. What a gift!

Jesus goes to the Father FOR us! How great is that? As Jesus prays, He prays for us and NOT for this world. This world will pass, but our relationship with God will not pass away. Eternal life is ALL wrapped up in US with God. And to think that God initiated that, through the giving of Himself in Jesus, who came to us. That’s all hard to fathom, but true, in these words from Jesus. So, believe it! God gives you the faith to believe, so, believe Him at what He says.

In the believing of what God does, we give ALL honor and glory and thanks, right now and right into eternity, forever and ever!

And with this Jesus leaves our presence, sort of. With this unity with God the Father, and this unity with God the Son, and this unity with God the Spirit; we can continue on. Continue on loving all of those God gives to us each and every day… Even in the midst of persecution, doubt of our testimony, denial of God, and any torture we may incur because we believe what God has done to be true.

So, there you have it. Jesus words at the Last Supper, just ahead of his suffering, death and resurrection. Yes, in the face of it all, Jesus gives us a hope of eternity, with God, to truly KNOW God as He has sent His Son to forgive us, to die for us, to defeat the power of sin, and to raise to new life, as He draws us into Him.

Yes, Jesus! You are proof of the love of God… today… tomorrow… and forever.

Thanks, glory, honor and all praise be to God… Forever and ever!

Enjoy this YouTube Music that speaks to the Knowing…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j25JqWgjDF4&list=RDj25JqWgjDF4&start_radio=1