He Has Not Left You Empty Handed: A Sabbatical Prayer and Call
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You, because the words that You gave Me, I have given them. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me.
“The words that you have gave me, I have given to them.” Jesus did not hold anything back of the truth about Himself, who He was, where He was from, what He was called to do, and why He came. All that was necessary, all that was needed was shown and explained of Jesus, about His glory, and the Father’s love.
Jesus upon His final hour of sacrifice and departure, 1. declared clearly the truth of His person, the nature of His work, and the glory that He is and deserves.
Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said: Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You,
for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so He may give eternal life to all You have given Him.
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ.
I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You before the world existed.
What is the glory of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son. What did Jesus accomplish? The work that the Father assigned to Him, the reconciliation of man with God, and with all of creation. And now He is glorified as He was before. Eternal life is knowing, trusting, and following Jesus. Being baptized is an act of affirming this truth, Jesus’ truth and being in one’s life - that you have been reconciled with Christ! What glory being baptised brings to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One now being one in God!
May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.
I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
One is only complete, when one is made complete, in God, through loving Christ. Unity amongest the brothern is glory to Christ!
2. Jesus has also declared the work that His Father had assigned to Him as complete, to make Father’s name known to those whom, the Father has given to the Son from the world.
I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me from the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
The disciples were given to Jesus. He was to take care of them, He was to love them. He was to instruct them. He was to equip them. He was to reveal Himself to them, His true nature, His true being, His being God in the flesh. And Jesus was to send them into the world to do likewise…to make known the truth of Jesus, the way of Jesus, and the love of Jesus.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And as Jesus is the same today, as yesterday, as tomorrow, we are to do the same, we have the same responsibility.
Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
The work of reconciliation between God and man is not complete until Jesus is instructed to return. So until that time, we as the followers of Christ, are to witness and testify to the truth of Jesus Christ, that God loves sinners, He loves you, and wants you to be His! So unless we are in the ground, we have a responsibility, a priviledge, to share the truth of Jesus, His love, and His Kingdom.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son —except the Father only. As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
3. The disciples know that everything that Jesus has received is from the Father, the very words He speaks, and that they know that He is from the Father, and that He was sent from the Father. Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples so that they would be stone cold solid in the truth and their witness and testimony to the truth of Jesus. Why else can you explain their unmittigated loyalty to Jesus and their willingness to die for Him? Let the truth of God’s word pierce your heart,
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
Rarely for a holy person will one die, and maybe for a good person, but for the conviction of God in the flesh, one would surely die. What will you do with Jesus? What do you do with Jesus?
No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
4. Jesus asks that the Father protect His as He protected them(v.10-12). What does Jesus mean by ‘protect’? Protect [5083] tereo - To keep, guard, in or of state. In a state of keep. Guard [5442] phulasso - to watch, keep watch - kept in safety, preserve.
Jesus declares His oneness with the Father (John 17:10).
Everything I have is Yours, and everything You have is Mine, and I have been glorified in them.
What does Jesus mean by saying ‘protect them in your name that you have given me’? Jesus protected His disciples in the name of the Father. Is this a mystical thing, a magical thing? (v.11-12)
Jesus also asks that the Father not remove His disciples from the world, but that He protect them in the world from the evil one. This is a significant prayer and theological statement: Jesus does not ask that we be removed from the world, but protected while in the world…from the Evil One. For how many of us does this fit with our end of days ‘rapture of the church’ scenario?
The pre-tribulation rapture idea promotes the belief that all Christ followers will be taken out of the world before the tribulation and the persecution of Christ-followers by Satan. Those who believe in Jesus during this time will ultimately die for their faith in Jesus. The idea also promotes that Jesus comes to earth three times, once secretly for the pre-tribulation believers, once for the post-tribulation believers, and then once more for unbelievers at the end of the millenium, when Jesus establishes His kingdom and judgment.
If Jesus, and indeed He does, is praying that His disciples be protected from the Evil one, and not taken out of the world, how is a rapture of the church fathnoble before Jesus return? The verb used is tēréō [τηρέω - 5083] protecting - to guard, keep, to keep an eye on, watch.
John 17:15 (ESV)
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Revelation 3:10 (ESV)
Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
Important question: Why did John not use the verb airo [αἴρω - 142] - to lift, to raise up, to remove instead? No where does John use this verb to speak of a rapture of the church or believers. No where in the New Testament is it used to speak of a rapture of the church or believers. It is used in reference to taking away sin, or the punishment of sin (Jn 1:29; 1 Jn 3:5; 1 Sam 15:25; Num 5:31; 14:33; Lev 5:17), or to take out of the world by death (Mt 24:39), but not as an escape from tribulation. What does this mean? A guarding of believers from the present rather than a deliverance of them from the presence of tribulation.
John’s understanding is the same in both verses - a guarding of believers rather than a delieverance from tribulation of believers. Is it not comforting to know that Jesus has asked for your protection, your guarding, during tribulation and from the evil one? This should be of great comfort to us during these days and the days to come, even through the days we have come. The Father has been protecting you and me from the evil one and will continue to do so in and through the Last Days.
Matthew 24:29 (HCSB)
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the celestial powers will be shaken.
Matthew 24:30 (HCSB)
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Matthew 24:31 (HCSB)
He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
How many times has Satan accused us, but the Father points to the Son and says no that is forgiven because of my Son. You can test them, but you cannot have them. You can afflict them, but you cannot kill them. You can chase them, but you will catch them. I, says the Father, will see them through the sea of evil and calamity. I will guard them, I will protect them, I will be with them! Though death may take some, only by the allowance of God’s will, and the ravages of our bodily vessel, Jesus Christ’s followers will never become Satan’s.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
In tribulation, you and I are, and will be, firmly in the hand of God the Father! Just as Israel was led to safety through the Red Sea, we will also be lead by the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, to the safety of His presense.
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit —the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
Why does Jesus ask for His disciples protection? Because they are no longer of the world (vv.14, 17). They are of God, you are of God, we are of God.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
What is the profound mystery? That God is in us? That we are in Him? What does it mean that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us? 1 Cor. 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
They mystery of God lives within you, and you in Him. We are not our own, we were bought with a price.
6. Jesus asks that the Father sanctify each believer by the truth (v.17)
We are simply set apart by the truth of Christ, by the reality of Christ, by the witness of Christ. You and I can no longer live as the world has lived, if Jesus has taken hold of you, and you have taken hold of Him. His Word is truth. Be set apart by His life! Be set apart by His Word! As we live by His Word, we are sactified by His Word and by the Spirit.
I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
As we live by the Word, we will live by the Spirit, and we will live as Christ. Live sanctified.
Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You, because the words that You gave Me, I have given them. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me.
May you know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as He has taught, as He has spoken, and as the Holy Spirit leads. Be encouraged, God has not left you empty handed. Amen.