We Are Loved By God
Notes
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6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
Last Sunday we looked at this common theme from Genesis to Revelation that distinguishes between two types of people.
Of the Devil
Of God
Each types signified by who they believe and who they live in accordance with.
Christ’s role as Redeemer is specifically to the elect of God.
Christ stated that He was not praying for the world.
But, that He was praying for those whom the Father gave Him out from among the world.
This spiritual offspring of Abraham.
The covenant children of Christ.
This morning I want to continue in Christ’s prayer that is specifically for His current disciples.
And, so we read…
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
What Jesus is saying in verse 10 shows us that between the Father and the Son, we have...
Equal Possession
Equal Possession
And, equal possession shows equality.
The Father is Divine and holds possessions in a divine way.
The Son is equally Divine, and holds possessions in a divine way.
There is nothing that the Father has that the Son doesn’t have.
There is nothing that the Son has that the Father doesn’t have.
There is no mission of the Son that is not, equally, the mission of the Father.
The very planned mission of the Father to redeem the elect…
Is the very planned mission of the Son…
Who agrees to execute the mission through incarnation.
This same plan of redemption is executed by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So, look with me at…
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
It’s not that we are the Son’s and not the Father’s.
It’s not as though some heretically teach that Christ redeems a people unto Himself, and He has to plead with the Father for the Father to be merciful and gracious to Christ’s Bride…
And, sometimes needs the additional pleading from Mary or other “Saints.”
—> That’s heresy.
Remember, Jesus says that the elect were the Father’s and He gives them to the Son to redeem.
When Jesus says that all are His and all are the Fathers…
He’s saying there is equal love, equal grace, equal mercy from both.
IOW, the love that the Son has for His own…
Is no different, no greater, no more abundant than the love that the Father has for the very same people.
So, not only do we see this equal possession and all the equal care that comes with that, but we also see…
Confidence in Prayer
Confidence in Prayer
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
The confidence Jesus has in praying for those whom the Father has given Him…
Who are His, but also the Fathers…
Is because they are the Father’s.
Again reinforcing the love that, not only the Son has for us but also that same love exuding from the Father for the elect of God.
So, Jesus has confidence in this prayer.
Why?
v.9 Because they are yours, Jesus says.
When we ask from confidence we can rest in the response.
This whole prayer of Christ’s is in the confidence of the character of the Father.
So, let me ask you…
Do you know the character of God?
Do you love the character of God?
Do you trust the character of God?
What a great study is that of the topic of the character of God!
If you haven’t, I highly recommend it.
If you have, it’s probably time for a refresher.
Let’s think—>How Do You Pray?
Let’s think—>How Do You Pray?
Do you pray the promises of God based on the character of God?
If so, do you pray them with confidence?
There are things we know God wants for us, like our sanctification.
We may not know how God will accomplish it, but we know He desires our sanctification, our peace of conscience, our comfort in knowing Him, our peace with Him, our future in His friendly, fatherly presence.
Do we pray for those things to be experienced today, to be remembered today with joy?
Do we pray for these things even though we know we have them?
Remembering and experiencing the promises of God anew is a delight and a stimulant for out daily joy in God.
The reason we don’t pray with confidence in the promises of God…
And, the revealed will of God for our lives…
Is too often because:
we don’t remember
we don’t believe it in the moment
we don’t want it in the moment
But, our position in Christ declares to us, that we can and should pray with confidence in the:
Promises of God
Revealed will of God
Fully trusting in God
I’m not talking about confidence where we’re trying to call things down from heaven under our control.
I’m talking about confidence that allows us to rest in the person and finished work of Christ and the application of such finished work that will complete what He has started within us.
And, just a disclaimer:
sometimes that comes with resistance from the external world
sometimes that comes with a period of time of withholding from God
sometimes that comes with temporal cost
But, dear friends it always come from the hand of God that is working/ordaining all things for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory.
Which brings us to the topic of…
God’s Glory
God’s Glory
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
I am glorified in them is connected to yours are mine.
If all things are for the glory of God, and our salvation glorifies Christ…
How can we ever doubt that Christ would do anything less than securing us forevermore?!
No one can snatch us out of His hand.
He goes before us.
He hedges our ways.
He keeps us in the security of His pastures.
Or within His kingdom borders.
This also speaks to the inner convincing of God upon His own.
We cling to these truths taught to us by God:
There is salvation in no one else other than in Christ.
There is no satisfaction in Christ unless we possess God in Him.
Which speaks to the acknowledgement of the deity of the Son…
Or you don’t truly have the Son
And, if you don’t have the Son, you don’t have God.
As John Calvin stated it…
We believe that there is such a unity between the Father and the Son that it makes it impossible that they have anything separate from each other.
We belong to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Elected—>Redeemed—>Sealed
Now, we see Christ give another reason for praying for those who are currently with Him…
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
He states that He is praying for them because of…
His Imminent Departure
His Imminent Departure
His mission of redemption is near the climax.
And, the disciples have known nothing but His imminent presence.
They’ve known nothing but:
His nearness to handle conflict.
Their immediate access to ask questions and have them answered.
Their following Him, in His physical presence, as He leads the way to the next part of the mission.
His handling all of the confrontations with perfection.
His comforting words.
His comforting presence.
His comforting advice.
His gracious patience.
His heart-warming and encouraging example.
But, He’s leaving and they will have to adjust…
Not to His absence, but the difference in His new and coming presence through the Holy Spirit.
And, they will have to adjust to living in the light of His unseen promises.
And, this will be a major adjustment for them.
And, so this major adjustment has Christ pleading from them with confidence.
He cries out to One who loves them as deeply as Christ does.
He knows what He wants for them…
And, He cries out to One who wants the very same…
And, has the same power to accomplish it.
He will pray for their protection.
He will pray for their security.
But, He prays with confidence in the character of God and the promises of God.
Let’s think about this...
Let’s think about this...
If Jesus was by your side throughout all of your life, what would change?
Think about this…He is?
He has given us His Spirit.
What’s different?
Jesus said it would be an advantage.
Do we live like it’s an advantage?
Why do we too often live like we don’t have the presence of Christ?
Why do we not run to Him as if He was near?
Why do we too often ignore Him?
Why do too often not lean on Him?
It’s because we too often are not living in the light of the gospel.
It’s because we too often are not believing upon the promises of God.
It’s because we too often are not trusting in the character of God.
It’s because we too often do not believe who we are in Jesus Christ.
—> We can do better.
By the power of the Holy Spirit and prayer of dependence and expectation of the HS to work.
But, let me ask you a final question…
Aren’t you glad that Christ redeemed you…
Not only for your former life under the sway of the Devil in which you walked according to the lusts of your flesh?
But, aren’t you glad that Christ redeemed you from your fickle Christianity, as well?
Hallelujah, what a salvation!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
