Supply In The Gap

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John 17:6–19 NASB95

6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. 12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even 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, I also have sent them into the world. 19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Have you ever found yourself in a gap? It is that time between the now and the next. The present and the future. It is the time between your current experience where you wonder when will the next chapter begin? What’s going to happen after this? It is the chasm between expectation and reality, it is the pause between what is lost and what you will gain. Life has gaps.

Gaps are those uncomfortable, often anxiety-inducing spaces between where we are and where we are supposed to be. It is the quiet between the problem you are praying for and the answer you are waiting on. It’s the space between the depleted paycheck and the end of the month. It’s the space between a promise being made and a promise being fulfilled. It’s the profound, echoing space left in your life when someone you leaned on—a mentor, a parent, a close friend—transitions away, leaving you to figure things out on your own. You’re sometimes left wondering what will life look like now?

Gaps can make you feel vulnerable, uncomfortable, and anxious - but we are reminded from Scripture that God can meet me and supply my needs even enroute to whatever is next.

God supplies in the Gap - to the extent that I can be productive for whatever is next.

The vulnerability here is intense! There is an insatiable desire to fill it and the world is often happy to oblige, your flesh is happy to oblige to fill it with despair, doubt, unbelief, vain glory - The encouragement: Let God make the supply!

Resist the urge to fill the gap with anything that can hinder or halt what God will produce to get your ready for life after the gap.

The disciples are the edge of a gap.

Their Master, leader, their friend is preparing to go to the cross. Presence will be replaced by absence. Life will be replaced by death. The hands that healed and held them will now be hung and pierced, His time on the earth is nearing it’s end and His ascension to glory is loading. They’re headed for a gap!

We know this is troubling because Jesus tells them “let no your heart be troubled” Jn 14:1.

We know this time will challenge their stability because Jesus says John 16:1 “1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.”

We know this time they will face trials because Jesus says., “in the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” Jn 16:33.

It is in the gap, we expect fear, faliure, despair and discouragement to find a residing place.....but Jesus desires that it be filled with something else.

It is here we learn what we ought to fill life’s gap with. This is what we allow God to produce while we remain faithful in the gaps.

God produces JOY in the gap

John 17:13 “13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”

Jesus says, “in the world” - this is the arena that Jesus indicates joy can exist in its fullness. The world is the arena of fear, conflict, pressure, frustration, grief, injustice, failures and pain. Yet it is here, Jesus says “you may have my joy”

Christ’s joy is manufactured inside the gap. It is a supernatural supply, that is complete in every way, that doesn’t require your circumstances to change, in order to flow.

The world’s joy is circumstantial, it needs the right people to walk into the room, it needs all the systems functioning optimally, needs everyone around it to always say the right things and do the right things and respond in the right way. This is fickle, and fleeting type of joy.

Why does Jesus choose the gap to reveal His full joy? Because when your external props are removed, when things look like it’s not going to work out, when the diagnosis is dire: you discover that Joy is not attached to a climate; it is attached to a Person. He wants you to remember that the foundation for joy is so firm, that not even the uncertainties and discomfort of the gap can shake it.

Why the gap? It does not mean God has deserted you but He’s developing you, you’re being distilled...and this [most times] cannot be accomplished living comfortably in the mountaintop moments. APPL. Gaps are necessary!

So regardless of what comes my way in the gap, “I can Still have joy!”

APPL. This means that I can face difficulty, and pressures, enemies, agendas and accusations, bad relationships, THE GAP - AND STILL HAVE JOY

This is not just a drop of joy, a pinch of joy - this is FULL joy - complete Joy, “I don’t need anything else to bring me joy, if I have Jesus joy”

This is the joy see in the disciples in Acts 5:41 “41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.” - This is the same name that is praying for them right now!

It is a joy He knows of personally - Hebrews 12:2 “2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Joy is your fuel, sustenance and strength needed to survive the gaps, and the best place to make the supply is in the gap.

God supplies PROTECTION in the gap

John 17:11 “11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

This...is the tension in the text, this...is the definition of a gap - Jesus says, “I’m leaving” - “they are staying” [IN THE WORLD]

The world is where it is hostile, the devil is after them, Jews will be their atagonists - Jesus is aware of this, He prays “Holy Father, keep them in Your name,”

At this point in the prayer, I’m fine with what Jesus is saying

But this next part has me wondering what’s going on in the mind of the Saviour.

It almost as though He is clearing up the matter with the Father, ensuring no miscommunication:

John 17:15 “15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” - I know the evil one is in the world, and I’m asking that you leave them, but also keep them!

KEEP - tereo - it means to keep an eye on them, watch over in order to protect or help

This is what the guard dog does on the property he is protecting so that when a thief comes he can bark and alert someone to the thief’s presence or even attack the thief and chase them away. It is watching over a sentry does over the city so that if danger is coming he can sound the alarm to get every one ready to move. It is the watching a nurse does over someone in recovery so that if their vitals change they can step in to assist or get more help.

Jesus says, “Holy Father” keep them, it is not necessary to move them away from the danger, or remove the danger, I just need you to keep them. God’s ability to keep you is bigger and stronger than anything that can come up against you.

Whether it’s a career transition, a ministry shift, a season of waiting, or a time of emotional isolation—you feel exposed. The evil one loves to target you in the gap. He seeks to convince you that you are isolated, forgotten, abandoned and easy prey. But Jesus anticipates the vulnerability of your gap and immediately releases a supply of divine security.

That’s why Paul could later say:

2 Corinthians 4:8–9 “8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors

If God be for us, who can be against us?

That’s why you can tell the enemy; “you come to me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come in the name of the Lord

That’s divine protection even, in the gap

Challenge yourself to stay in the gap and see God’s protection - I say challenge because we sometimes pray for the gap to be removed, but if you do that you will miss the chance to see God in marvelous way.

Analogy: There is a suit called an Atmospheric Diving Suit. It allows divers to explore depths up to 2300ft without risking decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis. The way it works is that the material absorbs the the pressure, so that the pressure doesn’t get to you. The suit does not make the ocean disappear, but it helps the diver survive while they are in the ocean.

Let me put this another way, “greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world”

It does not matter, where the pressure comes from, who it comes from, how much comes - God’s grace supplies you with enough protection so that you are not crushed in the gap.

[Jesus says, “keep them in your name” refers to the authority of God. Whatever it is, it has a boundary that it cannot cross. This is because God is keeping you.] Powerful things have happened “in the name”.

People were saved - in the name Acts 2:38.

People healed in the name Acts 3:6.

Demons were cast out at the name

So here is Jesus asking the Father to keep YOU in His name!

That’s the protection you have in the gap!

UNITY must be cultivated in the gap

John 17:20–21 “20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:23 “23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

Jesus expands this prayer beyond these eleven and includes future believers. He sees all the possible pressures, commotions, quarrels, trials and He prays not for their health, wealth, ease of life. He prays for unity!

Think about the disciples who will scatter a few moments from now when they enter their season of confusion. This shows us that this is a serious possibility for us as we have our moments in life - What Jesus prays for is unity! - Not just to “get along”, “being friendly” UNITY

This will not be a unity built on shared preferences or customs, similar backgrounds and common political or social views, or attending the same alma mater - These break under the pressure found in the gaps.

This is unity has a divine premise, “even as you, Father are in Me and I in You”

This becomes crucial because during the gap friction is created and the tendency to scatter and separate is greater when friction is present.

The firction exists! The marriage that has friction, the family, the church - survival instincts kick in, we blame others, point fingers, become self-centered, pull away.

This is dangerous...because isolated believers are an easy target for the evil one! It is in the gap we must face the storm together and the pressure of the storm connects us even more to Jesus who is the anchor in the storm.

We sometimes think when church goes bad, decisions don’t go your way, things are not being done the way you like it; that pulling away is the answer - sometimes the devil goes after your faith in the gap, sometimes he goes after you FELLOWSHIP!

Instead of pulling away, pull together with folks who are anchored in Jesus and cultivate spiritual unity.

The unity cultivated in the gap is not just an abstract desire that God has but it has, but it adds strength to our Evangelistic Witness to the world “that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

When the world looks at the church and see us stand as one in adversity, during pressures. People of different backgrounds, ethnicities, personalities standing together as one - it carries weight!

Ephesians 4:3 “3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

What is your current gap?

Jesus has proven to you, He can supply in the dark emptiness and uncertainties of your gap. He is your source in the gap.

You’re in-between pain and promise, the situation and the solution.

What you think is an empty wasteland is actually a warehouse that God can open up to give you what you need to endure and develop for whatever is in your next.

You’re next is on the way!

Walk into your next season, your next chapter, your next ministry, your next job with full trust in a God that took care of you in the gap!

That’s why I don’t need to wait for the next, the future, the deliverance to come - because God is who He is - I can praise Him in the Gap! “I care not today what the morrow may bring, if shadow or sunshine or rain the Lord I know ruleth o’er everything and all of my worry is vain”

You might be standing in the middle of the uncertain, undecided, unknown, the unfinished - it is right there God is waiting to supply.

I don’t know where you are today - some of us walked in the room with gaps - in our marriage, finances, dealing with grief, running on empty - you’ve been trying to supply in the gap through you’re effort and it hasn’t been working.

God is already in the gap!

If you think today, that the gap you’re facing is big one just remember - we all faced a huge gap Isa 59:1-2.

As you stand here today, bringing your empty spaces to the Lord, I want you to take a moment and look away from your circumstances and look intensely at the cross.

This is what makes the gospel so wonderful. We do not serve a God who sits comfortably in heaven, folds His arms and shouts instructions to us across the voids of our lives.

​We serve a Savior who looked at the greatest, the sacriest, most terrifying gap in existence—the gap dug by human sin that separated holy God from broken humanity—and He decided He wouldn’t leave us stranded on the other side.

“A body thou hast prepared” Heb 10:5.

God decided to close the gap, step into time to offer us a chance to get back to Him.

​This meant that Jesus faced a gap of His own.

​The Ultimate Separation

​On Friday at Calvary’s Hill, Jesus was hung on a old rugged cross. He was suspended in mid-air—literally caught in the gap between a hostile earth beneath Him and a holy heaven above Him. And in that agonizing space, the sky turned black because only one Sun was going to shine that day, and our Savior cried out the most haunting words in scripture: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus faced the gap

Died on the cross, buried in the grave, stayed there for three days

But hank God Jesus’s story did not end in the gap

BECAUSE

Early Sunday Morning He got up - and by the power of the resurrection closed the gap between us and God.

If Jesus can stand in the gap of your enmity with God and your eternal damnation and provied a way for you to be saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit.....tell me a gap He cannot close in your life. Tell me a gap where he cannot supply.

Whether it’s your marriage, your grief, your pain, your hurt, your trauma, your failures, your family - Jesus will supply!

The cross satnds as a witness, that there isn’t a gap wide enough, deep enough, scary enough that Jesus can’t supply.