Dear Finley,
Today at BSF, we took a deeper look at John 17.... This is a passage to read when:
You are feeling discouraged about your Christian walk...
You are discouraged about your circumstances...
You are feeling unloved or unappreciated....
In this passage, we see Jesus pray for His Disciples & His Future Disciples (Us!)... we see just how much He loves us. We see how treasured we are. We also see Christ in the midst of His biggest challenge.
In John 17, Jesus is hours from being arrested... hours from the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus had to put His faith in God to fulfill His promises... Just as we must.
What an example... Even in praying for Himself, He was praying for us.
Jesus was sovereign and knew what we were to face and His prayer was drenched in His love for us. He was NOT praying for unbelievers (v. 9)... His disciples were on His heart. He does pray for unbelievers, just not here... He prays for their conversion.
We are a love gift from God to Jesus! How valuable we are to Him... He discusses this 7 times in this one passage. Shows just how important it is for us to understand our value to Him. God could have given His Son anything in creation and yet, He chose us as His gift! WOW!
Why does Jesus value us?
1. Jesus loves us, His disciples, because of the One who gave us to Him.
What do we love that no one else does?
What has value to us that no one else values?
2. He reveals His name to us.
We get to call Him "Father"
3. They (we) received His Words and believed them.
This is a picture of salvation.
How we respond to His Word is EVERYTHING!
How are we showing Him we value His word?
4. They (we) glorify Him.
Those disciples are who everyone else will come to know Him.
Trusting Him in the midst of troubles glorifies Him and points others towards Him.
Our willingness to commit to Christ fully and surrendering the pleasures of this World glorifies Him.
V. 11: We see Christ's love and compassion for the disciples and the persecution to be be faced.
In the midst of trouble, Christ is focused on others.
Principle #1:
Sovereign Jesus deeply loves and values His followers and always knows their deepest need.
He is always praying for us and only He knows what we are facing and about to face.
What He prayed for His disciples & us?
1. Protection in an unholy world.
2. Protection by the POWER of His name.
3. Unity within the Body of Believers.
This is called the Church, the Foundation (God is the cornerstone), the Bride of Christ, etc.
4. Full measure of joy within Him.
Jesus' joy came from completing His work... We are to remember joy is the fruit of the Spirit.
5. Kept from the evil one.
6. That we would be sanctified.
Sanctify means to be set apart for a purpose.
Principle #2:
Jesus' prayer focused on His Father's power and His followers' dependence on His word.
What should I set myself apart from in order to spend more time with Him?
SELFISHNESS!!!!!
Am I praying for future generations of believers in our family?
I love that our lecturer talked about this since it is based on the verse (Psalm 78:4) that I found more than a year before I became pregnant with you and used to tell your Daddy about your existence. Telling future generations about His grace is the very foundation on which we are building our family and on the foundation we so desire you to build your own family on one day!
We can't make this unity... but we can PRESERVE it.
Principle #3:
Sovereign Jesus will love and pray for His followers until the end of time!
May you know the value Jesus has for you and rest fully immersed in His love!
I love you!
Mommy
