Tag Archives: Shared

Wednesday with John — Shared Identity

Posted on October 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

John 17:20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  ESV

What is the general theme of the passage?
Jesus prays that the truth He’s spoken to “these” He’s kept in the Father’s name will endure for “those who will believe in me through their word.”  He’s giving each of them a part of His own “glory” to unite them with the Father “even as we are one” so “the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  

What does it say about God (or Jesus or the Holy Spirit?)
Jesus is asking the Father to grant their shared one-ness to those who “may believe that you have sent me”… in the future. 

What does it say about people?
It’s not unusual that people want to establish their identity with one another.  It’s exactly what Jesus prayed for us.  What is unusual is the ways we’ve chosen to do it.

Is there truth here for me?
Jesus’s trust is complete; that if “these” people [us] can experience that one-ness with each other they will confirm the reality of His ministry to the world.  The Father is going to answer that prayer by choosing to make His followers “perfectly one” in a very distinctly unique way…because of their shared identity with Jesus.

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Posted in John, Matthew, New Testament, Wednesday

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Wednesday with John — Exciting

Posted on October 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 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.”  ESV

What is the general theme of the passage?
It’s all BOLD, the circumstances, the content, the intent and the focus.

What does it say about God (or Jesus or the Holy Spirit?)
Jesus prayed. He’d accomplished His Father’s work on earth and now His glory would once again be displayed in the Father’s presence just as it had been before the world existed.  Jesus was thankful for those the Father had given Him, who’ve received His Words as evidence for them from the true God. 

What does it say about people?
Believers in Christ hold within themselves a part of His shared glory with the Father.

Is there truth here for me?
The disciples have shared life with Jesus in every possible circumstance.  Over time the content of His life has become a real part of their own lives.  That content is now going to reshape the intent and focus for the rest of their own lives.  Jesus has declared these friends are God’s gift to Him and that He is glorified in them.  There’s something familiar about that. What the disciples have experienced in Jesus’s presence is new birth!  They were in the presence of Jesus!  For us that experience is wrapped in the mysterious phrase: “born again.” It’s really hard to try to define “born again” because Jesus is so personal in what He speaks to those to whom He speaks the Father’s truth.  But…now I’m excited because suddenly the familiar has become more real.  Let these things marinate in your heart from this priestly prayer.  Jesus is praying for you! You are God’s gift to Him!  You are part of His glory!  I didn’t restrain my use of exclamation points because I’ve just seen an exciting truth about “born again” that has changed the tense of what I’ve written to “You” into something very personal for me that has simplified my understanding of “born again.” I have been “born again” because “Jesus’s hour has come” in me!!!  

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Posted in John, Matthew, New Testament, Wednesday

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Everything

Posted on July 28, 2019 | Leave a comment

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

The “everything” of v15 was the primary word that caught my attention as I read.  Then a simple word count of other key words in the passage became a sort-of-outline for me today; choose/chose [2], servant. [2], friends [3], Father [2], and finally, Love [4]. 

We love being “chosen.” We are blessed to be called a “servant” of Christ.  It’s even better to be called a friend but it’s a humbling to realize that our determination, time commitment, intellect and choice to follow Christ are not the same as “everything.”  A servant’s loyalty can mimic friendship but not necessarily be evidence of the shared intimacy of love.  

You were “appointed”…so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…” fruit based on a special love relationship. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” is a really important part of our personal relationship to Christ because it’s a really important part of the shared intimacy of love between Jesus and his Father.  That relationship is the primary part of “everything” Jesus wants to share with you.  “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

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Posted in John, Sunday

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