A Living Gift
“I am praying for them...”
Part 5: “God's love in us and God in us”
(John 17:26, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 11, 2010)
4/4/2010
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,
4/11/2010 that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Opening Thought: Worship should be Christmas and Easter... Unwrapping new gifts of resurrection from God...
Jesus promised in this prayer to make the Father's Name known to us... But my prayer life...
The Love of God for Jesus
Prayer may sometimes feel to us like one person speaking in the wilderness with no one else there to hear. I remember when I first visited First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley California on Easter Sunday, 1982. I was amazed by the minister, not just by His preaching, which was very engaging, but more especially by His praying. He prayed as if He knew God. It was something I had never really seen before. It seemed like He thought that God was there in the moment, and that God was listening. That kind of recognition of both a speaker and a hearer there together in prayer is on my mind as we conclude John 17 today. Jesus prayed knowing that the Father was listening to Him. There's something about knowing that God is present...
Back in the twelfth chapter of this gospel, Jesus was talking to His disciples. He made a comment, and suddenly it was clear that God was right there with Him just as the disciples were with Him. He said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” It was not even precisely a prayer, at least not at first. Jesus was talking about a hypothetical. Then He simply affirmed His purpose in coming. He said, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” That last few words was His prayer. But then something happened. John reports, “A voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” God was with God. The Father was there with Jesus, His Son.
That was not the only time a voice came from heaven revealing something from the other side of prayer between the Father and the Son. At Jesus' baptism there was a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Later at the Transfiguration we hear the same words, and an instruction to the disciples, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Peter remembered this experience many years later and recorded it in 2 Peter 1:17. He said that when Jesus received honor and glory from God the Father, God's voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” He emphasizes, “We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”
The Father called Jesus His beloved Son. We are not surprised to hear that the Father loved the Son. In the Old Testament, in a passage that refers either to the creation of the world or to existence even before creation, we read from the perspective of the Son of His Father's affection, “I was daily His delight.” When Jesus talks of the love of the Father for Him, He speaks of His death and resurrection, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” The love of the Father for the Son did not begin at the cross. It is eternal. We know that it is the normal way of life for parents to love their children. Though children may not feel this, there's something to it. The model of all relationships between a parent and a child is that of God the Father and God the Son. In the deepest, most sincere, most sacrificial, and most beautiful and powerful way possible, because of the essence of who His Son is, and with an awareness of the incomparable greatness of what Christ has done, the Father loves the Son.
THAT love in you
Maybe I have used too many words to talk about something so obvious, the love of the Father for the Son. Here is why I made so much of this first point: Jesus asks the Father that “the same love” with which the Father loved the Son might be in us. Jesus does not ask that the Father might simply know us, or even that He would somehow find it in His heart to like us, or even to love us. He is very specific: “That the love with which you have loved me may be in them.” That is a very particular request, and a very big love. Can anyone suppose that the Father would deny this request? There is no indication anywhere that any of the petitions in John 17 were denied. They are like promises that are sure. You can count on these things.
The eternal church, destined for heaven, has the Father's love for His Son Jesus in us. There is every reason to believe, both from the Old Testament and the New Testament, that God's plan was to have a very mysterious union between one unique Man, and many people who would be called by His Name. When the Lord Jesus spoke from heaven to Saul of Tarsus, he said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.” The bond between our one Savior and the many He saves is so real, that if you abuse the many, you have persecuted the one. People who abuse the church, attack Jesus. The Father's love for Jesus is in us. It is not a safe thing to hurt us.
Jesus in you
Not only does Jesus pray that the love that the Father has for the Son would be in us. He prays that He Himself would be in us. If it is hard for us to fathom that God sees us as united to Jesus in His righteous life, His death for our sins, and His resurrection for our heavenly life; if it is hard for us to understand what it means that the love of the Father for His Son is in us; it is even harder to think about this final passion of Jesus in this chapter, that He Himself would be in us. Yet this is exactly what is ours when we are united to Jesus by trusting in Him. The Apostle Paul calls it a mystery that has now been revealed to us, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This glory Paul refers to as our hope is heaven, the life to come, but Paul's point is that Christ is in us now. We have the love of the Father for the Son in us, and we even have Jesus in us. This is a great blessing for you now, and the greatest power for living. Paul says in another place that because we have the Spirit of God in us, we have the mind of Christ. Therefore when we pray to God, we can know that God is with us, closer than a brother. He hears us, so we can pray with that in mind. We know that He hears us. He is in us. He loves us, and God's Name is known...
If we take all of what we have seen in this chapter, if we take it to heart, and allow it to change our prayers, what do we hear Jesus asking for, and how can we pray for one another and for the church that Christ has bought with His blood? What can we pray, knowing that God is here.
Part 5: “God's love in us and God in us”
(John 17:26, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 11, 2010)
4/4/2010
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,
4/11/2010 that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Opening Thought: Worship should be Christmas and Easter... Unwrapping new gifts of resurrection from God...
Jesus promised in this prayer to make the Father's Name known to us... But my prayer life...
The Love of God for Jesus
Prayer may sometimes feel to us like one person speaking in the wilderness with no one else there to hear. I remember when I first visited First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley California on Easter Sunday, 1982. I was amazed by the minister, not just by His preaching, which was very engaging, but more especially by His praying. He prayed as if He knew God. It was something I had never really seen before. It seemed like He thought that God was there in the moment, and that God was listening. That kind of recognition of both a speaker and a hearer there together in prayer is on my mind as we conclude John 17 today. Jesus prayed knowing that the Father was listening to Him. There's something about knowing that God is present...
Back in the twelfth chapter of this gospel, Jesus was talking to His disciples. He made a comment, and suddenly it was clear that God was right there with Him just as the disciples were with Him. He said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” It was not even precisely a prayer, at least not at first. Jesus was talking about a hypothetical. Then He simply affirmed His purpose in coming. He said, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” That last few words was His prayer. But then something happened. John reports, “A voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” God was with God. The Father was there with Jesus, His Son.
That was not the only time a voice came from heaven revealing something from the other side of prayer between the Father and the Son. At Jesus' baptism there was a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Later at the Transfiguration we hear the same words, and an instruction to the disciples, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Peter remembered this experience many years later and recorded it in 2 Peter 1:17. He said that when Jesus received honor and glory from God the Father, God's voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” He emphasizes, “We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”
The Father called Jesus His beloved Son. We are not surprised to hear that the Father loved the Son. In the Old Testament, in a passage that refers either to the creation of the world or to existence even before creation, we read from the perspective of the Son of His Father's affection, “I was daily His delight.” When Jesus talks of the love of the Father for Him, He speaks of His death and resurrection, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” The love of the Father for the Son did not begin at the cross. It is eternal. We know that it is the normal way of life for parents to love their children. Though children may not feel this, there's something to it. The model of all relationships between a parent and a child is that of God the Father and God the Son. In the deepest, most sincere, most sacrificial, and most beautiful and powerful way possible, because of the essence of who His Son is, and with an awareness of the incomparable greatness of what Christ has done, the Father loves the Son.
THAT love in you
Maybe I have used too many words to talk about something so obvious, the love of the Father for the Son. Here is why I made so much of this first point: Jesus asks the Father that “the same love” with which the Father loved the Son might be in us. Jesus does not ask that the Father might simply know us, or even that He would somehow find it in His heart to like us, or even to love us. He is very specific: “That the love with which you have loved me may be in them.” That is a very particular request, and a very big love. Can anyone suppose that the Father would deny this request? There is no indication anywhere that any of the petitions in John 17 were denied. They are like promises that are sure. You can count on these things.
The eternal church, destined for heaven, has the Father's love for His Son Jesus in us. There is every reason to believe, both from the Old Testament and the New Testament, that God's plan was to have a very mysterious union between one unique Man, and many people who would be called by His Name. When the Lord Jesus spoke from heaven to Saul of Tarsus, he said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.” The bond between our one Savior and the many He saves is so real, that if you abuse the many, you have persecuted the one. People who abuse the church, attack Jesus. The Father's love for Jesus is in us. It is not a safe thing to hurt us.
Jesus in you
Not only does Jesus pray that the love that the Father has for the Son would be in us. He prays that He Himself would be in us. If it is hard for us to fathom that God sees us as united to Jesus in His righteous life, His death for our sins, and His resurrection for our heavenly life; if it is hard for us to understand what it means that the love of the Father for His Son is in us; it is even harder to think about this final passion of Jesus in this chapter, that He Himself would be in us. Yet this is exactly what is ours when we are united to Jesus by trusting in Him. The Apostle Paul calls it a mystery that has now been revealed to us, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This glory Paul refers to as our hope is heaven, the life to come, but Paul's point is that Christ is in us now. We have the love of the Father for the Son in us, and we even have Jesus in us. This is a great blessing for you now, and the greatest power for living. Paul says in another place that because we have the Spirit of God in us, we have the mind of Christ. Therefore when we pray to God, we can know that God is with us, closer than a brother. He hears us, so we can pray with that in mind. We know that He hears us. He is in us. He loves us, and God's Name is known...
If we take all of what we have seen in this chapter, if we take it to heart, and allow it to change our prayers, what do we hear Jesus asking for, and how can we pray for one another and for the church that Christ has bought with His blood? What can we pray, knowing that God is here.
Father, may Your church glorify Your Son Jesus today.
Keep us in Your Name,
And keep us from the evil one.
Sanctify us in the truth. Your Word is truth.
One day, bring us to heaven to see Jesus in His glory.
Until then, may the love You have for Your Son be in us,
And may Jesus Himself be in us, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Thought for application: How can we walk in this gift of divine resurrection love and presence that is in us?
(1 John 3:17, but with a positive read)
Keep us in Your Name,
And keep us from the evil one.
Sanctify us in the truth. Your Word is truth.
One day, bring us to heaven to see Jesus in His glory.
Until then, may the love You have for Your Son be in us,
And may Jesus Himself be in us, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Thought for application: How can we walk in this gift of divine resurrection love and presence that is in us?
(1 John 3:17, but with a positive read)
1. How can we understand the love of the Father for the Son?
2. What does it mean for the church to have that love in us?
3. What does it mean for the church to have Jesus in us?
4. What does this prayer teach us about heaven, and about our lives now?
2. What does it mean for the church to have that love in us?
3. What does it mean for the church to have Jesus in us?
4. What does this prayer teach us about heaven, and about our lives now?
posted by Pastor Magee at 12:00 AM
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