Part-3 "THE  INTERCEDING  CHRIST"

JOHN  17:13-19 Saviors Words in Red)

“And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves”

..17:13. One chief reason that Christ spoke this prayer the way He did was that those who were his at that time may be instructed and comforted; and not only those apostles then,  but those who have become His people since then, (this will become quite clear in vs-20). Christ is addressing the Father as taking His own place in departing, and giving His disciples the place which He vacates in regard to the Father and the world, after He has gone away to be glorified with the Father. In fact, this entire chapter is essentially putting the disciples in His own place. This is to be done after the grounds are laid for His own glorification and work. We must carefully note here that the final ground which the Saviour asked to be glorified on was not His own personal perfec­tions or His oneness with the Father. It was instead that work which he completed here on earth. This chapter relates to us how Christ laid the foundation for us to take His place here below:

First, “I have given them the words which thou gavest me”, 17:8:

Second, ”That they might have my joy fulfilled within themselves”, 17:13;

Third,”They are not of the world, as I am not of the world”, 17:16;

Fourth, "as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world”, 17:18;

Fifth, "I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified”, 17:19;

Sixth, “the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them”, 17:22;

Seventh, “that the love where with thou hast loved me may be in them,”17:26.

What a place to be in and what a privilege to be placed there. It is an honor of God’s Grace, His Amazing Grace and the love which bestowed it.

The same place of blessing which Christ enjoyed while on the earth has been given us by Him. We are not only blessed in Christ and through Christ, we are blessed with Christ. The love wherewith the Father loved the Son should be in the disciples and in those whom they taught and those who have learned through time since. They and we should enter into the utmost consciousness of it, and thus His Joy is fulfilled in them and us. This is after all what the believer is called into, the enjoyment in this world of the love which Christ knew while here below, His Father’s love. Christ’s delight was not in or from the world because He said He was in the world but not a part of it: His source of Joy was in and from the Father. He has thus communicated to us the means which ministers to this joy in 17:8, “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.

Truth of the above is further developed in John l7, in the 7-fold way in which Jesus has identified us with Himself:

FIRST, THERE IS IDENTITY IN FELLOWSHIP; “As thou hast given Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal life  to as many as thou hast given Him”.. .17:2

SECOND, IDENTITY OF SPIRIT AND AIM; “that they may be one as we”.. .17:11.

THIRD, IDENTITY IN SEPERATION; “because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”.. .17:14. FOURTH, IDENTITY OF MISSION; “as thou hast sent me into the world, even so  have I sent them into the world”. .17:18.

FIFTH, IDENTITY IN FELLOWSHIP; “As thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us”.. .17:21.

SIXTH,IDENTITY OF IMPARTED GLORY; “The glory which thou gavest Me I have given them”.. .17:22.

SEVENTH, IDENTITY IN LOVE; “that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me”.. .17:23.

Another thing that is blessed to behold is that in this prayer, Jesus renders an account of His work to the Father, and this also in seven steps.

      FIRST; He had glorified the Father on earth... 17:4

      SECOND; He had finished the work which had been given Him to do.. .17:4

      THIRD; He had manifested the Father’s name unto His own.. .17:6

      FOURTH; He had given them the Father’s words.. .17:8 & 14

      FIFTH; He had kept them as a shepherd keeps his sheep 17:12

      SIXTH; He had sent them forth into the world.. .17:18

      SEVENTH; He had given them the glory which the Father had given Him.. .17:22

You have to notice completion in each verse with the words, “I have” at the beginning of each one, and that in His work here explained among the saints, everything was and is in connection with the Father.. .the Fathers name was manifested, the Fathers name was glorified and so forth. (see vs-4, 6, 12, 14, 18 & 22)

Verse 13; This is simply beautiful, our previous studies have dealt more or less with the safety of His people on the earth and in eternity, here we read of His desire for them to be happy as well. This truly reveals the affections of our Great High Priest for His people. He could have well offered up this part of the prayer in silence and we would have known none of its gracious and comforting details. But, that would not have satisfied the heart of the Christ. He spoke aloud for the disciples to hear and so that it may be written down so that we also might know of His great feeling for us. With great certainty it behoves us to read and re-read, prayerfully and meditate frequently upon that which is here recorded for our peace, our edification and our happiness. “And now, I come to thee” Christ Jesus went to Yahweh in prayer for you and me..this is  truly that Amazing Grace of which we sing from that great hymn by that very name, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found was blind, but now I see "!

In this 13th verse there is both declaration and supplication. Jesus is pressing His suit on behalf of those whom the Father had given Him. Knowing of His soon coming departure and their condition in the world, He justifies His earnestness in prayer for them. He is saying to the Father, "I am leaving them, therefore I must make provision for them. I approach thee on their behalf; I speak aloud for their benefit; I have let them know that I am to be restored to that glory which I had with thee before the world was; They have been given the assurance that they are the objects of thy Divine Favor; and that they are thy love gift to me; they know of my concern for their preservation, and all of this, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. What joy? That joy which had been the portion of His heart all through those thirty-three years while He tabernacled among men. The joy of fellowship with the Father".. .His joy is beautifully expressed in Psalm 16:5-11 and in Nehemiah 8:10.

“I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them”.. .17:14. This links back to 17:8 and clearly means that He had expounded to them that which we call the Old Testament Scriptures. It is quite possible that this is in reference to Isaiah 50:4.. .each morning according to this scrip­ture, the perfect servant waited upon the Father for His message or messages for each day, and those had been faithfully delivered. But here in John 17:14 He says “I have given them thy word”. So, it appears that it was the testi­mony of what the Father was that was the source of His joy, and would now be theirs. “And the world hated them”: In proportion, as they had their joy in God, it could be seen how far away the world really was from Him, and the world also seeing this gulf would hate them. (does the world hate you for the way you live your life? if not, it might be past time for a change to be made in your life style).

“And the world hated them, because they are not of the world”. .17:14. The inhabitants of this world are fully under the power and dominion of its prince..(Eph 2:2, John 14:30, 16:8-11, Matt 9:34)..and being led by him are wholly taken up with all that is not of the Father.. .I John 2:16. It is easy to see now why the men of the world hate Christ and His people, they are not of this world. At one time we who call ourselves Christians were of this world, but we have been called out and made aware that the ransom price of and for our freedom has been paid, I Peter 2:9 and Gal 1:3-4. Now, we have new affections, new interests and a new Master, and it is by God’s Grace and Faith which He imputes that causes our lifes course to be changed.  We follow Christ and when we do, we pronounce condemnation upon the world and its anti-christ, theosophical system of babylonian rule. The world and its rulers from Washington D.C. to Moscow, London, Paris, the middle East and other points secretly plot against us, they curse us and hate us. They also hate our God and His Christ. (this is not paranoia speaking, rather it is fact based on secular history as well as Biblical truth).  "Even as I am not of the world”.. .17:14.

I Cor 15:47 states, “The first man (Adam) is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is the LORD from heaven.” The man Christ Jesus was never of the world.”He was holy, undefiled and separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”.. .Heb 7:26;  In John 8:23 Jesus spake to the Jews and said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above; ye are of this world; I am not of this world.”  There is something of a great importance that we must interject or add to this study at this time. Jesus speaking to the Jews, John 8:21, "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go ye cannot come.” Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son of God, the One whom was sent to save His people from their sins, Matt 1:21 and Luke 1:68, tells the Jews that they are sentenced to die in their sins and in so doing cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, because that is where He will be.

If as the Social World Church says, Jesus came to give salvation to all men through the forgiveness of sins, how do you explain John 8:21? Is the work that Christ came to do a failure or, is it that salvation is not meant for the Jews? Compare this saying of Christ to the Jews in John 8, to what He said to His disciples in John 14:2-4, “In my Father’s House are many mansion,: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” To the Jews Christ said... “whither I go ye cannot come” and to the Disciples He said. .“Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Both scriptures refer us to John 10:14 “l am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine,” and vs 26-28, “But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life..” There is not one single anti-christ jew that has ever lived that will inherit the Kingdom of God. They don’t know Christ who is the “Good Shepherd” and they are not known by Him as "sheep". Since they don’t know Christ and never will, they can not enter in through the door of the sheep-fold into the Kingdom because Christ is that door. Jesus did what the Father sent Him to do, and He finished it in excellence, He was not a failure and he left nothing to be questioned!

Now, returning to our study, “If any man be in Christ he is a new crea­tion..IICor 5:17, and he is a “partaker of the heavenly calling. .Heb 3:1, his citizenship is in heaven Phil 3:20, for He has “begotten us unto a heavenly inheritance”..I Peter 1:3-5.: In preparing to leave the world Jesus knew of the predictament which the disciples were in. They were being left in a hostile world, one  with which they had no fellowship and nothing in common. It is plain that they would be despised and persecuted, and thus  Jesus, knowing that the world would not change, therefore sought from the Father safety on behalf of those whom He left here. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil”..17:15!  In vs-11 Jesus had asked the Father to keep them through His own name and here He amplifies on that for the benefit of His disciples with “Keep them from the evil.” That Greek word here is poneros #4190-Strongs Conc. and one of its meanings is the wickedness of the Devil.. .Keep them from the author of evil and from evil things, from sin and the power and snares of the Devil. Satan is the author of sin, the world is the bait on the line, sin is the hook and Satan the devil has the rod and reel in his hands. What we read here is Jesus once more teaching us how to pray; not to be delivered from the world but from its evil. The fact that Christ asked the Father to “keep us” shows that it is not within our power to keep ourselves. Read I Peter 1:5, “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

God has many ways of keeping us, but we are going to reduce that to two: that would be by His Spirit or His Providence. The first being inward and the second outward. By God the Holy Spirit the evil within us is restrained “for I also withheld thee from sinning against me”. .Genesis 20:6. By the Holy­Spirit grace is imparted to us “I will put my fear in their hearts that.they shall not depart from me” Jeremiah 32:40. Then by His providences He re­moves occasions to sin and the objects of sin “For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity’ Psalm 125:3, also I Cor 10:13 “...but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” The fact that we are unable to keep ourselves of our own accord should work in us a spirit of dependency. Our daily prayer should be, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The fact that God is able and willing to keep us should inspire in us to realize the truth of    II Tim 1:12 “...I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”..Jn 17:16. The same statement was made in vs-14 but in a different connection; there Jesus was stating the chief reason why the world hated them, here He is advancing a reason why He had asked the Father to “keep them from evil”, and that is because they are not of this world. There are several reasons why Christ felt Divine protection was necessary; Christians have a differ­ent standing from those who belong to the world and are under condemna­tion, while we are accepted in the beloved. Their nature is born of the flesh, while ours is born of the Spirit, theirs evil and corrupt, ours holy and of Divine origin; We serve different masters, they are of their father the devil and do his desires; we serve the LORD Jesus Christ and do His will. The aim of those who are in the world is to please self while ours as his elect is to glorify God. We have a different destiny, theirs is death and eternal sep­eration from God while ours is life eternal, praising God and serving Him. We must always keep this thought in the front of our minds: “The world and those of the world receive not and understand not the Fathers Word, so it by its worldly nature hates those who have received the Word and act upon that hatred.”

“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” 17:17. There are expositors of the Bible who teach that this sanctification applies only to those who are to see after the ministerial duties rather than the whole congregation, the Church of the Living God. If that were the case, the verse would read “Sanctify them for (unto) thy truth rather than Sanctify them through (by) thy truth.” It is the use of the preposition through/by rather than for/unto that carries the clout of this verse, and we can honestly say that Jesus spoke sanctification for all His people rather than a portion.

That word “Sanctify” in scripture has one uniform meaning throughout the Bible, namely to set apart or to separate, usually but not always, one thing or some one unto God for His use. The word has never had reference to inward cleansing or the removal of the carnal nature. We read in Jude 1, of sanctification or those who “are sanctified by God the Father, and pre­served in Jesus Christ, and called;”  This is a reference to His eternal predestination of the elect when He set them apart (sanctified) them before the world that is, was. The reference in Heb 10:10 is that Christ paid the ransom, one time, for those who were captives of Satan and set them apart as His own peculiar treasure. In II Thess 2:13 we read.. “because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit” and I Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit”; both of these scripture references apply to the “new birth”, when He, sets us apart from those who are dead in sin and trespasses. The sanctification of the Father, of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit are positional and absolute. There are no varying degrees of sanctification nor is it a gradual process, when it is done it is done completely and is final. Then, sanctification by the truth is practical and progressive or; just as long as I walk according to God’s Word, I will be seperated from evil. Thus we see a connection between the two petitions of Christ for His own: “keep them from evil” and “Sanctify them by thy truth”; the former is secured by the latter. We are going to be kept from evil because we are going to be kept separate, to walk in the truth is to walk with God and walk apart from the world.

“Thy word is truth” 17:17. The written Word is Truth (not-it contains truth) God’s written word is pure unadulterated truth, in it there is no error. Because the Word of God is Truth, His truth, it is of final authority. By His word everything is to be tested, our thoughts are to be formed and our conduct regulated. Just because God’s Word is truth it sanctifies those who obey it; Titus 1:1 “according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.” Since God’s Word is truth, we should place on it the highest value, for by the truth are we sanctified. If  truth or right seperates from evil, a lie or an error leads into evil. It was so in the Garden of God, it was believing the Devil’s lie which plunged our race into sin and death. Thus we should beware of error for it is as a poison to the body and the soul. Heed the words of Mark 4:24 “Take heed what ye hear.” Shun those who deny any part of God’s truth just as you would shun a plague of death.

“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the World” 17:18. This is in anticipation of what He would say in John 20: “as my Father hath sent me, so send I you." It is evident here that Christ has given us His place of witness here on earth. We who witness here in the earth have a special character, one as those belonging to heaven that we are called upon to bear testimony here in this world. Christ did not be­long to the world, He is the one who came down from heaven to bear witness; so we who identify with Him as partakers of the heavenly calling are now commissioned to represent Him here below. It is only as first being “chosen out of the world” that we can be “sent into the world!” If you think this commission is relegated only to the disciples, think again, I John 4:17, "as He is, so are we in this world.” This is inclusive of all believers. That which He did in the world is what we are to do in the world; Christ taught the gospel, we teach the gospel, as He is, so are we! Christ was sent here to reveal the Father, to show forth His glory, so are we sent into the world, to show forth Christ’s glory, which is the glory of the Father. Christ was sent on an errand of mercy, to seek and save that which was lost. As His agents we are to seek out the lost of Israel and reveal to them their God and Saviour. The same lost sheep of Israel who Christ came for are the same sheep that we are to reach. There has not now nor ever been a change of sheep, nor have the goats been substituted for the sheep.

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanc­tified through the truth". John 17:19!!  The first meaning that we look at here is the foremost reference to the Cross. He has said in this verse without saying it, “I, the Great High priest, set apart Myself for my people, I devote Myself as the lamb of God to be slain for them, Heb 10:14. In declaring that He sanctified Himself, Jesus called attention to how freely and voluntarily He entered upon His sacrificial service. John 10:18 tells us that He laid down His life Himself, and this He did for their sakes and for ours, namely for the whole house of Israel or the company of God’s Elect. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it, Eph 5:25-26. And “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate, Heb 13:12.

The deeper and ultimate reference of Christ in this 19th verse was to His being set apart on High as the glorified man, the object of His peoples affections, and worship. He set Himself up as a heavenly man, a glorified man, in order that all truth might shine forth in Him and in His person who was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; with all that the Father is, now being displayed in Him; the testimony of divine righteousness, of divine love and divine power. In His resurrection glory Jesus became that which man was according to the counsels of God from all eternity, and as the expression of His Power both morally and in glory, the image of the invisible God. Jesus sanctified or set Himself apart in order that the disciples might be sanctified by the communication to them, of what and who He was. This communication was the truth, which is the Word, and created them in the image of that which it revealed. Jesus had set Himself apart for God, but only on behalf of His own, whereby our hearts are connected with Him in Grace, which is imputed of the Father.

PASTOR RICK GIESENSCHLAG

CHRIST’S CHURCH MILITANT

Copyright (C) 2004 a.d.