Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Jesus' prayer about us

I've always loved reading the prayer of Jesus to our Father before he was crucified. To read that is to know His heart and to know that He really was thinking about us, people who wouldn't even be born for thousands of years from that time! In that prayer Jesus asked the Father to sanctify us. That's a word that often confused me so let's look at what Jesus says (in context) and then let's look up what sanctify means:

John 17:15-19 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.


Sanctify:
the process by which an entity is brought into relationship with or attains the likeness of the holy.
New Bible Dictionary

sanctification,
‘making holy’ or ‘consecrating’ a place, thing, or person to God. Harper's Bible dictionary.

Sanctify:
-fied; -fy•ing
1 : to set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use : consecrate
2 : to free from sin : purify
3 a : to impart or impute sacredness, inviolability, or respect to
b : to give moral or social sanction to
4 : to make productive of holiness or piety
sanctify verb
synonyms bless 1, consecrate, hallow
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary.

So now we now that when Jesus asks the Father to sanctify us, He was asking that we be made holy, purified and set apart. I'd really like to concentrate on verse 17 in that prayer:

John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.


Does that just grab you the way it does me??? Let's break this down. How are we sanctified? We are sanctified, made holy, purified, by God's Truth which is His Word, the Bible!!!

As we listen to, read, study, and/or reflect on God's Word, God sanctifies us--He purifies us and makes us holy like He is. If we don't hear, read or study God's Word, we won't grow in sanctification (holiness). I think it would also be fair to say that the more we grow in sanctification the more mature we are in Christ. It all fits together seamlessly.

I've known for quite a while that we can't become mature in Christ without studying God's Word, but it just never clicked in my head till now that we are sanctified by His Word so that's why we can't grow without it. Here is some more confirmation for us:

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

It is the Word of God as we read it and study it, that works in us with divine power to change us and sanctify us, making us holy just as He is holy. It is through God's Word at work in us in this way that we are changed daily to be more and more like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Even these scriptures which I'm sure we're all very familiar with, refer to this. Look at how they progress:

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

So here we see that the Holy Spirit is sent to us by the Father, after Jesus died and was resurrected. His job is to teach us and guide us into "all truth". Further more, He is called, "the Spirit of Truth"! Now go back and remember what Jesus said the Truth is:

John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Ok, there's one more piece to this that I've found. Maybe you've already thought of it:

John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Revelation 19:13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

This is how we are sanctified, how we grow to maturity in Christ! Jesus is the living Word, and He sends us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells us and He is the one that teaches us and guides us as we read and study (or listen and study) God's Word! Isn't that awesome!!! So here we can see yet again just how important it is to be in God's Word daily. That's the only way we can grow and mature.

If you're interested in this and would like to, why not look through your bible and see what else you can find out about "The Word of God", Jesus being the Word and the Truth, and about the Holy Spirit? Here, I'll give you a few verses to start you off, but there are LOTS more!

Hebrews 4:12-13
Jeremiah 23:29
Ephesians 6:17
2 Timothy 3:15-17
Isaiah 55:11

Luke 8:11-15


Have fun!

 

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“Trust ye in the Lord for ever:

Isaiah 26:4 “Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

Seeing that we have such a God to trust to, let us rest upon him with all our weight; let us resolutely drive out all unbelief, and endeavour to get rid of doubts and fears, which so much mar our comfort; since there is no excuse for fear where God is the foundation of our trust.

A loving parent would be sorely grieved if his child could not trust him; and how ungenerous, how unkind is our conduct when we put so little confidence in our heavenly Father who has never failed us, and who never will.

It were well if doubting were banished from the household of God; but it is to be feared that old Unbelief is as nimble nowadays as when the psalmist asked, “Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Will he be favourable no more?” David had not made any very lengthy trial of the mighty sword of the giant Goliath, and yet he said, “There is none like it.” He had tried it once in the hour of his youthful victory, and it had proved itself to be of the right metal, and therefore he praised it ever afterwards; even so should we speak well of our God, there is none like unto him in the heaven above or the earth beneath; “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.” There is no rock like unto the rock of Jacob, our enemies themselves being judges.

So far from suffering doubts to live in our hearts, we will take the whole detestable crew, as Elijah did the prophets of Baal, and slay them over the brook; and for a stream to kill them at, we will select the sacred torrent which wells forth from our Saviour’s wounded side. We have been in many trials, but we have never yet been cast where we could not find in our God all that we needed. Let us then be encouraged to trust in the Lord for ever, assured that his ever lasting strength will be, as it has been, our succour and stay
.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.) (July 5 PM). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

Romans 1:7 “Called to be saints.”

We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as ourselves. Yet in so doing we are forgetful of this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honours him in his service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him day by day.

The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we should have thought him remarkably like the rest of the chosen family: and if we had talked with him, we should have said, “We find that his experience and ours are much the same. He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the selfsame trials to endure. Nay, in some respects he is more sorely tried than ourselves.”

Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us. We are “called to be saints” by that same voice which constrained them to their high vocation. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their ardour and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equalled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking unto Jesus,” and our saintship will soon be apparent.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.) (July 5 AM). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

Don’t calculate without God

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37: 5.

Don’t calculate without God

God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the things we have calculated on without taking Him into account. We get into circumstances which were not chosen by God, and suddenly we find we have been calculating without God; He has not entered in as a living factor. The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.

In our religion it is customary to put God first, but we are apt to think it is an impertinence to put Him first in the practical issues of our lives. If we imagine we have to put on our Sunday moods before we come near to God, we will never come near Him. We must come as we are.

Don’t calculate with the evil in view.

Does God really mean us to take no account of the evil? “Love . . . taketh no account of the evil.” Love is not ignorant of the existence of the evil, but it does not take it in as a calculating factor. Apart from God, we do reckon with evil; we calculate with it in view and work all reasonings from that standpoint.

Don’t calculate with the rainy day in view.

You cannot lay up for a rainy day if you are trusting Jesus Christ. Jesus said—“Let not your heart be troubled.” God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command“Let not . . .” Haul yourself up a hundred and one times a day in order to do it, until you get into the habit of putting God first and calculating with Him in view.


Chambers, O. (1993, c1935). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (July 5). Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.

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