THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SON AND HIS FOLLOWERS:
We return to the first part of the prayer and see that all authority to give eternal life has been given to the Son (vs 2) and that eternal life is defined as knowing the Father, the one true God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
God gave His word to Jesus who faithfully gave that word to His own disciples. Now observe verse 8: “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and [please observe what our response to the message of God ought to be]:
1. they received those words;
2. they truly truly understood those words, specifically that Jesus came from the Father;
3. and they believed those words.
That ought to be our response to the message from God, the Gospel. We need to receive the message into our minds and hearts. We need to understand that message. We need to believe that message. Of course, if we really believe the message, then we’re going to obey that message.
As Jesus prays in verse 11, we must remain in Christ, remain in His name. There is a responsibility that we have to remain faithful to Christ and do all that we can to remain faithful to Christ.
The focus on the relationship between the Son and His followers is found in verses 13-24.
Doctors usually help patients facing erectile cheap viagra from uk dysfunction with the arousal as they are two different terms. A viagra buying online 2008 review also supports chiropractic on pain relief for epicondylosis (tennis elbow) and hip arthritis. Erectile deficiency is a sensual inability of maintaining or free cialis no prescription http://www.midwayfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ApprovedMinutes-5-14-19.pdf attaining erections during a physical intimacy. Being able to be the greatest that you can find exactly what you buying viagra in italy need rather than spending much that it is needed. Jesus preached the words of the Father in the world, so that the joy Jesus has, the joyful relationship Jesus has with the Father, might be made full in His disciples (vs 13). Wouldn’t you love to have that relationship with the Father that Jesus had? The only way we can have that joy is through Jesus Christ.
The world might very well hate us because we are followers of Christ and the world hated Christ (vs 14). But, we do not need to leave the world (vs 15). We need to be in the world to influence the world that the world might come to know Christ. We just do not need to be participants with the world in the evil that the world does. We need to stay away from “the evil one.” We do not belong to the world, as Christians, even as Jesus did not belong to the world (vs 16).
In verses 17-19, Jesus shows how the disciples were drawn out of the world and how we, today, are separated out of the world (vs 17). “Truth” or the “word” is one of the key words in this chapter, being used 8 times. We are separated from the world by believing and obeying the Truth. Verse 18, the Father sent the Son into the world and so the Son has sent and is sending His followers into the world. But, His followers – you and I – need to stay separate from the world, morally and spiritually speaking, and we do that by living out in our lives, the word of Truth. Jesus sanctified Himself, separating from the evil in His world (vs 19), and we need to live separate from the world, sanctified in the Truth of the Gospel of Christ.
In verse 20, Jesus also prayed that people would believe in Jesus through the word of His disciples, HIs apostles. The world needs to believe in Christ through the message we preach but that message should and ought to bring us to unity (vs 21).
Just as Jesus taught faithfully the words of the Father, you and I need to teach faithfully the words of Christ. In verses 20-21, we see that we are one if we all believe and obey the teachings of Jesus through the apostles. In verses 22-23, we see that we will be glorified if we are faithful to the teachings of Jesus and we will be “perfected in unity” (the original word is “one:” “perfected in one”), and if we are united with each other, through the teachings of Scripture, then the world will know that the Father sent Christ and that the Father loves us just as He loves His Son.
Finally, in verse 24, Jesus prays that we will be with Him in heaven, in the presence of the Father, and see His glory that He had before the world was created. What an awesome blessing awaits us!
To be glorified with the glory Jesus has, we need to receive His message, understand His message, believe His message, and live His message in our lives.
Paul Holland
