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Divine Intercession Msg 6 16 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Take courage.
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  Speaker 2: I have overcome the world John sixteen thirty three. These
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  Speaker 2: were the words Jesus spoke to his bewildered disciples just
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  Speaker 2: before his death. It was now time for the Lamb
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  Speaker 2: of God to be slain for the sins of the world.
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  Speaker 2: It would be a time of excruciating pain, intense fear
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  Speaker 2: and confusion, a time of scattering for those with whom
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  Speaker 2: he had shared so much of his life. It would
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  Speaker 2: be a time of requiring the protection of prayer. And
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  Speaker 2: that's just what Jesus provides here in John chapter seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: Let's enter this quiet scene with Jesus praying at the
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  Speaker 2: midnight hour, and let's learn together what was utmost on
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  Speaker 2: his heart, not only for those few close companions, but
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  Speaker 2: also for you and for me, and for all who
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  Speaker 2: would one day believe on his name. I'd like to
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  Speaker 2: read the first nineteen verses of this magnificent seventeenth chapter
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  Speaker 2: of John. It's a chapter of prayer. Join me in
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  Speaker 2: your bibles as I read John seventeen verses one through nineteen.
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  Speaker 2: After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven
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  Speaker 2: and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son.
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  Speaker 2: So he can give glory back to you, for you
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  Speaker 2: have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life
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  Speaker 2: to each one you have given him, and this is
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  Speaker 2: the way to have eternal life. To know you, the
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  Speaker 2: only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent
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  Speaker 2: to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth
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  Speaker 2: by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father,
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  Speaker 2: bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
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  Speaker 2: I revealed you to the ones you gave me from
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  Speaker 2: this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me,
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  Speaker 2: and they have kept your word. Now they know that
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  Speaker 2: everything I have is a gift from you, for I
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  Speaker 2: have passed on to them the message you gave me.
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  Speaker 2: They accepted it and know that I came from you,
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  Speaker 2: and they believe you sent me. My prayer is not
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  Speaker 2: for the world, but for those you have given me,
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  Speaker 2: because they belonged to you. All who are mine belonged
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  Speaker 2: to you, and you have given them to me, so
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  Speaker 2: they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world.
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  Speaker 2: They are staying in this world, but I am coming
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  Speaker 2: to you. Holy Father. You have given me your name.
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  Speaker 2: Now protect them by the power of your name. So
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  Speaker 2: that they will be united just as we are. During
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  Speaker 2: my time here, I protected them by the power of
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  Speaker 2: the name you gave me. I guarded them so that
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  Speaker 2: not one was lost except the one headed for destruction,
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  Speaker 2: as the scripture foretold. Now I am coming to you.
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  Speaker 2: I told them many things while I was with them
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  Speaker 2: in this world, so they would be filled with my joy.
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  Speaker 2: Give give them your word. And the world hates them
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  Speaker 2: because they do not belong to the world, just as
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  Speaker 2: I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking
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  Speaker 2: you to take them out of the world, but to
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  Speaker 2: keep them safe from the evil one. They do not
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  Speaker 2: belong to this world anymore than I do. Make them
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  Speaker 2: holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth.
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  Speaker 2: Just as you sent me into the world, I am
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  Speaker 2: sending them into the world, and I give myself as
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  Speaker 2: a holy sacrifice for them, so they can be made
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  Speaker 2: holy by your truth.
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  Speaker 1: John Knox was a voice in the wilderness, one of
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  Speaker 1: his biographer's rites. He was a stern Man, or a
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  Speaker 1: stern age. Church history orians love to compare Luther and
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  Speaker 1: Calvin and Knox. I think the best way to describe
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  Speaker 1: the three of them was that Luther carried the torch.
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  Speaker 1: Calvin carried the pen, and Knox carried the sword in
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  Speaker 1: fashioning and forming the Great Reformation of the sixteenth and
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  Speaker 1: on into the seventeenth centuries. If you're a student of history,
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  Speaker 1: you certainly have come across and dwelt upon the name
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  Speaker 1: of John Knox. He was controversial in many ways, a
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  Speaker 1: man of passion and fire in the pulpit. One who
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  Speaker 1: heard him on one occasion wrote that if he were
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  Speaker 1: to stay in the pulpit long enough, he would break
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  Speaker 1: it in pieces and fly all over the church in
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  Speaker 1: his message. Knox was a man who lived in a
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  Speaker 1: great battleship, doing war against the the islands of religious
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  Speaker 1: paganism and tradition. He cared nothing for the flattery of
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  Speaker 1: men or for his own reputation. He seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: a man basically rugged in nature. He seemed to thrive
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  Speaker 1: on criticism. His life was shaped and marked by battles
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  Speaker 1: with Bloody Mary, who stood nose to nose against him,
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  Speaker 1: and it seemed as though she won the victory when
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  Speaker 1: she banished him from his pulpit and he left to
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  Speaker 1: live for a while in Geneva. She didn't realize it,
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  Speaker 1: but he simply got a hold of the writings and
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  Speaker 1: the life of John Calvin, and there he came back
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  Speaker 1: with renewed zeal after her death, and by fifteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: Scotland embraced the Reform faith. He was more involved in
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  Speaker 1: the political scene than any of the Reformers, actually those
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  Speaker 1: who were his contemporaries. Being a man of controversy, he
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  Speaker 1: even received criticism for his domestic life. As a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact, it was at the age of fifty that
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  Speaker 1: he married a seventeen year old English lass named Margaret Stewart.
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  Speaker 1: But from that relationship there came three daughters, and there
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  Speaker 1: also came a measure of quiet piety into his life.
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  Speaker 1: There was a tenderness brought out in his life by
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  Speaker 1: that marriage, so that by the end of his life
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  Speaker 1: he had quieted down somewhat. And in fact, on his
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  Speaker 1: deathbed he said to Margaret, and I quote, go read
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  Speaker 1: where I first cast my anchor. Without further instruction, his
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  Speaker 1: wife went found the copy of the scriptures he had
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  Speaker 1: used and preached from for years, and she turned quietly
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  Speaker 1: to the seventeenth of John, and every day of his
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  Speaker 1: waning days on earth she read aloud to him the
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  Speaker 1: twenty sixth verses of the seventeenth of John. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Knox was a believer that the saint who advances on
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  Speaker 1: his knees never retreats. It was said as a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact by Mary, Queen of the Scots. On one
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  Speaker 1: occasion she said it publicly. She feared the prayers of
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  Speaker 1: John Knox more than the combined armies of Scotland. Not
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  Speaker 1: only a man of fervency and passion on his feet,
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  Speaker 1: but on his knees. He believed that God was on
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  Speaker 1: his throne and man was on his footstool, and there
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  Speaker 1: was only a knees distance in between the two. And
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  Speaker 1: it was there on his knees that Knox found all
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  Speaker 1: the fire he needed and the courage to carry the
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  Speaker 1: message of Jesus Christ, the believer, priesthood, the whole ministry
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, the inerrancy of the Word of
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  Speaker 1: God to the people in the highlands and cities of
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  Speaker 1: his homeland, the land of Scotland. Go read where I
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  Speaker 1: first cast my anchor, some of his last words spoken
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  Speaker 1: on earth. He lived in a battleship, but he was
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  Speaker 1: successful because of the place where that anchor was located.
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  Speaker 1: In the rock like truth of John Chapter seventeen Bishop
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  Speaker 1: Ryle says of John seventeen, this stands alone. There is
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  Speaker 1: nothing like it in all of Scripture. One man wrote
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  Speaker 1: of this prayer, it is the most remarkable prayer following
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  Speaker 1: the most consoling discourse in all of time. Technically speaking,
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  Speaker 1: and to the surprise of some, John seventeen is the
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  Speaker 1: longest prayer of Jesus recorded in all the Bible. It
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  Speaker 1: is really the Lord's prayer. And it is upon this
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  Speaker 1: passage that we want to cast our anchor for a
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  Speaker 1: couple of Sundays. And it's almost with apology that I
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  Speaker 1: say that the chapter deserves a month of time for
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  Speaker 1: some kind of digestion. But we'll move through it as
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  Speaker 1: best we can. In these couple of Sundays. I want
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  Speaker 1: us to spend today on the first nineteen verses, and
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  Speaker 1: then camp on the last seven next Sunday morning twenty
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  Speaker 1: through twenty six. And it carries with it I find
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  Speaker 1: a real missionary emphasis and impact. To begin with, Let's
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  Speaker 1: establish the setting. It's like a lovely diamond in a
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  Speaker 1: particular kind of setting. If seen all alone, the beauty
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  Speaker 1: is missed. But if you put it in the black
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  Speaker 1: background of the scene in which it is located, it
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  Speaker 1: suddenly bursts alive with meaning. First of all, consider the
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  Speaker 1: time in which this prayer was uttered. It was stated
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  Speaker 1: by Jesus just before he was arrested in the garden
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  Speaker 1: of Gethsemone. The time was probably midnight or the wee
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  Speaker 1: hours of the morning. The morning of the crucifixion. It
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  Speaker 1: was between twelve midnight and one thirty or two in
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  Speaker 1: the morning that Jesus Christ uttered this prayer. Consider also
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  Speaker 1: the place where it was uttered. Look at verse one
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  Speaker 1: of chapter seventeen. These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up
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  Speaker 1: his eyes to heaven, he said, then the prayer begins.
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  Speaker 1: Now look at eighteen one. Seventeen one says he lifts
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  Speaker 1: up his eyes to heaven. Eighteen one tells us when
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  Speaker 1: Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his
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  Speaker 1: disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was
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  Speaker 1: a garden into which he himself entered, and his disciples
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  Speaker 1: somewhere between the upper room where they had their last supper,
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  Speaker 1: and the ravine the valley called Kidron. Somewhere between there
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  Speaker 1: Jesus paused, perhaps leaned up against a building. I rather
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  Speaker 1: think it was near the temple, where there were torches
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  Speaker 1: that burnt all night that passover, that he was there,
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  Speaker 1: and he lifted up his eyes and he spoke to
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  Speaker 1: the Father. If you take a moment and look at
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  Speaker 1: the chart you were given on the opposite side, you'll
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  Speaker 1: see a map of Jerusalem. We cannot locate where they
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  Speaker 1: had that last supper. Perhaps it was in what is
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  Speaker 1: called the suburb right in the center of the map,
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  Speaker 1: right in the center of the city. Perhaps it was
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  Speaker 1: in the upper city, our lower city, toward the southwest
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  Speaker 1: or southeast. But wherever they met for that last supper together,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus with his eleven men spent thirty forty five minutes
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  Speaker 1: talking after the meal about future things and about how
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  Speaker 1: they would continue without him. Then he got up from
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  Speaker 1: the meal and he left that place, that dwelling, that
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  Speaker 1: second story flat as it were, went down the stairway
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  Speaker 1: and made his way through an unknown area, through some
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  Speaker 1: valleys or some alleys in the city, to that place
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  Speaker 1: called Gath Simone in the easternmost part of the map.
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  Speaker 1: Now you'll notice there south of Gathseimone, we see the
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  Speaker 1: valley of the Kiddron. There was a ravine that ran
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  Speaker 1: from the temple down north northeast between the temple and
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  Speaker 1: the garden of Gathseimone. As a matter of fact, there
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  Speaker 1: was a reminder, a mute reminder of death in that ravine.
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  Speaker 1: This was passover. At passover time, sheep lambs were slaughtered
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  Speaker 1: in the temple as a Jewish sacrificial act, seeking cleansing
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  Speaker 1: from sin. Thirty years after the death of Jesus, a
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  Speaker 1: census was taken of the number of lambs slain in
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  Speaker 1: the temple, and the census tells us there were two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six thousand lambs slaughtered. The blood from
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  Speaker 1: those lambs ran down a channel into a small viaduct
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  Speaker 1: or conduit that led off into the ravine and flowed
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  Speaker 1: out of the city to take the contamination of dried
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  Speaker 1: blood out of the city. In other words, the ravine
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  Speaker 1: at this particular time was very likely red as a
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  Speaker 1: mute reminder of the sacrificial lambs being slaughtered there in
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  Speaker 1: the temple. What a marvelous reminder it was to the disciples,
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  Speaker 1: who probably never caught it till it was all over.
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  Speaker 1: But the smell of death was in the and just
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  Speaker 1: before they got to the ravine, Jesus paused and, as
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  Speaker 1: if lost in the emotion of the moment. He leaned
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  Speaker 1: against heaven, as it were, and he prayed. He cast
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  Speaker 1: his anchor on the God of Heaven for the prayer
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  Speaker 1: and for the strength that he would need to go
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  Speaker 1: through the next several hours. You see, when facing death,
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  Speaker 1: there is no greater drive in the heart of the
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  Speaker 1: child of God than the drive to pray, and so
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  Speaker 1: our loving Savior, when he came to the kidron, just
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  Speaker 1: before they went across it, he paused for prayer so
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  Speaker 1: much for the place. Let me mention the occasion. Continue
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  Speaker 1: to read in chapter eighteen, verse two. Now Judas, also,
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  Speaker 1: who was betraying him, knew the place. That is the
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  Speaker 1: place in the garden of gethsimone Jesus frequently went there,
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  Speaker 1: for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. Judas, then,
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  Speaker 1: having received the Roman cohort, which is a nice dignified
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  Speaker 1: word for a mob, and officers from the chief priests
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  Speaker 1: and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, just after the supper and just before
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  Speaker 1: the arrest, all of time seemed to stop, and Jesus
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  Speaker 1: was alone in a vertical, unbroken relationship, communicating with the
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  Speaker 1: father just before he went into their arms, taken under
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  Speaker 1: arrest by the mob. The verse four tells us he
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  Speaker 1: knew all the things, being omniscient, he knew what was
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  Speaker 1: ahead of him, and knowing what was ahead, he stopped
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  Speaker 1: to pray. Back to chapter seventeen, and let me apply
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  Speaker 1: that just before we go any further, the child of God,
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  Speaker 1: all of us, excluding no one, when we come to
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  Speaker 1: the place of danger or threat, or the uncertainty of
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  Speaker 1: the future, our greatest resource is time spent on our knees.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't call everyone to the mission field. Those he
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  Speaker 1: does not call, he nevertheless calls to a lifetime commitment
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  Speaker 1: to prayer. Let me ask you, just in the sweep
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  Speaker 1: of time, for the last what forty five minutes we've
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  Speaker 1: been together this morning, just thinking back through the past
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  Speaker 1: week or two, or even the month, how much time
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  Speaker 1: was invested in prayer for those in the field. It's
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  Speaker 1: almost a glib cliche that we support them, support them
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  Speaker 1: how well with dollars and lots of dollars, Not enough,
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  Speaker 1: but a lot. But I don't know of a missionary
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  Speaker 1: on earth who would say my greatest need is money.
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  Speaker 1: I have yet to meet one, and I've seen some
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  Speaker 1: of them first hand on the field. I have yet
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  Speaker 1: to meet one who would deny the fact that his
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  Speaker 1: greatest need, her greatest need is prayer support. Living in
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  Speaker 1: the threat and uncertainty of tomorrow, these individuals, sinners like
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  Speaker 1: we needed, like we are, rely upon us for continued
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  Speaker 1: prayer support. Now, Jesus was in fact a lamb ready
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  Speaker 1: for the slaughter, and his immediate response was time and prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Now let's look at the prayer as a whole, and
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  Speaker 1: then we'll go back and analyze some of the parts.
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  Speaker 1: Verse one you will notice to begin with in an
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  Speaker 1: overview of these verses, Jesus praise for himself. That's verses
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  Speaker 1: one through five. There were three things on the Lord's
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  Speaker 1: heart that early morning hour. First, his own needs. He
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  Speaker 1: mentions them in the first verse, Father, the hour has come,
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  Speaker 1: glorify thy son. We'll talk about the hour and even
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  Speaker 1: the thought of glory in a moment, but just notice
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  Speaker 1: in the first five verse is he prays for himself
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  Speaker 1: his own needs and desires. Beginning with verse six to
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  Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen, I should say, he prays for his disciples,
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  Speaker 1: the eleven men around him. Verses six through nineteen he
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  Speaker 1: prays for the Disciples. Verse six, he mentions them, I
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  Speaker 1: manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me
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  Speaker 1: out of the world. He's referring to the eleven Disciples,
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  Speaker 1: and he prays for them. Now. Verse nine assures us
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  Speaker 1: of that I ask on their behalf. I do not
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  Speaker 1: ask on behalf of the world, but upon those whom
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  Speaker 1: thou hast given me. So he prays for his eleven men,
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  Speaker 1: prays for his disciples. Now at verse twenty to the
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  Speaker 1: end of the chapter, twenty six, he prays for all
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  Speaker 1: who would believe on him. In the Lord's prayer, he
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  Speaker 1: remembers you and me. That's a great thought, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: In his omniscience, he saw in the future all who
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  Speaker 1: through the Disciples ministry, and those whom they discipled. He
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  Speaker 1: saw all who would believe. He saw the believers of
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  Speaker 1: the Dark Ages, the believers of the Reformation, the believers
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  Speaker 1: in the era of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when
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  Speaker 1: all hell would break loose against the things of God.
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  Speaker 1: He prayed for each one Verses twenty through twenty six.
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  Speaker 1: And that will be our concern next Sunday morning, as
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  Speaker 1: we consider his prayer on behalf of those who would
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  Speaker 1: believe in me through their word Verse twenty. Let's go
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  Speaker 1: back and analyze it. I think of three concentric circles. Frankly,
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  Speaker 1: I think of the verse five verses as a small circle,
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  Speaker 1: like a bullseye in the middle. I see verses six
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  Speaker 1: through nineteen as another circle encircling the first, larger than
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  Speaker 1: the first, not only himself, but now his disciples. And
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  Speaker 1: then twenty through twenty six I see the full circle,
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  Speaker 1: the full prayers concluded with the prayer for all the saints,
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  Speaker 1: in sort of a concentric circle approach. Now, let's analyze
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  Speaker 1: the parts. Jesus is praying for himself. He is petitioning
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  Speaker 1: the Father for certain things. I am impressed with his
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  Speaker 1: specific requests. Not once do you read Jesus saying lead,
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  Speaker 1: guide and direct us. Not once do you find a cliche.
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  Speaker 1: There is a freshness. It's like a fresh breath of
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  Speaker 1: air just before Calvary. I'll tell you, when the threat
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  Speaker 1: of death is breathing down your neck, you throw away
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  Speaker 1: the cliches. You get down to business. And the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus does that. First of all, he lifts up his
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  Speaker 1: eyes to heaven and notice I'm attracted to the fact
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  Speaker 1: that he addresses the Lord of Heaven as simply father.
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  Speaker 1: Ever been in a group where the emphasis is on
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  Speaker 1: words in the prayer meeting. Richard Sumy, in his fine
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  Speaker 1: book Shoes for the Road, mentions the problem of being
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  Speaker 1: super verbose in our prayer life. He says this, and
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  Speaker 1: it's worth our hearing. I believe, in essence, the idea
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  Speaker 1: of daily prayer is suggestive of a non technical substance.
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  Speaker 1: Just call, as a child would call its mother, as
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  Speaker 1: a drowning man call for help, as one might call
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  Speaker 1: the doctor in the deep of night. Just call. It
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  Speaker 1: is something anyone can do and off to do, and
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  Speaker 1: the more simple to call, the better. It seems that
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  Speaker 1: a certain minister was in the habit of profound prayers,
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  Speaker 1: oftentimes resorting to words beyond the kin of his simple flock.
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  Speaker 1: This went on week after week, to the dismay and
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  Speaker 1: frustration of the congregation. At last, a wee little Scottish
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  Speaker 1: woman in the choir ventured to take the matter in
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  Speaker 1: her own hands. On a given Sunday, as the minister
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  Speaker 1: was waxing his most eloquently verbose the little woman reached
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  Speaker 1: across the curtains separating the choir from the pulpit. Taking
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  Speaker 1: a firm grasp on the frock tail of the minister,
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  Speaker 1: she gave it a yank was heard to whisper. Just
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  Speaker 1: call him father and ask him for something. Good counsel,
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  Speaker 1: the Son of God, when he approached the throne, just
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  Speaker 1: said Father, and then he asked for something. I've had
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: people come to me with books of prayers. Had one
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: man so hung up on words that he wrote out
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: his prayers and so given to perfectionism that he never
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: once came to the throne, thinking his words were not
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: worthy of the Lord's hearing. Hang it if I could
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: use today's colloquialism, just say father and ask him for something.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: That's precisely what the Lord Jesus did when he prayed, Father,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I have some needs. Verse two, Verse one, Father, the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: hour has come. There's an air of finality in that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the hour is a reference to the hour of his
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: suffering and death. He's mentioned it since chapter two of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: this book. John. He's referring to that time that had
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: been mapped out in the throne room of heaven. Years
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: eternity passed, centuries before there ever was time. It was
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a marvelous moment. It was a mysterious moment. Jesus was
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: standing on. The moment that had been mapped out before
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the world was the hour has come, death has come,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Suffering is inevitable. It's a tender, emotional moment. Jesus wanted
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: it not to be a tragedy, but to be a
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: glare glory. So he says, glorify thy son, that the
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: son may glorify thee. The word glory or glorify has
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: in mind the idea of exalting or elevating someone or something.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: He said, Father, I want my death to exalt and
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: elevate you, just as you have glorified your son on
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: this earth. Glorify your name in his death. I want that.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I ask for that verse two, even as you gave
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: him authority over all mankind, that to all whom thou
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: hast given him, he may give eternal life. He had
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: a reason for the request. The Lord Jesus knew, as
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: many of us know, that had his death not brought
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: glory to the Father, had it been anything less than perfect,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: it would have not paved the way to heaven. It
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: would have not provided eternal life. And the Lord Jesus
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: prays that there would be no barrier, and so he
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: requests that it might glorify the Father. In a brief
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: moment in the prayer, the Lord Jesus states a marvelous axiom.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: That's verse three. This is eternal life, that they may
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: know THEE, the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: thou hast sent. You do not spend much time in
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the world before you find people saying any Christianity is
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: a narrow religion. Unfortunately, the word religion doesn't really fit,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: but it is a narrow path. In fact, Jesus himself
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: makes it narrow when he says the eternal life principle
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: rests in a relationship with the Son of God, and
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: he wanted his death to run its perfect course, that
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: there would be no block in the pathway He asks
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: for that. Then he states in verse four, I glorified
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: THEE on the earth. He's looking back over his entire life.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I glorified THEE on the earth, having accomplished the work
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: which thou gavest me to do. I want you to
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: mark that because that's one of our applications. At the end, notice,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: he says, I have accomplished the work just mark it
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: in your mind. At the end of his thirty three
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: plush years, he said, it's accomplished the work you called
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: me to do. And now verse five, looking to the future,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: just as my life on earth brought glory, glorify me
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: together with thyself, Father, with the glory which I had
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: with THEE before the world was study verse five. It
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is a reference to the eternality of Jesus Christ. He
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: is saying, Father, that glory I had with you before
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the world was. I request again if I could put
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: it in sort of a homey term. Jesus was homesick.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: He had enjoyed glory with the Father in heaven in
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the eternity past, and he longed to have that same
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: glory again, and he must get there by way of death.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: While I was away this past a week and more,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I was in a pastor's conference up north, and one
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of the pastors that had returned from a tour of
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: duty in the Vietnam War. As a matter of fact,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: he was there in the Tet offensive. He was there
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: right in nineteen sixty eight in the heat of the battle.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: He served both as an infantryman in a mortar platoon
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and then also as a chaplain. He said things were
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: harder as a chaplain than they were in that mortar platoon,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: because he was constantly on the front line. He just
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: breathed the vapors of death just continually for about a
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: six or seven month period. I said to him, how
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: long were you over there? He said, three hundred and
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: sixty six days. I think he could have told me
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: the hours and the seconds if I had pressed him
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: on it. I said to him, toward the end, how
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: was it? He said, I longed for home like no
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: one can imagine. He could name the days right up
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: to that point of departure. That's where we find the
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. He's done battle, He's carried out the job.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: He's been on the front lines, presenting the claims of
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: himself and of the Father, and presenting the person of
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: God to this world in his own form, and he says, Father,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I'm homesick. I long to be back in that place
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of glory. We don't focus on this enough. Our eyes
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: are frequently much more earthly than they are heavenly. So
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: we think of his earthly life, and what a great man,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: and what a joyful experience it must have been to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: work and live and minister with him. But I think
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: of what he gave up. I think of what he
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: took upon himself when he took upon himself this human flesh.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I think of what he left when he departed from heaven,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: and how he must have longed for it when he
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: went back. No greater mission, no greater missionary enterprise, was
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: ever undertaken, than that which took place in Bethlehem and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: later in Jerusalem. Ultimately at Calvary. He left what he
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: had unselfishly, releasing it, not thinking it a thing to
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: be grasped. And he came and he gave himself that
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: we might know in tangible form, eternal life. I think
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: it's even indicative of his unselfishness in that the briefest
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: part of the prayer is for his own needs. Now
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: he turns to the needs of his men. By the way,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: if you are discipling people these days, this verses six
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: through nineteen is a beautiful guideline to follow in knowing
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: how to pray for those whom God has given you.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: These days, why we find more and more of those
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the church working with individuals. It's beautiful to watch it.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: You working with two or three or four, maybe just
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: one individual building in the faith. You wonder, how do
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I pray for that person. Here's your answer. Here's a
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: guideline to follow. Jesus asked for two things. If I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: read this passage correctly, Notice how he begins verse six,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I manifested thy name to the man whom thou gavest
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: me out of the world. The word manifest means to reveal,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to display. The word name suggests the idea of resources.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I revealed to these men, the resources of God by
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: which I lived, I put on display. I revealed that
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: my whole lifestyle was anchored in your resources, and I
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: drew upon those resources constantly. I have lived that kind
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of life before these whom you gave to me, Father.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: And now verse seven, now they have come to know
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that everything thou hast given me is from THEE. That
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: was a real breakthrough. If you remember the previous studies,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: look up in the passage. Look up into chapter sixteen
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: and verse thirty. The disciples said to Jesus, now we
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: know he's been talking to them for thirty minutes, and
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: now there was a breakthrough. Now we know that you
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: know all things. We know you have no need for
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: anyone to question you, and by this we believe you
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: came from God. Now Jesus draws on that in verse
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: seven of the passage we're in, they know, Lord, that
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: everything that I have has come from you. He must
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: have had a sense of rejoicing that they had learned that.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: In fact, he described several things verse eight. The words
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: that you gave me, they know came from you, not me.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I ask on their behalf. Verse nine. I don't ask
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: on behalf of the world. Jesus did not pray at
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: this time for the world. He prayed for those men
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: for their yours. Verse ten. All things that are mine
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: are thine, and thine are mine. I've been glorified in them.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: There's an equality there. The whole plan has been fulfilled, Lord,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: as you arranged it. Now he requests, to begin with
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: verse eleven, that they be kept. That's the first request. Father,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: He prays, keep them. That's verses eleven through sixteen. He
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: praised that they be kept. Now pause a moment and
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: study the passage and look for two areas he asked
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: for their keeping. For their being kept. First of all,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: he prayed that they might be kept unified. Verse eleven,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I'm no more in the world, and yet they themselves
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: are in the world. I come to thee Holy Father.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Here's the request. Keep them in thy name, Keep them
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in thy name, the name which you have given me,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the same resources that I've had, give to them, that
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: they may be one even as we are. Now. There's
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: your request. Lord. I pray, Father, I pray that they
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: might be unified, just as you and I have had
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: this unbroken fellowship for these years of life ministry. And
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: as I leave, I pray that they might have that
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: unbroken fellowship with you and with one another, that they
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: might be linked together in a unit. Verse twelve tells
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: us he was forced to let them go while I
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: will with them. I was keeping them. I kept them
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: in your name, which you gave to me. I guarded them,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and not one of them perished, but the son of tradition,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: that the scripture might be fulfilled. He's referring to Judas.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: But aside from Judas, Jesus said, while I was there,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I kept them in a unit. By the way, that
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: was no mean task. If you study the disciples, you
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: will notice that they were individualistic men. Some of them
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: were called sons of thunder. That's not really the kind
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: of group that you would get to build a corporation.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: They were not necessarily cooperative men. They were stubborn, they
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: were times dull. They were very unteachable. On occasion, they
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: were even proud. Matthew was a tax collector, Peter was
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a fisherman. John was different from e. The one of
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: those as was James. And yet the Lord said, I
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: want you to take these tough minded men and build
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: them into a unit. You discipling people. Ask God to
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: build into a unit the individuals who are part of
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: the group. Lord, don't let there be an individualistic spirit,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: break down the exclusiveness in the heart of one over
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: against another. Let them get arm in arm, let them
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: share lives in the bond of love and the Lord Jesus,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: praise to the Father. Look, Judas is gone. There could
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: never have been unity while he was here. Now, while
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I'm leaving, I pray that you'd build them into a unit.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And notice one other request. Look at verse fourteen. This
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: whole area of keeping I have given them by word.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: The world has hated them because they are not of
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the world. Even as I am not of the world.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Now I do not ask THEE to take them out
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: of the world, but to keep them from the evil One.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Here's the second keeping. He prayed that they would be
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: kept from the evil One. First that they would be
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: kept in unity, and second that they would be preserved
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: from the evil One, all under the subject of keeping them.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: They are not of the world, even as I am
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: not of the world. Now. Verse fifteen intriggers us because
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: it is a clear description of Jesus' strategy. Jesus never
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: encourages living behind the walls of a monastery, either physically
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: or spiritually. He wants the world to be in touch
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: with salt. That salt might never lose its bite. If
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the world never saw rub shoulders with a Christian, it
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: would never have light, it would never have its bite
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: within it. And Jesus said, Lord, I don't want you
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: to take them out of the world. Leave them in
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the world, but preserve them. As I've often said, it's
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: not a question of isolation. It's insulation. Insulate them so
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: they can move through the fire and the crucible of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: this world without being discouraged or destroyed by the evil One.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: By the way, I think the two requests are linked.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: The evil One discovers disunity and hits us at that
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: chink in our armor. That's why we are told by
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul of Effhesians four to keep the unity
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: of the spirit. Don't make it. You can't make unity.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: The Spirit of God gives unity, and you're to cultivate it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: You're to bridge the gaps, the cracks, the chinks, and
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the whole purpose is that you might have an effect
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: on a decadent, perverted society. The Apostle Paul, writing to
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: the Philippians, refers to this as an as an evil
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and perverted generation, crooked and perverted. As one man put it,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: the world is a world of crooks and perverts, and
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the Christian is to have an impact like the point
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of the wedge. Now notice his second request is in
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: verse seventeen, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: First he said keep them, and now he says sanctify them.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: What does it mean to sanctify? I have discovered that
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: to many people, the idea of sanctifying is sort of
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: a religious deworming process where you cultivate a shiny halo,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: or you become an untouchable holy person of piety. You
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: live in a mysterious heavenly cloud that doesn't worry with
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: such things. Is the cares of life. You're de wormed,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: and therefore you're holy. You know what the word sanctify means.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: It means simply to set apart for a certain purpose,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: that that thing set apart might reach its intentional purpose,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the thing for which it is intended. Look, let me
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: show you something. See that necktie. That necktie is sanctified.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: I had a choice of several neckties, and I reach
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: in and pulled out one in the early morning hours,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: stuck it in front of a mirror alongside the suit,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and thought, that goes fairly well together. I'll use it.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I did not say I will sanctify it. I said
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I will use it. The necktie is serving its intended purpose.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: It's set apart for its intended purpose. That happened when
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: you chose a seat this morning. Your seat where you're
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: sitting is sanctified. When you get up this morning, take
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a look at it and see how a sanctify its
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: seat looks. You chose it for its intended purpose, and
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: you're using it for that. Now, that's precisely what this means. Lord,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: set apart those men for their intended purpose. No let
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: them ever lose The vision is neat. How do you
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: get sanctified? It tells you in verse seventeen the word
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: you cannot live a fully intended life apart from that book.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Thy word is truth. Get away from the source of truth,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: and you move into the wastelands of subjectivity and human opinions,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and invariably you will be led astray. I would even
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: be so bold as to say, if you're living your
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: life apart from contact regularly with the Word of God,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the world is on its way to moving in the
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: world looks for weakened areas that it might occupy spending
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: time in the Word. Praying for our missionaries to spend
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: time in the words, so they might be set apart
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: for their intended use, family, your children, providing them with
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: a place to get a loan, to spend time in
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the words, showing them how that's all part of the request. Lord,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: set them apart, use your word to keep them moving
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: in that direction. Even as you sent me into the world,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I send them there's a strategy, and I don't want
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: them to lose it. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: We have people that put down the idea of dedicating
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: a life anew, But Jesus did it. Wasn't Jesus already
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: set apart absolutely? But he says in verse nineteen, I'd
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: like to renew that sanctification. I set apart myself again
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: as I faced the cross in a few hours, and
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: in light of what I'm facing, I'm driving a stake
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: here by this temple. Just before I crossed the ravine
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and face that mob, I set apart my life, and
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: God heard him, it was said in the Truth. Now
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Knox said this prayer was the anchor upon which he
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: first cast his life. Let me show you why. Just
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: a couple of applications I draw from it, and I'll
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: do them in haste. Time is over. First of all,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I'd like to draw from verse four something I had
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: you noticed back then. I glorified thee on the earth,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: having accomplished the work. Here's what I see. First. Genuine
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: accomplishment is determined by God, not man. Jesus says, I
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: have accomplished the work you gave me to do. Man
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: would have never said his work was accomplished. Genuine accomplishment
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: is determined by God, not man. Some of you are
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: living rather feutile life. You feel you're walking with the Lord,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: but it's not very productive, and you're saying, Wow, I'm
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: not accomplishing anything, says who you see? Man does not
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: know how to gauge accomplishment. I was teaching a group
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: of navigators all morning yesterday at you see your Vine.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: What a great experience I taught on the person and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: work of Jesus Christ from nine till noon, almost without stop.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: It was exciting. Didn't have enough time, but it was exciting.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Only had three hours. But in the middle of it,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I thought, Jesus Christ died at thirty three, how futile
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: my life would have been seemed by me. How futile
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: my life would have been had I died at thirty three. No,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: God gauges accomplishments. You haven't done all that you wanted
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: to do. Whoever said you're to want to do it.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: God tells you what to want, what to do. He says,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: before you the life, and he says, that's the way
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: to go, walk in it, and when you do, that'll
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: be an accomplishment. That's what I see in Jesus prayer.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: The second thing I notice, Godly reinforcement is provided from heaven,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: not the world. I see that in verse nine and
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: verse eleven, godly reinforcement is provided from Heaven, not the world.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Jesus says, I ask on their behalf, because the world
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't want it. I ask for them. You reinforce their life.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: But as it, the writer says, is this vile world
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: a friend to grace to lead me on to God?
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: Implying never, then where do I find the reinforcement to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: live for Christ? I find it from Heaven. Jesus pray,
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  Speaker 1: unify them, preserve them, set them apart, use them. And
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  Speaker 1: he never once said, Lord, may the world assist in this?
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  Speaker 1: The world is not a friend to grace. It's vile.
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  Speaker 1: It will never lead you onto God. So we're to
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  Speaker 1: be in touch with the world, isolated, no insulated, insulated
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  Speaker 1: by the reinforcement we get from his from his resources,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: a calm, quiet spirit, and assurance, purpose and meaning. Direction.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I notice in my thoughts today as
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  Speaker 1: we wrap them up? I noticed that God uses all
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  Speaker 1: kinds in his planet. He used Luther to carry the torch,
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  Speaker 1: Calvin to carry the pen, Locks to carry the sword.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been an incomplete plan without all three
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  Speaker 1: and dozens of others. We haven't taken the time to
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  Speaker 1: name and in missions. It's the same way. He uses
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: one for Asia, another one for Europe, another one for Fullerton,
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  Speaker 1: still another one for Canada, for Central America. Your need
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  Speaker 1: is to discover exactly where do I fit in his
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  Speaker 1: worldwide strategy. Today is designated to give you some time
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  Speaker 1: to think about that. That's about this morning show. It
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  Speaker 1: is our desire, Heavenly Father, that we not miss your message.
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  Speaker 1: We're good at missing messages. We're not proficient at many things,
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  Speaker 1: but we seem to be adept at confusing. That is
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  Speaker 1: very clear to you. And we would pray in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of this moment.
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  Speaker 3: Of this day, and even in the balance of this day,
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  Speaker 3: you might allow us to be set.
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  Speaker 1: Aside for some quietness to look at the whole scheme strategy.
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  Speaker 3: Stopped in our tracks with the realization that you prayed
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  Speaker 3: for us when your son mus and we know that
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  Speaker 3: you care about us and the way we.
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  Speaker 4: Spend our lives.
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  Speaker 3: Touch some lives today that have been otherwise closed off,
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  Speaker 3: selfishly protected.
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  Speaker 1: In that tongue vision, and bring about some.
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  Speaker 4: Renewde wrestlings in the area of the life we live
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  Speaker 4: for Christ and.
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  Speaker 5: The preceding message Divine Intercession was copyrighted in nineteen seventy six,
• 54:04
  Speaker 5: nineteen eighty eight, two thousand and twenty eighteen, and the
• 54:07
  Speaker 5: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty eighteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
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  Speaker 5: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: commercial use is strictly prohibited