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Category: 4 Gospels + Good News of the NEW Testament

What are the Gospels?

FOUR Gospels:

GOOD NEWS! (That’s what Gospel means.)

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John begin the New Testament proclaiming the Good News of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and talk of JESUS Christ.

The four Gospels are first hand witness + proclaiming GOOD NEWS

by two Jewish Apostles of the Messiah JESUS, Matthew & John
Two gentile (non-Jewish) followers of THE WAY of Jesus Christ, Mark & Luke, who proclaim the GOSPEL recorded from witness of Peter, Paul and other Apostles and disciples of JESUS in the first century.

READ the Good News of the Messiah and Savior Jesus from accounts of His twelve Apostles & others witnessing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the four Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

SHARE the Gospel

with your Christian friends and those who do not yet believe in JESUS CHRIST.
Comment on a Talk of JESUS post and SHARE in your social media world.

Who Does JESUS Pray For?
Eternal Life, But For Whom?

We have entered the Father’s house of prayer through the sacredness of scripture. And before us in this holy upper room in Jerusalem stands Christ Jesus, arms lifted toward heaven and praying as a High Priest beyond the curtain.

Along with John and the eleven remaining Apostles we hear the Lord’s plea for eternal life – not HIS, but ours. We have seen the Lord’s power before including that to raise the dead, but does Jesus have the power of eternal life at His Command?

The Messiah Jesus, the Anointed One, stands before us praying for eternal life, but for whom?

The Gospel of John 17:

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life…”

We glance at John and the Apostles, fearful in this secluded room not far from where Jerusalem’s powerful seek Jesus’ life and theirs. Jesus intercedes in prayer for His fellow friends of this flesh and blood of mortal life as the Eleven look on.

The Lord has assured eternal life “to all whom You have given Him” and the Apostles know that Jesus means them (and not Judas).

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 17:3 KJV

Who do you pray for?

When, like the Apostles facing the crowds of Jerusalem and controversy of Jesus, you FEAR for your mortal life, how comforted are you by hearing someone say, “I will pray for you.”

Yet you know how we cling to this fragile flesh; for what little power we exercise over it. What man born of woman can intercede before God to save us?

At times I suppose you pray for your loved ones as Jesus does here. But with what authority, my fellow sinner, do you pray before the altar of sacrifice?

Who prays for you?

Jesus, the Son of Man and mortal man of flesh facing death, prays for His friends. He prays to our Father God as our intercessor and High Priest.

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
John 17:6 NASB

7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.

Clearly Jesus, as their Most Personal Priest, prays for His Disciples.

I ask on their behalf;
I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours…
Intercessory prayer of Jesus – John 17:9 NASB

But what about the World?

Jesus as High Priest before God the Father prays: “I am not praying for the world…” {CSB}

What does the Lord mean by this?

(For even ‘the world’ of these last days will know the ‘John 3:16‘ assurance.)

“For God did not send the Son into the world ^G2889 to judge the world, ^G2889 but that the world ^G²⁸⁸⁹ might be saved through Him.
John 3:17 KJV with Strong’s link to ‘world’ or ‘kosmos’

THEREFORE, when Jesus states that HE is NOT praying for the world (that He came to save), the Lord confirms that only some will be saved.

But who does Jesus mean?

First in His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays on behalf of the Apostles. Then the Lord adds a notable intercession.

I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. – John 17:9b CSB

Who has the Father given to Jesus who are NOT ‘the world?’

(Could you be one of these in addition to the Apostles?)

NOT for the world…

11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you…

Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
John 17:11b KJV

Why a High Priest?

110:4 נִשְׁבַּ֤ע יְהוָ֨ה וְלֹ֥א יִנָּחֵ֗ם אַתָּֽה־כֹהֵ֥ן לְעֹולָ֑ם עַל־֝דִּבְרָתִ֗י מַלְכִּי־צֶֽדֶק׃

Jesus continues, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name…”

Jesus is the ONLY High Priest to save us completely, the only sinless man who ever walked through life in this world. He IS a Perfect SON OF MAN interceding for God’s chosen ones before the LORD, His Father and ours.

Here our High Priest stands before the Altar of His soon-to-be Perfect Sacrifice already speaking of His Own mortal life in the past tense.

Jesus kept those the Father gave Him.

He kept the disciples not from death of the flesh, but for eternal life. And the Lord kept them, mere mortal men for His continued purpose.

Jesus prays to the Father:

18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

We do NOT need an Apostle, Levite or sinful Saint as a High Priest in succession to a Perfert High Priest! But we do need men and women who do believe and will follow Jesus to take His Gospel into all the world.

We now have a Perfect High Priest praying for us Who IS and was and will be our Savior by grace.

This is Eternal Life for those who believe

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word.

21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

Have you prayed to our beloved High Priest that you might be in Him and also the Father?

… that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16b, 18 NASB
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To be continued...
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June 30, 2020
Jesus’ Power to give Eternal Life
… and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:28 NASB

Power and Authority

From the Gospel John 17 we have begun to study the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer in The Hour Is Come and also recently addressed The Authority of Jesus, His Power over all flesh.

Jesus preached about eternal life in synagogues, on hillsides and in homes of the Jews. The Gospels also include several scenes where His authority over life and death had always been questioned by Jerusalem’s leaders.

The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Gospel of John 2:18-19 NASB

This temple of Jesus is not the fortress of flesh or whitewashed walls of symbolic religion, but the Living and Holy Image of the Son of God!

Interior of the Temple with High Priest facing the Holy of Holies

Jesus has never in-person entered the Holy of Holies. The Son of Man never entered the building as a temple priest with the sacrifice of worship.

Our Lord simply showed grace and clearly taught truth from the Temple’s public courtyards, Jewish gathering places walled in from the world and its gentile Roman captors, the public square of faithful Jews.

Jesus preached in Solomon’s portico, a place remote enough from a public face of the Sanhedrin’s seventy religious rulers.

POWER!

He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said,
“Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? G1411
Matthew 15:34 NASB

‘Who is this Jesus of Nazareth,’ the powerful religious leaders would have always asked as they had also of John the Baptist?

δύναμις – dynamis – strength power, ability
- Used here for both words: ‘miraculous’ & ‘powers’
- Also used in this way in Mark 6:14 where speaking of Jesus and His Disciples ‘…people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous ^G1411 powers ^G1411 are at work in Him.”
We are not talking political or military or religious power, but true and miraculous power over creation and the created – power of the Son of Man, the Messiah Jesus from the LORD God!

Authority

So many Jews had hoped that Jesus would use such power to overthrow Rome in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee.

The image of a shepherd may be that of a powerful king like David or Solomon, but more commonly seen as one saving vulnerable sheep from wolves.

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
from the Good News of John 10:18 the promise of the Messiah Jesus

Although the Apostles knew their Lord and Master as a humble man, the Messiah Jesus also spoke of His authority as Master and Shepherd of His disciples many times.

John 10:

The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds – the Door

Parable of the Good Shepherd

14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep…

ἐξουσία – exousia – authority

Jesus claims the authority to lay [His Life] down and also sais, “I have authority to take it up again.” This was a remarkable claim of Jesus that He had the authority to cause BOTH His own death and resurrection. (We have addressed ‘The Authority of Jesus’ in our introduction to John 17.)

“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
The words of the Messiah Jesus – John 10:17-18 NASB

19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.

No wonder the Jews became divided because of these words about their Messiah’s authority.

Consider the common definition of authority Jesus coveys:
- power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases
- physical and mental power
- the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege)
  - (Here’s one no religious or political leader willingly gives up.)
- the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed)
  - (Again, Herod, Caesar, Pilate, Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, priests – all have a stake in maintaining their tenuous authority & limited power.)
Power over death and life

Cling to this fragile flesh; for what little power we exercise over it.

To some degree of authority: a king, our president, any judge of man’s courts — Rome’s Prefect, any governor and all authorities of man exercise power over other mortal men.

We have NO choice in some matters. Yet these authorities of the flesh cannot give life, but grant mercy in its extension.

Those who sought to seize Jesus of whom the crowds of Jerusalem had shouted, ‘Hosanna, Son of David; save us, blessed king,’ challenged many crowns. For the implied mortal and immediate authority of Caesar, of Herod, of Pilate, of Jerusalem’s political/religious leaders (the Sanhedrin, its priests and temple police) — all authority was threatened by the popularity Jesus.

ALL could have lost their power of the day IF Jesus is crowned the “King of the Jews!”

It MUST NOT HAPPEN.

Therefore, show the crowds that THIS KING JESUS is no MAN of authority — for this claimant of Power from one High cannot even save His own mortal life (let alone that of the Jews). These same crowds will turn on Him when we have demonstrated our Authority over HIM.

High Priest before the Altar of the LORD

From an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus prays to the LORD GOD our Father for many things. Yet the Lord’s purpose is not to preserve any MORTAL life, but to SAVE select SOULS for ETERNAL LIFE.

Though praying from an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus enters the most sacred place on our behalf – the Holy of Holies as our High Priest before God. Jesus stands before us praying for His authority to grant eternal life!

From Death to Eternal Life

Does this Jesus, Son of Man, really have such authority before the LORD GOD?

For if He does, the Messiah of God IS everything He says that He IS.

John 17:

The High Priestly Prayer

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said,

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

… Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are…

ἀγάπη

I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.
John 17:22-23 CSB

The Love that is the Glory of Eternal Life

Aug -awp’-ay — agapē one of several Greek words for LOVE we fail to understand as men of flesh and as spirits given life by God. Yet Jesus Christ uses it on our behalf in His closing High Priestly Prayer.

“…that the love ^G26 wherewith thou hast loved me..” from the English of the King James Version: Jesus states the Father’s love for His only Son — this is the love for which Jesus intercedes for us in eternal life.

And Jesus had recently told the Apostles, “Greater love ^G26 hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love
- love feasts
An eternal life of relationship: Personal Relationship like that of Jesus with the Holy Father God — a glory of festive love as personal as the wedding, where the love of the bride and groom are celebrated by all who are invited to the feast.

Christ Jesus our High Priest intercedes and asks His blessing on what is about to take place.

Will you take up your cross and follow Him?
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To be continued...
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June 27, 2020
The Authority of Jesus, His Power over all flesh
He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh…
John 17:1b-2a NASB

Let us pray:
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LORD, help us to understand the Person of Your Son Jesus Christ through His prayer to the Father.
Amen.
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We have begun our look at Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer made corporately before the Eleven just prior to the Lord’s departure for Gethsemane where He will be betrayed. The Hour Is Come – Glory to the Son AND the Father

Jesus stands before the Apostles, looks up (probably with His arms extended as later they would be on the Cross) and His open hands of flesh turned heavenward and prays,

“Father the hour has come … glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you—

Jesus, the faithful only Son of God always prayed to the Father; but listen once more to a most familiar prayer and hear along with this High Priestly Prayer a connection you may have missed.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
Jesus’ closing from ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ – Matthew 6:13b KJV

Did you catch that Jesus connects ‘the power‘ to ‘the glory’ of the LORD God – a glory we examined at some length previously in our study of John 17:1?

Our prayer to Heaven’s King

Now beloved believer, you will not have had much cause to consider so far anything less than glorifying this humble Servant Son of God made flesh; for Jesus epitomizes everything peaceful in mankind. Our Lamb of God is submissive in His love of God and approachable by His fellow man.

But this temporal nature of Emmanu-El, born humbly in Bethlehem, though His humble nature will continue to the Altar of the Cross, Jesus will not continue as servant until the judgment of the world, but ultimately as its ruler and Lord!

We pray to GOD because HE IS THE LORD GOD, and the humble must confess that we are NOT.
- Does your daily life witness your own humility to bow down to GOD in prayer as did Jesus the Son?
- Will the created acknowledge the authority of Jesus, WHO WITH THE FATHER IS the creator of all things and Judge of all flesh?
This is why we pray.

Jesus now prays for us as the Perfect High Priest. The Messiah Jesus therefore intercedes before the Father for those who willingly seek eternal life with Him in glory — disciples in spirit seeking grace for a dying flesh from dust rather than the judgment we deserve of sinners refusing the authority and mercy of the LORD God.

Christians of these last days speak lightly of grace given as if any claim of Jesus is fruit of a sinful spirit saved. Yet does our witness of Christ glow in the glory of His High Authority?
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Authority

Jesus is not praying about anything new here, for authority in relationships both earthly and between the created and Creator appear throughout Scripture.

When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes,
but the godly will live to see their downfall.
Proverbs 29:2 & 29:16 NLT

The authority between those on earth ought to be immediately evident since Jesus provided much guidance and many examples to the Disciples and crowds of Jews so well schooled in the discipline of Scripture.

In this prayer, however, Jesus speaks directly to God the Father not only as their Authority but about His and the Apostles authority.

John 17:

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said,

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

What does our Lord and High Priest pray?

Glorify your Son; that is, Jesus prays in essence, ‘Father glorify Me!’ Yet what reason does Jesus offer?

Jesus prays that HIS glory will be necessary “so that [He, Jesus] the Son may glorify you [the Father]. The Lord restates His own authority recalling an action of the Father which had already taken place.

Jesus then offers through this granted authority a higher reason for His intercessory request:

“… So that he [Jesus] may give eternal life…”

Note that Jesus does not promise eternal life to all, but to only to those the Father has already given to the Son our Savior. He becomes our perfect Priest and Sacrifice.

As for those who refuse Christ? Justice will find the dust and ashes of unrepentant souls who will stand before Jesus’ authority at the judgment.

Authority of The Word

John opens his Gospel with Jesus’ preeminent authority.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 5 excerpt:

[We shall stick with the King James Version for the moment to remind our long-lost 21st century perception of the authority and appropriate approach of a king.] – RH

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

You with ears to hear, LISTEN to this previous proclamation of Jesus our King! Jesus clearly proclaims:
- God the Father raises the dead to life (quickeneth).
- Jesus the Son gives life (quickeneth) to whom He will.
- The dead will hear the voice of Jesus, Son of God.
- Those dead souls who Jesus chooses shall live again.
Did we overlook one point of power of the Lord Jesus’ authority?

In our too-near familiarity with the humble Lamb of God made man we often lose His authority to come in the wrath of God:

and He [the Father] gave Him [Jesus] authority to execute judgment, because He [Jesus] is the Son of Man.
John 5:27 NASB
- The Father gave Jesus authority to execute judgment!
WHY? Because He IS the “Son of Man,” as well as the “Son of God.”

Returning to the Upper Room

Do you recall what Jesus had said after Judas left the room to go to Jerusalem’s religious leaders to betray his Lord?

Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. – John 13:31 NASB

Now in His High Priestly Prayer Jesus prays, “you gave him authority over all people.

“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

(or from the more formal King James Version🙂

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. – John 17:6 KJV

Power over all flesh

Once again returning to the kingly language of the King James Version as introduction once more to Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer:

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Prayer of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John 17:2-3 KJV

Jesus prays of His Power over all flesh, over creation, over you and me, even power over all authority of this world.

Is Jesus your Lord, a High Priest interceding for your sinful flesh before the HOLY LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
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To be continued... 
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June 11, 2020