… 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!

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.

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

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?

To be continued...