Jesus, the Eternal One, has completed His work in the world as the Son of Man, only Son of God the Father. He is about to experience the very death of mortals condemned by sin!
So as a Perfect High Priest the Lord intercedes for sinners in prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem, a Holy of Holies before our Father God, the Most High Creator of the world and Author of all life.
13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
The Lord speaks clearly to the Father and before the Apostles that He has this one more thing to say ‘in the world’ before His Disciples.
The world hates God! Jesus gave them God’s true word and now the world hates them.
Why?
They are no longer condemned by their sin, as the world is condemned to death along the the evil one. So the departing Messiah prays for God to keep them from the temporary but real power of evil.
17 Sanctify them in the truth;
Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.
19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself,
that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus prays for them and us and clearly states why.
What He will do next?
The Lord will sanctify Himself so that His disciples will become like Him as they are sent also into the world.
Sanctification
“Sanctify them…”
“I sanctify myself…”
What do these formal and holy words mean to a casual worshiper of these last days?
Perhaps the time has arrived for us to receive this truth as was near for a soon-to-be crucified Savior and His Disciples.
Jesus prays: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
John 17:17 KJV
to make ἅγιον, render or declare sacred or holy, consecrate. Hence, it denotes:
to render or acknowledge to be venerable, to hallow: Since the stamp of sacredness passes over from the holiness of God to whatever has any connection with God, ἁγιάζειν denotes
to separate from things profane and dedicate to God, to consecrate
Jesus IS the only High Priest with the Authority to sanctify any flesh of sinful man who He sends out into the world. The Lord can make you or any He chooses to be ‘a holy vessel of the LORD.’
“I have sanctified them..
Jesus continues to pray for those the Father has given Him:
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
You cannot see the face of God, O man of flesh tainted by sin!
Gaze far into the distant heavens beyond the vast sea for a light of truth, the paradise of Eden, the glory of the living Temple of the LORD. You will not enter it any more than you may enter the Holy of Holies constructed by man and destroyed by disobedience.
Jesus our High Priest prays to sanctify you through the truth.
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23-24 NASB
The Messiah Jesus has been with His Apostles for three years. Now only John and ten others remain in the room after Judas left to betray the Lord.
Are the very lives of the Disciples not also at great risk in the Jerusalem which hates righteousness? How will they survive once Jesus is killed?
The Apostles must have wondered, ‘where will we find HELP after our Lord goes to His mortal death?’ It would be literally the day after tomorrow.
The Three Helpers
He will give you another Helper sets the scene from John 12 of Jesus and the Disciples returning to Jerusalem for Jesus’ triumphal entry.
And those who repay evil for good,
They oppose me, because I follow what is good.
Do not forsake me, O LORD;
O my God, do not be far from me!
Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!
The Lord God, from whom Jesus received all Authority and power is God the Father.
Because of the Lord Jesus, the Disciples now have a new relationship through their Master and Teacher to God the Father.
We continued with the scene of the Last Supper in He will give you another Helper – Jesus’ promise, observing how Jesus promised that He Himself, the Messiah of the Lord God, would return to HELP the Disciples.
Now we return to this same scene so full of promise. Listen closely as Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will help them.
John 13:
31 When he [Judas Iscariot] had left, Jesus said,
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth.
The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit
John has already witnessed the Power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus previously taught teachers of Israel about spirit (of man and living things) versus flesh, as well as of the Holy Spirit of the LORD.
Although we could explore many mysteries of the Trinity in more detail our only purpose here is to introduce a NEW relationship of the Holy Spirit. J
Prior to His crucifixion, resurrection and later return to the Father, Jesus now assures the Disciples:
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
Do you feel like an orphan isolated from your brothers and sisters of your local church?
(I do. But Jesus assures His disciples of good counsel.)
25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
He will remind you
Even though Jesus returned to the Disciples in the flesh after His resurrection, He gave the Holy Spirit of God to those who loved Him in spirit and in truth.
The Holy Spirit, Who IS with us, reminds disciples of everything the Son of God has taught us.
26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me…
‘When the Helper comes’ or ‘When the Counselor comes,’ or from the KJV, “Comforter” — παράκλητος parakletos, the ‘summoned’ One, Jesus assures, will be called to your side to plead your case.
All point to the Holy Spirit, from the greek “πνεῦμα” pneuma – the Spirit of truth, defending you in truth.
Pilate will soon ask rhetorically, “What is truth?”
Jesus has already told them:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Now the Lord Jesus guarantees this same comforting truth through the Holy Spirit.
—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
16:1 “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling.
Later the Apostle John will confirm this in letters to the Church read by saints who like us had never seen Jesus in the flesh and Spirit.
4: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (If true in the first century, certainly many more false prophets have gone into the world of the 21st century.)
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;
… this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
What comfort for Christians in the Spirit to have such help — discernment of truth to recognize antichrists and false prophets. By this the fellowship of believers lives in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
parakletos from the Father through the Lord Jesus.
παράκλητος, an intercessor, consoler:—advocate, comforter.
But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:7 NASB
8 And He [the Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
John 16:13 CSB – the promise of Jesus to the believer
Behold, the hour cometh
One last encouragement from Jesus increasingly more comforting to a 21st century church.
32 Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home…
… each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone…
Think of it: Jesus tells the Eleven that they will be separated from each other in their own homes AND that his Disciples will leave their Lord and Master Jesus alone.
The Lord Jesus, alone at His trials; alone in His punishments by the world — yet what does Jesus assure us?
“… and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
Does it help to know by the Holy Spirit that the Father is in Him and He in the Father? Will the Holy Spirit sent to the one who believes not comfort, counsel and HELP you in your hour of need?
Jesus tells His disciples,
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.
Do you in Him?
You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous!
Do you suffer for Jesus
Courage, beloved brother; hold to your faith, dear sister.
OR do you just suffer?
“I have conquered the world,” Jesus assures the saint.
For the sinner in death has only suffering.
But the church joined to Jesus though separated to our own homes has eternal hope, eternal life and a Helper in Christ Jesus.
‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:3 to the messenger of the church of…
The Lord Jesus does NOT instruct followers to ‘love the world’ (as God so loved-the world…), but HIS first NEW commandment is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Jesus asks the Apostles who have been together for three years as a church, iterate followers in community with and taught by the Lord Jesus, to love one another.
We know from story after story how competitive His Disciples are, but now that Jesus will return to the Father His command is that they MUST love each other.
Church
Previously we examined the possibility of who Jesus commanded in:
We may also point ahead to more obvious application of his warning to the church of these last days.
Have you ever really met the ‘christians’ who come to your church?
It’s really difficult in this impersonal 21st century #social environment!
Our relationship to others of the Church pales by comparison to the close personal relationships of the Apostles to each other or even that of the saints of the first century church. Yet have we, the church’ possibly missed a relational community commanded by the Lord Jesus?
Let’s first look to a definition of church and scriptural application.
from ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”), was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of State, Act 19:39. In the Sept. it is used to designate the “gathering” of Israel, summoned for any definite purpose, or a “gathering” regarded as representative of the whole nation. In Act 7:38 it is used of Israel; in 19:32, 41, of a riotous mob. It has two applications to companies of Christians, (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,
(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation”), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5, and in the plural, with reference to churches in a district.
Since “It has two applications to companies of Christians, it’s worth restating from this definition of church:
(a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,”Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,”Eph 1:22; 5:23,
(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation“), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5
Church briefly defined then is:
ALL of the CHURCH, every true follower of Jesus, Master and Teacher of the Church.
EACH true believer joined to the CHURCH personally, relationally, locally and beyond all measure of both distance and time.
This is the Church which the Lord Jesus commands by saying, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
We are called to Him, therefore we are called into relationship with Jesus AND His church.
And we are called out – to take His love, visible to seekers of the Lord in His Body the Church, the Personal Love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit by which He builds us into His eternal love.
A New Commandment
John’s Gospel builds the case of Jesus’ Authority, questioned by the Jews to whom He was sent.
Before addressing Jesus’ New Commandment given to the Disciples just after the last supper, take a brief look at His explanation about His obedience to God the Father.
A Chain of Command from the Father
John 10 & 12:
“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me…
… they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
… the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again…
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
excerpt John 10 NASB
And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
John 12:44-45 NASB
49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
John’s Gospel has already set the scene for Jesus’ New Commandment. Let the church hear what our Master and Teacher Christ Jesus says to the church.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34 CSB
Beloved believer, does everyone know that Christ Jesus is your Teacher and friend? Does the world see your Lord and Savior by your love for one another of His Church?
Are you truly, my fellow saint, a disciple of Jesus?
Do you and Christ’s Church love one another?(And remember, they know us by our love of one another or deny Christ by our lack of love for each other).
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me…
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:15 NASB
The Spirit of Obedience
Witness by the Holy Spirit of the LORD
Recall that John’s Good News of Jesus Christ, the Apostle’s Gospel of witness begins before time:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
The Apostle John was first a young disciple of John the Baptist, known to many as a Prophet of God. John witnesses:
32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John also opens his Gospel testifying to the Authority of Jesus through the same Holy Spirit of the Lord God.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Do you hear the Spirit of Truth?
“… but he who does not obey the Son will not see life!…
Do you, beloved disciple of the risen Lord Jesus recall this?
Do we, HIS CHURCH, have ears to hear Christ’s commandment to the Church – “Love one another, as I have loved you:” is this not for us?
Verily, verily, you may know is a Hebrew tool of emphasis by saying something twice, here meaning truly, truly. The youngest of Jesus’ Jewish Apostles now emphasizes the strong personal relationship of our Lord’s NEW COMMANDMENT a third time.
Here was John recalling this most important time preceding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Do you recall the intimicy of this setting in the upper room?
John 13:
So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am…
“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:16 NASB
There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved… He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
This is the Apostle John, youngest of the Lord’s young Disciples, laying at Jesus’ breast as they all reclined at table. Consider what John means to have recalled Jesus’ emphasis on a New Commandment to love one another.
THE KING OF THE JEWS is about to become the SACRIFICE for sin on a Cross in Jerusalem!
Prophesy of Isaiah
Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem…
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
And Jesus said of the church:
… upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus, of Simon Son of John, who the Lord then called ‘Peter’ or ‘the rock’ – Matthew 16:18b
In the intimacy of an upper room meal with the Lord Jesus, who had washed the Disciples feet, it was Simon Peter who motioned to John to ask Jesus who His betrayer would be. Judas departs then the Lord COMMANDS three times that they must LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
This is My Command
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you…
Are you, beloved, a friend of the Lord Jesus? And do you, fellow disciple, love one another – His Church?
“This is what I command you: Love one another. “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
Comman and encouragement of the Lord Jesus – John 15:17-18 CW
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John (numerous times)
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