Bible in one year 2/9/2022 John 16-18 By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

 Bible in one year 2/9/2022 John 16-18

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music; pastoral ministry & counseling

Chapter 16 Jesus unveiled His return - Concerning the Holy Spirit (16:7-33)

 

But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John16:7). When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment;  In regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John16:7-11) I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.(v.12)  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (v,13) He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John16:14-15)

 Concerning His return (John 16: 7-33)

 

 “In a little while you will see me on more, and then after a little while you will see me.”(v.16) Some of his disciples said to one another, What does he mean by saying, “ In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me, and then after a little while you will see me,” and “Because I am going to the Father?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by “a little while?” We don’t understand what he is saying.” (vv.17-18)

 

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, “ In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me?”  I tell you the truth; you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (vv.19-24)

 

Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” (vv.25-28)

The Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” (vv.29-30)

“You believe at last!” Jesus answered. But a time is coming and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet, I am not alone, for my Father is with me. (vv.31-32) I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John16:33)

      Sin entered through Adam (Rom.5:12), righteousness is the resurrected Christ (v.10; 1 Cor.1:30), and judgment is for Satan (v.11), who is the author and source of sin (8:44). In Adam we were born of sin. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe into Christ, the Son of God (v.9). If we believe into Him, He is righteousness to us, and we are justified in Him (Rom.3:24;4:25). If we do not repent of the sin that is in Adam and believe into Christ, the Son of God, we will remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt.25:41). There are the main points of the gospel. The Spirit uses these points to convict the world. To convict means to convince, to condemn, to cause people to rebuke themselves. Verse 13 the work of the Spirit is, first, to convict the world. Second, as the Spirit of truth He guides the believers into all the reality; that is, He makes all that the Son is and has real to the believers. All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son (Col.2:9), and all that the Son is and has is declared as reality to the believers through the Spirit (vv.14-15). This declaring is the glorifying of the Son with the Father. Hence, it is a matter of the Triune God being wrought into and mingled with the believers. Third, the Spirit declares the things that are to come, which are revealed mainly in Revelation (Rev.1:1,19). The three aspects of the Spirit’s work correspond with the three sections of John’s writings: his Gospel, his Epistles, and his Revelation. Verse 33 In this world you will have trouble. There are three aspects of this (1) general trial s that come simply because we live in a sinful world (Rom.8:35-36); (2) afflictions that God allows to come into our lives (2Cor.12:7); and (3) chastisement that comes more directly from God (Heb.12:6).

 

Chapter 17 Intercession of the Son of God –Jesus’ prayer for His disciples

 

            After Jesus said this, looked toward heaven and prayed,

“Father the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John17:1-5)

 

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the Words you gave me and they accepted them, they knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. (vv.6-8)

I prayed for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. And I am coming to you. Holy

Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. (v.11) While I was with them, I protect them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. (vv 9.-12)

 

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (vv.13-19)

 

My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be ONE. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me .

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be ONE as we are ONE: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete UNITY to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me . (vv.20-23)

 

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am., and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (V.24)

 

Righteous Father, though the world you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (v.25-26)

 

 In chapter 17 Jesus’ prayer also called “high priestly” prayer the Lord prays for (1) His own glorification (vv.1,5) (2) believers’ protection (v.11); (3) believers sanctification(v.17); (4) the unity of the believers (vv.12-23);(5) the ultimate glorification of believers (v.24). It is essentially an intercession for those who will form the church (vv.6-26).

He was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, being seen by the three disciples (Matt.17:1-4; John1:14). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He predicted that He would be glorified and the Father would be glorified in Him. Now He was about to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine element, His divine life, might be released. Also, He would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified.

 

The Lord’s  prayer concerning the divine mystery is fulfilled in three stages.

First, it was fulfilled in His resurrection in that His divine element, His divine life, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), and His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory (Luke24:26), and in that the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In His resurrection God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts.3:13-15).

 Second, it has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life has been expressed through His many members. He has been glorified in them, and the Father has been glorified in Him through the church (Eph.3:21; 1 Tim.3:15-16).

Third, it will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem in that He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the Holy City for eternity (Rev.21:11,23-24). In praying in this way, the Lord unveiled His person, His deity; He is the same as the Father in the divine glory.

Verse 6 your name and v.26 means the very name Father. The name God and the name Jehovah were adequately revealed to man in the Old Testament, but the name Father was not, though it was mentioned briefly in Isa.9:6;63:16; 64:8. The Son came and worked in the Father’s name and worked in the Father’s name (5:43;10:25) to manifest the Father to the men whom the Father gave Him and to make the Father’s name known to them (v.26). That name reveals the Father as the source of life (5:26) for the propagation and multiplication of life. Many sons would be born of the Father (1:12-13) to express the Father. Hence, the Father’s name is very much related to the divine life.

Verse 11 is the first aspect of oneness, the first aspect of the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father’s name and by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers, born of the Father’s life, enjoy the Father’s name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness.

Verse 17 Jesus prayed for the sanctification, sanctify means to set apart for God and His holy purposes. To be sanctified also is to be separated from the world and its usurpation unto God and His purposes.

Verse 21 That all of them may be one . All believers belong to the one Body of Christ (1Cor.12:13) and to the same household of God (Eph.2:19). This spiritual unity should be visibly expressed in the exercise of spiritual gift (Eph4:3-16), pray, and exhortation.(2 Cor.1:11;Heb.10:25). This is second aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the Triune God through sanctification, separation from the world by the word of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, separated from the world unto God, enjoy the Triune God as the factor of their oneness.

Verse 22 this is the third aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way. This is the oneness of the divine commission; it fulfills the Son’s prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers; and that the Father be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son’s glorification. Hence, the ultimate oneness of the believers is 1) in the eternal life of God (in the Father’s name), 2) by the holy WORD of God, and 3) in the divine glory to express the Triune God for eternity. That the Son might accomplish this oneness, the Father gave Him six things: 1. the authority (v.2); 2. The believers (vv.2,6,9,24); c). 3. The work (v.4); 4.The words (v.8); 5. The Father’s name (vv.11-12);  6. The Father’s glory (v.24).That the believers may participate in this oneness, the Son gave them three things: eternal life (v.2), the holy WORD OF GOD (vv.8,14), and the divine glory (v.22).

            Verse 24 The Son is in the divine glory of the Father’s expression. Therefore, for the Son’s believers to be with Him where He is means that they are with Him in the divine glory to express the Father. The fulfillment of this matter began with the Son’s resurrection, when He brought His believers into participation in His resurrection life, and will consummate in the New Jerusalem, when His believers will be brought fully into the divine glory for the ultimate corporate expression of the Triune God in eternal.

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.