Gospel of John [17:19-21]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 39. Sanctification of Christ and the unity of the Church.

Title: Gospel of John [17:19-21]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 39. Sanctification of Christ and the unity of the Church.

 

 

JOH 17:1 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee,

 

JOH 17:2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life.

 

JOH 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

 

JOH 17:4 "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.

 

JOH 17:5 "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

 

JOH 17:6 "I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word.

 

JOH 17:7 "Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee;

 

JOH 17:8 for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.

 

JOH 17:9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;

 

JOH 17:10 and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

 

JOH 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

JOH 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

JOH 17:13 "But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

 

JOH 17:14 "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

JOH 17:15 "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

 

JOH 17:16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

JOH 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.

 

JOH 17:18 "As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

 

JOH 17:19 "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

 

Our Lord set Himself apart from Satan and the KOD. He denied Satan’s temptations in the desert and He denied defending Himself in front of all who shouted, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” As always, He relied upon the Father and so He sanctified Himself unto the Father. Satan wanted Him to make bread out of stones, to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, to scream unfair at His unfair accusers and executioners, but if He had done any of these things He would have denied the perfect will and purpose of the Father. Now, since He has done so, He has through His death and resurrection given us the ability to do so. Every believer, without exception, can set himself apart from the sin nature, the world system, and Satan and the KOD through Him.

 

For one time the priest and the sacrificial victim are one. This makes the sacrifice not only completely voluntary but uniquely efficacious.

 

If the High Priest is perfect and just and the sacrifice is Himself then there is no denying its justice. We cannot in this scenario have a victim that screams “unfair!” or a High Priest that dedicates the sacrifice unreasonably. Only here do we have perfect harmony between Priest and victim.

 

The Levitical sacrifices of the Mosaic Law contained involuntary animals. Our Lord was a voluntary sacrifice.

 

HEB 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

 

HEB 10:2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

 

HEB 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

 

HEB 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

HEB 10:5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

"Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired ,

But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;

 

HEB 10:6 In whole burnt offerings and  sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure .

 

HEB 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come   

(In the roll of the book it is written of Me )

To do Thy will, O God.'"

 

HEB 10:8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

 

HEB 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will ." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

 

HEB 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

HEB 10:11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

 

HEB 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God ,

 

HEB 10:13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

 

HEB 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

 

JOH 17:19 "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

 

We must be first sanctified and pure in heart in order to accomplish the work the Father has predestined for us through the blood of the Lamb and the truth.

 

Thus, His finished work allows the disciples as well as all believers in the CA to be set apart from the world and the flesh and the KOD in truth, consecrated unto the Father in love and thus become expert witnesses of Him in the territory of the enemy.

 

Now He prays for the Church to come.

 

JOH 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

 

JOH 17:21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.

 

The disciples are the nucleus of the community of the new age of the Church. As a result of their being sent into the world with the message of life, others will believe in Christ through their testimony. For those others Christ prays, and specifically that they, that we, be one.

 

The Christian is subject to none in respect of his liberty and subject to all in respect of his charity.

 

It is a matter of unspeakable joy that each Christian, however humble or unknown to men, however poor, unlearned, or despised, can reflect that he was remembered in prayer by "Him whom God hears always." We value the prayers of pious friends. How much more should we value this petition of the Son of God?! To that single prayer we who are Christians owe infinitely more real benefits than the world can ever bestow; and in the midst of any trials we may remember that the Son of God prayed for us, and that the prayer was assuredly heard, and will be answered in reference to all who believe.

 

The unity for which He prays for His body is a unity of love. It is a participation in the unity of love which subsists eternally between the Father and the Son.

 

The twelfth apostle was called by Christ on the road to Damascus and in the Arabian Desert Paul received revelation from the Lord concerning His doctrines for the Church as Paul preached in Arabia. Paul also learned from Peter about the life of our Lord in Jerusalem. And so Paul came to know of this principle of the unity of agape love within the body of Christ.

 

So convinced was Paul of the necessity of unity that witnessing it in the churches he originated gave him the most joy.

 

Php 2:1 If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,

 

Php 2:2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

 

Php 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;

 

Php 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

 

 

The Church began in Jerusalem, but the mother Church of the mostly Gentile churches that Paul began was in Antioch of Syria. The churches in each city recognized there common bond and there was considerable coming and going between the two. A famine occurred in Jerusalem and it was the church in Antioch that sent to the leaders in Jerusalem a sum of money. Organizing financial relief from Gentile Christians to the Jerusalem church was a major concern of Paul's.

 

Paul's first visit to the Jerusalem church was three years after his conversion. During this visit he spent two weeks staying with Peter. His second visit to the Jerusalem church was fourteen years later, GAL 2:1.

 

GAL 2:1 Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

 

GAL 2:2 And it was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

 

These men of reputation would have been the Lord's half brother James, Peter, and John. At this conference he set before them the gospel as he was accustomed to preach it to Gentiles. The reason he gives should give us pause, "for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain." Was he checking with them to see if his gospel was authentic? That cannot be implied since Paul received his gospel and his commission as an apostle directly from the resurrected Lord. His commission was not derived from Jerusalem and he would have never modified his gospel out of deference to any human authority.

 

GAL 2:6 But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) —  well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.

 

What Paul was concerned about was not the validity of his gospel but its practicability. His commission was not derived from Jerusalem, but it could not be effectively discharged except in fellowship with Jerusalem. A cleavage between his Gentile mission and the mother-church in Jerusalem would be disastrous for the progress of the gospel: the cause of Christ would be divided, and all the devotion with which Paul had thus far prosecuted his apostolate to the Gentiles, and hoped to go on prosecuting it, would be frustrated.

 

GAL 2:7 But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised

 

GAL 2:8 (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles),

 

GAL 2:9 and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

 

GAL 2:10 They only asked us to remember the poor —  the very thing I also was eager to do.

 

Paul sought out unity in the Jerusalem and Gentile churches for the sake of the gospel. Satan attempted to cause a rift in the church by exploiting the Jewish and Gentile's manner of life.

 

The Lord stated in the upper room prior to His prayer that unity in the church would promote the gospel.

 

JOH 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

 

JOH 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

 

JOH 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

 

JOH 17:21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.

 

This oneness is with the Father and the Son. The Son did the will of the Father. They were one. The Father in Him and He in the Father. He sent us into the world just as the Father sent Him into the world. The Church finds unity in love as it participates and incorporates in the work accomplished by Christ in unity with the Father.