January 15, 2018 NOT OF THIS WORLD
John 17:14-17, 21: “I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. I do not ask Thee to take them out of this world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth; Thy word is truth. that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may also be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.”
In John 17, as Jesus nears the end of His earthly ministry and is soon to be crucified, He prays for His disciples, committing them to the care of His Father. This prayer was not only for the disciples of that day, but is also a prayer for all believers today. As we read this prayer, we find two central themes throughout the prayer. One of the major themes of this prayer is that believers are “not of this world.” Jesus was not being poetic or simply using symbolic wording; Jesus meant just what He said: His disciples are not of the world even though they live in the world. As believers, we were known by God long before our physical birth. God knew that because all of mankind would sin against Him; He knew that man would need to be redeemed. God’s perfect plan of redemption was that His only Son would come and die on the cross as the supreme sacrifice for our sin, and because Jesus bore our sin and died in our place, we were redeemed, and restored to a right relationship with God. This world is simply a place where God chose for us to live in the physical realm and it would be a time of being transformed into His image. The amazing truth is that we are from God, He Fathered us, He designed us, and He loved us even before our physical birth. Jesus even calls us His brothers and He tells us that God is His Father and He is our Father as well. Hebrews 2:11. When it becomes real in our spirit that the God who created the universe is our Father, it changes everything. With God as our Father, what have we to fear? Nothing. We can know that our Father loves us and that He will allow only what is good and what is designed for our being transformed into His image. (We live in a fallen world where ‘bad’ things happen, but God’s grace and presence makes us overcomers.) The second major theme of this prayer is that of God being in Jesus, Jesus being in God, and us being in them! It is God’s heart that we enjoy the perfect unity that He and His Son enjoys. Not only are we to be in unity with God and the Son, we are also to be in unity with other believers. God has ordained that when the world sees this unity among God and His Son and those who belong to Him, the world will then know that God sent Jesus into the world as Savior. Realizing our position in Christ, that He is in us and that we are in Him, is absolutely essential if we are to live according to the plans and purposes of God. Let us not live ‘short sighted’ of who we are and as a result live as though we are of this world. We have been joined to God, we have been made new, we have eternal life with Him, and heaven is our real home. The good news is that we can enjoy a bit of heaven even here on earth-all because He is in us and we are in Him!
John 17:26 “and I have made My name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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