Actually, I think most of my material was taught in class. That happens occasionally.

But his I omitted …

Jesus the Great “I AM” (translating “EGO EIMI” particularly emphasized in John’s Gospel) speaks (in John 17:26) three closing words to His Father … “I IN THEM” in English, but “EGO EN AUTOS” in Greek! Either way, we know (intimately) Jesus God’s Son, His “EGO” at that. (His eternal EGO makes my little ego complete, fulfilled! “He is our life,” Paul preaches in Colossians 3:4.)

The John 17 Prayer ends with a meaningful “hina clause.” a Statement of Purpose. “Father, that (‘hina’ in Greek) the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Note this. The Upper Room elongated Sermon began way back in John chapter 13. Where another “hina clause” opens the whole Section … “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that (hina) he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”

Both Clauses deal with Jesus’ disciples, those who believed on Him! Both these “Purposes” still today rest on our Lord’s Heart … where He is still praying them for us! Yes, from the Father’s Right Hand in Heaven! Our welfare, our “Peace!”

How’s this Word Picture (yet thrilling Reality) of our being made “perfect in one” in Jesus? (Quoting John 17:23.) He is the HEAD of the Church, with us being the body of the Church! (Head and body … organically made as one!)

Oh yes, one more thing …

Heaven is promised us Christians, from the very second we believe in Jesus. Yet Jesus still prays for the Promise to become Reality! (“That they may be with Me,” verse 24.) My point being that God loves it when we remind Him of His previous Words, His Promises!

Ezekiel 36:36-37 verbalizes what Jesus did here …

“Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I WILL DO IT (PROMISE) will do it. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I WILL YET FOR THIS BE ENQUIRED OF (PRAYER) by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”

Wow!

Now, watch the video if at all possible …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I am captivated by the thought of Jesus praying, not only for His contemporary disciples, but also for believers to come! Our Lord certainly had faith in the growth of His Church!

If you recall, Jesus in Matthew 16:18 resolutely said “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH!”Future saints!

And this Church (including those of us who been saved over the past few years), millennia after Jesus waked the earth … will be some day be … “glorious, not having spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish!” Quoting Ephesians 5:27!

No wonder our Lord so earnestly prays for those who “shall believe” on Him!

In this 17th chapter we have Jesus praying as our Mediator to His Father. Obviously having our needs and burdens and trials on His Heart! This is a fulfillment of Bible typology. When Israel’s High Preist went into the Holy Place to commune with God … he wore an outer covering on his chest called a “breastplate.” On it were engraved (on twelve precious stones) the names of all the tribes of Israel! They were, so to speak, on his heart! Let’s then praise God for Jesus our great High Priest! Who wears us on His Heart, in His Heart!

I tried in the Lesson to depict this One-ness between the Father, Son, Holy Spirit … a Unity into which we Christians are invited to participate!

Here are some One-ness verses that might help to further illustrate. The Harmony that exists between believing Jews and gentiles, for example. “For he (Jesus) is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Jews and gentiles). Ephesians 2:14

Furthermore, Colossians 2:2 says that we Christians are to be “knit together in love!” Sounds pretty unified!

1 John 1:3 pictures this as well … “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

Wow!

EVERY BLESSING WE HAVE, EVERY POSSESSION WE ENJOY … IS A RESULT OF THE INTIMATE UNION WE HAVE WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Now, if you can, watch the whole Lesson …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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“To sanctify” basically means “to make holy.” To separate, to consecrate, to purify.

Someone well said of us Christians … “We live between the LOVE of God and the HATE of the world.”

And it seems like our Lord here in His “Upper Room” Sermon placed special emphasis on the hatred the world would heap on us Believers. He highlights such animosity in John 15:18-27, a long Unit! Then again in John 16:20-23 and John 16:31-33. (Each of these Passages is in the LAST HALF of this great Sermon, in fact!)

I love this quote … “JESUS SEES OUR POTENTIAL MORE THAN OUR PAST!” (He certainly did in Simon Peter and again in Saul of Tarsus, later Paul!)

I mentioned that the Word of God … “Sanctify them through Thy Truth, THY WORD IS TRUTH” … is essential for our spiritual growth. And I suggested that this fourth Petition of the Lord’s John 17 Prayer seems to correspond to the Portion of the Model Prayer where He taught the disciples to pray in Matthew 6 … “GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD!”

But the Matthew 6 “bread” seems to be physical (bodily nourishment) while the John 17 parallel apparently refers to (not physical) spiritual Bread, the Word of God!

As in … “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

Jeremiah 15:16 too … “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.”

And let’s not forget Job 23:12 … “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” More than my necessary food!

Someone rightly said … “THE GOAL OF TRUTH IS NOT JUST WISDOM, BUT HOLINESS!” Sanctify us, O Lord.

Verse 18’s powerful Statement of the “Great Commission” (Go and tell the Gospel) proves that … we are sanctified to serve!

This is memorable. Jesus died FOR us. He now lives IN us!

The Hebrews Verses I mentioned that focus on sanctification are … Hebrews 2:11, Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:14 and Hebrews 13:12!

Jesus (ascended) is still in Heaven right now … praying for us! And I’m sure that includes asking God to further “sanctify” us to live for Him! To make us holy in our practical lives.

Watch the Class …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Jesus’ great Prayer continues in these four verses. Here we learn (again) that world will hate us Christians. This includes part of the “religious” world! In fact, the word “religion” is only found five times in the Bible, most of them in a bad sense! The noun is derived from the Latin verb “religare,” which means “to bind, to restrict, to tie up!” Yes, religion enslaves, but our Lord Christ Jesus sets us free!

Verse 13 speaks of Joy, our Lord’s very Joy in reality! I wanted to illustrate the concept of joy in class by using an example of God’s created world.

(Remember that Text in Job chapter 12:7-9! “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the FOWLS OF THE AIR, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?”)

The little bird called the chickadee weighs less than half an ounce and must eat at least 10% of its body weight daily to survive! It does not migrate in the winter! It stays through all the bitter storms, longer hours of darkness and freezing cold! AND NEVER LOSES ITS SONG! It has joy (always chirping not moaning) throughout all the lean times of its life! It has become a symbol of joy in the avian area of creation. (But in class I forgot to tell you about this little miracle of God!)

By the way, this “Joy Verse,” verse 13 … is the numerical Center of John 17, which has 26 verses! This alone is amazing and may be instructive (didactic) as well!

Jesus sure did teach His disciples well prior to His Ascension back to Glory, forewarning them of coming persecution! Then again, Jesus is always truthful! Two verses here …

John 8:45 … “And because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, ye believe me not.”

And the more familiar John 14:2 … “If it were not so, I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU.”

Please learn … we Christians then live between THE LOVE OF GOD and THE HATRED OF THE WORLD! No wonder we need God’s Wisdom every single day.

Look how Jesus keeps emphasizing the persecution that is coming to His disciples, mentioning these hard times in … John 15:18-27, John 16:1-4, John 16:20-23 and again in John 16:31-33! (Notice that all these Passages are located in the “Upper Room” Sermon! Read them if possible.)

Someone quipped long ago … “The hatred of the world is the very wardrobe of the saint of God.” If so, a lot of so-called Christians are spiritually naked! Paul the Apostle believed this! 2 Timothy 3:12 … “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

The three main components of the evil world are, according to 1st John 2:15-17 … (1) the lust of the flesh, (2) the lust of the eyes, and (3) the pride of life! (One Preacher taught that these are the only 3 weapons, implements, in the devil toolbox!)

Actually, the devil (serpent) lured Eve into sin, using these same three temptations, avenues into sin!

Lust of the flesh … the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Life was “food,” which could be “eaten!” (Have you even noticed how many times sin in the Bible is linked in some way to food, eating?)

Lust of the eyes … the tree being “pleasant to the eyes!” Genesis 3:6

The pride of life … eat of Tree and you will be elevated, magnified, popularized! “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Wow!

Have you watched the Lesson yet?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I mentioned in class that the New Testament calls the Holy Ghost “the Spirit of Christ.” It indeed does, twice!

Romans 8:9 … “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

1 Peter 1:11 … “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.”

In John chapter 19 thus far …

Verses 1-5 have emphasized “glorifying” the Son and the Father!

But verses 6-19 emphasize “sanctifying” the people of God, His followers!

Living holy lives for our dear Lord’s sake.

Our chapter speaks several times about the “Name” of the Lord, of our great God. (Four times in all!)

Proverbs 18:10 came to mind … “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”

Just as God the Father “kept” Israel long ago … so Jesus is asking Him to “keep” the Church!

Jeremiah 31:10 … “Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.”

Just a few things I omitted in today’s lesson. Of course, you can watch the whole Class anytime!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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