Devotions - Read Online
Monday | 21 May 2018
As Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, He said that the community of the sons of God who lived in the world would not live and conduct themselves in the self-centred way in which the world lived. That is what He meant when He said, ‘They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.’
The Son asked the Father to continue to unfold the word of sonship to each of His disciples so that they could be sanctified in the truth. This meant that they would know their name and the works that they were to do in the world. As the Father accomplished His work of sanctification in the lives of His sons, then Christ would be able to send them as His disciples into the world to do the works that the Father had commissioned them to do.
The effect of the ministry of Christ’s disciples in the world, from generation to generation, would be that a great company of men and women would be gathered out of the world and into the Father’s family as a unified community. Jesus was also praying for these future believers. This community would be joined together in one Spirit in the same way in which the Father lives in the Son, and the Son lives in the Father. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit would live in the heart of each person, making them a member of the fellowship of Yahweh. This would be the nature of their eternal life.
Jesus then added that He had given the glory of the Father’s name to His disciples. This glory from the Father is what named and sanctified them as sons of God, and gave them the capacity, by the Holy Spirit, to fulfil their work of ministry in the world.
Further Study:
1 Corinthians 2
Daily Proverb:
Proverbs 21
References:
Joh 17:3, 16-23
(3) "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
(16) "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (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. (20) I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; (21) that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (22) The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; (23) I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."
2Co 4:6-7
For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.
Mar 16:15
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
Php 2:14-15
Do all things without grumbling or disputing; (15) so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.