Thought for the Week - 22nd December 2019

Pastor Gareth Watkins

John 17: 1-10

1 After Jesus said these things, he looked toward heaven and prayed,
“Father, the time has come. Give glory to your Son so that the Son can give glory to you.
2 You gave the Son power over all people so that the Son
could give eternal life to all those you gave him.
3 And this is eternal life: that people know you, the only true God,
and that they know Jesus Christ, the One you sent.
4 Having finished the work you gave me to do, I brought you glory on earth.
5 And now, Father, give me glory with you;
give me the glory I had with you before the world was made.
6 “I showed what you are like to those you gave me from the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your teaching.
7 Now they know that everything you gave me comes from you.
8 I gave them the teachings you gave me, and they accepted them.
They knew that I truly came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for people in the world but for those you gave me,
because they are yours.
10 All I have is yours

In our world today we don’t seem to give respect or thanks to God’s blessing or for the provision of God, or for the loyalty, the love and the blessing of God. We don’t give thanks for the friendship of God. We don’t seem to give thanks, and we don’t seem to uphold those things. We’re quick to say when something’s not so good or not quite working. We’re not so quick to give thanks and adoration for the things God has given us.

God expects us to be thankful and generous. Generosity isn’t a word that comes easy into people’s hearts. You can see those who are mean minded, and you can see those who are generous minded. God wants us to be a generous people. He wants us to give in to things out of the best that we have and not from what we have left over.

We need to demonstrate the goodness of God through what we have.

We can learn so much from the stories from Moses, Elijah and the different prophets, but the fullest revelation of God comes through Jesus Himself.

Christ the son came because the Father sent Him. Jesus speaks of the Father and His role as a son, after being sent by the Father. One of the roles that Jesus demonstrates to us is to live a thankful life unto God.

He was obedient, He went and He died. And yet He was thankful to the Father. It’s so wonderful that He does these things – He’s teaching us to be thankful and to glorify God the Father. Yet He came from the Father, from beyond time, and came into our time and demonstrated – because God sent Him – the love of the Father.

He’s demonstrating the glory and the blessings and the provision of the Father. God Himself is demonstrated in His fullness by Jesus Christ.

As I read the scripture above, I noticed several key verses. For example, in Verse 1 – speaking of Jesus Christ revealing the Father to us – it says He looks to heaven and said give glory to the son so He can give glory to You. Jesus wasn’t taking any glory for Himself. He knew what He’d accomplished. And yet the glory is still being directed to the Father. He’s still thankful, and giving all the adoration to God who sent Him into this world for us. He’s still doing that even though, in some ways, He could have said He was a good man who’d accomplished amazing things. Even at this point in His ministry, He’s still giving glory to God.

It shows us something of the nature of Jesus Christ. It shows us something of the nature of God too.

In verse 2 it says that He gave power to the Son over all people, so that the Son could give eternal life to them. Jesus not only came to give glory to God but to bring us eternal life. Eternal life brings a sense of something lasting and worthwhile. A sense that what we’re doing now lasts us unto eternal times, when you pass over and are with God. A sense of eternity through Jesus Christ, that perhaps the prophets couldn’t bring us but Jesus can.

When we talk about Jesus coming into the world, an awful lot has been accomplished for us by that revelation of that little baby being born, but more so the fact that God Himself had intervened in time to bring us to a place where we could glorify God and we could enter into this world of eternal life.

Eternal life given to us. Even if we can’t fully understand it, it’s there.

Jesus came so that the Son could give eternal life to all those that God has given Him. That is all those. No special people or people with a bit of money. It’s all those who God has given Him.

In verse 3 we read that there is only one God. Some would say that all roads lead to God, and others would say to not take it all seriously. It can’t be one of many true Gods and there can’t be many truths. Jesus came so that God would give us eternal life through Jesus, and that God is revealed as the only true God. He’s identifying for us the only path. There is no other path. There is no other theories or ways. To get to this eternal God, christ has been sent to open up the doors.

It’s a marvellous thing!

This is all a description of who Jesus Christ was and is on this earth today. This is why He lived. He lived to give a revelation of God to us.

It’s good for us to think about God the Father, Jesus the Son and the action of the Holy Spirit. It’s good for us to see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one who makes all these things gel together. The Holy Spirit is the power of God to envelope it in our lives. It was the Holy Spirit that gave Jesus the anointing to have His ministry on earth. God gave Him the vehicle to do the work, but He had to receive the Holy Spirit to be empowered to do the work.

We need to see the Father and the Son, but we need to have the power of the Holy Spirit to do our work. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It’s the power of God in us.

In verse 6 we read that Jesus showed the people what God was like. Do you think He’s still doing that today? Is Jesus still showing us God the Father and revealing Him? I would say yes. We can’t have that experience of God necessarily through a preacher. You need that experience through Jesus Christ. You need Jesus to reveal it to you. Moses and the prophets couldn’t reveal God to you in the way that Jesus can. We need Jesus to reveal God to us in such a way that we can’t get away from it. This is our lives and our being.

One of Jesus’ purposes is to show what God is like. If you can see what God is like in any part, it is a miracle. So much has come from the Father, so much has come by the revealed Son, and so much has been empowered to us by the Holy Spirit, but the question still stands – are we thankful?

We see miracle upon miracle, but are we thankful? Are we grateful?

There are those who can’t see these things. They’re far away from it all. For you to know something of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, goes back to this sort of passage where Jesus is sent into the world into time to reveal the Father God. Jesus knew it and He showed it. He showed the nature of God, the power of God, and the eternal life that God wants for us.

In verse 7 we read that Jesus knew and shared that everything that was given to Him comes from God. In verse 8 we read that He shared God’s teachings, which people accepted.

It’s interesting when you see the effect when people accept and follow the teachings of Christ. It’s interesting to watch the change in those people’s lives and their children’s. It’s interesting to watch the effect around their lives. These things are happening today as they were in those days.

God gave Jesus teachings that belonged to God. These teachings have been brought to us. We have a choice – do we accept them? If we accept them, then different blessings come and things happen. They will be Godly events.

Put your focus back where it should be. Go back to the basics. Jesus Christ has come from God. This teaching has come from God. Eternal life comes come from God. The Holy Spirit is given by God to empower you to be a success. Be thankful that you’re not left in the past, but are in the blessed place that God has for you.

Do we believe that the One who came as a baby became a man? Do you believe He brought life, eternity and teachings to us as is described in the bible? If we really believe it then something will happen because of it.

When you have a Heavenly Father, you have an identity. The world likes to rob the world of Fathers these days. A father gives a name, an identity to a home, a place where you belong, and a destination. Being part of the covering of the Heavenly Father brings a tremendous amount for us in 2020 – a lot of teaching, anointing, joy and happiness.

A lot for us in this new year because of what this man did thousands of years ago.

Amen.

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