John Chapter 17
Passage:
John 17:1-26
Theme:
What do we do in difficult circumstances?
Passage
breakdown:
v1-4:
God's glorification
v5-8:
About the disciples
v8-25:
Protection, blessing, empowerment and unity of Christians
v26:
Glory goes back to God
Lesson
outline:
Its
a week (or less) to the dreaded O level exams :( The lesson's main objective,
is to remind us all, that God is ultimately in control, and therefore, we need
not fear what lies ahead=) Exams, school, work, bosses, relationships, etc...
That God has it all under His perfect timing and control=)
Give
them the context of the passage =) It helps to understand the circumstances
Jesus was praying this prayer: Judas had left to betray Jesus - Jesus was literally waiting to be caught
and put to death (now how must that have felt?) and His prayer in the midst of
the situation – was to glorify God, protect His disciples, and submit to God's
will. How amazing is that?
Everyone
has been in a difficult situation before: how do we respond when put into such
situations?
1.
What
was the first thing Jesus did when He started to pray?
He gave glory to God (Refer to Matt
6:9-10 for similarities with the Lord's prayer) – The first thing Jesus did was
to give glory to God. Now ask ourselves: how often do we do that in our daily
lives, much less in times of trouble?
2.
Why
is this so important?
By starting with giving glory to
God, Jesus was showing us, that we should keep our focus on God. Why? Because
when we focus on God, and the immensity and power that He is, what
problems/issues/etc... that we have, are nothing in comparison to Him. Jesus
was going to be tortured and mocked(by His own people nonetheless), betrayed
(by one of His own 12 for 20 pieces of silver (note that Joseph
was sold for 20 as well...given inflation, the actual cost would have been
higher)), and die a criminal's death (for not doing anything wrong). He had
every right to feel unjustified, crappy and rebellious. But nope. All He did
was surrender the entire situation into God's hands (v4). He knew who He was
(v2), and what was at stake(v3), but it didn’t make it any less difficult than
it already was.
Are any of our problems as big as
what Jesus went through? Crushed by one of His closest friends, to be crushed
again by society, and finally by the government and religious authorities: all
of which He CREATED. Jesus took His cross, focused on God, and got the job
done. By His grace, we can too=)
Ultimately, everything that has been
done, that is being done, and will be done, is for God's eternal glory – and in
this, we can trust that as long as we love God, and believe in Him, that He
will do what's best for us =) (Note: What's best for us =/= what we think is
best for us – Its very different)
Leaders,
if you have experiences, please do share=)
3.
After
praying for himself (which was all of one verse), what did He pray for?
His disciples, and for all those who
might believe in His name (i.e. Christians)
4.
What
did He pray for, and what's so important about them?
4.1
Protection:
Protection
from what?
Why
do we need protection? - Satan will fight to retain control, and is set against
all who believe in Christ.
What
is our mission in the world?
What
are the standards of success in this mission?
To
understand this better. What does it mean to be a Christian?:
1.
One
in which we die to ourselves – what we do is ultimately not for our own gain:
we do it for the glory of God.
2.
Which
is unbelievably difficult: when do we ever do something that doesn't benefit
us? Yet this is what we are called to do: Do anything to advance the kingdom
and glory of God, while living as a testimony of His love to the world.
3.
We
might be taken advantage of, we might be put down in the pecking order, we
might be used, but if and only if what we are doing is for His glory, we
too will be glorified, in His time.
4.
But
ultimately, we trust that God has our welfare in mind – which isn’t the same as
comfort (BE CAREFUL HERE)
5.
We
will be tested, we will go through pain, and we will fail: but its all part of
God's refining fire to make us Holy – since when is fire painless?
6.
But
God is our shield: we can trust that whatever happens to us, is part of God's
will.
7.
Isn't
that a great comfort? To know that even within our freedom of choice, we have a
safety net through it all. (Just another measure of God's greatness – infinite
dimensions, infinitely many more choices, and in God's plan, everything's
tailor made to make us who He wants us to be)
So what's so important? - Without protection,
we will always fail and fall to our sinful nature. As long as we remain in the
world as Christians, we need protection because we are different – because we
do not belong here, and will be attacked from all sides by sin, temptations,
and any other devices Satan has to regain control over our souls.
4.2
Sanctification:
What
is sanctity? - The state of Holiness (i.e. to be set apart exclusively)
Why
is it so important?
God
is Holy – He cannot stand sin : By sanctification, we have been made Holy just
as He is, and therefore God can dwell with us. Without it, we cannot approach
God without instant death.
Without
it, all we do comes to naught, because God's hand isn't there :x
(alētheia), is
the “candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation,
falsehood, deceit” (Taken from Blueletterbible) Its the renewing of the mind
and spirit! =)
4.3
Unity:
Why is unity so important?
We
will never be alone: a different trinity is seen here: God in Jesus, Jesus in
us, and therefore us in God and vice versa (covered by the sanctification by
Jesus' blood)– that covers the internal wholeness. As for external wholeness,
isnt there the community of believers?=) that's why the community of believers
are so important – to ground, encourage, pull us back, support and fight with
us each and every day.
By
this, all men will know you are my disciples – Glory still goes back to God.
Without unity, we will not have the support, protection, love, encouragement we
need. I cannot stress how important unity is for our well-being as Christians=)
Its a war, and no one should ever ever, be alone =)
5.
And
after all has been said, Jesus ends off with:”I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you
known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself
may be in them.”
Submission
to the will of the Father. He knew what was at stake, He knew the cost. Still,
He did it anyway <3 (Note the length
of His prayer for us (16 verses for us, 1 for Himself))
Conclusion:
What do we do in difficult circumstances? - we focus on God =) Why? Because He
is the only one who stands above all circumstances =) But when we do so, we
will be attacked by Satan =( But we can stand against him, because we are
assured of Christ's protection over all circumstances in our lives, because we
are sanctified by His blood and therefore we have the power and authority of
Christ, and finally because we are unified as one body in Him=) And all this is
done, for the glory of His name=) So, even as we head out to face the weeks
ahead, let us trust in Him =) after all, He is our All in All=)
*Leaders,
I think we should pray for each individual youth for their exams =) What do ya
think?=)
<3,
Joshua
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment