“Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]” –Hebrews 10:23.
A brief recap: Back in January of this year, our church entered a 21-day corporate fast. Our pastors chose several leaders to oversee online mid-week prayer groups to encourage those who would join us in this fast. I had the great privilege of being selected as one of those leaders. I share this tidbit of history only to offer you a glimpse into some understanding of the heart and genesis of this teaching. And because last night was our final night of gathering as said prayer group.
In this season, at least, it was our final night to link arms, storming the gates of heaven, lifting up the needs and requests of the Body, covering our pastors and leaders, our teams, families, and encouraging each other to keep on going. To keep pressing into all that God has for us, come what may. Regardless of the times, the persecution, the rejection, the naysayers, or ridicule that comes our way, resulting from our faith in Jesus. To say that our hearts have been knit together in Christ as a result of these many months of praying and pressing in would be an understatement.
This teaching is the full version of the bite-sized bit of reminding and encouragement the Lord had me share with my church family on our last bitter-sweet night together. So, now that you’re all caught up, we can jump right in!
I pray this teaching blesses and encourages you.
What I was given to share with the group came out of John 17. As I said, Jesus’ “Farewell Prayer.” His High Priestly Prayer: what He prayed for the friends who had walked alongside Him during His earthy ministry—and, what He prayed for us, His Church. Those of us He has called to leave our proverbial nets behind us, pick up our cross and follow Him—as decidedly as Peter, Andrew, James, and John once did.
But before I get into the thick of this message, you may be asking why I used Hebrews as the Scripture verse if this teaching was taken from John 17? My answer? This verse in Hebrews is a confirmation. A witness to what Jesus prayed in John 17. It reminds us, fortifies within us, points us towards the surety and hope found within Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In essence, it’s another layer of Truth and hope.
Jesus’ prayer exposes some of what is hidden within His heart sometime before He broke bread with His friends, one last time; before He would take Peter, James and John, the sons of thunder, with Him to pray in Gethsemane’s Garden, one final time. Before, Jesus was beaten beyond recognition and unjustly condemned to die a criminal’s death having been nailed to a tree.
With its rich tones of unplumbed and eternal reverence, deep, abiding love, and a submissive foreknowledge, Jesus lifts His prayer, this confirmation, this eternal Truth, His request up before our Father. An aside: I wonder if Jesus had prayed this prayer, or something like it, on one of the many occasions when He would go off to some quiet place to pray and spend time with the Father? But that rabbit hole is for another day.
The heartbeat of this High Priestly prayer is Jesus’ Pure, sacrificial Love. Jesus is God’s guarantee to us that what binds us to Him can never be broken. “…Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” –Revelation 5:2-5.
This prayer is saturated in encouragement, full of promise and hope. And who doesn’t need the hope only Jesus offers to just pour over them, their family and ministry, their every dry and trembling place right now!
This prayer drips earnestly off Jesus’ tongue, drops lovingly, intentionally, into our parched places—breaking open the dry and barren places in our hearts. New hope then, a renewed exuberance is restored, made fresh. Bursting forth from us as sure and readily as closed-up bud’s spring open after the rains.
In His Sovereignty, Christ knows not only what we need but precisely when and where we need it.
So, as you read this, be re-minded that this same High Priest is interceding for you still—and always. And, be re-minded too, of the Life-giving, Resurrecting, Transforming Power of the Holy One who has taken up residence within your fragile, human frame—if, you have made Jesus the Lord of your life.
Hear and be encouraged then by what “Thus says the Lord” concerning you.
In John 17:6, we hear Jesus re-minding us that we have always been His. In Him, even as He is in the Father. “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
You were in Jesus as He stood over the dark void speaking suns and moons, plants, and planets into existence. As He separated one thing from another, you and I were in Him. A mystery far too great for this writer’s finite mind to take in. Yet how grateful I am to serve a God I cannot fully take in! We hear Paul echoing this Truth back to us in Ephesians 1:4-5. Listen: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”
And in verse 12, Jesus re-minds us that we are protected and guarded in Him—by Him. Nothing can come to us, no accident or harm, no sickness, or loss, no “painful” thing, can touch our lives without Jesus’ permission. “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said” –Job 2:10.
This is a hard Truth. But it is Truth, nevertheless. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger” –Job 1:9-12.
Because you belong to the Living God, you will suffer in this world. Jesus Himself assured us of this. But He also re-mind us to have courage, stand firm, rejoice, be strong, and courageous when all manner of evil comes against us because you are His; He has overcome this world. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” –John 16:33.
We also hear Jesus re-mind us that we have been chosen and created to live holy lives. “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth” –John 17:17-18. Once again, Paul echoes this same Truth in 2 Corinthians 7:1. “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
To say the world we live in is divided would be a gross understatement. Yet in verse 21, we hear Jesus re-mind His children to live in unity—in oneness. We are God’s living Epistles. What kind of a message would we share with a lost and dying world if we act as disjointed and divided as it does? Hear Jesus’ heart for us: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” And I’ll turn to Paul yet again to help solidify this Truth in our hearts, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” –Romans 14:19.
In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul tells us that now we see in part, but soon and very soon, we’ll see fully and clearly. “Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” We have Jesus’ assurance that those who are His will one day be with Him eternally. Jesus wants us for Himself. We are His Bride. He bought and paid for us with His Spotless Blood. “Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!” –verse 24.
This is your destiny, Beloved of God. To be where Jesus is, with Him, singing His praise, drinking in His beauty, His Majesty, eternally.
It’s getting darker by the day, friends. The Restrainer is pulling His hand back. Rejection and persecution are amping up in ways we’ve not witnessed in our lifetime. Church doors are closing daily, and the chaotic, confusing messages of the world are getting louder and louder. Wars and rumors of wars. Gender confusion. Plagues and masks, fear and isolation. Economic instability and social unrest—it all sounds like something out of a bad novel. Yet Jesus re-minds us in His Word not to be surprised by all these things we’re witnessing. Not to lose hope because of what we see happening around us. These things must happen. Instead, look up! Take courage and rejoice because your redemption, your long-awaited desire to see Jesus face-to-face, is about to be fulfilled!
Keep your lamps filled, child of God!
But until then, brothers and sisters, until He comes for us, keep loving each other—your neighbor as yourself. And don’t stop showing hospitality to those around you—give and give and give some more; you can never out-give God. Pray—always, for your loved ones, for that one in prison, and those behind bars. Pray for the one the Holy Spirit is calling in these final hours and minutes. Pray for yourself. Repent of your sins and turn to the only one who can save you. Jesus Christ. Eternity is a long time to have gotten it all wrong. So if you have yet to ask this Jesus into your heart and life as Lord and Savior, allow me to share this final reminder with you. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”—John 14:6.
Please, ask Jesus into your heart today. We are not promised tomorrow. This is not a scare tactic, friend; it is the Truth spoken in love. Listen! You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city and stay a year and make money.” You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? It is like fog. You see it and soon it is gone” –James 4:13-14.
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