Author: Jim Cantelon

Key Verse: John 17:26 “I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known…”

Chapter 17 is known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” for His disciples. It gives special insight into Jesus’ assessment of His own ministry. It also helps us see what He expected of His Father in terms of the ongoing life of the church-to-be.

First, let’s look at Jesus’ self-assessment. What did He do? It shouldn’t surprise us that the number one thing Jesus did was to make the Father glorious on earth. “I have brought You glory…” (v.4). How? By “completing the work You gave Me to do.” In other words, by obedient action.

Then, Jesus revealed the Father “to those whose You gave Me” (v.6). To put it another way, Jesus uncovered God to the disciples (that’s what “revelation” means: “to uncover”). In doing so, He “gave them the words You gave Me” (v.8). The uncovering was consistent with the Word of the Father. It was God’s Word. This is what Jesus did and what Jesus was. He was God’s Word even as He spoke God’s words.

But Jesus also had expectations of His Father. He asks Him to protect them (vss. 11b,15). He asks Him to “sanctify them by the truth…” (v.17) and to bring them “to complete unity” (v.23). He wants them to dwell in God (v.21).

Then Jesus makes a promise. He says He will “continue to make You [the Father] known” to the disciples (v.26). He will continue to uncover God so that the emerging Church will be drenched in an overflowing knowledge of God. Christianity will not be static, but dynamic: ever growing “from faith to faith” and in the “grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” This growth however, will be rooted in the solid soil of the Word of God. The living Word will always be the focus of the written word. The word will reveal the Word, and the Word will reveal the Father.

Key Verse: John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

I’m afraid a lot of us see God as a celestial errand-boy. He’s there to do our will, meet our needs. And some of us have adopted various “get-what-you-want” systems. We think we know how to manipulate Him: all you need is to master the right praise system or prayer system and the magic button reveals itself — push and enjoy. And to add fuel to our fire, we quote half truths, or whole truths out of context. For instance, “…ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” But we ignore the great qualifier.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…”, This is the great qualifier. God is not a giving us a carte blanche. Our will must conform with God’s will or there is no deal. Our desire must spring out of His desire, and His desire is that we “bear much fruit”, thereby glorifying that “Father” (v.8). Fruitfulness is the litmus test. God’s glory is the chief end.

There are other qualifiers in this chapter. For instance, “You are My friends if you do what I command” (v.14). Or, “If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love…” (v.10). And what is Jesus’ command? “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you” (v.12). The Lord isn’t looking for religious people, or holy voters — He’s looking for disciples — people who make Him glorious before the world.

I suppose the reminder that always bears repeating is this: we serve God, He doesn’t serve us. He loves us with an everlasting love, and sent His Son to die for our sins, but He will never let us reduce Him to a means of achieving our own ends. In fact, when our faith becomes a way of getting our way, we’ve become heretics.

Jesus is Lord. He calls the shots.

Key Verse: John 14:2 “I go to prepare a place for you.”

The death of a loved one always catches us off guard. We may have known for months that the tumour was malignant and our loved one was living with a six month sentence; but when the moment of death occurs, we’re not as ready for it as we thought.

The next few days are a flurry of activity — phone calls to relatives and friends, visits to the undertaker, visits from those same relatives and friends, family meetings, and finally the funeral itself. After the interment, there’s usually a social time, lots of tears, scores of pledges to keep in touch, “if there’s anything I can do, don’t hesitate to call”, and then the crunch. Walking into that empty room; seeing those clothes still hanging in the closet; expecting to see him/her in their favourite chair. But the worst thing for many is seeing that empty place at the breakfast table. They’re not there: they’ve left their place.

But, as far as God is concerned, they’ve taken their place. Our loss is heaven’s gain. Jesus said, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.”

“A place for you.” Isn’t that a wonderful thing! It affirms our individuality. It affirms God’s providence. It affirms Jesus’ power and purpose in and for our lives. It affirms hope.

Think back. So much of what you are today is the product of “places” you have occupied over the years. That bedroom. That treehouse. That cottage. That desk. Places that have imprinted your indelibly for a lifetime — positively and/or negatively.

What a joy to know there is one place none of us have seen yet; and it’s the most important place of all. We will bear its imprint for eternity. And Jesus is the designer and builder!

It’ll be a masterpiece!

Key Verse: John 13:16 “…a servant is not greater than his master…”

I think most of us have the instinctive ability to discern between the merely obsequious and the purely altruistic. Huh? How’s that again? What I mean is, we can usually tell when someone is being self-serving even while appearing to be serving us. And we can tell when someone is helping us purely for our sake, with no ulterior motive. In most cases, the altruistic person is ministering from a position of strength; not physical, mental, or financial strength, necessarily, but from moral strength. However shy, retiring, or self-effacing they may appear to be, there is a deep inner security characterizing their private world. They have moral fibre rooted in spiritual peace.

Notice the foundation of inner strength out of which Jesus ministered in this chapter — He “knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God…” (v.3). Jesus had nothing to prove and nothing to gain by washing His disciples’ feet; but He did have a lesson to teach. Because He was their Master and Lord, His disciples would never be able to justify a superior attitude to the masses who would embrace Christianity over the succeeding centuries. Jesus had assumed the most lowly posture in washing His disciples’ feet; for the remainder of the world’s history, no Christian leader could afford to do less.

So we don’t serve to get; we serve to give. Rather than striving, we rest in the confidence that we are loved. God has committed Himself to us, and He never backs down from what He has promised His children.

Key Verse: John 12:43 “…they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

The Sanhedrin was the ruling council of Jerusalem. They were Pharisees of high education, wealth and reputation who acted as judges, or rulers, over the Jewish people. Under the high priest, they acted as a sort of “Supreme Court”, meeting from time to time as the situation warranted. In this chapter we read that “many even among the rulers believed” in Jesus. But they did so secretly, because their political survival depended on “the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

Jesus warned these secret yet timorous believers, “When a man believes in Me, he does not believe in Me only, but the One who sent Me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears My words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day” (vss. 44-48 NIV). No doubt, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both members of the Sanhedrin, were listening.

These two men must have gone through months of soul-searching. Like Christian politicians of today, they must have debated within themselves, or perhaps even together, as to whether they should outwardly vote with the party against their hearts in order to remain in a position to influence the system slowly and subtly, or whether they should openly declare their convictions and risk being voted out of power, thus nullifying their “salt and light” influence.

Nicodemus and Joseph finally decided to be “salt and light” outside of the political arenas. For it was they who, just a few days later, publicly identified with the crucified Christ — lovingly taking Him down from the cross, anointing His body for burial, and laying Him to rest in Joseph’s own family sepulchre. They lost their earthly power but gained a heavenly kingdom.

Key Verse: John 11:50 “…it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people…”

The raising of Lazarus from the dead was the final straw. The religious authorities were running scared. “If we let him go on like this…the Romans will come and take away our place (temple) and our nation”, they cried (v.48). Especially threatened was the high priestly clique. As long as there was no messianic movement attracting the attention of Rome, the high priest and this “country” were virtually in charge of Jerusalem and the rich temple income, but an hit of political insurrections would end this comfortable situation. Jesus was now a political threat. He was a people mover and , indeed, a People Movement — a threat to the status quo. So Caiaphas, the hight priest, decided the time to act had come. What he said was incitement to murder, but it seemed the only alternative. Jesus had to die.

“You do not realize”, Caiaphas said to the Sanhedrin, “that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” John, the writer of this book, makes an editorial comment, “He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one” (vss.51,52). Caiaphas was making an unconscious prophecy that Jesus would die for both Jew and Gentile. His incitement to murder was unknowingly a bold declaration of the purpose of God.

John would put it another way in another place, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Key Verse: John 9:25b “I was blind but now I see!”

What a great story we read in chapter nine! Let me summarize it. Jesus is walking along and sees a man who was born blind. The disciples ask a question typical of orthodox religion of the time, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answers, “Nobody sinned here.” This offended the disciples’ religious sensibilities, you can be sure!

He then goes through a little ritual of spit and mud and orders the blind man to find his way to the pool of Siloam. Onlookers must have felt some pity for this poor guy tottering down to the pool with his face disfigured by the mud. “Maybe he’s gone off the deep end”, some of them may have though. But he did what Jesus commanded, and he “came home seeing”, although he had yet to see his healer.

Then follows a series of discussions, interviews, and confrontations between the man and his religious superiors. The Pharisees (remember, they were the ancient equivalent of a lot of us orthodox evangelicals!) are so obtuse as to discredit the miracle because it happened on the Sabbath. The parents are brought into it, but they remain neutral, because they don’t want to be thrown out of the synagogue over any Jesus Christ controversy. In the middle of it all is a man who had never seen but now sees. He’s so stubborn in insisting on seeing and refusing to bad-mouth Jesus, that finally he is thrown out of the synagogue.

Then the man gets to meet his healer, face to face, eye to eye. At first he didn’t recognize Jesus. How could he? But there must have been something about Jesus’ voice or His touch. “Lord, I believe”, the man says, and “worships” Jesus.

What was Jesus’ assessment of it all? “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind” (v.39). Let’s never think ourselves beyond need. If we do, we may find that our “guilt remains” (v.41).

Key Verse: John 8:31 “If you abide in My words, you are My disciples indeed.”

I like the way the NIV puts it, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples.” The word  “hold” is a strong verb; it speaks of mothers embracing their newborn, and ship-wrecked sailors clutching the life-line, refusing to let go. It speaks of commitment.

Whenever young couples come to me for premarital counselling, I tell them there are three words to remember in terms of making marriage last. Those words are, 1) commitment, 2) commitment, and 3) commitment. The marriage ceremony underscores the word –“… to have and to hold from this day forward. For better or for worse. In sickness and in health. For richer or for poorer. Till death us do part.” That’s the kind of foundation you can build a life on!

I’ve sometimes wondered if it might not be a bad idea for some of us evangelical pastors to make a bit more of a person’s commitment to Christ at salvation that merely have the publicly “come forward”. Why not put together a public ceremony wherein vows are expressed to Christ: where a new believer is gripped with the thrilling but awesome responsibility of what it means to call oneself a follower of Jesus, after he has made that initial “come forward” move.

The vows could go something like this: “I _________________ take you now, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as my Saviour and Lord. I have acknowledged and confessed my sin; now I declare before this body of sin, and walk in a new direction. And, even as I do so, I charge this body with the responsibility of correcting and guiding me, as I grow from faith to faith. I am no longer my own. I belong to Christ even as I now take my place in His Body. I take hold of HIs teaching. I am His disciple. So help me God.” Amen.

Key Verse: John 7:43 “So there was division among the people because of Him.

The setting for this chapter is Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. As you read it, you get a fascinating insight into the uproar surrounding Jesus in the public sector: He really rocked the boat.

For instance, He was an amazement to people simply in terms of His ability as a teacher — “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”, they asked (v.15). Some were sure He was demon-possessed (v.20); others couldn’t believe how immune He was to arrest, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him.” So, some reasoned, maybe he is who he says he is, “Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ?” (vss. 25, 26)

Then there were those who tried to figure out Jesus’ teaching, but succeeded only in becoming more confused. “Where does this man intend to go, that we cannot find Him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What does he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

So some thought Jesus a prophet; others the Christ. Still others saw Him as a dangerous revolutionary, the sooner dead the better. But whatever your opinion of Jesus, you couldn’t stay neutral anymore then that today — “the people  were divided because of Jesus” )v.43).

Even the temple guards and the Pharisees were divided, and the Pharisees attributed any credence imputed to Jesus as nothing more than ignorance, “Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them” (vss. 48,49).

There was only one clear voice in this “mob”, only one clarion note in the chaos: the man Nicodemus. After his talk with Jesus by night, he had become a believer (albeit secret, at this point), and he was prepared to publicly give Jesus the benefit of the doubt (vss. 50, 51).

Jesus still rocks the boat today. He is divisive. He’s an either/or kind of person–there’s no middle ground. You either accept Him or reject Him. He refuses to let us “halt between two opinions”.