Easter 7
Devotional
Pause Before The Pulpit
Personal Reflections For Pastors On The Lectionary Readings
John 17:6-19
I urge you, while reading this text, to pretend you are sitting in a pastor's conference and Jesus is at the podium praying this prayer for you and all the other pastors. I have found this to be a powerful way to hear this prayer, so I'm including it in this devotional and will make brief comments throughout it. Imagine now that Jesus is praying for you.
[Dear Father], I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
The key point of this prayer, especially when prayed for pastors, is that we receive and keep the word that God has given us, as found in the Bible. It is through this word that God has been made known to us. To stray from this word and no longer keep it, is to stray from the truth about who God is.
Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
Faith in God's Word is essential, if we are to preserve its truths and proclaim it accurately. Jesus desires that we move from a head-knowledge of the facts to embracing them by faith. Without faith in God's Word, we are merely passing on information versus passionately proclaiming truth. There's a huge difference, both in the preaching and in the end results.
I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
We do well to ask ourselves, from time to time: Is God being glorified in me and through my ministry? Are people hearing the whole truth about God through my preaching, teaching, and pastoral care? If we just talk about the good news of Jesus and don't tell people the bad news about sin, they will not have a complete knowledge of God and he will not be glorified in them. We need to preach the whole package -- law and grace.
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
This is a tremendously comforting portion of Christ's prayer. He was (and still is) praying this for us, as he knows how dangerous this world is for those who believe in him. It was extremely dangerous for the apostles and the first-century church, for persecution broke out quickly. It is still dangerous for many Christians around the world today for the same reason. But it is dangerous for those of us in a free, wealthy, pluralistic society as well. If we boldly proclaim scripture as the living word of God to a fallen humanity we will feel the "heat." Some people might get angry with us and either leave the church or try to throw us out. If we preach the word of God for what it is, absolute truth for salvation, eternal life, and how to live the Christian life, we will be labeled, by some people, as "narrow-minded" and "intolerant." Oh, how we need his protection.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
To be sanctified is to be made more and more in the image of God. We won't become a god or like God in this life, but we will reflect his character. Sanctification can never happen with half-truths, or a law/gospel imbalance, or when truth is reduced to mythology or the relative ideals of only a few. Sanctification only happens on the basis of absolute truths. God's Word gives us those truths and Jesus prayed that we and the church would be sanctified in those truths. Are we? Is the church?
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for praying for me and the whole Christian church. Lord, help me to hear this prayer and respond to the working of your Spirit in and through me as a result of it. Help me to uphold your word as absolute truth. Thank you. Amen.
1 John 5:9-13
There are many important aspects to pastoral ministry, but I think the most important is that of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Along with this is the important role of assuring people that they do, indeed, have eternal life simply by believing in him. Few things grieve me more than when people profess to believe in Jesus for salvation and eternal life, but have no certain assurance that they will indeed go to heaven. Perhaps you have ministered to people who struggle with this.
Do you have absolute assurance of salvation? John wrote that his whole purpose in writing (whether he was referring to the whole epistle or vv. 9-12 is debated) was so that you who believe in the name of the Son of God ... may know that you have eternal life. We can know that we are going to heaven when we die! How sad that there are Christians who do not know this. The fault of that lies, to some degree, with those who are proclaiming God's Word. Are we preaching and teaching our people that if they believe in the name of the Son of God they will go to heaven?
There are Christian denominations who teach some form of eternal security, but the assurance rests, in part, in what the individual has done. The emphasis is put on rituals, or traditions, or activities, all of which may have good, biblical basis, but nonetheless are men's activities that in and of themselves can save no one and serve only to give false assurance. Here then, is the huge danger of the church and pastors preaching and teaching assurance of salvation and eternal life in anything other than the name of Jesus. False assurance is nothing more than that -- false assurance. It is a grievous sin to lead people to believe that they will have eternal life in any other way, and by any other means, than by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in God's Word alone.
If you have been trusting in an event, or a ritual, or a prayer, or some tradition, or anything other than Christ, I beg you to listen carefully to what John so emphatically wrote to us in this text: If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.
There is no testimony greater than God's. However, the pride and ego of mankind (which is fed by the lies and deceptions of Satan) has convinced them that their testimony is more reliable than God's testimony, which is the Bible. This is why we have people standing in authority over the Bible and telling God what is true and what is not. They determine truth based on science, or pop culture, or what feels right and good at any given moment. This testimony is false testimony, and when connected to salvation and eternal life, gives people false assurance. There is only one testimony to be trusted and for us to pin our eternal hopes on -- the testimony of God which he testified to (and through) his Son.
I'm bad at remembering the words to songs, but I vaguely recall a phrase from a song that I sang as a child. It went something like this: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."
Could that be said of us? Whose testimony is greater to us, that of human doctrines, traditions, rituals, and so forth (even if they have some biblical basis), or that of God himself through his Son, Jesus Christ? I pray that for all of us it is the latter and that we will preach and teach that truth as if our very existence, now and for all eternity, depends on it -- for it does!
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you that your word is a certain and trustworthy testimony for us to stake our lives on -- now and for all eternity. If I have been depending, in part or in whole, on anything other than your word for assurance of eternal life, please forgive me and help me to trust in you alone. Help me to know how to preach and teach this assurance to those in my care so they are not given false assurance. Thank you. Amen.
I urge you, while reading this text, to pretend you are sitting in a pastor's conference and Jesus is at the podium praying this prayer for you and all the other pastors. I have found this to be a powerful way to hear this prayer, so I'm including it in this devotional and will make brief comments throughout it. Imagine now that Jesus is praying for you.
[Dear Father], I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
The key point of this prayer, especially when prayed for pastors, is that we receive and keep the word that God has given us, as found in the Bible. It is through this word that God has been made known to us. To stray from this word and no longer keep it, is to stray from the truth about who God is.
Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
Faith in God's Word is essential, if we are to preserve its truths and proclaim it accurately. Jesus desires that we move from a head-knowledge of the facts to embracing them by faith. Without faith in God's Word, we are merely passing on information versus passionately proclaiming truth. There's a huge difference, both in the preaching and in the end results.
I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
We do well to ask ourselves, from time to time: Is God being glorified in me and through my ministry? Are people hearing the whole truth about God through my preaching, teaching, and pastoral care? If we just talk about the good news of Jesus and don't tell people the bad news about sin, they will not have a complete knowledge of God and he will not be glorified in them. We need to preach the whole package -- law and grace.
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
This is a tremendously comforting portion of Christ's prayer. He was (and still is) praying this for us, as he knows how dangerous this world is for those who believe in him. It was extremely dangerous for the apostles and the first-century church, for persecution broke out quickly. It is still dangerous for many Christians around the world today for the same reason. But it is dangerous for those of us in a free, wealthy, pluralistic society as well. If we boldly proclaim scripture as the living word of God to a fallen humanity we will feel the "heat." Some people might get angry with us and either leave the church or try to throw us out. If we preach the word of God for what it is, absolute truth for salvation, eternal life, and how to live the Christian life, we will be labeled, by some people, as "narrow-minded" and "intolerant." Oh, how we need his protection.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
To be sanctified is to be made more and more in the image of God. We won't become a god or like God in this life, but we will reflect his character. Sanctification can never happen with half-truths, or a law/gospel imbalance, or when truth is reduced to mythology or the relative ideals of only a few. Sanctification only happens on the basis of absolute truths. God's Word gives us those truths and Jesus prayed that we and the church would be sanctified in those truths. Are we? Is the church?
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for praying for me and the whole Christian church. Lord, help me to hear this prayer and respond to the working of your Spirit in and through me as a result of it. Help me to uphold your word as absolute truth. Thank you. Amen.
1 John 5:9-13
There are many important aspects to pastoral ministry, but I think the most important is that of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Along with this is the important role of assuring people that they do, indeed, have eternal life simply by believing in him. Few things grieve me more than when people profess to believe in Jesus for salvation and eternal life, but have no certain assurance that they will indeed go to heaven. Perhaps you have ministered to people who struggle with this.
Do you have absolute assurance of salvation? John wrote that his whole purpose in writing (whether he was referring to the whole epistle or vv. 9-12 is debated) was so that you who believe in the name of the Son of God ... may know that you have eternal life. We can know that we are going to heaven when we die! How sad that there are Christians who do not know this. The fault of that lies, to some degree, with those who are proclaiming God's Word. Are we preaching and teaching our people that if they believe in the name of the Son of God they will go to heaven?
There are Christian denominations who teach some form of eternal security, but the assurance rests, in part, in what the individual has done. The emphasis is put on rituals, or traditions, or activities, all of which may have good, biblical basis, but nonetheless are men's activities that in and of themselves can save no one and serve only to give false assurance. Here then, is the huge danger of the church and pastors preaching and teaching assurance of salvation and eternal life in anything other than the name of Jesus. False assurance is nothing more than that -- false assurance. It is a grievous sin to lead people to believe that they will have eternal life in any other way, and by any other means, than by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in God's Word alone.
If you have been trusting in an event, or a ritual, or a prayer, or some tradition, or anything other than Christ, I beg you to listen carefully to what John so emphatically wrote to us in this text: If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.
There is no testimony greater than God's. However, the pride and ego of mankind (which is fed by the lies and deceptions of Satan) has convinced them that their testimony is more reliable than God's testimony, which is the Bible. This is why we have people standing in authority over the Bible and telling God what is true and what is not. They determine truth based on science, or pop culture, or what feels right and good at any given moment. This testimony is false testimony, and when connected to salvation and eternal life, gives people false assurance. There is only one testimony to be trusted and for us to pin our eternal hopes on -- the testimony of God which he testified to (and through) his Son.
I'm bad at remembering the words to songs, but I vaguely recall a phrase from a song that I sang as a child. It went something like this: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."
Could that be said of us? Whose testimony is greater to us, that of human doctrines, traditions, rituals, and so forth (even if they have some biblical basis), or that of God himself through his Son, Jesus Christ? I pray that for all of us it is the latter and that we will preach and teach that truth as if our very existence, now and for all eternity, depends on it -- for it does!
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you that your word is a certain and trustworthy testimony for us to stake our lives on -- now and for all eternity. If I have been depending, in part or in whole, on anything other than your word for assurance of eternal life, please forgive me and help me to trust in you alone. Help me to know how to preach and teach this assurance to those in my care so they are not given false assurance. Thank you. Amen.
