Spiritual Disciplines

John 18:4-9 – “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, ‘Whom do you seek?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.’ This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: ‘Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one’.”

Have you ever been present for a police or military operation? If so, then you understand the high drama and distress that an armed and organized operation can be.          

In the dark of night, Jesus and His 11 disciples did something they often did – met in a garden possibly for a time of friendship and prayer. Suddenly, more than 600 armed soldiers with torches and lanterns break through the dark night and encircle the 12.      

Previously, as people sought to arrest and harm Jesus, He would escape and slip away. But, in this instance, He stepped forward as it was time for Him to head to the cross. The point is that we need to know when to slip away and when to step ahead.       

In the exchange with those who came to kill Him, Jesus told them He was the “I am”. This is an echo of the God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). For the Hebrew, this name of God was so sacred that they did not speak or even write it. But, Jesus makes it clear He is the God of Moses. At this utterance of Jesus revealing Himself as God, power was unleashed that caused more than 600 armed soldiers to be knocked to the ground in an instant. The same voice that spoke the world into existence and calmed a raging storm was now commanding an enemy army.           

Jesus then revealed Himself as Jesus of Nazareth. The great “I am” is the God-man Jesus of Nazareth. In this scene, we see the supernatural power of the name of Jesus. Philippians 2:8-10 tells us that, like the soldiers, no one will be standing at Jesus’ unveiling saying, “being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” In John 14:13-14, Jesus said that the power of His name was available to us saying, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”           

For the Christian, honoring the name of Jesus and not taking the Lord’s name in vain are ways that we worship God. Making requests in the Lord’s name is how we pray. Exercising the authority of the Lord’s name is how we wage spiritual war.

How many times a day do you speak or hear the name of Jesus?

John 18:1-3 – “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.”

The scene for the betrayal of Jesus is haunting. Under the darkness of night, as more than six hundred soldiers were preparing a military operation against Him, Jesus and His eleven disciples cross the Kidron Valley. Kidron means dark and the spiritual and literal darkness converged. The time of year was the Passover when perhaps 200,000 lambs were slain. This caused a river of blood to flow through the Kidron Valley alongside the Temple.

One of the ways that Satan works is to form an unholy alliance. To murder Jesus Christ, the unholy alliance was brought together by Judas Iscariot whom had welcomed Satan to control him (John 13:27). It included political leaders from the Roman Empire, and religious leaders from the chief priest and Pharisees. These two groups absolutely despised one another and had constant tension and friction. But, they came together led by Judas their common leader and against Jesus their common enemy. This is how Satan forms an unholy alliance. 

Jesus often met with His men in a beautiful garden that was likely owned by a supporter of Jesus’ ministry who gave them access. Knowing that private place, Judas leads the armed militia as the place for meeting with God was now going to be the place for murdering God.

Judas is the prime of example of a covert person. Sneaky, dishonest, and self-serving, he has been stealing from Jesus’ ministry and obviously been plotting and planning the betrayal of Jesus for a long time. To organize religious and political leaders along with their armed soldiers to collaborate for an evening raid at an appointed meeting place was a well-coordinated political, religious, legal, and military operation.

How devastating this must have been for Jesus and His 11 men. Just hours earlier, they had eaten the Last Supper Passover meal with Judas and now he was in the process of destroying their ministry and Messiah.

Have you ever been a betrayer like Judas? Have you even been betrayed by a Judas?

The best way to learn how to do something is usually to watch someone else do it. This is how I learned how to throw a curveball and drive a stick shift when I was much younger.

When Jesus prays, He could have prayed silently or privately. But, often He prayed loudly and publicly. This was so that we could learn how to pray by watching and hearing Him pray.

Jesus’ longest recorded prayer is in John 17. In that prayer, Jesus prayed for three groups of people:

Jesus prayed for Himself (17:1-5)
Jesus prayed for Christians (17:6-19)
Jesus prayed for non-Christians (17:20-26)
As you can see, in one prayer, Jesus prayed for every category of person. 

How about you?  

What should you be praying for yourself? Needs you have, things you are thankful for, lessons you are learning, obstacles you are facing, and burdens you are carrying?

How should you be praying for fellow Christians that you know? How can you pray for them, and pray with them, so that they know you are praying for them?

Which non-Christians should you be praying for? How can you be praying for and seeking opportunities for them to attend church with you, have conversations about God with you, read a book or Bible you give them, or just let you pray for a need they have?

Which of the three categories are you best at praying for? Which of the three categories are you worst at praying for?

Stop right now and take some time to pray as you feel is best for whoever or whatever comes to mind.

The storyline of the Bible is more epic and dramatic than any Hollywood film. God is without beginning or end and the Creator of everyone and everything. God made spirit beings called angels to be His messengers and ministers. Tragically, like a military coup, one of the highest-ranking angels declared war against God and a third of the angels joined in the rebellion. The holy angels won and kept the Kingdom of Heaven. The unholy angels who lost are now demons and were cast down to the earth.           

The battle between God and the demonic then continued in the Garden of Eden. Tragically, our first parents Adam and Eve chose to align with Satan rather than with God and joined the demons in rebellion. To save us from sin and ourselves, Jesus entered into human history to defeat the devil and establish the Kingdom in the world.        

In His longest prayer (John 17), Jesus stops to prepare Himself for the battle that was coming any hour at the cross. Satan had already filled Judas, and was using him to betray Jesus. In His 26-verse prayer, Jesus warns us about the “world” 18 times. If someone tells you something 18 times, then you know it is important. In the Bible, the world is demonic culture. Culture comes from one of two places. One, it comes down from the Kingdom of Heaven. Two, it comes up from hell. The world is culture that comes up from hell instead of down from heaven. From pride to perversion, bitterness to bribery, and abandonment to abuse, the world is filled with the culture of hell. As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s people are to invite heaven down and not pull hell up through the values we hold, decisions we make, and morality we choose. Here’s just a few things that Jesus’ prayer says about the world

Jesus saves people out of the world

John 17:6 – “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.”

Jesus is against the world

John 17:9 – “I am not praying for the world”

Jesus promised war in the world

John 17:11 – “they are in the world”

John 17:14 – “the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world”

Jesus said our mission is in the world

John 17:15-19 – “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”      

Practically speaking, this means that while the world is not our home, it is our mission field. Jesus does not love the world, but he loves the people in the world the same way that a soldier hates a prisoner-of-war camp but loves those who are held captive there. As we tell people about our King and His Kingdom, we get to see captives of the world set free.

Who told you about Jesus? Who are you telling about Jesus? 

John 17:18 – “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

John 17:25-26 – “O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

When a fire breaks out, the fire chief gathers the crew to go battle the blaze. When someone is lost on a hike, a search party is formed to venture out to find them. And, when a child wanders off, the entire neighborhood stops what they are doing to locate the little one.          

Jesus says that this world is not our home and that people are lost and in danger. Jesus prayed that Christians would understand that in this world, we are the rescue crew. Just as Jesus was sent into this world on a rescue mission, so too He sends His people on the same mission into the same world.      

Sometimes, when a person becomes a Christian and begins to understand how wonderfully wonderful the Kingdom of Heaven will be, they wonder why they are stuck here in the broken, fallen, and frustrating world. The reason we are still here is because there are people who need to be saved from this world. While we don’t save souls, only God does that, we do preach the gospel of salvation. God has chosen to work through His people so that we are Jesus’ rescue crew. We get to be part of God’s great rescue plan for the earth, and spend eternity with the people who met Jesus through our ministry service. This includes our own children and grandchildren, family, friends, strangers, neighbors, coworkers, and even enemies.          

Who did God send to bring the good news of Jesus to you? That person got to be part of Jesus’ rescue crew and you had the joy of being rescued. Now, God wants you to have your eyes open to the people He puts in front of you so that you can pray for them, love them, serve them, and speak to them about the Jesus who came to seek and save the lost.

Who is in your life that you should be pursuing so that they can hopefully meet Jesus as Savior and Lord?

John 17:24 – “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

It is good for our soul to sometimes feel small. This explains why people hike mountains, stare out at oceans, and look out the window on an airplane.

In the Bible, there is one word that captures this wondrous sense of awe when we are in the presence of something magnificent. Glory. It’s a big word reserved for a bride on her wedding day, an epic sunset, or teetering on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

When people think of Jesus, they tend to think of Him in humility. We know Him as a poor, homeless, virgin from a small town. But, that is not how Jesus was before His descent into the earth or how He is right now. Today, Jesus is in glory. Right now, Jesus is alive and seated upon a throne being worshipped by angels. This is how He appears in Isaiah 6:1-7:

“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train[a] of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’”

Reflecting back on the curtain into glory being pulled back to reveal Jesus in the unseen realm, Jesus’ best friend said in John 12:41 “Isaiah…saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.” One day, either upon Jesus’ Second Coming or your death, you will see Jesus in all His glory and that day will be glorious.

Take a few moments to stop, pray, and use your imagination to ponder Jesus in glory right now!

John 17:20-23 – “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

When someone is in the final hours of their life on earth, what they do and say tends to be what is most significant. On the brink of His own death on the cross, Jesus stops to pray His longest prayer for Christian unity. Apparently, the issue of loving relational unity among the big diverse family of God is among Christ’s highest priorities. Therefore, it should be something that Christians also pray for and pursue. 

What Christian unity is:

Unity is centered around God. If God is at the center, and more important than anyone or anything else, then unity will result. As people draw nearer to God they will invariable become nearer to one another as a byproduct of pursuing God. This is true in marriages, families, ministries, churches, and between Christians scattered throughout various churches and ministries.  
Unity is the result of loving, humble service. In this prayer, Jesus is perhaps hours from dying on the cross as the most-humble act of love. Unity happens when we humble ourselves to love and serve others. Conversely, division happens when we are proud and want others to serve us.
Unity is for the purpose of a great mission. People, Christian and otherwise, pull together for causes greater than they could accomplish by themselves. We read in Genesis 11:6, “the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.’” Looking at unbelievers building the Tower of Babel, God saw that their unity was a powerful force for evil. When Christians work together to plant churches, evangelize the lost, and serve their communities, there is great power that comes from pulling together. The prayer that Jesus prayed was with eleven men who had very little resources and no political power. A few thousand years later, Christianity is the biggest, longest-lasting, and most influential movement of any kind in the history of the world. This just goes to prove that if God’s people pray and pull together, anything is possible.
Which of the three facets of Christian unity are you strongest and weakest at?

John 17:20-23 – “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

In the final moments of His life before heading to death on the cross, Jesus Christ stops to pray His longest prayer. Nearing the end of His prayer, Jesus prays that Christians would have a unity as “one” based in love. What does this not mean? What does this mean?

What unity is not:

1. Unity is not uniformity. Like any family, Christians come in all shapes and size, ages and races, incomes and styles. It is a cult, and not the church, that demands uniformity outwardly. It is the church that invites unity inwardly through love and relationship, much like any healthy family.

2.Unity is relational, not organizational. Christians belong to a variety of ministries, organizations, churches, networks, denominations etc. There is no organization big enough to organize all that the Holy Spirit is doing in and through the people of God around the earth. Only God’s Kingdom, not any human organization, is sufficient to bring all that God is doing together. It is under the shared banner of the Kingdom of God that all Christian organizations relationally work together through friendship and partnership.

3.Unity is not around methods. The Bible is filled with clear principles for which God’s people, according to conscience and culture, form a variety of methods. For example, the Bible tells God’s people to gather together but does not tell us what a church service should look like. The Bible tells parents to raise their children in the Lord, but does not prescribe a certain form of education. And, the Bible says that we should sing to the Lord but does not demand any musical style, song selection, or instrumentation. Our unity is around the principles while leaving diversity for various methods. Sadly, division does happen when Christians confuse principles and methods as if their method was the only or even best way of being faithful to God’s principles.

How would you define Christian unity?

John 17:20-23 – “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Unity is godly because it follows the example of God. Christians of all types agree that there is one God in three persons, the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit. In this, His longest prayer, Jesus says they are “one” and have “loved” one another since before time. Today, there remains nothing but unity within God and within the angelic host that serve at the will of God.

Division is demonic because it follows the example of Satan. Division started in heaven when one angel decided he should be in charge, receive the glory, and a third of the angels sided with him in a coup attempt for the Kingdom of God.

The division in heaven culminated in a war that God and the angels won. Satan and the demons were cast down to the earth. Today, demonic powers continue to war against God by promoting division between God and Christians and between fellow Christians. At this point in the Gospel of John, Satan has already picked off one of Jesus disciples, a man named Judas Iscariot who Satan entered (John 13:27). Down to eleven disciples and praying for them, Jesus emphasizes the vital importance of unity within God’s family.

There is great supernatural power in unity. When people come together for evil, Satan and the demons help them. In Genesis 11:6 we read, “the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.’” God’s point at the Tower of Babel was that evil people unified are virtually unstoppable because of the power of unity.

Conversely, when people come together for good, God and the angels help them. This is why Satan works so hard to keep Christians divided, unloving, bitter, judgmental, and attacking one another. This is also why Jesus prays for relational unity among Christians so that together the work of God’s Kingdom can move forward in power as we all pull together for the cause of Christ.

Is there any Christian you need to forgive, or even reconcile with, so that Jesus’ prayer for unity can be fulfilled in your life?