Recap
of 3/3/13 (John 17:20-18:1):
1. In John
17:20-26 Jesus prays for future disciples (us!). He is vitally concerned for the unity of
believers. It would be the oneness of the
church predicated upon love which would be its (our!) greatest witness in the
world.
2. “A world
characterized by selfishness, greed, strife, and division needed to have
evidence that believers were rightly related to the Father and to the Son by
the unity they displayed in their relationships with each other.” (J. Dwight
Pentecost)
3. The unity of
which Jesus speaks is not unity of organization, or of worship styles, or of
government, or of philosophy of ministry.
It is rather spiritual unity which is meant, not uniformity or organic
union. It is a unity expressed in love,
patience, gentleness, humility, meekness, and long-suffering exhibited toward
other believers. The question for each of us is “what is our tipping
point?” What is it that can cause us to
act unlovingly toward other believers, others in general? Is it a perceived
slight to us, our spouse, our children?
It is not getting our own way? Do
I want the good of others or just to have my own way?
4. John 18 begins
the fourth division of the book of John.
There is: Prologue (1:1-18); Public Teaching and Miracles (1:19-12:50);
Private Teaching (13-17); Passion and Resurrection (18-20); and Postlude (21).
5. John’s account
of the Garden of Gethsemane differs from the other gospels in that He does not
include Jesus’ agony, His sweating great drops of blood, telling His disciples
to pray, or taking Peter, James and John further into the garden with Him. In character with John’s purpose, he focuses
on Jesus’ deity and power in His encounter with those coming to arrest
Him. It was He who was in charge of the
situation, not them, despite the overwhelming force arrayed against Him and
their weapons..
