I. THE EXCLUSION. We have here a striking illustration of the definiteness of the prayers of Jesus. He knows exactly for whom he is praying, and what he wants for them. He defines them positively, and he defines them negatively. It is not enough for him to call them his own.' It must also be said why they are his own. If they belonged to the world, and had in them, unchecked and unmixed, the spirit of the world, they would not be his. This is a very decided exclusion for the purpose which Jesus has in view; but no one who understands the whole drift of the work of Jesus will say that it is a harsh exclusion. When Jesus prays for his own, he is really doing the best he can for the world. What can the Father of Jesus do for the world, so long as it remains the world? He has nothing to give that the world cares for. What God bestows on the world is given irrespective of prayer - given to all; given, a great deal of it, to the lower creation as well. If more is to be given, it is because of the appearing of a spirit of recipiency which is in itself a sign of passing from the world to the Church. When Jesus prays for his own, he is really praying that they may so let their light shine as to attract and persuade the world. The very best things that Jesus can do for the world are to be done through the character of his own people.

II. THE GROUNDS OF THE REQUEST. Jesus prays to the Father for those whom the Father had given to him. What a view of the claims of the heavenly Father is here! When we give anything it implies that we have a right to give it. We have made it our own by purchase or manufacture; We could not take any human life and make a present of it to somebody else that he might use it for his own purposes. There would be a protest at once. But God makes this claim, and gives over human souls to the control of Jesus. To that control and to no other. The same truth is expressed when Jesus says that all authority is given to him in heaven and on earth. What an inspiration there should be in the thought that the Father reckons us worthy to be bestowed on the Son for him to use! What a folly and misuse of ourselves if we, who are intended for gifts to Jesus, should refuse to Jesus the necessary control! What an explanation of the frequent misery and waste of life! If Jesus cannot get a proper use of his own, how can we turn it to anything but misuse? But Jesus goes on to say how that in receiving he only receives to give back. "All mine are thine, and thine are mine." No wonder that, in the first fullness of Pentecostal blessing, the disciples had all things in common. The Father and the Son have all things in common. The Father gives humanity to the Son that Jesus may send out consecrated men and women to glorify him. And then these consecrated men and women, used as they only can be used by Jesus, are rendered up to the Father who bestowed them on the Son. The heavenly Father is the great Fountain of the highest good, and all that he gives comes back to him at last, having ministered strength and gladness to human hearts innumerable. All that is in God and all that is in Jesus are for us; and we are, not for ourselves - that is only a small part of the truth - but for the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. There is no serving the Son without serving the Father, nor glorifying the Son without glorifying the Father. And we need that the Father should strengthen and equip us through invisible means for all this serving and glorifying, because the Son no longer remains visibly in the world. The invisible ministry is far to excel in depth and extent the visible one. - Y.

I. CHRIST IS THE AUTHOR AND ORIGINAL OF THE JOY OF HIS PEOPLE.

1. As He is their Prophet to instruct them. The state of ignorance is a state of darkness. And that is an uncomfortable state, full of fear, and sorrow. But when Christ comes with light He gives joy (Psalm 97:11).

2. As He is their King to rule them (Psalm 149:2).(1) As He subdues their enemies, and gives them peace (Luke 1:75).(2) As He gives them His Spirit. The Spirit is the Comforter (Acts 13:52; Galatians 5:22).(3) As He dispenses rewards (Luke 6:23; Matthew 25:21).

3. As He is their Priest.(1) To sacrifice. For by this means He satisfies the justice of His Father for them, He frees them from the guilt of all their sins and reconcileth them to God (Luke 2:10).(2) To intercede. Therefore in the text, He gives them as it were a taste of His future intercession, that thereby they might guess what He would do when He was come to heaven.

4. Uses. Is Christ the Author and the Fountain of the joy of His people —(1) Then they that are out of Christ can have no true and solid joy, because they are divided from the fountain of it (James 5:1). There is no peace, and consequently no joy to wicked men.(2) Then fetch your joy and comfort thence. Drink you out of the Fountain, and not out of broken cisterns.

II. CHRIST WOULD HAVE HIS PEOPLE TO BE FULL OF HOLY JOY.

1. This He has made sufficiently to appear —(1) By publishing the gospel, which as it is a gospel of salvation, so of consolation (Luke 2:10; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:17).(2) By giving precious promises, and sealing them with His own blood (Hebrews 9:16; Hebrews 6:18).(3) By giving glorious ordinances. For ordinances are not for our profit only, but are for our comfort too (Psalm 27:4; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 15:16; Isaiah 12:3).(4) By giving clear discoveries of Himself (Acts 2:28).(5) By sending the Comforter.(6) By giving deliverance (Isaiah 66:5).(7) By purchasing heaven.

2. But wherefore will He have it to be so?(1) Out of self-respect, because by reason of the nearness of His union His joy is theirs, and theirs His (2 Thessalonians 1:12; Zephaniah 3:17).(2) To recompense them for sorrow (Matthew 5:4; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Psalm 126:1.;6; John 16.-20; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 35.).(3) That they may be large in duty. Sorrow is a kinder straightening the heart (2 Corinthians 2:4). But holy joy dilates the heart, and consequently doth not only make it fit for duty, but it makes it to exceed in every service that is suitable to joy.

3. Use. Is it so that Jesus Christ would have His people full of holy joy?(1) Then it serves to censure those who seek to hinder the joy of Christ's people, and to embitter all their comfort with spiteful molestations.(2) Then it taxes those who waste away themselves in heaviness and discontent. Consider what the will of Christ is, and let Him have His will in this business; use all means possible to have your hearts brimfull of holy joy.

(a)Be studious in the Word of Christ (Psalm 19:8; Romans 15:4).

(b)Employ your serious thoughts upon that delicious place where there is fulness of all joy and pleasures for evermore (Romans 4:4).(3) Take heed that neither sin nor Satan steal away this jewel from you, which is the legacy that Christ bequeathed you when He was even about to leave this world. But first be sure the joy you have be Christ's joy, the joy which He works by His Spirit (Galatians 5:22); so there is another kind that is a fruit and effect of the flesh (James 4:16).

III. THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF HIS INTERCESSION FOR THEM IS ONE ESPECIAL MEANS TO FILL THEM FULL OF THIS JOY. It is a means to comfort them exceedingly. In reference —

1. To all the oppositions of their enemies, whether without them or within them.

2. To all the accusations that are laid against us at the bar of God's justice (1 John 2:2).

3. To the many weaknesses and imperfections of our own prayers.

4. To the defects of all our graces.

5. It assures us of His dear love to us, and His tender care of us.

(G. Newton.)

I. WHAT THIS JOY IS THAT CHRIST WOULD ESTABLISH.

1. For the kind of it — "My joy;" not a worldly joy, but heavenly; not corporal, but spiritual. It ill beseemeth Christians to set their hearts on earthly things, or suffer the world to intercept their joy (Philippians 4:4).

2. In what manner He would have it received — "fulfilled in them." The joy is full because the object is infinite; we can desire nothing beyond Him (Acts 13:52).

3. It is inward for the quality of it; it is wrought in the midst of afflictions; like the wood that was thrown in at Marah, it maketh bitter water sweet (Exodus 15:25; 1 Peter 1:6).

II. REASONS WHY CHRIST WAS SO SOLICITOUS ABOUT THIS MATTER.

1. Because of the great use of it in the spiritual life, to make us to do and to suffer (Nehemiah 8:10). This is as ell to the wheels. Sorrow maketh us serious, joy active. This is sweet, when a man, out of the refreshings of the Spirit, can go about the business which God hath given him to do with delight (Acts 20:24; Acts 8:39). Not like slow asses that go by compulsion, but like generous horses, that delight in their strength and swiftness.

2. To mar the taste of carnal pleasures. The soul cannot remain without some oblectation; it delighteth either in earthly or in heavenly things. Now God will give us a taste of pleasantness in wisdom's paths, that we might disdain carnal pleasures. It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father's table for those things, that were strange.

3. It is for His honour. Nothing bringeth reproach upon the ways of God so much as the sadness of those that profess them. You darken the ways of God by your melancholy conversation. Religion should be cheerful, though not wanton and dissolute. We are to invite others (Psalm 34:2). Otherwise thou art as one of the spies that discouraged the children of Israel, by bringing up an evil report upon the land of Canaan.

4. Because He delighteth to see us cheerful (chap. John 15:11).

III. SOME OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING JOY.

1. God's providence to all the creatures doth aim at their joy and welfare.

2. Spiritual joy ariseth more from hope than possession (Romans 12:12; Hebrews 3:6; Romans 5:2). Some birds sing in winter. Though we have not an actual possession of glory, yet there is a certainty of possession.

3. This joy is more felt in adversity than prosperity (1 Peter 1:6; Romans 5:3).(1) Partly from God Himself; He proportioneth His comforts to our sorrows, and then sheddeth abroad His love most plentifully (2 Corinthians 1:5).(2) Partly from the saints; they rejoice most in afflictions, because they taste in them what evil they are freed from in Christ.(3) Partly because of sweet experiences.

4. Those have the highest feeling of joy that have tasted the bitterness of sorrow (Isaiah 57:18; Jeremiah 31:18, 20). Unutterable groans make way for ineffable joys.

5. The feelings of this joy are up and down, yet when the joy is gone, the right remaineth, and this joy will be fulfilled (chap. John 16:22).

IV. USES.

1. To show us the goodness of God, who hath made our wages a great part of our work, and our reward our service.

2. To take off the slander brought on the ways of God, as if they were dark and uncomfortable, as if we should abandon and renounce all delight. Oh! that wicked men would but make experience!

3. Let us despise the dreggy delights of the world. We are empty by nature, and worldly joy filleth not but with wind.

4. Reproof of two sorts —(1) To those that are always sad. Christians do not live up to that care and provision which Christ hath made for them (1 Thessalonians 5:16). They live as if God had said, Weep evermore. It is verily a fault, however disguised; in some it deserveth pity; in others chiding and rebuke.(2) The other loft are those that would rejoice, but do not provide matter of joy. "My joy."

5. To raise your minds to the exercise of this joy, I shall show —(1) What reason a Christian hath to rejoice.

(a)The remembrance of his past estate (1 Peter 2:9). No man looketh on the sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped the dangers of a shipwreck.

(b)His present interest, sense, and feeling (Romans 8:37).

(c)His future hopes (Hebrews 3:6). We are heirs-apparent to the crown of heaven.(2) By what means it is maintained. God hath appointed for this end.

(a)Graces; faith, hope, and obedience.

(b)Ordinances: The Word, prayer, sacraments, meditation.

(T. Manton, D. D.)

I. THE STRANGE THING NAMED "MY JOY." It is about the most unlikely thing in connection with the career and testimony of the Saviour. It would excite no one's surprise to hear Him say, "If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross;" "In the world ye shall have tribulation." But when He speaks of His joy, is it not strange? What, then, is His joy?

1. It is the ripening harvest of suffering — suffering grown into joy, fully realized by Him in the completeness of His work. How true the prophetic description of Him — A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!" Wherever He turned His face men saw the sign. One ceaseless grief He bad — loneliness of soul. Spotless purity in the midst of foul pollution, transparent truth in the midst of elaborate falsehood, earnest spirituality in the midst of consummate hypocrisy, self-sacrificing goodness in the midst of grasping selfishness. Go into His own family: they are hostile and scornful. Mix with His disciples: they are dull, grovelling, strifeful-By the grave of a friend He groans and weeps. But the soul of the Redeemer's sufferings was the sufferings of His soul. In Gethsemane — what is this? On Calvary — oh, what is this? His heart breaks, and on this account, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" "He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." The harvest of ripened suffering — suffering turned into joy. Only He knew that in all its fulness.

2. It sprang from ministering to the sad and comfortless. He spent His life with the sufferers. His loving care lavished all its resources upon them. He was the Christ, anointed to comfort all that mourn. And such gathered to Him without hesitation. "He bare their griefs and carried their sorrows." He alone could; the rest would sink under the burden. He alone would; all the rest would have gone away in despair. But He did, and in a weeping world He had a word of mighty power. That word was "Weep not." So He speaks to the widow, to Jairus, and to the woman that was a sinner. And so He found solace in making the unhappy happy — a grand position, divinely high.

3. It consisted in sympathy with the heavenly Father's will, and sprang from doing that will.

4. It was the joy of doing the highest possible good — saving men's souls.

II. OUR LORD'S DESIRE IS RELATION TO THIS.

1. That His joy in His disciples might be perfect in kind; that is, that it should spring from the same sources and have the same attributes in the seme proportion, as in His life and heart.

2. That it might be abundant in degree. I invite you all who have faith in Jesus, and a good hope in Him through grace, to cherish the fulness of the Saviour's joy.(1) There is good ground for it. The Saviour and the saved will rejoice together. The saved man was guilty, but he is forgiven, and against him there is no condemnation.(2) There is no danger in it. It will awaken no bad passion, it will create neither envy nor strife. The more the heart is filled with it the more the affections will be sanctified.(3) There is no alloy in it. Not like the joy of the world, it will never be dashed with bitterness, or overshadowed by dread, or startled by horror, or stung by remorse.(4) It will not die and disappoint you. It will live on and grow, not like the lamp of the wicked that goes out, but like the path of the just, shining more and more to the perfect day.(5) It will bless your whole nature. The understanding will say, "It is wise." The conscience will say, "It is right." The heart will say, "It is good." Long as you live your confidence will grow; and when death looks you in the face your confidence will not be shaken, but it will be dearer when everything else is dying, and brighter when everything else is darker.

(J. Aldis.)

I. THE NATURE OF CHRIST'S JOY. The joy of Jesus was not that then that every eye could see. It certainly was not the mirthfulness that plays over the countenance. To have looked into His face would not have been to see joy mirrored. It was more marred than that of the sons of men, and deep were the furrows care had ploughed. If it was a joy not strongly expressed in the countenance, it was also a joy not easily detected by His conversation. In His recorded discourses we have no sparkling coruscations of mirthfulness, investing them with brilliancy, but rather a spirit of calm sadness. Observe also that the joy of Jesus was not one extracted from surrounding circumstances. With too many of us our joy is distilled from our circumstances, and consequently if those circumstances be adverse we are destitute of happiness. Our joy, like honey, is gathered "from every opening flower." Many of you know what poverty means — can you coin joy out of it? You may know what reproach is — do you find it a fount of sweetness or bitterness? You have been betrayed — do you like it? With us death is in a great measure an unknown thing, and the time of it is uncertain, but remember that with Jesus every pain was foreknown, and all the agony and shame forefelt, and yet He had so deep a joy that He prayed that His joy might fill His disciples. Assuredly then, it was not the joy gleaned from surroundings. What was it? It was a joy that had its fount deep within the soul. It was not a joy that flowed into the soul through the channel of the senses. The tide flowed the other way. It flowed out from the soul. Here is one of the great differences between the joy of the Christian and the joy of the worldling. The latter drinks in nearly all his joy through the senses. The child, lovely and beloved, sends joy into the heart through the channel of the sight. Music comes stealing through the corridors of the ear — joy comes with it. The scent of the rose awakens pleasure, and taste and touch alike become the instruments of happiness. The Christian, like his Master, has all these, but the joy of his heart is the joy that rises there independently of all outside things; the joy which like himself is born from above. This joy is not confined to any one place. Being an inward joy it may be had under any and every circumstance, yea, it is a joy that will thrive where any other joy would perish. It is the chamois of the Alps, that leaps like the hind of the morning where others cannot walk, and finds its food where most would starve. The only difficulty would be to say where it cannot and where it has not grown. It has sprung up between the stone slabs of the dungeon floor, and made the prison a conservatory. It has flourished in poverty until the inhabitant of the palace has envied. It has lived in the flames of martyrdom, and made the tongue sing when almost all beside was charred and blackened. It is a joy that lives in the fountains of the great deep of the soul. So much for the joy of Christ being an inward one. Let us now go more into particulars, and see what was the nature of this inward joy, or the different channels in which it flowed.

1. I observe that it was the joy of communion. Our Saviour ever had an abiding sense of His Father's nearness, and deep beyond all description, must have been the fellowship between them.

2. Christ's joy was also the joy of realized and returned love, Communion is more a positive act, this an experience. Christ felt His Father's love. This He declares — "The Father loveth the Son." Christ loved the Father. This also He declared — "I love the Father." Now a realized and returned love can only result in joy. I was standing on a tongue of land, or rather rocks, with a river on either side of me. Both rivers could be traced for some way back. They came from almost opposite directions. Both of them came leaping and roaring along channels filled with great boulder stones. Both of them were beautiful to a degree. For many a mile they had each run their lovely course, gradually nearing, until at last their streams met at the foot of the rock on which I stood. The place was called "the meeting of the waters," and marvellous was the "water's music." The two streams embraced, and seemed for a moment or two to dance for very glee, and then blending, ran off no longer separate but one. So I thought I have in this division of my subject the meeting of the waters. The one stream is called "the Father loveth He." The other stream is called "I love the Father." Both are exquisitely lovely. Both are born from above. One flows from the mountain of the Father's house on high; the other from the Rock of Ages. They meet in our subject, and the music of the meeting of the waters is joy. A heart beloved and a heart loving must be a heart of joy. This joy was Christ's This joy may be, should be, must be ours. The same stream of love that flowed from the Father to the Son, flows from the Father to us.

3. It was also the joy of complete surrender. What would have been a source of sorrow to most, casts a bright gleam of sunshine into the heart of the Man of Sorrows. How is it so? By what process does He extract matter for joy from seeming want of success — a bitter cup to the lips of most? The answer you have in His own words, "Even so Father." Yes, this was enough for the soul perfectly surrendered. It was the Father's will that so it should be, and therefore it being so, was the Son's joy. Would to God we knew more of this joy of perfect and complete surrender. It is our will clashing with our Father's will that gives disquiet. Were our will but one with His, it would be utterly impossible for us ever to be anything else than serene, calm, and happy.

4. It was the joy of one who could look back upon a life work finished. In the fourth verse of this chapter our Saviour says, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Yet once more.

5. It was the joy of approaching glory. How clearly does this shine out in the first few words of our text, "and now come I to Thee." "I to Thee!" Ah, here is joy indeed. Christ's own joy is indeed ours in this respect. His heaven is our heaven — His home our home.

II. THE MEASURE IN WHICH CHRIST DESIRES HIS SAINTS TO POSSESS THIS JOY. "Fulfilled." What an expressive word have we here! Full to the overflow — filled to the utmost capacity. This is the measure of joy Christ wishes for His disciples. They already possessed it in some degree, but He wished them to have it in a far larger; like a sacred flood until it overflows all banks, and eddies into every nook and cranny of the soul. How are we to obtain this inward bliss? Our text tells us. "These things I speak that they might have My joy." It is the word of Jesus that gives this joy. No looking into our own hearts or inspection of our own feelings will avail. That will but empty us. And oh how necessary it is that we should be filled. A very simple illustration will show the necessity. Take a bottle but half full of water, and placing your hand over its mouth, shake it. See how the water rushes from end to end as you move it. There is a turmoil within at the slightest motion. Why? Because it is only half full. Now fill it until you cannot add another drop. Shake it — all is still within. Turn it upside down — all is quiet. Why is this? Because it is quite full, and therefore no outside motion affects it.

(A. G. Brown.)

Jesus, DisciplesJerusalemComplete, Filling, Fulfilled, Full, Gladness, Hearts, Joy, Measure, Order, Speak, Themselves, Within1. Jesus prays to his Father.

John 17:13

     2039   Christ, joy of
     2505   Christ, ascension
     4942   fulness
     5013   heart, divine
     8289   joy, of church

John 17:1-26

     2360   Christ, prayers of
     8603   prayer, relationship with God

John 17:6-19

     4030   world, behaviour in

John 17:6-26

     8611   prayer, for others

John 17:10-22

     5308   equality

John 17:11-23

     7622   disciples, characteristics

October 10 Evening
After this manner . . . pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven.--MATT. 6:9. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father.--My Father, and your Father. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.--Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 10 Morning
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from the evil.--JOHN 17:15. Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.--Ye are the salt of the earth, . . . the light of the world.--Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is heaven. I also withheld thee from sinning against me. The Lord is faithful, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

July 20 Morning
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.--JOHN 17:16. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.--In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.--That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good, and …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 21 Morning
I am the Lord which sanctify you.--LEV. 20:8. I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. Sanctified by God the Father.--Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.--The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus . . . that he might …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 16 Morning
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.--JOHN 17:17. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.--Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul: discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 27 Morning
The glory which thou gavest me I have given them.--JOHN 17:22. I saw . . . the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.--These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.--Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness . . . of a man above upon it. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 13 Evening
Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.--EPH. 2:18. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 1 Morning
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,. . . I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.--PHI. 3:13,14. Father, I will that they . . . whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.--I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.--He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 4 Evening
I have glorified thee on the earth.--JOHN 17:4. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.--I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.--This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 25 Evening
The spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.--ROM. 8:15. Jesus . . . lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, . . . Holy Father, . . . O righteous Father.--He said, Abba, Father.--Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.--For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God. Doubtless thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 12 Morning
They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.--MAL. 3:17. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 31. "I Pray not that Thou Shouldst Take them Out of the World, but that Thou Shouldst Keep them from the Evil" (John xvii. 15).
"I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil" (John xvii. 15). He wants us here for some higher purpose than mere existence. That purpose is nothing else than to represent Him to the world, to be the messengers of His Gospel and His will to men, and by our lives to exhibit to them the true life, and teach them how to live it themselves. He is representing us yonder, and our one business is to represent Him here. We are just as truly sent …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 5. "I in Them, and Thou in Me" (John xvii. 23).
"I in them, and Thou in Me" (John xvii. 23). If we would be enlarged to the full measure of God's purpose, let us endeavor to realize something of our own capacities for His filling. We little know the size of a human soul and spirit. Never, until He renews, cleanses and enters the heart can we have any adequate conception of the possibilities of the being whom God made in His very image, and whom He now renews after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Himself. We know, however, that God has made the human …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

December 11. "I Pray not for the World, but for Them" (John xvii. 9).
"I pray not for the world, but for them" (John xvii. 9). How often we say we would like to get some strong spirit to pray for us, and feel so helped when we think they are carrying us in their faith. But there is One whose prayers never fail to be fulfilled and who is more willing to give them to us than any human friend. His one business at God's right hand is to make intercession for His people, and we are simply coming in the line of His own appointment and His own definite promise and provision, …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Folded Flock
I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory.'--JOHN xvii. 24. This wonderful prayer is (a) for Jesus Himself, (b) for the Apostles, (c) for the whole Church on earth and in heaven. I. The prayer. 'I will' has a strange ring of authority. It is the expression of His love to men, and of His longing for their presence with Him in His glory. Not till they are with Him there, shall He 'see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' We …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

Christ's Summary of his Work
'I have declared onto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'--JOHN xvii. 26. This is the solemn and calm close of Christ's great High-priestly prayer; the very last words that He spoke before Gethsemane and His passion. In it He sums up both the purpose of His life and the petitions of His prayer, and presents the perfect fulfilment of the former as the ground on which He asks the fulfilment of the latter. There is a singular …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Intercessor
'These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

'The Lord Thee Keeps'
...They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.'--JOHN xvii. 14-16. We have here a petition imbedded in a reiterated statement of the disciples' isolated position when left in a hostile world without Christ's sheltering presence. We cannot fathom the depth of the mystery of the praying Christ, but we may be sure of this, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The High Priest's Prayer
'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou givest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

Sixteenth Day. Holiness and Truth.
Make them holy in the Truth: Thy word is Truth.'--John xvii. 17. 'God chose you unto salvation in sanctification and belief of the Truth.'--2 Thess. ii. 12. The chief means of sanctification that God uses is His word. And yet how much there is of reading and studying, of teaching and preaching the word, that has almost no effect in making men holy. It is not the word that sanctifies; it is God Himself who alone can sanctify. Nor is it simply through the word that God does it, but through …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Seventeenth Day. Holiness and Crucifixion.
For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.'--John xvii. 19. 'He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. In which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.'--Heb. x. 9, 10, 14. It was in His High-priestly prayer, on His way to Gethsemane and Calvary, that Jesus thus spake to the Father: 'I sanctify myself.' He had not long before spoken …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

The Plenary Inspiration of Every Part of the Bible, vindicated and Explained. --Nature of Inspiration. --The Text of Scripture.
Thy Word is Truth. I THANKFULLY avail myself of the opportunity which, unexpected and unsolicited, so soon presents itself, to proceed with the subject which was engaging our attention when I last occupied this place. Let me remind you of the nature of the present inquiry, and of the progress which we have already made. Taking Holy Scripture for our subject, and urging, as best we knew how, its paramount claims on the daily attention of the younger men,--who at present are our hope and ornament; …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

August the Twenty-Fourth the Lord's Body
"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." --JOHN xvii. 1-11. This quiet confession is in itself a token of our Lord's divinity. The serenity in which He makes His claims is as stupendous as the claims themselves. "Finished," perfected in the utmost refinement, to the last, remotest detail! Nothing scamped, nothing overlooked, nothing forgotten! Everything which concerns thy redemption and my redemption has been accomplished. "It is finished!" "And now ... I come to Thee." The visible …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Cure of Evil-Speaking
"If thy brother shall sin against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he will not hear them, tell it to the Church. But if he does not hear the church, let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican." Matt. 18:15-17 1. "Speak evil of no man," says the great Apostle: -- As plain a …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

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