Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
John 17:9-20
Rev. Jogy Oommen Philip
Detroit MTC, Michigan
18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Whenever my wife and I, take our two young kids for vaccination shots, though we do it for their benefit, it is difficult because we know it’s going to hurt them. It absolutely overwhelms me, when I remember that, we have a heavenly Father who fully well knew the utmost suffering His Son had to go through and yet because He loved the world so much that He sent Him into  the world.
John 17 is referred to as the ‘High priestly prayer of Jesus’ by Biblical scholars. This chapter is the prayer of Jesus for His disciples and the believers at large before His crucifixion. It is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.
In v.18, we see Jesus sending us (all believers), as the Father sent Him. When we talk about sending, that points to two aspects. First we are not here on earth by chance or according to our will or desire but because God definitely intended it. So we are accountable to God for the way we live our lives here. Secondly as the Roman Centurion mentions, we can send someone only when we have authority over them (Math 8:9). Hence if Jesus is sending us, He has authority over us. He is thereby worthy of all our submission, praise and honor. It is our Christian responsibility to praise our God, worship Him and serve Him (Luke 4:8).
Jesus states in the verse that He is sending us just as the Father has sent Him. That implies that we have a model, Jesus to follow. Jesus’ incarnation on earth was God’s way of communicating, His Love for us. He was showing us with His life and teachings the kind of life we ought to live. In His prayer Jesus says that He has given us His Word (v.14), assures us the protection of God (V.15) and has sent us to work with unity (v.11).

We are blessed because our lives and future are secure in the hands of the one who sent us and we are accountable to live our lives in the way that He has required of us or rather by being Christ like to the people around us. Martin Luther says “Let everyone, therefore, who knows himself to be a Christian be assured of this, that we are all equally priests.”

PRAYER

‘We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord And we pray that our unity will one day be restored And they'll know we are Christians by our love’ --  Peter Scholtes
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“That which makes one a child of God makes him a minister of God.” –Carl Ketcherside 

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