A Strong Delusion – Part II
WDJS – What Does Jesus Say
John 17: 1 – 26
In our last study together we began a study on the idea of a condition called the ‘Rapture’. This religious position came from some interpretations of some Scripture that the following situation will occur. There will come a time any day now that our Lord Jesus Christ’s church, that is, all those who have accepted the Salvation of our Lord’s death and resurrection will be suddenly be snatched from the earth. The description of the Rapture teaches that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are alive will be physically removed from this earth. To the naked eye they will vanish. These people will instantly be beamed wherever they are up to meet the Lord Jesus Who Is positioned somewhere above the earth.
Now to add confusion great theological scholars cannot come up with the same conclusions. Some biblical experts say that this event will occur before what the bible calls the Great Tribulation. People who accept this position are called Pre-Tribulation Rapture or Pre-Tribers. Since many biblical scholars have come up with the idea that the Tribulation will be a period of 7 years some have taken a position that believers will be ‘Raptured’ halfway into the 7 years or after 3 and ½ years after the Great Tribulation begins. Those who hold this position are called Mid-Tribers. Lastly, there are those who take up a position that all believers will have to go through the whole seven years of the Great Tribulation and then be ‘Raptured’ out. They are referred to as Post Tribers.
Does this sound a tad bit confusing? Again forgive us for getting into this stupid worthless debate. The book of 1 Corinthians chapter 14 says about our Precious Holy Spirit this, “33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.’
Today, this doctrine in my opinion is causing problems. People are more interested in trying to find out who the Antichrist is than focusing in Who our Lord, Savior, and Master Is. Without a purposeful agenda many bible teachers and Pastors are focusing on the wrong issues. Our Lord told us this in the book of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 9 through 12,” 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
I am sure that you have seen all kinds of Christian merchandise that has the words WWJD. This stands for ‘What Would Jesus Do’ Today we are going to start a new slogan – WDJS – What Does Jesus Say.
As mentioned last time a ‘Delusion’ is;
1a. The act or process of deluding.
b. The state of being deluded.
2. A false belief or opinion:
3. Psychiatry A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness:
I will give you an example of a ‘mild delusion’. This is one that does not cause a lot of problems for believers. One such ‘mild’ delusion is the understanding of The Lord’s Prayer.
Many people think that The Lord’s Prayer is ‘Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen!’ Is this what you think? Sorry you are wrong. As recorded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 11 our Lord Jesus Christ was asked by His disciples how to pray. Here our Lord gives them and us a model on how to pray. If you want to read about The Lord’s Prayer than that is just what we are about to do in the Gospel of John chapter 17,
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
The words spoken by our King as recorded in the Gospel of John in chapters 13 through 17 are His final words as He Is preparing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for us at the cross. Here He Is thinking about His disciples who had faithfully followed Him during His ministry on earth. What is beautiful for us is that He was also thinking and praying for our welfare as well. We will see this fact shortly.
As our precious Adoni Yeshua taught His disciples a good formula in which to pray, here in chapter 17 we see a similar perfectly designed pattern. In verses 1 through 5 our Master focuses on how He Glorified The Father in all that He said and did. In verses 6 through 19 He asks for provision for His disciples. Lastly, in verses 20 through 26 He prays for us, that is, all men and women who will become believers through the disciples testimony of Him.
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
We read in chapter 13 these words from our Lord Jesus Christ in verses 31 and 32, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And God will glorify Him in Himself and will immediately glorify Him.’ Please note that that at first our Holy Lord is glorified as the ‘Son of Man.’
We read in the book of Daniel chapter 7 this, 13 “ I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.”
Not only did our Lord enter out of suffering into the Presence of The Father to receive His eternal glory and kingship but He also glorified Him in Himself. As verse 5 teaches us, ‘[He will be glorified] in the Father’s own self, with the glory which He had with Him before the world was’.
He was thus not only to receive the kingship on behalf of redeemed mankind and in His glorified manhood take His place at the right hand of God as we are informed in the book of Acts chapter 2 verse 36, 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”, but also, but He also is to be glorified with the Father’s essential glory, and to take His place upon the Father’s Throne as described in the book of Revelation chapter 3 verse 21 and chapter 5 verse 6;
“21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
“6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
‘Father, the hour has come’. These words fulfill our Lord’s earthly life. He knows the end is near. He was ready for this horrible yet life giving fate. In the end He knew that is was through the cross and resurrection that He would be glorified and vindicated and would bring great glory on The Father.
In the book of Ephesians chapter 1 we read, “
“4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,”
Look at verse 2’s powerful statement by our Lord, ‘Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh.’ He Is the ultimate Judge of all the earth as recorded in the Gospel of John chapter 5, “27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man..”
He has the authority to do whatever He Will’s, and as a result He has also the authority to forgive sins. He teaches us about this right in the Gospel of Mark chapter 2, “10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic,” To capsulate this major point in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 our Mighty Sovereign Lord is the sole arbitrator of the destinies of all men and women, “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
When you become a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ you enter into a deep and personal experience of and with God. God Is no longer far off, but Is real in our experiences. There are no longer coincidences.
Please note the significance of our Lord’s words in verse 3. He alters His description from ‘Father’ to the ‘only true God’, for here He Is including Himself within the Godhead. I am sure you remember the passage from the book of Genesis chapter 2 which said, “26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – Is our God. We are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. He consists of Three Holy One’s – The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. He said ‘let Us make man in our Image. We as human beings are made up of three unique characteristics also. They are the body, the soul, and the spirit. Look at our Majestic Holy Trinity in how They manifest Themselves to us. The Father [Soul –intellect, emotion, reason], our Lord Jesus Christ [Body -God became man in human form], and Holy Spirit [Spirit]. We are thus made in His Image.
The Scriptures tell us that we are also a spirit [ God Breathed ] We have a soul [ mind, will, emotions, and intellect ] and are residing in a body.
We read this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, “30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness [our spirit] and sanctification [ our soul] and redemption [ our body] — 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
Some people look at the words ‘being sent by God’ as though our Lord is distinct from The Father. Not so! Do you remember Philips comments to our Lord Jesus about wanting Him to show them The Father as recorded in the Gospel of John chapter 14, “7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
To know the Father is to know The Son, and The Holy Spirit. If I as a Pastor is sent to see someone in the hospital this does not make me lower than the other Pastors. I am still a member of the group of Pastors at the church. Do you understand this point? I am acting on behalf of the rest of the Pastors and the church by doing this service.
If verse 3 stood alone then we could possibly distinguish ‘ The Only True God’ from the Messiah [Anointed]. It is immediately made apparent that, in His being sent, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had forsaken the glory that was His as the eternal God. Thus the separateness is to be seen as one of office and not of essence. The Father was representing the Godhead in heaven as the ‘Only True God’ to Whom men should look in prayer and worship. The Son, our Precious Lord Jesus, emptied Himself [thank you Lord Jesus] was representing the Godhead as a man on the earth, as the promised Messiah, Who revealed The Father to the world.
In His prayer our Holy Magnificent King claims that He has faithfully fulfilled the mission. Now He prays that He might be fully restored to His former Eternal Glory and Intimate relationship with the Father. Wow!
Having prayed for the fulfillment of His Own destiny our Lord Jesus now turns His attention to the needs of His Apostles. He Is aware of what they will have to face living in the world without Him being in the flesh with them. They will have to learn that He will be them in a different way.
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
These guys were men who had ‘kept the Father’s Word’. These are the words our Lord had given to them as our Lord had said that He speaks what the Father has said to Him. They had fully recognized our Lord Jesus for Who He Is – The Son of God.
A ‘name’ signifies the whole of what a person was. Our Lord has made known as was humanly possible the whole nature of being God.
As I mentioned before our Lord Jesus spoke the words given to Him by The Father. We read in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18 this, “18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”
Our Lord Jesus fulfilled this prophecy as He spoke the very words of God to mankind.
In verse 10 we read, ‘10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.’ All things belong equally to the entire Holy Trinity. Here our King and Master points out this equality. In addition, our Lord Jesus is here speaking of the future where He knows that His disciples will face sacrifice and suffering while doing there assigned missions.
You may have asked yourself sometime during this teaching where or when am I going to talk about the title of this session. That is – A Spiritual Deception – The Rapture. Well, here we go.
Please note beginning in verse 11 the oneness of the Godhead with us. - 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are” Please also note this point when our Lord Jesus prays for us in verses 20 through 23 which reveals, “20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
A major verse which ‘Rapture’ adherents use comes from the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 to 18 which says, “13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” In our next study we will go into a finer breakdown of these verses but for today I want to focus on where the Gospel of John chapter 17 has highlighted.
I want to focus on the words which ‘Rapture’ advocates preach on is in verse 17 being ‘caught up’. The Greek word for this is ‘harpazo’. It means that we ‘are one’. Another way to explain this is ‘the lesser is included into the Greater. For example, forgive me in this example, you have two fish. A small fish comes along and a larger fish snatches it up. Thereby, the two are now one.
So, the words ‘caught up’ is not referring to people here one day and then forcibly taken in a instant. The word ‘caught up’ or ‘harpazo’ means ‘oneness’ which is exactly what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is praying that all believers with the Holy Trinity will be one day which will occur at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to earth.
In the Gospel of John our Lord’s prayer is that all us believers will one day be totally with the Father, The Son – our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
In verse 12 we have a whole other major theological issue which we will look at another time and that being the ‘Antichrist’ You may ask now how did I derive this from verse 12. Well the term, ‘Son of Perdition’ as we read here you know refers to Judas. The Apostle Paul will use this same term in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,”
Remember, the idea of a ‘Rapture’ is that our Precious Lord and Savior is coming to take His church out before the Great time of Tribulation that will strike the earth. So what does our Lord really say. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
Please note the words of our Master, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John chapter 17 verse 15 He Is praying for all His church or saints. Did He say, ‘Father please take My Bride out of the earth before, during, or after the Great Tribulation? Then, what does He say? He asks the Father to protect us from the evil one so that when all this Tribulation comes upon us we will not fall away.
Our Lord Jesus would not have made one of His last prayers on earth to say that He wants the Father to protect us and not take us out of the world and then in the future do just the opposite.
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Our Beautiful Lord prayed that the unity which He has requested for the Apostles may also be experienced by His people as a whole. That unity and love will then make its impression on the world so that the world will then believe that Jesus Christ came from the Father.
God’s final purpose is to reconcile all things to Himself and to bring all things into harmony in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. Please come quickly Lord Jesus.
