God's name

 

Jesus’ prayer for His disciples    v6-19

It must be obvious to any casual reader of the New Testament that the Apostles of Christ have a very important role in the New Testament churches. They evangelised the then-known world and laid the foundational doctrine and practice for all believers-Acts 2v42 and Ephesians 2v20.  It was for this purpose Jesus trained them for more than three years, teaching and encouraging so that they could pass the same on to us who would follow them.  In his prayer for them the Lord Jesus indicates just how important they are and how He cared for them and protected them and provided for them, to promote the work that He had completed.   

He manifested God’s name to them                                 6)  “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word.”

This is more than verbal, this is visible.  He did not just speak the words that revered His name, He lived it out, He demonstrated it with His actions, His attitude, His demeanour; He expounded God, made Him visible to all  

We consider the Name of God; it refers to His nature, His character, indeed all that He is in His essence. 

·      His name is His glorious       the outshining of excellence that causes wonder in all who know Him-Isaiah 42v8, “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another: neither my praise to graven images.”   

·      His name is excellent in all the earth-Psalm 8v1v9. 

·      His name is associated with awe, with wisdom, with power, with eternity, with harmony-Isaiah 9v6.

·      His name is revered among all nations-Malachi1v11

·      His name is holy-Psalm 111v9 and Matthew 6v9; it is apart, higher, greater than all names, and not to be taken in vain.

This was truly God manifest in flesh.  In His own words, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”.  He revealed God in the glory of His Person and exalted His name before them.  These were not perfect men, they had many flaws and weaknesses.  They were not even trained men from the elite rabbinical schools of the day.  They were ordinary men, whom Christ would make extraordinary, and through whom He would evangelise the world.  It was to these men He revealed God first of all.  With all their faults, and many that would still arise, He credited them with loyalty, “…they have kept thy word.”  These were the men He chose to be His inner circle for global evangelism, and through many days trained them in the ways of the Lord.  These were the men He trusted to do His will.  Despite their many weaknesses, the Lord looked on their hearts and trusted them for the task.  However they required Divine help, which is the subject of the prayer.  He said, “…thine they were, thou gavest them me.”  In what sense can we understand this?  God is involved in all lives: by creation…of all men including the aspects of generation, preservation, provision and many more-refer Acts 17v24-29; Psalm 68v5; 1^st Timothy 4v10.   They were God's by predestination, as they were chosen before the world began-Eph. 1v3-4.  Now they are given to Christ in redemption as the love-gift of the Father to the Son who has reconciled them to God.  Ultimately this will apply to all believers.       

7-8)  “Now they have known that all things, whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee.  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely, that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me.” 

It took them a while, as it would take us a while, but eventually they understood who He was.  Through many doubts, these men came to realise that Jesus was sent by God, that all He said was of God, as well as all that He did was from God.  As late on as the discussions in the upper room they were still unsure as is evident in chapter 14v5-8 and 14v22.  Some of them had made bold statements but it was only surface.  The first evidence that the “penny dropped” was in chapter 16v29-30 when they said, “Lo now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverb.  Now are we sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee; by this we believe that thou camest as forth from God.”  In short they knew He was God manifest in flesh.  All doubts were now removed, and this would continue until even “doubting Thomas” bowed before Him and proclaimed “My Lord and my God”.  Jesus knew He could trust these men.