Transmission - Video
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Transmission - Devo
Day Three - Jesus' Inescapable Love for His Disciples
John 17:6-18 (NLT) - "I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.
"My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.
"Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world."
In one of Jesus' last recorded prayers before His death, He pours out His heart to the Father, and we read and see His inescapable love for His followers. As we glimpse His heart in prayer, we see that Jesus' love for His followers does not mean that they will escape the world, difficulties of life, or difficulties of following God. Rather, we see that in Jesus actually sends His followers into the world to live and to love like He does. Anyone who has sought to love knows that this does not mean an easy life. But, in His inescapable love for them and for us, Jesus promises that He will be with us.
How do we experience His inescapable love while we are in this world? Jesus prayed that we would experience the protection of the power of His name. He also prayed that the Father would teach us His word. We know this love - this inescapable love of Jesus' death for us - through the word He has given us and the power which His church continues to experience by His name.
Responding to the Transmitted Message: As we read through John 17 again, let's thank God for His great love for us, demonstrated in Jesus. Ask Him that, together with all His church, you will experience and know His inescapable love through His word and His power.
