Just a short message this time, I read the latest from ‘Aforgetfulsoul’ and she expresses very clearly what it really means to follow Jesus. So if you want some good, wholesome, thought-provoking wisdom, look no further. Here’s a brief extract…
I am excited to think that my life as a believer is not a matter of rigid scheduling of ‘religious’ activities, but is a pattern woven by my Father according to his purposes, where he asks for my yielding, my desire to be attuned to his promptings, my availability to be ‘interrupted’ and to recognise in the smallest event some sign that God is at work and asking me to share it.
But do read the whole article. This is exactly the way I feel about my own life, it’s one of the reasons I often add a tiny, ‘throw-away’ remark in my articles whatever the major topic, drawing attention to spiritual aspects of the everyday things I notice or am involved in. If he’s worth following (and he is) Jesus will be in every little part of my life. Often partly hidden – but there.
We often make things far too complicated. Too structured. Too organised.
It’s completely astounding that the Almighty Creator of the universe lived as a man among the village folk of Galilee for thirty years as a carpenter – and nobody noticed!
These single point extracts are intended to spark fresh thinking individually or in group discussions of up to ten people – (Christian Unions, church home groups, house churches for example).
JDMC extract – 2
Be wary of reforming people, persuading them to wear different clothes, eat different food or change their customs, culture and language. This won’t reveal Christ to them. If you claim to represent Jesus, they will assume that he is like you. Jesus came to live among the ordinary people of Judaea and Galilee and he expects us to live among the people around us and identify with them just as he did; this demands that we go deep, something Paul understood and practised (1 Corinthians 9:19–23). Jesus shows us how to do it, he ate with Pharisees and tax collectors. He was fully present. He came as a servant and he shared the good news. It’s completely astounding that the Almighty Creator of the universe lived as a man among the village folk of Galilee for thirty years as a carpenter – and nobody noticed! That shows us how deeply he involved himself in the local culture, he became invisible.
Jesus is our example for going out and going deep. These two activities work together so that the gospel (good news) and the church (the gospel people) become firmly embedded in the local community. Rapid expansion is not going to happen any other way. We need to understand that knowing Jesus more deeply will lead us into both going out (Luke 10:1-4) and going deep (Luke 10:5-7). That will affect what church looks like in the place where we live. If we let him, Jesus will take us first into mission and then into new church life shaped as he wants it to be. And this will be different depending on whether we live in France or Fiji, inner city or village, or among the poor or rich.
Discuss
Will you identify with people as you find them, or will you bring your own culture with you as if that, too, is part of the good news? Jesus came in weakness, he came to give up his life. Talk about what that might mean for you as you follow him.
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I’ve been finding I don’t have time to post as often as I’d like, and one way to deal with that is to post shorter messages based around material I already have to hand So as part of the mix I’m going to start posting single point extracts from JDMC, and continue with short image posts as well. We’ll see how it goes.
These single point extracts are intended to spark fresh thinking individually or in group discussions of up to ten people – (Christian Unions, church home groups, house churches etc). Unions, church home groups, house churches etc).
JDMC extract – 1
No, I’m not suggesting you all sign up for holy orders – but we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen race (1 Peter 2:9). In Israel the royal and priestly functions were separate. But in Christ they are combined, he is King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) but he is also our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). We have Royal duties because our Father is also the King’s Father, so we have a role in leading and ruling. But we also have priestly duties because we’re brothers and sisters of the High Priest, and we have a role in bridging the gap between the people around us and our Father in heaven. Every single one of us is a servant of Christ and should be fully active – it’s part of being a disciple. We do what he does, we say what he says.
Find out what everyone’s leadership gifts are. We all have them, there are no exceptions. We all have the role and duty and joy of encouraging and equipping others for service. We must build one another up in love. It’s part of discipleship, part of becoming like the Master.
Discuss
I can guarantee that everyone in your group has taken the lead in some way, great or small. Can you identify some of these leading abilities? It might be initiating something, reminding the group to listen to what the Spirit is saying, spreading a good idea to another group, getting people to care for one another and cooperate, or explaining something. Can you identify anything apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, or teaching here?
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What we can say with some certainty is that the Gospel of Matthew was written by a person with a good knowledge of Judaism and was complete in its current form within 70 years of Jesus’ death.
Before starting to read and discuss Matthew, here’s an overview of the book and its author.
Matthew’s gospel was written by a well-educated Jew, probably between 60 and 90 CE (thirty to fifty years after the events he describes), but some scholars think it was written as early as 40 to 50 CE. It seems likely the author drew from Mark’s gospel (which was written earlier); possibly also from the text of a different early account, now lost (referred to as Q); and perhaps from material written by the disciple Matthew. The facts are lost in the past, and Bible scholars continue to change their views based on the material available and their opinions about it. Some argue that the disciple Matthew was the author, others believe this is unlikely.
The author
The book may have been written by Matthew the tax collector (also called Levi), one of the twelve apostles. Certainly this is what the second century church fathers thought. The text itself suggests that the author was fluent in Greek with a good knowledge of either Aramaic or Hebrew (or indeed both).
The debate will continue, but what we can say with some certainty is that the Gospel of Matthew was written by a person with a good knowledge of Judaism and was complete in its current form within 70 years of Jesus’ death. The structure of Matthew closely follows that of Mark with the addition of extra material at the beginning (the genealogy and stories of Jesus’ birth) and at the end (events after the resurrection).
Purpose
This gospel is focused on Jewish traditions and people, and generally draws on a broad and deep understanding of Jewish society and customs at the time of Jesus. It was probably written for the Jewish diaspora living in Alexandria, Antioch and elsewhere, Jews who would have spoken Greek in everyday life.
The purpose of the book is to reveal Jesus as the Messiah, of the royal lineage of David, and as fulfilling the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament). The author of Matthew is also clear that Gentiles are included with Jews in everything Jesus did and promised.
The Wikipedia article on the book gives a lot of useful information all backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail it’s a good place to start. The article about the author is also useful and provides ample references.
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Cycling through the gospels to keep Jesus at the centre of all we do.
I’m posting notes on short passages from the gospels. Come and join me in reading the passages and leave me some thoughts and comments. The notes can be used individually, or they can be used systematically to work through a whole book, or all four gospels. The most recent notes are on my Journeys of heart and mind site (JHM), and more will follow. Older material is on an older website, some links may need updating but navigational links work seamlessly across old and new.
I’ve made a start in Matthew, Mark, and now John; it’s been an interesting journey for me. You can start from any point, all the old posts remain and new ones will appear once every week or so.
Alan Hirsch has developed a model for vibrant, missional church life and at the heart of the model is the idea that Christ should be central in all that we do. Few people would argue with that! One habit that he recommends to help us keep Jesus at the heart of our lives is to cycle through the gospels as part of our Bible reading. Not only that, he recommends reading all of the Bible ‘through the lens of the gospels’.
I agree with that; and it’s where these articles come in.
Latest news:
22nd June 2025 – Today I finished the task of repairing broken links in the old version of these posts. You can now navigate the entire series using the links in each article – Matthew, Mark, and most of John. Next, I propose revising all the material from the old version, moving each item to Journeys of heart and mind as I go.
17:20-23 – These next three verses are amongst the most significant things Jesus ever said. These words are the mission statement for the church. Sometimes it seems to me they’re more of a ‘missing statement’ for us than a ‘mission statement’ because we overlook the implications. There’s great depth here if we will only pay close enough attention, so let’s step through these words in detail.
17:20 – Jesus is very clear that he is not praying only for the twelve followers who were with him as he spoke with his Father. No. He explicitly says, ‘I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message’. Who is that? It’s me. It’s you. You and I believed through the message brought to us in the Bible, written partly by people Jesus knew personally, taught, journeyed with, ate with, people he demonstrated his love to, some of them would soon see him die and later see him again alive. After praying for them he prays also for us!
Oneness every which way!
17:21 – He wants you and me to be one, just as he and the Father are one. There is nothing that you and I might differ over that can stand between us as two of his people. Not doctrine, not denomination, not wealth or poverty, wisdom or foolishness, not gifts or apparent lack of them, not skin colour or attitudes to this or that in church life or beyond it. The goal is not to be right, the goal is to recognise that our reconciliation was very, very costly. Loss of life and separation of Father and Son is what it took to bring peace and oneness to and between you and me. And we, in our shiny new oneness are to be part of the eternal oneness of the Father and the Son. Why? So that the world has a chance to believe that the Father sent the Son. It’s plain in verse 21. Yet there’s still more!
17:22 – Just read verse 22 again. The Father clothed his Son with glory and he passed it on to you and me! What? Why would he do that? So that you and I can be one just as the Father and the Son are one.
17:23 – And in this verse we see that Jesus is in us, and the Father is in Jesus Why is that necessary? It’s because within the threeness that we refer to as ‘The Trinity’ and sometimes think we understand, there is also a oneness, a complete unity. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are not just close friends in some unique way, or close relatives. The Holy Spirit is often described as ‘The Spirit of Christ’, and Jesus said, ‘If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’. So when John tells us that without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5), that implies quite undeniably that without the Spirit we can do nothing and without the Father we can do nothing. The astonishing thing that we rarely notice is that all of us who follow Jesus are now part of the Trinity. If you can’t quite swallow that idea, let me state it slightly differently. In John 15:5 just mentioned, Jesus says we need to remain in him and he in us. Well, Jesus is undeniably in the Trinity, and we are in Jesus – therefore… You fill in the dots.
The need to believe
We’d better start understanding and believing this, because if we don’t we can do – nothing. How amazing is this undeserved gift that we are now one with the Most High, one with Jesus, one with Yahweh, with the Spirit. We can make further supporting arguments for this claim.
We are a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9), royalty is about authority and rule, priesthood is about bridging the gap between earth and heaven, enabling people to come into the Holy Presence. Jesus is King of Kings and he’s also the Great High Priest. We are in him. We do what we see Jesus do (we’re his disciples, or apprentices), just as he did what he saw the Father do.
We are ‘filled with the Spirit’ (see this search). Filled (in a different context) doesn’t mean half or three quarters, it means completely full and running over (Luke 6:38). Jesus is our head and we are his body, we are in him and he is in us. We were created a little lower than the angels; but I’d submit that in Christ, we are considerably higher than the angels!
But we should be very careful not to become proud or puffed up. We do not deserve to be one with the Most High, it’s a gift obtained at great cost, our humble gratitude is appropriate and required. And notice too, in verse 23, that the Father loves you just the same way he loved the Son before the foundation of the world. You are loved with the same love Jesus received before the beginning. And Paul wrote to the Galatians that love is greater than faith and it’s greater than hope. It is the greatest thing of all (1 Cor 13:13). This new life we received in Christ enables us to be and do all the things he will lead us into.
Some readers may feel I’ve gone too far in this post. If so, please leave a comment. I can’t guarantee to change my opinion, but I will certainly read all the comments and respond to them.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the final three verses of John 17.
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We can be sure there’s trouble ahead and we can imagine some of the long term issues. The authors of this article are putting out a broad warning and setting out the probable longer term dangers.
Recommended – 2
In this series I recommend articles or other work I’ve seen that I really like and want to share with my readers.
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A quick summary follows, but I encourage you to read the original with its much deeper analysis.
It’s very difficult to analyse the long-term effects of actions that began only three months ago, and may continue for some time; we can only guess how long this process will last and what new forms it might take in future months or years. It’s as if the captain of a large vessel had ordered a hard turn to starboard and the crew was scrambling to put the order into effect. With the ship’s rudder now clearly turning and signs of a change in course, what can possibly be concluded?
The ship will start to lean a little, some loose objects will slide around, these immediate effects are predictable. But what about the longer term? Will there be a catastrophic collision with another ship? Will we run aground? It’s clear there are dangers but it’s too soon to make detailed predictions.
That’s the situation US science finds itself in today. We can be sure there’s trouble ahead and we can imagine some of the long term issues. The authors of this article are putting out a broad warning and setting out the probable longer term dangers.
Damage caused by the Trump administration, science-policy experts warn, could set the United States back for decades. “So many of the damaging impacts are going to be extremely difficult to reverse and are going to take a very long time to recover from,” says John Holdren, a science adviser to former US president Barack Obama.
The authors begin by summarising what’s been done in the first three months and pointing out that it’s just a start; cuts of up to half seem likely. Reader surveys by Nature show well over 90% are troubled by the cuts.
About half the US science budget goes on defence-related programs and more than a quarter on health. The cuts are being presented as necessary to combat waste, corruption and propaganda, but no evidence has been offered to back up these claims. An assumption is being made that private sector research will shoulder the burden, though that is most unlikely for fundamental studies.
Another aspect of budget cuts is the resulting loss of skilled and knowledgeable staff, an immediate loss that will take a long time to rebuild. Indeed, the damage done in a few months will take decades to recover. It seems likely that Congress will be unable (or unwilling) to resist the probable budget cuts for 2026 and the situation is not likely to be alleviated by the various political demands being made of universities by the Trump administration. The USA seems already to be suffering loss of reputation and is less appealing for foreign scientists, not only are fewer international staff and students planning to work in the USA, but American scientists are starting to look abroad for work.
There are worries that other nations will advance beyond what the US can do in years ahead, and putting broken US science together again will be very difficult and expensive to achieve.
The article also contains helpful links for additional reading on the topics discussed.
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The first step is hearing about the things Jesus did and said, discovering his nature and purpose.
There’s an idea out there among some people that the first step towards following Jesus is going to church, or developing a faith, or taking vows or something like that.
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Nothing could be further from the truth!
The first step is hearing about the things Jesus did and said, discovering his nature and purpose, finding that he is a likeable, kind, and helpful person to everyone who gets to know him. Everything follows from that. It’s where the adventure begins!
17:13 – There’s so much in Jesus’ heart and mind as he completes the prayer for his immediate disciples. And there’s a lot for us to dig into and appreciate here too.
Do bear in mind throughout, that Jesus would have been speaking not only to the Father, but also wanted and expected his apprentices to overhear. His words are for them too, and through them passed on to you and me as well, in written form. Jesus intended you to read his words. It’s very personal!
Joy
Jesus wants his followers to have his own joy within them. What is Jesus’ joy? He doesn’t state it here, but surely what makes Jesus joyful is completing the work his Father sent him to do, returning to be in his Father’s presence again after living a life here in our broken world; and knowing that the Father himself is delighted and joyful that, despite unimaginable hardship, the task is completed and has broken the barriers that kept people from entering his Presence. Jesus has the same joy because he knows the same thing, the work is done, the goal is achieved, the way into Father’s presence is open to every Jesus follower, everyone doing Jesus’ own work. That work is love – love towards family, friends, neighbours, even enemies.
17:14 – Yahshua (Jesus) continues to speak to his Father about the situation, making four points.
He mentions that he has given them the Father’s word (not words, this is singular). Jesus is himself the Word spoken into physical existence.
The world has hated them.
The reason the world hates them is because they don’t belong to the world, and the world loves its own.
We are like Jesus, not belonging to the world.
One thing we should take away from this is that telling the Father things he already knows is perfectly acceptable. Our expressing them to him is neither pointless repetition nor trying his patience. We can do this too, we’re laying out the situation as we see it before we ask for help, guidance, comfort, encouragement, or action. The Holy Spirit may respond as we do this, showing us things we’d overlooked, pointing out the way forward, changing our perspective.
17:15-16 – Think about conversations between two friends perhaps over a coffee or sitting in the shade on a hot, summer’s day. A typical conversation might include saying hello (a greeting), checking how the other person is, asking questions, offering help, discussing mutual interests and more. Yahshua says we are no longer servants, but friends, and he says he and the Father are one. He told the disciples, ‘If you’ve seen me you have seen the Father’. So it’s more than OK to be on friendly terms with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; all those things we might discuss with any friend are things we can discuss with the Father. It’s what he wants us to do!
Only after describing the situation does Jesus move on to asking for things. He begins with clarity about what he is not asking, and then he asks for their (and our) protection from the enemy. Think about it! You are following Jesus, and he has asked for the Father’s protection over you, personally. The prince of darkness is restrained from harming you. How far does this go? Well, let me assure you, it goes the entire way. Down the centuries many of Jesus’ followers have died, as he did, at the hands of bad or ignorant people – killed by lions in Roman arenas or hanged by Nazis in the Second World War like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Martin Niemöller. But all of them were protected from the greater catastrophe of falling into the hands of a spiritual enemy.
Why do we get this special treatment? Because in following Jesus we become like him. Jesus is not of this world, and neither are we.
Sanctified
17:17-19 – This Greek word, ἁγίασον (hagiason), is specific in its meaning; its sense is the act or process of making a thing or a person holy, to consecrate, to set apart, or as here to sanctify. Greek versions of the Old Testament use the same word in explaining that the Tabernacle and later the Temple were holy, and the priests were holy (set apart to serve). Jesus used the word when talking about the Temple, and in the Lord’s prayer when he said ‘Hallowed be thy Name’. In modern English we might say, ‘Let your name be kept holy’.
Here, speaking to his Father, he uses the same word of his followers, ‘Make them holy by the truth, your word is truth’. If you are following Jesus, then know that he has made you holy and set you apart to serve him and him alone! He asks that we be made holy, set apart, by the truth. So what truth is this?
Elsewhere Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. He also said, ‘The truth shall set you free’. He says here in verse 17, ‘Your word is truth’. This makes perfect sense, Jesus himself is The Word, spoken into a broken world by the everlasting Father.
And finally, in verse 19, Jesus says very clearly that he has set himself apart for his Father’s use on our behalf, so that we, too, can be truly set apart for the Father’s use as well.
Don’t forget who you are
If you take away nothing else from these verses, take away the amazing truth that following Jesus demonstrates you are set apart, holy and fit to serve the Father, precious and special. Do not be hoodwinked into thinking you are not significant. And don’t for one moment think that you’re significant because of what you do. You are significant because of who you are! Jesus is your brother, you’ve been brought right into the family, welcomed and hugged and loved by the Trinity, no less.
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Jesus begins by reading back what he already knows. It’s time. His followers still don’t fully understand, but hearing this now, they will gradually understand as events unfold.
17:6 – We learn a lot from the words of Jesus’ prayer. The first thing we can see is that Jesus believes his core followers, the disciples, are a gift to him from his Father. Jesus’ role here was to reveal the Father to these people he’d been given. They were a bit of a mixed bag, four fishermen, a tax agent, Judas Iscariot managed the funds and might have had a background in money management, and the other Judas may have been a farmer or a farm labourer. No doubt the others all had some sort of trade or working background too.
And this disparate bunch had all proved to be obedient and have obeyed the Father’s word. Jesus may just mean that they have done what he has asked of them, because Jesus himself is the Father’s word, a living message of grace, peace and love sent into a broken world.
17:7 – They know that everything Jesus has is from the Father. 17:8 – Jesus has passed on to his apprentices (disciples) the words the Father gave him, and they accepted them. They’re fully convinced that Jesus came from, and was sent by, the Father. 17:9 – And Jesus prays for them, not for the world but specifically for those he’s been given (the disciples). The disciples belong to the Father. Remember that this is true for all of us who believe. If we are following Jesus, then we belong to the Father who has given us to him.
17:10 – On other occasions Jesus says things like, ‘The Father and I are one’, or ‘If you’ve seen me you have seen the Father’. Here he says the same thing in yet another way. Clearly addressing the Father, Jesus says, ‘All I have is yours, and all you have is mine’.
Oneness, threeness, and glory
Notice the last few words of this verse, ‘Glory has come to me through them‘. So the glory that Jesus has comes to him, in part, through his disciples, his followers, his apprentices. Have you thought about what that really means? Bear in mind here that you, that I, that we are his disciples in the world today. Glory is supposed to come to Jesus through us! That can only happen if we, his people, are reaching out into the world as we are supposed to, spreading the knowledge of the anointed Jesus out into the world here and now.
Are you up for that? Am I?
17:11-12 – And now Jesus prays again for the disciples, for a separation is coming. This is prayer for us as well as a prayer for the twelve who were there with him as he spoke with the Father. Drink it in; make it personal.
He says he’s not staying in this world any longer and is returning to his Father, but we are remaining in this world. So he asks his Father (and ours) to protect us. Jesus asks his Father to protect us by the power of his name. And what is the Father’s name? He shared this name to Moses when Moses asked him, ‘Who shall I say has sent me?’ The name is Yahweh, the great I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you (Exodus 3:13-15). Father is the ultimate cause, the source of all things. Jesus is asking this so that we may be one, just as Jesus and his Father are one.
But there’s more! Jesus, speaking to the Father, says very clearly that the name has been give to him also. Perhaps here, more clearly than almost anywhere else, Jesus claims that he and the Father are one and the same. The Jewish leaders condemned Jesus for claiming equality with the Most High; he was actually claiming far more than mere equality!
And he adds (in verse 12) that he protected the disciples and kept them safe by that same name. The only one he lost was Judas, who betrayed him for a bag of cash.
And finally, we can say something else about names. When Jesus appeared in shining brightness on the mountain, he talked with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17: 1-5). Have you ever wondered why those two?
Moses represents law, Jesus represents deliverance, and Elijah represents prophecy. And these three are seen to be in conversation. Who brought law? The Father, Yahweh, the great I AM inscribed the commandments on the stone tablets (on a mountain). Jesus brings us into the place of promise just as Joshua (the same name, by the way) brought Israel into the place of promise, the promised land. And Elijah brought communication, as did all of the Old Testament prophets, sharing Father’s words with the people.
This is a glorious picture of the trinity – The Father (giver of law), the Son (giver of deliverance), and the Spirit (giver of communication). They are one, and if we have the presence of any one we have the presence of them all. And that, my friends, is why Jesus had to return to the Father in order to send the Spirit. If the Spirit is in you and among you, then the Father and the Son are also in you and among you. It cannot be any other way!
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Journeys of Heart and Mind 
