What does that glory mean in John 17:22?

Question on moody radio Chicago on openline on September 7, 2019:

Can you explain what Jesus meant by glory in John 17:22. "I do not ask on behalf of these alone," this is Jesus praying to God the Father, "but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as You Father are in me and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You send me. Here's the verse specifically that Chris is asking about, " The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as they are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You send me, and love them even as you loved me." So, when Jesus talks about that glory which you have given me, I have given to them, what does he mean by that word?

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

Well, you can just look back at verse 5 and it talks about how the Father glorify me in your presence, with that glory I had with You before the world existed, isn't that kind of amazing? Here, God Incarnate, God the Son Incarnate, who gave up that glory, didn't give up that Godness at all but it's veiled in flesh, He says now glorify me and that's the glory of perfection, perfect holiness, and then what He says here in verse 22, "I have given the glory you given me, He says Father give it back to me and he told his disciples, I am going to give them that glory, but I don't have it yet, we just have ours positionally, but one day, we are going to be glorified, that's going to come a time, this is hard for me to believe but I won't sin and not only will I have the imputed righteousness of Jesus but one day when I stand in His presence, it will be with the glory He has shared with me, that's what we are talking about we are justified, we are being sanctified and one day we will be glorified because of what He has done for us. I don't have a hard time imagining Eva glorified or you Tricia glorified, I have a real hard time considering me, because I know how wicked I am but it's an amazing thing that Jesus prays for us and assures us and by the way, positionally, in God's eyes, we are already like that, which is just amazing. Positional truth is true truth. So, in Romans 8, for example in verse 17, seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him, but then here's what interesting, in verse 30, Romans 8, those he's predestined, he's called and those that he called, he also justified, justified means declared righteous and those that he declared righteous or justified, he also glorified. So, he's talking about those of us who are believers and there it says not only have we been declared righteous but we have also positionally been glorified, it refers to something in God's eye it's already done so we can be assured that it will be done in the future when we are in glory. It's kind of a cool thing.

John 17

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. -nkjv

John 17

1Jesus 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. -nkjv

Romans 8

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. -nkjv

Romans 8

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. -nkjv

When was the Passover Feast?

Question on moody radio on August 31, 2019 from openline:

In John 18:28, it says they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters and it was early in the morning, they did not enter the headquarters themselves, otherwise they would have been defiled and unable to eat the Passover. She asked: Hadn't Jesus just eaten the Passover with his disciples? Did they celebrate the Passover at a different time? Please clarify.

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

Jane, you are a good reader. You know how many people read that and never pick up that there seems to be some sort of confusion as to what was going on?

Eva Rydelnik:

Chronological or ...

Dr Michael Rydelnik:

It's one of the reasons why the synoptic all present the gospel as this is the last supper at the Passover slater, Passover meal where as some people say John doesn't. Well I think John does too, I think they have all the elements of that dinner that they have, that seemed to indicate like in John 13, the special washing, all sort of things that goes with the slater. So, that's projected the same. So, it's pretty good observation, Jane. A lot of people miss that.

Here's what I think the answer is. It's an answer found in the book by Harold Hoehner. I mentioned this book probably more than any other book because I get a lot of chronological questions. This book is called "Chronological aspects of the life of Christ". Dr Hoehner was a great chronologist and a great bible scholar. He was my mentor for my master thesis and he's with the Lord now. I so value what I learn from particularly this little book he did. It's a really tiny book, still available but through Zondervan. What he points out, the way he resolves this seeming contradiction is that the Judeans, people from that area and Sadducees priesthood, the priesthood were all Sadduceans, they counted the time when time Passover started differently than when people from Galilee and the Pharisee started. The Pharisees would have started Passover the evening before, the Galileans follow that. So that's why the animals were sacrificed just before sunset and then you have dinner. Where as the Sadducees and the Judeans, they sacrificed the animals right around mid day the next day and then they would celebrate Passover and eat the Passover afterwards. And so even though that was when they thought it because there were so many people that were needed to offer sacrifice at Passover, every family were supposed to do it, they allow this to spread out the number. So, even though they ran the temple, they allow some sacrifices that they thought were too early because that's when the Pharisee and the Galileans thought they would be. So, for that reason, though Jesus and his disciple were from Galilee, they had celebrated the evening before, the Sadducees and the priesthood would not have done it until after the trial of Jesus, which was on the next day, Good Friday. The Lord Jesus would have died when the Sadduceans sacrifices were being made. So, I hope that satisfies the apparent contradiction.

John 18

28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. -nkjv

Seven different eras of the church?

Openline program on moody radio on Aug 17, 2019:

Question from listener:

I have been doing a bible study in Revelation and they are going through the seven churches and the leader of the bible study sort of inferred something I haven't researched or studied before, he was saying that the churches are not just the seven literal churches and they are not just spiritual significance for the churches, but possibly they foreshadow the seven different periods of church history, so I was wondering if you could expound on that a little bit and talk about that theory a bit.

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

There are some people who hold this view. I think that the structure of the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1, it says" Write the things which you have seen, the things which are, the things which shall be. The things which you have seen is chapter 1, the vision that John has seen of the Lord Jesus. Chapters 2 and 3, the things which are, so he's writing, not prophecy there, he's writing a description of the situation as it is with the seven churches of the book of Revelations and the things which shall be, that begins in chapter 4 and goes to the end of the book, which is the futuristic prediction of the book. And so, it seems to me that it would be a mistake to see the seven ages, I don't know where Mike stands on this?

Dr Michael Vanlangningham:

I actually agree with you. As you read through the letters to the seven churches, I don't see anywhere in it that in each of these individual letters where there's an indication that John is writing and the Lord is telling him to write about different ages in historical periods of the church. As you read through that, I rather get the impression that he really is talking to the church in Ephesus or Laodicea or Sardis or whatever. That's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say is you have churches like this throughout every period. Churches that were cold, churches that were being beat up and persecuted, churches who let Jesus back into their fellowship. So, you got that in every single age. It seems to it is not right hermeneutically or interpretively, you don't really have keys that leads us to understand this as different eras of the church.