United in Truth, by Love.

John 17: 6-26

Introduction:

Good morning, Mililani Baptist! It is great, as always, to get to worship together with fellow believers. I want to thank you all for the opportunity and allowing me to preach this morning while Pastor Dennis is away. I am excited to share with you the message that God has laid on my heart.

This morning, we will be looking at John 17 which is at the end of the lengthy passage known as the upper room discourse. The upper room discourse is recognized as John chapters 13-17, which begins just after the last supper with Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. These chapters contain much wisdom on how to live as believers in a fallen world after Jesus is no longer physically on earth. John 17 occurs just before Jesus is betrayed and arrested in Gethsemane.

John 17, which comes at the end of the upper room discourse, is known, or referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. This is because Jesus was going to the Father in prayer interceding for His disciples and all believers. In Judaism this was done by the High Priest, once a year on the day of atonement the High Priest would go into the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle, and later the temple, and intercede to God on behalf of the people.. Knowing that Jesus knew what was about to happen to Him and realizing that Jesus took time to pray for His disciples and for us is very humbling. Jesus did also pray for himself but how He prays for himself is what is so amazing. John 17:1-5 Jesus prays that He would be glorified, in such a manner as to bring glory to the father. As we examine the rest of John 17, let us think about how much our prayer life could be different, and what greater unity we could achieve if we were primarily praying for God to be glorified?

If you have your copy of God’s Word please turn with me to John, chapter 17 beginning in verse 6: “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. 13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. JESUS PRAYS FOR ALL BELIEVERS 20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

This is God’s word for us, lets pray.

Dear God, thank You for Your word. For the truth that You have given to us. Thank You for the time and space that we have, to gather in fellowship with one another and most importantly to worship You. God, let it be Your word that we hear today and let it affect our hearts to be more like Yours. In Jesus name, Amen.

There are several things we can learn from this passage and we would be here for several hours if we were to fully dissect and seek to understand everything that is here. However, there are certainly still things we can learn. We will look at the importance of unity, truth and love in the life of believers.

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1. The first point is that as believers we are to be united with each other, modeling the unity that Jesus has with the Father. We will look at verses 6 through 16 but really focus on verses 11 through 15.

- Jesus prays for His disciples who are still in the world, he prays that they be kept in the Father’s name and that they will be one. We see in verse 11 that Jesus is really praying for unity that can only come, not just from a common belief but a common spirit. We often focus on our beliefs, our doctrine and theology. And right doctrine and Biblical theology are certainly important, but what is the heart behind it? Are we more focused on everyone believing the exact same way we do on tertiary issues or are we more concerned with the unity of the Body on scripture?

- The Superbowl is this afternoon; now last year 114,210,000 people watched the super bowl. Americans love to watch the super bowl, some people watch because their team is playing, some just love football, some people watch for the half time show and some just want to see the commercials. People who pull for a different team in regular season put aside their differences of opinion to gather with friends and family to watch the game or some may just enjoy it themselves. If people can do this over a football game, how much more should we, as believers who all share faith in Christ and have the Holy Spirit living within us, be able to put aside differences of opinion to focus on furthering God’s kingdom?

- To be one as Jesus and the Father are one is to be intricately intertwined in a way that is not selfish or evil but that is full of truth and love. Jesus is not in competition with the Father but is one with Him. Earlier in John 15, Jesus tells His disciples “Abide in me, and I in you”; to abide is to dwell in. If we are all, as believers, abiding in Christ than we will be united- because we are dwelling in the same person. As we focus more on God and bringing Him glory we become less focused on ourselves.

- We understand that the world will hate us as believers, do we accept it? The world hates us because we are bearing God’s truth and the world cannot stand to see truth- truth is like light, those who do works of darkness have no desire to have their works brought into the light, therefore they reject truth. We see in verse 14 that the world hated Jesus and the world hated his disciples and we can understand that the world hates us as well. If the world loves us that is an indication that we are of the world – we should not seek to be hated or to hate, we should seek to love, as we will see in a few moments, but if we are loved by the world, we need to seriously look at our lives. Because to not be of the world is to look different than the world because we know and have accepted the truth.

- Verse 15 reminds us that Jesus’ mission was not simply to make our lives better on this earth, we will remain in the world until Jesus calls us home but Jesus prays that we will be protected from the evil one - from being corrupted and led astray morally or otherwise. We can do much to guard our own hearts by paying attention to who we spend time with, what we watch and listen to, what thoughts we entertain and how much time we are spending talking to God in prayer and reading His word.

2. Our second point is the prominence of truth, we’ll be looking at verses 17 through 19 here.

- We understand that we are not of this world if we have been saved. In verse 17 Jesus prays “sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” from this verse we can learn that God is truth for if God’s word is truth and Jesus is the Word, then God is truth. The truth is not relative, it does not change with newer generations or the advent of new technology. The truth is the truth. We know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever- and God is truth, therefore truth also does not change.

- We also must understand what it is to sanctify. To sanctify is “to set apart for special use, or a special purpose”. For us to be sanctified is to be set apart for God’s will. The process of sanctification is a continual process and so if God is to sanctify us in the truth we must be continually reminded of the truth; this is why regular study of God’s word, and gathering with fellow believers is so important to our health as a Christian.

- However, we are not meant to be sanctified in the truth simply for us to sit in it and gain infinite knowledge- we are to be sanctified in the truth so as not to be overcome by the lies of the evil one and to become more like Christ as we go into the world and remain in the world. If we focus on the truth, we see the lies more clearly in order to reject them; if we focus on ourselves we will more easily fall prey to the lies. Much like professionals who are able to distinguish between real and counterfeit money. They do not study all the counterfeits, they study the true version, to know what right looks like. We are to do this with God’s word so that we can combat the lies.

- As we look at Verse 18, which declares “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” We see that we are to take the truth wherever we go and should share the truth with those around us. To do this we must live the truth. We would be hypocrites to speak of something we do not practice. While we all will still struggle with and stumble in sin, we must be diligent to practice truth. But what does this look like? Well, we need to know the truth to practice it. So, we need to consistently study God’s word. And then as we learn God’s truth, we must be honest with ourselves, are we living in a way that demonstrates that we believe the truth of scripture? If we are not then how can we start, what needs to change? A practical step is to be involved in a group that is studying the Bible together. Here at MBC we have Thursday night Bible studies for men and women, we have Sunday school classes, and we have Awana and adult prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings. There are ample opportunities for us to come together in fellowship with one another, and to learn how to study and apply God’s word. This is also something we should practice on our own – daily prayer and study of God’s word. The more time we spend with the truth the easier it is to integrate the truth into daily conversations with coworkers, neighbors, friends and family. God’s word, His truth, will not return void, and as we faithfully plant seeds wherever we are, God will make them fruitful in His time.

- The truth must be spoken, but it should be done in love.

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3. Our third and final point is the purpose of love, as we look at verses 20 through 26.

- A few chapters earlier Jesus tells his disciples “Love one another, for by this all men will know that you are my disciples” and we understand that love brings about unity. In verses 20-26 Jesus is specifically praying for all believers- even for us. And He is praying that we will be one with each other and we will be in God. As I already discussed briefly, Jesus has just addressed that we need to abide in Him and He in us, in John 15. As we remain in Christ, we will become more like Him which will result in us loving fellow believers and being united with a desire to tell others about Christ.

- Valentine’s Day is this Wednesday, and February is thought of as the month of love. Often, on or around Valentine’s Day people, especially couples, give each other gifts – often flowers or chocolate, as a gesture of their love for each other. As Christians we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we love someone, we care deeply for them; what greater way to care for someone than to share the gospel with them?

- The purpose of this unity. As stated in verse 21 and again in verse 23 is “so that the world may believe that God sent Jesus” to believe this, and all its further implications of salvation is to accept the truth. Therefore, love brings about unity and seasons the truth. God is truth and God is love.

- Truth without love is rude and love without truth is coddling.

- Truth and love are meant to be together. God’s truth is what separates believers from the world; God’s love is what lets the world know that we are different.

- While the truth is what we are united or rallied around, love is what makes our unity bearable. True love is of God and so if we truly love, we will seek God’s will. God’s will is for the truth to be made known – by loving each other and expressing love, we demonstrate to the world that we are different because of the truth.

Conclusion:

We have seen that as believers we must be united with each other through our faith in Christ and the indwelling of the holy spirit, we have an obligation to seek to know God’s truth, revealed to us in scripture and we need to love one another. The greatest way we can love those around us is to share truth with them, in a way that is loving.

At the beginning of the message, I talked briefly about the prayer being called the High Priestly Prayer and what the high priest did. When Jesus was interceding for us and his disciples, He was fulfilling the role of high priest. The next day when Jesus announced “it is finished” on the cross the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom symbolically demonstrating the reality that God’s wrath had been poured out on Jesus and our sin and Jesus’ righteousness given to us- those who believe- therefore we can go to God in prayer directly without a high priest going for us. No longer is a sacrifice needed to go before God because Christ sacrificed himself for all of us who will be saved. If you do not know what it means to be saved, if you do but you haven’t taken that step, or if you just want to know more, please don’t leave here today without talking to me or one of our deacons about what that means. As the praise team comes up and we go into our time of response please respond however you need to, whether that’s at your seat, or coming up front to pray or if you want to talk with me or one of the deacons, we’ll be up front. Respond however you need. Let’s pray.

God, thank you for your word and for your Son and the grace that you have on us. Please help us to apply this word to our lives that we might seek to be united in truth with fellow believers and that we would share your love, real love with everyone we interact with, and that we would not shy away from the truth. I pray that we will honor you, I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.