Last Words… Part 1

Last words are important, they show what we value, or what was important to us before we die.

Here’s a couple of last words I thought were interesting.

“Die, my dear? Why, that’s the last thing I’ll do!” - Groucho Marx

“I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.” - Thomas Grasso

“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go.” Oscar Wilde

“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…” John Sedgwick, right before getting shot.

Jesus’ last words of prayer show the love that He has for us.

I think in these last words of Jesus, we can be transformed through God’s presence in our lives.

John 17:6-19.

We are given to Christ.

Jesus says multiple times that we are given to Jesus.

Vs. 6, 9, 10

That means that those of you who believe in Jesus, belong to Jesus.

You’re not your own, you don’t belong to your friends or school or popularity or your sin, which is really good news!

I don’t want to be a product of culture, of sin, of all the brokenness, I want to be given to Jesus so that I can belong to Him and be more like Him.

We are able to be given to Jesus.

This isn’t a place to really get in deep into theology, but we need to talk a bit about this.

If you can be given to Jesus, that means that you already belonged to someone else.

So, in some way, God chose you to belong to Jesus.

Does this mean that nothing that you do matters because God’s going to do what He wants anyways?

NO

Look at vs. 12

Judas chose to go away from Jesus even though he followed Jesus

So, without getting too much into the weeds:

If you are a Christian, you are given to Jesus, meaning you belong to Him

In that, you were chosen by God for this, but you can seemingly reject that.

It’s not this big battle or fight between you and God! The picture we get here isn’t just God dragging you into believing Jesus

Instead, it looks a lot more like Him creating us and giving us these natural inclinations to Him and that bringing us closer to Jesus.

We are kept in Christ.

Once Jesus talks to the Father about how we’re given, He then prays for us.

He asks God to ‘keep us”

What do you think that means?

God keeps us from turning away from Him.

Jesus says that He ‘kept’ or ‘guarded’ the disciples and He only ‘lost’ Judas

That means that He kept the disciples with Him

And now that Jesus has left, He asks the Father to do it for Him

He also asks to keep them in Your name

That’s an interesting phrase, but it seems to mean that we are kept in God.

It’s what we talked about earlier! We belong to Jesus, we are God’s people, and so He’s not going to give up His people!

All of this is for joy.

Vs. 13 is amazing

I want Jesus’ joy! I want to feel the joy of God, and He tells us how to get there!

Be in Christ

If we really follow Jesus [not just pretend, not just partially follow], we can have a joy that can only be found in Jesus!

BUT, Jesus doesn’t say everything will be easy. In fact, He says the opposite, but we are to be in the world for Christ.

We are in the world for Christ.

Jesus moves on from talking about how we’re kept in Jesus to how were hated by the world! vs. 14

But, He doesn’t ask for us to just stop being in the world, but just that we’re protected from the evil one. vs. 15

Why aren’t we just zapped into heaven when we believe?

Because Jesus sent us into the world! vs. 18

We don’t belong to the world, but we’re in the world, and that’s because that’s what Jesus did!

He didn’t look like culture, He didn’t belong to the world, but He still was in it because He had a job to do.

We are to be His disciples on earth

We’re supposed to grow to be more like Him.

We’re supposed to tell others about Him.

We are Jesus’ followers, so we do what He did.

Sanctified in truth.

Jesus tells us how we can do that, and it’s to be sanctified in truth.

What does sanctification (or sanctified) mean?

Making something holy

If you want to belong to God, not the world, we need sanctification and salvation.

We need to be saved by Jesus’ work on the cross, and we need to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

In the truth…

We are sanctified in the truth, which is God’s word.

When we spend time with God, reading His Word (His Book), we grow to be more like Him.

Jesus gave Himself for us, so we follow Him.

Questions.

What is your favorite thing to do over the summer?

Read vs. 13. How can we have the joy that Jesus has?

What does it mean that we are given to Jesus? (talking on vs 6-9)

Why are Christians still in the world?