The Fundamentals #3 (John 17:20-26)
Jared Horton
Building a Legacy • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Key Passage
Key Passage
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Series Introduction
Series Introduction
Building a Legacy series concludes today
God has done an amazing work through this series.
We have journeyed with the Nation of Israel across the Jordan
We have listened in to Jesus’ prayer
Now we conclude
I want to highlight our campaign
Today is the last day to turn in a commitment card for this part of the campaign.
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We received a tremendous amount of support. Over 70 families in our church have committed to move forward with a Commitment to give.
We are doing this. It is happening.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. From myself and all of the elders. Thank you.
John 17
As we dive into John 17 I want to remind you about why this passage is important.
It is the last words Jesus prayed before He went to the cross to be crucified.
Our last two weeks are very closely interconnected.
We have discussed fundamentals of the Christian faith.
What are the most basic most important things to know as a believer?
We have discussed 6 fundamentals to this point:
If you’ve missed any of these sermons, please go watch them on FB or YT.
Fundamental #1- We exist to glorify God
Fundamental #2- We must have proper theology
Fundamental #3- Discipleship was His plan
Fundamental #4- Discipleship grows our unity
Fundamental #5- We must be set apart
Fundamental #6- Go
Fundamental #1- We exist to glorify God (v. 1)
Fundamental #2- We must have proper theology (v. 3)
This is eternal life, that they would KNOW ME
Fundamental #3- Discipleship was His plan (v. 4)
I have finished the work you gave me to do. His purpose was the cross. His mission along that journey was to make disciples.
Fundamental #4- Discipleship grows our unity (v. 11)
May they be one as we are one. Unity is the result of discipleship.
Fundamental #5- We must be set apart (v. 19)
Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth
Fundamental #6- Go (v. 18)
I have sent them into the world
Sermon Text
Sermon Text
With these fundamentals as the backdrop, I hope they all make sense as we see them work together.
We are called to a different path altogether as disciples of Jesus.
Today we are going to begin in verse 20
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
Jesus makes the transition in this prayer to pray for another group of people
He is no longer praying to God about His circumstances.
Nor, is He praying to God about the disciples God gave Him to develop
He is now praying for those who would believe through the message of the disciples.
I would like to connect this passage to the passage before it.
In church, we will often make big obvious breaks in these passages, but remember, this is all one prayer.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
Jesus says, “I am sending them into the world with the hope of true salvation through my upcoming sacrifice on the cross”
But He is not just sending them out to survive. He is sending them out with a mission.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Fundamental #7- Disciples make disciples
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
As they are sent out, they mission is that others would believe in Jesus through their message.
So the disciples are sent out with a message. That message is intended to impact the lives and hearts of people who do not believe and cause them to believe.
I want to tie all of this together, because Jesus is saying that what He did for His disciples, He wants His disciples to do with others.
If you are following along in this series, almost everything in this passage should sound familiar!
Do we see an emphasis for the glory of God? Yes
Do we see an emphasis on knowing and believing God? Yes
Do we see an emphasis on discipleship as His plan? Yes
Do we see an emphasis on unity? Yes
Do we see an emphasis on being set apart? Yes
God gave Jesus the plan.
Jesus followed the plan in His disicples
Then he prayed that His disciples would do exactly what He did with them.
When we talk about separating the message from the method of Jesus
Jesus is quite clear that the method is the pathway for the message!
When the message combined with the method is done, it brings glory to God, it conveys the truth, it develops unity, and lives are changed.
We have the same calling!
This was not simply for the disciples to go make disciples, then somewhere down the line, there would be professional Christians called pastors who would pick up the slack and do all of the work.
Every person who is a disciple has the calling and equipping to make disciples.
In this passage, Jesus doesn’t minimize the message.
We may think that.
But He presents the message alongside of the mission to make disciples.
If we make disciples without the message, then we are a cult
If we present the message without discipleship, we are a class
Neither is Biblical.
I have already mentioned that we are going into the book of 1 Thessalonians after the new year. As I have looked at that book, I want to uncover one of the opening statements in the book.
1 Thessalonians 1:5–8 (NIV)
You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.
Do you see what Jesus is talking about here?
Disciples make disciples.
Our view is broken. So many want to make church a place where we come and sit and learn.
This is a place of discipleship.
Sunday morning is where we are equipped with the tools we need to go out into the world and make disciples.
Think about it this way.
The almighty God created everything for His glory, including you and I. Including those who are lost.
He wants us to know Him, so we can bring glory to Him.
He doesn’t then turn to us and say: Now everyone must become public speakers and highly organized ministers.
He says, “As you go into the world, love one another. As I have loved you, love one another.”
Take the truth that has transformed your life and share that life with the poeple who are around you.
Who needs to see the Gospel?
Family? Spend time with your family and show them the Gospel
Friends? Spend time with them and show the life change and perspective change.
Aren’t you glad God didn’t call us to something outside of our comfort zone?
He called us to hang out with our friends, family, neighbors, and intentionally show them Jesus in your life.
It is so easy to disqualify ourselves. But God has qualified us through Himself and commissioned us in the same way. We are without excuse.
Very little ministry ought to happen on a Sunday morning.
If this is the equipping place it ought to be, then 90% of ministry happens outside of these doors because the appropriate tools were given to us make disciples.
We are going to skip to the last two verses, then work backwards to the ones we skipped.
It makes communication of these points easier.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Fundamental #7- Disciples make disciples
Fundamental #8- A disciple must grow to maturity
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
In Matthew 4:19 our definition of a disciple is based on that text
Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
A disciple is someone who is
Following Jesus
Being changed by Jesus
On mission with Jesus
We are called to go make disciples
Invite others to come follow Jesus with us.
We often want to fast-forward to the send portion of or lives.
But there is a process of maturity that must happen.
We often think about spirtual maturity on the spectrum of knowledge
The more Bible a person knows, the more mature they become.
This could not be further from the truth
I want you to see in this text how much work the disciple must do in order to mature.
Knowing God leads to His love being in our lives.
Knowing God leads to His presence being in our lives.
This isn’t about how much we know. This is about who we know.
Jesus says it this way a few chapters earlier:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
We are not called to bear a bunch of fruit.
We are called to remain in Him. Seek Him. Know Him.
Through Him, we bear much fruit.
Apart from Him, we can do nothing.
A change of perspective
We often buy into the process that being a disciple of Jesus means that He is going to enter into my life and make my problems go away.
He is going to bring me peace by removing every peace disrupting element from my life.
Jesus already said of His disciples in this passage that He is not taking them out of the world and that the world would hate them because of Him.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Maturity is knowing that Jesus didn’t come for my problems to go away.
Jesus came to be the way, the truth and the life and to lead us to the Father. A restoration of the relationship we were created to have from the beginning of time.
Only then can we bring the glory to God we were designed to bring.
Peace is not the absence of our problems
Peace is the presence of Jesus in our problems
Peace is knowing that we are on a mission that is bigger than our problems
Love is not trying to muster up love from within myself.
It is recognizing that I am the conduit of God’s love and that He is within me. I can find the capacity to love as He loves.
This is growth, this is maturity, this is surrender.
A person who knows the whole Bible and what everything means, but who does not love, or does not have peace, is demonstrating that they lack the maturity that God is bringing them.
May we grow to maturity.
On to our last text of the day
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Fundamental #7- Disciples make disciples
Fundamental #8- A disciple must grow to maturity
Fundamental #9- Our hope is His glory
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Jesus hope for us is that we would be with Him for eternity!
Heaven is our destination if we follow Christ.
But Heaven for the sake of me enjoying pearly gates and golden roads and eternal retirement and rest is not the picture Jesus paints for us.
Heaven is about the glory of God.
It is not about my glory
It is not about my crown
I throw my crown at the feet of Jesus.
In fact, this is where the fundamentals of following Christ begin and end.
It begins and ends with the glory of God alone.
Recap all of the points:
Fundamental #1- We exist to glorify God
Fundamental #2- We must have proper theology
Fundamental #3- Discipleship was His plan
Fundamental #4- Discipleship grows our unity
Fundamental #5- We must be set apart
Fundamental #6- Go
Fundamental #7- Disciples make disciples
Fundamental #8- A disciple must grow to maturity
Fundamental #9- Our hope is His glory
I want to connect this concept to the mission God sent us on.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Discipleship is His plan
We are called to Go
Disciples are called to make disciples
Baptizing and teaching grows one another to maturity
I will be with you always, even to the end of the age (our hope is His glory)
We must have the confidence to make disciples and the humility to remain a disciple
Real Life in Action:
Head- Do I live as though discipleship is Jesus’ primary mission for me?
Heart- What gets in the way of me being a disciple? disciple-maker?
Hands- Who is your one?
