A Love-Centered Mission

Reading John 17:11-15

John 17:11–15 LSB

11 “And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. 12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

Prayer of Confession and Adoration

“In God’s faithfulness lies eternal security.”

Corrie Ten Boom

Key Question: Do I Understand Christianity s Call to Service or a Escape Hatch from Reality?

Important Details to Remember

John, “The Disciple Jesus Loved” is the author of the Gospel.

The Gospel is penned in Ephesus, between 80-90 A.D.

The Audience are both Greeks and Jews.

John intends to communicate Jesus Christ as God Incarnate.

John writes with an evangelistic outlook.

“Watch where Jesus went. The one dominant note in his life was to do his Father’s will. His is not the way of wisdom or of success, but the way of faithfulness.”

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

The Godhead Keeps and Builds the Church. (v. 11-12)

“No one in this world has ever been saved and gone to heaven because he was poor. You can be as poor as a church mouse and still be as bad as a church rat.”

A. W. Tozer

Jesus is ready to drink the cup of God’s wrath, while he prays for those who follow Him by faith.

As Jesus has kept the disciples by His presence and teaching, He entrusts them the Father to preserve them in the truth.

Those the Father entrusted to the Son are not lost; while the deceiver and betrayer was lost because he was not given for redemption, but to fulfill the perfect purposes of God.

Zechariah 11:12–13 LSB

12 And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

Jesus’ Faithfulness Leads to the Church’s Complete Joy. (v. 13)

“Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.”

Thomas Aquinas

The outrageous faithfulness of God in the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son is that We—mere sinners—have forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the very one we rejected.

The Joy of the Son is to please and honor the Father. Jesus speaks of the full joy that results from the completion of the Father’s plan of Salvation.

The Disciple is brought into that wondrous joy by the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, in the full chain of redemption in their respective lives.

Romans 8:28–30 LSB

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. 29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; 30 and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.

Jesus Christ Causes the World to be Divided Between Light and Dark; Good and Evil. (v. 14)

“There is a division as high as heaven and as deep as hell between the Christian and the world.”

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

The Church is built by the cornerstone rejected by the World. Therefore, the entire spiritual edifice is despised and rejected by the world and those in the world.

What divides among people in this side of eternity is the Word of God. Nothing else divides us in righteousness. Our stance on the Word of God is the tell-tale sign of whose reign we affirm.

The Church stands on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ, We make our stand in the light because our Father, Our Savior, is the source of light for life.

John 8:12 LSB

12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Key Question: Do I Understand Christianity s Call to Service or a Escape Hatch from Reality?

The Church is Not Exempted form the World, It is Preserved from Evil. (v. 15)

“Better be preserved in brine than rot in honey.”

John Trapp

The call of the Disciple into a life under the rule of Jesus Christ is to be the last among the many; to be a servant among brethren; to lay down our lives for the sake of others in Christ.

The spiritual battle was not done at the empty tomb, it continues until the day of the Great Judgement before God’s throne. We, Disciples of Jesus Christ, continue to fight against temptation, sin, and the spiritual forces of darkness.

The strength we draw from is from God himself. The closer we draw to God the more power we have access to fight off sin and evil within and without.

1 Corinthians 10:13 LSB

13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Encouragement for the LORD’s Church:

The LORD Himself builds, protects, and edifies His Church.

The All-Powerful Grasp of God Keeps the Church Eternally.

The Church is Able to Stand Against the World and Evil by Christ’s Finished Work.