The People God Uses
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea:
Main Idea:
How do I see Jesus:
How do I see Jesus:
ME
ME
Growing up, I have shared many times I would have told you I was a christian but I didn’t spend a lot of time in church, in fact I remember the small baptist church we attended many times when we would go to church, and I would swear to you that three times we went I heard the exact same illustration from the man. It was I am sure just the happentsance off us attending so irregularly but I could almost tell you exactly the story of him being caught in the second story bathroom and the snake that ended up in the towel closet and the only way for him to get out was to jump out the window and hop off the porch. I can’t tell you what that illustration related to any of the times I heard it but it left its mark on me. So, because I was not a deep church goer my Bible terms and definitions we throw around in the church world didn’t come to me until a much later time in life. I was much older before I started hearing antecdotes of the church and today we kind of look at one of those anectodotes we share around here when we talk about living in the world but not of it. And I am sure for some of you you hear those terms and immediately it makes sense in your mind what is going on here and what Jesus is talking about but it wasn’t necessarily the easiest thing for me to wrap my mind around. I think I understand it much more now when I relate it to the Kingdom of God and his kingdom being IN the world but not of it.
Nonetheless, this morning we are still in this section most scholars refer to as the High Priestly prayer, and in this section what we are going to see is Jesus is going to pray for the disciples. And some when it has come to this scripture have questioned why Jesus needed to pray for his disciples after the amount of time he has spent telling them the helper would come and lead the way for them.
And this morning as we look at this section of the prayer we find there are three things on Jesus list as he prays for his disciples. The first is he prays about
Revealing Gods Grace, or Revelation
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
And here we see the greek word phaneroō being translated as manifested… and it implies this idea of revelation of being made known, he is saying, Father I have revealed your name to the ones you have given me. And this is interesting, because this word name is the greek word onoma whivh isn’t just about his name as in the way we think about it, this word means nature, and character… and its the same word we saw John use all the way back in JN 3,
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And its not just believing in the name of Jesus, its believing in his nature, character and who he is… its so much more than just believing his name and this is what Jesus is saying in his prayer in front of his disciples… he is telling God all the work he has done, everything they have seen, has been to show the nature, character of God in the work of Jesus, in fact we will continue to see the nature of God in teh work Jesus will do on the cross and he is all about showing people the name of God.
What I love here is not only is Jesus talking about showing the nature, but we see Jesus saying once all people were the father’s but the father has handed these people, his people, over to the son. And there is nothing we have done to deserve it, we were chosen by him.
Probably the most interesting part of this verse, though is the last 5 words, when Jesus says they have kept your word. And this can be hard for us to interpret and understand. Is Jesus saying they lived a flawless life and did everything asked of them, of course not, we can read the Gospels and see this is not true. These people were as flawed as anyone else, they fell short time and time again.
But remember, in Jn 14:23 Jesus had said if anyone loves me they will keep my word… and the opposite of that in vs 24 when he said
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
and the invitation here is to love him and thereby you keep his word. So here, when Jesus is talking about keeping his word he is talking about exactly this… they have loved him deeply they are attempting to keep up with him… and we can see this clearly…
30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
And they are telling him how much they believe in him and want to follow him…
And this should be comforting to you. We should understand much like these disciples we are going to faulter in time for time in our faith, and that doesnt mean we don not believe in him, but instead, what is important is our love for Him. And let me just stop to put some context because i know some people will say no, we must not sin and we must repent and follow him we cannot keep stumbling. And I agree, but what is clear from the context here, is their love for him was going to keep them coming back and wanting to clean up their act and get it right, it didn’t excuse it, but unlike the world they were living in who were sinning and wanting nothing to do with Jesus, their love for him caused them to want to straighten up and come back and Jesus was saying to the Father he was thankful for them.
Get this, he would say the same thing about you and I, if we truly love him and keep his word he is thankful for you. Know this if if you are struggling with some type of sin in you life and you are trying and the holy spirit is convicting you and you are trying to leave it all behind it doesn’t mean he has left you. He is dealing with you and he is calling you back to himself and he still loves you and he still desires you and he still thanks the father for you because your heart is for Him and wanting to get right . Its those who ahve stopped wanting to get right, or who see no desire that should be fearful.
And Jesus continues his prayer in verse 7 and 8 he says
7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
And we can see this is a direct correlation to the verse we just quoted in 16:30 this is almost exactly what they had said to him. And even in these moments we know the declaration they had made to Jesus they are only knowing in part because they have yet to see the glory of the crucifixion and resurection but the difference here is they have received the words and know the truth Jesus has been sharing with them so far and the world has rejected him.
IF I am being truthful this is why we hand out the reading list for the Bible, this is why we spend so much time walking through the Word every week because I love the Word of God and as we can see it has the power to change the lives of men and women all over. The disciples heard, and received and believed the word of God shared by Jesus and it completely changed the trajectory of the world, and I still believe the word of God has the same power to change hearts today. People must hear before they can receive and allow it to change them as they believe. So we share to make sure we are growing in our walk with Christ, we share so those who do not know him, who have never heard have the opportunity to know him more deeply.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
And this may be hard for some of us to hear, Jesus says he is not praying for the world right now, but he is praying for his disciples, those that follow him. Some may here this and think this is some kind of contradiction, that Jesus doesn’t love the world, but remember even in this Gospel we have the great John 3:16 the father loved the entirity of the world, and in this moment we see Jesus saying, look, the rest of the world has pushed me out, and he knows in the face of the world around us pushing back against the Gospel he needs to pray for us.
I want you to think about that in the context of sharing the gospel, or even just living your life as a christian in a world we feel is slipping away from Christ more and more quickly. Jesus is praying for you! He knows the world we live in, he knows the pressures we face better than anyone, he knows how the world will push back against our faith and really we talked about pushing back against him in us, so he wants to pray for us and our lives in this world.
And as he prays for us he is letting them and the father know we belong to him. This should be such an amazing promise to your heart as we know we belong to Jesus.
The fits thing Jesus was praying about was revelation, the next thing we see in this prayer is him praying for protection or preservation…
WE saw the start of that in verses 9 and 10 as he is praying for us in the world amidst those who will push back against us as they did against him, but he continues in the next two verses
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
And the time is closing in for Jesus, and is so close he is speaking of how he is no longer in the world as he was but he also is not with the Father, he is in the in between but what is clear is his distance is growing between his disciples and himself as he prepares to go, and because they or we are still in the world it is us that truly need prayer. And there is a lot of different discourse surrounded around what it is Jesus is wanting the Father to keep them from here.
Some theologians say the troubles of the world.
Some say to keep them in himself until the end of their lives,
And these may be right and wrong all at the same time, what seems clear is Jesus is praying that we will stay stay united in him.
Lets just flesh that out for a moment what he wants as we go about our work in the world is for us to unite around him and the mission he has given us. I think it is easy for us to see how when left to our own devices even as members of the global church we can run against one another and argue all of the small things but what Jesus is wanting for us here as he leaves us is to unite around him and his mission for sharing him with the world around us. For us to be safe and not let anything to get us off track.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
And here he is saying, look while I was here I kept them all safe except for the one. And it isn’t an indication of Jesus failure that Judas slipped away, instead it was a fulfillment of scripture.
And what we need to realize is that every single one of us that comes to Jesus is kept by Him. He holds us all dear to to him and doesnt let us go all who came to him in true belief. And if you are in him this morning he is keeping you as well
The question of course this morning comes to those in this room who are in the group that Jesus would call the world… are you ready for him to kee you… are you ready for all of the promises…
For those of you who are in him you can know Even in your struggles he is with you… you can know as you share the gospel he has prepared for what you are going to face and he will keep you and that is why he called us to it.
WE
WE
EXPOSITION
EXPOSITION
YOU
YOU
WE
WE
