John 17:13-21
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Compromise
Compromise
COMPROMISE
A hunter went out into the forest to shoot a bear. With winter fast approaching he planned to make a warm coat out of the bearskin. Soon he saw a bear coming toward him, he raised his gun and took aim. "Wait," said the bear, "why do you want to shoot me?"The hunter replied: "Because I am cold."The bear replied "But I am hungry, so maybe we can reach an agreement." In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the bear's fur, and the bear had eaten his dinner.
"Wait," said the bear, "why do you want to shoot me?"
The hunter replied: "Because I am cold."
The bear replied "But I am hungry, so maybe we can reach an agreement."
The point: Disobedience (even partial) is sin, and we will always lose out when we try to compromise with sin! It will consume us in the end.
In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the bear's fur, and the bear had eaten his dinner.
The point: Disobedience (even partial) is sin, and we will always lose out when we try to compromise with sin! It will consume us in the end.
J
John 17
“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.
“But now, I come to You.”
We pick up in this prayer really right in the middle of a sentence.
Jesus is leaving the world. His destination will be the right hand of God and His purpose is to be forever interceding on our behalf.
But Jesus is not amiss to the fact that His departure will mean difficult days ahead for these men who he loves.
So he prays.
And at this point in the prayer Jesus has been concerned with two things.
His Glory.
In the first portion of the prayer, he has prayed for His own glory and the glory of the Father. It is here that we should see the priority of Jesus. Everything Jesus does is for the glory of the Father and of Himself, first.
We benefit from this in the fact that we are those that the Father has given Him to save.
of Jesus. Everything Jesus does is for the glory of the Father and of Himself, first.
His main priority, His first priority is His own glory. We need to understand that about our God.
Our God is concerned first and foremost with His own glory.
He created this world- FHG
He created the animals-FHG
He created you- FHG
In fact, that is the reason that the standard of measurement for right and wrong is His glory.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Everyday matters in life: Does it bring God glory?
If so, it is right.
If not, it is sin.
God above all else, is concerned with His glory.
And he will be glorified.
And this is wonderful for those who are saved.
The Bible reveals that Jesus and the Father are glorified through the salvation and the security of those whom Christ will save.
Isn’t that a wonderful thought? That the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit receive glory from saving us and securing us until the end. This is how we can be sure that God will accomplish what He has set His mind to do. He will save us. For His glory first and for our good.
And this is what he has focused on in the first portion of His prayer.
He has prayed for His glory and the security of those whom He will save.
Now he turns His attention to something else.
Look again at verse 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.
These things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
Thirdly, Jesus is concerned about the joy of the disciples.
His desire is that the they experience joy, now!
That they may have the fullness of Christ joy not just one day in the future in heaven, but even right now.
And I would say He desires that for us as His people as well.
But the joy he is speaking of here isn’t the joy you and I think of when we hear the word Joy.
(We tend to think Christmas morning.) Christmas morning happiness is fleeting. You think I’m lying. Wrap the same presents you gave your children this year next year.
That is worldly joy.
The joy he is speaking of is not the fleeting joys of the world.
The joy he is speaking of is the joy that He possesses, and IT comes from a right relationship with God through abiding in His word.
That they may have the fullness of Christ joy not just one day in heaven, but even right now.
In other words, Jesus desires the disciples to be joyful because they are in a right relationship with God and because they are obediently following Him in their lives.
Two evaluation questions at this point.
If you aren’t joyful:
Are you saved?
(Assuming that you are saved)Are you walking in obedience to God?
For the believer, Hear the heart of Christ here.
These are His desires for you.
it is motivated by His own glory.
But His desire for every believer is that they would be saved and secure and that they would be living obediently.
Jesus realizes that there is a true enemy of joy in the life of the believer.
Look in verse 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.
I have given them your word.
Again Jesus speaking about the Father. Jesus has given the disciples the Word of God.
In other words, Jesus has perfectly revealed the Father’s glory to His disciples.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 corinthians
Through Christ, the disciples come to know the glory of the Father.
But this doesn’t come without consequences in the world where you and I live.
“The world has hated them.”
Jesus realizes that if the disciples have a proper relationship with God, they will by nature, be directly opposed to the world, just as Christ is not of the world.
Christ was hated because he is holy and the world is given over to sin.
By virtue of our union with Christ, we are also not of this world. Despite this, Christ still desires our joy (which don’t forget means a right relationship with God that flows out in obedience. It doesn’t mean happiness.)
Now here is what that means for our joy. We
He desires our joy, this doesn’t mean that Christ will excuse us from the difficulties and pain of this life.
He doesn’t pray that we would be removed from the world.
Look in verse 15-16
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Could he remove us from the pain? Certainly. Could he remove us from the difficulty? Of course.
Remain steadfast. He is not taking us out.
Remain unstained. Keep them from the evil one.
Jesus realizes the spiritual battle it will be for those who have a new nature in Christ.
Paul recognized this as well. In the letter to the Ephesians, he admonishes the believers there to put on the armor of God. Why?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Remain joyful through Right relationship and obedience to God
What he desires is that we maintain a proper distinction from the world while we are in it. In it, not of it!
Remaining steadfast, remaining unstained, remaining joyful.
Essentially, it means that we live our lives as Jesus lived his. Set apart and distinct from the world.
But how in the world will we do this? Jesus prays for us the way in which we do this.
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Jesus has not left alone in the world to remain faithful, unstained and joyful alone.
He doesn’t expect us to do this on our own.
We have a testimony to the faithfulness of God in the fact that he has given us something to accomplish this in us!!
Listen to what he says again in verse 17.
Sanctify them. What does that mean?
Make them holy. Set them apart from from the world. Make them different.
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be set apart from the world.
This is why it is extremely problematic for a believer to want to fit in to this world.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, his desire for you is that you would be set apart. DIFFERENT. HOLY.
This flies in the face of the modern belief that in order to win the world, we must become worldly. That understanding is Satanic. It demonic. It is not of Christ.
When we desire to be like the world around us in speech, in dress, in possessions, in anything, what we are doing is inching closer and closer to danger.
This is why Peter warns us.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
And you have seen this, right?
Pastors are devoured, ministries ruined because they inched closer to the world.
Families ripped apart and devoured with children hanging in the balance, because Satan is allowed to have a foothold in the home.
Husbands rather than loving their wives as Christ loved the church have wandering eyes, lustful hearts, and eventually throw their lives away over a momentary pleasure.
Wives, rather than living biblically set apart have become worldly in their thinking, forgetting that they have a divinely designed role in the home to equip their children.
Children raised in church, raised under the word have been devoured by the world, because at some point it was time for us “to just let them figure it out for themselves.” They figured it out didn’t they?
How did all this happen?
I think we can trace it back in most if not all cases to and increased concern with the world and a lack of concern with the Word of God.
Hear me out: Holding hands with the world does not come without a cost.
Make no mistake, There is no room for the world in the life of the believer. None.
Not in mine. Not in yours.
Jesus’s desire is that we would be sanctified in truth.
How will that happen?
By the power of God at work in the life of the believer leading them through the truth, by the truth, in the truth.
The truth is the Word of God. Your Word is truth.
Jesus asks that the Father would make us holy, sanctified in the truth.
In other words, Jesus asks that the Father would immerse His disciples in the truth of the Word of God.
He desires that they believe it.
Jesus’s desire for the disciples is that they would believe Word of God, that they would stand for the Word of God, that they would be molded according to the Word of God, and live every day in light of the Word of God.
Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
Too often times we buy the lies. We live for lies.
God’s desire is that we would be set apart according to the truth.
And we are set apart for a specific purpose.
Look in verse 18.
“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Jesus desires that we would be set apart for ministry in this world.
Jesus was set apart for a specific work.
“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus has set himself apart in the world, so that we may be sanctified in the world.
What does he mean by this?
He has died for us. He was sanctified and set apart to die for us.
He means that we, like Jesus have been set apart for a purpose. A mission bigger than ourselves.
This is why we must believe the Word, stand for the Word, live by the Word in every little thing, becuase we are living for a bigger purpose than ourselves.
In light of this then, no decision in the life of a believer is a small decision. Every decision we make is to be filtered by the Word of God so that we are useful and sanctified for His mission.
As believers, it is God’s word that ultimately should be pushing every decision we make.
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
We fail to think this way in light of our every day decision making.
Church, we can’t be useful to God without being sanctified by the truth.
This is why it is so important for you to read the Bible, study the Bible, pray the Bible, love to hear the Bible preached, and live by the Bible.
And realize that if we do that, it will put us at odds with the world.
In the days ahead in our nation, it will further isolate you to believe what God says.
There is currently a war on the truth of God’s Word at every turn and that is growing increasingly more and more violent.
The World desires that we cave on basic issues of human sexuality. The world desires that we cave on basic issues of personhood and human life. The world desires we cave on the biblical understanding of marriage. The world desires that we adopt their understanding of justice.
Jesus desires that we be in it but not of it.
The desire of the world is that we compromise. The desire of Christ is that we be sanctified.
Those are two diametrically opposed purposes.
World- desire to swallow us up, so that we look like it.
God- desires to set us apart so that we look like Him.
This idea is so counter to the culture around us that to believe this way will inevitably put you at odds.
Stop looking for a political savior to save America. The mission is bigger than American. Start Looking to Jesus and start living according to His word. Thats how we will be faithful to the mission.
This is bigger than one sermon, right. This is your life.
Thankfully, the one who has saved you goes on to pray for us in the next two verses.
Look in verse 20-21
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
He prays for you. He prays for me.
He prays for your holiness.
He prays for your faithfulness to His mission.