Sermon Tone Analysis

John 17 (ESV)

The High Priestly Prayer

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me.

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Question: What makes you a Mennonite?

I’ve been asked this question

The other weekend at the international student outreach

As we talked about, one of the main issues which started the Anabaptist movement was baptism—baptism should only be for believers

But now most evangelical churches practice believer’s baptism, just like we do.

So what is it that makes us anapbaptist or Mennonite?

I’m wondering, what is it that makes us unique from other Christian groups?

One of the most important things that has been taught in our Anabaptist (Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite, etc) groups from the very beginning, is to be separate from the world.

We call it non-conformity

We have taught, or at least we used to have been taught, that there are two Kingdoms:

The Kingdom of this world

The Kingdom of God

And we have been taught that, as Believers, we have been called out of the kingdom of the world, and into the Kingdom of God.

And that in the kingdom of God, there is

a new way of living

Maybe a new way of dressing

New values

for sure, a new allegiance

for sure, a new identity

And without a doubt, this is the Gospel that we profess.

That God calls His people out of, into

This picture is all through the Bible, from

God calling Abram out of UR, into Canaan

God calling His people out of Egypt, into the promised land

God calling His Believers out of darkness, into His Kingdom

I think we would all agree, or at least I hope we would, that we have been called out of the world into God’s kingdom

We call it “non-conformity”.

Conform means “to shape or mold”

Non-conformity, then, is the idea of NOT being shaped or molded by the world, because we have been called out of the world

Romans 12 tells us to not be conformed to this world

And in Our passage today, Jesus prays that we would be in the world, but not of it.

We know that there is, or should be some sort of a separation between the followers of Jesus, and “the world”.

The problem is, I think, that we struggle to define what the world really is

In the tradition that many of us grew up, we had lists of things, or ideas of things, that were either spiritual or worldly.

Some of these things centered around what we were allowed to do for leisure activities

couldn’t go bowling

Some of them had to do with what you were allowed to own

TV was wordly

But if you go back into history and read what Anabaptists have written about non-conformity over the years, and how we have chosen to live, there are two big areas that stand out.

Dress

From the very beginning, Anabaptists pointed to dress as an area that we needed to be careful about.

They did not want their people to wear bright colors and “ruffled collars” and jewelry, powered wigs and such like.

They were to be sober and plain because of the concern about becoming too proud about how they looked

We are very familiar with standards and rules about dress and the dangers of being too “worldly” in our dress

But we are also well aware that our ideas of what is worldly and unacceptable has changed pretty significantly over the years.

We have gone from this (picture of old mennonites)

To this (picture of modern mennonites)

We are well aware that we here at Fairview have changed too, haven’t we?

I was looking at some pictures of 40 years ago or so when Heidi was a little girl and it’s pretty apparent that we have changed significantly in our appearance

So that brings a lot of questions to my mind.

What really is worldly when it comes to dress?

Is it worldly to wear a necktie, as I used to think it was

Is it worldly for me to wear shorts in public

Is it worldly for a lady to wear a doily instead of the traditional cap style covering or long hanging one?

What is it about the way I dress that says I’m Mennonite? is it important?

Politics and our attitude toward the state (government)

From the very beginning, Anabaptists were distinct in that peace has been very important to us.

The value and sacredness of human life is very important to us

Love and forgiveness has been very much a part of how we live

Along with that, We believe very much in the love and sovereignty of God and we have declared that we are in His hands and will abide by His will

whether it comes to our personal lives

Or what happens in our government

For that reason, historically we have not involved ourselves in the political system

We did not vote

We did not go to war

We did not go to political rally’s

We did however, pray faithfully for our leaders as the Bible commands, and we served our country in the best way that we could without picking up a weapon.

Because we saw the values of our governments being in direct opposition to the values of the Kingdom of God

In the early days when the church and the state were pretty much the same thing, this got us persecuted and killed.

We were seen as heretics, not only for our teachings on Scripture, but for our attitudes toward the state (picture of martyr)

And even more recently in history

My great-great uncle Nevin Bender being taken to Leavanworth Prison in Kansas during WW1 and enduring horrible treatment

my grandfathers being separated from their young wives for long periods of time