In this sermon, Pastor Tim looks at Jesus prayer in John 17, that his followers would be sanctified by the truth. It is the Word – both Jesus himself and the scriptures that show us the truth and set us free.
We have been doing a series in the Gospel of John, focusing in on the final week before Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- As we enter into Jesus’ final prayer before he is imminently betrayed, arrested, tried and crucified
- It is so amazing to see what he prays for his disciples and ones to come like you and I.
- Last week this stunning prayer for the disciples protection, or preservation in the faith no matter what they would face!
- And all so that we may be one…
- More on that next week when Victoria preaches on unity
- But today I want to finish last weekend sermon and look at this prayer, that we may be not of this world… And sanctified by the truth!
Read John 17:15-19
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
So two things today… two amazing things…
- That we are not of this world, just like Jesus
- And that we are sanctified (that is set apart and transformed) by the truth.
So firstly, Jesus notes in this prayer that we are not of this world, just like Jesus.
- Verse 14; “for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
So where is Jesus from and where are we from?
- Well, remember John 1:14 says “Jesus came from the father, full of grace and truth.”
- He came into our world from the Father, but he was not of this world…
- His citizenship was heaven… the realm of his Father in heaven.
- And so, he says, now is ours… we no longer belong to this world and its values and beliefs and ways…
- We belong to heaven too.
- Paul will reflect on this in Colossians 1:13 “For he (that is Jesus) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
I remember living in Kenya as a 21 year old and for the first time I knew what it really felt like to be not of a culture.
- Sometimes I’d visit villages where the kids would have not seen a white guy very often like me.
- And joyfully they would yell out “Mzungu” which just meant white guy (at least I think that’s what it means)… I wouldn’t mind having that confirmed…
- And they would pat my arm hair because they’d never seen hairy arms!
- And I loved it, buying food from open air markets… walking a goat home for dinner…
- First time I thought it was a pet for the Mbogo’s 6 year old son… but it ended up on the dinner plate.
- So I lived there, but it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t from there… my citizenship was from elsewhere.
Well as Jesus prays for us, he reminds us that we not of this world anymore if we belong to Jesus.
- And I wonder as you belong to Jesus and believe in him if you increasingly feel this unease or tension with the world you live in?
- And in that, are you shaping the world around you with your citizenship in heaven, or is the world still shaping you as you are influenced by the “dominion of darkness.”
- You know that can seem harsh. But I really don’t think it is.
- There is such a contrast between the values of this world and the values of heaven.
- Right?
The things of the Upper Room discourse are not the things of this world?
- Compare foot washing and servant leadership to power and control and oppression.
- Compare loving each other like Jesus has loved us with the selfishness that pervades humanity.
- Compare believing in truth and the values of the Kingdom with moral relativity and the values of the world.
- So we are transferred from one citizenship to another.
Now one of the men who were there listening to Jesus when he prayed this… would reflect on this many years later… (think about that – he was there when Jesus prayed this)
- And in 1 Peter 2:10-11 the Apostle Peter would says;
| “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires. ” Goes on to say “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” |
- Right, this Peter who had been with Jesus, many years later would say you have become like a foreigner
- Our current living on earth feels like an exile from our true home of heaven.
So we still live in this world, but we belong to a different place now. We are citizen of heaven, exiled on earth.
- In the negative it means we abstain from sinful desires.
- Right? We don’t sanctify our desires and do whatever we please, with or too whoever we please…
- On the positive we are told to live such good lives that our good deeds are evident.
- Result: see your good deeds and glorify God.
So moving on, the next thing Jesus prays is for our sanctification
Verse 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
- And of course this relates to what we have just been speaking about.
- The Greek word here translated as sanctify is Hagazio and it means to separate or to set apart.
- In the common Greek this would normally be used in talking about something set apart especially for good purpose or use.
- Right? Growing up I remember having special cutlery that only came out at Christmas or when a dinner party was hosted.
- That cutlery was set apart… it was sanctified… it was devoted to special use.
- God has sanctified you in order that you may be set apart for his divine special purposes.
Right? Let me read 2 Timothy 2:19-21 because it picks up on this exact illustration…
19… “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” 20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
- OK?
- So those who are God’s, who confess the name of Jesus and are saved
- They go on this journey of turning from wickedness and become like gold and silver items in a large house…
- But there is this contrast to articles of wood and clay…
- But as the children of God we’ve been made holy
- Useful to God for special purposes and prepared to do good works.
Now I know we love thinking things through here at Manly Life theologically… so it is probably just worth giving a quick theological framework for this.
- Because what we are talking about are the Christian doctrines of justification and sanctification.
- How we become the children of God, and how we then live as the children of God.
- Or how we get saved and then how we become transformed.
- So 2 key terms… justification and then sanctification…
Justification is the starting point of Christian faith. It is the entry point into becoming a child of God…
- We are the children of God, not because of our own good deeds, but through grace and mercy!
- Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
- Or Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
- When we accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour, before God it is “just if I’d” never sinned.
- It is the gift of God through the death of his Son Jesus Christ on the cross.
- Right? We talk about imputed righteousness…
- We don’t have intrinsic righteousness or right standing before God…
- But the gift of God is the righteousness of Jesus imputed into us. Given into us…
But then we talk as Christians about sanctification… this is the ongoing transformation we go on to become more Christ like in our lives as recipients of grace.
- This is Jesus talking about the narrow road that leads to life.
- Or Ephesians 4:1 “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received”
- Or 2 Corinthians 3:18 “we are being transformed into his image.”
- So there is this intentionality in Christianity, that once saved we are to live a life worthy of our salvation. It is demanding!
- We are to become more like Jesus.
- We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness…
- We have a goal of living set apart, good and meaningful lives in service of others!
- And here in John 17, Jesus prays for that sanctification by the truth which is his Word.
And I think the reason it is so powerful to know this… is it is our justification that fuels our sanctification….
- We know this right? You can’t change yourself by just trying harder
- Right, few people change by just being told to “stop it!” (have fun)
- But if you are unconditionally loved… if you are given the power of the Holy Spirt…
- If you are brought into new citizenship in a new kingdom with a new path…
- Then we find ourselves motivated to live set apart lives…
That’s why I love so many of the stories of people in the Alpha videos
- I know we have to be careful about thinking good Christian stories always have to be “I was in prison, but then I became a Christian and now I am a saint!”
- But hey… only the power of God can change a person from the inside out!
Many years later after his own conversion, the Apostle Paul who was saved by grace would put it this way…
- 2 Timothy 1:9 “He has saved us and called us to a holy life”
- There it is again… justification and sanctification…
- He has saved us… Paul was a self described blasphemer and violent man!
- But it is God who does it, through Jesus as an act of saving mercy…
- And then he says, he has called us to a holy life… the set apart way leads to life!
- He has saved us and called us to a holy life.
So finally today, how does Jesus pray that we will be sanctified?
Verse 17; Jesus prays “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
- So Jesus prayer is that we will be set apart and made special, and for good purposes by the truth….
- And he relates the truth that we need to discover to “your word.”
- So if we want to know the truth in order to be sanctified…. We need to know God’s word!
- People…. This is why we say join Life Group… we need to study the bible in order to live a holy life.
And it probably relates to two things here…
- Obviously the Word is the bible… which is the unchanging standard for the course and character of Christian life.
- And then don’t forget in John’s gospel that Jesus is referred to as the Word and he self describes as “the truth” in John 14:6
- So it is Jesus himself who is the Word who is the truth!
- And the Word of God, the bible, which will sanctify us as we are transformed into a new life.
So how do we get sanctified by truth?
- Well it is probably worth pointing out that there is a huge cultural battle going on for what is truth right now!
- It is broadly argued that we live in a time at the end of huge cultural waves…
- We had a war to end all wars and there has been nothing but wars since
- We had a sexual revolution that has led to STD’s, multiple partners and more family-less people than ever before
- We pursued wealth and found ourselves feeling a little empty and with crippling debt
- We’ve had a technological revolution that was meant to solve our problems, but instead brought rising isolation, trolling and addictions to screens…
And the prevailing approach to truth is called Post Modernism
- The first postmodernist we joke was Pilate at the trial of Jesus who says to Jesus, “what is truth?”
- But we find ourselves asking that same question in an age of fake news and opinions trumping facts!
- Postmodernism is often defined as a suspicion towards absolute truth claims, everything being relative and what is true for you may not be true for me…
In Culture Shift, author David Henderson says;
- “At bedrock, postmodernism is the affirmation that there are no absolutes. Postmodernism is not so much a worldview as it is the death of any coherent worldview.”
- So we all make it up as we go along!
- So in this setting Christianity as a basis for truth is critiqued, dismissed and at best is one faith to choose bits from as you create your own path through life…
See that in Manly… I heard of a yoga teacher who has changed his name to Truth
- At the start of his classes he introduces himself as Truth and then says get ready to be set free…
- Now I have nothing against some stretching, breathing and mindfulness… but you’ve got to be kidding me right?
- People say I’m spiritual because I do yoga… but of course it has no accompanying moral obligations… you can do yoga, feel spiritual, then sleep with a married man on your way home… and it has nothing to say about that…
But this post-modern worldview has also had a devastating effect
- On our mental health, on the fracturing of society and the lack of a cohesive belief or worldview that will give your life purpose and meaning!
- All of a sudden everyone is distracted all the time by the latest product or trend or belief
- All institutions are treated with suspicion and contempt.
- We fracture into smaller groups to try and find identity and then battle against opposing tribes in the comments section of the SMH and Daily Telegraph…
And what I see most, is that with no fixed anchors, life is characterised by moral instability.
You see counter-intuitively, freedom is not found in throwing off all restraints, but by following the life giving truth for where life is found in Jesus and his Word!
- A fish is not free when it throws off the constraints of water and flops about on the grass… it’s freedom is actually found in the water that it was made for…
- Now could it be the same for us? There is a path that leads to life…
- You see if you don’t believe in God or truth or Christian morality you just make it up as you go along.
- I read one comment on modern views of monogamy. No longer is it one sexual partner for life, but one sexual partner at a time…
On a personal level I hear all the time, pursue what makes you feel happy! That is a terrible idea! Because you have no idea what leads to happiness…
- So short term gratification becomes king, and the results are tragic!
- Bible says anyone who sins, is a slave to sin… I think post modernism has enslaved a generation… because the antidote to chaos is not do what you like, but TRUTH!
- So as Jesus says, in verse 17… “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
- Reason you should care is whether it’s your own life or those around you… living out of lies leads to devastating consequences…
- I know in my own life, the most harm I’ve ever done is when I follow my will… my desires, my wanting of instant gratification…
So truth, as found in the Word of God and Jesus sanctifies us
- The life giving, soul liberating, existentially satisfying, truth of the gospel.
- Am I an evangelist for it? You better believe it, because it has only had an overwhelmingly saving, transforming and positive effect on my life!
So we are no longer left in the darkness about God, about truth, about what leads to a transformed, sanctified life…
- Now, here is where it gets good… because it is not that Jesus teaches great truths… like the Buddah or Confuscius
- I mean he does do that – love your neighbour, forgive your enemies, don’t gain the whole world but forfeit your soul…
- But in John 8 Jesus says “I am the truth!”
- At the core of who he is – is the truth… not that it is over here, or through doing this… but he says it is fundamentally me!
- I am the one who sanctifies you, who sets you apart for good and special purposes…
Well in John 8, Jesus says this;
- Verse 31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
- So Jesus says, abide in my word… put my teachings into practice… live in accordance with the truth – and that will set you free!
- Believe in Christ and be saved – confession of faith… but just because you say that has no bearing on whether you believe it at all…
The only test is do you act out on that belief…
- So the most redemptive, transforming agent in your life, is the truth… and then letting your actions demonstrate your allegiance?
- Right that you are no longer from here, but are citizens of heaven.
- Does that make sense?
- So let Jesus prayer come to fruition in your life
- And allow the truth, found through Jesus and his Word to sanctify you into a new life.