Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

This morning’s message may seem like bad math, but in the light of Jesus’ last prayer, it is the best math.

We are essentially going to see that in order to multiply, we need to be one. In other words, in order for Kaleo to be effective in the act of proclaiming “Good News” to world, so that the world believes our news, we must first be one.

CONTEXT

We are going to continue in John’s Gospel, picking up in chapter 17, verse 16.

As you know from last weeks study, this is called Christ’s “High Priestly Prayer.” It is known for that name because it is a prayer which demonstrates one of Christ’s three offices, namely the prayer of a High Priest.

A High Priest was to pray for the people of God alone, and do so only as there was blood present as a sacrifice for the sins of the people.

This is hours before Christ will act as the sacrificial Lamb of God which will take away the sins of God’s people. So Jesus takes on the role of the High Priest and before the giving of Himself for sacrifice, He prays first for His glory, which will come through the cross, then for the 11 that are with Him, and He will finish by extending that prayer outward to all that will believe in Him.

Let me just state on the outset of this study that if we don’t get this idea of unity and oneness down, we will never have anything but empty words to prove to the world regarding Jesus.

For those that desire evidence to prove Jesus was really sent by the Father, today should give the key to unlock this apologetic response.

Verse 16

16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Here Christ prays a fact, a proclamation that before we even get going on our study should be a bucket of cold water to our face.

Christian, you do NOT belong to the world!

You are no longer owned by a system that opposes God. You no longer a slave to a master that seeks your death and destruction. You no longer are ruled by sin and by its consequences.

You do NOT belong to the world. Christ is so confident of this statement that He continues by using Himself as the example, “just as I do not belong to the world.”

In other words, Jesus uses the idea that it would be as foolish to say that you belong to the world as it would be to say that He belonged to the world.

Why? As Paul is chastising the Corinthians for their behavior, he reminds them of something very important, “you are not your own, for you have been brought with a price.”

What is that price?

Acts 20:28 tells us that we have been purchased by God’s own blood.

Though this prayer is given for those that were sitting with Christ about to be hated and most of them murdered, this truth extends to us.

Q-How are we to look as those that no longer belong to the world? What are some ways that we look different from belonging to the world?

We are to look different from the world. The next verse tells us how we grow in looking different.

Verse 17

17 Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth

Jesus prays for our sanctification, in other words, that we would be special, different, dedicated to God, consecrated, other. It means that we would be holy. We would be free from the guilt of sin. That is being sanctified.

Jesus prays specifically for the method that we would be sanctified, not just that we would be sanctified, but how we would be sanctified.

What is that method?

“..by the truth.” What is the truth? “Your word is truth.”

It is a good rule of thumb in studying scripture to continue to ask how and why until no more answers are given.

Sanctify them. How? By the truth. What is truth? Your word is truth.

As we grow in maturity and understanding of God’s word, we are growing in truth. The result of this growth is to be different, other, holy. It is to reflect God’s glory to this world.

Paul says in 2^nd Corinthians 3:18- As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are being transformed into the same image with ever-increasing glory by the Lord’s Spirit.

You are to be separated for God, to reflect His glory.

The Scriptures tell us in 1 Peter 2:9 that …you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people,…

For what end are we His own special people? Keep reading…

Verse 18

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

We are no longer to belong to the world, we are now to be sanctified by the truth, why? Because as the disciples were sent, so are we!

Just as Jesus was sent on a mission, so we are sent on a mission.

Verse 19

19 It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth.

Jesus knows that his separation, His sanctification, is through the cross.

Hebrews 10:10-14 tells us- 10 By His will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Jesus then extends this prayer to all who will believe. He extends His prayer to us today that call Kaleo home. Jesus then gives us the reason for this prayer for sanctification and unity.

Verses 20-23

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one. 23 ^I am in them, and you are in me. May they be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me.

Ok guys, here’s where we’re going to camp for a bit.

In This prayer Jesus has prayed for His Glory, that the Father would Keep the disciples one and to give them joy as they were going to be hated by the world. Jesus prayed that the Father would keep them in the world, but keep them from evil, that He would sanctify them by His truth, Jesus then extends this prayer to those that would believe in Him through their message that we would all be one, and not just one, but “completely one.”

Why? Why does Christ pray specifically for these things?

21b “…so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” And 23b “so that the world may know that You sent Me, and that you have loved them as you have loved me.”

He first prays that we would be one so that the world would “believe,” then He prays that we would be “completely one,” so that the world may “know” that the Father sent Him.

It is the difference between believing and knowing.

They are two different Greek words.

Pisteuo (pist-yoo-o) means believe, to commit your confidence in, to trust, to think something to be true, to be persuaded, to be committed to.

Whereas-

Ginosko (gin-o-sko) means to know, to become aquainted with, to understand, it is a Jewish idiom that means a sexual union between a man and a woman. It is beyond mere persuasion, where you gain insight and clarity about someone.

Jesus prays that we would be one? Why? So that the world will believe and know that He is from the Father.

Our unity is not simply for our comforts on earth, even though that is a by-product of our relationship, it is for the purpose of showing the world that Jesus is sent from His Father. It is for evangelism, to spread the message that was given to the Apostle’s and has been entrusted to us.

As a baton is passed from one runner to the next, we have been given this baton, which is the Gospel, the Good News of God’s gathering and reconciliation of His children to Himself.

This is such a radically different way of evangelizing than what we see today.

Today we see stadiums being filled, speakers being hired to be brought in to churches or to events, where a hired personality comes to do the work for the masses in the church.

We hire the top gun because we don’t either “believe” in the gospel, or “know” it ourselves.

We think that massive crusades, and massive marketing, and big names will surely win them over.

We pray for guys that are in power, because we foolishly think they will certainly have a HUGE impact for the Lord. And all the while we forget that we have been passed this baton to carry ourselves and not to drop, not to fumble, not to pass off to someone else until our Lord’s return or we breathe our last.

Yet God is praying for unity not celebrity!

God is looking for our lives to breathe and pulsate with the Gospel as it pumps through our veins and finds its way expressed in how you and I and each of us are one!

This world is tired of sports figures and actors and hired t.v. stars that peddle products. They no longer are impressed by a big name next to a lousy product.

People are tired of marketing ploys and bait and switch tactics to bring you to a stadium. They smell our fake smiles and cheesy gimmicks as well as they sniff out people that sell Amway.

What people are looking for is some meat on those bones. They want to see this Christian thing lived before their eyes. They want to see Christ made real to them.

Historically the church has fallen into to two camps:

One is all about the show. All proclamation, with an expectation that if you don’t agree to their proposition, you will not be allowed in their community. It is a focus on the “EVENT.”

The other is all demonstration of the Gospel with no proclamation of truth or truth claims. Today we could call this post-modernism. It is so much about showing truth that they are afraid to mention truth.

This system is all about “PROCESS” with no proclamation, and certainly no event.

What we believe to be the biblical model is to take both and marry them as it was in the early church.

Yes there was a proclamation of truth, and yes there was those being added daily because of the community of believers that sold everything they had and in verse 46, of chapter 2 it says: So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Yes Peter preached and 3,000 were added on one occasion, but the primary thrust of evangelism has been through relationships over the last 20 centuries.

When Jesus called the first disciples they were all connected in some way to one another. Read John 1 from verses 19:51 to pick up on the connected relationships.

It is a marriage of relationship (process) which will always bring an event (truth proclamation). It is not either/or but both/and.

If you have a relationship with anyone of any worth, it will be like to trains heading towards a collision at some point. Eventually their disbelief will meet your belief, who is going to jump off the track? God willing not your belief!

The strategies of the 1950’s don’t work any more.

There was once a time when you could go door to door and people would somewhat welcome you. Those people, even though they were perhaps non-believers, or what they would call themselves “non-practicing” Christians, had some basic understanding of Jesus as God, the Bible being true, a basic understanding of right and wrong, good and bad. They understood the basics of the cross, and would even consider themselves friendly towards Christians.

The problem is, we don’t live in a culture like that and we are still using methods that are steeped in the 1950’s.

People don’t like you to come to their door. People won’t jump on a bus to take you to church just because you honk in front of their house. People won’t let you take their children to church, especially if they don’t know you and have watched the news regarding the Roman Catholic Church.

People no longer look at a church in their neighborhood as a blessing, it is perceived as a curse because they think you only want their money and will bug them.

Times have changed.

There is no longer a strong sense of right and wrong, good and bad. There is no longer such a thing as absolute truth.

72% of so-called Christians don’t believe in absolute truth!

Most don’t believe the bible is the true word of God. Most don’t believe Jesus was God in the flesh. Most don’t believe that He was and is the only way to the Father.

And all the while we think the answer is bigger campaigns. More news time. Legislating the Gospel. Moral crusades. Better arguments.

No, the key to this world of disbelief and lack of knowledge according to Jesus own lips is this.

Be one..so that the world will believe. Be one…so that the world will know!

Prove you’re Christianity by how you live, not but what you say.

Prove you’re Christianity by your obedience to the word of God as you are sanctified.

Prove you’re a Christian by you love for one another.

Prove you’re a Christian by your service to one another.

Prove Jesus was sent from God the Father, the creator of all things, by being ONE!

Let’s stop playing dress up Sunday and get out there and prove to the world that the Bible is true by being living bibles.

2^nd Corinthians 3:3 says this: “You are demonstrating that you are Christ’s letter, produced by our service, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Proclaim the Gospel by all means. Tell of man’s sin, his state before God, that He is not “good” that he is God’s enemy, tell man of His residence after he takes his last breathe if he remains under God’s condemnation. Tell man that he has broken God’s law, and that God will not hold him guiltless on the day of judgment. Tell man that one day Christ is coming to judge the world in righteousness and only by recognizing his sin, by turning from it and by placing all that he has at the feet of Christ to belief and know Him, will he have life. Tell him of God’s great love towards you and I that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Tell man that Christ came to “seek and save those that were lost.”

Tell him, proclaim this truth. Hold to it and never budge, but do it by proving it to be true first in your own life!!!!

Love them by show and tell, not just tell, tell, tell.

Let’s continue.

Verses 24-26

24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, the world has never known you. Yet I have known you, and these men have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself may be in them.”

Jesus finishes by praying that we would see His glory. This is the longing of each and every Christian, that one day we would see His glory.

As Moses prayed to see God’s glory, and God declined, one day we will see Jesus face to face in all of His splendor and glory!

Jesus ends by addressing his Father as “Righteous Father.” Earlier He called Him Father, then He called Him Holy Father, and now He comes to Christ’s mind as “Righteous Father” as He thinks about the unbelief of the world.

For us He is Father, for us He is our Holy Father, but unbelief in the world reminds us of His righteousness that will one day bring to judgment all things.

He is perfectly righteous. And we know that His righteousness is not diminished by the unbelief of the world. It is established.

Jesus ends His prayer by showing us that the love that He shares with the Father will forever be in us.

Amen.

Let’s pray.

Communion and tithe.

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