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John 17
17:1 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.1 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them2 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,3 that they also may be sanctified4 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.”
[1] 17:15
[2] 17:17
[3] 17:19
[4] 17:19
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to open your bibles to John chapter 17. It's also there for you in your worship guide. This is going to be part 1 of part 3 of John 17. It's our 3rd week in John, but the sermon this morning is just part 1 of what will be continued next week in part 2. So if you're not confused, you should be.
Jeffrey Heine:Part 1 of part 3 of John 17. We're not gonna read all of John 17 this morning. We're I wanted it all in front of you in your worship guide, but we're gonna begin reading in verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. This is the word of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would open up our hearts and minds to receive what you would have for us this morning. I pray that no one would walk out of this place the same way that they walked in, that we will have met with you, that we will come to see you as more glorious, more beautiful, and we will be forever changed by what we see. And father, I pray that in this moment, at this time, my words would fall to the ground and blow away, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Perhaps some of you grew up in churches that had missions week. I did. You know, it's it's the week where all the missionaries that you've been supporting or from all around the world, they come in and they kind of invade your church like aliens. I remember as a child looking at them, and they looked like aliens to me. A lot of them would come in their traditional garb from whatever country they were in.
Jeffrey Heine:They didn't look like me. They didn't talk like me. They were otherworldly in a sense. And I can remember as a small child one time during missions week, that as our missionaries were up there and they've all been sharing about everything the Lord is doing and I'm looking at them, I I pray just this this little prayer. I said, God, not me.
Jeffrey Heine:Please not me. I don't want to do that. I I don't want to be like these people. Can you please call me to do something else with my life other than be a missionary? And God did not listen to my prayer because Jesus has said that we're all missionaries.
Jeffrey Heine:Every every one of us lives a life that is on a mission. We might not have to dress like these missionaries dressed. We might not have to go to the cultures and to the nations that they go to. We might, but we might not, but wherever we are, God has called us to live out a sent life, one that glorifies Him. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he didn't ascend just to leave us.
Jeffrey Heine:He ascended in order to send us, in order to send us to do this this mission. We have work to do. That's that's why he left. Look at verse 18. He says, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Jeffrey Heine:He said that just as he was sent into the world, he sends us into the world. In other words, the mission He is giving us is just like the mission that He had. We've got this same mission. It's just like Jesus. So that raises a question, what was Jesus's mission when He was here on this earth?
Jeffrey Heine:We read that in verse 4. There's a number of places, but I'll I'll choose verse 4. Jesus says these words. He says, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. So the mission of Jesus was to bring glory to his father.
Jeffrey Heine:That was his mission. Glorifying Jesus was or Jesus' mission was to glorify the one who sent him, and our mission is now to glorify the one who sent us, which is to glorify Jesus. That's our mission. We're sent out just like Jesus, just like He glorified the one who sent Him. He says, and I'm sending you the same way.
Jeffrey Heine:Now we are to glorify Jesus. We are to make much of Him. This is our purpose in life. We don't have some meaningless existence wondering what we're supposed to do in this life. Jesus gives us a very specific purpose.
Jeffrey Heine:We're to go about on mission glorifying Him. Now Jesus says He actually receives glory from us, as incredible as that is. Look at verse 10. Jesus says, all mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. I'm glorified in them.
Jeffrey Heine:He's glorified in us. So if we can bring glory to Jesus and our mission is to bring glory to Jesus, how are we supposed to go about doing this? How can he be glorified in us? That's the question I want us to look at this morning. Does it mean that we have to sell everything we have, go off into the mission Possibly so.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not gonna let you off the hook, possibly so that God is calling some people here to do that. Or perhaps he's calling some of us to do what we would see as more normal, sharing our faith with our neighbor or our co workers. What is this mission supposed to look like in our lives? Well, I think to understand this, we really need to come to grips with the word glory because that's our mission is to glorify Jesus. So what does this word glory really mean?
Jeffrey Heine:And if you've been here at Redeemer for any amount of time, you've heard me talk about this word glory and what it means. At its very root, at its very essence, the word glory means heavy. Heavy, it's a great seventies term, heavy. It means weighty or substantial, immovable. It means something that's heavy or something that's glorious has matter to it.
Jeffrey Heine:That might be a great way of understanding it. It's something that matters. Something glorious is something that matters to us above all else. So the question is, what matters to us? The way we live our life and and people watching us how we live, what would they say matters to us most in our life that has the most weight, the most substance, the thing that our lives revolve around?
Jeffrey Heine:Is it is it our kids? Is it our spouse? Is it our personal freedom? Is it our reputation? What's what's that central element, that weightiness in our life?
Jeffrey Heine:I had a friend, I say had, he is he is he's no longer a friend. That that bridge has been burned by him. His life was completely adrift. He is was in and out of jobs. He was in and out of drinking a lot.
Jeffrey Heine:He was always confrontational. His life was just it was a wreck in every way, and he had a child. And he he told me that after he had this child, he was a baby girl, he was looking at this baby girl and she opened her eyes and so he gets to look at this precious baby girl in the eyes and he said this, he goes, I found my mission or my purpose in life. When I when I saw this child, I knew I knew why I existed. And so he he he got this this this new identity in a sense.
Jeffrey Heine:He got to realize for him what really mattered, and his life began to change, at least temporarily. He he told me that he he needed to now sober up. He needed to now keep a job, he needed to now provide maybe a safe, warm environment for the child to grow up in so they're not emotionally scarred. He needed to start saving money for this child's education. He was gonna completely reform his life because he's now been given purpose.
Jeffrey Heine:And he would not ever phrase it this way, but what he was doing is glorifying his child. He was glorifying his child. He was he was giving this baby all the weight in his life and this this child was gonna be what mattered to him most. Of course, that child's not meant to carry that weight and that child cannot produce that change that he really needed. The question is what matters most to us.
Jeffrey Heine:What changes our behavior? What's that weighty thing in your life that determines how you spend your money, what you do with your time? What's what's that immovable object that you're always thinking about, always obsessing over where your whole life has to revolve around? Whatever that is or whoever that is, that is what you're glorifying. That's your mission.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus says, glorify me. To glorify Jesus means that we understand that Jesus matters most. He matters most to us. He's the immovable object in our lives that everything else needs to revolve around. So the question is, how does this how does this play out?
Jeffrey Heine:How do we actually live this? It means a number of things. For one, it means you're gonna have to likely leave your comfort zone. Jesus was in a pretty comfortable place sitting in heaven at the right hand of God the father almighty, but then the father sent him, sent him here to earth of all things born in a stable, laid in a trough, placed with poor parents. Jesus, that's a that's a mighty humbling.
Jeffrey Heine:That is a leaving of your comfort zone, but that is how Jesus came to us. So to be sent like Him means that there's gonna be at times that God is gonna call us to do things that we're not really comfortable doing. It means He is going to stretch us in ways we never thought possible. And this might take the form of going to the other side of the world and sharing the gospel. Or it might take the form of going to your neighbor whom you are equally scared of and sharing the gospel with them.
Jeffrey Heine:Whichever it is, He's calling you to leave that place of comfort because your comfort no longer matters the most to you. Jesus matters the most. Living a life on mission also means that you are now going to be in the world but you're not gonna be of the world. We see this in verse 18. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them Or sorry, verse 15.
Jeffrey Heine:I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Jesus doesn't pray that we should be taken out of the world. He prays that we we should be part of the world here. He says you're you're gonna be in it, but you're not gonna be of it. In other words, you've heard me use this language.
Jeffrey Heine:You are you're not to isolate yourselves from the world, yet you're not to fully assimilate yourselves into doing all that the world does. You're neither to live in isolation or in assimilation. Listen, if Jesus, if he wanted his followers to have nothing to do with the world, but instead just gather around and, you know, in their holy little huddle, have all their, you know, just church friendships, all their church relationships, then Jesus would have prayed, Father, remove them from this world. Father, I I can look 2 1000 years into the future. There's gonna be the internet.
Jeffrey Heine:There's gonna be cable TV. There's gonna be all these things. I want you to I want you to spare them from all this. Can you just remove them out of this? I see, I see suffering and pain.
Jeffrey Heine:Can you just remove them? He he doesn't pray this though. He says I do not pray that you would take them out of the world, because living a life of mission, it's essential that you are in the world. He wants you to be in it, but not of it. He does not want you to hurry your family to the car, lock the door real quick, head off to church listening to Christian music.
Jeffrey Heine:Get them inside really quick. Maybe you do this several times a week going back and forth between different Bible studies. Sneak them back in the house and you think, you know, they were safe. I I I didn't They weren't exposed to anything evil out there. We have kept ourselves pure.
Jeffrey Heine:We've kept ourselves holy. We didn't have to be around these non Christians. Jesus doesn't want you to live that life of isolation. At the same time he doesn't want you to live a life of assimilation where you just become exactly like the world and there is no difference between you. You are not of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:You are to be completely surrounded by evil, yet not participate in it. Do you have any idea how hard that is? That is incredibly hard. The mission that the Lord is giving us is an incredible mission. It's it's a lot easier to just try to wall off the world and we're just gonna live in our holy little Christian bubble.
Jeffrey Heine:Or it's a lot easier to just completely give in and do whatever the world says. But to be in that middle ground, in the world but not of it, That's the hard place to be, but it's also where God is calling us to live our life of mission. So I grew up in a pretty legalistic Baptist church. I loved my my my Baptist church, but this was a really legalistic one. Of course, there there was no no drinking, no no swearing, no dancing, at least around other Baptist.
Jeffrey Heine:You weren't allowed to do that. I was I mean, I know you're thinking, no. No. I grew up in a legalistic church. No.
Jeffrey Heine:No. I I mine can top yours. Okay? I promise you. I was taught things like when Moses was up getting the 10 Commandments and he was coming down and he heard the noise of the people worshiping the golden calf, that that was the world's 1st rock concert, alright, and that rock music is completely evil.
Jeffrey Heine:So I grew up in atmosphere where you weren't allowed to really listen to Amy Grant. Okay? We're talking legalism. That's the tip of the iceberg of the stories I could tell you. Now and I I tell you this just because I want you to know that I have a bent towards isolation.
Jeffrey Heine:I have a bent of of building this wall here and saying I can just live my own holy little life with my own little holy little friends, and I don't have to be infected by the world. I don't have to have anything to do with them. And so I grew up thinking this and believing this, but then I would read about Jesus and how he's he's he's always hanging out with these these people I wasn't allowed to hang out with. I mean, our our church built the family life center, you know, the the the gym with the where you can play basketball, you can skate, not as an outreach to the community, but so we would never have go into the community. So we can we can be self contained.
Jeffrey Heine:But but then I'm reading, well Jesus was always out there, reaching the prostitutes, the tax collectors. They actually called Jesus a drunkard and a glutton because he was always at a party. He was always surrounded by those types of people and and so I'm I'm just I'm reading this and I'm I'm wrestling with this. How do you do this? And then I hear Jesus' words saying, you are the salt of the earth.
Jeffrey Heine:And salt in this day was it was a preservative. You know, when they didn't have refrigeration, salt was what you would you would put into something that would rot without it. That was the purpose of salt is is to be worked into that that piece of meat to just pound it in there, ingrained in it, so that it would not rot. Jesus says, you're the salt of the earth, meaning your life is to be spent out among things that will rot without you. Act as a preservative.
Jeffrey Heine:That's our calling, that's our mission. And so I'm I'm thinking through these things and I'm I'm praying through all these things. I'm confused, and and this is going on well into my twenties. And so I finally you know what I decided to do? Have a drink.
Jeffrey Heine:I had a drink. I went and had a beer, seriously. The age of 29, 30 years old, I have never tasted alcohol in my entire life. I mean, there was no way. I what I associated with alcohol, there was no way.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm and so I'm 29, 30 years old. And I have some new neighbors who moved in. Next door, I had a brief interaction with the husband. He obviously was not a Christian. It was obvious.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I'm just thinking, I'm praying, what can I do to reach out to him? I got Lauren to you know, we're thinking, we're praying about it. I was like, I think I'm gonna go buy a beer and take it over there. And so I go to the store, and I'm scared to death. I'm, like, I'm in the alcohol section.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm looking around like people are looking at me. I try to as quietly and discreetly as I can, I get a 6 pack of whatever I can find? It's not like I know what it is and just get that. And and then I go next door and I I I knock on his door and I said, hey, you know, we only just got to briefly interact earlier. Once again reintroduced myself and said, hey, I you know, I brought you something to drink if you want to just sit down the front porch and we just get to know one another.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I drink beer for the glory of Jesus, for the glory of Jesus here. This, I know that's silly, but this was me leaving my comfort zone. I'm the only person in my family to have ever had a sip of alcohol, so my my brother, older brother, my older sister, they think I'm the prodigal child, the pastor who drinks. You know, it's like, oh. But me sitting down with this guy on the front board porch and drinking this time, it led to a relationship in which I was able to multiple times share the gospel with him.
Jeffrey Heine:It led to a relationship in which I could actually be in his house and several times, he literally was hugging me, weeping over the mess he had made of his life. It opened up that door. This is what I would call living missionally, it's being in the world and not of it. And I got to experience at that time. I've failed so many times, but I really got to experience this time because there Jesus mattered the most to me, not really my reputation, not my comfort, but He mattered the most.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, glorifying Jesus isn't only drinking beer. I want you to know that. There's there's more to it. Living missionally is also meaning living sacrificially. To be sent out like Jesus was sent out, Well we know what that looked like.
Jeffrey Heine:It led Jesus to the cross. And for us to live missionally, I I just want you to hear me as clear as as you can hear me. It will cost you. If you wanna show the world what matters most to you, it's gonna cost you your finances. It's gonna cost you your time.
Jeffrey Heine:It might come a day where it cost you your life, but Jesus matters most. And so we joyfully spend those things. And not only not only this, not only do we joyfully spin those things, we spin those things and we freely spin those things, but we've not been left alone in the power to do it. If you have your Bible, I didn't put this in the worship guide, you could turn to John 20. Jesus says these exact same words later.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's really John's kind of version of the Great Commission. Verse 21, This is after the resurrection. Jesus said to them, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Receive the Holy Spirit. The power to live this missional life comes from the Spirit of God. Remember when we were going through John and we're at John 16 and Jesus is teaching about the Spirit? On John 1614, Jesus said that when he goes away he's gonna send his spirit and he says the spirit will glorify him. The spirit will glorify him.
Jeffrey Heine:So the mission of the spirit is to glorify him. The mission of the church is to glorify Him. So the mission of the spirit and our mission is forever fused together. They're inseparable. It's all about glorifying Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:We share the same mission, and this means that we are to spend our lives in such fellowship with the Spirit that we are constantly asking him to reveal to us what we are to do, how we're to go about doing it, how can we show that Jesus matters most to us. This is how Jesus lived his life. This is how we are to live our life. Now I I really I I hesitate to give this next point. When we look at what living a spirit filled missional life can look like, I I really hesitate to do this because I don't want the pendulum to swing so far the other way, but as I was just praying through this this week, I I feel led to to share this.
Jeffrey Heine:I want us to look at not all that Jesus did through the power of the spirit. I want us to look at all he didn't do. I want us to look at all He did not do. I know we normally and rightly so, we focus on all that Jesus has done, but but just for a moment, let's focus on what he did not do. Look at look at verse 4.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus says, I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Alright. So as as Jesus' earthly life is coming to a close, he said he is at this point, he's he's glorified the father and he's he's done everything. He's been completely obedient in everything he was asked to do. He lived a perfect obedient life doing all that the father wanted him to do, yet I want you to look at all that Jesus did not do.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus didn't do any international missions. He he didn't leave the country. Jesus never left Palestine. Not only that but Jesus didn't go to all of Palestine. He really only went to a few places within Palestine.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus did not heal everybody. There were times that he would walk past entire villages, entire towns not stopping to heal or to teach. Jesus, he he didn't have all the experiences that we have. He never experienced the pain and loneliness of growing old and the and the unique suffering that comes with that. Or what about the the stress of being a parent and raising a child?
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't have that experience, yet he still accomplished everything the father asked of him. Jesus wasn't even in what we would call full time vocational ministry for very long. For the 1st 30 years of his life, he certainly wasn't in that. He you know what his life looked like? He he likely stayed at home, worked a job, a manual labor, took care of his family.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what he did for the majority of his life. You know, he was he was the oldest of the brothers. And since Joseph had likely died early on, it would have been up to Jesus to provide for the family, and he did. Waited 30 years before he finally launched out. And so so from an outsider's perspective, when you're looking when you're looking at the majority of Jesus' life, it actually looks pretty dull.
Jeffrey Heine:Pretty dull, pretty normal. He just faithfully provided for his family and lived righteously. And then he went and did 3 full years of ministry, and yet he accomplished all that His father wanted Him to accomplish. He lived a perfect and obedient life. And I don't know about you, but I need to at times remind myself of this, because I live in a I can live in a constant state of guilt.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know if you struggle with this, but I struggle with this where I can live in a constant state of guilt and powerlessness. You know, I get on the internet and I start seeing all the stuff that's wrong with the world and then these invitations to help out different ministries. And so I can go, you know, give money to help orphans in Ethiopia, or perhaps I'm supposed to go to Uganda and dig wells, or maybe I I help the orphans in Haiti and in Peru. But then what about the, you know, all the ministries that are around here? I mean every just about every time I feel like I go to my car, I'm approached by somebody asking for money.
Jeffrey Heine:Do do I just give them money or do I do I forget whatever thing I'm going to and actually spend time with this person? And what about my family? Should I be spending my time with them? Should I be making sure that you know, that I teach them the Bible, that I go to their soccer games? Yesterday, we were at a elder retreat and I missed one of my girls' soccer games.
Jeffrey Heine:First goal in a game, I missed it. I missed it. Was that the right thing to do? Was it the wrong thing to do? I don't know about you, but I live because of all the need that I see in the world that's constantly is being I'm being bombarded with.
Jeffrey Heine:I live in a constant state of guilt. I've got to be doing more. I've somehow gotta be doing more. And no matter how hard I try, I feel like I just fail. And then I look at Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus was never rushed. Jesus was never stressed. Jesus didn't do it all and He didn't try. He understood the limits of his physical human body, and yet he lived a life of absolute mission, and he completed the work that his father asked him to do. The key was this, listening to what the father asked him to do.
Jeffrey Heine:Or in other words, he abided in the spirit. The spirit of God directed his steps. I just I feel like I need to say that because as we look at how Jesus has called us into an intense mission and He has called us to be part of an intense, sacrificial mission, I want you to understand that although He has called you to be tireless in your outreach, He's not called you to be exhausted in it. That's not His calling. And although He has called you to meet the needs of many people, He hasn't called you to spend your your entire life being being determined by the needs or the neediness of people.
Jeffrey Heine:And although he's called you into a life where you were to feel a a real strong conviction of the spirit, he has not called you to live a life where you're you're consumed by guilt from the devil. Yes, we are to live missionly, absolutely, but this is done out of obedience and out of joy and out of abiding with the spirit. As a matter of fact, if you're like me and there's times that you struggle with a constant state of guilt, there's always this underlying guilt, let me say it's not because you are not doing enough works for Jesus. That's not why you feel guilty. It's because you're not doing enough works.
Jeffrey Heine:It's because this, you have glorified your works over glorifying His work. And you have put so much weight in what you do instead of what He has done for you. And so the more and more you're spinning your wheels and the more and more you're trying, all you're doing is glorifying work not glorifying Jesus. So I would just say, you you just you think of the gospel, you always go back to the gospel and you and you think about what Christ has done and you make much of that. And the result of that is not a life of inaction.
Jeffrey Heine:Like all of a sudden, okay, I'm just gonna just keep thinking of all that Jesus has done, but now I don't have to do anything. No, what it does is it actually frees your heart to lovingly and obediently serve Him. That's why Jesus says in verse 13, I say these things that my joy might be in them. His mission is a joyful mission. When we are changed by the gospel, we're given a mission that will joyfully consume our life.
Jeffrey Heine:So do we help orphans in Peru? Do we dig wells in Africa? Do we take meals to a neighbor? Do we spend more time with our children? You're not gonna find a Bible verse that tells you which to do.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are all great options. What you do is you say, spirit lead me. And the answer is yes before I ever hear the command. And whatever you ask me to do, Lord, give me the strength to do it, because I want to live a life that says Jesus, you matter. You matter.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Jesus, we boldly and publicly proclaim that you're glorious, you're substantial, you're heavy, you're weighty, that our entire lives rightly should revolve around You. And I pray that right now through Your Spirit, Lord, you would send us on mission and empower us to do it. That every person here would show the world just how much you matter to them. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.