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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. 209 times in your New Testament, 209 times, the little phrase the world is used, the world.
In this passage, in nine verses of this passage, it's used 12 times. Jesus refers to the world. You're in the world but not of the world. I've taken you out of the world. I'm sending you out to the world. He uses this term the world.
What does that mean? It's the word cosmos in Greek, cosmos. We get the word cosmology from it. But there's a few different ways to look at the world. There's only one way he's referring to it.
Let me explain. Sometimes the Bible speaks of the world of creation, right? God created the world. The earth is the Lord's, the psalmist said, Psalm 24, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein. He's speaking of the world of the earth, creation, the universe.
Well, that is not how it's used here. He's not speaking of it because, listen, the Bible says do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world. So he's not saying don't love your environment, hate the plant when you go outside. Look at that tree and hate it.
Don't love it. That's not what it refers to when it says don't love the world. That's one way, the environment, the physical world. Sometimes the Bible refers to the world as the world of humanity, the world of men. And when Jesus said or John 3 16, for God so loved the world, he was speaking of people of the world. Jesus didn't die for trees and fish.
He died for the humans of this world. God so loved the world. So when the Bible says don't you love the world, he's not saying don't love people.
Don't love the environment, don't love people, whatever you do. Now that would be contrary to the gospel. There's a third way, and it is the most frequent use of that phrase, the world or cosmos, and it's very evident here. And that is the ordered system of worldly thinking and values around you.
That's how it is used. The word cosmos means an arranged order. So the world is the arranged order where Satan is called the god of this world, and there are human beings that are a part of the system that don't love God, that hate God, that don't love Christians, that don't love godly values. That is the world you and I are in and are not to love, right?
That system. So we are living in a physical world surrounded by a human world that is imbued with a spiritual worldview, okay? So for example, we used to have a—I don't even know if they have it on TV anymore—the wide world of sports. Is that still a show?
Okay, so that's like decades ago. But it doesn't mean there's a planet out in the galaxy that is called sports that is revolving around the sun. It's its own world. Now I know a lot of men would love to go to a planet like that, but it just means that it is an arranged system of sport values and people who love them and activities that are arranged around them. So when Jesus speaks of the world, I've taken you out of the world.
It's out of that world system. I've delivered you from that way of thinking, that way of living. Skip down to verse—well, let's just read down to verse 14. Verse 12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I kept. None of them is lost except the son of perdition, that's Judas Iscariot, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
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. That is the occupational hazard of following Jesus. Every occupation has its hazards. If you work on telephone poles there's the hazard of getting splinters or falling down or getting electrocuted.
Every occupation has its hazards. The occupational hazard of being a Christian, of following Jesus Christ, is that the world system around you isn't going to like you. They're going to hate you, and you're going to be persecuted. So what does Jesus pray for them? He says, verse 15, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth.
Your word is truth. Please, please, please notice that Jesus does not pray a prayer of escapism. He doesn't say, Father, the world's bad.
You and I both know it, and they're going to find it out soon enough. And it's so bad, Father, they're going to need a cave to hide in and a place to store their canned goods and their ammunition and their whale blubber to keep them warm in cold nights because the world's out to get them. He doesn't pray that they would escape from the world.
In fact, he says, I took you out of the world, but I'm going to send you. Notice what he says, I send them right back into the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Now look at verse 18. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. Now compare what you just read in that verse. Verse 18 with verse six. Verse six, I've manifested your name to them, to the men you gave me out of the world.
They were yours, you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now he says, you sent me, as you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. Here's how it works. Jesus saves you out of the world system. He saves you out of the mess. He cleans the mess off around you and in you. Then he shoves you back into the mess. I send them back into the world. You go, that's not very nice.
Oh, it's actually very nice. It's very nice because how else are those other worldlings, those people out there, going to know the Savior unless through your life that he sends you into? So he'll take you out of the world, clean you up, get rid of the mess, send you back into the mess, but this time with a message. And when you speak the message to the people in the mess, it's incentive for them to get out of their mess and get cleaned up and get a message and go back in. That's just trickle down evangelism. That's just how it worked from the time of Jesus all the way on. So our relationship with the world is that the world needs us, but let me throw something else at you.
You need the world. Years ago when codfish as an industry in the Pacific Northwest was getting big and people wanted it exported all over the country, they decided that they would take and kill the fish, of course, and then freeze the fish and then send it to the locations. The problem is that cod is a delicate fish and it loses a lot of its flavor when it's frozen and shipped.
So they tried something else. They took the codfish and sent it alive in tanks by itself in saltwater, seawater, and preserved it. Then they killed it and served it on the plates. The problem with that is the fish by the time they got to market were mushy and not firm. Finally they figured out what was wrong and they started shipping containers of codfish and put in the tanks its natural enemy, the catfish, so that those poor little codfish were being chased by their enemy, the catfish, all across country from the Pacific Northwest to whatever restaurant they landed into.
That kept them firm and tasty. Here's my point. If you are in the world but not in the Word, you're going to become like the world. But if you are in the Word and not in the world, you're just going to get fat and sassy.
You'll be mushy. You need a little bit of chasing. You need a little bit of resistance. You need a little bit of challenge. And that's why when you go, man, I don't know why God would give me this job.
That boss hates Christians. And I remember thinking that because I had a lot of them. They seemed to attack me.
They were my catfish. And I tell you what, it strengthened my faith and made my witness bold and my thinking clear and my rebuttals pure. And so the world needs you, but in a sense you need them. You can't just be isolated. But you see, that has been the tendency of Christians for years. One of the responses of believers to the world has been to isolate.
The monastic movement started this way. Let's isolate Christians from the world, from worldly people, from a worldly environment. Let's get them alone. Let's get them in a monastery, just in a nice place where they can sing nice songs together and hear pleasant things together and they don't ever have to go back out into the world.
And I've even met Christians who go, oh, I'd love to live in a Christian city or a Christian neighborhood where every single neighbor loves Jesus. I say, I think you just described heaven, if I'm not mistaken. That's what you're going to get in heaven. That's not the earth. You need to get chased around a little bit.
You don't need to isolate. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, start 2025 off right, exploring the richness of God's word with Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet and accompanying workbook. These resources offer an aerial view of scripture covering all 66 books of the Bible with a unique flight plan, facts, landmarks, itinerary, gospel, history, and travel tips. They're a perfect tool to help you enrich your Bible study and apply its teachings to your daily life. We'll send you The Bible from 30,000 Feet book and workbook as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. A second response Christians have had through the years is to insulate, to insulate. Now this was the approach of the Pharisees. Did you know when a Pharisee walked down the streets in Jerusalem, they would hold their robes tight to them.
They would put their heads down so they wouldn't have to look at a pagan. They didn't want to get cooties. They didn't want to get defiled. They just walked and held their robes tight and rushed through the street.
They were insulated. They didn't do evangelism, of course. There's nothing to attract an unbeliever to that. And they mocked people who did evangelism. Your master eats with tax collectors and sinners. I can't believe he hangs out with those people. Well, codfish got to hang out with the catfish because in a spiritual economy, that's how catfish can be converted into codfish. So he hung out with tax collectors and sinners. So to isolate and to insulate are not good approaches to the worldly system around you.
A third approach many of us have tried is to vegetate. I see this too often. This is a believer who's just completely apathetic. People are going to hell every day. At least I'm not. There's no passion to share their faith with the lost at all.
They may not be isolated or insulated, but they have vegetated. They're like spiritual couch potatoes. There's another response that I find troubling, and that is to imitate the world. Be just like them.
Try to prove to worldly people that I'm just as cool as you are. Look, man, I'm as hip as you are, as if your hepness is going to attract them to salvation. If there's no difference between an unbeliever and a Christian, why do they need to convert? What are they converting to?
There's no difference. So clearly the solution is not to isolate, insulate, vegetate, or imitate. Jesus' solution is to permeate.
I'm going to take you out of the world, clean you up, take the mess off you and around from your soul and put you back into it so that you permeate the world. Isn't that what Jesus said? You are the salt of the earth, and salt was used to decontaminate meat in those days?
Well, the salt has to touch the meat, has to touch the contamination to kill the germs. So that's His plan. I send you out, and Jesus said, like sheep in the midst of wolves. But I'm looking at a few ex-wolves here tonight who are now God's sheep because others were sent into your life and had the boldness to stay decontaminated and to preach truth to you. That's Jesus' style. And for their sakes, verse 19, I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified by the truth.
Now, verse 20, we're going to finish this up to the end. Jesus prays for you. I do not pray for these alone, that is, these disciples, these immediate followers, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
That's you and I. We're reading the testimony of one of those close followers tonight. They wrote Matthew, and they wrote John, and they will write 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John.
They'll give their testimony, and the gospel baton will be passed down. He is praying for you. You know, Jesus was praying for you then. Do you know Jesus is praying for you now? Do you know that Jesus' work is not finished? You go, that's heresy, Skip.
No, it's not heresy. The cross, He's finished with that work, but He has a second work He's doing. It's called the work of intercession. Hebrews chapter 7, He ever lives to make intercession for you. I just want you to think that Jesus prays for you.
I want you to think about that. I remember the evening I was speaking in North Carolina, and that afternoon I had the privilege of having a meal at Dr. Billy Graham's house, and he said, hey, listen, before you go speak, I want to pray for you and your message tonight. So he prayed, and I'm thinking this to myself, Billy Graham is praying for me. This is going to be awesome, because if he prays, you know it's going to be awesome, right?
That's what I'm thinking. And it was as if the Lord said, well, do I count? Man, I live to pray for you. It's what I live for, to pray for you and you and you and by name before the Father. He ever lives now at the right hand of God to represent you and to pray for you. He prayed for you then, He's praying for you now.
He worked for you then, He's working for you now. That they may all be one, verse 21, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Now as Jesus looks toward the future and He prays for us, He prays that we will be unified, we will be one.
It's tempting to read this and to sort of cock our head a little bit and go, well. Now there's a prayer of Jesus that I don't think was answered because if I'm not mistaken, I've read my Bible and even those disciples got into arguments a lot. They were arguing who was going to be the greatest, so I'll check that off as being evidence against the answer of this prayer. Also, I recall that guys like Paul and Barnabas were at each other's throat in the book of Acts and the argument got so strong they had to part each other's company. They couldn't even hang out with each other. They had to break fellowship with each other. And I've looked around at all the different denominations and hear how Christians talk smack about each other from one town to the next, so where's the unity?
Where's the love, bro? Here's what I want you to know. Unity isn't something you produce. It's something you already have. Whether you enjoy it or not, you've got it.
You've got it. In Galatians chapter 3, Paul writes that there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.
There is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ. He says it is a fact whether you know it, experience it, or not, I've done it.
I've done it. It's a done fact. Ephesians chapter 4, there is one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That's unity. Unity does not mean uniformity. It doesn't mean we're all going to agree on everything.
Oh, there's no unity. We actually think differently. That's what humans do. If you get two people that think alike about everything, what have you been thinking? We have differing opinions. We don't all have to think the same things. There's room for disagreement. I would dare say that all of the cardinal doctrines of the faith you and I agree on. Okay, there may be certain things about eschatology or pneumatology we have differences of opinion on, but we're one. So it's a done deal.
It's a fact. But having said that, it is something we should be endeavoring to keep, the Bible says. Again, Ephesians 4, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So it's something we shouldn't be working against. We should actually be trying to reconcile, trying to build bridges to people and not separate people. We should be endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.
Why? Because then the world will know that you sent me. And as Jesus prays for them, he's thinking of the impact of those future believers on the world around them. And he knows if there is a unity among them, that it will make the church attractive to the unbeliever. A church in turmoil, what unbeliever wants to go visit that? Oh, they fight all the time. I'm going to go there.
Awesome, because I just love conflict. Then to close off the prayer, one minute left. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. That's heaven. That's the Father's house.
That's where he's going. That they may behold my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world, O righteous Father. The world has not known you, but I have known you. And these have known that you sent me.
And I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. He prays for unity, and then he prays for glory. Not for himself, but he's praying for glory for you, that you will be in heaven with him. Every time a believer dies, Jesus' prayer is answered. It's one more in the very presence of God, enjoying his presence, seeing his glory. That's why I make a point at every funeral saying, this person, the last breath she took on earth, the first breath she took in heaven, it was something like this.
Wow! Because I'm beholding the glory that Jesus had with the Father from before the world was, and it's awesome. Interesting that he prays about heaven after he prays for unity on earth, and here's what I think.
Here's the correlation. When we lose our focus of heaven, we start fighting on earth. When we keep our focus on heaven, it balances out all the disagreements we have on earth.
It tends to take the sting away from the battle, because I look at you and go, you know what? I'm going to have to spend forever with you. That's a long time. You're going to be sharing heaven with me. I might like run into you walking down one of the streets of heaven. I want to try to get along with you now. I know I'm going to be perfect and redeemed, and so are you, but I want to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit now. So I'm thinking of heaven, but I'm also thinking that I want to work this out. I think they go hand in hand, and I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.
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