John Chapter 17:1-7

See, one of the reasons we talk about serving a lot here is we want to put wheels on your faith. See, somehow in the church setting in America, we think, okay, you know, once you're saved, that's it. That's the end goal. We just want to get you saved. That was never the end goal for Jesus.

It was for you to be walking in faith. When did Jesus ever walk up to anybody and go, hey, agree with me? Never.

Not one time. What did he say? Follow me.

You know what that means? He was asking for an action. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, David McGee teaches the second part of a six-part series on the real Lord's Prayer. We also have with us on the program, one of David McGee's associate pastors, D.A.

Brown. Welcome to the program today, brother. Bob, everyone's going to enjoy this one. While it's true that our good works do not bring us to salvation, it's because of our salvation that we want to do good works for Jesus. Today, Pastor David explains this more as he continues in the Gospel of John, Chapter 17. So, let's listen as David McGee continues with part two of his teaching, The Real Lord's Prayer.

In Chapter 17, it's high holy ground in terms of the New Testament. We're invited into a very intimate place in that Jesus is praying. And so, we're going to get a glimpse into the heart of Jesus and his heart towards the disciples. So, we're not going to rush through this.

We're going to take our time with this, but let's jump in. John 17, Verse 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. Wow, these verses are so deep.

Jesus glorified Father God through the things that he did on the earth. And here, he's saying, you know what, I've finished the work. Now, we understand, in part, Jesus is speaking prophetically of when he was on the cross, and he said, to Telestai in the Greek, it is finished. But what a thing to say, you know what, I've finished the work which you have given me to do. Charles and John Wesley, it was interesting years ago. I think it was John that was coming over, and Charles said, well, if you go over there, you're going to die in the crossing.

And he made an incredible statement. He said, you know what, a man is immortal until he's finished what he was sent here to do. But to finish the work, see, that's the cry of my heart. I don't know when I cross that finish line. It could be today. It could be five years.

It could be 20 years. I don't know where that line is, but I do know that I want to be able to say what Jesus says here. I've finished the thing that you told me to do. I've finished what you gave me to do. Not woulda, not shoulda, not coulda, not making excuses, but you know what, God, I was gonzo for you. I was full in.

I was 24-7. That's what I want to be able to say. Now, does that mean I never failed? No, no, it does not mean that, unfortunately. But it means my heart wants to accomplish what God has given me to do. And let me ask you a question.

Is that the cry of your heart? Guys, we get so easily distracted, don't we? And I'm not pointing my finger at you guys. I'm saying we get so easily distracted, we get our priorities out of whack. And the Lord speaks in that soft voice and says, ah, you need to do this.

You need to do that. And we reject that. We turn away from that. See, one of the reasons we talk about serving a lot here is we want to put wheels on your faith. See, somehow in the church setting in America, we think, okay, you know, once you're saved, that's it. That's the end goal. We just want to get you saved. That was never the end goal for Jesus.

It was for you to be walking in faith. When did Jesus ever walk up to anybody and go, hey, agree with me? Never.

Not one time. What did he say? Follow me.

You know what that means? He was asking for an action. I mean, as a disciple, Jesus walks up to you and says, follow me.

You wouldn't sit there and go, hey, I'm with you. Go ahead. I'm following you. It might look like I'm still sitting here, but I'm with you in heart.

Follow me. An action on prayer. Now, again, let me clarify faith and works. We are saved by faith. We're saved by faith.

God does not require you on the front end to do anything except him. Now, somehow in the church today, we've actually built into this that you have to repent before salvation. Now, is repentance a part of salvation? Absolutely.

Absolutely. But let me ask you a question. When, theologically, does somebody repent?

Before they get saved? I'm sorry, you can't. Why? Because you can't have the Holy Spirit having you turn from your sins to God before you get saved.

Can't do it. There is part of you that wants to do that, but you do not yet have the power to do that. But as you turn to God, you turn from your sins and that begins to work out in your life. So again, so it's clear. Repentance is part of salvation, but it's part of salvation, not a pre-salvation thing. Are we clear on that? Are we all on the same page? Because see, it's not a matter of you getting your life cleaned up to come to God.

And see, that's the shame. Some people think, well, as soon as I get this right and that right, then I'll come to God. Wait a minute.

When is that going to be? You're going to get perfect and then you're going to come to God? I'm sorry. If you could be perfect, you wouldn't need God, would you? So we're saved by faith and by faith alone, not through works. I've seen some people that got saved and immediately all the baggage dropped off. It's amazing. You know, people that were smoking crack and doing all these things, all of a sudden they get saved. Man, they're on fire.

I've seen other people that it seems like it's a really gradual process. And I'm so glad that God is in charge. Amen?

And not me. So we're saved by faith. I want to be very clear on this, but Jesus mentioned work.

So what is the work? Well, the book of James, which is an encouragement in how to live our lives out in Christianity, has a few verses that I'd like to share this morning. James 1 22 says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. So as you hear the word of God, and I'll make sure that you hear the word of God, be sure you're beginning to do the word of God.

Now again, let me clarify. Many people in here are doing the word. They're doers of the word. James continues in the epistle in 2 14 says, what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him?

The new living translation puts it like this. Dear brothers and sisters, what's the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone.

These are strong words directly from the word of God. I want to shatter this spectator Christianity thing that has crept into the church today. It has no place in the body of Christ. Somehow we think, okay, it's kind of like a professional sporting event in that 5% of the people are in the middle of the field doing the stuff, and then 95% are going, yay, no, it's not like that.

Well, it's not supposed to be like that. James 2 17 20 says, 2 17 through 20. Thus also faith by itself, it does not have works.

It's dead. But someone will say you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble.

Oh, this is a great verse to share with people. If you ask them, hey, are you going to heaven? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, why do you think that? Because I believe in God. Whoa, wait a minute. Okay, if that's your definition of who gets into heaven, do you believe that demons are going to heaven?

No. Okay, demons believe and they're actually fearful. So obviously it takes more than just a passive belief, an agreement with the facts. The New Living Translation says this.

So you see, same translation, same verses. So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds, it's no faith at all.

It is dead and useless. Now someone may argue some people have faith, others have good deeds. I say, I can't see your faith if you don't have good deeds. But I will show you my faith through my good deeds.

Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this and they tremble in terror. Strong verses. So the life lesson here is added to verse, we are saved by faith to do good works. We are saved by faith to do good works. Once you come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, there's just something that happens. Everything changes. You begin to think, well, I want to do something for the Lord. I want to get involved.

I want to get engaged. And you know what? I love you enough to say this. If you're content with sitting on the sidelines and not pursuing the Lord and not living out a life that is glorifying to the Lord, you probably need to ask yourself some hard questions because you don't see that kind of faith in the Bible. You don't see it. Jesus himself in Matthew 5 16 says, let your light so shine before men. How do we let our light shine before men? That they may see your good works.

And then what happens? And they glorify your Father in heaven. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Even in the verse that we quote a lot to talk about the grace that is saving grace, Ephesians 2 8 and 9. Remember verse 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves as the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This word in here, workmanship, I love this word. It's the word, it's the Greek word, poema.

It's where we get our word for poem. And while you may sit back and think, oh my, I'm kind of overwhelmed. Can I do these things that the Lord wants me to do? Can I actually follow him?

Well, this is a really cool thing. Evidently, Jesus thinks you can. Jesus says, you know what? I saved you knowing that you can do these things. See, so for a believer to sit back and go, I can't, oh, it's no longer an option, I'm sorry. Because with God, all things are possible. Now, what that means to you, I'm not sure. Some of you are called to do this or do that, but I just know that in following Jesus, it's an active thing.

It's not a passive thing. The disciples followed Jesus in an active way. God has done everything necessary to save us. He leaves the decision to us. Once we make that decision, God expects our active participation. Every day we're presenting God's word to them here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. What an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor DA Brown.

Hey, we're really excited that you've tuned in today. And if you're listening right now, we're taking a few moments in the program to pray for cities in our listening audience. So if you're listening right now, we're praying for you, and specifically these cities in Missouri, Springfield, St. Joseph, and St. Louis, and in Montana, Arleigh, Belt, Billings, and Culbertson. Lord, thank you for the people listening in these cities. Thank you for the work that you're doing in their life.

Them listening is evidence that you're at work. Father, I pray that you would fill them with the faith to believe in what you're doing. Lord, help them to say yes to everything that you're wanting to do in their life. We pray for the city leaders, the mayor, the police chiefs, the fire chiefs. Lord, we pray that you would give them wisdom, the town council, and Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit to pour out in these cities. Give the pastors wisdom.

Help people to get plugged into churches. And Lord, we thank you that we can ask for your help and expect you to move. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse five. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. You'll notice here, Jesus is saying, you know, I existed before the world existed. He is claiming that he is eternal. And that's one of the definitions for God. He said it again in a different way in John 8.58. Jesus answered and says, the truth is I existed before Abraham was even born. That's what Jesus said.

For any man, being kind, for any man to come and say, well, you know, it was actually centuries later they decided that Jesus was God. No, it wasn't. That's garbage.

That's garbage. Jesus himself said that he was eternally existent. He said that.

Remember that. This isn't something the church said. This isn't something people said. This isn't some council that got together and said, let's put words in his mouth. These are the words of Jesus.

Now, verse six. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours.

You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now, notice that they came out of the world. Does that mean they went to outer space?

Does that mean they were floating above the ground a few feet? That's not what it means. It means they quit buying into the system, the philosophy, the thought processes, the mentality of the world. And that's what we need to do as believers because, guys, there are rubs in following Jesus compared to what the world says. The world will say, this is all right and that's all right.

And if it's the right situation, stealing's okay, lying's okay, you know, those sorts of things. I was really shocked. I don't know how many of you saw the pastor and the guy asked, is deceiving somebody, is that wrong?

Now, I thought, well, this is an easy one. So I took it and said, well, yeah. And the question was, let me get more specific. In law enforcement, is it okay to deceive somebody in order to get the truth? And I said, you know what?

It doesn't matter what your motivation is. Wrong is still wrong because you can come out with all kinds of good reasons for doing the wrong thing and it's still the wrong thing. So I thought, okay, well, that one's covered. And then two other, well, a pastor and a chaplain went after me and they said, well, you know, sometimes it's wrong.

I was shocked. We're to be out of the world and following the Lord. Verse seven, now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. So Jesus is saying, you know what? They can know me and they can know the things that you have given me are from you. Let's go back to verse six.

I want to spend some time with a couple of minutes with this. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. Let's clarify that because there's something interesting here. Let me ask you a question. And I want you to think about this little Bible trivia here.

Who are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? But don't answer out loud. You're sitting there going, I don't know. Don't call on me. My hand's not raised.

Who's belt the shahs are? And you're sitting there and you're going, what are you, pastor? This is a little bizarre.

But let me phrase it a different way. Do you know who Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are? That's who I asked about the first time. The first time I used their Hebrew names. The second time, the names that we know them by are the names the Babylonians gave them. It's kind of weird, isn't it? See, they changed their names and that they wanted them to adopt the world system. If you got that one right, you're a Bible buff. You can look it up in Daniel if you want to polish up for next time. But we know them by their Babylonian names.

That's just weird. We know Daniel by Daniel. That is a Hebrew name, not belt the shahs are. Well, what does it have to do with anything, pastor? It's interesting to me that we know Jesus by his Greek name. Jesus is a Greek word. And I don't want to get into all the specifics, but it's kind of weird because the Greeks, well, they called it Hellenization. In other words, they went into a culture and they wanted to indoctrinate it into their ways and their thoughts and their philosophies.

And they bring in the gymnasium and all these other things that were very Greek that we still see in our world today. And while we call ourselves a Judeo-Christian society, more and more, we're looking less and less to Jerusalem and more and more to Athens and that type of philosophy, even as a church. The name of Jesus in the Hebrew is Yahshua, or high Yahshua. Our English word for that is Yahshua.

But it's amazing to me that so few people know that. And so it's okay if you hear me every week pray and I close in the name of Yahshua. That's the Hebrew name of Jesus.

Now, some of you are sitting there going, no, no, we're supposed to pray in the name of Jesus, Jesus. Well, Yahshua is his Hebrew name. Jesus is what the Greek people called him. So you want to go closer to what his name is, you'll call him Yahshua. That name means God is our salvation. And so when Jesus says, I have manifested your name, that's what he was talking about, I believe. Yahshua, God is salvation. Christ is from the Greek Christos, meaning the anointed one, which we get from the Hebrew Mashiach. God is my salvation.

How cool that that is his name. And it ties back to two things real quickly, and then we'll close. Exodus 14, 13 uses this word in the Hebrew. I'll read you the verse in English.

Makes more sense. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

Let me paint the picture. They're at the Red Sea. The army's pressing in from Pharaoh behind them.

There's two mountain sides. There's a Red Sea behind them. And Moses stands up and says, do not be afraid. Stand still and see Yahshua.

A picture. Long before Yahshua died upon the cross. He didn't say start digging a tunnel. We're gonna tunnel under the Red Sea. It's interesting the way he phrases. Stand still.

Stand still and watch. What a word to us. That's where it's gotta all start. It can't start with works.

It can't start with doing. It's been said that we went in the garden from being human beings to human doings. And while there's much I want to encourage you to be doing after you know the Lord, until you know the Lord, there's nothing you can do to please him. Stand still and see the salvation.

Stand still and see Yahshua. In the Feast of Tabernacles, an interesting thing happened. They would go up and were told about it in John 7 on the great day of the feast, Rosh Hashanah. That's the last day of the feast.

They did some interesting things. They went down and they took the vase and they dumped it in the pool of Siloam, which we're told in the Bible means scent. They brought this water back to the temple. They mixed it with wine, symbolic of the blood, and they poured it out on the steps of the temple, reminding us of the water and the blood that flowed from the side of Jesus. And meanwhile, they were wave palm branches saying blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Feast of Tabernacles in part was thanksgiving for the wetness, for the rain, for the water. And they would sing a song from Isaiah 12, verse three. It says, therefore, with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Your attention, please. That verse, therefore, with joy, you will draw water from the wells of Yahshua. And in that moment, as they were singing from the wells of Yahshua, a young man from Galilee stood up and said, if anybody's thirsty, let them come to me and drink.

And that's still what he says today. If anybody's thirsty, let them come and drink from the wells of Yahshua. Because if you drink from the wells of anything else, friend, just like he said in John 4, you're going to be thirsty again. But if you drink from the wells of Yahshua, the wells of Jesus, that will quench your thirst like nothing you've ever experienced. And just like so many of the things that you drink have salt in them and they leave you thirstier and thirstier, the things of the world will leave you thirstier and thirstier. But the true water, the water that lives, the water that gives, the water of life, Jesus, will satisfy you in a way like you've never been satisfied.

And that's what he offers to each and every person this morning. Maybe you've been distracted. Maybe you've been drinking from these other wells and you've been wondering, why am I so thirsty?

Because you were never meant to be satisfied with the other wells. You were built to be satisfied with the well of Yahshua alone. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.