033 - Not of the World

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. You know, sometimes things just go so bad you pray to God and say, God, I'm done here. Take me out of this place. But you know, Jesus prayed, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, Father, but that you keep them. Keep them in the world?

While they're here. Is there a purpose for that? There is. Well, let's find out. Join us today on More Than Ink. Well, a warm welcome to you on this Saturday morning. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we are looking at the marvelous John 17, the prayer of Jesus right in the middle of John's gospel. Without question, the most detailed prayer we overhear Jesus pray. And it tells us so much about who he is, who the Father is, who the apostles are, who we are, what's the nature of this new relationship.

Now that he's physically leaving them. So deep. And how that works is very deep.

So deep. I mean, we could go for months on John 17. Yeah, I mean, and as a young believer, I was just kind of afraid of this prayer.

I mean, it just felt like it was all wound up in knots and doublespeak and there was no way you could get through it. But when we slowed down and really asked the question, who is he praying for? What is he asking for? What does he want us to see or understand because we're invited into this prayer? Yeah, it's deliberately a public prayer for our benefit. Right.

Yeah, yeah. So, and I'm always impressed too with the contrast between the quality of my kind of prayer and maybe your kind of prayer and Jesus' prayer right here. I mean, he's praying big.

I mean, this is just so different. You know, what was really on his heart? What was on his mind? Relationship, love, unity, all the things that he had been, he had come to communicate. But over and over and over again, when we see him coming back to this idea of loving and being loved by the Father, being one as he and the Father are one, he just had opened that thought as we were closing out last week's show. And including us in that oneness? Yes.

Yeah, so that's marvelous. And this is all, over all of this, there's this cloud in the apostles' minds about what's going to happen when Jesus leaves because it's very clear to them. They understand he's leaving. You know, he's going back to the Father and so where does that leave them? Well, he's driving home to them that the relationship will be different but better. To your advantage.

Yeah, and we just can't, they couldn't get their heads around that. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I just want to kind of say ahead of time here that coming into this part of the prayer, he's going to begin layering upon layering all of these statements of equality, equivalence, just as. Just like one thing, so is another. And just like the Father sent me, I'm going to send them.

Just like you love me, I love them. Those kinds of statements and so I hope I get a chance to point those out as we go through. If it doesn't come through in this conversation, there's a big segment of the Bible study that's posted on the website.

Yeah, why don't you mention that again because we mentioned it in passing last time. It is posted, I think, where the new programs are posted and it's just labeled as a PDF. You can download it and print it yourself and it will kind of give you some tools to work your way into a deeper understanding of this prayer and then consequently a deeper love for the Lord and a deeper understanding of how to pray ourselves in the way that he prayed. Yeah, so hopefully, our hope is that your response to this very brief broadcast we do will kind of create a hunger and you can use that guide to help you just walk through this slowly and contemplatively and really wonder at what you see Jesus saying here. Because our purpose is to draw you into the word for yourself so that you also can gain a love for the Lord Jesus and a desire to walk in the same purpose that he had, which was to love and to speak the Father's truth. Yeah, you can read this yourself and it's just not that cryptic, but the Bible study guide is really a nice kind of handheld way to kind of, you know, it's like I tell people when you go on a trip to a foreign country and you're sightseeing someplace and your sightsee guide says that, well, look out the right side of the bus and you'll see this, you go, ooh, I would have missed, or look out the left side of the bus. So it's a way of us in a guideway saying, you might want to look at that and look at that and you notice this and we don't want to look at it for you, we want you to see it for yourself. So that's what the guide's all about.

So go to morethanink.org and you'll find it right there and we encourage you to do that. So let's pick up where we left off. We're halfway through John 17. So we left off with verse 13 and I'll just pick it up there and read on. Jesus says, but now I'm coming to you, and he's talking to the Father, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've 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. 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. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

Let's stop there. Yeah, we came back to the word again. And the very words that Jesus taught them got Jesus in trouble and is getting them in trouble. Well, it shouldn't give us pause, I mean, it shouldn't surprise us that the word made flesh now says, I have given them your word. And it's all about communication.

Yep, yep. And interestingly enough, now that they have his word, which remember in John 1, 1, the word became flesh. This was the purpose of Jesus' coming. Now that they have it, interestingly enough, Jesus doesn't say, even though I'm leaving this place, I'm not asking you, Father, that you take them out of this place. I'm asking you that they stay here, but that you watch over them and keep them from the evil one. Which, boy, that takes us back to Matthew 6 again, doesn't it? Since, Lord, lead us not into temptation, keep us from evil, or keep us from the evil one. So here's Jesus praying that very thing, Father, keep them from the evil one.

Yeah, so they really have a purpose in staying, the same way that Jesus had a purpose in being here, but this is a messy place. This is a toxic, full of sin, messy kind of place. And he had already told them just a little while before, the world hated me, it'll hate me. It'll hate you.

And it hates you because it hasn't known the Father. And this rubs against a lot of Christians' worldview that if I come to Jesus, he's going to make life easy for me. In fact, he will actually rescue me out of the things that are very uncomfortable in life.

That may not be the case, but there really is a much more profound and joyful purpose for you being here, but make no mistake, it's a messy place. And you are pray, P-R-E-Y, of the evil one. So Jesus is saying they're going to stay here, I pray that you would watch over these ones from the evil one. And I'm praying for you not to take them out of the world, but keep them right here in the world. And then he says this fascinating thing in verse 16, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Well, he has said it twice. He said it in verse 14, they're not of the world in the same way, just as I am not of the world. And then he says it again in verse 16, they're not of the world, just as I am not of the world. So how is it they became not of the world? What is the difference between being in the world and being of the world? They were born here, aren't they of the world?

Right. But he says, just like I'm not of the world. And what has changed is his word. His word has pulled them out of this world so that they are no longer of this place anymore. It's radically transformed their inheritance in that sense.

Instead of inheriting the futility of their fathers living in this sinful place, now they inherit something that's divine, that comes from God because of his word. And now suddenly we don't fit here anymore. We're not of this world. Right.

Not a product of this world's values, this world's way of thinking, this world's purpose. And therein lies the friction. That's why they didn't like Jesus and that's why they'll come to not like the apostles. Because clearly they're not one of us anymore. We don't fit here anymore.

And that's going to be our experience too. People are going to recognize we don't fit here. But in that not fitting, the purpose is being fulfilled to glorify who God is. Well, and isn't it Martin Luther King who said, you know, if you find that this world does not satisfy the things that you want, I'm mangling the quote. That what that demonstrates is that you were made for another world. Made for another world.

Made for a different world. Right, right. And that's where the friction comes from. It's not that they're going to fight you about the fact that you love your neighbor because everyone sort of agrees with that. That's not the issue. The issue is we're talking about the righteousness of God, which they don't have. And that's going to cause a lot of friction.

A lot of friction. So they're not of the world just as I'm not of the world. But they're in it. But they're in it.

So 17. So, since they're waist deep in this junk, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

Yeah. So as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself that they may be sanctified in truth. So what is sanctify? Oh, to be set apart for a holy purpose.

Right. So here we are, hip deep in the toxicness of sin. But we're, while we're standing in it, we can be set apart from it. And this is what he's talking about. He's talking about sanctifying. Sanctifying is the process of being separated from the influence of that stuff.

And that's what he's saying. So while they're here, I'm not asking you to take them out of here, but to keep them from the evil one. And while they're here, in the presence of the evil one, and up hip deep in all this junk, I pray that you would continue to separate them from all this mess.

And sanctify them in the truth. Your word is the truth. Right. Truth is truth. Right? When have we ever lived in a time when it was harder to tease apart truth and error? Yeah, what's true?

What's not true? So Jesus is asking the Father, set them apart and make them holy in your word. Right? That they would be so grounded in what you have said and who you are. Yeah. That they won't be pulled apart, pulled in a different direction. Yeah.

Yeah. Coming out of a scientific background myself, there's a firm belief in the scientific community that there really is only one reality. I mean, we can all take guesses at it, but they're all guesses until you do something to really set it. But everyone believes there's only one reality. And in that sense, that's the sense of truth here. There really is only one way the way things are, the way things really are. And who's the best authority to tell you on the way things, how they really are? Well, God himself.

Well, the maker and creator of it all. Exactly. So if you want to have the straight shot about what's going on, listen to what God says about the way things are. There is such a thing as absolute truth. Yeah. And that's what I'm getting at. Right.

There's really only one way things are, and the rest are all opinions, usually very poorly informed opinions. Or something we would rather believe than what's true. Yeah.

You know, if you tell yourself a lie often enough, long enough, loud enough, it begins to frame your reality, which is an alternate imaginary reality to what really is. Yeah. And I might add, many of the alternate realities that we embrace usually end up hurting us.

Yeah. They're destructive. And so that's why he's sending them into the world like God sent Jesus into the world.

Because people are believing crazy stuff and they don't understand the realities of what sin is in terms of being self-destructive. I am sending them out into this junk for the purposes of saving them from the effects of it. And so that's the purpose of why he's doing this. Well, and here comes another one of those just as statements when he says, As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Wow. Well, why did the Father send the Son? To love? To demonstrate the true character of God? Demonstrate the character of God.

To act out in reality God's sacrificing love? Right. Right.

Wow. Right. And not just that we are little minions sent out to preach a message, preach, preach, preach. But to actually walk in the same purpose that Jesus had, which is to communicate the love of God to the world. Yeah. So if you want to communicate the love of God in a real way, well then be sent out there and love the world.

Love the people in it. Okay. And he says, kind of on the tail of that, And for their sake I consecrate myself. Right. I set myself apart as holy for that purpose that they also may be sanctified in truth. Right.

Oh, that's such a big idea. But Jesus is saying, I am doing this holy thing, giving my life as a ransom for the world, so that they also may be set apart as holy. Now they're not going to give their lives to save the world, but they are going to be called to give their lives in service to Christ. Right.

Who saves the world. Right. And as a result, as they go the many places they go to, suddenly people who've born and raised in the places they are will find themselves fitting less and less in the place that they were raised. And they'll find themselves not of the world anymore. Because of the set apartness of what the word does in our lives. It really makes us citizens of another place.

And this natural citizenship we have here tends to fade away, and we realize, you know, this is not really my place anymore. Because sin's rampant in this place. It's interesting that Jesus is going to here begin to talk about unity and oneness, when earlier in his ministry he had said to them, you know, I didn't come to bring peace on earth, I came to bring a sword. Right, yeah. Right, well a sword divides. Yeah.

It makes it very clear that you are either on one side or the other of that cut. And so, you know, we talk a lot about unity these days. But what really is being one with the Father?

Is he and the Father are one? Yeah. Unity is important.

And what he's going to make a case for here is unity with the Father is really the important unity. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. So you want to push on into 20? Yeah.

Oh, okay. So starting verse 20 says, I don't ask for these only. I'm turning the corner now from praying for the 12 who are standing there listening to him.

But also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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've sent me. There you are. Oh, stop. There you are.

Oh, stop. You and me, you and me, right there included in the prayer 2,000 years ago. So suddenly this prayer has moved beyond the 12 who are standing there to all of us who have come after and have believed because of what they said and did and wrote. And he says that they, all of us, may all be one. And he says the way you're in me and I'm in you, that they may be in us, wow.

Wow. Well, we ran across this once before about the Father in Jesus, Jesus and the Father, us in Jesus, Jesus and us, and like, wait, wait, wait, too many ins. This being in is only possible because of the activity of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. The Holy Spirit makes our unity with God work because we have relationship with Him, intimate relationship with Him because He's in us. He dwells in us. He makes home in us. We no longer have to go to Jerusalem where the temple is.

We no longer have to go anywhere. He is in all of us. And in fact, in a real sense, like the temple in the Old Testament was the place where God chose to dwell amongst the people.

To place His name. Now, now He dwells in us in the same way. Well, and if you trace that line through the Scriptures, you see Him moving from a tent in the wilderness to a temple attached to the ground to now Jesus said, you know, something greater than the temple is here. I am the temple. And He came and tabernacled among us.

And now we in Christ are the dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Yeah, that's amazing. Wow.

That's really amazing. That's why this whole prayer is a jaw dropper. We're learning stuff that we just got hints of before and now it's explicit.

And we are only just skating so lightly over the surface here. But His purpose, He says, is so that all of this oneness is so that the world may believe that you sent Me. It's all about who Jesus is. It's all about Jesus.

Right. And that, in fact, is what makes us one. Because remember, the Word became flesh. That was His purpose, to make known who God is. And now our purpose that we have adopted because of that, because of what He's done, is to make known who God is. And in that process, we're doing the same. So we're one because we actually have exactly the same role. And we have the role that He has, empowered by Him Himself in the process of making known who God is and drawing men to Himself. I mean, that's an astonishing thing.

In fact, I've talked about this before. It's not sacrilegious to say that the church as it is right now is actually, in a way, the second incarnation, the first incarnation God in Jesus. And now, like Paul even says, we're the body of Christ. We pick up where Jesus left off in terms of making known to the world who God is.

In the flesh. And glorifying in the flesh who this God is. And as a result of making Him known, we actually are one because we have that same purpose. And we are one in a very real way because we who are in Christ have His Holy Spirit indwelling us. So that is a unifying factor that transcends all of our fleshy, temporal differences, our colors, our languages, our cultures, and even, to some extent, our politics. Yeah, exactly. And that's a super important point to make because many people say, well, you can be one in purpose but not really be one in terms of, well, no, with the Holy Spirit in all of us, we actually are one in nature as well. And one in breath.

We breathe the same air. Exactly. It's astonishing what God has done in terms of living in each one of us. That creates a oneness that's far beyond just purpose. Purpose is part of it. But in terms of actually being the body of Christ with one spirit. And belonging to one another.

Yeah. So he says in verse 22, the glory that you've given me, I've given to them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one. Here it comes again.

So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. How many of those even as statements do you hear? There's a lot of even as.

There's three or four right in a row. Just like this, just like this, just like this, it means the same thing. Yeah. Even as we are one.

Yeah. That they may become perfectly one. That means completely one. Completely one. Holy one.

Nothing being held back in that sense. And for the purpose is that the world may know. The world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. So that's the purpose. I mean, for God so loved the world. And here's the message being made clear through who Jesus is, through his sacrifice on the cross, through what the apostles will eventually do. It's all what?

I'm on my deathbed. What was the purpose of life? To make known the nature and character and the loving kindness of God. Well, and so glory comes back here in verse 22. The glory that you've given me I've given to them.

Well, now wait a minute. Isaiah says God doesn't share his glory. Right. But here it says, now I've given them the same glory that you've given to me. Well, the glory that he has in mind here is that intimate oneness with the Father. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the Isaiah not sharing his glory. He's talking about false gods. Right.

He's talking about idols. But this is the real God who takes up residence in us. Because it's all the same glory. It's all the nature of who God is. Yeah, it's one in that sense. And that shines out through the unity of this life in us that those in Christ manifest.

Yeah. Well, we need to move on to verse 24. We are just skimming the surface here, folks.

Think of a little rock skipping across the top of a pond. We're just skimming the tops. So you want me to read 24? Father, I desire that they also whom you've given me may be with me. Yay.

Where I am. To see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Wow, this raises questions. Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known. Why?

Because the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. Wow, what a way to finish a prayer. I don't even know where to start.

That is like way too much and we've got about four minutes left. Well, let's go back to where he says, Father, I desire that they be with me where I am. Great good news for these guys. Where is that going to be? Right, he had just told them earlier in the evening now, I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am you may also be. So now he's letting them hear him ask the Father, I really want them with me, Father.

And where will that be? Well that will be in the glorious presence of the Father, the righteous Father. Right, and now you'll see a glory of who Jesus is that you never dreamed of. It would be blinding if we were not also sons of light with his light in us.

Exactly. If you go and read Revelation 21 and 22 and that description of becoming residents of the New Jerusalem and the Father and the Son and the Lamb are the light. We don't need the Son of the Moon anymore. His name will be on our foreheads.

We'll see him as he is. It just stops us in our tracks to think about that as the place that he's preparing for us. Right, right. And Jesus is saying, I want them to be with me so they'll see that, so they'll understand that. There is something about the nature of Jesus, the nature of God that's still somewhat cloaked, even in the physical body of Jesus. And he says, I want them to be with me so they'll see that. And that's the glory I had before the foundation of the world again. So here we go in terms of the eternal nature of who Jesus is.

He didn't just start happening after Mary and Joseph had a baby. And he says, the world doesn't know you, but I'm sending these guys just the way you sent me so that the world will know something, right? So that the world will know it's all about Jesus.

Yep, it's all about Jesus. And I like too in 26, I made known to them your name. Again, if you think reputation, I made known everything about who you are and your reputation, what you're known for. And I will continue, I will continue to make that known to them. Well, how is he going to do that? How is he going to do that? Through that indwelling Holy Spirit. Remember he had told them, the Spirit when he comes, he will disclose to you everything about me, right? He'll glorify me and he'll make known to you. And he'll remind you of all the things I've said.

So class is not stopped because Jesus is going back to heaven. So here Jesus says now, I'm going to make it known. And I'm going to continue to make it known. Well, the Spirit will make it known.

I thought he was going away. And the Son will make it known. Oh, there we are again.

Oh, there it is again. We're just smacking our heads against this nature of God that just stops us. He is so other than we are. Yeah, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. Now this is an interesting topic when we talk about the love of God because we talk about before mankind was made and God is love, who did God love? You have to have an object of your love for someone.

Right. Well, he says it right here that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. There is love actually inside God. There is other oriented love.

Yes. And this is not the first time this has been hinted at in this prayer. And he's asking us to come in and participate in that love.

He's inviting us in. So he doesn't need us to have an object of his love. There's already love in God. But love in order to be love must have an object.

Exactly. And so he's saying, Father, you and me have always been loving one another and now we're inviting, not just these 12 guys, but the whole world. We are inviting them into our love. And that is the heart of the great good news.

That God who loves, that God who loves and is fully content in his love has now in his greatness and his mercy invited us to take part in that love. Wow. That's astonishing.

That's astonishing. Well, we've come to the end of our time and again we've just glossed over John 17. But I hope it's wet your appetite to go back and take a look more closely. Because it bears lots of meditation. Even if you just read it, I have made a practice of reading this prayer every so often, every few weeks or sometimes every day.

And I don't think you'll get to the bottom of it. Well, no, but just to dwell on the depths of knowing that the one the Father sent prayed for me in this way. And it stabilizes me and it refreshes my sense of purpose.

Yeah. He knew we were coming. He prayed for us ahead of time.

And he prayed for us that we might have eternal life, which by definition is knowing him. Incredibly, that's the good news. So we're out of time for right now. We'll come back next week in John 18. We'll see the rest of Jesus and things get kind of ugly.

But as they get ugly, keep going back and reading John 17. This is just an astonishingly piece of good news. So I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. I'm so glad you're with us. We'll see you next week in John 18. Bye. Bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. And you're stuck. Well, you said what I was going to say.