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Text of the page (random words):
ed to destruction but now that jesus will no longer be with them he asks the father to protect them by the power of your name the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one and we will talk more about that statement in just a minute what comes next could be just a little perplexing just having asked the father to protect the disciples from a world that hates them jesus now says that i say these things while i am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them yeah i m always joyful when everyone hates me but there is a good reason for this joy about which jesus speaks jesus asks the father that the disciples be sanctified by the truth which is god s word and that just as the father had sent the son into the world so now the son sends the disciples into the world pastor john ashton explains as jesus encourages the disciples sanctification he expresses his intention to send them into the world just as he himself had been sent the implications are momentous the role of the christian community is plainly the same as that of jesus himself so why would our joy come from sanctification what is sanctification anyway ray stedman explains sanctification means to separate or set apart to a specific purpose or to put to an intended use as we are sent into the world just as the father had sent the son into the world we are being set apart for the purpose of revealing to the world that which jesus through the holy spirit has revealed to us scott grant expands on this idea when he says we are set apart in christ to know god so that jesus might send us into the world just as the father sent him into the world jesus carried his relationship with the father into the world which he loved likewise we carry our relationship with the father into the world which we love we are set apart first of all to know god and second of all to be sent into the world and if we are going to be sent into the world we had better be set apart to know god which brings me back to the part of our lesson where jesus said so that they may be one as we are one in this prayer that jesus is praying he is speaking exclusively to the disciples but if we continue just a few more verses in john 17 jesus expands his prayer to include all believers in every time and place saying my prayer is not for the disciples alone i pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one father just as you are in me and i am in you may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me i have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one i in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me before i continue i would like to read a very short passage from isaiah 42 8 i am the lord that is my name i will not yield my glory to another and so here we have god speaking to isaiah telling him that god will not yield his glory to another yet in john 17 we have jesus telling us the he has given us the glory that god has given him what is going on here what happened that god initially unwilling to share his glory is now willing to give that glory to those who are in christ well i think that what is going on here is unity what is going on here is the just as about which we spoke last week what is going on here is that we have been called to be exact representations of jesus that we have been entrusted with the truth of the gospel and are now being sent into the world by jesus to be the bearers of the good news that we worship a god whose love for us is so great that he laid down his life for us that we may follow him into his resurrection a god who loves us so much that we may be with him in a place where he will dwell with us and we will be his people a place where he will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death and mourning and crying and pain will all be no more because the old order of things will have passed away could this message get any better is there anything that we can seek in this world that can equal the future that awaits us in christ our lesson today ended with verse 19 but i feel that the lesson is incomplete if we don t continue on through the last few verses of the chapter john17 24 26 father i want those you have given me to be with me where i am and to see my glory the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world righteous father though the world does not know you i know you and they know that you have sent me i have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that i myself may be in them just as the father sent the son so have we all been sent into the world in order that we may show the world an exact representation of god s love a love that is to be reflected in our own lives and words and actions are we up to the task posted in uncategorized leave a comment this is my command love each other sermon 5 5 24 may 5 2024 there is a word in greek καθώς kathos it s a simple word that is often translated into english with the phrase just as we find this word in today s reading three times again john 15 9 12 jesus says i love you just as the father loves me remain in my love if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as i have obeyed my father s commands and remain in his love i have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete my commandment is this love one another just as i love you in all john uses the word καθώς 31 times in his gospel and as it turns out this little word is an important part of john s theology so let s take a look at this for just a moment the english phrase just as is an appropriate translation but doesn t tell the whole story you see καθώς implies an exact representation a mirror image if you will in john s continual use of this word he is trying to paint a picture of how the father s love for the son is exactly the same as the son s love for his disciples and how the disciples love for one another should be exactly the same as christ s love for them reading this passage without an understanding of the depth of meaning of the word καθώς just doesn t do the passage justice that just as is calling us to an extraordinary task the task of each of us working to become a mirror image of jesus dr james boyce says to abide in the son s love is to know oneself as abiding in that same love which originates in the relationship of father and son in other words we are called to love jesus and to love one another with exactly the same love that the father has for the son and that the son has for the father when we look at today s gospel lesson we learn that we are to abide in jesus s love in the greek the word abide is μείνῃ meinee which means to remain in unbroken fellowship with or to be under the constant influence of and we are called to abide in jesus s love in exactly the same way that jesus abides in the father s love we learn that we are to obey jesus s commands in exactly the same way that jesus obeys the father s commands and we learn that we are to love one another in exactly the same way that jesus loves us last week when we were talking about the vine and the branches and asking ourselves what it means to bear fruit and how do we go about bearing that fruit we came to the conclusion that our bearing of fruit happens as a result of love this week we take a step deeper into that idea and find that just as jesus s love for the father manifests itself in obedience to his father s commands so it is that our love for jesus must manifest itself in our obedience to his commands dr james boyce again comments these commands which jesus calls upon his disciples to keep are simply an extension of the commands of the father which jesus has already kept jesus asks nothing of his disciple community that he has not already modeled in the abiding love which he has with the father in this way abiding loving and keeping commandments are all bound up together in a mutual relationship this idea is echoed in our epistle lesson this morning where john wrote this is how we know that we love god s children it is by loving god and obeying his commands for our love for god means that we obey his commands the love of jesus for the father is our guide jesus demonstrates his love for the father by obeying his father s commands so it is that our love for jesus should lead us to obey his commands and jesus s overarching command is to love and we learn to follow this command to love by using the love of the son to the father and of the father to the son as our guide but there is one little problem god in his trinity is eternal and infinite we are not and so sometimes we struggle sometimes people can be just a little bit too cantankerous for us to love easily or situations can be just a little bit too challenging for us to overcome or grief can be just a little bit too overwhelming for us to bear of course god already knows all of this and that s why he has promised to supply grace equal to every need but for those of us who are stuck in the here and now even god s grace may sometimes seem to us like it just isn t enough there is a person who is quite famous this person died a few years back and a book was recently published containing letters that this person wrote to a number of spiritual mentors these letters are bluntly honest and reveal a person who struggled mightily with their faith even to the point of occasionally questioning god s existence this person at the beginning of their ministry wrote to one of their mentors about a prayer that they had prayed and a response that they believed that god had given them the prayer was jesus my own jesus i am only thine i am so stupid i do not know what to say but do with me whatever you wish as you wish as long as you wish but why can t i be a perfect disciple why can t i be like everybody else and the answer from god as this person relayed it was i want disciples who would be my fire of love amongst the poor the sick the dying and the little children you are i know the most incapable person weak and sinful but just because you are that i want to use you for my glory wilt thou refuse this person did not refuse and embarked on a remarkable journey of service to the lord but in spite of their faithful service one of their letters that they wrote describe some deep doubt and uncertainty they wrote lord my god who am i that you should forsake me the child of your love and now become as the most hated one the one you have thrown away as unwanted unloved i call i cling i want and there is no one to answer no one on whom i can cling no no one alone where is my faith even deep down right in there is nothing but emptiness darkness my god how painful is this unknown pain i have no faith i dare not utter the words thoughts that crowd in my heart make me suffer untold agony this person was beset with feelings of inadequacy feelings of being lost and without support feelings of having lost their faith they suffered through these feelings and repeated these feeling often throughout the letters published in the book and yet this person had a very long and very fruitful ministry this person was mother teresa saint teresa through all of her doubts through all of her feelings of inadequacy she steadfastly continued to devote her life to her mission of caring for the poor and the needy what began for her as a one person mission to the poorest people in one of the poorest parts of india a mission that one catholic official referred to as teresa s folly that folly became the missionaries of charity a worldwide organization with well over five thousand members serving in 139 countries their mission in mother teresa s own words is to care for the hungry the naked the homeless the crippled the blind the lepers all those people who feel unwanted unloved uncared for throughout society people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone this is what bearing fruit in an imperfect world looks like bearing fruit isn t perfect people doing perfect work under perfect circumstances bearing fruit is people persevering through trials and doubt and difficulties because they know that what they are doing matters and matters eternally bearing fruit isn t even always about what we have done in fact our bearing fruit sometimes happens in spite of what we have done it is god who provides the opportunities it is god who provides the wherewithal to accomplish his purposes and it is god who provides the increase but none of this happens if we don t have a willing heart whatever it is that god has called us to do he will equip us to serve him as we have been called but first we need to allow ourselves to be used by god mother teresa stayed true to the prayer that she prayed when she asked god to do with me whatever you wish as you wish as long as you wish mother teresa persevered through some dark times in her life through doubts in faith and through difficulties that sometimes seemed insurmountable and she did this not on her own but by relying solely on god to equip her to serve in the speech that she made when she accepted the nobel peace prize she said it is not enough for us to say i love god but i do not love my neighbor she then said since in dying on the cross god had made himself the hungry one the naked one the homeless one jesus hunger she said is what you and i must find and alleviate because the award was given in late october mother teresa referenced the upcoming christmas season and said that radiating joy is real because christ is everywhere christ in our hearts christ in the poor we meet christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive so how are we to love just as the father loves the son the answer is to be found in the idea that at its best love isn t a feeling at its best love is an act of the will a conscious decision to place the needs and the wants of others ahead of our own the answer is to recognize love as a verb and not a noun the answer is to persevere to continue the act of loving others even when we don t feel like doing it one of the last things that jesus did before he was arrested was to ask the father if his cup of suffering and dying could be taken away but jesus s love was rendered in perfect obedience to his father s will regardless of his own personal feelings we as his disciples are called to no less than perfect obedience also even when we don t feel like it dr charles stanley a brilliant theologian and preacher explains since jesus death on the cross was the supreme example of his love for us we too must be willing to lay down our life for others although some christians have literally died for fellow believers our sacrifices are generally a matter of giving ourselves in service for others spending precious time to help ...