Sermon Tone Analysis

Agents of His Glory

[John 14:7-15] Pt.4

I want you to consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18…

 

/“I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”/

Jesus declared that He would redeem His people, and that throughout human history He would be carrying out His plan without hindrance and without fail!

How else does one account for the amazing history of God’s people?

I’m not talking about millennia of false religious systems from ancient to contemporary.

I’m referring to the incredible survivability of the true worshippers of the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob?

Worshippers of the God who reveals Himself to sinners---The God who came to live with men, died in their place, rose for their eternal life, and sustains them today?

Those people…saints through the ages whose voices, testimonies, and power nothing in the universe has been able to quench.

Civilizations come and go…

Governments and kingdoms rise and fall…

Knowledge ebbs and flows…

Cultures appear and disappear…

Social and moral norms shift and pitch…

 

But God’s truly “called out ones” are never totally silenced, let alone stamped out!

On the contrary, throughout human history they have believed in a sovereign and majestic God, who befriends sinners for His own glory and pleasure.

Depending upon when a believer existed, they have either trusted in the promise of a Redeemer~/Messiah or have believed in the resurrected Savior.

No matter how many thousands of years pass, God’s chosen ones have followed…

 

/…One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”/

(Eph.

4:5-6)

 

From time to time someone asks “how many believers there will be in eternity?”

I don’t know…and the statistics are misleading.

Barna says…

 

Christian world growth is phenomenal: in AD 100 there was one Christian to every 360, now it is almost 1 Christian to every 5 non-Christians.

But Barna’s definition of a Christian allows for so many groups to carry the label who no nothing of the true Christ of scripture (Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, et.

al.).

So it’s very difficult to get an accurate picture of the global growth of Christianity.

The scriptural testimony is interesting:

 

Passages suggesting a somewhat smaller number…

Þ   /Isaiah 10:21//  “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God”/

Þ   /Isaiah 10:22   “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.”

(also quoted in Romans 9:27)/

Þ   /Romans 11:5//   “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.”/

Þ  /Matthew 7:14//  // "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”/

Passages that suggest a larger number…

Þ   /Acts 1:8  “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."/

Þ   /Revelation 7:9//  “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.”/

What’s the point?

That God’s glorious work of redemption includes an innumerable amount of sinners, saved by grace.

Beloved, this could not be accomplished in the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry…nor during the early missionary endeavors of Paul, Barnabas, Titus, et.al.

In fact, it couldn’t be accomplished in 2000 years of church history, and isn’t finished yet!

We are left here with the mantle…we have been given the privilege…

…Put simply, we build upon and accomplish the “Greater Works” Jesus first gave to His disciples.

This is a very serious stewardship!

But it is the most exciting calling given to God’s people!

We’ve been looking the encouragement Jesus gave to His fearful and anguished friends as He told them He was going away.

Outline…

 

I.

Christ, The Revealer of God’s Glory (vv7-14)

A.     What the disciples should know (v7)

B.     What the disciples foolishly crave (vv8-11)

1.

More than the words of Jesus

2.    More than the credentials of Jesus

 

II.

Disciples, The Magnifiers of God’s Glory (vv12-15)

A.     A staggering promise (vv12-14)

 

/John 14:12// "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”/

“Greater works”?

How?

Well, we’ve been looking ahead at Jesus’ description of the Spirit’s supernatural work through the disciples…In chaps.

14,15,16 we are told just what the Spirit comes to do after Jesus goes to the Father.

We will look extensively at the person, ministry, and power of the Holy Spirit as we make our way through these chapters, but for now we are surveying a few general principles in order to understand the essence of these Greater works!

If we are to bring glory to the Father, through the Son, by the ministry of the Spirit, we must learn how to magnify God’s glory as the Spirit empowers us.

At first glance, there are Eight Ways to do this…I like to call them “Eight Degrees of Magnification”.

1.

The presence of God empowering from within (14:17-20)

a.

Over sin and the effects of the fall

b.

Through trial and hostility

2.     Bearing much fruit in God’s plan (15:7-8)

3.     The Father & the Son’s love and full joy (15:9)

 

The next degree of magnification is…

 

4.

Powerfully bear witness

 

/John 15:26,27//  "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,// and you will bear witness of also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”/

/ /

When the disciples were sent out as the first witnesses to the truth of Jesus Christ, they had a very limited ministry scope:

Twelve men; A handful of supportive women; A small network of friends willing to go public with providing for these chosen leaders; limited supplies; No proliferation of O.T. scriptures; Imminent incarceration and~/or death; Slow means of travel (on foot!); Had to split up not long after Pentecost for the sake of teaching house-groups);

a.     Global scope

But Jesus spoke of /“the remotest part of the earth”/

 

Martin Luther –

“For Christ took but a little corner for Himself to preach and to work miracles, and but a little time; whereas the apostles and their followers have spread themselves through the whole world.”

If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know it is a very small strip of land.

The disciples would need great vision and empowerment!

They needed the very presence of Christ to…

Give them utterance –

Cement their conviction –

Anchor their doctrine –

Focus their vision –

Steady their resolve –

Silence their fears –

Purify their hearts –

Overcome their weakness and limitations –

They would be given the Spirit to accomplish precisely what Jesus supplied when He was with them.

Most of all…/Vision!/

 

b.

Cross-cultural

 

/Rev.

7:9//  “…from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues…”/

 

Jesus came to seek and save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And though His ultimate purpose was a people from all nations, He first offered forgiveness to the Jews…and the first N.T. believers were all Jews (Acts 2).