Made for Relationship

Jack Radcliffe

Vision 2020: Made For • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

John 17:6–26

Relationships

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Vaule: We seek to build intentionally authentic and compassioniate relatinships to cultivitae a community of belonging.

Notes

Transcript

Handout

[SLIDE 1] Introduction

[SLIDE 2] Vision 2020: Made For RELATIONSHIP

Preparation

Getting ready for my first youth retreat. Anticipating all that God would do.

Me after youth group: The teens are excited about the retreat next month.

Patti: Who’s signed up?

Me: No one yet.

Patti: Why not?

Me: I don’t know. I gave the kids the information to take home a while ago.

Patti: Think maybe you need to let the parents know what’s going on?

Spontaneity or Preparation

Husband and wife over the dinner table: Husband says, “Let’s plan on being totally spontaneous next weekend.”

Recent conversations on hearing and responding to the Spirit. What is evidence of the presence of the spirit?

Some Christians: speaking in tongues.

Others: words of knowledge from God

Others: Expressions of love.

For others, what is important is the experience of the spirit in the moment. Nudges. Show up and see what God does.

I planned X but right now, God is telling me Y.

Going “off script.”

For others, the spirit leads and guides in the preparation as well as in the moment.

Why would God change something in the moment he’s been talking with me about up to now?

How the spirit leads in the moment then is more about responding to God

What is he inviting us into?

What is he calling us to do?

Who should I pray with and how?

Key Question: What is our response? The outflow?

A Prayer that ends a season of preparation

Jesus’ life: walking in and with the spirit every moment of every day in preparation for the moments.

30 for 3 - prepared 30 years for 3 years.

3 for the future - prepared the disciples for the future of the church

Event + Response = Outcome. Preparation is necessary for a response.

With Jesus we see a the spirit’s presence in guiding his preparation and planning to serve him in moments where he has to respond spontaneously.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

[SLIDE 3] Samuel Taylor Coleridge: He who is best prepared can best serve his moment if inspiration.

Thomas Edison: Good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”

[SLIDE 4] Preparation for Changing Times

John 17:6–26 ESV

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming 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. 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. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, 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 have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have 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, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O 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, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 17:6-

Between the time of Judas' plot to betrayal and the crucifixion - 2 of the hardest experiences of Jesus' ministry life.

Relationships in the Christian community sometimes fall apart.

Naive to not be prepared for it.

Happened to Moses, between Paul and Barnabas (regarding John Mark), happened with Jesus and Judas.

Jesus is preparing the disciples for life without him: time of change and loss

Time of change and los

Starting with the end in mind: this prayer is for us

Who is a Disciple?

Those God gave Jesus out of the world.

Once we were like everyone else but chosen by God; belong to him. God entrusted them to Jesus to give them his word.

I am with him to learn from him to be like him so I can do what he commanded me to do.

Received God’s Word

6-8: Jesus revealed: words, actions, person (nature, character).

Meaning of what is said. To grasp the word is to grasp the thought.

Understanding

Jesus gives meaning of truth and also is the meaning of truth.

He doesn’t just teach the truth, he is the truth.

Receiving the word = not of the world.

What does "the world" mean? in John, it stands for those elements of the Jewish leadership who were antagonistic towards him, who sought to arrest him and put him to death.

Obedient to It

They showed they belong to God by having obeyed God's word.

-Obedience led to revelation. NOW they know everything God gave Jesus comes from God.

-Jesus gave them the words and they received them.

-Receiving Christ's words is what distinguished them from others who disputed Jesus' claim to be speaking the words of God.

-Jesus' disciples knew with certainty that he came from God and believed God sent him.

-Not perfect or exemplary faith, but the received and trusted the revelation he brought. Enough to show they belonged to God.

Starting With the End in Mind

20-24 This prayer is for us

[SLIDE 5]Jesus’ Prayer (With Disciples Listening)

Why Jesus Prays: He’s Leaving

Why Jesus Prays: Disciples are Staying

[SLIDE 6 ] Ask 1

Oneness: Belonging to Jesus and the Father

Everything he has belongs to the Father and what belongs to the Father has been given to Jesus

What is this oneness? Like he had with the Father (10:30).

-Oneness of mission (10:27-30)

-Unity among us is for the sake of mission. Unity in mission and for the sake of the mission.

-Unity in mission is rooted in disciples' unity/relationship with the Father and the Son.

Glory

Including the disciples who bring him glory. Only time he says anything about them bringing him glory.

Glory (doxa) -

A. What I think; expectation, philosophical opinion. Not NT use.

B. What others think of me. Good standing or reputation.

C. Spendor, reflection or image

Glory (Doxan) - to tell truth (give glory to God)

Glorify (doxazo)- attribute high rank; how i suppose this to be true; related to worship: the act of patterning our lives after Jesus; gathering in worship.

Glorified (dedoxasmai) - formation of opinions

NT - Honor; a direct response to his promises and work in our lives through worship.

Glory (honor) reflects the relationship between God and Jesus. Jesus was raised by the honor of The Father; He is the Lord of honor.

It is the Spirit who opens our eyes to the honor of Christ.

Protection

-Up to this point, Jesus protected them.

12: During his time with them, Jesus protected them/kept them spiritually safe in the revelation of the Father he represented/embodied. He had their attention and everyone made it except Judas and that was prophesied and yet, Judas had responsibility.

-What protects us: the power of God's name.

-Name: stands for the person.

Because they received God's word, they are not of the world and must remain in it and bear witness to Jesus. With Jesus gone, the enemy will turn attention toward them and they would need the Father's protection.

Their protection as they remain in the world.

-To not be in the world is to be dead. No other option. Why we're to be in the world but not of it.

Key: remain in the world. Protecting ourselves is pulling away from the world. Trusting God's protection is remaining, living in the world.

-Name: stands for the person.

-Asking for the power of God to protect them from the power of the evil one.

-Reason for prayer for protection: unity. Oneness. It would be threatened after Jesus' departure by the evil one.

Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 25). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

Joy

13-14: Jesus prayed this in the presence of his disciples so they will have joy and share in his own joy.

[SLIDE 5] Ask 2

Keep Us Here

Don’t take them out of the world

Don’t separate them from the antagonists

Why not take them out? They were to be his witnesses.

protect them from the evil one while they are still on this earth and living among the antagonists.

-Why not take them out? They were to be his witnesses.

Our Protection x 2

-The activity of the evil one is directed against Jesus. Once he is removed, the activity would be directed against his disciples. "Protect them from the evil one."

Their protection as they remain in the world.

-To not be in the world is to be dead. No other option. Why we're to be in the world but not of it.

Key: remain in the world. Protecting ourselves is pulling away from the world. Trusting God's protection is remaining, living in the world.

-Reason for prayer for protection: unity. Oneness. It would be threatened after Jesus' departure by the evil one.

With him leaving, their protection would have to come from somewhere else. They were entering the witness protection program.

[SLIDE 8] Ask 3

Set Us Apart For God’s Use

Set Apart FOR not FROM

Sent Into the World

18 - What disciples are set apart for: being sent into the world just as God sent Jesus into the world.

18 - sent into the world = given a mission.

Why not take them out? They were to be his witnesses.

Sent/sent out - to send someone to do something; to send a message. Apostle comes from this verb and means one sent out. An apostle is someone called by god and sent out on a mission.

Show the Works of God

Jesus purpose: save the world; restore it; speak the words of God; show the works of God (miracles). In general: carry out the work the Father gave him to do.

Disciples would carry on Jesus' ministry. What the Father sent Jesus into the world to do, Jesus sends us into the world to do.

Witness to the World

Until we are with Jesus and experience the glory that is the love of the Father

Laying down his life sanctifies disciples, cleanses them from sin, distinguished them from others, set them apart as witnesses in the world.

Unity of Being

Necessary for unity of mission /witness

Intimacy precedes ministry.

That we would experience the oneness modelled by his own with the Father.

-Here: a unity of being as well as purpose and action. As he and the Father exist because they are in one another.

-Unity of being is what Jesus prays for us. That the relationship between us and with Jesus and the Father would happen through the Holy Spirit.

-Because the Spirit lives within us, the Father and Son live within us as well and we live in the Father and the Son.

Being leads to doing

Jesus Continues to reveal God to his disciples

Those of us who receive and obey his teaching

so that God's life for Jesus may be in us and Jesus would be in us.

So the world may believe God sent Jesus

These living relationships gives credibility to our message about Jesus. It's persuasive.

-This is what it means to stop being the world and join in the Kingdom.

So the world knows God loves us like he loves Jesus

The glory God gave Jesus found expression in the love between them, the signs Jesus performed and the honor the Father gave Jesus, and in the resurrection of Jesus.

-The glory Jesus gives us is similar. It is the glory of oneness with the Father and the Son through the Spirit.

-It is expressed in love between us and the Father in the signs we are to perform, in the honor the Father gives us and in our share in future glory.

It is the unity of disciples one with another (based on our common oneness with the Father and the son) that functions as a powerful witness to the world.

I want those you gave me to be with me where I am - in unity with you and the spirit where love lives so they can see glory. For us to live in unity in Christ reflects that glory.

[SLIDE 9]Lack of Unity Among Us Undermines Our Witness and Mission

The Godhead is community

Jesus and his disciples modeled community

Our unity in Christ is the kingdom, preaching the gospel, protection as we are sent into the world, and how we defeat the enemy.

Times of transition and uncertainty are opportunities for the enemy to be disruptive. Affirming and committing to unity with Jesus and one another protects us against opposition and fuels our witness.

Chan: Nowadays people are eager to fight. Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce. It is in this environment that the Lord tells us to be eager to maintain unity ().

Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 25). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

-Purpose of the revelation for the Father to his disciples was in order that the love God has for Jesus may be in the disciples and Jesus may be in us.

-He would live in/with those who received his teaching and obeyed it.

-This distinguishes us as a people.

25-26: Reflecting on his relationship with the Father.

-To make known a person's name is to make the person known.

-He will continue to make God's name known to his disciples through the Spirit.

Especially when in times of transition and loss.

The hard work it takes to cultivate a community of belonging; it's ongoing, never arrive.

Ruth Haley Barton: He believed in the possibility of unity among his followers. "Protect them...so that they may be one." NOT protect them so they can do great things but so they may be like we are (Father, Son, Spirit) and reflect our image. Maybe because our oneness in Christ is the kingdom, it is preaching the gospel, it is how we defeat the enemy.

25 - The world does not know unity. It does not know love. Jesus does. Jesus is and his followers know that unity and love sent him on the mission to reveal it to us.

Jesus and his disciples modeled community

25 - The world does not know unity. It does not know love. Jesus does. Jesus is and his followers know that unity and love sent him on the mission to reveal it to us.

Solution to the challenges we face: Preparation

-To make known a person's name is to make the person known.

-He will continue to make God's name known to his disciples through the Spirit.

Solution: Preparation

-He would live in/with those who received his teaching and obeyed it.

-This distinguishes us as a people.

Especially when in times of transition and loss.

Solution: Preparation

1. Reminder to whom we belong

2. Moving forward: Belonging fuels mission; Jesus wants us here and we are his witnesses

3. Know we're protected

Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 25). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

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