Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

Intro: We’re in a couple week break from our sequential exposition of Luke’s Gospel because in that letter we are in the thick of passion week, and we couldn’t get straight to a resurrection text for Easter.

So I took us over to the Gospel of John last Sunday, and we did an overview of the themes of John’s Gospel, especially as they relate to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and to the purpose of John’s recording of these things: Jesus is the logos, the eternal wisdom and truth of God revealed.

Jesus is life for the spiritually dead.

Jesus is light in this spiritual darkness.

Jesus is the bread of life who offers living water by the Spirit of God.

Jesus is the gate of the sheep and the good shepherd, who came to lay down is life for them… that in him they may have life.

And so John offers this purpose statement for what he has recorded in this Gospel account:

In the process of doing that last week, I determined that there was a second opportunity, which is to do an overview of John chs.

13-17 in particular, which is the section in John’s Gospel where he fills in a LOT of details for what Jesus did and taught in the upper room at the last supper on the night that we was betrayed.

In God’s providence, we are in this same place in Luke 22, in the upper room, when Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper and prepares them for what is about to take place.

It is in this exact context that John has additional depth and development of the interaction and discourse from Jesus on this very evening.

In John chs.

13-17, Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending suffering and resurrection, as well as his subsequent departure to glory.

And he prays for them and for all who will be his by faith.

I mentioned to you last week then, where the emphasis was heavily placed on a call to saving faith in Jesus Christ, that this section largely applies to those who are in Christ, obviously with key connectivity to Jesus being the only means of salvation and restoration to God: ““I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)

So this upper room interaction and teaching, John 13-17, is largely for the foundational apostles and for you, if you are among those who “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” and therefore by that trusting submission receive spiritual “life in his name” (Jn 20:31).

But if you are not yet in Christ, know today that this Gospel “promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

(Acts 2:39)

Again, Jesus is preparing them for Life in His Name, but without his physical presence.

As this is a thematic overview this morning, I have for you a series of fundamental questions that this discourse answers.

The first is this:

What does life in Christ look like?

(How do Christians live?)

[ask question again…] The life of Christ in us is most prominently evidenced by…

Sacrificial Love & Servant Leadership

The love of Jesus displayed for his own in the world (13:1), is practically illustrated for his disciples in washing their feet at supper in the upper room.

This was to show what they would later come to understand (13:7), that they needed Jesus to cleanse them (v.

8b), by what he would accomplish in his sacrificial death and resurrection life.

And in both this act of service and love and that coming supreme act of service and love, he was setting the example for them to follow in his steps.

John is clear that this takes place in the context of betrayal by Judas and predicted denial by Peter.

On the very night that Jesus is to be betrayed by Judas, Jesus sets this example for his own, even serving his betrayer in their midst.

Not only this, but the representative disciple who is most vocal that Jesus not stoop to serve him (Jn 13:8) and most vocal that he will even lay down his life for Jesus (Jn 13:37b), will in fact pretend to not even know Jesus out of fear for his life.

I believe John also likely presumes that we know the context from the synoptic parallels, that the disciples argued, on this same evening, over who is the greatest, and Jesus responds, “… let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.

… I am among you as one who serves.”

(Luke 22:26-27)

(same as Mt 20:28) The King of the Universe came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

What expectation does he have then for how you should serve him?

Illustrations from our daily living - The way that you humbly and hospitably open your homes to one another.

… Sacrificial giving to help those in need and to encourage/strengthen one another’s resolve for ministry together, giving also for the advance of the gospel.

… Being kind and gracious and merciful in speech and action to family members and others who are self-absorbed and entitled and who do not reciprocate your loving service.

… Offering your time to listen, and to pray with one another.

… Doing the jobs that don’t garner praise, like cleaning up when most people have left, doing the little things that need to be done.

Now based on the example he sets for them of sacrificial love and servant leadership, Jesus gives them this command:

JUST AS I HAVE LOVED YOU…

Jesus continues to express in this overall context that obedience to his command is the sign of his love in us.

Or said another way, we demonstrate love for Christ by obedience to his command.

Again, what is the overarching command?

The command is sacrificial love—to love at great personal cost.

And Jesus does not ask us to do anything that he himself did not do to an even greater degree, and he does not command us to do something that he will not enable us to do.

(That’s what I want to show you next.)

But how is this self-giving way of life possible?

(What, or who, will enable us to live like Jesus?)

Jesus is telling them that he’s leaving.

How can they possibly continue this radical life of living for the Kingdom without their leader?

Jesus knows they need comfort and courage to carry on, so he comforts them first that he is going to prepare a place for them in the eternal kingdom of God (14:3).

They can be assured that their final destination with God is secure.

But in the meantime on this earth, to carry out his command and his commission, he will send them the Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised to send God the Holy Spirit to be with and to dwell in his people.

What greater comfort could we ask, what greater help?

The Spirit will teach them all things (particularly through the word of God, which is itself a product of none other than God the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:21.)

The indwelling Holy Spirit would also bring to their remembrance all that Jesus had taught them, revealing to them the true meaning in a way that they fully understood what Jesus accomplished for the salvation of sinners (and what exactly he meant for how they should follow in his steps).

The Apostles then recorded much of that in the NT, which we now have and upon which we can meditate.

And the Holy Spirit uses it in our lives for us to not only repent and believe in Jesus, but to give our whole lives to follow his command and commission.

The Holy Spirit will also give them a deep inner peace, knowing that by faith they have eternal peace with God (reconciled to him through Christ, Rm 5:1).

And not a cheap worldly peace that is based on circumstances, but a peace that transcends the trouble we face because our hope in Christ is a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls (Heb 6:19a).

Therefore, we do not need to fear those who come against us because we are in Christ.

Now, being in Christ is a great privilege, but Jesus knows that it is also a high calling that is indeed hard in this life.

And so he adds to this promise of the Spirit’s help a command for them to abide in him in order to live in sacrificial love and servant leadership.

In other words, any kind of ministry and religiosity that does not glorify God through Christ Jesus is worse than useless; it is destined for destruction.

Flanking these verses on either side is a warning that fruitless branches he will take away, and fruitless branches are those that do not abide in Jesus.

They are not his true sheep who hear his voice and know him and follow him (Jn 10:27).

By contrast, those who in Christ will bear fruit.

In order to have assurance and effectiveness, we must abide in Christ.

Abiding in Christ means a relational intimacy that depends on his grace to you and in you.

… You can never have too much time spent knowing God through Christ.

Is it possible to be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good?

Absolutely not!

Knowing more of God is literally the life-blood of following the command and commission of our Lord.

So we must…

Abide in Christ & Submit to the Spirit

[Repeat] Abiding in Christ means a relational intimacy that depends on his grace to you and in you.

Yielding to the Spirit means constantly processing this thought: Holy Spirit, help me to know what the Lord would have me do (feel, think, say)?

The Holy Spirit in you is like having a perfect navigator next to you who has access to the perfect map.

What you must do is ask and listen.

As we continue our progress through this last supper discourse, … one of the reasons we are in such great need to abide in Christ and submit to the Spirit is because God’s people must expect opposition.

You will be opposed and persecuted (“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” v. 20) not because of who you are, but because of who Jesus is, and you belong to him.

But that persecution should only give you greater assurance that you are in Christ and that you are walking in faithful obedience to him.

And again, in the midst of this trial, you will have comfort and assurance and strength in knowing that the Holy Spirit of God is the one who is working.

And this is the commission you keep hearing me reference, that we are to be his witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

Jesus knows that this talk of impending hardship and this talk of his departure is a source of sorrow to them (Jn 16:6), but he comforts them again that his leaving is good for them because it will result in the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them (Jn 16:7) He will be the power to bring conviction upon sinners and expose their need for salvation (Jn 16:8-11) He will guide the believers in truth and allow them to speak with authority from heaven (16:13).

So too we are to keep abiding in his love, knowing that, just as it did for the first disciples, our temporary sorrow will turn to great joy by the working of the Holy Spirit in us as we await Christ’s return (Jn 16:22).

[Transition - repeat questions... and answers found in John 13-17]

Can it be done?

(Is Jesus’ high priestly prayer effective?)

Can it be done?

Yes, it can be done and it will be done.

If it is not enough that Jesus has been repeatedly telling them in this section that they will be able to pray to the Father in his name to have everything that they need supplied (Jn 14:14, Jn 15:16, Jn 16:24).

… which means, when we pray according to his will, we know that he is pleased to do it.