Session 6
Art Azurdia
“The Influence of The Church”
John 17:17-18
In Luke and Acts, the direction of movement changes.
In Luke, the direction of movement is toward Jerusalem.
In Acts, the movement is out from Jerusalem.
The movement will reach to the ends of the earth.
John 17-15 – Jesus prays for himself.
6-19 – Jesus prays for his disciples minus Judas
20-26 – Jesus prays for the church to come.
Jesus prays for his disciples:
Unity – that they may be one
Protection – protect them from the evil one.
An authentic Christianity assumes a meaningful worldliness.
Verse 18
As you sent me, I am sending them.
Jesus said that the Father sanctified him and sent him into the world.
Sanctification is for mission.
Jesus is doing with his disciples what his Father did with him.
Jesus is sending them with authority.
If we intend our people to take these commands seriously, we must see that they must be in the world.
There are a pair of vulnerabilities to watch out for:
Cultural gluttony
Cultural anorexia
Do not gorge on the world.
This is often cloaked in the guise of wanting to win the world.
We become just like the world.
The world’s values, objectives, and attitudes become ours.
Those who seek to become like the world end up like the world, but they are not liked by the world because the world recognizes their hypocrisy.
We are called to be the salt of the earth, not its sugar.
Cultural anorexia is a radical withdrawal from the world.
This is isolating and then insulating.
The church becomes a ghetto.
It is pure, but irrelevant.
When is the last time you shared a meal with an unbeliever in your home?
Parents should be preparing their children to enter the world, not hide from the world.
The people of the world are not the enemy but the victims of the enemy.
We need meaningful engagement with the world for the sake of the gospel.
A meaningful worldliness presupposes a consistent sanctification.
Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
Sanctify is a holiness word.
Sanctified is to be set apart for God, set apart for a sacred duty.
How is this sanctification accomplished?
Sanctification comes with the word of God.
Jesus does not say God’s word is true (using an adjective), but truth (a noun).
He said the Bible was true, we could ask, “What is the standard of measure by which you test the truthfulness of the Scripture?
But if the Bible is truth, we must understand that all other claims of truth are measured against the Scriptures, not the other way round.
Earlier, Jesus said he is the truth (14:6).
The Bible is Christocentric.
WE must recognize that.
The Bible is not a book of virtues.
Don’t preach it that way.
It is not a textbook of systematic theology.
Don’t preach it that way.
It is a book that tells one overarching story centered on one person.
We as a church tend toward a profound biblical illiteracy.
And we wonder why we are not sanctified.
And we wonder why we cannot engage the world.
There is also an implicit means of sanctification.
The Bible is the explicit one in verse 17.
Jesus is talking to the Father.
While sanctification is brought about by the instrumentality of the word, it is still a work that only the Father can produce.
Pastors, if praying is not in your job description, you should see to it that it gets in there, because this is your work.
Samuel told the people,
Far be it from me to sin by not praying for you.
Dozens of times in Psalm 119, David asks God to do in him what only God can do.
The sanctifying work of the Father is accomplished by the work of the Son.
A consistent sanctification requires the self-consecration of the Son.
On the basis of Jesus’ act of self-consecration, he will purchase the grace that he asks the Father to give his followers.
For them I sanctify myself.
Jesus is talking about the disciples.
This is called Jesus’ high priestly prayer.
The high priest would pray for the people and make atonement for the people.
Those for whom he prayed are those for whom he made atonement.
Jesus said he was not praying for the world.
He was praying for his own.
He also made atonement for his own.
For them I sanctify myself.
Sanctification for mission is the achievement of the crucifixion.
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