A House of Prayer
John 17:13-19
Introduction
If you’ve been here at all the last month you know that we have been in a series on prayer. The catapult for our series is the statement that Jesus made in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer. A couple of weeks ago I ended one of the sermons with a question. I asked us as you if we were going to become a House of Prayer.
I have not promoted any ideas for prayer or formed any prayer groups. This is intentional. The only way we are going to go forward and become a House of Prayer is if you want it. And the only way to know if you want it is if we start hearing you want it. People have come up and mentioned ideas for prayer groups and wanting to pray more and that is great. Now I’ve got lots of ideas, but, long-term, effectual, powerful and persevering Church prayer does not come from my heart. It comes from the hearts of everyone in the church. The momentum, the ideas, the energy, the wanting of prayer has to come from you - the Church.
Do you want to pray?
I have been encouraged this past week to be a part of a new prayer group that has formed. Those in this group are mission-minded. Each one is driven by the Holy Spirit to pray for the mission of this Church. This church will fail apart from the prayers of people like these. I’m eager to see what else comes from you.
Let’s look at John 17. This week we’re going to see 3 more things that make up a House of Prayer.
A House of Prayer Has Joy (v13)
First, A House of Prayer has Joy. Look at verse 13 with me, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” Do you realize that God wants you to have joy? Do you want joy? Jesus has said these things so that His disciples may have full and complete joy – it is a joy that is not lacking or inferior. The words of Jesus are our source of joy. The Word of God brings joy. Does the Word of God bring joy to you?
Notice that the very thing that gives joy is also the very thing that makes them hated. The unbelieving world around them is going to hate them because they have received the words of Jesus. We live in the world and the world is hostile to the name of Christ and anyone who bears that name. But the fact is the hostility of the world cannot rob us of our joy. What Christ is talking about here is that the disciples can and will experience the fullness of His joy even while experiencing the fullness of the world’s hatred.
Here is an application: Our need is not to have joy from the world we are in, but, to have the joy of Christ in us. Our need is to have a joy transplant, where the joy that He has within Himself is put inside of us. What Christ gives us is not affected by the world. He told them in chapter 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace [internal]. In this world you will have trouble [external]. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The peace and the joy that Christ offers are untouched by the pressure and persecution of the world we live in.
Experiencing this Joy in its fullness can only come through prayer. Jesus said in chapter 15, “I have told you these things [v7, ask and it will be given to you] so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” Then in chapter 16:24, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” The fullness of joy is the result of faithfulness in prayer.
There is so much joylessness in the Church because there is so much prayerlessness. There are just too many times when Jesus relates joy to prayer for us to deny that there’s any relationship between the two. Prayer causes joy. Prayer brings fullness of joy. If you do not have joy as a Christian it is in large part because of a major neglect of prayer with other Christians. Praying at meals, praying while driving the car, praying for bailouts only when there is an emergency, is not going to bring joy. Devoted, earnest prayer with other believers and the receiving of what is asked for brings complete, full joy.
I press upon us the great need that we become a House of Prayer, and thus become a House of Joy.
A House of Prayer is Sanctified (v14-17, 19)
A House of Prayer is Sanctified. Jesus says in verse 17, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” In both the Greek and Hebrew sanctified means separation. It means to be set apart for God’s possession and use. It means to be separated from the former secular and sinful things you were once a part of and now positioned before God for His sacred and holy purposes.
There are 3 Aspects to Sanctified: 1) Positional, 2) Conditional, and 3) Ultimate. Positional refers to your new standing before God. This is a finished, complete and perfect work of God where you are now set apart in Christ. Conditional refers not to your position but to your actual spiritual condition. The actual quality of your spiritual life being lived out is in view here. What is your condition in your position?
This distinction must be made. Your sanctified position does not change; your condition does. Your sanctified position is the basis and incentive for your sanctified condition. A bad condition does not affect your position.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul opens his letter by saying, “To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy.” Notice both the position and the condition of sanctification: “to those sanctified” is referring to their position of sanctification, whereas, “called to be holy” is a very close Greek word referring to their spiritual condition. Paul is going to speak later about their sanctification in 6:11. Right after listing all kinds of sins that they were not to practice anymore, he says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus Christ Himself said to Paul that he had to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and in Acts 26:18 Jesus says, “so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place [position] among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Notice Jesus says “all those who ARE sanctified” which means they are already sanctified never to be unsanctified. He is referring to their position, which is why He says, “so that they may receive..a PLACE” with all the others who have been sanctified. This is accomplished only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Back in John 17:17, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” There are 2 quick points I want us to see here.
First, the Word of God is the only means for us to be sanctified. The Word of God is truth. To grow more and more in the holy life that we have been called to cannot come when we are divorced from the Word of God. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness”. Ephesians 5:25-26 says, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church an gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” It is the Word that transforms your lifestyle from worldly to holy. This is what Paul said in Acts 20:32, “Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
What is your experience with the Word? Is Sunday morning when I say “open your Bible to John’s Gospel” the only time you ever open it? Do you even have it with you? Are you even here on Sunday morning?
A sanctified and holy life does not come from such gross neglect of the Word. How can a man love the Word who never opens it? The Psalmist says, “The Law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” He says again “How precious to me are your thoughts , O God!” His thoughts as revealed in His Word.
Second, we are left in the world to be a contrast to the world. Jesus says in both verses 14 and 16 that we are in the world, but, not of the world. Galatians 6:14 says, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The world does not contribute to our sanctification. The world robs us of it. We don’t belong to the world anymore and we don’t live for it anymore. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Lets not grow lazy and be satisfied with being kinda like Christ. Lets not grow indifferent to any likeness to the world still in us. Let’s not be satisfied until we are truly not of the world even as Jesus is not of it. If our Lord is untouched by the stain of this world how can we be content letting any of it stain us? Now that we’re part of Him? Now that we’ve tasted holiness?
Jesus says in verse 16, “They are not of the world even as I am not of it” and the phrase that jumps off the page in that verse is “even as”. It’s a comparison. Jesus is pointing out the similarity between Himself and His disciples. They are similar to Him in every way, and, just like He is not similar to the world in any way at all they are not to be.
Christ is the basis for our sanctification. Because He is sanctified, we are sanctified. Verse 19 He says, “For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” Christ is not speaking of Himself as needing to grow less and less like the sinful world, He means that He has been totally set apart for the Father’s will. That will was that Jesus Christ would live perfectly righteous and then die on the cross for all the unrighteous. And because He sanctified Himself, He set Himself apart for that purpose, we can be sanctified by faith in Him.
The more similar to the world you are the less similar to Christ you are. Listen to this poem,
“Let him to whom we now belong
His Sovereign right assert;
And take up every thankful song,
And every loving heart
He justly claims us for His own,
Who bought us with a price,
The Christian lives to Christ alone,
To Christ alone he dies”
Thirdly,
A House of Prayer is Mission-Minded (v18)
Thirdly, A House of Prayer is Mission-Minded. Look at verse 18, “As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” While Christ was in this world He was pre-occupied with one thing: the mission the Father had for Him while He was here. His mission was finished. Hebrews 1:3 says, “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
A question: are we as pre-occupied with our mission as Christ was with His mission?
Conclusion
Earlier I mentioned there are 3 aspects to sanctification. I talked about the first two, but, not the 3rd. The first aspect is your position, the second is your actual condition, and the third is ultimate sanctification. This is when our sanctification will be perfect and complete. This is what Paul says in Romans 8 when he says, “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…we ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” He says in Philippians 3:21 that we wait for Christ to come back from heaven and “by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control, he will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body”
Why the redemption of our bodies? He says in Romans 7, “What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death?” And in chapter 6 he said that these bodies we have now are bodies of sin that must be done away with. Sin wages war in the members of our body and the ultimate separation is that from this disgraceful body and a joining to a new, resurrected, glorified body.
This will not happen for you if you do not know first the positional sanctification in Christ. In other words, if you have not put your faith in Christ and received the forgiveness of your sins you do not have a place among those who are sanctified. You have not been separated from the world and set apart for God in Christ and therefore you are still in your sins and bound for the judgment of God.
Turn to Christ in faith. Believe in Him. Join those who are sanctified.
John 17:13-19
Introduction
If you’ve been here at all the last month you know that we have been in a series on prayer. The catapult for our series is the statement that Jesus made in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer. A couple of weeks ago I ended one of the sermons with a question. I asked us as you if we were going to become a House of Prayer.
I have not promoted any ideas for prayer or formed any prayer groups. This is intentional. The only way we are going to go forward and become a House of Prayer is if you want it. And the only way to know if you want it is if we start hearing you want it. People have come up and mentioned ideas for prayer groups and wanting to pray more and that is great. Now I’ve got lots of ideas, but, long-term, effectual, powerful and persevering Church prayer does not come from my heart. It comes from the hearts of everyone in the church. The momentum, the ideas, the energy, the wanting of prayer has to come from you - the Church.
Do you want to pray?
I have been encouraged this past week to be a part of a new prayer group that has formed. Those in this group are mission-minded. Each one is driven by the Holy Spirit to pray for the mission of this Church. This church will fail apart from the prayers of people like these. I’m eager to see what else comes from you.
Let’s look at John 17. This week we’re going to see 3 more things that make up a House of Prayer.
A House of Prayer Has Joy (v13)
First, A House of Prayer has Joy. Look at verse 13 with me, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” Do you realize that God wants you to have joy? Do you want joy? Jesus has said these things so that His disciples may have full and complete joy – it is a joy that is not lacking or inferior. The words of Jesus are our source of joy. The Word of God brings joy. Does the Word of God bring joy to you?
Notice that the very thing that gives joy is also the very thing that makes them hated. The unbelieving world around them is going to hate them because they have received the words of Jesus. We live in the world and the world is hostile to the name of Christ and anyone who bears that name. But the fact is the hostility of the world cannot rob us of our joy. What Christ is talking about here is that the disciples can and will experience the fullness of His joy even while experiencing the fullness of the world’s hatred.
Here is an application: Our need is not to have joy from the world we are in, but, to have the joy of Christ in us. Our need is to have a joy transplant, where the joy that He has within Himself is put inside of us. What Christ gives us is not affected by the world. He told them in chapter 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace [internal]. In this world you will have trouble [external]. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The peace and the joy that Christ offers are untouched by the pressure and persecution of the world we live in.
Experiencing this Joy in its fullness can only come through prayer. Jesus said in chapter 15, “I have told you these things [v7, ask and it will be given to you] so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” Then in chapter 16:24, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” The fullness of joy is the result of faithfulness in prayer.
There is so much joylessness in the Church because there is so much prayerlessness. There are just too many times when Jesus relates joy to prayer for us to deny that there’s any relationship between the two. Prayer causes joy. Prayer brings fullness of joy. If you do not have joy as a Christian it is in large part because of a major neglect of prayer with other Christians. Praying at meals, praying while driving the car, praying for bailouts only when there is an emergency, is not going to bring joy. Devoted, earnest prayer with other believers and the receiving of what is asked for brings complete, full joy.
I press upon us the great need that we become a House of Prayer, and thus become a House of Joy.
A House of Prayer is Sanctified (v14-17, 19)
A House of Prayer is Sanctified. Jesus says in verse 17, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” In both the Greek and Hebrew sanctified means separation. It means to be set apart for God’s possession and use. It means to be separated from the former secular and sinful things you were once a part of and now positioned before God for His sacred and holy purposes.
There are 3 Aspects to Sanctified: 1) Positional, 2) Conditional, and 3) Ultimate. Positional refers to your new standing before God. This is a finished, complete and perfect work of God where you are now set apart in Christ. Conditional refers not to your position but to your actual spiritual condition. The actual quality of your spiritual life being lived out is in view here. What is your condition in your position?
This distinction must be made. Your sanctified position does not change; your condition does. Your sanctified position is the basis and incentive for your sanctified condition. A bad condition does not affect your position.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul opens his letter by saying, “To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy.” Notice both the position and the condition of sanctification: “to those sanctified” is referring to their position of sanctification, whereas, “called to be holy” is a very close Greek word referring to their spiritual condition. Paul is going to speak later about their sanctification in 6:11. Right after listing all kinds of sins that they were not to practice anymore, he says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus Christ Himself said to Paul that he had to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and in Acts 26:18 Jesus says, “so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place [position] among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Notice Jesus says “all those who ARE sanctified” which means they are already sanctified never to be unsanctified. He is referring to their position, which is why He says, “so that they may receive..a PLACE” with all the others who have been sanctified. This is accomplished only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Back in John 17:17, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” There are 2 quick points I want us to see here.
First, the Word of God is the only means for us to be sanctified. The Word of God is truth. To grow more and more in the holy life that we have been called to cannot come when we are divorced from the Word of God. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness”. Ephesians 5:25-26 says, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church an gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” It is the Word that transforms your lifestyle from worldly to holy. This is what Paul said in Acts 20:32, “Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
What is your experience with the Word? Is Sunday morning when I say “open your Bible to John’s Gospel” the only time you ever open it? Do you even have it with you? Are you even here on Sunday morning?
A sanctified and holy life does not come from such gross neglect of the Word. How can a man love the Word who never opens it? The Psalmist says, “The Law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” He says again “How precious to me are your thoughts , O God!” His thoughts as revealed in His Word.
Second, we are left in the world to be a contrast to the world. Jesus says in both verses 14 and 16 that we are in the world, but, not of the world. Galatians 6:14 says, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The world does not contribute to our sanctification. The world robs us of it. We don’t belong to the world anymore and we don’t live for it anymore. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Lets not grow lazy and be satisfied with being kinda like Christ. Lets not grow indifferent to any likeness to the world still in us. Let’s not be satisfied until we are truly not of the world even as Jesus is not of it. If our Lord is untouched by the stain of this world how can we be content letting any of it stain us? Now that we’re part of Him? Now that we’ve tasted holiness?
Jesus says in verse 16, “They are not of the world even as I am not of it” and the phrase that jumps off the page in that verse is “even as”. It’s a comparison. Jesus is pointing out the similarity between Himself and His disciples. They are similar to Him in every way, and, just like He is not similar to the world in any way at all they are not to be.
Christ is the basis for our sanctification. Because He is sanctified, we are sanctified. Verse 19 He says, “For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” Christ is not speaking of Himself as needing to grow less and less like the sinful world, He means that He has been totally set apart for the Father’s will. That will was that Jesus Christ would live perfectly righteous and then die on the cross for all the unrighteous. And because He sanctified Himself, He set Himself apart for that purpose, we can be sanctified by faith in Him.
The more similar to the world you are the less similar to Christ you are. Listen to this poem,
“Let him to whom we now belong
His Sovereign right assert;
And take up every thankful song,
And every loving heart
He justly claims us for His own,
Who bought us with a price,
The Christian lives to Christ alone,
To Christ alone he dies”
Thirdly,
A House of Prayer is Mission-Minded (v18)
Thirdly, A House of Prayer is Mission-Minded. Look at verse 18, “As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” While Christ was in this world He was pre-occupied with one thing: the mission the Father had for Him while He was here. His mission was finished. Hebrews 1:3 says, “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
A question: are we as pre-occupied with our mission as Christ was with His mission?
Conclusion
Earlier I mentioned there are 3 aspects to sanctification. I talked about the first two, but, not the 3rd. The first aspect is your position, the second is your actual condition, and the third is ultimate sanctification. This is when our sanctification will be perfect and complete. This is what Paul says in Romans 8 when he says, “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…we ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” He says in Philippians 3:21 that we wait for Christ to come back from heaven and “by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control, he will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body”
Why the redemption of our bodies? He says in Romans 7, “What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death?” And in chapter 6 he said that these bodies we have now are bodies of sin that must be done away with. Sin wages war in the members of our body and the ultimate separation is that from this disgraceful body and a joining to a new, resurrected, glorified body.
This will not happen for you if you do not know first the positional sanctification in Christ. In other words, if you have not put your faith in Christ and received the forgiveness of your sins you do not have a place among those who are sanctified. You have not been separated from the world and set apart for God in Christ and therefore you are still in your sins and bound for the judgment of God.
Turn to Christ in faith. Believe in Him. Join those who are sanctified.
Comments
Post a Comment