A Change of Focus
The focus of this prayer in John 17 is changing. Jesus has been praying for himself and his relationship with his heavenly Father, now he changes the subject of the prayer and the point of the prayer. Now he begins to pray for his disciples, his followers. It is here he spends the largest part of this prayer, in prayer for his disciples. This is his most impassioned part of his prayer.
For us to understand what and why he prays as he does, we must understand what, in his mind, what is his picture of a follower. Who is He praying for?
We are going to find that in John 17 Jesus is going to pray that he receives glory from his father through the lives of his followers. He is going to pray that the Father protect them, by his very name. Jesus knows that many of his disciples will give their lives because of their faith in him, he knows that they will be very different from the world and the world will reject and mistreat them, because they have made a choice to be known as his, and they will have responded to him when he sends them out to make Him known.
The passage in Luke 10 illustrates the kind of disciples he prays for in John 17.
In Luke, Jesus sends the 72 out into the world, all the places he was planning to go to make his Fathers kingdom known –
in John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
In Luke he told them he was sending them like lambs among wolves; in
John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
In Luke 10: 16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
John 17:14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
When the disciples returned in Luke 10, they were excited because they saw the demons submit to them and Jesus reminds them He saw Satan fall and He has given them authority to overcome all the power of the enemy, but “do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
In John 17:13 he prays that the “full measure” of his joy within his disciples and in v 22 that “they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me…” 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and see my glory…”
These are all great things we will be talking about in the coming weeks, but today we must get our hearts and minds clear on what a disciple looks like that Jesus is praying this great prayer for.
The focus of this prayer shifts here, and perhaps we need a shift here as well.
We living in this world and we think we know how the world works. We put a lot of effort into living and thinking like the world and Jesus comes and blows things up and says “there is more, there is something completely different found in God’s kingdom”. This world is not for you and if you are a follower of me, you are not for this world, I have a new and better place for you, but I want you to bring as many others with you as possible.
God says in Isaiah 55:7-9
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
A follower of Jesus looks very different from another person living in the world and it requires a change in us to be one of His followers. It changes the ways we think about everything, it changes our attitudes, it changes the things we do and want to do, it changes our lives. It is a complete overhaul of our paradigm of life.
Paradigm shift can be hard, costly and painful, that is one reason we need to be with other Christians – a lot – because we live a lot of our lives in the rest of the world and we are constantly influenced – most of the time we don’t even know it.
We end up getting captivated by the world and the worlds perspectives on almost everything and Jesus changes us and frees us to live like He would in this world
In the 1990s there was a precursor to the TV show The Office… it was a cartoon called Dilbert
Paradigm shifts can blow our minds…
I want us to think about just one shift in our thinking this morning but if we can manage this paradigm shift it will help all of us grow greatly as a follower of Christ. And it will help our church grow
I am going to get a little personal – but following Jesus is a personal thing. It has a lot to do about our attitude of our Fear of the Lord
What time does worship on Sunday at The Bridge start?
Most everyone here will tell me – 10:30 Sunday mornings – we have publicized it well. And if you are part of The Bridge and that was what you were to say, you would be wrong.
We are talking about a matter of SABBATH; a day set apart by God, for God, so that we might find rest for our souls and be with him.
Worship on Sunday starts the moment you open your eyes, put your feet on the floor, stand upright and begin moving through your day. Actually to the Jews, Sabbath began at sundown the night before.
I am going to give you some personal info about my life…
- Saturday night, I go for a long walk and pray for you, our service, that God would be honored
- I wake up on Sunday and before I get out of bed I think ‘today is Sunday’ and then I think, ‘God set my mind on you, if I don’t wake up with him already in my thoughts’
- As I shower – as I rub shampoo on my head I think “God cleanse my mind, make it yours”; as I wash each part of my body I pray God use my hands for you today, use my feet, take me where you want me today, cleanse my heart and make it yours.
- As I eat breakfast and have my quiet time, I pray Father feed my soul as I feed my body.
- I leave my house every Sunday at 7:30 to go downtown to print things off for you and to pray and read through what I am going to say, I pray for you as you are getting around, that the Lord will encourage your hearts towards him today
By 9am Jim, Luke, MaryGrace, Eddie, Robin and a handful of others are arriving to begin setting things up here to prepare a space for God’s people to worship – this is part of worship as they serve the Lord to prepare for His people to gather and worship before him, by 9:30 the worship team is praying and beginning to play their beautiful music, I arrive and I am worshiping as I encourage the Lords servants who are serving the people of God.
As people arrive, and visit, drink coffee, sit and pray == worship is continuing as people minister to one another
Usually by 10:30 there are a handful of people here as we begin our service of worship before the Lord.
Our service is normally complete by 12 and we encourage and bless and enjoy one another and in a few minutes we begin to pick things up and pack them away, still an act of worship, by 1 I am usually walking out with Eddie and a few others to make our way to lunch and the rest of our day.
But the entire day belongs to the Lord.
That sounds good, but that is not the way most of us think – really.
The world has told us that the weekend (including Sunday) belongs to you, live for the weekend when you can do whatever you want to do.
We can get concerned about how much time we spend “at church” and when we say it that way we are really referring to an activity and not a people or family, or even God.
We want the day to belong to me, so I can “REST” and do whatever I want, read, ride my bike, take a walk, spend time with my honey, - and NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE WRONG, but our attitude can be.
We all want – and need – rest; Jesus knows that , and knows how to give it to us.
Matt 11:28-29 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
In John 4 Jesus was tired, hungry and thirsty and he meets a woman at the well and asks her for a drink.
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Then he deals with the matter of her sin…
John 4:16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
Then he speaks to her of what it is to worship
John 4:23-24
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
In this story, His disciples learned a valuable lesson…
John 4:31-36 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
In Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”
Jesus said in Luke 10:27 that this is what it looks like to be one of his disciples…
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
He wants us to love him with ALL of who we are, all we have, all of everything – so we might truly, actually, powerfully find life and live it in his power.
I have been told by some erroneous Christians
“We spend all morning at the church, then you want us to go to a meeting in the afternoon” when we occasionally have a meeting
It reveals they have bought into the world still – the day belongs to them to do with what they want and the work of Christ is taking too much of their time.
When I married Diana, on my wedding day, in my vows to her I told her that all that I had was hers.
When I became a follower of Jesus – I knew that all that I had, and all that I ever hoped to be was his, my life was his to do with as he pleased. Those were not a fine sounding sound bite but the cry of my heart because I knew He was good and life was found in him.
Have you been living like this day is yours? Like your life is yours to live as you like? That is not a Christian’s life. The Bridge organization is not going to consume your life, but Jesus must.
Luke 9:23-26 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
If you have been keeping yourself, for yourself – you are not following Christ and when we continue looking at the prayer of Jesus in John 17, it will not make sense to you. You may be more educated about the prayer of Jesus, but it will not impact you and you will not know how to draw on the promises and strength of it.
This morning, if you feel guilty, you must understand, guilt is God’s method of bringing conviction to our hearts to remove sin from our lives.
Sin is removed from our lives by confessing that sin, verbally, in words to God and then the most important step that our culture has lost sight of – repentance – turning our lives away from sinful actions and walking away into a new way of living, the way of Christ where live and love is found.
We are going to take communion this morning as followers of Jesus, who gave his life and called us to take up our own crosses as well and give our lives for him that the life of Jesus would be seen in us. We need the power of Christ in us to make a difference in this place and it comes as we respond to him.