It Is Finished – Raised For Holy Living (Part 1) | Easter Series | John 17: 13-19

Welcome to Preaching from Bryanson Bible Church, located in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.

It is our prayer that this teaching would bless you, deepen your love for God's word, and encourage you as you follow Jesus.

And if you're not a Christian, we pray that this message would encourage you as you explore the Christian faith.

Good morning to you.

And so good to be with you.

Wow, the worship was just phenomenal to gather together and to sing great praises to our God.

What a wonderful thing we get to do each and every Sunday.

And so this morning, I'm just uh as we are kicking off this uh new Easter series uh together, it just got me thinking about uh a few years ago uh as I journeyed uh with the man at this church who was uh in his final stretch of uh of his life.

And so during the season, I got to know him quite uh quite a bit and really got to love him throughout uh that season.

And then in about like the last 48 hours or so of his life, I went to see him in hospital as he was dying.

And in one of those brief, lucid moments, you can see he wanted to say something to me.

And so I leaned over the bed carefully, trying to listen to every faint word.

Now, what he said to me, the words that he said to me, I've never repeated to anybody, and I won't tell you this morning either.

But um uh but they were words that really I've treasured and really held deeply uh into my heart.

And that moment in particular, what it did for me, it really impressed for me this reality.

Uh right, when people know that their time is short, um, the words that they say carry great weight and great meaning, right?

And so the few moments in life, when you think about it, have got the ability to cause us to lean in, then the lost words of someone that we love.

And so we listen to those words very carefully, we hold them, cherish them very closely, because when death is near, we know that then people want to express what matters most to them, right?

And so, and so we want to really then listen up, really hear what it is that they are saying.

Now, if that's the case when it comes to lost words, then how much more when those lost words come to us in a form of a prayer?

Because prayer reveals often what matters most, right?

In fact, some have said that if you listen to someone pray uh or people's prayers, they've got an ability to actually show you or reveal to you or tell you what actually is lying nearest to their hearts as they pray, uh as they pray.

Because prayer has the ability to reveal what's close to the soul, what is lying deeply, and what is really weighing heavily on somebody or on their life.

Now, it's uh part uh that reality is what makes the John chapter 17 so profound.

John 17 · chapter mention

So profound.

Now, John 17 is not just another chapter in the Gospel of John.

It is Jesus entitled Jesus High Priestly Prayer, as he prays for his disciples and he prays for the church that is to come.

And John 17 is one of those uh deep and rich chapters in all of Christian doctrine.

It teaches us so much, so much about the glory of Christ, about the love that is existing in with the uh in and within the Godhead.

It teaches us a lot about uh eternal life, about mission, about holiness, about the identity of God's people.

And so, and so John 17 is this theological ocean.

In fact, if you were to try to preach John 17 in one God, try to capture everything in that you will drown in the richness of that particular chapter.

But here's the thing about John 17 that what makes it so significant, so weighty, is not just simply what it contains, but it is when it comes.

When it comes.

And so in John uh 17, what we have, we have Jesus' final uh extended words just before the cross, as he's praying to the Father, and so it's not just uh just extended words, he's sort of final extended words, but it is also prayer, and so John 17 uh has got that double weight, and so perhaps in John 17, what is revealed to us maybe more clearly than any other parts of the scriptures or the gospels, is Jesus's heart for his people, what he wants most for the Father to do for his people.

That's what we have in John 17.

In fact, as he prays to the Father, yes, what he says in verse 13 but now I am coming to you, Father, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them.

And so Jesus knew that he was about to die, and yet he praised these words out loud for his disciples, and then in turn us that we may know his heart and the fullness of his joy that he wants us to receive.

Now, when you take a step back of John 17 and look at uh look at it from a bird's eye view, Jesus essentially prays for five things, asks the Father for five great things.

Now, every single one of them matters, matters so much, every single one of them is rich, and every single one of them can be a sermon on its own.

And so for this sermon, uh this morning, we are going to focus in particular on one of the petitions that Jesus makes in John 17 that we perhaps uh uh don't most naturally associate with Easter.

And what petition is that?

Verse 17 sanctify them, sanctify them.

Because you see, for most of us when we think about Easter, we tend to think about forgiveness, right?

Of sins.

We tend to think about how the cross has dealt with our guilt, our shame, and our sin.

We think about the resurrection and how it secures our future hope, and yet Jesus, on the eve before he died, did not just pray for the forgiveness of our sins, but he asked, cried out to the Father to sanctify his people, to sanctify his people, and so that's why we have entitled the Easter series this year, as It Is Finished, raised for Holy Living.

Because Easter is not just about rescue from the penalty of sin, but it is also about release into a sanctified life, holy living.

And so that's what we want to press in on and look at.

And as we'll journey over the next three weeks, what we are going to see, we are going to see this holy, this call to a holy holy living is something that the father wills, and the son wins, and the spirit works in us, and so the father wills it for us, the son wins it for us, and then the spirit works it in us as we lead our lives in this world.

And so, as I've said, John 17 is so rich, so deep.

And so, what we're going to do this morning, we're just going to focus in on the portion of the prayer where Jesus speaks directly about his disciples being saved, sanctified, and then sent.

And as we come to that portion of the prayer, what we are going to uh realize uh see as the big idea is essentially this that the Father's will is not only that we will be saved, but that we will be sanctified, set apart by his word for holy living.

And to break down that big idea, we'll look at it in three parts.

And it is a first, we are saved from the world, yet still in it.

And then second, we are sanctified within the world, yet not of it.

And then third, we are sent into the world, yet distinct from it.

And so let's look at the first uh first part.

We are saved from the world, yet still in it.

And so Jesus prays from verse 14 onwards, saying this, 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.

And so Jesus is praying for his disciples.

You are living in a hostile world, and yet they no longer belong to that particular world.

And so that's the tension that these disciples are experiencing.

And in that tension, look at what Jesus prays for.

He doesn't pray that Father remove them from the tension.

Instead, what does he pray?

Father, keep them.

Keep them.

And so Jesus is not asking for escape from the world, but he's asking for preservation in the world.

And there, friends, we begin to see one of the great realities of the Christian life, and it is this that salvation changes who you belong to, even while you remain where you are, it changes who you belong to, even while you still remain where you are.

And so the Father doesn't save us so as to immediately remove us from the world, but he looks to preserve his people in the world, and so that was the case with Jesus' disciples, right?

They were still, after Jesus, uh the uh um his death, resurrection, they were still walking in the same roads, right?

Living in the same cities, waking up under the same sun each day, having to deal and be confronted by the same pressures, the same temptations, the same struggles.

And so while they were physically present in the world, their spiritual reality had changed, they were now claimed by another kingdom.

Why?

Because as Jesus tells us in verse 14, they had received the father's word from him, they received the father's word from him, and so now they belong to the father, and so their identity, their loyalties, and their sense of uh central gravity had radically changed.

They belonged to God.

Hence, when you understand that, you start to realize the tension that is going to be the Christian life as people you're saved from the world and yet still in it.

Because if you truly belong to Jesus Christ and you're seeking to follow him, then the world will start to feel less and less like home.

Its values will not easily fit anymore with your conscience, its loves will no longer resonate with your soul, its assumptions will no longer keep in step with your way of life.

Now, here's the thing.

Many Christians then, as they experience that tension, we start to think that something has gone wrong and get discouraged by it.

Oh, why is obedience to God so hard and difficult?

Why is faithfulness to the Lord makes it seem like I am somewhat like uh out of step with the spirit of the age?

I really truly want to follow Jesus, but if it seems like I will be some sort of social outcast if I truly commit my life to Jesus.

And so in the midst of that tension, then we start to think like, oh, something has gone wrong maybe with my faith or with my way of life.

But yes, the reality, brother and sister in Christ, that if we truly want to follow Jesus Christ and it feels like we are out of step with the spirit of the age, that's not a sign that something has gone wrong.

Just because walking, you know, trying to pursue the Lord doesn't feel like it's that it's coming naturally or easily as you're looking to live your life in the realities of this world.

Doesn't mean that you're not a failure, it's a sign of failure.

No, it may just mean that it is a sign that grace has now made you different.

No longer the same person, no longer can live the way the way that everyone else lives in this house.

So you're different, radically different than the people of this world, and yet your father doesn't remove you from the realities of the world, but he intends to preserve you in it, and so that makes the Christian life, friends, a life of holy tension.

Holy tension you're gonna experience it all the time now.

Once you understand that there's going to be holy tension, as we look to live our lives in this world, what it does is it opens up your eyes to two particular dangers that will always confront or assail the Christian.

On the one hand, will be the danger of worldliness, where we look like the rest of the world.

We think like the world, the things that the world loves and craves are the things that we go after.

And so we're happy to pay lip service to Jesus, and yet how we live functionally looks like we belong to this world through the way in which we lead our lives and through the ways in which we think.

Worldliness is the one danger, and then on the other side, there'll be the danger of withdrawal from the world, and so because we're experiencing holy tension, we think that the best way to escape that holy tension will be to withdraw from the world, to hide from the world.

What world?

To retreat from the world, and yet Jesus does not permit us to do either, he does not permit assimilation with the world, where his people just become like the rest of the world, nor does he command that we retreat, withdraw ourselves from the world.

And so, what does he pray?

He prays in John 17 to his father, saying, Father, my people, my disciples, will be different.

In fact, look at verse 16, he says, he says, They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, we will be different, and yet he prays, Father, preserve them, preserve them in that difference.

And so, as you begin to understand that that's the calling of the Christian to live in this holy tension that we'll be experiencing, where God the Father doesn't spare us the realities of the world but looks to preserve us in and amongst the world, then you start to appreciate and see why sanctification is such a necessity.

Because if we're starting to lead our lives present in the world, a world that is not committed to the ways of God, a world that is seeking its own way, away from God, and we're called to live in this world, the father that placed us in this world, that has got its own desires, its own will, its own things that it wants to pursue and be all about, and we're called to live in amongst that pressure, that tension, then we will need the father's sanctifying grace to preserve us.

And so you and I, as we lead our lives in the world, we need more than just a past story of conversion.

Oh, when God brought me to faith, friends, we need present-day sanctifying grace.

If we are going to lead our lives in the world, we need the Father to make us holy in this world that He has left us in, to preserve us and make us a people that resemble Him more and more.

And once you begin to understand that reality, then the next question asks itself, right?

If we are to lead our lives, we're saved from the world and yet still in it, and we're called to lead lives to the glory of God within this world, then how do we remain faithful?

Knowing all of this precious, all of this corruption will be against us.

How do we remain faithful?

And so that brings us to the heart of this particular portion of Jesus' prayer that we are sanctified within the world, yet not of it.

Yet not of it.

Look at verse 17.

Jesus prays, sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

That's such a crucial, crucial petition, this point of Jesus' prayer.

And it is so important that we do not misread it.

Because when you read verse 17 quickly, you may be tempted to think that Jesus is praying, that the truth will somehow in an abstract way sanctify us.

No, that's not what he's praying, that's not what he's praying.

And so Jesus is praying to the Father, and he's saying to the Father, sanctify them in the truth.

And so the Father is the acting subject in his prestation, and so it's the Father who is doing the sanctifying.

The truth is his means of sanctifying us.

We gotta see that.

Gotta get that.

Because if we don't see that or don't notice that, what it ends up doing is it ends up or lead us into making the mistake that sanctification is nothing but a method, a formula, a spiritual technique whereby if I expose myself to some truthful information, then transformation will automatically happen.

Jesus is teaching something far richer and deeper than that.

Friends, sanctification is not this impersonal process, it is not mechanical, it is not self-produced.

Sanctification, as he prays, is the working of the grace of God over his people's lives.

That God is the one who's doing the sanctifying.

And so, to sanctify, what does it mean?

It means that we are set apart to God, that we are consecrated, devoted, that we are people that are increasingly reflecting the character and the will of God, that we are becoming increasingly, more and more in our hearts, minds, habits, loves, lives, people that are characterized by God.

Characterized by God.

And that process, Jesus says, it is the Father that does it.

That he is sanctifying, that he would sanctify in the truth.

And your word is truth.

Your word is truth.

Friends, that's such good news.

Such good news.

Why?

Because it means, friends, as we're living our Christian lives, looking to become more and more like God in holiness, in sanctification, his word doesn't leave us uh uh thoughtless as to what it will look like to be sanctified, right?

And so his word is what directs, what defines, what produces sanctification in us, and so he's given us his word, and note also that it is his word, not my my word or my truth, or your word and your truth, or whatever is good to you.

No, Jesus prays and says, Your word, Father, your word is truth, not a truth among many other truths, not even a preferred truth, not some kind of uh useful truth, truth, period.

Truth, period.

And so then what are we saying?

What are we being told?

We're being told, friends, that it is the word of God that helps us distinguish what is real from what is false.

It is the word of God that helps us name and define what sin is, the word of God that helps redirect our lives, our lives.

It is the word of God that renews our minds.

And ultimately, in John's gospel, it is the word of God that leads us to Christ and be able to see the fullness of who God is in Jesus Christ.

It is God's word and He has given it to us.

So that we will be sanctified.

And so then what are we saying?

We're saying that sanctification, friends, is not a matter of sheer willpower.

That some are, you know, if I grip my teeth hard enough, if I try hard enough, I will become sanctified.

That's not what we're saying.

What we're seeing is that sanctification, friends, it is according to yield yourself to the Father's work over your life through his word.

Through his word.

That ultimately you'll not be trying to achieve a level of moral perfection or whatever you describe it as by your own strength.

No, but that you will bring your life honestly and directly under the presence and word of God to be sanctified.

And so then this morning I just want to ask you plainly are you placing yourself there?

Are you placing yourself under the presence and power of the word of God to be sanctified?

Your speech under it, your habits under it, your loves under it, your private compromises under it, your whole life under the word of God to truly be sanctified.

And so we're seeing that it is the Father's will to sanctify us under the power of his word, under the power of his word, and so what we bring ourselves, bring ourselves before the Father, under his word, to experience his sanctifying grace over our lives.

And then that leads us to have to ask the question if the father is committed as his will to be to sanctify us, then we've got to ask ourselves the question: what is that sanctification for?

This life that the father will be looking to birth within us.

What's its purpose?

And so then it leads us to see the goal of our sanctification, that we are sent into the world, yet distinct from it.

And so look at what Jesus says, verse praise, continues praying, verse 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

I sent them into the world.

And so Jesus is moving from sanctification to scent, from being set apart to being on mission.

And so, what is he showing us?

He's showing us this friends that sanctification, friends, is not an end on its own.

It's not an end on its own.

But our sanctification serves the purpose that we would then be sent into the world to be witness to the world of the sanctifying grace of God of our lives.

Then now makes us distinct as we live and lead our lives in the world.

And so the Father is not sanctifying his people so that they will become self-absorbed.

Or so that they would look at their unholiness and take pride in it and be like, wow, look at me, right?

Sanctified.

So that we would then in turn withdraw from the world out of fear of being corrupted by the world.

Or that we would look down on the world out of a sense of self-righteousness.

That's not why he's sanctifying us.

He's sanctifying us so that we will go into the world, into the world, lead lives that are so distinct to the world, that the world will want to know what is this power that makes you so distinct.

And so then we've got to understand sanctification and holy living far more broadly and biblically than we tend to.

Because for many of us, we may think that oh, holiness is just simply about okay, great having greater integrity, repenting of the things that I need to steer away from some bed sinful stuff.

And right if so, you should do some other things, but holiness is for broader than just that, for broader than just that.

But who I belong I am now becoming, and how that becoming is paying itself out into the world.

Christ lack fruitfulness and faithful witness, internal transformation and external distinctiveness from the world.

That's what holiness is far more comprehensive than what we reduce it to.

It therefore includes great practical acts of love, costly obedience, that your loyalty to Jesus is visible, that you belong to Him, and that you're faithful, a faithful witness of the kingdom of God and of Christ in the places where God has blessed you and has allowed you to lead your life.

And so that means at home, at work, at school, in your friendships, in your marriage, in suffering, in success, everywhere.

To lead a life that displays the distinctive nature of the grace of God that has not seized you, that is not conforming you into the likeness of his son.

Now that kind of living, distinct living that we're sent into the world to lead.

Make no mistake, it's not grounded on you or your ability to lead this life, but it is grounded on Christ Himself.

Look at how he goes on to pray in verse 19.

As so, verse 18, as you send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And then verse 19, and for their sake, for those whom I'm sending into the world, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

What a beautiful thing.

What a beautiful thing.

In other words, what's it telling us?

It's telling us that Jesus Christ remained faithful to the will of the Father, even to the cross, so that we would be sanctified as we go into the world.

That's what it's telling us.

And that gospel news, friends, gospel news is what makes sanctification or protects sanctification from becoming nothing but moralism.

Why?

Because before you are called to be holy, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself to make you holy.

Before you are sent into the world, he consecrates himself for you.

And so before you are even able to pursue holiness, Jesus Christ secured your holiness at the cross.

At the cross.

And so because of what Christ Jesus has accomplished as He consecrates Himself on the eve, on the Eve of His crucifixion.

I consecrate myself.

I am committed to endure and to pursue all to the end.

The cup that the Father is placing there, I consecrate us, that's what it means.

Because he has consecrated himself to redeem us, then you bet that the Father will sanctify those whom Jesus Christ has redeemed.

Amen.

And in his prayer to the Father, Jesus Christ is revealing.

And of all the things that Jesus Christ could have prayed, note what he never prayed.

As we're leading our lives, living our lives in a world that he knows is broken, corrupt, full of temptation and sin.

Note what he doesn't pray.

He doesn't pray.

Father, make them comfortable.

He didn't pray.

Father, allow them to blend in.

Take them out from the world.

Instead, he prays, Father, sanctify them in there.

Sanctify them in there.

And so our Lord's prayer on the eve of his crucifixion is that the Father would not remove you from the arena of holiness, which is this world, but that he will place you and preserve you right in the middle of it.

That's his prayer.

That's his prayer.

And so then, friends, that's telling us that Easter is far more, far more than just forgiveness unto heaven one day.

But it is also about holiness in Christ.

Yea and I.

And if it is the Father's will that you will not only be saved, but that you will be sanctified, accepted, set apart by his word for holy living, then here's the final question I want to leave with you this morning.

Think on, accept, meditate, and wrestle with before the Lord.

And it is this where in your life is the Father calling you to yield, accept to his sanctifying work over you.

Accept where in your life right now right now calling you to yield to surrender to his sanctifying grace.

Over you.

And as you think and reflect upon that question, what I want to do as we close is I just want to read these final words, the whole entirety of this text over us.

And just for a moment, just place yourself into that garden and gethsemane and think that Jesus praying this for you.

And then I'll pray for us.

Christ prays, but now I am coming to you, Father, 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.

Let's pray, Father.

We thank you.

I'm just so blown away to just even think that Jesus Christ, on the eve of the one of the most brutal ways of which someone could have lost his life, he had the presence of mind to think about his disciples and the church that would come.

And that means he had the presence of mind to think about us in this room, in this nowhere place when you think about the globe that is called Branston, and that he will pray, pray, sanctify those people, Father, by your great grace through the power of your word.

Such grace, to such love, to such willingness that indeed you will send your Christ uh Christ into the world out of your great love, so that those who will believe in him might not perish but have eternal life.

This eternal life, the depth of which means that we will know you, the only true God that Christ Jesus you have sent, that we will, and out of the knowing love lives that reflect you, what can we say to the grace that you're extending to us this morning?

And if a Lord, you would consider this a fit offering this morning, then we come to you and say, have this life, have this life that you sent Christ to die for.

So take our lives, take our lives for your purposes and your great grace.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

And so, friends, I want to invite you to stand and we're going to sing a hymn that expresses that heart posture that if our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ would die for us so as to see our lives be sanctified, that we will have this hand posture before him, saying, Take my life and let it be.

Everything that you promise to make it be.

And so let's sing together as one church.

Thanks for listening to this sermon from BBC.

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God bless you.