sermonette: God's Work For Us

Christ's Example For Our Work
Bill Cherry
Given 15-Mar-03; Sermon #601s; 15 minutes

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Please turn to John 17 and verse 4. You know John 17 is a prayer that Christ gave right after the Passover. And he stood before his knelt before his father or prayed before his father, and he made this statement. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now Isn't that all in that what we all want to be able to do, to stand before God and say, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work that you gave me to do. Well, Jesus could say this, one reason is because he had a goal. He had a clear sense of purpose in his mind, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and he knew exactly what the work that God was that he had. And we will come Close to saying the same thing. I have finished the work that you gave me to do if we in our own minds have a clear cut objective of what God wants us to do. So today the purpose of this sermon is to use Christ's example to identify, to help us identify the work that God has given us as individuals. Uh, we know that this is the prayer that God that Jesus gave to his Father. The whole chapter is concerning Christ and the apostles and his concern about the apostles. In verse 6, I would consider a one verse summary of his. Objective as he conceptualized in his mind and he also had several other verses which I'll point out that show his objective, but he said, I have manifested thy name unto the men which I gave his me out of this world. They then they were, and I gave them me. And they have kept your word. So his work was to manifest God's name. To these few men, as if God handpicked, he said, OK, Jesus, I want you to take this one and this one and this one, and he had his 12 apostles that God had given him specifically to work with and teach, manifest his name, and to teach them to live according to the word of God. So let us read on. Um It says verse 8 also shows a consciousness of purpose. He said, for I have given them the words which I gave me to do, which thou gavest me, and they have received them and have surely known that I came from you, and they believe that thou hast in me. So they see that Christ's message directly from God, and they connected and he said, I have given him the word I have given them the words that you gave me. Alright, verse verses 15 through 17 tells about their relation to the world, and this is a prayer that Christ gave. He knew he was leaving and he knew he was going to die and he give his life and ascend to heaven, and these apostles would stay in the world. So he prayed a prayer about them. And he says in verse, we look at verse 15, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world. But that thou should keep them from evil, from the evil. 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. The word is truth. So he understood. And he wanted them to understand that they were separate from the world. They had a different course of knowledge, a different course of thinking, and different course of action and a way of life, and he said, I do not want them to be out of the world. I want them to be kept from evil that is in the world. So he expressed a purpose, verse 9, the same thing. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them, which I has given me, for they are thine. So he says they are specifically the ones that I'm praying for and, and you're not concerned about the world right now, or I'm not concerned about the world right now, and of course he did love the world, he had compassion for the world, but he was, he knew that his job was focused on the apostles that he was training. And he says, I pray not for them, I mean, I pray for them, I'm not praying for the world, right? Verse 14. And he said, I have given them thy word. And the world hates them, hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So there is a contrast. If you try to live God's way, people In many cases, will, will hate you or get upset with you because you do not go along with the way they think and the course of action and the course of behavior. So you can consider it, it doesn't take you much to understand the system and the mindset of the world. All you have to do is go click on a television set and wait. And you will see all kinds of things. You will see fashions that are designed, people dressed in fashions that are designed to incite the lust of the eyes and desire and that do not cover up. Parts of the body that should be covered up and, and the, the fashions of this is one thing that you see on television, you also see people that know how to use their tongue for gossip and slander and to put down people and be clever and to tell lies, to get out of things and to, to, to use their tongue in such a way to uh. To their advantage and you see people that are enticing you to seek pleasure through commercials or through examples, you seek pleasure without pain or responsibility or suffering any kind of consequence, and you see people that do violence to other people, inflicting pain on to those people that you dislike. But God, I mean Christ said, They are not of this world. Keep them from evil, please God, keep them from evil. And then verse 20 and 21 in his prayer, projecting on to us. He said, neither I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. So the apostles were going to teach people and their word was going to be recorded and their word even on down to us, we had the advantage of God's word and we had the advantage of being able to hear it and to be able to understand it and to know that we can have a part of God's, of understanding God's truth, and we can be sanctified by God's word. And, and we are in the same sense as the apostles were handpicked by God to give us the special understanding that we have. Now, um, Let's look at verses 12, and 3. Now this is the beginning of it, and it tells the scene, it says, these words fake Jesus. And lifted up his eyes unto heaven and said, Father, The hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your son may glorify thee, right? Another statement of purpose. I came into this world and I want to glorify you. So he had a a clear cut purpose, one of his purposes. He wanted to glorify God and he asked God to give him the, the glory that he needed to be able to glorify God. And then as you have given him power over all flesh. That he should give eternal life to as many that thou hast given them. Another statement of purpose to give eternal life to the people that he, that God had given them. Now this next verse is a definition of eternal life. And this is eternal life that they might know thee. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So this is what eternal life is, that we understand God and we know God the Father and we are in Him, and I do not think I read this in verse 21, but I'm going to read it. He was praying for us, he said I pray for them that they all may be one as we are. Thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou has sent me. So he's saying, We have eternal life if we learn to live as God the Father lives and as Christ lives. Now December 2002 forerunner lead article Elements of motivation, eternal life, and this verse was in it. And helped us understand that eternal life is not just merely immortality. Eternal life is not just living forever, eternal life is living according to the way that God lives it and the way that he understands it, and it is defined in God's word. He said sanctify them through his truth. The word is truth, so he wants us to be sanctified. We live by God's word, it is our instruction book for life, and when we live according to God's word, then We are sanctified by God's truth. Now If we do this, one of these verses we read said the world hates them. Now the world doesn't hate you all the time because they like for you to be honest, they like to you for you to be considerate to them. But something might happen like this. They might say Jim, he is a good guy, he's OK. He said he, he would be a good guy if he was not so blame, honest and hardworking. I tried to get him to lie to the boss so I could steal something from him, but, but he wouldn't do it. And he then he worked so hard, he makes us look bad, and he's always saying yes sir to the boss and trying to be a loyal. So if we try to obey what's in God's word. Some people might resent us because of the way we act and because we act, try to act according to God's word, or they might say something about A little child, 9 year old Amy. And, and maybe the little girls or boys would say, she's such a little goody goody. She's always saying yes ma'am and no ma'am, to her, her parents and she says, my parents want me to do this, and she lets her parents tell her what to do, and she, she will not even watch some of the TV shows that we love to watch. And you could think of all kinds of situations where Living God's way would cause the world to kind of resent you because maybe you think you're too good to associate with us or will not go out with us on Saturdays or Friday night parties or something because we are trying to obey God. Anyway, The purpose is if we understand Jesus example in his prayer according, or about his disciples and about us. We each, every one of us, whether we are children, whether we are married, whether we are single. We have people that God has given us the influence. We have people that are in the church, we have people that are out of the church, and one of these verses said that the world may believe that you have sent me, and if we live by God's word, there is going to be a very distinct difference. But what we do is to use God's word to define what our role is, to define our conduct and define what our work is. If we do this, and if we live God's way to the best of our ability, we will be able to stand before God and say, I have glorified you on this earth, and I've finished the work that you gave me to do.