[0:00] Good morning. It's good to see you. Good morning. And I trust that your hearts have been encouraged.
[0:12] I don't think that we really fully realize the impact of the gospel in the world. And we see the needs like those children, millions of them who live what we would call below the poverty line and so forth.
[0:33] And the reason why we aren't living in those conditions is because of the impact of the gospel on this country in the early days. And the fact that many of the principles that were laid down when Canada became a country and the impact of the gospel that it had on even on the things that began the governing of this country.
[1:00] And today, of course, there's a shift away from that. But we still enjoy the benefits of the gospel from those very early days and so forth.
[1:11] So we thank God for that. This morning is the last of the messages on the church and the preparation for the church.
[1:24] And we haven't gone into details of what the church would become. But rather the principles laid down in scripture for us in regard to the church.
[1:39] And the Lord Jesus, in his last discourse, his last lesson, his last sermon, I'm not sure what you want to label it, found in John chapter 14, 15, and 16.
[1:53] And I just want to remind you of some of the promises that he has made. Promises that are applicable to us today. Promises that are still to be fulfilled.
[2:06] But all of them promises to help us to focus on what the scriptures have to say concerning the church and its propagation.
[2:19] And as you will remember in John chapter 14, verse 1, he begins with this. And this is the, Jesus had already been preparing his disciples for his crucifixion.
[2:36] And the extreme difficult time that they would be going through. We know that they all forsook him. They all ran away. And that was after this message that he had given them.
[2:52] But he began, let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In other words, their faith in Jesus Christ would be severely tested.
[3:03] During this time when he was arrested, when he was tortured, when he was tried, and the miscarriage of justice and so on that took place in order for the crucifixion to take place.
[3:21] All of the promises that Jesus makes in chapter 14, 15, and 16 are aimed at trying to keep their feet on the ground while things were extremely difficult.
[3:37] For example, he made the statement, listen, I'm not going to leave you as orphans. When you are an orphan, you are a child that has no security.
[3:58] When you are an orphan, you are a child that has no parental guidance. When you are an orphan, you are a child that has absolutely no security of any kind.
[4:12] And the Lord Jesus says, I will not leave you as orphans, but rather I will give you everything that you need in order to be able to do the work that I have called you to.
[4:27] You'll be fully equipped. And the equipping, of course, takes place in the form of the Spirit of God indwelling every believer.
[4:38] That was something brand new to the apostles that still was not a reality. They had not yet experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
[4:50] And that was brand new. That whole concept was brand new to the people of that day. Because previous in all of God's dealings with the children of Israel and prior to all of God's dealings was when he called upon somebody for a special task.
[5:14] He would have the Holy Spirit would come upon them to dwell on them but not in them. And that relationship would be changed after the crucifixion, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:30] So I give you that just by way of some background just to help you understand the fact that when we are called on to do a task that is humanly impossible, we have the support for it.
[5:49] We have the infrastructure support. And part of that support is the church, for example.
[6:00] The body of believers. The power that the body of believers has within the community is absolutely amazing. And if you want to have a great impact in the community, it's when you are united as a church.
[6:18] And Satan will do everything to destroy that unity in order to destroy the work of God. And so I have appreciated the fact that every evening after the church service, you folks stay around and visit.
[6:38] And you hear that buzz of excitement. And I think that is as a result of two things. One is you are united in purpose. One is you are united in purpose. The other one is that you love one another as only those who are part of the family of God.
[6:57] And so being united and then loving one another. And as a result of that, as long as you are friends, you trust each other.
[7:10] There are a number of things that are needed in order to have that trust. One of them is you don't talk behind each other's backs. You talk to their faith.
[7:21] If you have a problem with them, you go and talk to them personally. And all of that is taught later on in the epistles and so forth, how to deal with things when things are between two individuals.
[7:36] But here in John chapter 17, this is the final prayer, the final culmination. And I believe that the Lord Jesus demonstrates for us how the church should look, how the church leadership should function.
[7:53] And you notice that the Lord Jesus never, you've heard the expression that this individual plays his cards close to his chest.
[8:04] Nobody else is allowed to look at what you're doing. Nobody is allowed to question your actions or your motives and that type of thing.
[8:16] But the Lord Jesus did not operate on that basis. And he has been talking to them, sharing with them that I will send you another comforter, one who will walk alongside of you.
[8:29] And he will bring conviction to this world. And he will bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, and so forth. And now he's praying for them.
[8:43] And he's praying openly and publicly. Just try to envision it. He's been teaching his disciples probably for the past hour or two.
[8:54] He has been teaching them. And then he closes with a word of prayer. And this is what he prays. Jesus spoke these words and lifted up his eyes to heaven.
[9:08] He did it in front of them. Lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son also may glorify you.
[9:23] Jesus was on a timetable, on a schedule. It's time to do this. And we look at Easter today and Palm Sunday.
[9:34] And I don't have a specific message on Palm Sunday. But it's in the context of Easter that the Lord Jesus is praying here.
[9:46] And he is saying, Father, the hour has come. It's now time for you to glorify me so that I can also glorify you.
[9:59] Here we see the unity of Jesus Christ and the Son of God. Have you ever thought of what took place when the Lord Jesus went up into the mountains to pray?
[10:10] What kind of conversation do you think took place? Wasn't one of those situations that went alone after they had gone up into the mountain?
[10:25] And he said on a number of occasions, come, let us come apart for a while. It was always after heavy ministry.
[10:36] And I have often wondered what kind of conversation took place between God the Father and God the Son. And I suspect, I suspect, that at times he might say, Father, that Peter is just a hopeless case.
[11:03] Why Peter has his foot in his mouth more often than out of his mouth. Why he's always speaking out of turn.
[11:16] You might say, well, that puts Jesus too much on our level. I'm just allowing my imagination. I wonder what kind of conversation took place.
[11:28] Well, I think here we have an example of the kind of conversation that might have often taken place. Let's first five verses.
[11:38] It says, start at verse three now. I've already read the first two verses. And he says, and this is life, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
[11:57] And this is Jesus praying. He's referring to himself as Jesus Christ. I have glorified you on the earth.
[12:09] I have finished the work which you have given to me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself.
[12:20] With the glory which I had before the world was. And we can deduct from all of Scripture that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, they were always united.
[12:44] They were three in one. And you might say, well, I have a difficulty with the Trinity, with God the Son, God the Holy Spirit being three persons, yet being one.
[12:56] I have problems with that. I do too. From a human standpoint, I have problems with that. It is only by faith that we can accept the fact that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, they are one and yet three persons.
[13:20] And so, when we think about the whole aspect of Jesus Christ having died on the cross, and we know that the difficulty that that must have created for God himself, because the Bible says, records how Jesus prayed on the cross.
[13:42] He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because, you see, Jesus became sin for us.
[13:58] What does that mean? I don't know. The Bible says that he became sin for us, so that I might have life, eternal life.
[14:11] It's a matter of faith, accepting at face value the word of God. And when we talk about face value, accepting things at face value, to accept the word of God just simply based upon, and it's not a matter of whether I understand or not, but rather a matter of me choosing to believe that what God says is true.
[14:38] And so, the Lord Jesus here is asking, he says, Father, do that work, so that your name can be glorified. Then in verse 6, he says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world.
[14:59] They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. What a bunch of scoundrels he gave him.
[15:19] Then we look at Peter Enson. I'm a scoundrel. There's no good thing in me. I don't seek after God. If I seek after God, it's only because God is doing a work in my heart.
[15:37] You see, my natural tendencies is to look after me. There are people who will say, well, I'll tell you one thing.
[15:47] I will always look after number one, me. And the Lord Jesus had all the glory of God.
[16:04] Absolutely all the glory, and we don't really have a real clear picture of what that glory is, but we know it's something that will literally blow our minds.
[16:17] I use the word literally. My wife corrected me the other day. But you know what I mean? Like, it's beyond our comprehension. It's beyond our mental capacity to really understand the glory of God, and Jesus had all of that, and he humbled himself, came down to this earth, and lived with sinful man.
[16:42] Became man, and lived with sinful man for the purplering glory to God himself. And so the Lord is praying here.
[16:54] He's praying for the disciples. He says, I have manifested them, manifested your name to the men whom you gave, have given to me out of the world.
[17:07] They are, they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. And you might say, well, that's a kind of contradiction to what you're saying.
[17:22] Well, the reality is in the flesh, there's no good thing in us, so we cannot keep the word of God apart from him. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you.
[17:38] They're beginning to get the picture. They're beginning to understand the fact that anything, that any benefits that they get are directly from God.
[17:53] for I have given to them the words which you have given to me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth, and they have believed that you sent me.
[18:12] You see, this whole aspect of the word of God, do you know how powerful the word of God is? You might say, oh yeah, I know that God's word is powerful.
[18:25] Did you know that the word of God is the word of life? Apart from the word of God, we cannot have eternal life. When the apostle Paul was speaking to the Romans in Romans chapter 10, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
[18:48] It is only as we are given the word of God that we can have eternal life. Apart from the word of God, we can never experience the forgiveness of sins, because it is the word of life that gives it to us.
[19:07] You see, in John chapter 1, it says, in the beginning was the word, and that's the word of life that we're talking about, God. And it's through the word that life comes to us.
[19:23] And it's a matter of faith. I don't understand it. I accept it simply because the word of God is sure. And it gives us light.
[19:37] It gives us life. It has the impact to change us and to change us dramatically. And he says, I have given to them the word or the words which you have given to me.
[19:58] You see, he has taught them for the past three and a half years, and there were some interesting declarations over a period of time. You remember Matthew chapter 16 where he says, who do people say that I am?
[20:12] And they said, well, some say that you're John the Baptist and some say that you're Elijah and some say this and some say that. And Jesus says, but who do you say that I am?
[20:25] And Peter's response, and it was probably one of those unthought through statements, but a very true one. He says, thou art the son of God.
[20:40] Thou art the son of the living God. You remember the Ethiopian eunuch where Philip had explained the gospel to him. He said, when he said, look, there's a lot of water here.
[20:54] Why don't you baptize me? And the Ethiopian response was when Philip asked him, do you believe?
[21:05] He said, yes, I believe that Jesus is the son of the living God. And upon that basis, upon that testimony, he was baptized.
[21:18] You know, in our Mennonite circles, and I'm not here to take shots at anybody. I'm a Mennonite. My background is very similar to many of you. but somehow in our Mennonite background, we sort of feel like this is what I need to do and this is what I need to do.
[21:38] And I've been at baptismal services and people talk about their past and the sinful life past and they will conclude that testimony and upon this confession, I ask to be baptized.
[21:53] and in my heart I'm saying, why can't you give a confession of your conversion? How you recognize that you were a sinner hopelessly lost?
[22:09] But I want to share with you today what my Christian life is like. Is that not the confession that people should hear when we give our testimony of God's great salvation?
[22:26] You know, baptism is not for the purpose of dragging out our sinful past but rather to bring glory to God Almighty because of what He has done through the person of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
[22:48] So that when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ we present the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ people can stand up and say, I believe, I believe, I am a child of God.
[23:02] God. Those are sometimes hard things to talk about.
[23:17] But those are things that we need to stress. I need to add some water here. I need to add some water here.
[23:28] you think of the great work that Jesus Christ has done on our behalf.
[23:47] We're people that have no good thing in us. We're sinners hopelessly lost. And the only way that we can be ever saved is for us to acknowledge I don't have what it takes to save myself.
[24:10] It's beyond the reality. Regardless of how gifted we are, regardless of how wealthy we are, regardless of what our status in society, all of that is nothing but filthy rags.
[24:28] And it is through personal faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ that we can have eternal life. And that eternal life, my friends, is life that gives us joy.
[24:47] I'd just like to mention, just by way of testimony, and I know my time is getting on, but as an individual growing up in a midnight home, we were taught that you obey the Ten Commandments, obey your parents, do the best you can, and maybe you will get there, but you can't know until you're there.
[25:14] I made reference to that the other day, and I said that's a hopeful gospel without hope. hope. That is not the gospel of hope, because our hope is in Jesus Christ alone.
[25:29] And I remember when people started witnessing to us, to our family, and they talked about the fact that we are incapable of earning our own salvation.
[25:42] That was very, very offensive to us. that was something that we did not like to hear, and we did not like people who brought that message to us.
[25:54] But they did. And the only way they could do that is because they understood where we came from. They brought it to us in Low German rather than in English, because they knew that if there was any hope of us understanding it, it would be through the Low German language, because we didn't speak English well at the time.
[26:20] I still remember watching these Christian young people. And I want to talk to you young people here a little bit. Young people, you can have a powerful testimony.
[26:34] You can, and you don't have to be a great theologian to have a powerful testimony. All you can be is an individual who shares what Jesus has done for me.
[26:48] You know, and this is a principle, it doesn't matter who we talk to, people might reject all kinds of things, but they have a very difficult time rejecting the gospel of Jesus.
[27:04] Evident in my life. Because they know I'm different. I've had people say to me, you never cuss.
[27:20] Well, I hope not. I used to. I have people that discover that I'm a preacher.
[27:33] And they say, oh, I guess I better watch my language. my question is why. It's not your language that will send you to hell.
[27:48] Really. No. It's your unregenerate heart.
[27:59] heart. You are headed for hell because you have a sinful nature.
[28:12] And there's only one way to regenerate that. Our son Stephen was a missionary in Indonesia. When they came home, he had to go back to Indonesia to renew their visa.
[28:28] when he came home, his wife was gone. She left him. That's a horrible, horrible thing.
[28:46] And he struggled through that. You want to take your child who stands four or five inches taller than I stand.
[29:02] You want to take him in your arm and hold him tight until his heart is settled enough that you can start to talk about the love of God.
[29:15] God. Because you see folks, at that stage in life, we have no hope that is generated within us.
[29:37] there's hardly a time when we meet up with Steve that he doesn't tell me, Dad, one of those men that are working for me, he just came to understand the gospel.
[30:12] This guy, he's going to Bible school. There are young people going to a Bible school youth retreat because I'm taking them.
[30:29] And all of a sudden, you realize that there's life even beyond divorce. and remarriage. And the Spirit of God is just as powerful in the life of an individual who has gone through that kind of agony.
[30:58] The Spirit of God is just as powerful there. God is there. Please let me tell you, I am dead set against divorce and remarriage.
[31:11] So much so that we weren't invited to the wedding. And we were grateful for that. not because we would not have liked to have been there.
[31:28] But we didn't have to work through that obstacle as well at that point. we will not break fellowship with our children that have failed marriages.
[31:48] We have more than one. We have three of them out of four. It's heartbreaking. But you know the interesting thing is the Lord Jesus does not put conditions on who the Spirit of God will indwell.
[32:08] Did you know that? The condition for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
[32:22] That's the condition. That may cut a cross on your theology. That's what I understand the word of God to teach.
[32:36] How do we prevent marriage failure? We need to start right here at the children's age. That's not a guarantee that it's always going to come out that way.
[32:50] But that is the best way. where the church teaches sanctity of marriage, teaches purity among young people, where the church teaches that sex outside of marriage is unacceptable.
[33:06] It breaks fellowship with God for the child of God. And somewhere along the line they have to work through that difficulty to be reconciled to God again.
[33:23] And when I watch my son's life, I know he has reconciled because he is a fruitful witness as he runs his business.
[33:38] grace. So these are just some of the things that I say to them just to encourage you to also help you to understand the frail man that stands before you this morning.
[33:58] But Jesus prayed for his disciples. He prayed very specifically. We'll just start reading verse 14. 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.
[34:21] I remember on one occasion there was this tremendous fervor in the news media that this law was passed and that law was passed and it seemed that and it had to do at the time when the Sikhs in the Fraser Valley when they were pursuing where their young men were allowed to wear their sword to school and the news media applauded that and said this is wonderful.
[34:56] At the same time I heard by way of the grapevine the news media had nothing to say about it. I heard that the Bible and Bible reading was banned in the school and my heart was grieved by that and I just started talking to the Lord about it and I said Lord this is not right.
[35:24] This is discrimination. We have the answer right here. people are okay with any religious group in the public system but they are not okay with the word of God.
[35:39] Why? Because we're not part of the world and Satan hates anything that is not part of his world. He says I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one.
[36:00] In other words Lord put your hand of protection over him. And you know the amazing thing is it's not just adults that Jesus is praying for right here.
[36:11] He's praying for children that have put their faith in Jesus Christ who are born again. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.
[36:26] He says sanctify them by your truth. your word is truth. Now what does sanctify mean? Sanctify means simply set apart.
[36:38] Those who are set apart. You know you don't go and use a pitchfork when you want to dig a trench. The pitchfork is set apart for barn use where you where you move straw.
[36:57] A spade doesn't work very well for that job. A fork does a really good job. The same thing when you want to dig a trench you use a spade because it's sanctified for that purpose.
[37:10] It's not a matter of being kind of made this is more holy than this. It's what it's designated what it's made for. And Jesus is saying to the father he said set them apart because they are yours for the purpose of glorifying God himself.
[37:34] And then as you have sent me into the world I also have sent them into the world. In other words we've been commissioned. We've been commissioned with a task.
[37:49] I understand last Sunday you had the ordination of two of your leaders. Praise God. Your church should become known as a church that trains and sets apart sanctifies individuals for a specific ministry.
[38:09] But the ministry of the gospel of Jesus is the responsibility of every born again believer. And I've been hearing stories about some of you.
[38:21] good stories. The kind of stories that you can pass around and you don't have to worry that oh one day that could come back and bite me.
[38:38] But rather stories of people who love other people and who are willing to share it with them. That is what you've been set apart for.
[38:58] And then notice he says, I do not pray for these alone. You remember the apostles are sitting there and listening.
[39:11] They're not finished with the service yet because that final prayer is not completed. And they're hearing everything he has to say to the father.
[39:22] He says, I do not pray for them alone but for those who will believe in me through their word. Did you know that Jesus prayed for you specifically before he died on the cross?
[39:43] He did. You see, he's not somebody that's far away that cannot be touched with the feelings and the temptations that we face on a day-by-day basis but rather he is right there.
[40:03] He's living it with us because he's in us. He says, I pray for them who have believed or will believe through their word that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they also may be one of us that the world may believe that you sent me.
[40:43] That is the prayer of the Lord Jesus. My question to you is are you born again? If Jesus Christ were to come at this moment to rapture the church, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians and he said, I don't want you to be ignorant concerning those who have died before you.
[41:21] Let's just read that. My memory is not sharp enough to recall it fully but let's see what God actually says there. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
[41:55] Verse 13 he says, I have a new Bible that somebody gave me. It's large print and it's much easier to read so I haven't fully marked everything yet but it says in verse 13, but I do not want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
[42:19] You know the world does not have any hope. I've been at a few funerals of unsaved people and it's just the most horrible occasion because they have no hope and to hear the family who realize that this is the most hopeless situation.
[42:44] Paul was saying to them I don't want you to sorrow as they do who have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus for this we say by the word of God or by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
[43:18] In other words incidentally I'm hoping for the rapture in my lifetime. Are you looking forward to his coming?
[43:31] But you know we're going to have to take our turn. We're going to have to wait because those who have already died they will be resurrected before us. It says for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.
[43:54] Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
[44:10] He says therefore comfort one another with these words. occupy till I come. Occupy till I come.
[44:26] He closes his prayer in verse 24. He says Father I desire that they also whom you gave me may may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which you have given to me for you love me before the foundation of the world.
[44:53] Do you get the sense that there's a deep love relationship between the Father and the Son here? He continually refers to what our relationship is.
[45:04] Lord that they may have that same relationship. O righteous Father the world has not known you but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and I will declare it that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
[45:36] The love of Jesus in us. Let's pray. Father we thank you for your word and there's much that could be said that I have not done well but Lord your word says it well and I pray that you would teach our hearts.
[45:56] You would comfort us with the hope that we have and with the anticipation of your soon return Lord we pray that you would come quickly and Lord that each one of us would be ready for that moment for we ask this in Jesus name.
[46:14] Amen.