Let me add my good morning. My name is Sam. If I don't know you, hopefully I know most of you.
I just wanted to, before I started, add two things quickly. I may have just not been paying
attention enough, but I wanted to let you know that tonight at five o'clock, because we are
joining you at 9.30 for church this morning, we thought, great, we have an opportunity to gather
for some prayer, particularly with mission coming up. So it would be fantastic for as many as
possible of us to gather tonight at five o'clock. It'll be in either this room or that room. If you
turn up, you won't be able to miss us. We're going to gather, and instead of having a service,
we're just going to pray, and we're going to praise God, and we're going to ask Him to work
mightily. So tonight, five o'clock, please come back. It will be very worth the trip for you,
and it'll be very encouraging for us as we cry out to God to work. The other thing I wanted to
share with you is a big encouragement, and perhaps a little challenge, as we prepare for mission.
I wanted to encourage you that our young people are leading the charge on this. On Friday night,
our young people brought 21 of their friends for the very first time to youth group to hear the
gospel. If you are not encouraged by that, you need the person next to you to slap you so you can
wake up. And if you are not challenged by that, you should be. That is exciting, but our young people,
I want them to keep going even harder, but we as the slightly older generation need to be modelling
to them what it looks like to be on mission for God. So that's an encouragement and challenge for
you to file away as we prepare for mission in a couple of weeks. But let me pray, and then we'll
get stuck into John 17. Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You're a God who
wants to be known. We thank You for the opportunity we have had over this series to wrestle with what it
means to know You, with who You are, that we have a relationship with. And Lord, we pray that this
morning as we look again, that our knowledge of You, our relationship with You would begin to shape
what it means for us to call ourselves Your church, to call ourselves Your followers. God,
please soften our hearts now, strip away any hard edges or any just established routines that are not
in line with the God that we follow, the God that You are, and instead by Your Spirit,
shape us to reflect the love that You have shown us. Amen. I want to begin by asking you a question.
What is it that you think God wants from us as a church? Maybe more specifically, what is it that
you think God wants from you as an individual? We are preparing for a focused week of mission,
not a week of mission because we are always on mission. It's one of our core values to have local
and global impact, but as we approach this focused week of mission, what is it that you think God wants
from you? Now, before you get too far down answering that question, I want to confess, it's a trick question.
And yet it's a question that we ask. It's a trick question because if that is our starting point,
we are betraying that somewhere in our minds, somewhere deep down, we have a picture of God
that begins with Him wanting something from us, that begins with Him trying to take things from us.
God becomes almost like a leech to us. He's trying to suck out our energy or our time or our gifts.
But over the past five weeks, we have wrestled with what it means to know God, with how important it is
to know God because He is the defining reality. He is the center point for everything that exists.
He is the anchor. And without a right picture of Him, we get lost and we start to ask questions like
the one that I just asked you. As you reflect on the things that we have learned through the series
of knowing God, looking at God as Father, Son and Spirit, I wonder if you can recognize the part of
God's character that has come out louder than any other. The part of God's character that has come
out more than any other. We've looked at many aspects of Him as Father, Son and Spirit, but one thing is
true of Father, Son and Spirit. And I'll give you a clue. It comes in 1 John chapter 4. In 1 John chapter 4,
we are told God is love. That is the defining attribute. We've seen through the series the
mutual love that the Father and the Son share. We saw the way that the Spirit serves both the Father
and the Son out of love. We looked at the love that God has shown us in many ways. And yet still,
when it comes to something like mission or mission week, we revert back to this picture of God
who wants something from me, who is just about taking from me. I mean, it's no wonder that so
many of us balk at the extra commitment of a mission week. It's no wonder we have trouble finding
enough people to put up the students as billets, or we have trouble finding volunteers to help with
events, volunteers to walk up to people in the street and tell them about Jesus. If we feel like
we're doing it out of some duty or some obligation or something that God requires of us,
if mission is a burden we carry, then we shouldn't be surprised that mission week tends to not look
that different for most of us. It's a week where we talk about mission and we expect the students and
the staff to do a whole lot of it. When we have this vision of God as someone who takes,
it's not a surprise that we struggle with something like mission. But we need to be clear that that is
not the God who we follow. We need to look again at the vision that has been unpacked for us over the
last five weeks, and in fact every week when we open the Bible. That is nothing like the God that we
follow. We need to see Him clearly if we are to understand what it means for us to be on mission.
And so again, we're going to look at John chapter 17. I know we looked at this last week.
Think of that as a gentle encouragement that there is always more. You can keep reading the same
passages, lots and lots and lots. We're going to look at John 17 and see what it means for the God
who is love to send us on mission. First thing I want to show you is that God is love,
and that love is a giving love, not a taking love. Look at the way in this passage that the Father's
love for Jesus is marked by generosity. Some of this is recap for where we've been.
Jesus is given the place of highest honour. It's Jesus who gets glorified by the Father
in the early verses there, verses 1 and 2. His life, death and resurrection are an opportunity
for the Son to be lifted up by the Father. And as Jesus reflects on the work that He has completed,
listened to His words from verse 6.
Jesus speaking,
I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me.
And they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you
sent me. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me,
for they are yours. And then verse 10, one of the key statements,
all I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me,
so that they may be one as we are one. Everything from the disciples as Jesus followers,
to the words that Jesus speaks in His earthly mission, to the power He has,
to the specific tasks that He does, even the name that He carries is given to Jesus by the Father.
It's not something the Father requires from the Son. It's something the Father gives to Him. It's
something the Father provides. This is the opposite of divine child abuse. This is not the Father
forcing the Son to do something. This is abundant, generous love, as even in the cross,
the Father gives to Jesus. The Father loves the Son even as He dies. Even in the mission that Jesus
has of drawing people into a relationship with God is a gift from the Father. Sure, it's the Son who
draws them in and presents them to the Father and unites us with the Father, but it's not His duty.
It's not something He does out of burden. It's His delight out of love for His Father. It's not the
demand from the Father, but it is the gift from the Father to exalt the Son as the one who saves.
It is love from Father to Son which chooses Him for this specific role. If you flick back to John chapter 3,
a very, very well-known verse, it says that the Father sends Jesus out of love. The loving and the sending
are actually connected action. Look at chapter 3, verse 16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save Him.
It is love that sends Jesus, not duty, not obligation. The Father actually loves Jesus
by sending Him into the world. It's not that He loves Jesus and He sends Him. The sending is part of
His love for the Son. In sending Him, He has chosen Him and He has given Him the path towards ultimate
exaltation, the path to the name above every name. The Father sends Jesus. He loves Jesus by sending Him to
earth to reveal the giving love of God. He gives Him that highest of privileges to be the place
where the rest of us will discover the love of God. And He loves us at the same time.
In loving His Son, in sending His Son, He also loves us. It's not multiple actions. The love of the Father
flows to the Son, through the Son, and then outwards towards us. God's love for you is marked by giving.
It is marked by generosity. He has given Himself to us according to verse 3. That's why Jesus comes,
that we may know Him, the only true God. He's given us access to Him and He has drawn us
into the relationship of love that exists between the Father and the Son. Look at verse 23.
This is Jesus praying for us. We've been reminded of that multiple times. The bishop reminded us two
weeks ago. And He says this, start at verse 22.
I have given them the glory that you gave me. Again, the Father gives to the Son and the Son has given to us
that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
We are now loved like Jesus. The love that sent the Son now rests on us.
And Jesus continues to be generously loved by His Father throughout the whole process.
He sends His Son to die and to rise again so that we might know His love.
But even in that process, the Son continues to be the object of the Father's affection and delight.
God's love is so all-encompassing and powerful and outward focus that it flows to the Son
and through the Son to us without ever stopping the ultimate love that the Father has for the Son.
God's love is mind-blowingly generous.
It flows out. It pours out. It overflows.
And it cannot be contained.
God's love is missional love.
It is sending love.
The God who is love loves outwardly.
It's not just this contained circle of Father, Son and Spirit, this little ball of love.
That's not how it works.
God's love is outward.
It always was outward.
It is revealed as outward in Jesus and it will always be outward for all eternity.
The relationships we have seen between Father, Son and Spirit through this series continue on in heaven.
The Father will continue to rejoice in His Son who was sacrificed.
The Son will continue to delight in His Father and point to Him that all glory might go to Him.
And the Spirit will continue to testify to the glory of both Son and Father.
The outward love will continue to flow and overflow from God.
So the question we need to ask with that fresh reminder of the God who we follow is what does that mean for how we approach mission?
I guess in particular, our focused week of mission coming up.
But what does it mean for how we view the call to go in Matthew 28?
The call to make disciples.
Three things.
Firstly, the mission is God's, not ours.
The mission is God.
Look at verse 18.
As you sent me into the world, Jesus speaking, I have sent them into the world.
The sending of the disciples and by implication the sending of us is the Father's mission which is being carried out by the Son.
The mission that Jesus is on in His earthly ministry does not end as He is exalted to the throne.
It continues even as He leaves.
Jesus continues to be the place where we see the love of God ultimately displayed.
But now, He will display that love through His disciples and through us as His followers by the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus' mission continues.
Jesus continues to point to the Father and His mission of proclaiming the love of God is and always will be God's mission.
Which by grace, He has included us in.
The Father gave it to the Son and according to verse 18, the Son now gives it to us by the power of His Spirit.
It's not so that Jesus can return to heaven and get into His recliner, put His feet up and start relaxing.
That's not how it works.
The reason Jesus gives it to us is for our sake.
It is out of love for us.
In the same way that the Father gives the mission to Jesus out of love, Jesus gives the mission to us out of love.
The Father doesn't need Jesus to accomplish His will.
He is God completely, fully, almighty.
But He includes Jesus out of love for Him.
He uses the Son out of love for Him.
And likewise, we have been included out of love for us.
It is something that God has given us.
Even the content of our mission is gifted by God.
We don't have to come up with a good story or a clever way of explaining the gospel.
Verse 6 tells us,
Verse 14 says,
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.
The Father has given us His word to speak.
We don't have to generate anything.
The Father has given us the word which testifies to Jesus.
But even more significant, I think,
God's mission is one of glorifying Himself.
One of revealing Himself.
And to empower us to do that,
He lives in us by His Spirit.
That's the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer.
That's the answer to verse 23.
I in them and you in me.
Father in the Son,
Son in us by the Spirit.
The power of God living in us is the provision of God to do the mission of God.
It's still His mission.
It is still something that only He can accomplish.
But He has provided His Spirit so that we may be a part of it.
This mission is God's mission.
And He has given,
He has gifted it to us out of love for our sake.
First thing, the mission is God's.
We need to grab that.
Second thing,
the mission is for our joy.
Let me show you what I mean.
The primary means of our mission
is God's love in us.
It's not what you do or don't do.
It is God's love in us.
You can see it in Jesus.
In spite of the opposition that He faces in His earthly ministry,
He describes in John's Gospel
that doing the Father's will is like His food.
The writer of the Hebrews expresses it.
It says,
For the joy set before Him,
He endured the cross.
The joy that was set before Jesus
was His glorification,
His exaltation,
to the glory of the Father.
The joy for Jesus was knowing
that He had been chosen for this incredible mission
that would ultimately glorify the Father.
and He knew that this was a gift to Him.
The Father includes the Son for the Son's sake.
Jesus delights in His mission
because central to it
is the love of the Father being displayed in His life.
Jesus' mission is to show God the Father
and the way He shows it
is by being loved by the Father.
It is by God's love being so obvious in Jesus' life
that people cannot deny it.
Now, it's worth acknowledging
that this doesn't mean Jesus' mission was easy.
There's plenty of examples in His life
that we can go to.
His family didn't understand Him.
He was rejected in His hometown.
He was strongly opposed.
He was ultimately tortured and murdered.
But through all of this,
He continued to delight
in the generous and abundant love of His Father.
He continued to delight in the fact
that the Father loved Him enough
to choose Him to be the Savior and King
for all creation.
Even though there was pain and difficulty
at its core,
for Jesus being on God's mission
meant being loved by His Father.
The mission that Jesus is sending us on
here in verse 18
is an opportunity for joy.
It is an opportunity for us
to so delight in the love of God
that it overflows
and spills into the lives
of those around us.
I mean, it's almost like bragging.
That is what God has called us to
in being a part of His mission.
I remember very distinctly
the Christmas Eve
about five and a half,
maybe six and a bit years ago now,
when my gorgeous wife said,
yes, she would marry me.
I can't tell you
how many people I annoyed
with that exciting news.
Every person that I went up to,
people who didn't even know me
or her that well,
I just needed them to know
that I was marrying
the most beautiful girl
that there was.
And I wanted to rub it in.
I wanted them to know
that there was nobody
who could bring more joy
to anybody else.
And I just bragged and bragged.
And I had a job in a church.
I was at the front.
People were stuck listening to me
all the time.
And I would just tell them
how fantastic my fiance was
because there was nobody
who brought me joy
like she did.
It's the same for us
as followers of Jesus.
The call to be on mission
is a call to rejoice
in the joy,
to celebrate,
to bask in the love
that God has shown us
in Jesus.
To be daily overwhelmed
and excited
and to need to just tell somebody
how good your God is.
that is a gift.
That's not a burden.
Real joy like that
just comes out.
I couldn't have kept a secret.
I remember when I found out
that Sal was pregnant
with Bailey.
It was the hardest thing
in the world
not to tell you.
I found out
at the four week mark
and it is a miracle,
it is an act of the Holy Spirit
that I kept that secret
till the 12 week mark.
If I'm really honest,
I let it out
to one or two people.
But even that
is an act
of the Holy Spirit
because I was just
busting with joy
at this gift
that I had been given.
God is infinitely
better
than bay,
than Sal,
than anything
that He
has given us.
And mission
is an opportunity
for us
to delight in God
and to let it
run out of us.
To let it
spill over.
When we lose
this vision of God,
when we lose
this understanding
of the gift
that He has given us,
the gift that He is
to us,
mission becomes
the duty of the few
rather than
the delight
of the many.
When we have
this leech view
of God,
mission becomes
something we avoid
at all costs,
something we outsource,
something we get a team
to come in and do
for us
rather than something
we all rejoice in.
But when we feel
like that,
we need to come back
to who God
actually is.
We need to come back
to the vision
that He has shown us,
back to the loving,
giving God
who has revealed
Himself as sovereign
and supreme,
the God who loves us
so much that He
includes us
for our sake
and not because
He needs us.
There is an amazing
testimony
in the example
of the Ephesian church.
If you have time
later on,
have a flick through
Acts 19,
I think it is.
Ephesus is a
significant city.
It is a port,
it is a trade centre
and there are many
pagan gods there.
There are temples,
there is lots going on
and Paul arrives
and starts preaching
Jesus
and what we see
is that
mission happens
so effectively
that many of the
temples
start to almost
go out of business.
The temple of Artemis
suddenly is concerned
because they are
losing the money.
The silversmiths
aren't able to keep
making the little
idols to be worshipped
or to be carried around
because people aren't
following Artemis anymore.
The mission is so
effective and so
explosive
that there is,
you know,
they try and kill Paul.
They try and get rid of him,
they try and have him
removed.
The port starts
to struggle
because the emphasis
is no longer
on the things
that made the city
rich and powerful
and the question
we need to ask
is what is it
that made their mission
so effective
when we look at
so many other churches
that have zero
influence on the world
around them.
Let me read to you
from Revelation chapter 2.
This is obviously
at the end.
It says,
These are the words
of him who holds
the seven stars
in his right hand
and walks among
the seven golden lampstands.
This is a letter
to the church
at Ephesians.
I know your deeds,
your hard work
and your perseverance.
I know that you cannot
tolerate wicked men.
You've tested those
who claim to be apostles
but are not
and have found them false.
You've persevered
and have endured
hardships for my name
and have not grown weary.
There's this list
of things that are
going fantastically.
They're testing
false teaching.
They are persevering.
They're not tolerating
wickedness amongst them.
They're enduring hardship.
They're not growing weary
but something is missing
and it comes in verse 4
of Revelation 2.
Yet I hold this against you.
You have forsaken
your first love.
Remember the height
from which you have fallen.
Repent and do the things
you did at first.
What was it that saw
the Ephesian church
explode with the love of God?
It was love for God.
What was it that saw
the Ephesian church
grow so quickly
that it was a threat
to the government
and the organisations
around it?
It was their love for God.
And sadly,
somewhere along the way
they got so caught up
in all these other things
that they were required to do
that they lost
that first love.
That first sense
of gift from God.
God's mission
is a gift for our joy.
The Ephesian church
at the beginning
didn't need to be told
to do anything.
They were just so
in love with Jesus
that people were drawn in.
God's mission
is a gift
for our joy.
One last thing.
Missional
is who we are.
Mission
is not something
that we do
as God's church,
as God's people.
Missional
is who we are.
It's part of who
we've been created to be.
Mission is not a hobby.
It's not a pastime.
It's not something
we do on the side.
It's what it means
to love God
is to be missional.
We learnt last week
we've been drawn
into the mutual relationship
of love
that is in God.
Verse 20,
back in John 17,
verse 20 says,
my prayer is not
for them alone.
I pray also
for those
who will believe
in me
through their message
that all of them
may be one Father
just as you are in me
and I am in you.
May they also be in us
so that the world
may believe
that you have sent me.
So I said this last week
but I'll say it again
because it is amazing.
The Father in the Son
and the Son in the Father
that is the relationship
we have been drawn into.
Not the Father
and the Son
and then us next to it.
But Jesus' prayer
is that we would be
in them.
That we would know
the Father's giving love.
That we would know
the Son's obedience,
sacrificial service
and love.
The same unity
which is a unity
of love.
A unity of outward love.
A unity of missional love.
A unity of sending love.
To love God
is to glorify Him.
To love God
is to point to Him
as the most delightful thing
because you can't help it
because you delight in Him.
That's what the Father
and the Son do.
That's how they love each other.
And their love for each other
flows out
and draws us in.
There is nothing
one directional
about the love
that is in God.
Even if we just focus
on the Father's love
for the Son
it's not just this.
it's this
and this
and we are drawn
into that sort of love.
So when we call ourselves
Christians who love God
our love for God
is not like this.
Our love of God
is the same
as the Son's love
for the Father.
Love that loves the Father
in such a way
that it flows out
to those around.
Loves the Father
in such a way
that it reveals
the glory of the Father
to anyone
who is there to see.
Our love needs to be
outward and overwhelming.
Look at verse 16
in John 17
talking about the disciples.
They are not of the world
even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them
by the truth
your word is truth.
As you sent me
into the world
I have sent them
into the world.
The same love
that draws us
out of our sin
and out of the world
that is rejecting God
and into the relationship
between Father,
Son and Spirit
sends us
straight back
into the world.
It says it
Jesus says
they are not of the world.
They have been rescued
they have been sanctified
they have been drawn
into the relationship
with God
but then in verse 18
in the same breath
Jesus says
as you sent me
I have sent them.
Jesus' prayer is
don't take them
out of the world.
If you take them
out of the world
they won't be able
to practice the love
that we have.
They won't be able
to have that outward love.
Part of what it means
to love God
is to share
his love.
It's not two things.
It is the one action.
We as a church
must not be
just a love club.
We must not be
just a place
where we all love
one another
inside these walls
or in this property
or in our relationships.
If that is all we are
we have failed
as God's church
because that is not
who God is.
God's love
is outward.
For us to love
one another
and to love him
as he loves us
is to love outwardly.
For this to be
a love club
that spills
and flows
and runs
into Chatswood community
and throughout the world
for people
to see people
who love God
and delight in him.
Part of what it means
to love God
is for that love
to flow outward.
God's mission
of loving people
by revealing himself
is for our joy.
It's part of who
he has made us to be.
So really quickly
the last question
I have is
in light of that
how do we go
from the point
we are at
and I know
it's not for all of us
but how do we go
from that point
of feeling like
we have to do
mission
to delighting
in mission?
Remember the Ephesians
remember our first love.
Go back to the beginning.
Remember what it was like
to see the cross
for the first time.
To understand
that Jesus hung there
in your place
paid your price
offered you life.
Do you remember
what it was like
to be so overwhelmed
with gratitude
and joy
that you just
had to start
following him?
That there was
nothing else
you could do
but fall on your knees
in thankfulness?
We need to go back
to the beginning.
If it has become
a later
or a burden
for us
the call
is the same
as the call
to the Ephesian church.
Remember your first love.
Remember the joy
that is only available
for those
who belong
to the Father
for all eternity
and let that joy
and love
flow out.
Let it overflow.
The way you prepare
to live a life
of mission
is by basking
in the love of God.
It's by reminding yourself
daily
of the love of God
and allowing that love
to touch the lives
around you.
what a gift
God has given us.
His love
His Son
and now
His mission.
Let's pray.
Father God
again
we are overwhelmed
with your majesty.
we are humbled
with the depths
and extent
of your love.
We acknowledge
that we fall
so far short
of the privilege
you have called us to
in loving
in loving you
and in loving your world.
Father
where we feel burden
may you lift that
and replace it
with gratitude
and thankfulness.
God
where there are things
that distract us
may you shine brightest.
Strip away things
that we lean on
and that we take
pleasure from
instead of you
and enable us
to grab the fullness
of joy
that Jesus speaks about.
God
we pray
that we would not
be a closed
community
but that we would be
a beacon
for your love.
That the way
we love one another
the way we love you
would be outward
would be the same
as the way
that you've loved us.
God
strengthen us
by your spirit.
give us hearts
that can grasp
your majesty
that can love you
as you deserve
and Father
please
draw other people
in to know
that love.
Please use us
to show
the delight
and joy
that comes
from calling you
Father.
Please glorify
yourself in us
and through us.
Amen.