John 17.6-19 – Decisions, Decisions
Think of how many decisions you make in a day:
What do I wear today?
Should I take a different route to work because of the construction?
Should I have a bagel or an English muffin for breakfast ; or maybe just some fruit? Should I talk with that person about yesterday or just blow it off?
Which child is it that had baseball practice today, or was it Karate?
Should I get a quick twenty out at the ATM machine at lunch or after work?
Do I need to pay bills today or can they wait until tomorrow?
Do I have enough money to pay those bills?
Which ones should come first?
Do I have enough energy to run today or not?
Should I drive down to Walgreens for milk or go on down to Wal-Mart?
Which TV show should I watch tonight?
Should I pick up the phone or let the voice mail get it?
Other decisions are harder and much more life impacting.
Should we invest in a new car or not? Which one? Buy or lease? New or used? Is it time to put our child in a private school?
Should we close in the screen porch or save the money for a vacation?
Do I really want to join this church?
Is this the woman God wants me to marry or am I just in lust?
Should Grandpa live on his own or with us, or go to a retirement home?
Should I bail my troubled kid out of jail or show him tough love and make him learn that there are consequences for bad choices?
Should I be buried or cremated?
Without outside help and guidance, decisions like these every day can be paralyzing. And what if the question and answer are not specifically condemned or approved in the Bible?
What should be my reaction?
What is God's will anyway?
And why is it so hard to discern God’s will sometimes?
Should we do as John Wesley and the Holy Club did from time to time?
Should we do other fellow did? Desiring to know God's will, he decided to open the Bible randomly and blindly point to a verse. His finger landed on, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." "Good," he thought, "I'll try it again." This time he read: "Whatever you are about to do, do quickly!" "So far, so good. Okay, Lord, be a little more specific, please." He let the Bible flop open a third time, closed his eyes and pointed. The verse read: "And Judas went out and hanged himself."
Maybe some of you have done that before. I wouldn't suggest it. Rather I would suggest the path that Jesus took concerning Peter and the disciples in our text for today, and in the verses to follow - the path that Jesus took concerning you and me.
Let's all be quiet and listen. Jesus is at prayer. He knows that he will die soon –– and violently. He wouldn't mind if we listened. Let's do that. Let's listen what he says.
But first, stop and think for a moment. Let's say that you had been convicted of some terrible crime and sentenced to death in the electric chair. You are scheduled to die next Tuesday –– just a couple of days from now and all of your appeals have been exhausted, so you know for certain that you are going to die.
This thought of dying has been with you now for a long time –– ever since the trial –– ever since the judge pronounced the sentence. Death has been on your mind. You imagine being escorted to the death chamber. You imagine them strapping your arms and legs to the chair. You imagine how it will all end. What will you do?
Well likely you kneel to pray. People on death row do that, you know. Not all of them! Some remain defiant to the end –– but prayer is common on death row. So you kneel to pray. What would you say to God in a moment like that?
You might say, "Forgive me, for I have sinned." You might even pray: "Forgive me for this sin" or "Forgive me for that sin."
Or you might ask, "Help me not to be afraid."
Or you might pray, "God, help my family. Forgive me for letting them down."
It was exactly that kind of moment for Jesus when he prayed this prayer in John 17 –– shortly before his death. He knew that he was going to die, and he knew that it would be terrible.
So what did Jesus pray? He didn’t pray, "Forgive me for my sins"? for he had no sins.
Did he pray, "Help me to die bravely"? No, I don’t think so. He knew that his father would be with him and bravery would pray a minor role.
Jesus prayed for his disciples. They were, after all, like family to him.
In his prayer, Jesus said that he had done what he could for them.
He said, "While I was with them, I protected them" (v. 12).
But now he was getting ready to leave them.
Jesus prayed that his Father would protect his disciples.
Listen to Jesus' prayer. These are his words:
"They do not belong to the world,
just as I do not belong to the world.
I am not asking you to take them out of the world,
but I ask you to protect them from the evil one" (vv. 14-15).
Jesus' prayer doesn't remind me of a man on death row. It is more like the prayer of a mother on her death bed. A dying mother would be less concerned about her own death than about the welfare of the children she would be leaving behind. Her concern would not be what lies ahead of her –– but what lies ahead for her children.
Although neither Dawn nor I are really very old, one thing that concerns us, especially with our special children, has to do with living long enough to have them grown and in an independent or supervised setting. We pray over that and I’m sure that our prayer will be answered.
But you mothers and fathers know what I am talking about –– especially parents of young children. If you were faced with death this coming week, would you be more concerned for your own suffering or the suffering of your children. The most terrible thing would not be dying, but leaving your job as a parent unfinished. Your prayers would be for your children –– "I won't be here to watch them grow up. YOU watch over them, PLEASE!!!" Keep them safe! Help them to grow up strong and healthy! Send someone to care for them, PLEASE!"
That was the kind of prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17. He was praying, not for his own welfare, but for his disciples. And Jesus said something that we need to hear. He said:
"I am not asking you to take them out of the world,
but I ask you to protect them from the evil one" (v. 15).
The New Testament was written originally in Greek, and the Greek word was "kosmos." Jesus prayed, "I am not asking you to take them out of the world –– out of the kosmos."
In the Gospel of John, this word "kosmos" has a special meaning. Kosmos wasn't Mother Earth. Kosmos wasn't green trees and pretty flowers. Kosmos was the part of the world that is opposed to God –– a fallen world –– an evil world.
It doesn't take much imagination to understand the kosmos as the world opposed to God. Just read your newspaper and you will see an evil world. We live in a world where people lie and cheat – where they steal and murder. We live in a world where people watch violence and call it entertainment.
When I look at the world around us, I just have to wonder where the victory is? I have to wonder; "Where are we heading?”
Do you ever feel like that? If so, it is because you don't belong here.
You don't belong to this kosmos –– this fallen world.
You belong to God's kingdom.
God is your king, and you don't feel comfortable in a fallen kosmos. You don't fit here.
So now listen again to what Jesus prayed. He prayed:
"I am not asking you to take (my disciples) out of the kosmos,
But I ask you to protect them from the evil one" (v. 15).
Jesus didn't pray that God would transport his disciples into some heavenly realm. That would happen soon enough, but in the meantime he was leaving them in the kosmos –– a world where terrible things happen.
“Father, protect my disciples from the evil one”.
But Jesus was leaving them in the midst of the mess. Why?
So that they could bring light to the darkness.
So that they could be a little leaven in the loaf of bread.
And let me tell you a secret. Jesus wasn't praying just for that little handful of disciples. He was praying for us too – He was praying for you and me. Later in his prayer, Jesus says:
"I ask not only on behalf of these"
(meaning the apostles),
"but also on behalf of those
who will believe in me through their word" (v. 20).
That's us! We have believed in Jesus through their word. In his deathbed prayer, Jesus was praying for US!
Just as Jesus was leaving his apostles in a dark world to bring it light, so also Jesus has put us in this dark world to do the same –– to bring it light –– to bring it a touch of Godliness –– to show people God's love. We have a purpose for being here –– but nobody said that it would be easy or comfortable.
Just last week, Temple Baptist, up the street from the parsonage, had a message on their church sign. It went something like: “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.”
That message makes a point. As Christians, this kosmos –– this fallen world –– is not our home. We belong to something better. We are trying to live without falling in a world where everyone falls –– even Christians.
What that sign misses is the Methodist emphasis that we are seeing in action at Miss Annie’s house in Eastover this weekend. We may live in a fallen world.
Being a Christian is having one foot in the kosmos and one foot in the Kingdom. Sometimes it is like having both feet stuck in a cesspool and seeing heaven stretch beyond reach.
In Jesus' prayer, he put it this way. He said that his disciples did not belong to the world just as Jesus did not belong to the world (v. 16).
So Jesus prayed that the Father would "Sanctify them" (v. 17). "Sanctify" is just a five-dollar word that means, "Make them holy." Jesus wants us to be a holy presence in this dark kosmos. He wants us to change the kosmos –– to point the kosmos toward God –– to reshape the kosmos until it is no longer the kosmos –– until it, too, becomes holy.
It sounds like an impossible task –– and it would be except for one thing. That one thing is God. Someone put it this way, "Every day God makes silk purses out of sow's ears." Some of us have experienced that. We have been sow's ears, but God loved us anyway. God redeemed us, and we became silk purses. Or maybe I should put it this way: We are in the process of becoming silk purses. As they say, "God isn't finished with us yet."
And God isn't finished with the kosmos yet either. Someday it will become what God created it to be. So in the meantime, get used to being uncomfortable living with one foot in the kosmos and the other foot in God's kingdom.
And go to work.
You can't save the world, but you can keep your corner of it clean. God lives inside you, so you can take God to work with you. You can take God to school with you. You parents and grandparents can make God real to your children.
Jesus said that there were two great commandments. One is to love God. The other is to love our neighbor (Mark 12:30-31). If we will do those two things, the day will come when this is no longer the kosmos –– the world that is opposed to God. The day will come when the kosmos has become the Kingdom of God.
