Far From Evil, Close To God • John 17:13-19
Teaching begins 17:15
Notes
Wouldn’t it be nice if, as soon as you receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you went straight to heaven? No more hassles. Be with God.
But it sure doesn’t work that way, does it? We still have to live in this world. And we find that we have changed, and we can’t live like we used to. But then we aren’t so good at being holy, either.
How do we live rightly in a toxic environment?
Jesus says: we need the truth to live in us. When the truth lives in us, we will live far from the evil one, and live very close to God.
We are reading in John 17, from verse 13.
1. Jesus has our happiness in mind.
A. He’s just talked about how He guarded His disciples in the name of the Father. None are missing. He has kept them.
B. But the situation is changing. He’s coming to the Father. He won’t be physically present to keep the disciples in the name of the Father.
C. And yet — Jesus is thinking of His joy being made full in the disciples.
1. He’s obviously not expecting the disciples are going to barely survive in the world.
2. He has been praying so that His joy would be their joy, that they would thrive in this world.
2. That’s amazing, given that their lives are in direct conflict to the world they live in.
A. Jesus has explained what happened to these men.
1. They used to be in the world and of the world. “The world” being that world system run by Satan, who is the god of this world. The world is in rebellion against God, they hate God without an excuse.
2. The Father gave these men out of the world to Jesus. They are in Jesus now.
3. Jesus gave them the words of the Father.
4. They kept those words and truly understood that Jesus came from the Father, that He perfectly represents the Father. This is the true God and eternal life.
B. This provokes the world to hate the disciples.
1. Giving these men to Jesus changed them. Now their source of life is not the world, but the Father.
2. Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you,” John 15:19. He said to His own brothers, John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”
3. There is an unavoidable clash here, because the world is opposed to God. But these men are back in relationship with God.
C. They are not of the world, says Jesus. Notice He says it twice!
1. That’s a negative way to say it. This is not their home, not their environment, not where they belong.
2. How do you say this in a positive way? They are from somewhere else than this world.
3. So where does their life come from? He’s not talking about this world, He’s not talking about this solar system. They’re not from another planet somewhere in this galaxy or any other system in the universe. Because all the universe is this creation, this cosmos. That’s the word Jesus uses here.
4. They are from heaven. That’s the only other place to be from. They are from above, not from this creation below. They are new creations and do not belong here in this old creation.
D. Because these men are not from this world but are from above, they walk to a different authority, they also obey their authority. That puts them on a collision course with the evil one who sets himself up as the authority of this world.
3. So Jesus prays for these disciples to keep them from the evil one.
A. He’s not praying to take us out. He has a job for us to do. He wants us to bear witness to the truth in the same way as He bore witness to the truth. So He’s going to leave us here for the rest of our lives.
B. That means they live in a hostile, foreign environment, a culture opposite to the one they have just been given over to, run by spiritual forces of wickedness.
C. So Jesus prays, guard them from the evil one.
1. The prepositions are the same, out of the world, out from the evil one.
2. Again, John says in 1 John 5:19 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Other translations have under the sway of, under the control of.
3. But that’s not for us, to be under his power, to be influenced by him in how we think and act. Jesus prays, guard them, protect them, do not let the devil influence them, conform them, make them like everyone else in the world. Because if believers are just like everyone else, then there is no light in the world, there is no salt acting like a preservative for this world.
D. The devil works in this world in so many ways.
1. There is a powerful conforming power in this world. Be like everyone else, think like everyone else. There are powerful forces in the world to do this. All the social media, all the news media, and all the entertainment media. Schools that do not teach but indoctrinate children with politically correct doctrine.
2. Satan rains down fiery arrows of temptation to attack us.
a. fiery arrows of depression
b. fiery arrows of blasphemous thoughts, then he blames us for having thought them
c. he tempts us to resent and be bitter and to hate people, it doesn’t matter who!
d. he sends thoughts of cares and anxieties that choke us
e. he sends thoughts of pleasures of the world, to get rich, to get famous
f. he gets us thinking about the here and now, and forget the what’s going to happen in the future
g. he gets us to think about ourselves and worry and get self-defensive
h. he wants us to forget Jesus and His power, and think only of ourselves and our weakness and inability
i. he wants us to quit before we try because it’s not going to work anyway
j. quit now because it’s too hard and you can’t do it
k. he wants you to desire things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
l. he wants you to think you’re better than you really are
m. he wants you to find your own solutions, work everything out
n. he doesn’t want you to wait on God or expect any help from Him
E. If you boil this down to one word, Satan attacks with lies.
1. He wants you to believe things that aren’t true so you are deceived and misled.
2. If you believe lies you will not trust God. You will disobey God. You will work against your own salvation.
3. And you will obey the god of this world. You will be just like everyone else in this world, thinking like them and acting like them.
4. I think it’s so interesting that Jesus emphasises that His disciples are not of this world. There’s a big advantage in being from above.
A. Because Jesus was not of this world, He also had access to resources not from this world, but from above.
B. Therefore we also have access to resources from above, where our life comes from.
5. So here are resources and power from above: sanctify them in the truth.
A. What blows away lies? What makes a lie totally ineffective? Knowing the truth. The truth is all- powerful against lies. If you know the truth nobody can deceive you and take advantage of you. Truth is a powerful resource from above.
B. What the truth does is sanctify us. Here’s another resource from above: holiness.
1. We say, “That would be great, but it’s something impossible for me to attain. How can holiness help me?”
2. Sanctify means to set apart as holy. To take something common, something in the world, and make it special, fit for above. It separates from everything unclean and common, and separates to one special purpose.
C. The truth comes through God’s word.
1. The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. Psalm 12:6. The word of the Lord will not lead you to sin and to disobey the Father. It will separate you from all corruption and temptation and guard you from the evil one.
2. The word of the Lord will also separate you to the Lord. You get to know God in truth, you will be able to worship God in spirit and in truth. You will have an intense pure relationship with the Father with nothing in the way messing up that relationship.
D. The truth also comes through God’s Word, Jesus Christ.
1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is the living Word, the communication of God to the world.
2. Jesus said in John 10:36 that the Father sanctified Him and sent Him into the world. He came to do the will of the Father only. Jesus said, I did not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true. Anytime Satan tried to get Him to do His own will He said, “Get behind Me, Satan!” He was completely separated from any other desire, and separated to the Father. Jesus is holy.
3. Jesus fulfilled Psalm 40:7-8 Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of Me. I delight to do Your will, O My God, Your law is within My heart.” Jesus brings us not only the word of God, but He brings us His life of surrender to the Father. He brings us His love for the Father’s will, and the desire to do that will.
4. Even now Jesus is going to the cross to fulfil the Father’s will that He give His life a sacrifice for many. He will completely perfect His human existence of trust and obedience.
5. So Jesus’ disciples have this resource, that life of Jesus to set them apart as holy. He Himself is the truth. His life in His disciples will give them the heart to separate completely from the evil one, and to draw close to the Father in perfect relationship.
6. What we need in order to live in this world as a believer in Jesus is for the truth to live in us.
A. Our problem is that we are so prone to being on our own that we try to be holy on our own and we don’t know the first thing about it. We approach it like it’s up to us to not be like the world and obey God and resist the devil.
B. Here is what the truth is: God has already answered Jesus’ prayer. He has sanctified you in the truth of His word, and He has sanctified you in Jesus Himself.
1. Just like the disciples, the Father has given you to Jesus. And Jesus has given you the word of the Father. You believe in Jesus, that He came from God, and that He died for your sins. Your hope and trust are in Jesus.
2. Jesus gave you His Holy Spirit to set you far apart from the evil one and bring you close to the Father. You have access right now into the presence of God. You whisper, “Father” and you’re there.
C. So what’s broken here? Why don’t we have this triumphant feeling all the time, and why do we still sin?
1. One reason is because we are living in this world, and we experience the conflict, we feel the pressure, that the world is going in the opposite direction to God, away from Him.
2. And we know the opposition and the attack of Satan. We experience temptation and we give in to it.
3. As long as we are in the world we will have this conflict, we will experience attack. There will be okay days, and there will be terrible evil days.
D. The first place we start is to believe the truth. Jesus is the truth. We start with Him. He died for us so we could live with Him. We thank God for this, because it is true.
E. Then we continue to believe the truth. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We thank God for forgiveness, because it is the truth.
F. Then we continue to believe the truth.
1. Psalm 119:9-11
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
10 With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
11 Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.
2. Do you notice verse 10? So many people leave that out and just quote verses 9 and 11. But what good does it do to memorise God’s word if you don’t seek Him with all your heart? You say, “Well, I treasured Your word in my heart and it didn’t work.” But according to God’s word you apply that word in seeking Him with all your heart. You have to be into it. Because He is into it. Then we thank God that His word is living and active, able to build us up and give us the eternal inheritance.
G. In the end, the word of God and the Holy Spirit of Jesus are going to separate us from everything that is in the world and everything of the evil one, and will separate us to God.
H. Then we will have joy. Truth brings relationship with God. Relationship with God brings joy.
Let’s pray
I want to pray along with Jesus. Sanctify me in the truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify me in Jesus. Thank You for the truth. Thank You for giving me Your Holy Spirit. Set me far apart from the evil one.
Bring me close to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.