“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”
I decided to speak here this week, because you guys are going back to school in a week. Some of you feel that you have learned a lot this summer and have drawn closer to God. You feel as if you have grown a lot in Christian maturity, but I will say this and you should remember this throughout this message. All the things we have learned this summer have been meaningless if it does not change the way you act and witness now that you will be thrown back into the real world. If the impact you make in your school is the same as last year then we really did not accomplish anything this summer. Jesus prayed for His disciples shortly before He was to be crucified. It is one of the most beautiful and yet revealing passages of scripture you will ever read, but we are going to begin in the middle of it in verse 14. And if I were to give a title to this I believe I would call it "Missionary Minded Living".
“because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” If we are Christians we have been taken out of this world. This is a very interesting fact, because just as you have heard your whole life. “Your citizenship is in heaven” is actually true. We are not citizens of this fallen world just as Jesus was not. Jesus came from Heaven was made human (killable, die able), and lived without almost anything. I am sure that during His life He looked forward to going back to Heaven where He was being worshipped by angels. Jesus stayed pure and without sin the entire time He was on earth, He did not participate in the sin of this world. Throughout our entire life we must understand that we are merely camping out, or backpacking through this present life. Should it be our goal to have stuff? Should we aspire to drive the nicest car, have the nicest house, to go to the best college, to live a life of luxury? Should this be our goal in life? Our goal in this life is to glorify and worship God through everything that we do. If God wants us to be missionaries in China where we could die for the Gospel’s sake then our attitude should be “I’m going!!!!”. We are on a pilgrimage to heaven, God may see fit to give us stuff and bless us with stuff, but we must remember that earth is not our home and the more we have the harder it is to remember that. That is what this life is; it is preparation for our eternal home, but this preparation is not easy. Jonathan Edwards the great pastor whose commitment to the Gospel and truth helped to spur on the 1st Great Awakening in America said,
“The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh” - Jonathan Edwards –
Jesus said it like this, “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”-Matthew 7:14
What we tend to not realize is that God has placed us in this present time and place, for the purpose of being a missionary wherever you are. This is hard to grasp and understand at times, but we are missionaries in a foreign country even though we are living in the United States.
Missionaries in other countries live in the culture, without compromising what the Bible teaches. Even though we are not really a part of this world we are called to do God’s work while we are here. If this were not the case then we would become Christians and immediately vanish and go into Heaven, but instead the Bible is very clear that as long as we are here we have work to do. And Jesus makes this abundantly clear in Verse 15. “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Rather than praying for us to be separated from the world, Jesus prays that we would be “protected from the evil one”. I must emphasize here that we should pay careful attention to what we are supposed to do, because confusion here either direction can lead to incredible pain.
“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”-II Corinthians 6:14-18
Matthew Henry, the great Bible Commentator wrote these words about this passage, “He did not pray that his disciples should be removed out of the world, that they might escape the rage of men, for they had a great work to do for the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind. But he prayed that the Father would keep them from the evil, from being corrupted by the world, the remains of sin in their hearts, and from the power and craft of Satan. So that they might pass through the world as through an enemy's country, as he had done.”
In other words we are called to be separate just as Jesus was separate. Just as He had done. We are called to be holy, the phrase “be holy for I am holy” is used a lot of times in the book of Leviticus. We are called to be set apart, or separate. I have heard it said, and I believe this also that “Christ calls us to walk a razor thin line.” Should your best friends or your boyfriend or girlfriend be a non Christian? No, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” We should not just take them at their word either, we should examine them to see if they are a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Should you put yourself in a position that you can compromise? No, we are called to be holy, or set apart, but at the same time we are “Ambassadors for Christ”. Do not put yourself in a position to compromise your faith, girls it is not wise to pick out a guy you want to try to convert and guys it is not wise to pick out a girl to try to convert. Missionary dating is bad, Missionary Minded living is good. Male and female were not intended to be friends when they get older, it doesn't work very well. High School through College is riddled with this problem. Girls are more susceptible to this than boys are. Don’t do it. We are called to share this message with the lost here on earth. If we are to deliver Christ’s message don’t we need to talk with people that are lost? Should you talk to lost people? Yes, you should. Am I endorsing doing all the bad things lost people do? No, I am not. We are called to be holy. Do not get caught up in the things of this world, but you are acting as Christ’s representative on this earth. A very smart prominent preacher of today said,
“Jesus prayed that we would not leave the sick and dying world and huddle into a safe subcultural ghetto of Christian nicety, but that we would stay in the world. In the same way, Jesus himself did not remain in the comforts of heaven but rather entered into a sinful culture on the earth as a missionary. Jesus also prayed that we would not simply go with the flow of sin and death in the culture but rather swim upstream against the current of worldliness. We can live countercultural lives like him by being guided by the timeless truths of scripture that are intended to be lived out by missionaries in every culture.”
What is it that guides us as we walk through this life? What is it that tells us how to act and how to live? It is the Bible. We are to be guided by the Word of God in all that we do. Jesus actually mentions the Word two times here. “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And the next He says, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Quite honestly we as Christians are hopeless and helpless without the Bible. God has shown us how we are to live through His Word and it is to guide everything that we do. Sanctify means to make holy. So, Jesus’ prayer was to make His people holy through the learning and practicing of the truth. This is why the Bible is so important to us. It is key to the process of being made holy, which is sanctification that we have talked about over and over as one of the processes that God takes every Christian through for their whole life. Jesus’ next phrase is startling, He says“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” In the same way that God sent Jesus to earth to do the will of His Father, Jesus is sending us to do His work here on earth. And so, we should follow His example and live our lives as if it were a missionary stent here on earth.
Dwain Minor