Show the Word

In this message from John 17:6-12, David Platt encourages us to point others to Christ by showing the Word in the way we live. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 From Sharing To Showing The Word
• 2:19 John 17 And Revealing God’s Name
• 7:35 You Are God’s Representatives
• 14:35 Given All His Resources In Christ
• 21:45 Demonstration That Fuels Proclamation
• 28:30 Focused Investment Over Programs
• 35:35 See The World Through Your Disciples
• 41:55 Stake Your Life On People
• 50:10 Holiness: Neither Separation Nor Saturation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:56

You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

Just out of curiosity, question, how many of you had someone lead you to faith in Christ? Anyone have someone lead you to faith in Christ? Okay, that's a lot of us, if not most of us, who are believers. The question we need to ask ourselves is how are people outside this building going to come to know faith in Christ then? If not through us. Through us sharing the word with them. And so we talked about how that is a non-negotiable facet of disciple making. What I want us to do this morning is to dive into a second component of disciple making, which is not only to share the word, but to show the word. Now, let me just on a tangent here, let me say that these are not necessarily chronological steps that you take. You do number one, then number two, number three, number four, now you're making disciples. That's not the picture here. The picture is these are all facets that we see in Jesus' life as he poured his life into his disciples. And as he set the example for us to do the same thing in others' lives. So sharing the word, showing the word, and the others that we're going to see over the next two weeks, they all come together. And if you remember a couple of weeks ago, we had those cards that people, many of you came to the forward and got that say, follow me on the front, and I'll make you fishers of men. On the back, they had different blanks. Share the word, show the word. And you have the opportunity to write that in on those cards on the back. So don't forget to do that. But I want us to look at John chapter 17 and see what it meant for Jesus to show the word. Remember, the word is at the center of disciple making. The word made flesh. Christ making his life known through us. We show the word. Look at John chapter 17, verse 6. This is Jesus praying for this for his disciples, and he says, I revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave 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 am not praying for the world, but for those who have given me, for they are yours. 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 have gave you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one tombed to destruction, so that Scripture would be fulfilled. Now, disciple making. First of all, I think it means that we display his character to them. I want you to see how this unfolds in this prayer that Jesus is praying. From the very beginning in verse 6, you go back up there and it says, I have revealed you to those whom you gave me. I revealed you to those whom you gave me. Now, some of you in your translations, it might have, I revealed your name to those who you gave me. And even in the NIV, which is what I'm reading out of, you go down to the bottom and you'll see a note that says in the original language of the New Testament, that's actually what is written here. It literally says your name. Why does NIV translate it you? Well, basically, it's because they go together all throughout Scripture, and especially in the book of John, what we're seeing is that the name of God refers to the character of God, his person, who he is. And so for Jesus to say, I revealed your name to these disciples, what he's saying is, I revealed your character to them. I revealed who you are to them. In the old economy, God revealed himself to his people by dwelling among them in the temple or the tabernacle. Then you get to Jesus, and God reveals himself up close and personal, face to face in the person of Christ. And he says, I've revealed you up close and personal. Even remember, remember back to the Old Testament? God's name, Moses says, Who will untell them sent me? And God says, Tell them I am, sent me. That was his name. Think about how that is up close and personal in the book of John. John chapter 6, verse 35. Jesus says, I am the bread and life to those who are bread of life, to those who are hungry. To the blind in John chapter 8, verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world. To those who were hurting in John chapter 10, he said, I am the good shepherd who cares for his people. In John chapter 11, verse 25, he says to Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. John chapter 14, he says to the disciples, wondering, are we going to get lost in the shuffle? And he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was God, up close and personal to these guys. You want to see a picture of the goodness, the grace, the mercy of God, you see it in the face of Jesus. And he didn't reveal it in some glowing, uh, just one moment, here's my splendor. What he did is over a process of three years with these guys, he continually, on a day-by-day basis, revealed God and his character up close and personal to them. Now here's the problem. You get down to verse 11, and it says, Jesus says, I will remain in the world no longer. But these guys are still in the world, and I am coming to you. So if God, up close and personal, is about to check out of the world, then how is the world going to see God up close and personal anymore? And that's where you and I come in. I want you to see two truths unfold. First of all, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are all his representatives in the world. We are all his representatives. This is not just for the super Christians in the room this morning. For every single one of us, we have, catch this, we have the responsibility from God to show his character to the world. This is not a responsibility that the church as an institution has. This is a responsibility that the church as individuals all across this room has. We are God, up close and personal, so to speak. His goodness, his mercy, his grace seen in us in the world. That is the responsibility that God has entrusted to us. And it's a huge responsibility. How are the people in your home or in your workplace or in your schools? How are the people in your neighborhood, in this community, how are they going to see the character of God? How are they going to see his unending love? His perfect patience in the middle of suffering and trial? How are they going to see his overwhelming compassion for those that nobody else cares about? How are they going to see his patience and his kindness and his goodness in the face of evil? How are they going to see his courage in the face of trial? How are they going to see those things if not in you and me? God has given us people in our lives, just like he gave these disciples to Jesus and said, You reveal my character to them, I'm convinced that God has given each of us across this room people in our lives that he has said, reveal my character to them, demonstrate me to them. And if those people in your life and in my life don't see the character of God in us, where are they going to see it? In their DVDs? On television? On the internet, in politics, in corporate America? If they don't see the character of God in us as his representatives, where are they going to see it? This is huge. This is where we begin to rise up and realize that we can no longer shirk or evade our responsibility to show the character of God to the world around us and the people that God has given to us. Now, some of you are thinking, well, that's a tall order. I'm supposed to show the character of God, the love and the mercy and the grace of God, the patience of God, the kindness of God. I'm supposed to do that? I can't do that. I'm not that far along in my Christian life yet. On the contrary, we are all his representatives. Second truth, we have all of his resources. We have all of his resources. Don't miss this. Everything Jesus revealed to his disciples, the Father had given to him. Look in verse 10. Jesus said, All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. So the Father had given everything to him. Then look down at verse 11 as he prays in the middle of that verse: Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, your character. Same phrase we saw up in verse 6. The name that you gave me. You gave me your character. You gave me your person. Verse 12, while I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name that you gave me. Everything that Jesus had, the Father had given to him. Now at this point we're thinking, well, that was Jesus. He's a little different than us. You know, he was God, and we are not. So, so how does that apply to us? How can you say that we have all his resources? Here's the good news: everything that Jesus had from the Father, he promised to give to you and to me. Look at this. It continues throughout the rest of this chapter. Look at what Jesus says in verse 14. He's talking about his disciples, and he says, I have given them your word. Same word you gave me, I gave them your word. Look over in verse 22. Jesus says, I have given them the glory that you gave me. We have the glory of Christ given to us. Verse 23, I and them, and you and me. Don't miss it here. The Father's in Jesus. Jesus is in us. That means all the Father has is in us. Look down in verse 26. The very end. It says, I've made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in who? In them, and that I myself may be in them. Jesus' whole ministry, this whole process of disciple making was him imparting his life, him giving away what the Father had given to him into the lives of these guys. This prayer comes at the conclusion of a long conversation Jesus had with his disciples as he prepared to go to the cross. If you turn back a couple chapters, go back to chapter 15. Let me just show you a couple places where you can underline some things that Jesus said. I am giving these things to you. Look at the resources he gives to his disciples. Look at John chapter 15, verse 11. He's about to start talking about the difficulties they're going to go through, and he says, This, I have told you this, so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. We have the joy of Christ given to us. Look in chapter 16, verse 33. Look at chapter 16, verse 33. He's just finished talking about the trouble they're going to go through. And he says, I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. I give you my peace, which we just sang about. We have the peace of Christ given to us, which comes from the Father. In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. We have his peace, we have his word, we have his glory, we have his joy. Look back in chapter 14. Listen to what he gives us there. Chapter 14, verse 16. He's preparing to go to the Father, and he says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. That's what I give you. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before the lawn the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, therefore I am in you. This is the picture. Jesus is giving us everything he has. All that he had, he poured out on the disciples. All that he has, he pours out onto us, even through his very spirit, his presence living inside of us. And this is huge. It's exactly why Jesus said to his disciples, look back up, same chapter, verse 12. Look at this verse. I tell you the truth. 14, 12, anyone who has faith in me, who trusts in me, will do what I've been doing. He will actually do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If there is anything I've learned over the last five years, this journey that I that God has been taking me on, it is that God has promised to bless his word. He has promised by his very character to bless his plan. He has promised to give every resource we need to see his plan accomplished. There's no way else you can describe what happened in the disciples' life, what happens in my life, what happens in our lives. When we give ourselves to the plan, he has designed it so that he provides the resources so that it is accomplished. And that's why I can say to you with complete boldness and complete confidence this morning that when we give ourselves to the plan of God, we will see the result of God. When we give ourselves to making disciples, guaranteed we will impact nations for his glory. We will impact Birmingham for his glory. When we give ourselves to his plan, he's promised, he's given his full sponsorship behind it. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, before we get into the Great Commission, he says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And the good news is that authority now lives in you. So we cannot sit here this morning and say, I can't be his representative because I'm not able to do it. You are more than able to do it. That is a lie from the adversary. You have every single thing you need to represent the character of God to the world around you. The question is, are we going to step up and take responsibility to display that character to them? And this is where we realize it makes complete sense now. We know our culture. We know that thousands of churches in Birmingham alone. And we know that this world is longing to see a demonstration of Christ that accompanies our explanation of Christ. Especially here in what we call the Bible Belt in the southeastern United States. They have had their fill of churchgoers who espouse all their conservative views on this or that issue. No matter how true they might be, or no matter how aligned with Scripture they might be, they have heard enough explanations of those issues. What they long to see is a demonstration of the liberal, generous grace and mercy of Almighty God. Their hearts long to see that. It was Jesus' whole method. What we see in the disciples and the gospels is not Jesus sitting down with his disciples and saying, Some of you have wondered what God is like. Pull out your pen and paper, and I'm going to give you a list of his attributes. First of all, he is Jehovah Jireh. That means he provides. Instead, he showed them the provision of God, up close and personal. Now we hear, we see that God is love. No, he showed them the love of God up close and personal. And what we'll find is that when we begin to demonstrate the word to people around us, it will enhance our credibility when we share the word. What happens when our lives become the gospel track? What happens when it's not a pamphlet we give out, but it's our lives that we show. Here is a picture of the character of Christ. You've heard me talk about the French Quarter ministry there. Listen to this letter. The guy writes, he says, I doubt if you remember me. But a month ago I came to your French Quarter breakfast only once, and then to your church for the Sunday morning service. I came to the breakfast on blind faith. One of your regulars, Duane, who I met on the street the night before, convinced me to come in hopes that I could find help getting home to my family. I was very reluctant to go to the quarter as I thought I would only find more misery in the form of alcohol and drugs. I really didn't think anyone would help an unknown alcoholic or addict on the street. The message at your church that morning was members sharing their mission experiences, for I was so impressed with the way your church welcomed me into your company, a complete stranger straight off the street. I was even more impressed the members of your church were more concerned with helping those who couldn't help themselves than they are with owning the grandest church building or wearing the finest clothes. You and all the members of the church offered me many valuable assets: food, clothing, temporary refuge, and even money to get me home. You allowed me into your church in the company of your families. What really impressed me was that you shared with me the greatest part of your life, your most valuable asset, your faith. The work your church members do requires taking risks and acting on faith to do the right thing. I am grateful you are willing to take that risk and give people like me hope. And I just wanted your crew to know that the seed you planted with me has sprouted. I am three weeks free of alcohol and drugs. May not sound like much, but it is an accomplishment for someone addicted for 30 years. I am leaving in the morning to go to a Bible-based treatment program in West Texas for a year. Thank you for bringing me to this turning point. I look forward to becoming a productive citizen again. What happens when they see Christ in us? What the Father, the God of the universe, has entrusted to you. May our lives be a demonstration to accompany our explanation. And our evangelism, our sharing the word will take on a whole new shape because people will be drawn to Christ as they see him in us. Don't you believe that? He is irresistible, he is good, he is gracious. If we would let the original disciple maker that lives in each of us out, then he will draw people to himself. The question is, are we going to take responsibility for showing the word? Display his character to them. Second. Not only do we display his character to them, but second, we live for his glory through them. We live for his glory through them. Now here's where I want you to see. Chapter 17, come back with me to John, chapter 17, verse 9 and 10. This, these two verses here, they almost seem like, well, what's he really saying there? We can almost skip over them. But they are loaded with meaning. Look at verse 9. Jesus says, I pray for them, talking about the disciples. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. So there's the book ends on these two verses. I pray for them, glory comes to me through them. What is he trying to show us here about disciple making? Well, I think a few different things. As we think about Jesus and the way he poured himself into these guys, I think he's showing us, first of all, when it comes to the people that God has given to us by his grace, put in our lives and our spheres of influence. First of all, we set our focus on them. Jesus said, I pray for these twelve guys. That's who I'm praying for. Now, he says, he even goes so far as to say he's not even praying for the world. And we'll get to that in a second, but he sets it all of his focus on them. I pray for them. Here we are at the end of Jesus' ministry. It's almost a little surprising that if you look at his life and his ministry that he spent with these guys, he actually spent more time with them as time progressed than less time with them. You'd think they'd have started to get it and he could tail off some time with them. Not the case. He had to have more time with them. If he's only got a week left, I'm spending all the time with these guys. Jesus spent more time with these guys than everybody else in the world put together. His focus was completely on them. Now why would that be? Maybe it's because building disciples, multiplying the gospel, it takes constant personal attention and focus from our lives. Maybe this is a process. We really need to hear this. Maybe this is a process that doesn't happen overnight. Maybe you can't make disciples in the newest or latest FAD or program. Maybe this is a slow, tedious process that has ups and downs the whole way through. It's a picture we have in the gospels. Take a guy from the French quarter, undoubtedly gonna be that way. Doing this thing requires time and personal attention from each of our lives. Us focusing on showing Christ and building the character of Christ in others. Now, fast forward 2,000 years ago, 2,000 years today, and what you see is discipleship is most often referred to as a program in the church that involves an hour class a week. And whether you call it Bible study or Sunday school or RBF or whatever, we limit discipleship to what happens in that one hour and this one particular classroom. Ladies and gentlemen, the world was Jesus' classroom, and he was modeling this to them day in and day out, week in and week out, and all the things that he experienced in his life. If we think we can can that and put it in an hour, then we are deeply mistaken. And you think about it, the way we, even when somebody comes to Christ, a new Christian, what we often do is we put them in that class. We think, well, now they're gonna grow because they're in the class. But all of a sudden the new Christian now finds themselves learning in the class a bunch of legalistic properties they're supposed to follow. But what they're missing out on is a living relationship where they see those truths modeled day in and day out, and all of a sudden they're left on their own to wander through the troubles and trials and struggles that a new Christian has because they don't have that living relationship, somebody pouring their life into them at that point. How are they gonna make it? It's no wonder, and the evidence is there. About half the people who come to faith in Christ and join a church end up falling away. And even many of us who've been in the church, maybe all of our lives, still lack deep knowledge of how to study the word and how to pray and how to share our faith. Why is that? Because we have tried to do on an assembly line basis what it took Jesus to do three years with these 12 guys, and even one of them was lost. You can't just churn this out. You can't come up with a new fad to make this happen. This is your life being set, focused on pouring into others. And it takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. And what we've got to decide is whether or not we're gonna live for the momentary applause of popular recognition with a new fad, or if we're gonna live for the reproduction of our lives for the generation after us, and the generation after us and the generation after us. That's where the multiplication and disciple making starts to come in. So we set our focus on them, let them see our lives. I remember just practically in my own life, down when I moved down to New Orleans, I went down there to study under a guy named Dr. Jim Shaddocks. He was professor in preaching. And I would take every class I could with Dr. Shaddocks, and I'd sit there and take copious notes the whole time. And that was good, that was valuable. But what I learned real quick was it was good to be in the classroom, but what I could learn from this guy outside the classroom was even far more valuable. And he started inviting me to me and Heather to come over and eat at their home and see them interact with their family with his family, to see him as he traveled and he preached on the road, and I would go along with him and listen to him. I know he was a big runner. He's one of those guys, some of you are like that, that think running is just fun just to do it for no reason, but just to run. I'm gonna go run one day. I'm just not that kind of guy. I you gotta have some sense of competition to get me going. I just don't find the fun in the running. But but Jim Shaddox was a runner. And so one day I come home from classes and I'm there in our little seminary apartment. I'm changing into shorts and a t-shirt, and Heather says, you know, what are you doing? I said, I'm going to run. She said, You're running? I said, Yeah. She said, Dr. Shaddocks is running, isn't he? It's like, yeah. She said, Whatever Dr. Shaddocks does, David does. And so he goes off. I start running. Well, that only lasted about three weeks, but the point is, this guy began to pour his life into mine. He began to invest in me. I was preaching at this conference this weekend here at the church. There's a guy of the youth group that comes here. He comes up to me afterwards. I'd met him once before. I don't hardly know him. He says, You studied under Jim Shattocks, didn't you? I said, Yeah, I even ran with him. He said, I could hear Jim Shattocks all over you preaching. And it was one of those realizations, as I thought about these truths, that my pro my life is a product of somebody else investing their life in me. Now, what happens when a whole faith family gets a hold of this? And we start doing that in others' lives. Do you see how the gospel starts to multiply? Maybe Jesus knew what he was talking about. So set your focus on them. And not just set your focus, but then second, see the world through them. See the world through them. He looks at them. He says, I pray for them, I'm not praying for the world. Now, how do you reconcile that? John 3.16, God so loved the what? The world. Jesus, God in the flesh, I don't know praying for the world. Why not? You love the world. Why would Jesus say, I'm not praying for the world? Why would he go out of his way to tell us I'm not praying for the world? He does it because. Not because he doesn't care about the world, doesn't want the world to come know his father's love. But what he's doing is he's praying for these guys because they're going to be the means by which the world is reached. He's seeing the world through them. He knows he's about to go to the Father, and it's their lives that are going to have an impact on the world from this point on. So he prays for them. Because he's, because everything is dependent on them taking that gospel, taking the word and showing it and sharing it. That's why he prays for them. And this is this is so good, and it's encouraging, this is comforting for us. You know, I use that French Quarter illustration. I remember when we moved down to New Orleans, I started going down to the French Quarter, and I'd come back and I'd say, Heather, I'm just from such a different background than all these homeless men and women and tarot card readers, from such a different background than they are. I don't know how to reach them with the gospel. And I started wrestling with that, and I'd come home and be like, maybe I need to get some tattoos. It'll enable me to be more effective. In one of those moments where I'm so zealous for the gospel, my wife just kind of brings me back down to earth and says, Let's pray about this one, Dave. How could I reach all these homeless guys with the gospel? But then I began to realize it's not about me getting tattoos. Thank you, Lord. It's not about me getting tattoos and making the gospel known among these hundreds of people in the French quarter. Myself, it's about me pouring my life into a couple of guys who are home and seeing them begin to take the gospel and make it real and meaningful in their context. And so all of a sudden I begin to see the homeless community through the eyes of these guys, a couple of them that I'm pouring my life into. And that's good news. We start to see the gospel multiplied as you pour your life into this person who has that sphere of influence, and this person who's that that sphere of influence. That's what Jesus is doing right here. And not just here, but around the world. I've told you some of my struggles with trying to learn the Mandarin language. But then it hits me. As I'm trying to learn Mandarin language, I realize I can speak fluent Mandarin. And I'm not just doing wishful thinking here. I can speak fluent Mandarin. Here's how. Because there are house churches in East Asia this week who are downloading these sermons and who are preaching them in house church networks all over that area. Mandarin being spoken there. That was easy. Same thing with the Urdu language in India as I email back and forth with Zamir, this Muslim background believer, who emailed me over the last couple of weeks. And as the Lord brings it to your mind, I would encourage you to pray for him. One of his friends was killed recently for proclaiming the gospel by militant Muslims, and it's really hurt the growth and expansion of the gospel there. But I have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel in Urdu through Zimir. See the world through them. Now you see, are you catching it? Local, global, bring them together. Now what we do here on a daily basis has the opportunity to impact the world for the glory of Christ. Man, this is a good plan. Set your focus on them, see the world through them, and third, stake your life on them. Man, this is where it gets really, really good. Stake your life on them. Jesus has said, glory has come to me through them. They are my glory. I've lived for them. He has staked everything on these guys. Some would not say that was a wise decision, but he did. He staked everything on them. So what does this look like in our lives? Well, let's take a bridge here from Jesus and let's go to a guy named Paul. I think Paul shows us this. Turn to the right with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. You gotta see this. There's some verses that I'm guessing some of you are very familiar with, but you gotta underline them or put a little note beside them because you're gonna see maybe a familiar verse, but you're gonna see disciple making the center of it, maybe for the first time. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31. It's a very, very common verse. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31. Paul, the guy who's writing this, says, Whatever whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the what? Glory of God. So we do everything. We drink orange juice to the glory of God. We do everything to the glory of God. Now, what does that look like? Well, that's what he says next. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God. Even as I try to please everybody in every way, listen to what he says. This is the heart of a disciple maker, for I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved. He's living for the sake of the glory of Christ and others. Now listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 11, 1. Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. What a bold statement. For Paul to come on the scene and say, you guys, follow me, and you will be following Christ. Some of your translations say, imitate me and you will be imitating Christ. Is that a bold statement or what? For you to say to the people in your sphere of influence, follow me and you will be following Christ. Are we supposed to say that? Isn't that a little bold? No, that's exactly what we're supposed to say. That's the essence of what this whole thing is about. And it's not just a moment where Paul was feeling pretty confident. Go over to Philippians chapter 3. Look at Philippians chapter 3. He says the same thing again. Look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 17. Underline these verses. Make a note. This is a picture. What it means to stake your life in showing others Christ. He says, Philippians 3, 17, join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. Follow my example. He comes down to the end of this chapter. He says, in verse 20, we eagerly wait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who listened to this by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our holy bodies. He's going to transform us so they'll be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom listen to this, you whom I love and I long for, my joy and my crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord. Paul looked at the believers who are in front of him in this letter and he said, I love you, I long for you. You are my crown, you are my joy, you are my life. Then you get down to verse 9 in Philippians 4. He says, Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you. He says, Follow me. Follow me, and you'll be following Christ. That's a bold statement. Some of you are thinking, well, I'm not supposed to be able to say that. That's too arrogant. It's not arrogant. It's arrogant to sit back on the sidelines and to shirk our responsibility to show the way to Christ and leave the world on its own to see his character. That is arrogance. That is self-centeredness. It is humility. It is deep humility to say, I'm going to lay down my life so that you see Christ in me, so that you can imitate and follow me, and you'll be following Christ. And that is a whole new level of Christianity that God calls all of us to. Turn over to one more, 1 Thessalonians. You've got to see this one. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 19, 20. Listen to this. I referenced it last week. I want you to read it, maybe underline it there. 1 Thessalonians 2, 19 to 20. Paul speaking again. He says, What is our hope? Our joy? Or the crown on which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and our joy. Did you catch that? Paul says, when the Lord Jesus comes back, and I'm held accountable for what I've done with the gospel he has entrusted to me and the mission he's entrusted to me, my joy will be you. Your lives, living for the glory of Christ. He says later in chapter 3, verse 8, and this is the summation of the whole thing. Chapter 3, verse 8, he says, now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord, the emphasis being on you. Did you catch that? I live, Paul said, because you are standing firm in the Lord. My life is staked on you standing firm in the Lord. If you don't stand firm in the Lord, then I miss out. So we live for the sake of others to see the glory of Christ, to show the glory of Christ. We set our focus on people. We see the world through them. And we stake our life on them. I know those of you who are parents in here know what that's like with a child. To live for them. I know in my own life, my mom, my dad, the biggest smile on my dad's face was when I was doing what Christ had called me to do. What happens when we love like that in this world? What happens when we live for each other? Now we're getting to the heart of New Testament Christianity. And it's not this routine we go through on Sundays to come to a place. It's the people that we are living for. Live for his glory through them. We display his character to them, we live for his glory through them. And third, we nurture his holiness in them. Come back to John 17. And you come to verse 11, and you see Jesus offer a petition, an individual petition, prayer for these guys. And he starts it off in verse 11. He said, I remain in the world no longer, they are still in the world, and I'm coming to you. And so he says, Holy Father. It's the only time in the gospels where we see Jesus refer to the Father with that term. Not that he hasn't always been holy, but he emphasizes his holiness. Why? Because he goes on to pray, protect them by the power of your name, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. He prays to protect and keep them. Now these words, if we had time, we'd dive into John and see. But most often this whole keeping, protecting idea is not as much intended to talk about physical protection. It is the spiritual protection that's tied to all we've seen here. Protect them in your name is what he's saying. Keep them showing your character. He said, I have continually showed your character to them. I have kept your character constantly in front of them. And so as he prays for them, he prays that these guys would continually display his character. He has lived to nurture his holiness in them. And now he prays that God would keep them solid in that. And what we're seeing is a contrast between the disciples and the world. It's a contrast we see all throughout John 17. We'll dive into it more two weeks from now. But the contrast is there. And what we're seeing all throughout this chapter, when it comes to this idea of holiness, and I pray over the next two weeks that God would transform our views of holiness and what that word means. We're only going to get to the tip of the iceberg today. We'll see it more in the next two weeks. But when it comes to holiness, you've got the disciples in the world. And what Jesus is saying here is we've got to avoid two extremes. Two extremes. Number one, extreme, is total separation from the world. Now, by separation, I mean mainly physical right here. Because yes, holiness in a spiritual sense is separation. We come out and we're separate. But what Jesus is not saying here is that his plan involves rescue planes coming in to get the disciples and taking them out of the world. Michael and Michelangelo, Gabriel, get the planes ready. We've got to get these guys out because it's a tough place to live. That's not what he prays for. And he doesn't pray that the Father would keep them in a safety deposit box so they are completely preserved from evil and suffering in the world. It's not what he prays. And so we avoid separation from the world. We are in the world. We do not watch Fox News at night, turn it off, and turn a deaf ear to the needs in the world and say the world is really struggling in a lot of trouble right now. We are in this thing, and God has put us in this thing for a reason. So we don't separate from the world. We're not out of here. At the same time, we avoid the other extreme. The other extreme is total saturation in the world. To the point where you got the world and the church, and you can't tell the difference. These guys were going to be in the world, but they were not of the world, it says in chapter 13, verse 13 and 14. So they were there, a part of the world. But the most effective way to make disciples in our culture is not to make ourselves indistinguishable from the culture, which is what some people think. If we're going to be affected, then we become like the world. Not like the world, we're with the world, but not like the world. And we're not different just for the sake of being different, just to be kind of these weird people. But we are in the world showing the character of God, including his holiness. And we've gotta we've gotta be careful here. If you know much about the church in England, you know that it was just over a century ago that a guy named Charles Spurgeon was preaching to packed houses, people coming to know Christ and coming to the gospel and droves. About a century later, now, today, in England, the church is struggling. Those churches that may have been full a century ago, many of them empty. How does that happen in one century? Is that a humbling thought or what? As we sit here in a crowded room to know that a century now from now, this building's a warehouse for something else. How does that happen? Well, I don't want to oversimplify it, but there's one historian, and I was reading in a biography, he said this. In England, the church accommodated the drives for money, status, and power in the new order. Secularism had infiltrated the church on a grand scale, at first as a sincere way to attract worldly people, but gradually secularism became dominant and transformed the church. The church began to look like the world. When they look at our lives with Christ in them, then when they look at lives without Christ in them, then we have undercut the mission of the gospel from the start. That's why holiness is a priority. That's why we live for holiness in each other. The two extremes are total separation and total saturation. The example Jesus has given us here is total sacrifice for the world. What Jesus is saying here is that these guys are going to be in the middle of a world of evil and suffering. And I'm praying, Father, that you would keep their character in you strong, that they would sacrifice the comforts of this world and the sinful desires of this world to show your character. I think it really comes down to, well, really two main facets. When it comes to comes to the world, you've got sin and suffering. Think about it in two ways. When it comes to sin, ladies and gentlemen, we want to live holy lives. We want to be pure. We want to reflect the character of God so that we will show this world that there is a God who is superior over sin, that there is a Savior who has conquered sin. The tragedy is, if we live lives where we're doing the same things when it comes to our language and the way we do business and pornography and our marriages, if we're living just like the rest of the world is, then the world looks at us and the glory of Christ is compromised because they don't see a people that are showing that Jesus is superior over sin, that he conquer sin, that living, they see the lives of people who are living just as enslaved to sin as everybody else. And so, students, whether you're here at Brook Hills or you're visiting here this morning, when it comes to purity and the temptations you face to be impure in your life as a teenager, I want to urge you, based on God's word, to be pure, not just for your sake, but for the sake of other students who need to see the purity of Christ, who are longing to see a picture of purity and holiness, and to see that there is someone who makes a difference in my life. And we live in our lives, husbands and wives, we sacrifice, husbands, men, we sacrificed our lives for our wives. We outserve them. Why? So that the world sees a picture of Christ and his church. So the world sees the love that Christ has for his bride. That's why we do that. Our struggles with sin take on a whole new shape when we realize we're a part of making disciples and we are living for the sake of others. And not just in sin, but in suffering. John chapter 15. You go back and you read the last half of it, the beginning of John 16. Jesus tells his disciples, you guys are gonna go through difficult times. He said, The world hates me and they're gonna hate you. And they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you also. He comes to John 16, verse 2 and 3, somewhere in there. He says, He says, There's gonna be a day where religious people think they are honoring God by taking your life. He knew that they were gonna go through difficulty. And it's true, out of those 11 guys, ten of them died martyrs' deaths. What he prayed for was that in the middle of that, they would hold fast to the character of God and they would trust in him. Because when they did, they would show the word most clearly to the world. And it makes sense. How did Jesus show the character of the Father most clearly to us on a cross in the middle of suffering? And this is a sobering thought, and I'll be honest with you, as your pastor, I don't realize all the ramifications of it, but I believe it's what scripture teaches. If we're gonna give ourselves to making disciples of all nations as a church, if we're gonna show the character of Christ, then it's gonna involve suffering. How can we ever show this picture of Christ to the world if everything always goes right for us? And that's tough for us to realize in a culture of affluence and where we get what we want. But if we're gonna show Christ to the world, it's gonna involve showing his character in the middle of suffering and don't miss it. Jesus has prayed for us and he prays for us, he intercedes for us. Father, protect them with the same protection you gave your people when you spit split the Red Sea in half, with the same protection you gave your people when I walk to the cross, the same protection he wants to give to us. But what that means is we in this process of disciple making sacrifice ourselves for the world. That leads us to a few questions that I want to ask you. First question I want to ask each of you in this room is who has God given you to show the word to? I want you to think about the fact that the people in your life and your spirit of influence are not accidentally there, that maybe, just maybe, God does have this thing rigged and he has put you in the place where you are for a reason. Who can you show the word to? In your home, but not just in your home, yes, in your home, but in your neighborhood, in your community, in your workplace. Who can you show the word to? Second question is how can you show them the word? Not accidentally, hopefully they'll see Christ in me. How can you intentionally show them the character of God and to plan intentionally how that looks? And then third question, what do you need to sacrifice in order to show them the word? Say, what do you mean? What do I need to sacrifice? Well, if there are some sins that you have been captive to for a while now, some things that you're holding on to, the desires of this world, then I want to urge you this morning to sacrifice them so that the glory of Christ and his character and his holiness might be made known through you. For others of us, what does it mean we need to sacrifice? For a lot of us, it's our pride. It's our pride of saying, I've got the plan for my life. We need to lay it down and start to give ourselves to the plan Jesus has. For many of us, it's our possessions. What do you need to give in order to show the character of God in this community and the world? For a lot of us, it's our comfort. We sing, we cling so tightly to our comforts and our comfort zone. What do we need to sacrifice in order to display the character of God? And I'm guessing for almost all of us, one thing we need to sacrifice is our fear. There's a lot of fear that comes with standing up and saying to the people around you, if you look at me, you're gonna see Christ. If you follow me, you'll follow Christ. But I want to remind you that God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline. He has put his spirit inside of us. So let's let's give ourselves to what he's called us to do.

SPEAKER_00: 52:41

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