Kempsey Uniting - Looking Up and Going Out in the World

Kempsey Uniting Church

Sunday 17 May 2015

Ascension & Easter No 7

Introduction

The Gospel reading is about Jesus petition to his Father for protection and sanctification of those that sent into the world after his ascension. Our second reading is the testimony of God about Jesus as the Son and confirm within our hearts and Psalm 1 highlights the image of an acceptable person belonging to God.

Bible Readings in the New Living Translation

Psalm – Psalm 1

1Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers.
² But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night.
³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.

⁴ But not the wicked!
    They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
⁵ They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
    Sinners will have no place among the godly.
⁶ For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
    but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Gospel Reading - John 17: 6-19

⁶ “I have revealed you^[a] to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, ⁸ for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.

⁹ “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. ¹⁰ All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. ¹¹ Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name;^[b] now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. ¹² During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me.^[c] I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.

¹³ “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. ¹⁴ I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵ I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. ¹⁶ They do not belong to this world any more than I do. ¹⁷ Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. ¹⁹ And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.

Second Reading - 1 John 5:9-13

⁹ Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. ¹⁰ All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.

¹¹ And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

¹³ I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

1.     Why Jesus prays for these men (John17:6-19)

We find Jesus reaching the end of his earthly ministry with the pending arrest, trial, death, burial, resurrection and ascension back to God the Father. As Jesus approach his priestly ministry of sacrifice, he intercedes now for the ones that God the Father has placed into his care, to prepared them for the future, into the world to share the Word of God. A time of transition to the birth of a new society and standing out in marked contrast to the world.

Straight away the writer in verse 6 declares that Jesus’ disciples are God’s possession and they came from the world. Jesus instructed them, he revealed God the Father and they have keep God’s word.

The disciples were part of the world before they were called, like us in the world and were enmeshed in its sin and rebellion against God.

The disciples in Jesus company experience all that Jesus have is a gift from God and accepted “the message you gave me” (v8). The sovereign will of God has been unfolded before the disciples through Jesus bring the message from God. God brings people together to share in God’s redemption and restoration.

How did the disciples experience this for themselves? How is it made true in their own lives? In this way: Jesus made the Father known to them and they obeyed the Father’s word to believe in his Son (v.6). They accepted what Jesus said and knew with certainty that he had come from the Father and believed that he had been sent by the Father (v.8).

2.     Praying for protection

The church is bigger than the four walls that house our worship. We find Jesus petitioning his Father to protect the people that he had given to him. Likewise we need to pray for those that are in the world, our brothers and sisters who are sharing in the hope of our faith, the Kingdom of God.

During the week I received an update on the social media from International Christian Concern on May 15 and it was title ‘Encouragement to overcome’. It is an account of Nabil Ibrahim a Christian with his wife and 3 children living in Egypt’s South Sinai. One early morning on January 31, 5 Islamic extremists enter his home, killed Nabil in front of his 3 children and robbed the household; they then disappeared into the dark. This is a tragedy account which faces our brothers and sisters on a daily basis. We may experience break and enter here in Kempsey but a loss of life seldom.

Debra an Author
A mother experience recently captures in The Age newspaper on 28 March under the title, the mother of all experiences. The article list 3 experiences and I share one of them an author of novel The Household Guide to Dying name Debra. Debra is a mother of three children reflects on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last July when Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin dropped out of the Ukrainian sky. This is a tragedy that left a vast hole forever in their family. Debra states that she is ‘not the only person who wondered how their parents would cope.

·        Debra through her experience writes, “I don’t understand when people say parenting didn’t change them. And I don’t get it when I see parents (yes, often men) who lives indeed seem unchanged. Being a mother changed me profoundly. For the first time in my live and ever since, I understood that I had a truly serious and sometimes frightening responsibility: from the time they were babies, I had to protect these people”.

·        A reflection on the parents who lost the three children I have mention, Debra writes, I kept asking myself this as I watched obsessively, the TV coverage. How did they stand there calm and dignified, talking about their beautiful cherished children who were now gone forever? If my children were killed suddenly in such circumstances – I expect I would still limp on through life, but if they were as young as the Maslins, then perhaps like that other mother I would want to kill myself, too.

Debra reflection as a mother in the midst of this terrible tragedy is to hold her own children tight, all of them at once.

In v.9-16 of the Gospel reading set out concerns of Jesus for those staying in the world. This prayer is central “for those you have given me, because they belong to you.” (v.9). Included in the prayer of protection is also extending to those “who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory” (v.10). This is a picture of a new society of believers, a people who belong to God and a property of the Father and the Son.

We are then thrown into a separation of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus will be ascending back to his Father, his task is completed and his disciples are staying in the world. The physical Christ they will not be able to touch with physical contact. Jesus stood guard while he is with them and was able to protect them. Jesus requests his father, “now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are” (v.11b).

We are to be single-minded person together for the advancement of the Gospel like Jesus with his disciples and continue to seek this through God the Father. This is the true essence of “will be united just as are”. It is not a promotion of self but the Gospel of Jesus. The church exists as a society of believers in the world to provide compassion and a voice for the Gospel of Jesus. That is the single-minded message, the good news of the Kingdom of God.

3.     Prayer for sanctification: set apart for mission

We come to the end of the Gospel reading with a prayer of sanctification and being set apart for mission.

·        Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth (v.17)

·        Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world (v.18)

·        And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they be made holy by your truth (v.19)

Jesus is still interceding on behalf of the ones that God the Father has given him and he is petitioning the Father to “make them holy”. There is nothing that we can do; it is through the Father and his word that makes them and us holy. To be holy is a called to be separated, to come into fellowship and no longer participate in the former things but to be set apart for mission into the world. If one thinks coming to Christ is an escape from the world, you are very wrong. The world is the mission field for the disciples and requires action from God the Father, to know the teaching of God through the word.

The sacrifice of Jesus through the death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the Father and Jesus is giving of himself to enable the disciples to be holy.

As we respond to the call of God, we too can be made holy through the sanctification of Jesus, who has forgiven us and restored us into the relationship with God the Father. This is the final lesson that Jesus prays to the Father that he will continue and uphold them through protection for the mission.

Rev V G Tasker in his commentary suggests that the term ‘sanctify’ is more to mean not only to make holy but ‘to dedicate what is already holy’. There is some credence to what Rev Tasker suggests and remembering Jesus is the Christ and Son of God, Jesus is already set apart for the sacrifice he has accepted. God the Father had called the disciples, to set them apart for the journey with Jesus, to learn from him, the words of God. Jesus is now sending them into the world.

Just as the Father has commission Jesus into the world, so now Jesus is commissioning his disciples into the world. We too, are disciples of Jesus and we have been given our mission in the world.

4.     Whom to believe?

Our second reading from 1 John 5:9-13 that chapter 5, the writer focuses his attention on the person of Jesus as Son of God and giver of life. This God’s testimony about his Son Jesus and the very same theme we have witness in the Gospel reading in John 17. The stage is set; God is in the witness box testifying to the truth about his Son. Who does God have as his witnesses about Jesus as the Son of God?

His witnesses are those who believe the disciples and us in our hearts that God’s testimony is true. There is clearly for and against God, opposition who do not accept the testimony as true but a lie. The choice is given like the disciples of Jesus could accept or deny the claims that Jesus made about being the Son of God.

We come to church because we have a choice to accept the call of God and seek to worship him through singing, prayers, the scriptures being read aloud and a message from his Word.

5.     Evidence for the testimony

The evidence for the testimony is Jesus and how can we know that the earthly Jesus is, indeed, the Christ, the Son of God. The evidence lies within our heart but equally important the disciples of Jesus experience the community, which has heard, seen, looked at and touched the evidence for it-self (1:1-2)

6.     Eternal life

Our reward of acceptance of the evidence of the testimony is what God “has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”(v.11)

It is our relationship with Jesus that brings eternal life. Life is in the Son, and only if you are one with Him will you have eternal life.

Theology does not save.

Attending church does not save.

Bible knowledge does not save.

Good deeds do not save.

Being nice does not save.

There is only one Person, one Name, one Way to salvation – a right relationship with Christ.

(A reflection from New Life Church Narrabri)

In closing with a reflection, a poem on Psalm 1:

Plant me by the rivers, Oh Living God
That I may drink of thee
Plant me by the rivers oh Living God
Make me like an evergreen tree

My delight is in the law and it is my roots
Sunk down deeper ever closer to thee
Lead me to the Rock that is higher that I
Make me like an evergreen tree

Though the landscape turns to desert
And the world turns its back on thee
Night and day I shall come before you
Make me like an evergreen tree

So may I walk in the council of the Godly
Walking ever closer to thee
May I be a vessel for thy good pleasure
Make me like an evergreen tree

Frank McEleny