The Commitment To Shared Knowledge
By Woodrow Kroll
John 17:14-22
To succeed in business and military strategy or, for that matter, in getting people to accomplish any worthwhile task, you need to communicate your purpose. Once workers, or soldiers, or members understand why they're doing something, they're more motivated to get the job done. Today Dr. Kroll helps us better understand why we're still here, what God's purpose is for Christians to remain in this world instead of being transported to heaven as soon as they come to faith in Christ.
Now while that idea would certainly be easier for us, it wouldn't accomplish the task God's left us to do. Jesus outlined this particular mission to His disciples, the night before He was crucified. The mission, quite simply, that the world may know. And it's important what you know, especially if you're to accomplish this task.
John 17, Jesus comes to the last night of His life here on earth and He said, "I've finished this task. I have glorified the Father. I'm ready Father to return to You and to come back to the glory that I set aside that I had with You before the world was." The great joy of a finished task.
Well, Jesus' task is finished in this passage. Now, here's the catch. When Jesus' task finished, your task and mine just began. So also in this passage, not only do we see Jesus in the joy of His finished task, but we see us and the danger of our present task. Look down at verse 14. You want to see some danger, look at this. John 17:14, He says:
"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they're not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:14-17).
Now for you and me looking at this passage, thinking about the K-N-O-W's of John 17, the knows in this passage, we know that Jesus' task is finished. He has the great joy now of returning to the Father. But we also know that He is warning us of the dangers of the task we have yet to come. Notice what the dangers are, verse 14, very clearly in God's Word, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world."
I think one of the primary dangers we face in the task of evangelism is the hatred of the world. People do not like to find out they're sinners. Now there is a great concern about being hated by the world, but notice also there's a greater danger than that in verse 14.
"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." I think a greater danger than being hated by the world, the latter part of that 14th verse, is being attracted to the world, being like the world, becoming like the world in such a way that the world can't distinguish the believer from the unbeliever.
And you can do that any day of the week today. I mean you can go to some churches and not even know the Gospel was there. Now what on earth good is that? Sure, you haven't driven anybody away from the Gospel and you've gathered a large audience, but you haven't given them the Gospel either--these people are going to die in their sins and go to a Christless eternity because we weren't willing to stand up and tell of the Gospel.
Now that's what He says here. Be careful because the world will hate you. Secondly, be careful, you may be so attracted to the world you'll want to become just like the world. You'll want to do the things the world does, you want to look like the world, think like the world, smell like the world. And Romans 12 tells us just the opposite, friends, just the opposite. Jesus' concern for you and me is that we are hated world, but we're not attracted to it.
And then verse 15, here's His third concern. His task is finished, but there's danger ahead for you and me. Verse 15, He says, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." See, Jesus does not want you to withdraw from the world. If you do, the only witness this world has is gone. Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). But when He left, He said, "Now, my friends, you--you are the light of the world." And if you and I withdraw from the world, there's no light for this world.
So He doesn't take us out of the world, He just prays that we will not be overwhelmed by the evil one. He prays that we will be kept from evil. That's exactly the same prayer as in what we call the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6, isn't it? "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil [the evil one]" (Matthew 6:13).
Now, Linda and I have four children, three daughters and one son. They and their children are the delight of our lives. And I have to tell you I have not prayed every day that God would make of my son a great pastor and a great preacher. He is a pastor. I have not prayed of my daughters that God would make of them great teachers of the Word, great mothers to their children, great wives to their husbands. They are that.
But this is what I pray for my kids every day, "Lord, keep them from the evil one. Don't let Satan get his grip on them." Because if the world, the flesh, and the Devil, swallows up and gets a hard grip on our families, their use to the Lord God is finished. My prayer for my children is "Keep them from the evil one."
And you know what? That's what Jesus is praying for me! Jesus is greatly concerned, not that I am hated by the world. He doesn't care about that at all. He's concerned that I'll be so attracted to the world that the world won't hate me. He's concerned that I'll be gobbled up by the evil one, that I'll fall prey to the sins of the evil one and in the process of doing that, I'll no longer be of any value to Him in service to this world.
So when Jesus prays His final prayer, talking about what we need to know about the Father and how we are introduced to the Father by Him, He says, "I have the great joy of having finished My task. But you, you my disciples, you are facing the toughest days of your life ahead because I am not going to be with you. I'm going to send My Spirit to minister to you, but I will not be with you Myself." And then He says, "And here's the task I want you to perform."
Notice quickly what it is. Verse 18, "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." The task is extremely brief. The task is extremely simple, and the task is not difficult to understand. God sent His Son into this world. God saved you so that He could send you as His sons and daughters into the very same world that the Lord Jesus came. Now that's it. That's the task.
We are here for a purpose. I have said again and again and again, and likely you have heard me say it, we should never quote Ephesians 2:8 and 9, without verse 10. "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has foreordained that we should walk in them."
See, there's a reason why you are still alive. Hey, if heaven is so great--and it is--and if earth is not like heaven at all--and it isn't--once you get saved, wouldn't it be gracious of God simply to take you home? Well, of course it would! So why are you here? There's a reason why you and I are here. Jesus said, "Father, as You have sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world."
And here is why Jesus sends you and me into the world. Look at verse 22, "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one," and look at this, "and that the world may know."
Friends, there is the privilege of sharing the knowledge that you and I know about the Lord God, there is the privilege of sharing what Jesus has done for us with others--"that the world may know."
Now I don't know about you, but I have heard of more evangelism programs by the year 2000 than I care to think about. I remember when I was a boy, thinking about the new millennium. I was young, maybe thirteen or fourteen. And I started to calculate, "Can I possibly be alive when the year 2000 rolls around?" How old would I be? Ancient! Doesn't seem so bad anymore!
David Barrett is the editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia. He also publishes a paper called "The Monday Morning Reality Check." I love this. Barrett says that there have been 1,100 plans to evangelize the entire world since Christ's death, burial and resurrection. But he also goes on to say that in the past 25 years, we've only done what amounts to a drop in the bucket. David Barrett says one third of the world is still unevangelized. One third. In fact, he says 16 percent of the world has never yet heard the name "Jesus" in a saving way.
So why are we left here? We are left here so that the world may know. All the things you and I have enjoyed getting to know about the Savior--now He says, "I am sending you back into your world, so that the world may know."
Do you know what is 150,000 miles long? 150,000 miles, circles the earth 30 times, and grows by 20 miles every day? It is the line of people who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. Grows by 20 miles a day.
Now, all of us are not sent into the world to be the evangelists of the Church. All of us are not sent to another country as missionaries. It's my prayer that some of you here today may feel God stirring in your heart and you can't help yourself, you've just got to lay yourself bare before the Lord God and let Him do with you whatever He wants to do. And you know, you don't have to be 17 to do that. You can be 71 and do that.
But let's think about it friends. Most of us are not called to other countries. So those of us that are not called, are called to a support ministry. And in the United States of America, my friends, we will never, ever, ever have one of those plans to evangelize the world that will work until we get on our knees more. And until we open our pocketbooks more. And I want to say this as gently, and as firmly, as I can, I think God has blessed us, not as a nation, but as Christians in this nation, so that the world may know.
And it's my prayer that everything you do and everything I do, I do with the calculation of what does it mean for eternity? Every penny I spend, every dime I spend on something, every new payment I take on, every credit card slip I sign, I want to ask myself and hold my feet to the fire and make sure that I am changing lives for eternity. Because I know it's trite, but it is true--only what's done for Christ will last.
So how are you doing today, my friend? Does the world know because you know? All this week we've been talking about what we know about the Father through the Son. And now we get to a passage like this that says, "What I want you to do is, I want you to go into the world for two reasons. One of them is so all the world may know." But there is another reason here.
Look again at verse 22, "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one." Do you know how we will know when all the world knows? You see, I have been watching people for years say, "I can't wait until the last person trusts Christ and we're out of here." And they have been counting numbers. "Surely it's got to be this many...this nation is now evangelized." No, the Bible says that we will know that all the world knows when we are one.
And I'm not talking about some ecumenical unity here or some ethical unity or even some denominational unity or spiritual unity or theological unity. That's never going to happen. But until we as one body and one mind and one mouth make it our one life's ambition so that all the world may know, this world will not know.
We are going to fail at 1,101 Plan for Evangelism until the Church says, "This is the one reason why God has left us here--until we are one." It's that oneness that's patterned after the Trinity of God--Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Jesus says "I want them, My people, to be one the way We are one." And the three in the Trinity are very distinct. So it's not this uniformity that we are looking for, it's the unity that comes in saying we have one task on this earth--it's to glorify God by the way we present Him as Savior to the world.
It was VBS (Vacation Bible School) time. It was Wednesday of the week. And it was almost time for VBS to be over. Now, lots of you have done VBS and you know that a purple heart is in order for everybody who does VBS. Some of you made it through Vietnam, made it through Korea, you can barely make it through a week of VBS. This is ballistic warfare, friends, VBS! And by Wednesday, you are pretty well shot through anyway.
It was almost closing time for VBS this Wednesday afternoon when the director brought in a new little boy to your class. This actually happened to a teacher. When this new little boy came into her class, she noticed the little boy had only one arm. She didn't know the boy. He was apparently from the community. She had no opportunity to ask how he had lost his arm. She was very concerned what the other kids might say about the boy, so she tried to just incorporate him in the class as best she could.
When she got to the end of the class that day, she closed her VBS exactly the way she always closed VBS. She did this. She said, "Okay, class, let's make our church. Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors..." And the thought came crashing into her. She looked at the little boy and he was just sitting there. Her heart sank. And then it was raised again when she saw a little girl sitting next to him take her left arm, put it over against his, and she said, "C'mon, Davey, let's make church together."
Friends, the world will know, when we start to "make church together." Not one denomination, not one theology, not one perspective, but one purpose--that the world may know.
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