Him We Proclaim

John 18:1-14: Summary:So begins the final crises of Christ. Let us not be unaffected. Having prepared and prayed for His disciples in view of His departure, He now takes to the Garden of His distress. Being often frequented, a place of sweetest assembly becomes a place of sinfullest arrest. Proving ignorance of Christ, the betrayer comes to Him with a weaponized hoard. To display His authority over the situation, and to give a manifestation of His guardianship, Jesus unsheathes the divinity of His Word. Something of Him is revealed in His self-identification. His enemies reflexively bow. His disciples, in contrast, safely stand. One disciple, Peter, however, continues to misunderstand. Perhaps enemies of Christ approach Him on-guard, not because of Christ, but because of disciples who, sadly, fail to appropriate the heart of Christ and the true character of His mission. To that end, Jesus is arrested and 'bound,' and the process of unjust examination begins, whereby one Man will die for the people---whereby Jesus will justify, free, and arrest the hearts of all who believe.

Sermon Outline:

Coming to Jesus---in the dark. (18:1-3)

Jesus stepping forward---to give Light. (18:4-11)

The Word in charge. (18:4-6)

The Lord our Shepherd. (18:7-9)

The Lamb of God. (18:10-11)

Jesus arrested---to be arresting. (18:12-14)

John 17:20-26: Summary:Looking ahead to future generations of Christians, Jesus finishes His priestly prayer for His people with a petition, a passion, and a promise. He prays for our Word-centered unity as the children of God, and for its missional effect in the world. He articulates His passion for us, that we see His glory and, in that, we're challenged to esteem His glory above all the matters of life. And He makes a promise to that end, that as He's made God known to us, He will continue to do so, so that we become the Body of Christ, filled with the love of God. Let's join our Lord in praying for the very same excellencies of love and grace.

Sermon Outline:

Jesus' final petition for His people (17:20-23)

Jesus' ultimate passion for His people (17:24)

Jesus' closing promise for His people (17:25-26)

John 17:6-19: Summary:If you could have Jesus pray anything for us, what would it be? What does Jesus pray for His people? John 17:6-19 begins to give us a few definitive answers to such questions. It begins with our Lord's gracious perspective of His people, before moving into His glorious prayers for His people. By grace, we know that He's the Christ of God, and we keep the Word of God. And by grace, though He leaves the world and, for mission, we remain, He departs to intercede for us and hold us fast. The petitions concern His glory in His people, and they are three, and all rooted in the soils of His Word: our perseverance, our joy, our holiness. For this, He also sanctifies Himself to the death of the cross. Is it possible, then, that His prayers for us will go unanswered? Will He Who died for us, Who lives for us, fail to do all His desire for us? Will the Father, having given Christ, refrain from giving us these most essential requests? Surely not.

Sermon Outline:

Jesus' grace-filled perspective of His people. (17:6-8)

Jesus' glory-minded petitions for His people. (17:9-18)

a: For divine and Word-centered preservation. (17:11b-12)

For undaunted and Word-centered joy. (17:13-14)

For missional and Word-centered holiness. (17:15-18)

Jesus' guarantee on His praying for His people. (17:19)

John 17:1-5: Summary:The Olivet Discourse (Jesus departing) is ended, moving immediately into prayer. John 17 is most properly the Lord's prayer. In this first section, we're party to the conversation of the Son directed trustingly to the Father. We get to hear Jesus pray. And He begins by asking the Father to glorify Himself by glorifying Christ in His death on the cross---in His purchase of eternal life for His people. Next, Jesus defines eternal life for His people. And finally, He expresses His utter confidence in the completion of the work the Father gave Him to do. This leads Him to ask for exaltation---the Man Christ Jesus to the throne and glory He had with the Father before the world existed. In this final request, we are comforted about our own destiny in Christ, and that, while we are at distance from Him now, it makes no difference, He is the Lord of all, and He's praying for us.

Sermon Outline:

Jesus' primary concern: the glory of the Father in the Son on earth. (17:1)

a) God glorified in the cross of Jesus. (17:1)

b) God glorified in the authority of Jesus. (17:2)

c) God glorified in the gift of Jesus. (17:3)

d) God glorified in the confidence of Jesus. (17:4)

Jesus' intercessory concern: the resumption of His glory in Heaven. (17:5)

Ephesians 3:14-21: Summary:

Having just arrived at the centrality of the Church in the eternal purpose God has realized in Christ, Paul bows himself before God the Father. The prayer is involved yet simple. He asks the Father to make the Church, in all of Her localized assemblies, a visible and triumphant display of His glory. There is a 'gotcha' element to the Church, in that Her very existence cries an eternal victory over enemy principalities and powers---but becoming what God's adopted us to be is a real and essential labor. It's a work of God by the Holy Spirit in our inner being as we appropriate by faith the boundless love of Jesus. As we engage in that community project, marinating in His love, Christ Himself gains area in our collective heart. God Himself fills us, so that we display His glory. As He alone is able to do it, we're to look to Him for it always. His Church-centered plan has no replacement. Into the new creation, we're it---by His grace and for His glory.

Sermon Outline:

The essential power for displaying Christ as a church. (3:14-17)

The essential practice for displaying Christ as a church. (3:18-19)

The essential praise for displaying Christ as a church. (3:20-21)

Job 31:1-23: Summary:Job, the righteous-sufferer, details his righteousness in terms of love in the fear of God toward the entirety of human society, and at its base is a single principle, a God-entranced worldview: our sanctity, rights, and worth as human persons is established, not by what we are or become in the world, but by what we all are in relationship to God from creation in the womb. God's work in the womb, the distinct creation of a human being, gives every person an irrevocable dignity and right, from the womb, to be treated as a human being with a protected right to life. The righteous are, thus, especially to use their God-given strength in the most righteous treatment of every person---and certainly the most vulnerable among us: those yet in the womb.

Sermoun Outline:

Job's righteousness. (31:1-23)

A chief principle behind it. (31:15)

a: 'He Who made me in the womb made him.'

b: A case from Job for doing uprightly by the unborn human being.

Revelation 7:9-12: Summary:The seals 'sealing up' redemptive history are being opened in various judgments against sinful humanity. God seals up the redeemed of Christ, so that they, no matter their experience of trial, will be saved. John is enabled to see the future certainty of the Church glorified and gathered around the throne of God and grace. He sees an innumerable multitude. In many ways, they are distinct; and yet, in primary and indestructible ways, they are one great and unified assembly. As we take a break from our normal course of exposition to give focus to yearly matters of importance, and as that brings us to dwell upon the important matter of the ethnic harmony only Christ can create, we get to take a look at ourselves in our glorious and eternal future, as part of a global Church, and ask, 'what makes for this? How can it be? And why? And how might we become more of a foretaste of this vision to the glory of God in Christ today?'

Sermon Outline:

Behold the great multitude. (7:9a-b)

Behold their oneness. (7:9c-10)

Behold the angelic Amen. (7:11-12)

1 Thessalonians 1:2-10: Summary:Full of thanksgiving. Some people complain Paul has a too frequent harsh tone. The reality is that Paul loves God's people deeply, and so he takes the holiness of the saints, God's chosen people, seriously. And as he reminds himself of the faith of the Thessalonian church, he can't help but thank God for their response to the gospel. He considers not just their conversion from lifeless idols to the living God, but he wonders at the outworking of that faith and their steadfast patience. As Paul and his associates follow Christ, the church at Thessalonica has fruitfully imitated both, and Christians all over now echo the results. Underlying all is the Word.

Ephesians 1:15-23: Summary:On the heels of Paul's great (and longest) sentence on the grace of God in our salvation, he moves to thanksgiving and prayer. He praises the glory of God's grace for its creative effect: a people, a true and visible church, with an amplified faith in Jesus and love towards all the saints. He then prays that the God of Christ and Father of glory may not only sustain that beauty but increase it by giving us 1) a better knowledge of Himself, in which Light, our hearts might further know 2) the hope to which He's called us, 3) the wealth we have in His heavenly assembly, and 4) the (immeasurable greatness of the) power He exercises in Christ for our benefit and ministry as the Body of Christ in this world. As we move into our 'first five' series, giving focus to prayer, this text provides us with something wonderful to pray for our church as a church this year.

Sermon Outline:

Paul's thanksgiving to God for healthy churches. (1:15-16)

Paul's prayer to God for healthy churches. (1:17-23)

That we'd know God better. (1:17)

That we'd know God's inheritance better. (1:18)

That we'd know God's power better. (1:19-23)

Genesis 49:8-12: Summary:Genesis is critical, foundational to our whole-Bible understanding of Jesus Christ. As we approach the end of the book, Moses brings various Christ-centered promises to bear upon a future King from Jacob's family and, more specifically, of Judah's line. Echoing Genesis 3:15, this descendant will be the serpent-crushing Lion-King. Echoing Genesis 12:1-3, He will establish God's everlasting Kingdom, as well as its global and regenerated citizenry; and there is no chance that He will fail to achieve the purpose for which God sent Him into the world. His Vineyard will be abundantly blessed. As He reappears in Revelation 5, He is the Sovereign of history and of God's redemptive plan. He will surely bring it all to pass to the praise and worship of God in Christ. Let all His citizens rejoice and take heart. The scepter shall not depart from the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Sermon Outline:

The fighting King of Judah---and His victory.

The everlasting King of Judah---and His subjects.

The harvesting King of Judah---and His sovereignty.