Shaun Rossi // The Gospel of John

Christians are those people whom God the Father has given to His Son, who know and obey Him, whom He keeps while they’re in this world (but not at home in the world).

“6 I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

— John 17:6-19

three ways jesus prays for his disciples identityI. A Prayer to Know Their Identity vv 6-11

““Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.””

— Ephesians 1:3-4

“”And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.””

— Romans 8:30

““I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.” ”

— Romans 9:15

“10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.””

— Matthew 13:10-13

II. A Prayer to Protect Their Identity vv 12-16

“18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”

— John 13:18

“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

— Leviticus 19:2

“11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

— Romans 6:11-14

“Sanctify Them” As Gospel Holiness

In his vast theological writings, Puritan theologian and pastor, John Owen, frequently refers to a disciple’s sanctification as the pursuit of “gospel holiness.” Gospel holiness is obedience to Christ motivated by belief in the gospel, not by one’s moral effort. It is a view of sanctification, the gradual process of being conformed to the image of Christ, that recognizes the essential, ongoing role of repentance and faith in Jesus. To clarify the difference between self-made “sanctification” and gospel-motivated sanctification, John Owen labors to differentiate between gospel holiness and morality. In his distinction, the latter is the product of human effort, not of grace. Although morality and holiness may, at times, look similar on the outside, they are altogether different on the inside. Morality is self-centered; gospel holiness is Christ centered. Morality holds self up high in reaching for moral virtues, but gospel holiness holds Christ up high in virtuous failure and success. Gospel holiness requires the truth of God’s Word and his grace to believe and obey the truth. This truth and grace, which comes to us in Jesus (John 1:17), is central to holiness and is the subject of Jesus prayer for us in John 17:17.

In conclusion Owen’s description of holiness is challenging and forthright:

“peculiarly joined with and limited unto the doctrine, truth, and grace of the gospel; for holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing, and realizing of the gospel in our souls.”

— John Owen (From his book "The Holy Spirit" p. 1529)

Is there an order to salvation?

In todays sermon we gently bump into the question: Is there an order to the salvation that we receive in the Gospel?

Early in the 18th century, Lutheran theologians Franz Buddeus and Jacob Carpov coined the phrase order salutis to refer to the idea of a sequence or order in salvation. Many scriptures point to an order to salvation, but the problem is there is much variance both in order and which aspects of salvation are included.

Perhaps the most recognised verse on salvations order is Romans 8:28-30:

“28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. ”

Here, Paul seems to put forth the order of: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification. However it is a worthy to consider the different tenets of salvation in Scripture and as you do to be thinking of the order in which they come as well as their relationship to one another.

If you would like to study more a starting point is read what Theologian Sinclair Fergussen describe his understanding of the start of ordo salutis: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/which-comes-first-in-the-ordo-salutis-faith-or-regeneration/

Small group study

Read John 17:6-19

1. Jesus recognises that these disciples had always belonged to God. Jesus says “yours they were” (John 17:6) and “they are yours” (John 17:9). Paul writes:

Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (emphasis by UCC)

• Do you think of yourself as a Christian as one who has belonged before all eternity to God the Father?

• In the sermon it was said: “once we grasp that we are Christians because of the eternal choice of the Father whose we were, and the gift of the Father to the son, and the revealing of the Father by the Son to those who are given. Once we understand that than we are anchored because our Christianity is not rooted just in the shallowness of our own decision, but in the depth of the eternal life of God.”

• Discuss the anchoring effect of knowing you have eternally belonged to Jesus?

2. What does Jesus pray for his disciples?

3. With reference to John 17:13, what does it mean to have “joy fulfilled in themselves”?

• Why did Jesus pray this while he was still with them?

• Do we have the full measure of Jesus’ joy within us?

4. Why do Jesus’ disciples need protection? What difference should it make in the life of a disciple that Jesus is praying for their protection?

• What struggles do we face in our lives that require protection from God?

5. What is the relationship of a disciple of Jesus Christ to the world? What extremes are to be avoided?

6. What is sanctification? What does Jesus say that it involves? (See the above post on Sanctification for own talk one theologians take on sanctification)

• How practically can the truth of the Word of God work for our daily sanctification? What does that look like in your own life. Give examples. (See: John 1:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:16)

7. Jesus prays for the mission of his disciples. What is the relationship between sanctification and mission?

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” - 1 Peter 2:9.

Close in prayer.

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