In Europe during the High Middle Ages (1000 to 1300AD) theology was said to “queen of the sciences.”
When we think science we think of the study of the natural world: biology, chemistry, physics.
But at the time, knowledge of the temporal world included theology.
Theology was “queen of” or supreme over the other fields of learning because it gave a foundational standard of truth…the Bible.
Every scholar in every field of study has a worldview, that worldview shapes how he or she sees what they are looking at.
Two scientists look at the same world and one sees a creation the other a cosmic accident.
How do we know who is right and who is wrong…clearly it can’t be both.
Both look at the same physical evidence…one sees randomness, a cosmic accident, and the other intention, purpose…a creator.
The Bible tells us that we can know some things by observation of the created world…Romans 1…what is called general revelation.
But it also gives us what only God can tell us and what we cannot discover on our own.
This includes, of course…what is our greatest problem(sin) and what is God’s solution for that problem (the gospel)
Paul told young Timothy..
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Tim. 4
Sound doctrine is theology, the truth of God as given in his Word.
Teaching theology is the priority of church because our living flows from our believing.
When people don’t believe sound doctrine, they will go looking for things to believe that affirm what they want to be true…to their own harm.
This is what we see when we look around us…people saying a biological male can be a woman, homosexuality is good and natural…divorce for any reason is okay and not a tragedy, pornography is not evil and harmful, drug addictions are valid human choices.
Also…I have a reason to be bitter, judgmental, hold a grudge…get revenge…you get it.
All this leads to terrible outcomes…both in time (relationships, wasted life, the temporal results of sin) and on into eternity (the permanent effects of unforgiven sin…separation from God)
Today we are in John 17, you heard it read…it is the prayer of Jesus just before he was arrested and taken to be killed.
This prayer can be divided into three parts.
- He prays for himself
- He prays for his disciples
- He prays for us (those who would later believe)
It has been said that you can learn more theology from what a person prays than from what they say.
Of course, we have learned the truth of God from what Jesus said, but here we get the opportunity to learn important theological truth from the Lord’s praying.
- He prays for himself…this is really a single petition
“Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.”
This is what he wants for himself.
What was embedded in this prayer is amazing submission to the will of his Father/
Because Jesus knew that how this would happen, his being glorified, would be by his death on the cross.
“If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate what kind of death he was about to die.” John 12:31
Notice that even as he asked for this, he states it as if it a done deal.
“I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”
This work includes all he has done up to this point as well as the work on the cross that is about to come.
So, he prays for God to be gloried through his death on the cross and then in full confidence of the accomplishment of his mission (the will of God being done) …he states it as a finished fact.
Two important theological principles here…both with great practical importance for our lives:
- Jesus prays that his life would glorify his father. Knowing in his case, it would mean a painful death on the cross.
We can pray for many things, but “Your kingdom come, your will be done” should be at the heart of all our prayers.
I have heard people suggest that when praying for the sick adding, “Your will be done” is a sign of a lack of faith…a sort of cop out for when God doesn’t heal.
This, of course, is nonsense.
We pray in faith for God to heal the sick, but since we do know the ability of God (he can heal), and we don’t always know the will of God (will he heal?)
We ask for healing and trust him with outcomes. “So, God please heal, but your will be done.”
It is certainly not a lack of faith that asks God for what we know he can do but trusts God for what he chooses to actually do.
Which brings us to a second important theological principle in Jesus’ prayer
- God sovereignty in Scripture is incentive not disincentive to pray.
Jesus prayed, “The time has come, glorify your Son”
He has moved confidently through many hostile encounters up to point this because his “time was not yet”
People tried to move against Jesus, to kill him…and it wasn’t going to happen…it was not the right time.
Now he is confident that the time has come for the purposes of God and yet he still asks God to accomplish those purposes.
What are we to do with this?
How do we deal with this tension of Scripture’s declaration of God’s sovereignty (his purposes will stand) and Scripture’s command for us to pray for his kingdom to come, his will to be done?
We tend to ask that if God is sovereign then why should we pray?
The fact is, if God were not sovereign, then the question would be “why pray?”
If he is not in control, why do we think asking him to take control of circumstances would change anything?
In the Bible, his sovereignty is motivation/incentive for our prayers.
I personally don’t try to work it all out in my head…I believe that he is sovereign and that I am to pray…so I pray.
I have seen him heal the very sick in an instant in response to my prayer, I’ve seen him turn around financial crisis, and I’ve seen him answer prayers to heal broken relationships.
I’ve also seen people continue to suffer…people I love…sometimes to their death…though I have prayed otherwise.
I’ve seen people continue to struggle emotionally, mentally, relationally…though we keep praying.
I don’t know all the factors, how could I?
I don’t know all God’s purposes or timing in all this, how could I?
But I don’t really need to.
I am learning still to pray in faith…I have faith that can God do all things…so I ask for what I would like to see happen.
I am learning still to pray in faith…I trust that God will do what is best to do…so I ask him to help me want what he wants.
I hope you prayed for what you thought best this past week for our country…and I hope you prayed…your will be done, your kingdom come as well.
I did.
God somehow uses the prayers of his people to accomplish his will…and God will always accomplish his will.
Let’s go on…
- Jesus’ prayer for his disciples
Look at verse 6
“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
Name=character, he has revealed who God is to them.
Once again we have the balance of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.
“You gave them to me/they have kept your word.”
So, did God choose them or where they responsible to choose to believe and to obey?
Yes.
You can read books where theologians get really deep in the weeds on this topic.
Sometimes they go deeper than Scripture does…I’m being facetious…you can’t really do that.
What they do is try to say more than Scripture tells us.
What is true in Scripture, and I personally am good with this level of understanding…is that…
I must seek to live with humility (he chose me) and with responsibility (I must choose to believe and obey).
Another important theological principle in this part of Jesus’ prayer is in his words:
“Don’t take them out of the world, protect them from the evil one.”
This principle is often stated concisely as “Be in, not of, the world.”
The “World” is human will, values, structures, desires, relationships, thinking, in opposition to God.
We have been taken from that world and now we live in kingdom relationships, thinking, values but we still live in that world.
So, there is yet another tension and we tend to really hate tensions.
It is hard to find the balance here in practical ways.
How do we vote, educate our children, what do we buy, drive, wear, eat, drink, watch?
I met with our older high school boys last Sunday night and many of the questions dealt with this kind of “in not of the world” tensions.
One was, “Jesus said to love your enemies…what does this mean for a Christian soldier in combat?”
It is a great question, and we discussed it at length…I spoke a little bit of just war theory and what Scripture teaches but I also told the story of a Christian B52 pilot who came to me in despair during a deployment as he began to have doubts about dropping bombs in combat.
It’s easy to throw around big ideas in a coffee shop or a church office…but this man was in agony as he had to decide “does God want me to fly the mission, get court martialed, go to jail.”
What does it mean to be in but not of the world…how do I know?
It’s further complicated by Romans 14 issues…What Paul there calls disputable matters.
There are personal convictions in addition to clear biblical ones.
There are things that are clearly right/wrong for everyone…sexual activity is reserved for a man/woman in a covenant marriage relationship…no exceptions.
Then there are things that have biblical principles to drive them but can vary in specific applications…dating practices, how to educate your children.
Where the bible speaks clearly there is no room for diversity, where it doesn’t there is still the need to come to practical convictions…but there is room for diversity among people.
How do we know the difference.
Which brings us to another important principle in Jesus’ prayer.
“Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.”
Sanctification is the lifelong process of becoming more like Jesus…in our everyday lives.
Jesus says God’s primary instrument of this process is his Word.
We have to know his word; we must grow in understanding it…in order to grow in Christlikeness…sanctification.
We have to wrestle with the complexities of the Bible, and it is complex…and we have to obey it quickly and completely in its simplicity…because on the other hand it is simple.
So, read your Bible with a heart to obey it…
And we have to do this in connected, committed, community.
- Jesus’ prayed for us
20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you.
In John, the Father and Son are distinguishable (John 1:1, Jesus is “with” God in the beginning).
Jesus prayer to his Father.
The Father sends the Son, the Son obeys.
Yet, Jesus said they are one.
Unity in diversity.
The Trinity is three persons, one being…absolutely unique.
Yet in similar fashion believers are to be distinct and one.
We are to be one in purpose, love and in putting each other first.
We are to be one under Jesus as the head and we together submit ourselves to and align our lives under God’s word.
This is not unity before or above truth…this is unity IN the truth.
A commitment to truth is noy a cause of disunity…it is the only hope for real unity.
I’ve seen when people try to prioritize unity over truth…the result is near constant conflict and eventually complete disunity.
Because we are going to believe something and what we believe we do.
So, we if can’t find unity in THE truth, we will find disunity in my truth versus your truth.
There are three main ways to think about this, only one healthy way.
- If I don’t agree with you on everything, I can’t agree with you on anything.
-This is a very common approach today.
-Not sustainable at all…not really rational.
-If you go to conference, read a book, listen to a podcast…there will be some shells and some pearls.
You don’t to have to toss the pearls because of the shells.
Then you can fall off the wall the other way.
- If I agree with you on certain things, then all the other things don’t matter.
-Well, that’s not true either.
-I agree with a couple of my catholic priest friends on some very important things…but the things we disagree on matter, they matter a lot.
With these friends, it’s not unity over truth…we are friends, and we go to lunch together, but we don’t go to church together…we couldn’t.
- There are essentials that require unity of belief and behavior, there are non-essentials that allow for diversity.
These essentials include:
-Scripture
-God
-Salvation
-Forgiveness
-What is our core mission in the church
-Heart attitudes
New Member Training:
I tell folks, I’m telling not selling.
We are going to tell you what we believe, value and do…. we believe it because we are convinced it true, we value it because we believe it is best, and we do it because we know God wants us to do.
We practice truth in advertising…we try to be as clear as we can so people can decide…is this the place, are these the people for me?
This is who we are and what we believe…there are certain things that are essential for us to live in unity.
There are certain things that are not essential where there is room for diversity.
What happens when we disagree on what is essential and what is non-essential?
How do we have unity when we disagree on what must be the foundation of our unity?
Then love and kindness must prevail in relationships…but this doesn’t mean unity at all costs.
Paul said, “As far as possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all people.”
It would not have been possible for Paul to betray his conscience in order to have peace…just ask Peter, a man Paul strongly rebuked because of a conviction.
We have a lot of churches in America because of two factors, both good.
- Religious freedom
- Religious conviction
Where there is no freedom there is only what is coercively allowed.
Where there is no conviction people don’t really care about religious belief.
We have freedom to organize according to our convictions so there are lots of churches…but even then, among churches who take the Bible seriously…there is unity in our diversity.
I see that here in Wichita and when I have traveled internationally.
Okay, that’s a lot of different principles and ideas…does all this have anything in common, other than it came from the Lord’s prayer?
CONCLUSION
When you consider this short prayer contains what the Lord wanted them and us to hear on the night he was betrayed it should make you want to spend some time with it.
His prayer for them, and for us…indicates some common “threats” that the Lord knew we would face.
Look at how he prayed:
-Please protect them from the enemy as they live in the world
-Sanctify them by your Word
-Please unify them make them so they are one as we are one
We must pay attention to these things because of all he could prayed for, these are the three key threats.
They are threats…he is asking the Father to protect us from.
- The threat of being “of” the world…being submerged under culture and unable to change it, unable to honor Christ in the world.
- The threat of turning away from his Word…and believing lies and what we want to be true.
- The threat of dissension and disunity…factions and fighting over stupid stuff, not deep convictional matters…if we don’t love each other, the gospel is blurry at best to people.
Now, if you are familiar with the rest of the New Testament what do you find in the letters to individuals and churches (called epistles)?
You see that these three threats are the common themes in the actual lives of the New Testament church.
You can see why the Lord prayed this can’t you?
These were and are threats partly because they involve living with healthy tensions.
- To be “in” but not “of” the world requires full biblical thinking, and ongoing effort and humility and courage.
For us to parent our children meant we had to continually change strategies, adjust to new situations, pray, talk to friends, read books, engage teachers and our kids…in other words…hard work…lot of it.
Blood sweat and tears.
A muscle under tension is stressed, likewise a guitar string.
But tension is necessary for health, strength, music.
Living with healthy tensions always takes work and humility and courage and community.
You can’t be a pushover, and you can’t be a knucklehead to be in but not of the world…there is even tension in that.
It is easier to either be passive or over aggressive…we can’t be either.
I will be completely out of the world…reject it completely…. this doesn’t work.
I will be completely of the world…accept it completely…this doesn’t work.
Doing the hard work of being in but not of the world…this works…but it is a lot of work.
- To balance unity in the truth and not fall into unity at the cost of truth…likewise requires courage, and humility, and hard work.
People get tired of this work and go for the easier, but not better way of trying to eliminate the tension.
I will demand complete agreement on everything, or you are dead to me…this doesn’t work.
I will have peace with you at all costs even the cost of truth conviction…this doesn’t work.
Recently I told a good friend in regard to another good friend:
“Just talk to him, if what he has to say about you has merit, thank him and fix it.”
“If it doesn’t have merit, thank him for making the effort to help you, and disregard.”
These guys handled this situation beautifully and both grew in faith and faithfulness in the process…it was fun to watch.
It was hard, stressful, challenging…but people grow like muscles do…you put them under healthy stress, and they increase in capacity.
Here’s my main application: Don’t be continually surprised that living in the already/not yet kingdom of God is hard, tiring, confusing, and full of tension.
Of course it is.
Just remember, Jesus is about to go to the cross…his final words to them are a prayer…in that prayer he outlines the challenges they will face.
These things he addresses will be on ongoing problems in the New Testament era, and in today’s church.
So, face up to the facts…to prevail in faith and faithfulness…will take ongoing effort, community, humility, dependence on God, courage, and just plain old struggle over the entire course of our lives.
Okay…be dismayed or roll up your sleeves.
This need not be joyless…in fact, engaging this struggle is the only way to live in the Lord’s joy.