Truth For Life

Guest (Male): When you're working on an important project, it's wise to have a plan B ready to go just in case plan A fails. But God has never had a plan B. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg considers the plan and purpose God established before the world began.

Where do you fit in this eternal plan? That's our focus as we continue our study in John 17.

Alistair Begg: Verse 18. Jesus is praying to the Father and he says, "Father, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." The mission of those whom Jesus sends out is Jesus' mission. And that purpose that marks those whom he sends out characterizes who they are and what they do.

So that the disciples of Jesus, both then and now, are not supposed in any way to be aimless, purposeless, in any aspect at all, but rather focused in fulfilling the commission that comes from Jesus. Now we come to this because we're listening in on Jesus as he prays to the Father.

He is praying to the Father in the shadow of the cross. His earthly pilgrimage is about to come to an end. He's coming, he says, to the Father. "I'm returning to you, and I'm leaving them behind." And in doing so, he has prayed, as we saw in verse 15, that they would be preserved or kept.

And as he then went on to pray that they might be sanctified or made holy. And now here in verse 17, he is praying for them as they are commissioned. Commissioned. Now I want to approach it from three lines. First of all, to consider what the Father has done.

Then to consider what Christ has done. And finally, to consider where we fit into all that God has done and is doing. What has the Father done? Well, he says there, "As you, that is the Father, sent me into the world."

The verse actually doesn't simply take us to Bethlehem, but it takes us back behind Bethlehem. It actually takes us back into eternity. It takes us to the place that is unfathomable for our minds, where God, one in essence and three in persons, enters into a plan and purpose for those whom he has made.

And it is according to that eternal plan and purpose that the whole unfolding drama of life and certainly of redemption is then taking place. And God's plan is a plan that never needs to be changed, never needs to be altered, indeed, cannot be altered.

God's plan from all of eternity is his plan A. And there is no plan B and there is no plan C. The plan of God in Jesus is a plan from all eternity. And that's why Jesus is absolutely clear about this. I tried to emphasize it as I read the chapter, that he is making the point again and again, "Father, you sent me. You sent me. I'm here because you sent me."

His time on earth is on account of the fact that the Father has sent him into the world. That's why when we read the Bible, we discover that the Bible is either pointing forward to his coming, or it is reflecting on the fact that he came and anticipating the fact that he will return.

Jesus was not commissioned in the manger. Jesus was not commissioned to his task at his baptism. Jesus was commissioned from eternity. He was sent from all eternity. When you converse with people about Jesus, as we have opportunity to do, remember that the most intriguing thing about it in every ultimate aspect surely is not the fact that God would rise from the dead, but the fact that God would become incarnate.

Consider what the Father has done. "Father, you sent me into the world." But here's the question: why has he done it? The answer to that, of course, is a study all of its own. For God so loved the world. He loved the world. The world that he has made.

A world that was in rebellion against him. A world that had decided that funny little idols would do just as well to make them navigate through their lives. Those who have turned their backs on him, he comes and he expresses himself in Jesus because he loves the world.

The Jewish people to whom he came, John chapter one, "He came to his own, his own received him not." They could understand the notion that God would love the Jews. What they couldn't understand was that God would love the entire world.

And that was a message that was eventually going to penetrate and transform. But until it did, they lived with that notion. Now it's for this reason that we say routinely and purposefully that the Father gave the Son by sending him.

But he gave the Son also in the cross, because it is in the cross that the love of God is ultimately displayed, so that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. What do you mean "should not perish"? We're perishable.

We all have a shelf life. We are all dying. And the reason that we die is because of sin. That is the punishment of God for the fact of our sin. And the wonder is that this God from all of eternity, because of his love, sends Jesus in order that we might entrust ourselves to him, might believe in him, so that we will not perish.

Whoever believes in me, he says, "even though he die, yet shall he live." And whosoever dies and believes in me will actually ultimately never die. That with the blink of an eye, we'll be from this earthly presence into the reality of his eternal presence.

And everything that flows from that is all on account of the fact that God sent his son. And he sent his son because of love. Ian Murray, whom we know and appreciate so much, in one of his books, I think it's Preaching the Cross or something, he says, "Persuading men and women of God's love is the great calling of Christian ministry. Persuading men and women of God's love."

Can I persuade some doubting heart this morning of God's love for you in Jesus? Can I persuade some stubborn, resistant will that it may be just the love of God expressed in Jesus that breaks down the barriers that keep you from the joy that is found in the gospel?

Considering what God has done. Secondly, consider what Jesus has done. Well, it's all in the verse, isn't it? "Father, as you sent me into the world," that's what you the Father have done. "So I have sent them into the world." Those that have been given him by the Father.

You notice as we read through again and again, he says "the people that you gave me out of the world." And if you go through and read 17 again, especially in the second half of it, what an emphasis there is on the world. The word "world" comes up again and again and again.

And we've seen that. In verse 11, Jesus refers to his followers as "these people who are in the world." In verse 16, he says, "but we need to understand that they are actually not of the world." They are in the world, they're not isolated from the world, but they're not of the world.

They're not operating on the same world principles. You see, when we think about living in the world as Christians, the one possibility is isolation, and the other possibility is imitation. When we isolate ourselves from the world, choose not to embrace our non-Christian friends or move in circles that are like that, when we isolate ourselves from the world, we've got something to say, but we've got nobody to say it to.

However, when we imitate the world, when we absorb the lifestyle of the world, when we look no different from anybody else in the world, then we have an audience, but we've got nothing to say to them. Because everybody in the world knows that if you are a Christian, you're supposed to be a certain way.

And if you're not different, then you can talk all you like, but it doesn't matter a bit. That's the illusion of the idea that the closer we live to the world in its lifestyle, in its thought forms, embracing all these things, the better able we will be to engage with them.

Read church history. It's never been true and it won't be true. We identify with the world not in its sin, but we identify with the world in its need. Therefore, we are neither isolated from them, nor are we imitators of them.

And so when Jesus sends them into the world, he knows exactly what he's doing. Now, if you notice, as I trust you do, when you read 18: "As you sent me," past tense, "into the world, so I have sent them," past tense, "into the world."

Or you'll be reading that on your own, you say, "but wait a minute, shouldn't that be in the future?" Well, yeah, because it hasn't yet happened, has it? It's probably Jesus using the same proleptic approach that we found earlier. If you learn nothing in John 17, you learn the word proleptic.

And because remember Jesus says, "I am no longer in the world." Well, he was still in the world. What does he mean by that? He said, "The absence of me from the world is a done deal." And I take it that that's exactly what he's saying here.

"I have sent them into the world." In other words, their commissioning, the commissioning of his disciples is so certain that Jesus speaks of it as a done deal. "Father, I have sent them into the world. There is no question about the fact that they are going to be in the world."

And so it is the mission of Jesus that establishes the mission of the apostles. He has set them apart to do the will of the Father. He, as we will see tonight, comes to provide redemption, and he sends his disciples out into the world to proclaim the message of redemption.

They are sanctifying themselves to the purposes of God, even as he himself is sanctified to the purposes of God as priest and so on. They were drawn from the world. In verse 19 of chapter 15, we saw that. "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own."

That reinforces the point I've been trying to make. If you were of the world, the world would love you as his own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. I mean, when push comes to shove, people do not like the idea that there is only one name given under heaven under men where salvation is to be found.

They hate that notion. Everything militates against that. At this point in the 21st century, people if they believe one thing, they believe well, there must be multiple ways, but there can surely be one possible way. You hold to that line, they'll hate you.

And we could go down a whole line. They were drawn out of the world. Here in 17, he kept them safe in the world. He sanctified them in the truth, and he engaged them to the task of mission. That's why when you read on from the Gospels and into the Acts, you see that this is just so remarkable.

That the people, if you were reading this morning in Luke's Gospel, you read where Jesus looks Peter in the eye and he says, "Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you to sift you like wheat." I mean, there's a rock and roll show about to take place here, Simon.

That's my paraphrase. And you should know that I have prayed for you. And after you are restored, renovated, put back together again as you'll need to be, then you go ahead and strengthen the brethren. Well, on that evening when his brokenhearted visage is revealed for all in the courtyard of the priest to see, there surely was within Peter no possibility of being that one of whom Jesus had spoken.

And yet in short order, you turn the page into the Acts of the Apostles, and Peter stands up and he proclaims this amazing historical sermon that goes all the way through the Old Testament and eventually comes to his punchline.

The punchline, as a result of people saying, "What should we do with this?" That's the real issue, isn't it? Incidentally, you know, this is the "what," you respond, "so what," and "now what." Because if what the Bible says about our need of a savior and I don't have a savior, then the "now what" is really crucial.

And so they said to him, "What should we do now?" This is what he said: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Where'd you get that from, Peter?

You see, when you become a Christian, a number of things happen to you. It no matter what age you are, whatever you might be, you get a completely new view of Jesus from whatever one you had before. Because now he becomes precious to you. He's a savior.

He's not just a figure in history. He's a friend. He's a Lord. He's a king. He's a companion. You get a whole new view of the people who describe themselves as Christians. You thought they were a bunch of weirdos, and some of them actually were.

But the fact of the matter is that you've discovered now that these are your brothers and sisters in Christ. And you've also discovered that you actually needed what you said you never wanted, namely mercy. Because you were convinced of the fact that you could do it yourself, you could put it together yourself, you would be fine in yourself.

Well, you don't believe that anymore. No. What's happened? The Father sent the Son. The Holy Spirit came knocking at your door. We should stop. So let's go just to the third point. What God has done in sending Jesus, what Jesus has done in sending the disciples, and finally where do we fit into this picture?

Well, we do fit into the picture because you will notice in verse 20, to which we will come, Jesus says, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word." So his prayer is not confined to the immediate circle of the apostles.

As a result of their mission, other people will come to believe. And those people who come to believe and become the disciples of Jesus will then be involved in the same commission. They will then enjoy the privilege of declaring the same message, and as a result, people will believe in the world.

Let me just say maybe three things. Number one: if we are going to serve Jesus in this way, first of all, we must come to him. We must come to him before we can go for him. We must come to him as he is: as a savior for sinners.

We didn't come to him as a religious guru. We didn't come to him as a person who came up with some good ideas and we decided that we like his ideas as much as we like anybody else. You'll never turn the world upside down with that kind of story. No, we must come to him.

We can't offer the bread of life to other people if we've never eaten it ourselves. We must at the same time be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. One at the end of the 19th century, William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was asked, "What are the challenges that face the church in the coming generation?"

He had six points that he made. The first of his points was simply this: the challenge facing the church in the 20th century will be offering a religion without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit. In other words, a man-centered, mechanistic focus on religion as opposed to the transforming power of the gospel.

If you think about that, here we are in the 21st century, for all of our organization, for all of our strategy, for all of our books, for all of our plans, for all of our programs, not one of them nor all of them together can compensate for the vacuum that is left when the lips of those who are seeking to proclaim the story are not lips that are fueled by the firepower of the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit.

And the great need it was, if you did your Bible reading this morning, you know, in Habakkuk this morning, Habakkuk's prayer is the right prayer: "Revive your work, O Lord, in the midst of the years. Show up. Show up, God, so that the world might know."

Well, the world will know when he shows up in my life and in yours. If you imagine, for example, we just listened to Peter on the day of Pentecost. You imagine we took, we went in the bookstore, we got all the mechanisms for evangelism. And we said, "Look, here's the strategy. You might be able to reach Judea here. There's a plan here."

There's nothing wrong with all these things, but he said, "What I need those for?" Because the apostles hit the Jerusalem streets with a waft of the supernatural, as James S. Stewart puts it. In other words, they were carried off their feet by the message that they were given to proclaim.

We can't, we can't go for the world without that. The hymn writer puts it perfectly: "My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve. It wants the needed fire to glow, it wants the breeze to nerve. It cannot drive the world until itself be driven. Its flag can only be unfurled when you shall breathe from heaven."

We're not going to a monastery. We're not going to sail round and round in circles in a marina. We're going to go. Go home. That's what Jesus told the one man in Mark chapter five. He wanted to stay with Jesus.

Remember he said, "Go home. Go home and tell all the people in your house of the wonderful things that have happened to you." On another occasion, he said, "Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go to the nations. Go to the nations. Go home. Go to the nations."

Well, it's a thought, isn't it? Because everybody says, "Oh well, you know, that's all that kind of Jim Elliot stuff, I'm not that guy." Or the Billy Graham, reaching millions. Or Gladys Aylward, children's ministry that made a huge impact in China.

Or Helen Roseveare in Zaire or whatever. You're sitting there listening going, "I'm not one of those people." Guess what, neither am I. Here's somebody that might be a pattern for you. His name was Seth Sykes. He was a conductor on the Glasgow trams in the late 40s and into the beginning of the 50s.

He wrote little choruses that he used to hum on the trams. He wrote, for example, "Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for making me whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to me your great salvation so rich and free." He took fares on the Glasgow trams.

He asked the authority of the Glasgow trams if it would be possible for him in his routine work to give out copies of the Bible and Christian literature. And they said yes. And so for Seth Sykes, the Glasgow tramcar became a gospel platform.

Consider what God has done in sending Jesus. Considering what Jesus has done in sending the apostles. Consider God's call to each of us. May not be a tramcar. May be a back porch. Who knows?

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg challenging each of us to consider God's call. As we've just learned, all who believe in Jesus are given the same commission as the apostles, which is to make disciples of all nations.

And that's our mission at Truth for Life. And we have some excellent resources to help you join us in introducing others to Jesus and telling them about his gift of salvation. Right now we have bundled together Alistair's new evangelistic book titled The Man on the Middle Cross with his gospel tract titled Ever Wonder Why Your World Feels Broken.

This is a helpful package to give away as a conversation starter or to have on hand when a gospel opportunity arises. You can purchase the book bundle with the tract for just $1.20. We're making these available at our cost so you can buy as many as you need.

Just visit truthforlife.org/middle. Thanks for joining us today. It's far too easy to take for granted the good news of what God has done. But tomorrow we'll pause and consider the full extent of Jesus' love for us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.