Sermons

Grow Part 4: Sanctified in the Truth

June 18, 2017 Speaker: Josh DeGroote Series: The Spirit Filled Church

Topic: Sanctification Passage: John 17:17–19

We learn a lot about people from their prayers.  Even more, if we were able to secretly record someone’s private prayers, we would gain a ton of insight into the interior life of that person.  What is important to them.  What motivates them.  What is on their heart.  Here in John 17, we see the interior heart of Jesus.  This chapter is Jesus praying to the Father just before he is betrayed and tried to be crucified.   

What’s even more amazing is that Jesus, after he gave himself for our sins once for all, he rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father and there he intercedes for us.  He continues his prayer ministry on our behalf.  Hebrews 7:25 puts it this way,

He always lives to make intercession for those who draw near to God through him

We are the massive beneficiaries of those who were given the privilege of eavesdropping into this prayer Jesus offers up to the Father.  We get to hear what Jesus prayed and I believe we get a sense of how Jesus still prays.  What is on his heart?  What’s important to him?  

Now if there is anyone whose prayers would always be answered, it is Jesus. Could you imagine Jesus coming to the Father and making a request and the Father saying, “Apparently you don’t understand my purposes” or “Check your motives”?  Never!  Jesus knows the Father’s will perfectly.  Furthermore, he has no sin which would cloud his motives.

And so what he prays for is well worth our careful attention, and we can have confidence that it is and will be answered.  In fact, what he prays for we should start praying.  We are looking at just three verses and what we see is amazing!  He prays for what only God can do.  Deep in the massive, loving heart of Jesus, he wants what is best for us.  He wants us to be changed at the deepest level of our being.  We see it in this one request:

[Father] Sanctify them in the truth....

Charles Spurgeon preaching on this one verse said,

How invaluable must the blessing of sanctification be when our Lord, in the highest reach of his intercession, cries: "Sanctify them!" In sight of his passion, on the night before his death, our Savior lifts his eyes to the great Father, and cries in his most plaintive tones, "Father, sanctify them."

Sanctify is not a word we use very often in everyday language.  To sanctify means to separate or set apart for an important purpose.  Or to dedicate and make holy.  PBS aired a documentary in 2015 in which they visit 22 different American military cemeteries in eight countries from WWI and WWII.  In these cemeteries the remains of 125,000 American soldiers lie.  The documentary is entitled “Hallowed Grounds” or we might say “sanctified grounds,” because the grounds of these cemeteries are dedicated for a special purpose.

Jesus wants us to be set apart or dedicated for God’s purposes.  We see what that holy purpose is for which we are to be sanctified in verse 18 when Jesus continues:

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

So he prays that God the Father would earmark us; stamp us as belonging to him and not to ourselves anymore!  And why?  So we would represent Jesus who sends us into the world.

Sanctify them. And this sanctifying work is by means of the truth or “in the truth”. Now if it is the truth that dedicates or sets us apart for God, truth must be more than merely disseminating true information or receiving facts about true things.  The truth must have dynamic power!  And it does. Jesus says in John 8:32 “the truth sets free.” There’s no freedom apart from truth. Ignorance is not bliss! Ignorance of the truth leads to enslavement, because it is the truth that sets you free.

Leads to important question. What is it about truth that gives it this power to change us at such a deep level?  Three things: What the truth is. What the truth points to. And what help we have in understanding the truth.  These three things help us see why truth is so powerful in God’s project of sanctifying us.

What the Truth Is

What is the truth?  After Jesus requests for the Father to sanctify us in the truth, he honors the Father by saying, “Your word is truth.”  What is truth?  God’s word is truth.  What God speaks is truth and God’s words have power!  Remember the opening words of the entire bible?  

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Every day of the creation account, we see the creative power of God's words. He created everything out of nothing with his word.  He spoke! God’s word is truth.

I find it fascinating that Jesus doesn’t say simply that God’s word is true (which would be true), but God’s word is truth.  For the Christian, God’s words are the standard, the watershed, the benchmark of truth.  But we live in a world hostile to truth.  We live in a world with millions of opinions, and supposedly each one equally valid.  Opinions, opinions, opinions coming at us from a hundred directions every day.  From the television, radio, social media, online news outlets - supposed experts giving us their expert opinion about every area of life.  But opinions have no enduring power to change our lives.  Truth does! God’s word is truth.  Psalm 119:160 says,

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

And we know that the scriptures are God’s words.  We don’t need to wait for some special message from God to come through the clouds or through our own intuition.  We hear the voice of God speaking through the scriptures:

All scripture is breathed out by God. (2 Timothy 3:16)

Not “was breathed out”, but “is breathed out” by God.  Therefore, what the bible says, God says.  What is the truth? God’s word is truth.

What the Truth Points To

Okay, what does the God’s word (or truth) point to?  What is its aim?  Truth doesn’t merely unpack facts for us, but points us to a Person, namely Jesus.  Listen to what Jesus said to a group of religious leaders in John 5:39,

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.

The only scriptures they had were old testament scriptures. The point he made is clear: you study the scriptures, but you have missed the essence.  I stand before you, of whom all scripture points and you reject me.  Amazing!  Now, I think Jesus alludes to the truth aiming at him in our text this morning.  Look at verse 19,

And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.

The word consecrate has the same meaning as the “sanctify” in verse 17.  So what Jesus is saying is, “Father, I set myself to do your will.” And on the night he was betrayed, the meaning is clear - the will of the Father was for Jesus to readily go to the cross, however horifying the prospect. And this was for our sake.  Jesus had us in mind.  He was motivated by love for us.  For every true Christian, Galatians 2:20 can be our affirmation, “He loved me and gave himself for me.”  And the purpose for which Jesus did this was that we would be sanctified in the truth.  (Repeat vs 19 - emphasize “that”). The truth that sanctifies is the truth of the gospel which leads us to the provision of God’s transforming grace in Christ.

So the truth is powerful to sanctify because it is not only the word of God, but it points us to Jesus and his gospel by which we are sanctified.  But we need help to know the truth both intellectually and experientially so that it can have its powerful effect deep in our hearts.

The Help We Need To Understand the Truth

Not only does Jesus pray to the Father for our sanctification and give himself for our sanctification in the truth, but he also sends help - close and personal help.  Help to understand and be changed by the truth.  The kind of help we need requires an inside job - so he sends a divine Helper to live within us.  And of course, this is the gift of the precious Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not explicitly mentioned in these three verses, but I think it’s safe to say he is presupposed or assumed.  John 13-17 records one evening in which Jesus washes is disciples' feet, spends time around a table eating and sharing his heart, and then in John 17 drawing near to the Father in prayer. As Jesus sat around the table sharing his deepest heart with his disciples, much of his instruction was about the coming of the Holy Spirit.  

And in this instruction, the Spirit is called the Spirit of “truth”.  And he is given to live within us:

And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth… You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

And what is his divine assignment?  Jesus goes on to say,

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14)

The Spirit of truth takes the truth of God’s word which points to Christ, drives it deep into our hearts, shaping and fashioning us in the likeness of Christ. 

A Roadmap or A Waterfall?

I want you to begin looking at and approaching the bible differently than you have?  Perhaps you view the bible as a roadmap or an owner’s manual for life.  It is kind of archaic and hard to read, but if you follow its directions, the map will help you find your way to the desired destination.  Indeed the bible does give us much by way of wise instruction which if we follow will greatly help.  But I think this approach to the bible falls short.  What if you approached the bible, instead like a waterfall of grace?  The objective, then, is to get underneath it so that grace comes down.  The emphasis is not on what you must do, but on God and what he has done.  God wants you to see his word in this way - as grace coming to you with transforming power.  Several of Paul’s books begin with the words, “grace to you.”  I love what Peter says in the opening words of his first letter,

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:2)

Let me show you very practically how this works in connection with being sanctified with three examples: loving, serving, and forgiving.  We are sent into the world to re-present Jesus in the way we love, serve, and forgive.

  1. Loving (John 4:10-11, 19)
  2. Serving (Matthew 20:28)
  3. Forgiving (Ephesians 4:32)

Jesus prays to the Father, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."  Will Jesus' prayer be answered?  Of course!

 

Benediction

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

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