How do I edit God? How can I simplify something very deep and complex?
Let me give the "call to action" first and hope that it hooks you in to following through some of the deeper logic of the Gospel of John:
God's call on our lives is to show the world what God the Father’s love is like. How do we do this? We lay down our lives in hospitable service in this world. God’s mission of hospitality becomes ours.
Here is how I get there. (The underlinings highlight the pieces that support the "call to action.")
15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
II. The Work of the Spirit in all of Humanity (John 16:8-11)
8When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
III. The Work of the Holy Spirit within Believers (John 16:12-15)
12“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
IV. Jesus Prays to be Glorified (John 17:1-5)
V. Jesus Prays for his first disciples to be set apart (sanctified) and protected within this world (John 17:6-18)
17“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
VI. Jesus Prays for Us (John 17:20-23)
20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
A. We are called to be one. (Verse 21)
B. We receive the Son’s glory from the Father in order that we might be one. (Verse 22)
VII. Jesus Prays for Us (John 17:24-26)
24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
A. The Father loves the Son from all eternity. (Verses 5, 24)
B. Jesus will continue to make the Father known. (Verse 26 and see John 1:18)
C. The Father loves the Son because he lays down his life for us. (John 10:17 – “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life.”)
D. Jesus reveals the Father to us so that the love the Father has for Jesus may be in us. (Verses 23, 26)
God's call on our lives is to show the world what God the Father’s love is like. How do we do this? We lay down our lives in hospitable service in this world. God’s mission of hospitality becomes ours.
How can this possibly be successful? Jesus prays for our success and joins us in this work. We are the branches, HE is the vine (John 15:1-8). Our friends and family “in the world” cannot receive the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). They can receive us and learn from our humble and hospitable service (John 13:15-17). We are joined and empowered by the Holy Spirit in this work (John 14:17, 16:13, 15). As we obey Jesus and give ourselves in love, our joy will be full (John 15:9-17).
Here comes Sunday... Let's be ready to talk about this!
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