“Jesus and Others Did It
Anyway” #9
Pastor Mike Barnett
THEME: AT TIMES YOU WILL FEEL LIKE A WEAK SINNER, BUT
CHOOSE TO ACT LIKE A SAINT ANYWAY BECAUSE THAT IS WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST AND
YOUR POSITION IN HIM DOES NOT CHANGE EVEN WHEN YOUR BEHAVIOR AND FEELINGS DO.
John 17:1-24 (pg. 765) says:
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward
heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your
Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over
all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have
brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your
presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6"I have revealed
you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from
you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they
accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed
that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for
the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you
have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I
will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of
your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe
by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to
destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I
am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so
that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I
have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the
world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is
not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil
one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of
it. 17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the
world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may
be truly sanctified. 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. May
they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me. 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.
·
God ordained and appointed Jesus to be the Holy Messiah
to have all authority over mankind.
·
God also ordained and appointed believers to be
adopted into the
·
God gave “Christ followers” to Jesus while he was on
earth.
·
And now, in this prayer before departing, Jesus
acknowledges that these believers God gave to Him, ultimately belong to God the
Father.
·
Jesus also prayed for us – his future believers that
we would be sanctified by the Word of God and unified as one.
·
To be sanctified means to be set apart.
·
The Word of God speaks into a believer’s life and
sets them apart from the ways of the world.
·
A believer is sanctified (set apart from sin) through
the spoken and written _______________________(word)
of God!
·
In other words, you were chosen by God to be Holy,
righteous and pure and that is who you are in Christ.
1 Peter 2:1-12 (pg. 857) says:
Therefore,
rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of
every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual
milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now
that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4As you
come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to
him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into
a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in
Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame."[a] 7Now
to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone,[b]"[c] 8and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."[d] They stumble because they disobey the
message—which is also what they were destined for. 9But
you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people,
but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you
have received mercy. 11Dear friends, I urge you, as
aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war
against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the
pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good
deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
·
Many professing Christians today do not feel holy,
righteous and pure.
·
Instead of being set apart from the World’s ways, most
Christians have been sucked into the World’s mold.
·
Many Christians today feel ugly, inferior, sinful and
defeated.
·
This dilemma is not a new problem for followers of
Christ – Peter felt inadequate to follow Jesus 2000 years ago.
John 13:6-10 (pg, 763) says:
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to
him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7Jesus
replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will
understand." 8"No," said Peter, "you
shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you
have no part with me." 9"Then,
Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my
head as well!" 10Jesus answered,
"A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body
is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11For he knew who was going to betray him,
and that was why he said not every one was clean.
·
Peter told Jesus to wash just not his feet, but his
hands and his feet as well.
·
The head represents were sinful thoughts __________________________(originate).
·
The hands represent how sinful thoughts are ___________________________(carried) out.
·
Jesus told Peter that his physical body did not need
a bath because Jesus had _________________________(declared)
him __________________(clean) spiritually.
·
What Jesus declares clean is for all eternity.
John 15:1-8 (pg. 764) says:
1"I am the true vine,
and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch
in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to
you. 4Remain in me, and I will
remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I
am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown
into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my
words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.
·
Once again, we see in Scripture where Jesus declared
his followers clean because of the Words He spoke to them!
·
Many professing Christians today do not understand
this principle of the Word of God declaring them clean!
·
Christian you are clean – because God’s Word
__________________________(declares) you to be spiritually
clean forever despite your behavior!
·
Sometimes Christians feel dirty because of past
sexual sins.
·
If you had premarital sex, you can be completely
clean in Christ.
·
If you have been in an immoral, adulterous
relationship you can be completely clean in Christ.
·
Your body parts that once sinned against God and
defiled your body are now declared clean in Christ.
·
If you have confessed and repented of your sin, you
are now declared clean, regardless of how you feel.
·
Feelings are the result of your ___________________(thoughts), and when your thoughts
___________________(reflect) God’s Holy Word, your
______________________(feelings) will also___________________(reflect) God’s
truth about you.
Ephesians 4:22-24 (pg. 829) says:
22You were taught, with regard to your
former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its
deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of
your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Romans 12:1-2 (pg. 803) says:
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
·
Instead of feeling dirty and rotten, you will feel
clean and whole in Christ as you __________________(renew)
your ____________________(mind) with God’s ____________________(truth)!
Romans
5:12-21 (Pg. 798) says:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14