Introduction:
I’d like to begin this morning by asking you a question. Are you living or existing? It seems that many times in our lives we are merely existing instead really living life for what its worth. We get up, go to work or school, or we begin our daily routine, whatever it may be and we simply to through the motions of life. If we would all be completely honest I think we could all say there are times when we don’t really feel that our life has any real purpose. We feel empty inside, and we’re not even really sure why.
Jesus said that he came to give us life, and that the life he gives us is abundant life (John 10:10). Why then are we not experiencing his abundance? Why does it seem that sometime we are just existing instead living for Jesus? That’s what I want us to talk about today…learning live within Christ’s abundance…learning to live like Jesus.
The seventeenth chapter of John contains Jesus’ prayer in the night He was betrayed and arrested. In his prayer Jesus prayed for himself, for his disciples, and for those who would become his disciples in the future.
What I’d like for us to do is to look at those opening words of Jesus’ prayer that we just read together and allow them to be a challenge to us—a challenge to live life to its fullest by living daily for Jesus Christ.
Text: John 17:1
Jesus spoke these things looked up to heaven and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You.”
When Jesus prayed that prayer he was about to come “face to face” with the cross. He was about to make the “promise of prophecy” a “redemptive reality.” Jesus was not simply “going through the motions” he was living life to its fullest and in so doing he was fulfilling his life’s mission.
Let me share with you three qualities of Christ-likeness. Three qualities that I believe can transform our lives from just “existing” to “really living.”
I. We Must Live with a Dependence on the Father
Jesus is our example—he lived with dependence on His Father. As the Son of God he didn’t have to—he chose to out of submission so that he could show us how to submit our lives to God. The first word of his prayer in John 17 is, “Father.” I want to quickly show you from scripture how Jesus placed his dependence on his Father in heaven.
The author of Hebrews tells us:
7During His earthly life, He offered prayers and appeals, with loud cries and tears, to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. (Hebrews 5:7)
Early in his ministry we see a pattern of dependence revealed through Jesus’ prayer time with his Father:
35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He was praying there. 36Simon and his companions went searching for Him. 37They found Him and said, “Everyone’s looking for You!”
38And He said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.” (Mark 1:35-38)
Notice that Jesus understood that prayer should precede preaching. What is true for preaching is true for anything we do for Christ. Prayer is the place where we acknowledge our dependence on our Heavenly Father.
As more and more people pushed to see Jesus, he realized the importance of drawing his strength from his Father. That is so very clear in Luke 5:
15But the news about Him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and prayed. (Luke 5:15-16)
Throughout his life Jesus showed his dependence on the Father by going to him for strength, for direction, and for approval:
Before he selected the twelve he spent the whole night in prayer
After the feeding of the 5,000 he spent the evening in prayer
Before he raised Lazarus from the dead he went to his Father in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed “Father, Thy will be done.”
His first words from the cross were, “Father, forgive them,” and his last were, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”
If Jesus was dependent on His Father while he was here on earth, then we should realize that we must also be dependent on the Father in our daily lives. Jesus’ own testimony provides a wonderful picture of how important being dependent on the Father is. Listen to how The Message paraphrases Jesus words in John 5—
“I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. (John 5:19 The Message)
Are we trying to be “independent” in our spiritual life? We need to realize that if Jesus couldn’t fulfill his Father’s plan without being dependent upon Him for his strength, then how could we? If we want to have better handle on how to stand up for Christ then we need to spend more time kneeling before the Father.
II. We Must Live with a sense of Divine Purpose
Jesus’ identified his dependence when he called out to his Father in prayer, and then he revealed his sense of divine purpose when he said, “the time has come.” Jesus knew what was ahead—he had come to earth for this time—for this purpose—to give his life as payment for the sins of the world.
Last week we looked at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and the heart of the message He preached. Before he called his first disciples to be his followers, Jesus revealed his divine purpose.
14…Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of God: 15“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)
From a wooden manger whether he was laid after his birth in Bethlehem to a wooden cross outside of Jerusalem where he died—Jesus had one purpose: to save sinful humanity by giving his life as a ransom for ours.
Jesus’ divine purpose was to give his life away—our divine purpose is no different. Jesus said that his followers must be willing to lay down their lives:
25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. 26 What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? (Matthew 16:25-26)
God has a purpose for your life—just as He has a purpose for mine—but we cannot discover that purpose without willingly lay our life down at the feet of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said that the “time has come” and I say to you today—“the time has come” for God’s people to submit themselves to God’s Son so that we can accomplish His purpose through our lives.
III. We Must Live with a Desire to Glorify God
Living with a sense of divine purpose means that we are living with a desire to glorify God through our lives. In the Upper Room the night he was betrayed Jesus realized that “the time had come” for the glory of God to be revealed. That glory was the glory of God’s mercy and grace—His willingness to forgive and forget—His promise of eternal life to all who would believe in His Son Jesus Christ.
If we want to find glorify God through our lives we must realize that it begins with our willingness to embrace was Christ did for us on the cross. Lenea and I want to share with you a song that expresses that in a beautiful way—that we must we willing to “glory in the cross.”
Special Music—“I Will Glory in the Cross”
We glorify God through our worship, and through our witness. Paul told the believers in Corinth:
31Therefore…whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
If you look up the word glory in a Bible concordance you will quickly discover that glory is something that belongs to the Lord. We don’t deserve glory, He does, and we should live with a desire to bring Him glory every day!
How do we glorify God? By living for His Son each and every day. That is often where we find the difference between really living and just existing!
Conclusion:
Where are you today? Are you merely existing—going through the motions day by day? Or, are you really living for Jesus Christ? Jesus has set the example for us, now it is up to us to follow. I challenge you to ask yourself today:
Am I living with DEPENDENCE on the Father?
Am I living with a sense of DIVINE PURPOSE?
Am I living with a DESIRE to Glorify God?
If you can’t say “YES” to all of each of those questions then take this time as we sing a song of commitment to ask the Holy Spirit to renew your life in Christ. If you’ve never given your life to Jesus Christ then I say to you, “the time has come,” surrender yourself to the Lord and receive the gift of His salvation.
For those of us who have already given our hearts to Jesus, we must ask ourselves if we are truly allowing Him to be the Lord of our daily lives.
