We have been dissecting the prayer Jesus prayed for us. He prayed that we would have his joy, the kind of joy that comes with suffering. He prayed we would have his holiness, the kind that makes the world hate us. Last week we discovered He prayed we would be left behind to be salt, light, and the witness for him.
This week He prays that we will discover truth.
John 17:17 “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.”
There are five elements to this portion of his prayer. The first element is “make them.” This word is not interpreted as force them but rather mold them. Jesus prays that God will shape us into holiness.
God is a creator God. It began in Genesis when God spoke his creation into existence. He created mankind from the dust of the earth. The Bible says that God made some people to have stubborn hearts to achieve his purpose. God made salvation available to the gentiles. God made Jesus to be wisdom itself. God made everything through Jesus himself. God made Christ to be the offering for our sins. The Bible tells us that God is the potter and we are just clay. We can do nothing apart from him. And that includes holiness.
Jesus realizes that we are incapable of becoming holy. The Bible says that since we are impure and infected with sin our righteousness is likened to menstrual rags. Man’s attempt to be holy on his own has always failed. There is a fable told in the middle east of a man who tried to achieve holiness.
“Once upon a time, the Enlightenment Being lived in a world where most religions were very similar. They taught that the way to remove suffering from the mind was to make the body suffer instead. As strange as it seems, most people thought that the holiest of the holy were the ones who tortured their bodies the most! Since everyone seemed to agree with this, the Bodhisatta decided to find out for himself if it was true.
He stopped living as an ordinary everyday person and became a holy man according to the custom of the times. This meant that he gave up everything, even his clothes. He went naked, with his body covered only by dust and dirt.
So he wouldn’t be spoiled by the taste of good food, he forced himself to eat only filthy things – dirt, ashes, urine and cow dung.
So he could concentrate without being interrupted by anyone, he went to live in the most dangerous part of the forest. If he did see a human being, he ran away like a timid deer.
In the wintertime he spent his days under the trees and his nights out in the open. So in the daytime he was soaked by the cold water dripping from the icicles hanging from the tree branches. And at night he was covered by the falling snow. In this way, in winter, he made his body suffer the most extreme cold in both day and night.
In the summertime he spent his days out in the open and his nights under the trees. So in the daytime he was burned by the most severe rays of the sun. And at night he was blocked from the few cooling breezes of the open air. In this way, in summer, he made his body suffer the most extreme heat in both day and night.
This was how he struggled, trying to bring peace to his mind. He was so determined that he lived his entire life in this way.
Then, just as he was about to die, he saw a vision of himself reborn in a hell world. The vision struck him like lightning, and instantly he knew that all the ways he had tortured his body were completely useless! They had not brought him peace of mind. Lo and behold, as he gave up his false beliefs and held on to the truth, he died and was reborn in a heaven world!”
Although this is a fable from another culture, it rings true. We can not do enough, say enough, and sacrifice enough to make us holy. There is only one way we are made holy and that is through the blood of Jesus. God must shape and mold us into holiness. We are incapable of achieving holiness on our own.
The second element to his prayer is holiness. Jesus prays that God will make us holy. What is holiness? It means set apart for the dedication and service to God. As followers of Jesus we exist for the sole purpose of being dedicated to the truth of God’s Word and our service to him. To be dedicated to the truth of God’s Word means to totally surrender your life to living this truth. In surrendering your life to this truth, a desire to serve will automatically become predominate.
Another word for it is sanctification. It is an on going process. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work within us trying to fine tune our hearts to pursue holiness. Each time we listen and obey his Word we become more sanctified, more holy.
When asked “Why did Jesus die on the cross?” our answer is usually “He died for our sins so that we would be forgiven and have eternal life with him.” While that is true there is more to it than that. Hebrews 10:10 tells us “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.” Jesus died for us to be made holy. He died to sanctify us. Hebrews 12:14 tells us to “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” Living a holy life takes effort. Only God can make us holy but we have to work maintaining that holiness.
The third element is truth. The Greek word for truth meant corresponding to reality. God’s Word is the reality of truth. Nothing else in this world can make that claim.
But we must understand the truth of God’s Word and not our opinion of God’s Word.
There once was a man who heard a sermon on living by faith. The pastor based his sermon on Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?” He decided that, so long as he prayed in Jesus’ name, believing in faith that God would provide his need, he would receive whatever he asked for. One day he stood up in church and declared that from that day forward, he was trusting God to supply all his needs. He quit his job as a high-ranking official in a fairly large company and moved into a dingy little house on the rougher side of town. The first night he prayed very fervently for God to send him some food, because he was beginning to get hungry. The next morning he walked outside, expecting to find food, but nothing was there. Figuring that he didn’t pray fervently enough, he dedicated the whole day to praying for God to provide food for the next day. The next morning came, and still no food. That day he prayed even more fervently for God to provide nourishment, for by now he was growing ravenously hungry. "God, you must provide me with food, or I will die out here," he prayed over and over again. The next morning he walked outside, and still no food. By this time he was beginning to get angry with God for not providing He promised in His Word. That afternoon and evening he redoubled his efforts, wailing and rocking back and forth and beating his breast as he prayed. "Dear God, I’m going to starve to death unless you feed me. I haven’t eaten or had anything to drink in 4 days!" When he had prayed all he could pray, and was exhausted he fell back on the bed and stared at the wall. In the silence, he heard a small voice calling out his name. "Bill! Bill!"
"I’m here Lord," he cried. "Are you finally answering my prayer?"
"I’ve been answering your prayers," the voice replied. "You’ve just been looking in the wrong direction."
"What do you mean Lord? I don’t understand," he exclaimed, exasperated.
"Walk outside," said the voice.
Bill walked outside, looked all around on the dirty porch, but still found no food. "There’s nothing here, Lord. I don’t see any food."
"You’re looking in the wrong direction. Look up."
Bill looked up, and there right above his head, pasted onto the building next to him, was a huge billboard with big black print that said, "DAY LABORERS WANTED! LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED." It is important that we understand the truth of God’s Word.
We are surrounded by God’s truth.
Romans 1:19-20 “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
God was sitting in heaven one day when a scientist said to Him, “God, we don’t need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing – in other words, we can now do what you did in the beginning.”
“Oh, is that so? Explain…” replies God.
“Well,” says the scientist, “we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of you and breathe life into it, thus creating man.”
“Well, that’s very interesting… show Me.”
So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil into the shape of a man. “No, no, no…” interrupts God, “Get your own dirt.”
Every argument that man uses to discount God is a losing argument. No one can explain the origin of the universe. Even the Big Bang Theory must begin with objects already created. Creation screams the reality of God’s Word.
God’s truth lives within us.
Romans 2:14-15 “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.”
In the Garden of Eden stood a tree. It was the only tree that Adam and Eve could not eat from. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve ate from the tree and then gave some to Adam. Instantly their eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil. That knowledge they gained exist within us today. As Romans 1:20 states we have “no excuse for not knowing God.” His reality is written in every heart.
So far Jesus has prayed that God will form us into someone who has been set apart for active dedication and service to him being revealed by the reality of God’s truth.
This brings us to the fourth element, teach. To teach means to provide information in a manner intended to produce understanding. Jesus was a rabbi which meant teacher. Part of his ministry was to provide information. He did so through parables, stories intended to teach. He did so through scripture, explaining the deeper meanings of God’s Word.
The highest degree you can get in college is a PhD. In researching the length of time to get a doctorate it is from 5 to 7 years. You can never earn a PhD in holiness. We are constantly being taught by the Holy Spirit. It is an on going provision of information that produces understanding.
Jerry Clower tells the story of a highly educated man and his chauffer. Now this man had a PhD in archeology. For eight months the chaffer had driven the teacher from university to university everyday always standing in the back, listening.
One day the chauffer informed the teacher that he wasn’t that hot. In fact, he continued he heard that speech so many times and the questions that followed he could deliver it better that the teacher.
So the teacher set up a challenge. The next university
they were to visit had never met or seen the teacher. They would
switch roles. The chauffeur agreed. So the teacher drove the
chauffeur to the university. This time it was the teacher standing at the back of the room listening to the presentation.
Just as the chauffer had predicted he delivered the speech just as well as the teacher. In fact by the student’s reaction it may have been the best speech they had ever heard.
Now came the question and answer part of the program. One student stood and asked “If a dinosaur that roamed the earth twenty million years ago died and was buried under many volcanic eruptions and mud slides. And a drill bit from today was to bring up a sample of this dinosaur, what would the PH of the dinosaur?”
Never before had this question been asked. The chauffer got quiet. You could here a pin drop. The teacher just smiled.
The chauffer responded “Mister Student, I’ve been to many universities around this great land. They told me this was the best. If that is true, I don’t know how they allowed someone like you to attend here. That has to be the most easiest question to answer. And to prove it, I’m going to let my chauffer standing at the back of the room answer it.”
Like the chauffer in the story we will never have all the answers. The Holy Spirit is our master teacher. And the teaching process is ongoing.
The fifth element is the word. This is how God communicates with us. God is capable of communicating with us through visions, dreams, and circumstances. But most of his communication with us comes through his written word.
Can we trust it? 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
There is that word “teach” again. The Bible’s purpose is to provide us with information about what is reality and to make us realize our sins to produce understanding on these matters. It helps us to understand right from wrong and provide us with the information needed to do what is right.
Jesus prayed that God would form us into someone who has been set apart for active dedication and service to him being revealed by the reality of God’s truth based on the information given us to produce understanding from his chosen form of communication.
God cannot make you holy without your cooperation. We think that just accepting Jesus is all that’s needed. Jesus gave us this warning in Matthew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
We may preach the gospel. We may heal the sick. We may even perform miracles. But this does not make you holy. We have to allow God to form us into a person who is actively dedicated and serving him for his glory.
God accomplishes this by revealing the reality of his communication with us. Hebrews 6:18 says “It is impossible for God to lie.” Therefore, we must accept his Word as reality regardless of what the world would tell us reality is.
We must be willing students. You cannot force someone to learn if they are not willing. Jesus prayed for us to continue to be taught. This is the heart of a rabbi, a teacher.
It is our responsibility to be students of God chosen form of communication to learn the reality of his Word allowing him to form us into a person who has been set apart for active dedication and service to God.
