Sermon Series - AlbertMohler.com: Recent Episodes
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Audio recordings of Dr. Mohler's Sunday school class, wherein he normally follows a verse-by-verse style of exposition through books of the Bible.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 10:1-28
June 28, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 8:18-9:27
June 21, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 8:1–17
June 14, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 6:1-27
May 24, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 5:1–15
May 17, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 4:1-24
May 10, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 2:22-3:17
May 3, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 2:1-21
April 26, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Joshua 1:1-18
April 12, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 3:16-4:6
March 29, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 3:6-15
March 22, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 2:17-3:6
March 15, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 2:10–16
March 1, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 2:1–9
February 22, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 1:6–14
February 8, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Malachi 1:1-5
February 1, 2026
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 16:1–24
December 14, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 15:12–58
December 7, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 15:1–11
November 30, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 14:1–40
November 23, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
October 12, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
September 28, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 11:1–22
September 21, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 11:1–16
September 14, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 10:1–33
August 31, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 9:1–27
August 17, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 8:1–13
May 11, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 7:17–40
May 4, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 7:1–16
April 27, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
April 20, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 6:1–20
April 13, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 5:1–13
April 6, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 4:1–21
March 23, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 3:1–23
March 16, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
March 9, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
February 9, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
1 Corinthians 1:1-17
February 2, 2025
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 28-36
December 15, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 26-27
December 1, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 25
November 24, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 21:10-24:25
November 3, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 20-21:9
October 10, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 18-19
October 13, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 16-17
September 22, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 15
September, 15, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 13-14
August, 18, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 11
June, 16, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 9-10
May, 12, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 7-8
May, 5, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 6
April, 28, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 5
April, 7, 2024
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 4
March, 10, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 2-3
February, 11, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Numbers 1
February, 4, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Luke 16
November, 26, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 4:2-18 — Colossians Series
November, 12, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 3:18–4:1 — Colossians Series
October, 15, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 3:1–17 — Colossians Series
September, 10, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 2:16–23 — Colossians Series
August, 20, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 2:1–15 — Colossians Series
June, 25, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 1:15–29 — Colossians Series
June, 18, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Colossians 1:1–14 — Colossians Series
May, 14, 2023
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 1:1–27:34 — Leviticus Series
October, 16, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 25:35–27:34 — Leviticus Series
October, 09, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 24:17–25:34 — Leviticus Series
September, 25, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 24:1–16 — Leviticus Series
August, 21, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 23:1–44 — Leviticus Series
August, 14, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 21–22 — Leviticus Series
June 26, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 20:1–27 — Leviticus Series
May 22, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 19:1–37 — Leviticus Series
May 8, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 18:1–30 — Leviticus Series
April 24, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 17:1–16 — Leviticus Series
April 17, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 16:1–34 — Leviticus Series
April 10, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 15:1–33 — Leviticus Series
March 27, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 13–14 — Leviticus Series
March 20, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 11–12 — Leviticus Series
February 20, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 11:1–12 — Leviticus Series
February 13, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus Q & A — Leviticus Series
February 06, 2022
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 10:1–20 — Leviticus Series
January 30, 2022
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For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 8:1–9:8 — Leviticus Series
December 12, 2021
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 7:1–38 — Leviticus Series
November 14, 2021
Let's open with prayer. Our Father, we’re just so thankful You give us the opportunity, once again, on this morning, brisk air, beautiful foliage, reminder, not only of the changing of the seasons, but of our own temporality. Father, recognizing that we, too, are like these leaves Father, we pray to receive as much of your Word as we may until that day when we see You face to face. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
So, as we're studying Leviticus and we are studying the law as it was given to Israel in preparation for Israel's arrival in the land of promise, as we are looking word by word and line by line through this amazing book in which we see a yearning for Christ that we immediately recognize. We have seen it in so many different aspects. First of all, just in the sense of sin and guilt, it brings about the necessity of the entire sacrificial system, and then of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of humanity that cries out for some remedy. There has to be some rescue and that rescue cannot come from the human center. The rescue has to come from God Himself. Is there anything I can do, guys? Is there anything here? Okay.
The yearning for atonement actually becomes very clear, as we saw as we got to chapters five and six, where the priest makes atonement. And there's the promise of an atonement, a peace with God, the problem of our sin and our guilt being removed. That raises the issue of the guilt, and, as it turns out, the guilt is not just a subjective experience of feeling and perceiving one's sinfulness. It is the actual objective reality that our sin creates this affront to God that He cannot accept. But we see it over and over again because it happens over and over again, the sacrifices.
By the time you get to chapter seven in Leviticus, we have the recognition that this is the daily life of Israel. This is the center of the daily life of Israel. The daily life of Israel is largely consumed in the process of these sacrifices. And you say, well, this is where the Levitical priesthood. Yes. But notice who's bringing all these animals to the Levitical priests and notice how the preparation, the actual conducting of these sacrifices is going to require the attention of the people. And there are certain sacrifices in which all the people are called to draw near. We're going to see one of those this morning in chapter seven.
We've also seen, and this is perhaps the greatest theological insight thus far as we're going through Leviticus. We've also recognized that for all of the atonement that is promised, for all of the effect of the sacrifices, for all of the sin that is dealt with here, nothing is dealt with permanently, and the priest needs a priest. And that's also going to become more clear.
Now, we have chapter seven before us, and after that, of course, chapter eight. Chapter eight's a decisive break in the book of Leviticus. So, after chapter eight, that is starting with chapter eight, we will be looking at instructions directly to the priesthood, which means that even as God called to Moses and spoke to Moses, this is instruction for all of Israel. And that includes chapter eight and what follows. This is not just given for the priests. It's not a secret knowledge.
Something else is really important. There is no secret priest book in Judaism. There is no secret preacher book in Christianity. Now that needs to be understood because over against the various priesthoods of paganism, there is almost universally—and I don't think I actually need the ‘almost’—there is practically universally, a secret meaning, a secret code, a secret cultus known to the priesthood and not known to the people. That's a part of the priesthood’s powers, a part of the priesthood’s stewardship is that they know things. They have access to truths. They know ancient books, ancient writings, ancient authorities. They know how to read ancient stones. Whatever it is, they have knowledge that the people don't have.
Have you noticed that that's not true of Israel? I mean, have you noticed that in Genesis and in Exodus, and we'll see it everywhere in Scripture. But in other words, it doesn't just come to us in Leviticus, but it comes to us in a big way in Leviticus, because we recognize how different this is than a traditional priesthood. A traditional priesthood is not only set apart, it is a cult unto itself. And what it does is the cultus, and the priesthood is usually entered by some form of initiation in which you enter as a novice and as a novice, you are taken into the mysteries in an ever deeper way.
You see this in Buddhism, for example, in most of its classic forms. But even in ancient paganism, such as the Canaanite religions, there's every reason to believe that the priests knew things that the people were never to know. That is just not the case in Israel. The law is given to Israel. The law is not given to the priest. There are instructions to the priest in the law given to Israel, but every single member of the covenant people has equal access to God's Word, equal access to these instructions. Now, as you fast forward in biblical history, then you go to a couple of things that become very clear in the New Testament, and especially in the writings of the apostle Paul, because he will say, “At various times there is a mystery, but it's the mystery we proclaim to you.” So, in other words, it's only a mystery to the unbelieving world.
The gnosis, the epistemological tribal reality, is the entire people. The gnosis is given to the entire people, not just to the priesthood. This sets Israel apart. And not only that, it's a public book, which means even though the knowledge is given to Israel as a part of God's covenant gift, it's shared with others. The Torah was not something secreted away. It eventually became known. And of course, we have a relationship to it in which we speak of it in terms of Old and New Covenant, Old and New Testament. This gets back to the fact that, as the reformers had to make very clear, based upon the clear verdict of the Holy Spirit led earliest church, based upon the teaching of the apostles, based upon what they had received from Christ, all of Scripture belongs to the church. The church is accountable to all of Scripture.
But as we are in Leviticus, coming to chapter seven, this is the continuation, and indeed the conclusion, of the opening section of Leviticus, about the nature of the sacrifices, the nature of the offerings. In chapter seven, verse one, we read, “This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy.” Now wait just a minute! In the previous chapter, we had details about the guilt offering. Yes. And so, one of the things that we will find is that there's, it's not just the repetition. A lot of this language by now is quite familiar to us. It is also the fact that there are different questions answered in different portions of Leviticus. Who—that is, who is to do this? The priest, in one case the high priest. Who is to do this? When is it to be done? Well, when the sin happens, when the sin happens, when someone's expressing thanksgiving, et cetera. The how is very important.
Chapter seven says in verse two, “In the place where they kill the burnt offering, they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown against the sides of the altar. And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy.”
Now, remember that we have this, this kind of concentric set of circles, and the innermost circle is the Most Holy Place. So, as you think about even the geography or the topography of the temple. But this is also related to Israel's own identity and experience—there's a ‘holy’. Then there's a ‘most holy’, in the New Testament often referred to as the Holy of Holies. Well, when you see the phrase ‘most holy thing’, that means particularly set apart. Now, that also means that Israel is issued a particular warning, lest Israel handle most holy things in a way that is unworthy.
In verse six, “Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. The guilt offering is just like the sin offering; there is one law for them [both]. The priest who makes atonement with it shall have it. And the priest who offers any man's burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered. And every grain offering baked in the oven and all that is prepared on a pan or [in] a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it. And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall be shared equally among all the sons of Aaron.”
So again, a lot going on here. But in the sin offering and the guilt offering, which we are told follows one law, so it is one pattern. The priest who performs a sacrifice, eats the meat of the sacrifice—that is allowed to him. And remember, that's a restricted amount of the animals, we shall see. What's also important here is that the skin of the animal sacrificed is given to that priest.
These skins are very, very important. You'll remember in the book of Genesis when Adam Eve in their embarrassment, after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they made—you got to love the Geneva Bible in its modesty—they made ‘aprons for themselves’. And they did make aprons for themselves, but they were made out of leaves. They were not going to be very substantial. And remember, after the Lord confronted them in their sin, a part of the Lord's care for them after their rebellion and sin was to make coverings for them out of skins of animals. And so, this use of skin shows the fact that that nothing in the animal was left without a purpose, nothing, and that the skin had value in it tangibly. It went to the priest who made the atonement.
The grain offerings would last longer. It's the other thing that comes up about the meat offerings. And you'll notice that it appears that right then the priest who deserves to eat of the meat, eats of it. And it's because meat spoils, it's because meat is perishable. You do it right here. You do it right in the view of the people.
The grain offerings are a bit different because the grain offerings will last longer, and they are shared with the other priests. The one who officiates at the offering has the first fruit of the offering, but shares it then equally among all the sons of Aaron.
Verse 11, “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving…” So that's reason number one, thanksgiving. “…then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with [the] loaves of leavened bread. And from it he shall offer one loaf from each offering, as a gift to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering.” There again, the meat to be eaten immediately. “He shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow offering or a freewill offering…” That's the second. “…it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice, and on the next day, what remains of it may be eaten.” So that would be what remains of the animal that wasn't eaten, still allowable to eat on the second day, but as you shall see, not on the third.
Verse 17, “But what remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned up with fire.” So, first day you may eat it. Second day, if any is left over, you may still eat it. Third day, no! Now notice what comes next. In verse 18, “If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten on the third day, he who offers it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be credited to him. It is tainted, and he who eats of it shall bear his iniquity.” So again, there's a there's judgment here. These laws are not merely suggestions. This is not the etiquette of sacrifice. This is the law of sacrifice. These are instructions. If these instructions are taken lightly, then basically the entire sacrifice is invalidated.
Now, again, we just can't help fast forwarding, fast forwarding to the fact that, on the cross, Jesus was both priest and offering. He's our Great High Priest who offers Himself. And He offers himself in such a way that it was a perfect sacrifice. It was received as a perfect sacrifice. So, it was actually the first perfect sacrifice, which means to say, when you look at the danger here of even making an error in the offering and the sacrifice being basically invalidated, you recognize that this is a clumsy, clumsy thing. It's a hit or miss thing, not because of God's character, but because of the human character, those carrying it out. Not only their character, but their competence. You get a slippery priest, you're going to have guilt. First of all, upon the priest himself.
Now, the holiness code becomes more clear as we look at verse 19. “Flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten.” And remember, there are a lot of unclean things. If a clean thing to be sacrificed touches an unclean thing, it becomes unclean. “It shall be burned up with fire. All who are clean may eat flesh, but the person who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings while an uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people. And if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable creature, and then eats some flesh from the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people.”
Now ‘cut off from his people’. What does that mean? That is an incredibly strong word of judgment. This doesn't sound like something for which there can be a remedy. Let me tell you, it may be worse than you think. Look at Exodus, chapter 31. Look at verse 14. “You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.”
So, there it appears that there is at least a connection between the death penalty and being cut off from your people. But we need to be careful. It is a parallelism here. In other words, we're not told that being cut off from the people is being put to death. We're told that someone is to be put to death, who is a Sabbath breaker, but then it's explained that such a person is to be cut off from his people. Now, capital punishment would certainly do that, but so would exile. And what we can only describe in the Old Testament as a, an exile from the covenant, being cut off from the covenant, it appears, just put it in context, that that is what is contemplated in Leviticus. And this will show up elsewhere when someone is cut off from his people. And if there is a death penalty, that's invoked, it applies.
But there are cases in which we have the language, ‘He shall be cut off from his people,’ where it does not appear that there is any death penalty, but rather one is basically excommunicated, is the best way to put it. That would be our closest at hand term for this. It would be someone who is now exiled, cut off from the covenant and from the covenant people.
The point of course we see here in Leviticus, is that getting the sacrifice wrong endangers, not only the sacrifice, but it slanders God and it mal priests. It is an injury for the entire people. And as we have seen, sin and guilt are real objective categories. They are real obstacles between us and a holy God. They are an affront to God's majesty and His holiness. They are an objective barrier between God's covenant people and Himself. The sacrifice is the way that that barrier is removed. As we see in these sacrifices, for a time God's wrath will be held back, for a time. But that ‘for a time’ is very important because that's how the covenant people existed.
And that's also how we exist. We are not under the mediation of a priest who performs repeated sacrifices. That sacrifice is once for all. For us, before a time is not awaiting the great sacrifice, because that's already taken place. For us, the ‘for a time’ is in this time awaiting the glorification that is to come. It's one of the things we have to remember is that Christ’s atoning work purchased our glorification. We are not yet glorified, but no more sacrifice will take place.
In the horizon of Israel's just endless sacrifices until, until again, logically, logically, and we see it in the text going all the way back to Moses—in fact, going all the way back to the promise to Abraham—it's there that something's going to have to bring a conclusion to this. Someone's going to have to finish this. He is, we speak of Christ as the ‘author and finisher of our faith,’ but for the temporal horizon of Israel for so long as their generation shall come, it's daily what we are seeing here.
In verse 22, “The Lord speaks to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, You shall eat no fat, of ox or sheep or goat. The fat of an animal that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn by [the] beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it. For every person who eats of the fat of an animal of which a food offering may be made to the Lord shall be cut off from his people.” There it is again. “Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling, places. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.””
Now again, I think I told someone that, you know, there have been people who have heard this or read this text and been afraid to order their steak in a restaurant anything but well done. That is not what's being referenced here. And as a matter of fact, in the slaughter of beef or of meat, the bleeding of the animal, the blood is removed. There's still some in the flesh, but the actual circulatory blood is removed. So, what’s the background here, what's the problem? Well, let's just say we have foreground, and then we have long foreground. In the immediate foreground, and in the background to this, are the pagan sacrifices, pagan priests, because blood has been recognized, even in the most animistic cultures, as being of importance to the cultus. Now, this is explained, of course, in the Scripture where we are told that in the blood is the life. Just think of a text like Genesis 9:4, the life is in the blood.
If you're trying to find the mystery of life, which let's just say you're an ancient people, you're cut off from any form of direct, special revelation. You have the general revelation, you're made in God's image, you’re in a place where you do not know Torah, you do not hear the revelation of God, and you're trying to figure out what life is all about. It doesn't take you long to figure out that life is in the blood. Life is in the blood to the extent that if someone loses blood, they die. Life is blood to the extent that all the creatures that we would consider as animal creatures, even like unto us, there is blood. The life is in the blood to the extent that, if you have someone who's cut and the blood is spurting out, when the blood stops pulsing, the person is dead.
Now, if you take the life is in the blood in a pagan way, you literally mean the life is in the blood, which is one of the reasons why you will find, you know, in ancient cultures in Central and South America, especially with human sacrifice. And you look at the reason for the human sacrifice. There's an impulse. We've got to have some kind of blood sacrifice, it needs to be as innocent as possible, which is why so many of these are children. Found also in Canaan. Remember, the purpose here is to prepare the Children of Israel for entering Canaan, while not becoming Canaanites. And a part of what the Canaanites are doing, particularly in sacrifices to Molech, is they're sacrificing their children.
Some years ago, an archeologist came to Southern Seminary for a conference and was speaking about modern archeological finds, and mentioned that so many of them actually, in the ancient near east, have been completely accidental. In other words, there's certain tells or mounds where people know we ought to dig there and see what's there. There are certain civilizational spots, you could just say Jericho or other places, not to mention Jerusalem, or we know we know what this place is. And we know, as you dig down stratum by stratum, you're going to find all kinds of interesting materials.
But other things have been found elsewhere, especially in the ancient Near East, nearly entirely by accident. One of them came in Syria, very close to the Golan Heights, which means very close to Mount Carmel, you know, headed in that direction, very close to Israel. And what was found was a dumping place of dead bodies. And the dead bodies had been sacrificed and burned. And the dead bodies were all of children, about ages four and under. All of them had been clearly sacrificed in some kind of sacrificial system. They'd been killed and their bodies burned. But what was noted about this, this horrible find was that what was shocking is that the main leg bones in all of these skeletons had been broken, and it was so that the children could not crawl out of the fire.
And you look at that and you go, “Oh!” This blood sacrifice, in a pagan sense, makes the sacrifice and the priesthood the focus, and this blood, the idea that life is in the blood. You know, the priest would smear themselves with blood and there would be orgies of blood. That's not what you see here. In fact, the detailed instructions given to the priests in Leviticus are such that there is no confusion between the sacrifice that God has ordered and the pagan sacrifices, and the eating of blood is a part of this.
Notice that Israel's not just all, “No, it's not a good idea to eat blood.” No, it's not that. They are told, “You shall not eat blood. If you eat blood, you are cut off again.” We think the best meaning of that would be an exile cut off from the covenant. That's how threatening such a confusion would be.
And by the way, it's also fat. You're not supposed to eat the fat. And the fat is not the blood. You know, we don't have a sacrifice of fat. But it just shows you again, that God's holiness code is very detailed and every part of it is useful. And what God says about the fat is, “You can use it for a lot of things. You can’t eat it.” And so, the fat could be reduced to oil, it could be reduced to grease, it could be used for polish, it could be used to light a lamp. It could be used for all kinds of purposes. Can't be used for just outright human consumption.
Verse 28, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying Whoever offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offerings. His own hands shall bring the Lord's food offerings. He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord.”” Now remember a wave offering is symbolically a way of demonstrating the purpose of the sacrifice. And remember, one of the central purposes of the wave offering is thanksgiving. It could be also to vow a vow.
I was a telling group about having Eta Linnemann speak at Southern Seminary. It’s a long story—I won't tell you how I introduced her, and she didn't come. But she was one of, she was Rudolph Bultmann, the great liberal New Testament scholar in Germany, fountain head of theological liberalism. Eta Linnemann was his first female doctoral student and became very, very famous as a liberal biblical scholar. She didn't believe the Bible was the Word of God. She was a Bultmannian. She never married.
And Professor Linnemann, toward the end of her life, went on a retreat with and ended up and being in a hostel in Germany, run by German pietist ladies. And she became a Christian toward the end of her life. She was a professor of New Testament. She didn't believe anything. And then she became a believer. And then she had a problem because she's got all these books, she's been publishing all these years. And now she's a Christian and she actually believes the Bible's the Word of God. And so, she actually wrote a very interesting letter to the German academy saying, “Please disregard everything I've ever written.” And she wrote two books defending the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture.
And so, she was still alive. I wanted to bring her to Southern to speak. And, you know, sure was a wonderful thing to have Professor Linnemann come. It was wonderful, but it was very German. And I will just tell you that I introduced her to banquet only to discover that German professors do not speak while people are eating. And you'll hear me tell this again, sometime when it's appropriate to the event, but she just said, “I dos not speak to chewing peoples.” And she was a teutonic lady professor. Yes, okay.
But the students, and of course had all these students, all these wonderful seminary students who had come to hear Professor Linnemann, and they're also polite and so kind, and they don't want to do anything improper, and they don't want to laugh at this professor, but she was as German as German could be. And it comes down to this, this particular passage, because she would just say at full voice, she was so excited about this. You believe this is the Word of God. Now it wasn't just, and she said, “And Abraham wowed a wow before the Lord.” And she just repeated it over and over again. And I'm sitting up there on the platform, looking at these students who are going, “Abraham wowed a wow before the Lord.” And sure enough, so I'll never, I just promise you once you've heard that, you can never unhear it. “Abraham wowed a wow!”
If you do vow, a vow, a wave offering is an appropriate way. And again, it's shown before the Lord. It is a wave in the sense that it's held up. And yet we have more about the wave offering that comes up here. If you do, then you'll notice that the central thing here is the breast. “He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave before the Lord.”
Now, what is it about the breast? Well, here's an interesting thing and I have no great explanation for this. It's just, it just is. And that is that the prime parts of the meat in ancient Israel were identified as the breast and the right thigh. Now, if you go into your butcher shop and talk in terms of the right thigh, I don't think you're going to get a whole lot of comprehension. But that was how it was defined. Now, other parts of the meat may be eaten. other parts of the animal may be consumed, but the prime pieces were the breast and the right thigh.
The point here is that the wave offering, if you're doing this because you vowed a vow, you’re doing this because you are expressing thanks to the Lord. Or you're doing it as the church would call it later, ‘unbidden’. In other words, there's no requirement to do it. You just feel an urge to do this, this wave offering it under the Lord. Then you bring the prime parts, no inferior parts. If you really are moved to do this, you're moved to do it rightly.
“The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifice of your peace offerings.” So, not the left thigh. And again, I don't know if it's just the historic distinction between left and right that is reflected in Scripture, but it's the right thigh.
“For the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed I have taken from the people of Israel, out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as a perpetual due from the people of Israel.” So, in other words, this is just ongoing. So, for long as Israel under this covenant shall exist, God has given to Aaron, to the Levitical priesthood, to the Aaronic priesthood with Aaron at the very top, and to the priests, they're given these prime pieces of meat as a ‘perpetual due’.
“This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the Lord's food offerings, from the day they were presented to serve as priests of the Lord. The Lord commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations. This is the law of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the ordination offering, and of the peace offering, which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the people of Israel to bring their offerings to the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.”
So, so much has transpired here. We are seven chapters through Leviticus, and we have seen now most of the rules concerning the sacrifices. Notice how they're listed here, just for helpful summary at the end, set out for us—burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, ordination offering, peace offering.
Now back on Mount Sinai, when the Children of Israel were told to bring their offerings, they were just offerings. But now there are all these different kinds of offerings. The fulfillment of every single one of them, all of them and all of them together and more, is Christ. So, once again, we are struck by the fact that in Israel, there was a singularity of priesthood, but there was an endless multiplicity of sacrifices. And in Israel, it was a priesthood that was through Aaron, to Aaron's sons and descendants, and then beyond them to the tribe of Levi and the Levitical priesthood. So, it was an exclusive priesthood. If you were in other tribes, you were not a priest. If you were not of Aaron’s seed, then you're not Aaronic. Still, multiple priests, one priesthood, multiple priests. We have a singular Priest, and the sacrifice is a singular sacrifice.
So, there is more to come in Leviticus, but at this point, we have the great satisfaction of knowing that even as Israel is saved here for a time by these sacrifices, even as God's wrath is held back for Israel for a time by these sacrifices, the reality is, look at the language like ‘perpetual do’. Look at the repetition.
You know, you look at this and you recognize that when we speak of our, say week, we think of our week, we as Christians. There are Christians who think of their weekly schedule differently than we do. There are those who might be in a very highly liturgical church, say Anglican, high church Anglican, and they may begin every single day with the morning offices or matins. And they may go all the way through even song in the evening, if they are in an order, they may actually do the hours following in prayer, day by day by day.
But nonetheless, what we are looking at, if indeed this is a Christian church, if it is a Christian practice, then we are looking at the fact that if something of that is missed, let's say that the building suffers a problem and people can't meet together for the meeting, or it can't happen by some kind of obstacle. Norice no guilt remains, no guilt remains, cause these are not sacrifices. These are services of prayer. These are times of Bible reading. It's just extremely different.
For Israel, an interruption in the sacrificial system meant that guilt remained. Now, this just leads to all kinds of things that we will see as we fast forward in biblical history, including what it meant for Israel to be carried off into captivity. Or what it meant for Israel, and remember, this is now in the background, for Israel to have been captive to Pharaoh in Egypt. So, Israel is in the unusual and frightening position of recognizing that, if its infidelity leads it to be separated from this tabernacle, separated from its priesthood, its priesthood unable to function, then the sin just builds up and the guilt just increases, which by the way, shows again, God's mercy. Helps you to read the prophets, helps you to read Jeremiah, for example, helps you to understand Nehemiah because how is it that God's going to allow this people back because their sin and their guilt is ever more immense.
By the way, one other thing, and I just want to mention this very clearly. The early church recognized, and the book of Hebrews is the quintessential representation of this, the early church recognized, based upon the teachings of Christ himself and then the teaching of the apostles, that the ‘once for all’ nature of the sacrifice of Christ meant that whatever the church does, whatever the church does in worship, whatever the church does in preaching, whatever the church does just in talk, we must be extremely careful about sacrifice language.
If we are going to use sacrifice language, it has to be for ourselves. It has to be only in the sense of Romans chapter 12 in which Christ’s people are called to be ‘a living sacrifice’. But there can be no other kind of sacrificial language. We've got to reserve that now all for Christ. Is that really clear? We have to reserve that all for Christ. Well, you know, what sacrifice must be made for the forgiveness of our sins? That sacrifice was made. That sacrifice was accepted. Not only did Christ die on the cross as a Great High Priest, He was resurrected as the very Son of God by the Father. That sacrifice received and blessed in full. Any confusion of that, thus, is a deadly confusion.
Now I want to fast forward to the 16th century. In the 16th century, let's just look at Martin Luther, just to take one example. So, let's just take the seminal reformer in the 16th century. Martin Luther, when in 1517 he posted those 95 theses. And again, we don't know exactly how they were posted, but, by tradition, on the Wittenburg door. But we do know they existed to the extent, and they were published to the extent, that the Archbishop of Mainz has them and has to decide what to do with them within days of Luther having posted them. And that's a matter of the church's record.
But you'll notice that Luther didn't go after the Mass. Luther doesn't go after the very center of the Catholic Church’s cultus. He just assumed that, as a monk, or better described a friar, as an ordained priest of the church, he just, he just received that.
But as he begins to come to terms with Scripture, we see Luther forced into what can only be considered boxed alleyways from which there's no escape. And that's how Luther gets to so many of the doctoral insights of the Reformation. When he's involved in a disputation and he's accused of trusting the Scripture rather than the Magisterium, rather than the Pope, Luther says, “Yeah, that's actually what I'm doing.” And then when he's pressed further and further, it's the Scripture, and the Scripture, and the Scripture, and Luther gets the hard way to the fact that it's Scripture alone, by the fact that in his argument, he's got nowhere else to go.
The same thing with justification. Luther doesn't begin, what we would call the Reformation, by understanding the faulty doctrine of justification in the Roman Catholic Church. But the more he is taken into the world of Scripture, and the more his argument has to be based just in Scripture, and the more Scripture has to become his soul doctrinal authority, the more he recognizes that it's not faith and anything. And again, it's just then the process of, with his life on the line, you just have to, all of a sudden, realize it's this or nothing. By the time he gets to Worms with Scripture, “Here I stand, I can do to other, God help me.”
But he got to the Mass, and he got to the Mass. And you think of his writing on what he called The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, speaking of the Catholic Church. And he gets to it, and he gets to it with the recognition that the Catholic Mass is a sacrifice. He was taught this. He was taught the central theology of the Mass is that it is a sacrifice. So much so that Christ is crucified again. So much so that by transubstantiation, what is there on the altar, called the tabernacle, is a vessel for holding what is claimed to be the transubstantiated body of Christ crucified again.
And that's why Luther responds with this complete abhorrence of the Mass, where he says, “You can have the Mass, or you can have Christ, but you cannot have both, for Christ died once.” And He doesn't sit on an altar. He certainly doesn't sit on thousands and thousands of altars in bits and pieces. Christ, and Christ whole, and Christ alone, reigns with the Father. And the sacrifice is done. And it is a slander to say, any sacrifice is needed, or any sacrifice can add a thing to what Jesus accomplished and which Jesus concluded with the words, “It is finished.”
So, I just want to leave you with that as, when we're next together, we'll look at chapter eight and the actual instigation, installation of the priesthood. It's just so encouraging to me to think of not just what we do when we're together here at Third Avenue Baptist Church, but what we don't do.
Do you notice something? There’s no mess for us to clean up after the service. There's no blood spattered all over this place, and it's not because it's not necessary. It's because it's been done. So that should get us ready for worship.
It's been a privilege to be with you looking at these first seven chapters of Leviticus. We'll be turning a chapter, as in a whole section of Leviticus, when we're together next.
Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful for all You've given us in every single word, every syllable, every sentence of Scripture. Father, we ask to read all of Scripture in order that we may know Christ, in order that we may know Him more fully, follow Him more faithfully, and see your Gospel displayed in Him more gloriously. Father, we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 5:1–6:30 — Leviticus Series
October 24, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 4:1-35 — Leviticus Series
October 10, 2021
Well, good morning. It's good to see you all spectacular October morning and wonderful to be here together for the study of God's word. And we are in Leviticus looking at chapter four in our adventure in, this central book of the Pentateuch, the third book of the Bible, and the book of the law. In this case, the specific instructions were given to the people of Israel known as Leviticus with specific reference to the Levitical priesthood. The performance of sacrifices. As we see here at the beginning of our study together. We're going to be looking at chapter four, continuing this morning, but let's open with a word of prayer.
Our Father, we pray that you will open your word and open our hearts simultaneously and open our minds to understand. And Father, we seek the deep things in your word. Things hidden from before the foundation of the earth that you have revealed to us. Father, we pray this for Your glory and for the health of your church in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
This morning, no doubt you gave some thought to coming here and for the study of God's word and for worship. You gave some thought to what would happen here. We've often described the distinction and the book of Leviticus in terms of the Cultus. Well, all that's required in terms of preparation and specificity, even all that's required in terms of the physical objects from the tent of meeting and the tabernacle to what will eventually be the temple and the most holy place. The spectacular cloth that arrayed within the site of the room. The specific grandeur and priestly nature of the vestments, the robes worn by the priests and by others.
We compare that to the fact that we don't have a uniform. There, there are no priestly garments. There's no priest here, but as we look at the passage of our consideration today, beginning in Leviticus, chapter four. It's just yet another stark reminder of how much attention this required of Israel for Israel to be faithful to this law, it had to give constant— virtually hour by hour attention—to itself and to the preparation for what would be necessary sacrifices.
Today, we come to the sin offerings. This is what most Christians think of as the very heart of the sacrificial system. Now we've seen there are other offerings— guilt offerings, peace offerings, burned offerings— but, now we come to the sin offering and I think most Christians, even as they think, "We know what this, this kind of offering's going to be about. We know what this sacrifice is going to be about," would be shocked to find out actually how chapter four begins.
Now, for one thing, this is a new passage in Leviticus. You know that because of the phrase, "Now the Lord spoke to Moses." So, when this comes, this is like a separate Oracle experience. Moses is receiving this separate from what has come before.
"And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel." Another thing we need to note. So this is not a secret priest code. Which again tells us something about how central this was not just to the priesthood, but Israel. This is not secret information that is supposed to be released only to the priests who have this gnostic, that secret knowledge. No, this is the knowledge of Israel. The Lord spoke to Moses. Moses is to speak to the people. He is to tell them exactly what he has received from the Lord, not just the priests, all of Israel. "Speak to the people of Israel saying if anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandment about things not to be done and does any one of them if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin, that he is committed a bull from the herd, without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering." That's pretty straightforward. It's big.
There's something here that Christians might just rush past without recognizing what's taking place here. Not just in times past, but particularly in our times. In our times there is a lot of effort to minimize sin. Now that's probably been a human project ever since Genesis three. So, we get that, but there's a sense in which, in our time we have rather sophisticated mechanisms to try to deny the sinfulness of sin.
For one thing, we've had the modern redefinition of human beings, from being sinners who are agents to being victims, who are acted upon. So, there is a sense in which there's a lot behind this; you have the entire revolution in terms of Freudianism and the psychotherapeutic revolution that creates the self. What is wrong is from outside the self, it represses the self. Freudianism is a lot more complicated than that. But the point is that the average American thinks of sin as something far less than a falling short of the glory of God in a violation of God's law, that brings on God's wrath, and that brings on guilt.
The big thing in this shift of sin is the idea that whatever sin is, it should not bring about a sense of guilt. When most people today talk about guilt, they talk about something subjective. "I feel guilty." You know, if you go to the psychotherapist, you're likely to hear that guilt is something you need to overcome. It is something that has been imposed upon you. Now, in terms of the Christian vocabulary, our understanding of guilt is first and foremost, that it's an objective reality. It's an objective reality that is not necessarily our sense of it because it exists, whether we sense it or not. It's an objective reality because it is indeed the guilt of having transgressed God's law. And with sin comes guilt. We understand that the parallel word is shame. Shame is the experience, individually or collectively, of having sinned.
By the way, National Public Radio this morning as I was shaving. I turn on the top news segment from National Public Radio. When I begin to shave just to provide some kind of thrill to see if I can listen to that news and still not cut my throat, as I'm shaving. This morning it was a particular challenge because they were talking about the women's marches all over. Especially in response to the Texas abortion bill. A woman was coming on the program and one of the NPR reporters said a central purpose of the march is to help women to understand there should be no stigma attached to abortion. One of the women speaking just said, "I had an abortion simply because I didn't want to be pregnant and there's nothing wrong with that!"
You just listen to that. You go, "Okay, there's the battle cry. There's the battle cry of rebellious humanity. 'I had an abortion simply because I didn't want to be pregnant', you know, deal with it. There's no stigma here. There's no shame here." But you need to notice something that we just read at the beginning versus chapter four in Leviticus. It's the refutation of modern, liberal Protestant theology that minimizes sin. It's the refutation of modern evangelical stupid—there's a lot of that—that minimizes sin. It's the refutation of the idea that we can sin without guilt.
Look at what we read. "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel saying, 'If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about these things not to be done and does any one of them if it is the anointed priest who sins thus bringing guilt on the people.'"
So here's how inextricably linked sin and guilt are. The link is so powerful that if unintentionally— this is how the whole text begins—if one of the priests sins unintentionally, he brings guilt upon the people. So you'll notice it's almost as if that verse was given to us to refute this modern argument of the minimization of sin. This is natural for Israel. Israel was hearing this as if it knew what sin is and now it's just being told how the Lord will have them deal with sin. But in this case, it's an unintentional sin by a priest that brings guilt upon the entire nation. It turns our theology on its head, and it's right there and it's natural. You'll notice this is just the natural argument of Leviticus. This is why all the sacrifices, why all the offerings, this is why all the requirements. It's just mind-blowing to recognize what we're being told here.
God takes sin so seriously that if a priest unintentionally sins it brings guilt upon the entire nation. What then is to be done? Again specificity. "Then he, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord, that is in the tent of meeting and all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And all the fat of the bull of the sin offering, he shall remove from it, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys, just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering, but the skin of bull and all its flesh with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, all the rest of the bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place to the ash heap and shall burn it up on a fire of wood on the ash heap It shall be burned up."
It's a lot there. One of the things we are going to see is that Israel is given a certain scale of sin offerings. In this case, it begins with the most significant and that is a sin of a priest that brings guilt on all the people. What kind of sacrifice would be required? Well, it is a sacrifice of a bull without blemish. Now in the pecking order, in the economy of the animals in this agrarian context, a bull is the most expensive animal of all. So you're talking about a very expensive sacrifice and it has to be provided.
One of the things we note just as a matter of economy here is because of the nature of sin—how often we sin, how often Israel sinned, how often the priests would sin even unintentionally— then there would be the need for a lot of bulls to be brought. So one of the things you have to see in the background of Leviticus is the economy of the sacrificial system. This is a massive economy. And in the case of this particular sacrifice, there's nothing left. So the priests are not eating this. Otherwise, the priests would benefit from his own sin. And that's one of the reasons why at the very end of what we read the animal is taken to the place outside the camp where it's burned utterly, as a sacrifice to the Lord.
But you'll notice that he's to bring the bull to the entrance to the tent of meeting. So this is before the Lord. So the sacrifice itself was taking place out front, but looking into the tent of meeting. So it's outside. Nothing's brought in until it is intentionally by instruction brought in. Notice again, the substitutionary transference here. He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent and before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. Laying on a hand again, this is a priestly way of indicating representation, substitution, sacrifice.
We're told what happens here and it's similar to the burnt offering, but it's not exactly the same. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. So as you picture it, you have the tabernacle and outside the tent, you have the actual sacrifice of the animal and laying on of hands. And then the animal is butchered, it's slaughtered. And then what is taken into the tent and towards the most holy place is some of the blood from the animal. This blood is going to be sprinkled. You'll notice in verse six, "And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in the front of the veil of the sanctuary."
Mary and I have had the delight of having our daughter, Katie, and our grandkids with us just for a few days this week, it was a precious, precious time. This is just being afflicted upon you, sorry. Benjamin's five and Henry's three and Mary Margaret's about six months. It's the two boys that are the center of storm and fury.
We love watching them play, and playing with them, these two little boys. Energy from each other and their constant reference to each other. In my library, I have a couple of bookstands, with the antique and aquarium Bibles of significance on them. They look like pulpits to these two little boys. So, they decided that they would take it upon themselves to go down to my study and preach. Benjamin is learning so much at five. He can preach, he can really preach. I mean, he can get up and tell you about the entire sequence of the Old Testament events. He can tell you about the invasion of the Hyksos into Egypt. It's just incredible what this five-year-old already knows.
There are other things that he hears that he doesn't really know. At one point he was talking about God giving Noah a rainbow sign. And he talked about the rainbow. Then he said, he gave him a sign. You know, he put up a sign like God, putting up a yard sign, "Look at the rainbow, you idiot." God put up a sign. As he was preaching, and by the way, that meant that his little brother went to the other pulpit. He kind of mimicked words coming from Benjamin. But the preaching is pretty much centered on sin. A five-year-old gets there pretty fast. The fact that the Lord, God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they did God put them out of the garden. And then Noah and the flood God's judgment on sin is big. Because if you're five that you get. You don't get it in its fullness, but you get that is the point. It takes an adult to miss the point. It takes an adult's defense mechanisms. It takes psychotherapy and liberal theology and all the rest to avoid just how grotesque sin is.
But for Israel, just think about the fact that most days, in the cycle of Israel's life, this is just being constantly done. And this sprinkling of blood, when you think about it being brought into, to the tent of meeting. Some of it is sprinkled here and some of it is sprinkled there. By the way, the number seven is big, because we also got a sermon on Jericho and Joshua. And how many times, seven times. “Why”, you asked,”Was it seven times?” Because God told them seven times. That is the right answer. But the number seven just comes up again and again and again. This number of, of perfection pointing to divine glory and the divine command, the divine command is that this is to be done seven times. It's interesting. This is different.
Part of it is sprinkled in front of the ail of the sanctuary. So that veil is what separates the holy place from the most holy place. What is the new testimony we referred to as the holy of holies? At least that's what we think of it more often as the most holy place.
"And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting." So this is the incense piece. The horns, remember, are where on the corners there would've been raised like the horns of an animal. Some of it is to be sprinkled there as well. Now you must remember that also what has to follow this is the cleansing, the ritual cleansing of all. But then you have a dead animal. You just took the blood into the tent of the meeting.
So verse eight, "And all the fat of the bull of the sin offerings should be removed from it." At this point, you think, "Well this is going to be all removed because parts of it are going to be burned, you know, in the offering and parts of it be dealt with this way and that way, part of it, the priest will eat." No, this is different because this is a sin offering. We are given all the details about what is to be removed, but you have the prize pieces burnt at the altar of the burnt offering. Then the rest of it—here's the other just blockbuster part of this passage— "all the rest of the bull, he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place to the ash heap and shall it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap, it shall be burned up." Amazing. Outside the tent, outside the camp.
So now we have spatially, as we're thinking about this, we have the camp and then we have the tent in the camp. You approach it within the camp. It's all within the little society, the little civilization where Israel—Israel's not a little people at this point, this let's call it the metropolis of Israel. Some things have to go outside.
Aristotle said that every city civitas begins with families who first of all, identify with each other. Then secondly, identify against the world. The world is a violent place, Aristotle understood. So if you see a city, two things have happened. People gather together and this will be family structures. They gathered together and, out of their commonality, they said, "Let us live together." But in order to survive, they had to say, "Not only are we committed to each other inside this civitas, but we are against the rest." In other words, defensive. Others will try to come and take us, or what is our own.
Aristotle's point was that as you have a city like that—what we would just call the camp of Israel—there has to be a definition, a clear definition of what is inside and outside. So that’s why during this time of human history, you often have city walls and you have city gates. Aristotle is right. That's how a city starts. People saying, "Let us live together." But then, in order to live together in peace, they have to be ready to define themselves and defend themselves against the world. The wall, thus the gate, is a camp. Remember Israel isn't yet a city. This is a moving metropolis. This is a nomadic people being led by the Lord until they can go into the Land of Promise where they will inhabit the land. You notice the verbs in the Old Testament. They're passing through this territory, they will inhabit. They're going to possess, that's another important, Old Testament word. They're going to possess this Land of Promise, but they're just passing through here. But even when they are a camp, rather than a city, there has to be an inside and outside. There are things that take place outside. And by the way, that's true for us.
There was a controversy, just a matter of, about two years ago, because— here's an obvious fact a lot of people don't think about. Evidently, it's an obvious fact, a lot of people in New York City in Manhattan didn't think about it. Guess where the garbage goes produced by all those millions of people in Manhattan. Well, here's the answer. It doesn't stay in Manhattan. Manhattan can't do anything with all this garbage. It produces a lot of garbage. It has to go somewhere. Basically, there are only two ways out of Manhattan for that trash. One is by ship and the other is by train. A couple of years ago came the scandal of the fact that a lot of the garbage in Manhattan was being taken by night on these stinky garbage trains that were going to places like Southern states and some other places where landfills were created so that what New York produces and can't handle being taken elsewhere. Well, there was outrage at the fact that these Manhattanites were exporting their garbage. Someone else has to take their garbage. And after all, these are the people who want the green new deal. Meanwhile, in order to flush their own commodes and do everything else. They have to just put it on a ship and put it on a train and ship it somewhere else.
But the point is you can't live in Manhattan if your garbage stays in Manhattan. Here's a little clue. It's bad enough when it's there long enough to be picked up and put on a train or on a ship. One of the first things I notice about being in a place like Manhattan is not just the tall buildings. It is the tall smells. You have a real clear idea that human beings are living in Manhattan, doing all the human being stuff that produces all the human being stuff.
One of the other things I learned as a boy scout, there are certain things inside the camp, certain things outside the camp. You don't build your latrine inside the camp. That is not good form. That doesn't work very well. That adds up too. If you're, you know, a bunch of boy Scouts adds up perhaps to some temporary inconvenience. If it's long-term, it's called typhus. It's deadly. This doesn't work.
Israel had to have an inside and outside the camp and understand outside the camp means two things. It means outside the civilization, it's outside the civitas. It's in the territory that the city's not claiming as its own. It's not defending this territory. It's not the civilized territory. It's not the inhabited territory, but more than that, it's a distinction between where we live and we keep clean and what's outside with a different set of rules. The camp becomes very important. Outside the camp will be important to our salvation where Christ dies outside the camp. Outside the city walls of Jerusalem. He has taken out where the garbage is burned, where he dies for our sins.
But right now, this is outside the camp for what is left of the bull. The bull was taken outside the camp to a clean place, to an ash heap. "And on the ash heap, it shall be burned up." The Lord doesn't want this part of the bull. Like the burnt offering, the prize parts are to be burned on the fire. But in this case, what's left, pretty graphically described, is to be burned outside the camp.
In verse 13, "If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt when the sin, which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it to the front of the tent of meeting. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord. And the bull should be killed before the Lord. Then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering. That is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And all of its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar. Thus he shall do with the bull as he did with the bull, with the sin offering. So shall he do this. And the priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven, and he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up. As he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly."
So much here that you understand is that the heart of the gospel. The word atonement shows up here. The priest, by this sacrifice, is making atonement, "at-one-meant," for sin. This is not just illustrative. The sacrifice is not just demonstrative. Something objective is taking place, an atonement is made. There again is the prefiguring of our salvation. Our salvation is not merely on the fact that Jesus died as a demonstration, as an illustration, but rather that he died objectively to gain our salvation. Something objective happened. An atonement is accomplished.
This is the people sinning. You'll notice the unintentional is made clear. And you'll notice that unintentional doesn't mean "unsinful." This all begins with unintentional sin. An unintentional sin, which is seen in retrospect. Once it becomes known, then the guilt is known. The guilt was already there. Because the guilt is objective the atonement is objective. What subjective is our understanding of our sin?
So when the people sin, unintentionally, and when it's known to them, then the sacrifice has to be made. You'll notice it follows pretty much the same symmetry. It has to be a bull.
It is sacrificed as instructed. The blood is taken inside the tent, as instructed. And then the rest of the bull, after the prize parts are burned, as in the burned offering, it is taken outside the camp and burned up. In verse 22, "When a leader sins doing unintentionally, any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done and realizes his guilt or the sin, which he has committed is made known to him. He shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering. Before the Lord, it is a sin offering. Then the priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering and all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of the peace offerings. So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. And he shall be forgiven." Back up in verse 15, something happened. We ought to note.
It says in verse 15, "And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord." Now, the elders repeatedly in the Old Testament, we were told about the elders of Israel. Particularly, in this period. We, we hear about the elders of Israel. Here's what we don't know about them. Almost everything we don't know about them. We don't know much about them at all. We don't know how many of them there were. They're probably the heads of the houses. That's probably it, but we really don't know. Clearly, this is a group of men identified as elders who have a spiritual responsibility— probably more than spiritual. It's probably all so political and economic and in every other way. But they are the leaders of Israel. These are the men who are the leadership of Israel. This is an eldership. Again, you see pointing towards the church. It's pointing to the church, but we don't know a lot about these elders, but the very fact that they are cited is important to us. In other words, they have the responsibility, the stewardship, the agency, the leadership assigned to them. But one of them may sin. And that's what we're looking at here. You see the elders of Israel.
Now, we're told if a leader sins, it's the same pattern of unintentionality of a sin that becomes known. You'll notice that in this case, it is not a bull, it is a goat. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that sin is in every case, an infinite transgression against holy God, but there's a scale of sacrifice. It began with the priest. Remember the sin of the priest brought guilt. Not just, sinfulness, but guilt, objectively, upon all the people. Therefore, it had to be a bull. Bulls are the most expensive, most precious of all the animals, making the sacrifice very clear. If the assembly of Israel itself sins, that corporate sin, also a bull is to be offered. But here, after we had a reference to the elders in verse 15, now we're told about a leader, if he sins it's a goat. That doesn't mean his sin is less significant. It does mean that the sacrifice for it need not be, as it was in the first two cases, a bull. It also tells you about the pecking order. As we will see a little further in the text, it's a bull, then a goat, and then a lamb.
Now you say, well, why would a goat be more precious than a lamb? Actually, I know too little about, either goats or sheep, to be able to define that. Except for the fact that evidently in Israel and likely elsewhere sheep reproduce faster.
You notice the goat is to be treated pretty much like the bull. So much so that it is said to be like the burnt offering, as the fat of the sacrifice of the peace offerings. Verse 27, "If any of the common people, sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done and realizes his guilt or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish."
This is a less expensive sacrifice than the leader, which was a male goat. Now it's a female goat. "For his sin, which he committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of his blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering and pour out all the rest of his blood at the base of the altar and all its fat he shall remove. As the fat is removed from the peace offerings and the peace shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And the priest shall make atonement for him and he will be forgiven."
So this is an individual sin. And in this case, it is a female goat. Notice the provision of verse 32, "If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he should bring a female without blemish." So in other words, the preference is for a goat, but you have an allowance for a lamb.
"Then the priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar and all its fat he shall remove as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the top of the Lord's food offerings and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin, which he is committed and he shall be forgiven."
So what we have here in chapter four, is the fourth part. If a priest sins, or if the people sins, if a leader sins, or if any of the common people sins. So that's another breakdown. In the breakdown of animals, it is a bull, he-goat, she-goat, lamb. Then a breakdown of the hierarchy of the consequences of sin starts with the priest. Isn't that interesting? It starts with the priest. It doesn't start with the assembly. It starts with the priest because the priest is the mediator, his sin becomes paramount in consideration.
You'll notice that once again, you have the Lord speaking to Moses. You have to look back and wonder when Moses brings this—you think of the Lord, God almighty giving Moses the law. You think about the tablets of stone. Not that many words on the stone. In fact, in the Hebrew, "These 10 words." It's like my dad used to say, "I'd like to have a word with you." I noticed when I was very young, it was never just one word. My dad says, "I want to have a word with you.". And it's like, you know, "weather." No, he never had just one word with me. It was a word.
It's the same thing. When you say these 10 words, it's the 10 commandments. There are more words than 10. Can you imagine what it was like for Moses, even to communicate this? As I've been working my way, word by word through Leviticus, and then putting it in the context of the Pentateuch, the Pentateuch in the context of unfolding theology of the Old Testament. That within a canonical theology, the two testaments together. You look back and go, "You know, there are a lot of amazing things to think about," because you can think about, for example, what it would've been like for a church in Philippi to receive this letter from the apostle Paul and for the letter to be read aloud. Got that, got that.
But just think about Leviticus. Just think about the fact that it's been a fairly hard process for us to just hear the same words over and over again in the complexity of all of this. Some of you are because you love God's word, taking notes. Just imagine that this had to be an inscripturated revelation because who can keep all this straight? Part of the gift of God's words. Part of the gift of Torah, of law. Even as Israel was told to commit all this to its heart. I mean, there's incredible specificity here. We're just four chapters into Leviticus folks. And already you could not keep this straight. If there was an exam on this material, how would you do? Well, what about if someone's life is depending upon this? What about if the life of an entire people is depending on this? We need inscripturated revelation. We need as much as Israel needs it. We need the Word. We need the Scriptures. We need the Bible.
Imagine Israel hearing this for the first time. You'll recall that the pattern is the Lord God spoke to Moses. Remember he called to Moses, from the tent as Leviticus begins. But he says this to Moses, it's not just, "Hey, Moses, I'm letting you in on exactly what we're doing here." It's Moses receiving this in order to teach it to the people. In my own imagination, I have to think about what that would've meant. But then you think about all the generations of Israel, even in just the process of children coming along and young men becoming older men and elders passing and elders coming. This has just got to be taught all the time. It's being taught by the fact that it's happening, but Israel has to be continuously told "We didn't come up with this." This is what the Lord said to Moses. Right now, Moses is with them. These are the books of Moses. The Lord speaking to Moses. Moses also has a mediatorial role here.
As you look at chapter five going forward, and that's where we will turn next, you'll notice specific kinds of sins. Verse one, "If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration testify and though he's a witness, whether he is seen or come to know the matter yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity." We shall see that touching unclean things, you know, et cetera. So there can be specific sins that are going to follow specific sacrificial responses.
But in chapter four, we just need to note the magnificent weight of this chapter. Even beginning with the Lord, speaking to Moses about the sin of a priest that isn't just a liturgical mistake. Even if done unintentionally, it brings sin and guilt upon the entire people. And the people cannot remove their own guilt. That's the point. And that's the point of the gospel. We cannot remove our own guilt. Guilt is an irresolvable problem for us because the offense is not something that we can make compensation for. We can't pay for it. This animal cannot pay for it.
As we see in Hebrews chapter nine, we thought about this so many times, but we have to think about it again. "It is impossible for the blood of bulls or goats to take away sin." I remember that song that I have known virtually all my life, "What can take away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." This is all pointing to Christ. Yet, I hope looking backward helps us to understand that this is all on the mind of Jesus in his earthly ministry. This was all the purpose of God.
God did not have this as plan A, which failed, and Jesus was plan B. From the beginning, this was to point to a sacrifice for sin. "Once, and for all", as the apostle Paul would say, to take away our sins. By the time you read Leviticus, chapter four, you recognize this is about unintentional sins. One priest can sin, and the entire people be guilty. Then guess what? Here's the reality guess where Israel was right after every one of these sacrifices. Right back where it started.
This was the terror to me when I was about 12 or 13 years old. Hearing preaching about sin. When I recognized there was no safe place. I can confess all my sins knowing he's faithful and just to forgive me my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Yet, I will probably sin as I'm asleep before I awake. I'll awaken, think of sinful thoughts and I'm right back where I was.
So, here's where Israel is always needing more bulls. But for Christ, we would be behind an infinite line of bulls that would only buy us time. Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful for all You've given us in Your Word. We thank You for this incredible chapter in Leviticus, chapter four. Father, thank you for bringing us face to face with guilt, face to face with atonement, and by Your grace face to face with Christ. Our great high priest who made full atonement for our sins. Father, it is in His name that we pray. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 3:1-17 — Leviticus Series
September 26, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 2:1-16 — Leviticus Series
September 19, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 1:1-17 — Leviticus Series
September 12, 2021
Good morning. It’s good to see you all and a privilege to be together for the study of God’s Word. Let’s pray together.
Father, with great joy we come before you, we come before your Word. We pray that your Spirit will open our eyes to see, our hearts to receive the Word, but also that you will, during this time, use our study of Leviticus to draw us to Christ. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
Someone came up to me during the week this past week and said, “I understand you’re now teaching verse by verse through Leviticus.” I said, “That’s exactly what I’m doing.” And they said, “How’s it going?” And I said, “Three weeks, two verses.”
That’s how it’s going so far. It will pick up in the sense that there are natural breaks in the text, but Leviticus takes some time to enter and to consider. For one thing, we are entering a world that even for Christians is more alien than we might like to think. When you look at even the first two verses of Leviticus, you see something that to Evangelical Protestants is recognizably Biblical, but not recognizably liturgical.
I am so thankful for the way that we order Christian worship here at Third Avenue Baptist Church. It is ordered here basically as it would have been ordered during any of the major churches of the Reformation. It is ordered here by the Scriptures, that is the regulative principle at work. At least in theological theory, you ought to be able to go to any church of like practice and basically you’re going to see worship follow a very similar kind of pattern. But there is not a specificity about our worship in a way like we have already seen in just a couple verses in Leviticus, which marks the liturgical responsibility of Israel regarding scrupulousness in attention to the sacrifices.
There is no similar text in the New Testament that says God orders the church, “When you come together, you must do exactly this, this person is to do exactly that.” Now, of course, we have: the preacher of the Word, we have the office of the elder that is set apart for teaching, we have liturgical orders in the New Testament, not only for the centrality of the preaching of the Word, but for the singing together and “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”, we have prayer, all very clearly indicated in terms of what we are taught to do and what we see modeled in the early church in the book of Acts and in the Epistles. But it’s just not the same, it doesn’t feel the same. There’s no situation in which God called together all the Church and said, “Now sit down and I’m going to tell you exactly how you are going to do this. You do not deviate from this pattern, you do it exactly this way.”
That just calls us to the huge question, did God get looser in the New Testament? Is this a God who just grew exhausted with this “hyper-scrupulosity”? That’s what the liberal, Biblical scholars of the 20th century called it. “God’s hyper scrupulous and in the church he is less hyper-scrupulous.” Well of course not. Number one, God doesn’t change. Number two, the New Testament is not the correction of the Old. That’s a fundamental issue. The New Testament is not a correction of the Old. The New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old. Anything here that seems alien to us is fulfilled in the New Covenant. That’s helpful for us to understand and that will continue as we consider much of the Mosaic law. Nothing is nullified, not one word of Scripture, not one jot, not one tittle falls away unfulfilled. There is no New Testament correction of the Old, in any sense. Anything that seems alien to us or odd to us is that which is explained by fulfillment in Christ. And if there’s any part of the Old Testament that may seem alien to us that is fulfilled in Christ, it certainly is first and foremost the sacrificial system.
We began by looking at the first two verses of Leviticus. We’re just going to read them and then enter into this longer passage about the first kind of offering that is detailed in Leviticus: the burnt offering.
“The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting” (Leviticus 1:1), now wait just a minute. One of the things we could have spent time doing, even in looking at those first few words, is just to remember how the Lord calls persons and speaks to them. Who is the first person? It’s in the opening of Genesis. The Lord called to Adam and spoke to him. This is something about the imago dei. The Lord made all the creatures, but he doesn’t speak to your dog. Your dog is under no impression that he does. If you think God is speaking to your dog, the problem is you. We were talking just this week about the fact that the only creature that thinks that COVID is a great thing is the dog. First of all, you have people staying home which is exactly what they want. If you’re quarantined, you’re stuck in and the only person you can see is the dog. As a friend of mine said, “If you have COVID, you can’t smell the dog.” The dog thinks it’s a very good deal. God made all the creatures for his glory, but he speaks only to us.
At numerous times, the Lord will call to someone and speak to them. In this case, the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.’” (Leviticus 1:2-9)
Five major kinds of offerings or sacrifices that we will find in Leviticus. First, the burnt offering and that's where we are right now. And then the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. If that sounds complicated, it is! We will take every one of them in turn, but the first is the burnt offering. And this burnt offering is not explicitly a sacrifice for sin. It is a sacrifice for worship. So that's where Leviticus begins. The first of the sacrifices is a sacrifice for offering. It is to offer under the Lord a pleasing aroma by this burnt sacrifice. But the burnt sacrifice is so fundamental. And furthermore, in the New Testament, when there are references to Christ as sacrifice, it is often the reference to this particular sacrifice.
Now it is also the case that, for example, as you look through the Old Testament, there are situations in which we are told that a sacrifice is not accepted, that the sacrifice is considered unacceptable to the Lord. You can see it in a passage like Jeremiah chapter 14:12, where the Lord says, “Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them.” So the false prophets, for example, or the prophets who were misleading Israel, or Israel when it is into idolatry and disobedience, the Lord simply will not receive it. Even in the language that is used in the Old Testament, he will not allow his nostrils to receive their sacrifice or their sacrifice is a stench in his nostrils rather than the pleasing aroma that is mentioned here.
Now, what's also interesting is that this pleasing aroma is liturgical. A part of Israel's worship is to make certain that the Lord in observing their worship and even in this particular sacrifice, which has the smoke coming up from the altar and coming right up towards the heavens, that God in essence receives this as a pleasing aroma. It is a form of worship. And that's what liturgy is. It’s liturgia, it's what we are called to do in worship. And you say, well there's Israel. Israel is to do the sacrifice of the burnt offering, a male without blemish and there are several things here we need to note, but I want us to think about the last word in the paragraph, that last phrase, “a food offering with a pleasant aroma to the Lord.” This burnt offering produces an aroma. And again, that's Israel, the Old Testament, that's the old covenant. It is literally a pleasing aroma. So there it is, a pleasing aroma for Israel. But what about for the church?
Well, consider a text like Hebrews chapter 13. If you turn to Hebrews chapter 13 and we look at verse 15 through 16, we read this, “Through him,” that means through Christ, “let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” So this is the continual offering up of a sacrifice of praise, even a pleasing aroma will come back again in the New Testament. What is the liturgy to which we are called? Is there a sacrifice? No. And as I say, one of the worst things that ever happened to Protestant churches is that someone began calling this piece of furniture an altar. And we've talked about this. It is not an altar, that is a misrepresentation.
There is no sacrifice here that calls for an altar. The church itself is an altar in that sense, that we are offering up our hearts and our lives. This is where the sacramental churches and the more sacramental they are, the more confused they make this entire issue for Christians. And of course, this is one of the major issues in the Reformation where the rejection of the mass was not just a rejection of its priestly character. It was a rejection of the fact that the mass is a continual re-crucifixion, a continual sacrifice of the Lord. In a Catholic mass, there is an altar which refutes the words of Jesus, “It is finished.” You see similar kinds of passages in the New Testament, in Philippians 4 verse 18, in 1st Peter 2:5. Jesus is once for all this sacrifice and aroma pleasing to God.
Notice something else that we see here in Leviticus about this burnt offering. There's something here we might miss if we go too fast. Notice what is to be done as the animal is brought, look at verse 4, he, that is the one bringing the offering, shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. So what's happening there? The physical picture, the picture reminds of what's actually happening here which is extremely important. So the animal is brought, in this case from the herd. And so you have a goat or you have a cow, in this case, a male cow, it's a bull. Maybe younger, maybe older, but it has to be without blemish and it is brought from the herd. In both cases, it is an acceptable sacrifice. It is brought, and as the animal is being prepared for the sacrifice, what does the bringer of the sacrifice do? He lays his hands upon the animal. Why? Well, number one, it certainly would indicate he's taking responsibility for this sacrifice. “This is my sacrifice. I'm bringing this sacrifice.” But there's something else there and you feel it. There is an implied transference of sin and guilt from the one bringing the sacrifice to this animal. This is a substitutionary sacrifice. It is not the substitutionary sacrifice, for as we know the blood of bulls and goats cannot atone for sin, but they are a sacrifice that will hold back God's wrath against sin, as Paul makes clear in Romans chapter 3. This laying on of the hands it's something that is of critical importance, because this is a substitutionary sign.
Now, Psalm 88:7. The Psalmist says to God, in his confession of sin, “Your wrath lays heavy upon me.” Psalm 88:7, “Your wrath lays heavy upon me.” That was the Psalmist’ understanding of the nature of his guilt and his sin. It was laying upon him heavily. The same kind of language is used here about the hands being laid on the animal. It is a heavy laying on of hands. Here's the thing we need to recognize as Christians. Right now our sin is heavily upon someone. Our salvation is brought about by the Father, through the Son in such a way that our sin no longer lays heavily upon us, but our sin was imputed to Christ. Our sin lays heavily upon someone. In Israel, the sin of the nation will lay heavy upon someone. Upon whom will it lie? That's a huge question.
It gives us really incredible encouragement as we come to worship. We're coming to worship and to celebrate the fact that our sin lays heavily on Christ. Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Sin had left its crimson spot, he washed it white as snow. Our sin was not made a light thing in the atonement of Christ. It was imputed to Christ in full. On the cross, the Father, as it were, lay his hands upon his son. This language is rich with Christological meaning that Israel could only anticipate but that we have to see in retrospect.
You'll notice that the animal here is to be completely consumed. No part of this sacrifice is to remain, even for the priests. They are to burn it all. We talked about the fact that the undignified parts are to be washed. And that means the entrails and the back legs, simply because you know what happens to the back legs of animals in the pasture. They are to be washed and again, this is just a part of “Wash me, wash me clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” The washing language is not just about illustrations or bathing. It is right out of Levitical imagery. That washing is washing for atonement. It's washing, even for sacrifice as we see here.
Now one thing you just need to understand is that this means that the sons of Aaron had a very bloody job to do. This is something that you don't get from Sunday school pictures you're shown as an elementary school child in Sunday school. You don't get the image of what these priests were doing. Remember something else. Those of you who were with me going verse by verse and word by word through Exodus, remember all the scrupulous detail to the beauty of the priestly garments. Understand that every time they performed a sacrifice, those priestly garments ended up covered in blood, which is another picture that we just miss because we don't have the experience of Israel. Even as they will start out with these clean garments, the first sacrifice that comes is a sacrifice in which there will be blood everywhere.
I did grow up, basically, in a grocery store. My dad was in the grocery business my entire life. He was manager of a Publix store, which is by the way coming to Louisville, the fourth quarter of 2022, I think. It was a different world when I grew up. I went in real early in the morning. I started working for my dad the day I turned 14. I went in real early in the morning and the butcher's uniforms were white. They didn't stay white for long. I determined, I was 14 years old, that was not the job I wanted. They had to do things that I did not particularly enjoy seeing done, although there was a wonder about it, I really did not want to do that. All you have to do is look at a butcher's apron in the course of the day and then multiply that many times out because those animals have been bled. The animals brought for sacrifice have not been bled. It would make what you would see in a butcher shop look absolutely, and quite accurately, pale by comparison.
The whole point of this is that the animal is to be brought, it is to be rightly handled. Every part of it is to be used in the sacrifice. The priest shall burn all of it on the altar, a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. That is the burnt offering. But very quickly we are told of his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, that is a sheep or a goat, he shall bring it, “a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” (Leviticus 1:10-13)
You have first from the herd and then from the flock. This is from the most superior sacrifice, the greatest sacrifice, which was a bull or a male from the herd. Then the second is a male from the flock. The third is a bird. Do you notice the structure is almost exactly the same? When it was a sheep or a goat or an animal from the herd. The bull, the sheep, the goat, they’re to be treated basically the same. The picture would be the same. The picture's a little bit different for the bird. Verse 14, “If his offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.” (Leviticus 1:14-17)
I really can't remember the first time I read the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. I was about 13 years old. And I just admit, I had no theological imagination for why this would be necessary. I mean, here it is. It's in the Bible. We're supposed to know this. The details are graphic. It's a turtledove or a pigeon, and those are related. I'm not sure exactly how to tell the difference, but nonetheless, a turtledove or a pigeon. It's a big bird with a big chest. Turns out that's important. You bring the big chested bird to the altar and with hands, you basically rip it wide open. The inside of the bird is dumped to be put in the ashes. The bird’s flesh and its head are to be flayed out. Most commentators looking at this will say that the effect of not tearing the bird in pieces means that it remains intact and recognizably a bird, rather than just being torn apart in pieces. That's why the Lord here tells Israel not to tear the bird apart in pieces, but rather to rip it open and lay it flat for the sacrifice. The priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
That's chapter one. From the herd, from the flock or a bird, scrupulous detail as to how exactly the bird offering is to take place, but parallelism between all three. Who would bring the one and who would bring the others? This has to do at least in part to two things. Number one, the relative wealth of the one who is bringing the sacrifice. Some accommodation is made in this three tier structure for those who may not be wealthy enough. They may not have a herd. They may not be able to bring an animal from the herd. They may not be able to bring even an animal from the flock, but they can buy birds.
Remember that by the time you get to first century Judaism, what's called second temple Judaism, you have the sale of such things for sacrifice. The sale of all kinds of wares, such that Jesus will cleanse the temple, the money changers. Involved in this entire enterprise are those who have the animals for sale so that by the time you get to second temple Judaism, you don't necessarily bring your animal from Galilee down. Instead, you purchase an animal there. You have various various pictures here. Repeatedly in the Old and the New Testament, but particularly the Old Testament, you will see where there's a sacrifice, the burnt offering, and it's birds. That indicates someone who's of lowly estate. This is someone who can't bring a bull and can't bring a male goat or a sheep but can bring a bird, or arrange for a bird. That's the first issue here. The second issue is an issue of the heart. Let's say that someone, in bringing a bird offering, may at some point bring any one of these three animals, even of a certain degree of wealth, because there would not be an infinite number of bulls available. Even for someone who might be very, very wealthy. That's another reason why, at least in part, this is to be a male animal. The male animal is considered superior to the female animal.
That continues today in such things as bloodlines of even thoroughbred horses. A part of it is because one male is in reproductive value, more valuable than one female because of the fact that the male can impregnate many females. The male was more precious and more costly in this respect. Israel's thinking constantly in these terms. But as you think of these offerings, these burnt offerings, the offering of a bull would be a major offering. But you'll notice that in God's eyes, the one who can bring only a turtledove is also offering a sacrifice pleasing under the Lord with an aroma pleasing to the Lord. There’s another aspect of these burnt offerings that certainly comes to our mind. This is the fact that this is in a culture in which the sacrifice of any animal could be very costly. This is a culture made up of people who must live off of their animals and off of their crops. They must live off of these animals. Many of these people may very seldom have had, for instance, beef to eat. Notice that the priority here is the sacrificial system. And so even as we think of worship, this is very costly for Israel. And it's very costly in another way.
Mary and I were out on the boat on the lake over Labor Day weekend. We were coming in the evening and I smelled a campfire. I turned to her and said, “That's just always a good smell.” Somebody was cooking something on that campfire, and it smelled mighty fine. Things smell better as I get hungrier. But imagine what it would've been like to be in the camp of Israel, with the sacrificial system going on and to be hungry. Imagine what it would be like to smell these smells, and maybe you do not even have access to such an animal. What you would be told over and over again by olfactory senses and all the rest is that the centrality of everything is God. That God is the superior one whose demand is first and foremost, and must be recognized as such. What Israel may not enjoy except on festival days, and perhaps even then scaled by wealth, is what is to be brought to the Lord as the first function, the first responsibility of Israel.
You see this echo also throughout Scripture in which we are to bring our best to the Lord. That means even the disposition of our hearts. It means even the use of our voices. It means that we are to bring our best because of the solitary, singular priority of worship, worship of the one, true, living God. The burnt sacrifice is a sacrifice that would be so obvious to the entire community. Everyone would know that the liturgical life of Israel is central. It would be such that the smell of the entire community, in the sense of Israel as an encampment, or Israel later, as Jerusalem will become the home to the temple. It will be that to approach Jerusalem will be to approach, not just sights and sounds but smells.
Here comes another thought for us as Christians. What about how un-smelly our worship is? Israel's worship was loud, almost chaotic. When you look at and approach the temple it would have been absolutely chaotic, which is a part of the judgment that Jesus brings upon them. But even if it had been entirely orderly, according to the dictates of the Lord, it still would've been a pretty confusing thing to see. I've never really had to worry about bringing a goat to church. I do have a hint that it would be even more difficult than bringing a toddler. it's one thing to walk up and to worry about where to put our car and how to get inside. But just imagine trying to get through birds and livestock. Birds and livestock do things, even as you bring them to the tent of meeting, they're still doing stuff and all this is just going on.
And then all the noise. Animals aren't quiet, especially when they tend to be scared and confused about where they are. Birds, just don't even get me started, and pigeons, seriously. You look at this and then you think, well, here we are. There's not a bird in sight. No goats, no sheep, no bulls, not even grain or cereal, as we shall see in chapter two in the grain offering.
Do we have less? Is this less? This has been a part of the liturgical envy that has marked Christians from the beginning and has led many into error. For one thing, the olfactory. We just don't have any. Well, we kinda hope not to have olfactory worship, let's just put it that way. The fact is that there isn't any, or there isn’t supposed to be any distinctive smell of Christian worship. But there are churches where the first thing that you will confront is the smell of the place.
I've seen this more in the east, more than in the west. The further east you go in Europe, into the lands of orthodoxy, the more the smells grow in intensity. Some of you may have been in St. Mark's there in Venice. You walk in and the first thing that hits you is just, boom, smell. For centuries, oils and fragrances and incense have marked this place. There isn't a molecule of the stone that doesn't cry out all these smells. You walk in here and it's dried paint, that's it! We have less. But liturgical envy leads a lot of people to want what have sometimes been called the smells and bells of liturgical worship. “So we're gonna try to bring that in because we need some noise, that's what we need. We need some noise and some cacophony and if it's not gonna be bulls and sheep and goats and birds, then let it be bells. By that I don't mean bells in a tower, I mean the bells that you walk in some of these Eastern churches and there's just lots of noise that's going on, because we need some noise. And we need candles. We need smells. We need lots of smells.”
I am an Anglican in music. I used to, as this very strange teenager, I would have records and I would be able to listen to some of this music. I was in choirs and actually sang some of this music. Then the CD and before that the cassette and now we can stream just about anything. I think one of the most beautiful arrangements of “O Come All Ye Faithful” is at Westminster Abbey. You can YouTube this - that's a verb, by the way, YouTube - and you can Google, you didn't know you could but you can, it's a verb. You can YouTube the Christmas Eve service at Westminster Abbey in London and the best one is from about five years ago. Here's the thing you're going to notice. Westminster Abbey is such a moving place, simply because of the history that kind of overwhelms me there. Nothing liturgical but theological and historical. This particular service is very typical of what goes on there at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve. Everybody processes in to, “O Come All Ye Faithful”. How appropriate is that? “O Come All Ye Faithful”, let's come. So they come, except between the third and the fourth verse there's this long interregnum. The organ is doing magnificent things. All the anti trumpets are blowing. It was better when I couldn't see it. It was better when I heard it but I didn't see it because now I see it and what do I see? I see the Dean of Westminster take a censer filled with incense and swing it around. I have done things in my life that I just felt would make me extremely self-conscious, but I’ve got to tell you, whatever it takes, I would not have it to stand in front of you with a burning incense thing on a chain and swing it around. I just lack whatever gene evidently that is. And I not only have to see him fling this thing around, but he's taking the incense so that it gets on the people.
“You just come here and blow a little on you, and blow a little on you.” There's a nativity scene and I'm thinking, “No, don't do this.” First of all, don't have the nativity scene, but okay. If you’ve got to have one, don't do what you're about to do. Sure enough, he goes over and puts some incense on the nativity scene. At this point, I just close my eyes, “Please give me the music.” He stops that and then the final resounding verse of “O Come All Ye Faithful”. I look at that and the smells and the bells, is that what you're here for? And we don't have any of that.
Here we are in nonconformity, nonconformity in part to that. We just keep looking at this building but we don't really look at it a whole lot, because it's not made to look at. It's just a reminder of the fact that there is this liturgical envy that falls upon Protestants and evangelicals and especially those of us of the Puritan stripe, and we say that proudly. It’s a reminder of the fact that there are things we don't have in worship that others have in worship. It's because we don't think we're supposed to have them. You look at Israel and you say, “Israel had all this cacophony. Israel had all this noise. Israel had all this blood. Israel had all these smells. Israel had all this liturgical detail.” That's just not what we're given.
Why are we robbed of all this? Where are our birds? Why are we robbed of all of this? Israel had this picture all the time, over and over again every day. Remember this is not just the Lord's day. It's not just the Sabbath. It's very different, this is daily. There isn't any Lord's day here, it's daily! If Israel needed that picture, don't we need that picture? If Israel needed these sights and these sounds, how do we get around with a God-centered world if we don't have the God-centering olfactory and auditory input that Israel had. If Israel needed the daily ritual, then how is it that we don't need this?
Evidently, it's because it's all fulfilled in Christ. But that still raises that question and it's the final question we'll consider this morning. If we don't do this, then what do we do? In other words, what is it that we do? What is it that we do that gets us through the week in a God centered way? What is it we do in worship that makes the one, true and living God so evident, so infinitely prominent that it orders everything we think and everything we do and everything we are? We are left with what are rightly called the ordinary means of grace. The ordinary means of grace. They're not extraordinary. They're ordinary. That doesn't mean they're ordinary in the sense of something to be taken for granted. They're ordinary in that these are the plain, simple, ordered means of grace. First of all, the preaching of the word of God, which you'll notice is absolutely absent here. It's absolutely absent. It's in the background, not in the foreground. They're living Leviticus, they're not reading Leviticus. For us it is the preaching of the word of God, which is why, rightly ordered, the building we would use for worship would have a pulpit in the middle for the centrality of the word of God.
The fellowship of the saints, an ordinary means of grace. We're together and we encourage one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We pray for one another. We draw strength from one another. There's something very different in singing one of these hymns alone than singing them together. We sing them together, that's the ordinary means of grace. The ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s supper, they center us. Even on the Lord's days when we do not have the activity before our eyes, they're always embedded in the worship. And there is the expectation that they're embedded in our very understanding of who we are as a church.
If you are frustrated with the ordinary means of grace, you're frustrated with the once for all completeness of the atonement accomplished by Christ. With the horrible sounds, with the horrible noise, with the horrible sights, with the horrible auditory, olfactory and in every other sense imaginable, the horrible events of that Friday that we dare to call good - all of this came to an absolute end. That is why the veil in the temple was broken. That is why Jesus said, “It is finished.” This is why the apostle Paul will say it is infinitely superior. The writer of the book of Hebrews will say the very same thing. It is infinitely superior, this new covenant, in every way to the old. If we are envious for the smells and bells, it's like Israel looking backward to Egypt. What we have is infinitely better.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 1:3-17 — Leviticus Series
August 29, 2021
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY
Leviticus 1:1-2 — Leviticus Series
August 15, 2021
Well, what an honor to study God's Word together for the time we have this morning. We are going to begin in the book of Leviticus and a study that will take us some weeks, many weeks, and with so much for God to teach us, let's begin with prayer. Our Father, we come before you, just in all the fact, you allow us to study your word. The word that you by your grace spoke to us. Spoke first to Moses for Israel, and by your word, through Moses, to Israel, to us ever living, ever fresh. Father, we pray that we will be faithful students of your perfect word. May you bring yourself glory and faithfulness to your church by this study, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.
The reality is that most Christians never hear any kind of study of the book of Leviticus. Most have not heard certainly any sermon series or expository series in the book of Leviticus. Most preachers, at least in Christian history, would've been quite scared of Leviticus. Evidently they are because they stay away from it. And it is because Leviticus will take a lot from us in terms of study. It will require a lot of us. This is foreign territory, in sense, for us as Christians, we are entering into the very heart of the cult. That is the worship, the sacrificial system of the Jewish people. A world because of Christ so different than our own. But the book of Leviticus is one of the most cited books from the Old Testament in the New Testament, because the very purpose of the mission of Christ was to fulfill what was in part in Leviticus and in full in himself.
By the time you get to the book of Hebrews, you'll be looking backwards again and again to the book of Leviticus because it will be this, that Christ is now fulfilling. For even as in the book of Hebrews tells us it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sin. That is exactly what Christ has done for us forever in his atonement. The book of Leviticus is of course, in the Torah, the Pentateuch in the first five books of the Bible, these are the books of Moses. And by that we mean they are the books of Moses, because one of the things we shall see is that the role of Moses is in the book. And we're going to see that in the text of the book, we're going to see it affirmed not only by other writers of the Old Testament, but we're going to see affirmed by Jesus himself as well as by the apostles.
In other words, when you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, they're not just the books of Moses. You will have others in the Old Testament, you will have Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament. And you have the faithful church say, as God said to Moses, as Moses said, the book of Leviticus is the third in the Pentateuch, the five books, the Torah, and that puts it right at the center. And there's a reason for that. You really cannot proceed to Numbers and Deuteronomy without Leviticus. The theme of Leviticus is actually found in Leviticus chapter 19, verse two, “you shall be holy, even as the Lord, your God is holy.” How may a holy God have a holy people? What would that holy people look like? What would they do? What would make them holy? What would keep them holy? It's a huge question.
It's a question that we have to follow in its context with only two books before Leviticus. The first of course is Genesis. Genesis tells us of the perfection of God's creation. Genesis tells us of the fall of humanity into sin. Genesis tells us of the covenant that God made with Abraham. The book of Genesis tells us of the promise that God gave that through Abraham and his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed. In the Old Testament, there are sacrifices that we're not sure exactly how they were to work. In the Old Testament, there was a priest, Melchizedek and there were other priestly figures who appear in the text. In the book of Exodus, the children of Israel, having grown numerous but having fled to Egypt in a time of famine are now growing too numerous in Egypt for Pharaoh. Pharaoh believes that they will then be soon as an internal threat, able to threaten his own rule, the rule of the Egyptians.
And so you have Pharaoh's oppression of the children of Israel. And then at one point, even Pharaoh attempting to put an end to the future generations of the children of Israel, but they're God's covenant people and you know that they will not find the end of their story in some kind of extinguishment in Exodus, but rather God will do this miraculous work of rescuing his people. And he rescues the people, not just because he had chosen them, but he rescues them because they are his covenant people. He made covenant with them. And because of his faithfulness to the covenant, Israel will survive.
It is an Exodus that Israel having been rescued by God's outstretched arm and mighty hand, rescued from Pharaoh in Egypt, in the wilderness, receives the law, but receives the law through Moses. God does not merely give Israel the law. There are not two stones that are as tablets given to Israel. They're given to Moses for Israel. Israel is the one who receives only after Moses goes up into the mountain. It is Moses who is then a model intercessor. And of course the very existence of Israel after the great disobedience is possible because Moses pled with God to allow him to intercede for them and elsewhere and Exodus, the people will plead with God from their side to accept Moses, to intercede for them. Moses plays a mediatorial role. In some sense it is he who receives God's judgment for them.
It is two Moses that God will speak and will reveal himself. It is not a mediatorship like with the AFLCIO and management. It is a mediator between a sovereign and his people, not two equal parties with a mediatorship. And thus you see pictures of course, of the mediatorship of Christ that will come as not only a mediator, but the mediator. Intercessor. Priest. Prophet. In some sense, Moses has to be all of this. He's not a part of the Levitical priesthood, but he is himself priesting on behalf of the entire nation.
When you look at Leviticus and you look at verse one in verse one, we read, “the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock from the herd or from the flock.” Now, the first thing you might notice is just how quickly we are immediately into the details of the law that will be given for offerings. This where it begins, but of course, this is the beginning of a conversation between God and Israel through Moses. This is the continuation of that revelation but notice the first words. “The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.” A couple of interesting things there that we ought to notice. The Lord summons Moses and Moses having been summoned goes. Where? To the mountain? No, to the tent of meeting, but between then and now God has by his own sovereign plan devised this tent of meeting, which is where in the tabernacle he will meet with his people.
And that's where mediation intercession will be done. It's kind of a prototype in some sense. It’s a pre-figuration of the temple that will come. There is no temple, but there is this tent of meeting and the Lord called Moses into the tent of meeting. And in an interesting expression, spoke to him out of the tent of meeting.
Now, how do we think of the speech here? That is what do we refer to? Well, numerous points in the book of Leviticus, including the very first verse as we see, and the very last verse, as we shall see, we're told that God spoke to Moses, God commanded Moses, God instructed Moses. And so, this is going to come up again and again and again. So, there's direct speech from God here, basically all of it. We don't have Moses speaking back to God. It's God's direct speech to Moses, but it is through Moses and perhaps to an extent that we're really not accustomed to thinking about. So, if we're reading from say, Romans chapter eight, well, who wrote Romans chapter eight? Well, Paul, but the Holy Spirit. And so, it's the Holy Spirit says through Paul. But it's not wrong to say, as Paul says if we're preaching or doing Bible study, and we're comparing what James says in his epistle to what Paul says. It's not wrong to say James and Paul. We speak of Paul the Apostle with great reverence and appreciation, not to mention authority.
So, when we say Paul, that’s saying something. It's a greater sense of authority in the church. Interestingly enough, given our Catholic neighbors than if one was to say, Peter said, now the Lord spoke through Peter in two epistles, Peter appears in the book of Acts etcetera, the Holy Spirit used Peter. Peter also comes as apostolic authority, but it's Paul that has so much in the New Testament. God has spoken so much in the New Testament, through Paul, that liberals who blame Paul for so much in the New Testament, rightly so, say that it was a mistake of the early church to stake so much on Paul. As if it was your church's plan.
But in the Old Testament, everything's really staked on Moses. Everything's staked on Moses. It begins even here in this third book with Moses being summoned to the tent of meeting. Second Chronicles, chapter 23, verse four, you find the expression “as written in the law of Moses” reference here to Leviticus. So it’s the law of Moses. Now, Israel didn't believe it was the law of Moses as if it belonged to Moses, but rather Moses is so much the mediator of this law. He’s the one to whom God gave it for Israel that is referred to as the law of Moses. Jesus himself will tell the leper once he has been healed to go and present himself to the priest in order, those things may be done. Those things, which Moses commanded that's in Mark nine. Pretty amazing.
Here's Jesus, this is very significant, you’re talking about covenant history, here's Jesus telling the man he has just healed. Now he healed. So, this is God and incarnate. He's healed the man. And he tells him to go to the priest to fulfill the law of Moses. Of course, it's a tiny picture of the fact that Christ himself perfectly fulfills the law of Moses, but it's just a reaffirmation of the fact that the law and in specific the law as revealed in Leviticus, but the totality of the law is referred to as the law of Moses, not just in Old Testament habit. The prophet is Ezekiel will refer back to the law of Moses repeatedly. Ezekiel 10. Ezekiel 22. Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 20. It's going back and back continuously, even as the prophet centuries later saying, this is the law of Moses, the law of Moses. In Romans chapter 10, Paul will write, “for Moses writes about the righteousness, which is of the laws,” contrasting that with the righteousness of Christ, that is a greater righteousness than the righteousness of the law.
But again, the righteousness of the law, the old covenant is here, basically summarized as Moses wrote. It's called the book of Leviticus in our English translations because of its content. That is the instructions for the Levitical priesthood. And so thus Leviticus is coming from the Latinized reference to the Levitical priesthood. And there it is. In the Hebrew Torah, it's just like every other book in that pattern. The name of the book is the Hebrew word that begins the book. And so in the Hebrew mind, this book is not called Leviticus, the book is called “and God called Moses” because that's exactly how it begins. “And God called Moses.” So in the Jewish tradition, this third book of the Torah is not called Leviticus. They of course know the Levitical Priesthood is what's in it, but they just begin as the book of Genesis does with the “in the beginning.” And this is just “and God called Moses. “
When we speak of Moses, in this sense, we've talked about his mediatorial role. Israel's disobedience repeatedly puts Moses in the position of interceding before God that he not destroy the very people he has brought out of Israel. Brought out of Egypt, established as Israel, his chosen people. In Exodus chapter 20 verse 19 it’s made very clear that Moses is functioning as a prophet. And of course, in Deuteronomy 34:10, we are told that a greater than Moses, a prophet like Moses, but greater than Moses is coming. In Hebrews chapter three, we hold that Jesus as prophet has more glory than Moses. Is worthy of a greater glory than Moses. You know, we read that, and we go, well, of course, but understand what that means in light of well, the first audience of the book of Hebrews. Hellenized Jews who come to Christ. This biblical theology that is the book of Hebrews, they are told “Do you wanna understand Christ, just understand this. In times past God spoken many in various ways, but in these days he has spoken in his son. And his son is not only the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, but he's a glory greater than Moses.”
I brought Moses to church one day. Put him up on the pulpit. Pope Julian's grave, Moses, the famous Michelangelo Moses. Moses with horns. If you've seen him as one of the most famous statues in Christian history, and Moses is sitting on a throne and he is got horns. And it is because the artist misunderstood the rays of light and put horns on Moses, supposed to be the radiance of his glory. Some horns don't exactly communicate that to me. But the point is glory. Moses had glory as represented in the scripture is having a glory and not the Shekinah glory of God, but he came down, bearing it. Remember he and his body bore the Shekinah glory of God for a time after he had been with God on the mountain. Jesus is the ever infinitely eternally glorious one.
As we look at the book of Leviticus and again, we recognize it in the heart of the Pentateuch. We recognize it as the necessary link between Genesis and Exodus and what will come is Numbers and Deuteronomy. We recognize that we're going to be confronting a lot of laws. And when I say a lot of laws, I mean a lot of laws and it is going to sound just like a law book. It's going to be just like a lawyer in one sense, taking a law book off the shelf, because you look up and say, under this circumstance, what sacrifices needed and how exactly must it be done. The next time we're together, we will be right into sacrifices for sin. And we will look right the fact that for this, it has to be that, for the other sin, it has to be something else, for the people it is this, for an individual it is something else.
The sacrificial system was so precise. The Levitical priesthood was called to a precision priesthood because their priesting was necessary for the survival of Israel. And this is one of the great themes of biblical theology we are going to be looking at, because even as we're together this first day, looking Leviticus, we say, where is the gospel in this? What's it pointing to? How do we, as Christians read this? We understand how the Jewish people read Leviticus, the Levitical priesthood. We understand how they would read, how do we read it?
As it has already been said, the scripture is clear that the blood of goats and of bulls cannot be taken away, they cannot take away sin. Sin cannot be fully atoned for by the blood of an animal, but the blood of an animal is what is constant in Leviticus, the blood of this animal or another animal? What does that mean? One of the things we're going to see is that the atonement that comes up again and again, through the sacrificial system in the Old Testament made so complete and clear in the details of Leviticus is a covering for sin. It's important to think it's a covering for sin. There's something very different about a total erasure of sin and a covering for sin. In Romans chapter three, that pivotal text, that really is in many ways, the fulcrum of Protestantism that we, we would say, it's the fulcrum of the gospel. Roman chapter 3:21 and following about justification by faith alone. But you'll recall Paul speaks of the previous times as God passing over sin. Just to look specifically at the text, Romans chapter three, the passage says it only makes sense because of Leviticus.
Let's just read the whole text because it's just so important to have it as a whole thought. Verse 21. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law through the law and the prophets, that is although the law and the prophet bear witness to it, the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all of sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a perpetuation by his blood.” You'll notice as we go through Leviticus, this is kind of Levitical language. This is familiar language. Paul knows exactly what he's doing here.
Verse 25. “Whom God put forward as a perpetuation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God is demonstrating that Christ is both just, and the justifier because it is the Father who is just, and the justifier. And putting Christ forward as the perpetuation sacrifice for sin, God, the Father is showing himself to be both just in requiring the sacrifice because of sin and then the justifier by forgiving sinners because of this sacrifice of his Son. But what about all those sacrifices that had taken place before? The writer of the book of Hebrews will come back to this. What did that mean? And it's actually impossible to imagine the quantity, the number of animals who were sacrificed through centuries, as we shall see, many of these were daily sacrifices. Daily. There are a lot of days.
Some of these were massive sacrifices where just about every household had to make a sacrifice. There were a lot of sheep, there were a lot of bulls. There were a lot of goats. There were a lot of animals that were sacrificed, a lot of birds. What did that amount to? Well, Paul says in his forbearance, God passed over. Notice the specific language here, “he had passed over former sins.” Well, he didn't pass over by saying, I'm not goanna worry about that. No, all those sacrifices in the Levitical system, all those Old Testament sacrifices held back God's wrath that was eventually poured out on Christ.
They did not fully atone for sin. And we don't have to make that by inference. That is the book of Hebrew's very emphatic statement. Only the blood of Christ can wash away sin, but the blood of all these animals held back the wrath of God. It was a blood sacrifice. And we'll be seeing this the next time we're together. What's the nature of a blood sacrifice? It was a graphic demonstration of the horrible nature of sin and of the children of Israel's inability to remove that stain themselves. It would have to be done by another, that's a key point. It would just have to be done by another. And that other would be an animal, but only as something of a down payment only to hold back, God's wrath a time
We're in the center of the Pentateuch. Christ is very much at the center of Leviticus. When we speak of Christology and relate it to the Old Testament, I think of Genesis where in the prologue to the gospel of John, John tells us that Jesus was the Word through whom the world was made. So, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” it's parallel by “in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.” Christ is right there in the very first sentence of the Bible. Christ is there in theophanies in the Old Testament. Christ is there in the covenant that God made with Abraham that threw Abraham and his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That can only happen through Christ. And it's Abraham is pointing to Christ, not Christ who's pointing to Abraham. In Exodus, of course, the great picture of our salvation, where there is a rescue, and even as it becomes the great Old Testament picture of the New Testament of our salvation, Exodus becomes the great historical sign that God will accomplish his covenant. He will save his people. He will not leave Israel in captivity to Pharaoh. He will not leave us in captivity to sin.
And it's right after Exodus. It's just right after Exodus that we're at Leviticus and it's detail. It's kind of like that for the Christian Church, right? Study the scriptures. You got to get this right. We are a biblical people. We are a scriptural people. We're a people of the book. Israel was a people of the book because it had to be a people of the book. You can't pass down Leviticus by oral tradition. You can't trust that. What if you get that little sacrificial point wrong? What if it's supposed to be a, this rather than a, that, what if you're supposed to do it this often, rather than that often, how do you do this? As we shall see, all kinds of technical, personal issues, when someone does this and what do you do when this violation of the covenant takes place, what do you do? We're also going to see that the holiness of God has made very, very clear in every single word, because the background to the holiness that is Israel's call is the fact that they have been created by called by made covenant with redeemed by preserved by a holy God. Therefore they must be holy. This is where we must end for this morning. As Leviticus begins, God summons Moses to the tent of meeting
And in a very real sense, we're now summoned through the book of Leviticus. I promise you, it is going to be an adventure. We are together going to learn things we would never know if we did not study this book. What most Christians have been raw robbed of for two millennia. we will not allow ourselves to be robbed of, by God's grace, now. So I look forward week by week to going through Leviticus with you. It will be as if we are going into the tent of meeting with Moses by God's grace. What an adventure that will be. Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful for all you've given us in your word. Thank you. Thank you for every word of scripture. Thank you for the Pentateuch. Thank you for the Torah. We too are those who look and must look continuously to the books of Moses to understand the book of Christ. Father, open our eyes that we may see. Open our hearts to find joy in this and deepen our understanding of Christ. It will be to your glory. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
June 6, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
May 16, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
May 9, 2021
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
May 2, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
April 18, 2021
Now we have seen that this is the high priestly prayer of Jesus. The word priest is a perplexity to some people because this is the most intimate prayer of Jesus. It's this long prayer. Jesus is praying to his father, of course the word priest doesn't appear in it. Why do we call this the high priestly prayer of Jesus? As we shall see, in its quintessence this morning in this text, this is a reminder of one of the three offices of Christ. Thinking about the doctrine of the person and work of Christ, we think historically of how the Bible has identified Christ to hold three offices. He is prophet and priest and king. Now, of course, if you look to the Old Testament, you see all three of those roles, those roles are not held by one person. The king cannot be a priest, the priest cannot be a king, and neither the king nor the priest is a prophet. But Jesus, as God in human flesh, and as the fulfillment of all the scriptures, and as the agent of our redemption, is infinitely prophet and priest and king, every single moment of our lives, not just at different aspects of our own experience of salvation—at every moment of our lives, we live only because he is prophet and priest and king as king. As king, he rules overall, and his kingdom shall know no end. It is as citizens of his kingdom that we have our ultimate identity, as we are United to him. His role as prophet is underlined by the fact that he is the teacher, and thus he came not only to die on the cross and to be raised on the third day; he came in order to teach. He came and ordered to instruct he left his, his church with his words. And as we saw in the gospel of John in our earlier study, he said, if you believe me, if you follow me, if you love me, keep my commandments.
He is the continuing prophet of the church through the preaching of the word of God. Christ continues to instruct his church. The priestly role is Christ’s mediatorial role. That is the role of priest. And again, a lot of people, even who have been Christians for a long time, they think of a priest as someone who fulfills ministrations and has a sacred role when sacred right. Yet people fail to understand that the priest--in essence--is a mediator. The priest is a representative. The priest goes before God on behalf of the people. Now let's back up a minute. That's why we do not have I have one. That’s why we do not employ one. This church has no priest, we refer to no one as father, and we understand no priestly or sacred total ministry. We believe that such a ministry is unnecessary, and, if unnecessary, then Fundamentally wrong—misleading—because Christ is our priest. He's the only priest that we need. We need no other intercessor. Christ’s mediatorial role is now fulfilled in his session. That's a Latin word for seeding. You say a session of the legislature, that’s when they sit down and get to work. Christ is seated at the right hand of God, the father almighty right now, and he ever intercedes for us, says scripture.
So we have a priest, and that is Jesus. But Jesus was priest even when he was with the disciples on earth. Jesus was to use a term that is archaic, but it was a real term. Jesus was “priest-ing” in the entirety of his earthly ministry. He was representing us before the father and representing the father to us in the entirety of his ministry, and he now does that. He does so from heaven, and he does so infinitely. If he did not do so, we would be destroyed, because he, even now, intercedes for us.
So today, we arrive in the last few verses of John 17 in the high priestly prayer. In particular, we're looking at verses 20 and following. Jesus prays this: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you, father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may see that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one so the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me may be with me—to see my glory that you have given me, because you love me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I've made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved may be in them, and I in them.”
Now, remember that the last verses that we considered found their greatest thrust in verses 17-19, when Christ prayed, “sanctify them in truth—your word is truth. As you sent me into the world. So I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be sanctified in truth.” The hinge that comes in verse 20 is after Jesus has prayed that his church would be united and it would be consecrated in truth, that we will be bound together in truth—sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. Again, it is a reminder of the fact that our unity is in Christ, and that unity operates through a scriptural unity. We are United in the truth. This is not a false unity. It's not an institutional unity. It's not an ecumenical unity. It's not some kind of lowest common denominator, theological unity. We are unified in the fullness of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We are sanctified in the truth.
But Jesus, at this point is very clearly just as we think about the proximate picture. He's praying. He's about to be arrested. The sequence of the events that lead to his crucifixion are about to happen. So when Jesus prays for his own, who have they been? They were his own. They were his disciples, and the larger band of those who believed in him. He described them as his flock. He is the good shepherd. But the great change that comes—and this is something so important to us, brothers and sisters. This is where we find ourselves in this passage. We look at verse 20, and Jesus then makes clear to the father: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” So Jesus is praying this high priestly prayer for all of those who will be his. We're right here in this prayer in this agonizing prayer, and the intimacy of this prayer of the father, Jesus is not just praying for his disciples and followers as he knew them then. He is praying for us, and that's just astoundingly good news. Have you thought about the fact that Jesus, as he is here betrayed and about to be handed over to the authorities, as Jesus is soon to be crucified, that as he prayed for his own, he was praying for us. And just as much as he knew those disciples, then he knew us. He knew we were coming.
Now, it's important that you recognize that he has told this before. He's spoken this way before. Look at John chapter 10. In chapter 10, Jesus described himself as the good shepherd. And you remember he said that my sheep hear my voice. They know me and they follow me. They obey me. But look at verse 16. “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” So now we can look in retrospect and understand what John what Jesus was talking about here in John chapter 10:16. Even as Jesus was describing himself as the good shepherd, it was describing his own as his flock. He said, there are others in my flock who aren’t here yet, and I will gather them all together. They're not going to be able to different flock. They're going to get the same flock. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. Now, as we have been thinking about John chapter 17, the issue of the unity of the church comes, up and it will come up again even before we conclude this passage this morning. The unity of the church here is affirmed once again, as a spiritual unity in Christ. It's a true unity in Christ, and there's one shepherd—that's it. There's just one shepherd, and there's just one flock. Now, no matter how many different labels may be put on, no matter how many different languages, how many different countries, no matter how many different centuries and generations, it doesn't matter. Christ’s church is one. If it's true—if we’re really brought into Christ—we belonged to his church, and there is only one flock.
Well, this is a great reassurance, because we understand that the ultimate fulfillment of that one flock is eschatological. We’re all going to be before the thrown together. Just to speak of the current picture that people wonder about, all who are truly United in Christ will be there in that one flock. There won't be Methodists, and Presbyterians, and Baptists; there will just be Christ, but it's also through time.
When I wrote a book on the Apostle’s Creed, there are some who will get thrown off when first confronted with be this historic creed, the, the most universal of all Christian creeds. And they get to that, that phrase, “I believe in the holy catholic church.” And I do believe in the holy catholic church, this is one Southern Baptist who emphatically believes in the holy Catholic church. And I'm not going to give the church that calls itself Catholic, the use of the word catholic. it's a “little c”, but it's a very important word. The word catholic means universal. And, and people say that that's affirming the fact that there's one church, and wherever it's found, any true church, all true Christians are a part of that true church. It’s everywhere. But the word catholic is very important in this sense, and the word Catholic—capital C—church. It understands this claim. It is not only across space, but it's across time. So it's one church made up of all those who've ever become one with Christ from the beginning of his ministry until now and will be the ultimate eschatological fulfillment. But I love the language of John chapter 10, Jesus describing himself as the good shepherd, and the fact that there are sheep that belong to him, but he doesn't have them yet in the fold. Some of them haven't been born yet. Some of them haven't heard the gospel yet. And just as a shepherd goes and gathers a sheep, as we see in the famous cycle of parables in Luke chapter 15—the shepherd has 100, but he's lost one of them. What does he do? He goes and searches until he finds it. When he finds it, he celebrates. In that same sense, Jesus is not going to rest until all of his sheep are his and are a part of one flock and one shepherd.
Look at chapter 11, verse 52, just one chapter over. In verse 51, we're told “he did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. And not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death.” Notice what's going on here. This is when the plot to kill Jesus is just beginning. And, and as you understand, the Jewish authorities were deciding that Jesus was going to have to go. But the problem was that even as they were in the cycle of the old Testament text, the old Testament text was speaking of the fact that there will be an in-gathering from the nations. And Jesus was clearly speaking of himself as the one who was going to do that, The agent of bringing all of God's people—the elect—together, not only for the nation, but also for the world.
Well, you'll notice that language. And you'll notice in this case that it's actually coming from those who are the enemies of Jesus. And that's the context of John chapter 11. It's desperation on the part of the Jewish leaders. Why was Jesus being adored by so many? Why was Jesus being followed by the disciples, this, this Jesus who could even raise people from the dead? But now we're in John chapter 17, and now in these final verses of the high priestly prayer, Jesus, having already spoken of this mission that would unite all of us, people in one sheep with one shepherd, he now is praying. In his mediatorial priestly work, he makes very clear that all who will ever be his are included in this prayer. That is just phenomenally helpful. It's it should be of enormous unspeakable assurance. When we think about Christ for us, we're thinking about Christ for us as prophet, priest, and king, and here is Christ for us as priest. Years ago, I was a doing an installation of a service of a church in Georgia. This is when I was editor of the Christian index, and the actual preacher of the session with Dr. W.A. Criswell who was pastor of the first Baptist church of Dallas and Titanic figure in Baptist life. And I had another role in the service, and there was a giant choir. By giant choir, I mean the way Southern Baptist used to do giant choirs; it was about 300 people, full orchestra. It was big, it was glorious, it was loud, and they sang a song I had not heard before.
I'm just curious, how many of you know, the name Stamps Baxter? … Well, this is fewer than I thought. Mary knows the name Stamps Baxter. Obviously, we're going to have to work at this convection. In the history of evangelical music with the rise of the Bible conference movement in the late 19th and early 20th century, you'd have these mass gatherings. And of course you think of Billy Graham coming much later, but think about the rise of these mass gatherings and evangelist efforts, some of them came out of the second great awakening, and some of them just came out of the evangelical revivals of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And out of that came what was known as gospel music and the original gospel music. In church, they were called Sunday school songs. Now, it's very interesting that in our morning worship here at Third Avenue Baptist church, we sing songs that we call hymns, yet some of them actually aren't hymns. I don't let you know, it's a dirty secret. I know it's horrible. Uh, but some of those are not. I say that because the musicologists among us would point out that a hymn has a particular metric structure. Most of the songs we sing and call hymns are actually hymns. You see them in stanzas, and there's a certain metrical structure. Okay, that's a hymn. Now your conscience is settled, but there are some other songs we sing that are wonderful Christian songs. But back in older evangelical eras, there was a distinction between hymns and then Sunday school songs, and Sunday school songs with Sunday school being largely and evangelistic assembly in the early years, Sunday school songs didn't have to have the metric structure of the hymns. And so some of the songs we sing aren’t that good.
As a matter of fact, a song like “in the garden, I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses” is not a great hymn. It's not actually even a hymn. It doesn't have the metric structure. It's just a Sunday school song. There, there are a lot of books in the hymnal. We don't use that either, but there are a lot of books in the hymnal that are those old Sunday school songs. Well, Stamps Baxter wrote a lot of those old Sunday school songs. And it would they would be sometimes a little more upbeat than hymns. They sometimes be a little more maudlin than hymns, or they tended to be testimony songs about Jesus as our friend, about how I came to know Jesus, like the song, “oh, how I love Jesus.” That's the Sunday school song. Not a hymn. “There is a name I love to hear.” … Okay, if you don't know that song, I excommunicate you.
But nonetheless, that was a Sunday school song, just to give an example. So Stamps Baxter wrote lots on Sundays school songs, and he taught people how to sing them with the stamps Baxter quartet. A lot of our gospel music as we know it came out of that, but the choir sang at this the service at Anthem that was made out of a stamps Baxter song, and that stamps Baxter song was both entitled and took as it’s major theme these words: “when he was on the cross, I was on his mind.”
Now I have to tell you that, as young man, when I heard that song the first time, I thought, “I don't think we should sing it that way.” It’s a long debate in worship language. I was wrong in thinking that. That’s actually one of the most precious truths. I know that when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. The “I” is not so much important. We were on his mind. That's a better way to put it. When he was on the cross, we were on his mind. He knew us. And matter of fact, one line in that song is “he knew me, yet he loved me.” And expanding that from just the singular—he knew us, yet he loved us when he was on the cross. Let's just say we were on his mind. That's exactly what we have here in Christ’s Priestley mediatorial role. He already was thinking of us. We were included in this.
Even without this text, maybe we would have been assured we're included in this because of the totality of the New Testament revelation, but how precious is it to be told right here that we were on his mind? “I do not ask for these visible only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” Through whose word? The disciples will preach, and people will hear, and in a succession of preaching and hearing, there'll be many who believe, and, believing, they will be saved. They will be united to Christ. They will be his. This is how the sheep hear his voice. This is beautiful, isn't it? So how do the sheep hear Jesus’s voice? It's through the preaching of the word of God, the taking of the gospel. Every time the word of God is preached, the sheep, hear his voice. And hearing his voice, we are drawn into this one flock of the one shepherd. So it’s not just, “I'm thinking now of all those who will believe in me, but believe in me through the disciples’ word, that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Now, this is unity language that only makes sense because of the opening of the high priestly prayer. Just to remember going back to how Jesus opened the prayer, When he said in verse four, “I glorified you on earth. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” And again, before the world existed comes up again in this last climactic section of the high priestly prayer.
This is a prayer for unity. This is the true unity. And you'll notice it's not institutional. It's not the modern ecumenical movement, a lowest common denominator. It's not non-theological. It's inherently theological. It's essentially theological, and it's in the truth that we may be one, but notice the intimacy here: “just as you, father, are in me, and I in you.” “that day,” meaning, all those past present and future who are Christ. “That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” So our identity is now as believers in Christ, and Christ’s identity is in the father. And so you understand what it means for Christ to be the door, for Christ to be our priest and intercessor, for Christ to be the first born of many brethren, for us to be joint heirs with Christ as Paul will tell us. It means that the unity, the Trinitarian, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is extended to include us. “As we are united to Christ” does not mean we're in the Godhead. It doesn’t mean we're in the Trinity. It means that by the miracle of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, we share in the Trinitarian unity and in the Trinitarian love of the one, true God. And if that doesn't blow your intellectual fuses, what would? How dare we think that it might be possible that we would be partakers of the Trinitarian love of God? but that's exactly what Jesus is declaring here and is praying for us.
He continues in verse 22, “the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. The glory that you gave me, I've given to them.” Well, where is it? What is that glory? Well, this is a transformation of values. It's a redefinition of terms. Martin Luther would speak of this. When he warned of a theology of visible glory, visible glory is what we want. We're glory-mongers. We want to see visible glory. We love spectacle. We love for our eyes to see glory, and sometimes we see glimpses of glory. You think of the realities of heaven, and a new Jerusalem, and a new earth. And then you see a spectacular sunrise or sunset. Do you see a vision of just how glorious such a thing may be? Trying to recreate that glory, or trying to imagine and speculate that glory, and trying to make that the context of Christian worship turns out to go badly.
And again, I'm turning back to the reformation, and it has everything to do with what we're looking at here. Jesus said that the glory of the father had given him, he's given to his church… and I was looking at you guys this morning. You don't look too glorious. No insult intended, but I look at you, I just don't see a lot of glory. We don't look a whole lot more glorious, and this building, you know, I’m thankful for it, but it’s not exactly glorious. What am I contrasting it to? There are buildings that declared glory, and I love to go in them, by the way. In church history, I love to step into those spaces and know also other things they represent, but in so far as they try to impress you with glory, that's the problem. Luther reminds us that the church is a Mouth-house, not an eye-house. “Moot house,” as Luther said. In other words, the church is a building, but it is a building where the word can be preached, and Christ’s people can worship and sing together. It's all about mouths. It's not mostly about eyes. For 500th anniversary of the reformation, I had the honor of preaching from the high pulpit in Wittenberg where he preached, and that building is pretty glorious to a Southern Baptist. It looks stunningly glorious. The parish church where Luther preached thousands of times is pretty glorious in contrast with third avenue Baptist church. But in contrast with the Roman Catholic church, it was very clearly a preaching place. The center was the pulpit, and the acoustics of the building were either built for or changed for the hearing of the spoken word. And by the way, that was a big thing, because a lot of these churches were made for the mass, and the acoustics were not made for people to hear the preaching of the words. And a lot of these churches’ acoustics had to be changed so that the preaching of the word could, could happen.
When I take people to a city like London, and we're just trying to see the history of the Christian Church, I'll take them to, a church like a fairly small Christopher Wren church off Piccadilly circus. It's been there for centuries, and when you walk in, the sanctuary is very stunning. It’s beautiful, but the most amazing thing about it is that it has these very tall, clear windows, and it's filled with light. And this is one of the churches that Wren built on the ruins of a former church burned in the great fire of London. So it's after the reformation. And I said, “you'll notice they built the church back pretty much like it would have been except for one thing, these giant windows, why these giant windows? well it's because the church has become a mouth-house. It's become a place for the study and declaration of the preaching of the word. And people come with a Bible now. And so they need to be able to read it. And the, the old dark churches of times past where the priests were up there doing the mass people didn't need to see anything only the priest needed to see, but now people have the word and with the word you need windows and you need light. It's a sign. The reformation has come.”
All that to say, there’s an infinite glory in this building, because Christ’s people are in it. There is an infinite glory in the preaching of the word. This is what we're doing right now and studying God's word. There's will be an infinite glory when we gather for formal worship in just a short amount of time. That's Jesus's point—the glory was there with the disciples because they were his, he glory is there because they have the gospel. And this gets back to what you see in the opening to the gospel of John. I think it will be the most famous verse in John chapter one as John, 1:14, “we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.” But remember, you're talking about the glory that was of an infant. That was a hidden glory. Those who knew who he was saw the glory. If he didn't know who he was, you didn't see the glory. Unlike Renaissance art, he didn't glow in the dark. He was a baby. So here's another just wonderful reminder to us that we're surrounded by glory. CS Lewis famously said, you'll never meet a mere mortal. That's true, because every single human being is made in the image of God. You'll never go to an ordinary worship service. Now I know even the reformers called it ordinary worship, which meant not a festival day. Again, background of need for reformation, not a festival day, not a feast day. It's an ordinary worship. I remember when I was a kid, seeing the top of it, it said “the service of ordinary worship.” I was thinking, “well, Hey, let's set our let's set our standards low,” but the surface of ordinary worship meant this is Christian worship. And, uh, there are some prayer books that were called the ordinary. In other words, it's not that it's just, it's just non festival. This is just the way the Christian Church praise. But the glory that Christ has given us is the glory that the father gave
him. And that means it's the glory of the gospel. It’s the glory of the truth. It's the glory of salvation. It's a hidden glory. Let's look at it. It makes you look better this morning. It makes me feel better about myself this morning. I don't have to look glorious to be glorious in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ for God's people. -- than the plural. We're experiencing glory together. There's glory given to us, the father gave Christ this glory, and he has given his church this glory. Now, hold on, just to remember that in the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation, we shall be glorified. There is something yet to come. Christ’s church will be glorified. An infinite, visible glory is coming, but it's in the fullness of the kingdom, which is not yet. So after verse 22, you'll see, again, as that verse ends, it comes back to unity “that they may be one, even as we are one.” And then in verse 23, that unity is further explained in the Trinitarian reality. “I am them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” This is, this is a further exploration exposition. Now the unity has made very clear, the trinitarian reality, I in them and you and me, but that's the unity that they may become perfectly one. So, you know what, here's the other good thing about the unity of the church? Number one, it isn't institutional. It isn't thus ecumenical. It isn't a human invention. The lowest common denominator of theology we can put together to call people. A unity of the church is already accomplished in the truest sense because it is, we are unity in Christ and Christ is in the father. And so in that sense, the disunity of the church becomes impossible. That is to say, there will never be eschatologically churches, but only Christ’s church. In this, in this age, we need to do lean into the visibility of the unity of the church that Christ talks about, but there's going to be a limited visibility. I mean, we know we're in communion with so many other congregations are preaching the gospel and loving God's word. We helped to plant some of those churches. We encourage those churches. We were in fellowship with thousands of churches through the Southern Baptist convention that is a further sign of our unity together. And we believe that all those who are true evangelicals, even if they're in wrongly ordered belief nonetheless, if they believe the gospel and preach the gospel, they are a part of Christ’s church. And even though we're not the same congregation with them over that issue, we still believe we're in the same church with them. And again, it's historical past, present and future. That means we're in the same church with Charles and John Wesley. I means we're in the, we're in the same church with Jonathan Edwards and we're in the same church with people. My great grandfathers were in the same church with, I pray, my great, great grandchildren. I pray they come to know Christ, and that that's a great reassurance, but the unity is not even just the unity of those who believe in Christ.
Once we've been united to Christ, it is Christ in the Father, the Father in the son, the demonstration of this is before the world is something we need not just to skip over that. The world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. So, in so far as we show our unity in Christ, we're showing the world the unity of Christ with the father, and the fact that the father sent the son. Verse 24. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me may be with me, where I am to see my glory that you have given me, because you love me before the foundation of the world.” Now, just to remember again, go back to verse five. “and now, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world started.” So when Jesus says where I am, he is speaking of himself with the father, he is speaking of his completed work on earth. He's speaking of himself, present with the father. And as we shall know, seated at the right hand of God, the father almighty, and he's already prayed for the restoration of the glory that he had with the father before the world was created. So before the first spec of cosmic dust, when he was with the father in their shared glory, he's returning to that. Then this is a part of his condescension and coming here as a part of the incarnation.
This is a part of what the apostle Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter two—he thought it not robbery. He humbled himself well, even as he's humbling himself now in extreme as even to the cross, he is looking to the other side of his obedience when he is now with the father again. And he is praying for his, for the day when we in him with him will see the glory that he had with the father before the foundation of the world. How was that is what Christ desires for us. What Christ will make certain for us is that we will know him. But when we see him, we will see him not as the disciples saw him in the incarnation. We will not see him as he was visible in the incarnation would be the same body and a resurrection body. It's a continuity. The point is that when we see him, we will see him in the glory that he had with the father before the creation of the world.
Now, when people talk about yearning for heaven, I think often we have people yearning for heaven that they I'd want to be free of these pains and cares. I want to be in a place of God's perfect reign. I want to be in that place where every eye is dry and every tear is wiped away. I want to be in that place that reflects God's perfect righteousness, justice, holiness, peace, but actually we should long to be in that place where we behold the glory of the son of God and the glory that he had with the father before the creation of the world. And Christ is longing for that for his own people. You’ll notice the love. It's not just the glory that he had is the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world, the inner Trinitarian love, which is perhaps the sweetest reality, human ears can never hear.
Verse 25, “Oh righteous Father, even though the world does not know you. I know you and these that you have sent me, these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. And I am them.” So it's interesting in verse 25, when he prays to the father, in this case, he says, oh, righteous father. Now think of the background to that. Oh, righteous father. Why would righteous become so crucial? His prayer is coming to an end. What's happening right after this? It is betrayal and the arrest of Jesus. Now, in some sense, the betrayal is already underway because Jesus told Judas to go away. And what he must do, do quickly, but the manifestation of that betrayal is coming right away. And then, then the arrest and all the events will lead up to his crucifixion and the horror of his substitutionary atonement. Why now at this point, does Jesus say, oh, righteous father? It is because what is about to take place is going to be the demonstration of the righteousness of God. Paul makes that clear in a passage, such as Romans three, verses 21. And following what is all this about? It is about demonstrating the righteousness of the father. And so as Jesus prays to him, even right now, he praised him, oh, righteous father. I'm just going to turn to that text.
Romans chapter 3:21, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law though the law, and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe. For there's no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just, and the justified of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
And this gets back to the evangelicals, Sunday school songs, and stamps Baxter, whom you did not know. If you think about so much evangelicalism, sentimentality, it's not wrong when we say that the cross reveals the love of God. And again, that's a part of the apostolic preaching, but it's a minor key in the apistolic preaching. In the apostolic preaching, we are told more than anything else that what the cross of Christ shows us is the righteousness of God. Now, you don't say one at the expense of the other, because the new Testament it's rich with descriptions of the cross is love. “Greater love has no man than he laid down his life for his friends.” “And this is love.” “For God So loved the world.” And that's in the apostolic preaching as well. But just notice that when the cross is raised in this context such as Romans chapter three, what we are told is that, and in that passage five times that the cross reveals the righteousness of God. And as the prayer comes to a conclusion, Jesus refers to his own father as the righteous father, even though the world does not know you. And again, that is very similar to refrain of
John chapter one in the very opening about Christ himself. He came into his own, and his own believed him not. There are those who just deny all the evidence of the existence, even of a creator God.
“But even though the world doesn't know you, I know you, and I know you have sent me. I made known to them your name.” And again, there's more here than just a name. This is the truth about the father. “And I’ll continue to make it known that the love with which you love me may be in them.
And I in them.” And the prayer concludes. But notice how the prayer concludes that those who are his, will be known by the love with which the father loved the son, that that love may be in them. And I in them. I'm not a big country music fan. I recognize the historical importance of country music and supposedly operatic qualities of country music. I also understand the honesty of country music. Johnny Cash, years ago sang a song, “your own personal Jesus.” I've never known exactly what to do with it. When it appeared that at least implicit in the song is the understanding that something's wrong with the spirituality in which we have our own personal Jesus. We have a personal relationship with Christ, but you'll notice that what we see here is that it is true. If anything of the gospel is true, it is that Christ is in us. It's not that we have our own personal Jesus. It’s that Jesus has his own personal disciples and that's who we are.
And what more powerful demonstration of the love of God could there be? It's been a privilege to look through this prayer together with you. Ever since we began our study, I've been looking forward to John chapter 17, and here we are. I just want to leave us with one thought. And that is the thought that verse 24 is itself just a perfect illustration, not only of the gospel, but of the entirety of God's redemptive purpose. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” This explains all of biblical theology, everything from Genesis one until the end of the book of Revelation. It is about God redeeming a people through the blood of his son who will know his glory and who will exalt in that glory everlastingly. And so that there will be no explanation for why any creature knows that glory, but for Christ and what he did in obedience to the father. And that's just about the perfect summary, not only of the gospel, but of the Bible
Father, We're thankful for this time together. We pray that you will use this time and you will use this word to conform us to the image of Christ. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
March 28, 2021
Let's pray. Our Father, we are just so thankful that you have given us every word of Scripture, which begins with, “in the beginning, you created the heavens of the earth” and goes all the way to the end with, “even so Lord come quickly.” Father, we pray that you will bless our study of your word every time we open it. May your word, this living word, take hold of us, guide us, illuminate us, and help us to see what it would be to be faithful to you in this life as we await the life to come. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
So in this priestly prayer of Jesus, this high priestly prayer, as it is often referred to, Jesus is acting–as he acts now–as our intercessor and great high priest. This is the Son praying on behalf of us. And, even as the prayer begins with Jesus talking about the glory that he had with the Father before the creation of the world, the entire purpose of the prayer is that he's praying for his people. Just the existence of the prayer gives us the great, good news that our Savior cares for us, loves us, and prays for us. There's also this incredible distinction, and it's a very clear distinction, between the church and the world. And so Jesus actually speaks to the Father explicitly saying, “I am praying for those you have given me–I'm not praying for the world.” And the phrase “those you have given me” comes up repeatedly.
We see this incredible testimony to the sovereignty of God. To not only the doctrine of election, but also to the doctrine of perseverance and assurance. Because we have been given to the Son by the Father, no one can separate us. That, again, is just wonderful assurance and encouragement to us because if we have given ourselves to the Son, we can fail. But if we are given to the Son by the Father, then we actually are secure. But as we have been making our way through this prayer, we look at the verses, in which we see in verse 10, Jesus says, “all mine are yours and your are mine. And I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you, Holy father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of this world just as I am not of this world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they may also be sanctified in truth.”
Now, sometimes in this prayer, as in other passages of scripture, we make our way word by word, phrase by phrase. And yet when we think we see a phrase and understand its placement, we get a little further in the passage and understand, okay, that phrase has come up again. Or, that phrase has now been addressed from a different angle or aspect. Then we realize we need to go back and understand what's really going on here. That’s why we went back to verse 10 and began reading from there. Because again, we have this incredible emphasis from Jesus that he is going to the Father, but he is leaving his children in this world, in the world.
Well, this turns out to be a bigger theme in this prayer than we might fully have recognized. So remember that Jesus was saying that he is anticipating after the cross and resurrection returning to be with the Father and receiving again, knowing again, the glory that he had with the Father before the creation of the world. Then he makes this statement just as he made to the disciples. But now he's speaking to the Father. He says, “I am no longer in the world” because he's looking in anticipation to that moment. But his believers will be left in the world.
Now, remember the very last verse of chapter 16, what Jesus said. Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world in the world.” In the world you will have tribulation. And some of you remember translations such as “in the world, you will have trouble.” And that is certainly true in the world. You will have trouble. So why are we in the world? Well, I guess you could state just a matter of fact, which is that if Jesus had taken the disciples out of the world then the end of the age would have been immediately inaugurated; we would not be here, and we would not be anywhere.
One of the questions is why Christ has left his people in the world. Jesus says the world's full of trouble. And by the way, that's why he is praying for us. We're no match for the world. To be honest, we aren't in ourselves. We're no match for the world at all. The world will not only give us trouble, the world will smash us and arrest us and persecute us and scatter us and silence us. The world is so powerful, in the grip of sin, that it would extinguish the gospel except for the fact that Christ will not let it be so. And so when Christ said “upon this rock, I will build my church and gates of hell shall not prevail against it” he didn't say “you look really strong to me.” He just said, “I'm not going to let you perish.” Of course, it has an ultimate sense. He's not going to let the gospel be extinguished. He's not going to let the church itself be destroyed or extinguished. But then again, if this is such a difficult place, why are we here?
Well, one thing to understand is that we're here because we are the witness. We are the light of the gospel in the world as the body of Christ. We are left in the world. There is work for the church to do. And that's a very important thing to recognize. We are not here merely to wait. There is a waiting, but we are not here merely to wait. As you look at the New Testament, there's much assigned to us. We have the Great Commission. And Jesus himself will make reference in this passage to what he has given the disciples to do. First of all, this is the theme of the New Testament, in the sense of the gospels and the assignment to the apostles. But you have the Great Commission as you find it, at the end of the gospel of Matthew, and you have the Great Commission as we will find it in Acts chapter one, “you will be my witnesses first in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and then the uttermost parts of the world.” There is witnessing for us to do, there's work for us to do.
You come to the book of James written to the early church and you'll remember that we are told that true religion is to take care of widows and orphans. There’s work for us to do. There is work being salt and light. You take the letters of Peter in the New Testament, assignments to represent Christ, to live peaceably, or at least to seek to live peaceably among all. But very clearly by our conduct in the world, bear testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you have the apostle Paul, you have an explicit missionary mandate: How shall they hear unless they have a preacher? And blessed are the feet of those who take the gospel.
And so you put together the New Testament and there's a theology of suffering. We are in the world. And part of our assignment is to suffer. And from time to time, the church has suffered horribly beyond our imagination. That too is witness, which is why the word martyrdom is actually taken from the same word as witness. That's what martyrdom is. It is the ultimate witness. But when you think about Jesus here, speaking of his own in the world, there's a remarkable statement. And we saw it before, but I wanna go back to it for a moment.
“All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world but they are in the world.” Jesus says that in verse 10 and 11. So you'll notice when you look at verse 15, Jesus says, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Now that's a pretty astounding sentence and we're gonna encounter it again. Jesus says, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world.” So we are not left here by the Father's purpose. We are actually left here by the Father's purpose and the assignment of the Son. It's just one of those phrases where you think again how we have this intimate gift of a conversation, a prayer between the Son and the Father, and this most urgent of moments in the life and ministry of Jesus.
And he makes clear what he is asked the Father to do, but he also makes clear what he's not asking the Father to do. He's not asking Him to take us out of the world. Now, as you think about that, I want you to think about another text and that will be I Corinthians 5; I Corinthians 5:9-10. Now in I Corinthians 5, what's going on? Well, Paul was writing to the church, admonishing the church at Corinth in which horrible sin had been found in the church. And that sin was hindering the gospel witness of the church. Things are found amongst you, he said, that aren't even found amongst the Gentiles. He mentioned quite specifically some sexual sin.
He goes on to say that in the church, we are to have nothing to do with a Christian who acts in such a way. We're not to extend a hand to fellowship. We are not to allow them in our homes. And again, the key is that he's speaking about someone who had been in the church who had been identified in the church. And he said you cannot act as if they are Christians. That's the whole point. You can't treat someone who is living in renunciation of the faith as if he is a Christian. You can't give him the fellowship you'd extend to a Christian. But you really can't have anything to do with him. But here's what's fascinating in verse 9 and 10. This is Paul. Paul said, “I wrote to you in my letter, not to associate with sexually imoral people, not at all, meaning the sexually imoral of this world or the greedy and swindelors or idolators since then you would need to go out of the world.”
So there you have Paul echoing Jesus. Are we in the world? Yes. We are in the world by assignment. And does Jesus pray that we be taken out of the world? No, he doesn't. He explicitly does not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that we be left in the world. The apostle Paul, speaking of the church having to deal excruciatingly with sin in its midst, says, “Look, I'm telling you, you can't have fellowship with someone who claims to be a believer and acts in this way. But I'm not telling you to have nothing to do with sinners out in the world. Because if I told you that, you just have to leave the world.”
I find that very, very interesting. To be in the world is to be in contact with those who are worldly. To be in the world means we're living in a world in which yes, all around us there are adulterers and the immoral and cheaters and backbiters and all the rest. That's pretty much what the world is like. If you can't handle that world, you gotta leave it. But we're not allowed to leave it. We've got to bear witness to the gospel and be salt and light in the midst of a world that is marked by all these things. This is not an accident; we weren't left behind. We are here for a purpose and that purpose is work. That purpose is to be a witness. That purpose is to glorify God in this age until such time that it is right, according to the Father, that this age should end and the kingdom of Christ should begin in fullness.
I think we need to admit there are times in which we're ready to be taken out of the world. A part of this is the struggle of the church, understanding our own responsibility for holiness. And so just as you think about the church and the world, we're in the world, but we're not the world. I used to hear it said, “we're in the world, we're not of the world.” And that's actually a summary of the high priestly prayer and its logic. That language, “being in the world, but not of the world” is a summary of the very prayer that we are reading. But it's not just that we are not of the world. It's that we are not the world. So there's a distinction in identity between the church and the world.
You also have in this passage the theme of unity, and we've arrived at that theme. And this is a precious thing. That theme is the fact that the distinction between the church and the world is to be one of holiness. Yet the church is to be marked by a unity. So he prays that we'll be one, even as he and the Father are one, and it comes fairly early in the prayer as a theme, but it becomes very clear in the passages, the verses that we just read. He prays that we will be one. He also prays that we will be consecrated in the truth. What does it mean that Christ prays that we will be one? What kind of one are we to be? When you think of unity in the church there have been several attempts to try to create an institutional unity. There are actually several different models of unity in the church. The first most obvious model in church history would be Catholicism. By that I don't yet even mean a capital C. The C becomes a capital C. But as you look at the early centuries of the church, the unity was institutional.
And very quickly that unity took the shape of bishops. And the bishops were under the unity of the prime Bishop, who was the Bishop of Rome. So over time, this became more and more institutionalized, and so much so that in the early centuries of the church, the church was defined not by the presence of Christians, but by the presence of the Bishop. Where the Bishop is, there is the church. So you have this institutional unity. And of course that becomes absolutely crucial. And is unquestioned through, let's just say, a millennium. Now let's just kind of fast forward to the fifth century and then take it to the 15th century. For that millennium of time, the church is considered to be one thing. Now that gets a little complicated when in 1050 and the 11th century, there's a breach between the East and the West.
So, Catholic means universal. It means everywhere. And so that institutional unity is fractured when you have the Eastern church, it goes off under the patriarch. But still in the West, in Western civilization, and Western Europe, that is Europe, primarily as it is culturally defined, the church is just one thing. Rome is the headquarters of the church. And so now we have Catholicism with the capital C. And of course then comes the Reformation in the 16th century. In terms of the history of the West, it's hard to come up with a more decisive event than that. Because up until that time, it was not just the unity of the church that was absolute and structural, it was the union of crown and altar.
So it was not just the unity of the church, it was the union to the church and the monarchy in whatever respective realm. And so they were increasingly seen as sharing a common authority. The reformation breaks all of that. The reformation broke the structural unity of the church. And now you have church in plural, and that was unthinkable. As a matter of fact, even for quite a long time after the Reformation on various sides, you did not have any recognition of churches, it's still just church. There's not time to trace all of this, but very early in most of Europe, given the conflict that included the 30 Years War, which just minute for minute was probably the deadliest war ever fought on European territory, the basic concept came down to the fact that the religion of the state is the religion of the ruler.
So if you had a Catholic prince you had Catholic church. If you had a Lutheran prince, you had a Lutheran church. This was not acceptable to Baptists because that doesn't even work, it's historically anachronistic. It wouldn't have worked to have a Baptist king (there weren't any really) andthen to have a Baptist church in the realm. It took centuries after that for the idea, and Robert Wilkin, I had the privilege of doing a Thinking in Public program with him. He said the language change came much later when people would speak of one realm with a plural word churches. A place to look for that, by the way, would be someplace like Prussia, where you had a very strong Catholic presence, very strong Lutheran presence, and very strong Reform presence. Eventually just to keep peace and to have a national identity larger than what would've been a Catholic state or a Lutheran state, or a Reform state, you end up with speaking of the churches.
Institutional unity doesn't work. Let me just put it that way. It doesn't work. And even as you look at Catholicism, I mean, right now in Catholicism, you have the German bishops at war theologically with the Vatican. The German bishops are going ahead with plans to have a sacrament, or a form of blessing, for same-sex unions. The German bishops are moving in radically liberal directions. So they're looking at schism in the Roman Catholic church because the German bishops, even this week said, we're not turning back. And the Vatican said a definitive, “No.” So it's going to be interesting to watch those developments in the Roman Catholic church.
So even the Roman Catholic church, as it exists now, is not unified except supposedly organizationally under the Pope. Well, on the other side of the Reformation, there have been efforts to create something of an ecumenical church. And so the ecumenical movement, and the economy of pulling everybody together, in this common and unity in one. The ecumenical movement especially took root in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And in the late 19th century, you had communications, you had transportation, you have trains, and you've got all kinds of things developing to the extent that you've got people moving all over the place, and you have to realize that's a part of what really came out of all this. You have people moving all over the place. So you used to have Catholic communities, Catholics live there. And you had Lutheran communities, Lutherans live there. But once you got people moving all over the place, well, then you got all kinds of people everywhere.
By the way, you look at a map of the United States, you’ve got Scandinavian churches all over the great lakes; and you've got Congregationalists and Anglicans in the Northeast; you have patterns of Catholic immigration that come into cities like Boston and New York and then later cities like Chicago. And so you've got Polish and Lithuanian and Irish, big Irish immigration, and a lot of German immigration. The city of Louisville is very interesting. You have the patterns of both early Irish and then later German Catholic immigration moving here, which even explains some of our neighborhoods and explains two Catholic boys schools. So it's not as unified as it looks. But once you have all these, these churches in a city like Louisville, I don’t know how many there are, but the claim was, we just need to create out of this one church.
And so originally that was basically just a Protestant issue and the Catholics were watching with interest. So let's just get the Protestant churches together. We're supposed to be one. Okay. But the quick thing to speak of here is the fact that number one, not everybody bought into the ecumenical idea in the first place. The Baptists at the top of that list were Congregationalists. Furthermore, we're not joiners, Baptists are horrible joiners for this kind of thing, for theological reasons. But the reason, first of all, that this won't work is that the only way to make this happen is with some kind of “lowest common denominator” theology. So the ecumenical movement quickly moved into theological liberalism. Every time it started. Every major effort towards an ecumenical unity led to theological liberalism to a theological minimalism.
They just kept dumping doctrines overboard, because we are going to stand in common, and we’re going to have a common statement. And so you have the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ, as it was known in the United States. And Southern Baptists, we theologically could have nothing to do with that. By the way, you hear almost nothing of that now, because the churches that did become a part of the World Council, those churches are now so weak and empty, hardly anyone even thinks of them or speaks of them. So it turns out that an institutional unity really doesn't work. It turns out that an ecumenical experiment really doesn't work. But the church of Christ is to be one. So, in what sense are we one? Well, this is where Baptists would argue, and this is really a traditional evangelical argument, that it's in doctrine and it is in spirit.
It is a spiritual unity, and it's a doctrinal unity. Let me go back just a minute, by the way, and say one other model of unity that some have tried is liturgical unity, where people have argued that the actual center of unity in the church is the fact that we have, for instance, the Lord’s Supper. But then again, just ask the churches to describe the word “Supper.” And then you understand that doesn't work either. Is it a mass? Is it a Eucharist? Is it a sacrament? Is it an ordinance? So the liturgical unity was an early effort. And people thought, well, you know, if it's a liturgical unity, it might be that the Eastern Orthodox could join in, if not the Roman Catholics. Well, I'm not gonna go further there. I'm going to say where unity is. The unity is spiritual and it is doctrinal.
So let's take doctrinal first. So the evidence of that unity Jesus gets right here in John 17:17. Jesus says, “sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrated myself that they also may be sanctified in truth” So it is sanctification in the truth, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So it turns out that our unity is in truth. And that is what doctrine is. Doctrine is what the church believes, confesses, and teaches on the basis of the word of GoD. That definition comes from Jaroslav Pelikan, a great historian of doctrine who taught at Yale for many years. And it's worth it just to be able to say his name, Jaroslav Pelikan. He was a titanic scholar and one of the greatest historians of history and one of the most important historians of theology and doctrine and dogma.
He actually was a historian of the history of theology, but nonetheless, he defined doctrine in the beginning of his great five volume history in the history of doctrine as what the church believes, confesses and teaches on the basis of the word of God. Why three words: Believes, confesses and teaches?
Belief is what actually resides as the conceptual convictional belief of the church. And as Pelikan understood, that's found in theology books, and that's found in creeds. It’s very importantly found in hymn books and it's apparent in prayer. And so if you want to know what the church believes–in fact, Roger Scruton, the late British philosopher, great loss to us when he died last year, Roger Scruton said, “if you want to know what people believe, do not ask them doctrinal questions, but rather listen to them, pray.” It's a keen insight. He was at that point, an unbelieving philosopher. That’s what the church believes.
Then what the church confesses. And yes, that is the creeds and confessions. So where the church says, this is what we believe. Well, okay, listen to the church. It's telling you what the church believes. So whether it's the Apostles Creed, or our Baptist Faith and Message, or when we, as a congregation, have a members' meeting and we say the covenant together, we're saying, this is what we believe. So Pelikan would say, listen to them, they're telling you what they believe. What the church believes, confesses, and teaches. Where do we teach? Well, that's the preaching. What's actually preached.
I was reading a great scholar of the Reformation just a few days ago and he said, if you had just known nothing of Luther and you'd known nothing of Calvin, and you'd known nothing of any kind of theological controversy, if you went out of Germany in say 1520, and came back in 1570, you would be hearing preaching so different you would know something had happened. The preaching makes a difference. Luther was turning out preachers and having turned out all these preachers they went into the pulpit. They were preaching the word. It was a completely different event. The church in Germany, under the power of the Reformation, had been turned from, as Luther said, an “eye house into a mouth house.” You no longer come to see things. You come in to hear things. You no longer come into the church to watch priests, even behind a screen, performing a mass.
No you're not there to watch anymore, you're there to hear. It's a “moot” house. It's a mouth house. So we look to what the church believes, confesses, and teaches on the basis of the word of God.
But the word there becomes so important because actually that's what Jesus says. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Now is he referring to Scripture here? The answer is yes. Clearly he's referring to Scripture here because Scripture is included in God's word. But when Jesus speaks of sanctifying believers in the truth, “your word is truth,” that includes by his own designation, everything that he has said, and that's also been in this prayer. I gave them your “word,” or just earlier, just verses earlier, I gave them your “word.” It's one of the great identifying marks of the church. Where's the church? Well, it is where Christ is.
Where's the church? Well, it is where is the word now? Now, remember in the institutional unity model. Where's the church? It is where the Bishop is. That's not the way we answer the question. Where's the church? Well, number one, where are the Christians? Where's the gospel? Where's the word? This is also why the Reformers in talking about the marks of the church identified the first two marks in this summary, often attributed to Luther: It's where the Word of the God is rightly preached and the sacraments, that is the ordinances, are rightly administered.
The first thing is where the Word is rightly preached. And as Luther said, if the word is not rightly preached there, “I don't care what it calls itself. I don't care about its architecture. I don't care if it has a Bishop. (If it has a Bishop, it becomes less likely). I care about what's preached.” And so that's the unity of the church. That's the truth. That is the deposit at the center of the church. And here's the thing, Jesus, doesn't just say, “teach them thy word is truth.” He says, “sanctify them.”
So here's the other revolutionary reality that jumps out at us from this prayer: Doctrine is sanctifying. God's truth is sanctifying. The Scripture is sanctifying. That's an amazing thing. We are to be holy, as God himself said: “As I am Holy, you be holy.” It's picked up by Peter in the New Testament. We're to be holy. We're to be the holy ones. We're to be Christ’s holy people. We're to be holy in a sinful world. How are we going to be holy? How are we made holy? Well, the answer according to Scripture is by the indwelling spirit and by the power of the Word, that's how we are made holy. There are disciplines of holiness, yes, but the source of holiness is truth.
And so, by the way, this means something. It means that holiness has to begin in truth. And as truth works its way out, gospel truth, Christ’s truth, as the truth works its way out in our lives it produces holiness. This is a warning to us unless we try to find some other means of holiness. That's also been a temptation throughout the history of the church. We want some kind of instantaneous holiness. We want some kind of declaration of holiness.
By the way, there is an instantaneous declaration of holiness, which is once we are united with Christ, we are his and Christ is not united to sin. In other words, our eternal holiness is guaranteed and secure because we are united to Christ. But there is nonetheless, in this life, and certainly is revealed in Scripture, a continuous testimony to the need for us to reveal holiness, to display holiness, to be holy, to grow in holiness. And that's going to come only by the Word. Your word is truth. Sanctify them in the truth. There are no other means of holiness.
Now this leads us to some interesting observations. So, for instance, one of the issues that puzzled Christians, and I would say they were Christians evidently who have easily puzzled, one of the issues that confused many Christians was with the encounter of world religions in the 19th century in particular. It came even earlier in terms of exploration, but primarily the 19th century is when people were thinking about this, there was even a parliament of world religions held in Chicago in the 1890s. It was kind of like, you know, here's one of those, here's one of those, here's one of those, here's one of those, etc. But what confused many confuseable Christians, let me put it that way, what confused many Christians were the holy men of other religions.
I was just going through life yesterday and happened to see a news story where there was someone talking about having met with the Daaii Lama. And the Dalai Lama right now is, whether you recognize it or not, at the white hot center of international geopolitics. I don't know that he really meant to be there, but he is there because the official, and I can't go into this as much as I would like as fascinating as it is, but the Communist Party in China, which of course, has cracked down on Nepal and upon the followers of the Dalia Lama and is officially atheistic. I mean absolutely officially atheistic and nonetheless claims now to be in control of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. So you have an atheist regime, explicitly declaring legal rights to control the reincarnation of a priesthood.
And if you're a communist, you gotta control everything. Even the things you don't think exist evidently. It is because it's very political, as you can imagine, and all the rest. But you know, why am I raising this now? It is because Westerners have no idea what to do with the Dalai Lama. He's a very holy man, according to worldly definitions of holiness. He's an ascetic. He is deeply meditative. And he's called holy because after all he is the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, according to tradition. I'm saying all this because I can understand why the particular Buddhism that he represents would consider him holy. But let me put it this way: This is the kind of holiness that Hollywood types are looking for. He looks the part.
And so whether you're the British Royal family, or American politicians of a certain stripe, or Hollywood celebrities, you want to go and seek an audience with the Dalai Lama. Or, to bring it closer to us: The Pope, one of his titles is “Your Holiness.” This leads to all kinds of issues for Protestants when we are in a Catholic territory. It's because people just don't know what to say to us. You know? Basically there's not much you can say. You can't say “your imminence.” You can't say to a Bishop, “your excellency.” You can't say “your holiness.” All you can say is “you,” and that's where we are.
But people look at the Pope and they want to just touch him. You know, if you can just touch him, holiness will come to them. He's the most holy of all–that's even his title. And so, you know, if we can just get an audience with the Pope, if we can just go to a mass where the Pope is presiding, then holiness will come. And by the way he acts as if he is holy, of course, with indulgences and all the rest of that system, it is still very much alive; the Roman Catholic church and all the rest. You look at that, and we go, “that's a model of visible holiness.” Visible holiness, in that sense, it isn't a holiness at all, according to Scripture. And this is where these issues get so confused. And I think even in many muddled minds of evangelicals, all of this is confusing. This is why I have evangelicals who will ask me, well, how do you explain someone like the Dalai Lama, who is so holy?
Well, let’s back up for a moment and say, we only have one definition of holiness. And that is corresponding to the one true and living God. So are we clear about that? We're not talking about asceticism. We're not talking about meditative capacity. We're not talking about sitting on top of a stone or a column in the middle of the desert. We're talking about what holiness is, which is really clarifying and simplifying for Christians. All holiness means is corresponding to the attribute of the one and only holy God. And how do we do that? Only by His truth. That's the only way we can do it. So here's the radical statement. We actually believe there are nice people apart from the gospel. There are no holy people apart from the gospel. I know that sounds radical, but here we are in John 17, and here we are in John 17:17, and as we look at this passage, there are no holy ones. Apart from God, there are creatures, human creatures made in God's image who reflect His glory.
And some of them are very nice. I'd rather be around the nice ones. Some of them are very peaceable. I'd rather be around the peaceable ones. Some of the people in the world are very honest. I'd rather be around the honest ones. But holiness pertains to God alone and to that which He makes holy. Look at the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, even in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, instruments, vessels were to be made and what happened? They were made and after they were made, God sanctified them. He's the only one who can sanctify them. And that meant not only making holy but reserving unto Himself for His own purposes. And that's the other meaning by the way, that applies to us as the saints, those who belong to God, we're made holy by Him. And we are His instruments. We are like the vessels in the temple, in that sense, we are now His. And because He's holy, we're to be holy.
The point here is that there is no holiness apart from the one true and living God. There is no way to the one true and living God, but through Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. And there is no means of holiness other than Scripture. So that clarifies things enormously. Where do you find holy people? Those who belong to God through Christ made holy by the word of God. That's it. That's church, by the way, that's what we're here for. We're here to be made holy.. That's kind of a tough promise because you guys don't look a whole lot holier than you did last Sunday. I look in the mirror. I don't think I look a whole lot holier than I did last Sunday, and this is God's work.
And we have to pray that over time, we do see that. We have to pray that over time, God sees that. But we understand that we're not talking about a class of people. We don't reserve the balcony for the most holy.. Those of us who sit up there like altitude, not holiness. We don't have any special category. We don't have orders of holiness. We're stuck together. We have the body of Christ. That by the way, goes back to our church covenant. When a church covenant says we are covenanting to live together and to worship together in such a way that we encourage one another unto holiness and seek to grow holy together. And that takes time. By the way, we won’t be finished in this life.
And all this, just in what? 17 verses of this prayer. Already just this morning, we've looked at Christ speaking of the unity of the church, and we've asked the question, how in the world does that unity exist? And what kind of unity should we look for? And we're looking for a theological unity. We're looking for a spiritual unity. And that spiritual unity means that wherever we find those who are united to Christ, there is unity with them.
So that means every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is our brother or sister. But we're not members of the same congregation. Some of my best friends in the world are Presbyterian and we can preach the gospel together, but we can't do congregation together. Just on the issue of baptism. Just take one issue. And so if we were forced at the point of a gun to some kind of unity, what would it be? Believers baptism by immersion, or would it be the baptism of infants as covenant children by sprinkling? What would it be? Well, unless you're convinced together by the word of one thing, then that would be a false unity. We're just put in the same room and be “baptitarian?” That just doesn't work. By the way, I was asked by a high school student at an event this week as to whether or not the existence of denominations is a scandal to the unity of the body of Christ?
I said, well, in some sense, yes, but the scandal is not the existence of the denominations, but the existence of the disagreement, that's the scandal. The scandal is that Presbyterians are wrong. Don't even talk about the Methodist. Seriously, yes, there is an embarrassment before the world. There's an embarrassment before the world that we haven't figured everything out to absolute unity among gospel Christians. And I'm just saying among gospel Christians, we haven't figured everything out. I often quote Sidney Mead, the American church historian, because he wrote this in a paragraph and it made more sense to me as a seminary student forty plus years ago. It's just one paragraph. And he said, look, it's basically a mathematical formula: Religious liberty plus doctrinal conviction equals denomination. That's it. If you have doctrinal religious disagreeance and you have religious Liberty, then you start churches that fit your convictions.
Without religious Liberty, it might be very different, but since you have religious, you can do it. And I thought, well, that's it. It is a mathematical equation. It doesn't matter which one you put first. A difference in doctrine plus religious liberty equals denomination. So is that a scandal? Well, it's an embarrassment. I'll admit. A little bit of an embarrassment before the world. When I go on the television or I'm talking to the press and they say, well, what about the other? And the other? It gets complicated. I'd rather it be simple. And that simple would mean everybody's a Baptist. But it's not gonna happen apparently. So is that an embarrassment?
Let me tell you what would be a greater embarrassment: We deny the truth in order to act like we agree. That'd be a far greater embarrassment. Or we create some kind of artificial unity that we know isn't real. That's more of an embarrassment.
But coming to where we end this part of the prayer, and we'll have an interruption, I believe, with the resurrection Sunday coming, But as we look to this section of the prayer and where we end, the two words that are put together are two words that Christians need to increasingly and urgently to put together: Sanctify. Truth. Why? Because his word is truth. Let's pray.
Father you've given us such glorious wealth, just in these verses and Father, I am struck by how much we would lose in necessary knowledge for our existence as Christians if we did not have this prayer. Father, thank you for sharing it with us. And there's more yet to share. And in anticipation of that, we pray that the Holy Spirit will apply what we now know and have read and have studied to our hearts, to conform us to the image of Christ. And if you give us breath and life, we shall pray for yet more. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
March 21, 2021
We are continuing our study in John 17. As we continue our study throughout the Gospel of John, and at this point we are looking at the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. The High Priestly prayer because that is how he is functioning. He is "priesting" for his people. When we come to the end of this passage, we are going to remind ourselves of the comprehensive office of Mediator that Christ holds.
To give us a summary, we often as Evangelicals have said, "We do not need a priest." You understand the Protestant impulse to say, "We do not need a priest." The person who gets up and presides over our service is not a priest. The reality is, we desperately need a priest. Without a priest, there is no mediation between us and the Father. Without a priest, there is no intercessor for us.
Indeed, as the book of Hebrews tells us, we have a Great High Priest. The Great High Priest. Jesus Christ our Lord. He 'priests' for us. He is doing so even before his ascension in this prayer. In a sense, his entire incarnation is part of his priesthood. In particular, upon his ascension, when he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, Almighty, and Jesus ever makes intercession for us, that is when Jesus Christ is functioning as the Great High Priest.
We have had two sessions together looking at the High Priestly prayer, taking about five verses at a time. We are going to begin today right after verse 11. In order to gain the context, let us just remember the first verses.
John tells us" When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."
We are going to pause there for a moment. One of the most interesting lessons we learn is what we learn by being asked questions, rather than asking questions. We had a major youth event for High School students on Thursday night by virtual means. I was speaking to 1200 teenagers, and at the end of the night, we had an Ask Anything session. These young people from churches in Canada, to both coasts and in between, were sending in questions.
It tells you something about the faithfulness of the churches where these students are being taught that their questions were so good. I was surprised that two of the questions had to do with the inter-trinitarian mystery. You had teenagers asking, "How is the Father related to the Son? How is it the Son did not know the time or the hour? Yet, he is fully God." You could see these young people trying to think through the mystery of the trinity. Jesus Christ is truly God, truly man. He has all the attributes of deity. And yet, he says that not even he knows the hour of his coming.
Then another question was directed towards the trinitarian mystery. An extremely smart question. I was able to refer to this very text because this passage really helps to explain the incarnation as a trinitarian experience. That is to say, what was the meaning of the incarnation, inside the relationship of the trinity? Obviously, we are dealing with what Calvin would call an analogical knowledge. These are words used to describe that which is beyond words, but they are true words. This is true knowledge. This is what human beings can handle.
Notice what Jesus says in verse 5, "Now Father, Glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed." Now remember the Prologue of the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the very agent of creation. Before the world was created, and before the incarnation, he knew a glory with the Father that he accepted to be diminished during the time of his incarnation. He is now looking to the cross. Looking to the empty tomb. Looking to his ascension, and praying to the Father, looking with anticipation to the restoration of the glory he had with the Father before the Creation of the world.
What does that tell us? It tells us something that Jesus experienced, and thus was the trinitarian experience, on behalf of the Son in the incarnation. He forfeited some of his glory to be among us. Not all of his glory. John tells us, "We beheld his glory, glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." We could not have survived His full glory.
Even as I said, Calvin reminds us of the analogical nature of language. We also need to recognize that had Jesus presented himself to us, without hiding some of his glory, we would have been destroyed. We are not able to handle the presence. How do we know that? Because God told Moses that. We don't have any other text. God told Moses, "You want to behold my glory? You cannot handle my glory. My glory would destroy you. But I will pass by as you are hidden in the cleft of a rock."
Similarly, in Philippians chapter 2, where we are told about the incarnation, we have the very same logic in slightly different language. This is often called "The Kenosis" because of one Greek word. It’s a dangerous category because there are some who are tempted to push it far beyond its biblical bounds. Nonetheless, what we read in Philippians chapter 2, "Have this mind among yourselves" this is verse 5 "which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped? But emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being found in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth. And every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Now that tells us something else. Even as, in the incarnation, Christ in obedience accepted a reduction of his glory—certainly his invisible glory—and there was more to it than that. Again, the question is, how did the Son not know the hour of his return?
Paul tells us that the glory Christ prays to the father about in John 17, the glory he had with the Father before the foundation of the world, turns out to be an even greater glory. The obedience of the Son is rewarded by the Father, even with the title "Lord." The fact that every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
One of the things we need to note is the timeline of biblical history. This is probably intuitive to you. It should be intuitive to Christians. The timeline of biblical history eternity, eternity, You cannot say eternity to eternity, but we do not have any category other than that. We do not have a category of timelessness or everlastingness. We know intellectually it is true, but we cannot really experience it. We merely declare it.
The timeline of biblical History is eternity, and then the creation of time as God created the world. He created the world as objects in movement. Objects in movement define time. You might not have thought about that, but that’s actually what defines time, until you have objects in movement. The Biblical creation account tells us exactly how it happens, and then you have time. The time only lasts as long as the objects are in movement. If the objects stop time stops. All kinds of issues and witnesses can be brought here from physics. But when you look to the other side of time, eternity. What you have in the timeline of Scripture here, you have human history interrupted by the incarnation, which changes all time going forward.
Everything forward is incarnational time. Messiah time. That's why for instance, in accordance with the Christian understanding of time, you have the dates "BC" and "AD." It is not before Christ and after Chris. It is before Christ, yes, that's BC, but Anno Domini, or "The year of our Lord." That is where the letters 'AD' come from. It is also interesting if you follow this, and you know how you are supposed to do it—if its BC, say 646 BC, then you put 646 B period, C period, capital b, capital c. If it is AD, the AD comes before the year.
So, if you look at classical history, written until the recent development, classical history was written such that this empire lasted from 646 BC to AD 45. The year of our Lord, 45. The AD comes before the year because Anno Domini. It announced, this is the year of our Lord. History split in two. Jesus is here, praying this prayer at the end of his incarnation, but the age is not coming to an end. That is what's really important. There is no incarnational age that comes to an end. The incarnation comes to an end on earth, but remember, Christ is incarnate now
He is incarnate in his resurrected body. Here is Paul, 1 Corinthians 15, He has a resurrection body, he is the first fruits of those who will follow in him. We too will have a resurrection body in heaven. We will not have a disembodied experience, but a resurrection body.
A little footnote here for political correctness, those who are trying to secularize BC and AD. It is just your typical kind of nonsense. I was in a public setting where I was able to puncture holes in it. I'll admit, it was probably an unhealthy delight. They say, "No you cannot say BC and AD. You cannot have secular people or people in the public schools going 'AD 45'. Then you have these little kids say, 'in the year of our lord' and you have the union of church and state. That's theocracy breaking out in American Schools."
They adopted the new language of BCE and CE. You cannot talk about Christ, so CE is our common era. Of course, why would we have this common era before the common era? Well, we won't talk about that because that would take us right back to AD. You have BCE meaning before the common era.
I was in a context, on a secular university campus, where I was chastised because I refused to go with BCE and CE. Know the current historical lingo has cut and removed the Christian references. I said, "Well how in the world did you do that?" "Well we took BC, and made it BCE. We took AD and made it CE." I said, "Yes, but how did you come up with the numbers? What has been split in two? I mean, everything goes down from here, and everything goes up from there. You think you can just rename what you're calling it as if someone just tripped over a rock in Spain and said, 'Let's just start counting all over again'?" No, sorry. It’s the centrality of the incarnation of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Beginning in verse 6, "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them, and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me. For they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine. I am glorified in them and I am no longer in the world, but you are in the world. And I am coming to you holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one. Even as we are one."
So, in the intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son, even as Jesus is praying, he says that he has accomplished what the Father sent him to do. He manifested and made real, visible, and he announced the Father's name to the people. Then the giving. This is what we spent our time last week on. It's this giving, not just of salvation to sinners, not just giving the world the Savior. It's this incomprehensible, except, comprehensible because it's made simple to us. We do not understand everything about it because it is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian life.
The Father, giving the redeemed to the Son, as gifts. We have the Son, effectively giving the redeemed back to the Father, as gifts. The Son and the Father enjoying the redeemed as a gift.
So even as we think about the gift that has been given to us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, might not perish but have everlasting life." He has given us the gift of everlasting life. In reality, the redeemed, known before the foundation of the world, given by the Father to the Son before the world was created. There is the gift. The gift from the Father to the Son. Christ is, in effect, sharing the gift with the Father.
He goes on and says again, they are in me, they are in you. You gave them to me out of the world. Remember, that comes right after verse 5. "And now Father, glorify me in your presence, with the glory I had with you before the world existed." But not only is history split in two, humanity is split in two. It's so clear in this text. Between those who are in Christ, those who are his because they were given to him by the Father. You have history divided. You have humanity divided. This division of humanity is such that, as we have seen testified in John 6, the ones who belong to the Son can never be taken from him because they were given to the Son by the Father. That is really important!
How is it that we came to be in Christ? The answer is, "Because the Father gave us to the Son." All the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. Of all that the Father gives me, the Son will lose none of them. That's very good news. Jesus is praying for some of his own here? No, he is praying for all of his own.
The astounding thing is the division in humanity that Jesus mentioned in verse 9. "I am praying for them," that is his own, who are in him, "I am not praying for the World, but for those you have given me, for they are yours." That is, as we saw last week, one of the most striking verses in all of Scripture. The distinction between those who are in and those who are in the world so much so, and here's what's so important for us to see: Christ is not a priest to the world, he's a priest to the church.
That is an astounding change as we think about biblical theology, because as we begin in the book of Genesis, God is Lord. Over the entire universe. He made everything, that is, he reigns over everything. Jesus reigns with him as the logos of the universe over the entire world. But he is priest mediator intercessor for his own. That clarity is a necessary clarity. The church is always gravely endangered when it loses the understanding of the distinction between the church and the world. That understanding of the church and the world that distinction can be falsely defined as something special about us. Once we do that, then we understand why the specialness of the distinction between the church and the world dissipates. Because if it's something special about us, all we have to do is spend some time looking in the mirror and experiencing life together to recognize we're not as special as we thought we were.
So the distinction between the church and the world, if dependent on the observation of us any given day, might be quite frustrating. But the point is that the distinction between the church and the world is Christ and those who are in Christ. That's the big distinction. Similarly, as you're thinking about the great distinction here is between those who are in Christ and those who are just in the world. It's the same thing when we talk about the fatherhood of God. This is a hard thing to talk about, when people talk about the fatherhood of God. So let's just talk about the, the first person of the Trinity for a moment, the fatherhood, it of God, and, or does God love the world? Is it fair to say, God loves the world? And, and if so, how does God love the world?
This is a footnote here, but it might be helpful just to kind of remind us that there are several aspects of God's love for his creature. So first of all, if God made it, he loves it in some sense, if he didn't love it, he wouldn't have made it. Every day of creation, he declares it's good. Of course, when he gets to human beings, made in his image, it's very good. Nonetheless, everything that he makes by the fact that he made it, it is the recipient of his love in some dimension. The first dimension we, which is common to all creation, is benevolence. So, when we talk about benevolence, that's a word for love. Benevolence means as the Bible says, he makes it rain on the, just, and the unjust.
God's benevolence towards all humanity means that we enjoy the sun and the rain. We enjoy the gift of life. Even unbelievers love their children. There are many good gifts that are given to us: what we eat and what we enjoy; the air we breathe; this cosmically anthropically designed planet in which life is habitable. God's benevolence is to all, to save time, even though there are different dimensions will reduce it to two elements of benevolence.
Second is his mercy, his, his, his redeeming mercy is towards those who are in Christ. That's a different kind of love. The Baptist faith and message, which is our official confession of faith, says it this way— I think this is actually just incredibly right— It says, God is fatherly to all creation, but he is Father to those who are in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's right. He's fatherly to all, but he's Father to those who are in Christ.
Well, you see that reflected in Jesus' prayer. But if I were a believer reading this, I would be more offended by this verse than anything else in the gospel of John. This to me, just to a secular reader would be the most shocking text because here we are told Jesus himself—just think of what the modern cultural conception of Jesus is a moral teacher, a remarkable example of righteousness, certainly he must be an exemplar non-discrimination and inclusivity. Well, actually reading the gospels you find many texts in which that's not true. Here you find that as he's facing the cross, Jesus doesn't pray for the world. That requires the Bible's world picture to be reminded to us again, that world picture.
When we speak of, Jesus, loving the world, what you see as the text to John begins, which is astounding. It's the only gospel who begins here begins in creation. All things are made by him and without him was not thing made that was made. He's the instrument of creation, but his love is for those the Father gave him before the creation of the world. For them, he now prays.
By the way, just another little footnote. There are certain parallel arguments that you find in scripture, the more you study. Some of those parallel arguments are between Old Testament and New Testament texts. You realize, this is a continuation and argument. This is the fulfillment of a promise. But inside the New Testament, there are also some lines of argument in which you all of a sudden recognize, "Well, here's this, and it's picked up over here."
One example is you’re reading the gospel of Matthew, Then you have two people studying different texts. Let's say one of them is reading Matthew, one of them is reading the book of Hebrews. Then all of a sudden you recognize, "Now, wait, just a minute. There's some incredible parallels here!" Another set of parallels, that is very easy to see, is between the gospel of John and Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
So, throughout church history, sometimes the gospel of John has been referred to as the Ephesian gospel. Now that doesn't mean it was written to the Ephesians. What it means is that the similar laser focus on the sovereignty of God comes in lines of argument that are just incredibly parallel between John and Ephesians. As you look at John 17, we are going to look even this morning at Ephesians 1, in order to understand a bit more of what it means for the church to be in Christ. Let's turn right now to Ephesians chapter 1.
Now, remember we're doing this because we want to understand the church given to Christ. The church being described as "in him." Those who are mine. You see this in a verse like we read in verse 10, "All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them." But the bigger issue is that we are in Christ because the Father gave us to the Son, look at Ephesians 1. Begin reading in verse three:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Now, this is not a prayer. This is a didactic passage. This is a passage from the apostle Paul who is writing to the Ephesians. Certainly you must sense the incredible weight of, of commonality here between John 17 and Ephesians 1. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 1 helps us to understand how it is that we came to be given to Christ before the foundation of the world. Which is also the timeline of Ephesians 1. Before the foundation of the world. We were predestined to see him. Now, Ephesians 1 is the great theater of the display of one of the biblical doctrines. Most Evangelicals failed to understand. Failing to understand the grand flow of biblical history and the heart of biblical theology is largely missing. They remain shallow, and this is the doctrine of union with Christ.
Once again, this is a characteristic emphasis of Reformed Christianity because it is Reformed Christianity that seeks above all others to understand the very text we're –reading John 17 in Ephesians 1--- how is it that these things reflect God's will and purpose, and heart. The answer is because what we are given in Ephesians chapter 1 is the reality that to be redeemed, to belong to Christ, is to be united to him in such a way we can never be severed from him. Which is what we had Jesus say consistently in the gospel of John. And the question becomes, how did that happen? In other words, when were we united with Christ?
Well, the apostle will help us to understand, and the New Testament will display that we were united with Christ, by faith- and justified by faith—when we came in the operations of our heart by the ministry, the holy spirit convicting us of sin. We came to be made alive. We responded to the gospel. We believed. We trusted. We rested in Christ and thus, we became his. Wait, just a minute, we became his, but we were his specifically, You know, it's, it's not like if you could resist read John 17 and let's say,
"Oh, John's all you have, John, Seventeen's all you have." And we hear the Son praying to the Father about those you've given me and making the distinction between those and, and the world.
Well, I guess it's possible. You might say, "Okay, all right. Maybe Jesus came. So those the Father gave him were those who just decided to believe in him." Well, here's the truth. No one is his, who does not believe in him. That is absolutely true, but Ephesians makes very clear speaking of not only believers in toto, but of every believer, that we were predestined. That's a hard doctrine, but there it is. By the way, it's no harder than what you see in John 17.
The older I come to be, and the more I teach theology, the more I think that the great scandal of Christianity—it comes to the exclusivity, the gospel and, and the, the purity, the church, and all kinds of things, and it's very clear in Israel, too. The great scandal is us and them. You know, we're living in an age in which we're told, "It's just wrong to say us and them." So we 'us' will tell 'them' it's wrong to say us and them. It's inevitable, by the way. Even in the most liberal college campuses where you say you don't have us and them, You now have all kinds of identity politics, which is US with a capital, set of letters and THEM with a capital set of letters.
But the interesting thing is this comes up again. And what you see in Ephesians is this symphonic explanation of the fact that we are united to Christ as believers. This union with Christ means we are in him. So as I look at the passage, just follow with me very quickly, Beginning with verse four, it tells us, even as he chose us in him, that's in Christ. So, we were chosen by the Father in Christ. Then just follow him. It says before him in love, he predestined us according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the redeemed. Then verse seven, "In him, we have redemption through his blood," and we continue on down.
This is the purpose which you set forth in Christ. Verse 11, "In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the council of his will." Verse 13, "In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation believed in him were sealed." There, it is, "Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantor, guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory."
There is no escape from the logic here. There is no escape from the logic of John 17. There's no escape from the logic of Ephesians 1. When you put John 17 and Ephesians 1 together, you have a comprehensive and glorious understanding of how it came to pass. The Father before the creation of the, a world predestined, chosen, gifted, gave –all these verbs are there. All these words are there. The redeem to the So. Those he's given to the Son can never be taken from him.
That becomes crucial as we continue on. So, we're back now, in John 17. We concluded with verse 11, "And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."
So what we have here is a second acknowledgement, as we had in John chapter 6, that of those, the Father has given to the Son, Judas is not one. That Judas is not amongst those who was given before the foundation of the world to Jesus Christ. As a gift from the Father to the Son to be then presented by the Son of the Father and the reciprocity of inter Trinitarian love, no. Judas wasn't there. Judas just appeared to be there. Jesus knew this. He says this in John chapter 6, because some of the larger group of disciples no longer followed him. Jesus turned to the disciples and said, "Do you also want to go away?" You'll recall in, in John chapter 6, and Peter says," Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of, of eternal life, and besides that, we've come to know that you are Christ, the holy one of God."
But we were told then that Jesus knew, in himself, the thoughts of all men. He knew in himself that Judas would betray him. So again, that was, that was told to us. And then in John chapter 13, there is a reference, as is in the background here, to Psalm 41 9. In Psalm 41:9, David speaks of the one who has betrayed him. The one who was so close to him, but has betrayed him. That's the text that is in the background of the statement about Judas in John chapter 13. It's in the background here. So, you have Psalm 41, John 6, John 13 in the background to this statement.
It's just a reminder to us that no one, that as Jesus and the Father, are not surprised by Judas. Judas is not an interruption in plan. Judas is not a disappointment in the sense that it didn't turn out like the Father and the Son had intended with Judas. No, it's a part of the divinely ordained plan of salvation, but Jesus is emphatically not praying for him. That's an astounding thing.
You think about doors of judgment, you know, an eternal door of judgment closing. Just imagine this: Jesus Christ does not pray for you. Jesus speaks of his flock, recognizing his voice and of himself as the good shepherd tending his flock. To be outside that flock is horror. To be outside that door is horror. To be un-prayed for by Jesus is the eternal slamming of a door. You see that right here in John 17.
"While I was with them," Jesus said in verse 12, "I kept them in your name." That's what's so sweet. Jesus having been given the people, those who would be in him, redeemed by the Father, Jesus kept them which is really sweet. He kept us. Imagine all the time the disciples were with him. Even as Jesus was sleeping, he was keeping them. He keeps us, though we can't keep ourselves. All we like sheep have gone astray. We can't keep ourselves in any sense, internally or externally. But Jesus says, while he was here, he kept us. He didn't lose any.
"I kept them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one, I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled." We know who he was. And he wasn't really lost because he was never a part of us in the beginning. But he was among us. In verse 13, Jesus says, "But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves."
So once again, there's something astounding here that jumps out at us. Of course, it's following the flow of the prayer. We've been guarded by Christ. Not one has been lost, but again, Jesus says, as he said verses earlier, "But now I am coming to you." S0o he's praying about the church when he is absent as the incarnate Lord on earth. This is the purpose of the prayer. This is the main purpose of the prayer. Jesus' concern for us without him incarnate on earth. When he was here, he guarded us. He kept us. He's praying for us now. But notice what he prays in verse 13. "But now I am coming to you." He's already said that. And he repeats it. "And these things that I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves."
This is something we really need to know. The joy that Jesus knows as the Son with the Father is the joy in its own dimensionality that Jesus wants us to have. He wants us to share in that joy. However, you define the love of God toward the objects of his love—the Son is the object of his love—and we are in the Son or the objects of his love. Christ says, "When I am absent from them, I want them to know jo." That's really good news.
But the joy has a specific shape. It has a specific substance. It's not merely a mood. Look at what he says. It's the most amazing testimony to the Word of God. "But now I'm coming to you and these things that I speak about in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of this world. And the world has hated them because they are not of this world just as I am not of this world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is the truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world and for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth."
I think just about everyone thinking about John 17 knows of Jesus' prayer for the unity of the church. "May they be one as we are one." Even the larger ecumenical movement has claimed this, that we may all be one, let's just have one church. Let's just have a visible unity.
Here's the problem revealed in church history. Church history tells us about the problems. Here's one of the problems, every effort to try to come up with the lowest common denominator Christianity and say, "There is the unity of the church." It fails because we need to remember that the unity of the church is not institutional. That's a very important new Testament teaching. It's a very important understanding for us. I mean that we are, we are Baptist. If anybody on planet earth understands that the unity of the church is real, but not institutional it's Baptist.
We believe that unity of the church is seen, first of all, right here in the unity of this local church. This is a church where we're unified in our faith, in our confession, in our service, in our ministry, in our worship, in our covenant. This is why when we have a members meeting, we read the covenant so there's unity. We belong to one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We know there are other faithful Christians outside of Third Avenue Baptist church, just to remind ourselves of that. They're wonderful gospel Christians outside of third avenue, Baptist church, right down the street from us. And, thanks be to God.
We believe that there are Christians in churches that are labeled differently. The key issue for us is not the name of the church, but whether or not the Bible is preached as the word of God. That the gospel is preached in its clarity and purity producing a gospel people. But there's a reason why, and part of this is in the mystery of God's on, omniscience. There's a reason why we're not all the Christians in Louisville. We aren't meeting in one room this morning. That reason is not COVID by the way. There is a theological reason why we're not meeting. It is because we have congregations by conviction that are established and we can know one another and we can experience unity together. This is so much more than the world's idea of unity. They say put everyone in Madison Square Gardens and look at all the people you see. But of course, what you're looking at is a multitude. There is actually no unity, just proximity.
Ecclesiology is based upon unity in Christ, but there's more to it than that. As you look at this, you recognize that the unity is theological and the unity is in the scriptures! "I have given them your word". He said that earlier, but now the context is very tight. "I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they're not of the world just as I am out of the world." So, at least a part of having the word means that the world hates us. Well, that's something helpful to know.
"I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." Very good. Very good. This helps us. In other words, one of the questions in the flow of biblical history is why are we here right now? Why is there time between the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming? What is the purpose of all this time? We're waiting, crying out loud. Jesus answered it. When in the book of Acts, he says, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world." He is Christ, showing his glory in the world, but in the world, he shows his glory is in the church and through the preaching of the gospel. This is, this is the gospel preaching age. There's no other reason for this age. There is no other act of salvation history that remains to take place before the coming of Christ which will consummate all things. We're not waiting for Christ to do anything. When he said it is finish, it is finished.
No, we have a job to do and we'll do it until Jesus comes. But while we're in the world, in the dangers of the world, Jesus prays for the unity of his church. The unity is in truth. This is one the issues of singular importance for us to understand. True Christian unity is unity is always in truth. It's never a unity at the expense of truth. It's never trying to find a lowest common denominator. It's always leaning into the truth together. Now this again, doesn't mean that we believe we're the only Christians. Thanks be to God. It does mean that where there is no obedience to scripture, there is no true Christianity. As we shall see, when we gather together again in verse 17, Jesus actually says, "Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth."
Now we find out that it's by the preaching of the word of God. Now, when we say here, "Your word." We'll speak very clearly Jesus means your revelation. So, it means the entirety of revelation included in that is the word of the gospel. Included in that is the Old Testament included in that is all that God has spoken. Most importantly, what is accessible to us and given to us as the Holy Scripture. So that is what we're looking at here. "Your word is truth." By the word that we're sanctified. Sanctify them. Make the church, those you've given me, before the foundation of the world, wholly in your truth.
That's where we're going to have to end today, but it does point out something else. Why do we study the scripture? Why do Christ's people study the scripture? Why are we drawn to come back to the scripture again? And again and again? Because we love the Bible? Yes. Because God speaks, and how dare we not want to hear what he says? Yes, of course.
But you also have to understand that this is Christ's priestly ministry to his own, through the preaching of the word, to make his people holy. You can put it another way. There is no holiness apart from the word of God. In the knowledge of the word, the constraining power of the word, the indwelling presence, the Holy Spirit confirming the word and applying the word without, without the word of God, there's no holiness.
We need all the holiness we can get, which means we need all the Bible we can get. Those who belong to Christ are those who gather together for the preaching and teaching of the word of God, whose instincts are to turn to God's word. Jesus will say much more in the context of this unprecedented prayer to follow. It has been such a privilege today just to look, not only to this text, but to Ephesians 1 and come to understand the common witness of scripture. We come to the end and we pray with the words of Jesus. "Father sanctify us in the truth for your word is truth." Let's pray, Father, thank you for everything you've given to us. Every syllable of this text and Father, we pray that even now you'll be sanctifying your people. These people, we who are studying your word here at this church. We pray that you will sanctify us and sanctify your entire church in the truth. Your word is, truth to the everlasting glory of your name in Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
March 14, 2021
We're continuing our study in the High Priestly Prayer. And we began with the first five verses when we were together last week. We've seen the Farewell Discourse, as Jesus speaks to his disciples, come to an end. And now we're reaching what, in many ways as the climax of the gospel of John, and what I want us to see is that it's like the final movement of a symphony. It begins to bring in all the previous movements, all the previous musical strains, all the previous theological affirmations in such a way that there's a richness to this, and a beauty to this that is such that this text is singular in the entire canon of scripture. In the entire New Testament, there's nothing like this. There is no lengthy prayer between the Son and the Father in which we see the intimacy, but what we also share in the exchange of both love and truth, that gives us so much of our knowledge of the Christian faith. So as we begin, let's ask the Lord's blessing.
Father, we do pray that you would open our eyes and open our hearts, that we would receive everything you would have for us from just a few verses today in the high priestly prayer of Jesus. And Father, perhaps never having articulated this gratitude in such words, Father, we thank you that you and your Son have shared the intimacy of this prayer with us. Father, thank you for allowing us to hear it, that we may learn from it and never learn all of it. And we pray all of this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
That latter part of my prayer was dependent upon the fact that we are dealing here with a God who's infinite in his perfections as the Father and of the Son. And so there's a sense in which we will never understand this prayer in the way that Jesus and the father understand it, and it's in its infinite truth. But on the other hand, God condescends to us in scripture, and He knows what we need. As Calvin said, it is as if in Scripture, a parent–in this case, God, our heavenly parent–leans down to us softly and speaks kindly, lest we be destroyed. Even in this text, God is bending over graciously, and he's speaking kindly in order that we can understand what He wants us to see here. When we looked at the first verses of the high priestly prayer, we saw this incredible introduction to the inner reality of the Trinity.
Let's just remind ourselves of the words we studied last and verse one, “when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” So here in the opening to this prayer, Jesus speaks about having been with the Father before the world existed and sharing a glory. And this is what’s so important for us to recognize–it was a glory that to some degree He as left, as he obeyed the will of the Father in the incarnation. Paul will speak of this in Philippians 2, where we come to understand that Christ emptied himself–in this sense, that doesn't mean empting himself of deity, but He did empty himself of some glory in order to assume human flesh.
This was indeed a gift of incredible divine love, unspeakable divine love. He speaks of the glory that he had with you with the father before the world existed, and then he spoke with this reciprocity of glory. “I go glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” Then he prays to the Father, “Now glorify me with that glory, which we shared before the creation of the world.” This resets all of history. It's very interesting, and this tells you a great deal about human beings. Even as Christians think of history, we look at Before Christ and After Christ. Of course there's some sense we look at before creation and after creation, but the problem is we know nothing of before creation, and of course, God is eternal, so the timeline is of his own construction. It's not something in which he himself is trapped, but we can't get out of the conception of time, so we'll just allow ourselves to imagine what eternity must be. Not an endless time, but in the realm beyond time in the before and the after. Our permission for doing that is Jesus himself. He speaks of this and then dates it, saying “before the world was created.” But then you look at where we go from here.
In verse six, Christ says, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours, they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” In so many ways, it's not that all of a sudden we found a hidden key for understanding the gospel of John, which is the hidden key for understanding the New Testament, which is the key for understanding the entirety of scripture. It's not that, but it almost feels like that, because what we have here are statements made in the intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son. We are overhearing this, and here at the bottom line, nowhere else in scripture do we know these truths in this clarity. This is not contrary to what we know from other passages of scripture. It's not contrary to what we know from the gospel of John. As a matter of fact, it's like an explosion of truth, amplifying and illuminating what we've already known for the gospel of John, as we shall see about the Son manifesting the Father. But we do have declarative statements here, and it's repetitive. These statements are not isolated. The fact that there are those given by the Father to the Son–again, that's not new in the gospel of John, but it takes on a completely new significance, so much so that Jesus says “I'm not praying for the world. I'm praying for the one you gave me.” Now that's a radical statement. That's a statement that the average Christian, I think, hasn't ever thought about. “Well, in what sense does Jesus pray? Well, he prays for all the world.” And, this incredible night, which is now the hour that has come, and his crucifixion is nigh, Jesus doesn't pray for everybody in the world? He said he prays for those who the Father has given him?
Well, let's look at the words carefully. Verse six, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Before we get the, “to whom,” let's just think about what he said he did. He said he has manifested the father. Now, in one sense, that's a short, wonderful, almost comprehensive definition of the incarnation. What was the incarnation? It was the Son manifesting the Father. But what does it mean to manifest? You know, we use that word. We hear that word. There was a Communist Manifesto. American history–Manifest Destiny. What is manifest? What's a manifestation? Well, what Jesus is saying here is that he has shown us the Father. It's really “to show.” He has shown us the Father, he’s made the Father tangible. “You want to see God, look to me.” But you think about this for a moment, and you recognize, “well, were there manifestations of God prior to the incarnation of Christ?” And the answer is yes, but they were all foreshadowings of what would would come in Jesus. Everything that happened before, from Moses being hidden in the cleft of the rock, to Israel hearing the voice of God speaking, from Moses himself hearing the voice of God speaking from the Bush that was burning, yet not consumed. God spoke through the prophets, and God spoke “through many in various ways,” as the writer of the book of Hebrew says in the introduction to that work, “But in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son.” This is the consummate manifestation. This is not a manifestation, This is the manifestation. This is the absolute culmination. But this is something that John has helped us to understand all throughout his gospel. There are three passages in particular to which I want to look. We'll look backwards here for just a moment. Jesus says, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Look back to John chapter one, back to the prologue itself. The very first chapte–John 1:18.
John tells us in verse 1:18, “no one has ever seen God. The only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” So there's the manifestation in the very prologue, explaining the incarnation. As John is introducing us to Jesus and is telling us who he is, the incarnate Logos through whom the world was created, we are told that no one has seen the Father. No one has seen God in this sense, but here it is the Son, it's the Logos who makes him known. Now if you think of the most incredible development in all human history, it would have to be for God to be made known and to be shown.
This is not just a voice. This is not just a word. This is not just a scripture. This is not just a prophet. This is not just a priest. This is not just a miracle. This is not just a burning bush that is not consumed. This is the incarnate Son. This is God's own son who manifests–He shows the father. And one of the things we see in the logic of the gospel of John is that no one can manifest the Father But the son. That turns out to be the key to New Testament theology. There is no manifestation of the Father without the Son. in the inter- trinitarian life of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is the Father's good will that he be manifested by the Son. Jesus will, in his own comments, make this over and over again. Why has he come? He's come to show us the Father. Does this mean we look to Jesus, we're seeing the father? Well, in, in essence, yes. In other words, you're seeing God. He has made the Father known. And that's just in the prologue, reminding us that many other refrains of the prologue come up here in John chapter 17 in high priestly, prayer, including the issue of truth, as we shall see in just a moment.
That’s John 1:18, let’s look at John 12:45. Beginning, verse 44, we read “and Jesus cried out and said, ‘whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.’” So that's a helpful way to introduce this issue. And in verse 45, “‘and whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I've come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.’” The key there is verse 45, “whoever sees me, sees him who sent me.” So Jesus says this in chapter 12, it was said of him in chapter one. There have been other verses such as in chapter eight, where there are similar kinds of revelations concerning Christ and how he manifests the Father. No one can see the Father, but we can see the Son. No one can show the Father other than the Son, as the Son can, and the Son does, and the Son has. But then look at chapter 14, beginning in verse nine.
Now, when we were just a few weeks ago in John chapter 14, we looked at this passage, but now looking backwards, it takes on an entirely new significance. “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the father, and it is enough for us.’” Verse nine, “Jesus said to him, ‘have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father? And the Father is in me, the words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.’” The point here is that this far into the ministry of Jesus–and this is rather astounding–it's another indication by the way of the truthfulness of the gospels.
CS Lewis, responding to the theological liberalism and high supernaturalism of the early 20th century was responding in the British intellectual life to the fact that there were so many people who were borrowing German higher criticism to come back and say, “well, you know, the new Testament is mythological. The gospels are written as legends.” Lewis, who was a specialist, of course, in legends, he came back and said, “I spent my entire life studying legend. This isn't legend. Legend tells you things about people to pull out a completely orbed, developed character.” And he points out that that's not what the gospels do. The gospels do amazing things. One of the things that CS Lewis noted is that–and again, just thinking of him as a scholar of legend and myth–that’s what he did, especially ancient, medieval English literature. He says, “I know legends. In a legend, you would not have Jesus write in the sand, for instance, in the story of the women caught in adultery. You wouldn't have Jesus with his finger right in the sand and leave it there. If it's legend, it's going to tell you what he wrote in the sand.” This is instead like a frustrating eyewitness account if you're looking at it for legend, because it's frustrating in the sense of what we're not told. We're not told a lot about Jesus. It's the most selective presentation of Jesus.
But Lewis said, “There’s another fact that if you are looking at legend, legend doesn't include corrections. It does include someone in the inner circle being corrected legend. Instead shows this constant growth and awareness, kind of agnostic development.” And here you have of all things in the very passage that we're looking at here, Philip at this point says, “just show us the father,” which is the most astounding thing. Now let's not be haughty, we might not even have been as sharp as Philip. But the point is, this is one of the proofs of the fact that we are actually tracking here in the life and ministry of Jesus, so, honestly, as Lewis said, “I know legend, this isn't legend.” So honestly, that we have Philip revealed this late in the gospel of John to have missed the whole point of the incarnation. Jesus, by the way, doesn't kick him out. But he does speak clearly, “Philip, how can you, how can you say to me, ‘show me the Father?’ If you see me, you see the Father.”
So if you take those passages together from chapter 1, chapter 12 and chapter 14, you come to understand what Jesus has already said to us, but now he's speaking to the Father. He has said to us–and John has helped us to understand by speaking to us–that the Son has shown the Father, that to see the Son is to see the Father. Now, just remember that this is so astounding that we can't let this pass without reflecting on the fact that if you look through the Old Testament, Israel's singularity as God's covenant purpose was repeatedly defined as the fact that they heard God, but did not see him. The great contrast between the reality of the one true and living God and the idols of all the people around Israel is that the idols are mute. The idols don't speak. That's the sign of their futility. But God speaks in a passage like Deuteronomy 30. Israel will be reminded of the time when they stood with their children there at the foot of the mountain, and they heard God's voice speak. And then Moses asked the question, “has any other people heard the voice of the Lord and survived?” Fascinating question. But God's grace and mercy to Israel was to allow Israel to hear him, but not to see him.
Even when you think of Moses asking to see God–and of course, Moses was hidden in the cleft of the rock, and God simply passed by, His spirit passed by. That's quite different than the incarnation. The incarnation is flesh and blood. The incarnation is baby in Bethlehem. The incarnation is boy in Nazareth. The incarnation is Jesus in Galilee, Jesus in Juda, Jesus in Jerusalem–this is incarnation. This is different. This is God showing himself, which is the one thing that in this sense, God did not and would not do except by Jesus. The arrogance of people to say, “God, if you will just show yourself to us.” And it's the arrogance in one sense, and the embarrassing nature of Philip’s question, but how many people around us are saying, “I’d believe in God, if I could just see him?” How many people are actually operating out of the intellectual conceit? “You know, if God's real, then he would show himself to me. And I would believe Philip, ‘it will be enough for us. Lord, if you show us the Father.’” “If I show you the Father? To see me is to see the Father.” But going back to John 17, the high priestly prayer is just an amazing little phrase in which Jesus says, “Mission accomplished. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Now that's something else.
When we speak of the gospel, and we speak of the exclusivity of the gospel, it's an absolutely crucial, biblical New Testament teaching. There's only one way to the Father, and that's by the Son. Only one way by the Son, and that is by the knowledge of him. We would define that as saving faith, but there's also only one people redeemed. Now this is humbling. Maybe for us, it's a bit embarrassing, but it's not just that there's one savior. It's just that there's one church. There's one people. That becomes absolutely crucial in the I priestly prayer–so crucial that what shocks us is not that the text says that Jesus will speak of the church “saying these are mine,” but he makes the distinction himself. “If you're not one of these, you're not mine.” It's hard heard to talk after that. Actually, if all of human history is divided by the incarnation, then all of humanity is actually most fundamentally divided by those who belong to Christ And those who do not.
So the exclusivity of the gospel necessarily comes with the exclusivity of ecclesia. So when you see the ancient principle, “Outside the church, there's no salvation,” well, that's absolutely true, but outside the church, there's no Jesus. I don't think a lot of American evangelicals either know this or want to know this, and that's a shame. That's a weakness. It's an evasiveness on the part of many, because you say, “Well, what about all of humanity? Does God love all of humanity?” Well, in some sense he does, yes. God's benevolence is to all, he causes it to rain on the just and the unjust, and to all to whom he's given the gift of life, there is love that he shows even allowing that gift and in giving the good things of life and the habitation of planet earth, and even the common grace goods of family and marriage, and even the opportunity to work and to be a part of taking dominion.
The one who is not in Christ still receives God's benevolence, but God's redemptive love is demonstrated only to those who are Christ’s. And that's tough. So tough that throughout the recent centuries, groups of historic Christianity have been unable to hold it. Epecially in the 19th 20th centuries with the routine discovery of others–that is those who are other than us who believe differently than we do–a bit of intellectual hesitation came among some Christians to say, “well, how can we say, we're the only people of God? Look at these other people. They have their gods. Surely God must love them too. There must be some sense in which they're included in what the Roman Catholic church would call the ‘economy of salvation.’ Surely they must be included in some way.” And by the way, those, those questions are directly answered in scripture–directly answered. It's not so much that there's only one way. There is only one way, but it is that there is a way. From the Bible's perspective, you don't begin with all these groups who are at different points in a continuum on the race to get to salvation, it's that there is only actually one, one way of salvation. This is the oneness of the incarnation, the oneness of God saving purpose, the oneness of God's will, and there is nothing salvific outside of that will, period, but there has been a compromise, a loss, a theological abdication. In the Protestant world, the Protestant liberalism came along and said, “well, we need to…” and by the way, this will show you how, if you're going to create a theology anything other than biblical, you're gonna make it in your own image. And, The people who are shaping that theology of Protestant liberalism were primarily Europeans and north Americans who said, “It’s a matter of greater and lesser lights.”
Well, of course, they're not going to say Christianity is the lesser light, Christianity is the greater light. “And all these people that we meet with all their belief systems, they still have some light. There may be salvation in that light, but it's not so likely as what will happen in Christianity.” And of course, this is the same time the history of religion school is developing in, in the German universities. It just says, “we're going to look at religion as a phenomena, phenomenology. We're going to say all religion is a thing. It's a human thing, different humans do religion differently. We're going tolook at it and say, ‘well, look at the commonalities.’”
Here's the problem: the closer you look, the fewer commonalities you find, and yet does God love all? well, yes. In some sense, benevolent, yes. But his redemptive love, his mercy, his agape is towards those who are in Christ. But how did we end up in Christ? That’s the other thing, how there's a bluntness and a concision to the way the gospel is defined right here in the high priesty prayer. And again, Jesus and the Father don't have to explain things to one another. Jesus is saying to the father, “Hey, explain this gospel to me once again.” Instead, there's merely affirmation, and what what's called summative affirmation, that is to say is just a summary. This is just Jesus summarizing in his prayer to the Father affirmations that we desperately need to know. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.”
So how do we become Christ’s? This is of course the doctrine of election. You can see that immediately. It is that the Father has given a people to the Son. And when did this happen? Well it happened before the incarnation. As a matter of fact, given the timeline of what Jesus is saying here, it happened before the creation of the world. Before the creation of the world, God had already given. It's not just determined. It's not just what you rightly call election. God had given to the Son people who did not yet exist, a people who did not yet exist and, and notice exactly how Jesus speaks here in verse six, “I manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Well, this is before the world exists. So there's already an “in the world and an out of the world” before there is a world. That is so helpful, and it reminds us of the fact that God's sovereign purpose in salvation, his sovereign purpose in the entire order of all things visible and invisible, is completely consistent.
So who are those who belong to Christ? The ones that father given to him.How do you know who's been given to the Son? By the Father, because they're Christ people. It’s an unbroken form of reasoning here that Jesus simply articulates with the Father, but you'll also notice something else. It says “whom you gave me out of the world.” And again, that's where the world exists, but it makes this clear distinction between the church and the world. This too is something that causes us awkwardness: the fact that there's such a distinction between the church and the world–and that distinction is never more radical than in this prayer. It helps us to understand all the rest of scripture. It helps us to understand the gospel. But this is so radical as to say that the entire purpose for which the cosmos was created was for the gospel of redemption to take place and be accomplished cosmos in a universe, on a planet where God would, in the Son, bring glory to himself, through the redemption of sinners who belong to him because of the Father's grace.
“And they are distinct from the world.” We are distinct from the world. We are out of the world. It doesn't feel like it's helpful for us. It doesn't feel like we're out of the world, but we actually are out of the world. By the way, one of the ways that this prayer helps us to affirm that we're out of the world and what that means is that out of the world, we're completely safe in Jesus. This explains so many of the hymns that we sing, so many of the glad affirmations that we share with one another. Nothing the world can do to us can separate us from the love of Christ. This gets back to the gift to the Son by the Father of his people, and notice what he says in the next phrase. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
My goodness. So they belonged to the father, but the father gives this people to the Son, and the characteristic that is most important of them is, “and they have kept your word,” which means more than anything else believing it. So this gets back to the manifesting. Jesus says to the father, “I have manifested your name to them.” And now he says of those to whom he manifested, “they've kept your word.” So here's another thing about the people who are redeemed because they belong to the Father, and the Father has given us to the Son: we can't be separated from him, and we will keep the faith.
This is true. So true, that it means anyonewho does not keep the faith is not one of those given by the Father to the Son, because the distinctive of the ones given by the Father to the Son is that they keep the faith. They keep the word. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” And so at any point in human history, our eyes may deceive us as to who is in this people and who is in the world, but there's no confusion to the Father or the Son. There's even more in this particular verse. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you." So that now is very interesting. Now at the very end of his ministry as he's coming right up to the accomplishment of atonement by crucifixion to offer himself a sacrific, as a substitute for us.
And speaking of us, he says, “now they know that you have given all this to me.” So the father gives, there's a lot of giving here. The father gives to the son the people. The father, having given the son to his people, the people having received the ministry of the son now come to know that all that they were given in the son is given by the father. Now, you say, “well, I get that. That's good theological logic. It's essential. And thank you that, that's helpful. We appreciate this text that helps to clarify things,” but just remember something else. This is in the context of old Testament expectation. It's in the context of Jewish understanding. And so now we are told that the only way to know the father is the son. And again, all of a sudden incidents from the gospel of John become very clear to us when there's Jewish opposition to Jesus and, and they claim to be the children of Moses. What does Jesus say? Jesus says, “Abraham knew me and believed.” So that means that there are people that belong to the father. The father is given to the son who have been long dead. The book of Hebrews helps to explain this. The book of Romans helps to explain this, just think about Abraham and in Romans chapter four. And we have to come back to this time and time again–we're told that Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. “Justification by faith,” Paul says, “is not a new concept. That’s Genesis. You should have seen it.”
Hebrews 11 helps us to understand that they believed in Christ, but we often say that they had not seen him. But Jesus said Abraham did know him and believed. He made similar statements about Moses. But when you get to this point, you understand just how tight the definitions are now coming. There are no redeemed people outside the people that the father has given to the son. These are redeemed people are identified first of all by how they came to be, and that's by the father's will, but also by what they see. They see the truth and believe. In verse eight–”for I've given them the words that you gave me and they have received them. And they have come to know in truth that I came from you and they believe that you sent me.” So the teaching ministry of Jesus becomes very clear in Jesus's revelation. It's not just in his body. It's not just on the cross. It's not just in the miracles, but it's in the words, these are the words Jesus gave. But how many times did we see in the gospel of John already, where Jesus said, “pay attention to my words. If you love me, then you will receive words. You'll believe my words. You will keep my commandments.” So the son here makes very clear that the words that he has given us are words he receives from the father.
There's nothing else that we would come to understand out of this, the indivisibility the relationship between the father in the son. There’s not a crack in this invisibility. Again, those who are the redeemed people are evident because we believe that the father sent the son. And then in verse nine, this is the verse that is shocking and offensive to so many people. Jesus says, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” Jesus says, “I'm not praying for the world.”
I think that's the way we would have assumed this would go. Jesus, on the brink of the beginning moments of his hour, which includes his crucifixion and what he's doing on behalf of sinful humanity– this is where the average evangelical, I think looking at this would say, “well, Jesus would just pray the world, and say ‘I hope as many of them as possible come to faith in me. I hope that now, finally, they understand why I've come,’” but he doesn't even say that he doesn't even pray for them. Here's where we have to understand something that is absolutely essential to our identity in Christ, and that is that we are only redeemed because Christ is right now, our high priest, we are only redeemed because Christ perfectly fulfills three offices of prophet, and priest, and king. And you often hear many evangelicals say, “I don't need a priest.” Well, yes, you do. We are doomed and lost. We could never begin the Christian life, much less in the Christian life without a priest. There is no Christianity without the priest. There is no gospel without the priest. There is no salvation without the priest. Jesus is our priest. And what does Jesus do as our priest? He pray for us.
He, right now in his session, the Latin word for sitting, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, the father almighty–in his session, he prays for us. He ever intercedes for us. And so even as he prays for us here in John chapter 17, he prays for us right now. We're only alive because Jesus Christ is our high priest. Right now, we're only able to do what we're doing because Jesus is now and forevermore our high priest, our identity in Christ, and our peace with the father is only possible, not only because of what Christ did for us on the cross and what God did and raising him from the dead, but it's only possible because right now we have prophet, priest, and king. We have a great high priest who sympathizes with us, the Scripture says. He prays for us, and the very first time we see that happen is right here in John chapter 17, on the brink of his consummate work of atonement, Jesus says to the father, “I am praying not for the world, but for those you've given me.”
Now that raises another issue. That takes us back to where we were talking about the exclusivity of the gospel and the exclusivity of the church–does the coming of Jesus mean anything good for those who are not in him? Did any good thing come to the world by the incarnation of Christ? And the answer to that is yes. Yes. And the most obvious “yes” is one we don't often think about. And that is the fact that history did not end when the earthly ministry of Jesus ended.
So the very continuation of history and the outworking of God's plan means that there will be billions of people who will have life, who otherwise would never have had life. Does Jesus give anything to the world beyond salvation? And the answer is yes, there are people who have been greatly encouraged, illuminated by Jesus, but the confusion in all of that is that in sinfulness–Jesus is cut down to size. His person and his work are redefined. It is not the worship of Jesus in truth, because that comes only from the inside.
The distinction between the world and the church is never more apparent in answering the question for whom does Christ pray? Period. To whom is Christ priest? Period. It's deeply, deeply humbling. The mercy of God is so clear here. Jesus says, “I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours,” There's the “yours” again. “All mine are yours, and yours are mine. And I am glorified in them. I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world.” What's going to happen in this shift that's coming in this next portion of the high priestly prayer is that Jesus is going to start praying for us concretely. He's going to be praying for us, who we are left in the world. He is not going to be in the world, but we are going to be in the world, and he leaving us recognizes that we we would be like sheep without a shepherd. But actually we were like sheep without a shepherd before Jesus came. And after Jesus came, we're never in the risk of being sheep without a shepherd. Because number one, he is our good shepherd always. But then also, as he said, and he made this very clear just as we were walking up to the high priestly prayer, Jesus actually told his disciples, “it will be better for you when I am not with you, for I will send the Holy Spirit.” And the Holy Spirit, as we saw, will do a work which is absolutely essential for the church.
So we're not being abandoned, but we are being left in the world. And Jesus understood the world. Of course, Jesus understood the world. The world's about to crucify him. “He came into his own,” as we know, from the prologue, “and his own received him not.” There's never more graphic a moment when his own received him not as in when his own demanded, “give us Barabbas,” and cried out, “crucify him,” which they did. Jesus is praying here, first in the intimacy of his relationship with the father, sharing truth about that relationship and about even the entirety of salvation, the otherwise wouldn't know. But Jesus is also here going to be praying for his disciples. And that is where we will turn when we're together again in the next Lord's day. But look at the transition, look at how it happened. “I'm praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you've given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I'm glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.”
Now, what he says in the next few words of verse 11 is, “and I am coming to you. Holy father, keep them in your name, which you've given me that they may be one, even as we are one.” Now it's to that passage that we will turn next week, but you'll notice how this transition comes. Jesus, as he's praying to the father, is no longer praying about the accomplishment of salvation, but the plight of his people left in the world, left in a world of hostility. Jesus said, “if they hated me, they'll hate you. Why do you think that a servant will be greater than his master? They're gonna drive you out of the synagogues. They're gonna hunt you down and they're going to kill you. You'd be safe, but nonetheless the antipathy of the world is real. “ This also reminds us, there's a world. If we're living in a context in which there is no antipathy from the world, there may be a lack of clarity on our part about Christ.
I want to say as we're closing here this morning, all around us in the city of Louisville, people are doing what they do. As we come in this morning, we see people walking dogs and people doing the things many of them are doing on Sunday morning. They saw us come in here and they probably thought, “well, that's what those people do. Religious people going into the church. That's what religious people do.” Yet if they heard what we've just been talking about, they'd be horribly offended. I don't just mean a little bit offended. I mean horribly offended, because we just made the statement that the distinction is between those who are in Christ and those who are in the world. If you're not in Christ, then you are lost. Not only that Christ doesn't even pray for you. We just said it because the word just taught it.
This really is dangerous. It's really true that if we teach the gospel with sufficient clarity, yes, there'll be people who will hear and believe that's the good news, but there's going to be a world that's going to hear us and say, “wait, just a minute. Anyone who will believe such a thing has no place in a democratic free society.” This wasn't an egalitarian, libertarian, personal autonomy inclusivist text. Jesus would say his ministry was none of those things. This gives the church absolutely no justification for pride. For one thing, it's going to be made very clear that we are so weak, that we would be prophetically destroyed by the world, but for the fact that we're protected by Christ, and that no one’s going to be able to take from the son those the father has given him. There's no ground for pride here. It reminds us of the fact that even as the entry into the gospel is personal faith, and even as we tell people about Jesus, knowing that if they believe they will be saved, the reality is that just back before the creation of the world, the identity of that people both in terms of the individuals, but the identity that people together was already established. That's humbling.
So what did you and I contribute to this? Nothing. Does that make our relationship with Christ any less real? No. Does it make it all the more gracious? Yes. Let's pray. Father, we come before you astounded by the fact that even as we are in the name of Christ, praying to you, Christ is always, evermore, everlastingly, without ceasing praying for us. Father, thank you. How we know we need Christ. How we know we need the prayer of Christ before you. We need a priest, father, and you've given us all the priests we need in the son, father. Thank you for allowing us entry into your relationship with the son and the son's love for you in these verses. As we continue, may you open our eyes as that we might see, and father, even as we will never be able to exhaust this text, we dare to pray that we would gain from our reading and knowledge and study this text, everything needful for us, for our sanctification and our salvation until you make us whole in Christ on that day. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
March 7, 2021
Now again, we look to the sermon on the Mount in what we call the Lord's prayer, but we call it the Lord's prayer primarily because the church has referred to it in those terms. it's not referred to as the Lord's prayer in the text, it simply is the Lord's prayer and familiar to us. And you see the fact that most modern translations that have some kind of paragraph identification will put the Lord's prayer on it.
But it is believed that the earliest Christians refer to it as the Lord's prayer, because this was how the Lord taught his disciples to pray. And you'll recall that in the Gospel of Luke, the Lord's prayer comes when Jesus’ disciples come to him and say, ‘John taught his disciples how to pray, teach us also how to pray.’ So you assume that the disciples of John had John's prayer and this is the Lord's prayer, but as you look at it, you recognize that in his earthly incarnation Christ could pray every word of the Lord's prayer, except one portion of it. And that is the forgiveness of sins. He was sinless. That is to say he had no need of that prayer, that one line or phrase in the Lord's prayer reminds us of that. That was his prayer for us, not his own prayer as unto the Father.
But as you look to John chapter 17, it's a very different reality. And we are taken into something like 300 words of prayer between Jesus and the Father, that reveals an intimacy that is unparalleled anywhere in Scripture. It reveals a depth that is greater than anything most Christians imagine when thinking about this text. And it actually presents to us an entire Biblical theology.
And that's a part of what we're going to see and have the joy of seeing together. That is, there is no such prayer as an ordinary prayer between Jesus and the Father. There is no ordinary access to that prayer. This is extraordinary in every way, but it's also in the relationship between the Father and the Son extraordinary in that it is, and could well be called the prayer of obedience of the son. As he is preparing for the ultimate act of obedience to the Father in the Cross.
There are several ways to look at a text like this, and we paused even last week before entering into the High Priestly Prayer, because I believe the best way to study it, first is sequentially. Just taking the texts as we would take another text verse by verse and word by word.
But after that, we'll consider the prayer thematically. And, one of the things we'll look at after we look at the prayer, sequentially, are the gifts that are referenced. Gifts from the Son to the Father, Gifts from the Father to the Son. It's an extraordinary passage. It is also just in terms of theology, proper, the doctrine of God. This text takes us further into the depths of the Trinitarian mystery than any other text of Scripture. And so even though this text, as it is said in the English translation, probably doesn't put over the depths of the Trinity, that's actually what we're looking at. This is the greatest access we have and will ever have in Scripture to the inner Trinitarian relationship between the Father and the Son.
So it as the Lord will bless us, let's look to the text, to Scripture. John 17, verse one, “when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come glorify your son, that the son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Five verses, and I'm struck even just reading it now, how much is here and how impossible it is to plumb the depths of this passage. But let's do our best to follow through what we are overhearing Jesus, pray to the Father.
Now we're told that this was as the Farewell Discourse had come to an end. Jesus' teaching of his disciples has come to an end.
That magnificent didactic passage which was not only didactic in the classical sense, but it was relational. Jesus is speaking to them, they're speaking to him. We have a sense of the dynamism of the farewell discourse and the experience of the disciples with Jesus. But now this is a very different, context.
Jesus had spoken those words, but then he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, and here's where the prayer begins. “Father, the hour has come.” Now, of course, this is one of the most significant phrases in the Gospel of John going all the way back, very, very early in the gospel. As we saw even last week.
When Jesus says ‘my hour has come”, he actually himself likens it unto the delivery of a child. And he does so in two ways, number one, everything's kind of before and after. And, yet once labor has begun, this is a process that has a conclusion. It is a process of urgency. And the woman who's expecting is looking forward to those pains of delivery. Once they begin, then here it is.
And, everything's going to be a before and after for Jesus. Of course, it's more eschatological than that. It's more teleological, there's a good theological word for that. And that it's not just about the birth of a child. It is about the salvation, the atonement that he is to accomplish.
But as hours come, this is why he came. The culmination of pregnancy is the delivery of the baby. The culmination of Christ’s messianic work is the atonement that he will now accomplish. And this sequence is now unfolding. This is a public event. Jesus will be arrested and he will be publicly crucified in Romans chapter three, the apostle Paul will speak of it as God putting Christ forth publicly as a propitiation. So now all the world is going to know all the world is going to see.
But as the prayer begins, he references the father, just as he taught us too, by the way, in what we call the Lord's prayer, “our Father, who is in heaven.” And we tend to kind of rush over that, but we just remind ourselves of the incredible truth that it makes perfect Trinitarian sense for Jesus to pray to the Father as Father. But it is only because Christ gives us the privilege of praying to God, his Father, that we also pray that way.
And so, even as I just began this morning and we naturally begin our prayers, we have no natural right to pray to God as father, It's a gift. Jesus prays by natural right. “Father, the hour’s come,” What will follow then? What makes sense will immediately follow. And you'll notice it's the words “glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.”
Well, this is the hour that's come. The hour of atonement, the hour of arrest, the hour of torture, the hour of crucifixion, the hour of burial, the hour of resurrection.
You know, what word would we use if we were trying theologically to cope with this? What word would we use to say, okay, here's the one word summary of what all that means. But in the radical nature of what is revealed to us here, the one word that describes all of this is probably the one word that we would not have conceived. And it's the word glory.
What is taking place and what will take place even in the immediate future as Jesus is praying this prayer to the father is an exchange of glory. And it turns out that this is in the economy of the Trinity. This is the greatest summation of the obedience of the Son to the Father. It is a mutuality of glory. It is the Son praying to the Father, glorify me that I may glorify you.
Now, here's something, again, we have to keep in mind, we use this language. And I've written a lot about this because it puzzled me as a young Christian to hear this language. And it didn't make sense. If God is infinite in his perfections and the Son shares in the perfections of the Father. And if God is all infinitely righteous, and just, and if he is also unchanging, and in other words, he's not more righteous and less righteous.
And then how can he be glorious and then more glorious? And actually, yeah, biblical theology helps to reveal that because God's intrinsic glory, doesn't change. His godness doesn't change, but the reflection of his glory, the knowledge, the consciousness of his glory amongst his creatures, does change.
And thus the glory of God is never more real and less real, but it is sometimes in creation, more visible and less visible. A part of the task of the church is to make the glory of God more visible. We're not adding glory to God that we can add anything to him, but we are making his glory more visible, more apparent, more known to the world.
But in the inner-Trinitarian relation between the Son and the Father, there's an exchange of glory of just this, I started to say cosmic significance, but that's an understatement. It's a trans cosmic reality. Where it’s said that each glorifies the other.
And it's the glory that will be explained to us later in the New Testament that also fits in the context of all that has come before. It is the glory of the obedience of the Son to the Father. It's not a good, healthy obedience, it's a perfect obedience.
You'll notice the sequence. Father, the hour has come, glorify your son, that the Son may glorify you. There's that exchange. And the son is praying to the father that he be glorified in order that he may glorify the Father. And again, it shows you that there is a, there's an order within the Godhead. And it is the Son who is praying to the Father here.
The words continue and the words get to, again, what in Biblical theology turns out to be pretty astounding. “Father, the hour has come to glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you since you have given him…” speaking of the Son of himself, “...authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”
Alright. So now we have glory and then we have authority. And its authority of a particular nature. It's authority to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Okay. We're two versus in.
Let's think about what we have here. Seeing the exchange of glory. You've seen the intimacy of the prayer. The hour has come.
But then in verse two, we are told that the father has given the son authority over all flesh. Now, before we see how that continues, we use that word so naturally. Authority. We use it to speak of parental authority, or the authority of the state or a Biblical authority. I mean, we speak of authority. We even call them plural. The authorities.
Well just, ‘did you notify the authorities?’ What is an authority? What does that mean? Well, it means one who rightly holds power, who rightly exercises power.
The more traditional use of a phrase like authority would be to someone referring to kings and princes. And, why do they hold power? What kind of power do they hold? It's rightful power. In other words, it's different than if somebody just stands up on the corner and says, I decree this, or I decree that. That's not authority, that's pathetic. Or a child, in the family saying, you know, I decree this, or I decree that, you know. A father looks at him and says, "Sit down." You know, that's a clarification of authority.
And, authority. It's not just power because power can come up here. Power can come up there. Power can be transient. Power can be permanent. Just in terms of earthly, even in the temporal sphere, there's lasting power. There's episodic power.
But authority is vested in power rightfully displayed. And then the question is: why rightful?, who rightful?
And of course in the political sphere, you do have prime ministers, and presidents, and princes, and kings, and queens.
In the church, we speak of the authority of the teaching office. And we understand that that's not an authority that’s ultimate. That's an authority, that’s delegated. It’s an authority in preaching the Word, but it's the word Itself that has the authority. And it's Christ who has the authority and the Church. Every human responsibility is a delegated responsibility. And it's like the Russian dolls, you know, the famous nesting dolls. And you know, eventually, there isn't any authority except the authority of the, author. In other words, the Biblical theology of authority is that the Creator actually owns everything.
BB Warfield, the Presbyterian theologian famous in the early 20th century. He said, "You know, the most basic thing you have to understand about the entire revelation of Scripture is that it begins and ends with God. He owns it in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, it all belongs to him."
Every entity that is not God, exists only because of God, and is totally owned by God and a subservient to God. And not only that as Romans chapter 11 says, it's from him and to him and through him are all things. It's pointed to him. Its origins explained only in God, its ultimate destiny is explained only in God.
The Greek word ἐξουσία is the word for authority. And you have authority of the, as I say, the political nature, you have ultimately the authority of God and that's what's here. God has given Christ authority.
Well authority over whom or over what? Well, again, this goes back to the fact that John begins the gospel by telling us that he's the λογος of creation. So the Father created all that is, through the Son. In Colossians chapter one, the same creation theology will be made clear when we were told that he is over all things, all principalities and powers and everything that exists is under him.
But the Son has received that authority from the Father. Again, we have to be very careful in speaking of the inter-Trinitarian relationships, but we must be careful to come to know and to understand and affirm everything that Scripture tells us. And Scripture tells us that the authority of the Son’s, is a delegated authority from the Father, but it's that full delegated authority from the Father to whom does it extend to? All flesh. All flesh.
This is an astounding statement. And as you think about, again, just reading this text, this just reminds us that right now on planet earth, there is not a human being who is not now and will forever be and has forever been under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son.
We speak of Christ’s authority in the church, and we say, well, Christ has authority over the Church. Now Christ actually has authority over all flesh period. Over, and of course by extension, the entire cosmos, every atom and molecule. And Paul makes that clear. For that matter, the Biblical theologies makes that clear because there is no atom or molecule that is a) finding its origin at anything other than God through the Son, and b) continuing to exist. Even as we are reminded that in him, all things hold together. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together. But coming down to human beings and that's the flesh that is referred to here, this is an explicit reference to humanity.
There is not a human being right now who is not under the authority of Christ. And that means that the distinction are those who know and acknowledge that they are under the authority of Christ and those who do not. Those who obey Christ and those who do not. Those who are gladly, submissively, faithfully, recognizing his lordship and those who deny it, don't know it and there's responsibility in not knowing it, according to Scripture.
But this authority has been given from the Father to the Son over all flesh. But there's a purpose to it “to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” Again, just look at that one phrase. So here we have the Son praying about the exchange of glory that is to take place. He's praying for the Father, to glorify him, that he may glorify the Father, now that his hour has come. And then he explains this with since, so that's the tie in here. He's saying that this is what now makes sense. The hour’s come.
So now, since you have given him authority over all flesh, the next phrase is so important, to give eternal life to all you have given him to give eternal life. Eternal life. Again, we talk about this so often we need to step back and recognize what we're actually saying.
So let's think about biblical theology. Let’s go back to Genesis. God made Adam and he made Eve. And then he speaks to them in Genesis chapter three and his purpose for them and in creation and putting them in the garden. He explains to them, that they forever, under his lordship in the garden, that they forever enjoy everything in the garden. The fruit of every single tree save one.
But then he said, if you eat of this tree the very day you eat of it, you shall die. Now he didn't mean immediately be struck dead. He meant become mortal. You will now become death. As a way, you can almost translate that you will, the moment, the day you eat of that tree, you will become death.
Well, even beginning in John chapter one, we're told that the purpose of the Son is to come and give eternal life. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. He came into his own and his own received him not, but those who as many as received him to them gave the power the children, sons of God.
John chapter six, we have the very same thing, eternal life.
But before we get there, we have John chapter three, the most famous verse you remember from the New Testament. "For God So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him might not perish, but have eternal or everlasting life."
So here's the dichotomy, here's mortality. There's Adam and Eve, they did eat of that tree, and death did enter into them.
And then death becomes the human portion from that moment on. So we are now mortal, and doesn't it show that not only do we have mortality when we stand at the grave, as all of us will, again and again and again, we also have mortality, as the Apostle Paul says, in our bodies.
You know, you don't have to be a very good theologian, you don't have to know much theology to look at your own body and recognize, I'm dying. Now, of course, this is a dawning revelation. Because in the normal cycle of life, as the child grows and enters into adolescence, and then at a young adulthood, things are looking pretty good. Things are looking pretty good.
Generally, you know, you just have growth and growth and growth and growth and growth. I was talking to a father of several children, one of them, a son who's in the seventh grade. And, I saw a picture of him and I said, what happened?
And he said, seven inches just in COVID, boy's grown seven inches in COVID. It's been a very good pandemic for that boy.
You look at that, but then you think, you know, I, as a boy, I can remember growing like that, there's that enormous skeletal and other growth spurt. Things are looking really good. Good until things start looking the other way.
And then you realize I've got mortality everywhere I look. And not only that when my mother died and went to be with the Lord. Just a matter of almost exactly a month ago, people responded. And one of the ways people respond with love and care is to send flowers.
And by the way, there's something kind of natural about that. I mean, here's just a reminder. God loves you. Look what God made for you. Look at this, look at this. And so in the arranges we received, had flowers in it I didn't even know existed. It looked like Disney had created them. Dr. Seuss, oops, can't mention him now, but the amazing flowers, but we're at that stage in our house right now of deciding when we have to part with them because they are dead. They're dying. They're actually dead the moment they were cut off, but just wanted the appearance of life. They don't keep it. And I mentioned the seasons earlier because the seasons are a reminder of mortality as well and comes again and again.
Eternal life is such an astounding statement because those are two words that actually don't go together after Genesis 3, after the curse, after sin. Eternal life requires some kind of cosmic explanation. Then of course, that's what we have. How can we speak of eternal life? How can we even speak of the hope of eternal life? How can we speak to the reality of eternal life? It is because this is why the Son has come.
"For God so Loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. So that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." And that everlasting life explained over and over again. Jesus has spoken about it. Now he's spoken, speaking about it to the Father, but it is to give eternal life to all whom you have given me. Now, this giftedness turns out to be the key to understanding their high priestly prayer of Jesus.
There are gifts the Son gives to the Father. There are gifts that the Father gives to the Son. And by the way, we are one of the gifts. This is amazing. You know, how is it that we are so honored that we are one of the gifts given by the Son to the Father? Only after the Father has given us to him. In the verses that we will read just shortly is going to be explained. Even in terms of separating all of humanity, basically into what turned out to be the two most fundamental groups. Those who are those, that the Father has given to the Son and the world.
That's going to be the language that Jesus uses in this prayer. That's the great division. That's the great separation. Those you have given me and the world. The language about God giving redeemed believers to the Son is so established by now in the gospel of John. Just consider
What we have read and looked at together in John chapter 6. "All the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I, by no means cast out. No one comes to me unless the Father draws him." And so, so it's this, it's this giftedness. And it just reminds us that this is prior to our hearing of the gospel. It's prior to us, it's actually prior to earth. It's just astounding.
Well, as a child, I learned to sing that little song. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong. We are weak, but he is strong. How is it that we belong to Jesus? And you say, well, I can tell you, I came to faith in Christ then. No, no, no. Turns out that we belonged to Jesus before the cosmos was created. So much before that time is an impossible reference point here. But before the world was created, we belonged to Christ. It's astounding. It grounds us. Doesn't it?
I mean, this is where a Biblical theology, based upon what we see here; This breathtaking reality tells us that we can't be severed. We can't be severed from the Father. We can't be severed from Christ because after all we were given by the Father to the Son, before the creation of the entire cosmos.
Before the creation of the world, We were Christ’s. Well, before we knew it, we were Christ’s and this is it: Long after we can know it, We are Christ’s. At my mom's funeral, just a matter of couple weeks ago, I ended it by making reference to the song we sang, He will Hold Me Fast.
My mom had Alzheimer's disease. We lost her inch by inch. And then she died suddenly she'd been in good physical health. Mary and I had spent time with her in January. And, we're very thankful for that, given the virus context. So it was kind of a miracle in itself. We were able to spend that kind of time with her outside there at her facility in Florida. She did not know us. That is hard for son's heart, but she knew we were her people. And she definitely was very glad to be with us. She was at the point where I don't even think she recognized that she didn't really know how to put all the pieces together, but that was all right. The Lord gave us the time with her and then the word took her home.
But that, that song, and it's a contemporary version by Matt Merker that we sing. It's that amazing language, “He shall, or he will hold me fast.” And he holds us fast when we can't hold anything. And it really helps me to think about even Alzheimer's disease, because you know, if I'm holding myself to Christ, I'm in big trouble. I cannot hold myself to Christ in love. I can't, my heart just can't stay constant. I can't stay holding myself to Christ in obedience. I’m just too prone to disobedience and terms of sin conscious and unconscious. Sins of commission and sins of omission. The fact is we do have to pray that prayer, that the Lord taught us daily to pray for the forgiveness of sins. If I have to hold myself to Christ in energy or fervor, it just doesn't work because I don't have that much. Or it comes in spurts. If I have to hold myself to Christ in consciousness, then I'm in big trouble. I can't sleep and I can't get Alzheimer's disease. But if Christ is holding me, then not even Alzheimer's disease can sever me from him. But it's not just the crisis holding me.
It's that God has given me to Christ and nothing can separate me from him. And that's exactly the point that Jesus makes in John chapter 10. So, just look back just a few chapters to John chapter 10 and remember that's exactly what he said.
Let's look at verses 22 and following. Jesus is talking about being the, the good shepherd look in verse 27. "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
So there again is that assurance: we've been given to the Son by the Father and those the Father gives to the Son can never be severed from him. No one can snatch us from his hand.
So the prayer is continuing.
Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And then Jesus says, and this is eternal life that they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
So now we are told that eternal life is a knowledge. Now, of course it is more than that. But Jesus says, this is eternal life. That this is what eternal life is. It is a knowledge. It is that they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Now it's easy for us to say “No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Let's try that and understand this. The entry into this is knowledge.” But no, that's not what the text says. The text says that eternal life is this knowledge. Now there's more to it than that. When you think about heaven and Christ kingdom and the consummation of all things, but the one word that defines that more than anything else is they unmitigated unmediated, immediate knowledge of God, the Father, and of Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.
And this is the biblical theology that follows all the way through the book of Revelation. And the book of Revelation describes the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. And you recall that there is no need for the sun and there is no need for the moon because the Father is as the sun is as the sun. And the Son is as the moon. So we have this direct light. We won't be in a cosmos in which we need a sun or a moon because we have the Father and the Son and the Father and the Son become to us the light. We no longer see through a glass darkly. We will see face-to-face in the sense that is defined by Biblical theology.
We will certainly see the Son face-to-face. The Son shows us the Father. It's an amazing passage. And this sneaks up on us.
This, he says, is eternal life. What do we expect to follow?
A kind of a definition of heaven or a definition of it like that is everlasting. No, it comes down to knowledge that they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ to me, you have sent.
Then in the next verse, verse four, Christ says this. I glorified you on earth. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now Father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Just a few words, it's going to be a stretch, just to think about all of these words. I glorified you on earth. Again, John chapter one tells us of this theology of glory and how it is revealed to us. The Son came in order to glorify the father to bring his glory to earth. Now God's glory was already here, but this is the glory of the son in the midst of creation, the glory of the Logos, the, the very word of creation. This is the glory of the Father's Son. Now humbling himself to take on humanity.
"We have seen his glory; glory as of the only begotten of the Father. They're full of grace and truth." This glory, this visible expression and knowledge of the Father and of the Father's infinite greatness. This is brought to the earth by the Son. He has glorified God. To see Christ to see the Father is to see the glory of the Father.
This glory is all over Christmas. This is when we speak about the glory of Christmas, what is the glory of Christmas? This is the glory of the Son, coming into the world that he had made, in order to reveal what only he can reveal perfectly. And that is the glory of the Father.
And thus, you have angels singing about glory. You have shepherds speaking about glory. You have, you have the most, apparently inglorious people on the planet, talking about the most glorious event imaginable that unto us is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.
But in everything Jesus did in the entirety of his earthly ministry, it was all about glorifying the Father. It was constantly. Sometimes Jesus will say that, but even when Jesus is saying that, that's what it's all about. Everything he did, every miracle he performed, every word that he spoke at every that, that he prayed. It was all about glorifying the Father. And in this consummate mediatorial high priestly prayer, where Jesus speaks of glorifying the Father.
"I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do."
So again, that's defined. So in what way, most importantly, in the relationship between the Son and the Father, did the Son glorify the Father honor on earth? It was by doing his well. By accomplishing his will. And we've also seen this where over and over again, Jesus says the Son has no will except to do the will of the Father in Jesus' earthly ministry.
It was all about the accomplishment, the demonstration of the will of the Father. And now the Son is mentioning this to his Father. And he's saying, I glorified you on earth by accomplishing your will. And now that Jesus’ hour has come, this is the ultimate moment of the accomplishment of the work that you gave me to do.
We speak to the person and the work of Christ. So does Christ. Notice that Christ speaks of the distinction between himself and his work. Now they are united in Christ or united in God's purpose. But, here, we have even Christ speaking about his work. Work that the father gave him to do. It was a work that would end in an hour and the hour has now come in the consummate events of the work that are now to be revealed. "And now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed."
This is going to take a little thinking. We understand the first words here. He's saying, and now Father, this being the case, Father, glorify me. Now when Christ says glorify me, is he praying for what belongs to the Father and not to himself? He's praying here that the Father will, and language is lacking here, we're stretching ourselves for the language. He's praying that the Father will increase his own glory in the Son. In the events that are now to unfold, glorify me.
Well, if the Son’s existence is merely to glorify the Father, and in this reciprocity, he asked the Father to glorify him. It is, as we shall see in subsequent verses, in order that he may then give the Father even greater glory. But there's a sweetness here. And there's a cosmos shaking phrase here. I glorified you on earth. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now Father, glorify in your own presence.
Hmm. Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I was in a conversation with another theologian this week, about some contemporary issues, theology, and we both independently came to the conversation saying that we believed the great derailing of the theology in the church today in so many ways is the failure to ground everything; Every doctrine, every understanding, in creation. That is to say, not that there's nothing before creation. No, that's actually a part of what creation testifies to, even as we have it here. It is to say that the biblical story begins in creation, and thus, everything that's revealed in scripture has to be brought back to creation.
Paul gives us constant examples of how that is to take place. John does in this gospel provides us constant teaching how that is to take place. Jesus again, and again, shows us how that is to take place. But the most important thing about the Doctrine of Creation is that there was something before creation and that creation only takes place because the self existent sovereign God decreed that it should be. But God's story, so to speak, doesn't begin in creation. Our story begins at creation. The story of redemption accomplished begins at creation. But before the world existed, there was the Father and the Son. There was the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the existence and intimacy, which is theirs alone. But at least a part of what we are given a vision of here, a sight of here, is that there is glory, given and received in the Trinity. The old English would say, “In the Godhead.” There is glory, given and received before the world exists.
In the existence they knew only amongst themselves. In the privacy of the Trinity, there was a reciprocity of glory. A part of what Christ forfeited in his humiliation in the incarnation was some of the reciprocity of glory that he had with the father before the incarnation. The two giant ‘before’ and ‘afters’ in biblical theology: we have to think of before and after creation. And then before and after incarnation. Before incarnation, there was a reciprocity of glory in the presence of the Father, the Son knew and has not known in the same way on earth.
Part of what he gave up in his condescension in his incarnation was what he hear prays about. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. That's all we know. This is where we are taken right up to the knowledge of something that is so far surpassing our understanding that we don't know. And we can't know. and we'll never know we will never know all that. It means for Christ to have prayed for the glory that he had with the Father in his presence before the world was created.
All, all we do know is that the glory of the Son now is even greater than it was before. The glory of the Son is now greater due to his accomplishment of all that the Father had given him the obedience and that. In Philippians chapter two, Paul tells us why the Father has given him the name Lord. That every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.
We're only in five verses, and the entire history of the world's been rewritten.
Our understanding of why Jesus came has actually been redefined because we want to say, okay, and this is where we have to end today. But just think about this because this is the way we will tell the story.
As Bible-believing Christians say by grace, if we get to tell the story the way we want to tell the story, it is this. God loved us so much that he sent us Jesus. Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for our sins. God raised him from the dead. Salvation comes to all who believe in him, who believe and repent of sins, salvation comes to them. And we're given the gift of eternal life and we can never re-sever from God. That's the Bible storyline, except it's not. No that’s a part of the Bible’s storyline.
But it's actually put in the Bible storyline as, as kind of a parenthetical statement. The Bible’s real Storyline is the Father and the Son glorifying one another with a greater glory yet to come/ When the Son forfeits some of that glory, the glory he knew with the Father, before the creation of the world, in order to come into the world. But there's an even greater glory in this inter-Trinitarian exchange and transaction of glory after Christ's perfect obedience. And when he ascends to the Father. This high priestly prayer reminds us that, it's all about the fact this greater glory that Christ now knows, is a glory of an enduring priesthood. Of a people who have been given to him by the Father before the world was created.
There's no risk that American Christians, or Christians of any age, when I think particularly of the church in the United States, are going to be shocked to find out that the gospel was a big story, is a big story. The problem is most American Christians have no clue how big a story this is.
But only the very threshold of his obedience to the Father, just five verses in, Jesus has given us an entire cosmology. And by the way, he has reminded us, and this is something that as you're walking on the sidewalks today, as you are seeing people today, regardless of what they're doing; How many of them have any understanding that the Great Before and After is, in this case, before the world was made? That the world is not a self-existing thing. The world constantly is telling us someone made this. There was someone before this. There will be something after this.
How many people recognize that the entire purpose of the cosmos is an exchange of glory between the Father and the Son? And let's admit something else: we wouldn't figure any of this out. We only know this because of the revelation of God in the Bible, but even more importantly, we only know it at this point because this prayer between the Son and the Father. Properly, this prayer of the Son to the Father is made known to us. Otherwise we would never know these things. And we're only five verses in.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
February 28, 2021
We're in John chapter 16. And after we pray, we'll begin in verse 16 of chapter 16, as we are seeing the groundwork laid for the high priestly prayer of Jesus coming in John 17, let's pray.
Father, we're just so thankful that you give us what we need. And, that means sun and sometimes it means rain. And Father, you knew that now we need rain. Thank you for giving it to us. Thank you for watering the earth. How many people throughout history have had to pray in a time of drought for the gift of even a drop of water. Thank you for watering us abundantly. Thank you for giving us your Lord. May we feast on your Word this hour, and we pray your Holy Spirit will apply the Word to our hearts. Even as the Holy Spirit, he inspired John to write this gospel. Father, we pray that all of this will come full circle in increase through us for your glory. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Lord, amen.
The Farewell Discourse of Jesus is ending. And as we have to remind ourselves, this is one conversation. It's one very long conversation and it's not just conversational, in the sense that every once in a while you do see the disciple ask a question, It is didactic. It's pastoral. It's didactic, in the sense that it's teaching. This is Jesus telling them things. It's like a final briefing. It's like a general before an army goes to war. It's a final briefing. Things are about to happen that he's been trying to tell the Disciples now for what we might say is three years. You look at the gospel of John and, and you look in the very beginning until now. How many times has Jesus spoken about his hour that's coming? Now sometimes he says it negatively. My hour is not yet come.
And so if his hour is not yet come, then his hour is coming. And of course, then what is his hour? Well, it's the culmination of his earthly ministry, but it isn't come yet. His hour has not yet come, but it's coming, it's coming. It is not at all clear that the disciples had any sense of a timetable and of any quickening of that timetable. And of any immanence of this hour that is coming. Furthermore, Jesus has told them things that will make sense in retrospect. And they only make sense to us because we've read the gospel of John and we know these things and the disciples don't. We're going into a passage right now in which the disciples at one level seem to understand what Jesus means. And yet they still don't seem to understand his timetable.
Now he has told them that one of them will betray him. This is back in chapter 13 and, and he has spoken to those issues happening. But here in John chapter 16, where we had just seen Jesus speak the gift to the Holy Spirit last week, we were in that amazing passage earlier in this chapter where Jesus says it is better for you, that I go for I am sending the helper. So we're looking at, in salvation history, one of these great hinge moments, it's like salvation history is a symphony and, and there's a climactic movement coming, but we're right in the central movement, that is the hinge in which everything turns the incarnation of the Lord, Jesus Christ, his accomplished mission. And, and then there's another age coming, the age of the church when Jesus will ascend to the Father, he will leave the disciples, but the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send and he will send will be with us. As you look to verse 16, Jesus says a little while, and you will see me no longer and again, a little while, and you will see me. So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this? He says to us a little while, and you will not see me and again, a little while, and you will see me and because I'm going to the Father. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about.
The joy of having children, little, little children, preschool children, children, just learning to talk and minds just soaking everything up. The joy of that is that they ask the questions they want to ask. And you say something and they don't understand it, they’ll say something like that. Grandchildren turn out to do the same. And Benjamin and Henry, Benjamin's five, Henry's two. We were FaceTiming with them while we were in Florida for my mother's funeral. They had been in Florida with us earlier in the month of January. And we're just FaceTiming. And it came up that we were in Florida and Benjamin just said, what'd you mean you were in Florida? Like, it can't be, you were just in Florida, you weren't in Florida anymore. How can you be back in Florida? This doesn't make any sense. What do you mean you're in Florida?
Well, this is like the disciple saying what'd you mean this little while? What does he mean? A little while I won't be with you and then a little while I'll be with you. What's he mean now? The amazing thing is that this has been said before in chapter 13. In chapter 13, verse 33, Jesus said to them a little while, and I will not be with you. And then in a little while you will see me and it's this little while see me, little while not see me. And the interesting again, is that the disciples asking the question is actually in the text.
So they went on and spoke. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he's talking about. So again, very honest, the disciples don't know what he's talking about. And you want to look there at chapter 16 and say, how can you not know what he's talking about? But then again, just humbly realize we would be in the same position as they are, because we only know what Jesus is talking about because we know the rest of the story. In verse 19 we’re told Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. So he said to them, “Is this what you were asking yourselves? What I meant by saying ‘a little while, and you will not see me and again a little while, and you will see me’ truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow. Her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy, that a human being has been born into the world. So also you will, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. And your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. And that day you'll ask nothing of me, truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you've asked nothing in my name asking, you'll receive that your joy may be full.” So Jesus knows in himself what they're asking. You see the same thing in John chapter six, Jesus knows what they're thinking.
And so he speaks right into their thinking. He knows what they're asking. And so he even repeats himself. I know this is what you're asking about, but then he doesn't exactly answer it. Not, immediately. It's kind of like going up to a child and saying, I know this is what you're asking about. Well, let me tell you about this and Jesus uses the example of a woman in childbirth. But even as he's speaking to them, beginning in verse 19, he says, this is it. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. But even as you weep and lament, the world will rejoice.
So when Jesus is tried and when he is crucified, he says the world's gonna rejoice. And he means by that, of course, the powers that be. The powers of evil, he means those who will seek to take his life. He means those who believe that their political and social power will be protected, if Jesus is gone, those who hate him. And as Jesus has said, hating him will hate his disciples. They will rejoice in his death. And, and we see that. This is done. We put him out of the way, but he says, even as the world will rejoice and you're filled with sorrow, you will be filled with joy. And that's just made very clear. And he refers to what is going to happen and his hour. And he even uses that expression. He, when her hour has come. Now, all of a sudden doesn't that clarify everything.
Doesn’t that clarify everything? A baby is coming. A woman knows the baby is coming. And yet the process of labor is the hour that’s it. Her hour will come. And when it comes, there's anguish. Anguish in that process goes back to Genesis three. But the mother doesn't remember the anguish when she's holding the baby. And Jesus speaks of his own atoning sacrifice. In those very terms, it's going to be like childbirth. When his hour comes will be anguish, but as the scripture says, joy is coming in the morning. Now, again, they can understand part of this, maybe. They don't appear to understand much of it. Jesus went on also to continue something of the theme of what it will mean that he is no longer with them. And this is what you really find in the agency in prayer, that Jesus mentions in verse 23 and following.
“In that day you'll ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give to you. Until now you've asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you'll receive, that your joy may be full.” Now, those are just two little verses, and generally they're read the wrong way and prosperity theologians or someone saying, well, there's Jesus. Just saying, if you ask him my name, the Father's gonna give it to you. No, there's something earth shatteringly swinging like on a hinge here. Have you, you noticed that no one has invoked the name of Jesus in prayer, until now. We pray in Jesus’ name. We think nothing of it, because we're taught to do that. But how is it that we pray in Jesus' name? On what authority do we pray in Jesus' name? If you look at all the prayers in the old Testament, the prayer’s to the Father.
If you look at the prayers Jesus has prayed, they are prayers to the Father. As you think about how the Jewish people have been trained to pray, they would've considered it idolatry and the breaking of two commandments to pray to anyone other than the Father. But we pray naturally, we're authorized to pray. We pray rightly. Orthodoxly. We pray properly by praying in Jesus’ name. How, why, and on what authority? Well, first of all, on Jesus' authority. And as we shall see, by Jesus's authority made manifest in the practice of the apostles in the early church. But the huge question is why and how? How does that happen? Why does it matter? Why do we not just pray to the Father? Why do we pray to the Father in Jesus' name? And, and why do we not pray to Jesus in the sense of just crying out to Jesus and relegating the Father to a secondary role. It is because this is a Trinitarian theology that's being revealed to us, and it is spectacular.
The Son, in obedience to the Father, fulfilling all that the Father commands. Obedient as the apostle Paul will say in Philippians two “even unto death.” He who the Father will raise from the dead. He whom the Father will give the name, Lord, the name that is above all names, the name to which every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The trinitarian shape of Christian theology comes down to the fact that our prayer is now prayer to the Father through Jesus. This is what theologians rightly have called the session of Christ. And it is precious. He has sat down at the right hand of God, the Father almighty, and, and there he is our mediator, the sole mediator between God and man, and he mediates our prayer. So he intercedes for us before the Father.
He ever intercedes. We don't pray to Jesus as if the Father is absent. We pray to the Father through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. That's the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer. We pray to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit and Jesus here, astoundingly says, you've never asked anything in my name, but now you're authorized to do so. Now when Jesus is speaking now, does it mean right then that second? Well in one sense, perhaps. But what he's really speaking about is now of the age in which he will be absent from the Church, but he will not be absent. He'll be seated. That's the session, the Latin session seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty there, he is our priest and we need desperately a priest. It's not that we don't have a priest.
It's that we have one priest, the all sufficient priest, the priest of priests who sits at the right hand of God, the Father. Now, is he a priest? Is he a priest to try to intercede against the merciful will of the Father? No, he is here to intercede for us to make pleadings for us to, to mediate fallen, and now redeemed humanity to the Father. And this is the thing, we need a mediator, not just on the cross. We need a mediator seated at the right hand of the Father. And we have that mediator. What Jesus is saying here is not prosperity theology. You ask anything in my name and the Father will do it for you as for a, what was it, controversy, early in COVID a 17 million private? No, it was more than that, like 70 million private jet, one prosperity preacher. That is not what Jesus is talking about. Instead, what he's talking about is much more spectacular.
One of the big questions that was always on the Jewish mind, and this is something else we sometimes don't think about, but you'll see this in some popular piety. If you're talking to people about prayer, pastors, talking to people about prayer. Just common parlance about prayer, the assumption of many people, and this was, this was just in the warp and woof of Judaism. And you can understand why the assumption was that prayer would have its variability in two things. Number one, the relative status of the one praying to pray, and then the relative disposition of God to the prayer. So you can see in conventional wisdom, why that would, you know, will my prayer be answered? Well, it depends on how righteous I am when I pray, right? I mean that just, just fallen into gross sin. Maybe that's not the best time to pray, in conventional theology.
And then will God answer the prayer? Well, maybe it depends on whether he's inclined towards mercy or wrath or indifference or who knows. By the way, you can see why that conventional wisdom theology develops. And in every popular piety, there's this kind of conventional theology, because as you look at the Old Testament in prayer, it appears God sometimes answers prayer. Sometimes he takes a long time to answer prayer. Sometimes he says no, and yes, some of the people who are praying, the very agency of their prayer is tainted by something in their lives. That is not our primary concern in the Christian Church, we pray and the power of our prayer is guaranteed by the power of Christ.
And I can remember as a little boy as a very little boy, I don't know, maybe 8, 9, 10 years old, you know, just when a child on the, you know, the cusp of adolescence is beginning to think about thinking and that critical thinking begins to enter. And I began to wonder how might prayers could possibly measure up and how I could even remember to pray for all the things I need to pray for. I mean, then, and now I find that I can't keep everything that I even wanna pray about in my mind. You'll pray, and then you think, oh, I should have prayed for this person. Or I should have thought about that. I had this test coming up or dealing with this situation or that person's sick. Now, this is not an argument for laziness in prayer, or isn’t certainly indifference. It's just to say that our prayer is not our achievement.
It's all Jesus. And it's not about God's relative disposition because God's disposition to his Son is always favored, that's it. So we don't really have to worry about his disposition to us. Like in the Old Testament, people may have worried. Because the issue now is God's disposition towards his Son in whom we are, whose mediator is that Son. So the big thing here is that you're really looking at the Lordship of Christ before that language is being used. As Jesus is speaking as the mediator, he will be seated at the right hand of the Father, but he's speaking here about what's going to happen. He's trying to tell the disciples so that they're ready. And those two verses about prayer, which are far more astounding than maybe they appear at first, are interjected here. But then Jesus goes back to the little while in verse 25, he says, I have said these things to you in figures of speech. Now that's a good translation of the Greek. And maybe it's a good time for us just to think about figures of speech. Figures of speech is not trick language it's any kind of parable, any kind of metaphor, any kind of language that is just to use the word figurative.
You can't help using figurative language in a certain sense. And, and by the way, in every language you're learning a new language, figurative speech is the hardest speech. It just is. I can still remember reading the book, The Curious Case of the Dog at Midnight. I think it's the title. How many of you read that? It's actually a stupendously well written little novel. And the boy at the center of the story is autistic in a classic sense, but he's high, a very intelligent high operational, on the spectrum, we now call it. and, the father loves him. He has a single father who takes care of him. The father loves him. The father understands him. The father can get quite exasperated with him, but one of the points being made, and the author of the book is autistic, so he is writing from inside the experience. And he writes about the fact that figures of speech are generally lost on someone on the spectrum like that. So he says something like, you know, ‘that man's as big as a barn.’ And he would say to his father, ‘That is a lie.
He is not as big as a barn.’ It's just that those things you go, ‘he's smart as a tack.’ What does that mean? Figures of speech require abstract thinking. It requires the ability to leave where you are and think about that and make the connection from that back to where you are. And that's a part of what is a challenge for some people, but actually is a challenge for all of us. If you don't know the inside code. So if you're among the French speaking French, if you're among the German speaking Germans, and they use a figure of speech, you're doomed, hopefully you're not ordering dinner or getting directions. Figures of speech are very difficult. So have some sympathy for the Disciples. Jesus has a strategy, and that's what he talks about. He says,I have said these things to you in figures of speech, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
There was teaching that came after the resurrection. We have some of it in the New Testament. We have some of it. We have of course the entire apostolic testimony. The point is that after the accomplishment of Christ's earthly ministry, there will be things we can know that we can't know before. It simply can't be. And Jesus acknowledges that he's spoken to them in figures of speech. The time is coming when he will no longer do so. In that day, you will ask in my name. And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. And now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. Now this goes back to those two verses in the earlier paragraph about prayer. And Jesus himself says, not that the Father is reluctant. It's just that, now you ask in my name and the Father's disposition to you is his disposition to me because you believed in me and you are now in me as the New Testament will teach us. The Father himself loves you because you've loved me and have believed that I have come from God.
But then he says, I'm leaving the world and going to the Father. Now that is not a figure speech. That is plain language. The Disciples are being told that he is going to leave them and go to the Father. His Disciples said, this is verse 29. “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things or do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God. Jesus, answer them, Do you now believe?” now on the one hand, there's just a human drama we're witnesses of here. And a part of the human drama is the disciple saying, we don't understand. And Jesus saying, you will understand.
And then the human drama, the disciples saying, oh, now we understand. And Jesus saying, not, really, you understand more, but it's clear they don't really yet understand. And again, they can't yet understand because these events have not yet happened. But it is so sweet that the Holy Spirit knew we needed this kind of testimony. Even the give and take between Jesus and the disciples. Now we know that you know all things. Well, when we say now we know that you know all things. One of the questions that was being asked continually, evidently on their minds, and again, Jesus answered this. You go back to John chapter seven where Jesus says my hour’s not yet come. I mean, so early in the earthly ministry of Jesus, when you're talking about a messianic fulfillment, you're talking about the atonement that Christ will accomplish.
You're talking about God's great purpose and the entire flow of biblical history. The when becomes a really huge question, when? And Jesus tells them, well, you will know more, many of these things you'll understand in retrospect, more or less Jesus in verse 31 addresses them. “Do you now believe?” It's a strange question. As a matter of fact, we need to think about this for a minute. They just said to him, we believe, we now know, you know, all things, ‘do you now believe?,” this is a scary question. If we're honest, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Very honest plea in Scripture. What does it mean that Jesus, at this point, turns to his Disciples and says, but do you believe? They just affirmed to believing him. John chapter six, you'll recall. Jesus asked them that very question. When he says, “Do you also want to go away?”
And that's when Peter answered so beautifully “Lord to whom will we go?” You have the words of eternal life and beyond that we have come to know that you are the holy one from God. But Jesus here just as he is about to be betrayed, asks them, do you believe? And then he gives them this word of warning. And it's like, we're back in chapter 15, “behold, the hour is coming, Indeed, it has come when you'll be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone, yet I'm not alone for the Father is with me.
Back in the prophet, Zechariah. The prophet Zechariah chapter 13, verse seven, “Awake oh, sword against my shepherd against the man who stands next to me, declare the Lord of host. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” It certainly appears that Jesus has that text in mind. As you strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered and Jesus picking up on that language with himself as the good shepherd, as he's already said, the good Shepherd's telling you sheep, I will be stricken and you will be scattered. He says each to his own home. And of course there's an immediate proximity to this. And that's after the betrayal of Jesus, as the disciples are scattered. They're no longer with him. Of course, Peter will deny him. They are scattered. And though just think about this, think of the incredible unity that is being expressed right now in this text.
And with Jesus, with them in this farewell discourse, he is sharing with them the most intimate, urgent, revelatory truths that they will need for when he is no longer with them. And even they're going to need more urgency urgently as the days are unfolding and the hours are unfolding with his arrest, and prosecution and trial, crucifixion and burial, even the resurrection, all these things, they're gonna need everything they can get from Jesus and their unity with him is so sweet. Now we see what you're talking about. Now we believe. We know, you know, all things and Jesus says, good enough, but you're about to be scattered. You know, there's something else here, just a little footnote. That's kind of interesting. We're talking about Judean and Galilean fisherman, tax collectors, well, not now, but, common people. They were expected to know the Bible. They had been going to the synagogue where the word of God had been read and had been read and had been read and had been read. It's just really, really interesting for us to, at the fact that Jesus could mention a text like this, which we know echoes the prophet Zecharia chapter 13, verse seven. And it anticipated that they, and we would, would, would catch that reference. This is what it means. If you strike the shepherd and the sheep are scattered. But Jesus doesn't conclude there.
“You'll be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone. Yet, I am not alone for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
So Jesus here is concluding this farewell discourse and he does so by saying that I have given you these words, that in me, you may have peace. And this is where Christians are left. Christians are left with knowing that we are safe in Christ. Christ has given us all that we need to know. And what we don't know is safe in Christ. We can be scattered like sheep because the shepherd has been, but the shepherd will be resurrected. We can, we, we, we can be chased off. We can be persecuted by the world, which will hate us because the world hated him first. But it's all right, because we are his. The final words here are take heart, I have overcome the world. This is what's called a prolepsis. This is the future being declared. And the reason why Jesus can do this is because he is indeed the Son of the Father.
He is the one who will be given the title of Lord. He can say, because he is the Father's Son, that this has happened as if it has happened. It's just the same thing that you see in, in Romans chapter eight, where in the order of salutis, the order of salvation, it says we have been, and then it says, glorified. Well, we haven't been glorified yet, but the point is in Christ, it's already accomplished so that we will be glorified. There's not a question as to whether we would be glorified. We don't experience that glorification in this life, but we can already say that even as we have been predestined and we've been sanctified and justified, we can also say we have been glorified because it will happen because Christ has already accomplished all that is necessary for it. Similarly, he can say here to the Disciples, I have overcome the world. Now the world is about to arrest him. The world is about to try him. The world is about flog him and humiliate him. The world is about to kill him in the most excruciatingly, public humiliating, agonizing tortuous, form of death in crucifixion. But the world is about to discover that he has overcome the world.
We're now at that break between the end of the farewell discourse and the beginning of the high priestly prayer. I don't want to rush into the high priestly prayer of Jesus at this point, because I just want us to rest in where we are with this farewell discourse coming to an end. We also, I think, just in terms of our opportunity to learn, need to take the break here, because we need to keep in mind that the Disciples were very much a part of the conversation in the farewell discourse. They were listening to Jesus speak to them. They did not hear Jesus pray the prayer we know as the high priestly prayer beginning in verse, one of chapter 17, the Holy Spirit gives that through John to us, but they were not a part of this. The farewell discourse marks the last word of the last teaching of Christ before his arrest and crucifixion. There will be some teaching in the time that he was with them after the resurrection, before the ascension, but this ends, most of the teaching that Christ will give the disciples and the intimacy of that remarkable period of time for about three years in his earthly ministry, when he chose them, he called them, he taught them, corrected them. And through the testimony of Scripture teaches us as well.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
February 21, 2021
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
January 31, 2021
< br/>
You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
November 15, 2020
It was wonderful to see you this morning and wonderful to be able to turn to God's Word together, and we're continuing through our study in the Gospel of John. We're in John 15, and we are in the farewell discourse of Jesus and thus issues are intensifying, and we are also in, as we shall see, a passage of scripture in which Jesus is giving what amounts to a final briefing to his disciples. And we have the honor by the Holy Spirit of observing this. Over hearing it. Let's pray.
Father, we're just so thankful that you give us the opportunity to hear these words even as the disciples heard these words from Jesus. And Father, this means that you intended these words for us, even as Jesus intended these words for his disciples, and may they have the same effect on us as they had upon the disciples. May we receive these words with great joy because we receive your word with great joy. And may we live it faithfully. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
So when we were together last, we worked our way to John chapter 15, verse 11, and you'll recall that in verse 11, Jesus said, “these things I spoke to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” Now, one of the challenges we face in John chapter 15 in this farewell discourse is that it is the Farewell Discourse. It is Jesus knowing that in a very short amount of time, he is going to be arrested and taken away from his disciples. Before his crucifixion these will be the final words. Now what we have are three chapters here, John chapter 15, which we will conclude shortly. John chapter 16 coming, and then of course the high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. But that last part is the prayer between Jesus and the Father and the disciples were not a part of that.
So the time with the disciples is getting very short. The intensity is very high. We're at a fever pitch. This is the greatest tension in the drama of what's taking place in the life and ministry of Jesus as he has headed for the cross. And thus, the words that he's speaking take on a particular poignancy. Now there's something else that takes place in this farewell discourse, and that is that all of this belongs together, but it is not just a matter of Jesus going through an outline. It's not like if you've ever been on a cruise ship and you have a briefing of what to do, if you have to go to the lifeboats and on every cruise, you've got to do this. You've got to go through the drill. It's an international maritime rule. And so when you're on the cruise ship, eventually like the second morning, you've got to meet out at your life boat posts and you have to put on the vest and you have to listen to what's being told.
And, and yet, you know, it's a beautiful sunny day. You're in the Caribbean, you're in the Mediterranean. No, one's thinking about the boat sinking. The Titanic's long in the past. And you know, you really do need to know this, but you really want it to be over. And it doesn't go too long, and besides that, the people doing it are reading off of a clipboard so that they can check off everything that they've done. I think of that when I see airline pilots doing this, when I get on an airplane. I look back in the cockpit, looking for a little reassurance that somebody in there looks like he's not 14, and that has some competence to fly this plane. And generally they're going through a checklist. And I'm just thinking,” you know, if I did that two or three times a day, I might get a little careless. I'm hoping you don't.”
This is not a checklist in the sense that it's just going through a sequential order. Jesus here, the authenticity of the conversation, this discourse Jesus is having with his disciples, a part of the authenticity is how Jesus goes back to an issue and circles back and will say, “this is why I told you.” Now in looking at that, I have to say that I look at this passage differently as both a father and a grandfather than I probably would have looked at this passage at an earlier point of life, or as a teacher, I look at this differently. And it's because when you are communicating the most massively important matters to people, you're also reading them. And you're looking at their faces. That's one of the reasons why, and you have all these teachers saying that even in person, education is much more difficult because with these children wearing masks, it's much harder to see, “do I have their attention? Do I not? What's going through their minds? Is anything going through their minds?” You know, just the act of watching as one as communicating. And so what happens here is as we come to the passage that begins in John chapter 15, verse 12 is that Jesus is actually repeating much of what he said, but he adds something.
So as we saw the last verse was “these things I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” And remember, Jesus has told them, he's getting ready to leave them in a little while. “You will not see me.” But now he says in verse 12, “this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: Then someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I commanded you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another.”
That's a very tight passage. And there are about four huge issues here each of which you could say would be deserving of a book unto itself, but because of the context and the fact that this is a temporal tension, the time is running out. Jesus gives the disciples these truths. And he does so in such a way that he obviously is not saying everything that he might say about them, but some of these things he's spoken of before. So for example, in verse 12, when he begins by saying, “this is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you,” this is the same Jesus who said, “if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.” If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And we saw the fact that this is not only the fact that Jesus has commandments, this is Old Testament biblical theology coming alive in the New Testament. Only God may give commandments. And so this is a clear assertion of the deity of Christ, as he is here speaking to his disciples, and he doesn't give them maxims and principles and rules and regulations, he gives them commandments. And that is as God the Father gave the commandments to Moses. And we know most famously is the 10 Commandments,
But what commandments has Jesus given? When we looked earlier, John 14 and 15, that Jesus has commandment, we saw that he'd given many. We think of the Great Commission, just to give an obvious one. But there are actually something like 400 commandments that Jesus gives, and they're not given in the same spirit of the law, they are instead indeed principles that he has commanded. They are attitudinal. They’re action. But he gets right to the heart. “This is my commandment.” So this is the summary. If you say,” this is the law.” If you have an attorney making a case before a jury or a lawyer making a case for the oral arguments before the United States Supreme court. And, there are two senses in which that lawyer may make reference to the law. He may make specific reference, as he may say, “as in US criminal code, you know, section two, paragraph three,” you know, he may make specific reference as to whether or not that law is actually in play in this. But even more often before the Supreme Court, you will hear attorneys make reference to “the law” as one body. As making basically one argument: it is the rule of law. And so you say, “as the law teaches us. As the law constrains us.” And the same thing is true in the Bible. You need to say, “well, this is the law of God.” Well, God gave laws and God gave commandments, but you can speak of the law and say, there's a distinction between the law and the gospel. Which law do you mean? You mean all of it. The body of the law. And that's exactly what Jesus is doing here.
He says, “I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, everything I've taught you comes down to. It's not that I haven't given you other commandments. I've given you other commandments, but I mean,” and by the way, some of Jesus' commandments are attitudinal, “such as ``fear not,” but you'll notice here he says, “this is THE commandment.” In other words, you're going to summarize everything here. Now in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus summarizes all of the Old Testament law, the law and the prophets, when he was asked, “what is the most important of the commandments?” And he says that “you should love the Lord, your God with all your heart and soul and mind” going back to Deuteronomy. But then he goes to Leviticus and he says, the second is likened to it, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands, hang all of the law and the profits.” So everything comes down to this, but now Jesus speaks of his own commandments. And he says, “it all comes down to this. My commandments, come down to this, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” Now, that's one of the sentences that rings in our ears with such familiarity. “You shall love one another as I have loved you,” because we know It's familiar to us and John will come back to this in his epistles, but what are we to do with this right now?
Well, we're to read it as an entire sentence. And that's where it gets dangerous, because he doesn't just say “you shall love one another.” The Bible has already told us that. His commandment is that we love one another as he has loved us. Now, things get dangerous.
This is a command that's far more revolutionary than we dare teach our children in Sunday School When they first learned it. If we say that Christ's commandment is that we love one another. Well, and that seems almost axiomatic, but Jesus taught us that we are to love one another. I think that is just about the second or third Bible verse I learned as a child. And God is love was the first. And then you just, you just think about the outworking of this. God loved us first now we're to love one another. What are the limitations upon loving one another? That's the key question. And the disciples were always concerned with what is the limitation upon this command? And look sometimes I can remember as a teenager, seeing the, you know, the disciples asked how many times must I forgive and you know, the answer to that's coming, and it's just embarrassing that the disciples would ask it. You know, you're going to look bad asking this question. Don't ask. And it's like, you know, you're 14, you're reading the Bible. And you think maybe if I opened the Bible next time they won't ask that stupid question. Oh, yes, they do.
But actually, it's a question that is necessary for us to ask. What is the extent of how we're to love one another? This could be very costly. It could be very inconvenient. So Jesus puts the restriction on it here. “This is my commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you. Well, it turns out there's no restriction on it. Jesus has loved us infinitely. And as the New Testament tells us, he loved us until the end. And, of course, he died for us.
So what Jesus is saying here is “I've got good news and bad news.” I've got good news: “The most important summary of all that I've taught you is this: You are to love one, one another.”
Here's the bad news: “As I have loved you.” So this is a manifesto for the Christian Church. The kind of love that should be present in the Christian Church is the kind of love in which believers love one another, as Christ has loved us. Now, we are incapable of loving, as faithfully, as Christ loved us. We are incapable of loving, as infinitely, as Christ loved us. But we are to love as intentionally. And as genuinely as Christ has loved us.
The disciples are about to be absent from Christ. They are going to face the hatred of the world. That has been made clear. Jesus is now going to make it far more clear in the passage that follows, the paragraph of our concern this morning. Jesus is going to tell them the world hates you. The world doesn't dislike you. The world's not irritated by you. The world hates you because the world hates it's me. But we are not there yet. But preparing them to hear of this message of the world's hatred, he reminds them it is to be contrasted with the picture of their love for one another.
And so just think of two different spheres. And we don't know about that second one yet, except we do. We know it's coming, the world's going to hate us, but in the church we find love. And as Christians, we've got to settle for that. As Christians, we have to understand that the repudiation of the gospel is to get those two spheres reversed: To live so that the world will love us, but the church may hate us.
And Jesus will be very clear. You're not going to be able to earn the love of both the church and the world. And that's a devastating realization. I think one of the greatest temptations to Christians is to want to be loved by both the church and the world. But in the end, that will turn out to be impossible.
So the first big thing for us to see here is the command of Christ and the lack of any limitation upon this: The example of his own love for the disciples as how the Christian is to love other fellow believers. The passage continues: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” So again, Jesus is calling us as friends. It's very sweet. He's about to make that clear what he's saying, but you'll notice that even as Jesus said “this is my command to that you love one another as I have loved you” and “greater love has no man would that he lay down his life for his friends.”
So it's not like we have to imagine where Jesus is going with this, because Jesus tells us explicitly the very next sentence. Jesus says, “oh, and by the way, I've told you that you're to love one another as I have loved you. And the love that I love you is taking me to the cross for you.” And there is no greater love.
So that's bracing. We are to love one another even unto death. Jesus says “you are my friends. If you do what I command you.” And he said that already. In at least two different sessions when we've been together, we've been looking at paragraphs from either the farewell discourse or the passage just before the farewell discourse. And we've seen Jesus say over and over again, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. He comes back to it this time. He says, “you are my friends if you do what I command you. Now that's the same thing. No, it's not. No, it's not the same thing at all.
If you look at the Old Testament and imagine Moses at Sinai. And imagine all the children of Israel gathered there--Sinai is often referred to as Mount Horeb--and you'll recall the theatrical of the occasion. The children of Israel and even their animals were told not to approach the mountain less they touch it and die. And the mountain itself is trembling with an earthquake. And it is surrounded by clouds and out of the clouds comes fire, and out of the clouds and the fire comes the very audible voice of God. And God spoke to the children of Israel and Moses will remind them they heard his voice. And then Moses is uniquely called upon the mountain where he goes to be with the Lord. And he comes down with the tablets. To actually follow through the passage closely, he comes down with the law, and another time he comes down with the tablets, it's kind of in our imagination, we put it together.
But nonetheless, the point is, God does not refer to Israel as his friend. He's commanding them because they are his subjects. They're his chosen people. They're his elect people, his elect nation. Yes, but he does not refer to them as his friends. You know, as a matter of fact in the Deuteronomic formula, it comes down to “I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse. So choose life and live, obey the law and you live, disobey the law and you die.” Jesus says, you are my friends. If you do what I command you. You're my friends. This is the second big thing in this little paragraph. “You're my friends.”
Once again, I think of being a child, you know, who, who are your friends? Well, you know, they're the people who are your little buddies and friends and acquaintances. And you're never sure exactly what a friend means when you're a little child, because you're told to be friendly to everybody and you're introduced to someone here's a new friend. Well, maybe, maybe not. We'll see. But that's the way you're kind of presenting it: Friendship is an obligation.
And then it is very interesting and kind of a developmental understanding of friendship, as one reaches the older elementary school ages, and personality develops, and social skills develop. Children begin to develop friendships that become genuine friendships. You're a friend with the little people when you're a little because you're put with them, and you're told these are your friends. And little children tend to be extremely friendly. But it is not as if they're deeply concerned with one another and it's not necessarily because they have any particularly important shared interests. I mean, if they put blocks in front of them, the interest is blocks. If you put something else in front of them, that interest is that.But older children can develop friendships based upon common interests. By the time early adolescence arrives, not to mention adolescence itself, it comes with an intense need for friendships. And those friendships become very, very, very intentional, and extremely important. And in some cases unhealthy.
But then as you go through life, you realize that friends are a matter of choice, really. We have lots of acquaintances, but being friends involves risk. Friend means investment and priority. If someone really is a friend, then that means that not only you think friendly thoughts about them, but that you would act on their behalf. You would take care of them. You are concerned for them. Shared interests? Yes, of course. But shared responsibility. Jesus here refers to the disciples as friends. Now, just to be honest, that's reassuring to hear, but that's not the first thing we would have thought of, is it, when thinking of Jesus and the disciples? I mean, after all, there's a very clear distinction. There's Jesus and his disciples. The disciples are the ones to whom the commandments were being given. Very interesting. Again, go back to Sinai, back to Horeb, go back to thunder on the mountain. Jesus has given these commands and this one commandment that he's just summarized here just as authoritatively as the Father gave the commandments to Israel through Moses.
So what does it mean that he calls us his friends - if we do what he says, if we do what he commands us? Well, it's a transformation of our understanding of God's love for us. It's a transformation of the relationship that we have with the Father by Christ. So here's something that we need to keep very much in mind: we are not the friend of God the Father by any right, except that we are the friends of the Son. And so this is an intensely Christological truth, Christological relationship here. We are at peace with God entirely because of the atoning work of the Son. Even right now, we are the privileged, elect, secure, blessed sons and daughters of God because Jesus Christ right now sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty as our mediator and intercessor. But we are the friends of the Father and considered as friends of the Father only because we are the friends of the Son. The Father receives the friends of the Son as his own. And that is incredibly powerful. It's just incredible that Jesus would refer to his disciples as friends, especially at this point, as he is speaking in commandments. You would think when you are given a commandment, that's when you are least likely to be defined as a friend. I mean friends don't give friends commandments, right? That's a strange friendship, you know. Instead there's equality there. Not equality here, but there is an intimacy here. We're invited to demonstrate ourselves to be the friends of Jesus, because the text actually says that you are my friends if you do this. So we show ourselves to be the friends of Jesus by the fact that we obey his command. In fact, involved in verse 14 is all that He’s commanded us.
In verse 15, Jesus says “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” I will tell you, honestly, this is one of the most revolutionary sentences in the New Testament. It also gets to a doctrinal, polemical and apologetic obsession of John, the apostle. The first and most pernicious heresy that threatened Christianity is known as the Gnostic heresy, G-n-o-s-t-i-c. And a Gnostic heresy has always hung around Christianity and in every generation it's there. It may be disguised as one thing or another, but it's there. It came very, very early in biblical Christianity, so early it shows up in the New Testament itself. The heresy of Gnosticism was based upon the idea that salvation comes through a knowledge, a gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge. It's an enlightenment. And we are surrounded by people who also believe that salvation comes by an enlightenment.
Without going into politics, it is at least interesting, just because this could be on the right or the left, right now the language is on the left. But you’ll notice that we're living in the midst of the “Great Awokening”. I mean the whole idea of woke means enlightenment. And now, in certain circles, you've got to give testimony of when you became woke. The Gnostic heresy was rooted in thought that came before the incarnation of Christ, but became extremely powerful in the time of Jesus in the first century, and then of course, powerfully attractive in a deadly sense to the Christian Church thereafter. The idea is that one became, basically, one of the enlightened and you're separated from all the rest because the rest are in ignorance, darkness, you are in the knowledge or the light. You have been now introduced into the secret mysteries. So Gnosticism had its own mystery cults. And one of the problems with the Romans trying to understand Christianity is that Christianity at times might appear like a form of Gnosticism or a mystery cult. Because it has an inside and an outside, you're either in or you're out. And not only that, but knowledge has a great deal to do with it. As Paul will say, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. But here’s another point, and this has relevance in a day of conspiracy theories and all the rest. The point of New Testament Christianity is that it is a knowledge that is necessary for salvation, but it is no secret knowledge, it is a public knowledge. And, so over and over and over again, and every opportunity in the New Testament, it is declared that this is public truth. This is not some mystery we are keeping unto ourselves. Christianity is not a mystery cult in which when you get in, you are told the truth that people outside don't know. That's completely alien to Christianity. Instead, the apostle Paul, for example, will over and over again in different contexts say this is the mystery that has in this age been revealed.
This is not a mystery that we keep unto ourselves. This is public truth. What we say here, we declare publicly to all men. Jesus didn't say, “Go into the world and form little batteries of little groupings of the mystery cult. No, He said “Go into the world and make disciples.” And over and over again, you had the apostle Paul who makes very clear - the opposite of a mystery cult is what Paul does in Acts chapter 17. He goes to Athens and said, “You are wondering what these mysterious teachers are teaching, here it is, and I'm saying it right here on the mountain of the philosophers in Athens, in public, here it is.” To Felix or to Festus, “You want to know what it is we believe? Here's what we believe, here it is.” It is a knowledge that was - and here's Paul in 2 Corinthians, sophisticated, sophisticated passage in 2 Corinthians, look at three and four, where Paul says - it was a hidden mystery, but it is not hidden now. It was veiled, but the veil has been removed. And that's pointing to the incarnation of Christ, and particularly to his death, burial, resurrection. The mystery is now publicly declared. Christianity is not a mystery cult.
Jesus says here, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants”. Why? It comes down to knowledge. It's stunning what Jesus says. Well, why does he call us friends? Why? Why does he not just say, “Hey, you're my disciples. You're my servants.” Why not go and use the New Testament word doulos, “You're my slaves. You are mine. You belong to me. Therefore, you're going to do what I command you. And if you don't do what I command you, then you're going to reveal yourself to be a false disciple, and we will kick you out.” By the way, the Bible does say that. But that's not what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying, “I call you friends because I'm telling you what these things mean. If you were merely my servants, I would just tell you what to do. I'm not just telling you what to do, I'm telling you why.”
It is one of the kindest sentences in the entire Bible. It is contrary to what we see in the Old Testament where God often conceals his will to Israel. There's not often an explanation of the why, but Jesus here in the greatest intensity of the teaching with his disciples says, “I’m calling you friends. Do you want to know why I'm calling you friends? It's because I am telling you why all these things happen and what they mean. I am telling you what the master is doing. I'm telling you exactly what's going to happen. I'm telling you why. I told you from the beginning that these things would happen. I told you that my hour is coming. I do not leave you in the dark. I want you to understand, not only what I'm doing, but what I know these things mean.”
It's such an incredible privilege. We're not just the recipients of the saving work of Christ. We are his friends, in which he explains these things to us. He tells us what the master is doing, speaking of himself. But of course, ultimately of the Father. “Here's what the Father is doing.” And then we will have, of course, even a greater explanation in detail, theologically, by the time we get to a passage like Romans 3:21 and following where the mystery of the cross is explained to us. And we're taken into the inner logic of the gospel and of the atonement. The inner logic, we're even given a glimpse of the inner Trinitarian relationship between the Father and the Son in a passage such as Philippians chapter two. You realize, when you look at the New Testament, it is a ‘friend book’. The New Testament, just as Jesus here is teaching his disciples, is what God gives his friends. If we were merely his servants, then all we would have is a to-do list. And, you know, sometimes you give friends a to do list, but you explain why. You say, “This is what this means. We're doing this great thing. We're about this great work - You are my friends and you understand what I am doing. You understand why I am going to the cross. You understand why it is that now that my hour has come, you now see me, but in a little while, you will not see me. You understand why all these things are happening.” It is such a beautiful, stunning passage because it comes in the very same context of this very clear assertion of Christ’s deity in which he, as the Father commands, but he doesn't merely command subjects or servants, he commands his friends.
Now again, the passage is so beautiful because then you think, well come to think of it, that redefines what we read in the very first verse. “This is my commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” So the word friend is all of a sudden elevated in this massive way, almost infinite way, right before our eyes. It's elevated because it's demonstrated in the fact that Christ dies for us. God's own Son dies for us. And he dies for us, not merely as the passive subjects of his saving love, but as his friends. And this is another issue of biblical theology that we missed. When did we become the friends of Christ? When? Well, temporally, we become the friends of Christ when we hear him and believe him and obey him and follow him, that’s temporally when we become Christ’s friends. But beyond that, when did we become Christ’s friends? It has to be in eternity past. And that will also become very clear in this passage because we were Jesus's friends when we didn’t know it. When he died for us without our knowledge. When he came in order to save his friends, He knew who his friends were when He came.
How do we know this? Because He tells us. “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” Okay, just less there be any misunderstanding, Jesus here is speaking to his disciples, at this point to the eleven. Judas is gone. Speaking to the eleven, he says, “you didn't choose me. I chose you.” But this is not just to the eleven. It is to the untold many who will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and be his disciples down through all the ages. In the same sense that they did not choose him, but he chose them, that has to be true of us because this is God's word for us. And furthermore, how could it be that he chose them, but we chose him. It's an illogic that is embarrassing. And of course, this is an underlining in the sovereignty of God. It's a very clear reference to the doctrine of election. It's very reassuring. If we're Christians simply because we chose him, then we can un-choose, but we didn't choose him. He chose us. And we will be told he chose us before the foundation of the world. So, Jesus here says, “I call you friends and not merely servants because I tell you these things.” A king just says to a servant, do this, do that. “But even as you're my disciples and you are my douloi, you're my friends, I tell you why. But even as I've told you that, just remember, you didn't choose me. I chose you.”
The passage concludes with Jesus saying, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide”. Again, we just had the passage about abiding in Christ. About Christ the vine and we the branches, and the purpose of the branches is to bear fruit. So again, as I said in the beginning of our time this morning, there's a circularity. Jesus comes back to that. “These things I command you, that you love one another." That's another one of those Bible verses I learned so early. We love one another, love one another. But “Love one another” is often an empty, vacuous term. If you just think of it in human, horizontal terms, it's pretty good thing for children to be taught, but it doesn't hold Christ’s church together because horizontal love, as important as it is, just is fairly fragile. But we are to love one another as Christ has loved us. And, “These things”, Jesus says, “I have commanded you, so that you will love one another.” Now again, what's the logic of this? I mean, how do we make sense of that last sentence actually, because we read the phrase as if it makes sense. But let me ask you, does it? “These things”. What would these things be? Everything that he said. “These things I command you.” Well, now he's back to commanding. So even as He is, as God the Father commanding, it's a clear statement of his deity. He's commanding, but He's not commanding mere servants and slaves. He's actually commanding us as His friends, but nonetheless, as the sovereign Lord of the universe, He is commanding His friends so that we will love one another. So explain this “so that”. Well, I think at least a part of this has to be that we love one another because He first loved us. And we will often have to tell ourselves that. It's a part of ecclesiology. We have to keep reminding ourselves we love each other because Christ first loved us, because I mean, frankly, sometimes our fellow church members are lovable and sometimes they're not. And it's also true that the longer you get to know people, even the people closest to you, the more irritating certain things become. The longer you know people, the more you think you're going to get over that first impression, and then 20 years later, you figure out, nope, that was pretty accurate.
We are going to let each other down. We're going to disappoint each other. But, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us. The mark of the church is love. Francis Schaffer, probably far better known for his apologetic writings, wrote a book entitled “The Mark of the Christian”, making very clear, it is love. And the absence of love means the absence of gospel. So as we think about these things, “These things I have commanded you, so that you'll love one another”, why is it that we love one another? It's not just because Christ has first loved us. We were told that, yes, but it's because Christ has also commanded us this multiplicity of commands and the doing of those commands means that we actually will love one another. It comes down to the minutiae of faithfulness. It comes down to the thinking of none of ourselves greater than the other. It comes down to seeing one another's needs as more important than our own. It comes down to common obedience in order to reach a community for Christ. It comes down to common obedience in order to reach a world for Christ. It comes down to the care of widows and orphans. It comes down to working in a nursery. You know what? You work in a nursery and you're taking care of someone's kids, you like the parents better. You understand them in a whole new way. You love their kids and love them. And you are on a committee with someone or you share a task with someone, or you share a pew with someone. And over time you realize “I'll be very disappointed if they're not in that pew this morning. If they're not there, I'm going to want to know why they're not there. If there's something wrong, I want to know how I can help.”
This is why we have the flurry of emails, knowing how we can help one another. And this is when Christians turn Jewish. I grew up with a friend in high school whose father was a rabbi and mother was the wife of the rabbi. And I got to be around them. It was an eye opening experience. They were very gracious to allow this little Gentile in their home. But, there was one response that was always axiomatic. Whenever there was tsurus, Yiddish for trouble, whenever there was trouble, the rabbi would be filled with consternation and his wife would say, “I'll make soup.” That’s what she did, you know, because whatever the trouble, somebody is going to need soup. This is what we do. We take care of one another. We take one another food, somebody needs soup. In fact, we just, we might as well be armed with soup, just keep the soup ready, somebody's going to need it. And you just look at this and you recognize this is this the way that we know how to love. If we had to come up with what it meant to love one another, it'd be a real awkward, geeky kind of thing, but we're actually shown how to love one another, because of all the commands Christ has given us. And if we obey those commands, guess what, we're going to love one another. It makes love tangible.
“These things I have commanded you, so that you will love one another.” Oh, and we're going to have to love one another because the world hates us. And that's the very next word Jesus is going to speak. It's not a word of warning. “Hey, you know what? You're going to face some opposition out there in the world because there are some people who aren't going to understand the message and they're going to be somewhat resistant.” No, it's Jesus saying, “If the world hated me, here's a clue boys and girls, the world's going to hate you.” The servant is not greater than his master. Oh, now we're back to servant and master. We're his friends, but this is not egalitarian discipleship. No servant is greater than his master. If the master is hated, the servant will be hated also. So how is it that we can withstand the hatred of the world? It is because first of all, the Lordship of Christ. It is because first of all, he is the vine and we are the branches. The branches, Jesus says, “No branch that bears fruit will be cut.” We're safe. But it's also because we need each other. And these things, Christ has commanded in order that we would love one another.
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
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For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
November 1, 2020
< br/>
You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
October 25, 2020
< br/>
You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
October 11, 2020
< br/>
You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
October 4, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
August 30, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
August 23, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
August 16, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
March 8, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
February 16, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
February 9, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
February 2, 2020
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
December 22, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
December 8, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
December 1, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
November 17, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
November 10, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
September 8, 2019
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
June 30, 2019
Father, we thank you that you give us this unspeakable privilege, opening your book, reading it aloud, and then going back to understand it. Father, we pray that you will give us that understanding even as you gave us your Word. We pray this in the name of the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
When we arrive at John chapter nine, we arrive at one of the pivotal chapters, I think in all of Scripture. I will say that this is one of those chapters that reveals whether or not we are prepared to read the Bible as Christians. You say, isn't that true of every text? Yes, it's true of every chapter and every verse, but there are some particular chapters that present particular issues. The issue of belief and unbelief are just thrown into dramatic contrast and in ways that will often shock many believers. There are some explosive moments in this passage. John nine is a big chapter. I'm gonna do what might appear to be a little unpredictable here in the beginning. I have a particular purpose in reading the entire chapter aloud together before making a single comment about the text.
One of my purposes in doing this is to reveal one of the attributes of scripture as God's Word, which is the fact that it is self explaining. If you read the text carefully, reading the text as the text is written, there is an absolutely astounding self-explanatory character to the text. But I'm talking about the text rather than reading the text, so let's turn to the Word of God, John chapter nine and read the text together.
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘It is he.’ Others said, ‘No, but he is like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ [11] He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.’ They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’ Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’ And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?’ His parents answered, ‘We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.’ (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, He is of age; ask him.’
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’ And they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man answered, ‘Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ They answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him. Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’”
Boom. Wow. Here's this passage in which all of John's characteristic irony, in contrast to the other gospels, comes through in one grand narrative. Irony is powerfully disclosive. John is the master of irony in all of the New Testament. He demonstrates, as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write this Gospel, that Jesus used irony in teaching. You think the story's supposed to go this way, but it swerves this way.
Irony is sometimes described as two things put together in unresolvable tension. You see that here. Irony will make you smile. That's the reason why irony is the most sophisticated form of humor. This is the distinction between slapstick humor and the master of irony in contemporary American culture, who would be Seinfeld. It's a humor that you get, rarely by laughing out loud with a soundtrack. It's more the wry smile. Irony means there's an inside and an outside. If you get it, you're on the inside. If you don't get it, you're on the outside, which is exactly the point of the passage.
The stunning irony in the passage is that the people who think they're on the inside are actually on the outside. The people who think they're seeing are the people who don't see and the people who don't see actually do see. And then it's in the play of the word, ‘know’ in John chapter nine, the word ‘know’ plays this hugely ironic thing. They go to the man who was born blind and they said, ‘What do you know?’ He says, ‘I don't know what I know.’ ‘Well, who healed you?’ ‘I actually don't know.’ ‘Well then what do you know?’ ‘Oh, I know I was blind. And now I see.’ ‘Well, how do you know that?’ Then they begin to suspect that he wasn't even actually blind. He'd been playing blind for his entire life, just to show up the Pharisees at this moment. It's an astounding passage. But even as it's an astounding passage in its irony, it's astounding in its testimony to the sovereignty of God and the purpose of life.
Look at the beginning verses, “As he passed by,” and this is Jesus passing by, presumably on the way to the temple, “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” It's just a fact here. This is not someone who became blind by accident or illness. This is a man who was born blind and in the first century to be born blind was a horrifying reality because being blind, one could not care for oneself. The assumption in the twisted theology of the time was that this was the curse of God. Being blind meant you could not work. You were reduced to begging. Blind beggars lined the way to the temple, hoping for alms, so that the Jews going to give alms as a part or their religious duty would see the blind and give to them.
He was a beggar. It's a very low state. The assumption in a bad theology, we have to watch this, a conventionally minded theology in contrast to a Christian theology says, “If someone is in this state, then they deserve it. If someone is born with this deformity, God must not like them as much as God likes me.” It is such a thing that in much of the world today, and in particular in Asia, there is a theological avoidance of people who have deformities. It is bad karma even to be in their presence. Throughout much of the middle east, as in the time of Jesus, babies who were marked by these afflictions might just be set out. Of course, the ancient Greeks and Romans did the same thing, just as infanticide. Babies just abandoned and allowed to die. But this man's parents did not do that. Thus, he survived. But notice what happens. His disciples ask him, “Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” There's that conventional theology. It's a bad theology. It's a very bad theology. Sometimes, here's what we have to watch, inside God's people who operate out of what they think is a basic Biblical theism, bad theology can infect invisibly until it comes out just as it comes out here. So the disciples ask the question. They're not embarrassed to ask the question. They assume it's kind of an obvious question. Who sinned that this man was born blind. Was it he? Or was it his parents?
Their assumption is that where there is a man born blind, there was a sin, someone's sin who is behind this. That's insidious. Notice how deadly that is. That means that in this case, if someone is blind, then you can blame him for the blindness. This must be God's judgment upon his sin. Well, especially if someone's born blind, then that's really tough. This must be some kind of family heritage sin, or even some kind of prenatal sin. Who sinned, this man or his parents? Maybe his parents sinned and God's judgment upon their sin was to strike their son blind. It's an insidious, corrupted theology, but it’s easy to see how this sneaks in. It's easy to see how we would ask such questions. Cause and effect in the universe, how are we to understand this?
By the way, who sinned that this man was born blind? There is a right answer to that question, that is Adam. To be even more correct, we sinned in Adam. The Fall brings blindness, deformity, deafness, everything bad into the world with the effects of sin. There is no rhyme or rhythm. There is no theological guide to why there is this kind of birth defect of blindness.
Sometimes there is a cause and effect in sin. Someone gets drunk, causes an accident, and there's an injury; you can draw that. Someone climbs a tree and falls out of it; you can draw that. But someone born blind? You can't.
The text not only raises this, it puts it very clearly that the disciples are holding to this theology. It's the conventional theology of the time. It's rancid but it's conventional. So, they ask who sinned, this man or his parents? Jesus's answer is astounding. He says, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” I said, this is one of those passages that reveals whether you read the Bible as a Christian or not. If you read and understand what Jesus just said, it throws the entire world upside down. Jesus says straightforwardly that this man was born blind for this moment. It either is or isn't true. If it isn't true then we're stuck with that conventional theology. If it is true then God's sovereignty extended in this case to understanding that before the creation of the cosmos, before the incarnation of the Son, the Father arranged that this man who was born blind would be in this place, at this time, therefore Jesus to heal him, that the works of God might be revealed in him.
That's exactly what Jesus says. Jesus says, “It was neither this man nor his parents who sinned but that the works of God might be revealed in him.” It is an astounding statement of divine purposeness. This tells us bluntly that there are no accidents in the universe. There are no accidents. There's no, “Oh, that just happened in the universe.” Everything is tied to the sovereignty of God, the meticulous Providence of God and there is purpose that we don't get to see into everything. Jesus says, “I'm gonna tell you the purpose in this case. This man exists and he was born blind because I am about to do something in him to reveal the glory of God.” That's why. We're either gonna read that as Christians or not, because that is a real demand on the reader. You either believe this or not, because Jesus says it straightforwardly. You can try to come up with all kinds of theological ways to define away the Providence of God, or to try to throw in contingency or chance or to say, “There is no ultimate meaning to these things,” but Jesus says, “Oh yeah, there's an ultimate meaning to everything. There's an ultimate meaning to every atom and molecule. You may not know it. You may not see it. In this case, I’m going to tell you what it is, because I'm about to do something.”
It's an astounding statement of the sovereignty of God. Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Now, hold on a minute. In verse four, he speaks of the works of God. He says, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4 is one of the theme verses of my life. I think of it every single day. It is a statement of our purpose and the stewardship of our time in this life. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. In this life, we are given day to work, but night is coming when no one can work.
The Quaker theologian, Elton Trueblood, on whom I wrote my honors thesis at Sanford many years ago, a man who I got to meet, one of the American figures of the 20th century, he wrote his memoir and entitled it, “While it is Day”. I thought, “If the Lord gives me the opportunity to write a memoir, I’ll be very tempted from this very same verse to use that title ‘While it is Day’.” That is our purpose. That is our assignment. We work while it is day. Night is coming when no man can work, but it is not here yet. Until it is night, we've got work to do.
We work while it is day. Jesus says something else here. We must work the works of God. Now you may remember that in John chapter six, Jesus warned people about using this language. This very same language is what the people who went across the sea to find Jesus the next day, after the feeding of the 5,000, and they said, “What must we do to work the works of God?”Jesus makes very clear, you can't, but here he's talking to his disciples. They can. Okay, so that's fantastic. It turns out that now there's an outside. Outside Christ, you can't work the works of God, but inside Christ, you can. These are Christ’s disciples. He says, “We must,” not I, it's we, “must work the works of him who sent me well to this day.”
Then he says, “As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.” Now he's already said that he's the light of the world and he says that again. In the gospel of John, Jesus often does not repeat these ‘I am’ statements, but he does so here. Why? Because he's about to shine light. As long as he's in the world, he's the light of the world. Notice what he does. There's no break in the text. He doesn't say, “I'm going to explain this by showing you something, boys.” Instead the text tells us, that “having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s…”, hold on the man’s?
Now he's not the blind man. He says “the man”. “He anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’, which means ‘sent’.” He's a blind man. All the disciples see is the blind man. Jesus sees a man. He doesn't see a blind man, but he sees an opportunity for the light of the world to bring light into this man's eyes as a sign. That is John's word for the miracles, a sign. It is always a sign of something more than just healing. That is exactly what happens here. Jesus spits into the ground and makes mud. This is gross. It is disgusting, which is the point, it turns out. Jesus takes mud and spittle and he makes a paste and he puts it on the man's eyes. Now what was the man made of? Dust. Jesus made him. The one who made him out of dust now takes dust and spits on it and puts dust on the dust he made, called a man, and tells him to go wash. John helps us to see that Jesus' miracles or signs of healing are reversals of the curse.
We have Genesis one, Genesis two, we have the Edenic garden. We have humanity in the garden before the Fall. After the Fall, things go badly. Before the Fall, there would have been no blindness. Before the Fall, there would have been no lameness. There would have been no deafness. There would have been no death, no injury. But on the other side of the Fall, horror. But Jesus is the Lord of all, the Lord of creation, the Word through whom the worlds were made, John has already told us. He takes the very stuff he made, dust, and spits on it and puts it on the one he made, the man. Then he tells him to go do something, to go and wash. Washing is a very important metaphor. There's a before and after washing. That is what he does.
Notice the structure of the text. The structure of the text here in John chapter nine is so sophisticated. John writes with such elegance under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is a triple form that turns into poetry in this text. You are going to hear it again and again and again, and you are going to start to recognize it. You'll notice that we are told what the man did. What did he do?
Notice in verse seven, “So he went and washed and came back seeing.” He went and he washed and he came back seeing. He went in obedience and he washed in obedience and he came back seeing. Now, if someone was given sight having been born blind, how would you describe that he has been given the gift of sight? John says he came back, seeing. He left blind, but he came back, seeing. It's a present participle. It doesn't say, “He started to see”, or “He had been given the gift of sight”. It just says he came back seeing. So, present participle, he's now a ‘See-er’.The man who was blind from birth is now seeing, he came back seeing.
If the text ended there, how magnificent would that be? But it doesn't end there. Instead it turns to the context. Jesus is now gone. Jesus was evidently gone when he came back seeing. Jesus having seen the man and having anointed his eyes and telling him to go and wash, the man went and he washed and he came back seeing, Jesus isn't there, but the neighbors are. Now remember, he's seeing everything for the first time. They've seen him his entire life, but he's never seen them before. He came back seeing and it turns out that's going to be a powerful metaphor because he's seeing not only with his eyes, he is seeing theologically what he never saw before and what the people who have perfectly good eyes obviously cannot see. It starts with his neighbors.
“The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’” Okay, so here's John's irony which is not hilarious, but it is intentionally humorous. One of the classic structures of humor is to reveal human foolishness, human foibles, and that is what is going on here. Remember that this man was born blind but everyone else could see. They had seen this man their entire lives. They have seen him enough to think, “This looks like the guy who was blind”, but they didn't pay enough attention to him, those who had eyes, to actually be sure this is actually the guy. “‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘It is he.’ Others said, ‘No, but he is like him.’”
How many ‘like him’ are there? How plausible is ‘like him’? This an evasive answer, kind of like you get from a defendant under cross-examination in court. “Is this the man you saw coming out of the bank with a bag of cash?” “Oh, it looks like him.” “Can you state as a matter of fact, that you're certain it is that man?” “Well, he is my brother-in-law. It looks like him.” I mean, it is just evasion. “What do you mean, looks like him?” But it gets even worse.
“He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’” So it's like, “I did it. It's me. Hello there. I never saw you before, but I'm the guy you saw or I think you saw because I thought you were seeing.” It goes on and on like this. “So they said to him,” this is verse 10, “‘Then how were your eyes opened?’” “We demand an answer. You can't just show up here seeing”. Remember it was a present participle. “I came back seeing.” You can't do that. You can't do that. That breaks all the rules. Blind people are supposed to stay blind. “How are you gonna explain the fact that you came back seeing? We demand an answer!”
They, by the way, had ignored him. Given that theology of avoiding people with infirmities, this is the first conversation the man probably ever had with these folks. And so how then were your eyes open? “He said, ‘The man called Jesus made mud,’” he's so specific. Notice under cross examination here, he's so specific. “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” There's that triple poetic form again. He went and he washed and came back seeing. “I went and washed and received my sight.”
Here he makes himself, very clearly, the passive. He is the one who was given sight. This was something that was done to him. “I went and I washed and received my sight.” “Then they said to him, ‘Where is he?’” meaning Jesus. “He said, ‘I do not know.’” Watch carefully how with his eye to irony, John picks up on the, ‘who knows and who doesn't know’. Who knows that he doesn't know and who doesn't know that he doesn't know and who should know, but doesn't know. And who, maybe should not know, but actually does know. ‘Know’ turns out to be a key, and this is where it shows up. He says, “I don't know.” Now, is it right or wrong of him to not know? He is not responsible to know. “Where is Jesus? I don't know.”
“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.” Now here, just a couple of powerful things in those verses. The neighbors tried their own kind of theological interrogation, but they don't know enough to get anywhere. So now they call in the big guns, they call in the Pharisees. “We got to call in some experts to come help us figure this thing out. Blind men don't come back seeing we don't like this. We don't have an explanation for it.” You call the Pharisees and the next thing is, it says, “the man who had formerly been blind”. It is like a business card. “Hi, my name's Ralph, formerly blind, born that way.” That is all they can say about this guy, but he will pick up on this many verses later. Don't forget, this is the man who had formerly been blind. Hold that thought.
“Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.” Oh boy. The Pharisees, the scrupulous guardians of the Sabbath. Remember, Jesus had already made clear in Capernaum when he healed a man's hand, when the Pharisees tried to set him up saying, “Is it right to do good on the Lord's day?” And Jesus said, “You know if a man has an animal fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, who would not lift out his animal? If you would do that then of how much more value is a man than an animal? So it's right to do good on the Sabbath.” And they had a man with a withered hand, Jesus said, “Stretch out your hand,” and so Jesus healed the hand. Then the Pharisees, Matthew tells us, “Went out, seeking how they might destroy him.”
It is the Sabbath Day, so that just raises the anxiety for the Pharisees. “So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.” Here's the blind man, the man who was formerly blind, “How did this happen?” “And he said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Notice in triple, triple, triple. This is poetry. John is sticking this so that we see it and we can't miss it. It comes up again, “He went and he washed and he came back seeing”, “I went and I washed and I received my sight.”, and now he says, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man,’ now speaking of Jesus, ‘this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’” In other words, Jesus cannot be divinely sent because he doesn't keep the Sabbath.
Their whole theology was so corrupted, they saw everything backwards. “But others said,” this is obvious, “How can a man who is a sinner,” that means facing God's displeasure, do such things, in this case, “do such signs?” Even the word sign there is in the words of one of the Pharisees. “And there was a division among them.” Look at verse 17. This is like the Keystone Kops. “So they said again to the blind man.” What is wrong with that? He is not blind now! He was the man who was formerly born blind earlier. “So they said again to the blind man,” but he's not blind, “‘What do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?’”
This is like being under cross examination. First of all, you say you were blind. Then you say this guy put spit on your eyes and told you to go wash, and so up you went and you washed and came back seeing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yada yada. Okay. How do you explain this? Give an account for this. And he says of Jesus, “He is a prophet.” Again, a bomb goes off, less so in our ears than in theirs, but that is our problem. In this context in first century Judaism, to say that man is a prophet means God sent him and speaks and works through him. Remember there had not been a prophet in Israel for centuries. That looks like a little statement, but in this context, it's messianic. There is a prophet who is expected and he said, “He is a prophet.” He is truly sent by God. God, after centuries of sending no prophets, has sent us a prophet. How do I know this? Because I was blind. Now I see.
The Jews understand this. They understand the audacity of what he said. In verse 18, “The Jews did not believe that he had been born blind and received a sight.” In other words, how do you deal with a miracle if you don't want it to have happened? You tried to deny that it actually happened, so how do you do it in this case? You deny that the man had really been born blind. Now the credulity in that is so lacking, it is ludicrous. Yes, this guy has been playing blind for his entire life into adulthood. He has been living this life of being despised and unrecognized. He has lived this life of horror and deprivation and it was just an act to frustrate you Pharisees on this Sabbath day. That's what it was. That t doesn't even hold water.
“They didn't believe he had been born blind and received sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them.” His parents turn out to be the two most spineless human beings imaginable. His parents throw their own son under the bus. “Is this your son who you say was born blind?” Remember what the disciples ask when they saw the man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” The assumption was it had to have been the parents. How could he have sinned prenatally? This must be something the parents did. They had borne the theological burden for this man's entire life until now of being the parents whom God has punished by giving them a blind son. No one would claim that their son is blind if their son had sight. It is ludicrous. It just shows you the powerful nature of unbelief in this case. It is so self deceptive. And he said, “They called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, ‘Is this your son who you say was born blind?’” Verse 19, “How then does he now see?” Explain this. We demand an answer!
“His parents answered,” Now, remember I told you, watch out for ‘know’. Watch out for the word ‘know’. It shows up in this passage. Here is what his parents say. “We know that this is our son,” Check. “And that he was born blind,” check. “But how he now sees we do not know.” They knew. “Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” Well, God save us from parents like this. His parents said, “He is on his own now. We will testify to the fact that he is our son. He was born blind, we know that. But how he sees? No, we don't know. Who did it? No, we don't know. Ask him; he is of age.”
His parents said these things, we’re told, because the Jews had threatened to cast them out of the synagogue. That's not just being cast out of the synagogue, that is being basically cast out of the society. “They had already agreed that if anyone should confess that Jesus is the Christ,” The Messiah, that prophet, “he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, ‘He is of age, ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’” By this man, again, they meant Jesus. This is a second interrogation. They did not get anything and it is really the second Pharisee interrogation. It is his third interrogation. The neighbors interrogated them then the Pharisees had round one. This is actually Pharisees round two. When they say, ‘Give glory to God,’ that is pompous. They are trying to amplify their own importance. “‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know.’” Remember, know, know, know. You know, I know, I don't know, we don't know. Here he says, “whether he is a sinner,” which means under God's curse, “I don't know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now. I see.”
That is the hinge of the entire passage. “Whether he is a sinner, I don't know, but this thing I do know, I was blind and now I see.” What is going to happen from here on out is that the man who was born blind who now sees, from this point on in the passage knows, and no one else knows. The people who thought they knew are revealed to know nothing. And this man who says, “I don't know,” here for the last time, won't say, “I don't know,” again. Why? Because in the context of the verses that follow, he begins to know. The dots are connected. He begins to see, not only physically, but more importantly, he sees spiritually.
They said to him, “‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them. ‘I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” This guy not only now knows, he is mad. He is being interrogated rather than the community celebrating the fact that God has worked this work in him as a testimony to God's grace and glory and sovereignty. Rather than the entire people of God rejoicing, as you would think they would do in the reversal of the curse and the gift of sight, instead they see it as a theological problem. He is now refusing to be seen as a theological problem. Basically he responds to them by saying, “I have figured you idiots out.”
He taunts them. “Do you also want to become his disciples?” “And they reviled him saying, ‘You are his disciple.” Well, is he or isn't he? He wasn't, now he is. He actually is. A disciple is one who follows Jesus. He's doing it now. He wasn't doing it just a few verses ago, but he's figured it out. “We are the disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man,” notice the ‘know’ and the ‘don't know’. Notice the contrast. You have the Pharisees, they're supposed to know it all. “We do not know where he comes from.” By the way, that's where the entire gospel begins, “In the beginning,” but they don't know. “The man answered, ‘Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.” Why should I care about you idiots at all? “We know,” notice the ‘know’, now he's preaching! A few minutes ago he was a blind guy who didn't know Jesus. Now he knows Jesus and is actually called by the Pharisees, ‘one of his disciples.’ Now he is a preacher!
He is preaching now. In verse 31, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” This is a man who was not even allowed in the temple because of his deformity and now he is preaching. “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” It is an amazing sermon coming from this man, and you'll notice how he throws it back to them. You don’t know? You see the anger of their response in verse 34. “They answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.” They just won’t have it. They won't have the gospel. They won't have Jesus. They won't have the miracle. They won't have bind men seeing. They just won't have it. But the text isn’t over.
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him,” remember this man has never seen Jesus. He heard Jesus and Jesus gave him a sight, but he left to go obey Jesus by washing in the pool of Siloam and he came back seeing. He went, and he washed, and he came back seeing. When he came back, Jesus wasn't there. The first thing they asked him was, “where is he?” And he says, “I don't know.” But hearing what had happened, Jesus finds him. He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ‘Son of man’ is the main title in the gospel of John. You'll see in the other gospels as well that Jesus uses this self-designation. This is why we sing in ‘Fairest Lord Jesus’, “Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man.” This title, Son of Man, means “that appointed one whom God has sent.”
“Do you believe in the Son of Man,” in verse 36, “He answered, ‘and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’” What is happening? At this point, the man who is blind and now sees, believes that Jesus is a prophet. He might suspect that Jesus is more because he goes on to say, “Never in the history of the world has it been heard that a man who was born blind was given his sight.” Now Jesus stands before him and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” His answer is, “‘Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?,” Jesus said to him,” notice his words, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He hadn't seen him, but he did see him.
Jesus here reveals that there are two kinds of blindness. There is a physical blindness and there is a spiritual blindness. Even though this man was physically blind, when Jesus put the spittle on his eyes, somewhere between when he was anointed with that mud, he saw. It becomes a metaphor for our salvation, our regeneration. We see. We didn't see before, but now we see. Now we can't not see. And Jesus said, you have seen him and the one who is speaking is he. “He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’” That is just a short statement of faith, “Lord, I believe.” It is a complete honest, unevasive, straightforward statement of belief. “‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” That is bowing down to him. He recognized him. He is the very son of God. Remember the irony in which John has written this passage. Now Jesus speaks in these horrible, ironic words of judgment. “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
When I began, I said this is going to test whether you are willing to read the Scripture as a Christian or not. It is because Jesus says that he came in the world, not only so that the blind might see, but so that those who think they see are blinded. It is another statement of the judgment and the sovereignty of God. It is tough. No one is going to put this into a trite, little worship expression. No one is going to tell the congregation before he preaches, “Look, brothers and sisters, I am preaching so that those who do not see may see, and that those who won’t see but think they see, will be struck blind. That is what I'm doing this morning.” That is what Jesus said. It shows you that the great division in humanity is between those who see and those who will not see.
It is not over. “Some of the Pharisees,” verse 40, “near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’” It is a pathetic moment. This passage ends with a fizzle. It ends with this Pharisee stupidity. It is a strong judgment from God. “‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind,’” meaning physically blind, “‘you'd have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’”
“I see right through you,” Jesus said. “I have come into the world so that those who are blind may see, and that those who think they see may be blinded.” The average Christian does not have a clue that is in the Bible. The average church is never going to preach this text like it demands to be preached. This is not happy-clappy Christianity. It begins with the sovereignty of God and a man born blind in order that the works of God might be performed in him. And it ends with Jesus saying, “By the way, that's why I came. So those who are blind may see. Oh, and so those who think they see may become blind.”
Let's pray. Father, we pray with all our hearts for the gratitude of the fact that you have allowed us to see. Otherwise, we would not see. And you have given us the gift of sight and the gift of salvation, no less than if you had put spittle on our eyes and sent us to the pool of Siloam and said, “Go wash,” and we went, and we washed, and we came back seeing. Father, we hear the judgment in this text. We pray that you will use this in our hearts, to call us to Christ and keep us to Christ. Father, may we see and through us, may there be others who also though blind, will see. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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Third Avenue Baptist Church
Sunday School — The Gospel of John Series
May 19, 2019
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You can find Dr. Mohler's other live sermons here.
Follow Dr. Mohler:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
For more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.
For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.
Third Avenue Baptist Church...
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