This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “John 20” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 19, 1996.
About this sermon
Christ’s high-priestly prayer in John 17 finds its answer in the church’s later life, which fulfills his words, prayers, actions, and service. New birth from above, from God, qualifies the church to enter Christ’s own mission. John 20:21 sends the church into that inheritance.
Sermon transcript
This evening with our reading in John’s gospel, at chapter 17. We are at John chapter 17. This is God’s word, give your undivided attention. These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee, even as thou gavest him authority over all mankind, that to all whom thou hast given him he may give eternal life.
And this is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on the earth. having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now glorify thou me together with thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with thee before the world was. I manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have come to know that everything thou hast given me is from thee. For the words which thou gavest me I have given to them, and they receive them, and truly understand that I came forth from thee, and they believe that thou didst send me.
I ask on their behalf, and I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine. and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, the name which thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in thy name which thou hast given me. and I guarded them, and to not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth.
As thou didst send me into the world, I also send them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone. but to those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected in unity that the world may know that Thou didst send me, and didst love them, even if Thou didst love me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, in order that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me, for Thou didst love me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou didst send me. And I have made thy name known to them, and will make it known, that the love wherewith thou didst love me may be in them, and I in them.” Then turning over to chapter 20, verse 21, Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you.
Father, we rejoice in the marks of the Church and in the means of grace. We rejoice in the preaching of your Word. We rejoice, O God, in the beneficial effect which your Word has to us. even as it proves to be a means of your blessing to us. And Father, we thank you also for the sacraments as they are ordained by Christ and set before us visibly your word. May we always, O God, acknowledge that your word presides over your sacrament. and that your sacraments are always to be accompanied by your word. And Father, we thank you also for the blessing of discipline within the Church, even as you raise up those who would govern us, who would oversee our lives, ministering to us as fathers in the faith, as surely as our parents serve us in our families. And Lord, we rejoice in prayer, even as that prayer is informed by your word, and your sovereignty with respect to prayer is set before us in the prayers that are reported in Scripture. And in all these matters, as the marks of the true Church and the means of grace are brought together for us, may we affirm, Lord, the blessedness of your church, and the corporate character of these means and also these marks, that we might realize that our individual appropriation is with respect to the covenant, O God, into which you have brought your people.
Lord, bless us, then, as your people, that these marks and these means might have their proper effect and work in our lives. We ask this even as your word is ministered to us. In Jesus name, Amen.
Now I trust that you have been able to grasp somewhat my intention in laboring so long and so hard with John chapter 20 here in our evening messages. Our primary interest has been a conclusion to our consideration of the person of the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel, and also to our consideration of the person of the Holy Spirit in the Gospels in their entirety. Thus our title, Jesus Gives the Holy Spirit, and our interest has especially fallen upon verse 22 at this juncture in our study. I’m sorry, verse 22, yes, verse 22 in this twentieth chapter. However, in looking at this verse, we have not been able to avoid this extended exercise that pushes us toward a fuller understanding of what John is telling us in this portion of his gospel.
The whole of his inspired retelling of the resurrection story sets before us no bare account of the facts of Jesus’ resurrection and his appearances. For John is as much a preacher as he is an historian. He is as much a preacher as he is a biographer of Jesus, or a recounter of Jesus’ life. John is very busy, then, declaring to us in the story of Jesus that story’s meaning. Sometimes he does this quite directly, even as Jesus makes plain in his words the spiritual truth about himself, about his teaching, and about his actions. John also sets before us Jesus’ significance subtly and even indirectly. So we have concluded that John powerfully, however, quietly and subtly, has placed in front of us a remarkable sermon in his Gospel, a remarkable sermon about Christ and his significance, and as we come to this twentieth chapter, he has placed before us a remarkable sermon about the Christian Sabbath, even the first Christian Sabbath, the Church’s life, the Church’s worship, the Church’s mission in relating his story of Jesus’ resurrection and Jesus’ subsequent visitations.
Obviously, the point to which we have been pressing is this. Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, as it is set forth here by John, the inspired witness, has a particular Church focus. a particular Church context and interest. You must not miss the Church as you hear John preach to you about the life, the resurrection, and the appearances of the risen Lord. Now, we have been working our way through Chapter 20, keeping this in view. He has spent a great deal of time dealing with the Sabbath issue, with worship truths laid within the fabric of John’s witness at this point. We have also made much of the relationship between John 20 and the immediately preceding chapters in the gospel, particularly chapters 13 through 19, making the point that what Jesus promised and prayed for, what Jesus sacrificed and paid for in those earlier chapters, receives its fulfillment in this latter chapter.
Not only does this work to build our confidence in our Savior, As he is presented to us here in this gospel, it also convinces us that the Church, not just we as individuals, the Church is the focus for the fulfillment of Christ’s words, prayers, action, and service. Last week, for instance, we spoke in depth about the peace which the risen Christ extends to the disciples in this John 20 context. We noted it three times, verses 19, 21, and 26. We connected this piece to the promised peace from Jesus, spoken of by him directly in John 14, 27, and also John 16, 33. But even more, we must note, Jesus pronounces this peace upon a gathered company, a company representative of his church. particularly gathered in a Christian Sabbath context, the first Christian Sabbath context, and subsequently in the second, meeting, as is the focus of Christian Sabbath gatherings, a meeting with the risen Christ.
While we must not lose sight of our personal enjoyment, our individual appropriation of this peace which Jesus brings to us, we also must never lose sight of the Church interest of our Lord. Indeed, Christ’s personal peace is ours individually as we partake of and enter into the corporate and communal peace belonging to Christ’s body, his Church. This then brings us to chapter 20, verse 21, and Jesus’ commissioning words. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” We have already related Jesus’ blessing of peace at the beginning of this verse to these commissioning words.
Jesus’ peace pointedly addresses the Church in its commissioned status. In other words, it is as the Church is sent by Christ into the world that she is promised peace in the face of the tribulation she will encounter and in the face of the threat of physical death that shall overshadow her. Specifically, as the Church is sent, she need not be troubled in heart, neither need she be fearful. Instead, she is to be of good courage, since Christ her Lord has overcome the world.
It is important in this regard, however, to be clear about Jesus’ meaning as he utters these commissioning words. The habit has been to see them in a very restrictive missionary frame of reference. Jesus, therefore, is thought to be speaking exclusively about the missionary enterprise of the Church. Along these lines, we might think, what Jesus has in mind is the movement of missionaries from their home country to some other country, a foreign country, to preach the Word of God, even as these disciples move from their homes in Palestine to the rest of the world to declare the Gospel truth. So much may this be our thinking that we see the Great Commission in Matthew 28, the last verses of that chapter, a passage with so many parallels to this very text as reinforcing this point of view.
But Jesus’ interest here, as it is in Matthew 28 and in the Great Commission, is not that some leave home while others do not. His point is that all leave home. His point is that his church as such leaves home. His point is that as much as we are the church of Jesus Christ, we leave home. But this being the case, where is home? Jesus sends us from where to where?
Now we are prepared to understand a bit better the great importance of Jesus introductory words as the Father has sent them in. The pattern of movement here observed in the relationship between the Father and the Son becomes the pattern of movement between the Son and His Church. The Son is sent by the Father. But also, the Son is sent from the Father. The Son is sent from Heaven. The Church, likewise, is sent by the Son, but of equal importance, the Church is sent from the Son. And where is the Son?
The dwelling place from which the Church proceeds is not the room behind closed doors in a certain section of the city of Jerusalem. The dwelling place, the home from which the Church departs, is the Son himself, and the world to which he has ascended, in which he lives. If you are in the Church of Christ, you’ve already left home, and you are here as a stranger and an alien in this world.
I wish that I had the vocabulary and the ability to say that with all of the appropriate adornment and entreaty it deserves. With all of the power it deserves. For I am convinced, in grasping hold of that fact, your life will be turned completely upside down, and all of your thinking, even all of your Christian thinking, will be completely transformed. Now, background to Christ’s statement is Christ’s statement in 2021 is found in his great high priestly prayer, which we have read this evening. Repeatedly, he mentioned having been sent by his father.
But in verse 14, he begins to move towards a climactic statement in verse 18, a verse which sounds very much like 20, 21. As thou didst send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. As I said, the build-up to that 18th verse begins in verse 14, where Jesus prays, “…I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This proof is so important that Jesus repeats it two verses later, verse 16, “…they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Then comes verse 18, in which Jesus prays about sending his disciples into the world even as he has been sent. But the background for this whole notion is not simply from Christ’s high priestly prayer.
It is also found in the doctrine of regeneration as it is proclaimed by Jesus and as it is expounded by John throughout the course of his gospel. That doctrine of regeneration teaches us that we who belong to God are born of him. You should intuit the home language in the description of regeneration, the home reference in the language about regeneration. The doctrine of regeneration, as it is proclaimed by Jesus, as it is witnessed to by John, teaches us that we who belong to God are born of Him.
We have behind that the fact that Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. He is born of God, as it were. The parallel, you see, as you move through the gospel and consideration of what it means to be regenerate. We are born of God. We are born from above. We are not of this world, as John says in his first chapter, verses 12 and 13. We who believe are the children of God, born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. to Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, you must be born not just again, but from above. Not from below, but from above. You have to be born from heaven, if you are even to see or understand heaven, the kingdom of God. And sometime, I want to challenge you, sometime read 1 John, the entirety of the epistle, keeping in mind its conclusion, keeping in mind chapter 5, verse 18, which I believe is the key to the whole matter.
We know no one who is born of God sins. That’s us. That’s the Church. We know no one who is born of God sins. He who was born of God, that’s Christ. keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. You see the peril. The language of regeneration. We becoming sons of God, children in the home of our Heavenly Father. According to Jesus, according to the witness which John gives, to be born again, to be regenerated, means to be born of God, to be born from above. That is, those born again have left behind their homes in this world. Those born again have even an altered perspective on their earthly parents. since their earthly parents cannot bestow upon them eternal life. They have a new home in heaven and in Christ, and they have a new parent in God their Father. They therefore come forth from heaven into the world by the commission of Christ, just as Christ came forth from heaven into the world. You are here as a gift to this world from God your Father. you have been sent by him.
Now there are a few things I want to mention which I will not be able to develop fully this evening as we close. First of all, as we read this high priestly prayer and as we understand rightly what is being said in John 20, whatever distinction we want to make rightfully between the clergy, those who are ordained to bring the word to the world, and the laity, we must remember that Jesus’ words about sending his disciples do in fact pertain to the whole church. Not just ordained ministers of the word, not just missionaries going to foreign lands, we all have been sent by Jesus into the world. The purpose of Jesus sending us, his church, parallels his father’s purpose in sending him. In understanding that, read again John 3, 16, particularly verse 17. God sent his Son not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. And thirdly and finally, that the Church follows after the Son in coming into the world does not mean that Jesus is merely a trailblazer and an example for us.
Much more, the Son’s journey from heaven into this world is the reality into which the Church itself enters. Even as Jesus tells his disciples in John 4 verse 38, that their labor in the harvest is merely an entering into the labor of others, so the mission of the Church is an entering into the perfect and sufficient mission of the Son. And that is its power. And that is its certainty. And that is its guarantee. The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, must not live in this world without confidence. Because of this truth, which is set forth here, in the relationship of the sent Son and the sent Church, Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Let’s pray. Our Father, we would not transgress upon the sacred office of the ministry of the Word. At the same time, O God, we would not shortchange the glory to which you elevate your people as a whole, the glory to which you elevate us all, each of us, members of the body of Christ. For, Lord, we are included, we are included in these considerations always.
And Father, we would ask that as we have forsaken spiritually our homes in this world for the sake of the home that is ours in Christ, we would also understand that there is a commissioning that belongs to us that is like unto the commissioning that Christ himself received from the Father. We grant your grace to us, Lord, as we understand our alien and pilgrim character better and better, the nature of our birth from above, our heavenly home, and our service here in this world, even as it is true of us that we shall be brought to our home at last, the dwelling place which Jesus prepares for us. And Father, may we be effective as those who have come into the world sent by the Son. That our lives may be effective even as there is seen in us that testimony concerning the love of heaven for the nations of this world.
Indeed, O God, before the time of condemnation comes, May we be delighted in the time of salvation, when you are redeeming for yourself a people out of every nation upon this world. We ask our God that you would bless, therefore, our lives and our labors, our enterprises and our prayers to this end, and cause there to arise from our midst an effective preaching of the in which it is evident that not only we, but that proclamation is then entering into the sufficiency and fullness of Christ’s honor.
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