John 17:1-5, 22-26
February 24, 2019
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.”

“Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German pastor and author who was killed as an anti-Nazi dissident

“When people are right with God, they are apt to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are not right with God, they are easy on themselves and hard on others.”

~ John Newton (1725-1807), English Anglican clergyman

“Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons… Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness, and defensive criticism of others.”

~ Richard F. Lovelace (1931-present), author and professor emeritus of church history at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

“The more we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we find it is the end of insecurity — not the perfect end in this age, but the increasing and ultimate end.”

~ Jon Bloom, contemporary author and blogger

“Jesus’ invitation to ‘lay down my life for others’ has always meant more to me than physical martyrdom. I have always heard these words as an invitation to make my own life struggles, my doubt, my hopes, my fears and my joys, my pains and my moments of ecstasy available to others as a source of consolation and healing. To witness for Christ means to me to witness for Him what I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears and touched with my own hands.”

~ Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian

“The test of a gospel-centered church is its doctrine on paper plus its culture in practice.”

“There is a lot of love in this world, most of it moderate. But under the blessing of God, gospel doctrine cracks our hearts open to receive something from beyond this world. We see how massive God’s love really is, and so we give up our aloofness and come together to care for one another in real ways, even as God wonderfully cares for us.”

~ Ray Ortlund, contemporary pastor and author

Sermon Passage

John 17:1-5, 22-26 (NASB)

¹ Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, ² even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. ³ This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was….

²² The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; ²⁶ and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”