The Village Church
Jesus Unplugged, Pt 1 - Audio
[ Silence ] >> Good morning, morning. Hey, you want to do it well? Hopefully. All right. This is Christ blood shed for admission of our sins. >> Well, we have finally finished the summer and on the mount. So, I'm happy about that. We've been there a long time. Will you please stand as we -- >> I always enjoy doing series in the book, but as I get -- >> Being there for a long time, it starts to get old. I'm glad it's done. [ Laughter ] >> Well, all right, sermon is every week. I feel like I'm saying the same stuff every week. So, come on. That was a joke. Out of all the -- okay, we're trying to get serious now, okay? [ Laughter ] Out of all the faces and founders of the world religions and faiths, Jesus is about for the most misunderstood figure of them all, would you agree? The most misunderstood, by far, there are misunderstandings about who he is, there are misunderstandings about his life, his ministry, the words that he spoke, misunderstandings about his death, and then there's that thing called the resurrection that's totally confusing to some people. And so, it's hard -- it's not hard to see and realize that Jesus was and still is the most misunderstood figure that has ever walked the face of this earth. And so, this morning, we're going to see Jesus himself. Jesus himself is going to start clearing up some of those misunderstandings without parables, without rare pictures, without signs, without miracles, without cultural illustrations. It's going to be Jesus unplugged, who he is, and what he came to do in his own words. So now, if you have your bibles, open them to John 17. John 17 is known as the High Priestly Prayer that Jesus prayed after he gave his Farewell Discourse. The Farewell Discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John is John 13 through 16, and this prayer is actually a conclusion of that discourse. It's a prayer in which Jesus unplugged to the Father about himself, about his disciples. It's basically Jesus letting loose. He's putting everything on the table in black and white. That whole prayer is in your face. Bam, bam, bam, bam, it's all on the table. This is who I am, and this is what I came and do in my own words. Because depending on what Bible you got, the whole chap was in red print, so Jesus himself praying. This morning, we're going to focus on the first three verses. So here's God's word to his people. When Jesus has 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 in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Please pray with me. Father, as I pray every week, Lord, I will constantly pray this prayer that you move me to the side. My pride, my self-righteousness, my reliance upon my gifts, move me to the side so that Christ can be glorified. In what I say, that your spirit, the spirit of God has to show up. Because if he does not show up, preaching has no power without the spirit, no power at all. So spirit, we desperately need you to come. Take what is said, apply it to my heart, and apply it to the hearts of every person that's here. We all need it. We all need encouragement. We all need truth. And spirit, apply that truth to our hearts. In Christ in my prayer, amen. Jesus Christ, the most misunderstood man in the world, unplugged here in this chapter. This morning, we're going to see Jesus unplugged about the cross. And there's three things about the cross he wants us to know. The first thing is that the cross was the hour that has now come. Verse 1, when Jesus looked up to the heaven, he lived his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. John tells us that after Jesus had given that farewell discourse, he lived up his eyes to heaven to pray. And we all know Jesus was a praying man. But on this occasion, something was different. Something was different about this particular prayer, because it was on the dawn of his hour. Father, the hour has come. In the gospel of John, hour never referred to the time of day. Hour referred to the time of Jesus' crucifixion. It referred to the saving work he was getting ready to do upon the cross. It's a tone and depth on the cross. That's what the hour referred to. And so if you ever read through the gospel of John, and you notice that throughout that book, Jesus mentioned, my hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. In John 2, 7, and 8, you see that phrase, his hour has not yet come. But beginning in chapter 12, then chapter 13, in chapter 17, we see the hour has come. What's the point, ask Alex? Here's my point. The hour that has not come, but not has come, was not by accident. It was not by accident. It was not by fate. It was not by karma. It was not by the will of man. The hour was divine destiny, divine purpose. You see, the hour was appointed by God the Father for Jesus Christ, even before the world existed. Think about it like this. The Father set their alarm clock for the cross long before it happened. Long before it happened, he said it. And in John 12 and John 13 and John 17, the alarm is going off. The hour has come. The hour is now here, says Jesus, and guess what? He didn't hit the snooze button. He didn't hit the snooze button. He prepared himself, humbled himself for what was to come. In John 12, Jesus says, now is my soul troubled? What should I say? Father, save me from this hour. Save me from this hour. For this purpose I have come to this hour. Do you know the purpose of Christmas was for cavalry? Not presents that we get, not the decorations that we get. The purpose of the incarnation was for this hour. He came for this purpose, the sufferings of the cross, the sufferings of the cross. Jesus taken upon himself, our sin, bearing the rest of God in our place. The cross was the present result of an hour that was set by the Father and he turned he past. And he turned he past, he said that hour. You see, in our broken, finite reality, all of us are familiar with this phrase, don't put all your eggs in the same basket, right? You know why? Because you risk losing everything if you do. If you put all your hopes and dreams into one option. And for people like us in the world that we live in, that's wise advice. But not when you try to apply that to an infinite God. You see, the cross was not one of many egg baskets. It was not plan B, just in case plan A didn't work. It was the only basket, it was the only plan. The only option, the hour the cross, set in eternity long before the incarnation. In the beginning was what? The word, the word was God, the word was with God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us for the purpose of being sacrificed for us as our substitute. And we have seen his glory. The glory as the only Son of God, full of grace, full of truth. Jesus, Jesus, I'm plugging the cross with these words. In order to show us that the cross was the hour set by the Father, the attorney, and it was set for Jesus alone. His cross, His hour, that no one else could bear. It's not just in the cross, because the Romans sacrificed crucified a lot of people in Jesus today. So it wasn't the people in the cross that made a difference. It was who was on that cross that made a difference. His particular cross made the difference. Secondly, in this same cross, the Father Himself was glorified in the death of the Son, verses 1 and 2 again. "Father, the hour has come. Glory for 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." After Jesus told the Father the hour has come, He made a request, a petition to the Father to glorify the Son. He was requesting the Father to see Him through the hour, to see Him through the hour, the cross, to see Him through the suffering He was going to endure. And you know what Jesus' motive for that was? So that He could bring glory to the Father. In order that I make big glory to your name. And that shouldn't be a surprise because all of Jesus' life was about that one thing, bringing glory to the Father, doing the Father's will. What did He tell the disciples in John 4? "My food is to do the will of the Him who sent me." In John 8, He says, "I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father. Glory in fine God, glory in fine the Father is pleasing to the Father as part of the Father's will. And no one did it perfectly than Jesus. He was the only one who did that perfectly without faith. Jesus." And in verse 2, we see one of the ways He glorified the Father. "Since you have given the Son of authority, all were all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. The matter in which Jesus was going to glorify the Father here was that He was going to exercise the authority that He gave Him rightly." Colossians tells us about this authority that the Father gave Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Jesus all things were created. In heaven, in our earth, visible, invisible, whether the phones or the minions, rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, the in Him all things hold together. That's the authority that the Father gave to the Son. Colossians 1.15. And He exercises it properly here by submitting to the Father's will by going to the cross, drinking the cup of God's wrath. He submitted to that. And the purpose of that authority is so that He can give eternal life to all that the Father had given Him. That's the second way the Father glorified in the cross because through it, His Son gives eternal life to His people. Jesus Himself said, "No one can come to the Father unless what? It is drained about the Father." He also says, "All that the Father gives me would come to Him. They're going to come to Him." The path to eternal life for these specific people came through the cross through His death. He purchased eternal life for His people. You see, Jesus did not die as a martyr. You realize that, right? He didn't die as a martyr. He was not a hopeless victim of the world He lived in. He did not die as a religious fanatic, nor was he an insane delusional heretic who walked around claiming to be God. He is God, the God-man. And He says of Himself, "I laid down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it for me. I lay it down on my own accord, and I have their authority to lay it down. I have their authority to take it up. This is the charge that I have received from my Father. He willingly went to the cross and offered up His life. For you, no one forced Him there. He went on His own accord, and that's power. That's authority, our substitute. Because on the cross, He conquered sin and death. On that cross, that's the cross unplugged. But you know what? People can't handle that. Because in their logic, in their reason, they don't understand how could that be the word of the cross is foolish. Fall into those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The power of God. What does that mean? It means if you don't know Jesus, then you don't get the cross. You ain't ever going to get it. You ain't ever going to make sense. It's always going to be illogical because you don't know it. Because you don't know it. For the Jews seek signs and the Greeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jew, falling to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, called, both Jew and Greek, Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God. But you got to be called. Through the cross, Jesus rescued the souls of meat, men through the cross. I have several questions. I asked my concentration before I put in the bed at night. One question is this. Who made you? God. Who died upon the cross for your sins? Jesus. Why were you created to know God? That's why you were created. How many gods are there? There's one God. Every night, I asked them those questions. And one night, man, as I put Madison down, I asked her, I said, do you know why Jesus died on the cross for your sins? She didn't know. She just fives. I said, because so he can make you right with God. So he can make you right with God. And Jesus can live in your heart, if you ask him in your heart. Of course, she prayed a prayer, nor she just fives, she doesn't understand the gospel yet. But that was a special moment to me as a father. Because I want my kids to receive Jesus. You see, the internal life he gives us means something. It means something. He perches eternal life for us. He offers us as a gift and wants you to receive it. It means something. And verse three tells us what it means. And this is eternal life that you know the only true God in Jesus Christ whom he has sent. What does it mean to have eternal life as more than just going to heaven? As more than just having your sins forgiven and being cleansed. And verse three explains it. Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say this is eternal life that you get to go to heaven, though that's true. Instead, he focused on something else. Something else that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. These words that spreads to the content and the result of eternal life. Eternal life is you knowing the Father and saving faith in the hearing now. He didn't say that you may know him when you get to heaven. You even know him now. Why are you here on earth? What do you think was the most valuable thing Adam and Eve lost in the garden? What do you think it was? What was the most valuable thing they lost in the fall? Was it the garden? Was it the innocence? No, it was communion with the Father. Was the most important thing that they lost because they got out of other stuff because of who they were and the Father. The broken relationship with their Creator was lost, shattered from the cost of sin, and only the cross put it back together again. Only the cross. Only the cross. Yeah, I could come across having to get sins forgiven, but more importantly, I can be made right with the Father. I can be restored to relationship with him. That's your created purpose, as Mark Stern always says, to be in relationship with the Father. When was the last time you just meditated on the truth that you are made right with God through the cross of Christ? Then just think about it. Made right with a holy God. That you don't have to do anything to please him. You don't have to do anything to save yourself that is true Christ that you may write with him, and that when he sees you as a child, he sees his son's blood over you covering you. That person's made right. That person's made right. That person's sin is forgiven because of what my son did. Have that really sunken to your soul? But a God of the universe says you're right with me now because of what my son did, my son did. Eternal life that Jesus gives, it restores us to the place we were meant to be. It restores us to Genesis 1 and 2, basically, in right standing with the Father before Genesis 3 comes in. In communion, in relationship, in fellowship with the Father, that's eternal life. That's eternal life. And that's the cross unplugged. First, the cross was appointed by the Father, exclusively set for Christ alone to bear. Second, the cross brings glory to the Father because through it Christ gives eternal life to his people. And third, the cross is what restores us and reconciles us to the Father. And this table is a reminder of those three things. A reminder of what Jesus did for us on the cross, the Lord's table. And so if you have a saving faith in Christ this morning, then guess what? You need those reminders. You need the reminder of the gospel. You need to receive spiritual nourishment and encouragement and you walk with Christ because we all need it. We need none of us perfect. But there is a warning attached to the meal. First, the meal is for believers. What does that mean? It means you have to know Jesus to partake of the table. And if you are a believer, you have to examine yourself before you receive the element. So that means if you have an issue with a brother or sister, then you shouldn't partake today. You need to go deal with that brother's sister first. And if you can't partake today, there are prayers on the back of your bulletin that you can pray through and I encourage you to do those things. So before we partake of the elements, let us have a time or prayer asking the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts.