Kept on the Journey

Below are the notes from my sermon Sunday morning.

Scripture Reading: John 17:6-26; Psalm 121

As we come this morning to the prayer of Jesus we can recognize that it has three elements to it.

1.     The first is Jesus’ address to God the Father. Asking the Father to glorify him so that eternal life can now come through Jesus. (John 17:1-5)

a.      Jesus declares that he has glorified the Father on earth but now looks forward to being back in the Father’s presence with the glory he had before the world existed! Remember—Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the word.

b.     Colossians reminds us that all that all things were made for Him and by Him.

2.     Secondly, Jesus prays for the disciples that have been with him for the three years of his ministry. ( John 17:6-19) Jesus knew that he would soon be leaving them and states that he had protected them for all the years they have been together. Jesus proclaims that his Word has been poured into the disciples and that they have believed him.

a.      Jesus was concerned that they would be in the world and would have to continue to deal with all that entailed.

                                                             i.      Father protect them so that they would experience the same unity with each other that Jesus had with the Father. Protect them from the evil one.

b.     Jesus desired that His joy would be complete in his disciples.

c.      Sanctify them through the word of truth.

3.     17:20-26

a.     Jesus now turns this prayer to those who would believe in Jesus in the future. This is us!!!

                                                             i.      May they be one—the theme of unity is prevalent throughout Jesus’ prayer.

b.     The glory of God has been given to all who believe!

                                                             i.      Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

                                                           ii.      Christ in you the hope of glory—Colossians 1:27

c.      Jesus expresses the importance of the love that we all receive in knowing the Lord—the same love that Jesus says the Father loved him with.

d.     Father, I want them with me!

The entire theme of Jesus prayer is about the love of God and how it affects our lives. It is the deep expressions of Jesus that the same relationship he had with the Father is the relationship that he desired for those who would believe in Him. In that love is a protection factor that covers each of us with the strength that can only come from the Lord. It isn’t that we all don’t feel weak sometimes, maybe even hopeless at times—but, no matter what is transpiring in our lives, we are assured that Jesus has not only prayed for us before we even existed but that according to Hebrews, is our intercessor in the heavens!

As we now turn to Psalm 121we are reminded of the powerful words in this Psalm. In this psalm, the Hebrew term “shamar” is used 6 different times. Each one referring to words such as guard, keep, protect and observe. It would be the Hebrew equivalent to how Jesus is asking the Father to protect those who believe in Him. In our translation today, it is used mainly with the word, “protect”.

The psalmist is on the journey to Jerusalem. To think of life as a journey is a true and helpful metaphor. One day God’s Spirit breathes life into us, and one day we will breathe our last and our breath will go back to God. In between, we meet people, grow and develop, and have experiences of all kinds. THIS LARGER JOURNEY IS MADE UP OF UNTOLD SMALLER JOURNEYS, EACH OF THEM CONTRIBUTING TO OUR EVENTUAL WHOLENESS. Being in the loving presence of the God who sustains us through life.

We need to understand that our life begins and ends with God. Sometimes it seems as if Gods runs slightly ahead of us on the path of life and waves at us to come and join Him. Frequently, the journey between our standpoint along the way and God’s is not entirely smooth sailing!

When you look back on your life can you remember moments of transitions in your life, small or great that have shaped and formed your life. Perhaps you left one job for another. Perhaps you moved to another location or risked everything to follow a dream in your life. Many of you have retired and that alone brought great transition. For the church, transitions can be developing a new ministry, to breathe new life into the liturgy etc., or simply rearranging the platform or the order of worship. Daring to do things differently than done before. Change can come in many different ways.

Regardless of whether it is a personal journey or one in the life of the church, the thing that turns these journeys into a journey of ascent is that to embark on them is to respond to the God who calls us to leave one place for another. This is not a physical move as much as it is a spiritual one.

The goal is to be where God is, and to be assured that with all of our going out and coming in—our births and our deaths, our hellos and good-byes, our expanding and our decreasing, our risky adventures and our safe returns home.

The person in our psalm sees the hills a little intimidating and a challenge. They could have been a potential place to hide, a symbol of the Lord’s stability and deliverance, or a looming menace. Any of these ideas could prompt the questions of concerning the source of help. He knows that he cannot make this journey alone and wonders where to look for confidence and support.

On a gut level, we know what it means to lift our eyes to the hills in search of help. We have all made this cry at challenging times in our lives. Our culture in the 21st century promotes individualism and self-sufficiency, but at some point, we all have to face the reality that we simply cannot be our own gods. If we try to “do it all by myself.” Life will remind us otherwise sooner or later. We will have to look to the hills and ask for help.

Some people feel closest to God in the midst of good times, when everything seems to be going well. These people get discouraged when they hit life’s challenges. Others, however, find a greater closeness to God in the dark and challenging times. This is often because their protective guard comes down, and they have no choice but to recognize their place in the relationship to the Almighty. They have no choice but to acknowledge the limits to their own power.

HONESTLY, THERE IS A BLESSING IN THE GIVEN MOMENTS WHEN WE BECOME AWARE OF OUR OWN POWERLESSNESS. In a sense, these are not so much moments in which we are more powerless than others. Rather, these are moments when we are more informed than usual about how little power we possess. Though it is an uncomfortable realization for us, it is a blessing to be able to live in the truth, after all, and it provides for us a footing for our sincere cry to the Lord.

Our Psalm begins with a question—where does my help come from? The rest of the psalm is a response to that question. The psalmist dwells on the ways in which the Lord is our keeper and is worthy of our trust.

1.     We are reminded that the Lord comes with some credentials, having made heaven and earth! I watch many nature programs and am always amazed at the reality of their knowledge—such as up in Nebraska in March thousands of sand hill cranes fly into the same area around North Platte every year at around the same time. Monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles into Mexico to the same place on the same trees every year. Driving home from South Dakota this week I saw thousands of geese flying in formation—how do they know how to do that! All of nature reveals to us that the God who created is the God we serve!

2.     He will not let your foot be moved.

a.      I understand being worried about “my foot slipping.” After having my ankle and tendons reconstructed a few years ago, I was told that if I severely injured my ankle again the only way to repair it would be to fuse all the bones together.

b.     Perhaps we might slip in other ways—grief, depression, feelings of any sort that cause us to doubt ourselves and our worth?

c.      Sometimes we may even say to yourself, “What’s the use? I’ve tried and tried and it doesn’t make any difference. I might as well give up.”

3.     God doesn’t sleep on the job, per se.

a.      5 different times in this psalm the word protect is used.

4.     God will protect us both day and night.

a.      Like the sun beating down on you in the heat of the day, when the temperature of life gets too hot, God will provide a way for a break from the heat.

5.     The Lord keeps our going out and our coming in—in other words, God’s protection is all encompassing.

a.      We may not always know how the Lord has protected us from harm until we gain that perspective further down the road from the experience. Remember, it wasn’t until Easter that the preceding Friday was called good!

TO BE KEPT BY GOD IS A POWERFUL THING. IT MAY SEEM SOMETIMES THAT WE LOSE OUR GRIP ON GOD. IT IS PRECIOUS TO KNOW THAT HE WILL NEVER LOSE HIS GRIP ON US! THE LORD IS AT WORK IN ALL ASPECTS OF OUR LIVES.

Jesus said that he would never leave us or forsake us! We are in the palm of His hand. We are His children!

WE ARE REMINDED OVER AND AGAIN THROUGH SCRIPTURE THAT WHEN WE ARE BUSY FOLLOWING WHERE GOD LEADS US, GOD ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR SAFETY AND OUR SHADE.

It isn’t that there will not sometimes be pain and difficulty on the journey, but it will not be meaningless and you will not walk alone.

We remind ourselves that the way of following Jesus leads to a cross. Psalm 121 reminds us that no matter what we may face in life, God is and always will be our keeper.

How great is our God—to keep us no matter where we are in our journey. Whether we are young and just starting to discover life or old and looking toward going home to be with Jesus…every step, every experience, whether good, bad, or ugly—we can be fully assured that our mighty God is with us…remember, His name is Immanuel—God With Us! Jesus said he would never leave us or forsake us…what a wonderful promise for us as we journey forward—not only as individuals but as a church.

The key for all of us from Psalm 121 and Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is that during this time of Lent is to know that we must keep seeking the Lord. We must stay in His Word and learn from Him. We must understand that the Spirit of God dwells within us and as Jesus said, is Comforter, Teacher, and Guide. Psalm 121 assures us that the Lord is our Protector and that no matter what we are experiencing we are not alone for in the final verse it says this: “The LORD will protect your coming and going both now and forever.”