Reading from John 17, verses 6 through to 20. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father. Protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scriptures would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now but I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified." For the benefit of those who will be listening to a recording of this session, let me introduce myself and my topic. My name is Wayne Lyons and this is the 14th session of the 2008 New Creation Summer School. The title of my topic is Out Among the Nations. In the previous 13 sessions we have undertaken a review of the scriptures that relate to the theme of the healing of the nations and I trust that we've come to see that the Scriptures reveal how much God is interested in the nations. From Genesis to Revelation, His concern for the nations figures prominently. And we've also seen how God has planned and determined to bless those nations even in the face of their hostility, and that He intends to have the nations, Jews and Gentiles fully represented in the new heavens and the new earth so that they will reflect His glory. We've also seen that while the gospel comes to us personally, it is not a private gospel. Rather, it is a gospel for the nations. Yesterday, Andrew Clinesmith, in speaking on the very topic of the gospel for the nations, shared from his own personal experience of how it's possible to hear the gospel in such a way that we remain centre stage. And so the gospel becomes all about us and how God is meeting our needs, when in fact the gospel is all about what God is doing and has done in his son Christ. And the Gospel is a declaration of Christ's Lordship. In coming into this world, living amongst us, going to the cross and rising again, he has defeated the powers of evil. He has taken away our sin and our guilt. He has brought forgiveness to the world and he has been raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father where He is reigning and bringing into effect that defeat of evil and of death on the cross, bringing all things into subjection so that there will be a day when He will hand over the Kingdom to His Father so that the Father will be everything to everyone. And I ask you this morning, is the Father everything to you? He is. And that's because Christ's reign, his rule, his lordship has come to you. And as has been shared through this week, when Christ comes to us, we are turned out from ourselves and we go with that declaration to the nations. I want us to look at that great height priestly prayer in John 17 and see what it has to tell us about being in the world. We know that this is a prayer for the inner circle of Christ's followers, his disciples who would become his apostles. And we see that they are to be in the world in verse 11 and in verse 16. At the same time, they're not of the world because he's not of the world. And so as we look at this subject of being out among the nations, I want us to look at both these aspects of being in the world but not of it. And although this prayer is focused upon those followers in that upper room before Jesus was to be betrayed and arrested, we see in verse 20 that the prayer is not only for those disciples but for those who would believe in Him through their word. And so I take it that this prayer and what it has to say about being in the world is also for us. And what we should recognise from the start is that to be in the world but not of it automatically places us in a position of tension. And you experience that tension every day, don't you? By being in the world, we are exposed to the ways of the world and there's always the temptation before us to participate in what the world is about. But because Christ has come to us and taken hold of us, we're not of the world. And so we know and experience that tension. But because this is the Lord's doing, that we are in the world but not of it, and we trust him to know what is right and to do what is good, we assume that this tension is a good thing. It's good for his purposes and good for us. Now anyone who's read a bit of church history will see that Throughout the centuries the church has struggled with that tension. At times it's responded to being in the world but not of it by wanting to escape the world. And there was this whole movement of the hermits who would turn their back on all the pleasures of the world and want to be out in the desert places where they could be left alone and meditate and read the scriptures and pray. and become closer to God in that way. That movement of hermits developed into a whole monastic system where there'd be communities of hermits, a bit of a contradiction, but they would, the same principle applying, they want to remove themselves from the temptations and the contamination of the world and be devoted to the scriptures and the worship and the prayers. And in amongst that there's this whole mood or spirit of asceticism where anything of the world, anything that's pleasurable must be wrong and so the creation is not to be enjoyed, it's to be rejected and the only way to become holy is to be separated from the world and to be totally devoted to the Lord in that way. denying marriage, denying all sorts of foods, denying sleep, denying all comfort. And there's a stream of monasticism still in our own day. It's not necessarily formal as it was in the medieval times, but there is that same spirit of asceticism that we can see in some sectors, some sections even of the evangelical church. And then on the other side, You have the church wanting to be relevant and more or less adopting the culture in which it lives, and it becomes very hard to tell the difference between the church and the world. References made, I think yesterday, to the hot tub churches, where the focus is about comfort and making the whole worship experience pleasurable entertaining, there has been a loss of discernment of the distinction of being in the world but not of it. And all through the centuries the Church has struggled with being in the world but not of it. So we recognise that struggle and we are part of that. But let's see what Christ has to say about being in the world as He prays for His disciples and He prays for us. And the first thing I want us to notice is that in being in the world, we are actually sent by Christ with his word. We are in the world, out among the nations, because we've been sent there by Christ. It is a deliberate and intentional action on his part. We are where we are, not simply due to the choices we have made, but according to his plan that his salvation shall reach to the end of the earth. So in verse 18 of chapter 17, we are sent by Christ just as he was sent by the Father. His prayer is, as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. How has the Father sent Christ into the world? Christ is the Father's word to the world. Christ is sending us in the same way. We are Christ's word to the world. Christ has given us his word. We are his heralds and we are sent into the world with his word. For me, that means working in a large legal office in a government department. It means marrying into a family where only my wife and her mother are Christians. It may mean, and it does mean, different things for each one. of us here. One thing that we need to get very clear, it's very important, is that our good works and our deeds of mercy are not God's means of salvation. Don't get me wrong, good works, being merciful, living in love is indispensable to being the new creation. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, we're told in Ephesians chapter 2. But that is not why he has sent us to be amongst the nations. Many non-Christian organisations, many non-Christians do charitable works just as Christians do. Of course, as Christians we have a motivation and a power for doing good that is unique. We have the very Spirit of God bearing his fruit in us. We are constrained by the love of Christ. But that motivation and that power cannot be understood without faith. The light of the Gospel must come to the world that they may understand where our good works originate from. And so faith is required to better interpret what we do. It has to come as a revelation. And faith only comes through hearing the Word of Christ, as we've heard about in Ian's talk on Romans 10. So what is really distinctive about us is that we have been sent with the very Word of Christ. Never underestimate what God may do with a word spoken in season. Martin has mentioned how Noel Jew and I have visited some churches in India. We've done that over the last two years for two or three weeks at a time. And there's a remarkable story of God's work in this little remote area of India on the eastern side near the Bay of Bengal. Thirty years ago, a brother and sister were staunch Hindus. The sister's husband died in her young age. She was about 19 or 20. And for a Hindu, a Hindu woman, for the husband to die is more than a tragedy, it's a disaster. Because it means that there's bad karma. would feel responsible for her husband's death. It's some kind of payback for something that she's done in her former life. And it's not uncommon in the early, in past centuries, not so common now, for a widow to throw herself onto the funeral bar that's in flames and die with her husband because of the shame associated with having lost their husband. And she was in a distraught state, this woman. And her brother, likewise, could not fathom why this had happened to them. Their mother knew a Christian. That Christian, we do not know where she came from, but she was a friend of this brother and sister's mother. And she shared the Gospel with them. And in their distress, they turned to Christ. There were no answers for them in Hinduism. But the reality of Christ broke open to them in the speaking of the Gospel. And they started sharing the Gospel with their friends and their relatives. And over the last 30 years, 30 or so churches have cropped up in the villages surrounding the area. And today there are over a thousand believers that have come about through that conversion of two people in one family. So the Christian who originally shared that word with that brother and sister may never have seen the outcome of that proclamation. But it is the power of God for salvation. So never underestimate what God will do with his word. And what's another aspect of how Jesus has been sent into the world and we likewise have been sent by him into the world? Well, when Jesus was sent by his father, he dwelt amongst us. John 1 verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Jesus did not just pay us a visit. He pitched his tent in our midst. When it says he dwelt amongst us, it could be translated he tabernacled or he tented amongst us. And he lived as a man for 30 years before he was crucified and raised to the right hand of the Father. Galatians 4 verse 4 also tells us that he was born of woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law. And what that means is that he experienced and was subject to the same conditions as the rest of his Jewish people. And that'll be the same for us. We are to pitch our tent amongst our people and experience and be subject to the same conditions as they are. It is true that short-term cross-cultural missions have their place in God's purpose. I don't want to put a damp rag on that. But the Lord's intention in sending us out among the nations is that we will dwell amongst them and we will be subject to the same conditions as they are and we will minister to them from where they are. So it's in our workplaces, in our neighbourhoods, in the families we are born in or married into, that is the place where we've been sent with the word. From time to time, It's important to review whether we are being prompted to leave our established situation and go elsewhere. I find quite regularly, every year or so, I'm pondering about, is this where the Lord wants me? Quite often it's when I've got a mountain of paperwork to get through or I'm having to fix up another staff conflict. But it's a healthy thing to not just assume that this is where God wants us to remain, but to be open to His leading. But I can assume that you, as God's people, are led by His Spirit, that Christ has His hold on your life, and that where you are is where He has sent you, and He's sent you with His word. Now, as we review our situation and wondering where the Lord might be leading us, We need to remember that the need does not constitute the call. There are many needs in this world. And we only go to the nations as and when we are sent. We never actually do anything for God, if you remember what Ian Pinnacle had to say. If you do have a calling, this should never be only a personal venture. Remember, the gospel is not all about you. We are members of Christ's body and we are sent by him together. And we need to be together in the sending. Acts 13, the first part of the chapter, is a great and wonderful example of that, how Paul and Barnabas were there with the church of Antioch and preaching and teaching. And then during fasting and praying, they heard the word of the Spirit set apart for me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work that I've given them to do. And so as a church, they heeded that word of the Spirit set them apart, continued in prayer and fasting and sent them out. It is a wonderfully confirming thing if the body of Christ is of one mind in sending a brother or sister to another place or situation. So if you have that calling, if you believe the Lord is leading you into another situation, submit yourself to the leadership of your church. Pray together about it. Come to one mind about it and be sent with their blessing. So the first thing about being in the world is that we are sent there with the word. The next thing I want us to see is that we're in the world sanctified by Christ with his word. John 17, verse 17, Jesus prayed, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. We are set apart for a holy service to God. That's what it means to be sanctified, set apart for a holy service to God. And that holy service is in the word. His holy service is given to us as the fruit of Jesus' own holy service of going to the cross and atoning for the sins of the world. In verse 19 he says, and for their sake I consecrate myself, in other words I set myself apart for a holy service, that they also may be sanctified in truth. We have nothing for this world apart from Christ. We are made clean by his action on the cross And it's like Isaiah, who after the coal from the altar touched his lips, he knew he was holy. And when the Lord asked, who shall I send? He said, send me. Jesus' action on the cross is the gospel we proclaim. Without his action on the cross, we would remain in our sin and be incapable of rendering any holy service to God. And it's this message of the cross that is distinctive amongst the nations. Never forget that. There is a line of thought, I don't know whether you've come across it, but I certainly did as I was going through my university education, that all Christians should be aiming to be in full-time Christian ministry and that the ministry of preaching, teaching and evangelism is a higher calling than any other vocation. I had a pretty rough time studying law at uni. I had to put up with jokes like, how can you tell a lawyer is lying? When he's moved his lips, of course. Why have they replaced lab rats with lawyers? It's because they found that there are some things rats won't do. And there were some very pious friends, very well-meaning friends, who very honestly would say to me, how can you be a Christian and a lawyer? Do not be deceived. It is the Word that sanctifies us and enables us to render service to God in whatever vocation we are given. We are not sanctified by engaging in Christian ministry. If that was the case, then we were really talking about sanctification by works. And we're really returning to another form of monasticism, which separated the natural order from the sacred. But all things are sacred with thanksgiving. So it is the Word that sets us apart for ministry. It is not ministry that sets us apart for the Word. So here today, are you qualified to proclaim the gospel. Of course you are. If the word has come to you and you've heard it and you have been met by Christ and filled with his grace, then that word is on your heart and you cannot but proclaim it. It doesn't have to be at the front of an auditorium like this. You know that. It's where you are. It's where the Lord has sent you. But if that word has come to you, you are sanctified. You have a ministry of holy service to God. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had to cancel next year's summer school because God has sent us out all over the world and there's not enough of us to make it worthwhile to be here. The third thing I want us to see about being in the world is that we are kept by Christ through his word. Jesus prayed in verse 14 of chapter 17, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. It is the word of the father that sets us apart from the world and at the same time it makes us an object of the world's hate. We need to recognise that the world despises us because it despises the word that fashions and directs our lives. It's not works of mercy or of love that it hates, but it's the word of the gospel which confronts the words of the world. You know that, don't you, that the world has its own message, constantly beating out through all its various media, and it comes into conflict with the word of Christ. And the world hates it. And that hatred can take various forms. Persecution is one form. Indifference is another. Nevertheless, we're not to be afraid to be out among nations because Jesus has prayed for us that the Father would keep us. Have a look at verse 11 of chapter 17. And I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I'm 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. And also in verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." Jesus specifically did not pray that we would be taken out of the world. We trust that it is his good purpose that we are in the world and that he will secure us and guard us while we are there. Do you think these are just words that Jesus prayed? Ought we not be confident that his prayer is answered? And that if we belong to his Father, that he will guard and keep us in the world. Again, it is the word of the Gospel that secures us in this world. It is through the word that we come to know the Father and belong to him. In verse 6 he says, I have manifested your name to the people, praying to his Father. 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. Jesus is the word of the Father and we are being kept in that word. We are kept in the name of the Father by that word. So Jesus has shown God to be Father and so to be kept in his name is to remain belonging to him as his children by believing in Jesus' word. With that assurance we may live boldly in this world. When Noel and I visited some of these village churches, some of them were no more, in terms of their building, no more than a thatched, mud-thatched cottage the size of this stage I'm standing on. And in a village of maybe a thousand people, there might be two families that meet together, the pastor and his family and the pastor's wife and her family. And on one occasion, We were visiting this church. It had been an outdoor meeting and half the village turned out to hear us proclaim the gospel, which was a wonderful occasion. But afterwards, the pastor wanted us to see his church building. We were so proud of it. And we stood in this little thatched hut, no bigger than this stage, and we prayed together. And there were no instruments, no ornamentation. But I tell you, the glory of Christ was there. And all they have is each other and the Scriptures in their own language, and they come together week by week and they worship. The Lord keeps them. If in our own churches, if we stripped away our elaborate musical arrangements, if we took away our well-developed youth programs, if we took away our well-appointed and large auditoriums, would we still come together to worship and to hear the word? Well, of course you would. Of course you would. If you've heard that word of grace and you've met Christ, and your sins have been forgiven, you want to come together with God's people and to worship and rejoice and hear more of that. There is nowhere else to turn for life. Christ is our life. I could almost wish that we would get rid of all those other things so that we would know that even more clearly. But it is wonderful having an orchestra to help us sing. We should never downplay that, but let us not see that as the essence or what's essential to being a church or being a Christian. The Lord will keep us. He's promised it. He's prayed for it. We are His. So the tendency to create Christian enclaves needs to be avoided. There has been a practice in some areas of the Christian world for Christians to buy up all the properties in one area or to move into an area, and they only work in Christian-run businesses, and so where they live and where they work, where they worship, they're only ever with people of their church. Now, we may not be involved in that, but we can still have a siege mentality where we go to work and we keep to ourselves as much as possible, we keep the contact to believers to a minimum, and all our socialising, all our energies, all our activities are caught up in what the church is doing. We need to see that we have nothing to fear by being in the world because Christ's hand is upon us and we are his and he will keep us. Church leadership should be encouraging the people to be out and about in the general community, taking the word with them, out among the nations, not developing more programs that keep absorbing the time and energies of the flock. A self-absorbed church is not hearing the gospel. Do you know what a self-absorbed church is? It's one where all its resources and energies is poured into itself. And what they're about is building themselves up, the Church is building itself up. And what it proclaims is not Christ, but the Church. So we're in danger of that, my friends. That's a real danger, that's a real trap for us in the Western world. We have so much prosperity, so much lavished on us, But so often we are directing it into ourselves. But even in a family situation, at a family level, can I say Christian parents should have a confidence that the Lord will keep your children in this world. You do not need to be overly protective of them. Instruct them and nurture them in the way of the Lord, yes. You must do that. But then send them out with your blessing. Don't hold on to them, don't cling on to them, and trust them to their Father in Heaven. So we've seen that in being in the world, we are sent by Christ with his word. We are sanctified by Christ with his word, and we are kept by Christ with his word. In the last few minutes that we have left, let me just share a few things about being in the world but not of it. Dean Metheringham mentioned how we have a predilection to ignore Jesus and adopt the current cultural mores. We have this tendency to be undiscerning about what the message of the world is and to incorporate it in the way we do things. And before we know it, we're looking more like the world than we are of Christ. Perhaps a very topical and recent example of that is where I've heard great sadness, really, that the Church has done a wonderful thing in arranging and presenting Carols by Candlelight for the community. And it's been a great evening of sharing the wonderful and deep theology in the carols as praise given for the coming of Christ. But you know, the climax of the evening was Father Christmas. And spasmodically through the carol service, the people were heightened with expectation that this great man was coming. And sure enough, towards the end of this carols evening, Father Christmas and his entourage come on and the children are gathered in and gifts are given out and then in a puff of smoke he disappears. Why do we do that? What is that about? Do you understand that Father Christmas is a contradiction of the Gospel? The gospel, my friends, is so good. It's about God's grace to us, how he's come to sinners and given his own son for them. He's abandoned them up, that they may have all things freely. Father Christmas is about, if you're good enough, if you've kept the rules and been good, you might get a toy. So you have grace and works. So what does Father Christmas have to do with Christian ministry? Absolutely nothing. Get rid of him. He has no place in Christian ministry, no place in our churches, and dare I say it, no place in the Christian home. That might be offensive. But how confusing must it be for our children for us to be speaking of Christ And the grace that has come to us in him, and then at the same time telling you, you must be good. Father Christus won't give you anything unless you've been good. As we consider the issue of being in the world, but not of it, we do understand that not all that calls itself church is the church. But we leave that for the Lord to judge. That's not for us. But the fact is, even though we may give in at some points, we are not of the world because we belong to the Father. And because we belong to Him through the action of the Word, we are by nature a people of the Word. Again, never forget that. As we live in the world but not of it, we live by that Word because that is consistent with who we are. Philippians 2 verses 14 to 16. do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation." That's where we are, out amongst the nations. You don't need any explanation of what it means for it to be a crooked and twisted generation. We see it all around us. But we're not taken out of it. We're not asked to or told to escape from it. That's where we are, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Fancy that. You're a star. That light, of course, is the light of the Gospel that has come to you. And in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, we are holding fast to the Word of Life. That is how we live in this world and not be of it. We remain in the Word. Holding fast to the Word of Life. That would mean paying attention to the scriptures. It would mean knowing what the gospel is. It wouldn't be just holding to a set of doctrines. It would mean obeying the gospel, hearing it so that it actually orders our life. Be seeking to live in accord with it, forgiving others as we have been forgiven. It would mean having our attitudes and our behaviour informed and shaped by the Gospel rather than by the words of the world. It would mean being thankful to God in all things. Fancy that. Do all things without grumbling. Our time is gone. I wanted to speak on how being not of the world because we are citizens in heaven, and how we are sojourners and exiles in this world. I won't go into that other than to say that we need to see that our life is already hidden with God in Christ and we are in the heavenly places seated with him. So our lives, though living day by day in the world, we are not of the world. We're looking to the new heaven and the new earth. So we can hang loose to what's going on here. We can enjoy the creation with thankfulness but without being obsessed with it, without indulging in it or making an idol of it. It's all passing away. So to conclude, being out among the nations as God's people and proclaiming the word that has saved us places us in the tension of being in the world but not of it. However, it is a tension that is ordained by Christ. The very word that we bring to the nations is the word that keeps us in the Father while we live in the world. It is also the word that is for the healing of the nations. Amen.