Reframing Sanctification | John 17

July 7, 2019 Speaker: Christopher Rich Series: REFRAMING JESUS | Portraits of Glory from John's Gospel

Topic: New Testament Passage: John 17:1–26

Christopher Rich – July 7, 2019
REFRAMING JESUS | Week 32
Reframing Sanctification (For Mission) | John 17
Introduction | Sanctification (growth/set apart)


Good Morning! Welcome to Damascus Road where we are Saved by Jesus Work, Changed
by Jesus’ Grace, and Living on Jesus’s Mission. Today we are continuing our series
REFRAMING JESUS: Portraits of Glory from John’s Gospel. In Reframing Jesus, our desire
isn’t to reinvent Jesus into someone He is not Instead, we seek to have our portrait of Jesus
reframed to see Him as accurately and glorious as possible.
Why do we want to grow, change, mature? Why is it important to us? Why do you want to
grow? Grow in maturity, in temperance, understanding, in experience or confidence? What is
your/our motivation? We want to grow and mature to have and experience a more flourishing
life, there are certain benefits to having experienced growth or positive change that make the
world more easy to navigate. When we’re little kids there is a great benefit that we’re no longer
in diapers any longer. We want to grow to take on more responsibility and enjoy more liberty.
We want to grow, mature, and change so we can have a sense of personal satisfaction that our
lives are progressing, so we can believe we’re getting better, or at least not getting worse. We
want to grow, mature, change so that others will recognize these changes in us. We want to
experience growth so we’ll stand out from others to display our uniqueness or individuality.
None of these are necessarily wicked but they are insufficient to understand what God’s
purposes are FOR us in our lives and the world. Each of theses motivations are inherently self-
focused, because of sin, each of us is inherently self-focused. How am I doing, how do I see
things, how am I impacted by others. We all start with “me”. So let’s just start by understand that
is our baseline, but that is not where we are called to stay. It will make our world and
motivations too small. God want’s more for us that just our best self for ourselves.
God does want us to grow and change. He knows who we are on our own and does not desire
for us to remain as we are. For this is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3) A simple
way to talk about sanctification to talk about it as holy, clean, set apart, even simpler is to look
more like Jesus and less like ourselves without Jesus. But what is the purpose of us being
changed? How can we know we’re secure even as we struggle in the world? If we are disciples
of Jesus what would His prayer for us be? What would he want us to know? How/why would he
want us to grow? Who would He want us to be? He wants us to know His desires is FOR us, as
we’re on His mission. Today we are Reframing Sanctification for Mission.
PART I | Eyes towards Heaven FOR His people | John 17:1-10
John 17:1-10 | When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and
said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2  since you have
given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  3  And this is
eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have

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sent.  4  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  5  And now,
Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world
existed. 6  “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.  7  Now they
know that everything that you have given me is from you.  8  For I have given them the words that
you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from
you; and they have believed that you sent me.  9  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the
world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.  10  All mine are yours, and yours
are mine, and I am glorified in them. 
Jesus eyes are towards Heaven FOR His people – Jesus is in the garden with His disciples
the night he was to be betrayed. This is His final time of communion with God the Father in
prayer before His arrest, trial, beating, and execution. His last petition/recorded prayer is not
only for what he will experience over the next day but as recorded in this chapter, He gives the
great Priestly Prayer for His people to who are being sent on Mission. It’s “priestly” because

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