Jesus Sent The Called Out Ones Into The World

What Did Jesus Do?

“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
John 17.18

It was the Father's plan that the Son call out his own from the world (John 17.6; see WDJD for 6/14/11). So it was that Christ's followers would become known as the ekklesia—the “called out ones” (in English, “the Church”). As the Son was not of the world, but of heaven, so too the ones he called out would not call the world their home, but would desire and belong to a heavenly country (see Hebrews 11.13-16). Yet, just as the Father had sent the Son into the world to accomplish a mission, Jesus sent the called out ones into the world on a mission.

For this reason Jesus prayed a very special prayer, often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, for his Church, which would be an apostolic church, which is to say a delegate body, a band of messengers, a group sent forth under orders. In the prayer the Son asked the Father for two things in particular for his Church: protection, and sanctification.

For as long as he was with them, Jesus guarded and protected his followers, keeping them in the name he shared with the Father (John 17.12). And this protection was critical, for the world hated all who received the words Jesus spoke (John 17.14). Knowing he would soon be leaving his disciples, the Son asked the Father to continue to keep them in the name, and to guard them from the devil (the “evil one”) while they remained in the world on the mission the Lord had given them (John 17.15).

That mission, that message which the Church would bear into the world, demanded that Christ's followers be sanctified, that is, set apart and perfected for holy work. And Jesus asked the Father to sanctify his disciples in the truth, which is nothing less than the Word of God (John 17.17). For their sake, and not for the world, Jesus consecrated himself, set himself apart for the most holy work of God, so that in truth his Church should also be sanctified (John 17.19), for its most holy work in the world.

So it is that the Church, though not of the world, has a singular mission in the world, which is, in the name of the Father and the Son, to be sent to proclaim the Word of God. This Gospel, the Good News, still sanctifies those whom the Father is calling out of the world through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. A church which separates itself totally from the world cannot be the Church whose mission is to be sent ever and again to the world. No one who follows the Son can be so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good to the Father. If we are called out, we can be sure it is in order that we may be protected and sanctified, and then be sent back into the world, in Jesus' name.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4