Presence Weekly 2/05/2024

The Devo - "What World Is This?"

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. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am 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. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. - John 17:9–19 (ESV):

— 

The world, as John uses the term, refers not to the third planet from the sun, but the culture of those not reconciled to the Son. This is clear from Jesus' statement that, “the world has hated them because they are not of this world.” As he prays, Jesus is speaking truth to His Father regarding the relationship of his disciples to the culture in which they live. The culture, as Jesus says, “hated them.” 

The world that hated them was multi-faceted. 

The Jewish religious world, overseen and directed by the Sanhedrin, Sadducees and Pharisees, hated them because they followed a Man who said that righteousness came not through legalistic rule-keeping, but through faith in Him. 

Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, went to parties with tax collectors, commiserated with prostitutes and women who slept around, intentionally walked into Samaria, told stories in which the Samaritan (not the priest) was the hero, fed the hungry and the poor, and was outspoken about his disdain for the symbiotic power-maintaining relationship between religious leaders and the state. 

Then there was the Roman world. That world saw Jesus and His followers as either irrelevant or extreme, and perhaps even detrimental to the stability of the state. Jesus was intentional in His interactions with the state, encouraging people to pay their taxes, and refusing offers to take over and rule from a position of power. 

When he was arrested by the Temple guards, sent not by the Romans, but the Pharisees, Jesus stepped in against Peter’s sword-wielding response, and went willingly to two different courts. First the religious leaders and then to the Roman officials. 

Why did Jesus die? Despite his doing everything right, the world hated Him.  

As Jesus prays in the Garden, while awaiting His arrest, His prayer is offered with full knowledge of what is coming. He understands the lay of the land and the way things are going to play out.  So, while affirming that the world will hate them, he prays that the Father would keep them from the evil one.  

That is the world that Jesus lived in. That is the world that we live in. That is the world that many outside of the United States have lived in for years. 

John’s letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation is the Apostle’s effort to encourage Christians in the first century who were quickly becoming the focal point of Roman persecution. Why? Because Christians had little value, and lighting them on fire and feeding them to lions was simply good theater.  

The Crusades were a series of wars to take back Jerusalem from the Muslim occupiers who were oppressing the Christians. Hundreds of thousands died during the Crusades in the name of ending Christian oppression and gaining Christian dominance in the world.

In the 1600’s Puritans left England because they were facing persecution for not following the religious practices of Protestant England. That was motivated, in part, by the symbiotic relationship between the English religious leaders, their version of Christianity, and the State. Anyone who could not get with the cultural program, was better off elsewhere.  

Christians in China have, for many years, lived under the threat of prison torture and death. They are monitored, followed, arrested, and sent to reeducation camps as a means of bringing them in line with the rest of the Chinese cultural world. 

All that to say, the world has always hated the gospel and the Christians who lived in accord with its truths (knows as "evangelicals"). Despite some recent authors’ attempts to say that we have moved from a "neutral world" into a "negative world," the world has always been opposed to the evangelicals. This is nothing new. 

As such, the manner in which we engage the world (culture) does not need to change. Jesus said, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”  Interestingly, Jesus not only asked this of the Father during His prayer, it is His charge to His disciples after His resurrection. 

The doors being locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” John 20:19–21

Of course, this begs the question, “How did the Father send the Son? What did the Son do? How did the Son engage the world?” (Now is a good time to re-read the Gospel of John.)

The Apostles did their best to obey the direction of Jesus. 

They preached the good news in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). They planted churches, healed the sick, offered relief to widows and orphans, conversed with philosophers, spoke to military officials, religious leaders, political leaders, and those along the entirety of the socio-economic spectrum. 

Like Boy Scouts, they were trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. They always had an answer for their faith and took seriously the exhortation to proclaim the excellencies of the one who called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9-12). They were taught to honor the emperor, act as salt and light, and to make the gospel relevant to all people. 

Our world is no more negative than it has always been. Obergefell did not usher in a new season on Christian life and it certainly did not mandate a shifting response to the "world." We do not need a new approach to culture, we simply need to embrace the one we see in the New Testament. The Creation Mandate did not end with the Fall and The Great Commission did not end with the Apostles. We continue to be called into a posture of faithful presence by offering foretastes of the coming kingdom to all who we encounter, sharing the gospel with the whole world, and making disciples of all nations.

Last Things...

Look for two Presence Journal articles this week!