Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | February 3, 2011

“I also have sent them into the world.”

Today’s devotion comes from John 17:13-19.
 
“13  “But now I come to You;  and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 
                                       
 14  “I have given them Your word;  and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
                                          

 15  “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

 16  “They are not of the world, even 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, I also have sent them into the world.

 19  “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”  John 17:13-19. 

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We could stay in our ivory towers.  It does make sense and can be defended by picking out a verse and some language in an article in a Reformed Confession, here and there.  But, Jesus sends us out into a dark and dirty and dangerous world.

“9  As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth;  and He said to him, “Follow Me!”  And he got up and followed Him. 
                                  
 10  Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.
                                         

 11  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?”

 12  But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

 13  “But go and learn what this means:  ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:9-13.

We are reminded of Jesus’ example.  “What do you think?  If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?  “If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.  “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”  Matthew 18:12-14.

Yes, it is a dark and dirty and dangerous world out there. 

But, there is hope!

We are not sanctified by the means of grace within our ivory tower.  We are sanctified by the Man of grace Who sends us out into the world to be salt and to be light and to bring in that lost sheep.

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