Dan Lee
John 17:22-26, For Love and Glory (Part-2)

Jesus prays regarding two kinds of glory. He speaks of glory in the present age for His people’s sanctification. God’s elect grow in conformity to Him as they behold His glory in Christ. Jesus also prays for future glory, that His people behold His full, divine, eternal glory in heaven. We are to behold the glory of God now for our sanctification and the glory of God in the future for our glorification.

Dan Lee
John 17:22-26, For Love and Glory

Jesus concludes His prayer with love and glory. Love is the focus of this sermon. The Lord prays that we would come to experientially know (taste) of the Father’s special love. This is the special love of the Father like His love toward His only begotten Son. Like that love, the Father loved His elect from eternity past and “in love predestined us to adoption as sons.” This is the love which Jesus wants us to savor. May the Holy Spirit reveal to us more and more of this awesome love of God.

Dan Lee
John 17:20-23, Salvation Blessing for the World

Jesus’ prayer reflects the heart of God that seeks salvation blessing for the world. Jesus sees the church as the vehicle by which the elect of God worldwide will come to faith in Him unto salvation. In this first installment on a two part sermon, we explore the facets of the church, our mission, our godliness, and the special love of God toward the elect (next sermon).

Dan Lee
John 17:14-19, A Dangerous Mission

Jesus’ prayer for His disciples is undergirded by the reality of a dangerous mission. He knows we will be hated by the world and targeted by the Devil. As such, we will need divine protection. Hence, He prays, “Keep them from the evil one.” Moreover, we will need to live holy lives if we are to make any meaningful impact for the gospel that reconciles and restored sinners to the holy and righteous Father. Our own lives would have to be sanctified in order for us to be useful to the Lord in leading the rest of His elect to this salvation. Therefore, the Lord prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The word of God that has regenerated us is the same word that will sanctify our lives. May the Holy Spirit through His word evermore conform us to Christ that we would be like Him on earth and make disciples for His honor and glory.

Dan Lee
John 17:9-13, For the Joy of God's Elect

Jesus’ first petition for His disciples is found in these verses. Jesus prays that the Father would keep them in His name. Jesus prays for a special people, His disciples and He does so because He was about to physically leave His disciples. What He would no longer be able to do in His physical absence, He asks the Father to accomplish. May the Lord grant to us a greater work of His Spirit to draw us to walk in Jesus’ ways and thus live with His joy evermore in our hearts.

Matthew 6:19-21, A Heart After Heaven

We are to live the Christian life with heaven in our hearts. We are to leverage all that the Lord has entrusted to us for eternity. We are to do so because our hearts follow our treasures. The Lord in this passage wises us up to the detriment and foolishness of storing up treasures on earth. He also prescribes for us the regimen for a healthy heart that invests toward eternity. May our hearts brim over with the joy and the wonder of heaven and our glorious God (the centerpiece of heaven), and may we, thus, earnestly use all He’s given us to bear much fruit for His name’s sake.

Matthew 6:1-18, True Spirituality

At the core of the Christian faith is a reconciled relationship with God. This means that for all who have truly received Jesus as Savior and Lord, there is a living relationship with God as their heavenly Father. Jesus addresses the hypocrisy of His day that revealed the tragic absence of this crucial core of Christian spirituality which the Jews of His day lacked. May the Holy Spirit keep us from the same hypocrisy and instead enable us to be a church of the children of God who know to connect with our heavenly Father in a true spiritual relationship with Him through Christ.

Matthew 5:33-37, Principles for Christian Integrity (Part 2)

Jesus sees Christian integrity as simple and plain. Let your statement be yes yes or no no. The reason why people find this simple approach to honest challenging and unrealistic is that they have lost sight of why we exist and for what purpose God provided redemption for His people. Moreover, Jesus also reveals to us the deep spiritual issue that exists in the matter of dishonesty. He speaks the truth to us so that we would be absolutely sure that we are fighting on the right side of the spiritual warfare and that we are indeed advancing the cause of the Lord, the God of truth, not the cause of Satan, the father of lies. May the Lord evermore grow us in Christian integrity as we learn from Him and His book what it means to be honest men and women of God.

Matthew 5:33-37, Principles for Christian Integrity

The LORD is the God of truth. In a world full of lies, we find the oasis of truth in our triune God who is Himself the truth. As His people, then, it is our privilege and duty to be truthful in all our ways, both in what we say and. how we keep our word. Our Good Shepherd guides us in this path of righteousness toward a lifestyle of honesty. In this part one of our study, we consider two of the four principles for Christian integrity: 1) give up the devices of deception, and 2) wake up to the presence of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit teach us and encourage us to live each day coram deo, in the presence of God.

Matthew 5:29-30, Battle Strategy For Sanctification (Part 2)

Jesus knows what sort of excuses we might make about dealing with the stumbling blocks in our lives. He silences us from saying “it’s too hard” and “it’s not worth it.” The Lord knows us and imparts to us the wisdom to properly and practically deal with the avenues of temptation and sin into our lives. May the Lord evermore grant to us the wisdom to believe His word and repent from sin as He calls us to. In addition to the need to accept the cost of sanctification, we also look at the other side of sanctification, to send the reinforcements of the word of God and the fellowship of God’s people.

Matthew 5:29-30, Battle Strategy For Sanctification (Part 1)

The Lord Jesus Christ who loves His people out of His great concern for their well-being gives a stern warning in this passage. Sin is perilous and we are to deal aggressively with the stumbling blocks in our lives. May the Holy Spirit Himself sanctify us as we seek to be holy as He is holy and strive to continue on in our fight against sin and unholiness.

Jeremiah 9:23-24, One Worthy Boast: the God of Righteousness

The LORD is the God of righteousness. While justice emphasized the LORD’s character applied to evildoers through judgment, His righteousness emphasizes the LORD’s character applied to His people through imputation. In this study, we trace the doctrine of justification as witnessed by Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul. What the LORD has done in the exercise of His righteousness is to make a massive moral deposit into His people’s account through Christ such that we are treated His friends and His beloved. The LORD is the glorious God who alone is worthy of our boast and affections. May the Holy Spirit teach us to invest our time, energy, and affections on what will glorify and honor Him and advance His good will on earth.

Jeremiah 9:23-24, One Worthy Boast: the God of Justice

The LORD is the God of justice. This is an attribute of God that people often have a hard time swallowing, let alone boasting in. Yet, the people of God are called to boast in the God of justice. What are we missing? Why do we not see the justice of God and His judgments are qualities we gladly speak of with those around us? In this study, we consider the truths of God’s hatred for sin and His strenght to punish sin as realities we embrace only because God dispenses justice in His world through judgment.