Soul

THE LAST PRAYER OF JESUS
SOUL
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 17:15-16
MAY 17, 2009

In the Old Testament the words “ruah” and “nephesh” are Hebrew words and they mean wind and breath. They also mean spirit and soul. Now in the New Testament, the Greek words “pneuma” and “psyche” mean wind and breath, but they also mean spirit and soul. This is why many people in the world have sometimes thought of the soul or the spirit as breath or wind. In fact, in the Middle Ages, in more primitive times, there were people who believed that when you sneezed, part of your soul left your body. As your breath, and as your wind, was expelled from your body, they believed that part of your soul left your body because of the literal meaning of these Greek and Hebrew words. Ruah, nephesh, pneuma, psyche. And they believed that as you sneezed, and part of your soul left your body, your soul was somehow vulnerable to the Evil One, and therefore people would say, “God bless you.” Of course, today, when people sneeze, people still say, “God bless you.” I think most people simply mean, “I hope you don’t get a cold,” or “I hope you don’t get sick.” Today we think of ourselves as more enlightened. We think of ourselves as more educated, and we marvel that there was a time when people actually believed that the soul was expelled from the body in a sneeze.

On the other hand, perhaps few of us ever really think about what the soul is. What is the soul? How would you define the soul? In the Bible these words ruah, nephesh, pneuma, and psyche are sometimes used interchangeably. They are sometimes synonymous in meaning. At other times there are distinctions in meaning, but generally, in the Bible the word soul refers to the inner person. It refers to that part of you that transcends death, that part of you that survives death, that part of you that may someday, and will someday, be separated from your body. It refers to that part of you where the personality resides, where your essence, the real you, the seed of your volition, where your will resides, and where you make decisions and choices, that’s all part of the soul. And so, today we focus on the soul.

As we look at The Last Prayer of Jesus Christ for His Church, we see his concern for our souls. As we look at this today, we really have two subjects, and the first is protection: the protection of the soul. Jesus is concerned with the protection of our souls. So, in John 17, Jesus speaks of our being kept in the Father’s name. He said, “When I was with them, I kept them in thy name and I have guarded them so that none of them are lost, but the Son of Perdition, but Judas, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” He goes on to pray that we would not be taken out of the world, but in the world protected from the Evil One. It’s about protection. His prayer is for protection. He has a special concern for our souls.

I think we can all understand the concept of protection. We live in a world where in so many ways we need protection. Our home is being worked on right now. They’ve been working on the front of our house all week, repairing the front of our house, and they’ll be doing it again this week, basically because Barb and I have lived in a birdhouse. We live in Castle Pines North and we’re near a forest, and there’s these birds that we’re told are indigenous to the forest, although I’m sure they migrate for part of the year and come back, I’d just as soon they never came back, but these birds have attacked our home. These birds are not woodpeckers, but they do peck on homes and particularly on the front of our home where we have stucco, and these birds attack your house. And once they focus on your house, they focus generationally so that they keep coming back and then their offspring comes back and they are just destroying our house. They are just destroying our house and we have 30 bird holes in the front of our house and they built nests inside of our walls. When I drive my car into the driveway, heads just come out of the holes. Some of the holes have not just one, but two, three birds come out and look and welcome me to the birdhouse. The problem is, of course, that these birds are an endangered species and they are federally protected. Of course, our home is endangered, but not federally protected. Many of you in the congregation knowing about our problem have shared many wonderful ideas, and we’ve tried them all, and they haven’t worked. So, we’re having the whole front of our house redone and they are putting a hard surface to the front of the house that these birds cannot penetrate, and we have this guaranteed. It’s all about protection.

In this world, God cares even about the animals. God loves life. The Bible makes that clear. God loves life and he is the creator and the giver of life. God cares even about protecting the animals, and it is true that God has blessed animals with some means of protecting themselves. I was reading recently in the Smithsonian magazine about a special kind of horned lizard. This horned lizard has four ways of protecting itself. First of all, if there is any kind of attack, any kind of predator, this horned lizard can just puff itself up. It just kind of blows itself up like a balloon and becomes huge. And if that doesn’t work, it has a second strategy, and that is that it contracts itself in and becomes like a hard dorsal fin and it just lifts it up and it’s just like a hard plate that cannot be penetrated. Strange. And if that doesn’t work, there’s a third strategy where it puffs up its eyelids and swells them out and presses them tight, and then there’s little holes in the lid and they shoot out a stream of blood with a noxious compound in it at the enemy. And if that doesn’t work, then it opens its eyes up and they are all bloodshot, and its cheeks have become all red and it looks like something out of a horror movie. You see in the world of animals these incredible things, and a lot of it, at least I believe is by the hand, is by the plan of God. He’s so marvelous in the way he’s crafted the world and the creation that even animals have means to protect themselves.

But understand this: there is nothing on this earth more precious than you. The Bible makes it clear: you are the crown of God’s creation. God loves men and women above all else. You are the crown of his creation. He has given you the Imago Dei. He has literally breathed on you the breath of life and in part of the Imago Dei. You are created in the image and likeness of God and more precious than anything. And he loves you and he, of course, wants to protect you. He wants to protect your body. He does care about us physically, and he wants to protect your body and that’s why we pray for you and we pray for each other. When you are sick, or you are ill and, in the hospital, or you have cancer or anything, we pray for each other. And we’ve seen God rescue countless times.

But most of all, God wants to protect the soul. That’s why he’s given the Gospel to the world: that our souls might be saved and that our souls being saved might be sealed by the Holy Spirit. So, you have this prayer of Jesus, you have his prayer for the souls of his people that we would be kept and protected even from the Evil One. This is his prayer for us and as we pray each day, as the people of Christ as we pray, we pray for each other and for protection. But not just bodily: we pray for the protection of our souls.

Now there is a verse in the Bible, I want us to take a look at. It’s 1 Corinthians 5:5. This is one of the most controversial verses in the entire Bible. I want us to take a look at it, but first I want to set the setting. I want us to understand the context. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. He’s writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and by the will of God. He’s writing to the church in Corinth and there’s a man in the church in Corinth that has committed sexual sin, but it is not in any normal sense sexual sin. This is incest. A man in the church in Corinth is committing sexual incest, and Paul writes, “This is not condoned even outside the church. Even in the Roman world,” Paul says. “Even in the Greek world, these kinds of activities are condemned. So, how could the church of Jesus Christ be allowing this? This man who is committing incest and is part of your congregation?” So, then you have 1 Corinthians 5:5 and Paul gives his instructions. He said, “I command you as you gather in assembly with the Holy Spirit, as you gather together, I want you to deliver this man to Satan for it is destruction of the flesh that his soul, that the spirit, might be saved on the Day of Judgment.”

There are really three views of this. First, there is the view that it has nothing to do with this man who had committed incest. He’s already been kicked out of the church and so, Paul’s statement about the destruction of the flesh and the salvation of the spirit had to do with the church itself. The word flesh, the word “sarx,” is understood as a symbol of evil and so Paul would be saying, “Kick this man out of the church that the evil in the church might be destroyed.” That the sarx in the church might be destroyed and that the spirit, the good of the church, might be saved. So, Paul’s concern is for the church. Kick this man out of the church, deliver him to Satan that the sarx, the flesh, the evil might be destroyed in the community and that the spirit, the good, might be saved.

That’s the first interpretation and it’s the least likely. There’s been very few scholars that would hold that perspective. It’s highly unlikely because Paul would be using the words pneuma and “sozo” in ways that nowhere else he would apply them. So, it’s unlikely that that’s the proper interpretation of this verse. Paul would be using words in ways he normally did not use them.

There’s a second interpretation. The second interpretation is that Paul is saying, “Kick this guy out of the church, deliver him to Satan, so that his sin nature might be destroyed.” Sometimes in the Bible the word sarx, the Greek word that is translated flesh, refers to the sin nature. The sarx, the flesh, is the sin nature, that’s how it’s rendered in your NIV Bible. If you have an NIV Bible, it doesn’t say flesh, “destruction of the flesh,” it says destruction of the sin nature. Of course, that’s my problem with the NIV. The NIV is sometimes a paraphrase and so, instead of translating sarx literally as flesh, it paraphrases and translates it as sin nature, and I don’t like that. But the idea is there in the second interpretation that sarx means the sin nature. So, Paul is saying, “Kick this guy out of the church, excommunicate him, in order that his sin nature might be destroyed, and then repenting, his soul and spirit would be saved in the Final Judgment.

That’s the second interpretation, but it’s a little bit strange because it’s hard to think of delivering somebody to Satan for the destruction of the sin nature. Normally when you think of the sin nature, you think of something that Satan would not want to destroy, but he would want to enhance. When you think of the sin nature, you think of something that Satan would not want to destroy, but he would want to magnify. And so, it’s a bit of a strange interpretation, but the meaning could be that Paul is saying, “Excommunicate this guy, kick him out of the church, and because of his shame, humble him so that in his shame he might repent and then his soul and spirit would be saved in the Last Day.” That’s a possible interpretation.

But there is a third interpretation, and this third interpretation is the view held now by most scholars, and that is that flesh means flesh. So Paul is saying, “Kick this guy out of the church, deliver him to Satan, excommunicate him, in order that his flesh might be destroyed, his sarx, his body.” Because Satan attacks the body. So this guy, kick him out of the church in order that he might get sick, or maybe even die, and that somehow it would be redemptive, somehow, perhaps if he’s sick, he would come to his senses and repent and be rescued. Or maybe he would even die, but somehow his soul itself could still be saved in the Last Judgment. There’s this third interpretation.

Now I don’t stand here knowing how to interpret that verse. I’ve given you the three interpretations that are out there, and I think the third one is the most likely. I think the second is possible, I think the first is least likely, but understand this: what I want you to understand is the seriousness with which God views the soul. I want you to understand the seriousness with which Jesus Christ views the souls of his people. You can’t deny when you read a passage like this, tough as it is, serious stuff is happening and God cares so much for your soul. He cares so much for your soul that he would allow you to be shamed in order that you might repent, so much for your soul that he would allow your body to become sick or maybe even dead in order to somehow rescue your soul. This is how serious it all is to Christ.

Now I don’t want you to leave here and whenever you see anybody who’s sick think oh man, they must have done something really wrong. That’s not what the Lord would have you take from this, but just an understanding of how seriously Jesus Christ views the protection of the soul and that’s why you see this in this high priestly prayer for the church, this last prayer of Jesus for his people, the protection of the soul.

Well, secondly and finally, there is another teaching this morning that has to do with the sanctification of the soul. Jesus prays not only for the protection of our souls, but also for the sanctification of our souls. So, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in the truth. And thy Word is true.” They don’t only need to be protected; they need to be cleansed. This word sanctify is rooted in a Greek word “hagios.” To sanctify means to make holy. The word hagios literally means to set apart, to set something apart, and it can refer to setting something apart for God, which makes it holy, or setting something apart from sin, which also means holy, but the word hagios means holy. When Jesus prays that we might be sanctified, he’s praying that our souls would be set apart for God and set apart from sin that we would increasingly be separated from sin, that we would learn holiness. This is his prayer. In the prayer Jesus refers to the Father as Holy Father, and then in another place in the prayer, he refers to his Father as Righteous Father, “Righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee.”

The word holy is hagios, again. The word righteous is dikaios, and so Jesus is praying that his Holy and Righteous Father would guide us into holiness and righteousness. This is his prayer for his people. You look at the names of God in the Bible; I love the names of God. One of my favorites is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. God is the Lord of the Angelic Hosts, he’s the Lord of the Starry Hosts, he is the Lord of the Heavens, he is Jehovah Sabaoth. But there are other names given to God and one of the titles and names given to God is Jehovah Mekadesh, and Jehovah Mekadesh means the Lord who Sanctifies Us. And then there is Jehovah Tsidkenu, and Jehovah Tsidkenu in Hebrew means the Lord Our Righteousness. The very names of God explain why Jesus would appeal to his Father for our holiness. He is the Lord who sanctifies us, Jehovah Mekadesh, and he is the Lord Our Righteousness, Jehovah Tsidkenu. This is the prayer of Jesus that the Father would sanctify us and that he would guide us in righteousness.

Now I am pretty confident that most of you have not spent a great deal of time studying the coat of arms of Australia. Pretty confident. We do have some Australians in our church. When you think of a Coat of Arms, that’s kind of a British thing. Here in America, we have our flag and we have our great Seal of the United States. Australia has a flag, but they also have this Coat of Arms. You see the six states of Australia, and each state has its own Coat of Arms, but you see the greater representation of the nation in the Coat of Arms. When you look at Coats of Arms, and you see animals portrayed, usually you see something like a roaring lion, the majesty of the lion, right? What has Australia chosen? They’ve chosen two other animals: the kangaroo and the emu. The kangaroo and the emu are indigenous to Australia, and they are loved by Australians, and they are portrayed on the Coat of Arms. There’s a sense in which they are similar. The kangaroo is about 6′ in height, male kangaroos. The emu is also about 6′ in height. And you see them portrayed as equal in height. The kangaroo weighs about 100 pounds and the emu weighs about 100 pounds. The kangaroo moves at 30 miles an hour. Pretty fast. And the emu moves at 30 miles an hour, so whether you’re talking about the ‘mu or the ‘roo, they are very similar, right? Where else are you going to go to learn this stuff?

I was looking in a Christian publication just a few weeks ago and there was an article there in this Christian publication by a pastor/theologian in Australia and he was saying that for him the Coat of Arms has special meaning because of another sense in which he says the kangaroo and the emu are similar, and it has special meaning for us as Christians. He was saying the kangaroo cannot move backwards. It hops and it moves forward and it goes 30 miles an hour, but it can’t jump backwards, it can’t step backwards, according to this pastor in Australia. And he said the same thing is true of the emu. It can run. It’s a flightless bird. It’s a big bird and only the ostrich is bigger. The ostrich can be 8′ tall and weigh 350 pounds. If you go back to the moa, which was in New Zealand, it was 10′ to 13′ tall. The elephant bird in Madagascar was like 1,000 pounds and laid eggs that were 2 gallons. Some Sunday mornings I lay eggs that are 2 gallons.

He was saying that both these animals are the same in that they can’t go backwards, and he was saying that in the body of Christ, you have people who have accepted Christ. They’ve been regenerated. Their sins forgiven, and now they are starting this journey in sanctification, but you can’t go back, he says. You can only go forward. Incrementally you go forward. You can’t go backward. You’re kind of like the kangaroo and the emu. I was thinking to myself that’s just not true. That’s just not true. In this struggle with sanctification, we don’t just go forward. We’re not always going forward. Sometimes, because we’re fallen, we go backwards. We’re not like the kangaroo. We’re not like the emu. We can go backwards. I want you to understand: this struggle for sanctification is hard and there’s going to be times I don’t want you to be discouraged. There’s going to be times when you lose ground, when you feel like you’re not making progress in holiness or righteousness. Don’t give up! God is looking at the net. He’s looking at the final result as you are growing in Christ over time. Don’t give up!

You know there’s a very controversial passage in Romans 7:13-25, and you have Paul writing there about his struggle with sin. And as Paul describes the struggle with sin, he says that he’s so frustrated because the things that he wants to do, he does not do. And the things he doesn’t want to do, he finds himself doing in his struggle with sin. He also says the evil things he never wants to do, he does, and the good things he wants to do, he doesn’t do. Similar wording. Paul says that in a sense it’s really not him doing it, but it’s this sin nature that dwells in him, and Paul writes, “Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” And then he says, “Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, and in Christ there is no condemnation.” But it is a difficult passage and so, you have Bible scholars and theologians debating, “Is this Paul describing his struggle with his sin prior to regeneration, prior to knowing Christ, prior to becoming a Christian, or is this Paul describing his struggle with sin as a Christian and having been regenerated in Christ? Is he describing his struggle with sin as a Christian?” And most scholars and theologians agree: he’s describing his struggle with sin as a Christian. Because in the Greek in Romans 7, everything’s present tense, and some of it is present continuous, indicating continuous action. And so, the force of the message seemed to be: even Paul struggles with sin. And I say this to encourage you. If even Paul the Apostle had this great struggle with sin, why shouldn’t you?

Here’s my concern as a pastor: that you continue to struggle. When I’m really concerned as a pastor is when I see people give up, when I see people embrace sin. When I see people condone sin. When I see people just, kind of, love their sin. That’s when I’m concerned as a pastor, but when I see people struggling with sin and fighting what the Bible calls The Good Fight, this is the charge, this is the prayer of Christ. This is the prayer of Christ for us.

A few years ago, I shared with you how I was once stuck in a car wash. Some of you might remember that. I drove my car into a car wash and in the middle of the cycle, my car was just filled with suds, and suddenly everything stopped. The door had gone down in front of me. The door went behind me. Nothing opened up. I’m just stuck in the suds. I explained at that time that I think some people out there in the world view the church of Jesus Christ like that. They think it’s like being stuck in a car wash because Christians are always talking about sin and the need for cleansing. And there is some truth to that. In the church of Jesus Christ, it is a little bit like a car wash, but it’s not like being stuck in one. It’s like visiting the car wash again and again cause you need to do this. I did have somebody after that service some years ago… some kid came up and said, “How’d you get out?” And I got out of my car in the midst of the suds and there was a side door and it was locked, and I pounded on that thing until they let me out.

Isn’t it true that you’ve got to keep washing your car? You wash it only to have to wash it again, right? Even our bodies are like this. You take a shower only to have to take a shower again. You have to take a shower virtually every day cause our bodies get dirty and that’s true of our souls. Our souls need washed. I pray regularly with confession of sin and I try to be as specific as I can: confessing sin. And I don’t do this because I’m seeking forgiveness. I already know I’m forgiven. I know that by the blood of Christ, when I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord, he forgave all of my sin past, present, future. I mean I know I’m forgiven, but I confess my sin because I’m wanting to grow in sanctification. I’m wanting to overcome. I’m wanting to find victory. I’m wanting to be sanctified. I’m wanting that washing that moves me more and more towards holiness regularly.

I think this is the prayer of Christ for us. Even when Jesus prays, “Keep them in thy name,” you understand the name of God is his character. The reason the Bible says a good name is better to be had than riches is nothing is more important than your character. Your reputation is tied to your character and the Bible speaks again and again of the Holy Name of God, and his name is Holy because he is Holy. It’s his character. And so, when Jesus prays, “Keep them in thy name, he’s praying that we might be kept in his character, and maybe that’s a new thought for you. But it’s part of sanctification. He’s not just trying to protect the soul, but to sanctify it that we might grow in the character of God and of Christ. This is a process, but Jesus has said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” As you leave here today, you’ve got to ask yourself do you hunger and thirst for righteousness. And do you join Christ in this high priestly prayer?

Last week, Mike Anderson baptized little children up front here. At the middle service he dedicated little children and the last service he baptized them and many of you were here and saw that. Some of us chuckled a little bit as Mike was giving a charge for the parents to discipline these kids. He said, “I know it’s hard to believe, but you’re holding little sinners in your hands.” And that’s true. Of course, it’s also true that those little sinners were being held by big sinners. That’s also true because we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God whether we’re little or large. We need our souls protected and we need to grow in sanctification. As we close, I want to challenge you to help our children. You see the prayer of Christ, this high priestly prayer, is for all of his people. It’s for his church. Not just for moms and dads and for adults. It’s for kids. Jesus cares about the souls of children. We live in a fallen world where there is a battle for the soul going on, and I’m telling you, Satan and the powers of darkness seek the souls of children. We need your help. We want to protect souls. We want to lead children to Jesus. We want to protect their soul and see them sanctified. We need your help.

We have thousands of kids that we’re blessed to serve. I believe with all my heart that the reason Jesus Christ for us to come to Highlands Ranch and moved us ten miles from Hampden Road in Cherry Hills Village and moved us all the way down here was because Jesus wanted us in this wonderful community where there are so many families and he wanted us to serve children. He wanted us to serve children and so, we’re blessed with this privilege, but also this responsibility. We have a thousand volunteers; a thousand people in our congregation are serving regularly in our children and youth ministries. Thank God for each one, but some of them in the summer time take a break, and we’re approaching the summer.

We care about the souls of our children even in the summer, so we have a little challenge for you, and you have it on the card you received this morning and it’s a six-week deal. We want you to make a six-week impact. That still gives you some time to take some vacation this summer. We want you to commit to six Sundays this summer. We need 135 of you to commit to six Sundays. We have a table in the lobby and it’s about the souls of children. It’s about protecting their souls. It’s about sanctifying their souls. It’s about loving them with the love of Jesus Christ. It’s about the prayer of Christ and the call of Christ upon his people. So, would you take this seriously? We’ll have training sessions Tuesday and Wednesday nights. You can find out more at the table in the lobby. You can ask questions. You can sign up. We’ll help you. We need you. This is the Church of Jesus Christ and Deuteronomy 6 and Shema; we’re called morning, noon and night to nurture our children in the Lord. We care about the souls of all ages.

As we close, I want us to remember A Mighty Fortress is Our God, We sang it this morning. We sang A Mighty Fortress is Our God that was written in 1529 by Martin Luther. Written almost 500 years ago. For 480 years, the Body of Christ has been singing this song and I think Martin Luther truly is one of the most brilliant people this planet, this earth has ever known. He was a great scholar and theologian. He was a master of languages. He translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into the German. He was a professor and priest. He was a man of great courage. He was the founder of the Protestant Reformation. He nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg. He launched a revolution. Martin Luther was a brilliant musician and he was a master flutist, and he was a great vocalist and he sang at weddings and he sang at funerals, and did you know all that? And he also loved to craft Christian music, but he was a rebel. I love Martin Luther partly because he was such a rebel. When I get to heaven, I think he’s going to be one of the first guys I try to find. But what he loved to do was to take bar tunes, he took tunes that people sang while they were drunk at bars and sanctify them. So, that’s what he did with a bar tune when he wrote A Mighty Fortress is Our God. He took a bar tune and he put these words and lyrics to it and created one of the great masterpieces of the Christian world. I just want to repeat the words to you:

A Mighty Fortress is Our God
A bulwark never failing
Our helper he amidst the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing

For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe
His craft and power are great
And armed with cruel hate
On Earth is not his equal

Did we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be losing
We’re not the right man on our side
The man of God’s own choosing

Just ask who that may be
Christ Jesus, it is he
Lord Sabaoth his name
From age to age the same
And he must win the battle

And though this world would devils filled
Should threaten to undo us
We will not fear
For God has willed his truth to triumph through us.

The Prince of Darkness grim
We tremble not for him
His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure
One little word shall fell him

That word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them abideth
The spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth

Let goods and kindreds go
This mortal life also
The body they may kill
But God’s truth abideth still
His Kingdom is forever.

This hymn is about the Kingdom of God and how in that Kingdom God protects. He is a mighty fortress. He protects his own. He protects men, women, children who love him and who have embraced his son Jesus Christ. He seeks to protect our souls and to sanctify them. I hope and pray as we close in prayer that you will never cease to hunger and thirst for righteousness and that you will pray daily for protection and sanctification not only for yourself, but also for all of those you love. Let’s close with a word of prayer.