So there is this tradition that has sort of been lost throughout recent history in regards
to how human beings identify themselves. You see, back in the BC years and stretching all
the way into about the middle of the eighteenth century, people did not just identify themselves
as Helen or Arthur or Jesus, but they identified themselves as Helen of Troy, or Arthur of
Camelot, or Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps you've heard of some of these people, and you see, that
'of', what it essentially does is it's a sign. It's a sign of birthplace. It's a sign of
citizenship. So for example, today, I would be Jon of the United States or Jon of Chicago.
Go Bulls. So when you think about this phrase 'in but not of,' what we first have to understand
is that it's taken from a passage of Scripture where Jesus is talking in John 17. And in
that chapter, when Jesus says that we are not of this world, essentially what he's doing
is he's making a claim about our citizenship. You see, when we accept Christ into our hearts
and when we make the decision to follow him, there's a fundamental shift, there's a change
that occurs in our identity. Jesus would call this 'being born again,' and the apostle Paul
would call it 'being a new creation,' and essentially what it means is this new birth
means that we are adopted into God's family as children of God. We're no longer born of
this world, but as Philippians 3 says, our citizenship is in heaven. So this being born
again and being not of this world essentially means that there's been a shift that has happened.
Our perception, or the way we view things, has changed. It's a shift from the physical
to the spiritual. It's a shift from the temporary to the eternal, from the earthly to the heavenly.
Now, this might lead a lot of people to think that being in this world is some sort of a
downer, like we have to suffer through and just wait in this broken earthly kingdom until
one day God finally calls us home. But if we look back in John chapter 17, which, if
you remember, that's where we get this phrase from, we see that God has a very different
purpose for us being in the world. In verse 18, Jesus says, "As you sent me into the world,
I send them into the world." So we see here that this 'being in the world' thing is not
some sort of waiting period we have to endure, but rather, it's a mission that we are sent
on, which then begs the question, "Well, what's the mission? What are we sent into the world
to do?" And we discover that by looking all throughout the Gospels at the commands Jesus
gives us. In Matthew 28, he says, "Go and make disciples of all nations." In John 13:34,
he tells us to love one another. And in John chapter 19, he tells Peter to, "Feed my sheep.
Take care of my lambs." You see, the commands of Jesus, they almost always center around
him sending out his disciples, and therefore us, on a mission into the world, and whatever
this mission looks like, the important thing is that it's all done with the same purpose,
and that purpose is to proclaim the good news of Jesus to people who don't know him so that
those people might also be born again. You see, for the Christian, this world is not
a waiting room. This world is a playing field in a game that God invites us to be a part
of. So when we think about being in the world but not of the world, we have to remember
that Jesus doesn't want us to wait around to be influenced by the world, but rather,
he wants us to go out and be influencers of the world. So to put it very simply, I think
that being in the world but not of the world means committing ourselves to doing physical
work with an eternal purpose. That's all we got for you today. Thank you so much for watching
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