The Lord's Prayer, Part 2: Jesus Prays for His Own

The Lord’s Prayer Part 2: Jesus Prays for His Own

John 17:6-19

Introduction: In a world that can seem chaotic at times it’s good to know that God has a plan!  But if God has a plan, have you ever wondered, “What in the world is God doing?”  As we look at the Scripture today we see that the heart of Jesus is apparent in His prayer as He thanks the Father for His electing grace, and prays that His disciples would be protected and set apart as they carry out His mission in the world and ultimately bring Him glory. As we get into the details we'll see that His prayer applies to us as well.

Review: It was back in February that we started to look at John 17.  Ministry mapping, the missions conference, Palm Sunday and Easter all intervened, so as we return to that chapter we’ll need to remind ourselves of the context.  We have the most extensive teaching of Jesus to his disciples in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room Discourse in the preceding chapters, as He is preparing them to go on without His physical presence. He warned them that tribulation and trials would come, but also promised that He would send another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would be with them to help them to continue His mission in the world.  By the way, immediately after this chapter comes chapter 18, the betrayal and arrest in the Garden.  As we opened our study in John 17 over a month ago, we saw Jesus praying.  Think of that, God incarnate found prayer important during His sojourn on this earth – how much more do feeble humans like us need to pray!  Yet prayer is surely one of the most neglected of the spiritual disciplines.  Yet Jesus prayed. First of all, He prayed to the Father, submitting to His will and seeking His glory. Because of Him, we who are in Christ can and should do the same. As the prayer continues we see Jesus prayer for His disciples and in it we can see some lessons for us.

The Big Idea: Be encouraged, God has a plan and it includes us! Will we trust Him? Will we be available? Will we be obedient?

I. The Subjects of Jesus’ Prayer: Chosen for the Glory of God (6-10). John 17:6 starts,  "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” Or as our brother Herb told me: Chosen on purpose for a purpose. Since Jesus is talking about his disciples as he is praying, we might wonder if this prayer of Jesus for the disciples can fairly be applied to us, but v.20 will make it clear: “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word…” So his prayer for his disciples at that moment, in His omniscience, is also for all who would believe through the centuries, including you and me! Jesus prayed for you then, its right here in the Bible, and He prays for you today, interceding for us as our High Priest.

      First, Jesus prays for His followers. He emphasizes who they are, specifically, Recipients of Revelation, chosen by the Father. Earlier in this Gospel Jesus said in John 10:26-29,

“But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.  ²⁷ "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  ²⁸ "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  ²⁹ "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.”

Those who are His, given by the Father, hear His voice, His Word, His revelation, and they respond, they follow, they believe. Discipleship really has to engage the head, the heart, and the hands.   There has to be balance.  If we picture the Christian life as a triangle, the base, the “Great Foundation,” is the fact that the God who is has spoken.  He has revealed himself to us, He wants us to know Him!  That means engaging our “head,” our mind.  Truth matters. That is why God has given us His Word. One leg of the triangle is The Great Commandment, to love God whole heartedly, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  That means the heart is important to being a disciple.  The other “leg” on the triangle is the “Great Commission,” to make disciples of all the nations, starting right here in our mission field.  The head, the heart, the hands, we need to use them all if we are going to be Jesus’ disciples.

       Here we read in 17:6-8:

"I have manifested Your name [“I AM”] to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  ⁷ "Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  ⁸ "For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them…”

We have His Word, if we will receive it.  As we read the Bible, we are reading a love letter, breathed out by God himself to us. We know His name, His character is revealed to us.  Do you hear his voice?  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. 

     Next Jesus speaks about  What they have learned: That is, that Jesus has come from the Father. There was a lot the disciples still did not understand.  They didn’t didn’t understand the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, that Jesus had to walk, all the way to the cross.  But they did understand that He has come from God, and at least at moments in the story, they had a glimmer of understanding that this was no mere man.  We read in John 17:8

  “…and [they] have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me…”

They heard His voice, and they followed Him.

       He also speaks of the Path they are on: To bring glory to Him through obedience.   Being a Christ follower means that we are on a path.  It doesn’t mean we have arrived, we are certainly not sinless. But we are set apart. We belong to God.  If we believe Jesus, the NT assumes that we will obey Him.  We saw that in John 3:36 for example, where the NASB version says,

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

     In John 17:10 He says “…I am glorified in them…”  We heard in John 15 that the Father is glorified as we abide in Christ, and bear much fruit.  Is the glory of God your heart’s desire? Or are you too busy seeking to establish your security and comfort in this world?  Is it your heart’s desire to obey God and please Him, or are you driven by a desire to please another person, or people in general?  None of this will follow us into eternity!  We should “count the cost” of being a Christ follower, the Bible knows nothing of “easy believism” where we just say we believe.  Jesus said to take up our cross, and follow him. That is radical discipleship.  Be encouraged, God has a plan and it includes us! Will we trust Him?

II. The Concerns of Jesus’ Prayer: What is needed to be equipped for His mission (11-19).  The mission we have been given is not one that can be carried out in our strength with our merely human resources.  Remember in the Book of Acts when Jesus talks about the call to be His witnesses, the disciples were told their mission would commence when, in a few days, on the day of Pentecost, they would receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:6-8).  The battle is the Lord’s, and it’s in His name that we bring the Gospel of Christ to the world.

First of all, Jesus prays that they might be protected (11-12,15).  We like to be self-sufficient. We might even smile at this aspect of Jesus’ prayer and think, “thanks, but I can take care of myself.”  Really? (Have you ever seen a television commercial and didn’t know what they were selling?  I saw one recently in which a guy jumps with confidence into a boxing rings, and he turns and sees a giant grizzly bear towering over him – immediately he responds, “I don’t think so…” and jumps out of the ring!). Peter says our adversary goes about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Don’t think we can engage the enemy in our own strength.  But, don’t give up – greater is He who is in us, than He who is in the world.

         One enemy that would trouble us is “the world,” i.e. this world system that is in rebellion against God.  Earlier in the Upper Room discourse Jesus warned the disciples not to be surprised by the world’s hatred – they hated Him first, the world will hate those who follow Him as well! If you try to share Christ and you are rejected or ridiculed, don’t take it personally—their real problem is not with you!

       Most importantly we must recognize that behind all that there is an enemy that would seek to destroy us, and he is an expert in human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. He is not eternal, nor omniscient, and certainly not omnipotent – only God has those attributes.  But he has been around for millennia and has seen many strong, seemingly stable believers crushed and spiritually disabled.  The Lord is our shield, our strong tower, our protector, our deliverer. The enemy is real, but greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world!

             Jesus prays that they may be united (11).  If a predator is attacking a flock or herd of animals, his chances of success are increased if He can isolate one from the pack. They are vulnerable, relatively easy prey.  Our adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We are created for community, to be a part of a body.  We need each other.  “One another” is one of my favorite phrases in the NT.  We are to love one another, encourage one another, build up one another, and bear one another’s burdens… We are made to be a community, more than that, a family.

       Ironically, if we are in Christ, we are united, we are one, spiritually speaking.  Yet we see this prayer, and admonitions in the Bible to strive for unity because we don’t always live in the light of what we have and who we are in Christ.  Paul said in Eph 4:3 that we should “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

            Jesus also prays that they might have joy (13).  We might be in a war, but God wants us to live our life with joy.  Not only the hope of joy in the future when we see Him – but now, today.  We are forgiven.  We have peace with God.  We have, now, eternal life and we shall never perish!  We are in Christ and Jesus has overcome the world!  That is cause for rejoicing! Paul says “rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!”  At the end of chapter 16 Jesus talks about trouble in the world, but then says “…be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!”    

             Jesus prays that they may be dedicated and sanctified (14-19). *John Stott said that suffering is practically indispensable to sanctification. God uses the journey to teach us and mold us. The hands of the potter will shape us into something usable if we will receive it.  But the emphasis on 14-19 is that we are “set apart” or “sanctified” through the truth, the revealed word of God.  Why do I preach through books of the Bible?  My judgments about what we need to hear are very fallible. My choices of topics to preach on would not be where I am struggling or what I need to hear. But as we read through a book of the Bible together, pay attention to the context, ask what the writer was trying to say to his original readers, and ask God what He is telling us in the text, we have His Word to us. That word is power to change us, to set us apart, and to help us grow more like Jesus. 

What is saying to me in this passage? Be encouraged, if God is for us, who can stand against us? God has a plan and it includes us! Will we trust Him?

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  There was a song we used to sing fairly regularly at the church where Mary Ann and I met, we would sing it often on Sunday  nites: “I have decided to follow Jesus… no turning back, no turning back…”  It was a good reminder that being a disciple, a follower of Jesus, was a life changing commitment. It meant that He was now to be Lord of my life, it meant that His will, His plan for me had to become my priority. In John 15 we read about “abiding in Christ.”  Among other things that means being conscious of His presence and of my dependence on Him. Discipleship means a lifetime commitment, it’s a 24/7 proposition, not something we do only on Sundays. It means His glory becomes my heart’s desire, and His mission becomes my driving passion. He has shown us His love. Remember that the betrayal, arrest, and passion follow immediately after this chapter.  The Lord’s table turns our hearts toward the cross, and gives us pause to consider the love he demonstrated for us, when He laid down His life. In view of what He has done for you, shouldn’t it be your heart’s desire to love Him return, to believe Him and obey Him, to seek to discover your role in His mission, and to desire above all else His glory?     AMEN.