I. Introduction Jesus Prays for His Disciples April 27, 2014 John 17:6-19 Since it has been a couple of weeks since we looked at the first part of Jesus prayer in John 17, let s read that part along with today s Scripture. Please turn to John 17:1-19. Early Friday morning Good Friday as He was approaching the Garden of Gethsemane and as He was about to give His life as a ransom for sinners, Jesus prayed this intimate prayer some call it His High Priestly prayer to the Father. No matter what events occurred later that morning, this prayer makes it clear that Jesus was and is the Overcomer. He was not a victim; He was and is the Victor. As He said in John 16:33, Take heart! I have overcome the world. We have just celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter but Jesus work was more than just His death and resurrection. If that was all that was necessary, Jesus wouldn t have had to come to earth and live some 30 years as a human before His horrible death. But Jesus life and unity with humanity was also part of His work. Through His life He made known who He was. He revealed His glory and the Father s glory through His teachings and His miracles. His sinless life in the midst of sin and temptation were the conditions necessary for Him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Having prayed that the Father would glorify the Son through the completion of His work, Jesus then interceded for His disciples. He knew that they would abandon Him, that their faith would be shaken and that their hearts would be grieved. Even now, as they walked along the road, the realization that Christ was leaving them was an upsetting thought for the disciples. They had depended on Him for everything during the past 3 years. He had been their teacher (John 13:13), their protector (Matthew 12:1-5), the supplier of all their needs. And now they were about to be left all alone; from their viewpoint, left to their own resources. Understanding these fears, Jesus spent much of His time with the disciples on the evening before His death comforting them. He reassured them that He would continue to love them and provide for their needs. Now Jesus prayed to the Father concerning them. Jesus began by describing what it means to be a disciple. II. The Meaning of Discipleship A. Disciples know the real nature of God. In John 17:6 Jesus said, I have revealed you (really I have revealed your Name ) to those whom you gave me out of the world. In Biblical times the name of someone represented knowing the whole person his character, his nature, his attributes. Disciples know the real nature of God. Psalm 9:10 David wrote, Those who know your name will trust in you, for 1
you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. Those who know God s character, His nature and His attributes will trust completely in Him. During Jesus time with the disciples, gradually, by His words and His deeds, Jesus revealed the nature of God to them. Hebrews 1:3 says, The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. So perfectly and completely did Jesus reveal God s nature and character that He could say in John 14:9, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Disciples know the real nature of God. B. Second, disciples are a gift from God. Jesus said back in John 17:6, You gave them to me. Earlier in John 17:2, we saw that believers are a gift from the Father to the Son a gift of love. And this wasn t the first time that this concept has come up turn to John 6:37-40. Jesus said, All that my Father gives me will come to me. Disciples are a gift from God. C. Third, disciples have believed God s Word Jesus Christ. Back in John 17:6 Jesus said, They have obeyed your word. This is the second part of the predestination-freewill argument. Earlier in John 6:40 we read, Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. God gives, but man must believe. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, from the human viewpoint, we receive the gift of eternal life when we believe on Jesus Christ when we believe the Word. But from the divine viewpoint, we have already been given to the Son in divine election or predestination. Election/predestination and freewill is a mystery that the human mind cannot fully understand or explain we can only accept it by faith. D. Four, disciples believe that Jesus came from the Father. John 17:8 says, They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. As they were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, the 11 didn t understand Jesus purpose and certainly didn t understand His death and resurrection, but during their 3 years with Jesus they had made tremendous strides. They knew that He had come from God and they believed that God had sent Him. John s introduction summarizes it all turn to John 1:1-4, 14. III. Jesus Prayer for His Disciples Jesus then prayed for His disciples. He didn t pray for the whole world, He prayed for those who the Father had given to Him, to those who are His disciples. As Jesus claimed full equality with the Father all I have is yours, and all you have is mine Jesus prayed for their spiritual protection. A. He prayed for spiritual protection. In John 17:11 Jesus prayed, Protect them by the power of your name. Jesus asked the Father to guard the disciples according to His holy character and His attributes His omnipotence. Our safety our spiritual protection depends on the nature of God, not our 2
own character or our conduct. Turn to 1 Peter 1:3-5. As Jesus said in John 10:29, My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. Later, in John 17:15 Jesus again asks for protection, He said, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. Earlier in John 16:33 Jesus didn t promise that they would be taken out of the world, but that in Him they would triumph over it. Believers are to reach the lost world with the truth of the Gospel. That is the primary reason for remaining here as Paul wrote in Romans 10:14, How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? But to do this, the disciples then and now would need God s protection. B. He prayed for unity. In John 17:11, Jesus went on and requested that they may be one as we are one. Jesus asked for the spiritual unity of all believers to be secure through God s power and presence. This is the unity that all believers have because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the eternal life we all have in common with one another. Together all Christians make up the body of Christ. This is the unity that crosses all organizational lines and produces an effective gospel and testimony to the lost. This unity produces a common love for the Lord 1 John 4:19 says, We love because he first loved us ; love for God s people 1 John 4:21 says, Whoever loves God must also love his brother ; and separation from all that is ungodly and worldly turn to 1 John 2:15-17. Unity with believers leads to separation from the world. C. He prayed for joy. Looking forward to the joy at completing the work God gave Him to do and to the joy of returning to the Father, Jesus asks in John 17:13 that His disciples may have the full measure of my joy with them. He prayed for joy. John 16:23-24 says that joy comes from answered prayer. The disciples would also share in Jesus joy as they experience the eternal life that Jesus made possible through His death. Here in John 17, Jesus makes it clear that joy also comes from God s Word. This joy isn t based on outward circumstances but on inward spiritual resources that only those in Christ have. In Jeremiah 15:16 Jeremiah said, When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. The believer doesn t find his joy in the world but in the Word. This is the peace of God, which transcends all understanding from Philippians 4:7. D. He prayed for sanctification. Having prayed for spiritual protection from the world, for the unity of all believers, and for joy, Jesus asked the Father to sanctify the disciples as they prepared to preach the truth to the world. To sanctify means to be set apart. Jesus request for the disciples sanctification was a request that the disciples be set apart for God. It wasn t enough to be protected from outside evils; they must also be internally conformed more and more to the Son. As Jesus had explained when He 3
washed their feet, they had already been cleansed, but they still needed to occasionally have their feet washed from the filth of this world. True sanctification comes from the working of the Word of God. All of God s Word not just Jesus words found in the Gospels, not the words that a person picks and chooses to believe but, as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, all of God s Word is necessary for a believer s sanctification. This is why Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:2, Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. Only sanctified believers, believers who are set apart from the world, are ready to be sent into the world just as the Father sent Christ into the world. Having been set apart from the world and transformed by God s grace, the disciples were being sent into the world by Jesus. Through their witness, the world would be exposed to the Gospel and many would come to saving faith. But salvation wouldn t be possible, if it were not for the sacrificial death of the Son. Jesus returned to that thought in verse 19, acknowledging that what He was about to endure at the cross would make salvation possible both for the eleven and for those who would be saved through their ministries. For them I sanctify myself. For the disciples sakes Jesus would sanctify Himself, that is, He would set Himself apart to righteously obey the Father s will by dying on the cross. It was only because He atoned from their sins that they too would be sanctified. IV. Conclusion As well as being for the eleven that were traveling the road with Jesus, these verses apply to those who want to be Jesus disciples today. True disciples of Jesus Christians have an intimate relationship with God they know His true nature Romans 8:15 says, For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. Christians have the privilege to call God the Father, Papa or Daddy. True disciples today must believe in God s Word, Jesus Christ, in order to be saved; as Acts 16:31 says, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. Or as Jesus said in John 14:6, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Finally, true disciples know who Jesus is and have made Him their Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9). Jesus prayer reveals His incredible love for His followers and His eagerness to return to His Father. We should see ourselves too as the subjects of this prayer. Jesus is our Lord and Shepherd as much as He was the Shepherd of this small circle of men. Romans 8:34 says that Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. In this prayer, as He intercedes for the disciples, Jesus invites us to listen, to hear the quality of the love 4
and honor shared between Himself and God the Father. He invites us to listen too as He prays for believers, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them (17:13). If we are going to be the disciples we should and can be, if we are going to be filled with joy, we need to know God s truth. It isn t enough to merely study the Bible and learn a great deal of doctrinal truth. We must also love Jesus Christ more and more as we learn all that He is and all He had done for us. Learning and loving should lead to living, i.e. allowing the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to obey His Word and to love the lost as God does. This is how we glorify God in this present evil world. Sanctification, being set apart, is not for the purpose of selfish enjoyment or self-righteous boasting; it is so that we might represent Christ in this world and win others to Him. Jesus is now set apart in heaven, praying for us, that our witness will bear fruit as many repent of their sins and turn to the Lord. Now we are sent into the world. We are under orders to Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20). If you are a child of God, trust Him, He will protect you. If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). We cannot be overcome by the world when we walk with the Lord. Seek His will and He will fill you with joy. Obey His commands and you will be sanctified set apart to do great things for Him. Love Him with all of your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37) and you will be united with Him and His children. 5