The Joy-Filled Life
John 17:6-19
Rev. Brian Bill
3/21/10
Some of you may know that I’m half Irish so St. Patrick’s Day has always been a pretty big deal for me. I grew up eating corned beef and cabbage on this special day and my Swedish wife Beth has humored me over the years by making this meal in mid-March every year, even though the rest of the family doesn’t really care for it. This past Wednesday when I came home from the office, I went straight to the kitchen to see what she was preparing. I was disappointed when I saw ham in the crock pot and broccoli in the microwave but I didn’t say anything.
A few minutes later I wandered into the dining room and saw a huge plate of corned beef and cabbage, complete with onions and potatoes just for me! She had stopped by a restaurant in town and picked up carry-out for me! I gave her a big hug and immediately imbibed in this Irish delicacy before anyone else sat down at the table. I thanked her for honoring my Irish heritage and then asked her why she never celebrates my Polish roots. She just shook her head and said, “I have nothing to say.”
The disciples had just finished a meal filled with memories as their minds went back to the Passover, when God had rescued Israel from bondage. Only this dinner was different because Jesus brought new meaning to the bread, saying that it represented His body and to the cup, which symbolized His blood. Shortly after the meal ended, either in the Upper Room or on the way to Gethsemane, Jesus moved from preaching in John 13-16 to prayer in John 17.
Last week we focused on the first part of this powerful prayer in verses 1-5. We discovered seven prayer principles as we listened in to Jesus praying for Himself:
1. Consider changing your prayer posture.
2. Call out to God by name.
3. Align yourself with God’s timetable.
4. Go after God’s glory.
5. Embrace eternal life.
6. Rest in His finished work.
7. Gaze into the glory to come.
The main take-home for me was this one phrase that I’ve been pondering all week: If you can’t do something for God’s glory, then you shouldn’t do it.
In our section for today, we’re going to hear why Jesus prays and what Jesus wants for His followers. One obvious observation is that the length of this section suggests that Jesus had greater concern for His disciples’ destiny than for His own.
Why Jesus Prays
Let’s listen to our Lord praying in verses 6-10: “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”
These verses shed some light on why Jesus prays for His followers.
1. Because they now know the Father (6a). The word “revealed” literally means “to render apparent.” John 1:18 says this about Jesus: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Before Jesus came, it was impossible to know God because of His holiness and our sin but now He is both accessible and knowable through the sacrifice of His Son.
2. Because they accepted and obeyed God’s Word (6b-8a). I love how gracious Jesus is in His description of them. They knew that they had failed many times but Jesus focuses on their faithfulness: “They have obeyed your word…I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.” This makes me smile a bit because the disciples were pretty dull most of the time and yet Jesus is gracious with how He describes them. He could have pointed out all their failures but instead celebrates their successes, which is a good parenting tip by the way. By spotlighting their potential, Jesus wanted His disciples looking forward, not back.
3. Because they believed that Jesus was sent by the Father (8b). We see this in the last part of verse 8: “They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” Though the disciples doubted and wavered and even bailed on Jesus when things got rough, Peter spoke for them in John 6:69: “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
4. Because they belong to the Father (6b, 9). Jesus thought of His followers as “love gifts” from the Father: “They were yours, you gave them to me…I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me.”
5. Because they bring glory to Jesus (10). That’s an amazing thought, isn’t it? This phrase at the end of verse 10: “And glory has come to me through them” can be translated, “I stand glorified in them.” That leads me to ask a question: Does glory come to Jesus through me?
What Jesus Prays
We now know the reasons why Jesus prays. Let’s look now at the specific requests He makes for his followers. As I studied for this sermon, I came across a very helpful outline from Pastor Alan Carr (see www.sermonnotebook.org). I’m going to adapt a portion of it here so we can clearly see what it is that Jesus wants for you and me. I’m also indebted to Rich Stevens for letting me borrow a book called, “When God Prays” by Skip Heitzig (Tyndale, 2003).
1. He wants you to be secured (11-12). Notice that the word “protect” is used twice and then we see the phrase “kept them safe” in verses 11-12: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me…”
Jesus has kept his followers safe and secure and now that He is returning to His glory in heaven He is handing them back to the Father for safekeeping. Jesus knew that with His departure that Satan would shift His sinister schemes to the disciples. God’s name represents His nature and so Jesus knows with confidence that they will be protected. This word means “to be on guard,” and was used to describe a mother hen protecting her chicks. John Calvin writes, “He brooded them under His wings as a hen doth her chicks, but now when He departeth He prayeth His Father to cover them with His safeguard.”
Pastor Jeff did a great job a few weeks ago reminding us that born again believers are eternally secure (see 1 John 5:11-13; John 10:28-30). I love 2 Timothy 1:12: “Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
Take a look at how Jesus addresses His request: “Holy Father.” This captures both God’s transcendence and His tenderness. It balances the idea of ultimate purity with intimate paternity. He is mighty and majestic and He is also my daddy. I must have a proper sense of fear and yet He is dear to me. I commend this model to you because this title reminds us to be both reverent and still confident in our requests.
Notice that the heart of Jesus is for harmony among His followers: “so that they may be one as we are one.” The unity in the Trinity is the model for unity between brothers and sisters. We are designed to function as a community of unity, not in isolation or aggravation with each other. We’ll talk more about this next week.
The phrase in verse 12 shows that Judas was not secure because He had never believed or received: “None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” The Scripture He is referring to here is likely Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”
2. He wants you to be satisfied (13). Because we are secure in our salvation, we can and should experience satisfaction. Check out verse 13: “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” It’s interesting that Jesus is not talking about us having happiness or experiencing just a little bit of joy once-in-awhile but instead desires that we have the “full measure” of His joy. Wow! That’s difficult to comprehend, isn’t it? It’s the idea of being completely full and was used in the world of fishing: “to cram a net full.” Jesus wants us to be crammed full of joy.
Before we think that we just have to plaster a smile on our face all day, Jesus defines what it is that brings Him delight in John 15:10-11: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Remember, we don’t have to manufacture joy on our own. Our job is to abide in Christ and to allow the full measure of His joy to flow through us.
I’ve quoted this statement from John Piper before because it’s so good: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Piper adds, “If your aim is to glorify God, you will do it most by being satisfied in him.”
If you were here last week, you were given an insert to use as a tool to help with your prayer life. Anyone care to share how helpful this was for you and your family to pray through the “alphabet of attributes” this week? There are additional copies available at the Resource Center.
Today we want to give you another tool that we think will be a very practical help to your prayer life. Just as Jesus wants us to experience the “full measure of His joy,” we’re to also exhibit some additional fruit in our lives. We find this in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Using the insert we have provided in your bulletin, I’d like you to spend some time praying right now. First, go through the Fruit of the Spirit, one-by-one, and ask God to grow each individual fruit in your life. For instance, you could pray, “God, I want to be more loving. Please grow this in my life. I also am in need of joy because I’m so crabby most of the time, etc.”
When you’re finished praying this for yourself, then I want you to pray this for your spouse, your children, or for your parents. When we’re finished with this time of silent prayer, I’ve asked Ken Fulkerson (1st service) and Marty Cotter (2nd service) to pray this passage for each of us.
3. He wants you to be separated (14-16). Jesus wants us to know that we’re secure and He wants us to experience satisfaction through our relationship with Him. There’s a third request that Jesus has – He wants us to be separated: “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” Jesus doesn’t want to take them out of the world, which is a descriptive phrase that means “to sail away.” Instead, he is committed to protect us from the wiles of the evil one. We are in the world, but we’re not to be of the world.
D.A. Carson reminds us that this prayer of Jesus teaches what we should pray for: “The spiritual dimensions of this prayer are consistent and overwhelming. By contrast, we spend much more time today praying about our health, our projects, our decisions, our finances, our family, and even our games than we do praying about the danger of the evil one. Materialists at heart, we often discern only very, very dimly the spiritual struggle…Certainly the church will not produce many spiritual giants when it fails to discern its chief enemy.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Satan is “the god of this age” and 1 John 5:19 adds that “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 2:16 declares that the things of the world are diametrically opposed to God: “For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world.”
The word “world” occurs 40 times in chapters 13-17 and in this chapter alone, it’s used 18 times and refers to the ethical and moral system that stands in rebellion to God. Unfortunately, many Christians try to get as close to the world as they can. This is dangerous as James 4:4 states: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Skip Heitzig is right when he observes: “The most miserable Christians I know are the worldly ones. They are like fish trapped in a net – still alive but bound up, immobilized, and unproductive – and headed for destruction if they don’t break free.”
I was listening to the radio on Tuesday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, and heard a report about the state of faith in Ireland. While there are still a lot of beautiful church structures, for the most part they are empty. One researcher said that the main culprit is the religion of rampant consumerism, where the new clergy is made up of marketers and advertisers. I was intrigued by this status update on Facebook this week: “I’ve decided I agree with a quote from Francis Schaeffer…something like, ‘Show me the world today, and I’ll show you the church in one decade.’ Only, I don’t think we’re a decade behind anymore…more like…a day. So I’m pondering what it means: ‘Be in the world, but not of it’ and wondering…”how to prepare my children to take a stand without bearing a "holier than thou" spirit. . . hmmm.
Friends, if we don’t get serious about living separated lives, the church in America is in trouble as well, if it isn’t already. If we don’t focus on fortifying our families, they will continue to crumble. We’ll follow the path of Europe where faith and family are just relics of a religious past. By the way, we will begin a new sermon series on April 18th called, “Hope for Your Home” and Pastor Dick will be leading a new discipleship class on marriage beginning that same day during the second service.
I don’t have time to go much deeper into this right now, but let me pass along a helpful tool to help families make wise choices about movies and music and other forms of media like TV, gaming, and videos. Simply go to www.pluggedin.com to read reviews from a Christian perspective.
4. He wants you to be sanctified (17, 19). Our security leads to satisfaction and separation. The fourth request Jesus has is for our sanctification. Look now at verses 17 and 19: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth…For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” If there’s ever been a churchy-sounding word, sanctify certainly is. Let me see if I can unpack it. To be sanctified means “to be set apart or dedicated” and speaks of allegiance and consecration for the purposes of sacrifice. In this sense, Jesus is set apart as a priest, preparing to offer up a sacrifice, which is His own body as stated in Hebrews 10:10: “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Through the sacrifice of His body we are sanctified.
Sanctification happens through the Word. The only way to live set apart is to constantly immerse yourself in the Scriptures. Reading and studying the Bible is not optional. As someone has said, “Sin will keep you from this book and this book will keep you from sin.” Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Jesus’ heart is to set us apart!
5. He wants us to saturate the world (18). Listen carefully. We are to be sanctified by the Word so that we saturate the world. Sanctification in John’s Gospel is always for a mission and the success of that mission is impossible without sanctification. Listen to verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” How was Jesus sent into the world? He was sent with love. He was sent incarnationally. And He was missional, meaning He was always on mission.
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government ran out of silver to make coins. Cromwell responded to the need by sending his men across the nation to see if they could uncover more of the precious metal. They returned shortly without much to speak of, reporting that the only silver they could find was in the statues of the saints that were on display in the multitude of cathedrals around England. “Good!” replied Cromwell. “Then we will melt down the saints and put them back into circulation!” Friends, we are not meant to be cloistered in cathedrals but instead to be out in circulation so that we can saturate the world with the Word. That’s why Jesus says that we’re “the salt of the earth” in Matthew 5:13. We can’t do much good if we just stay in the saltshaker.
In November of 2008, I shared my heart with the Elders. As part of the process of ascertaining God’s vision for PBC, I’ve given some thought to the first part of our mission statement: “The mission of PBC is to connect people to Jesus…” I see that our focus should be in two directions.
* Incarnational or Missional. We must instill within our people (beginning with us) that we are called to be ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and as such we must approach everything we do as agents of God’s mission in the world. Here’s a definition that I like: “Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life.” For example, a factory worker is really a missionary disguised as a factory worker. A teacher is a missionary disguised as a teacher. A farmer is a missionary disguised as a farmer. We could call this “go and tell” evangelism.
* Attractional. We must design our Sunday services and each of our programs in such a way that they attract unbelievers and evangelize the lost. Care must be taken to make sure that people can see and savor the offer of salvation in a way that is both winsome and culturally-relevant (1 Corinthians 14:24). We could call this “come and see” evangelism.
I don’t see this as an either/or but a both/and proposition. Check out Acts 5:42: “Day after day, in the temple courts [attractional] and from house to house [missional] they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news…”
To say it another way, we must equip our people and design our programs in such a way that we end up connecting people to Jesus, both in this community (local) and on the continents (global). Related to this, whether emphasizing a missional or an attractional approach, we must make sure that our congregation is connected to the needs of our community (i.e. responding to the flood, ministering in light of the prison situation, etc.) and to the needs of the world. In addition, as we put “family first,” we must train our people and design our ministries to specifically assist families in the community.
Incidentally, with Easter coming up in two weeks, we encourage you to use the card in the bulletin to invite people you already know [that’s missional] to one of our Easter Sunday services [attractional] that will be designed for you to use as a tool in reaching those who are disconnected from Christ.
I came across a study from the Religion News Service this week that reported that less than half of U.S. adults link Easter directly to the Resurrection of Jesus, even though most describe Easter as a religious holiday. “The Easter holiday in particular still has a distinctly religious connection for people but ... the specifics of it are really fading in a lot of people’s minds,” said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. Let’s do what we can to introduce people to the power of the Resurrection so that we see renewed lives this Easter!
Let’s see if I can tie this all together. Because we are secure, we can be satisfied with Christ, which should lead us to live a separated life, sanctified for His purposes so that we can saturate this world with His Word.
How Will You Respond?
Jesus is praying for you because there’s a spiritual war raging all around. When you declare your allegiance to Him, you can no longer remain neutral. How are you going to respond?
1. Isolation. At times in church history, the pull of the world was so strong that some believers retreated to monasteries and others did even more unusual things. Anthony, the founder of Christian monasticism, never changed his vest or washed his feet. He was outdone, however, by Simon Stylites, who spent the last 36 years of his life on top of a fifty-foot pillar. Another guy named Anatole from France didn’t want to go to that extreme so he donned a simple garment and sat on a chair atop his kitchen table. Everything went well until his family returned home. They thought he had lost it and told him so. They made life miserable for him so he quit his vigil. Reflecting on his attempt at isolation, he remarked, “I soon perceived that it is a very difficult thing to be a saint while living with your own family!”
2. Insulation. It’s pretty tough to isolate so some people choose to insulate themselves from the problems and pain of those who don’t yet know Christ. These people spend almost all their time with other Christians and when they do have conversations about lost people their words are filled with judgmentalism. As Stan Wiedeman said at our Anniversary Celebration, we have to stop thinking “us vs. them” and move toward “us for them.”
3. Imitation. I’m afraid this is where the majority of believers end up. Instead of fighting the world, this person just wants to fit in.
4. Infiltration. This is the heart of Jesus. He wants us to be secured, satisfied, separated and sanctified so that we saturate the world with the Word of God. We’re called to live incarnationally and missionally.
