Scripture Introduction
Someone said, “Trusting God does not mean believing that he will do what you want. It means believing that what he does is good.” The distinction delivers us from the error of demanding that God serve our desires like a genie in a bottle.
Christians typically recognize this mistake in the atheist who lashes out at God for allowing his mother to die from cancer. Less often do we see it in ourselves when we grumble over the circumstances which steal our comforts. The daughter who refuses to appreciate restrictions on freedom provided by loving parents; the employee who slacks off when the assignments are below his standard; the angry Christian who cannot let go of past hurts and the mistakes of fellow believers; the wife who holds back from fully giving herself to her husband, since he so often fails to meet her needs – these examples touch the variety of ways in which we might act out the false assumption that trusting God means “believing that he will do what we want.”
One way God encourages victory over this error is by reminding us of his tremendous love. You pray fervently for your loved ones, especially when you know their needs are great. During his last night on earth, Jesus loves his disciples by praying fervently for them. Studying his prayer encourages us with God’s love.
Additionally, John 17 offers a unique view into the heart of God – what is of first importance in the mind of our Savior. We listen attentively to a man’s dying words because death focuses our passions on what is essential. How much more ought we to listen well to the dying words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so hear what God deems worthy of his last breaths before the cross.
[Read John 17.1-16. Pray.]
Introduction
When things go badly, we may wonder why God does not swoop down and deliver us. He could, you know! He could convert people to Christ through the preaching of angels, then immediately rescue his daughters and sons from trials, troubles and tribulations, lifting us up into heaven and away from both future sin and suffering. In fact, so attractive is the vision of the future bliss we will have in the presence of God, that the Apostle Paul said: “To die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me…. [But] My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” than suffering in the flesh (Philippians 1.21-23). Paul knows well what you also know – the hurt and heartache of life in a fallen world and would gladly exchange it for heaven!
Yet Jesus does not ask the Father to deliver Christians from the problems in this world. From the power and influence of the Devil – yes, verse 15b: “keep them from the evil one.” But note well the first half of that sentence: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world.” God’s people are left in the world, without being overtaken by worldliness (by God’s grace), in order to witness and work for the King of the world.
In her book on evangelism, Out of the Salt Shaker, 124, Rebecca Pippert (in a light-hearted way) speaks to Christian college students about how they sometimes act as if God ought to have taken them out of the world: “We must not become, as John Stott puts it, ‘a rabbit-hole Christian’—the kind who pops his head out of a hole, leaves his Christian roommate in the morning and scurries to class, only to frantically search for a Christian to sit by (an odd way to approach a mission field). Thus he proceeds from class to class. When dinner comes, he sits with the Christians in his dorm at one huge table and thinks, “What a witness!” From there he goes to his all-Christian Bible study, and he might even catch a prayer meeting where the Christians pray for the non-believers on his floor. (But what luck that he was able to live on the only floor with seventeen Christians!) Then at night he scurries back to his Christian roommate. Safe! He made it through the day and his only contacts with the world were those mad, brave dashes to and from Christian activities. What an insidious reversal of the biblical command to be salt and light to the world.”
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world.” God leaves us amongst an admittedly crooked and twisted generation, at least in part so that we might prove that trusting God means believing that what he does is good. Let me show you. Remember how Paul told the Philippians that he desired to depart and be with Christ? A few sentences later he applies the same truth to them: “Do all things without grumbling or questioning [they were tempted to this sin before God was not doing what they wanted], that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God [in other words, they were to trust God even in their troubles] without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world [you will witness to the goodness of God]” (Philippians 2.14-16).
We are to shine that same light, demonstrating with our lives that we believe that what God does is good. Fortunately, God provides resources for our success, one of which is Jesus’ prayers. Simply hearing Christ pray for us nourishes and strengthens our souls. But I also want you to see why he prays and what he prays. To help us do so, first observe that…
1. Jesus Prays Because of God’s Love for His People
God’s love pours from every word in this passage.
First, see the Father’s love in election and in gifting. Verse 6: “These are the people whom you gave me. They were yours, and you gave them to me.” From Genesis to Revelation, in every case and at every time, those who are converted, those who are God’s children, those who believe the promises of grace and trust God as their Savior, are those whom he chooses to be his own. Election is based on his love.
God reminded Israel of old, “I do not chose you because of you.” Deuteronomy 7.8: “but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery.” Israel’s salvation depends on a sovereign election motivated by divine love. The New Testament tells the same story: “God blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 1.3-4). “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…. Beloved, we are God's children now…” (1John 3.1-2). When Jesus says to the Father, “These are your people” we remember God’s love in choosing us to save.
We also know the Father’s love because we are given to his Son. When you love someone deeply, you give them the best gift you can afford. Even if you do not have much money, you give gifts that take time and attention and effort. In fact, homemade presents are usually more appreciated than store bought ones. [Starbucks scarf illustration: cashier asks if scarf is homemade. “those are the best kind.”] God the Father loves his Son; in fact, their relationship is the very definition of love. So what does God give his beloved Son? YOU! When Jesus prays, the Father’s love for us inspires his thoughts and words.
But God’s love continues, for this passage also preaches to fearful hearts the love of God the Son. Yes, the Father offers the gift – but, oh, what must the Son do to receive it? The people, potentially glorious, must first be redeemed. Adoption requires the death of true Son – “in him we have redemption through his blood” (Ephesians 1.7). The second person of the Trinity existed forever in glorious perfection, utter happiness, complete contentment. Yet from this place in heaven God the Son descends to our place in hell! And for what reason? To redeem a people whom he loves.
The Father’s love forms Jesus’ prayer; the Son’s love pours out as he prays; now, please also appreciate the love of God the Spirit. As is often the case in the Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit is not prominently displayed, but he is here. John 17.8b: “They have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” Make no mistake – apart from the Spirit’s application of truth to the soul, none come to believe.
Ephesians 2.8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Yes, the Father gave us to Christ; but Christ is given to you by the Spirit! Later in Ephesians, Paul reminds the folks there: “at one time you were darkness….” Not simply that they walked in darkness; they were darkness – the complete absence of light in themselves. The change, therefore, which came upon them brought light from outside! “You were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5.8). That is the love of God the Spirit: apart from his work, none believe. Yes, the Father gave us to Christ; but Christ is given to you by the Spirit!
Let me show you one more example of God’s love in this prayer. This is beautiful. It’s at the end of verse 6: “they have kept your word.” I want to shout, “Are we speaking of the same men? They kept the Word? Are you kidding me? These are the same ones you rebuked for wanting to call fire down from heaven to consume the Samaritans. These men were frightened out of their wits by a storm while you slept in their boat. They could not cast out certain demons, and they argued among themselves as to who was the greatest. In a few hours they will all desert you!”
Yet Christ says of them: “They have kept your word.” Note three applications, please.
First, be encouraged at how well Christ speaks of his people. Yes they had many failings and were of weak faith, but Jesus only speaks of their successes and best traits. He does so still today: Jesus speaks well of you to his Father! Do not fear, little sheep, that your loving Savior rushes to tattle your failings to the Father: “They have kept your word.” Adoption leads Jesus to speak well of those he is so dearly fond of!
Second, be especially on your guard against speaking ill of those who bear the name of Jesus. But you say to me, “My fellow Christians has many failings; I do not like what they do!” God’s answer is: Yes, they fail in many ways, but it is Satan’s unique malevolence to criticize and condemn – not that of God’s people. Imitate Christ and speak better of your fellow believers than they deserve.
Do you not want to be treated graciously in your own failings? Unless you deceive yourself, imaging you have none which need special care? It is the hard hearted Pharisee who knows and gossips of the weakness of a Christian – not the gracious child of God. Remember well Proverbs 19.11: “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”
Thomas Manton: “It is a ground of hope, notwithstanding many weaknesses and failings, that Christ does not love to upbraid us with infirmities. We commend with exceptions, and when we seem to praise we come in with a ‘but,’ like a stab under the fifth rib; yes, we even blast away much good with a little evil word, as flies go only to a sore place.”
Third, please note what Jesus picks out as the way to commend his disciples before his Father: “They have kept your word.” This duty must rise above all in importance since Jesus praises this in his men. Let us, therefore, make it our passion and prayer that we keep God’s word. 1) Keep it in your minds, through reading, study, memorization, attentiveness to the preaching, and speaking it to one another. 2) Keep it in your hearts, by meditation, and delighting, and cherishing. 3) Keep in it your lives, by seeking to be conformed to it, through faithful obedience and earnest prayer. Sanctification is by the Spirit and belief in the truth – his word is the truth which the Spirit uses to set Christians apart from the world while we remain in the world.
Jesus prays because of God’s great love.
2. Jesus Prays for Perseverance in God’s Name
John 17.11b-12a: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.” Jesus kept those appointed for eternal life while he was here. Now he asks the Father to ensure their perseverance to the end. Note: 1) the power necessary for keeping, and 2) the source for keeping.
First, we are kept by God. Even the eleven, though they walked and talked with Jesus, though they touched him with their own hands and saw the miracles he performed, even they had to be kept by God. The Westminster Confession reminds us: “Those whom God has accepted in his Beloved…shall certainly persevere to the end and be eternally saved. This perseverance of the saints does not depend upon their own free will, but on the unchangeableness of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; on the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; on the continuing presence of the Spirit and the seed of God within them; and on the nature of the covenant of grace” (WCF 17.1-2).
John 10. 27-30: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
The Bible asks you to doubt your own ability to save or keep yourself. Not so that you will doubt your salvation or perseverance, but so that you trust another, who cannot be doubted. Will you trust him to save and keep?
Second, be encouraged that we are kept in God’s name. All of God’s attributes are included in that word, because by his name he is known. So Jesus asks:
• Father, keep them in your solid truth rather than their fickleness and falseness. God is faithful.
• Father, keep them in your mercy rather than their unworthiness. “God is not upon his tribunal of justice, but his throne of grace” (Manton) when Jesus asks for him to keep us in his name.
• Father, keep them in your power rather than their weakness. God is mighty to save.
3. Conclusion
You who know Christ, does this not demand your continual dependence on his name and grace? Proverbs 18.10: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Will you run to the name of the Lord, plead his faithfulness, look to his power, depend on his grace?
And while you are doing so, does this not also draw out your confidence? Yes, we must depend on another name – we cannot keep ourselves. But, oh, what a name is give you! Jehovah God is a shield about you (Psalm 3.3). Because the Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (Psalm 16.8). If God is for me, who can be against me? (Romans 8.31). Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27.1).
Confidence in ourselves is stripped away by listening to Jesus pray; confidence in God is the alternative offered. But whom would you really rather trust to save to the uttermost?
