Jesus, the God-man: Gospel of John
“Safe in God’s Strongbox”
John 17:11-19
Introduction: When I was a kid I was always fascinated by my parents’ strong box. It was kept on a shelf, it was really heavy and I was told that it was fireproof. It was also locked so that my brother and I could not look inside it. When we asked what they kept in it my parents would just say important papers that they wanted to protect. Since I have gotten older and I am their executor, my parents let me look in their strongbox and they were right – just papers.
People use these fireproof strongboxes all the time to guard and protect valuables from fire and theft. What it contains must be available should they become needed like wills and other important documents or to protect people from misusing them like guns.
Did you know God treats us in the same way? He protects us and keeps us available to be used for His purposes. Jesus completes praying for His disciples and in so doing helps us to understand what it means to be “safe in God’s strongbox”.
1. We are guarded by God. (vv. 11-12)
“I am no longer in the world” – Speaks of future events as if they have already happened.
“are in the world” – His concern is for His disciples and not Himself. He is about to go to the cross and He is thinking of them. You cannot read these words and then turn around and say Jesus does not care about you.
“come to you” – in prayer and in a few days literally will come to the Father.
“Holy Father” – His focus is on the Father’s holiness. This is what heaven is like as well. The emphasis is on the holiness of God.
Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Revelation 15:4 (NIV)
Based on this holiness, He will make His next request.
“keep” – Guard, protect, or attend to carefully.
“through Your name” – His name is on the line, His reputation and holiness is at stake. His keeping involves His character.
He wants us to be kept because holiness is what matters. Remember how He addressed the Father?
As a quaint old writer said, "It is more wonderful to maintain a candle in a bucket of water than in a lantern." –A.W. Pink (1886-1952), Exposition of John
Which is why the psalmist warns is Psalm 97:10:
Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 97:10 (NIV)
Why does He keep us? So we will be one like the trinity. Jesus wants us to be unified. He wants unity not uniformity.
v. 12 _ “I have been protecting and guarding them while I have been here because You gave them to Me.
“lost none” – He does not lose or misplace you.
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
John 13:1 (NIV)
who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:5 (NIV)
“except” – The one that never belonged to Him in the first place. Judas’ choice was to betray and leave – to ignore the offer of salvation and in so doing fulfill Scripture.
“son of perdition” – The child of the devil. It suggests an abandoned character, one utterly lost and given over to evil.
Like Judas, you too have a choice. You can be a child of the devil or a child of God.
2. We do not belong to the world. (vv. 13-16)
“in the world” – While I am still here.
He prays that His joy would be theirs. It is Jesus’ will that we would keep on having joy. If not then we are outside the will of God and when you are outside His will then joy is the first thing you lose.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
1 John 1:3-4 (NIV)
v. 14 – He has given us the Father’s Word – His mission and the world hates us because of it. The world hates God’s Word!
Illustration: Shooting at Family Research Council because of what they believe. Gunman said, “Don’t shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for.”
“not of the world” – Like Jesus we are to be in the world, but not of the world.
Illustration: A boat is designed to be in the water, but not of the water. If it is in the water, it floats and is useful. If it is of the water, it sinks and is useless. You and I are the same way as believers.
v. 15 – His prayer is don’t take them out of the world. Instead keep them in it, but protect them from the evil one. This is the reason we do not disappear at the point of salvation.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13 (NIV)
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 1 John 5:18 (NIV)
Moses, Elijah, and Jonah all prayed to be taken out of the world, but God did not grant their request. Here’s why.
For too many believers, the Christian life is a ball field and not a battlefield. --Alan Carr, Pastor, Calvary Baptist, Lenoir, NC
v. 16 – Jesus summarizes. “They are not of the world just like I am not of it.” You and I should be the same.
When you are of the world then you lose your effectiveness and no longer impact the world with the Father’s word that is in you!
3. We are set apart to serve. (vv. 17-19)
“Sanctify” – Set apart for service or make holy or consecrated.
This is part of salvation. It is not optional. If you are not being sanctified then you are not saved. Salvation is not about fire insurance. It is about bringing glory to God and being part of His mission.
Living for Jesus is proof that you belong to Him.
Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
2 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV)
Illustration: An English clergyman was the guest at a girls' school while visiting some mission stations in the South Sea Islands. He was profoundly impressed by the spiritual concern of the students, by the art that decorated their buildings, and by their personal cleanliness. But the highlight came as he boarded the ship to return to England. The girls lined up in two rows and sang enthusiastically, "What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart!" He was deeply touched, especially when one of the staff members whispered, "Every one of those girls is either the daughter or the granddaughter of a cannibal!" (A Story is Told compiled by Dave Branon)
Sanctification should concern us. I see a lot of people that have no visible evidence of salvation, but if you ask them if they are saved they say yes. Yet they do not have any fruit – there is no sanctification.
“by your truth” – What is truth? Answers immediately.
“your word is truth” – that is what cleans us and sets us apart.
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
Ephesians 5:25b-26 (NIV)
v. 18 – “Like you sent Me, I have sent them.” MISSION! Jesus came to serve and to give Himself. He sends us to do the same.
Note the progression. We are sanctified to serve. We are saved to serve, not to sit and sour.
God preserves the saints, but He does not pickle them.
--Vance Havner (1901-1986), pastor & author
v. 19 – “I have set Myself apart by death on the cross so I can set them apart for your mission, Father. Your word also sanctifies and makes them holy.”
Are you letting God’s Word impact you for His glory?
Conclusion: There are 2 ways of handling pressure:
One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which keeps the water out but also makes them heavy and hard to maneuver. Inside they're cramped. When these craft descend to the ocean floor, however, they find they're not alone. When their lights are turned on
and you look through the tiny, thick plate glass windows, what do you see? Fish!
These fish cope with extreme pressure in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins: they remain supple and free. They compensate for the outside pressure through equal and opposite pressure inside themselves. Christians, likewise, don't have to be hard and thick skinned - as long as they appropriate God's power within to equal the pressure without. (Jay Kesler in Campus Life. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2)
God guards and protects you from the world so that He can use you for His service to bring Him glory. That is why you are “safe in God’s strongbox”.
