This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole,
Ayrshire, Scotland on the 20th May 2012
(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Summary: God has chose us; to reveal Jesus into our lives; as our Lord; who in turn reveals God the Father; to forward his divine purpose on, and then return us to him in heaven. Simple really.
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Psalm 1 1 John 5:9-13 John 17:6-19
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts; be acceptable in your sight, letting these words speak for you, to bless each and every one of us, in the name of Jesus, Amen.
John 17:6-19
Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
Introduction:
Today’s reading was only thirteen familiar verses, yet without close examination they do not jump out at us and appear to say little. In fact, once you have read them, you will want to read on to the next verses to find something bit more interesting, and a bit more relevant.
Well that was what I thought, until I had to prepare this sermon, and I just cannot believe how I overlooked them as they contain some surprising revelations. Let me explain.
To understand, the first question we must ask is; “why this prayer is so important”? And it is important, because it is the last prayer Jesus prayed publically before he was to face his accusers and death. It was his last chance to defend himself before his disciples; and it was his last chance to make peace with the world. It was also his opportunity to say mission accomplished; and the things he wanted to say, but held back until the end.
It is actually a very poignant moment in Jesus life, and yet here he is not praying for himself; but for others, to encouraging them, and bring them hope.
The next question to ask is “why did he pray for his disciples and not himself”?
I think this is the key to the whole message, because everything we read in the bible is pointed to Jesus, but in this verse we see Jesus pointing to the disciples; because many of the things Jesus accomplished was accomplished in the lives of His disciples. Jesus is basically saying “thanks to them, my mission is complete” and that he “could not have done it without them”.
Now that in itself is a very power statement, and needs explaining.
Verse 6 says “They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” He is saying that these men had been given to him by his Father, and that he did not choose them, and neither did they choose him. They belonged to the Father, and for some reason the Father gave them to Jesus.
Verses 7 and 8 then tells us that Jesus gave them words from the Father, words which would accomplish redemption; and that did happen through them, simply by being a gift to Jesus, and by remaining in his vine.
The next question is therefore: how did the disciples make this come to pass in their lives?
Jesus made the Father known to them, and they obeyed the Father’s words by believing in Jesus. They accepted and acted on what Jesus said, and they knew with certainty that he had come from the Father.
Through these words and subsequent actions we see the work of God being acted in the experience of the disciples: God chose them; then Jesus revealed God to them; and they in turn received and believed these words from the father; and then acted them out with the help of the Holy Spirit, just like us today.
Another question we must ask is, why did Jesus pray for his disciples and not the world per se?
From these verses we can only conclude that God does not want the world, but certain people in the world; people who will accept Jesus as their Lord. Can you see the gem in this verse, to me this was a surprising revelation? God only wants people who will worship Jesus as their lord, and the world is only a place from where they can be developed. Think on that one and remember Jesus said to Peter when he recruited him that “he (Peter) would be made fishers of men”. There is no mention of taking over the world.
Can you see the difference from other religions; God is developing us personally for him and him alone. Yes he wants us to develop others, but ultimately, he wants us. Who are us, we who say and believe that “Jesus is Lord”, so we can say a big amen to that one.
What is clear from these verses is that God’s divine mission is not, nor has it ever been in any danger. Neither will it ever be. God has chose us somehow: for some reason; to reveal and accept Jesus into our lives; as our Lord; who in turn reveals God the Father to us; so that we can be commissioned to forward God’s divine purposes here on this earth, and return to the Father in heaven.
If you can grasp that, then it will totally transform your life; and yet we are all doing it now, and have most probably been doing it for a while, and have not realised it. Is that not a comfort both in terms of our own security; and hope in terms of the gospel and it progress, that God the Father gave us to Jesus.
We may think at times we have let God down, that we could have done better, but let him be the judge of that; after all, he is the one praying for us. We will see further as we move on.
Did you notice in the prayer that the disciples were given to Jesus “out of this world”; a phrase which suggests that they, like us; had previously belonged to the world, and were at one time enthroned in all its sin and rebellion against God; but Jesus then goes on to pray specifically for their protection.
This means very two important things:
First that they have been sanctified cleansed and make right with God himself, by the works of the Holy Spirit. They and we are different people from what we were; Sin and Evil do not rule our lives although we do sin from time to time. And this is good news but the bad news is that trouble will come our way, and none of us has a problem believing that.
Did you notice what Jesus says is the source of this trouble?
Well it is not a what, but a who. Verse 15 says, we need protection not from the world but from “the evil one”. He is the one who stands opposing God. The evil one is the one who stirs up all the trouble, not the world.
But Jesus goes on to tell us how we can be protected from this evil one in same verse by a very surprising statement “that we should not be removed from this world, or the scenes of such evil, but live in the midst of it. Not to glory in it, but to conqueror it; to overcome it by his power.
This means that all our attempts to evade the world and to run from any conflict are contrary to the praying of Jesus. I wish this was not so, and I am sure you wish the same, as we have all had our share of troubles. Jesus is praying that we live amongst trouble, and learn to deal with it.
We have all been brought up to think that safety is gained by removal from a situation; by running away. We have all prayed “Lord, get me out of here”, and I can assure you we will pray that again, but that isn’t the answer according to this prayer.
Jesus is not praying that we be removed from the fire; rather, he is praying that we live in the fire, but be protected while there just like Daniel. The two ways of dealing with the problems are poles apart.
I know you are thinking, like me, that this does not sound like good news. You may also be homing in on the scripture of 1 Corinthians 10:13 which say “God will not give us more than we can bear”.
But that scripture is talking about temptation, not about strife, because in life, we go through situations that are more than we can bear, but it is only in those times that we realize our full dependency on God.
It does not imply that God won’t let us be stressed beyond our capability, nor challenged beyond hope, or pushed beyond our threshold: God gives us more than we can bear on purpose, because it is only when we cannot bear the load, that the strength of Christ kicks in, and He becomes everything we need, and more.
Verse 11, Jesus prays, “Protect them by the power of your name”.
While he was in the world, Jesus protected his own by keeping the powers of evil at bay. He also corrected and rebuked his disciples regularly as a form of protection: and now as he prepares to leave this world, he is asking his Father to continue that same work of protection and correction through the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus prays for our protection because we are in the world but not of this world, and as such, we will face hostility from the evil one; because the more of Gods work we do, the more we achieve, the more the evil one will attack us.
If you are suffering, you are conquering somewhere; so take heart. If you are not doing anything he will not bother you, why would he bother you. He will simply leave you alone, ... well for a while, … .
It is not enough to sit under God’s Word, or to read it privately and say yes we are set apart as disciples, but we must also live in this world for our own sakes. That is where the action is, and that is where God will protect us.
Verse 18 tell us that “God sent Jesus into this world and Jesus sent his disciples there also”
Jesus is not like the Pharisees living in luxury and acting all holier than thou. No, Jesus and the disciples lived in the world, they got their hands dirty and they did things for God, and Jesus encourages us to do likewise. He encourages us to live in the middle of battlefield “where we will be protected”, where we will win over from the enemy.
Is this not a great commission for us?
I remember how I lived in the world, and would I want to go back? Definitely not! Have I suffered, yes I have suffered, but more so at the beginning in the form of correction? Have I seen great victory, Yes and I am seeing more of it as time goes by? Do I live in hope, yes, without a doubt? I would like to think I am secure in the Lord, but I know that I am becoming more secure every day.
In contrast to that, when living in the world for the world I still suffered, and had few solid victories, I had no direction and I certainly lost all hope for the future. You need to ask yourself these same questions to appreciate what God has done for you, and what he will do for you if you live as he says.
And finally, verse 13 says “Jesus has prayed, and still prays for us; and these are words intended to breed not gloom, but joy within our hearts”.
No calling was heavier or more onerous than that of Jesus, yet he was a man of joy. He lived in this world, and he wants us to share in that joy: not by running from the battle; nor by isolating ourselves in holy retreats; but doing what God wants us to do; knowing that he will protect us in doing it; and knowing that he is in the process of sanctifying us for himself. How could that not bring you joy, and a reason to enjoy life?
Amen
Let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he died our death on the cross so that we can belong and commune with you.
We thank you that you want us, and that you want us to be healthy and fruitful for your purposes. Many times Father we lose sight of that in our troubled lives, so please remind us of your desire to protect us from the evil one.
Father, we pray too like Jesus for people you have put in our care. We thank you for giving them to us, so please empower us with your love so we can pass it on to them. Father we ask that they are protected by us, who are protected by you, and that someday they will get a revelation that they to can be protected and sanctified by you directly.
Father, transmit your joy and your hopes for the future so that other take heart in us, who take heart in you.
Father we all want to remain in your love, we want to live on the frontline. Teach us how to do that, knowing that we are doing you will, under your protection.
We are willing Father, so let it be, Amen.
