Jesus prayed for Himself. He asked that God would glorify Him so that He might glorify the Father. And He also asked that He be restored to His former glory. Jesus prays for His disciples.
READ verses 9-10. Jesus says that He wasn’t praying for the world right now. He specifically said so. Why? It wasn’t because He and the Father don’t love the world. They love the world deeply. After all, the world was the very reason Jesus had come to earth: to save the world and keep it from perishing. It wasn’t’ because the world didn’t need prayer because it did. There are 4 reasons why Jesus was only praying for His disciples right now. Note that the reasons are part of His prayer.
1. In verse 9 Jesus’ disciples had been given to Him by His Father. They had been entrusted into His hand. He was responsible for them and their welfare. He had to pray for them that His Father would give them special strength in the coming days.
2. In verse 10, Jesus’ disciples belonged to both Him and the Father. Note how He worded this: “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.” So, the disciples belonged to God, but they also belonged to Jesus. And so it is with us. Once we accept Christ there is a mutual possession of all believers by both Jesus and God.
3. Again in v. 10, Jesus’ disciples glorified Jesus; their lives brought glory to Him. They lived for Him by obeying His Word. They lifted Jesus up and proclaimed that He was the Savior of the world. Since Jesus was glorified, honored, and praised, He prayed for them that they might become strong in their lives and witness for Him.
4. READ v. 11. Jesus was leaving the world and returning to heaven and the Father. So now the whole mission of preaching the gospel to the world rested upon the shoulders of His disciples. What an awesome responsibility. They were the ones who were to go out into the world as His ambassadors to proclaim His Word. As they went, they needed to be strengthened and equipped by God to stand against some terrible forces. They needed special prayer. In these last hours before He returned to heaven, He had to pray for them with power and intensity, asking great things of God.
READ 12. Jesus prayed that God would keep His disciples together as one. He was praying for the disciples to be kept from the divisiveness of the world, not that they would be kept from evil. He dealt with the evil of the world later in verses 14-15.
We have to keep in mind that the disciples were in an extremely divisive world. Jesus had kept them together while He was on earth. The only one He lost was Judas but Judas’ betrayal happened to fulfill Scripture. Now Jesus was leaving the world, so God had to take over. It was now up to God to keep them, and he would. God would keep the disciples as well as Christ did.
In verse 13, Jesus simply prayed that the disciples would have His joy in all its full measure. READ v. 13.
READ verses 14-16. This is a pretty strong point that Jesus is making here. That’s probably why He repeats the same statement in v. 14 and v. 16. He prayed that God would keep the disciples from the world and from Satan. We know that the world and Satan are evil and stand opposed to all that Jesus and His disciples proclaimed.
• The world and Satan stand against the love of God. Because God’s love is the true love of obedience. True love loves so much that it gives everything and does all it can to help any who are in desperate need. Most people in the world are unwilling to give anything other than a mere token, and even then they wasn’t to be recognized for what little is given.
• The world and Satan stand against the holiness and justice of God. Because it means that both must stand before God some day to give an account of their lives and deeds.
• The world and Satan stand against Jesus. Because Jesus was the One who claimed to be the Son of God, and if He is truly the Son of God, then total allegiance is due Him. And neither the world nor Satan are willing to serve anyone other than self.
There were 2 main reasons why God had to protect the disciples from the world and the devil.
1. The world and the devil hated the disciples of Jesus. That’s because the disciples have the Word of God that reveals this sacrificial love and that’s different from the love that the world wants.
The disciples weren’t of the world, just like Jesus wasn’t of the world. Jesus came from God, out of heaven. The disciples and other believers were born again by the Spirit of God and given the very nature of God. The world and the devil want absolutely nothing to do with a selfless and sacrificial nature.
2. The second reason why God had to protect the disciples was that they were needed in the world. The need was not for them to be taken out of the world; the need was for them to be kept from Satan. They were called the ambassadors and messengers of God in the world. God’s mission to save the world depended on their loyalty and faithfulness. They had to be kept and protected and covered with the armor of God.
We must realize that the disciples were now of the same nature as Jesus. That’s why this truth was repeated in v. 14 and 16. It’s also the main reason the world and the devil attack the believer, because the believer is of the same nature as Jesus. That explains why we are always attacked by Satan. If Satan leaves us alone, it can only mean that we are not yet of the same nature as Jesus. Think about that one!
READ 17-19. Jesus prayed that God would sanctify His disciples. Sanctified means to be set apart. The disciples needed to be set apart to God through His truth for two reasons:
1. They were being sent in to the world just as Jesus had been sent in to the world. The disciples had to be set apart to this same task.
2. Sanctification is the way of salvation chosen to reach the world. Jesus had set Himself apart to please God, and He pleased God to the ultimate degree. No matter the cost, the glory of God was to be done. Perfect obedience to God was the chosen way of salvation. Being set apart to serve and worship God is what salvation is all about. That’s why Jesus prayed for His disciples to be sanctified.
Let’s close this study looking at the term sanctification. Believers are sanctified through the truth. The truth is God’s Word. It’s through the study and practice of God’s Word that believers are set apart unto God. As the believer studies God’s Word, he sees more and more how he is to live.
As he sees, he sets himself apart to live the way God tells him to live. That doesn’t mean that we are holier than other people. The Word of God holds new instructions for the believer every day
The Word of God shows the believer how to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ every day. But note that the believer has to come to the truth, to the Word of God every day if he wishes to be set apart unto God for that day. Do you see now why I stress over and over how important it is to read the Bible every day?
