JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES
Text: John 17:6-19
I read an account about a storm that came as a surprise. "The storm came roaring in from the Atlantic, and it left the city of New York paralyzed. Ordinarily such a snow fall cause little inconvenience in that city. Snowplows are assembled and crews are at work even as the first flakes begin to fall. The weather forecasters do a good job, and because they do the city is kept moving and New Yorkers can continue on their way. But on that cold day a few years back, the weatherman missed it. His mistake was understandable. Weather systems in this country usually move west to east. This storm slipped in from the east, taking New York City by surprise. This sort of thin happens not only to cities but also to people". (Ernest A. Fitzgerald. Keeping Pace: Inspirations In The Air. Greensboro: Pace Communications Inc. 1988, p. 116). Jesus knew that there would be times when storms would come and cause an upheaval for these disciples that He was praying for. Jesus is praying for them and their mission to be faithful when those times would come. Jesus is praying for protection from the evil one as well as their sanctification.
JESUS CAME TO REVEAL GOD’S CHARACTER.
Jesus revealed the character of God by making God’s Name known. This explanation at face value seems far too simple. But, if you take the Old Testament, then Jesus’ making God’s name known to the disciples that God gave Him takes on a whole new meaning. "In the Old Testament, name is used in a very special way. It does not simply mean the name by which a person is called; it means the whole character of the whole person as far as it can be known". (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel Of John. Volume 2. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975, p. 210). That would explain why the Jews of the Old Testament days would not use God’s name directly which is "Jehovah". Instead, they would refer to God’s name indirectly calling God "Adonai" which means "Lord". That is why Jesus taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer using the wording, "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name …" "The Jews who heard Jesus use this word hallowed understood much of what He meant". (G. Ray Jordan. Life Giving Words. Anderson: Indiana Press, 1964, p. 31). The point is that God’s Name is holy. "We hallow God’s name to the degree that we think of him in the most reverent way of which we are capable" (Jordan, p. 31). Secondly, there was no one who felt that he or she could call God by His Name because it would seem that they did not know God’s whole character and person.
Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16). "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:14 ASV). Until Jesus came as "God in the flesh", God’s words had come through the prophets and had been recorded in words on paper. It was because of their respect for God’s Holy Name that the Jews of the Old Testament would not use His Name directly. So even though they had God’s words---the scriptures as a guide to go by, God sent His only begotten Son (John 3:16) to let us know that He is with us (Matthew 1:23) as one of us (Philippians 2:5-11). When Jesus came, He came as the Living Word----the Word made flesh---full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He had come to preach the good news to the poor, to set the prisoners free, to give recovery of sight the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus had come to give life more abundant---more fulfilling (John 10:10) to those who would receive His teaching and believe in Him. Jesus also came to give God’s own Words to the disciples that God had given to Him (John 17:8). Jesus had also come to reveal not only the Words of God the Father, but the character and personality of God the Father (John 17:7,8 and John 1:14) in the flesh.
JESUS PRAYS FOR THEIR UNITY.
Jesus prayed for their unity as a group. By God’s will and design, Jesus’ own disciples had been brought to Him by God (John 6:37, 44 and John 17:6). Jesus had taught them and groomed them as disciples to continue in their ministry in His name after He would be going back to heaven because He had now completed the work that God had sent Him to do (John 17:4). It would be only days later when Jesus would say again that He had completed the work that God had sent Him to do when He said, "It is finished" on the cross (John 19:30) just before He died. Jesus was praying that they would be one with each other in the fellowship that they shared in Jesus as Jesus Himself is one in the fellowship that He shares with His Father in heaven (John 17:11). "Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you" (Psalm 9:10 NIV).
Each and every one of Jesus’ disciples was and is "a diamond in the rough". "Every diamond does not shine alike. Some can never shine because they have never been cut. The brilliancy of the light depends largely upon the character of its facets. Three things are needed to make us shine: (1) We must be diamonds. Saved ones, precious in His sight. (2) We must be cut. Fashioned after His own will. (3) We must abide in the light. In His light we shall see light, and be lights in the world". (James Smith. Hands On Purpose. Volume II. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997 (reprinted), p. 290). Just like Jesus worked with His disciples then, He works with His disciples today fashioning them so that He might abide in them and they abide in Him so that His light shines in us and through us.
Jesus prayed for their protection in the power of God’s Name. Jesus was praying that these disciples that He had groomed from being "diamonds in the rough" would keep the faith and continue to let His light shine in them and through them. Jesus did not pray for them to be taken out of the world because He had been grooming them for when He would send them back into the world (John 17:18). Jesus was praying to God, our Creator to watch over their going and coming (Psalm 121: 1-8) until they would complete the work that God had for them to do.
JESUS PRAYS FOR THEIR SANTIFICATION.
To be sanctified means to be set apart. Jesus prayed that God would sanctify them with the truth because the word of God is truth (John 17:17). Jesus had told them earlier that they had already been made clean and purified by the word that He had spoken to them (John 15:3). Jesus had sanctified them with God’s word so that they could be set apart from the world. It was now that Jesus was praying that they would continue in His love (John 15:9) by remembering their purpose, and their call to be His faithful disciples as He would send them back into the world.
I read of an episode where Mother Teresa once addressed Senator Mark Hatfield, who asked while touring her work in Calcutta, "How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?" To that question Mother Teresa responded by saying, "My Dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, but faithful". (Robert J. Morgan. Ed. Nelson’s Complete Book Of Stories. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Press, 2000, p. 289). God’s Word never comes back void! That is why Jesus seemed to be praying that they would remain faithful in doing what they had been sanctified---set apart to continue in Jesus’ work.
To be sanctified means to be made Holy. Jesus sanctified them with God’s Word (John 15:13, 17:17) meaning that not only had His disciples been set apart to be faithful, but they had also been made holy and purified in character so that they were in the world but not of the world. They were in the world and not of the world because Jesus had given them a new nature and purpose.
"Someone has sagely observed: "The inner braces of a man’s heart must be equal to the outer pressures of life’s circumstances". (Frank Morgan, Jr. Keys To Unlock Yourself. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1985, p. 145). There is the story about a carpenter whose first job was to build a chicken house for one of his neighbors. The job was almost completed and everything had gone well. With pride, he got on top of that house to "put the last row of boards on the roof" and the chicken house began to collapse. To his discovery the mistake was that he had "failed to install braces in the walls to give the house rigidity and stability" (Morgan, p. 145). Again, "The inner braces of a man’s heart must be equal to the outer pressures of life’s circumstances". When Jesus sanctifies His disciples, His sanctification gives them the grace that they will need to endure.
