November 19, 2003
Title: The Time Has Come...To Pray #6
Text: John 17:9-11
Introduction
1. Jesus is praying to His Father...
and we have the opportunity to look on...
and listen in as He is speaking to God...
2. Let’s hear His prayer...
and allow it to speak to us this evening.
Read Text: John 17:9-12
1. Jesus is on your side!
A. Jesus is praying to God for the disciples.
He says, "I pray for them"
Hebrews 7:25 says, "he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
Hebrews 9:24 says, "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence"
Not only was Jesus praying for the disciples...
those that were right there hearing Jesus pray...
But His prayer is also for His future disciples...
And in fact, even today, Jesus is "ever interceding, to the Father for His children"
and the prayer that He is praying for the disciples and us...
is that they and we would have a spirit of unity
(more about that in a minute)
B. In verse 9, Jesus also says, "I am not praying for the world"
When you first read this...it may strike you as being out of character for Christ...
In fact, many of the commentators go through quite the gyrations to explain away this phrase...
Obviously Jesus doesn’t mean that He will "never" pray for the world...
because toward the end of this prayer, He does indeed pray for the world...
and remember Christ on the cross, prayed, "Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing"
In fact, the very reason Christ was here...
and the reason He died on the cross...
was for the world...
"For God so loved....the WORLD"
So, obviously, there must be another explanation...
and the explanation is that Christ is simply not including the world...
in this particular part of the prayer...
He is not praying that the world would have unity with Christians...
because He knew that was impossible...
at least until the world was willing to submit to Christ...
and then, once people embrace Christ...
then He includes them in the prayer for unity...
when Christianity and the world collide...
there can be no unity...
it is only when we turn from the world...
and embrace Christ...
and we can truly be made one...
one with Christ...
and one with each other.
2. Being "In" the World and not "of" the world
A. In verse 11, Jesus indicates that He is no longer in the world...
His time for earthy ministry has come to a close...
In the next few hours, Christ would close out His ministry...
by completing the mission that God had for Him to do...
He would provide for our salvation by His death on the cross...
and Jesus said, "I am coming to You"
So Jesus was going to be leaving this world behind...
B. But the disciples were going to remain behind...
their time had not yet arrived for them to be taken out of the world...
You have probably heard the saying, "in the world, but not of the world".
There is great truth in that...
First of all, we are expected to be in the world...
we are not to remove ourselves to some utopian set up...
we are not to go live in some spiritual "wonder-land" and have no interactions in the world
sometimes I think Christians attempt to do just that...
they treat their churches like it is some sort of spiritual "club" that is closed to outsiders...
they close off their lives to all people except those that belong to their circle of faith...
they refuse to have dealing with non-Christians...
or even Christians of another denomination...
Christ expects us to be IN the world...
He expects us to have interactions with sinners...
He expects us to even have friendships with sinners...
that’s the very example that Christ provided by His own life...
and that is what He expects from us...
why would Christ want us to be "IN" the world?
what is the purpose in that?
Well, I think the answer is pretty obvious...
It is by living for Christ IN the world...
that we are able to show the world who Jesus is!
How can they learn about Christ?
How can they learn what Christ is like?
If they never see any Christians in action?
If they never have the opportunity to get to know them?
Christ expected that Christians would have interactions and relationships with Non-Christians
C. But Christ also prayed that God would "protect them"
Christ recognized that this is a delicate balance...
since Christians are expected to be IN the world...
there is the danger that; instead of the Christian influencing the world to become a Christian...
the world will influence the Christian to become worldly.
And knowing that...Christ prays for His disciples...
He prays that God will protect them...
You have probably heard it said, "be insulated, not isolated"
One of the definitions of "insulated" means, "To prevent the passage of heat, electricity, or sound into or out of, especially by surrounding with a nonconducting material.
In the case of the Christian, we are to prevent the passage of worldliness into our hearts and lives.
D. This is perhaps the biggest challenge for the Christian...
and perhaps the biggest problem for the Church...
because we can see how the world is making inroads into the church...
as Christians become more worldly...
so the Church becomes more like the world...
our insulation begins to break down...
and the deterioration continues...
so that there is little difference between Christians...and non-Christians...
A preacher asked a group of people, "how many legs does a dog have"?
The group said, "four"
the preacher then asked, "how many different paths can those 4 legs travel"?
and the group said, "they can only follow 1 path".
The preacher then made his point,
The Christian, with only 2 legs...
will try to walk down 2 different paths...
the path following Christ...
and the path following the world...
but we need to focus on only following 1 path...
the path of Christ.
So Christ prays to God to protect the disciples...
and He is still praying, even today...
that we will be divinely protected from the world...
insulated...
so that we can go forth, into the world...
and impact people for Christ...
but protected, so that the world will not impact us away from Christ.
3. Unity
A. Then Jesus shows the purpose of His prayer...
and the purpose of the protection...
"that they may be one, as we are one".
unity plays a big part of the rest of this prayer...
and we will hit it in more detail later on...
B. Tonight, just let me say that unity is crucial for the Church...
it was the basis of Christ’s prayer, that we would be one...
It is not God’s plan for the church to have turmoil...
it is not God’s plan for the church to be divided...
it is not God’s plan for the church to split over hurtful attitudes...
I subscribe to a magazine that is geared toward preachers.
In the issue that I received this month, there was a letter to the editor about Church splits...
basically, the letter was saying that Church splits weren’t a bad thing...
better for Christians to meet in small groups in homes...
instead of gathering together for Church...
Now, I realize that in some coutries, home churches are the only churches available...
because the government won’t allow Christian churches...
but here in our country...
where we can meet together to worship the Lord...
but if we can’t get along well enough to worship together...
then something’s wrong!!
If we can’t get along ...and there is a church split....
that hurts the heart of Christ!
Christ’s prayer for the Church is for us to get along!
He wants us to have a spirit of unity...
He wants us to "love one another"
I heard about a church that literally split...
because they couldn’t agree on the color of the carpet!!! (true story)
Does that honor God?
Is God glorified by that Church?
Of course not!!
C. Since God prayed that we would have unity...
does that mean that churches will never have conflict?
no...whenever there is a church with more than 1 person...
there will be conflict or disagreement...
conflict isn’t a sin...
the sin comes in our ATTITUDE during the conflict...
do we continue to humble?
Loving?
Kind?
Submitting to one another?
disagreements will always come...
they will come in the most loving home...
and they will come in the most loving church...
it is how those disagreements are handled that is the key!
Christ prayed that we would be ONE
That spirit of love and unity is what let’s the world know that we are CHristians!
as the song says, "They will know we are CHristians by our love, by our love,
they will know we are Christians by our love" (song written by Peter Scholtes)
Conclusion
1. Christ is praying for His disciples...
He was praying for them the night He was arrested...
in fact, He is still praying for His followers even today...
He prayed that we might be in the world...
and impact the world for Christ...
not the other way around...
and the main purpose of His prayer...
the desire of His heart...
was that they would be one.
If Christ prayed that prayer for us...
I’m sure it would be appropriate for us to follow His example...
and pray that prayer for ourselves.
