John 17:6-19
Jesus’ Prayer for the Disciples
As we head toward Good Friday and Easter, I have been drawn to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Jesus has entered Jerusalem triumphantly on Palm Sunday, he has been teaching in the temple and on the streets. What he has been saying and doing has offended the rulers and the people more and more. Jesus and the disciples observe the Passover together in an upper room of a house, quietly away from everyone, Jesus teaches them as they eat together, first in action by washing their feet and calling them to do the same for each other, then through words as he explains what is going to happen and how the Holy Spirit will come, then he teaches them through prayer. He prays for himself, then his disciples, and then all of us who will follow him.
The prayer is a model for us – it was prayed with the disciples listening in, and it teaches us about Jesus and ourselves.
Read or show it.
Although the passage that we are looking at today is prayed for the 11 disciples surrounding Jesus at the meal, it can also be applied to us, as Jesus says in verse 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…”
6-11 Jesus’ Reason for Praying
6"I have revealed you[1] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
The reason that Jesus prays for the disciples is that they have been drawn into the glory giving relationship that is the Trinity.
Jesus has introduced them to the Father, but they already belonged to Him and He gave them to Jesus!
During the meal, Jesus has been telling them how he is going to the Father and how they would follow him. Thomas (from Missouri) says “show me!” “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[2] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” - John 14
Jesus proclaims more faith and belief for the Disciples than is evidenced in the rest of scripture. – they know everything I have comes from you, they accepted the words as from you… They knew with certainty…
While you can see that their minds had doubts, and lack of understanding, their actions spoke volumes
In John 6, Jesus has been talking about how he is the bread of life – the bread that comes down from heaven. The people get upset with that teaching because it sounds like he was saying that they had to eat his flesh. So Jesus makes it harder for them by saying
53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
…60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
…66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." – John 6
They didn’t get it with their minds, but they knew the truth in their hearts.
And because of this heart belief, they bring glory to Jesus, which he gives to the Father who gives it back to Jesus….
The reason that Jesus prays for his disciples is because of this deep, abiding intimate relationship that they have entered into in the Trinity.
Our faith is all about Relationship – knowing the Father & Son – joining in the glory-giving relationship
11-12 Jesus Prays for Protection
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
Jesus does not pray for the Father to pull them out of the God-rejecting population, but instead asks God to protect them. He asks for protection, not from persecution, or from sin, or from heresy, but from disunity..
We must get this. It is not that attacks from the outside, sin and unbelief from the inside are not important, but the greatest attack that Jesus sees on the church is disunity!
This is why Paul says to the Ephesians: 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. – Ephesians 4
It is because when we step outside of unity in the church, we are stepping outside that glory-giving relationship of unity that is the Trinity!
How can we claim to worship a unified God when we are not unified? It makes no sense.
So when you have a disagreement with a brother or sister, when someone has done something against you, when you are upset with their behavior or belief, you must deal with the issue, but your goal must be to deal with the issue and come out on the other side in unity.
John says in his epistle “20If we say, we love God, yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For any of us who does not love our brother or sister, whom we have seen, cannot love God, whom we has not seen.” – 1 John 4:20
We must learn to say to each other, like Peter did to Jesus, “I don’t know if I understand or agree with what you are doing our saying, but I’m not letting you go.”
We must not be like the urbanites that Joe Jackson
“We think we’re pretty smart, us city slickers get around
and when the going’s rough
we kill the pain and relocate
we’re never married never faithful, not to any town”
- Joe Jackson, from “Home Town” on “Big World”
We must not be like this, we must not just relocate to kill the pain, we must work through the pain and remain faithful to eachother.
Jesus mention of losing one reminds us that we are called not to just keep the unity of the Spirit with those who are with us, but people falling away from God and fellowship is a break in the unity.
This is why Paul says
1Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody. - Galatians 6 NLT
And James says:
19My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, 20you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins. - James 5
13-16 Shift in the Relationship With the World
13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Jesus has already said:
18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you - John 15
When we become a Christian, there is this cosmic shift in our being – we go from be of the kingdom of the world, to being of the kingdom of Heaven. It is like becoming a citizen of Japan but remaining in Canada.
The problem is that it is more serious than this because the kingdom of the world is opposed to the kingdom of Heaven, and God leaves us here as subversive agents of change.
1 Peter 2
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
17-19 Commissioning
17Sanctify[2] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Sanctify – to make holy or set apart for holy use. Jesus prays the reality that he just described – as Christians we are not the same as the rest of humanity, nor are supposed to be, we are set apart to be holy.
Then he commissions us with the words he uses after his resurrection.
John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
The way Jesus was sent
John 3: 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[6] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Matthew 20
25Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Conclusion:
It is all about relationship – the relationship in the trinity, our relationship with the Father and the Spirit through the Son, and our relationship with each other with a faithfulness that is opposed to the quickness of the world to give up on each other and divorce.
4There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. – Ephesians 4
