Jesus Prays for His Own - John 17:6-19

This morning we’re continuing our study of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer from John 17. And by way of reminder, his prayer breaks down very nicely, in verses 1-5 Jesus prays for his own glory which we looked at last week, then he prays for his disciples in verses 6-19, which we’ll look at this morning, and then in verses 20-26 he prays for all believers.

It’s so easy to fall into the rut of daily, monotonous prayers where you end up saying the same things over and over again. I don’t know about you, but this prayer really humble me. But this prayer reminds me that I need to be in deep prayer for the people that are closest to me.

When was the last time you found yourself on your knees begging for the Lord’s intervention for your closest family and friends?

That’s precisely what’s going on in this particular passage. Jesus is pouring his heart out before the Lord on behalf of the men that are his closest friends.

Jesus prays several things for his disciples: First, he prays for their salvation in verses 6-10. Second, he prays for their unity in verse 11. Third, he prays for their protection in verses 12-16. And lastly, he prays for their sanctification in verses 17-19.

First, he prays for their salvation (vv. 6-10)

It becomes increasingly clear that Jesus has his disciples in mind in this particular section of the high priestly prayer as we continue to look at it, but of course these are the men that knew Jesus the best.

It’s our natural inclination to pray for our friends and family that don’t know the Lord at all, which is of course right and good, but in these verses Jesus’ primary focus is on his disciples’ spiritual well being. When was the last time you prayed for a close friend or loved spiritual growth? Typically my mind immediately jumps to folks physical or relational well being. Folks' spiritual well being unfortunately isn’t one of the first things that comes to my mind.

But after Jesus prayed for his own glory, that’s exactly where Jesus turned his attention. To his disciples’ spiritual well being. Look again at verses 6-10.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.”

There is so much dense theology packed into these five verses, it could easily be a stand alone sermon. But here are the sparknotes of these verses:

First, notice that Jesus says that they are God’s possession. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me…” It’s another way of expressing the fact that they were chosen by God. And then Jesus says that God the Father had given them to him.

Jesus is describing the intra-trinitarian nature of salvation. The fact that God the Father elects some to salvation, and then it was Jesus who purchased their salvation on the cross.

It’s also worth noting that Jesus says that his disciples have “kept your word.” Which is of course interesting because these are the men who are about to abandon him in just a few hours when he’s arrested And yet, here’s Jesus telling God that these men that have been given to him have “kept your word.” Obviously, Jesus isn’t saying that they perfectly kept God’s Word, but rather, they have trusted the message of God’s Word. That is, they have believed the word that he has preached; namely that he is the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of Sinners.

Which is of course, the main idea in verse 8. “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”

Jesus has taught the disciples the truth concerning who he is and where he came from. It’s easy to get bogged down in the theological details here and miss the overarching main point: The main point here is that Jesus is praying for his disciples' salvation. Which is of course interesting because they’re already saved!

So when Jesus prays for his disciples he’s not saying, “Lord, I hope they actually believe! I hope they genuinely believe in me.” Instead, Jesus goes into the mechanics of salvation! How the Father gives the elect to the Son and how the Son accomplishes redemption for them on the cross.

Jesus is going into great theological detail and I think there’s a reason for it. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that the plan of salvation wasn’t invented fifteen minutes ago.

It’s not like there’s ten seconds left in the game and the Father and the Son have called a timeout to figure out how to get the last shot off to win the game.

The game was already won and they knew exactly how they were going to do it.

Jesus wants his disciples to not to simply know that they are saved, but to have confidence in it. He’s not just telling them that they’re saved, he goes into detail explaining how they’re saved. There’s comfort in knowing the details of a plan.

Isn’t that one of the most common complaints about work meetings? Typically, there’s lots of talking, lots of “communicating,” but rarely is any meaningful action taken. That’s discouraging isn’t it?

But you know what’s encouraging? When someone steps forward with a detailed plan for how to improve things and fix the problem.

That’s what Jesus is doing! He’s giving them peace in not only knowing that they’re going to be saved but there’s always been a plan to accomplish it.

Which is why he explicitly says he’s not praying for the world, rather, he’s praying for the redeemed. What security? What peace? What comfort to know that the Lord has you in his arms despite the trials you may face.

Because of course, rough waters were ahead for the disciples, but nevertheless, they were in the Lord’s arms.

Second, he prays for their unity (v. 11)

But he doesn’t just pray for their salvation, he also prays for their unity. Look at verse 11 with me.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Of course, Jesus is preparing to ascend to the right hand of the Father, but the disciples were going to stay here on earth. “The world” as it is used here is synonymous with wickedness and hostility towards the things of God.

And so, Jesus prays that the Father would keep them. That he’d protect and sustain them and that they’d remain as ‘one’ just as he and the Father are one. In other words, Jesus is praying for the unity of his disciples.

What Jesus is saying here has tremendous potential to be misunderstood, because for one, the word ‘unity’ has been overused within our modern evangelical world. We hear folks encourage unity, unity, unity. And of course, who doesn’t want unity? No sane person wants division, hostility, and conflict. Most of us try to avoid it.

But at various times, unity has been weaponized. Many of us have been in situations where churches have encouraged folks to ignore or deny grievous sin, error, and false teaching for the sake of unity. Any suggestion of a problem is perceived as an act of disloyalty or hostility and instead of addressing serious problems within the church, they’re often swept under the rug and ignored. And of course, we all know why: addressing problems always has the potential to make people mad, be divisive and just be generally messy. And so, the path of least resistance is pursued which is to disregard issues for the sake of church unity.

I’ve always appreciated what the Westminster Confession of Faith says on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience in chapter 20 paragraph 2:

“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and [has] left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to His Word or beside it in matters of faith or worship.”

Only God in his Word can and should bind your conscience. Anything outside of that is up for debate.

But unity for unity’s sake isn’t what Jesus has in mind. He’s not praying that his disciples will sweep things under the rug and ignore blatant sin in order to maintain harmony.

Maintaining church unity is a high wire act.

I’ve also read where some have suggested that Jesus is condemning denominationalism. Jesus wanted his disciples and followers to be ‘one’ and when you drive down the street you see many churches and we’re not one are we?

And I’ll be the first to admit that denominations and the fracturing of God’s glorious universal church is certainly the result of the fall. I don’t think it was supposed to be this way, but the church is not impervious to sin and I think we’re all keenly aware of this fact. For better or worse, churches are made up of sinners like you and me!

But again, I don’t think Jesus is condemning or warning against denominationalism here.

Look at verse 11 again. “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Jesus is praying for his disciples to maintain unity and fidelity to him in the face of opposition and hostility from the wicked world. In other words, he’s praying that the church would maintain her faith, trust, and love for him, no matter how loud the world screams, no matter how severe the pressure may become on followers to abandon Christ, that they would stand firm and remain steadfast in their allegiance to the Lord.

So what Jesus is praying for is not necessarily lockstep rigidity from the church, but rather harmony, accord, and peace amongst all believers as the wicked world becomes increasingly resistant and hostile to our Lord.

That’s something that baptists, presbyterians, anglicans, methodists, and anyone else that I’m leaving out can and should lock arms in their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Word as we face the vitriol of the world.

I don’t think Jesus was so naive to think that his disciples would never disagree. We have Biblical testimony that they did disagree. Paul opposed Peter. And of course, Paul and Barnabas had a “sharp disagreement” over John Mark.

But Jesus is praying that his disciples would be loyal, faithful, committed followers of him - no matter the cost.

How relevant is that message for the church today? There are tremendous pressures on all of us to abandon Christ. And I don’t think those pressures are going to subside. I believe it’s only going to get worse.

No doubt the universal church has many disagreements. And as we all know, the Presbyterians are right about everything, but we choose to love our brothers and sisters in Christ from other denominations anyway.

But in all seriousness, as pressure from the world mounts upon you to abandon Christ, suddenly secondary issues or as we say in the Presbyterian world, those things that “do not strike at the vitals of religion” begin to fade into the background. And we start to ask more basic questions: are you more committed to Christ than anything that this world can throw at you or offer?

And so the universal church, the one church of our Lord Jesus Christ, must stand firm against the pressure of the world in which we live.

Which is precisely the prayer that Jesus offers on behalf of the disciples. He prays that they will stand firm in the face of hostility, which of course, they all ran away at first. They all abandon Christ when he’s arrested, but the book of Acts tells a much different story doesn’t it?

Peter, the one who denied Christ three times goes on to say, “we must obey God and not man.” Quite the reversal from the man that denied Christ, isn’t it? But that’s the sort of strength that Jesus was praying for. The Christian may be persecuted, abandoned, struck down, but the believer cannot be destroyed. Amen?

Third, he prays for their protection (vv. 12-16)

So Jesus has prayed for their salvation, their unity, and next he prays for their protection. He says in verse 12,

“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus says that he has kept them and guarded them and what he means by that is they’re salvation is secure. If the disciples were to die at that precise moment, they are his. They are eternally secure.

Except for one, Judas Iscariot, or the “son of destruction.” Other translations sometimes say, “son of perdition.”

In other words, all those that were meant to be saved, are saved, except for the one that wasn’t a true believer - Judas. He never trusted in Christ, which is why he is the son of destruction.

But hopefully you can see what Jesus is doing: he’s comparing the disciples, his true followers over against, the false follower, Judas. But of course, Jesus didn’t fail Judas and he slipped through the cracks and accidentally ended up in hell.

No, he never believed in Christ and betrayed him, but it was always a part of God’s sovereign plan. Jesus makes this point when he says, “so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” It happened exactly the way it was meant to happen.

But if you take anything away from what Jesus is saying here in verse 12, it’s that he will save those whom he came to save. You cannot lose your salvation. You cannot be saved one minute only to lose your salvation the next.

If you believe that Jesus has only the potential to save then what Jesus is describing here would make him at worst a liar and at best indifferent toward God the Father!

If you believe that Jesus only has the potential to save, it casts tremendous doubt upon the sufficiency and power of his atoning work on the cross! Simply, the cross isn’t enough. Something else needs to happen in addition to the cross.

But that’s not the case with our Savior because when Jesus saves, he saves. We worship and serve a Savior that saves to the utmost. His atoning work on the cross is your only hope.

And this reality produces joy.

You see there is great joy in knowing that you are in Christ. It’s not the sort of joy that makes you happy when the Hokies finally win a football game. It’s the joy that comes when you know you are in the beloved. That the Lord loves you. And it’s not a worldly sort of joy, notice Jesus refers to it as “[his] joy” in verse 13.

But the part of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer that tends to receive the most discussion is what he says in verses 14-16:

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

The popular phrase, “in the world, but not of the world” comes from these verses. Ironically, the phrase, “in the world, but not of the world” is not a Scripture quotation, it's a paraphrase of these verses.

And it’s easy to see why we use that paraphrase. Jesus prays for his disciples and says that they’re not of this world, but that they should remain in this world.

And obviously, Jesus is making the point that his disciples eternal hope is not connected or intertwined with the world and it’s for that reason, the world hates them, but they’re still supposed to remain in this world.

But Jesus deliberately prays that they would remain in the world. Things would be a lot simpler if every time someone was converted, God would just tractor beam them right off the face of the earth. It would make the whole “in the world but not of the world” conversation a lot easier. But the reason God doesn’t tractor beam his disciples right off the earth is because they have a specific job to do.

They’re going to stay on earth to preach the gospel. That’s what they’re called to do. We share in that responsibility as well. We’re called to share the gospel with those around us.

But whenever we talk about living in the world, but not of it, we’re describing the tension that we all feel. The tension that comes from living in a world that is hostile to Christ, doing our best to be gospel witnesses, without completely adopting or being swept away by the agenda of this world.

I certainly don’t claim to have a precise prescription, because Jesus doesn’t give one. He doesn’t tell us to abandon the world and completely isolate ourselves, but at the same time, he doesn’t tell us to turn ourselves over to the world.

Is it our job to transform the culture or should we adopt a posture of indifference towards the culture? At the risk of sounding like I’m copping out, I think the answer is yes. We transform, build, and influence the culture where we are able and at the same time we must be willing to disregard or even challenge the culture as well.

But you can really miss the forest through the trees here. We might get so caught up in the culture conversation of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer we forget his overall point: Jesus’ point in these verses is that he will protect, guard, and keep his disciples even though he is calling them to preach the gospel to a world that hates them.

We’re supposed to live in the world but not of the world while recognizing that Christ is always with us!

And lastly, he prays for their sanctification (vv. 17-19)

But wouldn’t it seem that since Christians called to live in the world, we open ourselves up to its influence which will pull us away from Christ? In other words, wouldn’t you expect the whole “in the world, but not of the world,” thing to hamper your spiritual growth?

That’s obviously where my mind goes, but consider how much more pressing it would have been for the disciples: they were probably thinking that Jesus’ physical absence would stifle their spiritual growth?

Look at what Jesus prays in verse 17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

“And then again in verse 19 he says, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

To be sanctified is to be set apart or made holy.

And twice Jesus prays that they will be sanctified in truth. But again, notice the source of the truth, “your word.”

Jesus teaches the disciples that they will grow spiritually even after he has departed by the word of God. Hopefully it’s not a tremendous shock to anyone here that the primary vehicle for your sanctification is God’s Word.

Why is that? Well because the truth of who God is and what he requires of us comes through his word. Studying God’s Word isn’t about swelling your head with knowledge. Studying God’s Word is about learning and understanding the truth.

And it’s through that work, you and I grow in godliness.

There really is something stirring about the fact that Jesus prayed for his disciples, he prayed for their salvation, he prayed for their unity, he prayed for their protection, and he prayed for their sanctification.

How do you summarize all of this: I think the answer is quite simple: Jesus prayed for his disciples and for all these things because he wanted them to know and understand the truth.

After all, if you really understand the truth, then you must trust in Christ, if you truly understand the truth, then that will unite you to all believers, if you know the truth, then you’ll feel the loving protection of the Lord around you, and if you know the truth, then you will grow in godliness.

You have to know the truth of Christ as he has revealed himself through the Word then you can see your sin more clearly, you see the hostility of the world, and the schemes of the evil one.

Jesus wanted his disciples to know the truth, and the reality is, he wants you and me to know it as well. Let’s pray together.