sermon on john 17:6-19

1. Why Jesus prays for these men (vv.6-10)
We can readily understand why Jesus prays for himself but why would he pray for these men also? We might answer that by saying that he is praying for them because they are his disciples. But how did they come to be in that relationship with him?

The question is not asked to elicit a ‘duh!’ from you. It’s a question that the text is concerned to answer; it’s a point that Jesus bases his prayer for the disciples on – and so it must be an issue of real importance for us to grasp. You see, what gives Jesus’ prayer for these men its reality is the relationship he bears to them.

There are 3 aspects to consider, that Jesus makes plain here.

i) The possession of the Father – These men have been given to Jesus by his Father. “They were yours”, says Jesus. They belong to the Father but in a way far different from the simple affirmation that all creation belongs to God. No, this relationship is different. You see, they are given to Jesus “out of the world”. That phrase highlights the Father’s choice, free and deliberate.

That is how these men had come to belong to the Father; he chose them out of the world. And that small phrase, “out of the world” also suggests that, like us, they had previously belonged to the world and were enmeshed in its sin and rebellion against God. There was nothing inherently special about these men that drove the Father to choose them; it was simply the free and mysterious grace of God.

ii) The Father’s gift to his Son – And the Father who chose them and whose they are has given them to his Son (vv.6,9) and so the Father and Son share in all things together (v.10).

The Father will accomplish redemption for this world through his Son and will remake all things in and through him, so anyone who is to have a share in that future must be joined to the Son – and that is what has happened to these men, by the sovereign will of God. They are a gift to his Son, in order to bring glory to the Son through their sharing in all that the Son is and has achieved.

iii) The response of faith – But how do the disciples experience this for themselves? How is it made true in their own lives? In this way: Jesus made the Father known to them and they obeyed the Father’s word to believe in his Son (v.6). They accepted what Jesus said and knew with certainty that he had come from the Father and believed that he had been sent by the Father (v.8).

In these words of Jesus we see the work of God being actualised in the experience of the disciples – he chose them and, as Jesus revealed him to them, they received and believed his words.

In all this we see why Jesus is praying for them. He makes it quite plain that he isn’t praying for the world per se but for those given to him by the Father. This prayer is specific to their calling as disciples, as those who both know God and are called to make him known.

One big thing this tells us is that the divine mission is not in danger, never has been and never will be. Everything is in the hands of the Father and his Son. What comfort that gives to us in terms of our own security and what hope in terms of the progress of the gospel!

2. Praying for protection (vv.11-16)
Having established the basis of his relationship with these men, Jesus then specifically prays for them. His prayer is very revealing; in essence he prays in vv.11-16 for their protection.

Why do they need to be protected and who from? Jesus stresses that his disciples are no longer belong to this world. And because of that, trouble will come to them – but notice where he locates the trouble here: we need protection not from the world in general but from “the evil one” (v.15). He is the one who stands opposed to God and his mission of mercy in the world and he is the one who stirs up enmity against the Lord and his people.

So how does Jesus intend that we be protected from the evil one?

Well, not by being removed from the scene of the strife. Jesus says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world” (v.15). There you have it, straight and to the point. That, of course, means that all our attempts to evade the world and to run from any engagement with it are contrary to the praying of Jesus.

We often think safety is only gained by removal (“Lord, get me out of here!”) but that isn’t necessarily the case. Jesus is not praying that we be removed from the heat of the kitchen; rather, he is praying that we be protected whilst still in the world. How can that be?

“Protect them”, Jesus prays, “by the power of your name” (v.11). He isn’t saying that there are magical properties in the mere name of God; he is speaking here of the full character and person of God. And notice his own connection to that: “the name you gave me”.

Whilst in the world, Jesus protected his own – kept the powers of evil at bay, corrected and rebuked his disciples and so on. As he prepares to leave, he is asking his Father to continue that same work of protection (and it’s likely that his words imply this will be done through the coming Holy Spirit).

We’ve seen protection from what and how but what is the protection for? “That they may be one as we are one” (v.11). The purpose of God in Jesus is to bring unity into a divided world, to unite all things under one head, even Christ (Eph. 1:10). The devil’s strategy is to divide God’s people and so ruin that great plan; Jesus prays for his people’s protection that they (and we) might embody the reality of his saving and healing work.

3. Prayer for sanctification: set apart for mission (vv.17-19)
Jesus prays for his disciples to be protected because they are in the world but no longer of it and as such they will face much hostility and the rage of the evil one. But, in the face of that truth, Jesus doesn’t simply pray for protection, he prays too for sanctification. What he means by that is that his disciples would be visibly set apart for God and God alone, that the Father would mark them out as his and demonstrate that ownership of which Jesus spoke in vv.6-10.

That sanctification will occur because Jesus set himself apart for them (v.19); their being set apart for God will be the fruit of the setting apart of Jesus and the fulfilment of his mission in the world.

The way their sanctification, their being set apart for God, will be accomplished is through the truth, through the word of God.

God’s will, declared in his word, has the power to set people apart for God, to call them out of the world in order to belong to him. Jesus here prays that this will be accomplished in the lives of his disciples.

And, again, as Jesus prayed for his own so too we can and must pray for ourselves. We must pray that the Lord’s Word would do its sanctifying work in our lives, that we would visibly be the fruit of Jesus having set himself apart as the servant of the Lord. It isn’t enough simply to sit under God’s Word or to read it privately; we must couple those activities with earnest prayer that we would benefit from that same word.

But please notice here what we have seen many times before: the setting apart of the disciples (both then and now) as those known by and owned by the Lord is not simply for our own sakes. In v.18 Jesus again speaks of having been sent into the world by the Father and of his sending his disciples into the world too. He sanctified himself for their sakes and the clear implication is that his people are to be sanctified, set apart for God’s use, for the sake of others too.

In fact, this sits very closely to the reason why Jesus prays for the protection of his disciples in v.11. The verses that follow (vv.20-26) will take up and amplify that prayer for unity and we will come to those next time; we simply note the connection here.

Does all this lay a great burden on us too heavy to lift? Jesus is not like the Pharisees. Yes, to live on a battlefield and to seek to win over the enemy is a great burden – but Jesus has prayed and does pray for us! And so these words are intended to breed not gloom but joy within our hearts (v.13).

No calling was heavier and more onerous than that of Jesus yet he was a man of joy. He wants us to share in that joy – not by running from the battle, nor by isolating ourselves far from the spot where mission hits the road, but through knowing his protection and his deep work of sanctification in us. As we embrace our calling and commission, the words of Jesus breathe an abiding joy into our hearts.

And who would have it any other way?