(BONUS EPISODE) September 28, 2025 - Sunday School with Peter D. Jones IV - Jesus Prays for Us - John 17

So we serve a God who where it's this kind of

fits in actually well with our lesson this morning

because we are valuable to him We are kept and

we started talking about this just before I Left

we left three weeks ago. I guess it's been something

like that So we'll go through that again this

morning just to remind us but in this Prayer

that Jesus is praying is our high priest in John

17 We're in the middle section verses 6 through

19, and you can hear his heart, his love, his

concern, his treasure of his disciples, and that

extends to us as well. All God's people are valued

and known by him. That's an amazing thought.

I've got some notes here. Anybody need a copy?

I printed a couple extra this morning. I think

I have a total of five. I know we have some that

weren't here initially. Let's say a word of prayer.

as we open the word this morning. Heavenly Father,

thank you that we don't have to come through

an earthly pope or an earthly priest or some

saint that lived a better life than we could

ever hope to. But we come to you on the basis

of your calling and your provision in the Lord

Jesus Christ. We don't come because we are accomplished

or because we have conquered our sin or we have

done bad things but we've done more good things.

None of that has nothing to do with us and has

everything to do with you. We acknowledge that

this morning and we thank you for that. We thank

you that you care. about each individual person.

You know us as we were just saying, as David

says in Psalm 139, you know when we get up, you

know when we go to bed. You have specifically

and individually given us our bodies that we

have. We were made by you in our mother's room,

knitted together in a secret place. Such thoughts

are too wonderful for us. To think that you do

this for all people everywhere. I saw so many

people in Europe that never met, never seen before

and you know, but you know each of them. You

know and care for them and have a destiny for

them as well. And it's just amazing to think

that this is who you are. We have a tiny little

church here and we don't draw a lot of attention

from the world's point of view, but we know that

you're here and that you value us. in fact called

us to be here this morning. Each person that's

here is here by your appointment and recognize

that. And so I pray Father that you would feed

us from your word this morning by your Holy Spirit

and help us to appreciate our High Priest who

even right now is interceding on our behalf and

working towards our sanctification. And one day

we will be glorified with you and our faith will

be sight. until that time help us to add to our

faith these truths and to not only build up knowledge

but to walk in obedience to keep your word even

as we are kept by you through your word and we

pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. John 17 is the

final of five chapters in John known as the The

five chapters collectively are known as the...

I think I heard Bob mumble it back there. I heard

something. Yes, John 17, the chapter is known

as High Priesthood Prayer, but it's part of the

five chapters, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, that are

known as the Upper Room Discourse. All of the

discourse would be, I think, in Luke's gospel

anyway. The point is that we have been making

our way through these five chapters. Just to

set our minds into the timeline of what's happening,

Jesus is... He is about maybe four and a half

-ish days, going on five days earlier. He's written

into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey, right?

And we call that the triumphal entry, even though

the real triumphal entry into Jerusalem is still

future, okay? But He's presented Himself in accordance

with Scripture, right? Behold, your King is coming

to you. humble and riding on the fold of a donkey

and so he's coming in and remember that about

two months before that John has told us the raising

of Lazarus has happened and so it's just two

miles away from Jerusalem there and so a lot

of very influential people in that area have

come to believe in Jesus and so there's a there's

a fairly sizable crowd that's excited to welcome

Him into Jerusalem. The disciples see this and

they're thinking, they know He's the Messiah,

but they're thinking about what the Messiah was

here to do is still in the vein of the triumphalist.

triumphalistic messiah, right? In other words,

that he's going to come any day, he's going to

take the throne, he's going to kick Rome to the

curb, he's going to elevate Israel, he's going

to usher in the reversing of the curse and all

of those things that we read about in the Old

Testament. Prophets, you know, beating the swords

into plowshares and spears into turning hooks

and they'll never train for war and the child

put his hand in the cobra's den, right, and not

be bit. All of that, you know, every man will

sit in his own vine and all of that right and

that's what they're expecting and they're very

very excited and Jesus for a series of three

or four days in fact all the Gospels a big big

chunk of the Gospels is sort of like they sort

of fast forward John included they fast forward

through Jesus is maybe roughly two years of his

ministry and then maybe the last six months or

so of his ministry they slow down quite a bit

and this last week just before his crucifixion,

you see a lot of material in all four Gospels

right there at the end, okay? And so John is

like that too, but John has a little different

focus in that a lot of the material of John,

a big section, five chapters, is devoted to his

time with his disciples in that upper room the

night before he is the day in which he's going

to be crucified, okay? And so these five chapters,

we've been through the first four. Okay. And

do you remember now John is starting with chapter

13, Jesus has in chapter 12, Jesus has essentially

closed the books on his public ministry. And

now he's turning his attention to the, you might

call private ministry, particularly where his

disciples are concerned, the people that have

been called by him are given by the father to

him. In other words, really, this is kind of

his pivot point now where he's working with his

church in private. And you can even see that

in his resurrection. When he got out of the tomb,

he didn't walk back into Jerusalem and appear

in the temple and say, ha ha, you lost. He didn't

present his glorified body to the Jewish leaders.

He instead appeared to his disciples and to those

who followed him. And it's the same is really

true today. The Lord Jesus, if you're called

by Him and you know Him, He is real to you and

He appears to you through the Scriptures and

through what He's doing in your life. But don't

be surprised if the world is skeptical just like

they were then. Because it's not yet a public

ministry. All right, all that to be said, the

disciples come into that upper room in chapter

13 and they're on cloud nine, right? Luke tells

us they were arguing among themselves as to who's

going to be the greatest in the kingdom, right?

And Jesus has to humble them. And in Luke he

says, you know, the one who's greatest among

you will be the servant of all. And then in John

he gets up and he takes off his robes, his teacher,

and puts on the garment, the towel of a slave,

and he washes their feet. And then he puts his

robes back on. Very, very descriptive, very visual

picture of what he's doing in saying, if I, your

Lord and teacher, do this, how much more should

you do this for one another, right? And he says,

a new commandment I leave you that you love one

another, even as I have loved you. Wash each

other's... It doesn't mean that some churches

actually do practice that. We don't do that here

mainly because the pastor couldn't sit still

long enough to get his feet washed. He jump lays

very ticklish. So even the suggestion make him

jump. No, I'm just kidding. He's not instituting

an institution for the church. doing that what

he's doing instead is to say that all of us are

to serve one another right we're not to be like

those disciples who at the beginning of the of

that night in the upper room they come in focus

on me right instead we are to focus on him and

on each other would serve one another even a

seat and to love each other to the max like jesus

did okay It looks so much in here because it's

like an eyewitness account. Because if you look

at Mark wasn't an eyewitness account. Luke wasn't

an eyewitness account. Matthew was. How much

does Matthew God have to say about that? Very

little. Matthew and Mark are very similar in

terms of, and you're right, all three Gospels.

Luke is the one that comes in second in terms

of how much content we get for the Upper Room.

But Matthew and Mark are very light on the amount

of content. of what's actually happening in the

upper room. Both of them really focus on the

fact that they all do at some point or another.

But those two, particularly Matthew and Mark,

focus on the transformation that Jesus makes

of the Passover. Because remember, this is the

last legitimate Passover. Because the Passover

lamb is about to be crucified. The Passover feast

is a foreshadowing. The substance is here. And

what he does is he transforms the Passover into

what we today, in fact, we're going to celebrate

tonight. into communion. We call it the Lord's

table, right? And so, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians,

we read every time we do it, you know, that the

Lord on the night he was betrayed took bread

and all of that. And then he says, as often as

you do it, right? So we don't have, you know,

Passover is once a year for the Jewish calendar,

but for us it's however often you do it, right?

Anyway, the point is that Matthew and Mark Focus

on that sort of that transformation and then

they move on to the garden But math, but you're

right John slows down quite a bit and Jesus man

He gives them so much content by four chapters

and in those four chapters. He is wearing the

hat of Prophet remember Okay here in chapter

17 He takes off the fact you can see that in

verse 1 when Jesus had spoken these words. Okay,

that's chapters 13 -16, he lifted up his eyes

to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

And so in that verse right there, you can actually

hear him take off, as it were, the prophet hat

and put on the priest hat. And remember that

the prophet is... We hear the term prophet, we

think it's somebody telling the future. That's

incidental to the office. The real purpose of

the role of prophet is to speak to people on

behalf of God. So the prophet would stand up

and say, thus sayeth the Lord. It's not my word,

it's not my opinion. Here's what God has to say

to you. The role of priest is the opposite, where

now the priest speaks to God on behalf of the

people. And that's what he's doing here in this

chapter. And remember I mentioned to you there's

one other role, which we're going to see coming

up in chapter 18, and what's that? the role of

king. He's the prophet, he's the priest, he's

the king. Those three roles, by the way, you'll

see in the Gospels play out in a strong way.

Anyway, so Jesus here is in the role of priest

and you have your notes there. We've looked at

part one, which is this prayer itself is very

easy to outline, right, because it's got three

main sections. It's got the first section, which

is Jesus praying for himself. The second section,

which is where we are, in the middle, is Jesus

prays for His disciples, and that's what I have

on the title of your notes there. The last section

is Jesus prays for all believers. Yeah. Verse

20. He prays for you. If you are a believer in

Christ, He has prayed for you. That's pretty

awesome. And not only has He prayed for you here

in the past 2 ,000 years ago, This is probably

happening in the garden, I'm guessing, just before

he actually separates himself and kneels down.

You know, where Luke and the other Gospels pick

up where he's praying earnestly, but not my will,

but yours be done. I think this is coming right

before that, where he's there in the presence

of all his disciples there. But not only is he

praying there in the garden for you, but he's

now, we took some time in our prior notes, to

look at Jesus' role now as as intercessory high

priest and Really the whole book of Hebrews is

devoted to that one topic Okay, so if you want

to know more about what you know what Jesus's

priesthood is all about read the book of Hebrews

Okay, it opens up to you and you see you know

that how how superior his priesthood is to Aaron's

priesthood, right? So what we have here in this

chapter is sort of a picture, a foretaste of

a condensed form of how Jesus prays for us even

now. Alright, so let's take our notes and I won't

go through all this because we went through it

and you can read it on your own, but I do want

to focus on what we're saying in advance here

because as the more I read this section, this

would be verses 6 through 19, The more I'm convinced

that these two words, kept and give, those two

words kind of form the main thread, you might

say, or the foundation of this text that we're

in. Jesus' prayer for his disciples revolve around

those two concepts, so it's important we keep

those in mind. All right. So if you have your

notes there, page one, let's pick up kind of

after that first, that first paragraph there

says in our text, the middle part of Jesus's

high priestly prayer, our English Bibles contain

the word keep in four different places. Okay.

So verse six, for example, has a form of this.

It says, 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." Then in verses 11 and 12 it

says, 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.

While I was with them, I kept them in your name,

which you have given me. I have guarded them.

You can almost underline that as well. It has

the same idea. Is everybody with me? It's a different

word in the Greek, but it's the same idea. And

not one of them has been lost except the son

of destruction that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

In verse 15, I do not ask that you take them

out of the world, but that you what? Keep them

from the evil one. In the Greek New Testament,

These are all the same word meaning to watch

over, guard, keep, or preserve. For example,

it's used in Matthew 27 verses 35 -36. And when

Matthew 27:35–36

they crucified him, they divided his garments

among them by casting logs. They sat down and

what? Kept watch over him there. And what that

means is there are four guards assigned to...

It sounds funny, we don't think about this, okay,

but they had Roman guards that would guard the

crosses. Why would they guard a cross? You didn't

agree with Rome and it's killing your son or

whatever, right? You know there's nobody there.

What are you going to do? Cut them off, right?

Take them down. And so it's kind of an interesting

aspect of crucifixion we don't think about, but

that's what that is saying. They were there to

protect these prisoners, criminals, quote -unquote,

who were dying on the cross. So it kept watch

over them. The same word appears later in Matthew

28 .20, and for fear of him, the guards... trembled

and became like dead men. This is the contingent

not of guards guarding the cross, but guards

guarding the tomb. Remember that when the angel

came, the guards guarding the tomb were extremely

afraid of this angel to the point where they

passed out. These are hardened soldiers. They're

not wimps. So the point is that it's translated

guards, but it's really keepers. It's probably

a better way you could translate that. It's referred

to them, this time to those who are doing the

keeping. This could be translated as they were

the keepers of Jesus' tomb to convey their job

of making sure nobody stole the body. And this

is interesting now, too. At other times, keep

is used as a synonym, the same word in the Greek.

Now, Jesus sent them for compliance with religious

tradition or with God's Word. Mark 7, 9 uses

it this way, quote, and he was saying to them,

you are good at setting aside the commandment

of God in order to keep your tradition, to guard,

to preserve your tradition. Listen to what Jesus

is literally saying to them, that the Pharisees

and scribes value and protect their religious

traditions over the Word of God. Boy, did I see

that in Europe, in those dead churches. Sad to

say, beautiful, beautiful buildings. Dead system

that preserves their traditions. Even some of

the tombs, you go visit some of the crypts and

whatever, and they've got some of the more modern,

more recently died priests or bishops. If they're

buried, they'll have a little picture and they'll

have little candles lit. a little homage over

in the corner to the bishops own so they value

their traditions they preserve and keep and and

you know they work really hard to to keep all

that system going and everything over the Word

of God. I'll have a rainbow candle the old huge

rainbow candle lit there with LGBT on it. I'm

like that's not a keeping the Word of God. Okay,

but it's just used there the same way. All right

So the religious traditions over the Word of

God and John 8 51 Jesus uses an identical phrasing

To what he says in 17 6 truly truly I say to

you if anyone keeps Preserves protects my word.

He will never see death Notice here that Jesus

equates his word with the Father's word and these

two verses are compared Now that's word number

one is keep okay, so Pardon the pun keep that

in your mind All right second word they're right

at the end of page one God's love and value for

his people is the subtitle there Here is a there

is a companion word in our text that when compared

with keep Expresses a touching aspect of the

father's love for his holy people ie his saints

The word is translated gave and given here are

the nine places it appears, right? Top of page

2 now verses 6 through 9 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 Now they know that

everything you hit you have given me is from

you 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

And they have believed that You sent Me. I am

praying for them. I am not praying for the world,

but for those You have given Me, for they are

Yours. And then verses 11 and 12. 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. 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. And then

in verse 14, I have given them your word and

the world has hated them because they're not

of the world even as I am not of the world. This

word means to, to bestow, grant, supply, deliver

or commit. Okay. Particularly like that word

commit there. I think that's closest to what

is actually happening where the father is committing

to Jesus people that the Father owns. They're

His, and He is committing them to Him. And Jesus

is saying, I have protected them while they were

in my charge. You hear that? So the point I'm

trying to make here is this. When you look at

all of this, there is, now watch this, extreme

value that God puts on His people. They are like

treasure to Him. And God the Father has entrusted

and committed them to Jesus for safekeeping.

Jesus is about to go to the cross. He has done

with His public ministry. He's done what He needed

to do to fulfill Like we said, you know, the

scriptures and writing into Jerusalem and confronting

the religious system and preaching the gospel

of the kingdom, repent and all of that. He's

done that in fulfillment. What he needs to do

during that whole time, though he has kept these

disciples and protected them. And he's been faithful

to do that and has lost only one, which was in

fulfillment of the scripture itself. Right. But

Jesus is now going to the cross. He's going to

bear the sin. And in so doing, he is going to

be unable to protect these precious people that

God has entrusted to him. And so here in our

text, Jesus is turning them back to the Father

and saying, I've given them back to you now to

protect them while I am not able to do it. Wow.

In a sense, he is still doing that. now in His

high priesthood, although He's not suffering

at the cross now, right? Despite all of the crucifixes

we saw, the crucifix bothers me. The cross is

great, but the crucifix bothers me because Jesus

is not on the cross. He died once, and that's

sufficient, right? And now He's at the right

hand of the Majesty and on high. He's not on

the cross anymore, but I like an empty cross

though because that reminds us of... the finished

work of Christ that we trust in, right? That's

fine. But anyway, but now he is still interceding

for us with the idea of protecting among other

things right now. He does intercede in terms

of making our prayers. You know, the Holy Spirit

does that too. We saw that. The Holy Spirit also

intercedes for us, you know, to turn our prayers

into something that is in accordance with God's

will. But Jesus... is also involved in this idea

of protecting His people, right? Still, as our

High Priest, He and the Father both working together.

Thank God for that, right? So putting it all

together here, page 2, putting it all together

with keep, we see that Jesus is acknowledging

the value that the Father places on His special

people. and that He has entrusted them like a

valuable treasure to His Son for protection.

Note that verse 12 says that Jesus guarded them,

confirming this understanding that the giving

is an entrustment, a stewardship by God the Father

of His people into the safekeeping of His Son.

Can Jesus the Shepherd guard the sheep? Is He

capable of doing that? Very, very capable. Not

only that, but the Father Himself. We saw that

in John 10. No one is greater than the Father.

No one is able to take them out of My Father's

hand either. So both the Son and the Father,

if you're His, have hold of you and no one is

greater than them or is able to take you out

of their hand. out of the safekeeping. That's

good to know, isn't it? Really good to know.

Not even you. Thank God for that. So the request

Jesus is making in the middle section of this

prayer is that the Father would now receive back

the stewardship that he entrusted to Jesus for

the care and protection of his disciples. If

you trace the giving, the keeping and the receiving,

it is clear that there are exchanges. Watch this

now, a valuable treasure happening between the

father and the son, between the father's son

and the disciples. The son has revealed the father's

character or name and his truth or word to these

treasured people as an entrustment to them. of

the treasure of knowing God and His plans. They

have kept or valued their Father's Word and shown

the effect of their valuing of it by His obedience.

So what I'm trying to say there is that the keeping

and the giving is not just the Father giving

people to the Son, but it's also the Son giving

the Father's truth to those people, right? So

you have, you have a second treasure. You have

the treasure of God's people, but you also have

the treasure of God's truth. Both are being exchanged.

And so what Jesus is saying is that I have given

them and they have, I've given them your word

and they have kept it. Okay. It's not just saying

that they, that they listen to it and they receive

it and they're, you know, they got it. What he's

really saying is they're guarding it and how

are they guarding it? How are they protected?

In other words, How do they show the value that

they have for God's Word? By obeying it, right?

Just like on a negative way, remember we saw

earlier, that same word was applied to the Pharisees

and the religious leaders who value their traditions

over the Word of God, right? So these are people

who value the Word of God over their traditions

instead, right? They're doing the opposite. And

that's the way it should be, right? have the

Word of God as our highest priority in terms

of our highest authority that's binding on all

of our consciences. And when you read something

from the Scriptures or you hear something from

the Scriptures, first of all, make sure your

understanding is accurate, right? But if it confronts

you in an area that's been lacking and you find

yourself kind of almost offended by it, you know,

I don't know about that. Let's read something

else, right? Wait a minute. Are you keeping it?

You have a choice, right? Do you value it? Maybe

it's time to set aside those long -held thoughts

and traditions in your own thinking in receiving

God's truth. Sometimes that can be glorious.

It's like, oh, praise God. Yes, I'm free from

my sin. Other times, though, it's going to attack

some areas of your life that you don't want to

let go of, but you got to, right? If you're going

to be a true steward, if you're going to receive

God's Word and you're going to keep God's Word

that He is giving to you as an expression of

His love, then you're going to show that by obedience,

and that's what He says there of them. So let's,

here at the tail end of this little section you're

putting together. Remember, we've already seen

that in John, that love, invisible by itself,

is seen in the effect of giving. What's the most

well -known verse in John? John 3 .16. For God

so loved the world that He gave. We've seen it

in a lot of places in John, but that's the clearest

one. How did God show His love for the world?

By giving His Son. The love is invisible, but

it's seen in its effect. It is mind -blowing

to think that both the Father and the Son are

showing their love for one another by demonstrating

their love for the disciples with gifts and by

protecting them from the evil one. So, you know,

John 6 is where we really picked up on this idea,

where Jesus is saying, you know, all that the

Father has given me will come to me, you know,

and I will cast none of them out. I'll receive

all of them and I will not lose any of them.

And what we found out there is that when, listen,

believer, when you're disappointed in your own

life and your own walk with God, and I failed

again, remember this, God the Father, remember

this, let's say from the standpoint of your high

priest, when Jesus looks at you, He doesn't just

see you, He sees the Father's love for Himself

expressed in you. You are a love gift from God

the Father to the Son. And He doesn't just see

you, He sees the Father's love in you. That's

a pretty amazing thought. God values and treasures

His people. He really does. And Jesus acknowledges

that. And we ought to, by the way, ourselves

too. God loves the people we look past. I've

been having to tell myself that a lot. God loves

those people that annoy you, that irritate you,

that make you mad, or that maybe you're just

blase about. You don't even see them. There's

all kinds of invisible people in our lives. Take

time to look at them. Realize that God loves

them. He might just very well be calling some

of them to himself and be giving them as love

gifts as he has you to his son. So this is his

choice, not yours. So we need to respond and

have value the same way that he does. So, even

as they are in the world system, that's the disciples

now, they are preserved, protected and preserved.

preserved by God, not just because they are His,

but also because their High Priest, whom the

Father loves dearly, has asked that He preserve

them, right? So, think about it this way. Jesus,

the Father has called, we've seen this in Ephesians,

in our opening part of Ephesians, right? Where

God the Father takes center stage in chapter

one, and blessed to be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ. who has who has blessed

us and heavenly realms with all kinds of spiritual

blessings and has chosen us in him before the

foundation of the world right so god the father's

chosen you called you out even before the world

existed okay so i'm 139 my days are written in

your book for one of them came to be god's already

gotten all that planned out and figured out all

right and then god the father's given to the

son but now here's the son as your high priest

asking the father to protect you The Father has

asked the Son to protect you. Do you think the

Father might listen to the Son sometimes when

He prays and grant what He asks? You are very

secure in Christ. You are very secure. We don't

take that seriously, but God sure does. He really

does. And that's amazing to me. It's pretty mind

-blowing when you really stop and think about

what's being said here. Even as they are in the

world system, they are protected and preserved

by God, not just because they are His, but because

they're high priests whom the Father dearly loves

has asked Him to preserve them. In verse 24,

He asks that all those whom the Father has given

Him may be with Him in His glorified state. So

what are we being preserved for? Okay. Well,

we're going to answer that here in just a second.

Peter's going to give us a good summary for that.

All this is to show the immense value that we

as God sanctified, holy people, i .e. saints

have in his sight and the protection we enjoy

because of it. And that's, that's in chapter,

just quoted a minute ago, chapter 10, verses

27 to 29 is where it talks about Jesus says,

I'm a good shepherd. and no one is able to take

them out of my hand, and fathers greater than

all of them is able to take them out of His hand

either, right? Kept by both the Father and the

Son. That word saints there, the more I study

that, and it's been a few weeks, okay, and I

know you all, like me, have slept a lot since

then, and so you can be forgiven. We're going

to revisit this for Sunday this month when we

come back to Ephesians, but we spent some time

last time looking at that in Ephesians, right?

The word saints. Do you all remember what that

word is in the Greek? Phantos. Close. It starts

with an H, not an S. Hagios. Which is not even

a noun, really. It's an adjective. It just means

holy. That's what it means. The noun that the

adjective modifies is implied. That's it. Holy

ones. Holy people. Again, in Europe, we enter

these big Catholic churches. Luther, not so much,

although they do put pictures of Luther around

and a few others. But they've got their whole

saints. They have a whole system of saints. This

was fresh on my mind as I'm going through these

churches and we're looking at these statues to

these saints, you know, one of their favorites

is Saint George, I think it is, or whatever,

in the 900s or something where he supposedly

speared that dragon, you know, and there's all

kinds of, they really like that story. It's all

over the place, right? He killed this dragon

or something, okay. Well... in that system and

and commonly sadly even today that's bled into

sort of the the ethos of our culture where when

you hear the word saint most people think oh

that's somebody who is like really morally accomplished

like a mother Teresa kind of person who has given

up all the comforts of this world that they could

enjoy and instead sacrifice themselves for God

and for others right and and they've just accomplished

it just like this super status up here that they

have accomplished through all of their spiritual

self -discipline. When in fact, what Paul in

Ephesians, when he's writing, and here what Jesus

is effectively saying in this whole idea of giving

and receiving, is that the saints are not people

who have accomplished that title on their own.

but have been selected by God and called by Him

to be His set -aside people, those that are separate

and distinct for His purposes. In other words,

you are a saint if you're in Christ, not because

of what you have done, but because of the calling

of God the Father and what Christ has accomplished

for you. That's awesome. And so you are a saint.

You are a saint. And you can embrace that. you

know without timidity without saying well i don't

deserve this no you don't it's given to you anyway

that's grace so it's not a result of man's declaring

one being a saint but god exactly that's right

in god's economy he's the one who who calls you

that and has included us in the saints go look

at that for yourself in aphesians one and follow

Alright, so so God's holy people is okay. So

what my question is? What are you being preserved

for? Okay. Well actually two questions. What

are you being preserved from and what are you

being preserved for? Okay, I bet we could probably

answer that What are you being preserved from

in fact even says that in the prayer here? from

the world Actually, from the evil one. He says,

protect them from the evil one. That's what he's

going to say. They're in the world, but I ask

that you don't take them out of the world, but

while they're in the world, keep them or protect

them from the evil one, the spiritual darkness

that the evil one wants to bring. Peter here,

in our quote there, right at the bottom of page

2, just before our outline, He does a good job

of summarizing this. So, Jesus here in this prayer

is asking the Father to protect them from the

evil one. That's who we're being protected from.

What are we being preserved and protected for?

Well, here's what Peter says. Let's read that.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ. According to His great mercy, He has

caused us to be born again to a living hope through

the resurrection of Jesus Christ. from the dead

to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled

and unfading what kept guarded preserved protected

in heaven for you period now let's talk about

something else right no no hold on that's a comma

there's more to come read the rest who by god's

power are being guarded Through faith for a salvation

ready to reveal the last time What Peter is saying

is Your inheritance in heaven is Being preserved

and reserved and unfading. It's not you know

We saw a lot of treasures too. There's a lot.

You know, there's big fancy churches and there's

big fancy palaces some of these palaces have

Treasuries in them and they're kind of fun to

see you know, particularly if you like jewels

and fancy robes with gold thread in them and

all that kind of stuff and a lot of regalia.

In fact some of these rooms the contents are

so valuable you literally walk through the door

it's like literally walking into a bank vault

I mean the doors like this thick you know and

got you know big latches on it and dials and

whatever else right to preserve what's in there

and they do a good job of keeping you know kind

of keeping these particularly jewels and gold

polished and clean but some of these some of

these garments these robes that are you know

four or five six hundred plus years old are showing

signs of wear and they're fading right and even

in the day when they were first made they were

gorgeous right and i'm sure that they caught

the sun's you got the king's herald up there

and his and his big You know, Paige's outfit,

this big heavy cloak with gold thread in it and

everything. And you look at that, and you're

like, 600 years later, it didn't hold up too

well, right? Even in a museum. But Peter says

this, that it is what? Your inheritance is imperishable,

undefiled, and doesn't even fade! Doesn't even

fade. Isn't that good? God's power, when you

get there, God's not going to be like, hey, I

made this for you 5 ,000 years ago. It's a little

run down now, but we'll fix the holes and you

can wear it. No. This is completely unfated,

timeless, not affected by the curse at all. So

God's power is preserving your inheritance in

heaven, keeping that. But that's not enough,

because He's got to preserve something else.

And what's that? He's got to guard you. because

you're in a world in which there's a lot of corruption,

right? There's a lot of opportunities to go wrong

in this world. There's a lot of detours, a lot

of things that jump up and photobomb Jesus in

your life, right? Hey, look at me. Pay attention

to me. You know, get your eyes off of Jesus,

you know, for a little bit. Look over here. I'm

saying this to me. I'm not saying I've arrived.

I mean, we all have to fight these distractions.

All right, and we have to do our part, but thank

God that it's really His power that is preserving

you through the most difficult and darkest times

when people mistreat you, misunderstand you,

or circumstances, you know, medical situations

just out of the blue, you know, that happen and

you're just like, oh man, I was not ready for

this. I've got lots of plans, you know, whatever,

right? All of these things that happen, God is

through it all We are being preserved and guarded

by God's power through faith so that at the right

time your inheritance and you will meet one day

and you will receive that inheritance. Every

saint will come into their inheritance and it

will be just as clean and crisp and clear and

polished and beautiful as on the day God made

it. I will say this, that the real joy of heaven

is not the big mansion or the streets of gold

or the gates made of pearl or stones or whatever.

Even the crowns that God gives us. The real joy

of heaven won't be what? Being with Him. There's

nothing greater than being in His presence. But

there is an inheritance that He has for all of

us, and the best part of that, the real treasure,

the centerpiece of that is Christ Himself and

the Father. We will one day see His face. We'll

serve Him. We'll be with Him in eternity. And

we will get there. Every single saint will be

there. That's awesome, isn't it? So, God's keeping

you. He's guarding you. He has also entrusted

a treasure to you. His Word. How are you doing

in keeping this? Are you protecting it? Are you

guarding it? Does it have the value in your priorities

that it ought to? Good challenges for us. Any

thoughts as we close? Next time I promise we'll

get into the text itself. Heavenly Father, what

a precious treasure we have. I was really struck

with, I think maybe sometimes if we're, not to

brag a whole lot, but we do value highly Your

Word here. And sometimes if we're in an environment

where the Bible is held up in a high place, is

taught clearly, we can forget just how dark it

really is. in other places where that's not the

case. And these past three weeks as I've toured

Europe and I've seen people living in darkness

and seeing the results of that and how easily

they are swayed by things that are so clearly

deceptive to me and to Dory. We're just so thankful

for the value of the treasure of knowing you.

And not only do we know your character, but we

know your promises. We know where it's all going.

We don't have to be afraid of some asteroid that's

going to come and wipe the earth out or global

warming that's going to melt the ice caps and

drown everybody or whatever these things are

that people fear who are outside of your truth.

We don't have to be afraid because we know that

we've been chosen in eternity past and we know

that we have an inheritance in eternity future

and we know that it is kept and preserved by

God who cannot lie and who is greater than all

and we thank you Lord Jesus for your high priestly

work that even right now you're working and interceding

on our behalf and listening to our prayers and

praying that the Father might protect and protect

over each individual person. Holy Spirit, we

thank you for your work here on this end with

us taking our prayers according to Romans 8 and

as it were cleaning them up and conforming them

to the will of God. So we thank you for this

mighty, mighty work, this wonderful truth that

we are valued by you and known by you and preserved

by you and one day we will enter into glory as

your people. trophies of your mercy, and there

we will give you thanks as we will see it with

our own eyes forever. And we thank you for this

wonderful privilege. Pray for those that don't

know you. There's so many that stumble in darkness

that don't know what we know. They don't have

this valuable treasure in their hearts. And so

I pray that you will help us to be faithful.

I was thinking about why are we afraid of the

truth? We don't need to be afraid of the truth.

We live in a culture where people want to kill

you. for speaking the truth. Help us to make

sure first of all that it's your truth and secondly

that we are bold, but also loving as we tell

others because love rejoices in the truth. Help

us to love, not just look past people, but to

love them even as you do. We pray this in Jesus'

name.