Jesus' Prayer part 2 - John 17

I'm thinking about today and I'm like wanting to kind of get through the whole prayer.

I can't I actually can't rush through it.

We will be dealing with the second half of the prayer.

So a couple things I want us to remember as we have been doing every week.

Kind of going through some very important points that I want you to carry with you as

you're dealing with prayer.

But let's pray father I want to thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness.

Lord I pray that you are high and lifted up that your word is clearly taught.

That the full counsel of your word is proclaimed the goodness of our God and Savior and that

truth Lord would continue to prevail.

That Holy Spirit you would guide us in all truth help us to see clearly what your word

teaches us concerning prayer and how Jesus prayed his last prayer for his people.

Lord I want to praise you and thank you for your goodness and your faithfulness and thank

you that your word is living and active and Lord that it digs deep into the life of and

into the hearts of your people.

I pray that if anyone does not know you that they would walk away today with a deep conviction

in their heart that they would come before you as you draw them and as you plant the

gift of faith in their lives that you would bring about the salvation of your people.

Lord we praise you and thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

The doctrine of prayer.

The doctrine of prayer is a means of grace offered according to the will of God expressed

in accordance with his word.

Prayer is the language of the soul and opening of our hearts before God John Calvin.

Prayer does a couple things here.

Make sure you're writing these down.

Prayer reveals our heart.

Prayer reveals our heart.

I can know and others can know where your heart is based on how you pray.

If you're praying for others with the hopes that you're imparting wisdom to them in your

prayer as if you can give them direction on how they should live through your prayer you're

not praying.

Prayer is about aligning ourselves with God's will.

Matthew 26 36 Jesus says not my father not my will father be done but your will.

Pros ukami is the word here the word to pray.

Pros ukami is two words pros meaning to come before or near ukami meaning to pray or to

will.

And the question is are we praying as we come near to God for his will and that our will

would be in line with his will.

That's what prayer is.

Prayer is more than just a conversation.

Dr. Sinclair Ferguson says it this way praying is not an isolated spiritual experience as

if we pray and we live in two different components.

The truth of the matter is we live is we live as we pray and we pray as we live.

We live as we pray and we pray as we live.

Prayer is so much more than just a conversation with God.

It's an act of worship the purest act of worship.

So in John chapter John chapter 17 there are three particular focuses that Jesus has in

John 17 · chapter mention

his prayer.

Many would call this the high priestly prayer.

Others would actually say this is the Lord's Prayer.

Amazing enough when you read the Lord's Prayer it's not a prayer that Jesus would actually

pray for himself.

You're like what are you talking about?

Jesus did pray the Lord.

No Jesus told you how to pray.

Jesus doesn't need to pray for forgiveness.

Father forgive me and help me to forgive others as they have sinned against me.

Jesus doesn't do that.

He doesn't need to ask for forgiveness for sin.

He is perfect.

He is the all powerful one.

So the Lord's Prayer is a model specifically given to his people so that you know how to

align your will with his.

Now that being said John 17 1 through 5 Jesus prays for his glory and the glory of the Father.

These first five verses are about the dox adzo to make renown or render illustrious to

cause the dignity or worth of someone or thing to become manifest or acknowledged.

Jesus is saying as he prays these five things concerning his glory in the same way that

I have made you renowned and rendered you illustrious and caused dignity and worth to

be brought to you Father do the same for me.

In John 17 6 through 19 Jesus prayed for the disciples who were given the task to continue

the ministry of reconciliation that they would continue to make renown.

He prays that they will dox adzo him which in turn glorifies the Father that they will

make him renowned that they will continue in the word and deed as you would see in verse

8.

Verse 8 says 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 that they have believed that you

sent me.

In verse 14 through 19 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.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil

one.

We'll talk about that in a minute.

I will shock you.

They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth your word is truth as you have sent me into the world so I sent

them into the world and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in

truth.

So you can see why Jesus is praying for the glory of his disciples.

It's for the proclamation of the gospel.

Everything that Jesus does is for the gospel's sake.

Lastly in verses 20 through 26 of John 17 Jesus prays for the believers to come after

the disciples which we are among them.

Yes, before Jesus is going to the cross before his arrest that very evening he prays for

each and every one of his family members.

That includes you today.

Even Jesus has not forgotten you as he has said in his word.

The same promises given to those who walk with him are also ours.

The same doxadzo that Christ prays for himself, the father, the disciples and all those after

him for all of you and remember even for those who are still to come.

So that being said let's dive in to verse 9.

Principle number one, the father determines those who are his and who are not.

The father determines those who are his and who are not.

You do not determine to whom you belong nor do you determine your destiny.

God alone determines this truth.

Jesus prays for his own because they were always his.

Let's read verse 9.

I am praying for them the disciples.

I am not praying for the world those who are not disciples but for those whom you have

given me.

For they are yours.

Shocking.

Shocking statement.

Kind of wrecks everyone's, wreck my theology.

I know that when I started my little journey and walked with Jesus.

I mean really I don't have any determination of that.

No.

Well why not?

Because I am God and you are not.

Help me figure that out.

It's called grace.

It's called a love of God and a peace of God which transcends all understanding.

It's a grace.

All mine, Jesus says, are yours.

And yours are mine.

And I am glorified in them.

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.

I talked a little bit about this last week.

Sort of like this little introduction to this truth.

Many churches today gather around going oh we are all one.

It's all about oneness.

The problem is they want oneness according to their own will and desires.

God wants oneness according to his will and truth.

We are going to see that and how he continues his prayer for the disciples to be in truth.

Truth is the determining factor of what oneness is.

As a church we have a responsibility to walk in love and truth.

To walk in, to worship God in spirit and in truth.

There's not an option here.

Especially in our world today.

It's not my truth is my truth and your truth is your truth.

God doesn't care about your truth.

You are like that's a very harsh statement to say but it's true.

You think God is moved in his throne going oh Joe has a new truth.

I wish I knew that.

He's not.

But in his love as a father does with his children he guides them in truth.

And as fathers I think we get that.

That being said Jesus prays for the preservation of those who are his.

Jesus prays for the preservation of those who are his.

Jesus doesn't leave us shepardless but prays for shepherding and that the father will take

care of and be watchful over the sheep.

In John 17 12-15 it says while I was with them I kept guarded them in your name.

I want you to get that.

We are protected guarded according to his name.

Which you have given me.

I have guarded or watched over them and not one of them has been lost except the son of

destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled.

What?

Yes.

Judas was born for such a time as that.

But that's unfair.

Why would God allow a man to become the betrayer of himself of the Lord.

Sorry.

Why would God bring about the reality that he would allow a man to be born with the sole

purpose to betray the son of the living God.

So that scripture is fulfilled.

That shows it's not it's not our will it's God's will.

It's a hard truth huh.

Now look verse 13 but now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that

they may have joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them your word and the world has hated.

This word hated means to pursue with hatred or detest.

The world hates believers in Jesus because they are in complete contrary to which the

world shows you themselves.

Totally different totally opposite.

Like a thorn in the flesh.

That's what Christians are to the world.

So they hate us.

The world hates us.

Look what it says.

World says that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the

world.

That world that word there means we do not belong to them.

We do not belong to them.

Erkoumai taken from one place to another.

We are no longer part of this old family or part of the new family.

No longer of the old way part of a new way.

No longer the old life but the new life.

Erkoumai.

Interesting.

Just as I am not of the world.

If Jesus is not of this world then we are not of this world.

Then don't hold on to it.

Let it go.

The story of Joseph is a perfect example of that in the Old Testament.

When he names his kids he gives them Jewish names in the middle of an Egyptian life.

The reason why he says that is because he basically says I let that stuff go as Vodi

Bakum states.

I do not.

This word do not.

I want you to hear this.

Do not is an absolute negative.

So I want you to hear this.

This is a very hard thing to hear.

I do not ask that you take them or to remove them or carry them off out of the world.

Has nothing to do with the rapture y'all.

At least not yet.

What Jesus is saying is let them persevere in a world who hates them.

Do not take them out.

But look what Jesus says.

He says to the father, but that you keep.

But that you keep them from.

In all the translations it says evil one.

I'm going to give you the word.

This is one of those moments when you do word studies and you go I need to teach this word.

I do a lot of that.

But you're going to understand why in a minute based on the context of this prayer.

He says that you keep them.

This word keep means to tend carefully or to guard them from.

Paneras.

Paneras.

So many translations would say evil one.

I've done a deep study on this word.

It is not evil one.

Which makes a lot of sense when you understand what paneras means.

He's not praying that God would keep us from Satan's work against you personally.

What he's praying for is that God would keep us from hardships, harassment, trouble, perils

of the faith as a distraction from the gospel.

That's what he's talking about here.

If I have given them your word and the truth and I'm not of the world and they're not of

the world.

Father, keep them, tend to them, guard them from hardship, harassment, trouble, and perils

of the faith that it may not take away from the impact of the gospel.

That's what he's talking about here.

It's of so much more value because if all we're worried about is running from Satan

and being kept from Satan, you've lost the battle already.

You got to stay in the battle.

That's the point.

So when you read this and you see the prayer and you see how Christ is calling the Father,

asking the Father, calling upon the Father, asking the Father to keep us from the hardships

and harassment, that we may be affected for the sake of the gospel.

But if we have to lose our life and be persecuted for the gospel, as long as the gospel is proclaimed,

that's the most important thing.

Why?

Why have we missed this important truth?

Because we've been fed that your battle has always been with Satan.

He's an adversary.

He's a liar.

He is all those things.

But guess what?

I wake up every single day and I am fighting against my flesh and my sinful desires.

Why do I do the things I do not want to do?

But the things I want to do, I cannot do.

But the things I hate, those I keep on doing.

Every day I'm at war within myself.

Every day I have to deal with people who hate Christ and are persecuted for faith.

Every day I'm dealing with the hardships and the harassment and the troubles and the perils

of the faith.

But all we could ever believe is that Jesus prayed that the evil one, because we don't

want to deal with him.

And we wonder why we walk around in a defeated Christian life.

Because we're so focused on the individual and not focused on the struggle and how I

can exemplify Christ in the midst of my harassment and troubles and hardships and all those things.

There's a moment when I retranslate something, Lord, how could they miss that?

Tradition.

Whole counsel of the word of God.

The complete truth of the word of God.

Knowing this, aren't you willing to go out and go into the struggle?

Aren't you willing to be like a fireman who runs into the fire?

Why does Jesus pray this?

Why this so important truth?

Why Paneras?

Because the world hates us.

We are not of this world.

And the world will throw everything it has at us.

It wants to eliminate us from the earth and keep us from proclaiming the truth, i.e. especially

the gospel.

Jesus prays this so that his people will continue in truth.

We are living in the days of the great apostasy.

You know that little scripture talks about in the last days, many will turn away from

the faith.

Welcome to the days.

You're living it.

I am so glad Jesus prayed for the disciples concerning this truth because the same promise

Jesus prayed for his disciples is mine.

Father, keep me from the hardship and the harassment and the troubles and the perils

of faith if it distracts and takes away from the impact of the gospel.

Lastly, in this little bit of the prayer concerning his disciples, Jesus prays that his people

will be set apart in truth.

Interesting.

When you see the context of everything that Jesus is praying from the very beginning of

his proclamation concerning his disciples that we belong to him and we were always his,

that he would preserve us and keep us, he also prays that his people will be set apart

in the truth because the only thing that will get you through is the truth.

Unlike several preachers I have talked about in the past who say truth doesn't matter and

if you want to be, you want to get fat on theology, go to another church.

Thank God I don't.

Watch that guy.

Truth absolutely matters.

This prayer is all about the word.

Doctrine absolutely matters.

Theology absolutely matters.

Why?

Because Jesus prayed that his people would be set apart in the truth, in the doctrine

of his word, in the theology and that we would take the truth to a dying world because the

word is truth.

The world does not determine truth.

God determined truth and his name is Jesus.

I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me.

There is no other way.

There's no sacraments you can do.

There's no begging you can do.

There is no other way but to go through the son.

He says I am the door.

John 17, 16 through 19, he reiterates this.

Notice he links this idea of not being part of the world to sanctification.

I want you to see this.

They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.

This is now three times Jesus says this issue.

You as believers are not of this world.

This is not your home.

You are journeying.

You are passing through.

Be a shining example of a kingdom kid because when you get to the kingdom you're going to

be very happy you're not here.

Look what it says.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

If they're not of the world, if they are different, the way that you show that you're different

is that you are in the truth because his word is truth.

And if there is a church that you might attend or that you're involved in that's not teaching

you the truth, run forest, run.

Notice what it says here.

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And for their sake I consecrate myself.

I sanctify myself.

I set myself apart as a sacrifice for them.

Why?

That they also may be sanctified in the truth.

This is what he's saying, you can't go into the world and preach the gospel without the

truth.

This is so prevalent in today's society because if you ask the quote unquote average American

Christian what the gospel is, the vast majority do not know.

The one truth that matters, the one commission, the one mission that he's given us as his

people, people don't know the gospel.

I have asked questions when I was a youth pastor.

You guys know, youth pastors always went to church with a t-shirt and wrinkled jeans.

That's why I got sneakers on.

You can tell a youth pastor from a senior pastor, hopefully I stay somewhere like me.

But I'm telling you, those were fun days, sometimes.

One of the things I want us to remember is that when you're looking at the reality of

the gospel and you ask the average Christian what the gospel is, you know what the answers

are?

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the good news.

Well what's the gospel?

Well if it's not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's not the good news and it's not

the word of God, I don't know.

But I'm a believer.

What?

How could you not know?

So I'm going to give you the gospel like I did in the beginning.

This is the gospel.

First Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Pretty simple.

Listen.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I've preached to you, which you received,

in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached

to you unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered as of first importance.

What's that mean?

The most important thing.

There is nothing more important.

Now when you read Jesus' prayer, you get why he prays this for his disciples, that they

would be glorified in the same way that Christ is glorified and the Father is glorified.

That they will proclaim and make renown the gospel, the reality of Christ.

Look what it says, which what I also received that, here's the gospel, Christ died for

our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised

on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to

twelve and then appeared to five hundred other brothers.

What's the gospel?

Christ died, was buried, rose again on the third day.

Gospel.

What's the gospel?

Christ died, was buried, rose again on the third day.

That is the gospel.

It's a simple story.

We're sinners.

He wasn't.

He died.

He was buried.

He rose on the third day to give us life, to take away our sin and to give us victory

over death, sin in the grave.

Pretty simple.

Important.

So when he's praying, he already has this in mind.

And the reason why he has it in mind is because he's reminding his he's reminding his disciples

as he's praying to the father for them, they're sitting there watching him pray this to the

father.

They're listening and watching.

And he says, keep them in the truth because your word is truth.

And what's the first thing we do as churches, stop preaching the gospel.

And you wonder why as a country we are in a situation we're in.

Be ready in season, out of season to proclaim the hope that you have in Christ.

Christ prayed for his disciples that they would glorify, that they would be glorified

as the son is glorified and the father is glorified.

And next week we will, well after Christmas, I really want to do it next week, after Christmas

Eve, we will finish this prayer in verses 20 through 26 when Jesus prays for you.

Father I want to thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness.

You are amazing.

That in your wisdom and goodness, because we are not of the world as you are not of

the world, you have prayed that the father would keep us from evil.

Keep us from Paneras.

That we would walk in the victory of Christ willing to give our lives to run into a burning

home, to bring the gospel, to bring hope to the dying.

Keep us, Lord, to continue to stand fast on your word, to walk in the truth.

We give you praise on the ring.