John 17:11-19

Hey, friends.

Thanks for joining us.

Grateful to have you back on this Mondays.

We start the week together.

We are in the 17th.

Chapter 11.

Verse.

Yeah. 17th chapter of John.

And in the 11th verse, just a little bit of recap.

Jesus.

This entire chapter is, sustained prayer,

the longest sustained prayer recorded in the Gospels

by Jesus and the

the first part of this prayers be kind of open ended.

A lot of glorification of God.

And then in this passage that we'll look at, the prayer turns toward,

thinking of the disciples and their place in the world.

And, this is interesting.

I'll read through about verse 18, 19 or so,

and then we'll come back and talk it through.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world,

and I am coming to you.

Holy father,

protect them in your name that you have given me.

So they may be one as we are one.

While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you've given me,

and you guard.

And I guarded them, and not one of them was lost,

except the one destined to be lost, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I'm coming to you.

I speak these things in the world

so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.

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

because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

I'm not asking you to take them out of the world,

but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth,

as you have sent me into the world.

So I have sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself,

so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

As we get in here, I think this is,

You I think

you mentioned last week, Michael, and I think I would,

wholeheartedly agree.

The 17th chapter of John is in some ways a slog.

It's, that maybe that's overstated.

It's interesting in that it is this beautiful prayer.

But the way that John writes,

if it feels at times a little repetitive, a little heavy,

I think this part of this particular prayer is fascinating.

As Jesus

turns to anticipate

what it will mean to follow him for his disciples.

And this isn't the first time we've seen this assumption

that following Christ will put us at odds with the world.

But here, the idea that Jesus specifically prays, asking God

to protect those who come after him, those who follow him,

those who want to be his disciples, that that they be sanctified, which is to be

made holy, that they be protected, that they be delivered.

And I think this starts with this

beautiful and challenging word

that they may be one as we are one. And,

Christians, pastors,

theologians have for many centuries now

been challenged by these words as an indication that one of the things

Christ prays for the church is unity is oneness.

And in an era of church fights and separations

and denominations and splits and schisms and all the rest,

we have not made a great deal

of progress toward this goal at times, but it is, I think, a fascinating

look behind the scenes at what Jesus wishes for those who follow him,

and the idea that that is unity and holiness

and truth is compelling and challenging.

Yeah, it's all of those things.

And I think it's also, in many ways, a response to the problem

of Jesus's own upcoming death and resurrection.

Because at the end of the day, as Jesus transitioned from this initial address

in the prayer and is now praying for the the disciples who will be left behind,

Jesus is in a very pastoral way, addressing the concerns that that future

group of disciples are going to wrestle with Jesus, knowing what lies ahead for

him also knows what lies ahead for them, and it grieves him.

It provides for him a place that he raises up words to God the Father,

talking about how these disciples will need protection.

And I think there's a lot of different senses to this, this idea

that there might be once again, Clint, we made a great deal,

just a few days ago about this idea of joy.

We have it again in verse 13 so that they may have my joy made complete in them.

Jesus wants not just for them to be protected from the things

that would want to do them harm, which is a physical reality.

In the first generation of Christians who received this book

that they were sought out because of their profession of faith.

So protection was not a theoretical idea.

It was a reality of their everyday living.

And so here, this idea that there might be joy,

even complete joy, even in that time of vulnerability,

that that's an amazing kind of promise that we have in the text.

Then we have this idea of the interplay between the word and the world.

And of course, we as those who now have spent some time in the gospel

know how important word is capital W word.

Jesus is the word, the logos, the ordering of the universe.

Jesus is God's plan and intention.

Well, the reality is that these disciples would know

lowercase w would know something of that ordering of the universe,

and therefore that means that they are no longer welcome in the world.

In in the the kingdom of humanity as opposed to the Kingdom of God.

They have found a new residency in a new place.

And so,

Clint, to to try to

not go too deep, too quickly into this text.

I think one way to engage in this prayer

is to see that this is a deeply felt

and and an earnest desire

that Jesus lifts up to God the Father to say,

for those who you've given me, I've cared for them.

Now you care for them in my absence.

And that is an amazing gift that Jesus offers

to every generation of disciples that are going to follow him.

Another thing that's worth noting there, though,

and this is a caution I want to offer at the end of the conversation,

is there are many

who read prayers like this which are dense and to be quite honest with you,

very difficult to understand in a short and simple reading.

There's so much content here, and I would advise you to be careful

to not overly spiritualize this text and make it into

just a, a conversation about Jesus asking

for protection from the devil and the idea of spiritual forces in the world.

That's not to say that Jesus doesn't have in mind those things,

but it is to say the core of this text is not about,

the disciples winning out over evil forces in the world.

This text is about Jesus being faithful and Jesus asking

God the Father to be faithful so that these disciples might continue.

Jesus has done his part.

And now, as Jesus prepares

to change the entire equation by giving up his life, what happens next?

While Jesus is praying for those who are going to experience what happens next?

And I think that's a beautiful gift of a text like this.

Yeah, this is a very shallow kind of analogy.

So bear with me.

But you have children, Michael, I have children.

If any of our listeners have children at some point with kids or grandkids or

nieces, nephews, something you've dropped a child off somewhere, right?

The school field trip, the birthday party, and you've

you've hoped they'd be okay, right?

They show up.

They don't know anybody. They're standing in the corner.

You you hope and and there is

that separation sense here that Jesus, knowing

that he is about to exit physically from the disciples, is praying over them.

There's something beautifully,

caring, nurturing about that.

And the thing that Jesus asks is

protect them, because the world and this has been,

well established in John or the world, isn't wild about the faith.

The world he uses.

The word hated here works against them,

because it has worked against me.

And and their protection in that

is to be sanctified by truth.

Remember that truth is a powerful concept in the Gospel of John.

Truth is that which points to Jesus

and that that sanctifies, that protects, that guides,

so that the disciples might make their way in the world.

And I think there's a powerful line here that says, it's verse 15.

I'm not asking you to take them out of the world.

I'm not asking you to remove hardship from them.

I'm asking you to persevere in them and preserve them

in the midst of those struggles so that they can do what I've done.

And verse 18 here, as you've sent me into the world, I've sent them.

We now, as disciples, are the ones who are given

the task of continuing the work of Christ in the world.

While Jesus is absent from the church, it is

the church that seeks to do his work

in this place, in the here and now and again.

To do that, we need unity. We need truth.

We need protection, we need sanctification.

This is

the this is really, it you're right, Michael, this is very dense.

You could do word studies here for days,

but the core of this message is really powerful.

Well, and I want to just point out that as we read this text,

we need to see the weight of it.

And I think that sometimes Christians do

we get our emphasis a little out of balance.

And sometimes in the history of the church,

we've overemphasized the spiritual reality of what Christ has done.

And don't get me wrong, that that's not to say

that we haven't been right, that there is this

this whole below the surface spiritual reality of salvation and restoration

and what Jesus has come to do that, that, that is there.

But I want to I want just point out so that we don't miss this, how concerned

Jesus is about the disciples in the world, right?

Jesus is is deeply concerned about what

they will accept and the protection that they will receive.

And the reason this is so important is because God's will for you, God's

love for you, God's desire for you as his child does not wait until eternity.

It doesn't wait for spiritual completeness.

Jesus, concerned for the disciples, is in the world that they have been sent to.

And often times, Clint, that world that we've been sent into

seems to common to us.

It's the humdrum of things that need done, the tasks and errands that need

completed, the people that need call, the things that we fill our time with.

These things seem like they are lower in importance.

But in reality, Jesus knows that the life of faith, the sanctification,

the restoration that we need doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It happens in the real world.

Faith is ultimately a thing that happens outside the walls of sanctuaries,

and it happens wherever we are living or walking or working or serving.

The reality is that God's kingdom transcends the boundaries

that we often imagine for it.

And what I think is so compelling about Jesus's prayer here is that

Jesus is not just concerned for his disciples future state.

He's not just concerned

about bring them through to the end so that they live in eternal bliss.

Surely that that's part of this whole continuum.

But don't miss the beautiful invitation here, which is to say that

God is going to be with them even in Jesus's absence.

The power of the spirit is going to equip them for the life

that they live in the real world.

And for everyone today who's living in the real world, full of its problems

and its doubts and its fears and anxieties and sins and temptations, all of that.

Jesus has prayed for you.

Jesus cares about that world.

He cares about that experience of the world.

And I think that we could pass by this prayer.

We could miss his heart for that.

And so I want to make sure that we hear that as we continue.

Yeah.

And I think that's a good word, Michael,

because there really isn't anything else like this in the Gospels.

The idea that Jesus did and continues to pray

for the work of those who follow him, that

Jesus not only cares in some generic sense

of of what we do with His Word

and how we live out our faith, but that he pours out his prayers.

He stands in the middle between us and God,

asking God's grace, blessing, and protection

on those who follow him and

this is

this is about the only true snapshot of that we get in the Gospels.

Yes, Jesus cares.

Of course we get in the book of acts there.

But there's nothing.

There's nothing that paints it like John does here in this prayer.

And I think it's very moving.

The idea that Jesus spends time in prayer

for all the places

that are trying to be faithful, and for all the people

that are trying to share him with the world,

and for all the difficulties of being a person of faith in a world

that isn't always friendly to the faith, I there's just that.

That is such a such a profound idea that

if you've ever had, if

you've ever known someone who is a prayer warrior

and they've

committed to a season to pray for you, maybe you've had a health challenge.

Maybe it's been in a time of loss or struggle,

and you have faced those moments knowing that

people held you up in prayer genuinely and regularly.

It is.

It is a humbling and encouraging thing.

And now imagine that to those voices, Jesus adds his very own

praying for those who seek to follow him.

I that there's there's something,

there's something unique

and wonderful when read through that lens.

A word that theologians will use regarding John is they'll

they'll talk about dualism.

They'll talk about how there's these different things

that seem to be at odds with each other, or at least in tension.

And I think that you're going to see one of those

tensions right here in the text, this idea, in verse 16,

they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them, verse 18, as you've sent me into the world.

So I sent them into the world.

And I think that this is really important that we recognize.

Yes, there's a lot of light and darkness in John, but don't miss this.

The light is always sent into the darkness.

The people, the disciples are always sent into the world.

Yes, there's some tensions, but the movement is always the same.

Those who have been called by God are sent by God to be witnesses.

We never get rid of the world.

We never are sent out of the world.

This isn't like we're trying to move from Earth to another planet.

That's not the conception that that Jesus shares.

It's instead that we are redeemed for the sake of the world.

We see Jesus so that we can tell the world about him.

It's a radically different way of collapsing

those things that seem dualistic.

They seem like they're at odds, but they're ultimately one serves the other.

And I think that Jesus portrays that in the way that he lives.

And now he explicitly talks about it as he addresses God.

So I think as we hear Jesus's prayer, it's not just that he's

praying for us, though. That is an unbelievable gift.

It's also in the way he's teaching us what matters because of what he prays

for us to do, what he prays to the father to do on our behalf.

I think there's a,

kind of listening in to Jesus's prayer, at which point

we tune in and say, oh, we're supposed to go into the world.

What, you mean that role that's dangerous and that has it out for us? Yes.

That's the world we're called to be sent out into.

Well, how do we have confidence to do that?

We have confidence to do that because Jesus has prayed

that God would protect us.

So so there's a kind of mission setting in the prayer

that Jesus gives us here that we have to be attuned to it.

It crafts our identity, teaches us who we are,

and then gives us the confidence to be those people.

Yeah, the root of the word church means to be called out.

And we understand that to mean

that Christians are those who are called out of the world

and then sent back in and and the sending language of the Gospels

and the book of Acts and Paul, that to be sent

really to be a believer is to be sent there one in the same.

Now that that may just mean sent to the people you already know.

But we are all there is a centeredness to every Christian.

We are to take Christ into the world.

And John is very helpful as we try to understand what all that means.

And also way above our pay grade.

And so we're glad that you're in the conversation with us.

There are so much to have here.

Hope that something this conversation has helped you.

And if it has, give this video a like helps others find it.

But friends, you know,

sincerely hope it's the first encounter you have with a text like this.

And, you certainly hope you'll join us as we continue along through the

the deep depths of, John and everything it still has to offer.

Thanks, everybody.