PM Home Bible Study Group; March 12, 2014
John 17:6-19
Theme: Jesus—in His High-Priestly prayer—prayed for the apostles who would bear testimony of Him to the world.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We have been studying together from the remarkable prayer of our Lord for His followers on His last evening before going to the cross. As we saw from our last time together, this prayer can be divided into three parts. In verses 1-5, we find our Lord’s prayer for Himself. In verses 6-19, we find His prayer specifically for His apostles—those who would be sent out into the world in His name to bear witness of Him. And in verses 20-26, we find His prayer for all those around the world and throughout the centuries who would believe on Him because of the apostles’ witness—which includes you and me.
This evening, we consider His prayer for His apostles. How do we know that this was a prayer specifically for them and not for all of us? One way is by the fact that He said that He “manifested” God’s name to them (v. 6). That is put in the past tense; and at the time He spoke those words, they could not have been true of anyone else but His apostles. Another is by the fact that He said that He had kept them in the Father’s name “while” He was “with them” (v. 12). Again, this could only be true of the apostles. Yet another is by the fact that He said that He lost none of them “except the son of perdition” (v.12)—a reference to Judas. The “them” of which Judas was one was the apostles. And finally—looking ahead to verse 20—Jesus says, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” The ones who “will believe” is us; and it is the word of the apostles that we have heard and believe. All of this is important to remember; because this means the things that Jesus prays in this particular section—while in a secondary sense having some impact on you and me—should be seen by us as primarily referring to the apostles.
Jesus’ prayer for His apostles is important to consider. It’s certainly important because He truly loved them. They were not always faithful to Him. In fact, as He already told them, they would very shortly abandon Him and be scattered from Him for a time (see John 16:32). But He nevertheless loved them and had a future and a calling for them. But it’s important for us to consider because the things that Jesus prayed for them help to establish to us the authority of their witness of Jesus to the world—and their witness is the foundational witness of the church. As the apostle Paul put it, the church is built by our Lord “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). They are the “angels” (or, as it can be translated, “messengers”) that are mentioned in Paul’s words about the “mystery of godliness” of which the church is the pillar and ground—”God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). Their names will be on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14).
* * * * * * * * * *
In these words, Jesus was praying for those men that the Father had given Him and who would be His sent witnesses in this world—establishing a timeless and God-protected testimony that would lead to the saving faith of those He died on the cross to redeem. That—Praise Him!—includes you and me. What Jesus prayed for them, then, ought to be of great interest to us! How glad we should be that He prayed what He did for them—and that the Holy Spirit preserved it in writing for our edification!
Notice, then . . .
I. THE THINGS THAT JESUS AFFIRMS ABOUT THEM (vv. 6-8).
A. First, notice that He affirmed that He had revealed truth to them about the Father. He said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world” (v. 6a). In this case, the Father’s “name” means much more than simply His name alone. It speaks of the fullness of His identity and character—all that He is and does for us. When Jesus manifested the Father’s name to His apostles, they truly knew the Father through Him. This is just as the apostle John said of Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel—”No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). He told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Nothing can be known to us about the Father except as the Son reveals Him to us; and all that Jesus reveals to us of the Father is sufficient. Here, Jesus affirms in His prayer that He has truly revealed to His apostles what they needed to know in order to bear testimony to the world.
B. Another fascinating thing to note is that, before they were Jesus’ men, they were the Father’s men first. He said, “They were Yours, You gave them to Me . . .” (v. 6b). What a stunning revelation that must have been to them! Do you remember how our Lord chose His twelve apostles? The story is told to us in Luke 6:12-16. He prayed all night before God; and only then—in the morning—did He choose them. But apparently, they were already chosen for Him by the Father. They were the Father’s first; and then, they were given to Jesus. What great authority their witness has!
C. Notice also that Jesus says, “and they have kept Your word” (v. 6c). How we should understand this is best explained in what our Lord says next; “Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me” (vv. 7-8). They themselves affirmed something of this in John 16:29-30—although we would have to say that they only understood things imperfectly at the time. But Jesus—looking ahead to the certainty of the reliability of their witness said that they truly have known the identity of Jesus, and truly possessed His words and have kept them. These truths and the words they were given wouldn’t be merely up to their own power to keep. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit, who He would send after His ascension, would bring all these things to their remembrance (John 14:26). But we today can have absolute confidence in their testimony. As John has written at the beginning of his first letter—speaking for all the apostles;
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:1-4
II. THE PROTECTION THAT JESUS REQUEST FOR THEM (vv. 9-13).
A. The witness that these men would bear to the world would be the most precious message ever to come to earth. It would be the most valuable message human beings could ever pass on to the rest of humankind. But as Jesus had taught them in several places, they would be delivering this message in a hostile environment (Matthew 10:16)—and to people who would hate the messengers because they also hated the Lord that the message proclaimed (John 15:18-25). And so, Jesus said, “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours” (v. 9). That Jesus didn’t pray for the world in these words doesn’t mean that He didn’t love the people of the world. He most certainly does, because He died for them. But He meant to pray specifically for those who would bear that message to the world. It’s them specifically that He meant—but to all His redeemed ones in general—when He said, “And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them” (v. 10). Did you know that all those who believe on Jesus are the Father’s gift to Him? That would include you and me! No wonder He prayed for the witness of these apostles!
B. So long as Jesus was in the world with them, they were protected by His personal presence. They could not sink—though in a boat in the midst of a storm at sea. They were allowed by Him to go free—though soldiers came to arrest Him. No harm could come to them so long as He was with them. But He is about to leave them. And so He prayed, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are” v. 11). When Jesus asked the Father to keep them “through Your name”, that was a prayer that the Father would preserve them through the fullness of who He Himself is. So long as they served the Father’s purpose of testifying of His Son, they were indestructible. Each of them—with the exception of the apostle John—died a martyr’s death; but that would only be because their foundational witness to the world was completed. The writings of the apostles that the Father wanted us to have were preserved; and the locations in the world in which the non-writing apostles were to testify had been preached to—so that the written witness would spread wherever the Father wanted it to go. And they themselves were preserved to the very end—so that when their testimony was completed, their bodies were laid to rest, and their spirits were united to their Lord.
C. We know that not all of the twelve were preserved, though. Judas was lost. But even this was known to the Lord well in advance. Back in John 6, Jesus told them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70). Jesus even released Judas to depart from the twelve—before He began to pray this prayer—so that Judas could betray Him (John 13:18-30). And so, Jesus goes on to pray, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (v. 12). In losing Judas, the Lord Jesus lost nothing of what the Father had given Him. “This is the will of the Father who sent Me,” He said, “that of al He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day” (John 6:38). But the eleven still remained—distressed because Jesus had let them know that one of them would betray Him, and that they would all abandon Him for a while, and that He would be taken from them. But Jesus then goes on to say, “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (v. 13. That joy—spoken of by Him in John 16:20; made effectual at His resurrection, and given divine power at the coming of the Holy Spirit—would be the motivating force in the proclamation of their message to the world! It’s ours too; because as John tells us in 1 John 1:4, this witness has been passed on to us, “that your joy may be full.”
III. THE TRUTH THAT JESUS HAS ENTRUSTED TO THEM (vv. 14-17).
A. The message that Jesus called them to declare was the truth about Himself. They were to proclaim the things that they saw in Him and heard Him teach. But in His prayer, Jesus lets us know that their message wasn’t just from Him. It was from the Father! Jesus had said, “as My Father taught Me, I speak these things” (John 8:28). What He said was an entrustment given to Him by the Father; and He was faithful with that entrustment. His disciples were to be faithful with what He gave them also; and so, He prayed, “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” (v. 14).
B. They would face many challenges in their faithful declaration of the gospel—as reading the Book of Acts would affirm to us! And the attacks they would experience, because of the hatred of men for them, were not only of a human source. The devil Himself would be the sponsor of those attacks. As Revelation 12:17 tells us, he is that dragon who—failing to thwart the coming of the Christ into the world; and enraged at the nation of Israel for having given birth to Him—”went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” But Jesus—knowing this hostile environment into which His disciples would go—didn’t pray that they would be delivered from it. Jesus said, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (v. 15). The message is vital to the salvation of those He died to redeem; and so, His apostles must proclaim it! So must we!
C. Jesus adds this affirmation; “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (v. 16). That must have been comforting for the apostles to remember as they suffered for the truth they were to proclaim. Whenever any of Jesus’ faithful witnesses suffer in this world, it’s proof that they truly belong to Him—because He suffered at the hands of this world too. But notice what He says in verse 17; “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” His apostles could know that the message they proclaim to the world is the word of God Himself to that fallen world—and it is truth! And as they proclaim it, the Father Himself sanctifies them (that is, sets them apart) in it and for it.
IV. THE COMMISSION THAT JESUS HAS GIVEN TO THEM (vv. 18-19).
A. The disciples were assured of the fact that Jesus truly did come from the Father; and that the Father truly sent Him. What a joy it must have been—and also a sober sense of responsibility—when they heard Jesus then pray, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (v. 18). Here, we can’t help but think of Jesus’ final commission before He left this earth—when He told His followers;
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
B. But this wouldn’t be something that either they, or the church that has been built on their witness, could ever have done in their own power. Jesus said, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (v. 19). Before the disciples could do what they were sent to do, the Son of God Himself must first set Himself apart for the work He must do. He must first offer Himself up as a sacrifice to be proclaimed. As F.F. Bruce has written, “It was not what Jesus’ executioners did to him, but what he did himself in his self-offering, that makes his death a prevailing sacrifice for the life of the world’ (John 6:51; cf. 1:29). Here, then, the priest dedicates the sacrificial victim: it is because priest and victim are one that the sacrifice is not only completely voluntary but uniquely efficacious” (F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John, pp. 334-5).
* * * * * * * * * *
In all of this, let’s remember that this was a prayer of our Lord—a sacred prayer that would be heard and gladly answered by His Father. We are here tonight—studying the word’s of the apostles and rejoicing in our Savior’s love in sincere faith—because this prayer was answered.