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Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, Part IV, John 17:13-18
John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has recorded that Jesus has prayed for those whom the father has given him.
He, in this prayer does not pray for the world but instead singles out for remembrance to His Father the keeping of those whom His Father has given him.
His hour has come to return to the Father and now he must transfer to His Father’s care the men who stand before him and those who will come after Him.
It is a prayer where Jesus commits to the keeping of His own eternally, never to lose any of those the Father has given Him.
They had lived by sight, for they had Jesus with them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
They ate with him, they walked with him, they slept under the stars with him, and they heard his word with ears of flesh.
But now a new thing was coming for they were hereby expected to live by faith for Jesus’ hour had come, his mission was near completion but as always his concern was not for himself but for His own.
So he speaks not of his death, not of his blood soon to be spilled, not of his laying in the tomb, but he speaks in John 17:13 of His joy.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Jesus Christ prays to the Father that the joy that he finds in the Father's love will be reproduced in the hearts of his disciples.
He had told the disciples in John 15:11, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be fulfilled.
Here in his prayer to the Father he reports to the Father what he has said to them.
He desires that they remember his word and follow his word that they may have joy.
He has joy and he wants his disciples who are to represent him on Earth to continue in that joy.
Isn't it the Father's will that they be conformed to the image of his Son?
Did not the Son have joy in fellowship with the Father during all his time on Earth.
And this is how a believer is to have joy!
In fellowship with God and his word!
For His word says: The joy of the LORD is his strength.
This is what the Savior craved for his own.
Because of the position they now had with the Father there was no reason not to have the same proportion of joy as Jesus Christ had with the same Father.
There is no hindrance to a believer having joy.
Every barrier against joy has been removed.
There are no “Thou shalt not have joy” commandments in the scriptures!
The word of Christ has been spoken and the word of God is designed that your joy may be full.
The believer has access into the holiest of holies through Jesus Christ and there is no reason not to have joy except hardness of heart in the believer.
This week a Hymn came to me and I sang it to myself, in my heart and it brought joy to me.
It is the kind of song that reminds us of who we are and who we are in for if you walk by faith you are in Christ Jesus and being in Christ Jesus one ought to have joy.
We’re Marching to Zion | Isaac Watts, 17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748
Come, we that
love the Lord,
Refrain:
The sorrows of
the mind
Let those
refuse to sing,
The men of
grace have found
The hill of
Zion yields
Then let our songs abound, To fairer worlds on high.
Continuing in John 17:14, I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
In giving the disciples the Father's word Jesus Christ gives more to them than just expounding the scriptures.
He had given them what he had been given as described in Isaiah 50:4:
The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
He had given them what the Father was, he had given them the source of their joy.
As that joy was expressed they would discover that they are not of the world and the world would hate them for it.
A man or woman of joy, true joy, is not of the world and the world will hate that man or woman for it for the world is not equipped with ears to understand.
The world is filled with those who love what they see and taste and feel and anyone who does not share that love it hates.
The person of joy has new affections, new interests, and a new Master.
He has been separated from the world and in proportion as he follows Christ: he condemns the world and the world hates and plots against him, curses him, says all manner of evil against him, opposes him and rejoices when any evil befalls him.
He says about those whom the father has given: they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Like Son, like follower of Son!
Christ is the second man as Paul in 1 Cor. 15:47 proclaims:
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
He said in Hebrews 7:26, For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Jesus declared to the Jews in John 8:23, .... Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
Paul in 2 Cor. 5:17 declared: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And in Hebrews 3:1 Paul wrote, Wherefore, holy brethren, .....partakers of the heavenly calling, ....consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
Amplifying this partaking of the heavenly calling, Paul said in Phil. 3:20, For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
So Jesus Christ, in this High Priestly Prayer, declares himself to be not of this world and if he is not of this world so shall also his disciples be.
Our conversation is in heaven therefore we are to be heavenly minded.
This word conversation means community and citizenship.
We who are Christ's are of the community of heaven.
We who are saved are citizens of heaven.
We are strangers here journeying to our home to be with Christ.
But the world hates citizens of heaven.
Did not the world crucify Jesus Christ, the number one citizen of heaven?
So Jesus Christ petitions the Father for the preservation of his disciples.
Not being of the world they were not to fellowship with the world, they were not to take part in its worship, and they were not to promote the world.
Jesus Christ continues this theme in His prayer in John 17:15,16: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Here is a prayer that we ought to remember when the going gets tough.
Jesus Christ prayed not that the Father remove his disciples from the world.
This is also a pattern of prayer for us.
We ought not to pray to be removed out of this world.
We ought not to pray to vacate our place of service because of the difficulty of the service or of the circumstances of the service.
The servant is without right to ask that his service cease.
Jesus Christ knew what the disciples faced as they went out and served him.
In spite of that knowledge he prayed simply that they be kept from the evil.
We are to simply pray for the LORD to preserve us in the world as we serve.
Paul in Phil. 1:23,24, understood this when he said: For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Paul knew his place.
Yes, he desired to be with Christ but he knew God's place for him was a place of service and that service was finished only as God determined.
It is not for the servant to determine when the job is done, be he or her 25 or 95 years old.
So our master prays to preserve his own as they occupy till he comes.
He asks the Father to keep them from the evil or keep them from the evil one.
Keep them from the author of evil and from evil itself.
There is no victory in isolation from the world so Jesus Christ does not pray that the disciples be isolated from the world but only that they be kept from the evil.
John 17:17, Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Jesus Christ will send his own into the world to occupy till he come.
How does God keep his own from the evil.
He sanctifies them.
He makes them holy by his word.
God's truth is the separating force.
God's word is the sanctifying force.
By his word he sets his own apart for himself and for his service.
He consecrates them for the task he entrusts to them.
His word will provide the inward purification and will endow them with all the resources they need to carry out that task.
The word of God is practical in that if it is obeyed its truths will keep you from the evil.
Just look at the practical lessons from the book of Proverbs that make one wise and to be wise is to make right choices and those right choices will keep you from evil.
The word of God is light and light allows you to see the evil and depart from the evil.
By saying "Sanctify them through thy truth:" Jesus Christ is not performing some mystical activity, some instant magic, but he knows that the practical outworking of his word in the life of the believer will keep the believer from evil.
He also sets them apart for his blessing.
All people of the world receive the blessings of God but the blessings that he gives only to those who are sanctified are spiritual blessings.
The world cannot know spiritual blessings because they are spiritually discerned.
So the end of God's truth is holiness, sanctification, separation unto him and separation from the world.
And the result of that sanctification is the keeping of his own from the evil one.
So far as the child of God walks according to God's word shall he be kept from evil.
God's Word sanctifies those who obey it.
God's word is the believer’s only safety.
There is nothing else given to cling to!
Stray from God's word and the believer is nearer the evil.
John 17:18, As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
The Father had established the pattern of sending---and Jesus Christ in sending his own into the world was following that pattern.
If you are a believer you are a sent one in the same pattern that the Father established with his Son.
Even as the Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth to represent the Father, so we now live on earth to represent Christ.
Christ was sent to reveal the Father, to show forth his glory, and so believers are sent forth to show Christ's glory, which is the glory of the Father.
He was sent to seek and to save that which was lost.
We are to join in that effort by pointing the lost to Jesus Christ.
He seeks and he saves today through those whom he sought and saved.
Though his personal witness he saved the apostles and through their personal witness and the witness of those after them to this day all who are saved are saved following this pattern.
He is indeed the head and those who have been born into his family through the new birth are his body.
They are his hands for helping, they are his feet for going, they are his mouth for preaching the Gospel.
Believers occupy His place.
Believers are to be witnesses for Truth as his body was a witness for truth.
As partakers of the heavenly calling we are now commissioned to represent him here below.
Being "sent ones" it is as if we are from heaven and are sent to this world in the same manner that the Father sent Jesus Christ.
Proof that believers are not of this world but simply pilgrims passing though on the way home to be with the head of the body. |