Sermons from Lone Rock Bible Church
Stevensville, MT
Index of LRBC Sermons: www.sermonlinks.com/Sermons/LoneRock/Sermons
October 30, 2005

Prayer for Peculiar People
John 17:9-12

Jesus had a real heart for the disciples He would soon be leaving. He was really concerned for their preservation after He was gone. Why such a personal concern for His friends?

1. They stand distinct from the world (9a)
2. They are the Father’s possession (9b-10)
3. They have brought Jesus glory (10b)
4. They need to know heavenly unity (11)
5. They will no longer have Jesus with them (12)

John 17 is typically called Jesus’ high priestly prayer. We will see a little bit of why that is so today. I have entitled the entire prayer “What Jesus Wants” because this is His petition before His Father. I dare say that what Jesus wants Jesus gets. So when Jesus prays for you and me -- and He does in this very chapter -- that ought to warm our hearts and encourage us toward glory because that is where He is taking it.

We will read from verses 9 to 12.

John 17
⁹"I ask on their behalf“ (on behalf of the disciples); “I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
¹⁰and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.
¹¹"I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
¹²"While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

For probably thousands of years humankind has been hunting and gathering and has been able, to a certain extent, to preserve that which was hunted and gathered. You can kill a large animal like a deer or elk and if kept cold, you can get it either dried, smoked, or in the freezer, you are going to be ok. Our forefathers lived that way for years.

About 200 years ago home canning was invented. The idea of heating, pressure-cooking solved many problems for people who had yet to reach what we would consider a modernized era. Two basic problems were solved by a vacuum-sealed jar. One is bacteria on the inside had no opportunity to live and spoil things. On the other hand, the goodies inside were protected from whatever might invade from without. That is a good thing.

There is one word that ties verses 9 through 12 together. It is what He wants and it is this: The Holy Father keep them. The word is “keep” -- guard, protect, preserve. Keep them. Keep them from the problems that will naturally arise from within. That is how it goes when people do things together. Keep them from those enemies that would destroy them from outside. Holy Father, keep them. That is Jesus’ prayer. That is what Jesus wants. And I think it is great.

The disciples preserved from within and without. We are going to offer several reasons why Jesus wants His people kept. We will hopefully cover three of them today.

1. They stand distinct from the world.

“I ask on their behalf.” This is a focused request. “I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom You have given Me.” He is limiting the prayer. He is excluding, deliberately, in this prayer, the world. World -- what is that? Let’s just say it is “I am not praying for that bunch right now. I am praying for those who are Mine,” Not for those who do not regard Jesus for whom He truly is. That has not changed. It is as true today as it was in Jesus’ day.

The world, that broad arena of society, does not regard Jesus for whom He really is. His own do, in light of Scripture. But we can read newspaper after newspaper and watch newscast after newscast for years and never once will anyone objectively state what is the clear will of God or how Jesus would weigh in on a matter. That is not a concern to the world and so at this juncture Jesus is not praying specifically for the world. It is the world who will oppose and reject Him and ultimately kill Him. He knows that. The world will be an issue for the disciples. This will come up later in John 17.

Is the world beyond hope? No, not at all. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave . . .” Even in this prayer in John 17, in verse 21 He talks about “that the world may believe.” In verse 23, “that the world may know that You sent Me.” Certainly the concern on the heart of God is for the world but not here, not in this particular portion of this particular prayer. Here is Jesus revealing a special interest in His own.

It’s kind of like this: Certain people are baseball fans. They love baseball, know the stats, collect the cards, make the pilgrimage to Phoenix in the spring, doing all the things that people who love baseball do, but yet even the most rabid baseball fan has a team. It’s like “I love baseball. I love the crowd and I love the game, but this is my team! And right now I am concerned about my team.” That is where Jesus is, His special interest in His own.

Sometimes Christians can develop what I might call a Christian country club mentality. Very unhealthy. As though by some virtue or some merit of our own we somehow were able to rise above the crowd and so impress God with our sterling character or total sincerity of heart or pedigree or litany of good works or something, that God will say, “You deserve it. Come into My club.”

It is ok on Jesus’ part to take this special interest in this prayer because He is going to use this special team to reach the world for which He died. So yes, they get some focused attention, they get some unique marching orders because they are going out in the world. When we pray for the world, how do we pray? I would suggest this. We need to be praying for the world, that the world will have light, that the light of the gospel will shine upon the hearts of the world. We need to pray that the spirit of God will work conviction in the hearts of the world and bring conversion to those who are in the world. Then we need to go out in the world and tell them there is a Savior who paid for their sins just like He paid for ours.

Jesus, at this juncture, is praying. This prayer is special. It is special because it reflects Jesus’ role as an intercessor -- someone who stands in the gap and offers special prayer protection for a given person or group of people. The Bible says that one of Jesus’ key roles after His ascension and restoration to the right hand of the Father is that He will make intersession for us. He continues to pray for us. Did you know that Jesus prays for us even now? Sometimes it is hard for me to pray because I think of other things. But I know God is not going away and I am sure He will be there when I am ready. I am so glad Jesus is not like me.

He ever lives to make intercession for us. Let me give you a couple Bible verses. In Romans 8:34 the apostle Paul is rising to the pinnacle of argument that if God is for us, what is the problem? There can be no problem, truly, if God is for us. God is the One who justifies. If He is the One who justifies, what is the problem? He is the One with whom we have to do.

Romans 8:34
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Jesus also stands in the gap and prays continually in our behalf. Is that not a great picture?

Hebrews 7:24-25
²⁴but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.
²⁵Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

That is such good news. I do not know what else could give us bedrock peace and bedrock comfort and hope than to know that the One who died for our sins, who also would be our judge, has exonerated us by His own merit and continues to plead our case before the Father.

These disciples stand distinct from the world and Jesus wants them kept. He wants them protected.

2. They are the Father’s possession (9b-10)

for they are Yours;
¹⁰and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

Jesus is jealous for the possession of His Father. In John 17:9 He is praying on behalf of those the Father has given Him. “For they are thine.” They are yours, Father, and I am keenly interested in what is yours. All things that are mine are yours and yours are mine. We have a shared, vested, interest in these people. I want them kept.

I want them protected. Obviously we are touching here on eternity past. How is it that people who once were the Father’s position were handed over as a love gift, if you will, to the Son. When were we in the Father’s possession? We could understand when we were handed over to the Son, perhaps because we can trace the cross in space and time and history, but what about this eternity past stuff? On the one hand, it ought to make us squirm a little because we do not understand eternal things, past or future. We cannot. We do not have the brains for it.

On the other hand, if we could we would not have a strong sense of a need for God, either. So we are glad He is eternal though we cannot understand it. It is true in Scripture that there was a time the Father held His people as His unique possession. I believe that is traceable to Romans 8, when it talks about those who He foreknew. Not knew about, but foreknew before being called, before being chosen, before being justified, before being glorified. He sees the end from the beginning of the parade -- He knew us. He called us and declared us righteous and changes our lives and we are the ones He will bring to glory. It is a continuum upon which we are happily bound by the grace of God and totally safe in the grace of God.

Remember that secret verse -- Revelation 13:8 -- the names of the people of God written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is a secret verse, most appreciated by spiritual insomniacs. Think about it.

So we touch eternity past with this notion that they were Yours and You gave them to Me. Those who have been the Father’s are entrusted to the Son. The Bible does tell us a couple things about that eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. They are marvelous things. Remember what John 1: 1 says: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” It says literally in the beginning the Word was already being. And the Word was already in an ongoing continuous sense being face to face, eyeball to eyeball, in a loving harmonious, uninterrupted relationship  with the Father. It is a huge verse! That is how things were before creation. In heaven, between the Father and the Son, all has been well. Eternally. John 17:5 talks about the glory, which we shared together, Father and Son, before the world was. A perfect, eternally perfect relationship, between the Father and the Son and now the Son wants his Father’s previous possessions to be preserved. The Father holds us special and Jesus is saying, “Keep them that way.” I would call this sanctified jealousy.

There is a difference between envy and jealousy. Envy means you want what you do not have, kind of like coveting. I often say that if there is something I want that belongs to someone else I don’t covet it; I just want one exactly like it! Envy means that someone else has something and we want it. Jealousy means we have something that someone else might want and we protect it and keep it. The Son is, in a sanctified sense, jealous for the possession of the Father; that is, the people of God. Keep them. They were yours You gave them to Me. We share them. This is a glorious thing. Jesus wants His Father’s precious possessions to be preserved, first of all, for His Father’s sake.

Let’s just say in our world for this entire time a father was a collector of coins. You know that some coins, when they are rare and if they are discovered in good condition, are worth some money. Let’s just say the father really enjoyed his coin collection. He reached that stage in life where he wanted to hand it on to his son. So all these rare coins are handed over to the son who takes them down to Ole’s and buys candy. A penny is still pretty much worth a penny. But that shows no jealous regard for the possession of the father.

These are special to the father, so I want to treat them special too. Keep them, protect them, retain that special, unique character of that possession that is the father’s.

Here we have an interesting window on Jesus’ view of His relationship with the Father. Notice what He says in verse 10. “and all things that are Mine are Yours.” We can say that, can’t we? Yes Lord, everything that is mine is yours. We can say that. We are the creature; He is the creator. Whether we feel it or not, it is actually true. All that is ours is His. Who can say all that is His is ours? We cannot say that. The only one who can share total co-ownership with God is God. When Jesus says everything that is Mine is Yours, that is one thing. But when He says “Everything that is Yours is Mine,” Jesus is announcing co-regency with the Father. That is magnificent because when the co-regent prays for you and me and appeals to the Father for our preservation, we ought to just be delighted.

3. They have brought Jesus glory (10b)

Remember what Jesus said in John 17:5: "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”  God is glorified when God looks good. Jesus is glorified when Jesus looks good. We glorify Christ when we make Christ look good. It’s a fairly simple concept. The Father and the Son are in co-glory together for eternity past, sharing it, enjoying it, reveling in it. Now Jesus is saying, Father, these people you have given Me have made Me look good too. Keep them. Preserve them. Protect them. Because they have glorified Me. These disciples of Jesus touch base with John 17:5. We have skimmed eternity here. When an eternal God is made to look good, that is to His eternal glory. These people have played a part, have had a role in it. Jesus is saying I want them kept. I want them preserved. They have given Me glory. Who can do this? Think of the implications. Who can make Jesus look good except those created in the image of Christ.

We have eternal volitional persons making Jesus look good for all to see. All the host of heaven see it. The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). The rest of creation certainly can reflect and declare His glory but only people can choose to live it. Only people in the image of God can choose to move in the direction of glorifying God. All that He has created shouts His majesty and His grandeur but they do not know it. They don’t do it on purpose. They are just being a “creature.” The only creation in the image of God has the option of living it and in living it, doing as Jesus and the Father. Yes, imperfectly and inconsistent and temporarily perhaps but as Jesus and the Father glorify one another, we step in and are able to glorify Jesus. That bodes well for His people. That is a good thing in the eyes of God and He says, “Keep them.”

These guys made Jesus look good. They got off to a fairly slow start. If you study the gospel accounts, you will see the disciples of Jesus and how their foibles sometimes make us chuckle. We say how could they do this, how could they not see this, how could they? That only makes us chuckle for awhile until we reflect upon some of our own issues, then we don’t chuckle as loudly.

When do they make Jesus look good? He says “I have been glorified by them.” I think they glorified to an extent when they first met Him. In the first chapter of John’s gospel Jesus comes out in public ministry. He is recognized.

³⁵Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
³⁶and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
³⁷The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Two followed Him. That’s a start. They made the right choice. They followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following.

³⁸And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?"
³⁹He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
⁴¹He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).

Did they understand fully the implications of the Messiah? No. But he was following the right one. He made the right choice and beginning here made Jesus look good. We go from there to Nathaniel and the business under the fig tree. Nathaniel said “You really are from God” and Jesus said, “You think so. You haven’t seen anything yet.” (I paraphrase.) Stay with Me. And they did.

They glorified Jesus. Remember the account in Luke chapter 5. They met Him here. This is in the Jerusalem area. Later they will meet Him again on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Luke 5). This is where Jesus gets into the boat. It turns out to be Peter’s boat and the most amazing thing happens. They are cleaning their nets; they are done. They fish at night. They are finished and they did not catch a thing.

⁴When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
⁵Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets."
⁶When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;
⁷so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
⁸But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!"

This is where Peter did what we all should do -- he threw himself down before Jesus and said, Depart from me. I am a wicked man and you are obviously a cut above. I am not worthy to be in your presence. Jesus said, you think catching fish is something? Follow Me, you will catch men. And Peter followed Him. At His word he let down his nets and at His word he followed Jesus.

It is interesting about Peter following Jesus at this juncture. You talk about making Jesus look good or glorifying Him. I don’t know how many individuals have said to me that they really plan to be involved in missions or in ministry or this or that as soon as they are kind of set financially and their family is ok. When all these ducks are lined up, then I’ll check out ministries. I might even do short term and please Jesus that way. That’s fine but I find it remarkable that Peter quit his job when the nets were full and followed Jesus.

“They have glorified Me. Keep them.“ Peter glorified Jesus when he walked on water. The disciples glorified Jesus when they were more impressed with Jesus than they were with the wind and the waves. He called them and they feared Him more. They glorified Him when they claimed His messiahship. They glorified Him when they fed the 5,000 and picked up a basket apiece of leftovers. They glorified Him when they trusted Him.

Remember the episode in the 6^th chapter of John when He fed the multitudes and so many people left Him because He declared that He needed to have their exclusive devotion and loyalty. “You want eternal life? I am the key,” Jesus said. The Bible says at this point a lot of people left Him. They were not ready for that. They liked the bread but they didn’t want the living bread. Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Are you leaving also?” Peter said, “Where would we go? You have the words of life.” They glorified Him. Of course, He did not forget.

He says to the Father, “Keep them.” Were they perfect? No. How about their theology? They were not scholars for the most part. They were a ragtag mix, people who really should not have all gotten along. After all, fisherman competed with one another and nobody liked the tax collector.

These men glorified Jesus because when given a choice in a dilemma they chose Him. When given a choice, they chose Jesus. That is called acting in faith. They trusted Him and they chose Him. This is for you and me. If you want to glorify Jesus, choose Him. When faced with a dilemma -- should I or shouldn’t I? Ought I or ought not I? What would Jesus want? As we honor what Jesus would want, we too bring Him glory because what He wants is eternally good. His agenda is an eternal one and when we glorify Him we just deflect eternity even for a second as the people of God created in the image of God.

They acted in faith. “Anybody could do that.” Really? There are four words in Romans 5:8-10 that describe the human condition outside of Christ -- weak, sinners, ungodly, and enemies.  Those four words characterize the natural person outside of Christ. Does that mean everybody is as bad as they can be? No, but nobody is good enough and nobody naturally follows Jesus.

So when these men do act in faith, it is remarkable.  It is a good thing, something to celebrate and something to be acknowledged. I think we forget this because we are kind of a civilized culture. But any movement toward the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Name, the Covenant God -- any movement toward Him, however small, is grace because we are naturally disinclined toward Him. So any time we see growth, any time we see change, any time there is a flicker of light or hope in the heart of ourselves or someone we love, any time there is an interest in the things of Jesus, any time the kingdom of God advances, we ought to celebrate because He is being glorified. Someone is moving toward Him and that makes Him look good and that is wonderful.

Jesus is saying these men glorified Me. They made Me look good. Imperfectly, inconsistently, temporarily perhaps, but nevertheless they did. Keep them. They are mine. I want them kept. They glorified Me. Their behavior made Me look good.