John 17

We're gonna read now the passage in the bible that we're gonna be hearing, Ben open up for us. So if you can turn your bibles to John, chapter 17, and we're going to start at verse 6. So John chapter 17 verse 6. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours.

You gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believe that you sent me. I pray for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours and all you have is mine and glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer but they are still in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy father protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me so that they may be 1 as we are 1. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe.

By that name you gave me, none has been lost, except the 1 doomed to destruction, so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil 1.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified.

Okay. Well, good morning everyone. Oh, hello. Yes. Good morning.

To you here, front of me. Nice to see you and to you in the backhaul. Still awake. Good. And those at home, thanks for sticking with us and for praying for Belarus.

During that time. It's good to have you if you're visiting as well. See 1 or 2 faces, I don't recognize. So it's nice to have you. And if you're tuning in for the first time on the off chance, it's good to have you as well.

We're back in John 17. We're at the gathering in the horizontal rain last week. Which was good fun. The week before that, we started this 3 part series in John chapter 17 where we're looking at this prayer. That Jesus prays.

And we're looking at sort of the middle section of it today. Really exciting, lots of great stuff here. You're going to need your bibles open. I haven't put the verses from this bit on the screen today to encourage us to get on noses back into the the bibles that we have. And we need God's help because there's so many good things here.

I really want us to get them. So let's just pray for his help. As we begin. Father, we thank you as we read and see here that you sent Jesus into the world. And he has revealed you and salvation to us.

We can't figure that out on our own, and me standing here is not going to convince anyone about you and what you've done for us. But you and by your Holy Spirit are the 1 who does that. So I pray that you would do that. Please speak to us now, teach us things, show us things about Jesus. In his name and for his glory, amen.

Okay. I wonder how you would react If I could offer to show you what God has to say about you right here and right now, how would you react? Would you take that if I said I can tell you what God has to say about you? No gimmicks or jokes. Literally, as you walk through that door or through that back door, those of you in the hall or as you took your seat at home, if I could say to you this morning what God had to say about you today, would you be interested?

Would you wanna listen to that? Imagine God sent me a WhatsApp memo about you accidentally. Has that ever happened to anyone? I don't know. It's always an embarrassing thing.

I sent some pictures of gin to the staff WhatsApp group. I was at the airport. I was coming back from Glasgow recently. Is the only place in the UK to still be in lockdown by the way. So got out of that.

And I was sending some pictures to Carrie my wife because she likes gin and everything there is half price apparently. I sent all these pictures to the staff WhatsApp group, so I didn't get any orders through. But imagine if God had done that to me and it was a voice memo about you today, what he thought about you this morning, would you be interested in listening to it? Maybe you'd be a bit afraid. Maybe you've had people shout at you what they think God thinks about you.

This is what God has to say to you. Maybe people have used God's name for actually what they think about you. God hates you. God hates this. Maybe you've actually never even thought that God would have anything in particular to say about you.

You know, he's got a global church? Why would he care at all about you? But what if I got my hands on God's prayer diary? You know, I logged into his prayer mate app. A guest is password.

Heaven 1 2 3 exclamation mark. Capital h. And I could read to you today the prayer. Because that's basically what we're gonna do this morning. And it's not an accident.

I haven't hacked into his prayer app. This prayer, as I said in John 17, is God's recorded prayer for you if you are a Christian this morning. So this is not what I think God is saying. This is not even what the disciples thought God was saying. This is what God himself is praying for you in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son.

This is what the son is saying to the Father. This is an internal dialogue within the Trinity. This is what God is saying about you and we get to overhear it. So, it's worth hearing, isn't it? This is an exciting passage that we get to look at.

I mean, primarily, we find out he is praying for the disciples. And if you got an NIV, it has that little title above it, but he actually says in verse 20, my prayer is not for them alone. So the things he's saying here primarily for his disciples are also relevant for his people throughout history, and that means they're relevant for us today as well. And because of that, because he's praying for his people, this is sometimes famously known as the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Because Jesus is interceding for his people in this prayer.

That's what he's doing. That's what the high priests would have done for Israel, and that's what Jesus is doing here. In fact, if you know about the levitical law and about the high priesthood in Israel, Once a year, on the day of atonement, a special day, the high priest would especially mediate between God and man for their forgiveness and for their blessing. And here, Jesus is taking on that role for himself, and it's amazing He isn't sat on his throne, Jesus, expecting a high priest to come to him and bring us to him, but he steps down, becomes a man and takes that role on himself. And he becomes our high priest and prays this prayer.

But actually, technically, technically, Jesus is jumping the gun a little bit here. Because on the day of atonement, the high priest would have offered the this prayer that Jesus is praying behind the curtain and in the presence of the holy of holies. They wouldn't have done it in public and in earshot of the people that they were praying for. So he's jumping the gun, but Jesus knows that his day of atonement has come now. The hour has come he says.

He's gonna be crucified. He's gonna be raised from the dead. He's gonna ascends to the father's right hand, which is why in verse 13, as you'll see, we hear him say, I am coming to you now. He's saying to the father, I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. In other words, I'm about to slip behind the heavenly curtain and enter the real holy of holies, into the presence of the most high.

I'm gonna sit at his right hand. But before I go, I'm gonna offer this high priestly prayer now, while I'm still in the world, so that they can overhear me, and he says by overhearing what I say have the full measure of my joy, within them. So, this is an exclusive backstage pass we have to hear what Jesus is going to be praying in the presence of the Father. That's why I can tell you. As you came through that door this morning.

As you came through that door this morning, as you sat down at home, I can tell you what Jesus is praying for you if you were a Christian this morning. Because we find out that he's not a part time high priest. The high priest would stand up normally once a year on the day of atonement and pray this special prayer, but Hebrews chapter 7 says Jesus lives to intercede for us. Day and night, he's praying and interceding for us, and he's allowed us to over hear exactly what he's praying. And look, actually, in some sense, and I don't know I don't even know if this is right to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

In some sense, his prayer for you today might be more effective, more potent, more appropriate than it was recorded here in John 17. Because he wasn't yet praying it in the presence of the holy of holies. On the day of atonement, there was a specific order that things had to be done. First of all, A goat would be brought out and the people's sins were placed on it, laid on it, and then a young bull would be sacrificed and the blood would be shed. And then only after that could the high priests go behind the curtain and enter the presence of the holy of holies and burn the incense.

Representing the prayers of the peoples. There's a specific order. And at this point in John 17, the sins haven't yet been made on Jesus. His blood hasn't yet been spilled. He's not actually yet gone into the presence of the holy of holies.

So he wasn't technically in the right proper appropriate place for the high priests to make the prayer. Now, I don't think that makes any difference at all by the way. I I don't think back I don't think God cared 1 jot where he was actually standing. But my point is this, if he prayed this prayer for the disciples then, how much more potently is he praying this prayer for us today? Having shown his shed blood to the father.

And speaking our names in the presence of the father himself. So do you wanna know what Jesus is praying for you. Anyone here wanna know what God has to say? IJ. Yes.

There are 3 things he says in this section revelation, protection, and sanctification. And we're gonna look at each of those things. So first of all, revelation. Look at verse 6. Jesus says, I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. So if you remember a couple of weeks ago before the gathering, Tom was up here, and he was preaching through verses 1 to 5, and he was saying how often we talk about how Jesus is the prize that we win. That's God's gift to us. Is Jesus to cherish and enjoy forever, which is absolutely right. And we say, father, thank you for Jesus.

But actually, Jesus here is showing us that before he was our gift, We were his the father's gift to him. They were yours, Jesus says. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your words. So you see the order of sequence in here. It's the other way around than we might think.

This is not Jesus bringing us to an angry God, are looking a lot of people have that picture in their minds. Here, Jesus brings us to God, God's angry with us. He barely tolerates us, but because Jesus loves us so much, he will accept us. That's not what's going on. Instead, imagine the joy of a father who walks his daughter down the aisle to present her to the groom.

That is what God does figuratively with us. We were his. He walks us down the aisle and he presents us. He gives us to Jesus to love and cherish. They were yours Jesus says.

You gave them to me. And they have obeyed your word. Now, that last bit, they've obeyed your word. It's a bit strange, because the disciples made a lot of mistakes, didn't they? Actually, right after this, literally right after this, Peter is about to deny Jesus 3 times.

So to say that they've obeyed God's word is is a bit odd. But actually, what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? What is the word that we have to hear and respond to and obey? It's repent and believe the good news. That's what it is, and that's exactly what the disciples have have done.

Jesus has revealed the plan of the father to them, and they have believed the son. I mean, Jesus explains in the in the next few verses from verse 7. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them, they knew with certainty, that I came from you and they believed that you sent me. So because of what Jesus has revealed to them, these words, this plan, the father has sent me, they believe that Jesus come to save them, and they're following him.

And so Jesus says, they've obeyed the word. I don't know about you, but I find that to be a great encouragement because we are battling away just in this hall. Let alone the back. Let alone people at home. Let alone Christians around the world.

We're battling away with a great number of things. We fall constantly. We go backwards. We feel like we're going backwards. We stumble along as we follow God.

But actually, the gospel isn't try harder, the gospel is, repent and believe the good news. And if you've done that, you continue to turn from your sin. Believe in Jesus, then you, just like the disciples, you've obeyed the words, the word. And there's a wonderful a wonderful line describing the conversion of Lydia in the book of acts, if you know that. And it says that as she listened to the apostles, She listened to the words of Jesus, the lord opened her heart.

Really beautiful. So even in the process of you accepting the words of Jesus, God is at work, revealing things to you, opening your heart because that's how desperately he loves you. That's how much. There's not a step in the journey. He's not going to walk you through.

Because he's desperate for you to get to the point where you accept the word. So he chose you. He spoke his word to you. He opened your heart to accept his word. Jesus has revealed the father to us.

That's the first thing that he prays about. Revelation. Secondly, Protection. Jesus prays for protection. Look at what he says in verse 11.

He says, I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. So Jesus is going to go back to the father. We know that, he's going to go behind the curtain into the presence of the Holy of Holy where where God dwells. But the disciples and we today, or I'm assuming you're here today, we are still in the world, We're still here. Jesus has gone, but we're still here, and that's a problem.

So we see in verse 14. I have given them your word and the world has hated them. For they're not of the world anymore than an eye am of the world. So the world, this Kingston town, wherever you're from, This is a hostile place for the gospel. This world doesn't want it.

It's rebellious. It's lost. This world wants to be its own God. And any gospel that says, hey, you're making a mistake. You're hurting yourself and others.

Your heart is the biggest problem in your life. That is a gospel that this world wants to get away from. It says, the opposite to all those things, it says, I'm not making a mistake, I'm going I'm doing things the right way. This world is hostile to the gospel, and on top of all of that, This is a broken world. I mean, just this morning, we've heard Pete's mother passed away yesterday.

We've seen 8 minutes of harassed talking about the situation of the church and and the brothers and sisters there in Belarus. I mean, even in your own life, sickness, stress, difficulties, death, I don't have to convince you that this is a broken world that we live in. We're all too aware of it, but actually, here's the thing. Though Jesus acknowledges all of that stuff, he knows it. The amazing thing is that he doesn't pray to take you out of it.

Look at verse 15. He says, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world. So father, don't take them out of this world that hates them. That's Jesus' prayer for Taras in Belarus at the moment. Don't take him out of Belarus.

Don't take them out of a world that's going to ravage them with sickness, sadness, and death. Don't take them out of a world where thorns and thistles grow and choke us and make life difficult. I mean, so often we pray that God would lift us out of difficulties, and suffering, which is quite right to do. But actually, that is not the prayer of Jesus. Instead, he says my prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them.

It's absolutely essential we're in this world and we'll get to that. So while we're here, we're gonna feel the effects of this world. But Jesus prays for our protection in our sufferings, not to be removed from them. And he prays for our protection in 2 ways. The first way is unity.

You see that in verse 11. Holy father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me so that they may be 1 as we are 1. His prayer is that his people would be 1. And he goes on in verse 12. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe, by that name you gave me, none has been lost except the 1 doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled.

So while Jesus was in this world, He would keep his disciples together. And that I think was hard work. If you read the gospels, you think, hey, you did a great job there because they were a handful. Yeah? The disciples so in Luke chapter 9 is just 1 example, an argument breaks out among the disciples about which 1 of them is the greatest.

I mean, come on, you're with Jesus and you're arguing. Which 1 of us is the greatest. And Jesus steps in and he teaches them the 1 who is the least among you is the greatest. Yeah? You wanna be great?

Gonna be the least, and serve all. So it's keeping them together. But more than just breaking up in between them and squabbles. Actually, Jesus gave them this command to love 1 another, 3 times in the chapters leading up to this prayer in in the book of John. He he has this command.

So in chapter 13 verse 34, a new command I give you, love 1 another. As I have loved you so you must love 1 another. And again, in chapter 15, my command is this, love each other as I have loved you. And again, this is my command. Love each other.

And in colossians chapter 3, we see that love is the glue of unity. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, Bear with each other, and forgive 1 another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive us the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together. In perfect unity. So how are we going to remain 1 as a church?

If we remain in love for 1 another. And that is what Jesus is praying for Cornerstone Church for us today, that the father would protect our unity and we would love each other that we might be 1. And like, boy, do we need that prayer, don't we? We live in a world of cancel culture. We live in a world where breakups and fallings out just happen all the time.

They're cheap, They're actually even celebrated. This world doesn't bear with 1 another. Actually, if you make 1 mistake you're chucked out, and people are celebrated for chucking people out. Have you noticed that these days? Virtue signaling.

Yeah? You publicly renounce people or organizations when they mess up. And actually, if you don't do that, people start to ask questions. Why haven't you thrown them out? Are you on their side?

That's the world that we live in. This world doesn't forgive if you cause a grievance against me, you're out of my life. That's it. There's no second chances. I mean, we've got a neighbor who lives on our street.

Who for over 10 years held a grudge against another person on the street and just wouldn't forgive them. It was strange to us to hear that. And then that person died not so long ago. And so they never reconciled truly. That's desperately sad.

So how is the church gonna stick together in this world that we live in? How is the church gonna bear with 1 another? Forgive each other. The answer is through this prayer from Jesus. This is daily prayer from our great high priest.

Who is praying that the father would protect our unity through his love. So here's an interesting question for you. Are you hindering the prayer of Jesus by not forgiving someone? By not bearing with someone in the church. Jesus is praying that the father would protect us so that we would be 1 in love.

Are you the cause of that prayer? The reason he's praying it, or are you the answer to it? So Jesus prays for our protection from within, if you like, for our unity. He also prays for our protection from outside. Look again at verse 15.

He says, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world. But that you protect them from the evil 1. Satan? Now, look, Satan is not the author of every suffering in your life, but he will use your suffering to whisper lies in your ear about you, about God. And Jesus is praying that we would be protected from His lies.

I mean, that must be what Taras is going through right now, isn't it? I was gonna give another example here in my sermon, but Taras is a great example. What lies is Satan whispering into Trinity Church, Minskazir at the moment? God doesn't care about you. God doesn't want the gospel to be preached in this country.

Actually, God's gonna arrest people to shut you up. Satan will whisper lies in our ears. But Taras refuses to believe those lives, doesn't he? And he wants to look at the world in a situation with gospel lenses as he said. And so, I hope, he knows, and if not, brother, I wanna tell you, Jesus is not praying for you to be taken out of Belarus.

He's praying that you would be protected from the evil 1. In Belarus. And so what about us, us tariffs, but we all have difficulties. What is Satan whispering in our ears? What difficulties are we going through that he's lying to us about what Jesus is praying for our protection against the evil 1.

Finally, sanctification. After having prayed to protect us from things, so sort of the negative, keep us from those things. Jesus now turns and he prays for our sanctification, which is the positive. He wants us to grow in holiness. So if you look at verse 17, sanctify them by the truth.

Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified. So there's 2 things going on here. The first, is a holiness and a purity that comes from being washed with the word.

I just love that picture. And this is Christ's prayer for you. That on the 1 hand, he has paid for your sin. If you are a Christian, he's paid for your sin, he's dealt with it, you're justified. You're a proclaimed innocent in the courts of heaven.

But here in this world, his prayer is that you would be ever more clean and pure in this life as we sit under the word of God. Ephesians chapter 5 has got this really lovely description of how we're sanctified by the word. So husbands, Love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy. And blameless. So there's this picture that whenever the word is opened, whenever it's red and whenever it's taught, we're being plunged under this pure running water from from God that gradually washes away our impurities and dirt.

Peteep describes it like when you're wringing out a filthy cloth and you just see the the dirty water streaming out of it as the pure water comes from the top. And I wanna say notice that it says washing with water. How long have you been a Christian, if you're a Christian here? Are you frustrated that you're not pure yet? God is still at work washing you with water.

There's a gradual process here. Christ is at work within us, washing us, sanctifying us as we listen to his word, and have our sin exposed and dealt with by the Holy Spirit. And I wanted to say, by the way, that as you sit under teaching week after week, not every sermon you hear is gonna blow your mind. Not every sermon is gonna move you to tears. In fact, we very rarely get moved to tears here at church.

Matthew Cooper, why aren't you weeping right now? Before me, about how Christ is cleansing you with his word right now. It's a little tear. Not every sermon is going to move you, Matthew Cooper to tears, but every sermon Christ is washing you. Slowly but surely, dealing with things, sanctifying you.

That's the first thing that's going on. The second thing that's going on here is consecration, which is a similar word to sanctification in Greek, but it has slightly different connotations. And actually, the ESV translates verse 19 slightly differently. This is Jesus speaking. He says, and for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be they also may be sanctified in truth.

I think is a slightly more helpful translation because Jesus was sinless. There was no sanctifying going on with him. He was pure, sinless, from the word go. So there's no possible sanctification he could have had, consecrate, carries connotations of being set apart for something, for a purpose, for a work, which is applicable to Jesus, and that kinda makes sense of what he's saying here, because he was set sent by the father to be this sacrifice for our sins. And that ties into what he says in verse 18.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world for them. I sanctify. I consecrate myself. I obey your plan to be sent. That they too may be truly sanctified.

And actually, the the consecration connotation kind of carries over onto us as well. So he says in verse 18, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. So there's kind of a chain of consecration going on here. Jesus has set apart, and now he sets us apart to go into the world. It's an amazing continuation of the ministry of the word that we get to be a part of as Christians.

Jesus reveals the word to us, and then we're sent to take the word out to the world, to proclaim it to them that they might believe. And as we do that, Jesus is sanctifying us and washing us as well. It's absolutely amazing that we get to be part of of all of this. So in summary, what have we got here in this passage in John chapter 17? Or Jesus is praying for his disciples, and he allows us to over here so that we know what he is praying in the presence of the father for us today.

He's behind the curtain. He's shown his blood to the father, and he's offering these prayers for us as our great high priest. And we learned that if you're a Christian, he's revealed the father to you. You belong to him first. He gave you to Jesus.

Jesus has opened your heart to accept him. And now he prays for our protection He prays that the father wouldn't remove us from this world. Yeah? Those difficult situations you're in, we can pray that God would alleviate them from us, but he's not going to take us out of this world. Instead, he prays for our protection in those sufferings and difficulties.

And then finally, prays for our sanctification that we would be washed Cerman after sermon, bible study after bible study, quiet time after quiet time. Whenever the word is opened, God speaks. It's like pure running water washing through of us. And on top of all these things, he wants us to have the full measure of his joy because we know he's doing those things. We wouldn't know he was doing those things, unless he unless he let us overhear them.

He let us overhear them so that we could be joyful that God himself is praying for us. That was a joy. I couldn't do anything for you if I prayed, but God is praying for you. So God's gonna protect you. And your suffering.

God's gonna sanctify you as you sit under his word in this life. And I just wanted to finish by saying, look, if you're not a Christian here today, Actually, you will have noticed Jesus says, I'm not praying for the world. I'm praying for my disciples, for my people. But in verse 18, he says, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. And so guess what?

The reason we are still here as Christians, The reason the rapture hasn't happened is because of you. Jesus has set us apart to take this message to you. So that you would hear these words and so that you would believe. This is an open invitation to you as well. As as you listen to the word, even preached today, my prayer is that the Lord would be gracious and open your heart.

That he would reveal the father to you as he's revealed the the father to us. So what a joy. Jesus, our great high priest, day after day, even tomorrow when you wake up, Jesus will have been praying for you overnight, that you'd be protected, that you'd be sanctified. Let's just close in prayer and give thanks. To God for these great truths.

Father, we thank you so much that Jesus is our great high priest. There was no high priest that could have come from the line of Adam, and so you sent your son to to be the high priest for us. And we just praise you for that. We thank you that he perfectly reveals the father to us. That when we see him, we see what you're like.

Thank you that you pray protection over us. Not against worldly circumstances, but that in those circumstances, we would be unified united in love and protected from the evil 1. Would you keep Cornerstone Church, unified in love and protected from the evil 1? Thank you that you sanctify us by your word. Now whenever it's opened, whether we Love hearing it whether we are moved to tears, you are at work, sanctifying us, and we praise you that we're justified fully in Christ.

Thank you that you've consecrated us for this mission that you've sent us into the world. And so we pray, for those who are not believers who are listening right now, would you be merciful to them? Would you open their heart to accept Jesus as you did Lydia. And we just pray for joy in knowing these things. In Jesus, name, amen,