SERIES: The Gospel of John
The Real Lord’s Prayer, Part 2: Jesus Prays for His Disciples
SPEAKER: Brad Harper
Introduction: The axiom that it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts may be the most universally true statement among old adages. Do you know what a great feeling it is when someone you know, who happens to be rather influential, says encouraging and supportive things about you to other even more influential people? I have experienced that occasionally in my life, often with Pastor Mike. You see, although Mike Andrus is not the classic high-profile guy, he is very well respected and quite influential at the national level in our denomination. And as you know, Mike always says very supportive things about me in public. Even at national conferences, Mike has often introduced me favorably to the most high-level leaders in the country. He’ll often say something like, “This is my associate Brad Harper. He’s from California, but he’s actually a Christian.” Or, “This is Brad Harper. He’s been very effective in our ministry. We struggle so much with overcrowding that occasionally we let Brad preach and that takes care of the problem for several weeks.”
In the passage before us today, we find Jesus putting his arms on his disciples’ shoulders and commending them to the most important person in the universe. This is the part of Jesus’ prayer which also serves as a commissioning prayer for his disciples as he sends them finally into the world on their own without his physical presence to guide them. While his requests here were specifically for the eleven men with him at the end of the last supper, they provide significant implications for what Christ wants to see happen in our lives today.
At the outset of this prayer Jesus does something very common to human experience. He is about to make a substantial request of the Father regarding his disciples. But before revealing the details of the request, he provides a basis for it, establishing its legitimacy.
The basis of his request (6-11a)
Now it is not as if Jesus, the perfect Son of God, was required to prove his case before the Father. It is rather, I believe, that the disciples were listening to this prayer. It is primarily for their benefit, and Jesus intends that it be a source of encouragement to them in the difficult days ahead.
The first basis for Jesus’ request has to do with the fact that …
He has revealed the Father to them. Now if you are not reading from the New International Version, you will probably find that verse six says that Jesus revealed the Father’s name to the disciples, and that is what the original Greek text indicates. What the NIV does is help us understand what it means that Jesus revealed God’s name to them. The idea here is that God’s name represents all that he is in his character and attributes, so that to see Jesus is to see the Father.
So Jesus, in his life and ministry, and in his deeds of power, has revealed God the Father to his followers. But there is more than that. Jesus has not only reflected God to them but has spoken to them the very words of God. Notice verse eight, “I gave them the words you gave me.” Jesus not only reflected the nature of God in his life and character, but also in his speech. The disciples could hang on every word that left his mouth because it had its source directly in God, the Father. The truth about God was put into human sentences.
Now this is all very nice, but it is only the first part of what Jesus is trying to say. Just as important as the fact that Jesus has revealed God to the disciples is the fact that …
They accepted his revelation. For, as you remember, most people did not. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Father, throughout all of history we have watched as people rejected the truth about God. And we knew that many would continue to reject God, even when he came in the flesh. But Father, these have embraced God as revealed in the human body of the Son of Man.”
Now I want you to see in the text exactly what it means that these disciples accepted the revelation of God and his truth in Jesus. Look at verses seven and eight. “They know” and “they accepted.” They “knew with certainty” and “they believed.” Now why would both of these ideas be present? Don’t you either know something or believe it? What we see here is a combination of intellectual understanding and personal response of faith. There were some who seemingly understood who Jesus was, like the rich young ruler, but who would not make the commitment of faith to follow him. There were others, like those fed by the miracle of the loaves and fishes, who gladly accepted the fruit of his miraculous works, following him from town to town, but who never made the connection between his works and his identity as the Son of God.
Here we have, in Jesus’ prayer, the essence of what it means to be a Christian. It is not just a matter of weighing the historical evidence and saying, “Yes, Jesus must be Lord and savior of the world,” though there are plenty in our nation who would say that. Nor is it a matter of making a religious commitment to God, whatever form he, she, or it takes. Our country is filled with that kind of empty religious faith.
Being a Christian is first an understanding of who Jesus is. But it is more than that, for the human mind alone cannot possibly comprehend the identity of Jesus. We cannot know that Jesus is Lord as we know that two plus two equals four. Nor can we know it by our five senses. This is why modern man so often rejects eternal truth. For if it is not verifiable by rational means alone.
In regard to the truth that God is fully revealed in Christ, human capabilities must be accompanied by a statement of the heart that says, “I believe.” It is that moment when we confess not only that Jesus is Lord and savior, but that he is our Lord and Savior and we will follow him. This is what the disciples alone have done in the face of all the world’s pressure to the contrary. And this is why Jesus can request with confidence that God answer his prayer on their behalf.
But Jesus cites several other reasons why God should answer his prayer for the disciples. He contends that …
They belong to Christ. As much as John emphasizes throughout his Gospel God’s great love for the world, here he reminds us that Christ has a unique personal concern for believers. There is a wonderful illustration of what this means in the Old Testament. We read in Exodus 28 that when Aaron, the high priest of Israel, went into the Holy Place to pray for the people, he wore a breastplate on which the names of all the tribes of Israel were written. Did God need the list in front of him lest he forget one of the twelve names? Of course not! The purpose was for the people, to encourage them that they were being represented before God. Likewise, Jesus, in Luke chapter ten, told the disciples to rejoice, not in the great works they would do but that their names were written in heaven. The picture painted for us here is that Jesus has a list of names which he constantly brings before the Father.
As I thought of this marvelous reality this week my mind was drawn to another list—Schindler’s list. In the midst of the dark world of Nazi death camps, one man had a list of people he could spare from death. Yet despite his great humanitarian efforts, those who would be saved knew nothing of the list or that their names were on it. But Jesus’ list is no secret. In some way he stands before the Father with a list of names. And we not only know about the list, but that our names are on it, if we have known and believed in Christ. Imagine Jesus holding a great list before the Holy Father and seeing on that list (call out some names from the audience). So it is that believers in Jesus can know that we belong to him who represents us before God, the Father and whose requests cannot be denied.
A fourth basis Jesus gives for his request is that …
They have glorified him. Now that is a statement I might not have expected from Jesus. Think about it! They scolded him for talking to a Samaritan woman; they fought over who would be his right-hand man; they rarely understood his teaching without extensive explanation, and, as Jesus well knew, they were about to desert him in his hour of need. Are these the ones who have brought him glory? Yes, and thank God they are. In the midst of all their faults and disobedience, they understood that he was the promised savior of the world and gave themselves to him as fully as they were able. And in the process, they had begun to change, progressively reflecting with their own lives the priorities of Jesus. Thank God that he takes joy in the meager reflection of his glory through sinful persons who carry always with them the weaknesses of being human.
Finally, Jesus offers the last basis for his request on behalf of the disciples with the simple statement that …
He is leaving. He has cared for them personally for three years, but his time with them is completed and God must care for them in a new way.
Now, with all that background in place, we must get to the substance of Jesus’ request, for indeed, this is the main point of his prayer.
The substance of his request (11b-19)
Protect them. He begins in the middle of vs. 11, “Holy Father, protect them….” What an appropriate request to be made of a father, for in healthy families the word “father” is often synonymous with protector. When my two-year-old is scared I usually just hear the words, “Daddy, hold me!” The disciples knew well that, by associating with Jesus, they had entered dangerous territory. They had already experienced the venom of many of the religious leaders and, in a matter of hours, would witness the deadly bite of the Jewish/Roman coalition as Jesus would be tried and executed.
Perhaps such a scenario is what we think of first when we think of God’s protection here. It was probably what the disciples themselves were thinking. But such protection was not the primary intention of Jesus’ request. Notice with me how Jesus described this protection. First, he asked the Father to protect them “in your name.” The NIV adds the phrase “by the power of” here, but it is not in the original text. As we noted before, the name of God in this passage signifies his moral and spiritual qualities. What Jesus is asking here is that the Father surround and stand guard over the disciples to preserve their godly character in an ungodly world. Which leads to the next aspect of the protection, that the Father would keep them from the world.
What kind of protection from the world was Jesus asking for? Clearly, Jesus does not ask that they be entirely sheltered and separated from the world, for he emphasizes that they are not to be taken out of the world. A key insight into what this protection concerns is found in the way Jesus describes his own protection for them so far. He says he has kept them safe by the name of God in the middle of a hostile world. Does this mean he has protected them physically? Perhaps, but that is not overtly evident in the Gospel narratives. It’s the reference to Judas here that seals the issue. For Judas, the one whom God knew would betray Christ, was not protected. And what happened to Judas? Did he die? Yes, but that was by his own hand. Judas’ great loss was that he aligned himself with a sinful world in the rejection of Jesus. Jesus’ prayer for the disciples here is not for physical or temporal protection, but that they be shielded from the influence of the world so as to persevere in their faith and godly character. This was a prayer for moral and spiritual protection.
Jesus makes this very clear, summarizing his request by asking that God protect them from the evil one. Does Jesus pray here that God would not allow Satan to make war against the disciples? Surely not, for Luke records the words of Jesus to Peter, probably having already prayed this prayer, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
This prayer for protection has monumental significance for us as believers. Christians commonly pray to God for protection. And this is good, for God has promised to protect us. But what kind of protection do we most often pray for? Is not the overwhelming content of our prayers for protection that God would protect us, or someone else, physically or circumstantially? That he keep us safe as we drive, safe in our homes, safe from losing our jobs, safe from disease, etc.? The content of this prayer would seem to indicate that Jesus was not overly concerned about that kind of protection even for those he loved most in the world.
What kind of protection do we expect and pray for from God in this world? Does this prayer suggest that we should pray less for physical and circumstantial safety? No. But it does challenge us to ask ourselves if we are concerned about the same kind of protection Jesus is concerned about for us. Jesus’ overwhelming concern is our spiritual and moral protection, that we be kept by God within the confines of his godly character as we live in an ungodly world.
How do we pray for our children? Do we pray for their safety at school, that his grades might improve, that she will make the cheerleading squad? Though these things are not unimportant to Jesus, he would more often pray something like, “O Father, whatever becomes of this little girl in this world, help her become a woman of God.”
What do we pray for ourselves? Do we pray like Jesus prays for us? “O Father, as he is transferred to Houston, make him a godly man. Father, as she loses her job, help her reflect your character. Holy Father, as this family crashes on the freeway and loses a member, protect them in their faith.”
Friends, this is the kind of protection that Jesus requests for his followers. Scripture tells us that he stands before the Father as our advocate. As he does, our spiritual and moral character is his top priority. So we must ask ourselves, is that our priority as well?
So much for Jesus’ request for protection. We must move on to his second request:
Sanctify them. I consider verse sixteen to be part of this request. “They are not of this world, even as I am not of it.” That statement is the introduction to his request to sanctify them, for to sanctify means to separate, or to set apart. Despite his being entirely human, Jesus clearly stood out from the rest of the world. In the same way, Jesus prays that the Father will cause believers to stand out, to be a recognizable presence in the world.
Secondarily, there is an element of cleansing and purity in the idea of sanctification. So it is not just that the disciples are to stand out from the world, but they are to stand out based on the godliness of their lives, to be recognized for their Christlike character. What we have here essentially is this: in his first request, Jesus prays that God will protect the disciples in regard to their godly character; in the second request, Jesus asks that this godly character be recognizable to others as a departure from the norm.
Now Jesus goes on to further develop this idea of sanctification. How are the believers to be sanctified? First, they are sanctified by the truth, which Jesus more fully defines as the Word of God. Jesus can mean nothing else here than that God would use the truth of his Word as the means of separating believers from the rest of the world. How does the God’s truth separate believers? First, it separates them by leading them into a godly lifestyle. Second, in committing themselves to God’s word as ultimate truth, they stand out from a world that rejects it.
Have we ever seen an age in our country when standing for the truth of God meant as much separation from the mainstream as we see today? Friends, it’s not difficult to be separated from the world today. Open your Bible to any page, find the closest moral statement, and you are likely to find a principle which the loudest voices in society will condemn as outdated, legalistic, and narrow-minded. God’s truth will separate us from society. It has always been that way, and it is exactly as Jesus intended it. Of course, the question is, if we do not find ourselves to be distinctive in the world, how much of God’s truth are we ingesting and reflecting?
As the truth is the means of our sanctification, Jesus goes on to say that the world is the place of our sanctification. As Jesus did not ask the Father to protect believers by taking them out of the world, so he did not ask him to sanctify them apart from the world. Rather than removing them from the world, the world is the very place he sends them.
The church can only shine as a light in darkness, and it can only stand out from a crooked and perverse society, if it is in that society. I am glad for my heritage as an evangelical Christian, by which I mean my roots in conservative Protestant Christianity in America. But I must confess that one of the black marks on the record of American evangelicalism in this century has been its disengagement from society. In the early part of this century, conservative Protestants were so appalled with what they saw in society, and even some Christian traditions they viewed as less orthodox than they should be, that they basically decided to create their own subculture and insulate themselves from the world. They would practice their piety in private. But in so doing, these Christians were not sanctified in the way Jesus requested here. They were not set apart in the midst of culture; they were wholly absent from it. As James Boice has remarked concerning this reality:
“It is possible … to be born of Christian parents, grow up in that Christian family, have Christian friends, go to Christian schools and colleges, read Christian books, attend a Christian country club (known as a church), watch Christian movies, get Christian employment, be attended by a Christian doctor, and finally, one may suppose, die and be buried by a Christian undertaker on holy ground. But this is certainly not what Jesus meant when He spoke of His followers being ‘in the world.’” [i]
Christians are permitted neither the luxury of compromise with the world, nor the safety of disengagement from it. What Jesus prayed for his disciples is that the Father would use the very animosity of the world itself to solidify them in their commitment to God’s truth and to highlight the chasm between the ways of the world and the ways of God—that they would not merely display godliness to each other, but by emulating the sacrificial life of Christ, display it for the world.
Finally, Jesus himself would lead the way. Possession of the truth would not be enough to enable the disciples to endure in their sanctification in a hostile society. So Jesus dedicates himself to a death which would have cleansing power. The perfectly sanctified Son of God would further set himself apart in one final act that he alone could accomplish. In his death, he would pay the price of all their sin, bringing them the forgiveness which would free them to live for God and set them apart from the world.
Conclusion: Let me conclude this passage of scripture with some practical insights. First, if our goals for ourselves are not as high as those of Christ for us, namely that we grow and persevere in our faith and godly character and that by that character we become recognizably different while living in the middle of a corrupt society, then this prayer will not mean much to us. And that would be a sad thing. For here, after all Jesus has said in his entire ministry, encapsulated in this prayer is the essence of what Christ wants for our lives.
If, on the other hand, we want for our own lives what Jesus wants for us here, then this prayer is of great significance. Jesus has sent the church into the world, the very world that crucified him, to proclaim his truth and display godly character. If we obey him, we will be attacked from all sides, we can count on it. But one other thing will be happening if we choose to live for Christ in a hostile world. The Son of God will be standing before the Father saying about us, “Her name is on the list. Protect him. Sanctify them.” Will God not powerfully answer the prayers of his Son on our behalf?
And finally, what is the payoff in our lives that Jesus desires? Verse thirteen answers that question, “that we may have the full measure of his joy in us.” The joy of Christ comes not from his delivering us from hardship, but from experiencing his power to preserve our faith and purify our lives in an angry and corrupt world. Let us engage ourselves in the world for Christ that we may experience the joy of God’s protection and sanctification.
DATE: February 6, 1994
Tags:
Prayer
Protection
Sanctification
[i] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John vol. 4, 431.