Last week we began to look at what is the longest prayer of Christ that is recorded, and perhaps the most instructive of His prayers. It is instructive from many different perspectives. The prayer can be broken down into three main sections; vs1-5 Jesus prays concerning Himself, vs 6-19 Jesus prays concerning the disciples, and vs20 -26 Jesus prays concerning the church.
And as we saw last time, one of those perspectives is that Christ’s prayer teaches us to pray. His prayer as recorded in the first five verses is an example of effective prayer, prayer that is pleasing to God. In vs 1-5, we noted that Christ’s prayer was to the right person, then in the right timing, for the right purpose, according to the will of God, according to the knowledge of God, that He might do the work of God, that all would be done to the glory of God’s Son. If we emulate Christ’s example of prayer, then we can be confident that God accepts our prayers.
This week, we are looking at the middle section, or the prayer for HIs disciples. And in this section we see that Christ is obviously praying for our benefit. He prays for the benefit of His disciples and also us, as evidenced by vs.6 and 20. But in praying for us, He is also praying as an example for us. He is praying not only to edify us, but to educate us. And so contained in this prayer is a healthy measure of doctrine that is being taught.
Doctrine is simply another term to designate truth or principles of truth. So as Jesus prays for the disciples, He is also concerned that He prays for them according to the truth. That is the key to effective prayer, or prayer that will be accepted by God. Prayer, to be acceptable to God, must be in accordance to God’s nature and character. I frequently find an attitude among naive Christians that uses prayer as a form of existentialism. Whereby they act in what they think is faith and speak things that they want to be true, but which often are not founded on the truth.
Such prayers are not effective, because God is concerned about truth. There is no truth outside of God. God is truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” So we cannot access God without truth. Jesus said again, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
So as Jesus prays for the disciples, He prays according to the truth, and He is teaching that truth as He prays. There are three points He makes in this middle section of the prayer, which is particularly directed towards the disciples, but exponentially to us as well. The three principles build on one another. The first is the manifestation of the truth, which produces separation by the truth, which produces sanctification through the truth.
I want to focus our attention first upon the manifestation of the truth. Jesus said in vs.6, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”
The first way that the truth of God was manifested to the disciples was by Jesus Himself. “I have manifested Your name.” That means that He manifested, or brought to life, the nature and character of God. He was the invisible God made visible. To make manifest is to take what is obscure or mysterious, and make it clear. Jesus Christ made God clear. Hebrews 1:3 says, “And He [that is Christ} is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of [God’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
Also, Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
And John 1:14 speaking of Christ says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The point being, that Jesus Christ was the exact representation of the nature and character of God. He is the visible image of the invisible God. He is the truth of God, made manifest to the world.
There used to be a popular song on the radio that had the lyric, “tell me all your thoughts on God.” And that is a popular sentiment in society today. Tell me what you believe God is like. But in reality, they are telling you what they want God to be like. However, that is idol worship. That is creating a god according to your image. God has already declared Himself as to who He is, through Jesus Christ. And we must worship Him in truth.
And then Jesus says there is a second way that God is manifested. Starting in vs.6b, “they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.”
It’s no coincidence that in John chapter 1 Jesus is called the Word who was with God and who was God. And now that person called the Word, who is the manifestation of God, gives them the word of God and that word manifests the truth of God; that Jesus is from God, and is sent by God.
The difference between us and the disciples is that we don’t have the person of Jesus Christ here with us today. We cannot see Jesus. But we do have His word. And His word manifests Christ and manifests the Father. God has manifested Himself to us through His word, and the Holy Spirit works through the word in us to declare to us the truth of God. Thus Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit again and again as the Spirit of Truth.
I said last week that it was important to pray. Perhaps one of the most important disciplines we can exercise as a Christian is to pray. It should stir up our faith in all areas of our lives. But I do not say that to diminish the importance of the word of God. It is the foundation for all that we do. So when we pray, we must pray according to the truth of God’s word. If our prayers are to be acceptable to God, then they must be in accordance to the character and nature of God, which is revealed to us in the word of God.
Note also vs 8 shows that the manifestation of God through the word produces salvation. “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” That is salvation in a nutshell. To receive Christ, to believe in Him and all that He has said concerning Himself constitutes faith. And we are saved by grace through faith. Simply seeing the light of the truth of Jesus Christ and receiving Him and believing in Him constitutes saving faith. And don’t miss the fact that salvation comes through the hearing of the word. Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
That leads us to the second doctrine that Christ is teaching in His prayer, which is separation by the truth. Once we are saved, the truth of God separates us from the world’s lies. Jesus prays in vs 9, “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.”
Look at how this works; we are chosen by God, given to Christ, separated unto God and Christ, and as a result we glorify Christ. That’s amazing, isn’t it? God glorifies Christ, Christ manifests the Father to us, we are saved, and then we glorify God by manifesting Christ. It comes full circle. And don’t miss the security that is given there. We are not only separated unto Christ, but kept by God and by Christ. Jesus spoke of that in John 10:28, saying, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” He will not lose those who are His. He keeps us, forever.
Then back in our text in vs 11 Jesus says that results in us being unified with Him, and in turn unified with the Father. “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.” We are unified with God by the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul said in 1Cor. 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” And in 1Cor. 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Listen, we are not of the world, but separated unto God, because we are the temple of God and He dwells in us. We aren’t separate from the world because we think we are better than they are, but because we want to be pleasing to God.
1John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” So we separate from the world because we are not of the world. We belong to Christ. We have been bought with a price. And we have been separated unto Christ, we are unified with God, because the Spirit of God indwells us.
When we are unified with Christ through separation from the world, then we know the joy of the Lord. Vs.13, ““But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” I said last week and I will say it again; a life lived for God’s purposes produces joy. Whereas a life lived for yourself produces dissatisfaction. Living for God will bring you true joy. Living for yourself will maybe garner a few moments of happiness, but in the long run it is a joyless experience. But when you live to glorify God, then you can know the joy of Christ, which is everlasting joy, even in the midst of tribulation. Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
And let me just add this thought; if you are a Christian, living in the world will make you miserable. The devil will try to seduce you with promise of happiness found in the lusts of the world, but it will only end up making you miserable. Because if you love the world, then you are opposed to God, and that goes against your new nature. So don’t fall for the temptation of the world. It will not bring joy. Joy comes from separation from the world and unity with God.
While separation from the world unto Christ produces joy, it conversely produces hatred from the world. Vs.14, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Because they hated Christ, they will hate us as well. That hatred of the world is why we endure tribulation. But that is also why He promises us joy first. So because of the joy set before us, like Christ we can endure the cross and despise the shame. Knowing that if we suffer with HIm, we shall also be exalted with Him. That one day we too will sit on thrones with Christ.
Vs.15, Jesus prays, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” Now how is that accomplished? How do we keep ourselves from the sin which so easily besets us, from the snare and trap of Satan? I suggest that the answer is found in Christ’s prayer. Note that He has bracketed vs15 on the front end and the back end with the same phrase: “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Twice Jesus says it, to show it’s imperative for keeping ourselves unstained by sin, and unfettered by vice. To be not of the world is to keep oneself from the evil one.
When we try to see how close to the world we can get and still be ok, we put ourselves at risk from the evil one, who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. But when we stay far away from the lusts of the world and the paths of sin, then we free ourselves from many temptations. Paul illustrates this through the lust for money in 1Timothy 6:9, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Jesus said you cannot serve God and mammon, or money.
The third major principle Jesus illustrates in His prayer builds upon the principle of separation we just looked at, and that is sanctification through the truth. Jesus prays in vs.17, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” This is one of the greatest principles in the New Testament. First, a definition of terms; sanctification means to be set apart. To be consecrated, set apart from profane use to holy usage. That is the purpose of separation. We are no longer of the world, but we are set apart for temple service, for holy service.
Now note that Jesus says, sanctification comes through the truth. What does that mean? It means when we look at Christ, we see the standard for righteousness. We see God’s standard for holiness. And when we emulate Christ and obey His truth we become conformed to His image. 2Cor. 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
So the Spirit of God, working in us obedience to the truth of God’s word, produces in us the image of Jesus Christ, by which we manifest Him to the world. That is sanctification, when we become holy vessels used for service to God.
Secondly, Jesus affirms, “Your word is truth.” I love that. Because truth is under fire in our day. But Jesus says unequivocally that His word is truth. Absolute, irrevocable, eternal truth is found in the word of God.
Every year, Oxford Dictionaries chooses a word or expression to “reflect the passing year in language.” For the Word of the Year 2016, they chose “post-truth.” They define “post-truth” as “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
So basically, what they are saying is that in 2016 the word that characterized this generation the most indicates that our society doesn’t believe in absolute truth anymore. They believe in relative truth, as defined by their emotions and personal inclinations.
This is why the world hates us. Because the Christian’s worldview is completely opposed to this post-truth mindset. Christianity is grounded in objective truth. Jesus said in John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Objective truth only exists because we have God’s Word. Jesus says in John 17;17, “Sanctify them in Your truth. Your word is truth.” Both Paul and James describe the Bible as “the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15; James 1:18). Psalms 119:160 says, “The entirety of your word is truth.” When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6), He wasn’t expressing His personal belief or opinion. He was speaking the truth of God, a fundamental reality that doesn’t change from person to person or age to age. It doesn’t matter if our culture thinks truth is subjective or dependent upon their preferences. The truth of the matter is “no one comes to the Father but by Jesus Christ.”
The final principle we see in this section of Christ’s prayer is that sanctification not only comes through separation and the word, but through service. Vs.18, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”
So sanctification means to be set apart for good works. Eph. 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
The temple of God was for service to God, for worship to God. They are really one and the same; service and worship. You cannot have one without the other. Romans 12:1 illustrates that perfectly. It says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” And notice how that service and worship is accomplished by the way; by separation from the world, vs.2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
What is our purpose in sanctification? That in being conformed to the image of Christ we may be the manifestation of Christ to the world. Jesus models this Himself. "As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." Just as he was God's instrument, sent to be the Light to a blind and dying world, so He sends us to do the same. We are sent to the same work, sent with the same resources, and thus we are continuing the work of Jesus in the world. That is the process of sanctification. We serve the Lord, as the temple of God.
Further, he prays, this will be made possible by his death on the cross: "For their sake I sanctify myself." He dedicated Himself to be used as an instrument of righteousness by going to the cross. In order that we might be sanctified in the truth. And as the outcome of that death of Jesus on our behalf we are granted righteousness, and holiness, and the indwelling power of the Spirit by which we too may be useful instruments in the Kingdom of God.
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