“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

The Glory of the Son Returning to the Father

It is so very nearly time. As we pick back up in the High Priestly Prayer, we’re seeing some of Jesus’ final words in the upper room. Within minutes He and His disciples will leave for Gethsemane, where He will be arrested, taken through a sham trial, and crucified. Jesus has told His disciples (and us), so much in the aftermath of the final Passover meal, but what we see here isn’t spoken directly to them. We can see that it’s certainly spoken aloud for their benefit, recorded for our benefit, but the dialog is from Jesus to God in heaven – from Son to Father. Looking at this section we see the promise of hope, of salvation, of eternity with our loving Creator. We can see the blessings brought to bear from the Father through the Son, and the glory of God manifested in those who follow Him.

1.      The Father Provides

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

What does it mean to keep the Word of God? This isn’t a perfect keeping of the Law, as we know Jesus was the only One to ever keep the Law perfectly. Our answer is just a few verses back in John 17:3 where Jesus prays,

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

We cannot keep the Law perfectly, and yet because Jesus, in keeping it perfectly, in being the Law’s embodiment and fulfillment, when we place our faith in Him, we are brought in step with the Law. Not the letter of it, but the letter of the Law was not meant to be the focal point. Paul speaks to this regarding everyone’s favorite subject, circumcision, in Romans 2:25–29,

“For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

It’s right there, the one who keeps “the precepts of the Law.” Precepts – a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought. Jesus satisfied the sacrificial system in being the ultimate, permanent sacrifice. Those disciples who Jesus prayed for, who kept the Word of God; we as believers today, following and keeping the Word, all do so through and by belief in the Son.

“Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.”

We know that throughout history there have been those with what I’ll call mystical powers. Pharaoh’s magicians aided in the hardening of his heart through replicating the plagues, the witch of Endor really did act as a medium, calling up the spirit of Samuel for king Saul, and we see more than one magician referenced in the book of Acts. While there are certainly cases of deception and parlor tricks, we also have Biblical evidence of dark powers that exist in the world. This is what the Pharisees accuse Jesus of at one point, saying in Matthew 12:24, after He’s performed an exorcism,

“It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

Trying to discredit Jesus and turn the people against Him, they credit His miracles to the powers of the enemy, instead of acknowledging the power of God. The disciples know the truth beyond any point of doubt. They have witnessed His miracles – from the water into wine, to the raising of Lazarus, they know the power He commands. They have also heard His teaching, and seen His wisdom concerning the Scriptures. They are freed from any uncertainty in this regard, they know that His authority is that of the Son of the Living God.

“For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”

That’s the full picture, right there. The Word of God, the Truth of God, the Spirit of God, it’s all manifested in the Son, given to the Son, through the Son – that by Him we may know the invisible God. John would later write in 1 John 4:1–3,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

I know in the past I’ve read this and thought “testing spirits” means something supernatural – angels, demons, and unseen forces, but there’s more to it than that. This is the method of identifying the validity of the spirit of a message. Whether or not what you’re hearing is truly rooted in the gospel comes from this one foundational principle: believing that Jesus has come in the flesh (not some gnostic apparition), and is sent from the Father. 

“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.”

We see here again the consistent theme shown throughout John (and all the gospels for that matter), of our alienation from the world as Christians. The Greek word used for “world” here is the same as in John 3:16. God’s love in sending His son was for all people, for the world – but the world did not respond to Christ uniformly. The world was offered redemption, but it is “whoever believes in Him” who is saved, pulled out of the world so that their aim and alignment is no longer with the flesh, but with the Spirt. We see again that to love the Son is to love the Father. To be shepherded by the Son is to be shepherded by the Father. To belong to One it to belong to both, because the two are One. In accepting and becoming vessels for the Truth, God is glorified. We know that at this moment Jesus is hours or less from His time on the cross. Physically He is still very much in the world, and is about to suffer for it in the extreme. But here He shows us by example where they eye of the Christian is meant to be aimed. Jesus is returning to the Father, He’s going home, and that is where His eye is fixed. We see a kind of peace and solace in the comfort of this, as He prays for those who remain, as lights, reflecting Him in a dark and hate-filled world.

2.      The Father Protects

“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.”

Something I’ve become incredibly fond of is praying through and breaking down the implications of each section of the Lord’s Prayer. What does it tell us about God, about ourselves, and about the way we ought to approach our Father? Prayer is a very personal thing for me, and I often start the prayer, “My Father in heaven.” To be called children of God, to be allowed to call Him Father is such a grand thing, I take great joy in being able to call God my Father – but that’s not how Jesus gives the Lord’s Prayer. While each of us, redeemed in Christ has been lifted up and blessed to call God our Father on an individual basis, Jesus tells the crowd in Matthew 6:9,

“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’”

Our Father. In checking 38 other translations alongside my ESV (two that weren’t even in English), I did not find a single one that was not written as “Our Father.” What’s the point? Am I being too particular? Am I making something out of nothing? Or is this another testament to the protection that God has given us? John 1:12 says,

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

Not one of us are alone in our salvation, but are made into brothers and sisters to love and care for one another – close in a way that defies the flesh, loving one another as Christ has loved us, being one, modeled after the Father and Son. Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd – the Shepherd guards the flock, but He also makes the flock. Disorganized and scattered sheep are a danger to themselves, the one separated from the ninety-nine is doomed to perish. Made into a flock, formed into a family of believers, we love and protect, reproof and convict one another. We didn’t come up with the structure of the church on our own, it was given to us. We were made into the bride of Christ, lifted up and mirroring Israel’s origins, taken up from nothing, from slavery and exile in the wilderness, and made great in the name of God.  

“I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus tells the ruling Jews in John 10:25–30,

“… I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, 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. I and the Father are one.”

We are protected in Christ, guarded in Him. There is no one and nothing that can snatch us from the hand of our Father – which tells us that Judas was not stolen away from Jesus, but that he never answered the call. This is strange to think about, as physically, he very obviously answered the call, but the evidence shows us that in Spirit and Truth, he never followed Christ. He spent years traveling with Jesus and his fellow disciples. He was one of the twelve who was sent out to perform miracles under authority given by Jesus – how could he not believe? I suppose in the same way that someone blessed with the miracle of life can breathe in air created by God, and exhale insults and blasphemy against their Creator. Sin pulls at us, and if we reject Truth in favor of what is gratifying to the flesh, we find that we were never part of the flock. People can grow alarmed when it comes to examining their sins as a Christian. It can be unnerving to identify repeat transgressions that you struggle with, and some question their salvation in the face of these issues. None of us should be complacent about our sin, but a question to ask yourself is, are they actually struggles? Paul wrote in Romans 7:19–25,

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Salvation can happen in the blink of an eye, but what we call sanctification isn’t an immediate occurrence. Are you struggling against lust and anger? Do you find yourself fighting to tell the truth, tugged at by the habit of lying? Do you go to war against the addiction you’ve been liberated from? Is it a fight? Do you love your sin, or are you disgusted by it? Because it is the Spirit, the Light that enables you to fight against the darkness. Looking back to Judas, we know that Satan temps him, but we never see a fight. Rather we see him make the effort to seek out the chief priests and ask them how they would compensate him for betraying his Lord and Master. We’ve seen consistently throughout John’s gospel, this significance behind what it means to be a “son.” That Jesus calling Himself the Son of God is the thing that took the religious authorities from hating Him, to seeking to kill Him. It means that He’s of the same essence as the Father, it proclaims equality and unity with the God. It bears considering then, how extreme and terrible that Judas is called “the son of destruction.” In this we can see both sides of the fate of humanity – on one side is the perfect and eternal protection of the Good Shepherd, made part of the flock, part of the family, and guarded for eternity. On the other, we have the complete pursuit of sin, gratification of the flesh, and utter destruction.

3.      The Father Purifies

“But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

This is, wrapped up in prayer, what Jesus has been saying to His disciples again and again in the upper room. The world hates Him, the world hates those who follow Him, the world despises the righteousness of God that is manifested in the Son because the world is wicked – but the victory is already decided, and it belongs to Christ. We will have tribulation, and yet, because of the work of Jesus, we will have joy. What we’re reminded of here is not just that we’re different, but how we’re made different. 2 Corinthians 5:17–19 tells us,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

We’re not part of the flock because God simply said it’s okay. He didn’t take our sins and set them aside to be ignored, because there’s no justice there, and God is just. The debt wasn’t ignored, it was paid. God doesn’t look upon us and pretend the sin isn’t there, He erased the sin, He reconciled us to Him through His own blood. We are not of the world because the world is flesh and we have been made more than flesh, new creations in Christ. We have been purified, sanctified by the Truth, by the Word of God coming to dwell within us – in this we are forever changed, forever saved.

“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

This is grand, but also chilling. Jesus was sent to gloriously save the world through the ultimate sacrifice of His death on the cross. We are left in the world, likewise, those who follow Christ are sent to declare the good news of salvation to the world, and in doing so, take up their cross. Jesus says in John 8:12,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

He says during the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:14–16,

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus is the Light of the world, and in following Him, we’re given the Light of life – we are made into the light of the world. When Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus how He will manifest Himself to them, He responds in John 14:23,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

So as the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Son sends us into the world. But just as Jesus was not left abandoned in the world, neither does He leave us alone. He told the disciples in John 16:32,

“Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”

Jesus was not abandoned, and likewise, we are never alone as we stand before the darkness of the world, shining with the Light of Life within us.

“And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Exodus 29 gives instruction regarding the consecration of the priests. Leviticus 16 shows God give Moses detailed instructions for Aaron, the high priest, regarding the Day of Atonement. If you read through these two passages, you should be able to appreciate the scope and complexity of what it took for man, under expressly divine instruction to temporarily reconcile himself and the people of Israel to God. This was on top of the blood of the sacrificial system that had already been shed. The need for sacrifice was never ending, even being required of the high priest himself. Hebrews 10:11–14 tells us,

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

There was no need for sacrifice in order for Jesus to be consecrated. Born unstained by the sin of man, living out a righteous life, perfect under the Law, the embodiment of the will of God. In sacrificing Himself, His blood opened the door, giving us a Way directly to the Father. For our sake, Jesus lived righteously, died perfectly, and allowed us to be made clean in Him – sanctified in Truth.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rXQlUSfbA8