Jesus Prays for His Disciples

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 24, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, based on John 17:11b-19:

"Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 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. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 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. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (ESV)

Today’s gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ last recorded prayer before going to Calvary. It is his only recorded extended prayer, his so-called “High Priestly” prayer for himself and his disciples before dying on the cross. This particular section pertains to the church itself and we learn several key things about ourselves as the church that we may summarize in the following statement:

God keeps, sanctifies and unifies his people who live in the world so that they may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world.

Now, regarding the keeping power of God, we observe that in verse 11, Jesus hands his disciples back to God. God has given followers to Jesus and he has guarded and kept them while he was on earth (verse 12). None was lost except Judas, and this was ordained before hand.

This is a team effort in which The Father and The Son work together to birth and protect their creation, the church. Christ has faithfully imparted God’s Word to his disciples, and his desire for them is that they experience the same unity that He himself enjoys with the Father - that his people may have His joy as they live in the world. Jesus also asks God to ‘sanctify’ his people (v.17) – to make them holy or ‘set apart’ so that they may be kept as a unique and ‘otherworldly’ people, even while they are in the world.

Now, let’s ask ourselves a question. Up to this point, what is that the followers of Jesus do or accomplish? …. Nothing. This is a conversation a takes place within the Godhead in the Garden of Gethsemane – while the disciples are mostly sawing logs. (With the exception that someone must have been awake enough to overhear this prayer…). In a couple of sentences Jesus has spoken volumes. He has told us that Salvation is a Gift of God; that God protects His people so that they may continue in the faith, and that Joy is the result of being united to God and to one another. All this is pure Gift, pure Grace.

Salvation comes from God. Perseverance in the faith comes from God. Unity comes from God. Sanctification comes from God. They are all Gifts, which are wonderful in and of themselves but which have a purpose – to enable God’s people to accomplish something ‘in the world’.

Now another question: What is ‘the World’ ? In his commentary on John, William Barclay says the world is “human society organizing itself apart from God”. Again: human society organizing itself apart from God. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Old Testament is the Tower of Babel story, in which the people take it upon themselves to build a tower ‘reaching to the heavens’ – totally without regard for whether or not God in Heaven wants to be reached by means of a tower – so that they might make a name for themselves and be great. This is what the Greeks would have called Hubris – overweening pride. So then, to be worldly, means that you yourself are in charge of your own life, completely apart from what God desires for you.

From this definition, I hope you can see that the essence of worldliness is not what you eat or drink, not what you wear, whether or not you wear makeup, or put rings on your fingers. The essence of worldliness is the tendency towards self-sufficiency and doing things ‘my way’.

Now having said that, it is also true that having the ‘stuff’ of the world has a tendency to seduce us into thinking that we are in charge of our lives. Having a regular job with a regular income gives me the illusion of control. Being able to buy things whenever I wish can divert me from discomfort so that rather than turning to God for my deepest needs, I settle for some new clothes, a toy or some passing entertainment to dull my pain. Stuff is not bad in itself, but stuff can lure me into thinking there is nothing higher than stuff – and this is worldliness: organizing my life as if God did not exist.

Jesus prays for us to avoid this fate. He wants us to be intimately connected with God, to be like branches on the vine which only bear fruit as they stay connected to the vine. This is holiness, sanctification, dedication to God. It’s the only thing in life that produces True Life. And Jesus wants this for us more than anything.

Our Mission
But while being connected to God is wonderful in itself, we have also been given a job to do – to share that Wonder with others. Verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus expands upon this sending: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now notice that he didn’t say “Give them informational brochures’ or ‘post a website’ with this information and let it go at that. No. The Commission is deeply personal and labor-intensive: Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them. Do this for a long time – until the end of the age.

Friends, this is the Work of the Kingdom and every one of us is commissioned and expected to do it. This is what we are to do. And I’ll remind you again that most people come to church because they are invited. They’re invited by someone they know and they come because they know someone. What does this mean for you and I? It means that we have to be out there in the world getting to know people.

How are we going to do that? In one of our recent small group conversations, we agreed that most of us don’t really know any non-believers. Because of our busy work lives, and our participation in church activities, we don’t spend time with people in the world. We don’t know any Worldlings. Or if we do, we don’t want to spend time with them because their lives are worldly.

Often, churches look to the clergy to be the ‘evangelists’. Some clergy are indeed ‘evangelists by gifting, but certainly not all. Ephesians 4:11,12 gives us this model: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” The work of the ministry belongs to each one of us. The Great Commission commissions every one of us as believers to do the work.

The work then, involves growing in holiness, being connected to The Vine so that when you go out into the world, the world does not co-opt you, but rather, you have Life to impart to the world.

Our 8th Day Life Groups are meant to help facilitate your growth in the faith and help you as you go out into the world ‘doing the stuff’.

In terms of our personal outreach, each one of us, me included, needs to think about how we meet our unchurched or unsaved neighbors and then how to engage them in an ongoing relationship. Mind you, I’m not just talking about inviting them to church – although that’s fine. But most likely, they won’t come unless they know you. So, logically, you have to get to know them. For the sake of reinforcing one method of doing this, I’d like to reiterate the SHOT Principle:

SHOT Principle for Growth:
Go Somewhere together.
Ask for Help with a ministry.
Share a meal at Our house.
Visit Their house; share Testimony.

I’ve got more of the SHOT card here today if you would like another one. Again, I recommend that you write down on the other side of this card the names of people you will personally pray for and personally engage by means of the SHOT approach.

Do you remember the figure 75,000? Do you recall that more than 80 percent of people in our area do NOT go to church on Sunday morning? And do you remember that 5 out of 10 people who do not go to church DO have some sort of church background?

When you seek the lost, you are not seeking total strangers. They are most likely church people who simply drifted away. These people need to be re-engaged as disciples and it’s our job to do it.

So, my prayer for us all is that God will indeed keep, sanctify and unify us who live in the world so that we may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world. Amen.