Keep Them In Your Name

Introduction Thanksgiving Rest

We get full, put on football, and crash. We are with family and friends, our hearts are full and our bellies, and the nap is sweet.

How do we rest in this world, how do trust in Christ daily when every day seems to be filled with so much trouble?

A Disciples Status (6-10)

What Jesus says about his disciples to the Father in prayer is of SUPREME importance. It tells us what Jesus thinks about his followers, their status before God, in spite of their weaknesses, shortcomings, and frailties.

Your status as a follower of Jesus is determined by God and the gospel…not by your feelings and failures. You need to order your life with these truths in mind.

You also need to understand that those who do not believe in Jesus have a status, and it is in direct contrast to the status of his people.

Chosen by the Father to be Given to Jesus Out of the World (6,9-10)

It is so important for you to understand that if you are a follower of Jesus you were chosen before you chose Him. Jesus came to rescue you, a wretched sinner, because the Father chose to give you to Jesus and rescue you out of this world of sin and death to have life in his name.

Look at vs. 9 - I am praying for them (disciples). I am NOT praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

When we see the world - we see the masses who are lost and need Jesus. This is right and good, this is the way we are to see the world. We are to see the mission field that is ready for a harvest. We are to see our responsibility to go and make disciples of all nations.

When Jesus sees the world from his throne where his is now - he sees very clearly all who have been chosen before the foundation of the world, he knows them by name, he knows he died for them to bear their sin and shame, they have a seat at his table, their names have been written in his book, they are precious to him.

As to your status as a disciple - this undeserving love should fill your heart with such gratitude that Christ chose to love us and that in continues in that love.

As to our heart for the lost - since we cannot see the world as Christ does, we should see every soul as a potential brother or sister in Christ, we should long for and plead for their salvation, we should look with compassion on the world and desire they know our savior. We do not know the elect from the reprobate and we will never know until heaven so we must treat all of mankind as those who must repent and believe the gospel.

c. If you know Christ you are chosen as his special possession to the praise of his glory. He says in vs. 10 - all mine are yours, and your are mine, and I am glorified in them. He is not glorified in us because of our own goodness or merits - he is glorified in his people because of his character that is displayed in HIS accomplishment of our salvation.

Recipients of the divine name. (6a)

This phrase is full of meaning. Jesus is saying that the disciples are blessed to be the habitation of God. God has manifested his glory and presence with his chosen people.

So disciples are not only chosen to be God’s People, they are blessed to live in his presence, the divine presence.

Deuteronomy 12:1–7 (ESV)

1 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

c. Where do we go to seek the divine presence? Do we go to a location? Do we offer sacrifices of animals? NO, we gather together as followers of Christ and there his presence in manifest. We are the recipients of the divine name - THE LORD, THE GREAT I AM.

D. The I AM statements in John each declare an aspect of Jesus as the sovereign Lord

Christ expounded the grace of his name by his many “I Am” sayings recorded in the gospel of John.

- I am the bread of life

- I am the light of the world

- I am the door

- I am the good shepherd

- I am the resurrection and the life

- I am the way, the truth, and the life

- I am the vine

The only mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, is God with us, the sovereign and eternal God come in human flesh to be our spiritual nourishment, wisdom, strength and fruitfulness.

We are recipients of his deity - chosen by God as his people and blessed to dwell in his presence.

3. We are Recipients of the Gospel - our Status is that of Believers. (6-8)

Peter declared that Jesus has the words of eternal life, disciples have come to believe that Chris is the way, the truth and the life.

We are not worthy in any way shape or form of the mercies of Christ - we are simply receivers of his word and those who believe in his name

Notice - we believe that the words of Christ (the Scriptures) are divine (7)

And that the point of all of scripture is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. (8)

This is why it is right that we call ourselves believers - we don’t identify ourselves as obeyers…although we certainly are called to obey. Why? Because we are not saved by being obeyers we are saved be being believers! This is our status!

If you do not follow Jesus - what must you do? You must repent of your sin and unbelief, and you must believe that Jesus Christ is LORD, GOD, the one who came from heaven to save your from the wrath of God against your sin.

in 1 John 5:5 John writes, “5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

So as Jesus prays he reveals what he thinks about his people - Chosen, Blessed, Believers

A Disciples Situation (vs11-15)

Jesus is keenly aware of our situation and this knowledge and concern forms his final four petition.

Don’t miss this - Jesus knows and is concerned for you as his followers. His concern in this moment of time goes even beyond the cross to your situation as his redeemed followers.

We are left in the world without the bodily presence and ministry of Jesus. (11)

He says that when he was here bodily he guarded his disciples and kept them. He was the good shepherd who protected his flock.

The world hates disciples of Jesus. (14)

We are people of God’s word, we reject worldy philosophies and ideologies, we embrace God’s moral law as the good standard for the well being of humanity, we believe in absolute truth and the exclusivity of Christ, and we persuade all people to repent and believe the gospel.

We are not of the world…we are strangers, aliens, peculiar, out of step, counter cultural…we cannot give in, compromise, or recant in the face of immense pressures. We are willing to lose everything even our lives for the name of Christ.

This is our situation in the world and without God, without this petition we cannot stand!

A Disciples Surety (11-5)

So what is our surety that if we are believers that we will be able to survive in this world and still believe without the bodily presence of Jesus?

Our surety is the intercession of Christ, who prayed for us and intercedes for us without end.

Hebrews 7:22–25 ESV

22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

The Preserving Power of the Father’s Love for us In Christ.

Jesus prays and petitions the Father to keep all those he has been given in his name.

Unlike Judas, who was not given to Jesus, who seemed to follow him and was lost, he asks the Father to keep his followers believing and resting in him and in his words and works.

Being in his name is also connected to Joy - All joy and blessing is found in the divine presence.

The only way we persevere as disciples in this world is the power of the Father’s love in Christ.

Romans 8:28–39 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your status is not in question, the world can do nothing to separate you from Christ!

Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 3 John 17:9–16: Christ’s Special Work for Believers,—Believers Not Taken out of the World, but Kept

The true servant of Christ ought to lean back his soul on the truth before us, and take comfort in it.

- this is how we rest in Christ - we rest in the surety of his ministry and his father’s love. We don’t rest by observing a legal and ceremonial day, but by every day taking comfort moment by moment in these truths.

Conclusion: Our Souls Should Be Filled with Thanksgiving!

Oh church give thanks this week with all of your might for all of the wonderful blessings that our yours in Christ Jesus.