The Perfect Prayer (Pt 2)

Introduction: It is easy to be cynical about prayer, and we tend to judge people in the way that they pray.

Too long

Too short

Too dramatic

Too dull

Too timid

With Jesus there was no pretense to this prayer. Our prayers can easily become ritualized without us even knowing it. We pray before our meals we pray at church and it is usually the same prayer every time. When was the last time you, like Jesus did here, just stopped what you were doing and prayed, by yourself or with others?

Who He is Praying For

4 Identifying Marks

Those who belong to God

v. 6 the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me

v. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

v. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

To whom do we belong? The Father, the Son or the Spirit?

Verse 10 seems to indicate that somehow beyond our understanding the answer is both the Father and the Son.

What about the Spirit? Considering that we who know Christ are literally the dwelling place of the Spirit I do not think it is is a stretch to say that we also belong to Him.

It is easy to forget in a practical way that our God is a Triunity, the same in essence but distinct in person.

v. 11 those whom thou hast given me

v. 12 hose that thou gavest me

Those who are redeemed out of the world

v. 6 the men which thou gavest me out of the world

v. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me

Notice how it is stated both positively and negatively in v. 9

God does love the world - John 3:16

But He has a special love for those that are His

v. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world

Are they in the world or aren’t they?

That is exactly what Jesus is getting at, they are in the world but they are not of the world.

What does that mean practically? - That those who know Christ have different:

Values from the world

Morals from the world

Perspectives from the world

Motives from the world

That doesn’t mean we have to reject all the things in the world. God gave us creation to enjoy.

v. 12 the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

v. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world - Jesus isn’t praying for their deaths even as He faces His own.

v. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Those who kept His Word

v. 6 and they have kept thy word.

The disciples had not displayed mature conformity to the details of Jesus’ teaching, but they had committed themselves unreservedly to Jesus as the Messiah, the one who truly reveals the Father. True, they did not yet enjoy the full understanding that would be theirs after Jesus had risen (2:22) and the Spirit had been given (16:12–15), but John does not claim they did. In this context, the proper comparison is not between the faith-status of the disciples before the resurrection and the faith-status of the disciples after the resurrection, but between the belief and obedience of the disciples before the resurrection and the unbelief and disobedience of the world before the resurrection

Those who know:

Christ’s actions are God’s actions v. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

Christ’s words are God’s words v. 8a For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them

Christ came from God and was sent by God. v. 8b and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

What He is Praying For

Glory

v. 10 and I am glorified in them.

This short phrase serves as a reminder to how this prayer began.

v. 1 Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

v. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth

v. 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

When we look at this verse in its entirety we are again reminded of the connection between the Father and the Son.

Jesus is praying these things for the disciples that He might be glorified in them.

It is simultaneously true that as Christ is glorified so too is the Father.

John 5:23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Protection

v. 11b I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

His Address: “Holy Father” communicates both reverence and intimacy

His Request: “keep them in your name”

Keep them close

Keep them conformed to the character of Christ

Keep them walking with and in God

The Results: “that they may be one, as we are.”

Unity in the body of Christ is a serious matter.

Jesus prays for it

Paul commands it and tells local churches to separate themselves from those who cause division in the body.

v. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Notice again how Jesus and God are doing the same things.

Once Jesus left, antagonism toward Him (under the direction of Satan—cf. John 14:30; 16:11) would be redirected toward the disciples. They were therefore in desperate need of the Father’s protection from the world around them.

While Jesus was in the world He protected the disciples with one notable exception, Judas.

There would always be a Son of Perdition

It was always part of God’s plan for Jesus to be betrayed

Judas filled that role as God knew he would.

Joy

v. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

This is the third time that Jesus as spoken of the joy available to those who know Him.

John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 16:20ff “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.

This is a unique joy that is foreign to the world

Notice how Jesus calls it “My joy” this indicates that this was not just any kind of arbitrary happiness.

It was His joy—both that which was based in Him,

and which He Himself experienced.

It was the joy that was “set before Him” (Heb. 12:2);

joy that was not founded on immediate circumstances but on the eternal purposes of God.

It was joy that came from the knowing that the Father was pleased with His perfect obedience (cf. 2 Cor. 4:17–18).

The disciples would share in that joy by experiencing the eternal life that Jesus made possible through His death (cf. 16:22; 17:3, 18).

All believers, in the generations that have followed the eleven, have shared in that same joy.

Preservation

From physical death v. 15a - I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world

In chapter 16 Jesus promised the disciples not that He would take them out of the world but that through Him they would overcome it.

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

From spiritual decay v. 15b - but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

The easiest way to preserve them from evil would be to take them out of this world.

But for reasons we will soon see that was not God’s plan.

This again reminds us that we are in the world but not of it.

Sanctification

Defined

To “sanctify” something is to set it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.

The on going process by which believers in Christ become holy, or simply more like Christ.

Categories

Positional - a once-for-ever separation of believers unto God. It is a work God performs, an intricate part of our salvation and our connection with Christ (1 Cor. 1: 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,)

Progressive - the effect of obedience to the Word of God in one’s lifeIt is the same as growing in the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) or spiritual maturity. God started the work of making us like Christ, and He is continuing it (Philippians 1:6). This type of sanctification is to be pursued by the believer earnestly (1 Peter 1:15; Hebrews 12:14) and is effected by the application of the Word (John 17:17).

Perfect - This is the believer in heaven completely separated from sin. 1 Thess. 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. & 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Ingredients

Prayer

Fellowship

Truth - Jesus identifies this as the key ingredient. Without truth, it cannot be sanctification

Example

v. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Jesus is not sanctified in the sense of being made more holy because He is already perfectly holy. Jesus sanctifies Himself in that He has set Himself apart for the task that is before Him, the cross. It is because of the cross that God’s sanctifying truth can work in us.

Why He is Praying For Them

He is leaving them

v. 11 And now I am no more in the world

v. 13 And now come I to thee;

He is sending them

v. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Go make more disciples