God will keep us in His Name
“I am praying for them...”
Part 1: “Keep them in your name.”
(John 17:6-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 14, 2010)
John 17:6-11 6 "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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 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. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 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.
Q: What is the first petition in Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
A: "Glorify your Son." (John 17:1)
Q: What is the second petition in Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
A: "Keep them in your name." (John 17:11)
They have kept your word (6)
Jesus has been praying to the Father in the hearing of His disciples just before His arrest. As we continue to consider this important prayer, we will be especially focusing on the things that He asks for. In the first five verses, there was essentially one request: Glorify Your Son. This is of first importance, the glory of Jesus in both His shocking suffering and especially in His return to His Father in heaven. It reminds us of the first petition of the Lord's prayer, which starts us with the wonder of God, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” and then moves on to God's kingdom coming, and God's will being accomplished, and only then to the question of what we need.
Jesus first seeks His own glory as the Son of God, the eternal glory that He had with the Father before the world existed. This is right and good, since Jesus is God. But now it is time for Him to ask the Father for other things. He speaks in the remainder of the chapter about His disciples, first the eleven who have been with Him over these three years, but then also those who will hear about Jesus and the kingdom from their word, all the way down to us today. We are interested to see what Jesus is asking the Father for, especially when He is praying for us. Not only that, we are more generally interested in what Jesus says to the Father about us. Perhaps after following the story of the eleven remaining disciples we may be surprised that Jesus says this about them in His prayer: “They have kept your Word.”
At the end of John 16, it was the disciples who were insisting that they were now finally understanding Jesus' words, but it was the Lord who immediately pointed out to them that they would all soon be scattered, fleeing to their homes and abandoning Him. They do not seem to be people of victorious faith, who have believed and obeyed the Word of God, and yet Jesus says here that they have kept the Father's Word. This perplexing comment is not just about the original disciples. We marvel when we are told that God will evaluate our lives and will be able to give this kind of glowing assessment: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” and “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” without any mention at all of our doubts and our sin. Somehow in our union with Christ, God is able to look at all His disciples as faithful servants, pointing to our deeds of mercy as if they were all we ever did, and speaking of us as those who have kept the Word of God. That is amazing grace! We were chosen by God, given to the Son of God, and now together with all who are in Jesus we are judged as keepers of God's Word.
From you (7-8)
This Word that those disciples of Jesus are keeping came from the Father to the the Son, and then was given from the Son to His disciples. This is the way that truth from heaven comes into the world, through Jesus, who is the Word of God. Jesus has come from the Father, and He has given Himself to us. Believing in Him is trusting that He is heaven's gift, that He came from the Father. The disciples were so weak, and we are so weak, yet there is within the beloved of God that gift of faith, that spark of life, and we do know that grace has come to us from God, truth has come to us from God, life has come to us from God, and all through Jesus, sent from the Father.
Not for the world (9-10)
I say that we are weak, and we are. I say that our faith may feel so weak and so small, and yet we are not permitted in this prayer to blur the distinction between the disciples, who through Christ are counted as keepers of the Word, and others who are not disciples of Jesus. We are not permitted to pretend that we are all entirely the same, because Jesus says here that He is not praying for everyone. He knows those who are His. Their sins are about to be put upon His sinless person. He will suffer and die for them. The Father has given them to Jesus. All of the disciples belong to the Father, all who belong to the Father belong to the Son, and Jesus will be glorified in the lives of this group. He is praying for them. He is not praying for the world.
They are in the world (11)
Jesus came from heaven, and He spent a little over thirty years in this world. Particularly the last three years have been His public years. Now He is leaving this world and returning to the Father in heaven, and His disciples will remain in the world. What does He ask for us: “Keep them in Your Name.” God loves His Name. It is a temple of pure worship. It is His presence, His being, and our salvation (Read Exodus 3: 13-15). His Son is somehow the visible temple of God, the visible presence of God, the visible being and Name of God. When Jesus asks that His disciples will be kept in the Father's Name, He is asking that they would be kept in Himself.
In Jesus, in Christ, in God, in His Name, this is the only place where we can be one. In Jesus we have unity with one another, and unity with God the Father and God the Son. We need to be kept in the Name, because not everyone in the world is in the Name right now. Jesus is asking for this. It shall be given to Him. He will be glorified, and we will be kept in the Name of God.
Our salvation and our security has never been in ourselves. Look frankly at Peter and the rest (Read Luke 22:31-34). Look at the church throughout the centuries. And yet we are those who Jesus says have kept God's Word. We have fed the hungry. We have clothed the naked. We have visited the lonely and the sick. We have loved the brethren, associating with the despised and the persecuted. We have filled out the sufferings of the cross with our love. This kind of startlingly positive assessment of our lives can only have come from God Himself. Because of Jesus, because of His life and death, and because of His prayers, we shall be kept in God, in His Word and His Name. Promise. There is no power that will ever be able to separate us from Him.
God will keep you in His Name. If you remember this prayer of Jesus as a promise of God, it will help you to abandon doubt as a lifestyle. Doubt is a fact of life in this age. When doubt is embraced as a friend, it can make a very unhealthy, greedy, and unhappy visitor. If you are a disciple of Jesus doubt may drop by, but you need not make a room for it in your soul where faith is. Have mercy on one another when doubt comes by, but look for faith to abide and live.
1. How can Jesus say that His disciples have kept the Word of God?
2. Where does the Word come from, and how is it given to us?
3. Why does Jesus say here that He is not praying for the world?
4. How does this second petition provide needed guidance for the Lord's church?
Part 1: “Keep them in your name.”
(John 17:6-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 14, 2010)
John 17:6-11 6 "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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 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. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 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.
Q: What is the first petition in Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
A: "Glorify your Son." (John 17:1)
Q: What is the second petition in Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
A: "Keep them in your name." (John 17:11)
They have kept your word (6)
Jesus has been praying to the Father in the hearing of His disciples just before His arrest. As we continue to consider this important prayer, we will be especially focusing on the things that He asks for. In the first five verses, there was essentially one request: Glorify Your Son. This is of first importance, the glory of Jesus in both His shocking suffering and especially in His return to His Father in heaven. It reminds us of the first petition of the Lord's prayer, which starts us with the wonder of God, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” and then moves on to God's kingdom coming, and God's will being accomplished, and only then to the question of what we need.
Jesus first seeks His own glory as the Son of God, the eternal glory that He had with the Father before the world existed. This is right and good, since Jesus is God. But now it is time for Him to ask the Father for other things. He speaks in the remainder of the chapter about His disciples, first the eleven who have been with Him over these three years, but then also those who will hear about Jesus and the kingdom from their word, all the way down to us today. We are interested to see what Jesus is asking the Father for, especially when He is praying for us. Not only that, we are more generally interested in what Jesus says to the Father about us. Perhaps after following the story of the eleven remaining disciples we may be surprised that Jesus says this about them in His prayer: “They have kept your Word.”
At the end of John 16, it was the disciples who were insisting that they were now finally understanding Jesus' words, but it was the Lord who immediately pointed out to them that they would all soon be scattered, fleeing to their homes and abandoning Him. They do not seem to be people of victorious faith, who have believed and obeyed the Word of God, and yet Jesus says here that they have kept the Father's Word. This perplexing comment is not just about the original disciples. We marvel when we are told that God will evaluate our lives and will be able to give this kind of glowing assessment: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” and “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” without any mention at all of our doubts and our sin. Somehow in our union with Christ, God is able to look at all His disciples as faithful servants, pointing to our deeds of mercy as if they were all we ever did, and speaking of us as those who have kept the Word of God. That is amazing grace! We were chosen by God, given to the Son of God, and now together with all who are in Jesus we are judged as keepers of God's Word.
From you (7-8)
This Word that those disciples of Jesus are keeping came from the Father to the the Son, and then was given from the Son to His disciples. This is the way that truth from heaven comes into the world, through Jesus, who is the Word of God. Jesus has come from the Father, and He has given Himself to us. Believing in Him is trusting that He is heaven's gift, that He came from the Father. The disciples were so weak, and we are so weak, yet there is within the beloved of God that gift of faith, that spark of life, and we do know that grace has come to us from God, truth has come to us from God, life has come to us from God, and all through Jesus, sent from the Father.
Not for the world (9-10)
I say that we are weak, and we are. I say that our faith may feel so weak and so small, and yet we are not permitted in this prayer to blur the distinction between the disciples, who through Christ are counted as keepers of the Word, and others who are not disciples of Jesus. We are not permitted to pretend that we are all entirely the same, because Jesus says here that He is not praying for everyone. He knows those who are His. Their sins are about to be put upon His sinless person. He will suffer and die for them. The Father has given them to Jesus. All of the disciples belong to the Father, all who belong to the Father belong to the Son, and Jesus will be glorified in the lives of this group. He is praying for them. He is not praying for the world.
They are in the world (11)
Jesus came from heaven, and He spent a little over thirty years in this world. Particularly the last three years have been His public years. Now He is leaving this world and returning to the Father in heaven, and His disciples will remain in the world. What does He ask for us: “Keep them in Your Name.” God loves His Name. It is a temple of pure worship. It is His presence, His being, and our salvation (Read Exodus 3: 13-15). His Son is somehow the visible temple of God, the visible presence of God, the visible being and Name of God. When Jesus asks that His disciples will be kept in the Father's Name, He is asking that they would be kept in Himself.
In Jesus, in Christ, in God, in His Name, this is the only place where we can be one. In Jesus we have unity with one another, and unity with God the Father and God the Son. We need to be kept in the Name, because not everyone in the world is in the Name right now. Jesus is asking for this. It shall be given to Him. He will be glorified, and we will be kept in the Name of God.
Our salvation and our security has never been in ourselves. Look frankly at Peter and the rest (Read Luke 22:31-34). Look at the church throughout the centuries. And yet we are those who Jesus says have kept God's Word. We have fed the hungry. We have clothed the naked. We have visited the lonely and the sick. We have loved the brethren, associating with the despised and the persecuted. We have filled out the sufferings of the cross with our love. This kind of startlingly positive assessment of our lives can only have come from God Himself. Because of Jesus, because of His life and death, and because of His prayers, we shall be kept in God, in His Word and His Name. Promise. There is no power that will ever be able to separate us from Him.
God will keep you in His Name. If you remember this prayer of Jesus as a promise of God, it will help you to abandon doubt as a lifestyle. Doubt is a fact of life in this age. When doubt is embraced as a friend, it can make a very unhealthy, greedy, and unhappy visitor. If you are a disciple of Jesus doubt may drop by, but you need not make a room for it in your soul where faith is. Have mercy on one another when doubt comes by, but look for faith to abide and live.
1. How can Jesus say that His disciples have kept the Word of God?
2. Where does the Word come from, and how is it given to us?
3. Why does Jesus say here that He is not praying for the world?
4. How does this second petition provide needed guidance for the Lord's church?
posted by Pastor Magee at 5:00 AM
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