128 John 17:6-11 JESUS PRAYING FOR HIS DISCIPLES Introduction: In our text last Sunday as Jesus and His disciples drew near to the Garden of Gethsemane, He stopped talking to them and started praying to God the Father in heaven. Yet even though He was no longer talking to His disciples, He was talking out loud and they could hear what He was saying to the Father. In our text last Sunday Jesus prayed for Himself. In our text today He begins to pray for His disciples. Needles to say, we were not in that group. Yet we can learn a great deal about the Lord's concern for us as we read and study the prayer that He prayed for them. I. Our Lord's commendation of His disciples to the Father V. 6, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world..." The men that Jesus spoke about in this text are His disciples. He had manifested the name of God the Father to them. That is, He had made the name of God the Father known to them. It was not that His usage of the term "God the Father" was new to them and that hearing it from Him was their first time to ever hear it. The word, manifest, means "to bring to light, to make known." Thus, Jesus means that He had given them a new light, new information, a new insight concerning God the Father which they had not previously known. He had shown them a new and deeper meaning of the person and character of God the Father. It was not that He had given them a new definition of the words. But rather He had brought to them a greater understanding of God's love for sinful mankind. He had revealed to them a greater understanding of the power of God, the love and mercy of God the Father. His own character, His own power, His own love for man, His own mercy toward man, helped them to understand more about God the Father. They especially understood more about how Jesus Christ worked in absolute submission to the will of God the Father and how that all the authority of God the Father in heaven was supportive of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (V. 6), "...thine they were, and thou gavest them me..." There is a sense in which all men belong to the Father. They belong to Him by right of Creation. But those disciples, who had been given to Christ, belonged to the Father in an additional way. They belong to Him by right of redemption --- by right of salvation. When they repented of their sins under the preaching of John the Baptist and when they trusted in the coming Christ whom John preached, they were saved. They were born again. They were redeemed. They belonged to God in a special way. Since they belonged to God the Father, it was the Father's right and His pleasure to give them to Jesus. He gave them to Jesus to be His disciples, to be His followers, to be His students in training, to be His servants. Just as an earthly father gets pleasure in giving gifts to his children, even so God the Father got pleasure out of giving these disciples to Jesus. (V. 6), "...and they have kept thy word." This means that they accepted the word of God which Jesus had given them. They believed God's word. They followed God's word. They sought to obey God's word. That is they accepted the word which Jesus taught them as being the word of God. They believed that Jesus was declaring to them the very word of God. They accepted it, they believed it, they sought to obey it as the word of God. V. 7, "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee." They believed that Jesus is the Christ of God and that, therefore, the ministry of Jesus was from God the Father. They believed that the power which Jesus demonstrated in the performance of many great miracles was from God the Father. They believed that the New Testament church system of worship which Jesus had established was from the Father. They believed that all the things which He had taught them were from God the Father. V. 8, "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me..." All of the things which Jesus had taught them were things which He, Himself, had been told by God the Father to teach them. Back in John 12:49 Jesus said, "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak." All of the doctrines which Jesus taught the disciples were doctrines that had come first from God the Father. (V. 8), "...and they have received them..." That is, They received them as having come from God the Father. They believed them to as have come from God the Father. They sought to live in keeping with those teachings because they believed them to be from God. (V. 8) "...and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." Since they believed that Jesus was sent from God the Father and since they believed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, therefore, they accepted His teachings as the truths of God. II. Our Lord's petition to God the Father for His disciples V. 9, "I pray for them..." Jesus had first prayed for Himself. He had not prayed for God to spare Him from the cross, but rather, had prayed for God to use His crucifixion on the cross to glorify Him so that He, in turn, could glorify the Father. Now He prays for the disciples. Jesus is well aware that these men are going to need special help form God the Father and He asks the Father to give them the help which they will need. They would need special help from God because of the special work that they were to do for God. They would need special help from God because of opposition in the world just like there is a lot of opposition in the world today to the work that God's churches are doing for God. They would need special help from God because the Devil, himself, would seek to hinder them --- just like the Devil tries to hinder the work that we do for God today. Jesus was also well aware that these were the men who would be carrying on His work after He was gone. These were the men on whom He would depend to spread the message of salvation to those who were lost in sin. These were the men who would carry on the work within the local church and lead in the organization of new churches in other parts of the world. The success of His own work in the world would depend on a large measure on them after He was gone. If His disciples were going to succeed in the work that He had for them to do, they were going to have to help from God the Father. (V. 9), "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." This does not mean that Jesus was not interested in the well-being of men in the world. But the Lord's interest in the well being of the world is chiefly spiritual. He wants them to be saved. The very purpose of His coming into the world, was the spiritual well being of the world. He came to provide a way of salvation for all mankind. But Jesus did not pray this prayer for the world. He prayed on behalf of those who were already saved. Jesus was praying to God the Father for help from above for the people of God. He prayed for them to have God's help just like He prayed for the church here at Pleasant Hill to have the help of God. V. 10, "And all mine are thine, and thine are mine..." Those who are the property of God the Father are also the property of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Likewise, those who are the property of God the Son are also the property of God the Father. What a consolation this ought to be to those who are saved. That same principle was true back when King David wrote the Twenty-third Psalm. David said, "The Lord is my Shepherd." Because the Lord was His Shepherd, he knew that the Lord would provide all his needs. He said, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." (V. 10), "...and I am glorified in them." Jesus was not saying that His disciples live without flaw or without sin, but He was saying that the kind of lives they were living were God-honoring lives. Jesus, Himself, received glory through the lives that they lived. likewise God the Father received glory through the lives that these disciples lived. These men would continue to glorify Jesus and God the Father even after Jesus would return to heaven. V. 11, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father..." Jesus was at the close of His ministry. He was right across a little brook from the Garden of Gethsemane where He would be arrested. Before daylight He would be brought to trial before the Sanhedrin Council and condemned. As early as possible after daylight He would be brought to trial before the Roman governor. He would be crucified around noon and He would die about three o'clock. He would, of course arise from the grave, but He would not resume His ministry before the nation of Israel. He would make a few appearances to His disciples only and then He would ascend and return to heaven. His great concern was the welfare of His disciples. (11), "...keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me..." The Greek word which here is translated "keep" means "To guard, to protect." Jesus here presents a prayer for His disciples asking God the Father to keep them, to guard and protect them. Jesus will be gone. He will be seated at the right hand of God the Father on the throne of God in heaven. There He will continue His mediatorial work on behalf of His disciples. He will ask God the Father to supply their material need. He will ask God the Father to protect them from the many dangers that are in the world. He will ask God to bless their efforts to carry on His work. He knows that they will be hated by the world and that they will be persecuted in the world. He will not build a fence around them so that nothing unpleasant would happen to them. But He would ask God the Father to be merciful to them in whatever hardships they may face. He will most especially ask the Father to empower them to do His work and His will. (V. 11), "...that they may be one, as we are." He also asks God the Father to bind the disciples together in Christian love. He knows that only in unity can they be most effective in their work for Him. III. Some things we learn from this prayer We can see that everybody ought to become a disciples of Jesus. In this prayer, Jesus did not pray for the unsaved. He prayed for His disciples. There are special benefits for the Lord's disciples both in this life and in the life to come. The way to become a disciple of Jesus is not by being baptized or joining a church. It is by repenting of sin and by trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation. Judas was baptized and Judas was a church member, but Judas was not saved. The life of Judas ended in great tragedy. He committed suicide. But the greater tragedy was not in his death, but in his rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior. Even today it is tragic for men, women, boys and girls to neglect to trust in Jesus Christ and be saved. It is especially tragic for one to hold membership in a New Testament church and still neglect to trust in Jesus and be saved. We can see that every disciple should be a student of the word of God. The very word, disciple, means "a learner." In our text Jesus spoke about Himself teaching His disciples the great truths which He had received from God the Father. Today those same truths are recorded in the pages of God's Holy Book, the Bible. Every person who is saved, should become a devoted student of this great Book. This is the most valuable piece of literature in the world today. If you have never studied Shapespeare you really have not missed all that much. If you have never studied the books of science, you can still get by pretty well without them. If you are capable of speaking fluently in several different languages it would help to identify you as one who is well educated in this world, but even if you cannot speak but one language you are not greatly handicapped in this part of the world. Our Lord's disciples were scholars in the most important field of study in this world. The beauty part of it is that every child of God is given an opportunity to read and study and become expert in the word ofthis world." We can see that God the Heavenly Father and God the Holy Son of God are constantly concerned about the well-being of those who are saved in this world. God has never promised to give us a trouble-free life here in this world, but He has promised to be available to help us in our troubles. Conclusion: Are you saved? If not then get saved today. If you are saved, then give yourself to the study of God's word. Also, give yourself to the work of God.