Jesus' prayer in John 17:

Jesus prays for his disciples

TO: Jesus, Son of Joseph, The Woodcrafter's Carpenter Shop
FROM: Jordan Management Consultants
RE: Personnel Evaluations

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computers, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocation aptitude consultant.

It is the opinion of our staff that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capacity. We have summarized the findings of our study below:

How often do we read about the disciples in the gospels and shake our heads, wondering why they took so long to "get it"? There are occasional moments of inspired faith, but they are nearly lost amongst the corrections and reprimands they received so often. "don't you know me Philip, even though I have been among you such a long time?" (John14); "Jesus. rebuked Peter" (Mark 8)

Of course, we can look at the tremendous way that God used them after Pentecost - but before that? Before they were filled with the Holy Spirit? What were they like? Honestly?

In this wonderful prayer to the Father, Jesus says something startling - and encouraging - about them.

The disciples have brought glory to Jesus (v10)

It is amazing, but Jesus says it, right here, in v10. Glory has come to me through them.

Through these fractious, failing, faithless, dodgy disciples.

So how is it that the disciples brought glory to Jesus? It is interesting to see some of the things Jesus has said about them earlier in his prayer

Essentially you can boil this down to one thing. They believed in Jesus. Not merely as someone might believe in a historical personage, they believed that he was all that he claimed to be - that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies, worthy of worship, worthy of following.

There is much to study and understand in the scriptures, but in depth theology wasn't required of these disciples at this point - goodness knows, they were showing a sketchy enough understanding of the things that Jesus was telling them - but this much is clear. They chose to follow Jesus. And praise God, it is a choice that can be made by anyone, from the simplest to the wisest, from the youngest to the oldest. All can say "I have decided. to follow Jesus. no turning back, no turning back"

The disciples are not of the world (v14)

Several times in this prayer Jesus raises a distinction between those of this world and those not of this world. In v6 he says "to whom you gave me out of the world".

In v9 Jesus makes it clear that he is praying here for his disciples, not for the whole world. Just those that God has given him.

In v11 Jesus prays for protection for them since they were still in the world; Jesus protected them while he was with them, but he will remain in the world no longer.

This world is hostile to Gods chosen people - v14 "the world has hated them for they are not of this world any more than I am of the world" and again in v16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of it" - quite an astonishing assertion if you think about it - their divine connection with Jesus had made such a fundamental change in their lives that they were now no more part of this world than Jesus was!

It reminds us of that important point that Harry raised for us last week - that eternal life isn't just something that happens to Christians after they die - knowing God personally, submitting your life to Jesus as Saviour and Lord makes a fundamental (if invisible) change in your status right now.

I also think that it is an important to notice what Jesus asks in v15. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one". Although there are some sectors of Christianity which might preach health, wealth and happiness as the natural right of all Christians, it is more scripturally realistic to find Christians who are facing terrible problems - and God not removing them from their painful or horrible circumstances - but rather giving them the strength to persevere through it

The disciples have been sent into the world (v18)

Although there are a number of other aspects that could have been brought out in this prayer, the last one I want to speak about in particular has really come home to me the more I've thought about this passage.

"As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world".

The world which hated them, the world which is opposed to Gods message, the world which they are not part of. that is the world that Jesus has sent them into.

Why has Jesus sent them? So that they can spread the message of the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus' crucifixion, death and resurrection.

And consider the manner in which they were sent. Jesus says "as you sent me into the world". In the same manner in which Jesus was sent into the world. Jesus left the glories of heaven where he was surrounded by the adoration of myriad angels to be born in a stable, grow up in obscurity, be rejected, humiliated and tortured to death.

The disciples were never to return to their relatively comfortable life of fishermen, tax officials or whatever. Following Jesus' footsteps they were going to stepping way out of their comfort zone as they took the gospel into all the world, and started the process which eventually led to each of us receiving that same gospel message.

How does this relate to us?

Obviously we are not the disciples - things said about them and prayed about them cannot be directly applied to us (and we even have the next portion of this prayer where Jesus explicitly looks forward to our day as he prays for all believers).

However, I think we can learn important lessons and draw great encouragement from Jesus' words here, because certain things which are true of the disciples are also true of all who follow Jesus.

Firstly - we can bring glory to Jesus!

Most of us feel, at one time or another, that we're not being the Christian that we hoped to be, feel that we're not really serving the Lord very well, that we don't read our Bibles as much as we should. we feel that we're dodgy disciples.

But I want to tell you today, on the authority of the scriptures, that you bring glory to Jesus. You might not think it, you might not realise it, but God is at work in your life, he is transforming you and even with failings and stumblings you are bringing glory to Jesus!

I remember as a new Christian, as student living at home with my parents, I'd been a Christian for about 12 months and I was cursing my inability to live a proper Christian life at home. I still kept on arguing with my mum, I still seemed to get into trouble, I wasn't the paragon of virtue that I hoped I'd become when I started to follow Jesus. But just as I was praying and saying sorry to God that I was such a dodgy disciple, my dad came and sat down with me. He's not a Christian. And he said "I'm really glad that you've decided to become a Christian, because I've seen a real change in your life. And I like what I see".

It was invisible to me, but despite my misgivings, God was using my life to bring glory to Jesus. He's doing that with all of you right now. To you parents who worry that you chastise your children too much, God is using you to glorify Jesus to them. To you ladies who would love to see your other half here in church with you, God is using you to glorify Jesus to them.

How encouraging is this?

Secondly - we are not of this world!

Rob Parsons tells the following story:

Some years ago a missionary was returning to America after working in Africa for forty years. He had never had a furlough and as the boat pulled into New York harbour he wondered if there would be anybody to meet him. And then he heard some music. He thought 'How lovely, they've got together a little band for me'. But then he realised that President Roosevelt was on the boat returning from a four week safari in Africa , and it wasn't a little band, it was a big band.

Because of the President he was delayed and when he eventually stepped onto the dockside it was empty - there was nobody there to meet him. He went to a little hotel and fell by his bed weeping. He cried out 'God, this President has been four weeks on holiday in Africa and he gets such a welcome back; I have served you forty years and for me there is no welcome home.'

And then he felt a voice whisper in his heart: 'You're not home yet'.

We live in this world, but we are not part of it, and we'll never feel truly at home here - although Harpenden is one of those places where we can be very tempted to try!

It is helpful for us to remember that this world, however pleasant it might seem to us today, is not our home. Our citizenship is of heaven, that is the place where Jesus is even now preparing a place for us to live.

That is an important perspective to maintain because:

Thirdly - we have been sent into this world!

We are here with a mission. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are part of Gods plan for the salvation of the people in the world. To be more specific, we are a big part of Gods plan for the salvation of the people in Harpenden.

And although it might seem a bit scary, I believe that Jesus wants us to be prepared to step outside of our comfort zones too. We have the greatest message about the most wonderful person and the means of escape from the most terrible destiny.

So, considering that God is already at work within you whether you feel it or not, will you think with me about how you might be able to step outside your comfort zone and be part of Gods plan for Harpenden and the people you work with?

Did you watch TV on red nose day? Did you see the reports from Africa - actors who had left their homeland here and travelled to a country not their own, and who were stunned and horrified by the terrible conditions they saw there? HIV/AIDs was a particularly important issue - a terrible, terrible problem that many of the people there refuse to believe exists - and how determined the actors were to make a difference?

This world is not our proper home. People who are of this world are facing terrible, terrible problems in their future even if they don't recognise it now. Can we be any less determined to make a difference?

So what are you going to do about it?

 

 

Alex White

 

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