Jesus Prays

Let’s say you showed up to church one morning with your beautiful, ten-month old baby, dropped him off at the nursery, and headed in to the service. The nursery worker begins to talk to your ten-month-old. “You look so nice. Did you take a bath this morning?” He nods his head yes. “It looks like you’re full. Did you eat a yummy breakfast?” Once again, he nods his head yes. “I love your outfit. Did you get dressed in your nice clothes?” Again he answers yes. So he has answered yes to all three questions. He took a bath, he ate breakfast, and he got dressed. But that’s not the whole picture. As his parent, you drew the bathwater, lathered him with soap, and rinsed him off. You fixed breakfast, fed it to him, and cleaned up his mess. You washed his clothes, changed his diaper, and then got him dressed. It’s true he took a bath, ate breakfast, and got dressed but only because of what you did. You did the work he couldn’t do himself. He simply responded. God does the work of calling sinners to salvation. Our responsibility is to respond to what God does.

Let’s summarize two principles from verses 6-11: God did the work. Everything the disciples did was in response to what God had done. The disciples kept the word, but who gave them the word? God. The disciples believed on Jesus, but who sent Jesus? God. And behind all of this was God’s choice of them and gift of them to the Son. God not only did the work, but God used his word. The way God brought them to faith was through his words. He didn’t use visions or apparitions. He didn’t open the heavens or rain down fire and brimstone. He created new life in the disciples simply through his words.

What God has done for the disciples leads us to what God will do. The disciples were saved by the power of God, and the disciples are kept by the power of God (vv. 11-19). Jesus asks the Father to keep the disciples faithful to his word and to his mission (v. 11). Jesus is focused on the disciples’ spiritual security. Up to this point he has been protecting them by the Father’s name. He has been guarding them from falling away from the truth. Protecting them “by the Father’s name” means they will hold to the truth about God. God’s name refers to his character—all the truth about who God is. Jesus taught the disciples about the character and person of God. They came to know God personally. If the disciples are to faithfully follow Jesus, they must not turn from the truth about who God is.

As the disciples embrace the truth, they’re brought into this new community of faith called the church. Entry to this community only comes through believing the Word of God. This church is intended to share an amazing level of unity—a unity that mirrors the unity between the Father and the Son (v. 11). This unity centers on the truth about God revealed in his Word. Truth is the basis of unity. This goes against everything we hear in society. We’re told to minimize the truth and focus on what we agree on, ignoring the rest. Genuine unity never comes where truth is discarded because unity is the byproduct of each disciple clinging to the truth about God.

In the sport of rowing, unity is key. Each oar must enter and exit the water at precisely the same time if the boat wants to maintain speed. The way the rowers stay in sync is by listening to the coxswain. The coxswain doesn’t row; he sits in the back of the boat and calls out the strokes. The coxswain is the only one who faces forward, so the entire crew must listen to the coxswain’s commands and respond. When that happens, the boat flies over the water. Unity doesn’t come from everyone rowing their hardest but from everyone submitting to a single voice. As the disciples submit to the voice of God, they grow more and more of the same mind. Their thoughts, desires, and intentions begin to mirror God’s, and they experience a unity unfamiliar to the world.

Not only does God’s work in them draw them closer to one another, but it also allows them to experience the joy of Jesus (v. 13). What a picture of God’s grace! He sends Jesus to reveal the truth about himself and does a work in the disciples’ hearts so they embrace the truth. By embracing the truth, they’re brought into the joy of Jesus, and now God keeps them from abandoning the truth and guarantees eternally satisfying joy in Jesus. God does the work from start to finish, yet the disciples receive the joy!

The disciples will face real danger. They are targets of a world that hates them and a devil who wants to see them turn away from following Jesus (vv. 14-15). The path of least resistance for the disciples is to turn away. Holding to the truth brings attacks of every kind. Turning from the truth would seem to bring relief. That’s quite a temptation. How helpful to know God is keeping them. He is protecting them. Just as he rescued them from the domain of darkness, he will preserve them from every attack. God will keep them faithful to his word and to his mission.

Jesus prays for the Father to sanctify them (vv. 17-18). To “sanctify” is to set something aside for a special use—like fine china reserved for special occasions. The disciples have been set aside for a special use. God chose them to fulfill a specific role in his plan. They serve as his witnesses to the world. The first disciples are the foundation of the church. God has a special role for them to play, and the world is their stage. They fulfill their role as his set-apart witnesses while remaining in the world (v. 15). Their example shows us what it means to be in the world but not of the world. It would be much easier to be out of the world, but we’re not called to monastic living. Kent Hughes observed that for some Christians, “It is possible to go womb to tomb in a hermetically sealed container decorated with fish stickers” (John, 402). Christians often take one of three different approaches to dealing with the difficulty of being in the world but not of the world.

Some practice isolation, believing the gospel needs to be protected instead of shared. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s Word, and they disengage from all non-Christians. They think, What better way to keep from falling away than to keep yourself as far as possible from any temptation? These Christians would love to buy forty acres of land at least fifteen miles outside of town, fashion a compound, and never set foot outside their barbed-wire fence. Their legitimate desire to remain faithful to God’s truth has caused them to disregard his mission.

Some practice inoculation, believing the gospel has made them immune to temptation and worldliness. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s mission and immerse themselves fully in the world. They ask, “What better way to reach the world than to blur any possible distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian?” These Christians minimize the biblical teaching on sin and repentance, choosing to live exactly as their non-Christian neighbors. Their legitimate desire to remain faithful to God’s mission has caused them to disregard his truth.

Isolation and inoculation are not the only options. A better perspective is insulation, believing a daily focus on the gospel protects us from temptation as we seek to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. Insulation means working diligently to balance faithfulness to the truth and faithfulness to our mission. We recognize Christians should live differently from non-Christians but not by removing ourselves from the world of non-Christians. We live differently in the midst of an unbelieving world, and the difference is seen in the unmistakable fruit of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Christian, you need to engage with the world. You may wish all ungodly, corrupting influences were removed from your life and you could forsake the world, leaving it to its own devices, but you’ve been given a mission to live out and share the gospel in the world.

The disciples will remain faithful because of the work of God. He will keep them faithful to his word and his mission. As they embrace the truth, they will be empowered to accomplish their mission to the world. When the power of God through the instrument of his Word comes to our hearts, it gives us the ability to obey and please him. God works through his Word to empower his people to keep following Jesus, even when following Jesus is tough.

In the mid-1800s John Paton left England on a boat as a missionary to the cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands. God used his Word to keep John Paton faithful to his mission. On one occasion, measles swept through the islands, killing thousands. Paton and some other missionaries were blamed, and their lives were again threatened. Listen to what Paton wrote in his diary:

Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. His Words, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold him, as Stephen did, gazing down upon the scene. I felt his supporting power. . . . It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after 20 years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smiles of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being leveled at my life. (Quoted in Piper, Filling Up, 81)

Jesus asked the Father to keep his disciples faithful to his words, and the word would keep them faithful to the mission. His prayer has been answered repeatedly over the centuries in the lives of the apostles like Peter and Paul and missionaries like John Paton. And we have confidence his prayer will be answered for us. God will keep us faithful to his Word, and use his Word to strengthen us on our mission to spread the glory of Jesus to the nations.