John 17:17-26. The Prayer of Jesus (3) - for Subsequent Christians
Jesus here summarises all that is important to him and therefore to his people.
1. Sanctification
Sanctification is the gradual process by which christians become more and more like Jesus. When we first turn to Christ and ask him to forgive our sin and fill us with his Spirit we are justiofied – our standing before God is that of Jesus Christ. We are accepted by God because of Jesus’ righteousness. But that is just the beginning. He wants to change us into his likeness with his priorities and his standards of behaviour. He wants us to be holy.
Notice how this process of sanctification, that Jesus prays for, will take place,
“Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.” John 17:17
When Peter wrote his first letter, written a little while before he was executed, he longed to pass on what is really important. He starts by reminding them that God has given Christians a ‘new birth’, a salvation that is partially seen now but will be fully grasped in eternity. He then prepares the Christians for their lives here on earth.
“Therefore prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled, set you hope fully on the grace that is to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:13-16
Notice how similar this is to the prayer of Jesus. Holiness is equated with obedience, and obedience means obedience to God’s word. Think in practice what this will mean practically. Lying, stealing, pride, greed and sexual promiscuity whether heterosexual or homosexual should be actively shunned.
2. Unity
Unity is a priority for the Lord Jesus that is meant to last through the generations.
“My prayer is not for them (the disciples) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” John 17:20
Jesus taught God’s word to his disciples and they in turn teach God’s word to the next generation and so on.
Unity in Purpose
The next phrase, “that all of them may be one” has been twisted out of its contextual meaning. It has become the idea that Jesus is praying for an outward unity between Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Non-Conformists and other denominations so that they can be in communion together. The context refutes this. Jesus is clearly praying that they may be one in fulfilling the role of the Father, of Jesus and of their apostles, by taking God’s Word to the people in the world so that they can be saved.
“. . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:21
So Jesus is praying that the priority of subsequent generations of Christians should also be “that the world may believe” that Jesus is truly the Son of God.
Verse 23 makes this even clearer. We have been given the Spirit of Jesus so that we can be like him and be like others who have the same Spirit.
“May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.” John 17:23
Verse 26 again repeats the idea that Jesus will complete his work of mission through the work of his Spirit in subsequent generations of Christians,
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known . . . and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:26
This was the understanding of the Scottish missionary doctor, David Livingstone,
“I will place no value on anything I have or possess unless it is in relationship to the kingdom of God.”
Unfortunately this is not the outlook of the majority of Christians today. It is probably true that only a minority are taking a firm stand for the Lord Jesus. Many stand up for good social standards and caring for those with issues but all too few stand up openly for the Lord Jesus. What is the reason for this? Don’t we believe that eternal life really matters? Perhaps we don’t believe Jesus when he says that he is the only way to eternal life.
An evangelical clergyman was at an Advisory Board to select people for training as lay readers in the Church of England. There were twelve candidates. He asked all of them,
“Do you think Jesus is the only way to God or the best way to God?”
All twelve replied, “The best way.”
To think like that is to turn our backs on the Lord Jesus and on what the Scriptures clearly teach.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, said to clergymen who failed to make a clear stand for the Lord Jesus said,
“You dare not because you have respect of persons. You fear the faces of men. You cannot because you have not overcome the world. You are not above the desire for earthly things. And it is impossible . . . . until you desire nothing more than God.”
What has happened to us? Why has this slow drift away from our ‘first love’ occurred (see Revelation 2:5)? Could it be because we have forgotten that we are in a spiritual battle? Our adversary the devil does not fill us with a hatred of God but with forgetfulness of God and of God’s word. We all need protection from the snares of Satan and this is exactly what Jesus is praying that God will do for us.
“Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – so that they may be one as we are one.” John 17:11
Let us be clear. We saw in the previous chapter, and here Jesus repeats it, that we have been given God’s word to live by and to pass on to others. The world will not appreciate this. In fact verse 14 puts it even stronger by saying that the world will hate Christians who are uncompromising about their allegiance to the Lord Jesus and his teaching.
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” John 17:14
Jesus is praying that we may have the same love for the people in the world that the Godhead has. When Jesus was on earth he protected his disciples and, except for Judas Iscariot, kept them safely in God’s family (17:11). He knows that the devil will want to ensnare them, so he prays,
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.” John 17:15
The devil wants to seduce us back to a worldly way of thinking and living. We will find it much safer in this world not to speak up for Jesus and call people to him. You can go quietly to church on Sundays and hold your quiet beliefs and few will worry you. But talk openly of eternal life and there will be problems; but share the news about Jesus and there will also be joy just as Jesus prayed.
“. . . so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” John 17:13
‘God never intended his church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve perishable piety. He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch converts’ (F. Linicome). There is an increasing spiritual battle actively raging. Many are now against the Lord Jesus, the creator and Saviour of the world. Lenin said,
“Every religious idea, every idea of God, every flirtation with the idea of God is unutterable vileness.”
Professor Richard Dawkins is so fervently atheistic that he called theistic belief,
“ . . . ignominious, contemptible and retarded.”
The late Queen Elizabeth II allegedly said to Paul Burrell, the previous butler to Princess Diana,
“Be careful Paul, there are powerful forces in this country of which we have no knowledge.”
This is certainly true for Christians.
Do you remember the catchphrase of General Tommy Franks, the American General in charge of operations against the Taliban? He said,
“Freedom is not free.”
The Scriptures call all Christians to ‘fight the good fight of faith’ (1 Timothy 6:12), to ‘put on the full armour of God’ (Ephesians 6:11), and remember this includes having ‘your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace’ (Ephesians 6:15).
Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights activist said,
“If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
Consequently all Christians are called to give glory to Christ by telling others how they can find eternal life.
Perceived Problems
Yes, you may say, I see this, but there are practical difficulties. This talk was first given at a Christian Medical Fellowship conference and these are the problems doctors may worry about but they are relevant to all.
No time
It is true that in our busy lives we don’t have much time but not much time is needed – just a question and a sentence or two. And we do have our own spare time that we can use for Christ.
Let us not follow Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first Prime Minister who said,
“Things have come to a pretty pass when religion interferes with our private life.”
Employers
It has been claimed that our employers are not interested in spiritual matters and therefore our work is not a place to talk about spiritual matters or anything unrelated to work. But go to any workplace and people chatter about anything else in their breaks and times of relaxation. They will certainly talk about physical illnesses and their remedy so why not help others spiritually?
Hospitals employ chaplains to help patients spiritually because they recognise that people are complex beings and the physical, social, psychological and spiritual all inter-relate. In his report for 1997 called ‘On the State of Public Health’, Sir Kenneth Calman, the Chief Medical Officer emphasised that ‘concern for the individual’ should be a pre-eminent concern for those making decisions about health. He goes on to explain what he meant by this and included,
“ . . . holistic aspects to cover physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of life”.
We do place extraordinary emphasis on the physical and technical aspects of medicine and health, yet there is growing evidence that all these aspects are interrelated. Spiritual well-being gives physical benefits.
There is also the question of who has the prior claim if there is ever conflict. Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII declared that he was “The King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
The General Medical Council
The GMC has ruled on whether doctors can share their faith with patients. The 1993 Annual Report stated,
“The Council has hitherto taken the view that the profession of personal opinions or faith is not of itself improper and that the Council could intervene only where there was evidence that a doctor had failed to provide an adequate standard of care. The committee supported that policy and concluded that it would not be right to try to prevent doctors from expressing personal, religious, political or other views to patients. It was agreed however that doctors who caused patients distress by the inappropriate or insensitive expression of their religious, political or other personal views would not be providing the considerate care which patients are entitled to expect. This view was supported by the Council . . . “
The question is not “Should we witness to Jesus?” but “how should we witness to Jesus?”
The cost may be the occasional loss of prestige or respect, or gaining a reputation for being ‘keen’, or even a crank. It was Shoemaker who wrote in his book ‘Small is Beautiful’,
“I don’t object to being called a crank, it is small, but it causes revolutions!”
It is certainly a revolution that we need.
In our schools there is a drive to change the way people think about sexual matters. Groups that seem to encourage promiscuous sexual activity and openly reject what the Bible teaches are very active. Yet schools should be places where youngsters learn to question and weigh up answers. The greatest questions that have far reaching implications in all aspects of life are, ‘Who is Jesus?’ and ‘Is the Bible the Word of God?’ To encourage people to investigate the evidence for him and the Bible and investigating the effect that belief in him has in individuals and on a society should surely be a priority for educationalists.
Even staid professionals must learn to sensitively share the gospel without abusing our time. Our society and its members are going to hell! Opportunities must be grasped.
How should we witness to Jesus?
Confident Christianity courses are being held widely to help students have confidence to talk about the important of Jesus Christ. Such approaches are brilliant and to be recommended. However there is an old Chinese proverb that needs to be remembered,
“You cannot carve rotten wood.”
If people are not determined to be effective for Christ, then teaching about techniques and building up confidence is a waste of time. The cost of witnessing to Jesus will be too high. But rthen the question needs to be asked whether people who are not wanting to live for Christ are Christians?
We can also so stress clever techniques that we forget to be human. A student once asked a Christian speaker,
“How should I approach a Muslim?”
He was wisely advised,
“Say ‘hello’ and invite him for a meal.”
If we are not being hospitable and regularly inviting people into our homes for meals and accepting invitations to other peoples’ homes, we will be less effective for Christ. For those who long to share the gospel, may I remind you of some useful hints?
Start by entering a friendly relationship with whoever you are talking to. Show a genuine interest in them by asking about them and sharing about yourself. Trust is the basis for sharing the good news. If you are not liked, whatever you say is unlikely to be received well.
Find a way to talk about something with a Christian side to it, such as what you did at the weekend, or something in the news. If you ask a question, it is more than likely that you will be asked something similar. This morning I was walking my dog, and, whilst standing outside a church, I started to chat with a man who said he lived nearby. It was natural to ask whether he ever went to that church. He denied it strongly, “I’m a Roman Catholic!” he exclaimed. It is then simple to ask, ‘Do you go to the Catholic church?‘ ‘Never, they are a bunch of hypocrites!’ I smiled and added, ‘That may be so but the important question the Bible keeps asking each of us is ‘Am I a real Christian myself or aren’t I sure about these things? Surely a Christian is someone who loves Jesus and wants to live for him.’ It is so important to get to this point in a conversation as it then opens up the opportunity to talk more and possibly share why and how you became a Christian.
If you are hearing about their problems, you can ask this question,“Do you have a faith that helps you at a time like this or aren’t you sure about these things? It is important to give that escape clause in the question so they don’t just say ‘yes’ to please you.
You do hear some people say, “Talking about spiritual things is not my gift.” The fact is that it is not in anyone’s natural abiltiy at first. I went to an all boys’ school and an all male college at university. Then I moved down to London for my clinical training in medicine and was in for a shock. I was soon placed on a ‘gynaecology’ firm where I had to talk with women about personal matters! I was utterly humiliated, embarassed, and was completely out of my depth. But I had to learn how to talk about these intimate matters, even though I certainly did not feel gifted at this. I must have embarrassed many of these patients because of my incompetence. Yet I gradually became more confident and now find it is no longer a problem. Surely it is the same with regard to talking about spiritual matters.
Having a good supply of suitable Christian literature or books that you can give or lend to people is invaluable. I always try to have some in my car, case or pocket a copy of “Cure For Life” which was written for this very purpose. Many people have become convinced about Jesus by someone they like saying, “Can I lend you this book, I am sure you will find it interesting. Do let me know what you think of it.”
We all need to learn to be ‘inviters’. “Would you like to come with me and see what our church is like and stay on for lunch afterwards at our place?” All churches need to put on regular suitable evangelistic events that we can invite people to. When I was working we used to have buffet suppers in our home twice a year with an evangelistic speaker. We and others in our church would invite family, friends, work colleagues and all sorts of people to come and join us. Such special events need to be followed up by a Christian Basics course such as Christianity Explored or an Alpha course where people can learn more about Jesus and his gospel.
When Paul wrote to the church members at Colossae, he included a short section on evangelism (Colossians 4:2-6). This contained the phrase, “Make the most of every opportunity”. Opportunities are everywhere if only we can spot them. Let me share one example.
I was once on a teaching ward round in my hospital when we came to a very pleasant lady in her 50’s who had liver secondaries and was feeling very weak. She was terminal. She asked if she could have a private talk with me later. When I returned she said,
“I am finding this business of dying very difficult. Could you speed it up for me?
She clearly wanted ‘euthanasia’. I replied,
“We don’t do that,” but we went on to have a discussion about what she was finding difficult and the things we could do to help her. I wondered if there was some spiritual problem underlying all this so I continued,
“I wonder if there is a reason that God is keeping you going like this. Do you think you have got everything ready?”
“I think so,” she replied, “I have cleared all my cupboards at home.”
“Yes, but on a deeper level, are you sure you are ready to meet God - or aren’t you sure about these things?”
“Oh! I think I’m ready, I’ve never done anyone any harm.”
Here was this lady about to meet her maker and she clearly wasn’t ready. Fortunately our hospital had Gideon Bibles in the bedside lockers so I asked if I could show her a few things.
“I would like that,” she replied.
The first thing she needed to be clear about was that when we die we will face judgement. I wondered about using the passage in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 (“punished with everlasting destruction . . .”) but decided that the wording was too aggressive in this situation so we looked up Hebrews 9:27.
“. . . man is destined to die once and after that to face judgement.”
The great attraction of using this verse is that the adjoining verses both talk about Jesus saying that died to “take away the sins of many people.”
I illustrated that Christ had come to forgive us from the sin that separates us from God by placing a book on my open hand. I explained that this book represented my sin, which acts as a barrier between God and myself. My religion, which was illustrated by my fingers actively moving under the book cannot help get rid of the barrier. She seemed to understand this so we went on to talk about sin and to show that no-one is naturally good enough for God. Her claim about ‘not doing anybody any harm’ was both untrue and certainly inadequate. So we looked up Romans 3:11.
“There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God.”
She then agreed that being right with God was never something she had bothered about at all. We also looked up Isaiah 59:2,
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden your face from you, so that he will not hear.”
As we talked she began to understand her problem.
“How can I get right with God?” she asked.
Sitting on her bed we talked about the Lord Jesus. We talked about his death on that cross and how he died to take away the consequences of our sin and to enable us to be right with God. We then turned to 1 Peter 2:24.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
As we talked it all seemed so clear to her, the Holy Spirit was convicting her of sin and righteousness and judgement in a non-aggressive way. She then said,
“I need to be forgiven by Jesus. Will you pray for me now?”
At this point the nurses sitting at the adjacent nurses station jumped up and pulled the screens round even though they give hardly any privacy. They must have been listening. I prayed thanking God for what he had done for us on the cross, and asking that, just as he had promised, he would put her name in the ‘Book of Life’, forgive her sin and give her his Spirit. She was very grateful. I left her with a list of the verses we had looked up as well as two more on assurance,
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has passed over from death to life.” John 5:24
The Lord gave her extraordinary joy that continued.
Her husband phoned me up the next morning.
“Are you the doctor who spoke to my wife yesterday?”
“Yes,” I replied rather hesitantly as I didn’t know what was coming.
“We are not a religious family in any way, but I would like to thank you for spending the time with her. She has such peace. Would you mind explaining to me what you said to her?’
He phoned me at home a few days later at the weekend and came for tea. I was interested to see that somehow he had obtained a large unused Gideon Bible, Authorised Version, which had the words, ‘Headmistress’ printed in bold type on the outside. We went over the gospel in a very similar way. He wasn’t ready to commit himself but I gave him a copy of ‘Cure for Life’ and said he could phone at any time.
His wife moved to the local hospice where I visited her on one occasion. She was holding firmly onto her Saviour even though she was sleepier from the drugs. We looked at Romans 8:1 which is another great verse on assurance.
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because . . . ”
To make this simpler to understand, I wrote her name on a piece of paper and placed it inside the Bible.
“Let this Bible represent the Lord Jesus and this piece of paper represent you. Because you are now ‘in Christ’ when you meet God he will not see your sins at all, he will see that you are in Christ and have ‘his righteousness’. Furthermore Jesus is now in heaven and because you are in Christ he will take you to be with him there.”
The nurses told me that she later asked them to read her the whole chapter of Romans 8. About two weeks later I had a phone call from her husband to say that she had just died. Apparently one of the last things she said to her husband was to ask him to become a Christian and made him promise to “go to the doctor’s church”. He did faithfully come and he later attended a Basics course when he also committed himself to Christ.
What a joy it is to be involved in gospel ministry.
Why don’t we all make serving the Lord Jesus our priority?
Surly it is because we are living for this life and not the next. There was another lady who was also terminally ill. She asked that she should be buried with a fork in her hand. Her grown up son queried why she wanted this.
“When I was young, whenever I was told after the first course, “keep your fork”, it meant that there was something better to come – the sweet course.”
Isn’t this the reason why we want to use our lives primarily to serve Jesus? Treasures on earth and a good reputation here will be little benefit then. Just being good neighbours or colleagues will not be sufficient when we meet the Lord and he asks us, “Have you lived for me?” When we meet him will he say to us -
“Well done good and faithful servant!” Matthew 25:21
Even the highest standards of education and medicine only help for a few years. We will all die. However well we care for people, and prepare them for a good life here, it will not put them in good stead when they meet the Lord in judgement. Jesus himself warns us,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth . . . . but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Matthew 6:19
In the nineteenth century there was a gentleman who lived in the south of the United States. He had an old Christian slave. When the master died they told him he had gone to heaven. The old slave shook his head.
“I’s afraid Massa no gone there,” he said.
“But why Ben?” he was asked.
“Cos, when Massa go north or go on a journey to the Springs, he talk about it a long time and get ready. I never hear him talk about going to heaven; never see him get ready to go there.”
It is surely our responsibility to serve the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind (Matt 22:37). Otherwise we have fallen into apathy and sin. Only a live fish can swim against the stream. It is the rule of the Christian life – if we do not produce fruit for the Lord Jesus we will have to stand eventually before him like a winter’s tree, bare and withered.
BVP
