John 17:6-19

 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 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. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be sanctified in truth.”

 

Certain things have happened to the disciples because Jesus is in the world. For one, Jesus revealed the Father’s name to them. They were the Father’s, the Father gave them to Jesus, and they kept the Father’s word that Jesus gave them.

 

For another, they understand the Father gave Jesus everything. Jesus gave them the Father’s words, and the disciples therefore heard that Jesus was sent by the Father – and they stuck with Jesus, so they believed it. They knew it was true.

 

So regarding these disciples who have received the Father’s name and the Father’s words, Jesus asks. He’s not asking for the world in general, but for these disciples, because they are the Father’s, the Father has been glorified in them through Jesus, and Jesus is leaving them in the world as He returns to the Father. Jesus knows that the disciples will need help, so He asks the Father.

 

What does Jesus ask for? He asks that the Father will keep the disciples in the Father’s name that the Father gave Jesus. Why? So that they may be one just as Jesus and the Father are one. So that the disciples may enter into a unified relationship with God and each other.

 

While Jesus was with them, He did exactly what He is now asking the Father to do. He guarded them, and lost only the one that God had already predicted would be lost.

 

But now Jesus is leaving. He’s going to the Father. And He is praying these things to the Father, even while He’s on earth, so that the disciples will have His complete joy.

 

What precisely is Jesus asking for? What does it mean to “keep the disciples in the Father’s name that was given to the Son.” What did Jesus do while He was with His disciples? What is He now asking the Father to do?

 

While Jesus was with the disciples, He gave them the Father’s word. The world hated them, because when they received the Father’s word – when they listened to it, grasped it, believed it, obeyed it, thanked the Father for it – they were no longer a part of the world. They were like Jesus, strangers and aliens on earth, because they clung to the word of the Father. But Jesus was not asking the Father to take them out of the world even further.

 

What was He was asking for? He was asking the Father to guard them from the evil one, from the evil in the world. How? The same way Jesus did: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” Sanctify them, set them apart, guard them from evil, protect them and keep them in Your name which You gave Me – How? By the truth! By the word of the Father! Jesus had sanctified the disciples, setting them apart from the world by the word of God. He guarded them by the word of God. He protected them by the word of God. He kept all of them – except the one destined to perish beforehand – by the word of God, by the truth! Jesus was asking God to continue the ministry of the truth among the disciples. Jesus was asking the Father to send them the Holy Spirit, to send them His words, just as Jesus had promised the disciples He would do (John 14:16).

 

This is precisely how Jesus guarded Himself from evil and from the evil one throughout His time on earth. That’s what He says here. He did this for His disciples: “For them I sanctify myself, that they may also be sanctified by the truth.”

 

Father, thank You that Your disciples may have a relationship with You, may be kept in Your name, may be guarded, may be protected, may be set apart from the world, the same way that Jesus did. Thank You for Your powerful word. Thank You for the truth. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to continue Your ministry of truth in Your disciples’ lives. You are so good!