Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Thank you for inviting me. It's an honor and a joy to be with you to worship the Lord here at Jefferson Park Baptist today. We have been, over the last few years, me and my wife, working with our boys on courage, trying to teach them what it is and what it's not. For the oldest, it's really kind of a matter, a lot of times, of getting him to do things that he is truly scared to do. And teaching him that courage means that sometimes you just buck up and you do it. For the littlest one, for the younger of my boys, it's a matter, at least so far, he's three years old, I'm teaching him that, no, actually he's not Luke Skywalker, and so therefore he probably shouldn't try to do a backflip off the top rung of the ladder on the playground out in front of our house. You shouldn't do that. Somebody once said that there's a fine line between courage and stupidity, and too bad it's not a fence. Yeah, you get that. My youngest boy finds himself veering across that line pretty often these days, back and forth between foolishness and courage. On the other hand, even though we stop the little guy from jumping off, like Luke Skywalker, from the top rung, there is a reason, and a very good reason, that we don't try to stop him from jumping off the bottom rung, or even sometimes, if we're feeling really brave, the middle rung. And the reason I don't stop him from doing that is because I want both of my boys and my little girl, too, to grow up being people of courage. I want them to be people who see the difficult decisions that life requires of them and who have the resolve to meet those challenges and buck up and do what's necessary for a man or a woman, especially a man or a woman of Christ. I'm not just talking here about matters like climbing trees and picking up bugs. My fervent prayer is that the Lord would grant to my children the faith in Jesus Christ that I have. And I know that when that happens, the world is going to come at them like a flamethrower to try to destroy that faith in them. And what my prayer is, is that the Lord would give them courage to be able to stand under that withering heat. When the world makes fun of them, I want them to be able to stand firm in their faith in Jesus Christ. When the world comes at them and excludes them as being something silly or something foolish because they're believers in Jesus Christ, I want them to be able to stand there with their feet planted firmly on the ground and their shoulders square to the world and take it in the name of their Lord Jesus Christ. So where does that kind of courage come from? Where do you get it? Where do you get the kind of courage that can stand firm under that kind of withering heat from the world? Well, that's part of what we're going to be talking about today in John chapter 17. So if you have a Bible, take your Bible and turn over to John chapter 17. We're going to be over the next two weeks doing a study of what is sometimes called Jesus's high priestly prayer. Other people have different different names for it. Sometimes it's called a prayer of consecration. Sometimes it's just called Jesus's prayer. But whatever you want to call it, when you approach a text like this, John 17, there's really a feeling that you have that we really shouldn't be here. It just seems so intimate and so amazing a moment. This is the last prayer that John records Jesus praying before he goes to his death on the cross. And it's Jesus lifting up his eyes and lifting up his voice to heaven and praying some final things to his father. before his death comes. The prayer breaks down into three parts. I don't know what version of the Bible you're using there. If you're using the NIV, you can see the divisions in the text where the prayer breaks down. In the ESV, if that's what you have, you'll see that chapter 17 breaks into three different paragraphs, and those are the different divisions of the prayer. If you want to just have a shorthand of the way Jesus is praying here, in that first paragraph, you might just say Jesus prays for himself. In the second paragraph, which we're going to be studying today, Jesus prays for his disciples. And then in the last paragraph, Jesus prays for all believers. So let me just give you a rundown just very quickly, like in two sentences of that first paragraph, because we're going to be moving into the largest of the paragraphs today, the middle one. Jesus prays for his disciples in that first paragraph. There's a whole sermon that could be preached about that first paragraph. It's just a magnificent prayer in which Jesus asks his father to glorify him. And if you dig down into that, what you begin to see is that there's this amazing irony that's going on there as Jesus is praying that the Father would glorify him with the glory I had with you before the world began. And what he's talking about when he says that enormous, magnificent thing is, Father, I want you to glorify me in my death and resurrection. So there's just this amazing electric irony that that Jesus prays for here. Glorify me as I die. I could preach about that, but I'm not going to. We're going to be looking at verses six through 19 this morning. So look there and I'm going to begin reading in verse six where Jesus turns and begins praying for his followers. I have manifested your name. to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they've kept your word. Now they know that everything that you've given me is from you. For I've given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I'm glorified in them. And I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you've given me that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you've given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. So Jesus, after he prays for himself there in verses 1 to 5, turns and begins praying for his disciples, which, as you'll see as we go through this, doesn't just include the 11 who are sitting there with him. It also includes all of us. As Jesus will say there in verse 20, I don't pray for these only, not just praying for these 11, but I'm praying for all of those who will believe. Jesus is praying for us. And so that means that the prayers that Jesus makes here, sometimes specifically for his disciples, he's actually we can we can take it on on. We can take it in our understanding that he is also praying these things for us. And so I hope that by studying what the Lord Jesus prays for us today, that you will come to know more deeply Jesus's love and care for you. And that therefore, you will be encouraged. I mean, in the deepest sense of that word, encouraged, you will be filled with courage to continue in faithfulness to Him. So if you're taking notes, here are the three points of this sermon. Number one, Jesus prays for those who believe in Him. He prays for those who believe in Him. Number two, He prays for them because He loves them. He prays for them because He loves them. Number three, He prays for them to be protected and sanctified. He prays for them to be protected and sanctified. So, you know, if you just want quick shorthand, that's the who, the why and the what. He prays for who he prays for them, why and he prays for them, what, who, why and what. So let's go on and look in more detail at whom Jesus prays for. Jesus prays for those who believe in him. That's the first point. We already we already talked a little bit about this. Just just noticing that it's it's it's Jesus praying for those who follow him. But he's even more specific at the very beginning of this section that we're looking at today. So there in verses six to eight, Jesus describes at pretty good length who these people are for whom he prays. And you'll notice that he doesn't when he begins to pray for his disciples, he doesn't just start out by asking for something. In verses six to eight, he first describes who he is that he's praying for. So in verse so to look at verse six, for instance, I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. I have given them the words that you gave me and they received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they believe that you sent me. All of that is description. of who it is that Jesus is praying for. Now, let me show you. Let me show you who this is. Very simply, it's people who have believed in Jesus. Look with me at verse six. I'll show you how this is. In verse six, Jesus begins by saying that he has revealed God's name. He is revealed. You see it there. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Now, when Jesus says that, when he says, I've revealed your name to these people, it's not as if Jesus just came from heaven and said, Yahweh, and then that was it, and he headed back to heaven. That's not what that means. In the Old Testament and throughout the Bible, when you reveal God's name, or really when you have revealed anybody's name, what you're doing is revealing their character. You're revealing lots of stuff about them. So what happens when Moses asks to know God's name? Well, God tells him, I am the Lord, the Lord. That's Yahweh, Yahweh. And then he goes on and describes himself, doesn't he? The compassionate and gracious God who is slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness and all the rest. So he doesn't just stop by saying his name. He reveals his character. And so when Jesus says that I have manifested your name to these people, that's what he means. He means I have revealed God to them. And what we learn about Jesus's disciples or those for whom he's praying here, really a couple of different things. First of all, we see there in verse six that God has given these people to Jesus out of the world. You see that manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world, yours. They were and you gave them to me. And then the second thing that you notice, they're not only are they given to Jesus by God, but they have kept your word. They've obeyed the word that I've revealed to them. They're given to Jesus and they obey. As you keep reading, you find out that it's not just this is a special kind of keeping of God's word. Jesus has something very specific in mind. He's not just talking about doing right things or, you know, doing good things over here, righteous things over here. He's talking about a very specific kind of way that these people have kept Jesus's word or God's word. So that's that phrase comes at the end of verse six. They've kept your word. And then in seven and eight, Jesus is going to describe just piling up words to show you what he means by keeping God's word. So look at verse seven. What it says about these disciples is they know that everything you have given me is from you. And then in verse eight, I gave them the words that you gave me and they have received them. They have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me." Do you see how Jesus just piles up words to describe what He means by keeping God's Word? 7 and 8, it's all over, it's all over with. They know, they receive, they know in truth, and they accept. You see that? Keeping God's Word here means to know, to receive, to know in truth or know certainly, and to accept. He's just piling on these words that have to do with believing what God has said through Jesus. The people for whom Jesus is praying, He says, I pray for those who have believed, who have known, accepted, received, believed in truth, that I am who I say I am. Now, I want you to notice just a couple of things about all of this. First of all, notice, especially in verse six, that Jesus holds up for us as as realities, two very important things, divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He tells us that our salvation, if you're a Christian, your salvation comes about, first of all, Jesus says, because God in his grace has given you to Jesus. And second, because you have responded to that, the result of that giving of you to Jesus is that you know and accept and receive and believe what Jesus says about Himself. Now, if you're able to hold both of those truths in your mind at the same time, that you are given by God to Jesus and that you are responsible to believe this word. It causes all kinds of wonderful things to happen in the Christian life. It causes us to be people both of action and of deep, deep humility. First of all, I mean, if you if you can hold these things in your mind, it causes us to be people of action because we know that divine sovereignty, the fact that God gives people to Jesus, as he says there in verse six, doesn't mean that we can just sit on the couch and do nothing. Now, actually, the fact that God gives people to Jesus throughout Christian history, throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament, has been a source of massive, massive comfort to God's people. So God can say to the apostles, no, I have, despite all of the opposition that you're feeling from the world, I have 7000 people set aside. Who are mine. It's a source of great comfort to God's people. And it also spurs us on to action because we know that the mission God has given us in this world, which we're going to talk about later on in this paragraph, that mission can't fail because it's God and his great omnipotent power that is behind it. So understanding God's sovereignty makes us people of action. It also causes us to be people of great humility, doesn't it? It makes us people of great humility because we know that all that we have comes from God. Everything that you have, from the shirt on your back to your place in heaven, comes from God. It's not you who is taking those things for yourself. We often talk about receiving Christ as our Savior. But the fact is, it is Christ who comes to us and saves us. That's the reality of the matter. Another thing I want you to notice here in this first section, look at verse 9. Jesus has described those for whom he's praying. He says, I'm praying for those who have received the words I've given, who have come to know them in truth, who have believed that you sent me. And there in verse 9 he says, I'm praying for them. And then look at this amazing line that comes right after that in verse 9. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. Now, we live in a culture where saying something like that, that divides the world so cleanly in half, is just not looked on very kindly at all. I mean, what if someone had gotten up here and started to pray and said, Dear Lord, I am praying now only for those who believe in you. I am deliberately not praying for those who don't believe in you. What do you mean? You're just drawing divisions right down the middle of the world. I mean, of course, it's perfectly fine to pray a prayer that applies to Christians alone. We pray things all the time that don't apply to unbelievers. But it's quite another thing. And it takes some guts to stand up and say, that's what I'm doing. I am not praying for the unbelieving world here. And yet that's exactly what Jesus does. He comes and He says, I am praying for those who have believed in me, who have accepted my word and received it. And I am not praying for those who haven't. Bright line division right through the center of the world. If you're not a Christian. Then Jesus's prayer here is a big challenge to you. And it's a challenge to make sure that when Jesus divides the world and draws a bright orange line through the middle of humanity, it's a challenge to you to make sure you're on the right side of that line. Are you going to be on this side over here? It's full of people who have not accepted Jesus' words, received them, believed them, relied on them. Or do you stand on this side? People who hear what Jesus has said and then say, yes, Lord, I believe that. I believe that you are who you say you are. I believe that you have done what you say you have done. And now I rely on you to save me because I can't save myself. Listen, being a Christian, becoming a Christian is not some difficult thing. There's not a whole bunch of steps that are laid out that a person has to do in order to become a Christian. When you boil it all down, becoming a Christian is just a matter of looking in your own heart and recognizing, you know what, I have sinned. I have rebelled against God. I haven't lived up to the standards that that God has set for me. And I know that because of that, I deserve to be judged, I deserve to be punished. And then it's a matter of of looking to Jesus and saying, Lord Jesus, I know that I can't save myself, but I also know that because of your death on the cross, you can save me. And so with 100 percent of who I am, I'm throwing myself on your mercy and your grace. If you don't save me, I have no other plea. Oh, Lord Jesus, save me, because I have no other hope. That's what it means to be a Christian. Older Christians from centuries ago used to use the phrase closing with Christ. And it's kind of the same idea as closing on a house when you buy a house. It's a good phrase. It's the moment when you claim Jesus as your own. You know, when finally all the objections are swept aside, maybe not even answered, but you just realize, yeah, OK, I've got this problem and that problem. But you know what? At the end of the day, this Jesus is who I need. So objections are gone. I'll deal with them later. I'm taking Jesus as my own now. and you close with Him and claim Him as your own. Friends, some of you need to come to that point. Some of you need to come to the point of closing with Christ and saying, despite all of the objections and the junk and everything else, I'm coming to Christ and I'm claiming Him as my own. Well, what if you already are a Christian? Well, let me ask you a question. How do you know? How do you know you're a Christian? Some of you I know just because you're human. I don't know you that well. Some of you I know better than others, but some of you I don't know at all. But just the fact that you're human, just from that fact, I know that some of you struggle mightily with that question. How do I know that I'm a Christian? And you can learn from this prayer of Jesus when he says, I'm praying for those who believe in me, who accept my words, who receive my words, who know with certainty who I am and who accept that and lean on it. You can learn from that. There are many, many Christians who struggle with all kinds of doubts and wondering if their fruit is good enough, or if their faith is genuine enough, or if, you know, just all of these questions swirling around in their minds, and they can't get a grasp, they can't find any concrete to stand on. Well, brother or sister, Jesus gives you some concrete here, and let me try to show you where it is. When you've got the questions swirling around you, remember what Jesus says here. What He says is that those who believe in Me, Those who rely on me are the ones I'm praying for. They are my people. So in my life, what that means often is that when questions begin to swirl and when things begin to get a little bit cloudy, what it means is that we have to retreat back to the bedrock. I mean, retreat all the way back to the basis of your faith and just ask yourself in some quiet place some very simple questions. Just ask yourself, do I, right now, in this moment, with the questions swirling around me, do I believe that Jesus existed? Yes, I do. Yes. Do I believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Yes, I do. Do I believe that Jesus died on the cross? Yes, I do. Do I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me? Yes, I do. Do I believe that He lives right now? reigning in heaven, interceding for me, praying for me. Yes, I do. You don't have to have it all figured out as a Christian. Jesus says that if your faith is as small as a mustard seed, it's faith. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So go back to the bedrock. And just build your faith back up one question at a time. Do I believe in Jesus? Yes, I do. And then remind yourself of what Jesus says, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. So Jesus prays here for those who believe in him. Second point that we'll see in this text is that Jesus prays for them because he loves them. Well, beginning in verse nine, look with me in verse nine again. I am praying for them, I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you've given me, for they are yours, all mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you. Beginning there in verse nine and running down through the first half of 11, Jesus lists some reasons why he is praying for these who have believed in him. He says there, first of all, in verse nine, for they are yours. You see it there right at the end. They belong to God. These people who believed in Jesus belong to God, and that alone makes them precious. Not only so, though, but Jesus's people belong to him. He himself owns them. Look at verse 10. All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I'm glorified in them. So those who believe in Jesus are gods and they are Jesus's. And then finally, he says there in verse 11 that he's praying his prayer specifically because he is leaving the world. That's what he means by that phrase there in verse 11. I am no longer in the world or I am going out of the world. He knows that his death and his resurrection and his ascension are coming. And he knows that that that he is going to have to leave these disciples. And so therefore, he prays for them. Well, all of this, the fact that they belong to God, we belong to God, and we belong to Jesus, and here we still are in the world, and Jesus in His bodily form is not with us. I think all of this can be summarized as a revelation of Jesus' love for His disciples, His love for us. And so, at the end of the day, I think Jesus is praying for them because He loves them. We who believe in Him belong to Him. He claims us as His own, and He loves us. That is an incredible thought. If you stop and think of it, that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the person who sits on the throne of the universe at the right hand of God Almighty, loves you. David talks about this in Psalms, remember? What is man that you're mindful of him? What is the Son of Man that you should care for Him? David has in his mind just how small He is. And how enormous God is. And he says, who am I that you should love me? And yet the prophet Zechariah says that the Lord actually rejoices over us with singing. The Lord of the Universe, sitting on the throne, rejoicing and singing because of you. You can see this just over and over in the New Testament, in the life of Jesus. And it's incredible. I want you to just get a panorama of the kind of person, the kind of Lord and King and Savior that Jesus is. And I want you to just think for a minute about the way Jesus expresses his love all over the New Testament. Think of him, for example, in front of the tomb of Lazarus, when he's about to call this man out from death. And yet before he does, before he performs this miracle, he weeps. Because his friend has died. Think of him standing on the hill and looking over Jerusalem and saying, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have longed to bring you under my wings and care for you. Think of him putting his hands on a blind man's eyes and saying, open your eyes so you can see. or taking the hand of a lame man who's laying on his cot and pulling him up and saying, stand up and leap for joy because you're healed. Think about this Jesus taking His hand and putting it on the cold brow of a dead little girl and saying, little girl, get up. Think of Him before His own death coming to His disciples washing their feet, and then praying with them and taking them out to the Garden of Gethsemane with the agony of death coming on Him. And yet He is determined that He's going to obey His Father and go through with it so they can be saved. Think of this Jesus hanging on the cross. He turns to the thief who's dying with him and says, Today I tell you, you'll be with me in paradise. Think of when Jesus, enthroned in heaven, actually stands up from his throne as his servant Stephen is stoned. Christian, think of the next time. that Jesus stands up from that throne and turns to that angel over there and says, blow the trumpet. I'm going to get my people. And then think of when you stand before Him. And He says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. What do you do with love like that? I'll tell you what you do with it. You let that love, the reality of that love and the consciousness of that love motivate you to live joyfully in a way that honors this one who loves you so much. You let the thought of this love that Jesus has for you pervade every single bit of your week, your job, your school, your family, your own struggle with sin, all of it. You let that love give you courage to loosen your grasp on the things of this world and lean on Him for security and not on money or possessions or good grades or whatever it is. You lean on Him because He loves you. You let this love comfort you when the job falls through or the account shrinks. You let this love comfort you when your child gets sick or your parent or your grandparent dies. You let the fact that this Jesus loves you like this steady you. when the world seems like it's collapsing underneath you. Brothers and sisters, if you're a Christian, Jesus loves you deeply. He owns you, and therefore He loves you. It is the simplest thought in the world, and yet it changes everything. That's why Jesus prays for His disciples, because they're His, because He loves them. He prays for those who believe in him. He prays for those who believe in him because he loves them. And now let's look at what Jesus prays for. He prays for them, this is the third point of the sermon, he prays for them to be protected and sanctified. He prays for them to be protected and sanctified. There are actually three requests in this in this paragraph, two requests for protection of really two different kinds. And then one request that his disciples and therefore us again would be sanctified. And I'm going to explain what I mean by what Jesus means by the word sanctified there. The first request comes in in verse 11, the second part of verse 11 and down into verse 12. So look in the middle there, verse 11. This is Jesus's first request. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. So Jesus begins this his request. I mean, we're just now getting to the requests. He's been talking about who it is that he's praying for and why he's praying for them. Now he finally gets to the request. And the first request that he makes is, Holy Father, keep them in your name. And what he means by that, reaching back to what he had just said before, that he had revealed God's name to them and they had received it and accepted it. What he means is, Father, I want you to keep them faithful. The things that I have revealed to them about you and that they have accepted and received. I want you to keep them there and don't let them fall away. Don't let them go. And Jesus says there that not one of them actually has been lost. He, while he's here on earth with them, has been able to keep them in the father's name, keep them faithful, and not one of them has been lost, he says, except they're in verse 12, the one who was doomed to destruction. Look at that a little bit more closely. In verse 12, I have guarded them, he says, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. Did Jesus fail there? It seems kind of weaselly, doesn't it? For him to be talking about, I have kept them all. Except that one. Messed that one up. But still, I've kept them all. Did he fail? No, he didn't fail. He didn't fail. Jesus knows that Judas was never given to him by the father. For three years now, Judas has looked like one who was given by the father to Jesus. He's walked with him, he's talked with him, he's eaten with him. He was the treasurer of the disciples. And yet in his heart, as you can see later on in the book of John, You can see, really, all over the Gospels. He was never of them. He never actually believed in Jesus. He never actually closed with Jesus and received what He said. When Jesus says that the Scripture would be fulfilled, He's talking probably about Psalm 41. which he's already quoted about Judas earlier in the book, even my close friend whom I trusted, he who shared my bread is lifted up his heel against me. The point is that Jesus knew Judas would fall. It wasn't a surprise to him. Judas was never of them. He had never closed with Christ. He was never a believer in Jesus. But for those who did believe in Jesus and who actually were given to him by the Father, he succeeded entirely in protecting them and keeping them in the name which he had revealed to them. And so now he prays, since he's going out of the world, that the Father would keep them safe. There is amazing comfort to be had here, isn't there? There is incredible comfort to be had in the fact that Jesus is praying for us who believe in Him and who have accepted what He says, that the Father would keep us faithful and in the name. A lot of times we'll talk about the perseverance of the saints. It's not really the perseverance of the saints, is it? It's the perseverance of the Savior. It's Christ who keeps us. It is not we who keep ourselves. And as Jesus says there in verse 14, is that right? No, verse 13, I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the world so that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Friends, you can you can have joy if you're a Christian, because you know that Jesus has prayed and continues to pray for the Father to keep you in his name. Jesus's second request is also for protection, but it has a different angle. Look with me at verse 14 through 16. The request there comes in verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Why does Jesus pray for his disciples to be protected from the evil one? He says, I don't want you to take them out of the world. And so I don't want them to just retreat from all of the challenge. But why is it that Jesus prays that they would be protected as they are in the world? Well, the reason is because when you swear your allegiance to Jesus Christ and become a Christian, your entire life changes and becomes something different from what the world would have it to be. Your motivations change, your desires change, your goals change. Everything changes. And the world reacts to that like a virus. and attacks it. But even as it attacks, it's constantly calling you to line up with the world's priorities and with the world's goals and with the world's desires. And Jesus prays, I want you to protect them from the evil one. Don't let them fall. Don't let them be assimilated by what the world is trying to do to them. Keep them. Protect them. Well, that takes us finally to Jesus's third request of his father for his disciples. He asked the father in verses 17 to 19 to sanctify them, which really is to set them apart for their mission to the world. Look at look at verse 17. Sanctify them, he says, in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. The word sanctification there just means being set apart for a certain mission. And you can see that very clearly in verse 18, where he describes what he means by sanctify them as you sent me into the world. So I'm sending them into the world. They have a mission to take these things which I have revealed to them and reveal them to the rest of the world. That's the mission. That's what he means by sanctifying them, setting them apart. And he says that that's going to happen, that sanctification is going to happen in two different ways. So look in verse 17. Sanctify them, he says, in the truth. That's the first means by which we are set apart for this work of taking what Jesus has revealed and preaching it to the world, to the world. Sanctify them in the truth or by the truth. Your word is truth. Brothers and sisters, do you want to know how to be set apart well, how to be made fit for the work God has given you in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the world? Do you want to know how to be sanctified and set apart well for that? Well, Jesus tells you right here in verse 17. It's by the Word of God. Friends, that's why When as you Jefferson Park Baptist Church, as you move forward in your life as a church, you need to make sure that the center of your church's life together is the preaching of the Word of God. It's the action of the Word in your hearts that will sanctify you and set you apart for the work Jesus has given us for this mission. That's why at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, we make the centerpiece of our week together, the preaching of the word of God. And it's why in everything that everything that you do as a church, you should be working to make sure that the word is being taught. You should make sure the word is being spoken. You should make sure the word is being read. That's how the Lord sanctifies us. You see it over and over again in Scripture. The way the Lord gives life to His people and changes them and conforms them to the image of Jesus is through His Word. That's the way He does it. The second way that we are sanctified or set apart for this task comes there in verse 19, where Jesus says, for their sake I sanctify or consecrate myself. So that they also may be sanctified or consecrated in me. What does Jesus mean when he says he sets himself apart? What's he setting himself apart for here? Death. He's setting himself apart for death. And therefore, our being set apart in this mission of preaching the gospel to the world is grounded in and rooted in Jesus's own sanctification or setting apart of Himself to death. Brothers and sisters, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have this mission of preaching the Gospel to the world if Jesus hadn't already set Himself apart and died for us. That's how it happens. You've been given a mission by your Lord. Sanctify them, He says. Set them apart. Make them fit and holy for this work that I'm giving them, of sending them out in the world to preach this gospel. You've been given a mission. And you've also been given the means by which that mission is going to be carried out. By being washed over and over again by the power of the Word of God, and by remembering that your mission is grounded and rooted in the love of Jesus Christ as it was given to you on the cross. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, what amazing things you have shown us and given us in this passage. Lord, it's an incredible thought that you, King of the universe, as Paul says, you intercede for us in heaven. And just as you pray for your disciples, for us, here in this prayer in John 17, you still sit on your throne and you pray for us. Lord Jesus, we confess this morning that we do. We do believe in you. We do accept what you have revealed. We rely on you as our only sufficient savior. And we revel in the fact that you love us. And you've claimed us as your own. Father, as we as we turn to our weeks, Lord, we ask that you would give us strength and you would give us courage because of these things. To take up this mission that you've given us of being set apart, being sent into the world, as you say in this prayer. to reveal these things to the world around us. Father, help us to do that and help us to do it with the kind of courage that is born of knowing that you have loved us and you have claimed us and you own us. Oh, Lord Jesus, we pray all of this in your name and we pray it in the hope that you would use us to glorify yourself in this city and in this world. We pray it in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.