7/6/25 “The Greatest Prayer - Part 2”

“The Greatest Prayer – Part 2” 

John 17:6-19 

Have any of you heard of the ‘Old North Church’ in Boston, Massachusetts? 

The Old North Church was built in 1723…yes, that’s right, 1723! 

We think the back half of our church building is old…this church in Boston has us beat by about 200 years! 

The Old North Church began holding services some 300 years ago as a small Anglican congregation….and It’s still going today… 

Their current Pastor (or, ‘Vicar’) is Dr. Matthew Cadwell…he still delivers sermons to a small congregation each week. 

Even though just a couple dozen people use it for a place of worship on Sundays, literally thousands of people visit this church each year during the week….including Lisa & I back in 2021 

(Show pictures of Old North Church) 

So….Why do so many people visit this church? 

What’s so special about this building that it draws throngs of people Monday through Saturday? 

…especially this time of year….around the 4th of July. 

Well…Boston’s downtown district has something called the ‘Freedom Trail’… 

…it’s a self-guided path that directs tourists to various landmarks that were important during the Revolutionary War… 

…it was that war, of course, that solidified our independence from Britian…. 

….and what many of us celebrated & observed this past weekend… 

…The Old North Church is the building where on April 18th, 1775, church worker Robert Newman and army Captain John Pulling lit 2 lanterns for 60 seconds in the church’s steeple 

This act was to alert a fellow patriot by the name of Paul Revere that the British army would be invading by boat across the Charles River…as opposed to invading by land. 

Remember the old saying “One if by land…Two if by sea”?...this phrase refers to the two lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church. 

Revere and William Dawes – along with other riders on horseback – delivered this vital message to colonial militias in Lexington and Concord…. 

….the minutemen had been given critical information about British strategy, thereby providing these patriots with a vital advantage in the ensuing battle.... 

…another way you could say this is that because of Paul Revere’s word of warning…many lives were spared from certain death…. 

…many souls were sheltered from the invading storm of the British Army. 

Well…In today’s passage of scripture, Jesus mentions another word of warning….God’s Word…. 

…Words collected in this book also have the power to save lives…. 

…God’s Word of truth has the power to shelter believers from the continual onslaught of our adversary…the Devil….and the sin-stained culture that surrounds us…. 

In fact, Jesus mentions God’s Word five times throughout these 14 verses… 

….God’s Word of spiritual warning reminds us that Satan – like the British soldiers on the night of Paul Revere’s ride - is trying to invade…  

He is trying to invade YOUR Life… 

He’s trying to destroy YOUR testimony for Christ through sinful choices of disobedience 

He’s trying to pillage your reputation through the many temptations and idols that this world has to offer…. 

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:17 that God’s Word – and our familiarity with it – is our spiritual sword of protection against the invading armies of pride, greed, selfishness, sexual immorality, idolatry, etc…etc… 

As believers in Jesus Christ….we must all stand our ground every single day against these spiritual attacks… 

…thank the Lord we have His timeless Word of truth to protect us! 

As I mentioned last week…this chapter of John’s gospel records the final prayer of Jesus on the Thursday night of holy Week…. 

just hours before Jesus voluntarily submits himself to be put to death by the Roman authorities. 

This prayer for the ages – In my opinion, the greatest prayer of all-time – has three basic components… 

…we covered the first part last week (Verses 1-5) where we see Jesus pray for glorification through His upcoming sacrifice, resurrection, and eventual ascension back to heaven to be with God the Father…. 

Today’s portion of the prayer – the largest portion – deals with the remaining 11 disciples (Remember Judas has just been exposed as a traitor and was currently enroute to meet with the authorities who would soon arrest Jesus) 

….it deals with the 11 disciples who will soon be on their own… 

These men were bewildered and afraid. 

Their beloved teacher and Lord had just announced that he will soon be going away… 

and that the disciples were now to take what Jesus had taught them over the past 3 years and deliver the message of the gospel to people everywhere… 

….to the ends of the earth. 

Jesus understands the disciples are afraid. They’re scared. They’re full of fear. 

So…he devotes the greatest portion of this powerful prayer to the protection, encouragement, and edification of His faithful followers. 

Jesus says in verse 6 (John 17:6) “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” 

Look how Jesus phrases this…he is referring to God’s sovereignty and omniscience when describing people of faith being given to Him by the Father. 

…Remember…Jesus has voluntarily subordinated himself to the Father while incarnate - while in the flesh…. 

…this disparity in nature and authority doesn’t exist when He is with the Father in heaven… 

Therefore, while in the flesh, Jesus describes His followers as those whom the all-knowing, all-powerful Father has given to him…. 

This is one of those passages of scripture that reminds us of how God is in complete control…He is what we call “All-Sovereign” 

If God were anything less than All-Sovereign…it would mean that there would be things beyond His control….and if there were things beyond His control, it would mean that He wouldn’t be perfect…and if He weren’t perfect, he wouldn’t be a God worth serving… 

Being All-Sovereign means that there is absolutely nothing that happens outside of God’s Will (His realm of desire, authority, and knowledge) 

…Including God’s ordained plan of who will ultimately come to faith in Christ at some point during their life… 

Some of you familiar with theology are thinking… this sounds a bit Calvinistic…right? 

Well…there are components of Calvinism – which, if you’re not familiar with the term, is just a way of looking at salvation by emphasizing the sovereignty of God…. 

…there are components of this theological framework that do align closely with God’s Word… 

When it comes to salvation, there are many Bible passages that speak to the truth of God’s sovereign choice and election. 

Ephesians 1:4-5 says, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will,” 

Paul also says in Romans 8:29-30, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” 

We touched on this subject of sovereignty and election last Tuesday at Bible Study….it’s an interesting topic that tends to come up from time-to-time. 

One way to help us comprehend verses like these that speak to God’s absolute sovereignty is by understanding God’s nature…. 

Did you know that God is outside of time, space, and matter? 

God is timeless, spaceless, and immaterial…. 

He actually created all three of those things….He created the cosmos…therefore He cannot be limited by His own creation - as we humans are. 

In terms of salvation…knowing this about God helps us to grasp the reality that when God looks at you…He sees you as the sum of your entire life….He sees you from the vantage point of knowing every minute that you will live on this earth….every decision you’ve made – and ever will make. 

And being able to make those decisions…well, that’s called having free will. 

…And – just like God’s sovereignty is a real thing….man’s free will is also a real thing! 

John 3:16, for example, speaks of free will when it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (No restrictive predestination mentioned here) 

Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  (Again – no restrictions) 

Peter states in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  ( No restrictions) 

Jesus himself says in John 15:10, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.”   

(Jesus is saying that man has the ability to make free decisions….and that there will also be consequences for those decisions) 

All of these verses speak to the truth that man has the ability to choose or reject Jesus Christ…and we are each responsible for that choice. 

God has not made us moist, carbon-based robots…programmed to always do exactly what He wants us to do. 

Somehow in the complexity of the mind of God, both His sovereign election of man – and man’s responsibility for his actions of free will – they harmonize. 

…Somehow, they work together….even though from our limited human understanding, they seem to be in contradiction with each other… 

So when Jesus says here in verse 6 (John 17:6) “…They were yours; you gave them to me”…..he is emphasizing the Father’s sovereign election. 

….yet at the end of verse 6 (John 17:6) Jesus also says, “….and they have obeyed your word.” 

Here Jesus is emphasizing man’s free will in the sense that it was the disciples’ responsibility to respond in obedience to the moral commands of God. 

Jesus goes on to pray in verse 8, “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. 

…God did not coerce the disciples to be people of faith…they freely chose to follow Jesus and place their trust in him. 

…Just as Judas freely chose to act in disobedience….even though it was also his destiny to do so… 

…Does your brain hurt, yet?....Yeah, mine does too! 

The prophet Isaiah reminds us in chapter 55 of his book that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts…that His ways are much higher than our ways…. 

Mankind doesn’t like to admit that there are things we just can’t figure out….we humans don’t like mental loose ends… 

The relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will – doctrines that are both taught in scripture – will always be a mental loose-end as long as we are in these limited bodies of flesh… 

…but don’t let the limited perspective of our human understanding be a stumbling block to your faith… 

(Show Cylinder Picture) 

This is one of my favorite pictures. 

Depending on one’s vantage point, the cylinder could look like a square or it could look like a circle…. 

Both perspectives yield a bit of the truth  - but they are both incomplete… 

God’s sovereignty and man’s free will both yield a bit of the truth…we just don’t have God’s complete perspective of how they both fit together into one ultimate truth. 

Just because we don’t have the full picture when it comes to these paradoxical truths of scripture doesn’t mean we love God any less…. 

….It doesn’t mean we love others any less…. 

…it doesn’t mean we neglect the disciplines of the faith – reading the Bible, prayer, fellowship…. 

It doesn’t mean we live in disobedience to God’s Word… 

It doesn’t mean we stop praying for others…. 

It doesn’t mean we shy away from telling others about Jesus…. 

It doesn’t mean you live in fear thinking there’s a chance that God didn’t ‘choose’ you for salvation…maybe that’s you this morning. 

…Wanna know a secret? – people who are destined for an eternity away from God – they are never haunted by that question!... 

…they are too busy living a life of willful disobedience and spiritual apathy to even care about what may happen to them after they die… 

The fact that you are even concerned about your eternal destiny tells me that you have more-than-likely experienced the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in your life – at least to some degree… 

Don’t let a difficult truth derail your passion for loving God….and for loving others. 

Moving on, look with me at verse 11 (John 17:11) of our passage for today. 

Beginning in verse 11, - because he will soon be leaving them - Jesus asks the Father for divine protection over his beloved disciples…. 

Like lanterns glowing in a church steeple, this prayerful message of God the Son to God the Father reminds us of God’s providence. 

Providence is a word that basically means “The protective care of God…or divine guidance” 

Jesus is asking the Father to providentially care for these 11 men as they will soon begin ministries of their own…spreading the good news of Jesus to the world. 

God’s protection was needed for many reasons, with one of the most important being unity among the disciples… 

The emphasis here is that of a unity amongst believers in general…not so much that all Christians must be of one mind regarding the debatable issues… 

…but that all genuine believers be united by their bond of faith in Christ. 

One reason I like to focus on areas of commonality with other biblical Christians – rather than on areas of disagreement –  

…is because the plant of unity is invigorated when we fertilize the spiritual soil with agreement as to the major doctrines of the faith 

…Focusing on theological commonalities with other believers is like adding spiritual ‘miracle-grow’ to the flowers of ecclesiastical unity. 

When we continually focus on disagreement, it produces an atmosphere of drought and wilting amongst believers… 

…and it gives the impression to nonbelievers that Christians are just full of disharmony and discord. 

I know a couple of people who are so bent on secondary doctrines of the faith that they find it difficult to fellowship with others who do not share their specific point of view… 

For instance, I have a friend who I would describe as a hyper-Calvinist. All he wants to do is discuss why every facet of Calvinism is true…and why every facet of Arminianism (Calvinism’s opposite) is not true. 

This person is so attached to his belief on this subject that it hinders his ability to find unity with other bible-believing Christians on the more important doctrines of the faith. 

This mindset – and subsequent behavior – is in direct contradiction to what Jesus is praying for here when He says in verse 11 (John 17:11) “….that they may be one as we are one.” 

Brothers & Sisters….don’t succumb to the temptation of pride and legalism when it comes to non-essential matters of the faith. 

I like the phrase often attributed to St. Augustine that goes like this: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” 

Lastly, Jesus prays for God the Father to protect the disciples from the antagonistic culture around them. 

Beginning in verse 15 (John 17:15) Jesus prays that his disciples will remain vigilant in their faith…and obedient in their behavior… while living in a world that wants to persecute them. 

Verse 15 reads, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” 

When I was a kid, do you know who I thought really had it all together in a spiritual sense?......Monks. 

I didn’t align with the doctrines of Catholicism…but I thought “Man, monks must be super Christians….they live in these old castles away from the world and all its temptations… 

….they do nothing but read the bible all day long…and sing hymns…..in LATIN…I mean, C’mon!” 

But I came to realize that becoming a spiritual hermit and hiding from the world is actually contrary to what Jesus prays for.… 

Jesus asks the Father that His followers not be taken out of the world….but that they remain protected while in the world… 

Remember…the last thing Jesus told his followers before ascending back to heaven was to ‘go and make disciples’….this involves being in the world. 

…we cannot reach people for the gospel if we stow away in old castles…or basements….or garages….or back-yard bomb shelters.… 

…be present with others…make friends with non-believers…have conversations with people who don’t necessarily share your worldview… 

Monks may know their scriptures…but they’re disobeying the most important command that Jesus leaves his followers to obey… 

…to engage the culture around us. 

Some of you enjoy being out on a boat….maybe it’s a pontoon…maybe it’s a fishing boat…maybe it’s a yacht…. 

(By the way…If any of you own a yacht – keep in mind that you can adopt your pastor and his wife come September)… 

….maybe it’s a cruise ship….maybe it’s an aircraft carrier…. 

Whatever kind of boat you prefer….one thing is common to all boats – they are all in the water. 

Boats are meant to be in the water…and at the same time…not meant to take on water. 

Boats that take on too much water eventually sink… 

Likewise, we as Christ-followers are meant to be in the world…and at the same time….make sure the world and its ways don’t infiltrate our own lives….and sink our faith. 

This was the essence of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples….and by extrapolation…for us as well. 

To be in the world but not of the world is essential to living out the Christian life…and we can only accomplish it through God’s strength and providence. 

Jesus ends today’s passage in verse 19 (John 17:19) by talking about sanctification. 

What is sanctification? 

Biblically, it has 2 meanings. 

First, sanctification means to be set apart. 

When you gave your life to Jesus you became a born-again child of God. 

You are changed forever…. 

Positionally, you have been made clean – redeemed, forgiven, justified, adopted….and sanctified (Set apart) for God’s purposes. 

Sanctification also has a practical meaning… 

…it is a life-long process of becoming more and more like Jesus in terms of what we think about, and the things we do. 

As believers, all of us are somewhere on the road of sanctification… 

…And none of us will reach the destination of perfected sanctification until we die and enter our heavenly abode….our eternal home. 

Jesus’ petition for sanctification here in verse 19 (John 17:19) has both aspects of the word in view. 

On the one hand, Jesus is praying that He would set himself apart to righteously obey the Father’s will by dying on the cross… 

On the other hand, he is praying that – through the faith of his disciples – they would become ever-increasingly conformed – sanctified - to the perfect image of Christ. 

Every morning when we wake up – this should be the most important goal of our day…to become more like our savior…. 

…and the best way we can do that is to spend time in the light of His spiritual lantern….this book right here…the Word of God. 

Let’s Pray.