Prayer & Identity

Prayer & Identity

John 17:13–19
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 truly sanctified.  

Introduction 

We’re in the middle of our series on prayer, entitled The Lord’s Prayer: Delighting in how Jesus prayed. The goal of this series is to delight in how Jesus prayed and to learn to pray as Jesus prayed.

We should always come to Scripture like when we go really hungry to a fantastic restaurant.  There are times I wish God had given us all food in pills. No flavor. Just the pill. Maybe we’d need one pill or five pills for the day, depending on our size or the amount of activity we were doing that day. It would simplify life so much. Maybe it’d be easier to get the food pills to remote places with very hungry people, but I don’t know if that’s true.

Now, the food pill system might be simpler, but only a Grinch would do it—because one of the greatest sources of joy for people is food—the flavor, color, texture of food; the people you eat food with. You’re not going to get together with friends to take your food pill. Guys, remember, we’re eating at 6:00 pm tonight. We’ll be done by 6:01.

What does food do for you? It makes you strong and happy. It’s silly how happy we get about food. Just observe your own reactions when I say, Let’s go out for some BBQ, some ribs, some brisket; or grilled salmon, Chilean sea bass. Or How about a beet salad with goat cheese and walnuts and a nice vinaigrette?

We fantasize, plan, salivate, pay lots of money, talk about food. We make it, share it, lick it, post it. It’s a big deal. When we’re hungry, we feel weak and grouchy. Then we eat, and we feel strong and happy. And then we go on with life.

That’s how we should come to the Word of God. Always hungry and ready to be made strong and happy. On Sundays when we’re receiving the word of God, we’re eating it. Jeremiah 15:16 says, When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart’s delight. 

When you go to church with a posture of faith, you should leave feeling stronger and happier. If you never think once again about the Words you heard, but you received them with faith, the Word will do the rest, just like after you eat you don’t keep thinking about the food (you move on with life), but the food is doing what it’s supposed to do.

So, yes, we’re coming to the Lord’s Prayer in John 17 to learn how to pray, but more importantly, we’re coming to delight in how Jesus prayed. We’re coming to receive strength and joy from how he prayed.

A key focus of the prayer today is the world and how the identity of the disciples does not come from the world, and yet they have a mission to the world.

Not of the world

John 17:13 
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.  

So far Jesus has prayed for the Father’s glory and his own glory as he’s finishing his earthly mission. He’s prayed for the disciples, mainly for the Father’s protection over them. And we noted last week that Jesus prayed from his fullness from the Father – and, again, it affected me deeply when I saw that pattern.

In these verses he continues praying for the disciples in relation to the world. He begins by saying, I am coming to you now. We’ve been seeing how focused Jesus was on returning to the Father. Then he says, but I say these things while I am in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. Notice that the things he says are for their joy. The things he says (his words), as we ingest them, are for our joy.

He wants his joy within us, the full measure of it.

John 17:14
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.  

When the disciples receive Jesus’ words, the world has a hostile reaction. The reason for the hostility, the hatred, actually, is that the disciples are not of the world any more than Jesus is of the world.

Jesus came from the Father. With his coming he brought a substance from heaven, from the Father, that is foreign to the world, and that is his word. The world is allergic to this substance. It convulses with hatred toward this substance and toward those who carry it – because part of Jesus’ mission was to deposit that substance, God’s word, into the hearts of his followers.

Once we receive the word of God, we become people not of the world. We need to think about how strange this is. You and I are born into the world, most of us into families and specific cultures, and we grow up as citizens of the world with the values and ways of thinking of the world. But then we encounter the word of God, the main content of which is the gospel, at the center of which is Jesus, and if we receive him (the Word), our DNA changes, so to speak, and we are now not of the world.

What changed? Because we’re still part of our families and cultures; we still look the same way and do a lot of the same things as before. So what changed? Our citizenship. Our identity.

Jesus says, they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. Jesus is not of this world, and those who receive his word are also not of this world. He says it twice. In verse 14 he says, they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. In verse 16 he says, They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Did you know that you have more in common with a Christian from Nepal than with a Michigander that doesn’t know Christ?  If you’re a Democrat, did you know you have more in common with a Christian who is a Republican than with a Democrat who doesn’t know Christ? (The same is true the other way around.)

Or if you’re a capitalist, did you know you have more in common with a Christian who is a communist than with a capitalist who doesn’t know Christ? And if you’re thinking, How dare you assume that a communist and a capitalist can be Christians? I’d say, How dare you assume they cannot?

The reason we’d feel more at home with a fellow capitalist or a fellow Democrat/Republican (whatever your party) is that we identify more with our tribes in this world than with our citizenship in heaven and our blood brothers and sisters with whom we share the blood of Christ.

Even though we’re no longer of the world, we’re still in the world, and Jesus doesn’t think we should be taken out of it. What we need is protection.

Segments of the Christian church throughout history have thought that what they need to do is leave the world. There are Christian communities that try hard to become completely their own society and not depend on or interact with the world. But Jesus, knowing how intense the world’s hatred would get, did not ask the Father to take us out of the world. He asked for his protection from the evil one.

Don’t fear the world or the world’s darkness. Jesus is not afraid that we’re in the world. He knows the enemy of his people is real and vicious, but the Father’s protection is greater.

Sanctified for the world

John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

The word “sanctify” comes from the same root for the word “holy.” Holiness is an attribute of God. It speaks of his transcendence, his otherness. Nothing in all creation is like God. There is no hint of evil in him.

The angels sing, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty (Isaiah 6:3). So pure, majestic, and different is God that the word holy must reverberate, holy, holy, holy.

Anything in creation, then, that is set apart for service to God becomes holy and must be holy. For example, Aron and his sons were “set apart,” sanctified, for service to God (Exodus 28:41). All the utensils for use in the temple were set apart, holy.

The prophet Jeremiah was set apart for service to God. God says, Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

When someone became sanctified, set apart for God, there were instructions given for how to worship and how to behave morally. Israel was not to worship like the nations. A moral transformation had to take place. This is why in the book of Leviticus, God gives his people Israel all kinds of instructions for how not to defile themselves, and then he says, be holy because I am holy (Leviticus 11:45).

Jesus is praying the same for his disciples. He prays, sanctify them, set them apart for yourself, for your purposes. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

We are sanctified by the truth. And what is truth? The Word of God.

Our holiness is spoken of in two ways in the New Testament. On one hand, we are holy because we are in Christ, and he is holy. This is our positional holiness. This is why Christians are called saints in the NT. It’s the same word for “holy.” Holy ones. It’s almost a title the way Paul uses it, especially in the greeting of some of his letters. To God’s holy people. We have positional holiness.

On the other hand, we must grow in our holiness. We must become holy as our God is holy. This is the Christian doctrine of sanctification. We grow in Christlikeness as we walk with his Spirit, who is holy.

In sum, positionally we are holy AND we must become holy. It’s as if God said to us, You are holy, therefore become holy. You might say, That doesn’t make any sense. Are we holy, or do we have to become holy? YES. We are holy (in Christ), we must act in a holy manner.

John 17:19 
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus set himself apart for service to God, but the purpose of his holy service was his people, that is, our redemption. He being the holy one gave himself up for us, so that by his holy sacrifice we might become holy. And just like he sanctified himself for us, we also become sanctified for the world. The holier we become, the more of service we can be to the world. If we don’t become truly sanctified, we have no witness to the world.

When I came into the community of the church, I was 18 years old, and I had never seen anything like it. And I remember asking Christians who were a few years older than me, Are you telling me these people are not sleeping around? People are dating, and they’re not having sex? They don’t lie? They don’t curse? They treated each other like brothers and sisters. They were in love with Jesus and wanted others to fall in love with him. Their worship of Jesus mattered to them. They were clearly set apart from the world. And I found myself at the same time attracted to their way of life and deeply challenged because I had never seen anything like it.

Our holiness is for the world, for those Christ will call out of the world through our witness in word and deed. 

Sent into the world

John 17:18
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Another part of our identity is that we are sent into the world as [Jesus] was sent into the world. Do you see what he’s saying in these verses? We are not of this world—he says it twice—but we are sent into this world, and we are sanctified for this world, as witnesses to the world.
 

• As Jesus was full of joy, the disciples are to be full of his joy. Verse 13b, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
• As Jesus was not of the world, the disciples are not of this world. Verse 14b, they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. Verse 16, They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 
• As Jesus was sanctified, the disciples are to be sanctified. Verse 19, For them I sanctified myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 
• As Jesus was sent into the world, the disciples are sent into the world. Verse 18, As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 

Even though the world hates his followers, joy is still possible. Because he gives us the full measure of his joy. 

Even though we don’t belong to the world, we are sent into the world. We’re not supposed to leave the world, hate the world, complain about the world, retreat from the world. But neither are we supposed to be like the world or imitate the world. 

We are sanctified for the world. We are made different for the world. But that’s very challenging. What’s easier is to hate the world back. You hate us. We hate you. What’s easier is to leave the world. I want to be like my Father in heaven, so I don’t want to have anything to do with you. What’s easier is to be like the world. Yes, I like Jesus, but I also like the world. I like its glitz. I like its money. I like its perks. I like it. 

All of those postures are easier, and I’m telling you, all of us struggle at least with one of those. For me, I don’t hate the world, and I don’t really want to be like it. The one I find myself having to fight is wanting to leave the world. I like my Father and I like his people, and I could just do all of my life there. 

Jesus labors in this prayer to help us see that we are made different for the world. Don’t hate the world. Don’t leave the world. Don’t be like the world. Be different for the world. 

The early Christians, by the power of the Spirit, made a mark on the Roman world precisely because they were different for the sake of the world. The Epistle to Diognetus (a Christian apologetic text, dated to the second century) lists 17 characteristics of theses early Christians.  

1. For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom.  
2. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric lifestyle.  
3. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious men, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do.  
4. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.  
5. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign.  
6. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not destroy their offspring.  
7. They share their food but not their wives.  
8. They are “in the flesh,” but they do not live “according to the flesh.”  
9. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.  
10. They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws.  
11. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted.  
12. They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life.  
13. They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything.  
14. They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated.  
15. They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect.
16. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life.  
17. By the Jews they are assaulted as foreigners, and by the Greeks they are persecuted, yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility. 

The early Christians at their best didn’t hate the world, didn’t leave the world, didn’t behave like the world. They were different for the world. That’s what the Lord prayed for us.  

Let’s pray that our identity would come from the Savior. That we may have his joy in us more than the world’s angst and anger. That we would know and believe that our citizenship is in heaven, that we are not of the world as he is not of the world. 

Let’s pray that we may be sanctified, made holy, different, for the sake of the world, so that our witness might be compelling. That we would go into the world because Jesus sends us into it, just as he was sent into the world.