By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 1045am Svc, 2010-08-15

Text: John 17:6-26

I am sure we all know that yesterday was a historic day for Singapore - the day when the first Youth Olympic Games was launched on our shores. The Olympic Games is recognized today as the most important sports event in the world, participated by people from over 200 countries. What many of us may not know is that the Olympic Games was actually the result of an idea that a young Frenchman had in the year 1889. His name was Pierre de Coubertin. At that time the world was plagued by numerous wars and conflicts. Having lived through a terrible war in which his own country was defeated, Coubertin was looking for a way to promote peace and harmony between nations.

He found his answer in the Olympic Games that was held in Greece in ancient times - it was the only time when all Greek city states that fought against one another called for a truce so that their athletes could travel and compete in the games safely. Coubertin's idea was to revive the Olympics and make it an international event held in a different country every 4 years. However his idea was not well-received at first and he faced a lot of difficulties. France refused to participate in the games because Germany was in it. Then Germany wanted to withdraw. Then the Greeks did not want to host the games unless they could run the whole show by themselves. Nevertheless Coubertin pressed on and the first Olympic Games was finally launched in 1896 with 241 athletes from 14 countries. It turned to be a great success and paved the way to launch other Olympic events like the Winter Olympics in 1921, the Paralympics in 1960, and the Youth Olympics yesterday. All this began with one man's idea: An idea to bring all the world's nations together for a common interest in sports.

This morning we are going to see something even better than this. We are going to see how one prayer made by our Lord Jesus Christ spawned a growing movement that eventually brought people from every race, language and nationality together into one through a common faith and for a common goal. This is the longest recorded prayer that Jesus ever made. It was made shortly before His arrest, trial and crucifixion. 

Listen to how Dr David Allen describes it, 'It is the special and peculiar prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, to His agony, to be taken that very night, and be crucified the next morning, and laid in the grave within 24 hours of this prayer rising to heaven. Before He poured out His blood to redeem His people, He first poured out His soul in prayer and supplication for them. This is without question the most wonderful prayer that ever rose from earth to the Throne of God.' (p.10, Fitly Joined Together)

This prayer has also been an inspiration to God's people in all ages. When John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, was very sick on his deathbed, he called to his wife and said, 'Read me that Scripture where I first cast my anchor.' After he listened to the beautiful prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17, he seemed to forget his weakness. He began to pray, interceding earnestly for his fellowmen. He prayed for the ungodly who had thus far rejected the gospel. He pleaded in behalf of people who had been recently converted. And he requested protection for the Lord's servants, many of whom were facing persecution. As Knox prayed, his spirit went Home to be with the Lord. 

The main reason why this prayer is so wonderful and brings so much comfort, is that it reminds us that our Lord Jesus prays for us. He is interceding for us continually before God's throne. Turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews 7:25 'Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for them.' What is it that makes His intercession so important? How effective are the prayers that Christ makes for us in Heaven right now? We will catch a glimpse of the answers to these questions as we study the intercessory prayer that Jesus made on earth as recorded here in John 17. There are two important points that we can learn about the prayers Jesus makes for us: The first is that they

I. Will keep us safe, joyful, and holy in a sinful world (vv.6-19)

When we studied the first 5 verses of this prayer last month, we saw that Jesus began by praying for Himself. But now as we come to verse 6, we see that all His thoughts are directed toward the welfare of His disciples. We notice that there are almost 3 times more verses in this segment than in the previous segment where Jesus prayed for Himself. This shows that He was far more concerned about His disciples than about Himself.

He was very conscious about the weaknesses of His disciples in the face of the wickedness and distress that they would encounter in the world. In fact in the previous chapter of John, Jesus had already predicted that they would desert Him right at the moment of crisis 'Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.' (16:32) Jesus also knew that Peter, the chief of His disciples would publicly deny Him three times under intense pressure.

And yet, in spite of knowing all of this, He prayed for them with great confidence that they would all be kept by the Father's power and prepared for a future effective ministry. We see this in vv.11-14. He asked the Father to protect His disciples from the persecution of the world and from the plans of the Devil, because He was now going to leave them soon, and they would soon be on their own. Without Him, they would become quite vulnerable and weak and their faith might even fail. If that were to happen, then all the training that Jesus had invested in them for 3 years would be wasted, and the message of salvation would have perished with the disciples. So He prayed for their protection and preservation. 

Was His prayer answered? Yes, very evidently so, because when we read the book of Acts, we learn that this small little band of disciples eventually grew against all odds to become a strong movement that turned the whole world upside down with the Gospel. Since then, the prayers of our Lord Jesus have not failed to preserve His church throughout all ages and even up till today. The Gospel continues to go forth and bring salvation to thousands of souls everyday because Jesus is earnestly praying for all His people. And dearly beloved, it should bring us the greatest comfort and encouragement to know that if His prayer for His first disciples was able to protect and preserve them so well at that time, His prayers for us will also do the same for each of us right now.

Some of us are coping with unexpected setbacks in their life. One is a dear brother who is very actively serving the Lord in our church. A few weeks ago he experienced diarrhea and thought that it was just a bout of gastric flu. But after it did not respond to medication, his doctor conducted some tests, and discovered that he had stage 3 colo-rectal cancer. He took the news very well and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment to shrink the cancer before going for an operation. But what strikes me is that despite his illness he still continues to serve the Lord in ways that he still can serve. 

How is he able to do this? The prayers of Christ are obviously sustaining him. What is it then that makes the prayers of Christ for us so effective? I would like us to observe that there are three reasons given in this passage why the prayers of Jesus for us are guaranteed to protect and preserve us: 

Firstly His prayers are based on the God's ownership of our lives. Look at v.6 'I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.' Look also at vv.9 & 10, 'I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.' What all these verses emphasize is ownership: The disciples belong both to God the Father and God the Son. 

Therefore, if you are a believer, this is the basis on which Christ prays for you 'You are His!' You are very precious in His sight. Surely both Father and Son would do everything to protect what belongs to them. The words of a familiar hymn have put this across very well: 'The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake!'

Secondly, the prayers of Christ are based on His ministry of revealing God's Word to us. Look at how Jesus prayed for His 11 disciples in v.14 'I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.' In the same way Jesus prays for us that the Word of God He has invested in us will work powerfully in our lives to keep us faithful. And He knows precisely what that divine Word is able to do in our lives. Look at what He prays for in v.17 'Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.' Jesus knows that the Word He has invested in us can sanctify our lives by changing us from within, and He prays for that inward work of His Word in our lives.

Thirdly, the prayers of Christ are based on the Holiness of God and of Christ Himself. We notice that in v.11 Jesus refers to God as 'Holy Father.' In v.19, Jesus speaks of His own holiness as guaranteeing the maintenance of holiness in the lives of His disciples. 'And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.' The word 'to sanctify' means to set apart, or to make holy. Here Jesus says, 'I sanctify myself' - what did He mean by that? 

Not that He intended to make Himself more holy than He already was. Rather, it means that Jesus was devoting Himself to God completely by dying on the cross for His disciples. This would be the grounds for the maintenance of their holiness before God.

And now our Lord permanently bears on His body the marks of that act of sanctifying Himself -  the bleeding wounds inflicted on Him at Calvary. Whenever any accusations, questions or doubts arise about our sanctification, Jesus can immediately silence them by showing these wounds as the proof that our sins have already been fully dealt with on the cross. These wounds are irrevocable evidence that He has paid for all our sins and that all the wonderful spiritual blessings of sanctification - which include the development of a Christlike life, peace, joy, and strength for living - are now ours and they cannot be taken away from us. What great comfort we have therefore, from these words that Jesus said in v.19 '�And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.'

Thus we have seen that the prayers of Jesus are guaranteed to keep us because they are based on 3 things: God's ownership of our lives, His ministry of revealing God's Word to us, and the Holiness of God and of Jesus Himself. When we consider these 3 things on which His prayers for us are based, we can all see why no one can ever intercede for us better than Christ can. But the Roman Catholic Church would have us believe that the intercession of Mary is better than that of Christ because she was His mother. It would also have us believe that God has assigned a patron saint to intercede for every department of human life, so there is a patron saint of health, a patron saint of finance, a patron saint of transport, a patron saint of farmers, a patron saint of children, and special feasts are held in honour of each saint to solicit their prayers.

But none of these can be better intercessors for us than our Lord Jesus. Firstly, none of them can rightfully claim ownership of our lives. Secondly, none of them can plead for us on the basis of having invested God's Word in our lives. Thirdly, none of them can ever plead for us on the basis of his or her own sanctification for us, because no human being, not even the most godly saint in the world, can ever suffer and die on behalf of sinners. Therefore Jesus alone deserves that honour of being our intercessor. We must always trust in Him alone to help us and to keep us safe, joyful, and holy in a sinful world. That is the first point we learn from this passage about Christ's prayers for us.

Let us go on to look at the second point. In vv.20-26 we see that Christ's prayers for us:

II. Will keep us united in testifying for Him in the world. (vv.20-26)

In these last 7 verses of His prayer Jesus looked far beyond His own time on earth. He was now praying for all future believers in ages to come. That includes all of us here who believe in Christ. Look at v.20: 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.'

What did Jesus pray for all believers? That we might be one (This petition is mentioned altogether 4 times in this chapter - vv.11, 21,22 and 23). Why did Jesus pray that we might be one? One reason for this is that Jesus being omniscient, may have already foreseen the potential division between Jewish believers and Gentile believers in the church. He had foreseen the problems that the church faced after Acts chapter 10 when the Gospel crossed the threshold to the Gentiles which culminated in the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 to settle them. 

Perhaps Jesus had foreseen the difficulties that would exist when believers from different nations, cultures, backgrounds and interests come together to serve Him together as one. He would also have foreseen the problem between the Hebrew-speaking Jews and Greek-speaking Jews in Acts 6 which arose over the distribution of relief to the widows. He would also have known about the problems between rich believers and poor believers highlighted in James' epistle, and the differences over personalities in the church of Corinth where some were of Paul, some of Apollos, some of Cephas and some of Christ. He would also have foreseen the difficulties in the Philippian church caused by two women, Euodias and Syntyche, who could not agree with one another because of their different mindsets.

Perhaps Jesus had also foreseen how these differences would greatly disrupt their task of giving the same gospel message to the world. There is the danger that they would get so caught up in all kinds of disputes and disagreements that they would never be able to work together to accomplish God's Work of evangelism and missions. 

There is also the danger that the world would be turned away from Christ when they see the believers constantly quarelling and conflicting with one another. And there is also the danger that the preaching of the gospel would suffer and become quite distorted when each group insists on remaining distinct and have nothing to do with the rest. It was Christ's intention that His church will not suffer from these dangers, and so He prayed for unity. 

However, today there is a movement that tries to use this very passage to justify their goal of an unholy unity. The goal of this ecumenical movement is to unite all churches into a visible organization, a one-world church. The biggest ecumenical body today is the World Council of Churches which was started in 1948. Today it has a membership of 349 churches and denominations of every shade of doctrine. Those churches and denominations claim about 560 million Christians throughout more than 110 countries. 

The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council yet, but it has been actively participating in it, and is a member of some other ecumenical sub-groups like the National Council of Churches in Australia and the National Council of Churches in Brazil.

All ecumenists would claim that since our Lord prayed for unity in John 17, we should show the world that all Christians are united by forgetting our differences and joining hands together. But if we understand what kind of unity Jesus was praying for in this passage we will see how wrong it is to promote this kind of unity. What Jesus prayed for was not an ecumenical or organizational unity but a spiritual unity. Look at vv. 22-23 'And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.' These verses clearly speak of a unity that is based on the Lordship of Christ. It is only when we share Christ as our Lord, that we can be joined together as one.

But the Ecumenical movement does not have Christ as Lord. They seek to unite together every group, cult and religion that honours or does not honour Christ, including the Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. For example, in March 2005 when the World Council of Churches had its conference on Missions and Evangelism in Athens, the following statement was issued: 'As Christians we seek to build a new relationship with other religious traditions because we believe it to be intrinsic to the gospel message and inherent to our mission as co-workers with God in healing the world' 

Listen to what the South African Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, said in favour of the ecumenical movement: 'After all, God is not a Christian; Jesus was quite serious when He said that God was our Father and that we belonged all to one family, because in this family all, not some, are insiders. None is an outsider black and white, yellow and red, rich and poor, educated and non-educated, beautiful and not so beautiful, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, all belong, all are held in a divine embrace that will not let us go, for God has no enemies. Bush, Bin Laden, all belong, gay, lesbian, so-called straight, all belong and are loved, are precious.'

Dearly beloved, how can we have Christan unity with the Ecumenical movement when the main criterion for Christian unity - the Lordship of Christ - has been removed from it? Let us understand this carefully: The kind of unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17 is not a visible unity that we need to promote by organizing big conferences attended by thousands of people to make the world feel that Christians are a mighty force to reckon with. Rather, it was a unity of spirit, a unity of purpose in promoting His work and in honouring Christ alone as the only legitimate Saviour and Lord of this world. 

Everyone recognizes the great value of unity. I am sure you have heard the well-known saying, 'United we stand, divided we fall!' But the emphasis is often on the word 'we.' Unity for the sake of enabling a people to stand strong to face challenges can easily become a misplaced trust and can give us a false illusion of power. As believers we do not any more say, 'United we stand, divided we fall!' We would rather say, 'If God be for us who can be against us?' (Romans 8:31). Our trust is not in our unity, but in God who makes us one. And our goal for unity is to glorify the Lord, and not self. In contrast to this, the unity of the world always has man's glory as its ultimate goal. A case in point was the Tower of Babel where the people united themselves together to build a huge monument to make a name for themselves. You can read about this in Genesis 11.

We must always be careful not to import these worldly ideas of unity into our concept of Christian unity. When a church grows to a huge size like a megachurch there is sometimes the sinful tendency to put its trust in numbers rather than in the Lord, and to proudly glorify itself rather than the Lord. Learn a good lesson from how God reduced the united armies of Gideon from 30,000 to just 300, so that all the glory of his victory over the Midianites would clearly be God's alone. Unity is good, but only so far as it serves God's purposes, not ours. 

And we ought to pursue the right kind of unity - unity of spirit and purpose. Such spiritual unity can be seen whenever Christians from Bible-believing churches and from different parts of the world meet one another, fellowship together and work together to glorify Jesus Christ and promote His truth in the world, whether in small groups, in prayer meetings, or in conferences. This spiritual unity must be very important to us. In Ephesians 4:3 Paul says that, we must endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is a commitment that every member of the body of Christ must be willing to make.

And it can sometimes be a great challenge to do this. There are so many issues that can cause division among Christian brethren. Unity is disrupted whenever discord tears believers apart and sets us at variance with one another. And this is nothing else but the result of sin which still resides in our nature and makes us self-centered creatures. 

Whenever we have to face questions on what to do about issues where we differ from other Christians we can use a guideline provided by Peter Meiderlin, 'In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty and in all things charity.' If there is no agreement on essential doctrines (e.g. the inspiration of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, salvation by faith alone without works), then there is absolutely no basis for fellowship or for doing the Lord's work together. But if there is no agreement on non-essential doctrines (e.g. difference in church government, mode of baptism or views of Christ's return) then we can exercise Christian liberty and charity.

And whenever we see Bible-believing Christians enjoying fellowship together and serving Christ together we can say with the psalmist in Psalm 133:1 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together I unity.' How wonderful it is to know that through Christ's prayer for us in John 17 we can now enjoy this kind of oneness. How wonderful it is also to know that through His continuing prayers for us in heaven we will be kept safe, joyful and holy in the world. And how wonderful it is to know that Christ's prayers for us will always be heard and answered because of the special relationship He has with God the Father. May the Lord take these words and help us to apply them for His glory.

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