Jesus Praying for His Apostles, Part 2

By S. Lewis Johnson, Jr. [1]

Introduction

The Issue of Separation

Important ancient and contemporary issues surface in this third section of our Lord’s highpriestly prayer. For example, one of the ancient issues that the church has struggled with is the problem of the separation of the church from the world. In fact, the issue is one that was raised by the Lord Himself in His gift of the Law of Moses to God’s covenant nation, Israel. To Israel Moses wrote, “But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which Have Separated You From Other People” (Lev. 20:24). Thus, the spirit of separation was written into the early history of Israel. One thinks of the words of our Lord Jesus to the early disciples:

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they Shall Separate You from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets (Luke 6:22–23).

And, further, special mention could be made of the final separation that shall characterize the nations. In His parable of the sheep and goat nations Jesus said, “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall Separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left” (Matt. 25:32–33).

And then there is Paul’s word to the church today:

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and Be Ye Separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16–18).

“Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned” (Hos. 7:8) is one of the prophets’ memorable utterances, and George Adam Smith’s famous comment was, “How better describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone?” [2] Loss of conviction of the truth of God leaves us a neutral clod, neither an excusable pagan, nor an able witness to the world. And so often the church of Jesus Christ bypasses the challenge by either disappearing from the world into itself or by merging with the world. The lukewarmness of the church evokes its disgorgement by the Lord (cf. Rev. 3:16).

The false separation of the monastics and of many of the pietists is not to be replaced by the rigid second-degree separation of the fundamentalists. But, when we have said that, there is still a biblical doctrine of the separation of believers from unbelievers. There is a true separation from the worldliness of the world, which is ultimately enmity against God. And to permit the world to take the place of the Lord’s proper pre-eminence in the believer’s life is to be guilty of spiritual adultery. Separation in the biblical sense, then, is neither isolation nor amalgamation. In our Lord’s words it is to be in the world, but not of the world (cf. John 17:11, 16), in the world as Christ’s bold witness to His truth and life, and yet not possessed of the spirit of the world with the world’s interests, aims, and goals.

A contemporary issue that also emerges here is the question of the nature of the church’s mission. Is it political, as so much of Christendom seems to think it is? In this regard I was a bit encouraged to read the admission of a prominent liberal that the zeal of “mainline” Protestants to correct social ills has left them open to the charge of politicizing the faith. [3] Dr. James Wall, who made the admission, is the editor of the influential liberal paper, The Christian Century. Dr. Wall has been one of the most vociferous in pushing this approach to the advance of the Christian faith. He has admitted that the task uniquely belonging to the church, that of standing for morality and spirituality, has been neglected. In this I would concur. In fact, the pages of that paper are so devoid of proclamation of the orthodox faith of historic Christianity, the faith of our Lord and the apostles, that many question its right to be called Christian at all. If one read only that paper, the unmistakable impression would be given that the church’s mission is wholly political, sociological, and economically anti-capitalistic. I must also confess that, since Dr. Wall’s confession of misplaced emphasis, I see no evidence of any change in the policy of the magazine. If the confession represented repentance, its fruits are still wanting.

The pronouncements of the World Council of Churches, made a number of years ago from the mountain of Vancouver, led one to believe that the focus of evil in the world was in the United States. There is evil in the United States (and in the World Council of Churches, incidentally), and orthodox Christianity has through the years proclaimed that with its publication of the biblical teaching of the depravity of man. What is striking is the fact that the World Council cannot bring itself to acknowledge that a significant source of evil resides in the Kremlin, as well as in itself. But evangelicals need not worry over the eventual victor in this struggle for the truth with its misguided and lukewarm professed adherents and its mortal enemies. Solzhenitsyn was right in optimistically declaring, when receiving the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion, “No matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity.” [4]

Our task is not political, nor social, nor economic, although such areas of life shall be radically transformed by the eventual establishment of truth in the world. Our task is the spiritual and moral task of publishing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall be everlastingly at it until our Lord comes. That is of the essence of evangelicalism, and we are not ashamed of it.

Many years ago John Hutton wrote:

Whenever lamps burn low in the Church, and love waxes cold, and watchers slumber while the Bridegroom tarries, the Restorer and Sustainer of His people is always standing at the door. He can create fresh witness to Himself in the most unlikely quarters, even as He raised up Paul from among the Pharisees, and Luther from among the Mendicants. The Gospel of the grace of God has been disproved a great number of times — it has been assailed and wounded and beaten down and left for dead — but it survives by the power of an endless life. Amid fightings within and fears without the modern Church can still say, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Who can guess what swift, incalculable revival Christ has in store for His desponding people. [5]

The Context

With these things in mind we turn again to John seventeen and our Lord’s great prayer. He has prayed for Himself (vv. 1–5), and He has turned His attention to His apostles (vv. 6–19). He has clarified their identity, emphasizing that they are the given ones, and that He has manifested the name of the Father to them, which revelation they have received and believed, having become convinced that He, the Son, has come from the Father (vv. 6–8). And Jesus has stated that He is selective in His prayers, praying for them but not for the world (vv. 9–10). What deep and abiding love He has for the ones the Father has given to Him!

In the verses before us in this section we listen carefully to His specific petitions for His beloved ones.

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth (John 17:11–19).

A Request for Preservation

The Nature of the Request (John 17:11, 15)

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.… I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

In verse nine Jesus had said, “I pray for them,” referring to the apostles. We now have a specific expansion of the words, and He tells us what He prays for them. The negative aspect comes first. “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me” is the rendering of the Authorized Version, but its text is probably not the best text at this point. The variant reading, most likely genuine, may be rendered “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, the name which thou hast given me.” We shall use that rendering.

The key word is keep (the NIV has “protect”). [6] In the twelfth verse Jesus says that He used to keep them, [7] but now He asks the Father to do the work. What He asks for is the incessant watchful care of the Father over His loved ones, or their eternal spiritual safety. And He asks that they be kept in the name that He has been given by the Father. The precise sense of the words is not fully clear, but He seems to be saying that He wishes them kept in a way that is true to the being and attributes of the Father as revealed in the ministry of Christ. The Father had given His name to the Son, that is, He had enabled the Son to be the perfect revelation of the nature and attributes of the Father (cf. 1:14, 18; 14:9, etc.). And the Son had demonstrated in His ministry the eternal love, grace, concern, and mercy of the Father in the salvation of the apostles. His person, His words, and His redeeming work have revealed Him to be the divine revelation of the redeeming Father. And Jesus prays that they may be kept in the sphere of and by the power of that sovereign name.

In Calvin’s words, “He brooded them under his wings as a hen doth her chickens; but now, when he departeth he prayeth his Father to cover them with his safeguard.” [8]

Today is the day of the necessity of security, illustrated by the fact that our home was broken into by burglars twice in one year. Fortunately our security system, an electronic one, worked, and a minimum of damage was done. A number of years back a Dallas newspaper carried a lengthy article noting that it had become almost a common thing for new homes in the Dallas area to be constructed with security systems as standard equipment due to problems with thieves and burglars. Real spiritual security is found only in the Father’s keeping power. Alarm systems fail, but He never does. As the psalmist says, “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand” (Psa. 121:4–5). What a comfort that is!

The Need of the Request (John 17:11a, 12-15)

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.… While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Earlier in His ministry the Lord had said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31–32). Well, not only do the apostles need protection from the Evil One, they need strength for dealing with the flesh and the world (cf. vv. 12, 14). There is safekeeping for them in the world and from the flesh, if His Father and theirs, the source of holiness, spreads around them the power and protection of His nature and being, His name as revealed in the ministry and life of the Son. [9] This incessant protection was given them to the last, till they all fell asleep in the Lord Jesus and joined Him in heaven above. They found the name of God a strong tower. They ran into it and found safety.

Twice in the section Jesus says, “I come to thee” (cf. vv. 11, 13), and one senses from the words the longing of the Son for the Father’s presence. And what a joy it will be to join them in the eternal embrace of an eternal union.

The term “Holy Father” is a unique designation of the Father, but it is a beautifully significant one, for His holiness is a guarantee that He will engage Himself in keeping them from the Evil One.

“The name which thou hast given me” occurs in both verses eleven and twelve and, as I intimated above, it points to the Son as the full and final revealer of the Father. In fact, it establishes the Son as the one who is in charge of the manifestation of the Father’s glory (cf. Matt. 11:25–27).

But what is meant by the words, “and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition”? The reference, of course, is to Judas, but the question is, “Was he one of the given ones, and did he lose that position?” It seems clear from two other passages that he was not one of them. In chapter thirteen, verses eighteen and nineteen, Jesus said, “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.” This plainly says that Judas was not one of the chosen ones. And in chapter eighteen and verse nine, in commenting on our Lord’s request to the soldiers, who had come to arrest Him, that they let the eleven go, John wrote, “That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.” From this it is plain that Judas was not one of the given ones.

If there is any question about this, perhaps Moule’s words should be pondered. He has written:

Are we to infer from the word “except” that the “son of ruin” was at first “given to the Son” by the Father, that he was once, in the deepest sense, one of Christ’s own, and then that he ceased to be such? We may say with decision that it is not so, in view of the very frequent use of the words εἰ μή, here rendered “except.” See, for one case out of many, Rev. xxi. 27; “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, except (εἰ μή) those that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” It is transparent there that the idiom means to say that whatever defileth shall not enter, while those who are written in the book shall enter. So here; “None of those given to Me has perished; the son of perishing has perished.” [10]

It is our Lord’s desire that “they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (cf. v. 13). The joy would come by the knowledge of the risen Savior, the indwelling of the Paraclete, and the keeping power of a heavenly Father.

“I have given them thy word,” our Lord continues. And the result has been that “the world hath hated them” (cf. v. 14). He had lodged the Word within them (cf. 1 Pet. 1:23), and they had unpurposefully lived so as to disturb and annoy and anger those with whom they came into contact by the products of their new birth and nature. They had become salt in the depraved wounds of the world. The word had not made them “socially repulsive, religiously arrogant, aggressively hostile towards the common life of their time. Nothing could be further from the fact,” as Moule has pointed out. [11] But their new birth and new nature, with the heavenly hopes, concerns, and goals that they produced, gave them a convicting influence that the world could not take without offence. The world of the world and the world of the saints are different and, if we live by the concerns of the heavenly realm, we shall never feel at home in this world, and this world will never feel at ease with us. It is as simple as that.

These are the continuation of the hatreds that have characterized the saints through the centuries of Old Testament times and those of New Testament times as well. From Nero to Diocletian, from Chrysostom to the Waldensians, the Mystics, the Reformers, the Huguenots, and the early Methodists to the present time our Lord’s own, the saints, have been in process of fulfillment. And not only have they been attacked physically and forced to experience the terrors of violence. They have also been attacked by the scorn and laughter of their enemies, sometimes the worst form of terror for the saints to take. Since we are not of the world, just as He is not of the world, this is our blessed calling. And so we give thanks to the Lord from heaven, who is “no product of mundane causes, no outflow of mere developments of cosmical history, however fast in depth and length; no creation of earth-born enthusiasms, or of imaginations, however powerful.” [12] He is, indeed, the Lord from heaven, and His born ones are heavenly, too (cf. Phil. 3:20). Let us live according to our home and calling as His ambassadors in a foreign land.

It is clear that the early church was not isolationist, for if they had been so, then the world would not have had the contact with them necessary to develop its animosity to them. Nor did the early church amalgamate with the world, until the days of Constantine. They were in the world, but not of the world, as we, too, are to be.

I love the description of Thomas Chalmers given by Lord Roseberry. He described that great Scottish Calvinist theologian and churchman as “a man, bustling, striving, organising, speaking and preaching with the dust and fire of the world on his clothes, but carrying his shrine with him everywhere.” [13] That is a description of a Christian man who lived and worked in the world, but was not of it.

A Request for Consecration

The Preparation for It (John 17:16)

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

The positive aspect of His intercession now comes to the fore. The basis of the intercession, His prayer for their sanctification, is mentioned first in the words, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (v. 16). Because of this, they are suitable for divine commitment and usefulness.

The Declaration of It (John 17:17)

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

The petition for them follows, “Sanctify them through (literally, “in”) thy truth: thy word is truth.” The word to sanctify is a biblical term. While there is a closely related Greek word used in Classical Greek, the word used in the New Testament and in the Greek Old Testament is a variant confined to biblical usage. [14] It means “to set apart and dedicate” a person or thing to God’s service and, more precisely, “to dedicate as a sacrifice” (cf. Jer. 1:5; Deut. 15:19, 21: sanctify and sacrifice become synonymous). The word, then, had a double meaning. It denoted the consecration of a man to God’s service, implying that he is separated and made righteous in that, or it denoted the dedication to sacrifice of that which was already without blemish.

Now let us see what this means for our Lord’s intercession. His petition, “sanctify them,” must refer to the enduement of them with power and purpose in the truth, in order that they may be sent forth into the world as God’s righteous men doing His service, even unto a sacrificial death, if that may be necessary (cf. 2 Tim. 2:21). Even regenerated sons need divine gracious power to live to His glory. So, “consecrate their hearts to the message of the Godhead to man, so that they may be ‘vessels meet’ for divine service.”

The “truth” is the message about the Father in Christ, that which is now contained in the Bible. That is to be the surrounding, constraining, and preserving environment of them in their work.

One should notice that here the word sanctify is not very closely related to what we call the doctrine of progressive sanctification, namely, the doctrine of the believer’s progressive growth in maturity in grace. It is not so much growth here, but going. The apostles are being sent forth in the world as the bearers of the message of God. The objective work of dissemination is in view.

The Motivation of It (John 17:18-19)

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

The Savior’s commissioning of them as His messengers now concerns Him. He prays, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (v. 18). They are sent to continue His work, and what a privilege that is. My mind goes to Luke’s words at the beginning of his story of the history of the early church. The church’s historian wrote, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:1–2). The important words are, “began both to do and teach,” for they indicate that, while Luke’s Gospel is the beginning of our Lord’s ministry of doing and teaching, Luke thinks of the Book of the Acts as the continuation of the ministry of Jesus, only now in a different form. Then He was personally and physically present here, but now He continues His ministry through His body of believers. Remember His promise after His resurrection, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (cf. Matt. 28:20). As their constant spiritual companion He continues His work in them, and in their successors. And just as He not only preached, so they will not only represent Him by preaching. His life was also a message, and theirs, too, is to be a message, for they are to be “epistles of Christ,” known and read by those with whom they come into contact. Messages, and not simply messengers, is their calling.

For the apostles it is not a man but the Son of God upon whom they rely. I have referred previously to Lenin as an illustration of dedication to a cause, and the results that often come from an intense devotion to a purpose. There is a pretty baby picture of Lenin at the age of four. He is round-faced and has curly blond hair. There is a faint smile on his face with its deep-set eyes. The Russians have distributed it in millions and millions of copies. One of their astronauts took one with him when he orbited the earth in 1962. In April of the next year he presented the picture to the Central Museum of V. I. Lenin in Moscow. Before the communist revolution it was customary for an icon of the Virgin Mary or of Christ or one of the saints to hang between candles in a high corner of the living room of Russian families. The substitution of the picture of Lenin was then welcomed by the communists, and it was lit by an electric bulb. “Lenin is always with us,” read a frequent headline in the newspapers of the former U. S. S. R. The word Lenin attached to a policy or a theory lifted it beyond dispute, and a quotation from Lenin would win an argument. In other words, the Kremlin encouraged Lenin worship, accompanying it with assurances of his continual presence with good Russians. What an incalculable superior promise we have in our, “Lo, I am with you alway!”

And, finally, Jesus concludes the section with, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through (lit., “in”) the truth” (17:19). There are several things to note about this statement in His petition. First, in the expression “I sanctify myself” we are not to understand Him to be saying that He is making Himself holy. That He already is, was, and ever shall be. He did not make Himself righteous that the apostles might have an example for imitation. The reference is clearly to His setting Himself apart for divine service that they, too, might be set apart. The thought of sacrifice, as we mentioned above, must be included in the idea that He is projecting. The Old Testament usage of consecration of a sacrifice to God is here, too. Thus, secondly, He refers to the work of the cross that is soon to be accomplished.

And, further, it is likely that He has in mind what will transpire soon at the Last Passover and the First Lord’s Supper, when He will explain His coming death and its relation to the consummation of the New Covenant in the ceremony of the bread and the wine. In other words, He here is “interpreting Mark xiv. 22–5.” [15] Cf. John 6:51, 53. And one also thinks of Philippians 2:5–8 and His obedience unto death, and such a death as a death of the cross.

The words, “that they also might be sanctified,” must be understood to include a setting apart in the surrounding, constraining, and preserving environment of the truth that might involve a sacrificial death. That, as we saw above, is the frequent sense of the usage of the word in the Old Testament.

And further, it must not be overlooked that Jesus considers His sanctification to be necessary for theirs. The “that” of the last clause introduces a clause of purpose. In other words, His saving work of the cross is necessary for all success in the ministry of Christ. We must never forget that.

Conclusion

As we have seen, some important ancient and contemporary issues are addressed by our Lord’s words in this section of His high-priestly prayer. The church is a commissioned representative of the Lord Jesus Christ to minister His and the Father’s truth in the world. They are a separated body, in the sense that their life and inmost disposition is not earthly but heavenly in their interests, concerns, and goals. But their separation is not isolation from the world, nor is it to lead to an amalgamation with the world. Our Lord’s words put it most succinctly and beautifully. We are in the world, but not of the world.

Further by our Lord’s petitions it has become clear that the mission of the church is not essentially a political, or sociological, or economic mission. It is a spiritual mission, a mission whose chief goal is to unfold to the world the truth of God, revealed in and through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:18; 20:30–31). And we, who belong to that church, are to be the purveyors of that undying truth.

The conviction that this is our mission is a necessity for its success. Not long ago I read an account of an incident in the life of the German poet, Heinrich Heine. He stood with a friend before the cathedral of Amiens in France.

Tell me, Heinrich, said his friend, why can’t people build piles like this any more?

Heine replied, “My dear friend, in those days people had convictions. We moderns have opinions. And it takes more than opinions to build a Gothic cathedral.” [16]

Notes

1. Bible teacher Lewis Johnson has been associated for many years with Believer’s Chapel in Dallas, Texas. He is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at Dallas Theological Seminary and also served as Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This is the sixteenth in a series of expositions on The Upper Room Discourse.
2. George Adam Smith, “The Book of the Twelve Prophets: Part I,” in The Expositor’s Bible, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, 6 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1943 [=1896], 4:510.
3. The Dallas Morning News, June 25, 1983.
4. Time, May 23, 1983.
5. The British Weekly, January 7, 1926.
6. τήρησον (tērēson).
7. The verb ἐτήρουν is in the imperfect tense. It is probably the customary imperfect, expressing durative action in past time.
8. The more recent Parker edition and translation of Calvin’s commentary has the words, “he cherished them under His wing,” a rather colorless translation. I prefer “He brooded them.” Cf. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries: The Gospel according to St John 11–21 and the First Epistle of John, eds. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, trans. T. H. L. Parker (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 141–142.
9. Henry Barclay Swete, The Last Discourse and Prayer of our Lord: A Study of St. John XIV-XVII (London: Macmillan and Co., 1914), 168–69.
10. H. C. G. Moule, The High Priestly Prayer: A Devotional Commentary on the Seventeenth Chapter of St John (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1907), 110.
11. H. C. G. Moule, The High Priestly Prayer, 126.
12. H. C. G. Moule, The High Priestly Prayer, 131–32.
13. Arthur John Gossip, “Exposition: The Gospel according to St. John,” The Interpreter’s Bible, ed. George Arthur Buttrick, 12 vols., (Nashville: Abingdon, 1952), 8:750. Italics added.
14. ἁγιάζω (hagiazō); cf. the classical term ἁγίζω (hagizō).
15. Edwyn Clement Hoskyns, The Fourth Gospel, 2d ed. revised, ed. Francis Noel Davey (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1947), 504.
16. Leonard I. Sweet, “Not All Cats Are Gray: Beyond Liberalism’s Uncertain Faith,” The Christian Century (June 23-30, 1982): 721.