Safe in Hostile Territory
Rev. Res Spears
Beyond the Cross: Jesus’ Prayer for You and Me • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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On one of my early trips to Haiti, Pastor Chris and I went up one of the mountains near Montrouis to scout out some new areas where we could send teams to evangelize.
Halfway up the mountain, as we crossed a little bridge over a stream, we saw a couple of men dancing and chanting by the water near the bridge. So, of course, Chris stopped the truck to get out and talk to them.
Both were carrying machetes, as many Haitian men do. As we got out of the truck, he told me they were conducting a voodoo ritual and said we needed to be ready to run back to the truck if things got ugly.
I didn’t speak any Kreyol at the time, so I just hung back and watched the interaction. It seemed to me that were in hostile territory, so I needed to be alert.
Within a few short minutes, Chris had the men laughing, and he turned to me and said, “Now would be a good time for us to leave.”
So, we did. And we headed up the mountain further, until we came to a tiny village, where yet another machete-wielding man came out to greet us.
That was when I knew that Haiti was going to be an interesting place.
But it IS hostile territory. Even more so, now that the gangs rule the country.
But the truth is that, for followers of Jesus, this whole WORLD is hostile territory. Nobody knew that better than Jesus. And He knew that He’d soon be leaving His disciples IN that hostile world.
So, He prayed for them, even when we might’ve expected Him to have His mind on what was about to happen to Him.
As we continue our study of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John, chapter 17, we’ll see today that He prayed that we’d be kept safe from Satan’s attacks. He prayed that we’d have joy in the midst of the hostility.
And He prayed that we’d experience the unity of love and the unity of purpose that had been the eternal hallmark of His relationship with His Father.
We’re going to look at verses 9 through 19 today. Let’s read them together, and then we’ll dig into the text.
9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.
11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Now, we should note that Jesus is praying specifically for His disciples here — and, by extension, for those who’d come to faith in Him through their witness.
He’s not praying for the world here, because the world has declared itself opposed to God and to His purposes.
Jesus prayed for non-believers at other points of His ministry, perhaps most notably from the cross itself, where He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
But here in the Upper Room, on the night He knew would be the last before His crucifixion, He prayed for His disciples.
He knew the world would go on doing what the world does. What He wanted to be sure of, however, was that His disciples would remain loyal to Him and that THEY would do what He was sending them to do.
God loves the world — we know that from John 3:16. But He has a special interest in those who belong to Him because of their faith in Jesus.
He’d been glorified through the faith of the 11 believing disciples. But from the unbelieving world, He’d received rejection. And it would be the unbelieving world that conspired to crucify Him unjustly.
And knowing He’d soon be gone from the midst of those who loved and followed Him, He prays here for God to watch over and empower them as His own.
“I am no longer in the world,” He says in verse 11.
Jesus is speaking proleptically here. That means He’s anticipating His return to heaven. He’s speaking as if it’s already a done deal.
Nothing was going to keep Him from the cross, from the resurrection or from His ascension back to heaven, so He could speak as if all of it had already taken place.
“I come to you,” He says. In prayer, perhaps. Or, more likely, He’s speaking proleptically here, too. We might translate this statement as “I AM COMING to you.”
Jesus would no longer be physically present in the lives of His disciples. They’d be in hostile territory without Him.
So, He asks that God would keep them in His name — in other words, keep them under His authority, or keep them BY His authority.
He’s praying that God would keep them loyal to Jesus, even in the midst of the pressures they’d face to betray that loyalty.
And in their shared loyalty to Jesus and to the message of the gospel, they would be experience the family unity of those who had been adopted into the family of God.
They’d experience unity of love and unity of purpose. They’d be one, even as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.
The disciples already had seen one of their number leave, though they didn’t yet understand that Judas would betray Jesus in just a couple of hours. Now, Jesus was asking God to ensure that none of the remaining 11 would drift away.
He’d kept the 11 loyal to God and had guarded them against external attacks while He was with them.
But what about Judas, whom Jesus had already identified as the one who’d betray Him and who’d already left to begin his betrayal? Was Judas’ betrayal a failure on Jesus’ part?
No, Judas’ betrayal doesn’t mean that Jesus failed. Rather, it proves that Scripture is reliable, because the Old Testament, in at least two places, prophesied that the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend.
Listen to what David, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, prophesied in the 41st Psalm:
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.
Think about this. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him when he chose Judas as a disciple. And yet, knowing Judas would betray Him, and knowing the great cost of that betrayal, Jesus still chose him to be one of His disciples.
Judas was with Jesus for nearly His entire earthly ministry. He’d seen the miracles. He’d heard the teaching. He’d seen the character of God Himself revealed in Jesus.
He’d even been sent out on mission, along with 71 other of Jesus’ followers, where he preached the gospel and did miracles in the name of Jesus.
But still, Judas, the son of perdition or son of destruction, chose to reject Jesus. The Messiah who’d come wasn’t the Messiah he’d wanted.
He wasn’t going to make them a lot of money or drive out the Roman occupiers. And that’s what Judas and so many others of that time were looking for in a Messiah.
So, instead of being loyal to Jesus, who’d come to give life in abundance, Judas chose to be loyal to Satan, the one who comes to kill and destroy.
He’d made himself a son of destruction. And in the end, Satan destroyed him.
And all of this would fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, proving not that Jesus failed with Judas, but that the Scriptures are trustworthy.
But even in the face of Judas’ impending betrayal, Jesus still had joy, which should be a lesson to us. Joy doesn’t depend on circumstances. Joy is the result of fellowship with God.
Listen to what one commentator says about this verse:
“A miserable Christian is … a self-contradiction. A joyless Christian is one who is out of communion with the Father: other objects have engaged his heart, and in consequence he walks not in the light of [God’s love]. What is the remedy? To confess our sins to God; to put away everything which hinders our communion with Him; to make regular use of the means which He has graciously provided for the maintenance of our joy—the word, prayer, meditation, the daily occupation of the heart with Christ, dwelling constantly on the glorious future that awaits us, proclaiming to others the unsearchable riches of Christ.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 17:13, quoting Pink.]
And so, Jesus could have joy, even as He looked ahead to the brutality He’d experience in the coming hours, because He was in perfect fellowship with His Father.
Here, He says that He’s praying these things “in the world” — in other words, out loud — so His disciples could experience the joy He had.
And what a selfless prayer that is. Imagine knowing that you’re about to be betrayed by a friend, arrested illegally, tried unjustly, beaten mercilessly, and then murdered brutally, and yet praying that your loved ones would have joy.
Jesus knew His disciples would be overcome by grief and fear following His resurrection. But He wanted them to remember what He’d prayed for them.
He wanted them to remember THAT He’d prayed for them. And He wanted them to have the joy that comes only from communion with God.
What a loving God we serve!
So, Jesus is praying for His disciples to remain loyal, to be kept safe, and to be joyful. And in verse 14, we see the basis for His confidence that God would answer His prayer.
He’d given them God’s words. And the words He’d spoken to them had changed them. They were no longer of the world.
In other words, they’d become something different from the world. They’d been reborn through faith in Jesus as citizens of the kingdom of God. Hence, their character and their origin were both different from that of the lost world.
They were no longer loyal to the world and all its systems and lies and empty promises. Instead, they were loyal to God.
But they were in hostile territory, hated for their faith in Jesus just as He was hated for what He taught.
And, considering that, we might have expected Jesus to ask God to take the disciples OUT of the world, to take them out of hostile territory.
But that’s not what He prays. Look at verse 15. “I don’t ask You to take them out of the world,” He says, “but to keep them from the evil one.”
“Some individuals tend to withdraw from a disagreeable and dangerous environment, while others prefer to blend into it. Jesus’ will, however, was that His disciples should do neither of these things. He wanted them to remain loyal to God while actively serving as His ambassadors to the unsaved in a fallen world. Our sense of mission and our sense of identity should override our desire for comfort.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 17:15.]
We who’ve turned to Jesus in faith are no longer OF the world, but we ARE still IN the world. In fact, in verse 18, Jesus says He’s sent His disciples (and us, by extension) INTO the world.
Even though, by grace working through faith, we’re no longer OF the world, we’ve been kept IN the world for a purpose: To be sent INTO the world the way Jesus was sent into the world.
So, knowing that He has a mission for His followers, instead of asking His Father to take believers out of the world, He asks that we be kept from the power of Satan, the ruler of this world.
Folks, if you’ve turned to Jesus in faith, you’re a foreigner in a strange and hostile land. There are dangers all around. The world has countless ways of drawing your loyalty from Jesus.
So, you need to be kept from the power of the evil one, just as the disciples needed that.
“Even though Satan now stands condemned, he still rules the world by his influence and deception.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 17:15.]
So, how can you be kept safe? How can you be sure that your loyalty to God doesn’t waver, that you’re not enticed away from Him by all that the world offers you? How can you be kept from falling prey to the lies the world wants you to believe?
Look at verse 17. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
How do you keep from falling prey to the lies of the world? By having a firm grasp of the truth!
We who follow Jesus in faith are kept loyal, safe, and joyful through our relationship to the truth. We’re kept through God’s word.
Listen, the lies of the world usually aren’t all that obvious. They often sound like they make sense. Follow your heart, they say. You’re basically a good person, they say. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, they tell you that you’re too far gone to be saved.
From the perspective of the natural man, these things make sense. But in the light of truth — in the light of God’s word — the lies are exposed for what they are.
But you won’t recognize them as lies unless you’re on a first-name basis with the one who IS truth and unless you’re familiar with the truth of His word.
Warren Wiersbe put it this way: “With the mind, we learn God’s truth through the Word. With the heart, we love God’s truth, His Son. With the will, we yield to the Spirit [of truth] and live God’s truth day by day. It takes all three for a balanced experience of sanctification.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 17:17.]
Now, sanctification means being set apart for God’s service. So, Jesus wants us to have a relationship to the truth that will enable us to serve God.
Just as He’d been sent by God on a mission into the world, He’d soon send His disciples on their own mission into the world. And they’d need to be in constant communion with the truth in order to be effective in that mission.
Jesus had devoted Himself to God’s mission, in part, for the sake of His disciples and for those who’d come to faith in Him through their witness.
“He is our example of perfect sanctification, and His sanctification makes ours possible. Without the sacrificial death of Jesus there would be no salvation and no mission for us. There would be no sanctification for us either. One of the purposes of Jesus’ death was to set believers apart to God, and His mission, in order for them to function as priests in the world.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 17:19.]
Listen, you were saved for a purpose. You were saved to glorify Jesus by being like Him and by sharing His mission to the lost world.
So, even your salvation isn’t about YOU. You certainly benefit from it, but the blessing of salvation is about blessing OTHERS. You’ve been sent into the world to bring others to Jesus.
And you can only be effective in that mission to the degree that you have communion with Jesus and with God, to the extent that you’re walking BY the Spirit, to the extent that you’re rooted in the TRUTH.
This week, I want to encourage you to allow yourself to be sanctified by the truth of God’s word. Make a commitment today to learning it, to studying it, to meditating on it, to engraving it on your very heart.
When you do that, you’ll find that Satan can’t touch you. You’ll find that nobody and nothing can steal your joy. And when the Church does that, we find that nothing can divide us.
We’re in hostile territory, folks. But we have no need for fear, because God is with us.
So, let’s go out and do the work He’s given us to do. Let’s be loyal to Jesus.
