I Have Sent Them Into the World

[Read John 17:1-19]

Watch this video in honor of the 10^th anniversary of over 100,000 Christian persecuted in Mosul, Iraq by ISIS: Day of the Christian Martyr | 2024

Last week we prayed for the families of those Christians who were martyred in the Congo last week and for the Christians in the Congo. I did a little research on that issue this past week and came across this shocking statistic:  "Islamic militants affiliated to ISIS killed 639 Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo between January and June, 2024. This is according to a [report released by the Middle East Media Research Institute] (MEMRI), a US-based monitoring and analysis organization. The report revealed that out of the five African countries - DRC, Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon and Mali, 92% of the Christians fatalities happened in the DRC." (Here). One of the pastors in the Congo had this to say, “Really, it is prayer, nothing but prayer. We have understood that the objective of the ADF is to convert everyone into a Muslim and this is a persecution of a great level. We ask all Christians to continue to intercede for us.” (Reverend Aristote). So, I would encourage us to be continual and persistent in prayer for our brothers and sisters in these countries AND the many other countries around the world facing this level of persecution.

Stories like this bring us face to face with the reality that we’ve been talking about lately—that the world will hate us as Christians. Of course, most of us haven’t experienced anything like this in our own lives, but that doesn’t make it less true. The world will hate us.

It also can easily cause us to consider disengaging from the world. If engaging with the world means being killed by the world, what’s the point? Maybe it would be better for us to sneak off into a quiet place in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and keep to ourselves. Wouldn’t that be better and more productive than continually engaging with a world that hates us? Some people won’t want to go off into the woods, so they disengage in a different way—they keep their mouth shut, head down, and try not to talk about anything that may cause the world to hate them. Shouldn’t we just disengage and wash our hands clean from the world that hates us? What’s the point of engaging if it only makes them hate you more and possibly get yourself killed? To some degree, Jesus answers these questions in this morning’s passage.

He begins by asking the Father to glorify him. We read, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” (John 17:1–2, ESV). Now, pay attention to WHY Jesus is asking the Father to glorify him—it comes after the word “since”. Jesus is asking the Father to glorify him since he has been given authority to give eternal life to God’s people. Later Jesus says, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4, ESV). What was the work that God had given Jesus to do? To give eternal life to God’s people. Jesus says that the Father gave him a job to do, gave him the authority to do that job, and Jesus did the job, which glorified the Father. So, Jesus is asking the Father to do it again—glorify me, so that I can glorify you again—when he enters into his presence.

Jesus goes on to talk more about his work of giving eternal life to God’s people. He says, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (John 17:6, ESV). Jesus has manifested God’s name to his people. That’s just another way of saying revealed God’s name or that he has clearly shown them God’s name. We’ve talked about this in other places, but it’s a helpful reminder to talk a little about “the name of God” and what it means. It’s more than a name. The name of God is really the character of God—it’s who he is. So, when Jesus says that he revealed the name of God to his people, he’s really saying that he’s revealed God’s character clearly to God’s people.

Jesus goes on to talk about the fruit of that work. He says, “Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” (John 17:6–8, ESV). Again, notice that Jesus is talking about God’s people—those who were the Fathers, and whom the Father gave to Jesus. Although we’re not going to dive into this in this sermon, this is talking about election and predestination. Those whom God has given to Jesus have heard his message, have received his word, have kept his word, and have believed in Jesus Christ. This passage sounds very close to what has been called “the golden chain” of Romans 8: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29–30, ESV). This is the work that Jesus accomplished. God sent him into the world and gave him authority to give eternal life to God’s people—and those people heard the word, received the word, kept the word, believed in Jesus Christ and received eternal life.

Actually, Jesus talks about this using different imagery. He says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3, ESV). Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ. “Knowing” in the bible doesn’t just mean having knowledge of something—or knowing some fact in your head. It’s much deeper than that. As we’ve just seen, Jesus actually interchanges the words “know” and “believe” in this passage, as if they are the same thing. To know God, is to know and trust and grab hold of him as God. That’s what true faith is.

But also notice that Jesus Christ is included here. This is very important. He’s not talking about some generic god—like every other religion speaks about. He’s talking about knowing the God who sent Jesus Christ into the world. That’s the true God. It’s that God that we need to know and trust and believe in order to receive the eternal life that Jesus Christ offers.

So, Jesus has been praying to the Father about accomplishing the work that he’s been sent to do on earth. Now, things change a little bit. He switches gears and no longer is praying for himself, but begins praying for the disciples. Jesus knows that he’s finished his work on earth, and he knows that he will soon be ascending into heaven to be with the Father, so he begins to pray for his disciples in his absence.

I think it’s important to notice that Jesus is obviously praying this directly to the Father, but he’s also praying it out loud in front of his disciples. They can hear everything he’s saying, which is why we have a record of what he prays. Herman Ridderbos says, “It is certainly a prayer, being addressed from start to finish to God. But it can also be called a farewell prayer, since Jesus utters it in the hearing of his disciples and lays before God the completion of his work on earth, so that from this time on God himself will assume responsibility for that work.” (Ridderbos, 548). So, there’s a dual sense to this prayer. Jesus wants the disciples to hear what he is praying to the Father.

And the first thing he prays for is that the Father would guard and keep the disciples. Jesus says, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12, ESV). While Jesus was with the disciples he guarded them and kept them in God’s name. To be kept in God’s name means to remain faithful and loyal to God, to remain firm in following him by faith. Jesus said that he has been guarding the disciples in this and keeping them faithfully following God. Now that he’s going to be leaving, he prays, “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11, ESV). Jesus knows things are going to get difficult for his disciples. He’s been telling his disciples that things are going to get difficult. Things are going to be so difficult that they will be tempted to fall away and walk away from their faith. So, now he’s praying in front of that, handing them off into the hands of the Father. Once Jesus is gone, the Father will be the one who will keep them in his name—protect them and keep them firm in their faith.

Then, Jesus comes back to a theme from the past few weeks—the hatred of the world. He says, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:14–15, ESV). Notice that Jesus says he does not want to take his people out of the world. He knows that they will be hated by the world. He knows that they will be persecuted by the world. He even knows that they will be killed by the world—just like he was killed. Yet, he still says, I do not want you to take them out of the world.  I only want to make sure that you keep them from Satan. I want you to keep them in the world and keep them in your name—keep them in the world and faithful to your name. Don’t let them fall away in the midst of difficulty and persecution. Don’t let them grow weary and quite in the midst of the battle. Rather, keep them in the fight and give them what they need—their faith and faithfulness.

Actually, Jesus says that things will get even worse the longer we stay in the world. He says, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them…Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:14, 17; ESV). Why does the world hate Christians? They hate Christians because we’ve been sanctified by God’s Word. Do you know what it means to be sanctified? There’s a lot of nuance to this word, but it means to be made holy—like God—and it means to be set apart—like God. So, the more Christians are made holy and set apart from the world, they are different from the world, and the world hates that. The world hates that we’re not like them. The world hates that we do not join them in their sin and foolishness. And in this prayer, Jesus is praying that the Father would sanctify us more through his word, which means we will be set apart from the world even further, which means the world will hate us even more. That’s Jesus’ prayer!

It’s not even that Jesus just wants us to remain in the world. He’s sending us into the world. He says, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18, ESV). So, Jesus isn’t just wanting us to stay in the world, keeping our head down, disengaged in the world, trying not to get in trouble. No. He is sending us into the world. We have a job to do in the world. It’s the same job that Jesus was sent into the world to do—kinda. We’re not sent into the world to accomplish redemption. We’re sent into the world to proclaim the redemption that Jesus has accomplished. We’re sent into the world to proclaim that all who look to Jesus Christ, repent and believe, will receive eternal life, will be adopted into God’s family, and will begin the process of being sanctified by God’s Word. Herman Ridderbos has a great line that says, “...the world cannot be abandoned by God (cf. 3:16) or by Jesus (cf. 6:51) or, therefore, by the disciples.” (Ridderbos, 556). Or to say this in another way from one of the confessions of our church, The Canons of Dort, "Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel." (Canons of Dordt  1.5).

Now, here’s what’s really interesting about all of this. I think for many people hearing this, their palms begin to get a little sweaty. Their heart rate increases, along with their blood pressure. They start to get nervous about what will happen when we are sent into the world—a world that hates us. A world that will kill Christians.

Yet, Jesus thinks about this very differently. He says, “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” (John 17:13, ESV). That’s a different picture, isn’t it? Jesus is saying all of these things so that we would have a full joy—like his—in our life. He’s not saying these things to make us anxious or worried or fearful, but so that we would have a joy that overflows in our life. That we would be able to go out into a world that hates us, knowing that our God is guarding us and keeping us, so that we can share the gospel and that all God’s people would receive eternal life. The joy comes from knowing that God’s people will repent and believe when we share the gospel. The joy comes from seeing them repent and believe and enter the kingdom. The joy comes from the confidence that no matter what we encounter, no matter what hatred we face in the world, the Father is committed to keeping us in his name, keeping us faithful to him. This is that same joy that we talked about last week—an unshakeable joy that can never be taken away from us—and it’s a joy that comes NOT as we disengage from the world, but as we are sent into the world with the gospel and the confidence that God is on our side.

I’ve often talked about this, but I love to read Christian biographies, and I often read biographies of the martyrs. As I read these stories, I often find myself asking the question, “How in the world did they remain faithful in the midst of that much difficulty? How could they sing hymns while being burned at the stake? How could they preach the gospel in the colosseum while being torn apart by lions?” These questions often lead to a natural follow-up: “What would I do in that moment? Could I remain firm? Would I deny my Savior?” and when I’m honest with myself I know I’m not strong enough to remain faithful in those moments. But God is. That’s the beauty of what we’re being told in this passage. No matter how difficult the situation gets, the Father is committed to guarding and keeping his people faithful. He will give you whatever you need when you need it, and in those moments of unbelievable difficulty, he will give you a peace that surpasses all understanding. We can find an amazing joy in that promise.

We can also find a great joy in the fact that God will be glorified through us. In the same way that the Father gave Jesus a job to do in the world, the Son has given us a job to do in the world—He’s sent us into the world. And in the same way that the Father was glorified by Jesus accomplishing his job in the world, so will Jesus and the Father be glorified when we accomplish our job in the world. Jesus says, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” (John 17:10, ESV). Jesus is glorified in us as we do the work that we’ve been given to do in the world, and when Jesus is glorified the Father is glorified.

This is what we’ve been created to do in the world—every single person. It begins by looking to Jesus Christ, believing in him, and truly knowing God as we receive eternal life. From there, we begin to be sanctified by God by his word. Our hearts and minds are transformed so that we become more like Jesus Christ and less like the world around us. That means we will be hated by the world because we will become less and less like the world. Yet, Jesus doesn’t remove us from the hatred of the world, but sends us into the world with the gospel that saved us so that it will save others. We go out with the gospel, sharing it with everyone, knowing that God will do a work in those who are his, draw them to himself, open their eyes and hearts, and make them believe. We go out in faith, knowing that no matter how fierce the hatred is that we face from the world—even if our lives are threatened—God will keep us in his name and will keep us faithful.