Jesus Christ was about ready to be put to death on a cross in order to put our sins to death with him so that, by God-persuaded faith in him, we might die with him to sin and now live to him and to his righteousness in walks of surrender and obedience to him and to his commands. So he was praying to God the Father in heaven. And he was praying for his followers who he was leaving behind, that they may be strengthened in their walks of faith.
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. 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. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” (John 17:6-10 ESV)
Those who are true followers of Jesus Christ were given to Jesus by God the Father, for not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ by our own human effort. Not one of us can do anything in our own flesh to earn or to deserve our own salvation. We can never be good enough of our own doing. We can only come to faith in Jesus Christ if God the Father draws us to Christ and if he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of (turn away from) our sins and to obey God.
[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2]
And those who are true followers of Jesus Christ, who believe in him in truth, are those who keep the word of the Lord. That does not make them perfect people in every respect, but they are to be those for whom sin is no longer their practice, and for whom righteousness and obedience to God is their practice. They are those who have received (accepted, adopted, embraced) God’s words into their lives, who are putting his words into daily practice. And this means receiving God’s words in their proper context, too.
“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. 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. 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 17:11-13 ESV)
Jesus Christ was still on the earth when he prayed this prayer. But after this he was betrayed by his disciple Judas Iscariot, and he was arrested for a crime he did not commit. He was then beaten beyond recognition, he was mocked and spat upon, and he was given a mock trial (a rigged trial). The people were pretty much all incited to call for his crucifixion (his death on a cross), and then his death was carried out, although he had done no wrong. But all this was in God’s plan that Jesus should put our sins to death with him on that cross.
Jesus’ concern for his faithful followers was that, after he left the earth, they would no longer have him in the flesh with them to watch over them as he had once done. So he prayed to God the Father to keep them in his name, for they would now be in the world without Jesus with them in person. But then he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers. But because he had been with them, not one of them was lost except “the son of destruction” (presumed to be speaking of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus to death).
“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. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:14-19 ESV)
We who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ are called out from the world by God to no longer live according to the ways of this sinful world but to now live our lives according to God’s will and purpose for our lives. We are no longer to be “of the world” in the sense that we are like the world and that we adopt the ways of the world into our daily practices. Now we are to be being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, and we should be becoming like him in all that we are and do and say, for the glory of God.
So, when our lives are modeled after Jesus Christ and after his mind, heart, character, words, and deeds, and we are no longer living like the world, living to please our flesh, but we are living to please the Lord in all that we are and do and say, then we will be hated and we will be persecuted by others whose lives are still patterned after the world and not after Christ. But Jesus’ greatest persecutors were those who professed faith in God the Father and who served in the temple of God and who taught the people.
So, if your life is fully committed to serving the Lord, and not the flesh, don’t be surprised if most all of your persecution comes from others who profess to believe in the same Lord as you believe in, some of whom will be “pastors” of “churches.” For so much of today’s church, at least here in America, has gone the way of the world, and they are adopting the patterns of the world, and they are diluting the gospel message in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings.
But we are to still live in the world. We are still to live among the people of the world. We are still to minister to the needs of the people of the world and show them love and kindness. We just aren’t supposed to adopt their sinful and worldly ways of living. For we are to be God’s holy people, and to be holy means to be different from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus in character, heart, mind, and actions. So we need prayer that God will keep us from the evil one and that we will walk in God’s truth.
I Pray for Them
An Original Work / June 4, 2013
Based off John 17
“Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
May glorify our God in heav’n.
Father, You granted Him all power
And all authority over men,
That He might give eternal life
To all those whom now
You have given Him.”
“This now then is eternal life:
That they may know You,
Father, and Your Son;
That they may know the only true God,
And Jesus Christ whom the Father sent.
I have brought You the glory by
Finishing the work that You’ve given Me.”
“I have shown You to those whom
You gave to Me out of the world;
They were Yours. You gave them to Me
And they have obeyed Your words
And they accepted them. They knew
That I came from You, and they believed
With certainty, I was sent.”
“Holy Father, I pray for them by the
Power of Your name: Protect them,
So that they may be one as we are,
For they are still living in this world.
I have given them Your word;
Because of Your word, the world
Has hated them.”
“I pray they may have the full measure of
My joy now living within them.
Father, I pray You sanctify them
By Your word; truly Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world,
I send them to tell the world to repent.”
https://vimeo.com/116141024
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