The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. John 17, Thursday night, Jesus is praying for the last time with all of His eleven disciples together. By morning, He'd be hanging on a cross and dead by the afternoon. At stake, the mission He came to earth to accomplish. John 3.17 says that Jesus was sent into the world in order that the world might be saved through Him. Jesus was sent. He was sent. It would be easy to miss the significance of that word, which occurs dozens of times in this Gospel, far more than any other Gospel. Jesus says many times that He was sent. And that true saving belief in Him requires that you believe that Jesus was sent from God. In chapter 5 verse 38, Jesus condemns the Jews who don't believe in Him for this reason. You do not believe the One whom the Father has sent. That's why they're condemned. You don't believe the One the Father has sent. A few verses earlier, Jesus explains why He performed miracles. In chapter 5 verse 26, the very works that I am doing bear witness about Me that the Father has sent Me." Prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus stood before a crowd and prayed out loud to the Father, so that, He says, they may believe that You sent Me. And now here in John 17, In his prayer, he again stresses the necessity of believing that he was sent. In verse 3, he says, and this is eternal life. that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." And then in verse 8, what separates Jesus' true disciples from the world? It's that His true disciples believe that the Father has sent Him. And then in verse 21, why is it important that there is unity within the family of His disciples? He says, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. That's why there must be unity in the church. So that the world may believe that you have sent me. And he says again, the same thing in verse 23 and verse 25. Jesus was sent. Sent. Apostileo. It's the verb. form of the word that we know as apostle. It means to dispatch someone with a special commission with delegated authority. That's how Jesus came. He was sent like that. Jesus was sent from heaven to this world with the full authority and the full accord of the Father and sent with a special mission, dispatched with a special mission to save the world. The fact that he was sent tells us a number of important truths about Jesus. First of all, it tells us of his origin. He came from heaven. He didn't originate on earth. He was sent. It tells us about His nature. If He was sent from heaven to earth, it means He existed prior to when He was born in Bethlehem. And if He existed prior to when He was born in Bethlehem, then He's no mere man. It tells us something about His nature. It also tells us something about His purpose. He didn't happen to the cross. He didn't grow up wondering what his purpose in life was, what his significance to the world would be. He knew from the beginning he was born to die on behalf of those who believe in him. That's why he came. He was sent for that purpose. It also tells us something about the unity that he has with the father. He came to do the will of the father, saying what he wanted him to say and doing what he wanted him to do. Jesus was sent into the world. He came to a land and he came to a people in rebellion against the owner of the land and the king over the people. Nevertheless, he came to save rebels, rebels like us. Though the rebels would kill him. So necessary to saving faith is believing that Jesus was sent by the Father. It's not a supplemental detail. It's a necessary element of saving faith. If you don't believe that Jesus was sent by the Father, you don't believe in Him. Period. You must believe. That the father sent the son. These 11 disciples that were with him in this upper room on this Thursday night, they didn't know a lot of things about Jesus. But they did believe that the father had sent him. They believe that. He was sent to die. And now His hour had come. His hour of death had come. At stake, the mission. For His death to be effective, to save anyone, the lost would have to hear of it and believe in Him. How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them? With Jesus gone, how would anyone hear of His saving message, which is required for salvation? The plan, the plan of God to place the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ into the hands of these 11 disciples who are with him in the room. With Jesus gone, the mission passes to these 11 disciples. And verse 18, look at verse 18, he commissions them as he prays to his father. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world as the father sent Jesus into the world on a mission to save the world. Now Jesus was sending these disciples, these apostles into the world to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now from the vantage point of the upper room. That appeared to be a risky strategy. Given what we know about these 11 disciples, granted they love Jesus. True, they believed in him and were loyal to him. But. They were weak in faith. They lacked understanding and they were self-focused and concerned for their own welfare above the mission. And we've seen all of that play out in the upper room. In the upper room, we see their confusion and we see their self-focus. They were fighting among themselves as to who was the greatest. That's how the dinner began. That's how the evening began in the upper room. They were fighting as to who was the greatest. And on top of that. They were opposed by the world. We need only to look into the next chapter to see how quickly disciples abandon Jesus when trouble comes, when the world opposes them, how quickly they deny Jesus. So how? How would the mission continue? The mission of spreading this gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. How would this mission continue in the hands of men like this? Who are weak and self-centered and confused. These were the men given the responsibility to tell the world the heavenly message of the only way of salvation. And they were just men. When they died. Who would continue the mission of spreading the good news of Jesus? If it appears to be a risky strategy of God to put this message into the hands of these 11 disciples. How much more? Into the hands of you and I. It would appear to be a very risky strategy to put the mission into the hands of you and I who did not walk visibly with Jesus. And yet, that's exactly what Jesus intended. Look in verse 20. He extends that same commission. that he gave to the disciples to take his gospel message across the world. He extends that same commission to all who believe in him. He says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's you and I. We have believed in Christ through the word that the apostles wrote down. is saving message in Matthew 2819. There's no doubt that their commission is our great commission. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. That's our commission. That's why we're here. We too, just like they were, are to tell the great work and wonder of Jesus just and yet like the 11 were weak, we lack understanding. Well, we're self centered and the world opposes us. You could say it like this. We have been sent into the world according to Jesus in verse 18 were sent into the world. On a mission. Yet we're resisted from both within and without. The world opposes us. Our flesh entices us. That sounds doubly bad. for the mission. The world opposes the mission that we're on. Our flesh entices us away from the mission that we're on. And yet the mission of spreading the gospel proceeds from the father to the son to the eleven disciples and now to us. Is that a risky strategy? No. Not if you mean by risk that the outcome is in doubt. If you mean by risk, will it be costly? Yes, it will cost Jesus his life. It will cost many. Of Jesus, this Jesus is disciples their lives. But if you mean by risk Is the outcome in doubt? The answer is no. The mission was never at risk. Though the treasure of the gospel has been put in these jars of clay. The gospel will be spread across the world. It will. And so the outcome of the mission, the spread of the gospel worldwide, is assured because, as we'll see in our passage, we are upheld by the hand of God through the prayer of Jesus. That's how we're sustained, that's how the mission goes out. It's sustained, it's accomplished by the hand of God through the prayer of Jesus. Since the world opposes us and our flesh entices us, we need God's help to spread the gospel. So Jesus prays in chapter 17 beginning in verse 11 through verse 19 for this very thing. And his prayer for those 11 disciples, again, is extended to us in verse 20. And so when we read verses 11 to 19, we read a prayer that Jesus prayed not only for his 11 disciples, but also for you and I. Again, look at verse 20 before we go to those verses. He says in verse 20, I do not ask for these only, that is the 11 disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through the word. That's you and I. So the prayer in verses 11 to 19 is for us. It's extended for us, to us. Since the world opposes us and our flesh entices us to threats to the mission, Jesus prayed this prayer for us. Take a look at it in John chapter 17 verse 11. He says, 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 joy fulfilled in themselves. 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 don't 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 your 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. Now, in this prayer, this section of Jesus's prayer, he has two requests. In verse 11, he prays, Holy Father, keep them in your name. Request number one. And then in verse 17, he prays, sanctify them in the truth. Because the world opposes them, keep them in your name. Because their flesh entices them, sanctify them in the truth. That's the two requests. Because the world opposes them, keep them. Because their flesh entices them, sanctify them. In order for the gospel to go to the ends of the world with these two threats, we must be kept and we must be sanctified. And so that's why Jesus prays this prayer. Both of these are critical to our mission as witnesses of Jesus. We need to be kept. We need to be sanctified. For the mission to be accomplished. Now because both of these requests are so critical, I want to take each of these individually. This week we'll just focus on his first request, keep them in your name, and next week we'll focus on his second request, sanctify them in your truth. So this week we're studying Jesus's prayer, keep them in your name, that's found in verse 11. Now before we dig down into these verses, we need to understand what Jesus means by the word keep. He uses that word three times. In verse 11, as we've already seen. Then in verse 12 where he prays, I have kept them in your name. And then in verse 15 where he prays, keep them from the evil one. So clearly this is the theme of this part of the prayer. Keep them. What does he mean by keep? Well, we get help in understanding what Jesus meant by His use of a synonym in verse 12. There He 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." All of my disciples have been kept in your name, that is, guarded, except one, the Son of Destruction, who is Judas. So keep and guard are synonyms. They're very close in meaning, but they do have a nuance. And if they have a nuance of meaning, it's this. To keep is to preserve or to secure to prevent from spoilage from within. To guard, on the other hand, is to protect from outside danger. So to keep is to preserve or secure from spoilage from within. To guard is to protect from outside danger. And that's what Jesus prays for these disciples and for us. But what is it that Jesus wants secured and preserved from spoilage from within and protected from outside danger? What's He concerned about? Answer, their faith. The disciples believed in Jesus and were saved. Judas did not believe in Jesus and was therefore lost. What separated the two groups, Judas and the other 11 disciples, was faith. Faith is the thing that he once kept preserved, secured, protected. Because the disciples believed in Jesus, the world opposed them. The world opposes our faith. He says in verse 14, the world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. And he told them earlier in the evening, chapter 15, verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And the world does the same for us who believe because we are not of this world. Born into the world, sent into the world, but not of the world. Therefore, the world assaults us. So the thing that needed to be secured and protected from the world is the disciples' faith. We need our faith to be secured when it's weak, and we need our faith to be protected when it's attacked. Secured when it's weak, protected when it's attacked. That's what we need, and that's exactly how Jesus prays. Look how he does so. First in verse 11, Jesus prays that our faith would be secured when it's weak. He prays that our faith would be secured When it's weak, living in this world can weaken our faith. So he says, verse 11, 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. Now notice that Jesus's departure from earth is so certain he talks of it as if it's already happened. He says, I am no longer in the world. It's so certain that he is leaving the world, departing the world through his death, resurrection and ascension. That it's as if he's already out of the world. But Jesus's disciples remain in the world. They are in the world. We live in hostile territory among those who oppose Christ. That's what he means by world, those who oppose Christ. So he prays, keep them in your name, secure them in your name. The name of God represents the whole of who God is. This is the name Jesus says, which you have given me. In other words, you gave to me the role of revealing you to the disciples. Your name to the disciples for three years, I revealed you to them through my words and works. They now truly know you because they have come to know you through me. Now, Holy Father, keep them in your name. In the name that I've revealed to them, your holy name, all that I've revealed you to them about, your whole character, keep them in your name. In other words, ensure that their hearts, ensure that their minds are not divided but are one. Keep their allegiance to you. Preserve their loyalty to you. Secure their faithfulness to you. Why? Why does He need to pray that? They've already believed in Him. Why? Because if the Father doesn't secure their faith, they'll go astray just like Judas. If the Father doesn't secure their faith, they'll go astray just like Judas. You say, I thought salvation was eternally secured, once saved, always saved. It is. And only for this reason. God is the one who secures your faith. Your faith is in no way secured by the fervor of your belief. Your faith is secured only by the character of the one who saves. The reason you stay saved is because God keeps you saved. Because He is faithful, you remain in faith. If He didn't keep us believing and secure our faith, we would be drawn away by the world. But eternal life didn't originate with us, and therefore, eternal life can't be kept by us. He gives the gift, He keeps the gift, all the way to the end. It's all Him. Jesus said in John 10, 28, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand, I and the Father are one. We are kept in faith by the power of God, by the power of the Father, by the power of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who allow no one to snatch us out of their hands. That's why you stay saved, Christian. The devil and this world can't pry you out of their grip. God instead wraps his hands around you and says to the world and the devil, mine. That's why you stay saved. And Jesus continues to pray just this way for us. That we would be kept Hebrews 725 says that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since. He always lives to make intercession for them. We stay saved to the uttermost why, according to that verse. Because Jesus always lives to make intercession for us, keeping us, keeping us in faith. Who is it that keeps us from falling away? Jesus' brother knew the answer to this question, Jude. Doubted his brother, according to chapter 7 verse 5, where John writes, not even his brothers believed in him. They grew up with him. They saw the miracles that he did. They heard his teaching, but not even his brothers believed in him. But years later, Jude would write this. Now to him. Who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless? before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, dominion, majesty, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude knew. He knew that his brother is the one who kept his faith. when he had faith. God is the one who keeps us from stumbling and secures our salvation all the way to the end. You say, what about Judas? Isn't Judas an example of someone who lost their salvation? No, that's why Jesus continues in verse 12. 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. Judas was the one that was lost. But not because Jesus failed in his duty to secure and guard him. He's called here the son of destruction. Some translations call him the son of perdition. Perdition is the old word for hell. He's the son of hell. That's a Hebrew expression. It referred to someone appointed for damnation. Someone appointed for damnation. Judas's apostasy was foreknown and foreordained just as scripture predicted. That's what Jesus says here. That's why he uses the phrase. He's the son of perdition. He's the son of destruction because he is appointed for that. Psalm 41.9 says, Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. That's the prediction of Judas to come. Jesus quotes that verse in chapter 13.18 in the upper room when Judas was about ready to betray him. So that's how Judas fulfilled the scriptures. It was foreknown, foreordained that Judas would betray me. God knew his heart. Judas was no child of God. He never was. He came into the world a son of the devil, and he left this world the same way. So Jesus didn't fail in securing Judas's faith because Judas never had faith to begin with. But Peter did. Peter had faith. He truly believed in Jesus. And yet in the very next chapter. He gave way to the pressure of the world and denied Jesus. So what about him? What about Peter? What hope would Peter who denied Jesus? Hours from this prayer, what hope? Would Peter have that his faith would be secure when he sinned so grievously? Well, Jesus told Peter in this very room, at this very night, this, Luke 22 verse 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat But I have prayed for you that your what? Faith may not fail. And when you have turned again and restored, strengthen your brothers. What kept Peter's faith from failing? The prayer of Jesus. Not the fervor of Peter's belief, not the consistency of his belief. The prayer of Jesus kept Peter. And friends, it's the prayer of Jesus that also secures your faith when it's weak. Salvation is not like a Coke machine. I go out there and I put my money in the machine, and I type in A1, and out comes that coke. It's automatic. It just happens. It's machinery. Coming to saving faith is not like that. No. I pray to prayer, walk the aisle, raise my hand, throw the stick into fire. Automatic. Saved to the end, right? No. When you come into saving belief, God gives you that belief and then he keeps that belief. Salvation is dynamic. It depends on the one who gave you that belief to keep his promise. And if God fails to keep his promise to you, You will be damned to eternity. Get God at the center of your salvation. He keeps your faith and the good news is he will never walk back his promises to you. He will keep his promises because God is faithful. Your faith is secure. Secondly, Jesus prays that our faith would be protected when it's attacked. He prays that our faith would be protected when it's attacked. Jump down to verse 15, where he prays, I do not ask that you take them out of the world. We'll come back to that phrase next week. But that you keep them from the evil one. I don't ask that you take them out of the world. They're in the world. The world opposes them. The world hates them. I don't ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Now, this is surprising in some ways, because you'd think that what Jesus says in verse 14 would require we be taken out of the world. He says in verse 14 that the world hates us because we're not of the world solution. My solution would be take us out of the world. God's solution, keep you in the world. And so what does he say? What does he ask instead? That we be kept from the evil one. Kept from the devil. Jesus prays this knowing that the devil had been in that very room earlier in the night. And remember, we know that because evidently Luke 22 says Jesus had a conversation with him about Peter. And earlier in John. Satan enters into Judas so that Judas will go betray Jesus. Satan can only be in one place at one time, so Satan was in the room. An unwelcome guest. And Jesus praise this. for the disciples and for you and I, with that experience that we'd be kept from the evil one. He prays for our protection, knowing that even now the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. First, Peter. Chapter five. Now, when Peter writes those words, who, by the way, Peter was in this room. When Peter writes those words, knowing that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, he then writes in the very next verse, resist him firm in your what? Faith. The faith that God protects. The devil isn't ultimately after your health. He's after your faith. That's what he wants. That's what this lion eats. He chomps on faith. When Satan attacked Job's health, what did he hope that Job would do? Do you remember? What did he want Job to do? Chapter 2, verse 5 says that Satan hoped that Job would curse God to his face. And then Job's own wife becomes the mouthpiece of Satan and encourages him to curse God and die. God doesn't promise you health. He doesn't promise you wealth. He doesn't promise you family. He gave all of that away to Satan in Job's case, all of it. God willingly handed Job's health, his wealth, and his family to Satan. Job 1 and 2, read it yourself. It's what he did. Even as Job was blameless, he was an upright man. All the apostles died poor. And all but one died a martyr, John. They died a martyr, which Satan was no doubt pleased with. He'll take their life. He'll take their money. He'll take their health. He'll take their family. But God will protect. The thing that God protects is your faith from the assaults of the evil one. Why? Because more valuable than an inheritance to pass on and more valuable than good health is your faith more precious than gold, Peter writes, 1 Peter 1.7. God prizes your faith most of all, not your life. He doesn't prize your life most of all. Everybody who's ever lived has lived. That's not unique. What is unique is your faith. And that's what God prizes most of all in your life. The faith that he gave you, the faith he has sworn himself to protect. The very fact that Jesus prays for our faith to be protected from the evil one implies that we need help in this. We're no match for the devil. He's stronger than you. He's smarter than you. He won't be bound by puny you. In a fight with the devil, you'll lose every time. But John writes in his first epistle, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit is greater than Satan. God is greater than the devil. God is stronger. And because God is on your side, then this is also true. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Or we might add the devil. The world know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels like Satan nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why is that true? Because God protects our faith. He's sworn himself to protect our faith. The prayer of Jesus that he prays in this chapter protects your faith from Satan's anger. So because the world opposes us, we need God's help. And knowing this, Jesus prays that our faith would be secured when it's weak. And protected when it's attacked. Jesus went into this world. On a mission. on a mission to secure our salvation. And now He has placed this mission into our hands. He sends us into this world on a mission to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And though we spread this gospel in a hostile world that opposes us, Jesus has ensured that the mission will be successful, not because we have a good plan, not because of our technique, not because of a winsome personality, not because of a lot of money going into missions. He secures the mission that He gives to us through us so that it'll be successful because he has supplied every need of ours in the work he's given us to do by strengthening weak faith and by protecting vulnerable faith from the assaults of the evil one. And so let's spread the fame of Christ's name with that confidence. He has given us everything we need. Therefore, risk your life, risk your money, risk it all for the sake of Christ because he who risks it all for the sake of Christ risks nothing but gains everything, namely God himself. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our security. If we know that our faith is secured and that's the thing that will get us into heaven, our faith because of Christ's death and his resurrection and his life and his sacrifice. If we know that that's secured. Then we can lay everything else down. We can go to hard people. We can go to hard places to say a hard message. That they are under the wrath of God, not fearing for our life, not fearing for our safety, because the thing that is most precious has been secured our faith and you will surely carry us home. You have made a place for us and you will bring us there to live with you for eternity. Eternity is much longer than this brief moment that we have here on earth. And so father because our faith is secured from weakness and from assault Help us to be faithful, found faithful, to share this gospel message as you've placed the mission into our hands with your help. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.