Just to catch up, remember that Jesus is speaking directly to his Father. He is praying for the eleven disciples after the Last Supper. He is letting them hear this prayer and he gives the reason he lets them hear in verse thirteen.
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.”
Even though Jesus is praying to his Father, he is quite aware that the disciples are eavesdropping on this conversation. In one sense, he is talking to them as well and has to remind them the prayer is directed to the Father. Yet, he reveals the reason he is talking to the Father about them. He wants them to have his joy in them.
This isn’t the first time that Jesus has talked about his joy and that it should and can be in them and us. In John 15:1-11 Jesus told us that when we abide in him and keep his commandments, his joy will be in us. This is a great reminder that when we try to do things on our own, even serving him, we won’t accomplish anything unless we abide in him. If we are not walking closely with the Lord, even our service to him will not bring us joy.
In John 16:22-24 Jesus again spoke of us having joy. The disciples were going to have sorrow at Jesus’ death but as soon as they saw him again, they would have a joy that no one can take away. In addition, just being able to ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be a joy. They hadn’t achieved that joy yet, but they did later, and we can have that joy now. We have not had to suffer the same kind of sorrow that they did, but right now, we can have joy in whatever we are suffering because we can talk to the Father in Jesus’ name.
Joy in the Lord should be an earmark of every Christian. In the book of Psalms, the word joy appears forty-one times. These verses bubble over with the joy we find when we know the Lord. We have more joy knowing the Lord than the world does when they are filled with good things (Ps 4:7). We even find joy after discipline (Ps 30:5). We find joy when we turn from depression or self-pity and remember the Lord (Ps 43:4). I could continue and relate the joy in each of the passages in the Psalms but I think the point is clear. With Jesus there is joy but without him, ultimately, there can be no joy.
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.”
Jesus pumps them up letting them know about the joy they will have and then unloads on them the realities that they will face because he has taken them out of the world. Having God’s word in us transforms us. We don’t transform ourselves, but the Holy Spirit does it for us when we are born again. It comes when the Holy Spirit uses the word to make this change in our lives. Suddenly, we are no longer citizen of the earth, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of the air, but we are citizens of heaven. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV). “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14 NIV).
But there is a cost to becoming citizens of God’s kingdom. The people we left behind in the old kingdom hate us. It isn’t even a rational hatred. They simply hate us because we aren’t in their world anymore. We suddenly don’t do the things they do. We are appalled by sinful retched behavior. We start talking about Jesus and the Lord and telling how we’ve been called out of that darkness. What is their response? “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you” (1 Peter 4:4 NIV).
There are many people who call themselves Christians, but no one complains about them because they live and act just like the world. Their lives don’t convict others of their ungodly lives. They may talk about Jesus but their lifestyle is the same as or worse than most people. They can be members of the LGBTQ communities or support them. They can affirm the rights of women to choose to abort their babies and call themselves Christians. They can find churches that will support them and encourage them. But they are still in this world. They haven’t been taken out if their lives look just like this world. The world doesn’t hate them, it loves them. They fuel the hatred of the world towards true Christians because we don’t join them.
15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”
Even though we belong to a new kingdom and we are transformed, we still have to live in this present world. Peter knew this very well. Jesus warned him that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat (Luke 22:31). He was too assured of his own ability to resist Satan’s temptations that ended up disowning Jesus three times. But Jesus knew better and prayed that he would repent, and his experience would be used to strengthen the other disciples and indeed it is an example for us as well.
I’ve listened to some people who feel it is their duty to hunt down and expose Satan worshipers. They tell of discovering clandestine meetings with human sacrifices and other pagan rituals. They elaborate on how to cast out demons and unmasking these evils. I even went to a counseling seminar that was billed simply as learning discernment, but it turned tried to show that even Christians can be demon possessed. It taught how to determine if a person was demon possessed and what to do. I think we should be prepared if we encounter a demon possessed person and not be afraid, but verse fifteen tells me we shouldn’t seek these encounters but let the Lord control the circumstances. Jesus prayed that we would be kept from the evil one. He didn’t pray that we would hunt him down.
Looking at Paul’s ministry, there were only two times he encountered the evil one. In Acts 13:8-11 Paul opposed Elymas whom he called a son of the devil. Then in Acts 16:16-18 Paul cast a demon out of slave girl. Neither of these could be considered the direct acts of the evil one. So, it appears that Jesus’s prayer to keep us from the evil one is still effective as evidence by the rarity of these encounters.
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.”
Jesus goes back to this theme that we are not of this world and he is not of this world. Repetition of a theme like this should make us take notice. We are in the world but don’t belong to the world. How does that look? As mentioned before, it looks like living lives that don’t bow to the evil demands of the world.
Jesus identifies that the only way we can do that is through the sanctify truth of God’s word. When we know the truth as God has clearly explained, we don’t have to argue with the ways of the world. We are sent back into the world to proclaim the truth as God has given us. The only way we can make an impact is if we declare the truth just as Jesus did.
Jesus said he sanctified himself. What did Jesus mean by this? The New Living Translation often take some of the mystery out of a verse by giving the most direct meaning of verse instead of letting us ponder it and dig deeper. So the NLT gives us the thoughts behind the words, “And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth” (John 17:19).
The truth of Jesus’ sacrifice is that he lived a completely holy life. He fulfilled all the requirements for righteousness in his life on earth. He did what Adam didn’t do and what we can’t do without his sacrifice. Once we know the truth that we can’t do anything to save ourselves, we can be sanctified in the truth that through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we can live in his righteousness instead of our own. That is only way we can have eternal life and be truly sanctified.
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