Let us turn to the familiar words
of the chapter we read, this remarkable 17th chapter in the
Gospel according to St. John, the high priestly prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to direct you for
a while to the words that we have in verses 9 and 10. In the
course of praying, the Lord says, Speaking of His disciples, I
pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me. For they are Thine, and all
Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. This is the longest record of
any of the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do, of course,
read of him praying on previous occasions some reference to his
prayer there at the grave of Lazarus back in chapter 11 and
verses 41 and 42 as they took away the
stone from the place where the dead was laid we read and Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said father I thank thee that thou hast heard
me And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that
thou hast sent me." So the Lord obviously prayed there on that
occasion as he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. And then
again in the following chapter, chapter 12, verse 27, Now is my soul troubled, says
Christ, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. He knew that his hour was come,
the hour that he must be received up. He was coming to the end
of that life of complete obedience, obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. And he says, save me from this
hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify
thy name. We have then these references
to prayer, short prayers, but here, of course, we have quite
a detailed prayer filling the whole of this 17th chapter and
as I said I want just to direct you for a while to these two
verses in verses 9 and 10 I pray for them I pray not for the world
but for them which thou hast given them for they are thine
and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in
them first of all to see that We have
a negative statement here, as he speaks with regards to his
prayer, his prayer for the disciples, I pray for them, but he says
I pray not for the world. What a negative statement is
this, I pray not for the world, he says in the text, and yet,
in what we read subsequently he certainly makes reference
to the world as he prays on in verse 21 he says that they all may be
one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also
may be one in us that the world that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me and then similarly at verse 23 as he's referring
again to his disciples, I in them and thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me. So he does certainly make some
reference to the world in the course of his praying, and yet
we have this negative statement back in the text, I pray not
for the world now of course we would be very wrong if we were
to conclude that the Lord is contradicting himself he never
contradicts himself he is the Amen he is the faithful and he
is the true witness and Job says concerning God he is in one mind
and you can turn him he is not one man who changes his mind
There's no contradiction in the Lord Jesus Christ at all. We have to recognize that simple
truth. He is always concerned that God's
will should be done. And his purpose in all his life,
of course, is to do that will of the one who had sent him and
to finish his work. What we have to recognize when
we come to the Scriptures with regards to this word world, that
it certainly has different meanings as we see it in a variety of
contexts. Remember how the word is used
in reference to the birth of the Lord Jesus, where we have
some detail concerning the situation, the circumstances surrounding
his birth in Luke's account, and there in the opening words
of Luke chapter 2 we're told how there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed and this
is why Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem, the very place where
the Messiah is to be born because that was the city to which Joseph
belonged but the decree had been issued by the Caesar that all
the world It's interesting, it has those two words, all and
the world. But we know there that the reference
is not to everyone that time was living on the face of the
earth. Of course, all the world simply as reference to the Roman
world, the extents of the great Roman Empire. So, the word world has to be interpreted as we see
it in a variety of different contexts and there is a sense
in which we can say that there is the world of the elect and
is it not right to say that with regards to those statements that
we have in verse 21 and verse 23 that we just referred to that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me in verse 21 and
again in verse 23 that the world may know that thou hast sent
me isn't that the world of the election of grace there was a world that God loved
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life that world that lies in wickedness, those who were the
election of grace, and yet they were of the world, that world that is the abode
of Satan. They were those who were in it,
and they were of it, and they were dead in trespasses and sins. Again, we see the word being
used with regards even to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the propitiation for our
sins, says John, and not for us only, but also for the sins
of the whole world. How are we to understand the
word world there, the whole world? Well, in the context he is making
reference to sinners of the Gentiles as well as sinners from amongst
the Jews. The grace of God is no longer
confined to the ethnic nation of Israel. You only have I known
of all the families of the earth, he says back in the Old Testament
Scriptures. But with the coming of Christ
there is a purpose to be fulfilled in the salvation of sinners of
the worlds of the Gentiles. And that's how we're to understand
those words that we find in John's first epistle. that Christ is
a propitiation for our sins, not for us only, not for us Jews
only, but for the sins of the whole world. There's a world
then of the elect, and there's also on the other hand a world
that we might say is the reprobate world. I pray not for the world, says
Christ. He says back in verse 6, I have
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world. Oh, there were those, you see,
whom God had set his sovereign love upon. We're familiar, aren't
we, with the content of that ninth chapter in the epistle
to the Romans and how there the apostle solemnly speaks of a
double decree the words of verse 21 there in
that chapter hath not the potter powered over the clay of the
same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor
what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known
endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fit into
destruction and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which had afore prepared unto
glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles. The reprobate or rejected might
be referred to in terms of the world, the whole world, lieth
in wickedness, he lies in the wicked one, all that is in the
world. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world, says the Apostle. All that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And what does he say here at verse 25? O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee. There is a world that knows not
God. There is a reprobate, a rejected world. as well as a world that
is made up of those who are the election of Christ. So when we
find this word in various parts of Holy Scripture we have to
be careful as to just how we interpret the word. But here
we don't just have this negative statement. Really I want to notice
the positive statement that is being made in these verses. I
pray for them. And who is it that he's referring
to? Well, those that he's spoken
of previously in verse 8, I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known
surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. And he says, I pray for them,
them which thou hast given me. for they are thine." They have
God's Word. They have God's truth. That's
what He's saying here in verse 8, and they believe that truth
that the Lord Jesus has been proclaiming to them in the course
of His ministry. The great doctrines of the Gospel,
the subject matter of His preaching, Well, let us notice with regards
to this doctrine that they have received, just two things, just
two things, and we see it being unfolded really in the whole
of the chapter, this remarkable prayer. First of all, what do
we see here with regards to this prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's recorded, it's part of what these disciples must
have heard the Lord saying as he uttered these words lifting
up his eyes to heaven and speaking to his father and in the prayer
we see firstly the primacy of the doctrine of inaction the
primacy of that doctrine and then secondly we see a the Lord's
office as that one who is the Great High Priest of his people.
Just to consider those two positive doctrines for a while. Throughout
this prayer Christ is very much aware of the primacy of that
doctrine, election. He is that one, of course, who
was party to the eternal councils of the Trinity. And what does
he do in the prayer? He is really pleading time and
again in terms of that covenant. The covenant that had been entered
into before the world began. Look at the language. Verse 6
he says, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me. and they have kept thy word the
word of people that were given to him in that eternal covenant
as we see in Hebrews chapter 2 the children which God hath
given me we read there and how again how the Lord prays for
these people at the end of verse 11 Holy Father he says keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be
one as we are one. Verse 12, those that thou gavest
me, he says, I have kept. And none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled.
He knew whom he had chosen. Remember what he says at the
end of chapter 6. He knew who should betray him, Judas Iscariot. But David kept those that the
Father had given to him in the eternal covenant. He is continually
praying in terms of that covenant because he was party to it. All those who were chosen, they
were chosen in Him. That's the emphasis that we find,
isn't it, in the opening chapter of Ephesians. There in Ephesians
1 at verse 3 following, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, says the Apostle Paul, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. They are chosen in Him, they
are accepted in Him, He is the Beloved One, and in Him they
are also the Beloved. Surely we learn here from this
record of the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ as to how we should
pray to God. He prays and pleads in terms
of God's covenant. In other words, in terms of all
the promises. Isn't that what we should do
when we come before the Lord in prayer? We should be emboldened
to remind Him of His promises. that's our comfort we know he
has a gracious purpose to fulfill even the salvation of a multitude
that no man could number and this is how the Lord is pleading
and praying and the amazing thing is that
whilst in one sense we see him pleading in terms of that covenant
and in the covenant of course he was the one who became the
servant though he is the eternal son of God yet in that covenant
of redemption he comes to serve the will of God and to do the
work that God had appointed for him and he must be obedient in
all his life even to the death of the cross and yet this is
a remarkable thing with regards to this sixth verse here in a
sense we see him as one who is equal with the father not only
here in verse 6 but later the way he speaks to the father at
verse 24 he sort of mandates the father father he
says I will when we pray he tells us how
we are to address our father in heaven we are to say not I
will we are to pray thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven but here we see that whilst In one sense he is, in the covenant
of course, the Lord's servant. We know that in the doctrine
of God, in the doctrine of the Trinity, he's equal to the Father. And he can address the Father
as one who is equal. Father I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. But I said we also see it here
in the words of the text in verse 6. Sorry, rather verse 9, when he
says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. Now the verb that he uses here
is interesting. I pray, I ask for them. There are two verbs that are
used in the New Testament rendered ask or pray the one word as reference
to an inferior who is coming to make request of someone who
is superior to him. That's one of the words and it's
often used with regards to prayers. an inferior comes before someone
who is superior and pleads and begs and makes requests but the
word that's used here is not that particular word it's the
other word and it has the idea really of these two people being
of equal dignity it's not an inferior coming to a superior
but it's people of the same standing and this is the word that is
used And we believe, we believe that this is God's book, verbally
inspired. And so, the Lord quite deliberately
must have used this word. He's indicating, you see, to
us His equality with the Father. And so He can speak. As He goes
on to speak later at verse 24, We could never pray, Father,
I will. But he can, because there is that sense in which he is
co-equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. One God. One God in three persons. But then, also of course, we're
to remember that this one who is speaking in prayer, he is
God, but he is also really and truly a man. And this is why he prays. He lives the life of prayer.
This is the mystery again, isn't it, of the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In all that he does he is God,
and yet in all that he does he's also man, he's one person. And
it is the person of the God-man who is uttering these words in
his prayer and he comes before God, and as we see him here,
he prays, and they're real prayers, real petitions, as he asks the
Father to do these things for him. It's the prayer of faith,
the prayer of faith, just as we see in those previous references,
those short prayers in a sense that we made mention of at the
beginning at the grave of Lazarus where Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said father I thank you that thou hast heard
me And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it that they may believe that thou hast sent me. Oh, the Father
will hear him, and hear him at all times in all ways. and again
in that twelfth chapter we looked at those words in verse 27 now
is my soul troubled what shall I say father save me from this
hour but for this cause came I unto this hour father glorify
thy name he asked the father to glorify his name and that's
what he's doing here to glorify him with that glory that he had
with him before the world began all the wonder of the the Lord
Jesus Christ and the matter of his praying. He can speak to
God as one who is equal to the Father and yet at the same time
we see him time and again pleading, praying always in terms of that
eternal covenant that he had entered into with the Father
before the world began. But then also here in this prayer
we very much see the Lord in one of his offices we see
him very much in his priestly office and in that priestly work
clearly he comes to represent a particular people a priest of course would offer
sacrifice we know that that was the business of the priest of
Aaron in the Old Testament scriptures they were the ones who were to
take the offerings of the children of Israel and present them before
God upon the brazen altar there at the tabernacle and at the
temple. The high priest had his duties to perform on the great
day, the day of atonement. He would make atonement for the
sins of the whole nation of Israel. And of course the Lord Jesus
Christ is that one who is the fulfillment of that priestly
office. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. He's a far greater priest than
all of those priests of Aaron. He's not only the priest, he's
also the sacrifice. I am the Good Shepherd, he says
in chapter 10. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep,
he says. And when John directs his own
disciples to the Lord John the Baptist. What does he say? Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And again, what are we to recognize
here when he speaks of the world? We're not to imagine that Christ
has made a general sacrifice for all and sundry. If that were
the case, then we must be universalists because by his death he actually
accomplished redemption he paid the debt that was owed to the
Holy Lord of God and if he has paid that for every man that
ever lived on the face of the earth every man must be saved he's not just made salvation
something possible for men he has accomplished salvation, it's
a particular sacrifice that he made for a certain people, even
those that God gave to him in that eternal covenant. And so,
as a priest, not only does he offer a particular sacrifice,
but his prayer is a particular prayer. And we see that so clearly
here. I pray for them. Who are the
them? As we've said already, we see
it from the previous verse. the ones that had been given
to him and the ones that he had given his words to and they have
received them and known surely that I came out from thee and
they have believed that they did send me and indeed the Lord
is praying for them for a particular people just as his atonement is for
a particular people And he's not just praying, is
he, for his disciples? We know that's the principal
subject matter of his praying, we might say. But remember what
he goes on to say later in the prayer. In verse 20, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also, which I believe on
me through their work. as these men would go forth preaching
the word of God so there would be those who would believe the
message just as they had believed the words that the Lord had spoken
to them the whole company of the election
of Christ and there we see the Lord praying for his people he
prayed for them before ever they were born in a sense before ever they were born remember
what the Lord says to his servant the prophet Jeremiah before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee O the Lord knoweth them
that are his he has foreknown them he has eternally set his
sovereign love upon them and Christ has prayed for them before
ever they were born into this world He also prayed for them,
in a sense, after they were born, when they were in a state of
unregeneracy, before ever they were believing in Him. He prayed for them. Remember
the language of Jude in that little short epistle before the
book of the Revelation? He speaks of those who are sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Before ever they're called, effectually
called, before ever they're converted, before there's been that gracious
work of the Spirit in their hearts, in regeneration, born again,
before all of that they're preserved. How are they preserved in Jesus
Christ? Because He prays for them. He prayed for them before
they were born into the world, he prayed for them before they
were born again, and of course, he ever prays for his people,
he's able to say to the Ottomans, all them that come to God by
him, I pray for them, he says. And this is our comfort, even
as we come together tonight to pray, to know that the Lord has
prayed for us, does pray for us, and will pray for us as he says I pray for them I
pray not for the world but for them which have given me for
they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and
I am glorified in them oh his glory is manifest in that great
work that he accomplishes in the souls of his people as He
conforms them to His own blessed image. Or let us be those who
would learn of the Lord. The disciples said to Him, didn't
they, Lord, teach us how to pray. He gives those patterned prayers.
The Lord's Prayer, we call that. But really, this is that Lord's
Prayer. And are we not to gain some instruction
and some comfort from the manner in which the Lord Himself addresses
His gods and father in heaven. May the Lord bless his word to
us tonight. Let us, before we turn to him
again in prayer, sing the hymn 128, the Chunkensala 167. Christ bears the names of all
his saints, deep on his heart engraved, attentive to the to
the state and wants of all his love are saved. 128, June 167.