Jesus Prays for His Own

(John 17:6-10)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
Having prayed for strength to carry out His work,
And in light of the Fathers sure answer to that prayer
Having requested that the Father
Grant Him the reward of the glory
He has possessed with the Father
From all eternity,
Jesus turns His attention
More particularly now to His church.

B. Preview.
We do need to remember
That this is a prayer for the church
For those that belong to Jesus.

The tendency in the church today

Is to apply whatever the Bible says
At least with regard to the promise of blessing
To the whole world.
Gods Word isnt addressed to the world
Except for the warnings

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And the Gospel
He has given to us
To declare to the world
Its addressed to the church.

The same is true of this prayer:

Jesus doesnt pray for the world here,
He prays for those who are His
Those the Father had given to Him then,
And those He had yet to give Him in the future.

The fact that He offers this prayer

Exclusively for the church,
Is one of clearest arguments
That the work Jesus did
Was not for the world in general,
But for His people in particular
Those the Father foreloved and chose in eternity,
Those Jesus calls His sheep.

Tonight, lets consider three things:

1. That Jesus here prays for those who are His, not for the world.
2. How we can know we are His.
3. What difference this makes in our evangelism.

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II. Sermon.
A. First, Jesus prays only for those who are His, not for the world.
That much is clear in verse 9, I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the
world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.
When He says
That He asks on their behalf,
Hes talking about those
He just gave us a picture of in verses 6-8
Those who are clearly believers.
Well come back to this in our second point.

He describes them in this verse as He did in verse 2:

Those whom You have given Me.
These are the ones to whom He gives eternal life
The elect,
Those the Father has chosen and given to Jesus
As part of His reward for the work of redemption.

The things He goes on to pray for them in this chapter

Also show that they can only be true believers:
That the Father keep and protect them (v. 11),
That they may be one with Him and His Father (v. 11, 21),
That they might have His joy made full in them (v. 13),
That they might be kept from the evil one (v. 15),
That they might be sanctified by the truth (v. 17),

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And that they might be with Him to see His glory (v. 24).

And the worlds response to them

Shows clearly they dont belong to it:
They are not of the world (v. 16),
They are those hated by the world (v. 14)
And they are those the Lord is sending into the world (v. 18)
That they might preach His Gospel.

This shows us the nature of Jesus work:

It had a specific focus
There were certain individuals He came to save.
We call this Particular Redemption.

This shouldnt surprise us

Because Jesus told us as much in John 10.
He says in verses 14-15, I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own and My
own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay
down My life for the sheep.
Notice:
Jesus knows those that belong to Him,
And His own know Him
In the same way the Father knows His Son,
And the Son knows the Father
This is a very intimate relationship.
And its for these specifically

That He lays down His life.

Now some argue

That anyone is potentially one of His sheep
If they will only believe.
Its true that if they believe,
They are His sheep,
But its not true that everyone is potentially one of His sheep.
Jesus clearly indicates in this same chapter
That there are those who are not.
He said to those Jews that didnt believe in Him,
But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep (v. 26).
He doesnt say,
You are not of My sheep
Because you do not believe
That would imply if they did believe,
They would be His sheep.
He says, You do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
The fact they are not His sheep to begin with
Is why they didnt believe:
The Father had not chosen them
And given them to Jesus.

As we noted this morning,

Just as the OC priest

Was appointed to sacrifice and pray
For Gods chosen people
That they might be reconciled to Him,
So the Father appointed Jesus Christ
As the Priest of the New Covenant
That He might sacrifice and pray
For His chosen people
That they might be eternally reconciled to Him.

B. How can we know that Jesus has done this work for us?
He tells us in verses 6-8.

Some of the things He says here

Simply remind us again
That He is praying specifically for the elect.

He says in verse 6
That those He prays for belong to the Father:
He says, They were Yours.
They are the ones the Father chose.

He tells us again in verse 6,

They are those the Father has given to Jesus,
They were Yours and You gave them to Me (v. 6).

This, weve seen, is part of the reward

The Father gives Jesus for His work.

This shouldnt surprise us,

Because He tells us in verse 10,
That everything that belongs to the Son
Belongs also to the Father,
And vice versa.
And all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been
glorified in them (v. 10).

But how can we know

That He chose us and gave us to His Son?

Here are the evidences Jesus gives

Ill put them as questions.

First, has Jesus revealed the Father to you?

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world
(v. 6).
If you belong to Him,
Jesus has revealed the Father to you,
And you have seen Him in Christ,
And understand who He is.
Thats why He came into the world in the first place
To reveal/explain the Father.

John writes in 1:18, No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who
is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Jesus told Philip, that to see Him is to see the Father
That is, if youve seen Jesus, youve seen God.
Have you seen God in Jesus Christ?
Do you believe He is God in our nature?
And do you love that God that you see?
This is something Hes only revealed
To those that belong to Him.

Second, do you believe Jesus was sent by the Father

And have you received Him?
Jesus says in verses 7-8, Now they have come to know that everything You have
given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them;
and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and
they believed that You sent Me (v. 8).
If you belong to Jesus
You believe what He says is true
That the words He speaks are the Fathers,
That the Father sent Him into the world
To be a Savior and to exalt Him as Lord
And you have acted on it
You have received Him as your Lord and Savior.
Is that true of you?
Then Jesus was praying for you.

And third, have you obeyed His Word

Not only in believing and receiving Him,
But also in following Him?
Jesus says in verse 6, They have kept Your word.
He pointed to the same thing in John 10
As that which marks out His sheep:
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal
life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My
hand (vv. 27-28).
Do you hear the voice of Jesus
As He speaks through the Bible?
Are you following Him?
His example?
His commands?

This is the evidence He points to above all others

As to how we can know we are His:
That we bear the fruit of good works.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:17-20, So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad
tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree
produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
He told us in John 15:2, 8, Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit. . . . My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove
to be My disciples.
And John tells us in 1 John 3:7-10, Little children, make sure no one deceives you;
the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one

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who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No
one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the
children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is
not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
If you are one of Gods elect,
You wont be perfect,
But you will consistently bear good fruit,
Because you love the Lord,
And want to honor Him.

C. Finally, does the fact that Jesus prayed and died only for the elect
Make any difference with regard to evangelism?

It doesnt make any difference

With regard to whom we evangelize.
Jesus said to His disciples in Mark 16:15-16, Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be
saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
We are to offer the Gospel to all.

It doesnt make any difference with regard

To the Lords sincerity in His offer:
John writes in John 3:16-17, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the
world might be saved through Him.
He has a real desire for all men to repent.
He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

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But it does make a difference

In the results we can expect in our evangelism:
The fact that the Father has chosen
Some of the fallen human race
To give His Son as a reward,
The fact that Jesus prayed and died for them,
Means that there will be those who will respond
There must be those who will come to faith.

And so lets again be encouraged

By the teaching of the Bible
On election that God has chosen a people
And on Particular Redemption
That Jesus died and prays for those people
To rejoice in the privilege He has given us
And to take His Gospel to others
Knowing that God will save His people. Amen.

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