Because Jesus Prayed
John 17
Textual Intro:
Jesus has finished his long teaching session with the disciples. So, he ends this special time with
prayer. This prayer has been called the
true “Lord’s Prayer” (the argument being that the other prayer called by that
name would be better called “The Disciples’ Prayer’) and the High Priestly
Prayer of Jesus.
******
My mother died early in 2001. So, she did not live to see those awful
images of planes hitting the World Trade Center and the wreckage of the Pentagon. She never saw the videos of those iconic
buildings collapsing.
I’ve often wondered what Mom’s response would have
been. Part of me believes she, like most
Americans, would have found the pictures horrific. Yet, since I can recall my mother and my
father seriously suggesting the films of the moon landing were faked, I’m just
not sure. A life-long Democrat, she
could have easily blamed George Bush, even suggesting “he knew and did nothing.”
I’m not being disrespectful; it’s just she was very
open to the idea of conspiracies. Up
until the President’s admission, she believed the press had made up the Monica
Lewinski scandal. Some people are just
more ready to see the sinister.
Halloween celebrates fear as fun. But real fear, the fear that persists after
the masks come off and the gruesome decorations are packed away, isn’t fun. In recent months I’ve talked about personal
fears but some people fear for the future of the church. They wonder if it will survive.
Of course, this is nothing new good people
sometimes allow themselves to be filled with dread, fear for the future of the
church.
Consider this
prediction made by a well-known evangelist concerning the possible election of
a certain presidential candidate. If
this person were elected the speaker warned,
“The Bible would be cast into a bonfire,
our holy worship changed into a dance of [impious] phrensy, our wives and
daughters dishonored, and our sons converted into the disciples of Voltaire and
Marat [of atheism and anarchy.]”
That warning was
made by the devout and learned Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, about the
candidacy of Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election. Jefferson was elected. But instead of being plunged into spiritual
darkness, the nation experienced what is known as “The Second Great Awakening,”
a revival that, according to some historians, continues to shape American
Christianity.
Still, the
prediction of impending doom persists.
Let’s weigh those predictions against the Bible’s message regarding the
church.
My text comes from
a passage sometimes called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. So, let me ask a “no-brainer” question: Who was praying this prayer?
This prayer was being prayed by One Paul called the
Head of the Church. And it’s a fact we
should keep in mind.
In this prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples, for
those standing before him who would face the ordeal of watching their Master
crucified and the challenges of spreading the gospel of the Risen Lord and he
prayed for those who would become believers in the future--including those
disciples here today.
This prayer reveals several things Jesus wants for
the church. We could spend a long time
focusing on each of those requests but I’m going to focus on just one and its
significance for us.
Because Jesus Prayed the Church May Be
Secure
11
Jesus knew the future would not be easy for the
church. The same forces that would soon
send him to the cross would just a little later conspire to defeat and destroy
his church. This prompted him to pray
for the post-Easter security of the church.
Jesus’s words show how real security comes
through dependence upon God’s power, “protect them by the power of your
name.”
The idea behind this request seems to be for the
Father to personally protect the church.
God’s own power and authority would guard the church. But protect it from what, guard it how?
If this were a prayer simply for the physical
security of the church, it would seem as if it has gone unanswered over the
centuries. The so-called martyrs’ roll
has continued to grow. In fact, some
authorities argue that more Christians died for their faith in the twentieth
century than in all the previous centuries combined.
Jesus hints that his prayer for the security of the
church is more concerned with the spiritual welfare of the church than its
physical welfare.
14 I have given
them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any
more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them
out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Two important ideas are present in this
request. To begin with, Jesus’s intent
was not that the church be isolated and insulated from life; the church is to
be in the stream of life. The truth is,
those who are isolated and insulated from life are unable to be change agents,
unable to be the “salt and light” Jesus called his people to be. At the same time, being isolated and
insulated from life denies us the opportunity to know the power of God in
experience. The power of God to keep and
to sustain is theoretical until we face a crisis. This is why Donald Grey Barnhouse once said,
“It’s a whole lot better for you to live in Philadelphia and have the victory
over evil in the world than it is for you to go to heaven.”
Ultimately, Jesus was praying for his people to be
secure from the assaults of Satan (“the evil one”). We modern Christians don’t talk much about
Satan. We’re a little embarrassed at the
thought of believing in a character so many think of as having horns and a
pitchfork. This Satan has a major roll
in cartoons and jokes.
It seems there was once a man who hated a small
church in his neighborhood. His blood
boiled every time this group of simple believers met. One Halloween season he decided to play a
trick on them. He rented a “Satan”
costume--complete with horns, tail, and pitchfork. Before an evening service, he hid in the
church basement and just as the pastor began to preach he threw the main
breaker and dashed upstairs to the sanctuary that was lit only by
moonlight. He shrieked and cried, “I’m
the devil and I’ve come for your souls.”
Well, everyone, including the pastor, ran out of the church, everyone
but one little man sitting near the front.
Not about to
have his fun spoiled, the phony Satan jumped up and down in front of the man
and screeched his threat again. Still,
the little man just sat there. At last
“Satan” said, “I’m Satan, aren’t you afraid of me?”
The little man responded, “Why should I be afraid
of you? For the last thirty years I’ve
been married to your sister.”
The Satan of the Bible is no comic character, this
being known as “The Destroyer,” “The Accuser,” ”The Enemy,” the being whose
very name is means “The Adversary.”
Jesus knew this, intimately, for Satan had tirelessly worked to derail
his mission. So much is summed up in
that frightful name: “The Evil
One.” This being is against everything
God is for. His goals are diametrically
opposed to God’s goals.
And, he is amazingly subtle in his efforts to
implement those goals. In fact, he
encourages both Christians and non-Christians, alike, to embrace a kind of
a-Satanism, the belief that he doesn’t really exist, that only primitive and
uneducated people believe in Satan. Yet,
the degreed Christian businesswoman can attest to his existence as she watches
friends succumb to the power of greed, materialism, and the thirst for
power. The Amish brother who lives in
what appears to us as a world of pristine simplicity can attest to his
existence as pride, masked as humility, and cruelty, masked as discipline,
threatens the community. Malcolm
Muggeridge, the British editor and critic who came to faith late in life,
addressed the pseudo-sophistication that denies the existence of Satan when he
wrote:
“I
have found the devil easier to believe in than God; for one thing, alas, I have
had more to do with him. It seems to me
quite extraordinary that anyone should have failed to notice, especially during
the last half century, a diabolic presence in the world, pulling downwards as
gravity does instead of pressing upwards as trees and plants do when they…reach
so resolutely after the light.”
In the face of such an enemy it might seem best to
retreat strategically, to cloister ourselves safely away from his leonine
ferocity. Some churches and Christians
do cower in the corner, fearing the corrupting power of the world’s evil,
forgetting that Jesus has already made arrangements with the Father to protect
us.
We need to remember that the church that depends
upon God’s protection has no need to cower.
As we pray, as we worship, as we proclaim, as we minister we demonstrate
our dependence upon God, demonstrate our certainty that the Father will answer
the prayer of His Son.
In light of this, we should be ready to engage our
world with confidence. We need to
remember how the man who prayed this prayer also said, “I will build my church
and the gates of hell will not be strong enough to destroy it.” Many modern translations take some of the
militancy out of that promise by rendering is something like “not even death
will overcome it.” That’s still quite a
promise and it supports what I’ve said to you again and again over the years—so
often you might be tired of hearing it but here it is: It is always too soon to publish the church’s
obituary.
Now, let me try to
be a little more specific.
Because Jesus
prayed we can “keep calm and carry on.”
This slogan that
originated in pre-war Britain is more popular now than it was on the eve of the
war. Still, it was an attempt to capture
a spirit, a spirit embodied in the signs we saw in London after the 7/7 attacks. Many stores had signs saying “Business as
usual.” That phrase is sometimes used in
a negative sense but not in this case. Those signs actually went back to the
government policy during World War I.
The idea was to refuse to let the enemy erode morale. The signs appeared again during the
blitz.
When under attack,
God’s people need to carry on by doing business as usual. Of course, for God’s people doing business as
usual means staying true to the Faith, living lives of integrity through the
power of the Spirit, and striving to be salt and light in our community.
Because Jesus
prayed we can respond rather than react.
A couple years
before coming here I attended the Texas Evangelism Conference, meeting in the
Reunion Arena in Dallas.
During a break I
was standing in line to buy an overpriced hot dog when I overheard an older couple
behind me talking.
The woman said, “
This sure is a beautiful meeting place.”
“It certainly is,”
said the man, “Texas Baptists own it, you know.”
“Really,” said the
wife, “that’s a great blessing for our meetings.”
I was both amused
and touched by their obvious pride in being Texas Baptists. Then, we moved up a little further in the
line, close enough to read the menu.
The lady gasped, “Look, they sell beer. The shouldn’t be selling beer in a Baptist
building.”
“Well,” said her
husband, “when I get home, I’m telling the pastor and he’ll deal with that.”
Now, you probably
know Texas Baptists never did own Reunion Arena. It belonged to the city of Dallas and was
torn down in 2009.
That couple didn’t
have the facts, so they reacted rather than responded. Knowing Jesus prayed for his church means we can
take the time to find out the facts.
That’s important.
Some Christian
writers and radio hosts regularly declare that Christians behave no better than
the non-Christian population. Some even
claim that the divorce rate among Evangelical Christians is as high or higher
than that of the larger population. Hear
statistics like that and some people want their preacher to start imitating an
Old Testament prophet, some even say the church is doomed. But what happens if you remember Christ’s
prayer for the church? You catch your
breath and say, “Is that so?”
Here’s Bradley
Wright, professor of sociology at UConn, on the results of his research.
Essentially people who associate themselves with
Christianity, as compared to the religiously unaffiliated, are more likely to
have faithful marriages, commit less crime, interact honestly with others, and
not get into as much trouble with drugs or alcohol. What’s more, the more committed Christians
are to their faith, as measured by church attendance, the greater the impact
the church’s teachings seem to have on their lives.[1]
Once you know the
facts about any issue, you can formulate a reasoned response. So the next scary statistic you hear, think
of Jesus’s prayer and say, “Let’s check that out.”
Because Jesus
prayed we don’t have to fear change.
Change
happens. If change stopped happening,
that would be a change. Some change
should be resisted but often the most resisted changes are neither good nor
bad. Resisting changes in our churches
often reflects your tastes not your moral or spiritual superiority.
At the beginning
of the fourth century Christians were facing some of the most intense
persecution they would ever face; they probably wouldn’t have believed that
within a quarter-century a Christian would be sitting on the imperial throne.
A quarter-century
from now, we might see tremendous changes in the church, especially its
structure. Your children and
grandchildren might not attend a church like this one. An increasing number of American Christians
are attending non-traditional churches.
Somewhere between 13 and 15 percent of “born again” Christians attend
churches that meet in homes or other small venues. Sometimes these are multisite churches; the
home churches are part of a larger church where its members gather for special
occasions but the small venue is the usual (weekly) place for Bible study and
fellowship.
That would be
quite a change from what my generation is used to. When we say to a neighbor, “Come to my
church” we direct that neighbor to a building with a steeple or a cross on it,
a landmark. What if “Come to my church”
included the suggestion “if we get there early we can get a seat on the
couch.”
That’s a pretty
big change and I doubt the traditional church will ever be replaced. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. But, in any case, because Jesus prayed we
don’t have to be afraid of change.
Because Jesus
prayed we don’t have to be afraid of criticism.
You don’t have to
look far before you find an apologetic Christian; I don’t mean one who is ready
to defend the faith; I mean one who is ready to apologize for the faith.
Behind their
statements is a pitiful plea that seems to say, “See, we’re really
open-minded. We’re nice. Don’t criticize us.”
Several places in
the New Testament Jesus reminds his disciples there will always be those who
insult, persecute, and “say all kinds of evil things about [Christians] falsely”
because of their commitment to Him.
Don’t
misunderstand. Sometimes we Christians are criticized because we are doing
something wrong. But sometimes we are
criticized because we are doing something right.
Because Jesus
prayed we don’t have to be afraid of paradox.
As a prospective
student, I interviewed with the faculty of the Religious Studies Department at
Rice University, one professor known for his study of contemporary culture,
took the fact I had self-identified as “an Evangelical” to be an indication of
how I voted. He had pigeonholed me, just
like many people do with Christians today.
When the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Columbus this next summer
the Dispatch will have plenty of
articles telling the world what you think.
Some you will agree with; some will leave you saying, “Now, wait a
minute.”
To a degree that’s
our fault. We have come down so hard on
some issues that people make assumptions about what we believe about other
things. We’re afraid that if we speak in
favor of some issue, people will assume we are speaking in favor of everything
the media usually associates with that issue.
We don’t have to
be afraid to speak out about what is right if it is right. But we should do so with clarity—even if our
clarity confuses some people.
Maybe it’s time
people saw Christians as “liberals” who hold tenaciously to “conservative”
values. To use a tried and true
paradoxical cliché: We need to model what it means to hate the sin and love the
sinner. That’s not easy; usually we end
up erring on one side or the other but we don’t have to be afraid of trying.
During the height
of the AIDS crisis in New York City, the one group that consistently welcomed
and cared for the victims of the disease was a band of nuns. Along with their church, they condemned the
behavior that spread the disease but they remembered to love its victims.
Because Jesus
prayed we don’t have to be afraid of the future.
Imagine a scenario
in which a computer designed to “made as many paper clips as possible” decides
that “wiping out humanity will help it achieve that goal—because humans are to
only ones who could switch the machine off, thereby jeopardizing its
paper-clip-making mission.” The single-minded
computer then interacts with other computers to set in motion our
destruction. That’s not the plot of some
cheesy Sci-fi film; it’s a possible future suggested by Nick Bostrom the
director of the future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford.
Now, I don’t think
that’s going to happen anytime soon--especially if I get to touch the
computer. I seem to have a way of
seriously injuring even the smartest of them.
The truth is we
don’t know the future. The Bible may
give us hints but it doesn’t give us an agenda; it certainly doesn’t give us a
calendar.
We all know it’s
impossible for most of us to really predict what the coming days and years will
bring. Remember, fifteen years ago most
Americans would have probably said, “Barak who?” if you mentioned the man who
is now our president.
The disciples who
overheard Jesus’s praying didn’t know—really know—the future. They were apprehensive because Jesus had
talked about a Jewish-Roman conspiracy ending with his death. That was all they heard; they were deaf to
the references to Jonah and “the third day.”
But the man who prayed this prayer defeated death. Some seven weeks after he prayed he promised
his disciples (all of them including us):
“Remember, I am with you each and every day a until the end of the age.”
That’s not a bad
thing to keep in mind as you face the future.
CONCLUSION
I never want to be
glib when people express fear and concern about the church. Large segments of the church have been
seriously damaged by false doctrine or even abandoning doctrine. But the church—the “remnant,” to use the
Biblical term—goes on. Outwardly the institution may seem to be struggling for
existence but the church—“the invisible church,” to use the historical
term—goes on. There will always be a
“church within the church,” “wheat amongst the tares.” And that church will go on—because Jesus
prayed.
