Protection in a Perilous World
Whenever a school year begins, parents drop off their children for class (or in the case of college students, at the dormitory or the airport). Sometimes they do this for the first time. Parents may cry. Children may cry, too. In moments like these, something important takes place: the parents take a step away and the child takes a step towards increased independence. Christian parents often feel an urge to pray more earnestly in these moments, as their child will soon reveal whether he will live as they have trained him.The night before the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, he experienced a similar moment with his disciples. These eleven men had followed him for nearly three years. He had taught them exactly what the Father wanted him to say. He had done for them everything the Father wanted him to do. Now it was time for him to go, and he knew that he would be leaving them in a hostile world, a world that was opposed to what he had taught them.Knowing these things, he prayed to his heavenly Father with urgency and confidence. He prayed with urgency because he understood the dangers these men would face for following him. Yet he prayed with confidence because he knew the kind of relationship these men would be able to have with the Father. Though we live in a hostile world, the Father protects those who follow Jesus.When you listen closely to this prayer of Jesus, you gain a greater understanding of two important realities. First, you become more aware of the dangers associated with following Jesus. Second, your become more appreciative of your relationship with God the Father.
Know the dangers of following Jesus.
Jesus prayed with urgency on the night of his betrayal, but he didn’t pray with urgency for himself. He did for the disciples. To be sure, he was neither desperate nor afraid. Instead, he prayed with the kind of intensity that matched the difficulties which he knew his followers would face. As you follow Jesus, you will also experience these challenges.
You are following an absent person.
For nearly three years, the disciples had enjoyed the close and personal presence of Jesus. He walked with them, ate with them, talked with them, and lived with them. But now he would die on the cross and go to the Father in heaven. He would leave them behind in the very world and among the very people who had killed him (John 17:11). While he was on earth, he had kept them in a close relationship with God, but this direct and hands-on effort on his part would end (John 17:12).Today, of course, we know nothing else. We have never enjoyed the actual, personal, physical presence of Jesus at our side. In this way, you are devoting yourself to an absent person whom you cannot see. It is true that Jesus is “with us always” (Matt 28:19-20), and that he has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us (John 16:7). But that is not what Jesus is focusing on in his prayer. He is focusing on the benefit of having the person you follow be there with you in person, and he is focusing on the difficulty of having that person go away.John alludes to this difficulty in a letter which he wrote sometime later, which we call ‘First John.’ He said, “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20). It is much easier to respond to a person you can see, but following Jesus requires you to follow someone whom you cannot see. Do you ever wish that you could see Jesus with your eyes, hear his voice with your ears, and feel the touch of his hand on your shoulder? Do you ever wish you could ask him a question, just like you talk to a person, and get an audible answer? For this reason, Jesus prayed for his disciples to overcome this challenge.
Imposters will not survive.
One of the men who followed Jesus, Judas Iscariot, went away. Jesus describe him as one who had been “lost” or “destroyed” (John 17:12). To be sure, this sad departure did not occur because Jesus had failed as a teacher. It happened as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus has already mentioned this in the Passover meal that same night, when he said, “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me’” (John 13:18). By saying this, he referred to Psalm 41:9, “My own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” This Psalm of David prophesied the betrayal of the Messiah, meaning that it would definitely happen.Sadly, similar things occur today, as John later explained in 1 John. He said that there are people who may appear to follow Jesus with us, but they eventually will go out from us. They won’t do this because we or God have failed, but because they were never a real follower of Jesus at all (1 John 2:19).This is another challenge that comes with following Jesus. You will see people come and you will see people go. Sometimes they go after you have served with them for a while, as was the case with Judas Iscariot and the other eleven disciples. In some cases, these are genuine believers who will eventually return, just as Peter and the other ten apostles did. In other cases, these are people who presented themselves as believers but never were genuinely so.This is not an easy experience to decipher. It is a challenge that you face when you follow Jesus. The apostle Paul also experienced this. He said, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (1 Tim 4:10). Furthermore, at his trial in Rome, before his execution, he said, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them” (2 Tim 4:16).
Nonbelievers will hate you.
Those who do not believe on Jesus will hate you. This word hate means to “despise,” to “resent,” or to “detest” you. It conveys strong, harsh, and negative feelings. To be sure, you should not say and do things which deserve to be hated. In fact, Peter said, “It is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (1 Pet 3:17; see also, 1 Pet 2:19-20). You should not hurt, mistreat, embarrass, or act strangely toward people in the world. You should treat them with mutual respect and do whatever you can to prevent them from stumbling over the gospel, even if that means setting aside your own personal or cultural preferences.Even so, the world will detest and despise a person who lovingly lives like Jesus, no matter how gracious and how loving you may be toward them (John 17:14). This is not an easy experience to embrace. It is hard to love people who hate you back. It is difficult to help people who hurt you and serve people who despise you. It is hard to look up to people who look down on you. When this happens to you, you may easily grow embittered or resentful, but this is a challenge that comes with following Jesus. “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Pet 2:21).
Satan will hunt you.
Satan is not omnipresent, which means he is not everywhere at once (as God is at all times). Satan may only be in one place at a time. Knowing this, it is not likely that he will attack you individually and directly every day, if ever. Even so, there is a sense in which Satan is responsible for many difficult experiences that come your way (John 17:15). In fact, Paul points out that as we interact with difficult people and circumstantial difficulties from day to day, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).In another place, Peter tells us that Satan is the ruler of this world and that he hunts for believers to devour them (1 Pet 5:8). He arranges the entire system of this world in a way that is carefully designed to distract you from God, to draw you away from God’s people, and to destroy you in one way or another. This is another challenge of following Jesus.To overcome these challenges and remain safe from these dangers, Jesus prayed about a very important privilege that every believer enjoys. It is a privilege that you and I must cultivate and depend upon with a serious and humble heart.
Focus on your relationship with the Father.
By leaving his disciples behind in the world, Jesus would place them in a more direct relationship with God the Father. The same thing happens when parents take their children to school or to college for the first time. By leaving them on their own, they cause them to form a closer, more personal relationship with their parents as result – in a more mature and personal way, a way that is heart-to-heart rather than face-to-face.
Rest in his protection.
Jesus prayed that God the Father would “keep” his disciples “in” or “through” “his name.” This wonderful request called upon all the qualities, attributes, and abilities of God for a focused and special purpose – to guard and protect those men from the dangers I previously mentioned. Those men, as well as us, would need to learn to rely on the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God for themselves.By addressing God as “Holy Father,” Jesus used a phrase that appears nowhere else in the Gospel of John. This shows us that he is praying with an extra-special measure of intensity, adding “Holy” to the regular title of “Father.”This reference to the “Holy” Father also concentrates on the transcendence of God over all things which exist and apart from all things which are evil and hostile towards him. For the heavenly, holy Father to “keep” those who follow Jesus, then, asks for the kind of protection that is completely secure, unable to be affected in any serious way by Satan, by the world, or by any other force which may come against them.Furthermore, it is a close relationship with our holy, infinitely separate and transcendent Father which makes it possible for us to remain in and among this hostile, evil world. When we draw near to our far away, holy, and heavenly Father, we may rest in the shelter of his protection in the midst of a dangerous, treacherous wilderness. That is why Jesus said that he did not pray for us to be removed from the world, but to remain safe as they remained in the world (John 14:15).This idea of “the name of the LORD” being a safe place in which to rest for protection appears in the Old Testament. David wrote this in the Psalms, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). His son Solomon wrote this in Proverbs, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Prov 18:10).” Today, you may run to the Father in heaven and pray as he taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be (or ‘holy is’) your name…deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:9-13). As you pray this way, you may rest assured that Jesus prays for you in the same way, and God the Father hears this prayer.To overcome the challenges of following Jesus in a hostile world, you should become closely acquainted with all the attributes, qualities, and names of God. He is loving, faithful, merciful, just, holy, gracious, all-powerful, all-knowing, always present, and so on. The more you know of your holy Heavenly Father, the more you will be able to “run to him” for refuge and safety.
Rejoice in your closeness to him.
Jesus here alludes to “his joy,” asking that his followers would experience the same kind of joy that he enjoyed. This joy was the result of a special “oneness” or “closeness” with God the Father. It refers, in fact, to the perfect union and communion that the Father and the Son had enjoyed together from eternity. He wanted his disciples to enjoy the same kind of closeness with the Father as he enjoyed (John 17:13). By going away from them, he would place them in a position to experience this direct fellowship with the Father for themselves. From this newfound closeness, they would be able to experience a newfound depth of joy which they had not enjoyed before. This is the joy of a closest friendship, and this friendship is with God the Father, the God of the universe. There is no greater joy than this, and such a joy will light your heart and fill your mouth with gladness and song.
Pursue closeness with one another.
He also prayed that his followers would enjoy this “oneness” and “closeness” with one another (John 17:13). When you understand the real and present dangers of a hostile world, you understand the value of close relationships with other believers. In fact, Satan weakens your position in the world not only when he separates you from a close and vibrant relationship with God. He does this also by separating you from a close and functioning friendship with the believers of your church family.Isolated believers become easy targets for Satan. The believers of the early church learned to put pursue this closeness with one another. Luke tells us, “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). As time wore on and difficulties increased, the book of Hebrews was written to encourage believers to keep up this perspective because some were beginning to go back into isolation, pulling away from their church. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:25).As we fellowship with one another more and grow closer to one another, not farther away, then we experience something that is amazing. John later wrote in 1 John, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:3-4). When you learn to foster closeness and faithful gathering together with one another, you will experience more and more closeness with the Triune God. People may say, “I don’t need to come to church because I can fellowship with God by myself.” But this is a limited perspective. Yes, you can fellowship with God by yourself. But you cannot fellowship with God in the fullest or more joyful way apart from gathering together and fostering closeness with other disciples.
Cling closely to the Scriptures.
Jesus also gives more attention to this later in his prayer, but at this point in his prayer, he said that he had “given them God’s Word” (John 17:14). This fact provides a point of reference which acts as both a safeguard and a source of guidance for these men. By knowing the Word of God, the disciples would be able to know the difference between truth and error, protecting them from the many heresies and wrong doctrines which would develop in the world over time. This would also ensure that they would know the heart and mind of God for making decisions and leading others to follow Christ.For these reasons, it is important for pastors – for instance – to “preach the Word” (2 Tim 4:2). This means that a pastor must continue to pass along precisely what the Bible says, ensuring that believers clearly and accurately understand what the Bible teaches, no matter how people respond in the end. He is not at liberty to preach his ideas about the word, but to preach what the Word says. Consider the full context of this verse and notice the seriousness of this responsibility, along with the challenges that go along with it:“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Tim 4:1-5).A pastor is also responsible to “rightly divide the word of truth,” which means that he must do more than quote Bible verses in his messages. He must explain and teach them accurately, just as a meat-packer is not at liberty to cut up the meat on a cow however he pleases. He must cut it according to proper specifications, and so must a pastor do to with the Word of God – he must explain it accurately. Again, notice the full context of this verse and consider the seriousness of the task and the way that it relates to what Jesus prayed about in John 17:11-15:“Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’” (2 Tim 2:14-19)The Word of God fills an incredibly important place in our lives since Jesus is not present on earth in a physical way. The way that Satan runs this world, he does whatever he can to detach or distract the followers of Jesus from the words that Jesus taught. The key, then, to following Jesus and cultivating a close relationship with the Father is to closely cling to the words that Jesus gave, knowing them in a thorough and accurate way. This does, in fact, include all the words of the New Testament (Heb 1:2), not just the words of the opening four gospels. In a greater sense, it includes all of the words of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17).
Questions to Consider
As you consider these thoughts from the prayer of Jesus, I would encourage you to reflect on the following questions:
- In what ways do the four dangers of following Jesus appear in your life as you seek to follow Jesus?
- In what ways can you increase your focus on fostering a close relationship with God the Father?
