Effective Prayer of the Righteous

If you would please take your
Bibles and turn back once again to John’s Gospel. We find ourselves
in John Chapter 17 where we have been for a number of weeks. We
come in though to a new section of John’s Chapter 17 of Christ’s
Prayer. We began several weeks ago in
considering What essentially is Christ’s prayer for himself,
but then in verse six, all the way down through verse 19, Jesus
is praying for his apostles. And then the final section, rounding
out chapter 17, Jesus begins to pray for all of those who
would follow in faith, namely the church. And so in a very
real sense, he prays for us. And so we look forward to that
section. But today, I want to go back to verse six, and we’ll
take this section in its entirety, beginning in verse six, all the
way down through verse 19. Where Jesus prayed, I have manifested
your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They
were yours, and you gave them to me. and they have kept your
word. 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. I ask on their behalf, I do not
ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you have
given me, for they’re yours, and all things that are mine
are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in
them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in
the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your
name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one,
even as we are. While I was with them, I was
keeping them in your name, which you have given me, and I guarded
them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so
that the scripture would be fulfilled 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. 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. I do not ask you to take them
out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent
me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For
their sakes, I sanctify myself so that they themselves also
may be sanctified in truth. In James Epistle, he makes a
statement that should encourage every praying Christian to pray
all the more. He says, the fervent and effectual
prayer of a righteous man avails much. And that has been used
in my own life to stir my own heart to prayer. Talk to many
of God’s people that have said that that is an almost singular
encouragement to sustained prayer for major issues in life. The fervent and effectual prayer
of a righteous man avails much. And it speaks not only of the
intensity of the prayer, in its fervency, but it speaks of its
fruitfulness as well. It is effective prayer. But perhaps
the equation in that statement that is difficult for us to come
to grips with is the prepositional phrase at the end. The fervent
and effectual prayer of a righteous man. We find it difficult to
take that label, don’t we? And we know that even though
if we have placed our faith in Christ, we stand before God in
His, that is, Christ’s righteousness, and in that sense we are righteous,
but we find it difficult to embrace that equation. The truth is true
nonetheless, And it does encourage us to pray. But if there was
ever one for whom it could be said that he prayed not only
fervently and effectually as a righteous man, it was the Lord
Jesus Christ. We step in, we step in again.
into the midst of a prayer that Jesus Christ himself, the righteous
one, the only one who is ever perfectly righteous to walk the
earth, we find the righteous one in prayer. And that should
seize our attention because now he begins to turn his prayer
to the disciples, to the apostles themselves, and ultimately to
the church. It is more than just a passing
interest to us that Jesus would pray for himself. And we studied
those verses, verses one through five, with great care to learn
about how Christ prayed for himself. But now the matters turn to us. They turn to the disciples who
laid the foundation of the church and they turn ultimately to us
in verses 20 and following. Jesus Christ, the righteous one,
is at prayer. And his prayer is both fervent
and effectual, as we will see. Jesus had already promised to
his apostles that the Holy Spirit would eventually come. Jesus has already told them of
his bodily departure. but that his spiritual presence
will continue to abide and be present with them. But he knows
that now the moments are fleeting. He is literally now just hours
from physical departure from his apostles. And he beckons
them close, as it were, and lets them listen in on communion,
his communion with his heavenly father. He lets them in on a
prayer. Now, he had prayed in front of
them before. He had given short prayers. This one is the longest of all. If you would, go back to verse
six. As we look at the beginning of
this prayer for the apostles. Jesus said, I have manifested
your name to the men. To manifest something is almost
to flip on the light switch, to reveal, to show, to shine,
if you will. And what he says is, I have manifested
your name, the complete revelation of God I have given to them. Jesus says, I showed them who
you are. Just by coming and taking on
human flesh, by living out his life in front of them, The name of God points to the
entire nature of God, and Jesus Christ revealed it in full. Not only the nature of God, but
the character of God, the power of God, the holiness of God,
the sovereignty of God, all of God’s attributes were lived out
in Christ. Christ made known perfectly who
God was. That is to manifest his name. And so he had revealed God to
the disciples. He had revealed himself to them
as God, but he had also revealed the Father to them. As one pastor
said, the Son is the Father’s exegete. From time to time I
have occasion to talk to young men about the whole subject of
exegesis. And one of the ways I dispel
their fear is to say that Bible study is exegesis and exegesis
is Bible study. Now you can do bad Bible study
and you can do bad exegesis. The goal is to dig into the text
and to really draw out of the Bible study, the real true message
of the passage. Well, the son is the father’s
exegete. The son is the one who explains
the father. As one said, apart from him,
no one ever gets to know spiritual matters in their real inner essence
and value. Without Christ, we would not
know the father. He would remain to us an enigma. He would remain to us this distant,
foreboding being that Israel alone had a glimpse. But the Father’s name has been
manifested. Jesus Christ has made him known. He has shown the light, as it
were, on the very nature of God. Look at verse six, I have manifested
your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They
were yours and you gave them to me. Part of the revelation
of God, part of the gift of God was his sovereignty. And he tells
them that these men, they themselves were God’s possession. God made
them. God breathed life into them,
God called them to himself, and now God was giving them, gifting
them over to the Lord Jesus Christ. That shouldn’t surprise us at
this point in John’s gospel, John 6, 37, all that the Father
gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me,
I will certainly not cast out the sovereignty of God in play,
not only in salvation, but especially in the course of the selection
of these apostles. John 8, 47, he who is of God
hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear
them because you are not of God. There were those that were called,
practically speaking, and there were those that were not called. I have manifested your name to
the men whom you gave me out of the world they were yours
you gave them to me and they have kept your word there was
fruit in Christ’s ministry and one of the astounding things
to us is that there wasn’t more fruit but the fruit that he had
was substantial that on these eleven men the entire church
would be established and planted, and it would begin to flourish
and grow. They have kept your word. They
have kept God’s promises to them. They have kept God’s commandments,
as we’ll see in a moment. They have continued in the way
that Christ has called them, the way of righteousness. They
have persevered and they have continued on the path. There’s
been a very careful and a watchful attention to Christ. There’s
been a tendency at times to want to flee and to want to give up.
And those times will come in full measure here in just hours. But they persevered. They have
doubted at times. They have contemplated leaving
at times. But they persevered and they’ve
pressed on. And Jesus says that the fidelity,
the trueness of these men is tangible, that it’s noteworthy. And he calls the father himself
to attend to that fact, to assent to the fact that in spite of
their doubts, in spite of their human frailties, in spite of
their weaknesses, they have persevered. They have kept his word. Look
at verse seven, now they have come to know that everything
you have given me is from you, including themselves. The apostles
had come to know that God in his sovereignty had directed
everything and that even they were in God’s hands. Everything was from the heavenly
father. They’ve come to know that everything
you’ve given me is from you for the words which you gave me I’ve
given to them and they received them and truly understood that
I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me. There
was proof. It was tangible proof. Jesus
came preaching the gospel and they responded in faith. They’ve
come to know. That experiential knowledge,
that deep seated knowledge, that deep rooted knowledge Not just
a passing acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, but a knowledge
of communion with Him. An intimate knowledge of Him. Now, finally, they have really
and truly come to know. They’ve come to know that God
is sovereign. They’ve come to know that Jesus
is God. They’ve come to know that God has called them into
his service. If you can imagine, even as Jesus
is praying, this is profound for these men to begin to embrace.
They see the entire course of history before them, and that
for this moment, they have been chosen, not unlike Moses, not
unlike Abraham, not unlike David before them. They know in the
course of this prayer, that now the entire church is going to
be built upon their testimony. The words that you gave me, I’ve
given to them. Throughout John’s gospel, he
has repeated this theme. They were God’s words. This is
God’s mission. This is God’s plan of redemption.
Jesus doesn’t come with his own program. Jesus doesn’t have his
own agenda. Jesus isn’t there doing his own
thing, John 12, 49. I did not speak on my own initiative,
but the Father himself who sent me has given commandment of what
to say and what to speak. John 15, all things that I have
heard from my Father I’ve made known to you. He taught them
the Father’s full plan of salvation. John 17, 14, which verse we just
reviewed, I have given them your word. The disciples had acknowledged that. The disciples
had acknowledged that we know that you know all things. We
know that the Father has given you these things. Now they truly
begin to let these things unfold in their mind that they had received
the words of Christ. They had received the God-given
message of the gospel. They had come to know with certainty
that Jesus Christ was of divine origin. He was from God and he
was God. These men could only rightly
be described as men of faith. They were men who followed hard
after God. They were men who held forth
and held fast to the truth. And Jesus says, it’s these men. It’s these men that I want to
pray for now. Look at verse nine. I ask on
their behalf. This is a curious thing. When
you think of Christ communing with the Father, this is a curious
exchange. It’s not like he had to inform
the Father of any of this. He’s praying, though, and we’ve
already determined that in all likelihood he’s praying out loud.
It’s certainly possible that the Holy Spirit imparted this
prayer in its completeness to the Apostle John 50 years later
when John wrote this gospel. But there are many reasons for
coming to the conclusion that Jesus Christ prayed this prayer
out loud for their benefit, and this is one of them. I ask on
their behalf, how encouraging would that be? You’re praying
along, you’re listening to Jesus praying. He has already articulated
some prayers for himself. Give to me the glory which I
had. And now the prayer turns to a prayer
for them. Wouldn’t you incline your ear
if Jesus was praying, and perhaps even praying quietly, on his
knees before the Father, and he brought your name into the
equation, wouldn’t you incline your ear? You know you would.
That’s the scene. These 11 are gathered around
Christ. I think they even have begun to realize this is the
night. This is the night where things will begin to happen.
They don’t know the fullness of it, but Jesus has told them
that he will be taken by the authorities. Ultimately, he will
die. Three days later, rise again. But when Jesus says, I ask on
their behalf, you could have heard a pin drop. I ask on their
behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world. Jesus wanted them
to know that this isn’t a general prayer. We do a lot of that,
don’t we? God bless all the missionaries in the whole wide world. Or even
if we pray about our own sin, you know, we pray in such general
terms. God knows that we’re a sinner.
Tell him specifically how you have sinned. We have this tendency
to pray so generally that we want to put an umbrella over
every possible contingency there is. Jesus is dialing it down. Jesus
is putting a laser focus on not only what, but for whom he’s
praying. And he wants the disciples to
know he’s not praying for the world now. I ask on their behalf,
I ask on the part of the apostles, the disciples themselves, I do
not ask on behalf of the world. That doesn’t mean that Jesus
never prayed for the lost. Matthew 5, 44. Pray for those
who persecute you. Jesus admonished us to pray for
those who are contrary to us, who hate us. Luke 23, Jesus was
saying, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they’re
doing. Jesus, in the midst of the passion,
in the midst of his arrest and crucifixion, prayed for his persecutors,
prayed for those murderers who were in the very process. But
at this moment, he wants the disciples to know that, look,
I’m not praying a general prayer. I’m praying for the 11 of you. I do not ask on behalf of the
world, but on behalf of those whom you have given me. And he
reminds them that there is a sovereign movement of God’s grace at work
on their behalf. God had picked them out. hand-picked
them. God had chosen them and put them
into his service. They’re yours and all things
that are mine are yours and yours are mine and I have been glorified
in them. Jesus says, I want you to know I’m praying
for you. I’m praying for my own, not for the unbelieving world.
I’m not praying a general prayer. I’m not praying for the whole
wide world. I’m praying for you because the
Father gave you to me. I’m praying for you because you
belong to the Father and now he has entrusted you to me. And I have some things that I
want to pray for. That’s the groundwork that is
laid there in those first four verses, verses six, five verses
six through 10. Jesus wants them to know And
I believe all the more now that Jesus is praying out loud. He
wants them to know and wants them to hear. And now he wants
them to hear the particulars of what he prays for his disciples. This is indeed the effective
prayer of the righteous. This is the prayer of the righteous
one. This is the prayer of the only righteous one that ever
walked the face of the earth. And this prayer, as we’ll see,
is incredibly effective, even down to this day. What we have in verses 11 through
19 are the results of Christ’s prayer for his friends. And we
see it first of all in the grace of spiritual preservation. The grace of spiritual preservation,
look at verse 11. I am no longer in the world and
yet they themselves are in the world and I come to you. Jesus has been leading up to
this all the way along that he was going to be departing and
now they’re literally on the threshold of that moment. They
know that this hour has come And Jesus wants them to know
that the occasion of this prayer is this very moment to which
they’ve come. He’s going away. And he wants
to pray for his disciples, particulars. And his departure, rather, if
you look at it, it’s so near that Jesus even uses the present
tense. I am no longer in the world.
It’s as if Jesus is already gone. He’s already been crucified and
buried. And he prays this simple prayer. Holy Father, keep them in your
name. Jesus prays for the grace of
spiritual preservation. And he, first of all, calls out
in really two names, Holy Father. He could have cried out to the
Holy One, and that would have been enough. Everybody would
have known who he was talking to, and he could have cried out
to the Father, independent of that, and they too would have
known to whom Christ was praying, but he calls out Holy Father.
The holiness of God to the Jew was at the core of who God was. And so Jesus calls out to his
father as holy. He reminds them of God’s holiness. I love Burkhoff’s definition of
the holiness of God. He says it’s twofold. We tend
to think of God’s holiness really in in a singular fashion that
he’s just completely apart from sin. Birkhoff says that there
is that positional sense that he’s absolutely distinct from
his creatures. He is apart from us, but he’s
also completely apart from sin, and we tend to think that that
is a negative, as if he’s, you know, off holding his nose because
of our sin, completely apart from all sin. But holiness is
a positive virtue, Birkhoff goes on to say. It’s moral excellence. It’s utter purity. It’s not just
the absence of sin, but it’s the presence of righteousness. And so he calls out to God as holy. The one who is perfectly
just and righteous. And he calls out to him as He’s
both. He’s not an austere God. That’s how Israel had begun to
consider this God. He was indeed holy in the mind
of Israel, but holy to Israel meant that he was apart and aloof
and unapproachable. He was to be feared. But Jesus comes to this same
holy God and he calls him father. It’s not that holiness is absent, but holiness is blended here
with the idea of father, holy father, keep them in your name. And he asks, he appeals to God
based on those terms. The tenderness of God in his
fatherhood and the purity of God in his holiness that he would
respond and give to these apostles what they need the most. And
that is really spiritual preservation. Jesus will no longer be with
them. He’s told them, he’s forecasted it, he has promised a helper,
a Holy Spirit who’s going to come and dwell in them. But the
disciples no doubt were dubious, doubtful, even fearful that they
would even be able to hang on and persevere. The word here,
to keep, means to guard with the utmost and watchful care. Jesus asked that he would guard
these men, guard their hearts, that he would watch over them
with a kind of divine surveillance. J.C. Ryle described it when he
said that they be kept and preserved from evil, kept from falling
away. kept from false doctrine, from
being overcome by temptation, from being crushed by persecution,
from every device and assault of the devil. That’s what it
is to be kept. He wants God to surround them. There’s a great misunderstanding
of what has been classically termed as the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints. Those who persevere till the
end will be saved, and we know that that’s true. But ultimately,
I think the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints could be more aptly
titled the doctrine of the preservation of the saints, because it’s God
holding on to us. Aren’t you glad that it doesn’t
depend on you maintaining a grasp on God’s hand, but it’s God’s
hand on you? To be kept is to be preserved. It’s to be held onto by none
other than God himself. This was in the Jews’ mind. Number
624, the Lord bless you and keep you. May you never falter. May
you never fall off the path. Holy Father, keep them in your
name. The name which you have given
to me. God had given Christ His name. God had given His character. God had bestowed all of these
things through Christ as a testimony to those who would see Him. And
they had believed on Him. And what Jesus says, Father,
never let them go. Grant them the grace to persevere.
Grant them the blessing of finishing. Grant them that they never fall
away. Keep them to the very end. Jesus had consistently prayed
this prayer throughout John’s gospel. It was a consistent theme in
John’s gospel If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
And that makes it sound like it’s our duty. John 14, if you
love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14, 21, he who has kept
my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. Over
and over again, he urged this upon his followers. And it is, as we see the New
Testament unfold, we see that it is an applied grace. that
there is something to this perseverance, something that we must apply
in order to achieve. 1 Timothy 5
says it this way, keep yourself free from sin. It’s on us. 1 Timothy 6, keep the commandment. 2 Timothy 4, keep the faith. James 127, keep yourself unstained
from the world. There’s something in there that’s
on us. But Jesus says ultimately here
in John 17, ultimately it’s God holding onto us, it’s God sustaining
us. And in that sense, that too is
echoed in the New Testament. Paul writing to the Thessalonians,
closed it in this fashion. He said, now may the God of peace
himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul
and body be preserved complete. May God himself never let you
go. That was his prayer for the disciples,
but he wasn’t finished. And the prayer was dynamic, and
sometimes the prayers are outright requests, petitions before God,
and sometimes we see the results of Christ’s prayer in the purpose
for which he prayed, and we see that in verse 11. Secondly, the second result of
Christ’s prayer for his friends was not only for the grace of
spiritual preservation, but secondly, for the grace of godly unity,
that all of these things would come by way of God’s grace. It’s
a prayer for godly unity. Look at verse 11. I am no longer
in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come
to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which
you have given to me. Why? That they may be one, even
as we are. He points to the very purpose
of his prayer, that it’s ultimately a prayer for unity. It’s a prayer
for preservation unto unity. And the church, sadly, has misunderstood
this and misapplied it throughout the centuries. Not all the church. It isn’t a prayer for an ecumenical
movement where we all set aside our differences and all hold
hands in a circle and sing Kumbaya and pretend that our convictions
don’t exist. This oneness for which he prays
is a oneness of purpose, it’s a oneness of will, it’s a oneness
of fellowship. And it’s unity in the midst of
diversity. Like what Paul mentions in 1
Corinthians 12, Romans 14, where the gifts, The individuals in the church
vary greatly. Their gifts vary greatly. But
in the end, they are one in purpose. They are one in God’s plan. As one pastor described it, they
are one in heart and mind, striving together. Against common foes
and for common ends not broken up not weakened not paralyzed
by internal quarrels and divisions It’s a close intimate unbroken
unity of mind and will and opinion and feeling Jesus prayed that
for the church and that prayer was answered and it has been
answered and it continues to be answered to our day Doesn’t
it? God is preserving us. God is preserving the unity in
the church. God is fulfilling his great plan
of redemption. And the admonition is there and
clear. Paul said it in Romans 12, through the grace given me,
I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself
than he ought to think. This is the same admonition he
gives in Philippians 2, isn’t it? It’s a call to humility.
There will never be unity, there will never be oneness without
humility. Not to think more highly of himself
than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment. As God has allotted to each a
measure of faith, and there’s the diversity. There is the great
diversity in the church, whether it’s one of gifts, or one of
giftedness, or one of usefulness, or one of office. For just as
we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have
the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ. Jesus Christ prayed. He went
to the Heavenly Father and he prayed for the divine grace,
not only of a spiritual preservation, but the divine grace of a godly
unity. And as we come to the Lord’s
table this morning, I would appeal to you to examine
your own hearts. Do you feel like you’re faltering?
Do you feel like you’re ready to give up? Is it in your heart to even cave
to the world? Have you set your hand to the
plow? Then press on. Have you placed your faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ? Then stop doubting. Jesus Christ prayed for his own
men that they would be preserved and they were. And Jesus Christ
would likewise have us to be preserved to the end. If we’ve
placed our faith in Jesus Christ, he will complete that work. Jesus prayed for oneness. Are
there those with whom you’re at odds? Are there those? Maybe who have gifts that differ
from yours that. You deem them to be somehow superior
and because they’re superior in your eyes. You want nothing
to do with them. You want nothing to do with the
paltry gifts that you feel God has layered on you. We have cause to examine our
hearts and to repent. The gifts ultimately are traced
back to God’s sovereignty as is our salvation. We want to be at work for Jesus
Christ. We want to labor for Jesus Christ. We want to be one singular in
the cause of God’s great plan of redemption. Let’s examine
our hearts. Merciful God, we thank you for
allowing us to sit in and to listen to what God, God from
eternity past, had to say in his communion with God the Father
from eternity past. Lord, we thank you that in a
very real way you have answered these petitions in establishing
the church through these 11 apostles and persevering them, preserving
them down through the fulfillment of their various ministries.
The prayer is no less legitimate for us that you hold tight to
us and not let us waver, not let us falter, not let us fall
away. Lord, the prayer for unity is
no less true. We know that you honored that
the church would not have been established without it. And time
and again, throughout the early church, you gave the church unity
as to what books of the Bible were truly divine. You began
to help them sort through major doctrinal controversies. You
restored the church through the process of the reformation. And to this day, Father, you
continue to constantly call us back to oneness of purpose and
spirit. Lord, examine our hearts, we
pray, as we come before the Lord’s table. We count it a privilege
to rejoice in what you have done for us. We thank you for your grace at
work in us and it’s these things that we pray in Jesus name. Amen.