MO 31 2/15/2026 The Function of Faith/Eyes to Heaven (Part 2) John 17:6-19 Mike Otazu Well, good morning church. I’m always excited to show up here on Sunday mornings in the auditorium and see how pastor Andrew selects the songs that we sing, especially the very last one to tee-up the sermon. He did, as usual, an excellent job this morning. The last hymn that we sang has some profound truths in it that lead us right into this passage. That first verse that we just sang altogether says: “May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day. And by His love and power controlling all I do and say.” That is our intention here, as we open up God’s Word. Especially as we open up God’s Word to this particular passage. Which give us a perfect view into the mind of Christ. As you heard, we’re continuing our study through John 17 this morning. And I really don’t think I’ve over selling it, when I say that it’s one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Bible. It’s chock full of truths that really push our minds to their limits, as we try to understand them. After all, what we’re doing here, when we come to this passage . . . is to sort of eves dropping on a divine conversation from within God Himself. We’re reading the Son of God’s very words, as He comes to the Father in prayer. It’s an opportunity for us to peer into the mystery of the Trinity, a window into the very mind of God. So, if you would, grab your copy of God’s Word and open it with me to John 17. Last week, we worked through the first part of our passage, verses 1-5. Now this morning, we’ll consider the middle part of this prayer, verses 6-19. Let’s read it together here, all the way through. Then we’ll come back to the top, and I’ll share with you our outline for this morning and how we’ll break it apart. John 17: 6-19, He says this: “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’ve 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 believe that You sent me. I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You’ve given me. For they are Yours and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And I’m 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 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’ve given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am no of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They’re not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth, Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. For their sake, I sanctify Myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Fourteen powerful verses, aren’t they? We’re going to have to move quickly through them, to pick up a lot of these truths here and there will be some points left on the field. After all, 60 minutes is not enough for really any verse in the Bible, let alone 14 of these. So, we’re going to break it up. I’m going to give us four particular points, as we work through this text. I’ll give them to you all up front, they are a little shorter than last week’s, maybe a little bit bite-size. We’re going to see The Foundation of Faith, The Unity of Faith, The Security of Faith and The Exclusivity of Faith. We’ll start right here at the beginning of our passage, in verse 6 and we’ll look at verses 6-10 here, to pull out the first point: The Foundation of Faith So, Jesus picks up here in verse 6, at about the same spot where He left off the previous section, which we looked at last week. He reiterates the fact that the Father gave to Him, the Son, some individuals for a special purpose. And He says here, in verse 6, look at it yourselves: “I have manifested Your name to the men You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me.” We went through it already when we studied the first five verses, so I won’t rehash it all again. But it’s important to remember that when Jesus talks this way, He’s intentionally teaching us an important aspect of the doctrine of salvation. He’s referring to what Paul would later teach, with more clarity in Ephesians 1. That God, before time began, before He initiated the movement of history as we experience it from our perspective, as finite creatures. Before He set into motion the happening of things which would eventually result in our sinfulness and our deservedness of eternal suffering in hell. Before all of that, He considered every individual. He looked at every soul which He would create, and He chose some of them to give to the Son. He chose some of them to be shown grace through the cross of Christ. Some people end up not getting what we all deserve. We all deserve hell, and yet, through God’s gracious choosing of some, not all end up there. When Jesus describes these chosen ones, here in verse 6, as “those whom You gave Me out of the world.” If this all seems too theological or ethereal, then just focus on you own responsibility from your earthly perspective. If you want this and you don’t have this, then all you need to do is repent and believe in Jesus. If you truly believe in Jesus, then that fruit of repentance will be obvious in your life. You need to believe in Jesus, that He died on the cross for the sins of the world, and rose again three days later, and ascended to God on high. If you believe that, then the fruit of repentance will be seen in your life. You won’t have the same relationship with sin as you did before. You’ll live under the Lordship of the One who died to save you. If you want to be among those whom the Father has given to the Son, then what you need to do is repent and believe. Beg the Lord to make it happen and your heart of stone will be miraculously replaced with a heart of flesh. It’s really that simple. That’s the Gospel friends. It’s the most important truth that you’ll ever hear. As an unbeliever, it’s the lifeline that’s been tossed to you as you drown in the dark waters of sin. As a Believer, it’s the truth upon which you continually meditate, right? You never outgrow this truth that we just said. You never outgrow the Gospel. You never graduate from such fundamental facts as these. All of this here is in view in the first verse of our passage here, verse 6 of chapter 17 of John. Jesus prays, “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.” The Father gave all chosen ones into Jesus’ hands. For saving and safe keeping. For the purposes of the specific context here in this paragraph, we need to know that included in this group of chosen ones are the Disciples. God chose and gave all who would believe in Jesus to Jesus, but He also specifically gave 11 men, taking out Judas, of course, who was never a Believer to begin with to Jesus here, to follow Him. Be around Him during His earthly ministry. And eventually, who would play key rolls in the founding of the church, after Jesus died, rose and ascended. For these men here, that Jesus specifically prays in our passage. He says, in verse 6, “I have manifested Your name to the men You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours and You gave them to Me.” So, what we’re seeing here is a sort of inter-trinitarian progress report from the Son to the Father. It’s like He’s checking back in with the Father here toward the end of His earthly mission. He’s recounting what He’s done with them, particularly we see here that Jesus’ reports in the beginning of verse 6, that He has “manifested” the Father’s name to them. That word there that we see come through in the English – “manifested” communicates the concept of causing something to become visible or exposing something for what it really is. One of Jesus’ main tasks, while on earth, was to reveal God more fully. He was to make it so that people could have a better understanding of who God really is. He did this by living among them in the flesh. Back in John 1, John uses a different verb here, to communicate the same concept. In John 17, John says the same thing but in John 1, he uses a different verb. He says this, in chapter 1:18. He says that “the Son has explained God.” The original Greek word there for “explained” is the word that we get our English word exegete, or exegesis from. It’s the idea of bringing meaning out from wherever it’s contained and making it clearly understood in fine detail. A pastor exegetes the Bible. A sports commentator exegetes a stat line. A husband exegetes or tries to exegete his wife’s facial expression when he doesn’t bring her flowers on Valentines Day. That’s the idea here. The Son, incarnated as God in the flesh, exegetes, explains, takes the meaning out of and makes it clear, explains the Father. What we have here in verse 6 of chapter 17 is the same concept, with just a different verb. Jesus prays to the Father here “I have manifested Your name to the men You gave me out of the world. They were Yours and You gave them to Me.” Then, Jesus goes on down through verse 10, rehearsing the same truths that we’ve already studied. Look at them there, “Now they have come to know that everything You’ve 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 those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I have been glorified in them.” We’ve seen all of these truths already, in partial form last week, where we’re seeing them rehearsed here again this week. But the main thing that I want us to pull from this here as we move quickly through this part of the text. Is that we’re able to know certain things about the Father, because of the Son. We’re able to understand the Father in a clearer way because of the Son’s incarnation and ministry. Even now, for us, the record of it in the Gospels. He revealed and explained the Father to us. Now, as we come to verses 11, 12 and 13, we’re going to see the focus of Jesus’ prayer here shift to His asking of the Father to give the Disciples unity. He wants to make sure that as He leaves them and goes back to heaven that they’ll be protected from divisiveness and corruption. Look at it here in verse 11 and following here. We’re going to put this under our second main heading: The Unity of Faith Look at verse 11, “And I’m 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 One.” So, again, we see Jesus using this sort of prophetic past tense, as He prays to the Father. At this point in His ministry, He is obviously still in the world, isn’t He? But He’s so close to the point of leaving the world and going back up to the Father. It’s such a sure thing that it will happen, that He speaks of it as though it already has happened. That’s what’s happening here with the syntax and the grammar and the tense. I don’t want to get too deep into this concept of Believers and the world, because it’s about to come again here, in just a few verses. But in order to pick up the main point here, we need to recognize, at least the very basic truth here, that there is an enmity between the world and the Disciples. There’s an unmixed ability between the world and the Disciples here. Just drop your eyes down to verse 14 and see what Jesus says there. He says, “I’ve given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, because they’re not of the world, even as I’m not of the world.” We’ll get more into this in our next point, but right here, just notice the hostility from the world toward the Disciples. Because they have God’s Word, the world hates them. They have God’s Word, and therefore, connective clause here, the world hates them. Therefore, there is a need to have unity among them. When they’re berated with hostility from the world, they need to be unified. That’s what Jesus prays for here in verse 11. “Because of the hostility of the world and My absence from them [second half of verse 11] holy Father, keep them in Your name. A name which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are One.” In other words, let them not lose sight of their leader. Let them not be distracted by the world and fall away. Let them stay unified even to the degree “that they may be one, even as we are.” He prays. It doesn’t get more unified than the essential sameness that defines the Trinity, does it? That’s as unified as you could possibly get. The Son is God. The Father is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And God is the Son. And God is the Father. And God is the Holy Spirit. While, strictly speaking, of course, it’s impossible for men to literally, essentially be one and the same as each other what Jesus is asking for here is a sort of similarity that is similar in its extremeness. A unity that’s similar in its extremeness. A Trinity is extremely unified, to the point of inexplicability even. When was the last time you tried to explain the Trinity to your toddler? I’ve tried it recently actually, it’s pretty hard. In the same way that you can’t explain the unity in the Trinity, perfectly with words so should also Believers be unified to that degree, or at least close to that degree that’s the idea here. He wants to see the Disciples unified to the point of virtual unexplainability. I think we can make this same application to us Believers today. Jesus wants to see us unified to the point of virtual unexplainability. That’s the point here. In the same way that we have trouble explaining the depths of the Trinity, we should have trouble explaining the radicalness of the unity of the local body. We should be so united in our cause, so banded together under the leadership of God that the only way to explain such a radical unity is by pointing to our shared blessing of salvation in Christ. You know that church? It’s so unified. It’s almost like a cult, even. Not a cult, but we are extremely unified, I pray. Almost to the point of unexplainability, such that the world makes things up to try to explain it. Right? We are of one mind. Why? Not because we all like each other, necessarily I hope we kind of like each other. But really, because we have a bond that’s unexplainable, because it’s at the core of our essence. God has given us new hearts, and in so doing, has united us in an unexplainable way. That’s how we relate to this hostile world across the battlefield. We do it by being inexplicably unified. It’s just like the principles of linear warfare. I don’t know if you spent a lot of your time reading warfare history and strategy. I spent some of my time doing that, I won’t tell you how much. But if an army intends to be united on a battlefield, and to be effective in defending its ground, it needs to present a unified front. Its front line has to be made up of soldiers determined to keep their arms locked to the man next to them, and march at the same pace and follow the same beat of the drum, and do all things in unison, don’t they? Their strength lies in their unity. The principle here carries over to our spiritual struggle. If we allow breaks in our ranks or division in our front lines, what’s going to happen? The world’s attacks will have a much easier way of infiltrating and wreaking havoc on us, won’t it? Unity was one of Christ’s primary focus as He was leaving His Disciples to go back to the Father. I don’t think I’m out on a limb here when I’m making this application. Unity should likewise be one of our primary focuses as a church. The apostle Paul made a really big deal of this in his letter to Ephesians. I think it would be beneficial for us to go over there and look at it. So, if you would, flip over to Ephesians. Let’s look at Ephesians 4. In our text in John 17, Jesus identifies this unity as something that’s unexplainable apart from salvation. Here in Ephesians 4, Paul takes this truth and makes clear application of it. In fact, I think perhaps Paul had John 17 in mind when he wrote Ephesians 4. Let’s pick it up at the beginning of Ephesians 4 but we’ll really zero in on verse 3. Paul writes this to the church at Ephesus, “Therefore, I the prisoner in the Lord exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, [here it is] being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There’s one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” One unity. We need to “be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” verse three. There’s a lot here, we don’t have time to get to it all. In Doxa, we spent about a month working through all of this, over at the chapel in first hour. But here, we just need to pick up one main point and keep going. It’s this, look at verse 3. Notice what Paul identifies as the source of our unity as Believers “the unity of the Spirit.” Meaning, it’s a unity that’s brought about by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He’s not talking about our human spirit here, that’s how some people will read this. He’s not saying that we need to be diligent to keep our spirits, our attitudes in unity. He’s actually expecting us to realize what the people who translated your English Bibles in front of you, and added the capitol “S”, which was not in the original language because there were no capitol letters, or they were all capitols. Here, the translators put the capitol “S” because they want you to realize that it’s the Holy Spirit Paul’s talking about, and they are dead-right. That’s the Holy Spirit who’s the source of this unity. That’s what the preposition “of” conveys here, authorship, origination. The unity that we have as Believers is a shared unity that’s directly connected to our shared salvation in the Spirit. Now, what does Paul want us to do now that we have this status of unity? Look there at verse 3, he wants us to, “be diligent to keep it.” The ESV puts it, “eager to maintain it.” The King James puts it, “endeavoring to keep it.” Another way I’ve seen it translated is, “making every effort to keep that unity.” All of these capture the verb pretty well, I think. The idea that we need to be so committed to unity in the body that we lay ourselves down in order to keep it. Remember, we don’t make the unity, do we? No unity that we can experience here in this body can be attributed to us. What does the preposition teach us is the source of it here? It is what? It’s not of our attitude, it’s of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Our job is simply not to mess it up. The Holy Spirit gave it to us. Now preserve it. Preserve that which God has already established, by putting us all in the same body. That’s what Paul is exhorting the church in Ephesus to do. I think it’s what we ought to do. Back to John 17 and our text. We’ve been given this unity as Believers, by virtue of simply being fellow Believers. There’s a robust bond between us, by nature, as we all serve the Lord together. Jesus here, at the end of verse 11, prays for this sort of unity to be prevalent. He prays that, there in verse 11 of John 17, “that they may be one even as We are.” So, the second point is all about the unity of our faith. But there’s another principle here that I want us to pull out and we’ll set it aside as point number three in our outline. But we’ll stay in verse 11 to pull it out. Well, first, we’ve already seen The Foundation of Faith, and The Unity of Faith. Now, here again, in verse 11, I want us to see: The Security of Faith We’ll pull this from verses 11, 12 and 13. Notice the repetition of the word “keep” or “keeping.” In my Bible, I’ve underlined them all, just so that I can see that pop out a little clearer in these verses. Jesus’ words here in verses 11 and 12, repeat this theme over and over again. Look at it here, “And 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’ve 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. [of course that’s Judas, who was never a Believer to begin with] so that the scripture would be fulfilled.” What we have referenced here is one of the most comforting truths when it comes to salvation. Knowing full well, of course, that this prayer would be recorded. And then included in John’s Gospel. That it would be read and studied by centuries of Christians throughout church history, even up until today. Jesus here gives us a window into the major feature of God’s plan for salvation. Namely, that it’s permanent. That’s what it means for God to “keep them in His name.” Remember, this reference to the Father’s name is a sort of poetic reference to all that His name represents. It’s a reference really, to His attributes, His character. Back up in the first verse of our passage in verse 6, Jesus describes Himself as having “manifested the Father’s name to the men that He gave Him.” He represented the Father’s attributes to them. He revealed something of the Father to them. He explained, He exegeted the Father’s attributes to them in physical form. So, Jesus’ manifestation of the Father’s name, means that He explained His attributes to them, then what is keeping them in the Father’s name mean? Well, it takes God’s attributes and applies it to the “keeping.” The name is a representation of the attributes. You see that? It’s important to get right, because it has a whole lot of applicational value to us today. Sure, Jesus here is talking particularly about the Disciples being “kept” safely within the Father’s power and sovereignty. But it’s just as true for all Believers, for all time even you and I today. We’ve all been chosen by God, if you’re here today as a Believer. If you’ve been chosen by God, and given to the Son before time began, and believe in Christ’s death and resurrection, and repented of your sins in time then you’re being “kept” in the name of the Father. If that’s true of you, then you’re being held within the Father’s sovereign power, to not only save you in the first place but to keep you in that status of salvation, once He has saved you. If you’re in His name, then you have no need to worry about ever not being in His name. Once in His name, always in His name. If you want to see this truth explained in another way, and I know you do look back to John 10, just a few chapters prior. John 10:27-29 really crystallize this truth for us. Jesus, again, speaking here, John 10:27, “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 ever. And no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” You see the connection to John 17? The Father choses some for saving. Gives them to the Son, for the saving. Then it’s impossible for those people to be snatched out of God’s hand. And if that’s not enough to convince you and comfort you in your salvation, and in the security of it. Then flip back just a few more chapters to John 6:37-39. “All that the Father gives Me, will come to Me [Jesus speaking again] and the one who comes to Me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” He’s on a divine mission here from the Father, to do the saving. “Now, this is the will of Him who sent Me, that all that He has given Me, I lose nothing. But raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him will have eternal life. And I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” You see, this truth is all over the book of John. The Father chooses. The Son receives. The chosen stay firmly griped in their newfound status in salvation. If you’re saved right now, it’s guaranteed that you will not lose your eternal life that you’ve been given. The sureness of your soul’s salvation is not up for debate, or challenge, or losing. This evening, pastor Aaron is going to take this truth, and he’s going to dive in further, deeper into it and bring out all sorts of other applications looking forward to our eternal inheritance. In fact, he’s going to preach through I Peter 1:3-5 this evening, at 6:00pm. Hope you come back for that. Let me read it to you, just to whet your appetites for tonight. He says this, Peter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead, to obtain an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and unfading. Having been kept in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God, through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” An incorruptible inheritance, a future blessing that’s being kept in heaven for us. A fullness of salvation under the very protection of God, locked away in His vault, waiting for us to enjoy. It’s coming soon. And it’s surely coming. If that doesn’t excite you, then I don’t know what will. We’ll leave it there. I’ll get out of this topic here, because pastor Aaron is going to pick up the baton tonight and take us further into it, and explore all sorts of implications out of it. If you’re not back in John 17, feel free to go back there with me now. We see all these truths that we just talked about right here, in the middle of Jesus’ prayer to the Father, verses 11-13, “And 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 revealed.” Then here in verse 13, Jesus talks of these doctrines, as a joyousness for the Disciples. “But now, I come to You and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have joy. They may have My joy made full in themselves.” It really is a “joy made full” when its fully understood, isn’t it? I don’t know of a more joy inducing set of doctrines than those of the unity of Believers and the eternal security of Salvation. That should be well within you, joy and comfort. Now, as we move onto the final few verses of our section for this morning. We see Jesus take these joyous truths and bring into the picture a sense of realism about our situation. So, it’s all been pretty happy so far. Jesus is praying for nice things. The Disciples are joyful, having considered these doctrines. But now, there’s a touch of realism that’s injected into this situation. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies in the Christian life. It’s encouraging, of course, and joyous, of course, to think about the coming inheritance that we have kept for us in heaven. But it’s also sobering to think about the fact that we’re not there yet. We live in a state of yearning for a world which is promised to us. For the world to which our citizenship truly belongs. But the world we live in now is anything but accepting of us. Look with me at verses 14-19 and just listen to this sense of exclusivity that’s attached to our faith. He says, “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 by the truth, Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I also send them into the world. For their sake, I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” So, here in these verses we’re going to get our fourth and final point of this morning. We’ve seen already The Foundation of Faith in verses 6-10. The Unity of Faith in verse 11, and the Security of Faith in verses 11-13. Now, as we come to verses 14-19, we’re faced with: The Exclusivity of Faith There’s a lot going on in these last few verses here. The main point though, that we need to pull from it is that we live lives in alienation from the world. There are very few perks to the Christian life, when you consider it from the temporal perspective. The Christian life is a life of being the hated minority. Let’s just call it like it is. It’s a life largely of ostracization. There are a few exceptions throughout church history, which are notable and tend to be celebrated and focused on. From the time Christ returned to the Father, and then the church was born at Pentecost in Acts 2 in the first century. Basically, from then on out, with just a few exceptions, the church was extremely persecuted. There was a respite in the Roman Empire under Constantine in the 4th and 5th centuries. Then again in pockets of Europe, just after the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. Then, in the West, or even more particularly in the New World, here in North America, as the United States was founded. But by-in-large, across most of the world, and over the span of the vast majority of the past 2,000 years, Christians have been in the extreme cultural minority. Even in the past century. Just take the last 100 years of our country, and you’ll see that Christians can go from enjoying a short spirt of acceptance by the culture, which was the case just after World War II, until about the 70’s. But then it goes back to normal for us and that’s what we’re experiencing now. This is the normal progression from marginalization to ostracization to persecution. Right now, in our country, we’re somewhere in the ostracization phase. If all continues as it has been for the past few decades, I wouldn’t be surprised if our children or grandchildren actually experience persecution. Remember, secularism is a cancer and social liberalism is an exponentializing force of that cancerous secularism. It all turns into a massive heap of cancer. Once it takes hold in a population, it spreads like gangrene. Then it taps into the innate sinfulness of humanity and the selfishness of humanity, and it ultimately leads to a completely godless society. That’s what’s happening in our world right now. So, these last few verses, here in John 17, have a little more relevance to us today, than they did 60 or 70 years ago. I assume that they’ll have even more relevance to our children in about 50 years. We’re becoming more and more separate from the worldliness of the people around us, aren’t we? The world and the pure church just don’t mix. That’s what Jesus is talking about here, as He prays to the Father about the exclusivity of our faith. All six verses here combined to be an explanation, or a description of this exclusive nature of our faith and they do so, by pointing out the various different elements of this exclusivity. So, what I’d like for us to do, with the time that we have left, is to build a list of elements of exclusivity of faith. I’ve got five of them here. We’ll work through them together and I’ll give them to you as we go. Five elements of exclusivity: First, we see that this exclusivity is involuntary. Jesus says here in verse 14, look at it there, “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world.” God gave His word to His Disciples, who then went to make more Disciples by giving that word to them and gave that word to even more Disciples and made more and more Disciples down the line until at some point, you and I were made Disciples. If it were left up to us, we would have rejected that gift of the word. We would have continued living our lives of sin. We talked about that last week. But for some reason, of course, we know that its because God chose us before time began, to bring Himself more glory. God inserted Himself into the situation and opened our minds to this work, this gift of the word. He gave us His word and then made us believe it. It’s not the kind of gift you can reject. Once it’s actually given to you, it’s forced upon you. You believe it and there’s no getting out of it. If you’re a Believer here this morning, you stand in a long line of disciples who’ve been miraculously taken out of our sin and made to believe God’s Word. What a gift! Whether you like it or not, the world hates you for it. You may not have asked to be here, but you were put here. Some of you were born into this particular group of Believers. Of course, that doesn’t make you automatically a Believer. But you grew up learning the word. You grew up hearing the Gospel preached, and the Lord used that to save you and add you to the ranks of this body. Some of you came abruptly out of a life of unrestrained sin. You’re the ones with the more contrastive testimonies. It might surprise you to think that some of us, with the more vanilla testimonies, sometimes have this ironic sort of envy of your testimonies. It makes no sense, really. You’re the ones who are able to point to a particular time. Some of you even have days that you can point to and say, that’s when God turned me around. Some of us don’t have that. Some of us just know that at some point or another, it happened. Because all the evidence in my life right now stacks up to prove it. So, you’re the ones who have been saved out of a sort of unrestrained sinfulness. You were brought into the Church, forcefully. Plucked out of your sin. Maybe it felt like a decision you made. Sure, there was a decision you made, but God’s behind it all. You lived a godless life, and God radically saved you and brought you into this fold. Either way, whether you’ve always been around the Church, or only recently been actually in the Church, you were forcefully pulled into the Church by God’s hand. Either way, you’re now exclusively exclusive from the world. You’re a part of something that’s not compatible with the world. You’ve been ostracized from the “good old boys” club of worldliness. They don’t want you anymore. You might lose friends. You might lose family. You might eventually lose jobs at some point. You might eventually lose more than that. All because God took you from your life of acceptance by the world and put you into a life exclusivity from the world. Jesus says it right here, “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world.” Did the Disciples ask for it? Did they go out and seek Jesus, and ask Him that He might let them into His little group? Did they submit applications to be a Disciple? No. They didn’t request a meeting with Jesus and give Him a ten-point outline as to why they should be included in His little group. Jesus went to them. He called them to throw down their fish nets and put down their tax collecting bags and leave it all behind. He called them to an unpopular cause, for which no one would willingly sign up and He pulled them into it anyway. Did they ask for it? No. Jesus simply gave them the Father’s word, and therefore the world hated them. It was involuntary for them, just like it is for us. It led to their exclusion from the acceptance of society. In fact, it was so exclusive that it was hostile. That’s our second sub-point here. Our second element of exclusivity. Not only is this exclusive life of following God involuntary, but it is also hostile. Look at verse 14 again, it describes the world’s position toward the Disciples as one of hatred. It says, “I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them.” Jesus is praying for eleven men here in our passage. Judas was never a Believer, which was evidenced by his compatibility with the world. But the eleven believing Disciples all went on to live their lives under extreme hostility. Historical accounts, which have been passed down through church history, that some of them were beheaded. Peter was crucified, likely the upside down. Thomas was speared to death in India. Others were stabbed. Some were burned. Maybe one was sawn in half, church history states. Some were clubbed to death. They all lived and died under hostility. This is the nature of our faith. You and I may not have to die for it. I’m grateful for the relative peace that we enjoy as Believers in our country right now. But like I said earlier, this sort of cultural climate is the exception. There’s no telling how long this climate will last before ostracization grows more intense and eventually turns into persecution. I think it’s worth observing here, that there’s ascension where that persecution would be good for us as a Church. Persecution, what does it do? Think about it. It purifies the Church by driving out, and keeping away counterfeit Christians, doesn’t it? When the hostility from the world is increased, the benefits of faking your way to the Church, pretty much just goes away. You know, when those companies won’t hire you, because you believe the Bible, you’re going to think twice about weaseling your way in here for the community vibes and the free coffee. When your life is in danger, because you profess Christ, you’re less likely to link up with the local young adult Bible Study to try to find some cute marriage material. This is by-in-large the way God has designed things. In general, to be a Christian, is to be in danger of experiencing hostility from the world. When that hostility is on pause for a time, due to some exceptional trends of culture in society. The Church doesn’t just flourish, as you might expect. In fact, it doesn’t experience euphoria. What it does is often the opposite. Cancer cells make their way into the body and they spread disease. They even lead to the death of many local churches. When there’s no persecution, the sicknesses and the viruses within churches, skyrocket. Because unbelievers, goats, get within the flock of sheep. God has built this into the very design of Church history. He built it in as a remedy. The hostility of the world purifies the Church. The exclusivity of our faith and the hostility of the wicked have an incredible bearing of the health of the Church. Jesus is teaching here, in this prayer that we’re not guaranteed the blessing of popularity with the culture. In fact, the norm is exclusivity to the point of hostility. The third element here of exclusivity is mentioned at the end of verse 14. Then it’s repeated at the end, again in verse 16 and it’s that exclusivity of our faith is shared. Look at it there in verse 14 and 16, “I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, because [here it is] 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. [here it is again] They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” He repeats it twice there, at the end of verse 14, and in verse 16. We’re not of this world, brothers and sisters. We’re not accepted by this world. Whenever we encounter the negative effects of not being accepted by this world, we can take comfort in the fact that Christ Himself experienced the same. Flip with me, if you would, just two chapters back. John 15, Jesus warned His Disciples about the coming persecution. But He comforted them by making sure that they knew that it was all part of God’s plan. Pick it up in verse 18 of chapter 15, “If the world hates you, know that is has hated Me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. But because you’re not of the world, I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” The truth here really pairs well with what we just talked about a minute ago. We’re not promised peace, as Christians. Those who are born into the culture that celebrates Christianity and also die in a culture that celebrates Christianity, are in the extreme minority of the history of the Church Age. You know, some of our parents and grandparents did experience that. They were born into a culture that excepted them as Christians, and they also died in a culture that still celebrated them as Christians. That’s really rare. You know, we tend to forget that, because we’re not great readers of history. Fix that, by the way, read more history. We tend to forget that we’re unique. This is a very unique climate that we live in. I think it’s worth trying to preserve as best we can. I mean, you ought to do your civic duty to try to preserve it. But I wouldn’t bank on it lasting. No matter when it gets bad, or how bad it gets, we can rest assured that we have firsthand sympathizers here in the Son of God. He said here in John 15:18, “that if the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” In other words, when you experience ostracization and even persecution for your faith, just know that this is exactly how God drew it up and you’re in good company here. Take comfort in that. Christ experienced the same thing, to a much greater degree than we are. You can flip back to John 17, and zero in on verse 15, with me. This is our fourth element of exclusivity. The fourth element of the exclusivity of our faith, and that is that it’s safe, or it’s protected. Look at it there in verse 15, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” Folks, some real talk here. The lives we live today are so cushy. The lives we live today and, in our country are so easy and insulated and comfortable, compared to pretty much all of human history. The average American today, not only have about as much wealth as a royal prince of a small country in centuries past. But we have a bloated government that’s here to help you, if you ever experience any sort of hardship. You have to really try, if you want to starve to death in our country today. We live in a bloated welfare state, don’t we? We live in a hyper-insured society that’s so scared of every possible disaster that we’re willing to send monthly payments to supposedly selfless insurance companies, to profit from our fear. Where we’re coddled beyond belief and we’re doing it to ourselves. We’re experts at mitigating or eliminating threats to our material comfort, aren’t we? Yet our greatest threat is spiritual. How much time do we spend fortifying our hearts from attack from the evil one? How much energy do we spend strategizing our defense against the evil one’s fiery darts? I think the answer is not enough. No matter what your answer is, it’s probably not enough, myself included. We’re in a fight, brothers and sisters. This life isn’t about our comfort. The American dream is great and all that, but it can be a distraction from a very real, more important cause. Which is to fight the spiritual battle that you’re in. We’re here as representative citizens of another world, who’ve been tasked with sharing the truth of the Gospel, so as to make any additional representative citizens as possible. We’re trying to make more of these citizens of that other world, by sharing with them the truth of the other world. Are you focused on that? Or are you focused on your material wealth? The evil one hates it when we do our job. He hates it when we’re effective. He loves it when we’re distracted. He fights back. If you’re doing your job, you’re likely under constant spiritual attack. I Peter 5:8, “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Job 1:7 describes Satan as “roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” Ephesians 6 describes him as “scheming, controlling rulers and authorities and world forces of this darkness. We focus so much on the dangers from the physical, that we sometimes forget about the spiritual danger we’re in. There is no insurance policy that you can buy to prevent attacks from Satan and his demons. But thankfully, Jesus is way ahead of us on this. He asks that the Father would protect the Disciples from the evil one and we know that protection is extended here to the Believers in all of church history as well. Well, we are in a very real way, protected from many of the dangers that Satan schemes. If you have the Holy Spirit living within you, you can’t be possessed by a demon. If you have the Holy Spirit living within you, there is a sense of clarity in your mind where you will see spiritual warfare coming. At least, if you’re sober and looking for it. If you have the Holy Spirit within you, you’ve been set apart and protected in a very real way by the Father. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never experience hardships. That doesn’t mean you’re not in the battle. That doesn’t mean that you’re not on the battlefield. James 4:7, “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” What does that assume there? That the Devil is attacking you. We will, as Believers, be somewhat protected to the ultimate degree, but we will still experience struggle against these fleshly forces, these spiritual forces. In I Corinthians 10:13, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you’re able, but with the temptation, will provide the way of escape also, so that by it you will be able to endure.” I John 4:4, “You’re from God, little children, and have overcome them [the worldly people] because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” There is a very real spiritual danger at work against us. But praise the Lord, the whole point of this, is not to actually scare you, although that may be an implicit motive of mine. I want you to understand that you’re ultimately safe in Christ. In the most ultimate sense, we are safe in Christ. We cannot lose the salvation which has been given to us. We cannot forfeit somehow, the inheritance that’s been locked away, for us, in the coming world. Finally, fifth, the last element of exclusivity that I want to pull here. The fifth element of the exclusiveness of our faith is that it is truth driven. This might be the most important aspect of the whole thing, actually. The Christian faith is truth driven and if the principle here is the driving force of everything we believe. Look at the final three verses of our text, 17-19. “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also send them into the world. For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” God is the God of all truth. He invented truth. He considered the universe before He made it. And thought within Himself something like this: “There must be objectivity in this universe which I’m about to make. There must be a factual foundation upon which all intellectual processing will be based. There must be truth.” Then He probably thought to Himself, I’m using my sanctified imagination here, “Those creatures will corrupt reality. They’ll question objectivity. Those people that I’m going to make here are going to doubt the reality of this truth that I’m also going to make. So, I’ll send the Son. I’ll send the Son into the world in flesh as one of them, to present to them truth in perfect form. I’ll open some of their eyes to it, and they will be sanctified by it.” You see, Believers are Believers not in fairy tales. Believers are not Believers of wild conspiracy theories. We’re not Believers in made-up religiosity. We’re not Believers in mythology. We have checks and balances in our thinking. We have guardrails which keep us from allowing our feelings to influence the facts. We have principles of interpretation which prevent us from reading our own biases into the pure text of scripture. I hope you appreciate that. That’s what this church is all about. We have commitments at the level of conviction that keep us on the narrow track of truthful thinking. Believers are people who believe truth. There aren’t too many things that we should be ok being defined by. In a world which loves to label people, I have a lot of things that I’m passionate about. A lot of things that I’m sure people would love to define me by. What are the things that I’m willing to own as so foundational that they define me? What about for all of us here? One would be Christ. We’re Christ followers. Another would be grace. We’re grace recipients. And maybe, if we need to add a third, we’re truth Believers. We’re Christ’s followers, grace recipients and truth Believers. Those about the only three labels I really want attached to my name. You know, we hear truth. We recognize truth. We know truth. We believe truth. We should be willing to fight for truth, maybe even die for truth. You should love truth. That’s what makes you a Believer. Or else, what is it that you’re believing in? We know truth, the most important truth by its source. Ephesians 4:21 echoes these verses here in John 17, “You heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus.” Here in John 17, Jesus prayed that the Disciples would be sanctified how? By the truth. You know, we should pray for it ourselves. And seek for that for ourselves, to be sanctified in this context, is the idea of being set apart, being separated, being distinguished by some element of identity. That’s what’s going on here. So, to be sanctified by the truth is to be so committed to truth, and so defined by truth, that you’re completely set apart from other people in the world by that passion for truth. In our world right now, especially hates truth, doesn’t it? You don’t have to look very far to find evidence of our culture’s full-fledged embracing of post-modern subjectiveness. In these days, we’re the weird ones, for holding to objective standards of right and wrong. You know, we’re the sticks in the mud for not celebrating the sexual revolution in all of its contradictoriness and ridiculousness. They say that gender is fluid. We say, calmly, no, just look at the DNA, look at the reproductive systems. There are two sexes and that’s final and we’re the ones that are the problem. Folks, if you think there’s going to be a recovery of the value of truth in our world before Christ comes and sets all things right. Then I guess I’ll join you in that hopeful optimism. But, realistically, historically speaking, once society falls into this sort of error it takes a revolution to bring it back out. So, what’s our strategy? We’ll let these words here at the end of our passage be our guide “Sanctify them by the truth.” Let’s be set apart by our commitment to truth. “Your word is truth.” Let’s study His word and examine it with care and build our lives around it, being our guiding light. It says, “as You sent Me into the world, I also send them into the world. For their sake, I sanctify Myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Brothers and sisters, we’re not like the world. We’re not of the world. While we’re here, we should steward the blessing of influence that we’ve been given, and in our country it’s an immense amount of influence. We should influence this culture in this society by shining the light of truth in it. We should call the lost to repentance and reason and truth. But we should also understand that God designed us to be the minority. He designed us to be sanctified, set apart. The weird people that believe in objective truth and point to some historical figure as the ultimate manifestation of that objective truth. Yep, I’ll stand by that. Own it. Believe it. Love it. Be defined by it. Be ready to suffer for it.