Father, Keep Them
John 17:11-19
11 “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
Due to the stay-at-home order during this coronavirus pandemic we have all been separated each other, at least physically. We can’t gather as a church family. Many of you have not been able to be with you grandkids and other loved ones. The reason we are social distancing is to keep safe. We want to be physically safe and medically secure from this deadly virus. Separation is not easy and security is essential. Jesus knows that.
Jesus is about to depart physically from His disciples as He goes to the cross. He has spent the evening before His arrest preparing them and encouraging them for His departure in John 13-16. Now in John 17 He goes before the Father in prayer. We find in His prayer those same two themes that we are dealing with, separation and security. He prays for Himself (John 17:1-5), that He would be glorified so that the Father would be glorified. He prays for His disciples, the eleven, that the Father would keep them secure, sanctifying them by His word (John 17:6-19). And finally He prays for all believers, His church, that they would be unified in love as a witness to the world (John 17:20-26). Jesus is praying that He be glorified; and through His glory, that we all be glorified; so through that, God be glorified.
In John 17:11-19 Jesus pray one primary request for His disciples: that the Father keep His disciples secure. Look at it in John 17:11, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” Jesus prays that the Father would “keep” them. That word, “keep” is a key word in Jesus’ prayer here. He uses it five times in these verses. The word means to “attend to carefully, take care of, or guard.”
This keeping was done by the Lord while He was with His disciples (John 17:12), “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept.” but now Jesus is returning to the Father (John 17:11,13). In many ways the physical presence of Jesus was a wall and a shield. Jesus Himself took the brunt of the world’s hatred and opposition. But that would change when Jesus leaves. Jesus reminded them in John 15:20, “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” Since Jesus is no longer in the world to keep them, He asks the Father to keep them.
Jesus wants the same for us. Here is the truth I want you to grasp today: if you belong to Jesus He will keep you. He will guard you. He will keep you secure.
The keeping of the disciples has several facets in these verses:
1. The Father keeps us spiritually secure.
Our Lord had already spoken to His disciples concerning the frailty of their loyalty. He had just told them (John 16:32), “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.” All eleven of these men would fail that very night, would abandon Jesus and even deny Him. Who among us has not done the same in the face of the world’s hatred and opposition?
Praise God that our security does not depend on us, but on God. Jesus prayed “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me.” Our security is founded on the nature and character of God. How are we kept secure? Through the name of the Holy Father. God’s name represents His person, His attributes, His eternal nature—all who God is. God’s eternal keeping power is greater than our momentary lapses and failures. Keeping is God’s work, not ours. It is ours to abide (John 15), and His to keep.
Jesus is praying for our eternal spiritual security, not just temporary safety. Jesus prays, “Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost.” Their eternal life is secure because the Father gave them to the Son. Their eternal life is secure because Jesus has kept them and will not lose them. Jesus said in John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
Judas was not an exception to the rule. Our Lord did not fail to keep Him. Jesus said he was “the son of perdition” (John 17:12). It wasn’t that Jesus lost him. Judas was never saved (John 13:10-11). His destruction was a result of his sin and unbelief (John 6:64), as well as the fulfillment of prophecy (John 17:12).
How do I know my salvation is secure? If Jesus prayed that we would be kept eternally secure, don’t you think the Father will answer that prayer?
2. The Father’s keeping gives us joy.
Jesus prays (John 17:13), “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Everything that Jesus said to them that night and prayed for them that night was to give them joy. It’s not a joy that comes from them or from their circumstances. It’s His joy, Jesus’ joy that fills us. The Gospel song says,
This Joy that I have the world didn’t give to me
The world didn’t give it the world can’t take it away
Listen, the world will try to take it away. Life is hard, life is difficult. Jesus prayed (John 17:14), “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” They were not of the world, just as the Savior was not. Consequently, the world would hate them and oppose them. The Father’s keeping gives us joy in the face of this opposition.
Listen, eternal security, knowing that God keeps us for eternal life brings joy. How joyful could you be in your salvation if you were constantly worried about losing it?
The Father keeps us secure. That security gives us joy.
3. The Father protects us against the attacks of Satan
John 17:15, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” Jesus also taught us to pray for protection (Luke 11:4), “And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.” This protection from Satan does not come by our being removed from the world. Jesus doesn’t pray that we should be taken out of the world. We must stay in the world because He has a mission for us to accomplish as we will see next time.
Our Lord’s prayer does not guarantee that Satan will not attack us. In Ephesians 6:10-11 Paul urges us to “… be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Peter writes (1 Peter 5:8-9), “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
The world will hate us because it hated Christ (John 15:18) and because “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Satan will attack. The world will hate. But believers will be preserved through it all. God does not promise we will avoid testing, but that we will endure it.
Why will we endure? Jesus prays (John 17:16), “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” We belong to God just as Jesus did. If we were left in the world on our own, we would be crushed under the fierce power of Satan and the corrupt fallen world. But we are in Christ. He keeps us secure.
God wanted to prove that Satan could not overthrow a believer, so He let him go after Job, the most righteous man in the world at the time. Satan threw every single thing he had at Job, killing his children, taking his possessions, destroying his health. And you remember the story. Satan had come to God and said, “The only reason Job is faithful to You is because You bless him. Take all that away and he’ll curse You to Your face” (paraphrasing Job 1:9-11). But God proved that He keeps those who belong to Him. Even though Job didn’t understand why this evil came upon him he said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21). True saving faith can’t be broken, even by Satan.
In Luke 22 Jesus says to Peter, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Did Jesus allow Satan to attack Peter? Yes! But Peter’s faith would not fail and He would return to Jesus. Why? Jesus prayed for Him. He said, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Jesus kept Peter secure in his salvation by faith.
Listen, when God called you to Christ, He didn’t give you a temporary salvation. He gave you eternal life, a relationship with God that lasts forever. Nothing, including Satan himself can take us away from the God who loves us and saved us by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.
Have you received God’s gift of eternal life? Do you understand that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God died for your sins on the cross? Have you come to repent of your sins—to turn away from a life of rebellion against God? Have you confessed Jesus Christ as Lord over your life?
If you will do that now, Jesus will save you and give you eternal life. He will wash away all your sin, accept you as a child of God, clothe you in His own righteousness, and keep you forever.
