Jan. 7, 2018 PM Service A Name For Us by Pastor Josh Sheldon

He's been in discourse with the disciples since chapter 13, which

I guess if you just read the words here it would only take a couple of minutes to read every word that he spoke to them, and yet lifetime upon lifetime and thousands upon thousands of lifetimes to ponder and to meditate and to pray upon the things that he says here.

Verses 11 -19 this morning, Jesus says, and I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be won even as we are won.

While I was with them I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

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.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be sanctified in truth.

You know, if we go away on a journey we take some steps to take care of the things that we leave behind.

If you own a home, you want someone to come and check the mail, perhaps water the lawn, perhaps feed and water the dogs and maybe give them a walk.

If you have children and a home and a family to take care of, it's all that plus someone to watch over the children who may not be going on the journey with you.

We take steps to protect those things that are important to us, that are precious to us. Jesus tells the parable of the man who went on a long journey and he gave talents to three of his servants, one five, one two, and one talent.

And though it's not the main point of that parable, but part of the idea of that parable is this man is going away and he's taking this treasure, this important thing that he has, and entrusting it to people who will be there who can watch over it, who can guard it, who can protect it.

And it is to be returned to him when he comes back from his journey. If you or I would take care of something so temporal as a home, or if when my wife and I go, and we're not going to take the dogs with us, they're just dogs, but we do something to take care of them to be sure they'll be healthy and back with us when we come back.

If we, as Jesus says in one other place, if you being evil can

I paraphrase say, know how to take care of things in the right way, how much more would God? And so Jesus is here in this high priestly prayer, among other purposes that he has, is going to the

Father, he's going to the Father and they are hearing him so that he can prepare them for what is to come.

And in this portion of the prayer, he very specifically and tenderly and lovingly takes the disciples, remember last time we spoke on this, those whom you have given me.

Those whom he accepted from the Father's hand. We spoke then of a packing list, a truck delivering a cargo and everything that is supposed to be there is there.

Every one that the Father gave to the Son, Jesus Christ has accepted and died for, this precious cargo.

And now he's preparing to leave for the first time in some three and a half years the disciples are going to be without the direct, immediate physical presence of their master and teacher the

Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus here is not going to leave them to themselves.

He doesn't say to them something like, well, I'm going to be crucified, which if you read through the book of Luke, he told them steadily about this, the proclamations he made, the warnings he gave of what was coming, if you will, were very clear.

On the third day he will rise again, he said several times. Here, he's preparing them and he's not just going to say, you just take care for three days, you'll be okay for 72 hours,

I'll be back. No. What does he do here? He gives them over to the

Father. Those whom you have given me, we can almost say parenthetically, it's not in the text, but this meaning is something like,

I need to hand back to you, Father. For these three days, Father, you watch over them for me.

You have given them to me, and tomorrow I will die for them. And so certain is the coming day's trial that he can say,

I am no longer in the world. I am no longer here. Did you hear how he said it there?

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. He's speaking about his departure as an accomplished fact.

So certain is the coming day of the cross. And in those three days, he will not leave the disciples to themselves.

But he puts them in the care of the one who can best of all care for them,

God the Father. He who predestined them, he who gave them to his son, he who chose them by name, chose us by name, before the foundation of the world, says

Ephesians 1 .3. That people. And the son says,

Father, back into your hands, just for this short time. There's protection in his name.

This is the first thing that we hear him saying in the first couple of verses. Verses 11 and 12. That he gives them over to God the

Father. And he says, keep them in your name. Keep. The word means to guard, to protect, to watch over, to envelop in the mighty arms of God as his protective shield around them.

You, keep them, Father. And they're not coming out of the world. They're not to be protected from everything.

They're not going to be invulnerable to attack and temptation. We know that from how the gospels teach us about the disciples' conduct.

The one who ran away so quickly from the arrest that he left his clothes behind.

Peter, with his denials, we know very well. He asked

God the Father, keep them, guard them, protect them.

In your name. This powerful name. This name that is above all names.

This name that is not just an appellation as we have. My name is Joshua. It means something but it has no particular power.

But God's name is who he is. The various names of God, speaking of his attributes, speaking of his works, speaking of his person, speaking of his nature.

The names of God are not like your or my name. The names of God speak of who

God is and what God is and what God does. This name, Jesus says to his

Father, you keep them in that name. In Enosh's time, in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26, we learn that in his time people began to call on this name, to call on the name of the

Lord. And if you follow the Genesis account, that comes right after this man named

Lamech, puts himself and his vengeance against those who harm him above God's vengeance.

Do you recall that where he says, if Cain is avenged sevenfold, Lamech, I will be avenged 77 -fold.

And it's right after this terrible boast of this obviously clearly wicked man, it's right after that that we have

Enosh come along. And what is the difference between Enosh and what had just come before in the narrative?

In his day, in Enosh's day, is when men came to call upon this name, the name of the

Lord, Elohim, Creator, Adonai, Lord and Master, Yahweh, the

Self -Sufficient One who exists in and of Himself, that name. Abraham, when he entered

Canaan, as soon as he got there, he built an altar and he did what? He called on the name of the

Lord, the Lord who had seen him through in this long journey from Mesopotamia to the land that he was going to show him.

And there he built an altar and called on the name of the Lord, this one who had protected him, this one who had watched over him and would continue to do so.

This is the name that Jesus says, you keep them in this name, I have given them your name during these three and a half years.

This name, this name of God has been declared to them. John 1 .18 says

Jesus Christ reveals the Father, He narrates, the word is actually exegetes.

He shows us the meaning of the Father. It's His name where the disciples are left.

Not just a name like we have. Proverbs 18 .10

says the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Can we run to that name? Can we run into that strong tower? Yes, we can. By God's Spirit, by knowing and obeying

His word, yes. By doing what is righteous, by doing what is right, by doing what the scriptures would have us to do.

We are in that name of the Lord. We are in the protection of that strong tower that His name actually is.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the

Lord our God. In God's name, God acts. God acts consistent with His own self,

His own person. Much of it revealed in His name. The name of the Lord that will be feared by all nations says

Psalm 102 .21 In the Psalms of Ascents this whole series of Psalms in the 120 range of the

Psalms. These are the pilgrimage Psalms that the Israelites would sing to each other as they journeyed from Jerusalem, wherever they were, from all kinds of points towards Jerusalem to be there for the in -gatherings, for the feasts.

What says Psalm 124 verse 8? Our help is in His name.

Why are we able to finish this course? Because we come in the name of the Lord and the name of the

Lord is a strong tower, a protection of us. Isaiah asks, Who among you fears the

Lord and obeys the voice of His servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the

Lord and rely on His God. God does hear

His Son's prayer, of course, and does in fact protect the disciples.

I didn't warn Conley that I was going to speak about this. I don't think he'll mind. I sure hope not. I get to review his papers that he's writing for seminary and he wrote a paper on sanctified swearing, what it means to swear something, to make an oath, to give a promise.

I was very taken with quite a lot of things I hadn't even thought of, but here's one and I want you to think of this in terms of Jesus Christ's prayer to protect the disciples.

Keep them in your name just for these few days when they will be without my direct protection, giving them back to the

Father. In Matthew chapter 26 verse 74, the third time that Peter is denying that he even knows

Jesus, we read, then he, that's Peter, then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear

I do not know the man. Now if you read this paper, which I would actually encourage you to, you see that the meaning of a curse is not just saying, you know, oh shucks.

It's not just saying, well I'm just, I'm no good, I'm a bad person, you know, anything like that.

It's deeper, it's more meaningful than that, it's more dreadful than that. It has a continuance of power to it.

There's a sanctioning of it if you will. It's not just a small thing to be ready to call a curse on himself.

It says he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear

I do not know the man. And the very next sentence, and immediately the rooster crowed.

He began, but the rooster crowed. What did the rooster do? Stopped him. It stopped him from invoking this curse upon himself.

And as I was preparing this message, as I was pondering and praying about John 17, 11 -19,

I said well that's it. That's God's protection. That's God honoring the son's prayer to watch over, to protect, to keep

Peter in his name and not allow Peter to curse himself and to give a swearing, a solemn oath that he didn't know this name.

God stopped him. I never thought of it that way before, but it makes perfect sense, especially with Jesus Christ here saying

Father you keep them in your name. Do we know, church, do we know that anything that we do, any safety we have, most especially from temptation to sin, it's not because you or I are more pious than anything else, that we're more righteous than any other person.

What keeps us from that sort of stumbling? As much as we stumble, as much as we fall on our face, as much and as often as we have to repent and go to God and say forgive me, it's

God's grace. It's God's protection of us. I can't imagine how much worse things could be if I didn't have that protection, if God didn't by his providential mercy stop so many things that I wouldn't even, that you wouldn't even know were possible.

Just as he stopped Peter. And that because the son prayed.

He said in another place, but I have prayed for you. Satan wants to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you.

You notice in Luke where Jesus makes that statement, we don't have anywhere where it says the actual content of the prayer.

I would suggest to you here's something. Jesus said keep them in your name, the name which you have given me.

There's the prayer. And here's the fulfillment of it with Peter and how many other places we couldn't even count.

So that's what it is to be protected in God's name. And that's what's protecting us this moment, church.

Why are we paying attention to the word of God? If I'm saying anything of accuracy, anything of clarity, anything of scriptural foundation.

Because God is protecting right now and giving me words to speak and you ears to hear.

Jesus says in verse 13, which is sort of a transition to the next part, but I want to speak about it for just a moment.

But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Jesus would have the church know the joy that he has. What is that joy?

What is the immediate object that Jesus is referring to? I think it's this.

Jesus is giving them back over to the Father's protection. And we know that once Jesus comes back out of the tomb and they see him alive and he spends his time with them and then when he finally ascends back to heaven, the

Holy Spirit comes down. So he doesn't leave his disciples or his church for a moment without his protection.

Without this sphere of God's goodness surrounding them. He would have us to know his joy.

His joy fulfilled in them, in us. I think it's the joy of intimate direct communion and relationship to the

Father. I think this is Jesus' greatest joy to have this close, this loving, this eternally, this eternal relationship with his

Father and his Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's a triune love and communion of God within himself.

And here the direct thing that is happening is the disciples are being given to that care.

And what joy could you have greater than knowing that you have direct access to God the

Father because of Christ the Son and his sacrifice for you. That that's what brings you there and brings you to the direct presence of God the

Father, the same Father who Jesus is eternally having an eternal loving relationship with.

Joy that you and I could never understand and Jesus would have that joy. His joy.

The divine joy of this eternal relationship between the Son and the Father be yours.

This is what he's praying for here. Psalm 1611 says you make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Jude 24 and 25 with which we close the morning service. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, the presence of his as God the

Father, the same Father to whom Jesus is handing over the disciples for these few days.

The presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our

Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

So before Jesus goes he would have God the Father watch over them to keep them in his name and this presence, this direct and intimate relationship with the

Father should be their source of joy, the joy that Jesus has that joy fulfilled in them and all this is for the church as well.

Is for the church today, here and now, this moment that we should have this joy,

Jesus joy fulfilled in us. What is that joy? That we know God the Father is pleased with our worship here today, our communion with him because we sing well,

I think we do but that's not the reason because we pray well we do pray to God in Jesus name nor is that the reason.

Because of the love between the Father and the Son and we come to him in the name of the Son we come to him by faith in his

Son Jesus Christ and that gives us that relationship to the Father and there is a source of joy that the world can never take from you.

The world can give us a hard time, many bad things, many hard things can happen but this joy knowing that we are with God the

Father because of Christ his Son never. That joy is yours by faith in Christ and it's something that cannot be diminished, cannot be taken away and here

God the Son prays that his joy that he has in the Father be fulfilled in us and finally

Jesus prays that the disciples and of course in centuries since then the church would know holiness would know sanctification by his word.

First is keep them in your name, protect them, guard them in your powerful name, that strong tower fulfill my joy, the joy that I have because of you fulfill that joy in them and now

Father sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth.

Holiness comes by his word. If James says that the word of God which is able to save your souls how much more can it sanctify us?

From where is sanctification? From knowing God's word, from doing God's word from following what he would have us to do he prays that we would be sanctified in the truth.

God's word is truth. He says at the end of this and for their sake, for our sake

I consecrate myself that they may also be sanctified in truth. I think this is related to what he said up in the first verse when he said

I am no longer in the world but they are in the world and I'm coming to you. Listen to this term that he uses holy father keep them in your name the only place in scripture where God is called that he is holy we know that you shall be holy for I the

Lord your God am holy and his holiness left Isaiah aghast he says

I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips and I have seen

Yahweh, I've seen the holiness of God, I've seen his glory and I'm ruined he calls him here holy father and that word holy is related to these other terms that we have here where he says sanctify, make them holy consecrate them in your truth and then he says for their sake

I consecrate, I sanctify, I set myself apart so that they may also be sanctified, consecrated, set apart we are sanctified how?

Jesus says I consecrate myself for their sake, see we can only be holy, we can only strive after holiness or sanctification or consecration, we can only hope to move towards this aspect of God's nature this holiness, why?

because Christ has consecrated himself Christ our great eternal high priest who has gone to heaven is now at the father's right hand side, he having consecrated himself is the example, is the forerunner for us because he is holy we who follow in his image as it says in Romans 8 .28

and following that God's predestining choice of us has a purpose that we may be conformed into the image of Christ into holiness, into continuing strides of sanctification and consecration, knowledge of God's will

God says you father sanctify them by your truth, and where do we have his truth?

It's again, it's the scripture these piles of paper and glue holding the pages together, it's knowing this word from the true and living

God, the holiness that it would push us towards, therefore you shall be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect, you shall be holy as I the

Lord your God am holy. Pursue holiness without which no one will see

God. Holiness by his word and this is Jesus Christ's prayer and he consecrates, he holies if you will himself as our forerunner and he does that for our sake because unless Jesus Christ consecrates himself to us and us to himself we have no hope to be holy, but because of this, because of this prayer, because Jesus Christ has prayed that we would be sanctified by this powerful word of God, then indeed brethren we will be,

God willing tomorrow having heard the word as well as I can present it to you these two times this morning and now, all of us will be just an increment if you will more holy than we were before because we know something of God that has lit something up within us that we hadn't considered before, we knew but we got a different aspect of it or we never heard before we say yes there's a slice of the image of Christ that I can aspire to because now

I understand it. Holiness by his word this powerful word that accomplishes what

God sent it for. The place to go to understand that is of course Isaiah 55 .10

for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish the purpose for which

I sent the purpose that, excuse me, but it shall accomplish that which

I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

What does the Lord Jesus Christ say here in John 17? What is the purpose of this truth?

Your word, your scripture is truth sanctify them, make them holy consecrate them by this truth as we come to the table this afternoon it is good for us to think upon this prayer.

These things that Jesus Christ has said primarily not primarily, among other things

I should say let us think that Jesus Christ our great savior, the great apostle and author of our faith would not leave his disciples alone for a moment.

He did not consign them to three days of wondering what was going to happen, to three days of trying to remember what did that mean back in Luke when he said and he's going to rise when and what?

No. He gave them over for that time to the Father. As we talked about Peter and the rooster crying that three times immediately stopping him, the

Father did protect them. Judas was lost according to the scripture. I ask you then how many disciples returned to Christ?

How many were there when Christ returned to them I should say? Every one of them. How many were in the upper room at the beginning of Acts praying as Peter led them to replace

Judas? All of them. Because God the Father while Christ the

Son was away protected them just as the Son asked. So as we come to the table bread, wine water and flour, some fermented grape, some grape juice, it reminds us that Christ has left nothing undone for us for us to come to Him.

That we have all we need to worship the Father rightly, to be in His direct presence, to have that joy and all that finalized by what we will in a few moments remember at the

Lord's table. The broken bread which is His broken body the fruit of the vine,

His life poured out what more do we need? What more can we have?

That Jesus Christ commands this ordinance

He doesn't do it just so that we come together and we do this thing, we do this we remember the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ, we remember the goodness of God, the love of God that sent

His Son to the cross for sinners such as us. We remember that God the

Father will in no wise leave alone the people who His Son suffered for,

His people redeemed when Christ returned to the Father's side He didn't leave the church for a moment out of the presence of God but immediately sent

His Holy Spirit and they saw the tongues as a fire and they spoke in the other tongues and immediately showed and confirmed and do we not have that confirmation?

This Lord's table is that confirmation or at least one of the confirmations because as we come around this table as we declare our unity with Christ by faith in Him and our unity with each other because of Him we are reminded that this ordinance tells us of what

Christ did the very next day from this prayer sacrificed Himself on our behalf and so as we partake as we move ahead let's remember these things let's remember that Jesus Christ here in this prayer prays directly for us and that we meet and we gather and we take this table under the command of God and just as important under the protection of God.

Amen. Heavenly Father we thank You for the time that we have together and we thank

You Lord for this word and this table that is set before us and we pray

Father that as we proceed as we go on and celebrate the Lord's Supper that we do so in a way that is decent, orderly in accordance with Your word and that You Father by this would strengthen our souls reminding us of the great price that was paid to bring us from where we were and into Your presence and that we have that joy forevermore if we ask it in Christ's name.