"God’s Truth is the Cure for the World’s Lies (Jn 17:6-19)", Will DuVal | 11/23/25
John 17:6-19 | 11/23/25 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re kicking off our new Advent-adjacent series entitled “The Antidote”: “God’s CURES for the World’s CONTAGIONS”. A “contagion” is a communicable disease. Our world today is FULL of “DIS”-ease. By any metric you consider; as many as one HALF of Gen Z young adults report feeling anxious “often or always” (Gallup, 2023). Over a THIRD report they are generally “not happy” in life (Ipsos, 2025). And this DIS-ease is indeed “communicable”, it is SPREADING… RAPIDLY.
But the good news is: God has provided us with the CURE, for EACH of these 5 contagions we’re going to be examining together over the next several weekends. Beginning this MORNING with the world’s LIES. It would be an UNDERSTATEMENT to say that we suffer from a CRISIS of TRUTH in today’s world. Never in the history of humanity have more people had more access to more information than we do now. And yet never have we been bombarded with more misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies. According to The Washington Post, during just his first term in office, President Trump told 30,573 lies to the American people, which of course doesn’t even count any of the more RECENT ones (“Grocery prices are going down”, “I was never friends with Epstein”...). But cross the political aisle and the lies only get worse, more diabolical:
-Almost HALF of young people today believe that gender is just a concept that’s fluid (voxmedia).
-Over two-thirds of ALL Americans support homosexuality and gay marriage (Gallup, 2025);
-HALF believe that abortion is morally acceptable (Gallup, 2025) and TWO-THIRDS believe it should be legal in most or ALL cases up to the moment of birth (Pew, 2024).
We think, “How in the WORLD did we GET here?!” Let me give you just two MORE stats that I think tell the tale:
-Two in three Americans today believe there is “no such thing as absolute TRUTH”, INCLUDING one-HALF of all self-identifying evangelical Christians. (Barna, 2025).
And how could THAT be, you ask? Because…
-Only one in FIVE Americans today (20%) believe that the Bible is the actual word of God to be taken at its word! 1 in 5 (Gallup, 2022)
But here’s what JESUS had to say about it: “YOUR WORD (Holy Father) is TRUTH” (Jn 17:17). He said, “I am… THE Truth” (Jn 14:6); not “A truth”; not “your personal truth, subjectively, if you happen to be a Christian”; No. I’m THE capital “T” Truth. God’s inerrant word made flesh. And the BIBLE is God’s inerrant word made PAPER.
-2 Tim 2:15 and James 1:18 both call it “the word of truth.”
-“All Scripture,” 2 Tim 3:16 assures us , “is breathed out by God”;
-And we know that - Prov 30:5 - “Every word of God proves true”;
-because Num 23:19 ““God is not a man, that He should lie”;
-No, as Psalm 119:160 assures us: “The sum of [His] word is truth”.
And that’s a really good thing because with the advent of AGI technology, it is only about to get INFINITELYHARDER to discern fact from fiction. I stumbled upon a YouTubeclip this past week (I wanted to play it for you, so you could see just how BELIEVABLE this stuff is getting, but there were just too many obscenities for church), but it was a video of a fake press conference where Ja Morant requested a trade out of Memphis; I immediately started GOOGLING for news updates… before I discovered that the whole thing was artificiallyengineered. By NEXT election, you won’t be able to tell the difference at all, between a real and fake interview.
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Speaking of interviews, one of the most eye-opening, disturbing videos I’ve seen was put out by the Family Policy Institute of Washington almost a DECADE ago now, where they visited the campus of the University of Washington and interviewed various college students at the height of the gender-bathroom controversy. So the director of the institute, this 5 ft 9 white man, asks students, “If I told you I was a woman, what would your response be?”
And they all reply, “Good for you… Yay!”
So he pushes it further: “If I told you I was CHINESE, what would your response be?”
Some of them PAUSE this time, before replying, “Good; be who you are; live your truth…”
“If I told you I was SEVEN YEARS OLD…” (he’s like 30)
“Well, if you FEEL seven at HEART, then so be it…”
“If I told you I am 6 ft. 5 inches, what would you say?”
“Umm, if you believe you’re 6’5, I don’t think it’s HARMFUL; I mean, I don’t believe it…”
“So you’d be willing to tell me I’m WRONG?”, he asks.
“No, I wouldn’t tell you you’re wrong… That’s not my place…”
Friends, that epitomizes our crisis of truth today. But according to the Bible, it’s nothing NEW. In fact, Jesus had a similar interaction just before he went to the cross with a man way AHEAD of his time, a true postmodern, Pontius Pilate, who, after Jesus declared “I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice”, Pilate replied simply, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:37-38).
“What is TRUTH?” That’s the million dollar question today, isn’t it? Well, Jesus has got a million dollar ANSWER waiting for us this morning in John 17 and what is often referred to as his “high priestly prayer”, there in the “Upper Room” with his 12 disciples just hours before he would be arrested, tried, and crucified. So this is one of the LAST things Jesus ever said before his death, which underscores its IMPORTANCE. He’s going to ANSWER the “What is truth?” question for us, unequivocally - “[God’s] WORD is truth” (17:17) - but he also offers us 7 additional core truths ABOUT that truth (ABOUT God’s word) here.
Let’s read it together: would you STAND… John 17, vv6-19: (Jesus prays…)
““I have manifested your name [Father] to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am 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 one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming 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 ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.[a] 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them[b] in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
This passage is so AMAZINGLY, theologically RICH, there are about a half DOZEN different themes we could trace and emphasize here (how we glorify GOD, how we become God’s people, how we now relate to the WORLD, how we PRAY!). But for our purposes this morning, and certainly one of the most PROMINENT through-lines in this text, is how we counter the LIES of the world, namely, with the TRUTH of God’s WORD. And Jesus gives us seven important truths ABOUT God’s word here:
#1) We must KEEP it. (v6)
Jesus commends his disciples (for whom he’s praying) TO God the Father (to whom he’s praying), because, v6: “they have kept your word”.
Now, if you KNOW much about Jesus’ disciples, his performance review here may SURPRISE you. Because quite often in the Gospels they do NOT actually appear to be the paragons of obedience and faith that Jesus makes them SOUND like here:
-Just a few chapters prior to this, Jesus had to rebuke James & John for selfishly requesting VIP status in heaven (Mk 10:35-44). That was after he’d already reprimanded them the chapter before for arguing over which of them was GREATER. (Mk 9:33-34)
-In BETWEEN those two accounts, Jesus admonished ALL his disciples for trying to keep the little children from him (Mk 10:13-16).
-And just before THAT, he upbraided PETER for trying to prevent him from going to the CROSS! (Mt 16:21-23)
And that’s all just thru John 17; right AFTER this, Jesus’ disciples fall ASLEEP on him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they ABANDON him when he gets arrested, Peter denies three times even KNOWING Jesus, even after his resurrection THOMAS refuses to BELIEVE…
And despite ALL of that, Jesus prays here, “they have kept your word”, Father.
Church: I don’t think we have even the faintest IDEA of just how GRACIOUS our Lord Jesus is with us. There’s another video I love - Vintage Church satirically dubbed over some of the old Jesus movies of the 80’s, to poke fun at some of our misguided STEREOTYPES of what we THINK Jesus is like. In one of them, Jesus walks up to his disciples and says, “Alright, now it’s time for me to tell you all what you’ve done WRONG since I last saw you… Andrew: you said a naughty word when you hit your finger with the hammer; James: you laughed at him… John: you drank too much wine the other night, not WAY too much, just enough to make me ANGRY…”. And some of us think that’s exactly what Jesus is LIKE; what he actually THINKS of us.
But according to God’s own WORD, here’s how HE declares that He now sees us, if we are in fact “in CHRIST”, born again by grace through faith: God says, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb 8:12). He now sees us as “DEAD to sin” (Rom 6:11), “holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:4). The Bible goes so far as to say that “in [CHRIST] we [have] BECOME the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). “For [we] have died [our OLD selves have died], and our life [our NEW life] is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).
And the sooner we REALIZE it, the sooner we can start LIVING like it. BECOMING the “blameless, righteous” people Christ has already DECLARED us to BE. We BECOME “keepers” of God’s word. Not to GET his grace; but because we’ve already GOT it. And because we LOVE him for it; Jesus said, “If you love me, you will…” - WHAT? “keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
Just one other point I wanna make about v6 here; there is SO much we COULD and probably SHOULD say, that we’re just gonna have to leave for our deeper study through ALL of John’s Gospel one day, God willing - like, Jesus’s prayer here: “Yours they were, and you gave them to me”; did you know that if you belong to Jesus, if you’ve been “GIVEN” to Him, that before you had ever even HEARD his NAME, you belonged to GOD, because your name was written in HIS book before the foundation of the WORLD! (Rev 13:8) Let THAT blow your mind for a second!
But ONLY a second. Because speaking of NAMES, the other quick note I wanna highlight here in v6 is Jesus’ announcement that “I have manifested your name to [your] people”, cuz we’re coming back to this in point #3. What does that MEAN- that Jesus “manifested God’s NAME” to us? Warren Wiersbe explains (NT Commentary, 295): “In the Bible, [God’s] ‘name’ refers to [His] ‘nature’... “I have manifested thy name’ means ‘I have revealed God’s NATURE.”
John OPENS his Gospel by identifying Jesus as “the WORD” of God who “WAS GOD” (1:1). And yet “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… full of grace and…” - you guessed it: “truth”. And then John makes his most audacious assertion of ALL: “No one has ever seen God; [but] God the only Son, who is [now] at the Father's side, he has made him known” (Jn 1:18). In other words, as Jesus himself told Philip later in ch14, when Philip asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the FATHER”, Jesus replied, “Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). “I and the Father are ONE” (Jn 10:30).
Now I point that out not only because it’s gonna be important later with point #3, and not only because it’s a vitally important truth for a right understanding of GOD (1 in 3 self-identifying evangelical Christians today believe that Jesus is NOT God; that’s a PROBLEM; the truth - KNOWING the truth - it MATTERS).
But when Jesus opens here by saying, “Father, I manifested your name to [your] people”, I think he’s HINTING at what it actually MEANS to “keep God’s word”. How can Jesus say, “they’ve kept your word” in spite of all the disciples’ FAILURES? How IS it that He can LOOK upon us so GRACIOUSLY, in spite of all our SIN? That we can be RECKONED “holy and blameless”, “the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God” himself?
It is because Jesus CHRIST, the ONLY Righteous One, who “knew no sin”, he “BECAME sin for our sake” on the cross, and He gave us all of HIS holy blamelessness instead (2 Cor 5:21), the “divine exchange”. Such that now for all who simply BELIEVE in HIM, our FAITH is credited to us AS righteousness (Gal 3:6).
THAT’s how we TRULY “keep God’s word”, friends. In John 6, the crowds ask Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”. And he replies: “This is the work of God: that you believe in [ME]” (6:28-29). We keep God’s word by TRUSTING in his SON, the Word made flesh; “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1:12).
#2- Related: We must TRUST God’s word. (vv7-8)
Again, THAT’s why Jesus commended his disciples, why he commends US: not because our obedience is PERFECT at every turn; but because at the end of the day, we TRUST HIM.
“Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed”.
“What must we DO… to keep God’s word?” BELIEVE! Believe in His INCARNATE Word, the Word made FLESH. “Whosoever believes in [HIM] shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).
And believe in his word made PAPER as well, the BIBLE. Believe it for what it IS, what Jesus HIMSELF here tells us it is: God’s very own words… which he gave to JESUS… which he in turn gave to his DISCIPLES… who then wrote them down for US. That’s how John ENDS his Gospel: “these [words] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).
Listen: time would FAIL me to try and list all the evidence why you should trust this book, and believe that it IS God’s very own word. But let me at least point THIS much out: it’s been around for almost 2,000 years now - the most reprinted, studied, scrutinized book of all TIME - and yet NO one has managed to disprove it YET. More positively, life just works BETTER when you trust God’s word and submit yourself, therefore, under its authority. I’ll just speak personally (and I know truth isn’t merely pragmatic), but I lived about 10 years of my life questioning the Bible’s authority, and thinking that I knew better, and I was MISERABLE. And I’ve spent the past 13 or so years now trying to TRUST God’s word and submit myself under ITS authority instead, and life just works a whole lot BETTER.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily make it TRUE. But even if I can’t PROVE, like scientifically, that the Bible is true… and atheists can’t prove it’s NOT true… you at LEAST have to consider: “Which one would I RATHER believe: that we exist by some INSANELY odds-defying, LOGIC-defying accident, that life has no inherent meaning or purpose, and that when we die, we turn into dirt, get eaten by worms, and are forgotten FOREVER… OR, that there is a LOVING Creator God who PUT you here for a PURPOSE, and when you die, you can live with him FOREVER in PARADISE?” – If neither ONE of us can PROVE it to you (...and there’s PLENTY of science and history and logic to support MY worldview - the BIBLE’s worldview), then wouldn’t you RATHER believe it?!
Friends, you can TRUST God’s WORD. BILLIONS of people have for THOUSANDS of years now, and the results don’t lie: Christianity has been the single greatest force for GOOD the world has ever known. And it can be in YOUR life as well. Trust God’s word.
#3- Not only must WE keep God’s word, but We must be KEPT BY God’s word as well. (vv9-12, 15-16)
Jesus says in v9 now, “That’s why ‘I’m PRAYING for them’, all my FOLLOWERS; because he knows that pretty SOON here, as a matter of fact, this time TOMORROW, “I [will] no longer [be] in the world… [because] I am coming [back] to you,” Father, but “they [my disciples] are [staying behind] in the world”, so Jesus prays, “keep them [or GUARD them… WATCH OVER them…] in your name”. That is HOW we are KEPT: by God’s NAME. v12: “While I was here with them [Jesus says], I kept them (HOW?) in your name… I have guarded them”.
Now, what does it MEAN to be kept in or by God’s NAME? Well, we’ve seen already that in the Bible, God’s NAME is a sort of placeholder for his NATURE, for GOD HIMSELF. So, for instance, when Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe,” that’s not encouraging us to try and use God’s literal name - “Yahweh” - like some kind of ritual incancation every time we find ourselves in trouble. Like that movie Beetlejuice; remember how they SUMMONED Beetlejuice by saying his name 3 times? God’s not LIKE that! Everybody asks me why we have the “sail”, the “wave”, the “talon”... WHATEVER this architectural feature is out in front of our building. The honest answer is: “to get folks asking that exact question! We want them driving by here every day, PLAGUED by that question (“what IS that thing?!”), until FINALLY they decide they have to come join us on a Sunday to get answers. Now, inside the tower, there’s a PLAQUE hanging with that VERSE written on it: “The name of the Lord is a strong TOWER; the righteous run into it and are safe”; does that mean if God forbid we ever have a tornado on a Sunday morning, you ought to head for that TOWER, we’ll just paint “YAHWEH” over the doorpost and you’ll be magically protected?
Of course not. What’s God’s SAYING? “I am your strong tower! Run to ME and be safe!” Psalm 18:2- “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield… my salvation, my stronghold… my God, in whom I take refuge”. We run to HIM! Psalm 121: ““The Lord is your keeper… The Lord will keep you from all evil… The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (vv5-8)
And how DOES he keep us? Through his SON, his “Word made FLESH”, JESUS, who promises, “I give [you] eternal life, and [you] will never perish, and no one will snatch [you] out of my hand” (Jn 10:28).
And how does he give us eternal LIFE? Let’s bring it full circle, back to his NAME; Acts 4:12 - “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved”, friends, than the name of JESUS, “the name that is above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:9-11). THAT’s how we get saved, THAT’s how we get protected: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”! (Rom 10:9)
And you will be KEPT. Those He calls, he SAVES; and those he saves, He KEEPS. 2 Timothy 4:18 - “The Lord will rescue me… and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom”.
What are the MEANS that God uses to preserve us throughout our sojourning here in this fallen, hostile world, until he brings us HOME? Look at what Jesus prays in v15: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world”; although that would certainly make it a lot EASIER on us at times, wouldn’t it? If the moment you got saved, God had just [*sucking noise*] personally RAPTURED you up into heaven. He wouldn’t NEED to preserve you THEN!
No, how does he KEEP us? Jesus mentions THREE means of God’s preserving grace here: 1) the Prayers of Jesus; 2) the Protection of the Church; and 3) our Pursuit of righteousness.
First, the PRAYERS of Jesus. “ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world (because those who still belong to the WORLD do NOT belong to JESUS, and therefore will NOT be saved and kept for heaven) but (I pray) for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”
Jesus PRAYS for us, Church. Not that God RAPTURES us, or keeps us hermetically sealed off from the outside world, inside our safe little Christian BUBBLES. No - SPOILER alert; we’re gonna see in v18 that Jesus is actually sending us deeper INTO the world on a RESCUE mission to reach the LOST with the good news about Him. And it’s hard to REACH them from inside our Christian BUBBLE. So NO; what does he PRAY for us instead? That WHILE we’re still in the world, v15: “that [Father] you keep them from the evil one”. Just like he taught US to pray: “Lead us NOT into temptation, but DELIVER us from the EVIL one”, from Satan, the “RULER of this world” (Jn 12:31) and the “FATHER of lies” (Jn 8:44), who seeks to “lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Mt 24:24), Jesus warned.
And on our OWN - my power, your power to withstand him - we are DOOMED, because Satan is FAR too powerful for US. But take heart, Church: we are NOT left on our own, because we have a Savior who is INFINITELY more powerful than our Enemy, and HE PRAYS FOR US. That’s what Jesus is doing right NOW, as we SPEAK, up in Heaven, at the right hand of God the Father: he is interceding on our behalf. Praying for us.
Second means of God’s preserving grace: the Protection of the Church. What ELSE does Jesus pray for us here, specifically in v11: “that they may be one, even as we [Father] are one.” He prayed for the UNITY of the Church.
We got WAY too many Tucker Carlson Christians in the Church today. You know what I mean by that? Tucker Carlson used to be one of the most prominent conservative voices, attacking the Left; he barely EVER attacks the Left anymore. He picks fights with Ted Cruz, and Ben Shapiro, and Mark Levin… I know CHRISTIANS like that. Who spend more time and energy and social media posts attacking the CHURCH - whether it be the Catholic Church, or the “MEGA-church” they love to hate on… I don’t know if you saw but Mark Driscoll (yes, THAT Mark Driscoll; apparently SOMEONE’s still giving him a pulpit), but he posted the week after Charlie Kirk’s murder and said, “If your pastor didn’t address Charlie Kirk this Sunday, he needs to RESIGN.” So because I didn’t pivot and preach on Charlie KIRK, because I stuck with Galatians 2 and preached Christ CRUCIFIED instead, I’m supposed to RESIGN?!
This is what the Church has become, and SHAME on us! Who needs an ENEMY, Satan, when you’ve got “FRIENDS”, fellow SHEEP, like these? No need for WOLVES if you can get the SHEEP all biting each OTHER!
No, Church, JESUS prayed “that [we] may be one, even as [He and the FATHER] are one”; THAT’s how tight, how UNIFIED he wants us! “Be watchful,” 1 Peter 5:8 warns us, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” and a single sheep out in the open field against that lion: NO MATCH. But there is STRENGTH in numbers, and in UNITY. This is God’s DESIGN for us, his preserving grace for us: the protection of the CHURCH.
Lastly, 1) the Prayers of Jesus; 2) the Protection of the Church; and 3) our Pursuit of righteousness. How ARE we “kept from the evil one” (v15)? Just after Peter warns us about our “prowling enemy”, he exhorts us to “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pet 5:9). We do this by suiting up every day in the armor of God (Eph 6:14-17): “the breastplate of righteousness… the shoes [of] the gospel of peace… the shield of faith… the helmet of salvation”, but SIGNIFICANTLY for our focus this morning, the very FIRST piece of equipment Paul mentions there in Ephesians 6 is “the belt of truth”, and then he ENDS his list with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” - Church: if you wanna make it out of this evil world ALIVE, preserved, you better BEGIN and END every day, from START to FINISH, we are KEPT by the TRUTH of God’s WORD!
We FORSAKE it, IGNORE it, to our own PERIL. Like JUDAS, the “son of destruction” alluded to in v12, who is included here, I think, as a WARNING to us: that not ALL will be “kept”, “guarded”, “preserved”. In Matthew 10:33 Jesus warns, “whoever (betrays, rejects,) denies me… I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”
It really is that SIMPLE, friends: REJECT Jesus and PERISH; RECEIVE Jesus and PROSPER (eternal life).
#4- We can be JOYFULLY FULFILLED by God’s word. (v13)
That is ONE problem with our sermon series TITLE and GRAPHIC: “the ANTIDOTE”, with a giant NEEDLE in the background: getting vaxxed against the world’s lies isn’t LIKE getting your FLU shot, where it HURTS, and you feel weak and tired the whole next day, but I guess you just put UP with it, cuz MAYBE it’s better than the alternative, MAYBE it means when you DO inevitably still catch the flu, you’ll get sick for like 2 days instead of 2 WEEKS… MAYBE, if they predicted the right strain of the virus this cold & flu season, which is a big “IF”.
No, GOD’S antidote for the world’s LIES - His TRUTH - isn’t LIKE that; he DOESN’T say, “Now it’s not gonna be very FUN, but you’re gonna need to read your Bible at least 15 minutes a day, and that’ll immunize you against Satan’s lies; I know, I know, it’s a PAIN. But I promise one day when you make it to HEAVEN it’ll all be WORTH it…”. Is THAT what Jesus PRAYS here in v13?
No! He says, “these things I speak in the world [everything I’ve TAUGHT you these past 3 ½ years, disciples, that Y’ALL are now going to WRITE DOWN for all the generations of Christians to come AFTER you, so that THEY have access to my WORD as well; “these things I’ve spoken…], that [you] may have my joy fulfilled in [your]selves”.
Jesus wants to offer us JOY to the FULLEST, and the GIFT BAG that it comes wrapped UP in his WORD! John 15:11, he says the same thing: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
So Church, may we be like the prophet Jeremiah, who REJOICED: “your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart… O Lord” (15:16). May we be like the PSALMIST, who rejoiced: “In your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches…
I rejoice at your word like one who finds great [TREASURE].” (Ps 119:14,162)
Is it our TREASURE, Church? God’s WORD? When it IS, we will be JOYFULLY fulfilled.
But be forewarned, we will ALSO be HATED.
#5- We WILL be HATED for God’s word. (v14)
“I have given them your word,” Jesus prays in v14 now, “and the world has hated them”. Why? “...because they’re not of the world, just like I’m not of the world”. He issued the same warning back in ch15: ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (vv18-19).
It may seem overly reductionist, but it’s TRUE: did you know that there are REALLY only TWO types of PEOPLE in the world: there are people of the WORLD, and people of the WORD. People of the WORLD live for their own selfish pleasure; people of the WORD live for GOD’S good pleasure. And people of the world HATE people of the word, because they SEE us leaving for church on Sundays, they SEE us praying before meals when we go out to eat, they SEE our social media posts about Jesus, and we are a constant REMINDER to them, even when we OURSELVES sometimes forget it, and WE slip back into pursuing our own pleasure instead of God’s glory, nevertheless, we remind people of the WORLD that there really IS a God, and it’s really NOT THEM, and no matter how hard they try and IGNORE and AVOID him, so that they can go on occupying the throne of their own heart, the TRUTH is that a day is coming when we ALL must RECKON with Him - Matthew 25:19, “the lord of the servants cometh, to reckoneth with them” - and on THAT day, the ONLY thing that’s gonna matter is which of those two people YOU were: of the WORLD, or of the WORD. Are you a GOAT, or are you a SHEEP of his pasture?
For all the SHEEP, we can rest assured, Jesus does not leave us BEHIND here SHEPHERDLESS. As a matter of fact, he comforted his disciples with these words in John 15: “I tell you the truth: it is BETTER for you that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). What’s the only thing better than having the Good Shepherd right BESIDE you, leading and guiding you through life? Answer: having him live WITHIN you! His very own SPIRIT, indwelling and empowering you! And speaking of TRUTH, Jesus KNEW that this world was SO full of lies and confusion, that even WITH God’s word (the Bible) to guide and guard us, we would STILL need help understanding and APPLYING it to our lives. So here’s what he promised the Holy SPIRIT will do for us: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (16:13).
His SPIRIT guides and guards us… His WORD guides and guards… but that’s not ALL it does…
#6) We are being MADE HOLY by God’s word. (v17)
“Sanctify them [make them HOLY] in the truth; your word is truth.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says: “this is the will of God [Remember: every ONE of us is living either for OUR will or for HIS; you wanna live for GOD’S will? Here it is:] your sanctification”.
See, God wants to make us HOLY, as HE is holy, so that those AROUND us, the people of the WORLD might “see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16). That’s God’s PLAN for changing the WORLD THROUGH the Church: He is calling and sanctifying, purifying for Himself, a “people for his own possession” - He did it in the OLD Testament with ISRAEL; God told Abram “I am blessing you… that IN you ALL the nations of the earth might be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3), by seeing your relationship with ME, your GOD, and being filled with a kind of holy jealousy - “I want that! I want to know God personally, be guided and guarded and LOVED and CLEANSED… FORGIVEN, SANCTIFIED”, and thus they’ll turn to ME and be SAVED. Today he’s doing the same thing with US, the CHURCH.
And he DOES it - God is SANCTIFYING us - through his WORD. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:25-26).
Lastly, #7- We are COMMISSIONED by God’s word. (vv18-19)
“As you sent me into the world,” Jesus prays, “so I have sent them into the world.”
Church: when we come to saving faith in Christ, He doesn’t release us FROM the world… but INTO it!
Jesus left us with his WORD to guide us…
His SPIRIT to empower us…
And His MISSION to MOTIVATE and MOBILIZE us: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).
We have been COMMISSIONED and CONSECRATED. Our passage ENDS now in v19, with Jesus praying, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” That’s the same verb used twice, the same verb as v17, “sanctified”. But it has a dual meaning. It can mean “to make HOLY”, which God accomplishes for us through His word, v17. But it can ALSO mean “to SET APART for a special PURPOSE”, like how God set JESUS apart for our sake, to SAVE us. And NOW he sets US apart to BRING that good news of salvation - the glorious TRUTH about Jesus - to OTHERS.
Church: May we trust and KEEP God’s word.
May we BE kept and be joyfully FULFILLED by God’s word, even when we’re HATED for it.
And may we be sanctified and commissioned by God’s word, zealous to reach the dying world around us with the hope of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray…