Ezekiel 18:21-24 1 Timothy 2:1-6 John 17:6-10
Given to Give
As we saw last week, this final prayer of our Lord’s incarnate life centred around the one aspect uppermost in his mind, namely a reconciled relationship between the one true God and humanity. In the first five verses Jesus’ focus was mainly on himself as the one through whom eternal life would be made possible, but in verses 6-10, his prayer centred primarily on his disciples and their relationship to God the Father through him.
These next five verses are basically the introduction to an intercessory prayer in which Jesus presented to the Father those whom the Father had originally given to him. I think here he was more than likely referring specifically to the twelve and perhaps to the small group of women that were part of their company. If you recall, Jesus was very specific in his choice of disciples. Before he chose the twelve, he spent all night in prayer, and perhaps he was now alluding to the divine guidance behind that choice. They did not choose him, but rather he had chosen them.
Nevertheless, in these verses, the words of our Lord were so carefully and precisely chosen that they may present us with a picture of what would become the New Covenant People of God. By using the words of his prayer here, we could divide the characteristics of any Christian community into three basic points.
Firstly, we are a community given to Jesus. Secondly, we are a community given to know Jesus. And thirdly, we are a community given to glorify Jesus.
In verse 6 Jesus prayed, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” This is the first characteristic of all true Christian communities. We have been taken out of the world and we have been given to Jesus by the Father. Although Jesus’ earthly ministry was as public as ours should be, it was only those to whom it had been given who understood and responded positively to his words. For example, in Matthew 13:11 Jesus said the following to his disciples: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
But this does not mean that the salvation of some and the damnation of the rest are preordained conclusions. As we saw with both our Old Testament and New Testament readings, it is the will of God that none are damned…that all come to a saving knowledge of Him. There are many other places in Scripture that express the same sentiment, none quite so poignant as God’s statement to the reluctant missionary Jonah: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” You see, in Jonah’s mind, only Israel was predestined to be the people of God. Gentiles were predestined for destruction. But here God revealed to him the divine heart for the lost.
Now, as I was thinking about what Jesus said here and how I could best explain his meaning, I thought of a film I saw about the British stockbroker Nicholas (or Nicky) Winton. In a race against time, before the Nazi occupation closed the borders, Nicky struggled for nine months to rescue 669 predominantly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia, bringing them to the UK and placing them in foster homes. He tirelessly fought to get visas for them, campaigned to raise the necessary funds, and begged families to take them in.
However, the train carrying the last group of children, scheduled to leave Prague on the 1st of September 1939, was unable to depart. With Hitler's invasion of Poland on the same day, the Second Great War had begun and of the 250 children due to leave on that train, only two survived the war. The film showed a distraught Nicky waiting in vain on the platform of the station for those he was not able to save, and for years their fate haunted him.
Now, of course, we can hardly compare the awful fate of these children to that of unrepentant sinners, but I do think we can catch a glimpse of the agony of our God when that one train doesn’t arrive.
We know that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7), but I think it safe to say that the reverse is just as true. Jesus wept over unrepentant Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). God said that he finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). He wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
Just like in this story about Nicky Winton, God has done everything possible to save us from the world…in one sense, Jesus is our visa to freedom, a visa paid for with his own blood, and we have been taken out of a perilous situation and adopted into the family of God. But we must board that train…eleven of the chosen disciples did while one clearly did not as we will see when we get to verse 12 of this chapter.
But for us who do board that train, our eternal salvation is secure. As Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” And in John 10:28-29, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, 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.”
And so, the first mark of any Christian community is that we are a people taken out of the world by the Father and given to Jesus.
The second mark is that we are a community that knows Jesus. In verses 7-8 Jesus said, “Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 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.” Many people saw Jesus. Many people heard Jesus teach. Many people experienced his healing touch. Yet they did not know him. When he did not do what they wanted him to do, they abandoned him.
Today, many know about Jesus. They know him as an historic person. They might even know something he taught or something he did. They might acknowledge him as a great teacher or a good man. But the kind of knowing Jesus was speaking about here was very specific. It is a knowledge based on receiving and accepting the words of Jesus as the truth.
But it is more than simply knowing the Scriptures. It is also believing that Jesus came from the Father. To the unbelieving Jews, Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” And in John 8:19, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Knowing what they thought about an all too human Messiah was not enough. If I may once again reference the tragic story of Nicky Winton, knowing that there was a visa and that there was enough money and that there was a family waiting for you was not enough…you had to board the train and leave.
Truly knowing the biblical Jesus means knowing that he came from the Father – that he is divine. In order for the substitutionary sacrifice to be efficacious, Jesus had to be divine. Only someone who was both fully God and fully Man could mediate between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). The sacrifice of a sinless life was necessary for atonement for human sins and so, because all humans have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, a perfect person…one born in the form of humanity, yet without sin…was required to pay the penalty for sin.
Only God can reveal God…and as Jesus came to reveal God’s character and nature to humanity, he had to be divine or else he would have failed to embody the fulness of God and he would not have been able to demonstrate the essence of God. Only God can forgive sins, and Jesus came so that sinners might be forgiven. Only God could conquer death and the devil because the presence of sin would nullify any substitution.
To know Jesus only as a man is to miss all that he came to do…it is to miss the free gift of salvation from God, through God, to humanity. So, the second mark of a Christian Community is that we know the biblical Jesus.
The final mark of a true Christian community is that it brings glory to Jesus. Verse 9 and 10 are very particular. Jesus said, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” As our mediator, Jesus intercedes for those who are his (1 John 2:1). In fact, he is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us right now (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).
He already warned his disciples that in the world those who follow him will experience tribulation, but this is more than overcoming the world. Jesus intercedes for us because of our own sin, because of Satan's accusations, and because we need his help to carry out our kingdom purpose. Because of his intercession, when we sin, we may receive forgiveness if we confess our sins (1 John 1:9). Because of his intercession, Satan’s accusations cannot condemn us (Romans 8:34). Because of his intercession, we are empowered to make disciples of the nations (Matthew 28:18-20). In other words, because of his intercession, we can faithfully endure to the end. Because of his intercession, nothing will ever be able to snatch us from his hands. We are his…period.
And because we are his…because we belong to him…because we no longer belong to the world, Jesus is glorified in us. Our salvation speaks of his greatness. When non-believers look at us, they see a community of people who exist because of God’s loving kindness…we exist because of his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his goodness, his faithfulness. Those of the world may boast of their achievements, but we boast only of his achievement, acknowledging and confessing that we are nothing without him. We have nothing to boast of except the cross of Jesus (Galatians 6:14).
Our very existence as a community of the forgiven, gives all glory, praise and honour to God because of who he is for what he has done. Our existence exclaims the very opposite of a self-seeking or self-gratifying lifestyle. Our existence is centred around the Lord God whose love for us is exhibited in that while we still sinners, Jesus gave his life for ours. Everything we are and everything we will ever become is because he has given it to us. If that doesn’t deserve all our glory and praise, I don’t know what does.
The film about Nicky Winton comes to a climax when the children he had saved in 1939 meet him for the first time as adults in 1988…50 years later. A BBC talk show host managed to track some of them down and during a live broadcast, those who owed their lives to a man they had not known face to face before were able to express their gratitude for his selfless deeds.
And so, as we participate in the meal that brings to remembrance the one who was sent by the Father to save us out from the world through his selfless sacrifice, let us reflect on the kind of people we ought to be because of him. It doesn’t matter if we are rich or poor, many or few…what matters is that, in our gratitude and humility, we give ourselves as Jesus gave himself so that others may be given the knowledge of the greatest gift of all time.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024