This week we conclude the series Pray Like Jesus with the second half of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17. As I mentioned last week, it is Jesus’ longest prayer recorded in Scripture. The betrayal of Judas and the cross are imminent. After praying for himself and his disciples, Jesus prays for the church, which would come in the wake of his death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore, in a very real sense, we witness Jesus praying for those of us who are Christians. In his prayer, Jesus reveals his priorities for his people and what he was most passionate about for us prior to his death for our sins.

1. Joyful through the Spirit (John 17:13)

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Although not without dark seasons of trial and trouble, one of the marks of the Christian life is joy. This is not necessarily joy in the fallen world in which we live and the effects of sin that we cause, suffer, and see. Rather, our joy in the midst of our broken and fallen world is that we know who Jesus is and what he has done. In John 16, which precedes this prayer, Jesus teaches that he will die for our sins and rise for our salvation and send the Holy Spirit to renew, indwell, empower, and transform us so that we can participate with God in the world. Therefore, Christian joy is in being saved by Jesus, being made a citizen of God’s kingdom and not this fallen world, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and living life in light of Jesus’ final words in John 16:33: "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." Our joy is not found by our current state in the world (that place of sin and rebellion against God), but rather by the presence and power of God in us while we are in the world. Though we are still in the world, our relation to it has forever changed because God is in us. For this we rejoice.

2. Sanctified and Sent (John 17:14–19)

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 also may be sanctified in truth. Jesus simply declares that he was sanctified from the world but sent into the world. Jesus is not saying that he was growing in holiness and diminishing in sin; no, he was perfectly holy and altogether without sin. Rather, what Jesus is saying is that he was set apart for the purposes of God and sent by God the Father into the world. One Bible commentator explains Jesus’ words in this way,

But here [hagiazō emauton] ("I sanctify/consecrate myself ") is to be understood as an act of committing himself to the holy will of the Father and in dedicating himself to Calvary, as Morris states, "with all that Calvary means." In this sense to consecrate himself meant to be set aside for God’s special purpose. Consecration is also identified in the Torah with sacrifice (Deut 15:19), a sacrifice that usually implied the death of the offering. In consecrating himself, Jesus modeled for his disciples what is meant to be both alien from the world and yet committed to a mission in and to the world, even to the point of death.

Furthermore, Jesus explains that he was hated by the world precisely because he was separated from the world while submerged in the world. To say it another way, Jesus lived as a missionary in the world surrounded by its temptations to sin but did not participate in or in any way condone sinful worldliness. Rather, he stood against it in word and deed. His efforts were intended not to capitulate the world, but rather call the world to repentance. Subsequently, those people in the world who remain unrepentant hated Jesus in his day and continue to in our own. They hated him because he stood against the world, but importantly, he did so out of love for people, inviting them to a better way of life through him. Speaking to all Christians who would come to believe in him, Jesus frankly told us that we should not be surprised when the world hates us too. This can take any one of a number of forms, such as being mocked, gossiped about, criticized, persecuted, and even in some cases martyred. Simply, every Christian is—like Jesus—a missionary sent by God into the world to the time and place God has appointed for them and is to be sanctified, or set apart, for God’s purposes. The more effective we are at this calling, the more the world will hate us. One Bible commentator says it this way, "Jesus’ relationship to the Father as his sender is now presented as the pattern for the disciples’ relationship to Jesus as their sender (Köstenberger 1998b). A partial OT parallel is the instruction to Moses, who had himself been consecrated by God (Sir. 45:4) in order to consecrate others so that they too may serve God as priests (Exod. 28:41)." Another commentator has said of this section of Jesus’ prayer,

This verse [John 17:18] confirms the fact that the main focus of this section of the prayer is on the preparation of the disciples for mission. The disciples, like Jesus, would experience the sense of being aliens in the hostile world (17:14), but this prayer does not advocate abandoning the world to the devil. Quite the opposite is true because just as it has been repeatedly said throughout this Gospel that the Father sent Jesus into the world, so it is here clearly asserted that Jesus has sent his followers into the world. The Greek verb apostellein occurring twice carries the idea of being sent for a purpose or being sent on a mission. The English word "apostle" is obviously derived from this Greek word family, and apostleship must accordingly be understood not so much as a status but as a purposeful calling to a mission by Jesus.

In one of my favorite missional verses in all of Scripture, Jesus prayerfully warns Christians that not only do they have two purposes in the world—to be sanctified (or set apart by God for his purposes) and sent into the world—but they also have two pitfalls in the world. On the one hand, we can overly emphasize being set apart to the degree that we forget that we are sent. In other words, we can focus so intently on our own purity and holiness that we forget to follow the example of Jesus and live as missionaries in the world, loving non-Christians and seeking to see as many people as possible become Christians. The thought is that the means for sanctification are primarily separating from the world rather than being sent into it. This is the classic error of conservative Christianity that leads to sectarianism. Sectarianism is where Christians live decent lives but do not really understand the world, love the world, live in the world, or seek the transformation of the world. Rather, they carve out a Christian subculture like a bomb shelter in which to hide from the world. However, Jesus prayed against this sort of thing. One commentator has insightfully written about the common error of conservative Christianity:

As Ridderbos (1997: 555) points out, "Within that realm the disciples are not only safe in the world but also capable of continuing the work for which Jesus has destined them, their mission in the world." Hence, personal holiness is not to be an end in itself but a means to an end: reaching the lost world for Christ. Believers’ consecration serves the purpose of preparing them for their God-given mission in the world (Ridderbos 1997: 555; cf. Carson 1991: 565–66). They are not to be inwardly focused, cultivating merely intracommunitarian love and unity, but rather to reach out together to a lost and needy world.

On the other hand, we can overly emphasize being sent into the world to the degree that we forget that we are supposed to be sanctified and set apart for God, distinct from the world by living in a way that is holy and pleasing to God. In other words, we can become so concerned about being missionaries connecting with culture that we forget to be faithful Christians connecting to God, following Jesus’ example to be in the world, but unlike the world in how we respond to worldly temptations to sin. This is the classic error of liberal Christianity, which leads to syncretism. Syncretism is where people so love, understand, sympathize with, and even wrongly accommodate the world that they are no longer distinct from the world and hated by it as Jesus expects. Rather, they are more like a mirror than a city within a city, reflecting the world’s values rather than God’s kingdom. Jesus also prayed against this sort of thing. Curiously, it is common for conservative and liberal Christians to spend considerable time criticizing one another for not going far enough or going too far into the world, respectively. But they are both right, to varying degrees, and would be well served to read Jesus’ prayer and what ensues. There, he prays that we would continually return to the Word of God and be led by God through the Scriptures.

3. Unified as the Church (John 17:20–23)

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. This section of Jesus’ prayer has been hotly debated. This is, in part, because it was a favorite of those pushing for what is called the ecumenical movement. In the name of unity, they actually tolerated heresy. Grievously, they read the portion of Jesus’ prayer about unity but somehow overlooked the part of Jesus’ prayer where he said that we should be sanctified (holy) and guided by God’s Word. Subsequently, it was not uncommon for them to tolerate seemingly every form of false teaching in the name of tolerance and diversity, amazingly excluding God and some of the clear teachings of his word. For the sake of clarity, much can and should be said about unity, but I’ll just make a few brief points.

1. True unity is when Jesus’ mission is followed biblically. Therefore, there is no true unity unless Jesus is the unifying center, his mission of seeing people saved and matured as disciples is the common labor, and his Word of Scripture is the highest guiding authority. This is what Jesus meant when he said that he is the vine and we are the branches. Only by being connected to him and pruned by his Word can we bear fruit on our mission with him in the world. Anyone not connected to the vine of Jesus, or anyone who thinks he or she and their tribe or team are the branch and the rest of Christianity is a vine does not understand Jesus’ prayer.
2. Unity is not uniformity. There is unity among God’s people who are on mission with Jesus and love the Scriptures. They may be in different denominations and networks but that does not necessarily indicate a lack of unity. Maybe an illustration I shared recently with a graduate class at Northwest College (an Assemblies of God school here in the greater Seattle area) will be helpful. I said that the kind of Christianity Jesus prayed for is like a nation. In that nation there are different borders (e.g., women’s roles in ministry, style of church government, mode of baptism) that cause different states (e.g., Foursquare, Presbyterian, Baptist). However, while there is distinction, there is not division between these proverbial states, because they form one nation. In addition to state boundaries, there are also national boundaries; if someone denies such things as the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, etc., then they are not united but divided and are a different nation (e.g., Mormonism, Islam, Judaism), not a different state.

Two additional examples may help. The first is from the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, which is headquartered at Mars Hill Church and to which we give a lot of time and money each year. In a survey we did (to which 80 percent of the network pastors responded), we found the following denominations in our network. This includes only our American plants and none of our overseas church plants. At least 9 denominations and over 17 other networks within Acts 29: Denominations represented in the Acts 29 Network:

1. Southern Baptist Church – 29 churches
2. Baptist General Conference (Converge) – 7
3. Presbyterian Church of America – 5
4. Evangelical Free Church of America – 8
5. Reformed Church of America – 1
6. Other Baptists (mostly State related) – 8
7. Assembly of God – 2
8. Church of God – 1
9. Missionary Church USA – 1

Other networks, organizations, alliances, associations, etc.:

1. Christian & Missionary Alliance – 1 church
2. Conservative Baptist NW – 3
3. Fellowship Associates – 3
4. Willow Association – 2
5. Vision 360 – 2
6. Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches – 1
7. Purpose Driven – 1
8. 4Cs – 1
9. GlocalNet – 1
10. The Infinity Alliance – 1
11. Vision 360 – 1
12. New Hampshire Alliance – 1
13. Vision 20/20 – 1
14. Other Church Planting Networks – 3

Mars Hill financially supports 16 Acts 29 church planters:

1. Southern Baptist Church – 6 churches
2. Conservative Baptist NW – 1
3. Conservative Baptist NW – 1
4. Baptist General Conference – 1
5. Assembly of God – 1
6. Crowded House – 1
7. Just Acts 29 – 6

My own personal experience in the past few months is yet another example of the benefits we receive by being an interdenominational church that takes Jesus’ prayer seriously and likes to work with God’s people who love Jesus, believe in his word, and are on his mission. In the past few months I have taught

• with Pastor Rick Warren to 1,800 pastors from multiple denominations in Southern California,
• at the Acts 29 church planters retreat in Colorado with 100 pastors from nine denominations and seventeen networks,
• in Ohio at Xenos’ conference to train over 2,000 people from multiple Christian groups,
• in Brighton, England, with 5,000 people from 50 nations,
• in London, England, at multiple events for hundreds of pastors and leaders from dozens of denominations,
• in Orlando at the anniversary dinner for Crossway Publishers to hundreds of pastors and leaders from dozens of denominations,
• in Seattle at Northwest College (an Assemblies of God school),
• and in Sydney, Australia, over ten days to groups as large as 10,000 along with four theological colleges for a total of maybe 30,000 people from countless denominations and networks (Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians).

I recently also briefly spoke to the church planters of The City Church near Seattle and had a conference call for The Gospel Coalition, where I serve on a council with pastors from multiple denominations. In a few weeks I head to Minneapolis to preach for Dr. John Piper and serve people from still more denominations and groups. My point? Mars Hill and I are trying our best to see Jesus’ prayer answered.

3. Together with Jesus Forever (John 17:24–26)

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. The closing words of Jesus’ prayer are for us to know that he is with us here in the world and one day, if we belong to him, we will be with him forever in his kingdom. Until that day, Jesus prays we would grow to know him and the Father more and more until we see him in all of his unveiled, resurrection glory. He also prays that we would yearn to see others meet him and spend eternity together with him and us.