A Band of Brothers. John 17:9-23
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason - August 17, 2003
In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
Now, that is certainly one kind of unity. And an interesting relationship. But let’s shift gears just a bit, now.
In the HBO series depicting the experiences of a platoon from the 101st Airborne during the Second World War the following was a key lead in to the story: "A Band of Brothers…they depended upon each other and the world depended on them."
The disciples of Jesus have been a "Band of Brothers" who have been with Jesus for nearly 3 ˝ years. And now that Jesus is going to be leaving them, they will depend on each other as never before and the fate of the world clearly will depend on them.
Our text in John 17: 7 – 24 contains parts of what has been called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.
He prays out loud with the obvious intent that the disciples might continue learning the lessons of the Cross. He could have prayed what we have as John 17 in his heart and the results would be the same. However, Jesus wants to teach his disciples something very important.He prays for them
They are the fruit of his life-labor.
They are the hope for the future.
They are to be the founders of the Church of Jesus Christ.
They essentially are the Noah’s Ark of the Christian Faith.
They are missionaries of the truth to the whole world.He prays for them…
not for their sake alone, but for the sake of the world.
It is the very best thing he can do for them…to pray for them.
He prays for them…
And he asks that the Father Keep them…
The sense of his statement is this: it is a command to a commitment to a decisive or effective choice. It is: "Make this happen!" "Begin to do this now!"
His reasoning:
Father they are yours. They belong to you, Father. It is as if he is saying to his Father, "Father, this is your business. It is in your interest to keep these men. They are yours. You gave them to me. And even though since they became my disciples they have been mine…they still are yours. Now keep your own."
I am glorified in them. My cause, My Name, My doctrine are all henceforth identified with them and if they miscarry, my interest will be shipwrecked.
So…As you value the honor of your son…Keep these men. Sustain them. Protect them. Provide for them.
"I am leaving them here in the world," Jesus says. He commends his disciples into his Father’s care.He prays for them. 17:11
He asks the Father to "keep those whom you have given me that they be one as we are."
He asks the Father to keep them, that they may continue to believe what he taught them about God and so become His instruments for spreading the knowledge of the true God and true religion through out the earth.
He Prays for Unity…that they may be one and be kept
in love for each other
in the faith of the divine name
separate from the world
but not divided among themselves.
In this prayer, Jesus asks for two things for his disciples:
- That they be set apart or sanctified in the truth. (17:19) Truth is the badge of distinction between Christ’s church and the world.
- That God’s love might be in them. (17:26) Love is the bond that unites believers of the Truth into a Holy brotherhood of witness bearers to the truth. This makes those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord a true "Band of Brothers"
These two things (Love and Truth) the church must keep in balance.
- We cannot sacrifice love to the truth…that is legalism. Legalism is deadly to our spirit and the spirit of the church.
- We cannot sacrifice truth to love making the church so broad as to include anyone into the fellowship of the church regardless of whether they believe or not; having no reason for being, no truth to guard and no testimony to bear.
He reminds the Father that he was faithful to keep them while he was with them. He guarded them. He tells us in his prayer that he was not able to keep Judas from falling, but he did all he could and Judas was not lost through his fault.
They will need the Father’s care because of the world’s dislike for the truth. (17:14).
They will need preservation from the moral evil of the world not translation out of it. They must be salt and light to the world.
Jesus wants his disciples to know or to understand that they must shun conformity to the world and the weariness of the world. They must abide in the truth. They must remain in the world for the world’s sake.
He wants them to understand that when they feel the world’s hatred the most will be when they are doing the most good. The weight of the cross will be the measure of their influence in the world.
In verses 17:20-24 He prays that they might truly be one. His focus is on these 11 men in the near term and the whole church in the long term.
We consider these things and wonder what does this have to say to us today?
When you come to the book of Acts, you discover that the prayer of Jesus is already being answered for the early church. God actively protects the apostles so that they can do the work of establishing the church and do the work of evangelism.
There is an incredible oneness in that small group of believers that continues on as the church grows by leaps and bounds. Acts 2:44 spells it out for us to see: "And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common." That "Band of Brothers" grew and grew and grew as the "Lord was adding to their numbers day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47).
There are two ways of being united -- one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power.
Peter and John are arrested in Acts 4 following the healing of the lame man in the Temple. They are commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus and threatened and then sent on their way. This is an example of God’s keeping.
The apostles are later arrested (Acts 5:17-18) and an angel of the Lord set them free during the night.
Peter is arrested again (Acts 12) and as the church prays, God sends an angel to set him free so that no harm can come to him. This is God’s active hand of protection at work.
As we consider the church today, there is an essential oneness or unity that exists in the Body of Christ. Augustine, one of the great church fathers in the early church had this to say about this unity:
.In essentials, unity.
In non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, charity.
The ground of that unity is to be found in the truth of the Word of God and in the unity that exists in the relationship of the Father and The Son of God. Jesus prayed that we might be in actual practical ways have the oneness that exists between the Father and Jesus Christ.
That unity or oneness provides the church with the moral power it needs to confront the immorality and evil of the world in which we live. And when we can demonstrate that kind of oneness, the world will rightly conclude that what Jesus said is true: "You have sent me." and will believe in Jesus Christ.
The Father provided for the apostles. He protected them. He guarded them so that the work they were called to do might be done. He will do no less for you and I. He will care for us, provide for us and keep us safe so long as there is work to be done that only we can do.
You can count on it! Because He loves you and because the world you live in must hear about Jesus Christ and His love for people just like us.
We can join that "Band of Brothers" by accepting Jesus as the Son of God, as the one who paid the penalty for our sin and the Lord of our life. Once we have done that, we can truly be part of that "Band of Brothers" who have this kind of closeness. We do depend on each other and the world certainly depends on us if truth and righteousness are ever to prevail in the world in which we live.
-- Dennis Gleason
