OUR LORD’S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER Part 5

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

John 17:17-19

JESUS PRAYS THAT HIS DISCIPLES WOULD BE SANCTIFIED IN THE TRUTH

17:17-19 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Having prayed for their spiritual protection from the world and the Evil One, Jesus continued by asking the Father to sanctify and purify the disciples as they prepared to go into all the world with the gospel, making disciples of all the nations.

It was not enough that Christ’s followers be safeguarded from the world and the Devil; they must also be internally transformed more and more into the moral likeness of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

The world, the flesh and the Devil will try to derail God’s work of sanctification in the believer’s life, but the Father Himself guarantees the believer’s sanctification through the Word of truth, empowered by the Spirit of truth.

The verb “to sanctify” (hagiazon) is an aorist active imperative, thus Jesus is saying, “Father it is imperative that you forever purify, consecrate and separate them for Yourself and make them holy.”

1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, You shall be holy (future tense) as I am holy.

God will insure that all those He has given His Son will be holy as He is holy.

God’s inerrant and infallible Word is the means or the instrument God uses by the power of His Spirit in making the believer holy as He is Holy.

David said in Psalm 119:11 & 105 Your word O Lord have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You (that I might be holy). Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path (the narrow path of holiness that leads to life eternal).

Ephesians 5:24-25 …Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her (make her holy), having cleansed her with the washing of water with the Word. God’s word (the Truth) acts as a cleansing agent in the believer’s heart and mind.

In order for there to be a gospel for the disciples to preach Jesus must humble Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. If there is no death and resurrection there is no salvation for sinners. If there is no salvation for sinners there is no gospel (good news) to proclaim.

In obeying the Father’s will to go to the cross for those the Father had given Him He fulfilled all righteousness and sanctified Himself.

The verb here “to sanctify” (hagiazō) is a present active indicative. Jesus is saying: “I will continue to set Myself apart to righteously obey Your will Father by dying on the cross for all those You have given Me.”

It was only because Jesus did go to the cross and make atonement for the sins of all those that the Father had given Him that they themselves also may be sanctified in, by, through truth.

The participle here “be sanctified” (hēgiazmenoi) is in the perfect tense indicating past action with present result: that they who have been sanctified will continue in, by, through, the truth to be sanctified (to be holy) to the end.

There are three stages of sanctification spoken of in the Bible:

1. Sanctification begun :the radical change through the new birth when God rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins Colossians 1:13.

2. Sanctification continued :the gradual process whereby the believer, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of God’s Word, is laying aside the old self with its evil practices and putting on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him Colossians 3:9-10.

3. Sanctification completed :the final state of the believer when he will be freed from the presence of sin and conformed into the moral likeness of Christ, for we know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is 1 John 3:2.

It was Christ’s prayer that, having been declared righteous by the Father through their faith in Him, His disciples would be daily conformed more and more into the Father’s and His moral likeness.

Romans 8:29-30 For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified (declared righteous through faith in His Son); and these whom He justified, He also glorified (He stays with them to the end, gloriously completing what He had begun).

1 Corinthians 15:49 Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man (Adam), so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven (Jesus Christ).

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord (God) the Spirit.

As He always did, Jesus prayed consistently with the will of the Father. He asked the Father to do what He had predetermined in eternity past to do—to pour out His love, grace, mercy, and power on those whom He had chosen and given to Jesus.

Guarded by the Father, interceded for by Christ, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and guided by the truth of God’s Word, the believer is a part of the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purpose on earth until Jesus returns.