23rd July 2022 – John 17:11-12

"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."

John 17:11-12

These verses give us the content of our Lord's intercession for His people. They assure us that He is able to keep us from falling in all the pressures and hazards of the life of discipleship. But it is a prayer not only that the disciples might be kept from sin, in the negative sense, but also in a positive sense; that they might be kept true to God's redemptive purpose in the world. The 'name' of God, as we have seen reveals His character and 'in his name' means 'in line with His character as Divine Redeemer'. For the disciples therefore to be kept in His name is for them to be kept true to God's redemptive purposes in the world - identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, sharing His sufferings and dying to sin. And what need there is for such a keeping power when we know our own hearts and know how easy even within the context of Christian discipleship itself, to become deviated from the central purpose of our calling into attitudes that not only fall short of that redemptive purpose, but actively militate against it'. Well might our Lord pray such a prayer for His people!