The Apostles and the World (John 17:14-18)

This sermon was preached on 11/10/2012

‘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’ (John 17:14-18).

The first question that has to asked is, ‘What does Jesus mean by the world?’ There are many possible options. Does he mean, for example, (a) the geographical world (the world of human space), (b) the world of human history, (c) the world of ideas, (d) the world of pleasures, (e) the world of achievements, (f) the world of political forces, or (g) the world of religious ideas? Perhaps he has in mind a combination of some or all of these suggestions.

It is also the case that we approach this term with a history of how the word has been understood, or its related term, worldliness. In the past, this was basically defined in terms of pleasure: things like dancing, drunkenness, the theatre, fashion. Smoking was worldly in the church in which I was converted, but was acceptable in many Highland churches until recently and many have stopped because the practice is unhealthy and not because they were convicted about it being worldly. These examples are all connected in one way or another to outward behaviour. Of course, it was recognised that these practices came out of one’s heart, revealing its desires, but what about desires that could not be seen? Are they ‘worldly’?

From a biblical point of view, worldliness cannot be limited to these kinds of practices. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus includes the accumulation of possessions as worldly because it is an imitation of what the Gentiles do. And he also teaches that engaging in religious actions in order to get prominence in a community, which the Pharisees did, is worldly.

One verse which is very clear in this regard is Ephesians 2:2: ‘in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.’ Paul there says that believers once lived in the world, according to its ideas and practices, which he defines as disobedience, under the directing influence of the devil. It seems to me that Paul is saying (a) that there is an environment that we can entitle ‘the world’, (b) that it is under the guiding control of the devil, (c) that the only people who are not in it are Christians, (d) that it includes one’s inner attitudes and one’s outward behaviour, and (e) that everything an unconverted person does is worldly.

At first glance, such a suggestion seems to be an outrageous thing to say. Yet we have the answer to our difficulty when we realise that what makes something worldly is that it is anything that is not done for the glory of God. Paul gives this basic Christian outlook in 1 Corinthians 10:31: ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’ This outlook is a basic one for believers.

Paul refers to several worldly things in his letters and I cite the verses for our attention. In 1 Corinthians 1:26 he says that there are worldly standards, which are the opposite of God’s methods of assessment: ‘For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.’ And in 2 Corinthians 7:10 he mentions worldly grief, which is the opposite of repentance: ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.’ Writing to Titus (2:12), Paul contrasts ‘worldly passions’ with ‘self-controlled, upright, and godly lives’.

Obviously, there are things in the world that make life pleasant. Paul urged Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17: ‘As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.’ Thomas Manton commented that believers ‘may use the world as a means to sweeten our pilgrimage, but not to weaken our hopes. A man may use the comforts of this life to draw good out of them, to employ them for God, as encouragements to piety, and instruments for mercy and bounty.’ 

Nevertheless, it is very important that we understand what the world or worldliness is. Consider these verses from 1 John 2:15-17: ‘Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions — is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’ In these verses, John says that we cannot love both the Father and the ‘world’, he defines what the world is, and he says that what the world stands for is passing away.

Looking closer at John’s definition of worldliness, we can see that he mentions three aspects: the desires of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and pride in possessions. What does he mean by them? The first one describes immorality, the second describes covetousness, and the third describes materialism. Of course, these things don’t exist apart from people, but they mark worldly people, as do the various items we mentioned earlier.

These are the kinds of people that Jesus has in mind when he speaks here of the world. They dislike Christians and especially the apostles because they taught a totally different way of life. Jesus refers to this in John 15:18-20: ‘If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.’

In our passage, Jesus mentions several features of the world: (a) it hated the apostles of Jesus, (b) the apostles don’t belong to it, (c) Jesus does not belong to it, (d) it is influenced by the devil, therefore the apostles need to be kept, (e) and his apostles are sent into it by Jesus in a manner similar to how he was sent by the Father. We can briefly consider some of these aspects.

Life from another world

First, Jesus says in his prayer that he and his disciples belong to another world. That other world, from which Jesus comes, is heaven, which means that believers are citizens of Paradise. This is what Paul said to the Philippians: ‘But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3:20). In the previous verse in Philippians, he defined non-Christians as those ‘whose minds are set on earthly things’.

Believers have been born from above (John 3) and given the life of heaven in their souls. Even as physical life flows in their bodily veins, so spiritual life flows throughout their inner life. This spiritual life is maintained by the indwelling Holy Spirit. He enables them to experience, in this world, the blessings of the heavenly world; they can know the peace of heaven and the joy of heaven. They set their minds on things above, where Christ is. They converse with heaven through prayer. They look forward to going to heaven at the end of their journey through life. They have life from another world.

Word from another world

Second, Jesus mentions one specific consequence of the new life now experienced by his apostles: they have received his word or the word that his Father gave him to pass on to them, which is a description of the message they would later convey to others. The disciples now have a heavenly communication, the word of truth. Of course, the apostles had Christ’s word in a special way and it would be great encouragement to them to recall that he had prayed specifically about their role in connection to the spreading and later the writing of God’s Word.

As we think about the reality of having received a living word, it should highlight for us the importance of how we use our minds because a message is given obviously to stimulate a mental response. Paul describes this mental response in Romans 12:2: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ This exhortation was preceded by Paul’s call to his readers to present themselves as living sacrifices.

The Bible tells us what worldliness is not as well as what it is. Regarding what it is not, the Bible mentions many callings that are suitable for believers: lawyers, doctors, teachers, soldiers, farmers, shepherds, and metalworkers. To these examples, many others can be added. They are not described in the Bible as worldly. Neither does the Bible say that worldliness is interaction at a social level with non-Christians; for example, Jesus went to meals in the homes of Pharisees and Paul told the Corinthians that they were able to have a meal in a pagan household (1 Cor. 10). Nor is worldliness expressed when we dress like the society in which we dwell; dressing like four generations ago only makes us look odd. Having said that, the Bible would tell us that making too much of any of these features is worldliness.

The words of Jesus indicate that one reason the world hates believers is because they live according to Christ’s words. This means that they observe the manner in which believers live according to the word of Christ and they don’t like what they see. In fact, they will become very hostile. We have to remember that the hostile world in Christ’s day was the religious world, and often throughout church history it has been the same.

Left in the world

Third, Jesus says that he does not want his disciples to be taken out of the world. We might regard this as unusual, given that we know from elsewhere in this prayer that Jesus wants his people to be where he is in order to see his glory. So are there any reasons why they should be left in this world?

One obvious reason is that the apostles would win other people to the Saviour through their preaching and witnessing. Another reason is that leaving them in the world will show the power of grace to the world as they overcome their sinful tendencies. A third reason is for them to have fellowship with God in ways that they will not have in heaven, such as prayer for their needs to be met.  And a fourth reason is to engage in the Lord’s service among his enemies.

What was true in these areas of the apostles is true of all Christians. They are left in the world to witness to it, to live by grace in it, to have fellowship with God and serve him day by day. This is the desire of Jesus for his people and they should want to please him.

There are other possible reasons as well. It is in this world that we learn our absolute need of God. As we live from day to day, we discover our own emptiness, our own weakness, our own ignorance, our own littleness; at the same time we discover the Lord’s fullness, the Lord’s power, the Lord’s wisdom, and the Lord’s immensity. Here we learn about the faithfulness of God in a manner that we will not learn about it even in heaven. Currently we are in an unsuitable environment for spiritual development, nevertheless we discover that grace does provide growth. In this world, we are scholars in Christ’s academy.

Warfare with the world’s leader

Fourth, Jesus also prays that his disciples will be kept from evil. The Greek word can mean evil in general or the evil one in particular; it is best to keep both possibilities in mind. After all, the devil is not always involved in every evil that comes our way.

What did Jesus mean by this request to be kept from evil? He did not mean that his disciples should be cocooned from the world, that they should retreat into a religious commune and attempt to avoid the evils of the world by doing so. Jesus did not intend his people to be separate physically from the world but to be separate in the world. Indeed, as we have seen, he specifically requests that they be left in the world. Right away, we can see how different God’s ways are from ours.

It is in this world that we engage in battle with the powers of darkness, the authority that is fighting an age-long war against Christ and his kingdom. Paul describes how this can be done in Ephesians 6 where he describes the spiritual armour that we must wear if we are going to defeat the devil and his hosts. We discover that we are also soldiers in Christ’s army, fighting to bring to completion the victory he achieved in his death and resurrection. In his wisdom, he uses his weak people to overcome his mighty enemies. This world is a place of honour, where we fight for our Master’s cause.

Witness to the world

Fifth, the disciples of Jesus who were the special focus of his prayers were sent into the world as his apostles. That was a special and distinct privilege that was given to them alone. They could preach with Christ’s authority and power to a degree that other servants of Christ cannot do. For example, they could testify to what they had heard from Christ’s lips and observed in Christ’s life, including his resurrection.

In another sense, we too are sent into the world to be Christ’s representatives. This is not a role that we can forget at any time. There is never a moment or an occasion when we are not representing Christ. This is how we should judge every place we go to, every activity we engage in. We must remind ourselves, ‘At this moment I am meant to be representing Christ to those around me. If they knew I was a Christian, would my involvement in this activity tell them the truth about my Master?’ Or would it cause them to think that they and us are the same?

Thomas Manton gives three wise principles by which believers can judge the suitability of using things of the world. He says that they should do nothing that is unworthy of their new nature, nothing that will be regarded as a waste of time and energy on the Day of Judgement, and nothing that cannot be categorised as following the example of Jesus. Because of the new nature, their lives should be superior to those of other people; because of the living hope, they should select the best things to do; because of the example of Jesus, they should have singular priorities (heavenly-mindedness, indifference to earthly status).

This is a reminder that we are called to be different; after all, we are the citizens of heaven. It is also a reminder that we are called to be devout, that all we engage in is to be part of the process of holiness by which we are conformed to Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is a reminder to be determined to honour Jesus wherever we are. It does not bring glory to Christ if the world regards me as the tolerant disciple of an intolerant Master. The calling which we have requires us to be different, devout and determined, because that is what a disciple is.