Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, grant us grace to hear Your most holy words with Your Father in which You pray for us. Amen.
Text: John 17:11–19
“Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 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 pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
Devotion
The Father is holy. He is high above all creation, and none of the fallen world’s impurity is found in Him. The Son is one with the Father and likewise holy, just as the Third Person in the Deity, the Holy Spirit. Whatever is to have communion with God must be holy. Without holiness no one can receive God’s joy. Therefore the believers must be distinguished from the world, be sanctified to the Lord, be cleansed by the Spirit, and be kept unspotted in Jesus’ purity. For this to happen, Jesus sanctified Himself for us, that is, gave Himself as the sacrificial Lamb for our sins. To sanctify something to God the Lord is to set it completely apart, to deliver it and consecrate it as an offering for Him, like the priests and like the sacrifices in the Old Testament (Exo 29; Lev 22). Jesus sanctified Himself for us, delivered Himself completely and totally to God as an offering and as priest for us. He delivered Himself into death for us, so His whole life and death, all His holy will and obedience and work and suffering is our own. He has willingly delivered Himself to death in our place. “Here is how we become holy: He sanctifies Himself for us. This is a beautiful word, rich beyond measure, – and now briefly the sum is this, that Christ is our priest and went forth for us Himself that He might offer Himself on the cross to God the Father, and that by such an offering we become reconciled with God and are saved. This is our chief article and the source of all comfort and treasure we Christians know.” Thereby also those who are one with Him are holy, so that they no longer belong to the world, but are separated from its sin and consecrated as kings and priests before God.
What a completely different separation from sin and the world than the external separation of Pharisaic self-righteousness, while the heart is full of egotism and worldly things! Jesus does not take His own out of the world before the time set by the Father, but He takes their hearts to Himself and sends them out into the world to testify about Him and to sanctify themselves for the spreading of His kingdom. He prays the Father that the Word of truth which contains and brings His self-sacrificing love, the power of His life and death, must permeate them and fill their whole soul, so that they are sanctified in it, willingly give themselves to God as a whole offering and die to all sin. And as He prays, so it is in fact with Jesus’ believers.
Closing Prayer
Blessed are those who because of the Word and faith are one with the holy God! Blessed, when the world hates them and excludes them from itself, blessed in suffering, blessed in death! — Heavenly Father, let us be found among those whom Your Son received from You! Let us not reject Your grace by love of sinning, so that we fall into destruction. Holy Father, sanctify us by the Word in Jesus’ fellowship to Your service. Lead us right into His suffering and resurrection, so that our whole life, our will and desire and everything in us may be given to You. Draw our heart to Yourself, so that we even hate the filthy garment of the flesh and do not tolerate any sin in ourselves. We pray You fervently in Jesus’ name: Holy Father, sanctify us in Your truth; Your Word is truth. Amen.
Hymn
I will not let Thee go –
From Jesus I part never
We’re bound together so
With chains of love forever;
No closer bond can be
Than ‘twixt my Lord and me;
One day He leadeth me
To heav’n eternally.
I will not let Thee go –
His love is all my keeping;
Jesus is all I know,
Awake and when I’m sleeping.
He is my one sure goal;
No other way I know
To save my weary soul –
I will not let Thee go!
German: Jeg slipper Jesum ei L 370:6-7 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Nun danket alle Gott (ELH 63); alternate hymn: Come, O come, Thou quick’ning Spirit ELH 438:7