John 17:1-17
Lord’s Prayer 6th & 7th Petitions
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are three great enemies which want to prevent all that you have prayed for in the first five petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. They do not want you to hallow God’s name so that you hear God’s word purely taught or for you to live holy lives according to it. These three do not want God’s kingdom to come among you, so that you receive the Holy Spirit. They want to reign in your heart. These enemies do not want God’s will to be done in you. They want their will to be done in you and by you. They don’t want you to recognize God as the giver of your daily bread and give Him thanks. They want you to think you are your provider. If you still cling to the notion that God gives daily bread, these adversaries will do all they can to make you discontent with what God gives, so that you grumble, complain, and doubt that God only gives good things. These three enemies do not want you to confess your trespasses to God, believe the gospel, and forgive others. They want you to excuse your sins while simultaneously holding grudges against those who sin against you and repent. You know them. You know them well. They are the devil, the world, and your own flesh.
The apostle Paul says in Romans 7:18, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” This is true for every person born in the natural way—that is, from the union of a man and a woman. Lest anyone imagine that the Old Adam can be reformed or rehabilitated, Paul says in Romans 8:7, “The carnal—that is, fleshly—mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” The sinful flesh clings us to us and daily incites us to sin. Luther wrote in his Large Catechism, “For in the flesh we dwell and carry the old Adam about our neck, who exerts himself and incites us daily to inchastity, laziness, gluttony and drunkenness, avarice and deception, to defraud our neighbor and to overcharge him, and, in short, to all manner of evil lusts which cleave to us by nature” (LC III:102). In short, our very selves, body and minds, tempt us to sin daily.
The world works together in perfect synergy with the sinful flesh. The world consists of the people that populate it. If the people of the world live according to the sinful flesh, it’s no wonder that the world offers easy ways of fulfilling every desire and gratifying every lust of the flesh. We are tempted by the example of others around us. We are tempted by what we see on the myriad screens we watch each day. The world does all it can to influence us—not simply to buy this or that product—but to sin, to like it, and to live in it. After all, “Everybody’s doing it.” The world plays to the sinful nature’s pride, as well. No one wants to be “the least,” the low man on the totem pole, or the last in line. No one wants to serve. They want to be served. And so that world tempts with a way of life, that puts oneself first: hatred, envy contentions, backstabbing, gossip, ambition, and the like.
Then there’s devil, the ancient serpent. Jesus says he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth (Jn 8:44). The devil tempts us to all sins, but Luther thought the devil especially tempts us in matters of the conscience and spiritual matters. The devil especially wants to agitate us “to despise and disregard both the Word and works of God, to tear us away from faith, hope, and love, and bring us into misbelief, false security, and obduracy, or, on the other hand, to despair, denial of God, blasphemy, and innumerable other shocking things. These are indeed snares and nets, yea, real fiery darts which are shot most venomously into the heart, not by flesh and blood, but by the devil” (LC III:104). The devil wants us to doubt God word. He wants to destroy your faith, drain you of the Christian hope, and suffocate your love for God and others. He does this by leading Christians into false security, so that they say, “I know the gospel, I can live as I please!” To those sorrowing over over their sin, He tempts with despair, so that they say, “I know the gospel, and I know it isn’t for me.” He works to bring evil of body, soul, property, and honor upon us, so that we cast aside God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, and die the only truly evil death—death without true faith in Christ.
How do we stand against such lethal, well-armed enemies? We pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” That doesn’t mean, “Lead us in such a way that we avoid all temptation.” No one can avoid every temptation. The monks of the early church discovered this for themselves. Fleeing the world’s wickedness, their sinful flesh tempted them in the solitude of the desert. No, you cannot escape world, because you cannot escape the devil or your own flesh. “Lead us not into temptation” means we ask God to “guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our flesh may not deceive us, nor mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.” “Lead us not into temptation” means, “Guard us against temptation. Establish our faith in the midst of every temptation so that we are victorious over the temptation. Provide the way of escape which You promised, and Your Holy Spirit so that I take that way of escape.” We must not expect God to take away temptations of the devil, the world, and our flesh. The words of Sirach are true: “My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation” (Sirach 2:1). You will be troubled, you are troubled by these things, but we pray in this petition that God would keep us in the midst of every temptation and give us victory.
And take hear, dear children of the heavenly Father, for this is His will for you. In the gospel lesson we heard this evening, Jesus prayed to His father and our father who art in heaven, “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.” Jesus prepares to depart this world through death. But He prays for His disciples that the Father would keep them in His name, the name they prayed would be hallowed among them. Jesus says, “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.” This is written for you encouragement, dear saints. You are not of this world, which is why the world hates you, persecutes you, and fights against you with temptation the way it does. You are not of the world in the same way that Christ is not of this world. You are of citizens of heaven. God reigns in your hearts by His Holy Spirit. You are sanctified by God’s word—His promise to forgive your sins as often as you repent; His promise to gives you His Holy Spirit to lead holy lives; His promise that Christ will return to take you from this evil world and make for you a new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells.
Christ prays for you. He wants you to persevere in the faith unto the end. He wants to give the blessed end—a death died firmly believing that your sins are forgiven, and you are righteous in God’s sight for Jesus’ sake. For now, He leaves you in the world, though. And while you are still in the world, the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh will do everything they can to bring you back to their name, their kingdom, and their will. How will you stand? By God’s word, for that is how He has sanctified you and continues to sanctify you so that while you are in this world you are not of this world. His word, preached, taught, read, contemplated. That is the means of grace the Holy Spirit wants you to use to fight every temptation. That’s how Christ Himself fought temptation in the wilderness. Every fiery dart of the devil was extinguished against the shield of faith, trusting in the “It is written” of Holy Scripture. You have God’s word, and He wants to imprint His word more and more on your hearts and minds so that He may call it to mind in the moment of temptation.
You also have Christ’s visible words—His promise which He attaches to external elements. You have your baptism, your greatest treasure on earth, for it in you can find the daily forgiveness of sins but also you can use it to fight temptation. In the moment of temptation, “I am baptized! I am the new man in Christ! I have the Holy Spirit! Therefore, I will not fall to this temptation, but walk in God’s commandment instead.” Though that baptismal remembrance, you drown the old Adam, the sinful flesh. Through that baptismal remembrance, you remind yourself that you are not of this world just as Christ is not of this world. By remembering God’s work done upon you when He baptized you, you tell the devil that you are no longer His, but a child of God the Father. This is the escape God promises you in every temptation: His sanctifying truth. His Word is truth and by faith in His word we overcome and stand victorious in the end. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses understaning guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
