John 17:13-19
I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.
Jesus is known as a "Man of Sorrows," but if His life was all sorrows He would not have attracted followers; who wants to hang around a sad sack? Jesus attended the parties, He told jokes; maybe He wasn't the "life of the party," but He knew how to have fun. In the Old Testament He told His people to come to His House (Temple) three times a year for a week-long party! That's what a feast was, a party.
Now Jesus is going to leave Earth, His work here was being completed and finished, but He wanted to make sure to tie up all the loose ends before He left. It was very important to Him to have His followers know the Joy of the Lord in their lives. "The joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10) that we will need in our battles with the evil one, our enemy, just as "for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross" (Hebrews 12:2).
I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
He knows that His joy is what we will need when we face the hatred of the world. Jesus was not of this world, because He came down from Heaven and took upon Himself a human body (Isaiah tells us that the child was born, but the Son was given in 9:6), and as He has caused us to be "born of God," we are not of this world, either. In the world we tend to be afraid of what we don't understand, and in our fear we hate it. The world does not understand spiritual truths, that is where the hatred comes from. That's why the world hates us. We need His joy to counter these attacks.
My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Jesus does not ask the Father to take us out of the world, because He has purpose for us here in the world, to spread His Gospel throughout the world, to find the lost lambs and carry them into the fold. So He wants the Father to protect us from the onslaughts of our enemy while we carry out His mission here.
Sanctify (make separate) them by (to live in) the Truth; Your Word is Truth.
Jesus is asking the Father to separate us from the deceptions of the World by believing and trusting and living according to the Truth of the communication He has given us, His Word. Only the Truth of His Word is strong enough to keep us from being pulled away from what is right by the lies of this world we live in.
As You sent Me into the World, I have sent them into the World. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus has separated Himself from the World so that we, also, will really be separated and protected from the evil and destructive ways of this World.
Jesus is doing everything He could possibly do for us, in His love for us, and wanting us to spend a joyous eternity with Him.
Let us continue our study of this wonderful prayer.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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