The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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In Jesus’ high-priestly prayer, he tells the Father: “I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:5).

John 17 features the longest-recorded prayer of Jesus in the Gospels. This comes after Jesus delivers final instructions to his disciples and before he is betrayed, arrested, and crucified. First, Jesus prays for himself (vv. 1-5), then for his disciples (vv. 6-19), and finally for all believers (vv. 20-26). This intercessory prayer is best known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer.

Jesus confirms he has finished his heaven-sent task with the disciples. He has revealed the Father’s name – that is, the very presence of God – to them (v. 6; cf. John 14:9). He has spoken to them the Father’s words (v. 8). And he has ensured that they received the words, understood them, and believed the Father sent Jesus (v. 8). 

Next, Jesus prays specifically for his followers. The apostles belong to the Father. The Father gives them to Jesus. Finally, Jesus cares for them throughout his earthly ministry. Jesus is glorified in the disciples (v. 10). He protects and guards them (v. 12). He completes his joy in them (v. 13). He gives them the Father’s word (v. 14). He sends them into the world as the Father has sent him (v. 18). And he sanctifies himself for them, so the truth may sanctify them (v. 19). 

But Jesus is about to leave his disciples and return to the Father (v. 11). In a matter of days, the Savior is to be crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended. He has promised his followers another Counselor like himself – the Holy Spirit, who is to be with them and in them (John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7, 13). And now, he prays to the Father on his disciples’ behalf. Specifically, he prays for their protection, unity, and sanctification:

“Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guardedthem and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled…. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (vv. 11-12, 15-17, emphasis added).

Protection

First, Jesus prays for protection. He has protected (Gr. tareo: attended carefully; kept from loss or injury) and guarded (Gr. phylasso: had an eye upon lest someone escape) his followers throughout his earthly ministry. But now, returning to the Father, Jesus entrusts the disciples’ care to the Father, who is sending the Holy Spirit. We see the Trinity at work here. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit carry out different roles in redemption, yet they are remarkably united in being and purpose. 

The phrase “protect them from the evil one” (ek tou ponerou) could be taken in an abstract sense – that is, “protect them from evil” – or as a reference to the devil. The latter is almost certainly what is meant. As D. A. Carson notes, “The death/exaltation of the Master spells the principal defeat of the ruler of this world, but that does not rob him of all power to inflict terrible damage on the Lord’s followers, if they are left without succor.”

Until Christ’s return in glory to set things right, when the last enemy is destroyed, the whole world remains “under the sway of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). The Christian’s task, then, according to Carson, is not to be withdrawn from the world, nor to be confused with the world, “but to remain in the world, maintaining the witness to the truth by the help of the Paraclete, and absorbing all the malice the world can muster, finally protected by the Father himself, in response to the prayer of Jesus.”

Unity

Second, Jesus prays for unity. Just as the Father and Son are one in being and purpose – “Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine” (v. 10) – Jesus prays for this same unity among his followers. This unity consists in a love like the Father and Son have for one another. In fact, Jesus tells his disciples the unbelieving world will know they are followers of Jesus if they love one another (John 13:35).

And yet this unity is not automatic, for the disciples are men of flesh who live in a sinful and fallen world. It is Satan’s domain, and he rules it with great power. It is a world hostile to Christ and his followers. So, Jesus asks the Father to protect his followers from the evil one. Jesus makes it clear he is not asking the Father to remove his disciples from the world, for just as the Father sends Jesus into the world on a mission, so Jesus sends his disciples. Rather, Jesus implores the Father to protect the disciples from the evil one. 

Jesus knows that the one who was lost – Judas Iscariot – is an instrument of Satan. In fact, Satan seems to have taken complete control of Judas, who is about to betray Jesus in a most cowardly way – with the kiss of a friend. Jesus also knows Satan is working in the lives of the high priest, members of the Sanhedrin, the temple police, the Roman soldiers and governors, and even in the fickle hearts of the countrymen he came to save. 

All of this is about to play out in the garden of Gethsemane, in the home of Israel’s highest religious authority, and in the courts of a provincial Roman governor. When blackness descends on noon that Friday, as Jesus hangs on a cross, the prince of darkness exults in apparent victory. 

Even the blinded religious leaders are inclined to see the thunderheads and earthquakes as cosmic signs of a deity satisfied with the death of an impostor. In fact, the darkness and shaken earth harken back to Mount Sinai, when God came down in fearful power to deliver the very law that the expiring Son of God now fulfilled. This is not the end; it’s the beginning of a great reversal. The prince of darkness now has his fate sealed in outer darkness – a truth he is about to realize come Sunday morning.

And just as the unbelieving world is hostile toward Jesus in a most remarkable way, the world is about to hate the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ sacrificial and substitutionary work on the cross. “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you,” Jesus tells his followers (John 15:18). Jesus does not ask that his followers be given a pass on persecution. In fact, he prepares them for such a dark reception. More importantly, though, he asks the Father to protect them from the evil one – that is, to protect their souls, their salvation, and their testimony. 

As with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the Lord does not necessarily prevent his faithful witnesses from walking in fire, but he walks through the fire with them. Satan cannot possess the ones who have always belonged to the Father and whom Jesus has preserved. But he can harass them, discourage them, distract them, and keep them from joyfully carrying out the work God has given them to do. 

So, in requesting protection of his disciples from the evil one, Jesus asks the Father to ensure that they complete the course as faithful eyewitnesses, just as Jesus is about to complete his earthly ministry as the faithful Son of God. Like Daniel in Babylon (Dan. 1-2; 4-6) and the saints in Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22), Christ’s followers are to be witnesses to truth in the midst of satanic falsehood.

Sanctification

Finally, Jesus prays for his disciples’ sanctification. Specifically, he asks that the truth of God’s Word set his followers apart for ministry. The Greek verb translated “sanctify” is hagiazo. It means “to make holy” or “to set apart for God’s use.” In the New Testament, this verb expresses the action of including a person or a thing in the sphere of what is holy. Verses 17-19 of Jesus’ prayer provide additional details: “Sanctify (hagiason) them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify (hagiazo) myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified (hagiasmenoi) by the truth.”

Sanctification is the work of God making followers of Jesus more like him. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit produces holiness, which means bearing an actual likeness of God in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Sanctification may be understood in two ways, both of which relate to holiness. First, there is positional sanctification, the state of being separate, set apart from the common, and dedicated to a higher purpose. 

Positional sanctification finds its place in the New Testament as a work of God occurring at conversion. Robert Morey describes this initial step of sanctification:

There is a radical break with the total dominion and tyranny of sin, so that the believer now struggles with remaining sin instead of reigning sin…. sin is dethroned, the believer dies to sin, the old self is crucified and there is a new principle of holiness implanted in the heart of the believer which will not allow sin to ultimately and permanently regain dominion over the believer.¹⁵

Second, there is practical sanctification, the lifelong process by which the Spirit makes us more like Jesus. This requires our ongoing submission to Christ and our obedience to the voice of the indwelling Spirit. Practical sanctification means not only that believers are set apart, thus belonging to Christ, but that our conduct naturally aligns with the revealed Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God.

In Jesus’ prayer for the disciples’ sanctification, he may have both positional and practical sanctification in mind. In a sense, Jesus’ disciples already are sanctified. That is, they are given to Jesus by the Father (v. 6); they have believed the Father sent Jesus (v. 8); they belong to the Father (v. 9); they are guarded and kept – none is lost except “the son of destruction” (v. 12); and they are not of the world, just as Jesus is not of the world (vv. 14, 16). These are qualities of persons belonging to God and set apart for his service. And yet, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them by the truth.” What does that mean?

Matthew Henry paraphrases Jesus’ prayer:

Confirm the work of sanctification in them, strengthen their faith, inflame their good affections, rivet their good resolutions. Carry on that good work in them, and continue it; let the light shine more and more. Complete it, crown it with the perfection of holiness; sanctify them throughout and to the end…. The great thing to be asked of God for gospel ministries is that they may be sanctified, effectually separated from the world, entirely devoted to God, and experimentally acquainted with the influence of that word upon their own hearts which they preach to others. Let them have the Urim and Thummim, light and integrity.

The truth that sanctifies followers of Jesus requires the Word of God (John 17:17), the Son of God (John 14:6), and the Spirit of God (1 John 5:6). The disciples needed all three to experience true sanctification. And so do we.

Next: The shield of faith (Eph. 6:16)