Protect Them By The Power Of Your Name

John 17:9-11,20-23 – I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one…“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 10:30 – I and the Father are one.

1 Peter 1:15-16 – But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Leviticus 11:44 – I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.

1 Samuel 17:45 – David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Psalm 5:11 – But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Ezekiel 20:9 – But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites.

Application:

• ·         The unity of believers should have an effect on outsiders, to convince them of the mission of Christ.
• ·         There are two indwellings here: that of the Son in believers and that of the Father in the Son.
• ·         The name suggests both remoteness and nearness; God is both awe-inspiring and loving.
• ·         The unity is to be like that between the Father and the Son.
• ·         To be holy is to be set apart—separated from sin and impurity and set apart to God.
• ·         Because of who God is and what He has done, His people must dedicate themselves fully to Him.
• ·         David strength was his reliance on the Lord.
• ·         Both the “love” and the “fear” that belong alone to God are similarly directed toward His name.
• ·         God’s name is His identity and reputation—that by which He is known.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV