The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. The year was 1572, and the man who cried out to God, give me Scotland or I die, was himself dying of pneumonia. He was in his late 50s, and he was the man who God most used to bring the Reformation to Scotland. His name was John Knox. He became a mighty preacher who spread the true gospel all across Scotland. while enduring significant persecution under the threat of death, with many of his friends dying at the hands of nobility. And he was known not only as a powerful preacher, but a man of powerful prayer. One of his rivals, the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, knew of Knox's piety, and she is reputed to have said this, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. What a prayer life he must have had. But now, This mighty man of prayer was on his deathbed in Edinburgh. His wife, Margaret, was bedside. And John Knox had a final dying request. He asked that she would read him one of his favorite passages in the Bible. A passage he referred to as his first anchor. The passage that transformed his soul and that forever anchored his soul to Jesus Christ. She knew it well. And so she picked up her Bible, the Bible. And read to her dying husband. The passage he referred to as his anchor passage. John 17. the prayer of the Lord Jesus. This was the prayer, the mighty man of prayer, John Knox wanted to hear as he spent his last moments on earth. In the throes of death, he wanted to be buoyed by the prayer of Jesus in John 17. The very prayer Jesus prayed hours before his own death. And in fact, six hours later, after his wife read from John 17, Knox was dead and reunited with his Savior. This is our final Sunday studying Jesus' prayer in John 17, a prayer that has been called His farewell prayer and has been called His high priestly prayer. As we've studied Jesus' prayer now over a number of weeks, it's as if we've been given the privilege of entering the throne room of God with Jesus. As we've witnessed what he prayed the night before he died. The very words that Jesus prayed and that the original 11 disciples overheard are recorded for us here. And now we've come to the final verses where Jesus draws his prayer to a close and makes a final request to his heavenly father. He prayed for himself in the first five verses, but beginning in verse six through the rest of the chapter, his prayer is dedicated to his disciples. And by disciples, I mean both the original 11 disciples who overheard this prayer in the upper room and disciples who have been given to Jesus since that time, including you and I who have trusted in Christ today. This is a prayer, the bulk of which is for you and I. In this prayer, Jesus makes four requests of the Father on behalf of us and the eleven disciples. Four requests. The first, that our faith would be guarded when weak and protected when attacked. We saw that earlier in the chapter. That our faith would be guarded when weak and protected when attacked. Second, that we would be sanctified in the truth growing in holiness as we devote ourselves to the Word and to meditation on the cross. We found that in verses 16, 17, and 18. Third, the third request that Jesus has, beginning in verse 20 through verse 23, is that we would be one with God and one with each other, bound together at the deepest, most fundamental level of our being, and living in harmony with each other. And finally, a fourth request. The request made in verses 24-26. Look with me in those verses to see this final request that Jesus makes for his disciples that's recorded in scripture before his death. John 17 verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me. because you love me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." Now, Jesus knew that the time of His death had come. In moments, He would lead His disciples out of the upper room, down and across the Kidron Valley, up the hill to the Garden of Gethsemane, and shortly thereafter, He would be arrested. By morning, He'd be crucified. By afternoon, He'd be dead. Now, He warned His disciples many times that He would die, and that that's the reason He came. And now the time had come, the hour had come. He told them that He'd be returning to His Father in heaven. Soon after His resurrection, He would ascend. We see that in Acts 1. He would ascend into heaven, and they would be without His physical presence. For the better part of three years, Jesus has wandered around Israel with these disciples. And they've been with Him, step by step, along the way. But the time shortly would come where He would no longer be physically present with them. But that wasn't going to be the end of the story. In these verses, He gives His disciples the hope of their reunion with Him. He'll come a second time to bring all of His disciples, the original eleven in you and me, to Himself. So he prays his final request in verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am. That's his request. It's so certain that he's going to heaven that he prays as if he's already there. When he says with me where I am, he means in heaven because it's so certain that that's where he's going. So his final request is that we would be with him in heaven. If his third request in verses 20 to 23 is a prayer of union, this request is a prayer of reunion after his departure. Now earlier that evening, there in the upper room, when they were having supper, He promised that he would be reunited with them. Look over in chapter 14, there at the beginning in verse 2. You remember these words? He was comforting his disciples whose hearts were broken after hearing that Jesus was soon departing. And so he comforts his disciples in chapter 14 verse 2 with these words, "...in my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." There's the promise. He's coming back and he's going to bring them and now bring us to Himself. He said that the Father's house, that's heaven, has many rooms. He doesn't mean that it's such a big house that we'll each have our own private suite within the house to get away from it all. He meant that there is plenty of room for you. His house is big enough, so to speak, to welcome even us into it. And Jesus, he says. Went to a place to went there to went to prepare a place for you. The idea there is not that the house is a mess and needed to be tidied before we arrive. The idea is. It wasn't heaven that needed to be prepared. But that the way to heaven needed to be prepared. Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you. Heaven doesn't need to be prepared. It's the way to heaven needs to be prepared. I go to prepare a place. Where did he go? To the cross. He went to the cross as the way for us to get to the house of God. If he doesn't go to the cross, we can't go to the house of God. But he goes to the cross as a way of preparing the way for us to get to God. The cross prepared the way for us to be adopted into God's family. And the family of God lives in the house of God. So Jesus will come back for the family of God to bring us home. Because that's where we belong. Our citizenship is there because we're part of the family of God. Those who have trusted in Christ. We get to live in the house of God. And when we get there. The best thing about heaven. Won't be the accommodations. The best thing about heaven is that God is there. God is what makes heaven so special. Heaven is centered on the glory of God. Heaven is the fulfillment of God's promise to forever dwell with his people. He promised Israel in Exodus that he would dwell with them. And Moses pled with God not to force Israel to move on from Mount Sinai unless God went with them. The highest blessing that man can receive is to dwell with God. It's the highest blessing that God can give you. is to dwell with Him forever. If God isn't in heaven, there is no point in going. Even if heaven was a place of no sin and no sickness, and even if heaven was filled with all of our family and friends, If God were not there, we would plead like Moses, God, if your presence is not in heaven, do not bring us up from here. The aim, the goal, the end of the gospel is to bring you all the way to God. He doesn't just save us from his wrath. He doesn't just forgive our sin. He doesn't just reconcile our relationship with Him. Those are all beautiful things. Precious things. But He does something more. He also brings us to live with Him. He bestows on us the highest blessing possible. That's the point of the gospel. You can't be genuinely saved if you don't want God. The point of the gospel is not just forgiveness of your sins. The point of the gospel is that we would live with Him forever. That's why you were saved. The goal of the gospel is God. Now, why does Jesus pray us into heaven? Because that's what he's doing in verse 24. He's praying you into heaven. We know that we'll get to be with God there. That would be reason enough. But what makes that so good? What does Jesus long for us to experience there with him for all eternity? And in the verses that remain, we discover two reasons why we're heaven bound. Two reasons why we're heaven bound. First, we are heaven bound to see Christ's glory. Again in verse 24, he prays, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am. to see my glory, here's the purpose, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Jesus wants to bring us to heaven in order to see his glory. This is glory. Jesus says that the Father gave Him because of the Father's love for Him. Jesus' glory in heaven is a love gift from the Father. It's a bestowment of love from the Father. In verse five, Jesus said, this is glory that he had before the world existed and that would return to him in his exaltation. So before his incarnation and in his exaltation, this is the glory that Jesus has. Now. How should we define this glory? What is this glory that Jesus wants to show us? What is this glory that Jesus wants to show us? In part, the glory that Jesus wants to show us is the supreme honor that the Father has given him. In Philippians 3.9, Paul writes that God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on him the name that is above every name because of Jesus' obedience on earth to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of Jesus' obedience on earth, God bestows on Jesus in heaven the name above every name, the highest honor. The reason for that is that Jesus willingly bore the curse of sin that wasn't his own. In order to save us. And for that. He is rightly bestowed glory, the highest tribute in heaven from God. So that for sure is one aspect of the glory that we will witness when we're in heaven. That because of Jesus is perfect obedience. He has the highest glory. But there's more to it than that. Much more. There's another kind of glory that Jesus wants us to see when we see him in heaven. And I think it's this glory that Jesus mostly has in mind when he prays in verse 24. There's another kind of glory that he wants us to see. And that will be a glory that is like the Shekinah glory in the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament. That blazing light, Shekinah means dwelling, dwelling glory. It's that blazing light that symbolized the presence of God in the tabernacle and in the temple. That blazing light. Peter, James and John and remember John wrote this. Peter, James and John. Caught a glimpse of that blazing light glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. In Matthew 17 verse 2, Jesus is described like this. He was transfigured before them. And then note this, note the description. And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. As Jesus was transfigured, for a moment in time, His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light. Now, that wasn't the last time John saw Jesus ablaze. Toward the end of John's life, he was given a vision from Jesus. A vision of the new heaven and the new earth. And in Revelation 21-23, John records what he saw when he saw the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21-23, here's what John says he saw in this vision given from God to him. The city has no need of sun, or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The new heaven and earth is lit, John says, by the lamp of the Lamb. In other words, the radiance of Jesus lights up all of heaven and earth. Just like Jesus was transfigured and His face shone like the sun. We know this has to be a literal interpretation in Revelation 21 because of what happened in Matthew 17. The radiance of Jesus lights up the whole heaven and earth. Now, why? Why does he appear like that? Why did he appear that way when he was transfigured? And why, when you see Jesus in heaven, will he be lit up in glory? What's the point of that? What is this glory that emanates from Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and lights up the new heaven and earth? It's this. It's the radiance of His unpolluted character. Jesus' glory is His holiness shining from Him. The angels in Isaiah 6 surrounding God are crying out day after day, Holy, Holy, Holy. The whole earth is filled with His Glory. Why didn't they say the whole earth is filled with his holiness? Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with your holiness. Why don't they say it that way? Why do they say, holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with your glory? Because when God's holiness goes on display. It's called the radiance of his glory. His glory is the visible, think about this, the visible manifestation of His moral excellence. That's what His glory is. That is what all of the new heaven and the new earth are lit up by, the brilliance of His perfections. And it cannot be contained. He doesn't veil it in heaven. He veils it while He's incarnated, but not in heaven. He lets loose. Now, normally you can't see virtue on the face of somebody. You can't look at a portrait of a person and know for certain whether they're honest, whether they're pure, whether they're holy, whether they're good, whether they're loving. You can't just look at a photo and make a determination. You can make assumptions, but those assumptions are based on your biases. You can't really know a person just by looking at, say, their portrait. About a year ago, we were on our way to Scotland. and we needed to have our passports renewed. And part of that includes getting a new picture. And so we went over here to campus to their passport center and the guy taking our passport photos, said that for the photo to pass inspection, you have to send these passports off to the government somewhere and they inspect it, for the photo to pass inspection, he said, you can't smile. Your face has to be completely at rest. So I told that to the kids. And when it came time for him to take my picture, I stepped up And I gave the dullest look I could possibly give with no expression whatsoever. And so now I have a passport with a photo where I look mad. And because the kids listened to me, their passport photos looked the same. Ingrid's the only one who didn't get the memo, and she gave a slight smile, which apparently passes inspection, and so hers looks fine, but the rest of us doesn't. Now, it's a photo of me on my passport with none of my personality. I don't know. Perhaps you think I'm super serious all the time. I don't know what you think of me, but my family knows different. You don't ask them, but you could ask them. And I'm usually pretty smiling happy. But none of that is reflected in my passport photo. You can't know the real me by looking at me. You can't know the real me by looking at my passport photo. But here's the deal. When we see Jesus in heaven, in His glory, it will tell us everything about Him. Because there we will see Him as He is, with nothing veiling Him. He won't be just lovely to look at, He will be lovely to see because He is lovely and His loveliness will radiate from Him and that beauty, that moral perfection, that holiness will light up all of heaven and earth. So that when we see things, because we'll see things in the light, when we see you and I and everything else, we can't help but see everything else in light of Him, in reference to Him. Heaven's not dark because Jesus is there. And because He wants us to see everything, in reference to our Savior. Some of you want to go there right now, don't you? It's going to be amazing. The joy of heaven that Jesus wants to bring us into is to see Him as He is without the blinders of sin that we have in this body. When the curse of sin is taken away and we're given new bodies fashioned to stand before His glory, Then we'll have. The privilege, the blessing of seeing him as he really is. In the fullness of his glory. And his glory will be so powerful. That beholding him. Will transform us. Just seeing him will be so powerful. It will complete the work of salvation. John writes in First John three to beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be. Has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. The instant we see him, we'll be like him. We too will be glorified. And Paul writes about this in Philippians 3, 21, that he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. By his power, he will transform us. That's our hope. Seeing Jesus in his glory will be the greatest joy you've ever known. David writes about this in Psalm 17, 15. He says, as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. When he says, when I awake, he means after death, when he dies immediately in the presence of God, conscious presence of God, and he said, I will be satisfied with your likeness. Seeing Jesus in his glory will bring you the deepest satisfaction your soul has ever known. That's why you won't get bored in heaven. Who cares if there's lots of things to do there? When you see Jesus, your soul will just be satisfied. No wonder we read throughout the Psalms that when God's people are in distress, they cry out words like this. Psalm 4-6, Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. Psalm 31-16, Make your face shine on your servant. Save me in your steadfast love. Psalm 67, 1. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Psalm 80, verse 3. Restore us, O God. Let your face shine that we may be saved. The greatest of all blessings is to see the face of God. That's why God gave Moses this benediction to speak over Israel. The Lord bless you and keep you. And make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he lift up his countenance upon you. And give you peace. The greatest benediction in the Bible. And it's a benediction, a prayer of blessing for God's face to shine upon you because that is the highest blessing that man can have. When Jesus brings us to himself, we will see him and we will be satisfied in his glory. There's a second reason why Jesus wants to bring us to heaven and we'll cover this quickly. We are heaven bound to know God's love. We're heaven bound to see Christ's glory and we're heaven bound to know God's love. He concludes this prayer this way, verses 25 and 26. Oh, righteous father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. I have made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. He says in verse 25 that what separates his disciples from the world is a true knowledge of God. The mark of true discipleship is knowing God, a knowledge that's way more than knowing facts about God. It's a personal relationship with him. And the reason any of us know God is that, according to verse 26, Jesus made Him known to us. If you know God, you know God not because of your own intelligence, not because you were in the right place at the right time, not because you connected the dots. You know God because Jesus revealed Him to you. And Jesus says that the reason God has been revealed to you there at the end of verse 26, is so that the Father's love would be in you and Christ would be in you. God has been revealed to you so that the Father's love would be in you and Christ would be in you. God has planted His love inside you so that you would know his love and delight in it. And God has planted the son he loves inside you so that you would know his son and delight in his son. What God has done in salvation. Is brought us into. the love that the father has for the son and the son has for the father. Notice what he said in verse 26. He wants us to know the love that the father has for him, for himself. In salvation, that's the love that God brings us into. We've been wrapped up into the eternal love between the father and the son. Now we have a faint understanding of that now. But the reason Jesus wants to bring you to heaven is so that for the rest of eternity, you can be delighted in being loved with the same love that the Father has for the Son and the Son has for the Father. Wrapped up in that love. That's your eternity, Christian. That's why Jesus wants to bring you to heaven, to experience, to know that love. Earlier I asked, why does Jesus pray us into heaven? What makes heaven so good? What does Jesus long for us to experience there with him for all eternity? And now we've seen the answer. He wants us to experience what he has experienced for all eternity. His glory and the love he shares with the Father. That's what he wants us to experience in heaven. In the new heaven, in the new earth, all of God's people will be caught up in the same glory and the same love that the Father and Son have enjoyed for all eternity. And he brings you to heaven so that you can experience what Jesus has been experiencing for all eternity. Jesus will bring you into the very depths of the eternal relationship of the Trinity. That's why He prays you into heaven. And so maybe John Knox was on to something. Maybe he was on to something hours before he died. What did John Knox want to hear one more time? He wanted to hear what heaven was going to be like. And now we know what heaven will be like. will be enraptured in the same glory and the same love that the Father and the Son have enjoyed with each other for all eternity. That's amazing. Let's pray. Father, these truths are really too deep for us to fully grasp. We can't even give enough emotional weight to these truths. But we know they're true because they're in Your Word, and we know they'll come to pass because Your Son prayed them. And so we pray that Jesus' words in John 17 will be a comfort and be a hope for us. Where there are troubles in this room, there are trials, temptations, we pray that these words from John 17 would be a great hope for us, knowing that Though the pain may be lasting, it won't be everlasting. And will one day be with you forever, seeing your son face to face, experiencing the glory and the love that you've shared with him for all eternity. This is the highest blessing. Obviously, we don't deserve it. Obviously. But thank you, Father, for giving us that high and holy privilege. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.