Please turn with me to the gospel of John and chapter 17, John chapter 17. Let's ask for God's help. O Lord, this is Your Word, we cannot understand it nor benefit from it apart from the work of Your Spirit. And therefore we ask for that supernatural work now, in Christ's name, Amen. John chapter 17. We'll begin in the first verse, but we're particularly focusing on verses 6 to 19. John chapter 17, beginning in verse 1, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, The hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you, for I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 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. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me, I have kept, and none of them is lost except the Son of Perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. As You send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth." Thus ends the reading of God's Holy Word. In this chapter of Scripture, we have a unique opportunity. That opportunity is to hear our Lord Jesus Christ praying. He prays first for Himself, that's what we saw in the first several verses, and then beginning in verse 6, He starts to pray for His disciples and by extension all those who would be His disciples. There are various other places in the Gospels where we hear Christ pray for a short period of time, but this is the only extended section we have of Him praying. and all of this is meant to be overheard by us. Verse 13, now I come to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. In these verses, we overhear the way Jesus saw His disciples, and we overhear His most significant desires for them. It is true that there is another portion of this prayer coming, which begins, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their Word. But that should not exclude us. It's not that this section that we're looking at tonight is only about the eleven disciples and then we come next. The things Christ prays about His disciples are equally true of all His people. The things He desires for His disciples, He also desires for us. And are we not also called to be His disciples? It is best to understand this section as being first and foremost primarily about the eleven, but also applicable to all those who would follow them as disciples of Christ. And from verse 20, His focus shifts from what was then future to what is now present. There Christ explicitly prays for all His future people. He is praying for the future good of the church, particularly for our unity. But, it is nonetheless right to apply this section here tonight to ourselves as well. Another thing we need to keep in mind as we approach this section is this, that this was not only a prayer prayed long ago. It's indicative of the prayers that Christ is praying for us now. It's indicative of the way He sees us now, of His desires towards us now. And so, as we look at it, We are getting a little window into how Christ, risen and exalted, sees you and me if we are in Him. We are getting a little window into His desires for us. What a privilege. My title tonight is this, Christ's Prayer for His Disciples. And my points simply are how he sees us and then what he seeks for us. How he sees us and what he seeks for us. In the first part of this, we see five ways in which Christ sees us. And the first is that we are His Father's gift to Him. Verse 6, they were yours, you gave them to Me, and they have kept your Word. What an amazing thought, brothers and sisters. You and I are the gift of the Father to the Son. And when Christ, in His glory, sees you, He sees you as this gift. What zeal He must have for us then. What love must He have for us? How precious must He see us as being? You know, when a husband gives perhaps a special piece of jewelry to his wife, she then prizes that piece of jewelry. It's a gift from the one whom she loves. It's indicative of their love for one another. And so it's special. It's prized in her thoughts and her attention. Children, perhaps you have been given particularly significant gifts by your parents. And again, when you see that gift, you think of your parents' love for you, and you prize that precious possession. Well, this is how Christ sees us. We are the gift that His Father gave to us. One of the implications of this is that our salvation is sure. The almighty, faithful, never-changing God has gifted us to His Son, and we are lovely and precious in His eyes. It should also humble us. What is there in us? What do we naturally bring to this equation that he should prize us so much, that we should be given as a gift? Normally, like we were saying before, when a husband gives his wife a gift. There's something inherently valuable about that gift, right? It's a precious stone or something like that, but we bring no value to the equation other than what God has given us by His grace. And so, it should humble us that God gives us as this precious gift to His Son, humble us that the Son delights in us in this way. It should also give us confidence. We should humbly but truly see ourselves with the eyes of Christ, see ourselves as precious to Him because the Father has given us to Him as this gift. We are the Father's gift to the Son. Another way that Christ sees his people here is that they keep the word that they had been given, the word of the Father that he had given to them. Verse six, they have kept your word. Verse seven and eight, now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you, for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them. Here we see a reception to the words of God, an obedience to them, and they received these words not just as interesting teaching, but as they really were the Word of God. It's like Paul says of the Thessalonians. For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. And there it's speaking of the words that Paul the Apostle had preached, but here it's speaking of the words that the Father had given to the Son to preach to us, and the disciples had received them and shown obedience to them by recognizing Christ for who He was, by listening to His teaching and putting it into practice. But remember, these are the disciples who have just been all full of questions. These are the disciples who have been so slow to hear what Christ has been saying, even in these past chapters. So, here He's not saying that they have kept the Father's Word, the words that He has given them. They have gotten A star on keeping them. They've done it so fully and so wonderfully. He's actually in grace looking at their lisping words and faltering efforts and saying, I see these people, My disciples as those who keep the Word of My Father. This is an expression of His love for us, and just as the Father delights when we keep His Word, so also does the Son. So Christ sees us as the gift that His Father has given us. He sees us as people who keep the Word of His Father which He has given to us. He sees us as people who believe that He has come from the Father, who believe that He is the Son of God incarnate, that He is the Messiah, He is the one sent by His Father, verse 8. and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me." This is talking about faith in Christ. On a very basic level, His people are those who believe in Him, not just those who know about Him, not just those who intellectually agree that He is who He says He is, but those who have rested themselves fully upon Him. That's what we call saving faith. And He says, these people know who I am, unlike the world. They recognize Me for who I am, the incarnate Son of God, and they rest in Me. And as a result, He's delighting in them. Again, their faith is weak, it's faltering, but He's delighting in them for this faith that has been given to them and which they express. They're also distinct from the world. Verse 9 and 10, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours, and all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine. As a side note, this is a clear expression of Christ's self-conscious claim to divinity, isn't it? Because people could say that what God, that all mine, are yours, but no one but He could say, all yours are mine. This kind of closeness, this kind of saying that the same thing that the Father has is His, is something that only the divine Son of God could say. And in relation to us, what He's saying is that we are not just anybody. You know, when you have a close friend or a relation, they're not just a stranger to you. They're not just a face in a mass of people. They're one who you're connected to. When you see your child, He or she is not just anybody. They're yours. They're your child. And in like manner, Christ is saying, these are not just anyone in the world. These are the ones who belong to My Father, and these are the ones who belong to Me. Belong to My Father and to Me by election. They have been chosen before the foundation of the world. They are my father's and mine by purchase. I am about to lay down my life for them, shed my life's blood for them, endure the wrath of God for them. And they are my Father's and mine by love. It was love, the love of the Father that sent the Son into the world to do that for his people. It was love that sent Christ to the cross and caused him to drink the full cup of the wrath of God to its dregs for us, his people. He sees us as those he has a special interest in, not just anybody, but as his own. And He sees us as those who reflect His glory. Verse 10, I am glorified in them. Christ sees us as those who bring glory to Him, and therefore He delights in us as He sees His reflection in us. Isn't that wonderful? When he looks at you and I as the spirit has worked in us, he sees a little bit of himself and he delights in that. What a wonderful picture this is painting for us. Christ sees us as this precious gift. He sees us as those who keep His Word. He sees us as those who have faith in Him. He sees us as those who are special to Him, distinct from all the world around, and as those who reflect His glory back to Him and to this world. What amazing things to see in those who are naturally His enemies. And that was you and I. By nature, we are enemies of God. We do not trust Him. We do not keep His word. We do not reflect Him. And yet, by grace, He has made us all these things. And that should be an encouragement to you and to me. So often we can look at ourselves and we can see all the ways we fall short. We can see all the sin that yet remains in us. And we can be tempted to think that that's how Christ sees us as well. But as we are overhearing Him speaking to His Father, praying to His Father, and describing us as people like this, we're getting a little window into how He sees us. And therefore, in the midst of all our weakness, in the midst of all our failings, we should remember that He has this high, loving picture of us, and it should give encouragement to our hearts. It should also inflame our love for Him. When we perhaps hear a parent, children I'm speaking to you, talk to someone else and they tell that other person wonderful things about you. And you know that in many ways you fall short, but you hear your parents speaking to this other person of these true and good and lovely things about you. Doesn't that just make you love your parent? Perhaps you hear that in relation to your spouse. You hear them talking to someone else about you and you hear how thankful they are for you. how proud they are for you. And again, you know your own weaknesses, but you hear them speaking like that to this other person. Doesn't that inflame your love for your spouse? Well, here we're getting a little picture of how Christ speaks to His Father about us in these wonderful ways, and it should inflame our love for Him. So we see first the way Christ sees us, but then secondly we see what Christ seeks for us. Having been encouraged by how Christ sees us, we now turn to His desires for us and very simply they boil down to protection and sanctification. In verse 11 and 12 he says, 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. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me, I have kept, and none of them is lost except the Son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled." And in verse 15 he says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. Is it not true that there are many dangers that surround us, dangers that we would stray from God, sins in our own lives, distractions from Him and His good purposes for us? Can you not say with the hymn writer, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it? Can you not feel that in your own heart? Well, Christ here prays for your protection from wandering, and indeed that is what He is doing in heaven. He prays that His disciples and us might be protected through God's name. And God's name is the sort of summary of all of His character, His goodness, His mind, His power, which knows no limit. His omniscience, which knows everything. His faithfulness, which means He is always the same. His goodness, His grace towards us, which means that He doesn't treat us as we deserve, but He gives us so many good things in Christ. His mercy. His lovingkindness, all that He is, is bent towards protecting us as Christ prays that through His name, by all that He is in His character, we might be preserved in Him. He prays that we might be one even as He and His Father are one. That we might have the same love and purpose and holiness as His Father and Him have. We might have that together with ourselves and together with Him. Now, this is not saying that we become God. It's not saying that we're one with God in that sense, but it's saying that just as the man Jesus Christ was perfectly in line with the loves of God, the purposes of God, and the holiness of God, so we who are being conformed in His image might also be one with God in that same way. More than that, we have the devil and the world. The devil, which is always seeking to draw us away from Christ, and that's not just a fairy tale. It's true and real that there are his minions all around us every day, all the time seeking to take us away from the good ways of God. And then there is the world which hates us just as they hated Christ and would like nothing better than to lure us away from His ways. And so, he's praying here. that we would be kept. This is His desire for us, that all the way to the end, amidst all these dangers and snares, we would be preserved to love and serve Him more and more fully. And He's saying that He has a powerful track record. All those who God had given Him in the world, He had kept. except for the Son of Perdition, and that was already preordained beforehand. So it's not a symbol of his lack of success. It's not like he was successful with eleven but not with one, but he was one hundred percent successful because the one who fell away was preordained to do that. So he has a powerful track record. We need as we go through this week to remember that even as we are sometimes hard-pressed by distractions and temptations and all that would take us away from our God, that Christ's desire, what He is working for is to keep us, to protect us, to cause us to remain faithful in spite of our own sin, in spite of the devil and his minions, in spite of this world. Christ is seeking our protection. He's also seeking our sanctification, that we should be set apart in holiness even as He was set apart in holiness in this world. He says, Father, sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. Here we are in the midst of the world that hates Christ, in the midst of the world that is in opposition to Him. And in the midst of this, we are to be a distinct and holy people set apart for our God. And this is what Christ prays for us. How? By His Word. by His Word forming and shaping us, determining every aspect of our lives, determining how we think, determining how we interact with one another, determining the decisions that we make. We are to be made more like Christ as we open up our Bibles day by day and prayerfully read them, as we sit under the Word of God week by week in Lord's Day services, and as Christ and His Spirit use this in the great work of redemption. If we're honest, sometimes our progress in sanctification can seem so slow. Sometimes we feel so much our weakness and sin. Is it not invigorating, brother or sister, to know that there is One who is at the right hand of God, who is seeking that sanctification? There is One who is almighty, who is seeking that sanctification. Your sanctification is not just down to you and your effort. It is ultimately the work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Christ your King is seeking this for you in heaven and will seek it for you all your days till you go to be with him and are fully glorified. This ought to encourage us, invigorate us, and also ought to make us all the more want to use the means He has given us in His Word, because He is not only seeking our sanctification, but seeking it by the application of His Word to us. So, as you go out into the world this week, brother or sister, remember how Christ sees as the Father's gift to Himself, as those who keep His Word, as those who believe upon Him, as those who are not just anybody, but distinct from this world, His special people, and as those who reflect Himself back to Him. Remember that your protection and sanctification isn't just down to chance, it's not just down to your efforts. Christ in heaven is seeking these things for you. Meditate upon this, take confidence in it, and live for Him. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that we might more and more see ourselves as You see us. And though we are so weak and flawed, we might be lifted up to see that you delight in us and therefore to take confidence. We pray, Lord God, that in the midst of our own battles with this world, in the midst of our own sense of vulnerability, in the midst of our own weakness and sense of the slowness of our sanctification, that we might remember that there is one greater than we. who is seeking these things. One who cannot be denied. One who will always accomplish what you desire. One whom we can fully trust and rely upon. And in this confidence, Lord God, may we love and serve you this week. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please take your hymnals and turn with me to hymn number 751.