I suppose I've already read my text and given it out because I want to have a look at the reading but I could begin I suppose by quoting from the first part of verse 1 where it says, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven. I've been having a look at this prayer, the prayer of the great high priest So I've been greatly blessed and thrilled with the truths that are revealed in this wonderful prayer in this chapter. And I simply want to share with you some of these things. I'm quite sure that a hundred sermons would never completely exhaust all the truths and finish, of course, if I had an opportunity of preaching a hundred times on this chapter. It's so great, there's so much truth in it. and I've only got one opportunity tonight. So I shall therefore limit myself to three thoughts, as it were. I shall consider three heads. First of all, I want to have a look at what Jesus asks for himself, and then what he prays for believers, and then thirdly, what he prays will be the outcome of what he prays for believers. If those things aren't clear, I'm hoping they will become clear as we look more closely. It's an amazing prayer and it's not possible to deal with everything. So I'm just going to be taking thoughts rather than looking at the whole or doing any consecutive exposition. But first, what the Lord asks for himself. And I begin there because that is where the Lord begins. Because he spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son. He's praying for himself. that thy son also may glorify thee and then he actually specifies in what way he wants to be glorified because if we jump to verse 5 because I can't read every verse and deal with the whole chapter but in verse 5 he spells out what kind of glory he is asking for and now O Father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." It's not right to say that the Lord Jesus is audacious, is it? He's asking for the highest honor there is. And that tells us much about the Lord Jesus Christ. because in Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 8 we read that Jehovah, the Lord, says, I am Jehovah and my glory I will give to no other. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ asks that he may be glorified glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was that should tell us something about who he is and he asks for that glory which I had with thee before the world was the word translated world there is not the word for earth The Greek word is cosmos. In other words, before there was any cosmic existence. He's talking about eternity. Before there was anything created. So, Jesus couldn't be created then, could he? He is uncreated. He is revealing something tremendous about himself and he's asking for that restoration of glory. He is now the incarnate God preparing to return to the Father. As Wesley says in the Carol, mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die. And that is based really on what we read in Philippians chapter 2. which I'm sure you all know and will probably often quote. But Paul reminds us, doesn't he? Let this mind be in you, he says, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God. He's God. Thought he not robbery to be equal with God? In other words, he was willing now to let go of his appearance as God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father as a highest honour. So this request has been granted. The Lord Jesus prays and he has been glorified. That is given. It's lovely to know. Father, I knew you always heard my prayer. He prays at Lazarus's grave. The Father always grants him what he asks. This is why Peter on the day of Pentecost could say, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that this Jesus, who you crucified, is both Lord and Christ. God has made him. And in the house of Cornelius you remember that Peter actually says he is Lord of all. So the prayer has been answered, has been granted. So secondly, what did he ask for believers? well in this prayer if you noticed he actually tells the father he's talking to the father he tells the father of the many things that he has done for believers and how he sends them into the world as the father sent him and so on but then he asks the father to keep them by his through his name and you find this in verse 11 and he says Holy Father keep them through thine own name those who has given me and he gives him a reason why in order that they may be one as we are and In this prayer he is prayed also for us. It's not just for the his apostles or those who were believers at the time because you can see in verse 20 he says, neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Jesus Christ knows you. Isn't it lovely? And he prayed for you before you were born Oh, praise his name. It's absolutely thrilling to know these things. But he prayed for those who shall believe. What does he ask? That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, and that they also may be one in us. So, he's prayed for unity, for oneness. So, however you look at it, Christian unity is important. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ asked for his disciples and his believers, his disciples at the time and those who would believe later on. But as you probably know, these verses have been misinterpreted and misapplied. The devil knows that the Word of God is true. and he always tries to get people to misunderstand. He twists the meaning so that we can believe something that isn't true. He tried that on the Lord Jesus Christ when he tempted him by quoting, didn't he? He quoted that the angels would catch him, jump off the pinnacle of the temple. And he quotes scripture. So we need to be very, very careful. And this passage here has certainly been misinterpreted and misapplying it. And I'm sure that you've heard arguments, things like, you evangelicals, you don't believe in Christian unity. In fact, you're militating against it. You're actually hindering the answer of this prayer. God can't answer this prayer because you are sort of stopping all this because you are trying to sort of maintain your own position and you refuse to compromise doctrine and you're fundamentalists and you refuse to negotiate with the Church of Rome and you don't try to make a unified church as Jesus wanted. Jesus prayed for unity and you won't give in. Well, how often have we been calumniated and ridiculed condemned by such words because we don't see the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as the unbelieving world sees it. So the question now then is it right that we make a stand or are our critics right that we cause division among Christians? What is the unity that the Lord Jesus Christ is looking for? He prayed for unity, there's no doubt about it. He prayed more than once. First of all, let's consider what disunity is. Because very often you can understand what something means by looking at the opposite. Let's do that to start. Now then, disunity Well, let's take an example. John chapter 10. Now, if I just read a few verses here. The Lord Jesus Christ has been teaching. Now, I just take verses 19 to 21, which tells us this. Verse 19 of John 10. There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings. Jesus has said, Jesus has given the word, there is division among the Jews. What's the cause of the division? Well, many of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. Why hear him? Others said, these are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? So there's a division. Cause of the division? Disbelief. They won't believe the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. they reject the word of Jesus and therefore they're rejecting the Lord Jesus himself. I'll give you just another example, just to make a point. In the book of Acts, chapter 14, the Apostle Paul and his little evangelistic team has got as far as Iconium and it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. Praise God! But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord which gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. In other words, God is confirming the word. But that multitude of the city was divided. What's the cause of division? Part held with the Jews and part with the apostles. Cause of division? Very simply, unbelief. If they'd all believed the gospel, there wouldn't have been disunity. If all the Jews in John 10 had believed the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, there wouldn't have been any division. I think it's plain, isn't it? So it is rejection that causes unbelief. And so whenever unbelievers reject the word of God, or try to change or amend the word of God, or make it more palatable to unbelievers, Christians must make a stand. You can't unite with somebody who is divided from you. It would be a false unity anyway. Because if they don't believe the gospel and you do, that's not unity. So unity is something which is very clear in the scriptures. The example we have, of course, is the apostles. They preach the gospel and we find, for instance, the apostles are arraigned before the Jewish authorities and in chapter 4 of Acts They called them, they commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. That's because they didn't believe. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot speak. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Now, who's causing the disunity? or again in chapter 5 we find the same thing they're brought again before the authorities and they're rebuked and then Peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men so disunity is caused by disbelief or unbelief So let's move on then and ask, what sort of unity is the Lord Jesus asking for? Because some people would say, this part of the prayer hasn't been answered. I'm quite convinced that when Jesus asked the Father anything, he granted it. So this has been granted. Well, why should I say that? Let's consider what the Lord Jesus Christ asks back to John 17 verse 11 and in the middle of the verse he says, Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one. That's not the end of the verse. As we are or in modern English that they may be one like us and again you see when he prays for those who will or before we do that let me show the reasoning that the Lord gives he goes on in verse 12 you see while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled and now I come to thee and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves I have given them thy word And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil, or evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in thy truth, thy word. It's truth. And that tells us something about unity. If division is caused by unbelief, this truth is what keeps them as one. But there's more to it than that. Going on we see that the Lord now prays for those who will believe. This is 2,000 years ago he was praying for you and me. And he says, neither I pray for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one. now listen carefully to how he spells out this unity that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them it's a shared glory hallelujah what a tremendous saviour we've got we've got a glory perhaps the world doesn't see it any more than they saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ John says we beheld his glory but the world didn't and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one just like us is what he's saying and in verse 23 he spells it out I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me have you noticed what he says that the world may know that thou hast sent me and thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me have we realised how much the Father loves us How much did he love the Lord Jesus Christ? But he's loved them, those who believe, as thou hast loved me. Oh, I wish I had those hundred sermons because... I'll give you some homework. Meditate on this prayer because it's absolutely tremendous when we see the things that we have here. Now this really tells us, well it tells me that I was right. What I told a congregation a couple of years ago, as you know I get invited to go to various churches and chapels and I preach, I just preach the gospel. and praise God for the opportunity. And I'd been booked in this Welsh chapel and then I had a phone call a couple of weeks before I was due to be there and they said, oh by the way, that Sunday when you're with us is the beginning of the week of prayer for Christian unity and it's a united service and we'll have Baptists and Methodists and Anglicans and all kinds of people in the congregation and I thought, oh Lord, what am I going to do now? So I prayed about it and the Lord gave me a message. So I turned up And thankfully they had said, because it was a set service, one of these services out of a book, you see. And they said, well, get your message over in about 15 minutes. And I find that very difficult, but it was sort of helpful. Well, what I told them was this. If you want Christian unity, the first thing you need is to be Christians. If you're not Christians, you can't have Christian unity, can you? So what's a Christian? So it gives you a platform, doesn't it? To go and show people what it really means. When the Lord asks for unity, then it is a relationship to God. And this is the stand we need to make. You remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 and on, it says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, the justified with the unjustified? What communion hath light with darkness? If you've left the kingdom of darkness and in Jesus Christ's kingdom of light, what fellowship have you got? And what conquered hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the believer with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. I pray for them, not for the world. So what's Christian unity? Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." That's the unity that Jesus Christ is asking for. And you can see this, this is made absolutely clear to us, because He tells us at the beginning, you see, He came to bring salvation. Verse 3, and this is eternal life, or life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. You can only know God in Jesus Christ. You can know Jesus Christ only by the Word of God. And the result of believing the Word of God and thereby in the Lord Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God The result of that is the possession of eternal life. You meditate on verse 3 and it's as plain as daylight. And that, of course, then leads on to us being sanctified in the truth, verse 17, for we must, according to Romans chapter 8, be conformed to the image of the Son of God. We haven't got time to go after that, but So the nature of this unity that the Lord Jesus Christ prays for is quite amazing really. It's there that they may be one as we are. And what we need to ask is what kind of unity is there between the Father and the Son? And again when he prays for those who shall believe that they may be one in us, that they may be one even as we are one. In what sense is the Father and the Son one? He says, I and the Father are one. Well, what it means is that there is but one God and yet three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Father and Son and Holy Spirit are God. Not three Gods, one God, but three persons. So the oneness is in that. In the sense, perhaps, if I'm right, that they will the same things. The father and the son don't disagree. They will the same. They think the same. They act the same. So Jesus never asked for some ecclesiastical uniformity but for a divine unity. that they may all be one as thou art in me, and I in thee, and they also be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them. What a privilege! Many people think of going to heaven, you know, as some sort of, I'm not very sure, some sort of survival or something. There's much more to it than this. This sharing of the throne, this being the Bride of Christ. He has the highest place of honour and He has given that glory to us. That oneness of will. And this is why we need to be born anew. That we may, instead of having the will of the flesh, that we may have the will of God, a will divine. That we might think scripturally. That we might be guided by the Spirit. That we might have this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul talks about the marriage of Christ and the Church as the example of all marriages. And he says we are part of his flesh and of his blood. We are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one with Christ. That's the oneness he prays for. Has that been granted? Well, yes. because everyone who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, do so as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. Nobody becomes a Christian by the work of the flesh. Nobody gets saved by gritting his teeth. You can only be saved when the Spirit of God regenerates you. And in that regenerate state the first thing you know is how unholy you are because you were dead in trespasses and sins before. Now you're alive and you realize your sins and you know that you need to be washed. Praise God that there is up back there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains and we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ which leads us really to the third thing which I want to share with us what's the end of all this? what's the point of this unity? because unity isn't an end in itself The outcome that the Lord asks for, the thing that the unity is a means to it, is you find in verse 24. Hallelujah. Oh, what a gospel we have. It surprises me. It proves to me really that it's only... If the children of Adam are dead in trespasses and sins, no wonder they don't believe. Because if anybody's alive, you can't miss the wonders of this. Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for you. If you're a believer tonight, this is what He prayed. And if you're not, you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Saviour, and then this will be yours. But He says, Father, I will, I wish, this is what I want. He's prayed for glory for Himself. He's prayed for unity for His people. In other words, that they may be one that they in him, the Father in him, he and they in him and this oneness. And then of course we are one with another because in every believer Jesus Christ dwells. So we are part of this oneness. The unity of individual Christians sort of arises out of each one's unity with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father. But now, what is their privilege? What happens now? What's the result? Well, he's already hinted at it in verse 3, because he says, this is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And if we are in unity, if we are now reconciled and joined, married to our Saviour, we have eternal life. But what does that mean? Verse 24, Father, I will, that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." That is a request. In one sense that has been answered too because every believer is seated in heavenly places in Christ. Christ is in glory and those who are joined to Him are in Him in glory and yet He's left us on earth here as witnesses and it's only because He's left people here that there's somebody that led you to the Lord as somebody that the Lord used to teach you and enable you to grow and so on and you can look back and say thank you Lord for providing somebody whether it was a preacher or a teacher or a mother or father or somebody or a somebody helped you and the Holy Spirit worked in your heart but this is what the Lord has promised this is what your future is if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, remember that vision in Revelation chapter 5, where John had seen the one on the throne and in his hand there's a scroll. And an angel asks who's worthy to open the scroll, to take the scroll and open it, and there's nobody worthy. And John weeps, because there's nobody in heaven, on earth, or under the earth worthy. One of the elders says to him, weep not, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome. He's conquered, and he can open the scroll. I can just imagine John wiping his eyes and looking at the throne expecting to see a lion. What does he see? He sees a lamb as he had been slain. It was the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that He saw. The Lamb who was bled for the washing away of our sins. And He, risen from the dead, goes and He takes the scroll. And you remember the wonderful things that happened then. He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts, the four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints. Prayers of the saints are offered to Jehovah, not to anybody else. So that tells us who he is. and they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. This is a tremendous thing. And then all the angels and all creation worship the Lamb. The wonderful thing is, if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to be there. Now we can cast our crowns before Him, but we're also sharing His throne. Angels don't have that privilege. No creature has that privilege. But He's made us in His own likeness and image and for A reason really only known to himself, he's chosen us and saved us. Why should he? Well, it's purely of love. Now do remember, if you're not one of these people who are one with Christ, you are going to be left in the outer darkness where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth. But this is your opportunity. There the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, still the day of grace, the door of the ark is still open, you can still come in. So if there's anybody here who hasn't actually said to the Lord Jesus, I want to be yours, then do so. Do so now. He won't refuse you. Because now is the accepted hour. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus Christ is inviting you in. Those of you who are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will meditate on all these things and worship Him daily. But anybody who isn't, then accept the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ before His return. because he promises, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You might feel yourself unworthy, that makes no difference. The invitation is to come, not him that is worthy come, but come, come unto me, or ye. And so it's an open invitation, and you can have him, and he will have you, and although I've only touched the surface ninety-nine of the sermons and probably I would have clarified a few things but Jesus Christ is waiting for you to receive him and then his prayer will be for you that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And in verse 23, we're reminded that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. What a unity, what a union. Praise the Lord. Amen. So let's praise Him. He is the Lamb upon His throne. I've chosen hymn number 114, All Hail