If you have your Bible, let's open to John 17 again. We're going to be in the last section of John 17. This last section is the last words that Jesus has that's considered part of the upper room. And so, I really want to focus on these last things that Jesus has to say to His Father in front of the disciples because they're really important and they're really meaningful. And they're really just glorious, glorious words that Jesus has that He prays for us. And if you've noticed John 17, this is a prayer that Jesus is praying to His Father for the disciples and then for us. He prayed earlier in the very beginning for Himself. And we come to the section in the end that begins with verse 20 where He says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me. So we see that Jesus opens this prayer up to all disciples, all people who will believe in Him. But what's really cool about John 17, and this prayer, You get to reference every statement that Jesus makes. You get to reference that with the upper room. Everything He prays about is referenced in the upper room. And so if you wonder why Jesus prays for something or what exactly He's praying for, you can go back to John 13, 14, 15, and 16 and figure out what Jesus is praying for and why He's praying for that. And we get to do that today. the verses we're talking about is going to be verses 20 through 23, but I want to read the upper room discourse where Jesus talks specifically about what he's praying for now. And that's in John chapter 14, verse 18, or verse Let's start in verse 21. I'm going to read this so we can see really what Jesus is getting at in his prayer. John chapter 14 verse 21 says, Jesus says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home in him, home with him. This is what Jesus is getting at in his prayer. That the Father and Jesus himself will come and make their home in us. He said earlier in John chapter 14 that he's going to ask the Father and the Holy Spirit is going to come and dwell in us. Now he promises that he and his Father will dwell in us. So we have all three persons of the Trinity dwelling in us. Not merely with us, because Jesus dwelt with the disciples on earth, but in us. That's important. In us. We live together with the Father and with the Son. James 4, we read that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. This is important that we draw near to God, that we be sanctified. That's what Jesus prayed about right before the last section in John chapter 17. He prayed for sanctification. He said, don't take them out of the world, but rather keep them from the evil one and sanctify them in truth. Sanctify them. What sanctification is, is being made holy, being made more holy. growing closer to the Lord, growing closer to God. And as we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. The other half of that verse in James 4 is, if you resist the devil, he will flee from you. This is the flip side of it, that you have to resist the devil. You have to flee from the world. in order to look more like God, because Jesus is not of this world. And if we want to look like Jesus, we cannot be of the world either. John chapter 17 verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. So the way that we look more like Jesus, the way that we have the Father dwelling in us, is by looking less like the world. And as we look less like the world, sin becomes more heinous, sin becomes more distant in our lives, and it should be. So this sanctification is what he prays for, and then immediately following the sanctification, he prays for unity. That's the main push of the verses today is unity. Unity with God. We talked a few weeks ago about v. 11 where Jesus says, Holy Father, keep them in Your name which You have given Me that they may be one even as We are one. And I spoke about how we are to have unity with each other. We are supposed to love each other, the saints. The saints are supposed to be of one mind, one spirit, one life. That's not the point of our verses today. That we be unified. That's not the point. That's part of it, but that's not all of it. So before we get into it, I want to read our verses and then I want to pray. So John chapter 17, starting in verse 20, Jesus says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Let's pray. Father, thank You for these verses. We thank You for this prayer that Jesus prays for us, Lord. I ask of You, that You give me the ability to preach Your Word the way that You desire it to be preached in. I ask that You edify these saints here through me, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. Look at v. 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Jesus is talking about the 11 disciples. He's sitting here amongst the 11 disciples because Judas, once again, Judas is gone. Judas has been sent out minutes or hours before this. And now there's 11 sitting before him and he says, I do not ask only for these. But he opens it up to all disciples, all future disciples, all of them. He takes the whole future church and he groups us into one group. And that's those who are saved, those who believe, rather, in Jesus through their word. Jesus desires that all the things that he's asked for in this prayer, everything, the joy, the peace, the sanctification, be for all disciples. Not just the eleven, but all. Mainly the eleven, because they're the immediate need, right? These 11 disciples are about to go through such a grueling couple of days and couple of weeks and months even where they're going to be persecuted. They're going to face the world. They're the first Christians after Christ to face the world and the first ones to present the Gospel message. Lucky for us, they wrote down so much of their works. They wrote them down for us to see exactly what Jesus is asking for in this verse. All saints since then have been saved by the disciples' words. All saints. Think about it. They are the witnesses. These 11 are the witnesses of what truly happened. The first-hand witnesses. And Jesus says in Acts 1.8, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, then you will be My witnesses. When the Holy Spirit comes, go and witness. Go and tell people about what you have seen, because you guys saw it, and now they need to see what you saw. And all of us, ask yourself this question. Were you saved by something that was written in the New Testament? You can't come to salvation without understanding what's in the New Testament. You have to believe in Jesus. The person of Jesus. You have to believe in Him. And that's only found in the New Testament, and the whole New Testament is written by these disciples. All saints, all future saints, is what Jesus prays for, and all of them flowed out of the words that the disciples spoke. And it's amazing to think about that when you consider who these guys are. When you think about, really, who are these 11 disciples? Half of them are fishermen. They're like modern-day construction workers. They're like plumbers. You take a bunch of plumbers, right? And you say, you guys are gonna lead all of the people of God. You guys are gonna be the ones that lead the Christians. All the future saints are gonna come from what you say. It's amazing. Jesus chooses to To grab the people that are most unlikely, the people that are most unlikely to be witnesses, he takes them and he makes them the leaders, the ones who are preaching the gospel. And it worked, didn't it? It worked. As soon as Peter gets the Holy Spirit, what does he do? He does what Jesus told him to do in Acts 2. He goes and he starts telling people. He goes and he starts preaching. 3,000 people are saved. He tells them, you guys killed Jesus. You killed the Son of God. You killed Him. And the people say, what do we do now? We killed Jesus, what do we do? Go and be baptized, repent, and believe in the one whom you have pierced. It's amazing to think about the people that Jesus and the Father choose to be his witnesses, even Saul later. Saul is a persecutor of Christians. He's the most unlikely person to become a Christian. And yet, God chooses him to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest saint this side of Jesus. But really, the main push of this verse in John 17, v. 20 is not about the disciples and their word. It's more about those who believe in Me. Those who believe in Me. That's what's contingent. For all of the things in this whole chapter, this is what's contingent. Believing in Jesus Christ. We read in Romans 10, 9 that if you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, you will be saved. This is what it's all about, that you believe in Jesus Christ and all these things are for you. So ask yourself, do I believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the son of God? If so, then this is for you. then you can read this chapter and you can accept all these gifts that God has, that Jesus prayed for us. So what does He actually pray for, for all the future saints? I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us. This is what Jesus prays for. At first glance of these verses, I made this mistake, of course. The first glance of these verses, it's easy to think that Jesus is praying for unity for all of the saints. Right? It's easy to think that He's praying that they would all be of one mind and one spirit, trying to accomplish one goal, to glorify the Father. And that's true, and that's good. But that's not what Jesus is speaking about. You can find those verses elsewhere in the Bible, like Colossians 2, where Paul talks about the saints as a body of believers, a church as a body, that we are all a part of this body. We each have different roles. One is an eye and one is a hand, but we all are a part of the same body. And that's not what Jesus talks about. here, not what he prays for. What does he pray for? He prays for Christians to have unity with God. That we can be one with God, with the Father and with Jesus. We all understand to some extent the doctrine of the Trinity, right? The Trinity, where God is three separate persons, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and the Father I Did that backwards it should be the Father Jesus and the Holy Spirit But these are three persons of the Trinity and yet they are one singular God That's the unity that we're talking about here and Human words fall so short course of explaining the Trinity and our human minds can't comprehend this doctrine to its fullest extent but that's the unity that we're talking about here that God is Jesus is so unified with this father that he is in fact the same person as his father that's how unified they are That they're two separate people and yet they are one person. This is what Jesus desires for us. This is something in the Christian life that we grow into. This is why he just prayed about sanctification. That we grow into this. That we grow to be closer to God. That we grow to be one with God. That we be changed. Changed from our own lives, our own wicked, deceitful, hardened hearts to a heart that is flesh. We read in 1 Corinthians 6 that our life is not our own. Your life is not your own. You were bought with a price. God owns your life. Look at the verse. Look at what Jesus says. This is amazing, and we need to stop and look at what Jesus really says. That we are brought into the Trinity. He says that they may all be one. That we can be one with God just as the Father, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. That they also may be one in us. As they are one. To be one with God as God is one with himself. Does that mean that we become God? Does that mean that we somehow become God because we are one with God? That we have all of the eternal attributes of God, of being all-powerful and all-knowledgeable and all-existent? No, that's not really what Jesus is talking about here. But rather that we become one with God in our life. In our life. And we know that Jesus is the one who owns all life. He owns all of life. All life came from Him. And He owns eternal life. We see that in verse 2. John chapter 17 verse 2. Since you have given Him authority over all flesh. Jesus has the authority over all flesh to give eternal life. To give eternal life. This is the life that we are supposed to have in the Father and in the Son. Eternal life. Eternal life. Not our own lives, which are not eternal. But the life that Jesus gives. We are supposed to have one life with the Father. One spirit and one goal. One goal. To glorify the Father. One goal, the goal that Jesus had, which is to glorify the Father. That's all Jesus talks about, is glorify yourself. He says in John 12, glorify yourself in me. For this purpose I have come. Glorify your name. Galatians 2.20 is the perfect verse to pair with this. It says, I have been crucified with Christ. I have died. What does that mean that we are crucified with Christ? Our life is no more. Our life of sin and our life of flesh and our own desires are gone. They died with Christ. He took that. He took our sin. He took our life. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." If you are a Christian, you must have this. If we are to call ourselves Christians, ones who belong to Christ and belong to God, we must have this. That our lives are not our own. We don't own this. there should be a change when you are saved. A change. Because your heart is changed. And so your life should change. And your family should see that. And your friends should see that. Many of us, I've had this before, many of us, hopefully, when you were saved, your family came up to you and said, hey, you're different. You're different. Or your friends come up to you and they say, you don't want to do the things you used to want to do. And it's more often than not upsetting. Rarely you'll get someone that says, good for you, man. I'm happy for you. But more often than not, you get people that are upset. They're upset. And they don't like that your life has changed and your life is now dedicated to something different than it used to be dedicated for. Jesus says in verse 19, John chapter 17, verse 19, when he was talking about sanctification, and for their sake, I consecrate myself. I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth, or that they also may be consecrated. Jesus says, I consecrate myself so that they can be consecrated. To be consecrated is to be dedicated to God. It's often talked about in sacrifices. When you have a lamb, which they're actually on the Passover night. They were eating the Passover. I don't think that's a coincidence, but on the Passover they would choose a lamb to kill and eat. Just like the lamb that was killed and smeared on the doorposts in Egypt. The lamb was chosen for God. That means the lamb was consecrated to God. It was dedicated to God. Its life was taken for God. And Jesus says, I consecrate myself as the sacrifice. I consecrate myself so that they can be consecrated, so that they can dedicate their lives to you, Father. This is what Jesus prays for us, that we be one with God, that we live the life that God has for us. eternal life. And as we are growing closer to God, we grow closer to heaven. I listened to a lot of John MacArthur writing the sermon. And so I have to give him credit. I took a lot of stuff from him. So if you go listen to his sermons, I'm not trying to plagiarize. I just I want to give him credit. But John MacArthur makes this point that That as you grow closer to God, you grow closer to heaven. Look at verse 3, John chapter 17, verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life, that you know God. We often, I said this when I preached on this verse, we often, when we think about eternal life, it means heaven, right? It means heaven. We just read Revelation 21 yesterday, I think, in our Bible reading, where there's dimensions. There's dimensions to heaven, the new heaven. There's colors. There's things that it's made out of. It's made out of diamond and gold. And we often imagine heaven when we think about eternal life, but that's not what eternal life is. That's not what Jesus says eternal life is. He says this is eternal life, that you know the only true God and Jesus Christ. That's eternal life. And so as we grow closer to Jesus, as we grow closer to God, as we know more of God, we get more of heaven. You get more of heaven and you can have it on earth. You get a taste of it. And you get more of a taste the closer you are to God. Because God is heaven. Knowing God necessarily has to be greater than this world. Anything in this world does not even come close to knowing God. We know that because if something in this world was greater than knowing God, anything, or all of it, the whole world, we read that it's greater to lose the whole world than to lose your soul. Nothing can be greater than knowing God, because if something was greater than knowing God, heaven would be worse than earth. And heaven is not worse than earth. Heaven is much greater than earth. But do we live like that? Do we live like that? That heaven is greater than earth? That knowing God, knowing God and the Son whom He has sent is greater than this world? That getting this taste of heaven that will be fully realized when we are glorified is greater? So this unity that Jesus prays for, as if it's not enough, we come to verse 22. As if the unity with God and getting heaven on earth, literally getting heaven on earth, is not great enough. He takes us one step deeper. He takes us one step deeper into the throne room. One step deeper into the Holy of Holies. He says, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. the glory that Jesus was given, he turns right around and he gives it to us. Think about this. Are you worthy to receive the glory that Jesus received? In any way, even remotely, The glory that Jesus was handed by His Father, He turns right around and gives it to us so that we can be one. Think about how often Jesus talks about His own glory. Rarely. Rarely does Jesus talk about His own glory. He prays about it at the beginning of chapter 17. Father, return the glory that I had with You before the world existed. But rarely is He talking about His own glory, because He's so focused on the Father's glory. He's so focused on it. John 6, he says, I have not come to do my own will, but I have come to do the will of the One who has sent me. I've come only for my Father's glory. He's praying. Every time he prays, he prays that the Father would glorify Himself, not Jesus. What is this glory? What is Jesus' glory? It's found at the beginning of John 17. One of the rare times he talks about it. Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You. Since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life. Verse 4, I have glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. What Jesus is saying is when I am glorified, Father, You are glorified. That's Jesus's desire. He wants glory for himself only so he can give it to the Father. And how is the Father glorified? When Jesus accomplished the work that he did on earth. When Jesus did what he came here to do. When Jesus obeys. When Jesus obeys. It's Jesus's righteousness. It's what Sam talked about last week. Righteousness. The righteousness that Jesus has is his glory, the obedience. It's easy to read this verse, verse 22, and the glory that you have given me, I have given to them. It's easy to read that and think about the first disciples, right? Well, these guys are the guys that were with Jesus. They walked with Jesus. They knew Jesus. And even more than that, they received the Holy Spirit and they started healing people. Is that the glory that Jesus prays about? the gifts of healing, the gifts of speaking in tongues and such. No, we know that's not true because of verse 20 where He opens it up to all disciples, all future disciples. He prays for every single Christian that they have the glory that He had. We partake in His glory. This glory that's given to us. Given to us. If Jesus' glory is in His obedience, then our glory that He has given to us is through His obedience as well. And it's His righteousness. We know that when we are saved, we are declared righteous before the Father. We are justified before the Father. How? How can you be justified before the Father? How can you be declared righteous before the Father? Only through the blood of Jesus, who truly accomplished all that His Father gave Him to accomplish. This is the glory that He gives to us, is His obedience and His righteousness. Christ's glory is also in His Father's name. We read that in verse 6, I have manifested Your name to the people who You gave me. And we read elsewhere that the power of God is in His name. This is His attributes. This is His glory. His attributes of love. His personality traits. And Jesus passes this glory to us. That now it's our job to manifest these things. It's our job to manifest the Father's name to the world. We are to be the manifestation of God's name. And now, as if the glory of Jesus isn't enough, He takes us one step further. V. 23, He takes us one step deeper into the Holy of Holies. V. 23, I in them and you in Me that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." This is what Jesus prays for. Love. We've seen this over and over and over again in the Upper Room, but it is still, it's still the greatest promise. It still holds true. That this is the greatest thing that Jesus prays for us. That we are loved by the Father, and it's not a He takes it from a merely transactional nature of salvation. That we receive righteousness and he receives our sin. That's a transaction. But he takes it deeper into a relationship. Love. The greatest promise that we can receive. And not just love. Not just love. Anybody can receive love. But, love them as you loved me. That we are loved as Christ is loved. This is the greatest prayer. And we cannot be one with God, we cannot be unified with God, unless we are loved by God, because that's the nature of His Trinity. That's the nature of God, is that He is love. And God is eternal. God is eternal, and so He has eternal love. And so we are eternally loved by God. The Trinity cannot exist without perfect love. And I've said this before, that God could not be love. As stated in 1 John, God could not be love without the Trinity. Because if you have an eternal being, and He existed before anyone else existed, there has to be someone to love. And if it's just God existing, there's no love. There has to be someone to love, and so there's three persons of God. And therefore, God is love. Because love is the nature of the Trinity. And we are brought right into that. We're brought right into that Trinity. We're brought right into that unity. Because of verse 21, where he says that we can be one with God as Jesus is one with God. And as we understand and grow closer to God, and understand and grow in this love that He has promised us, it should cause us to grieve over our sin even more. And grieve over the world and our past sins even more. Our sins should appear more heinous as we draw closer to God. Romans 7.15, Paul famously says, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Why does Paul hate sin? Why does he hate it so much? Because God hates sin. And God is in Paul. And so we have to hate our sin. Hate it. Do we hate our sin? Do you grieve over your sin? This grieving and this understanding of our disgusting sin nature should cause us to repentance. Cause us to be repentant. And this loops us right back around to sanctification. Sanctification, which is the working out of our salvation, the working out of our repentance. But as we are sanctified, as we grow closer to God, we know that the world watches us. The world watches us live our Christian lives. There's a few statements in here that I missed. Verse 21, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And then v. 23, "...I in them, you in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them as you loved Me." See, Jesus wants the world to know two things. Is He talking about belief that Jesus was sent by God in a salvific way? Is He talking about that the world believes in Jesus? That's not what He's praying for. What He's praying for is that the world would understand two things through the Christian life. As we live Christian lives, we're supposed to teach the world two things, that Jesus was sent by God, Jesus is God, and that we are loved. Why does Jesus want the world to know those two things? Why does he want people to know this? Because love and salvation is something that everybody needs. And everybody wants. Everybody wants to be loved. He wants us to teach the world through our lives and through our oneness with God that salvation is available to them. Salvation is right there. And Jesus came to earth so that you can be saved. And Jesus came to earth so that you can be loved. He wants the world to know that. This is the gospel. It's the good news that you don't have to be sent to hell. That you don't have to pay for your own sins. There's someone who will pay for your sins. For you. So for non-believers, the question in this passage is very obviously this. Will you accept this? Will you accept this gift that is offered to you for free? Will you accept this? You hated God. Continue to hate God. And yet, God offers you salvation. Salvation from wrath. Salvation from the punishment. Will you accept this? And for believers, the question is, will you love Him back? Will you love God back? Love through obedience. We read that in chapter 14 that love and obedience is intrinsically connected. That as you love, you obey. That's how you know if you love God is if you obey God. Will you love God back? Jesus Christ was sent from God to come to earth to accomplish the work that the Father gave Him, which was to die on the cross for your sins. Yet while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners Christ died for us We are loved by God Will we love him back Let's pray Father I Thank you for this passage once again. I thank you for the the abundant glory in these verses. Father, we thank You for Your salvation. And we pray for anyone who may be listening that doesn't know Your love and doesn't know the unity that they can have with You, Father. We ask that they would accept this, Lord, that You would change their heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Give them eternal life, the eternal life that they need. We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.