All right, if you want to open your Bibles, we're going to be in John chapter 17 again. And we're pretty much going to be finishing off the Upper Room Discourse, finishing off chapter 17 today. All right, John chapter 17, the last couple verses. And like I said, this is the end of the Upper Room. What's considered to be the Upper Room Discourse, we kind of include chapter 17 in the Upper Room Discourse because it's a continuation of Jesus talking. He's no longer speaking with His disciples, but He's speaking with His Father. And I personally, I've had really a nice wonderful time studying these verses. And it's the first passages that I've spoken about or preached about. And from what I've heard, this is an experience. This is one of the most glorious passages in all of the Bible where Jesus speaks to His disciples and He speaks to His Father on our behalf. I'm humbled to finish this out. It's been like two years now that we've been going through the Upper Room and reading about Jesus pouring out His love and pouring out His Father's love on us and on the disciples. So I want to remind us once again for the final time where we are in the Upper Room. It's Thursday night of Passion Week. Thursday night, the night before Jesus' death. Jesus is going to die on Friday. It's the day before His death. It's a Passover night. It's a Passover night where they're feasting, celebrating the Passover. And we know, and I've mentioned this before, that it's not a coincidence that it's a Passover night. We all know the story of the Passover, right? We all know that the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, and God used Moses to send plagues to the Egyptians. And Moses said, let my people go. Let my people go. And on the final plague that God sends to the Egyptians, He says, I'm going to kill all the firstborn of every household. Well, what about the Israelites? They dwell in Egypt. What about them? Well, they're supposed to kill a lamb, sacrifice a lamb, and take the blood of the lamb, the blood, this is important, and smear it on their doorposts, so that the angel of the Lord that comes to kill all of the firstborn would pass over their house. That's why it's called the Passover. He would pass over their house and not kill the firstborn of all the Israelites. And finally, the Pharaoh in Egypt, after his own firstborn son dies, he decides, alright, I'll let these people go. And this is the story in Exodus 5, I believe, where it's the greatest deliverance in human history. Before Jesus Christ, of course. It's the greatest deliverance of a people that we can read about and we can see. And it's all by the blood. It's all by the blood of this Lamb that these Israelites are delivered. It's their salvation. And just like the Lamb on the Passover night, the true Passover night, thousands of years before Jesus even was born, Just like that lamb, Jesus is also a lamb. We read this in Revelation 5 that there's a scroll that nobody can open. Nobody's worthy to open the scroll except for one being, and that's a lamb. The lamb who was slain. Jesus is worthy to open the scroll because he was slain, because he shed his blood. and the Passover that they're eating on this night is just a picture of Jesus, who is the true Lamb, the eternal Lamb, who delivers all people, not only from slavery to the Egyptians, but slavery to our sin and slavery to our death. And Jesus on Friday, immediately following this Thursday night, He's going to be slaughtered. Not in a ceremonial way, as the lambs would be on the Passover night, but in a brutal way. A torturous way. Jesus' death is a display of human depravity. He's tortured for hours and hours. That's why in John 17, v. 1, the first thing He says to His Father is, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son. What is this hour? What hour has come? It's the hour that Jesus has been waiting for. The hour that Jesus has been looking towards. The hour that all of the Old Testament looks forward to and all of the New Testament looks back on. It's His death. This is the hour that has come. This is why Jesus came to earth. 1 Timothy 1 we read that Jesus came to save sinners. Jesus came to save sinners. And Jesus in the upper room talking with His disciples, we read in John 13 that He is deeply troubled. Jesus is deeply troubled. Not because of Fear for what man can do to Him. Fear for the torture that He's about to go through in His physical body. But rather, He's troubled because of what His Father is going to do to Him. We know that the Father laid on Jesus the iniquities of us all. He laid on Jesus the sins of all of us. Those who are chosen to be children. And not only did the Father lay our sins on Him, but the Father laid on Him the wrath that we deserve. This is what Jesus is troubled about. This hour that has come and is arriving. And yet, with all of this on the forefront of His mind, with all of this trouble that Jesus is experiencing, His concern is still for His disciples. Still. Continually throughout the whole upper room. He's trying to comfort them. He's trying to bring them to trust in Him. He says, I am leaving you. I am leaving you and where I am going you cannot come. And you guys are going to be scattered. But He still wants the disciples to hold fast. And so He pours out His love for them. Verse after verse, word after word, He pours out His love for these disciples. Promise after promise, He promises them the Holy Spirit, the Helper who will help them exactly as Jesus has helped them. The Holy Spirit will be there for them the way that Jesus has been there for them. He promises His peace. His peace in the face of the world who will kill them. His joy in the face of the world. His power. He says, greater works than these will you do. He promises them power. He promises them even persecution. He says, you will be persecuted. And finally, His greatest promise, v. 33 of chapter 16, the last words that He has for His disciples before He prays, He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation. And here's his greatest promise. But take heart. I have overcome the world. This is Jesus's greatest promise to all of his children that he has overcome the world. He has overcome sin. He has overcome death. This is something that no mere human could ever accomplish. This is something that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can accomplish. He says, I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life. The life. The life that every human needs. The life that we have. And Jesus begins to pray. For the cross, He begins to pray for His own glory. He begins to pray for His Father's glory. And then He begins to pray for us. He begins to pray for the disciples. But now the verses that we see today, we're going to start in v. 24 and go to the end of the chapter. These verses are not about the cross. These verses are not about Jesus. They're not even specifically for the eleven. And they're not even for the time that we are in today. These verses are for a time that we, today even, look forward to. These verses are for something that all Christians look forward to, that we desire, that we live for. These verses are about the glorification of all the saints. the glorification of all the saints when finally, finally on the last day when we see Jesus coming through the clouds as He left us on His white horse in all of His glory, that our bodies are transformed. Transformed and glorified so that we can see the full display and see Jesus, the One who was pierced for us. This is what Jesus prays for in these verses. So let's read it, and then we can pray, and I can ask for help as I talk about these things. So let's read. John 17, verse 24. 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 loved 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. Let's pray. Father, I ask that You would be with me, that You would help me, that You would send Your Spirit to me that I can say what You want me to say. Father, I pray that I would glorify You in my words. I pray that these saints would be edified Lord, use me as a tool for Your glory. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. So Jesus says, v. 24, the first thing He says is, Father, I desire. Father, I desire. I want us to look at the progression of Jesus' prayer. We talked about this in my previous messages. There's the first section of John 17 where Jesus prays for Himself. He prays for His own glory. Then we see the middle section where Jesus prays for the disciples. And then it kind of turns into Jesus praying for all saints. He prays for our sanctification. That's what the verses 14 through 19 are basically about, is our sanctification. Verse 17 specifically, sanctify them in the truth. He prays for us and our sanctification. And what that means is that we would be made to look more like Jesus, that we would be made more holy. Sanctification means to be made set apart, to be set apart, to be holy, to not look like the world, not look like our old selves. And this is what I talked about last week in verses 20 through 23. Jesus prays for unity with God. Unity with God. That we would be made one with God. Specifically, verse 23. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. Perfectly one with God. Perfectly one in our life and our goals and our actions. This is what sanctification is, is to become more like God. To become one with God. not looking like our old selves, those who were put to death with Christ, our sin that was put to death with Christ, but a new creation. We read last week that our life is not our own. Your life is not your own. And the life that you now live is for Christ. And now Jesus prays for glory. Glorification. Not just sanctification, becoming more like God, but glorification. And we cannot obtain this glorification. We cannot obtain this glory without sanctification and without unity with God. We read in v. 22, Jesus says, the glory that you have given Me, I have given to them. I have given them My glory. See, Jesus takes everything that the Father gives Him and turns around and gives it right to us. His righteousness, His glory, His love, His ability to manifest Father's name. We cannot be glorified unless we are sanctified. Jesus says, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am going. Not merely as we would ask the Father for something, right? It's not bad to ask God for something. Father, I want peace in my life. Even money. I need money in my life. I'm going broke. It's not bad to ask the Father for these things. But we don't ask the way that Jesus asks. See, Jesus, when He prays to the Father, He has authority. He has authority. He says, Father, I desire When we pray for something, we are supposed to say, Father, I desire this, but let Your will be done. I'm subject to Your will. I don't know what Your will is. I want Your will to be done. And Jesus has authority to say, Father, I desire. And this is where we see the authority of Jesus' intercession. We've talked about Jesus as our High Priest. This is called the High Priestly Prayer. Jesus is going to the Father on our behalf, interceding for us. But now we see Jesus as a king. As a king. Jesus with authority. Our king priest. After the order of Melchizedek. We read in Hebrews 7 that Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a king. And a high priest. So what does Jesus desire? Jesus desires three things. And I'm going to do them out of order from the verses, but He desires three things. that those whom He has been given would be where He is, would be with Him, and would see His glory. To understand His glory. So first, to be where Jesus is. To be where Jesus is. Well, where is Jesus? Well, we read Matthew's account of Jesus on the cross. And there's two people that are hanging on crosses beside Him. And one of them is mocking Jesus. Mocking Jesus. And the other one says, stop mocking Jesus, because He's innocent. And then he asks, Jesus, I want to be with You. And Jesus says to him, today you will be with Me in Paradise. Today you will be with Me in Paradise. So where is Jesus? Jesus is in Paradise. Does that sound nice to anyone else, to be in paradise? We've all been to, most of us perhaps have been to the beach or to somewhere in the mountains that smells wonderful and it's, you know, it's all, it's paradise. You're comfortable and, but this is something different. This is something different because this is where Jesus is. Today you will be with Me in Paradise. We read elsewhere that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, that He's interceding for us today at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. This is where Jesus is, is in Paradise. At the right hand of the Father. And that's where Jesus wants us to be, is with Him, where He is. We read in Revelation 21, the new Jerusalem. the description of the New Jerusalem coming down. And it's made out of gold. So pure that it's clear. It says every kind of jewel. It's glorious. There's dimensions. It's a place. It's an actual, physical place that Jesus is. And where is Jesus in this New Jerusalem? Well, we're told that there is not a temple in this city. There's not a temple. Instead, there's Jesus. There's no need for a temple because Jesus is there. Jesus is there and His glory shines like a light. The verse says, "...and 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." Jesus is the light in the New Jerusalem. Now, I don't care where we go. We could be in paradise. We could be under a bridge as long as we are with Jesus, where he is. A golden city, a city made out of gold and jewels, that's really cool. But what's really, really cool is Jesus. Jesus is there. And that's the second thing that Jesus prays for. That they would be with Me where I am. That we would be with Jesus. To be with Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13 v. 12 we read, for now we see in a mirror dimly. We see Jesus dimly. We see Him. We see Him in the Scripture. We experience Him when we pray sometimes. We see Him in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. To be face-to-face with Jesus. Revelation 22.4 And we will see Him face-to-face. To see Jesus' face and His glory. The full manifestation of Jesus. The One whom we love. The One that we live for. Our Savior. The One that we adore. That we have faith in. But we can't see Him yet. Finally, on this day, all our tears will pass away. Sin will pass away. Death will pass away. This is paradise and this is heaven where Jesus is. I remember years ago when I was a kid, my mom said to me that when she was a kid, somebody told her this verse. I found the verse. It's Revelation 3.12. That when we go into heaven, we are going to be pillars. Pillars in the temple. And her childhood brain, I guess, interpreted this as we're just going to be standing in heaven for all of eternity. We're just going to be standing there bored for eternity and heaven is going to be boring. Is this a true story? Yeah. We're going to be in heaven just bored all the time. If you're a Christian, you know that that's not true. Because Jesus is going to be shining in the New Jerusalem. His light is going to shine into every corner. Let's read that verse. I think it's Revelation 21. Revelation 21, verse 22. It says, And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. But its light will buy its light, the nations will walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." There's no need of light in the New Jerusalem. There's no need of a temple, because Jesus is there. And we can sit for all of eternity. Whether we're a pillar or I'm a chair or a molecule in heaven, I don't care, but Jesus is there. And I can sit for all of eternity and stare at this glory that shines down. And this is the final thing that Jesus prays for. Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am to see My glory. to see my glory, to finally, finally understand Jesus, to finally understand God, and to understand Him. His glory can only be described as light in Revelation 21. I'm sure that it's more than that, and the words fall short of what it actually means to see Jesus' glory, but this is eternal glory. Eternal glory. The Father has Jesus on full display. It's no longer jaded. It's no longer a mirror. We no longer see Him with a veil, but we see Him fully. We know that Moses saw the glory of God, right? He saw just a peak of it. And His face is shining. His face shines so much that people were scared of Him. We know that Saul saw Jesus after he was taken up into heaven. Saul saw Jesus, and Saul went blind. We can't handle the glory of Jesus. This is how eternal it is. If you listened to Sam last week, he mentioned this, that why did God create all of the earth? Why did God create all of this and do all of this? Why did He even start with Adam and Eve? Why did He say, let there be light? He did it all to glorify His Son. He did all of it to glorify Jesus. to be able to put Him on full display in the New Jerusalem forever and ever and ever. And we get to experience that. And this is Jesus' desire that we would be with Him where He is, seeing His full glory. Jesus has this power given to Him by His Father to grant us eternal life, to grant us the ability to see this. Jesus is the founder of our faith. We read in Hebrews 12 that He is the founder and perfecter of our faith. He brings us from salvation to glory. He's the guarantor of our salvation. The one who makes sure that we come to glory. And so He prays for us. And He makes sure that the Father knows this. He makes sure that the Father knows that He desires that we would be with Him one day. 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 loved Me before the foundation of the world." Because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. This is the same argument that Jesus made at the beginning of John 17. Father, return to Me the glory that I had before the world existed. Jesus is given this eternal life. He's given the ability to grant eternal life. He's given the ability to grant glory. And He wants to give it to us. And He wants to bring it to completion. Everything, notice this, everything that the Father gives Jesus, everything, His glory, His eternal life, everything, He turns right around and gives it to us. He's given the ability to grant eternal life, and He wants to give it to us. That's v. 2 of John 17. This is Jesus' intercession once again. Once again, He wants to make sure that the Father knows what He desires. And what can we do? What can we do in return for all of this? What can we do when we are granted glory and granted eternal life? Nothing. There's nothing we can return for this except for to be thankful. To be thankful for it. V. 25, O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You. O righteous Father. See, Jesus likes to get these little names of His Father in here. In v. 11, it was Holy Father when He was praying about sanctification. Holy Father. And now it's Righteous Father. Righteous Father. This is what it means that Jesus manifested God's name. God is righteous, and so Jesus is righteous. And He manifested it to us. He gave us this righteousness. He granted us this righteousness that He was granted. He purchased us with this righteousness. God purchased us with His own righteousness. even though the world has not known You. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You." See, Jesus wants to clarify once again that He is not praying for the world. He is not praying for those who do not know God. I'm not praying for the world to see my glory. I don't want the world to see my glory. And God, God the Father will make sure of that. God the Father will make sure that the world does not see the full glory of Christ. One day they will bow the knee. God the Father will also make sure of that, that one day Every human that has ever existed will bow the knee to Christ, but those who are not given to Christ will not know the full glory of Christ. And Jesus wants to make sure that the Father knows that. That the world will never see Christ, that the world will never know Christ, cannot ever know Christ. Why? Because He is righteous. Righteous Father. This is why the world can't see Him. This is why the world can't know Him, because they are not righteous. You have to have the righteousness of Christ in order for Jesus to desire that you would know His glory. He says, Righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You. I know You. See, this is kind of weird, isn't it? Because wouldn't you think, Righteous Father, the world doesn't know You, but they know You. These Christians know you. These saints know you. No, he says, Father, the world doesn't know you, but I know you. Why does Jesus say, but I know you? Jesus knows God better than anyone. He says, I and the Father are one. Jesus is one with the Father. Of course he knows God. But why does he say, I know you? This is because Jesus is our representative. We only know the Father because Jesus knows the Father. We read this in John 14, verse 7. If you have known Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. So we know Jesus and now we know the Father. But what's important? What's important is that Jesus knows the Father. That's what's important. The world doesn't know you, but I know you. And these know that You have sent Me." And we know Jesus. We are disciples of Jesus. So why does he pray this? Why does he remind God once again? He's said this four or five times. I know You. They know You. We all know each other. We're all one. That we can be perfectly one. He's said this over and over and over again. Why does He pray this? Well, this is His intercessory work. This is what Jesus is doing for all of eternity. It's telling the Father, They know You. They know You. Almost reminding the Father. Not that He needs reminding, but this is what Jesus does. He's interceding on our behalf because we don't have the ability and the authority that Jesus has to remind the Father that we know Him. And so Jesus has to do it for us. He says these guys are with Me. These guys are with me. They know me. I love them. They love me. They love you. They know you as I know you. And so glorify them. I desire that these people would be glorified. He's making our case. He's presenting our case before the Father. He's pleading on our behalf as a high priest should. Not merely as a human high priest used to do in the Old Testament, but as a true, eternal, authoritative king priest should. And so He tells the Father what He desires. That we would see Jesus where He is. But it's not only Jesus' will, is it? It's not only Jesus' will that we would be glorified, it's the Father's will as well. Romans 8.28 we read, And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." That's what's key. Among many brothers. This is God's desire. That His Son, the firstborn, would have many brothers. And He predestined it. That's what the previous sentences are about in those verses. God set up this whole plan. He predestined it. He chose us. He chose us and He called us according to His purpose. That He would have, that Jesus would have many brothers. And so God made a plan to have many sons. And so it's not only Jesus' will. This is the Father's will as well. As well as the Holy Spirit. It's a Trinity effort to make all of this happen. It's a Trinity effort to bring this plan to fruition. Together, they all made this possible for us. Together, they made it possible for us to be saved and to be sanctified and justified. And finally, one day, we will be glorified. And when we understand this, when we see this, when we study these things, what can you do? What can you do in return for this? When you see all of this, it feels as though we are nothing. We are nothing. Paul understood this really well when he said, my works are filthy rags. To stand before the God of the universe who chose to create a plan to redeem all of us and to reconcile all of us, even though we lived horrible, horrible lives, hating God, He chose to make it possible for us to be brothers of His Son who died for us. to stand before this God and to tout our filthy rags before Him and say, look what I've done. Look at my good works. Look, I walked an old lady across the street. What is that? That's nothing. Who are we to stand before this God? Who are we to stand before this Messiah? The One who is the Son of God. Now why would God do all of this? Why would He do all of this? Why would God put His own Son through all of this? This is the day before His death. And he's still praying that we would be beneficiaries of his work. God decided to do this because He loves us. And there's no other explanation for that. There's no reasoning for that. It's seemingly unreasonable to us, if you really understand it. He did this because He loves us. 1 John 4.10 we read, "...in this is love, Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. It's not about us. There's nothing we can even do. As good as you can possibly live is worth nothing. It's a filthy rag. You haven't even scratched the surface of God's righteousness. Jesus wants to end the upper room. He wants to end this conversation, his last words. He wants to end it the way he began it. Let's turn to John 13 verse 1, the very first verse in the upper room. John tells us, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." To the end. Is this the end of His life? To the end of Jesus' life? Is this to the end of their lives? Is this to the end of our lives? Is this to the end of the earth? No, Jesus loved them to the end of His ability to love. To the end of His ability to love. And we know that Jesus' love is eternal. It's an eternal love. And we are not yet to the end of eternity. And lucky for us, we will never be at the end of eternity. And we will never see the end of Jesus' love. And He loved us to the end. And He continues to love us. Look at verse 26. I made known to them your name. Jesus showed us who God was. He showed us who God was. And I will continue to make it known. I will continue to show them who You are. I will continue to show them the love with which You have loved Me. Jesus wants to bring us to glory. He wants us to be with Him where He is. He wants us to be able to see His glory so that He can finally, finally pour out all of His love on us. All of it. whom you have given Me." Those whom have been chosen and given to Christ. See, we're not merely a transactional peace between the Father and the Son. Instead, we are a love gift. We are a gift from the Father to the Son. We're not valuable to them because of something in ourselves that gives us value. There's nothing in us that's valuable. Not even our worship. God doesn't need our worship. It is valuable to Him. But our worship is... He doesn't need it. What's valuable to God? The gift. The gift. See, to own something, to own this cup, I own this cup. If I bought it for myself, I'm happy I have a cup. But if my wife bought me this cup, now I care about the cup. It's a gift from her, and it represents her love for me. We are that gift to the Son. We are the love gift of the Father to the Son. We are valuable only because the Father has loved us. Only because the Father, specifically the Father, has loved us. Look at v. 26. I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which You loved Me may be in them. The love that Jesus was loved with? The love that the Father gave to the Son, that's what we have? This is Jesus' desire. This is His prayer. That we would have the love of the Father in us. This is so humbling. And it should be. We don't deserve this. How much does God love Jesus? Because that's the love that we're given from God. How much does God love Jesus? Well, we know that He loves Him eternally, but that's not really a good explanation. What's a good explanation is that God created the whole world. He created the whole universe. He predestined us, and He called us. And He made the whole plan of redemption. And then, one day, one day He will put His Son on the pedestal for all of us to look at and to revel in for all of eternity. And that's all that we ever need is to be able to look at Jesus. So how much does God love Jesus? Eternally. And why do we get this love? Why do we get this love? We get this love because God is love. There's no other explanation for this. There's definitely nothing in ourselves deserving of this. There's definitely nothing that we can do to deserve this in any way. This godly love will be in us. This is what Jesus prays for. That it will be in us. And it is in us now. So there's nothing that we can do outside of being thankful. Outside of being thankful and trying to love Him back mere small ways that we can love God back. This is what we need to do. So be thankful with me as I pray. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for this glory that we will get to experience one day. I thank You for Jesus who prays and desires for us to be with Him where He is Lord, we desire this. And I thank You that this is all made possible through Your love. I thank You that You loved us. Lord, I thank You that You loved us even when we did not love You. Even while we were still sinners, You loved us. We thank You and we praise You and we ask for Your help as we continue to live our lives for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.