Well, greetings to each one of you in the worthy name of our God. To invite you to turn in your copy of God's revelation to the gospel according to John and in chapter 17. Today, as we look at this passage, it is probably one of the most unique portions of Scripture in all of the Bible. This morning, Brother Sam read Hannah's prayer. What a blessing. You know, we have the prayers of Elizabeth and Simon and Mary recorded in the Gospels. But today, we have the Lord's Prayer. And this indeed is really and truly the Lord's Prayer. The passage where we normally call the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, is actually an outline. It is a pattern that should be our heart when we pray. He says there, in this manner, therefore pray. To make the point that it was a teaching on how to pray. Well, today, though, in our passage, we literally have the Lord's Prayer. It's an amazing prayer. It's 26 verses. And I was just struck about how we should look at John 17. Just think about the fact that it is instructive, but there is no explicit instruction given to us in John 17. As it is, if you go from John 13, 14, 15, 16, you have all these kind of the last will and almost like His last words to His disciples in the upper room discourse. But today, I want to just read all of John 17. Our text then will be verses 1 through 5, but let's read just so we get the context of John 17. John 17, beginning in verse 1, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, 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 scripture 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 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. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. And I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. You know, who am I to speak, you know, to take this apart and to look at it? But truly, as you think of this passage of Scripture, it is the parting prayer that Jesus prayed before going to the cross, and it is just a beautiful testament of his care for them and of his desire for them, of his heart for them. You know from chapter 13 where he washed their feet and demonstrated his own humility and his care for them by physically washing their feet. all the way through chapter 14, 15, and 16 as he taught them about the coming Holy Spirit in his ministry and how a comfort that's going to be to them. What a comforter he will be in the absence of the Lord. And he would, in a sense, still be with them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And now these words of comfort, as we think of 13 through 17, are culminated in this prayer. And we must say that this passage, all of these four chapters would represent maybe some of the most comforting scripture in all of the Bible. And in this prayer, have you ever wondered, you know, I mean, would we not, if we wouldn't have it recorded here, would we not have wanted it to be recorded? We think about, you know, we have very little explicit content of the Lord's prayers throughout. And this was, this was, and we know that He was very much engaged in prayer many times all night. where He went to a place by Himself and communed with His Heavenly Father. And those are not recorded for us. But this passage is recorded for us. And we might ask, well, why is it recorded for us? Why is it here? This, it is recorded for our benefit and instruction, but think about it. It is not really addressed to us. I think we need to try to see this prayer from outside looking in. Just think about it. It's not addressed to you and I. It's not addressed to the children of God. It's addressed to His heavenly Father. It is addressed to, as He says, Right there in the beginning, he says, Father. And then later in verse 11, he says, Holy Father. And then in verse 25, he says, Oh, righteous Father. And you see this, just this, the passion that is there in the heart of Christ as he's communing there with his heavenly Father. And we see that from the content of his of his prayer here is how much that the well-being of his children is on his heart, isn't it? the well-being and what he wants for his children is he's interceding. And this is actually a transitional passage where in the ministry of Christ, which by the way, Christ still has a ministry, is he is now moving from an earthly ministry to a heavenly ministry. And chapter 17 is kind of this transitional passage where He moves from his earthly ministry to what he is currently doing, seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, even yet today. And so here we have, as it were, this passage of transition. So we come to this prayer from the outside looking in, as it were, eavesdropping. As we listen in, we could say on a very private communication, where we hear our Savior's heart and His requests that He has for us. We do know here that in this first section, verses 1 through 5, It is marked in my Bible as Jesus prays for Himself. And we do see that it is largely He is in focus in verses 1 through 5. That the relationship and the things that are to happen, that the Father would cause them to happen. And then verses 6 through 19, Jesus prays for His disciples. And that may simply mean his apostles, as they will soon be. They will be his apostles after his departure. And then in verse 20 and following, we have his prayer for all of those believers who would come to him. And that would include us here today, that all I don't pray for these alone, but also for all those who will believe in me through their word, that there is a blessing even here for us today that Christ prayed for us. Christ Jesus prayed for us. He prayed for you and I today. In 2025, this prayer reaches down through the ages because He is eternal. He inhabited eternity. He's currently in eternity. And His prayer in time, He transcends time. And so this prayer is for us today. What a beautiful picture of the care that we see here. Notice there is nothing here of, there's nothing here of their weakness. There's nothing here of their need, necessarily. There's just this heart of, Father, would you provide for them? Would you be with them? Would you keep them? Notice that there's a keeping here. There's a desire for them to be sanctified. Set them apart, verse 17. Sanctify them by your truth. Father, I desire, verse 24, that they be with me where I am. So He has literally prayed that you and I should, that the Father would grant that we would be with Him in eternity. We would be next to Him, that we would be beholding His glory. And this is something that that is of interest, I think, as we look through this, that we'll come to, and maybe even address some this morning, is this idea of glory. Because there's a future, Christ prayed this as if it were already past. He says, I have finished the work, in verse four. And we know that he was not yet to the cross, but he prayed in the sense it was as if it were an accomplished fact. And it was his desire that his disciples would truly be able to see the glory wherewith he was going to be glorified. That in the future, they would be where he is, beholding the glory that is his. Because when he was here, yes, there were glimpses, weren't there, of his glory. But he was largely veiled in flesh. His glory was largely hidden in the covering of his flesh, even though there were grand miracles accomplished by his ministry. But his person was largely not glorified as it would have been in glory, in eternity. As he prays here in verse 5, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. So the flesh, I believe, his incarnation was largely hiding his deity, his glory. But there would be a time coming when that would not be true, and that he would truly be seen as who He is. So we see here, as we think about listening in to this private conversation, this private communication, we see a view here of the Godhead. Do we not? Do we not see the priority of our God, of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what our God planned, and how he is bringing it to pass. We have a view here of our God. This prayer is the son's communication with the father, and man's perspective is missing. You know, it's not couched in terms of how man would perceive this, is it? It's not prayed from a perspective of man's need, which is such a mark of who we are. encompassed with our need that when we find a passage like this, it is not even, you know, yes, it marks all the things that we receive from him, but it's not, he doesn't give any, he doesn't give any, he doesn't give any complaint to his Heavenly Father about the condition of the disciples, does he? their waywardness, the fact that they would flee from him in just a few minutes and leave him all by himself. None of that is here. Chapter 17, I believe, is the gospel from the divine viewpoint. Here we see how God's perspective is in relation to the plan of salvation and the sacrifice of Christ, the glory that he would receive from this work, and how that these things are applied to us and given to us. And it is the gospel from the divine viewpoint. And one commentator pointed out that they believe that this chapter 17 encompasses all of the gospel of John, that the great truths that we've looked at are kind of laid out here. And there are so many things that we could look at specifically. And as scripture, of course, it is instructive, but its truths are conveyed in such a way as to leave us in awe of all of our benefits. So you see, not anywhere here is it asking you to do anything. Do we grab a hold of that fact? John 17 is not asking you to do anything. It is just laying out this litany of blessings and benefits that come to us through the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. That come to us through His authority, through His power, and through the plan that God instigated, and the glory that was in the deity, in the divine, before the world ever was, before we were ever created. It's far away and greater and more grand than our conception and our understanding. Our small minds are almost not able to grab a hold of the great truths that are here from eternity past and that are ours in Christ. And so John 17 is just full of the beauty of God's salvation and the benefits that man gets from them. We see God doing and man receiving, don't we? Not man doing and God blessing it, even though we know that the gospel, that salvation is calling us to that. to a labor, to a work, to a fruitfulness that God will bless. But here, we're talking about, in this passage, we are not talking about man's labor. Not at all. Except we do see one man's labor. We do see the son of man doing, and the sons of man being blessed. The son of man doing. and the sons of men benefiting." And so we have this prayer, and He comes to us, and He couches this prayer, and it's addressed to His Father. And He says, Father, glorify Your Son. And so there's this beautiful relationship that we see here between father and son and the relationship comes out in the accomplishment. We see the relationship couched in the activities of the two, the father and the son. So in verses one through five, and this will be our, kind of our area that we hone in on today, is the son himself is in focus here. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes, and, you know, not many times do we see, have we seen here in John the posture of his prayer. But he lifted up his eyes to heaven, it says. And he says, Father, the hour has come. And so this hour, I think we're fairly familiar about this hour. It is the hour of His suffering. It is the hour of His sacrifice. It's the hour of His labor. It's the hour of His giving, I believe, Himself for the sins of humanity. But if you flip back in John 12 from verse 27, he says, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say, Father? Save me from this hour? That's the question. Should I say or should I pray, Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour, he says. Father, glorify your name. And then in 13.1, as we think about this hour that the Lord is referring to, the hour has come. In John 13.1, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. or He loved them to the uttermost, which is what we see from John 13 all the way through the end of John 17, is that He loved them to the uttermost. He poured out Himself to the uttermost for their benefit. He loved them to the end. And so this hour is more specifically going to be identified in John 18, where He comes to the cross and he's sacrificed and he takes our sin upon himself through the cross, his cross work. The hour has come. And so he says, glorify your son that your son also may glorify you. And this word glorify simply means to render or to honor as glorious, to esteem glorious. Father, render or esteem glorious your son, that your son also may glorify you. And so we see immediately that his prayer was for, yes, it was for himself, but it was also for the motive was to in turn glorify his heavenly father. This should be an example of our prayers. Father, we ask these things of you that you would enable us to in turn glorify you. And so the need for Christ was praying that God would glorify him so that in the end, the Father himself would be glorified by the ministry and the work of the Son. And that we know. Brothers and sisters, think about it. How many times when we come together, every Lord's Day morning, we remember Christ. And when we do that, it is actually a glorification to the Father and the Father's plan and provision that He gave for us. And so we see that even in 2,000 years after this, we see that the Father is still being glorified through the work of the Son. And so he says, glorify or render or esteem glorious your son, that your son also may esteem or render you glorious. And so we have these passages that we could turn to. And I think of in Matthew 28, 18, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, therefore go. You know, that's what we call the Great Commission. Therefore go, because all authority has been given. That is part of the glorification of the Son that he is praying for. Jesus said and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, et cetera. And we have in Hebrews 2, Verses 9 and 10, he says this way, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. that following the suffering of death he was crowned or coronated with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. We have the same principle in Philippians 2 where we have God exalting him. Therefore God also, Philippians 2.9, therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. This is following how he humbled himself as no man ever humbled himself, gave himself up and was found as a slave, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, what? None other than to the glory of God the Father. And then you have it also in Psalm 2, where he invites us to come to the Son, to kiss the Son, to bow down and give obedience to the Son, because he will give him a rod of iron to rule the nations, in Psalm 2, and it's a familiar passage. We also have Colossians 1.27, where he says this way, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The teaching here of how the Lord Jesus would be the hope of glory for any and all to come to God. He is our only hope for glory. And so, this request for honor was so that the Son would also glorify the Father. Now, if we keep going here in verse 2 of John 17, We see that verse two is part of this glory that the Father has bestowed on the Son. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. Now, in Matthew 11 and 27, he says, and that's a familiar passage where he says, come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Just before that, just before that verse, he says this. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you. This is Matthew 11, 25. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in your sight. And here is verse 27. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." And so, God has decided, He has given all this authority to the Son. And this is part of the glorification of the Son, is to have received all this glory, and He has determined that eternal life must come through the Son. Notice what he says, all authority has been given to me over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. You know in Isaiah I think it's in chapter 9 of Isaiah. It says that the government is on His shoulders. And here we have it practically working out is that the authority to give eternal life is given to the Son. The authority to give eternal life to as many as you have given him, that is given over to the Son. That the subjects of the Lord's kingdom are citizens by the authority of the Son. They are citizens of the kingdom through the work, through the ministry, and by the authority of what He accomplished. Eternal life is conveyed by the Son. Here in John 17, 2, we see that all authority is given in this way. Eternal life is conveyed by the Son, but it could also mean eternal life is given by merit of the Son's work, and we know that to be true. That eternal life is given by merit of Christ, by His work. Notice how he goes on here, and this is eternal life that you may know him, 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. This is the work. this work of Christ that he's about to accomplish, and has accomplished even in his practical righteousness, and then as he goes to the cross and bears our sins, that is the work that he is finishing. I have finished, he says, the work. And it is just a few chapters back, I believe it's chapter 19, where he says, it is finished. It is here that he has accomplished and finished this great work of buying our salvation, of purchasing that which was planned in eternity past and given for the sons of men to be saved. Now I want to back up to verse two. If we think about this phrase, there's a phrase here that is a very interesting phrase. I want to read it again. As you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. To as many as you have given Him. That's an interesting phrase. How do we understand this phrase? The Lord should give eternal life to the ones whom God would give to him. That is the straightforward reading of this passage, that the Lord would give eternal life to those whom God would give to him. Now, it's interesting that this phrase, to as many as you have given him, It's that phrase or its equivalent is used six, is used seven times in this prayer. to as many as you have given him. Seven times we find that in this Lord's Prayer through John 17. You see it in verse two where we just read, to as many as you've given him. You see it in verse six twice. Let me read that for you. I've manifested your name to the men whom you've given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. You see, you've given me them from out of the world, they were yours, you gave them to me. Verse nine, I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. Verse 11, We have it again, where 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 as one, may be one as we are. Also in verse 12, we have it here, 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 might be fulfilled. And then in verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world. Now, It is quite obvious that this is an important phrase in this prayer. Father, these that you have given me, they are the ones that I will give eternal life to. That phrase specifically, those whom you've given him, is a descriptor of those who will come to eternal life. Those who are his people, they were given to the Son, and the Son granted them eternal life. That he shall give eternal life to as many as you have given him. What do we do with this passage? This is not the first time that this truth of election has come out in John, in the Gospel of John, not at all. This is, I believe, the teaching though of that is that this isn't, this is that those whom who will come to faith are given to Christ and Christ gives them eternal life. Now, I want you to drop back to John 6. I want to read here a portion just to remind you of something that we've covered before. John 6 in verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out, or I will certainly not cast out. All that the Father gives me will come to me. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." Now, these obviously are people that the Father has given to the Son, and if He has given them to the Son, the Lord would raise them up in the last day. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. You have it in verse 44 also. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. And then in 65 here also of John six, you have this truth. And he said, therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. Interesting truths that indicate, and this comes back to what was shared this morning. in the worship time, specifically in regards to the sovereignty of God and salvation in relation to, if you go in Deuteronomy, later in speaking about the children of Israel and the Exodus, he says there, I have brought you out that I might bring you in. It is an indication that God in His sovereign grace is applying these truths to His people. And it shows us once again that we are not, there's no room for man to boast here. There's no room for man to take credit for his salvation because God is working this out. Now that doesn't mean that it's not, that there's not a faith factor here. You know, it's clear that when He gives them to the Son, that they believe in the Son. but it is not of their own doing. And we notice also that if you keep going through this prayer, he says that we are to, he says, sanctify them, or set them apart, or separate them from the world. They are not of the world. And even though, he says, Coming back to this concept of those whom you have given me, they were yours, you've given them to me. As if they were His before they were Christ's and that's the truth. The biblical truth that they were brought to Christ and Christ gave them salvation. In Acts 18, we have a practical outworking of this truth that I think would help us as we work our way through this doctrine. And if we remember, Paul came, the Apostle Paul in Acts 18 came to Corinth and he began to preach and teach. And when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia in verse five, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Verse six, but when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice, who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Now, so there was opposition. In verse six, the Jews opposed and blasphemed against him. He turned and ministered to others who were more receptive. And in verse nine, it says, now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision. He says, do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city. Now how was it that there were many people of God in this city or God's people in this city when they had not yet heard? And in verse 11, and he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. You have a similar passage in 1348 where he says this way, Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed. And then one of the clearest passages that teach this truth, because it marries the preaching of the gospel, the election of God and the belief of, and the faith of men. It marries them all together. And I want to turn, I want to show you that passage in 2 Thessalonians chapter two. As we consider this idea or this concept, this doctrine, this truth, that there is a truth of election. Brothers and sisters, I do not pretend to fully understand this truth, but the reality is that if someone comes to faith, there has been something going on behind the scenes. It is not, first of all, your doing. There is a drawing, there is a calling, there is a bringing in. Notice what it says in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. I really want to show you this passage. Here is where Paul is teaching, But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation. Now it doesn't stop there. It says that He chose them to salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. You see, there's no election if those other things are not happening. There's no election of God's people without the sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Notice in verse 14, continuing here, to which he called you by my gospel. And so you might ask, well, why preach the gospel if there's such a thing as God choosing for salvation? Because that is how someone comes to faith, by the preaching of the gospel. You see, that is how we're called to the gospel, to salvation, and that's the mechanism that God uses to bring us to faith. But when we get there, and we look back and we begin to understand what was going on in our lives, that it was God in His sovereign grace calling us to Himself, bringing us to this place of hearing the gospel, And that's why we preach the gospel. We call you to repent. We invite you to the gospel. And it's through the preaching of the gospel that the Holy Spirit takes that word and applies and sanctifies and sets your heart apart to be His people. And if it were any other way of coming to salvation, then man could glory. But because it is sovereign grace, man cannot glory, you see. And so we see, to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. You see, all of these things are, you see all of these truths of persevering, that we're to hold, we're to stand fast and hold the traditions. You know, if somebody is not continuing, then there's no proof of election. You see that? This passage is a beautiful passage of marrying all of these different doctrines together in a concise portion of scripture that helps us understand these truths of how when Jesus said, all that you've given me will come to me. And of those that you've given me, I am going to give them eternal life." And we see that in our passage in John 17. And do I fully understand how that all works out? It is in God's plan, and it is in God's election. But we have it here in this prayer. Over and over and over and over and over again that those whom you've given me That he would receive them and he would take them out of the world But they were called he the fathers they were the fathers, but you gave them to me And so we see here that this is the work, this is the plan, this is the communication that Son and Father had together here in this prayer. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is knowing God, is knowing Him. As Colossians 3 says, 3.10 says, that we are renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. That there's a comprehension of God. And as one commentator pointed out, you know, think about this. When God made Adam, he had eternal life, didn't he? He did. This eternal life was marked in his fellowship with him, with God. What did he come? In the cool of the day, God came and walked with them, communed with them. He enjoyed eternal life with God because he had it. There was no sin. He knew God. Now, when we come to eternal life, the Father has deemed that we must also know the Son. Because that, notice what he says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, and Him whom you have sent. You see, there is no going back. to the garden and rectifying the problem of sin by ourselves. You must know Jesus Christ. You must come under His authority to come back to this knowledge, to this eternal life. And this life is a state, it is not just a state of being or not just a length of life, but it is a quality of life. that it is an unending eternal existence, but it is an existence that is marked by knowing and intimacy. It is marked by fellowship and interaction and blessing. It is what we call knowing Him. And so it is, Jesus says, the only true God. He identifies His Father as, as we well know, the only true God. and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Notice too that Jesus refers himself here as Jesus Christ. It is one of the few times, that term for Christ is used very much in the epistles, but rarely in the gospels. And so his dual name, saving his people from their sins, and the Messiah, the sent one, That is his full name, and rarely does Jesus refer to himself in his full name. The apostles did it over and over, but we don't see it much in the Gospels. And so we have him saying, I have glorified you on the earth, in verse four, I have finished the work which you've 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. And so, as I mentioned earlier, the Father, I mean, the Son had an eternal glory in the past that was veiled currently when He was praying here. But it's not veiled now. He is exalted in eternity, and He will forever be exalted, and He will be glorified. And as one writer pointed out, that if we are here, if we have done the work that we are sent to do, we can pray as Jesus prayed here, glorify You know, we have the right to ask for the inheritance that is ours if we have done the work that He has given us to do. And that's what we see here. I have finished the work that you have sent me to do. Now glorify me. Glorify me together with yourself. And so, we have this prayer of Christ here in verses 1 through 5. drawing these great truths together, and we get to listen in. I wanted to just quickly point out some of these things that, when we read this prayer, how so much is pointed out as God giving them. In verse two, he is given the Son, authority or power, that the son should then give eternal life. And then in verse four, you have given him a work. And in verse seven, he says, now they have known that all things which you have given me, and in verse eight, the words which you have given me, for I've given them, to them the words which you first gave to me, And you have in verse 11, the Lord's prayer for the Father's keeping, keep through your name, or secure them, keep them, preserve them. It is the keeping power of God. In verse 12, it is the Lord's keeping, I've kept them. Those whom you gave me, I've kept them through your name. And then in verse 13, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them. And then in verse 17, sanctification through your truth, that word sanctify simply means to set apart or to separate, to distinguish. It is to have them set apart by your truth, These are all things that are given to us. Notice in verse 22, in the glory which you gave me, I've given them. And then, of course, the love that you have loved me with, you have also loved them with. This is, it wouldn't be right to say if it were not written here. But notice what he says in the end of 23, and have loved them as you have loved me. And then in verse 24, he defines how he loved him. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. And when you start seeing this amazing plan, you start seeing this communication, What part do you play in this? Where do you find yourself here? Don't we just put our hand on our mouth and we ascribe all glory to God? And we bow our hearts in humble adoration to what He is doing and how He has amazingly wrought our salvation. And so I am humbled by this passage. We want to pick up in verse 6 next time, as we begin to look at His prayer in relation to His disciples or those whom the Lord has given to Him. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we marvel here at the words of this prayer. Father, we are amazed at this communication and the truths that are conveyed to us and revealed to us in this great salvation that has been accomplished through your plan and through the Lord's purchase. And so, Father, we want to thank you, and we want to praise you, and we want to submit ourselves to this passage, to this truth that we see here. May we glorify you and never take glory for ourselves. Father, we commit each one here to you. We pray that you would, in your sovereign grace, give us the grace that we need. For your scripture says that my grace is sufficient for you. So Father, we ask that you would just make your grace abundant to your children here through this coming week, that we might in turn glorify you. And then Father, we pray that you would also apply your grace in a way that only you can to those who do not know you. And Father, we commit each one here today to you through Christ, we do pray, amen.