Good evening. Would you turn with me to John chapter 17? Before we start, I read the catechism. Questions 27, 28, and 29. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet? Christ executeth the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executeth the office of a priest in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. How doth Christ execute the office of King? Christ executed the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. Well, reading John 17 is like shoveling snow. When I was a boy growing up in Ohio, snow fell hard and piled high in our driveway, and the duty of clearing it fell to me and my three brothers. Often I would push the shovel down the driveway until I could no longer move the snow that filled it. When I look back, several inches of snow still remained, as if I hadn't moved any snow at all. Yet my shovel was packed full with it. John 17 is like that. We may read and reread it, filling our shovels with wonders as we glimpse the display of the love between the Father and the Son. yet we will also feel as though we have only scratched the surface. The picture is so majestic, so sublime, we have not the time to probe its depths, but let us scratch the surface anyway and marvel at the wonders we behold. If you found your place, would you follow along with me? John 17, I'll read beginning in verse one to the end of the chapter. 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 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 them 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. 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 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. 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven, We come to you tonight and pray that you would help us to see the wonders in your word in John 17 as we eavesdrop on this beautiful prayer that Christ Jesus in the flesh, in the day that he would be arrested and crucified, prayed to you. for us. Father, we thank you that we have such a great high priest who intercedes like this on our behalf and intercedes even now. Pray these things in his name. Amen. Well, first century Israel was marked by diverse messianic expectations. And we can see this in John 1, 19 through 28, for instance, when the priests and the Levites sent by the Pharisees came to John the Baptist, wondering if he was the Christ. Well, he said, I was not. He denied it. And of course, they asked him, well, are you then Elijah? Or are you the prophet? You see, they knew that the prophet Malachi had spoken of a day when Elijah would come before the great and awesome day of the Lord in Malachi 4, 15. Likewise, God promised in Deuteronomy 18, verse 18, to raise up from among his brothers a prophet like Moses, a greater prophet, and they were waiting for him to come too. And yet evidently, they expect these words from God to be fulfilled in different people. Tom Schreiner has noted that in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we see evidence that some communities even expected two messiahs, a priestly one and a royal one. However, John's response, as Andreas Kostenberger says, implies that God's promises would be fulfilled in the one to whom he pointed, namely Jesus Christ. And thus in John's gospel, the apostle unfolds for us a portrait which shows that every messianic expectation finally culminates and converges in Jesus. Nevertheless, though Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, his true nature was veiled to the world. The world did not know him, John writes in his prologue, neither did his own people. Before embracing Jesus, for example, Nathaniel wondered if the Christ could come from such a backwater place as Nazareth. The woman at the well asked if Jesus really could be greater than Jacob, greater than the prophet. How could this Jewish man? You see, she rejected him because he wasn't a Samaritan. He had a different set of beliefs than she did. The Pharisees failed to see him for who he really was, seeing only a young man who they believed to blaspheme God. And so when he spoke of Abraham, they said, you're not yet 50 years old. Have you seen, have you known our father Abraham? They could not accept what Jesus said before Abraham was, I am. But though many did not recognize him and some outright rejected him, John shows that Jesus completely and perfectly fulfilled His mission as the unique Son sent from the Father by revealing God in a full and perfect way. For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, John writes. And again, He is the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. Well, now we come to John chapter 17. As Jesus concludes his ministry, he has spent the preceding hours in an upper room with his disciples, teaching them and ministering to them. But now at the conclusion of this, he turns his attention to his father in prayer. After having finished the work he was given, one final work remains, and this work Jesus asks the father to complete, saying, glorify the son, and he offers himself freely and faithfully to that end. These words, Father, the hour has come, glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, imply a simple recognition that his request is in accord with the Father's plan. Not only this, it anticipates the cross. That is, there's an expectation that Jesus' request must be fulfilled in the cross. You see, throughout John's gospel, he often writes these words, his hour had not yet come. And when he writes these words, he writes them in the context of a threat upon Jesus' person. So, for example, at the Feast of Booths when he was in Jerusalem and they sought to arrest him by force, John writes, his hour had not yet come. And yet, he also testifies that an hour is coming when God will, in a new and glorious way, pour out blessing upon his people. And so, when Jesus speaks with the woman at the well, He says, an hour is coming when the true worshipers will neither worship here or in the temple, but will worship in spirit and in truth. In other words, John is combining these two ideas that the coming hour of his crucifixion is also the hour of God's blessing, when he will outpour his blessing in a new and incredible way. Well, for the third time in John's gospel here, in John 17, we read that Jesus' hour had come. Hour has come, and so he prays to the Father, glorify your son. Implicit in the request is the notion of the cross, that what God is about to do is to lift up his son and glorify him through his death and resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. The request is the primary theme of the prayer, and every other statement and request that Jesus makes, we will see, blows back to it like a stream that flows to the ocean. It's not merely a self-serving request, as it might seem at first glance. Not only because it entails Jesus' death on the cross, but also because it implies extraordinary blessing for his disciples. Furthermore, it is proper to Jesus to pray that God would glorify him, as we see in this text. For, as John says in verse five, Jesus prayed, You see, in the incarnation, there's a sense that Jesus gave up some of his glory in some sense in order to accomplish the mission that he was given to reveal the Father and to glorify the Father. And now he prays that God would glorify him and restore to him the glory that was his before the world began for all eternity. And this is the mystery of our triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, dwelling in everlasting glory for all eternity. And yet the Son, in the course of time, became flesh and dwelt among us so that we might have life. This is no self-serving prayer. It is a prayer for us. And it is a prayer that the Father would be glorified, as Jesus says, Father, glorify the Son so that the Son might glorify you. Jesus' mission was to make known the Father, and we see this throughout the prayer. You see, the father gave him authority, gave the incarnate son authority for the express purpose of granting eternal life to those whom the father gave to him. This is the analogy for the initial request. Father, glorify your son that he may glorify you just as you gave him authority so that he might give eternal life to all whom you have given him. That life was bound up in the revelation of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent, John tells us in verse two and three. And thus we see the relationship between what Jesus is saying. Just as he's praying that the Father would glorify him, his mission, granting eternal life, was at once a mission of revelation. To reveal the Father, to make him known. to make the one true God known that we might have eternal life. And so by asking the Father to glorify him, that he might glorify the Father, Jesus is asking the Father to bring to completion the very mission for which he was sent. It was a mission that he fulfilled perfectly. He says in verse six, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. By this he means that he has made known the essential nature of God to his people. Leon Morris observes that ancient people did not think about a name with the kind of indifference that we do. A name is just how I signify a person. You're John, and you're Sue, and you're Betty, and there's a little more to it. but bound up in the name of a person in the ancient world was the essential nature of that person. And we see that in Exodus 3, when God reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush, and he reveals his name. What does his name say about him? I am who I am. I am the God who is. And so, bound up in his name, as Morris writes, is the essential nature of God. And so, when Jesus says, I have manifested your name, he's saying, I've made you known. I've revealed your essential nature. I've revealed God to these men. But his work does not end there. It's not merely a making known or an announcement, but it's one that is effective. You see, the disciples, have kept the Father's word, Jesus says. D.A. Carson writes that this is not so much a comment on their obedience in all things, we know that the disciples were not obedient in many things. But rather, when John uses this phrase that kept his word, that it's a reference to belief, that they believed the gospel, they received that which Jesus has testified to. And they believed it, and they've accepted it. And so Jesus' ministry was a work of revelation that was effective. They came to know that he received all things from the Father, that he came forth from the Father, and that he was the sent one, verses seven and eight. That is to say, Jesus had revealed to them the essential aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity. But his point is not to give an accounting of his work of revelation. Rather, he is doing two things. He's identifying those for whom he prays, and he's giving the reason for his prayer. He prays not for the world here, though God indeed loved the world enough to send a son, John 3, 16, but he prays only for those who believed, those given him by the Father, those who belong mutually to the Father and the Son, who share all things. The reason for his prayer is simple. As he prays that the Father would glorify him, he anticipates his death, his resurrection, and his return to the Father. And yet that means that he is leaving the world, the world that rejected him and hated him. He had brought his disciples out of the world for the purpose of sending them into it to continue the ministry that he had started. These men in whom he is glorified, he says, will continue that ministry, but they will face the same threat that he faced in the world. And so Jesus anticipates that threat and he offers his request on their behalf. saying, Father, keep them. While he was with them, Jesus kept them and guarded them, ensuring that all were preserved to the end, with one notable exception, the son of perdition, Judas, who would betray him. And yet, even that was in accord with the will of God. For Jesus says that he was lost so that the word of God, the scriptures might be fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled his work as a shepherd, keeping and protecting the sheep God had given him. Therefore, he prays for their preservation, saying, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. He prays that the Father would preserve and continue the work that he performed so faithfully. Not only this, he prays that the Father would keep them because it is for their sakes that he sanctifies himself. In verse 18 and 19, Jesus speaks about sanctifying himself. And it's impossible in the course of John's gospel to see this apart from what's about to take place. For John chapter 18 begins with his arrest. And even at the beginning of this chapter, we see that Jesus anticipates his crucifixion. What Jesus is doing is he's consecrating himself as a great high priest, as the offering for his people. He sanctifies himself, and so what he's saying here is that I sanctify myself for their sake. Not merely setting himself apart for service to God, but sanctifying himself as a sacrifice for them. For that reason, he prays, Father, keep them. Keep the ones for whom I am going to die. If we're not yet thoroughly astounded, we go further and wonder that our Lord would extend this prayer for his disciples to us, to all who would believe, saying, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we're not merely reading Jesus' prayer for the apostles, we are reading his prayer for us. And we will see the great love with which he loves us, for he prays that we may all be one, even as he and the Father are one. As I've said, every word of this prayer flows like a stream to the ocean that is God's glory. Every request is designed to lead back to this, The Father would be glorified in the Son. The Son might be glorified by the Father. So he prays that God would preserve us in unity and love and keep us from the evil one. Why? Because it results in revelation to the world so that the world might know the Father sent the Son. At the same time, it is a prayer that we might be incorporated into the joy and love that characterizes the one triune God, made known when the Father sent the Son into the world. It is a prayer that is born out of the great love with which he loved us. We see something of that love in the final verses of this prayer, as Jesus makes clear his heart's longing, his desire, saying, 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 send me. Do you hear these words and say, what wondrous love is this? What love that condescends to become a man, to make known in love that which was known for all eternity by the son who knows the father. He is the one who makes God known to us and continues to make him known to us forever. What can we do but say with the hymn writer, O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me, is the current of thy love, leading onward, leading homeward, to thy glorious rest above. So let me briefly conclude then by applying this exposition to our study of the catechism. Tonight we came to consider Jesus' work as prophet, priest, and king. And admittedly, John 17 does not use these words. That does not mean it has nothing to say about the subject. For though John does not use the words of prophet, priest, and king, the theme, the concept is everywhere. Indeed, there is much to say as we look to Jesus' prayer. We come to see that the question is much more than a dusty academic exercise. What does it mean for him to be prophet, priest, and king? For in his execution of these offices, he finds the basis for his intercession on our behalf. because he faithfully performed the office of prophet, priest, and king, unlike anyone had ever done. He intercedes on our behalf to the Father, asking that the Father might preserve the work that he began and completed perfectly. He shows himself to be the true and greatest king. You see, Israel had many kings, and yet every one of them failed. They became self-serving. They built beautiful palaces for themselves, but they neglected to shepherd the people. They neglected the service that they were called to. And yet, Jesus was given authority by the Father. Not an authority given by men, but an authority given by God for the express purpose of granting eternal life. What does he do with that authority? He obeys the Father's will. and he brings those the Father has given him to eternal life, and he shepherds them, he keeps them, he guards them. All of the things that Israel's kings were supposed to do and yet failed, he does perfectly. And so he shows himself to be our true and faithful king, and on this basis he intercedes on our behalf. We ought to be encouraged by this thought. And secondly, Jesus proves to be the prophet Like Moses, the prophet greater than Moses, for Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land, though he was the greatest prophet. Yet when God commanded him to speak to Iraq. That water might come forth, he struck it instead out of anger. He did not uphold God as holy in the sight of the people, and for that reason he could not enter the promised land. But Christ Jesus says of himself that the words that he gave his disciples are only those words that he received from the father. He's the faithful prophet because he speaks only that which he has given. He speaks the father's word to us. And so we can trust him. Not only that, he perfectly makes known the father to us because he's not merely a servant as Moses was. He's the son. the only one, the unique son, who has been with the Father for all eternity. As John says, he has made him known. And finally, the prayer itself, it's a priestly work. It's a work in which he consecrates himself for the sacrifice that will come. And it's a work in which he intercedes on our behalf. And what a glorious intercession. What a wonderful encouragement to have these words. When we read them, we ought to hear Jesus' encouragement to Peter. Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. When you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Luke 22, 31, and 32. Do you see the certainty in that prayer? The one who can say, Satan, the evil one himself has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. He doesn't say if you return. When you return, strengthen your brethren. And so too, the fact that Jesus has prayed for us ought to be the greatest encouragement we can enjoy. Because he prays for us as the perfect priest, the perfect king, the perfect prophet, the one unique son of God. How will the father not hear his son, his beloved son whom he loves, and answer the prayer of our prophet, priest, and king? Let's pray. Father in heaven, we can come to you and call you father because you've revealed yourself as such in the sending of your son. We can call you father because of your son. You've adopted us as your children and you've incorporated us into your love. Lord, we praise you. We praise Christ for what he's done for us as our perfect priest, our perfect prophet, our perfect king. May we live our lives ever trusting him, ever following, ever believing the word that he speaks to us. We pray all these things in his name. Amen.