Good morning, brothers. It's been a sweet time already, and in one sense it's very sad that it's the last day. Well, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to John 17 again. As you're turning, just to remind you, as our brother Thomas Waters reminded us, John 17 is a part of a larger section. We come to this section that begins in John 13. John slows down the narrative, as it were, and he takes five whole chapters on just one evening. But it is the eve of our Savior's crucifixion. What we know is the upper room discourse in which Jesus really shows us how he loved his own to the end. How he comforted them, instructed them, warned them. prayed for them. And now as we come to the end of John 17, we come to the very last words that Jesus speaks in the upper room. We know how last words can have that sense of importance and climax crescendo. It's the crescendo of the prayer and really the crescendo of the discourse. So please follow as I read. We'll start in verse 20 of John 17, and read to the end of the chapter. 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. 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. Oh, 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. Amen. That's the reading of God's holy word. Please pray with me briefly. Our Father in heaven, as we have gathered here this morning, our desire is that you meet with us. that your word would sanctify us that you would reveal to us the glory of our Savior. We cannot do this ourselves we must have your spirit so spirit come and work through your word we pray in Jesus name. Well, this chapter is often called the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I have heard that, my mind has often gone to the old covenant types and shadows, the old covenant high priest and picturing what he did. You remember how once a year on the day of atonement, he would go into the most holy place to make atonement sacrifice on the mercy seat for the sins of the people of Israel. But as he prepared to go in, he would have to put on those holy, priestly garments. He'd have to wear that ephod, that turban with the plate, holy to the Lord. He'd have to put on the robe and the sash, and also that breast piece. When you think about that breastpiece, it's a breastpiece, remember, with four rows, three different gems on each row, 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses, writing in Leviticus, tells us this as he's given the instructions. God says, so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart. when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. You see, the high priest goes in representing all of Israel before the Lord in the most holy place. Well, here in John 17, our great high priest enters the most holy place. He's about to enter the most holy place. And it's as if he is wearing his own breast piece with the names of all his people on it. The names of all that the father has given him, all of the elect, not just of Israel, but from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language, he's wearing this breast piece and it is pressing on his heart. So now, he turns to pray directly for them. for us. He's already prayed for himself in verses 1 to 5. He prayed specifically for the apostles in verses 6 to 19 for both their preservation and their sanctification. But now he turns to pray directly for his future church, those who will believe. And isn't it astounding to think that our Savior was thinking about us on the eve of his crucifixion. But what exactly does our High Priest pray for us? What is it that is on his heart and on his mind that he brings before his Heavenly Father? Well, there's two main petitions that I want us to consider this morning. The two main petitions that our High Priest prays are this. He prays, first, for true Christian unity to be realized among us, verses 20 to 23. And then, secondly, for his consummate glory to be revealed to us, in verses 24 to 26. Now we're going to be spending the majority of the time remaining on this first point, and just so you know, and you're not getting too nervous as we're continuing in that, so we're spending most of the time on that, and then we'll end with the second point. So first, let's consider this first petition. Our high priest prays for true Christian unity to be realized among us. And you see it three times in these verses. Notice verse 21a, he says, that they may all be one. You see it again in 22, that they may be one, even as we are one. You see it again in 23, that they may become perfectly one. Christ wills and prays that his people may be one. But of course, as you know, These verses have been some of the most twisted and tortured verses by that movement called the ecumenical movement. A movement that says we need to maximize outward organizational unity through minimizing the truth. With slogans like doctrine divides but love unites. What we have to say to these who claim this is say what does Jesus actually pray? What kind of unity is this? What does the actual text tell us about this unity? I want you to notice six things that it tells us about this unity. The first is this, that it's a unity resulting from faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the apostolic word. Notice that in verse 20. I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word. And that is pointing us back to what he said in verse 8. For I have given them, that is the apostles, the words that you my father have given me and they have received them and have come to know the truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. This is the word that they have received and this is the word that's going to be proclaimed, the apostolic word. It's the very word that's recorded for us in the New Testament. It's also rooted in the canonical writings of the Old Testament. As one commentator put it this way, it is first and foremost here a prayer that there may be a historical continuity between the church of the first century and the church of subsequent centuries, that the church's faith may not change but remain recognizably the same, that the church of every age may merit the title apostolic because of its loyalty to the teaching of the apostles. Brothers, in this very prayer we see the beauty of historic creeds and confessions, don't we? Because what you see here is these historic creeds and confessions are a very expression of the unity that he prays for. We confess and believe the very same things that the Apostles confessed and believed, and the church throughout history has believed. Not just the bare words, but the interpretation of those words. The church throughout the ages. And in that sense, then, our confession also is an expression, as we've already heard, of our unity here in this room, that we confess the very same doctrine, the very same Christ. These are the things most assuredly believed among us. It is a unity resulting from faith in Christ, as he's revealed in that apostolic word. But it's also a unity reflective of the oneness between the Father and the Son. The unity that we are to show reflects the unity between Christ and the Father. Now we need to understand, he's not referring here to the oneness of the divine essence. John Calvin puts it this way, and listen, it's a bit of an extended quote, but listen to what he says. In every instance in which Christ declares in this chapter that he is one with the Father, he does not speak simply of his divine essence, but that he is called one as regards his mediatorial office, and insofar as he is our head. Many of our fathers, no doubt, interpreted these words as meaning absolutely that Christ is one with the Father because he is eternal God, but their dispute with the Arians led them to seize on detached passages and torture them out of their natural meaning in order to employ them against their antagonists. Calvin wasn't afraid to say that they missed it. But in other words, what he's saying is this. It's not the oneness from divine Godhead in that sense, but a oneness of Jesus as our mediator, as the God-man that he has with the Heavenly Father. In other words, Jesus in his humanity is the image of the invisible God and he perfectly reflects his heavenly father as he walks on the earth. What it means is the perfect reflection, the perfect image, bearer, is that he is one with the father in heart and in mind and in will. Jesus loves what the father loves. Jesus thinks what the father thinks. Jesus does what the father does. So many times you see this in the Gospel of John. John 4.34, Jesus says this in talking to his disciples after speaking with a Samaritan woman at the well. My food, he says, is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. See, this is the unity that Jesus is speaking of. And our unity reflects this unity because it expresses a oneness of heart and mind and will with Christ and with the Heavenly Father as well. So it is a unity reflective of the oneness between the Father and the Son. But thirdly, it's also a unity rooted in our union with Christ. You can see that in the text in verse 20b where it says, they also may be in us. Or verse 23 where it says, I in them and you in me. I don't have time to get into all of what that means, but it's speaking of how by the Holy Spirit we have been given faith in Jesus Christ and spiritually we are united to Him. It reminds us of what he said earlier in this Upper Room Discourse about the vine and the branches, John 15, abiding in Him. We're connected to that life-giving vine. And it's by drawing from Him that this unity comes about. It flows from our union with Christ. But then fourthly, it's a unity realized in following the true path to glory. How will this unity be realized among us? It's by following the true path to glory. Where do I see this? Where do we see this in the text? Well, notice verse 22 again. It says, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. What exactly is this referring to? Just as we heard last night, John uses the word world in different ways. He also uses the word glory in different ways. And as we'll see, he uses it differently later about the glory that he's going to be given again. But here he's speaking of glory in the sense of that which he has revealed to the apostles. Kind of goes back to what he says in verse four, I glorified you on earth. How did Christ in his humanity glorify the Father on the earth? He revealed the Father. so that the apostle could say in John 1.14, we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John 1.18, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side, but he has made him known. Christ gave to his disciples a view of the glory of God in his person and work on the earth. And I want to focus on one aspect of that. He emphasizes in a sense here when he says that they believe what? That the father has sent me. And that speaks of a particular glory of the father revealed to us that the father would so love us that he would send his only son. That the father would so condescend to his creatures to send the one that he is so loved from the beginning of time before time. And it reveals to us the Savior's love and his willingness to come and to die and to follow the path marked out for him by his Holy Heavenly Father. And what path is that? It's the path of going through humiliation to glory. There is no crown apart from the cross. And see, brothers, you know this passage well in Philippians 2, and it shows us this. Philippians 2 talks of this call to unity, isn't it? There in verse two, he says to the Philippians, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind. He's speaking of unity. And he says, well, how do you have this unity? Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross. Have this mind among you, the mind of humility. Is it not true that it is the lack of our humility that is the cause of our disunity? That it is my pride that says, I want my will, my way, my understanding. But the way that we here will have this unity, this glorious unity is if we humble ourselves and say, I want to have the mind of Christ. What he says, that's what I want to say. What he loves, that's what I want to love. What he does, that's what I want to do. May he give us such humility. But then notice as well that this is a unity that results in further faith in Christ being known. You see it in two places in the verses again. He says, so that, back in verse 21, so that the world may know, the world may believe that you have sent me. Verse 23, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. More people will come to know our Lord Jesus Christ when they see the unity of his people. It's understandable, isn't it? We live in a world that is filled with division and fraction. We're divided over our ethnicity, over our class, over our politics, over all sorts of things that the world divides over. But the one place where you see true unity is among the people of God. In Christ, we have one new humanity. made up of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language in Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We are all one in Christ. Every attempt that the world has to unity always fails, but Christ succeeds. Just look around us. How many of us would be together apart from Christ? Let's be honest. But in Christ we are united and this unity has and serves an evangelistic purpose that others would see and know that Christ was sent by the Father. Lastly, under this first point you see it's a unity revealing the love of the Father. Notice again verse 23 says, 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. That's astounding. That the same love that the father has for the son is the love that the father has for you and for me. We who are in Christ Jesus. And see this is how it's even possible for us to humble ourselves. This is how it is possible to walk in unity together, to walk in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace because we know that we have been so loved. How can we not then want to be one in heart, mind, and will with him and one in heart, mind, and will with one another? So you see what kind of unity it is, the unity that he prays for. But his last petition, our second one here, that he prays for all his people is that his consummate glory would be revealed to us. Just briefly, note four things about this glory. It's a continuation of glory. Notice again verse 24, Father I desire that they also whom you have given to me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world. As our brother Thomas Waters pointed out, this points us back to verse five, and now Father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. It is the glory that has always belonged to our Savior, always belonged to the second person of the Trinity, which he had before the world even was created. And he's going to receive it again. It's going to be manifested again in that way. It is a continuation of glory, but is also a consummate glory. What I mean by that is this. It's a few things. One is that it's given to Christ after he's completed his work. And it's not just the glory just that he had before the foundation of the world, but it's the glory given to him as the God-man that we have now in heaven at the right hand of God, the God-man. There's a man in the presence of God representing us. And he has a glorified body and soul. It is a consummate glory in that sense. It's also consummate in the sense that it will be revealed to us at the end of our race. First when our body is put into the grave and our soul goes to be with the Lord but then ultimately when Christ returns and we see him in all his glory. But in this prayer it reminds us that it is a coming glory as well. It's coming when he returns and as it is a coming glory then you can see his commitment to make sure that it comes about. You see that in verse 26 where he says, I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known. He's committed to continue to make known the name of God. To make it known that others can share in this glory as well. And lastly, it's a comforting glory. It's a comforting glory, isn't it? He says that He wants His people, His disciples to be with Him. And as we are with Him, We will know, as it were, the fullness of the love of the Father for us. That's what he says at the end, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. We come full circle, as it were, as John 13 begins in the way that Jesus has loved his own to the end. We see it is really to the eternal end and really has no end. And he ends the prayer by saying, and I in them, that Christ will dwell in us, that Christ will dwell with us. It is truly the fulfillment of that central of covenant promises that I will be your God and you shall be my people. I will be with you for all eternity. And is that not the most comforting thing in all the world? So through all the trials, all the difficulties, the reality that we have brothers who will go to glory before us and we will miss them. The reality that we're going to suffer persecution, trial, the pains of our own sanctification. But it's not for naught, for we will see his glory. And when we behold him, we will become like him, and we will declare with all the saints, behold, the Lamb is all the glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us this glimpse of our Savior's prayers for us even now. And we thank you, our Father, that you always hear your Son and you answer. We pray that you would answer his prayer for us and among us even today, that we would all be even more united to one another as we're united to Christ, and that we'd have our hope fixed on the glory that is to be revealed. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.