This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. A few of your scriptures, would you open up to John chapter 17, please? John chapter 17. We'll be picking up at verse 20. This is the reading of God's word. 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. The reading of God's word. Would you pray with me? Our father, please be with us today. Please be with us to be those who are hungry and thirsty to hear from you. May we come as those in faith expecting that you will speak and that you will bless. Pray that you would make my own words faithful. Pray that you would give us all faithful hearts to hear. It's in Jesus's name we pray, amen. So we're actually at the end of the high priestly prayer. And that means we're actually also at the end of this farewell discourse that we've been in for some time, for some time. So it's sort of special to get here and sad at the same time. What you have here is we're continuing a section that we sort of cut in half for the sake of time. And that was Jesus praying, not just for those who were with him, those he saw face to face, but for those who were to come. for those who would believe through the word of his disciples. And we pointed out that that means us. He prays for us. The same people in this room, he prays for us. And he's been praying for something very specifically. And he's been praying for our unity. Unity among brothers and sisters in the faith. Unity in this one body of God. And now he's going to build on that prayer. And he's going to expand the reason for it. Okay? So let's dive right in. And I want to show you what I'm talking about. As we pick up, we're going to pick up in verse 22. We did 20 and 21 last time. Let's pick up in 22. And he starts by talking about that the glory you have given me, he's talking to his heavenly father. The glory you have given me, I have given them. What you have is Jesus giving his glory, giving what he himself was given. And John, from the beginning of his gospel, was putting a spotlight on this glory. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. This glory that he gives is this ultimate revelation of grace and truth. Jesus Christ and his ministry has perfectly and completely revealed his Father. And receiving this glorious revelation results in something. There is an instant takeaway for his followers. It results in Christian unity. That's the connection he makes, right? This isn't just some big abstract theological point. This is Jesus's point that by giving his glory, it's going to result in our unity. How does it do that? Well, Jesus is going to explain further that this unity is Christ in his people. You gotta focus on those three words very specifically. This unity is Christ in his people. You're going to see this across the scriptures. This isn't just in this prayer, but it was even earlier on in this prayer. If any of you remember what we were preaching and learning about in chapter 14, he says the same thing. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. That's John 14, 20, right? Jesus has this way of hitting themes over and over again for our benefit. You see this in Romans. Romans chapter 8. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. That's Romans 8. 10. 2 Corinthians 13. 5. Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Right? This is across the scriptures. And the point I think you end up taking away from this is that if every believer, every single one of us that believes, shares this glorious revelation of God's character in Jesus, and moreover, if Jesus is dwelling in us, well, we sound profoundly united. We are deeply united. If those things are true, and they are, we stand deeply united because of them. Any kind of common ground, any kind of common experience has this way of uniting people, doesn't it? You can have it with someone you've known for years. You know, like someone that you went to school with for a decade or something like that. For no real specific reason, you feel bound to that person. Recently, I got to see an old friend and I reflected on the reality, I've known him since I was four. And you think, wow, I don't see him very much anymore, but I just feel this bond with him, right? Just that common experience was a bond for us. When we labor together on a project at work or on a team or something like that, we feel this unity that binds us together, don't we? Even bad experiences do this to us, right? You go through something really lousy with someone and you feel like you're close, right? Oh, you remember that time we broke down on the side of the road and we were marooned for three hours. For some reason, we feel unity around that, right? And I'm not just talking about all of you going down to youth camp, right? There's a form of unity in this. So do you think receiving the glory of God himself and having Christ dwell in us counts as a unifying experience, as a unifying common ground? It's sure better, right? We stand united. And Jesus says that the goal that he has with this unity is that it would be a perfect unity, that we would be perfectly one is how he describes it. Our unity, the Christian unity that we have is made perfect by the receiving of Christ's glory. See, we are not meant for some temporary unity that's going to disband at some point. We are meant for a unity that is perfected by Christ's very hand. But being with Christ's people for any length of time makes that daunting, doesn't it? Just dealing with you all is such a strain. No, no, no, no, but seriously, the longer you're around any of these people, you realize you struggle with all these things that tear apart Christian unity. I mean, apathy on the one hand, the part of me that says, I don't care what that person's doing. Or antipathy on the other side, I care and I outright dislike that person, right? Perfect Christian unity, just sometimes it feels like it's just not meant for now. I'm looking forward to heaven when God works all this stuff out for us. But right now, let's just be honest. I don't like you and you don't like me. That's what our Christian unity ends up feeling like. But I want to call you back to how much Jesus has been promising us. What we've even covered just in this prayer. Because even here we see this reality that Christ will dwell in his people, right? And that alone would be enough. But he also talks about that he's going to send us Holy Spirit. We're going to have divine aid in the Holy Spirit who will carry us all the way to the finish line. We've been made new creatures, new creations, right? We're not just left to our same devices. We've been transformed. And I'll put this to you too. If Christ longs for unity among his people, and he does, then the new nature that he's given his people also longs for that unity. Does that make sense? If Christ longs for it and he's given us a new nature, we're also going to long for it. So what you have is sure the old man's gonna struggle with the people they don't care about, people they don't like. But this new creation, this divine indwelling, I think there's going to be the sense in which we sort of gravitate to things that our old man would not have wanted, namely this perfect unity that he wants for us. I find some encouragement that when we pursue unity, we don't just do it because it makes sense, right? We don't even just do it for obedience sake. And I think that's a good reason too, but we pursue it because it reflects Christ's desire for us. You have Christ writing down, so to speak, these are my desires for my children. This is what I hope for in them. And he wants us to be unified. We are pursuing what he hoped for for us. And we're pursuing something that just resonates with this new nature we've been given. The new nature is not meant to be divided from its brothers and its sisters. We are meant to be united. We have been made one by that work on the cross. And as Jesus continues here, he says that this unity is going to result in two things, right? We're in verse 23 at this point. The second half of verse 23, Jesus says, this unity is going to result that the world may know that you sent me, number one, and that you love them even as you loved me. So the first thing, we talked about that last week, didn't we? And you all memorized it and mastered it in the meantime. So we'll move on. Just joking, right? The father sent the son. Jesus says, I want the world to know that my father sent me and your unity, your conduct screams whether that's true or false. Our unity reflects on our savior. And without rehashing everything that I did in that last sermon, if you weren't here, go listen to it. It's important stuff. But I just want to remind you, remind you of how important it is when scripture wants to repeat something. When Jesus wants to say something more than once for us. When Jesus prays in his very last moments, the same thing twice. See, I hold out to you. If you heard, overheard me praying and I repeated myself, you would have some sense of what was important to me, right? I mean, picture this prayer. It's not a hard prayer to picture. My God, forgive me for my sins. Please, my God, forgive me. What do you think is important to me in that prayer? forgiveness, that my God would forgive me. I think we probably all prayed that. If you know that about my prayers, I mean how much more so Jesus's prayers. When Jesus himself prays for us and he repeats just how important Christian unity is, that it's going to reflect on him and on his reputation. Does that give you some sense of how important it is? Of how seriously he views it? He's got moments left here to pray and he hits that same note twice. I'll leave that with you. He takes our unity very seriously. But the second thing that he wants the world to know is that the father loves his people just as he loves Christ. The father loves Christians just as he loves Jesus Christ. Just let that soak in. Because you think, whoa, you love us how much? You love us to what degree? You love us to what depth? You love us like Christ? I mean, this just seems crazy in a way. I mean, let's unpack it. Think about God's love, first of all, right? Just some basic characteristics of God's love. You start with this, that it's infinite. God's love is infinite. It has no limit. Only God can love like that. Just by definition, finite beings cannot love infinitely, right? Only God can love this way. He loves without limits. Haven't you ever felt like in a relationship that you're like, I just don't have any more to give? Whether you had good or bad reasons for it, I mean, that's like a universal experience, right? I just don't have anything left to give. Don't you realize that God never says that? God has never once said, man, I am tapped out, I am depleted, I've got nothing left to give this people. God's love is not like that, it is infinite. God's love is eternal. It's a love that will last for all time. It will keep going when time itself ceases. I mean, what human being wants to promise anything like that? Not a single one of us can, not seriously. God alone can love eternally. God's love is perfect. There is no flaw in his love. There is no deficiency. How do we love? With a lot of flaws and a lot of deficiencies, right? So many of our weddings and just devotions to scriptures, we love 1 Corinthians 13. That passage about love, that it is patient, that it is kind, that it does not envy, right? And it goes on. Why do we admire that passage so much? It's because our love so rarely looks anything like that. We see in that a love that just, it screams out at you. This is what love is supposed to be like. The way I love people doesn't look like that. We have never seen a love like God's talking about. A love that is infinite. A love that is eternal. A love that is perfect. We've never seen it. When we talk about love, we're always drawing on these images and these experiences of love that are less than the love that God talks about when he talks about love. I mean, some of us actually have very negative experiences with love. Love that's mixed with selfishness. Love that's mixed with abuse. Love that's mixed with jealousy, violence. You realize that none of our baggage with love belongs to God. It belongs to people. God's love is nothing like that. The love that he lavishes on his people, it is pure than anything you have ever experienced. The love that he lavishes upon us is truer than anything you have ever experienced. It is stronger and more passionate and more enduring than anything. you have ever experienced. See, not only is God's love better than our negative experiences with love, God's love is better than our best experiences with love. And so this, coming back to this text, is how the father loved his son. This is how God loves Jesus, right? The father has loved Jesus with a love that is infinite, eternal, and perfect. And now he says all of his adopted children are loved like the firstborn. Each and every one of us is loved like Jesus Christ himself. How is that possible? Right? If you've been following this at all, how is that possible? I mean, Christ is perfect. He's loving. He's powerful. He's the son of God. Of course he deserves to be loved like that. But I look at myself. Take a moment to reflect on yourself. I mean, who am I to be loved like that? I am so full of betrayal, weakness, wickedness. Who am I? How can so great of a privilege even exist? That is the gospel, my friends. That is the gospel right there. Let your heart bask in the truth that believers are loved like Christ is loved. Soak that in. Don't stop thinking about it until you go to sleep tonight. Each and every child of God has been loved like this. You see, just a room this size and you just know there are some of you that doubt your standing with God. You think of yourselves as unlovable. You think of yourselves as unworthy. You think of yourselves as just being too full of sin. Just too much here for God to love you like that. You know, by worldly standards, if you have to earn everything you keep, yeah, maybe you're not lovable, but God doesn't love you like that. God doesn't love you based on the world standards. He loves you based on His. He doesn't barter His love for your accomplishments or your shining personality. You know, that just like screaming out quality, I deserve to be loved. He doesn't barter with you like that. He loves you because you are His child in Jesus Christ. He loves you. And if you want proof, Look what's about to happen after this prayer. Look what Jesus goes on to do. The father gave his son. We reflect on Father's Day. And Father's Day is often a way to reflect on that fathers would do whatever for their children. Parents will do that. But this day we dedicate to fathers. This is a day that God proved he would do whatever for his children, but he did it at the cost of his son's life. That is love. You want proof that God loves you like he's talking about here, that he loves you like Jesus Christ? Reflect that he gave his son for you. God's passionate love for his people is the only way to make sense of that. How do you explain a father who would give his son for wretched criminals? He must love those wretched criminals a whole lot. His passionate love is the only way you explain it. Paul knew this. Paul picked up on his writings. I think Paul knowing this is exactly why he can say something like this. He can only say that because he understands the depths of the love of God. That's how we can say that. A love like this changes everything. It's gonna affect how you view yourself. Believe me, it will and it should. Without turning this into some self-esteem seminar, I feel pretty good that God loves me like this. You should feel pretty good about it too. Amen? God's love for you should affect how you view everything. Everything. It's gonna affect how you view your brothers and sisters. It's definitely gonna affect that. He loves them like he loves you. The ones you don't care about and the ones you dislike? Beloved children of God. You see, there are no hierarchies in this kingdom. There are not those who are the preferred Christians and those who fly coach, right? In God's kingdom, there are only beloved children. The love of God is going to affect how you view the gospel. You can't view the gospel like it's just some transaction. You can't view the gospel as if it's just your lifestyle. You can't even view the gospel like it's just some set of doctrinal truths. The gospel is an act of divine love for sinners, for criminals. And it was an act of love greater than anything you've ever experienced, greater than anything you've even imagined. And our lives then are lived in light of that, that he loved us. Jesus praying here, he wants the world to know that his disciples are beloved. He doesn't just want us to know, he does. He does definitely want us to know, but he wants to declare it to the world. He is not ashamed of his people. We are not some embarrassing blind date he got stuck with. He loves his people and he wants our unity to bear witness to the world that we are the beloved of God. The people of God stand unique You know what unique means? Do you know how many people in the world don't know what unique means? Unique means the only one of its kind, right? So saying you are very unique means actually really like nothing. Saying you are really unique, it doesn't actually mean anything. Unique means only one of its kind. And the people of God are the only one of its kind in the world. Those who have been particularly loved by God. What can explain this group of people coming from all walks of life, all their preferences, all their opinions, all their backgrounds? What can explain that here we are bound together in love and in fellowship? It can only be the love of God. As Jesus continues in this prayer, He makes a new petition, but it's one that's reflecting on the same love we've been talking about. Verse 24, 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. Jesus wants his followers to be with him. Think about that. God wants you to be with him. Just that by itself, gracious, abundant, loving, generous already, right? Just that He wants us to be there. I mean, who wants to spend eternity with us, right? I bet you my own wife doesn't want to spend eternity with me, you know? Who wants to spend eternity with this people, this wretched, weak, betraying people? Jesus Christ Himself. God wants His people with Him for all eternity. He claims them. He embraces them as His own. That right there, more than we deserve. But even more than that, even more than just being with Him, He wants us with Him for a point. He wants to show us His glory, right? He wants us to be with Him in order to see His glory. I don't think we always get what privileges we share in, we enjoy as Christians. What a privilege it is that we would see as glory. Moses had a famous experience based on God's glory. Moses, who's just on a different plane, just a different tier and a different relationship with God, says, God, show me your glory. And so God says, you know what I'll do for you? I will make all my goodness pass before you and we'll proclaim before you my name, Yahweh. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and then we'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy. That's Exodus 33, 18 and 19. Moses asks to see God's glory. God responds by revealing some of who he is to Moses. And then Moses, having beheld just a fraction of the glory of God, he's temporarily transformed. The scriptures record that when he comes back to speak with the people of God, his skin is shining. He has to put on a veil to cover it. Paul, he actually comes and the apostle Paul takes this experience and he puts it in light of Christ. He says, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 2 Corinthians 3.18. Beholding God's glory, beholding Jesus's glory like he's praying for here. It transforms believers. It will transform us. This glory that represents that his father loved him, Christ wants us to behold it, to see him in his glory, and we will be made like him. Christ's glory, he says in this, Christ's glory reflects his father's love for him. Likewise, the glory Christ wants us to receive reflects his love for us. We are to be transformed by his glory because we are dearly loved. We are dearly loved. As Jesus comes around the corner on this prayer and he wraps it up, he wants to make one comment. One comment about the world standing. That's verse 25 and 26. Righteous father, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these know that you have sent me. I may 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. He comments on the world standing that they don't know God. Jesus knows his father, his disciples know his father, but the world does not know him. The world does not enjoy that beloved status that the people of God get to share. It will not acknowledge its creator. It will not be brought near willingly. Therefore, Jesus says, I will continue to make my father's name known. He's going to do that. He's going to do it in his death. He's going to do it in his resurrection. He's going to do it through his disciples, all those who are going to believe through their word. He's going to keep making his father's name known. and the proclamation of the gospel that's gonna stretch across all time, it will result in the love of God being given to men. The love of God being in, again, pay attention to the small words, in men. The knowledge of God will result in the Son being in men. And this, it turns out, is one more level of fulfillment that we never expected of that ancient promise. That God would dwell in the midst of his people. Emmanuel, we say. God with us. I will make my dwelling among you and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people. That's Leviticus 26, 11 and 12. This, this has been the plan all along. For God, this plan of redemption was never cold and it was never impersonal. Sometimes we look at doctrine, we look at the scriptures, we look at the gospel and we feel detached from it. We feel like it's cold, we feel like it's impersonal. That's our misunderstanding all the way because it's not what God's doing. The plan and the promise has always been that he would be our God and he would let us, us, he would let us be his people. By his plan, we would belong to the most high and we could claim him as our God. You know, I would have thought that he fulfilled this plan just by taking on flesh and coming to be among his people. The idea that God became incarnate, that he took on flesh, mind blowing by itself. That feels like above and beyond already, right? Jesus has still more to do. He also tells his people that he will be in his followers. Jesus will be in his followers. things too wondrous to get our minds around. He will be in us. Emmanuel, Christ with us. Reflect on the promise that we take forward to the people of this world. Just reflect on how much has been said. Jesus will show his people his glory. We can proclaim to the people that they will find in Jesus Christ a glory that they have never imagined. I've tried to reflect on what glory looks like before with you all. And the things I come up with are just worldly pictures, heroism and battle, a plan well executed, the magnificence of creation, right? These things we think contain some glimmer of glory. We'll be able to say to the world, you will have never seen anything like glory and you will know it when you see Jesus. The things we've seen are shadows of glory. Jesus calls us to go forward proclaiming the love of God. Let the world know that our heavenly father loves his children. Let them know. And we might ask, how will they know that he sent us? Well, they will know by our unity. Comes full circle. they will know by our unity. You see, if we have all tasted of the same divine love, if we have seen the same glory, we must be one. We must be one. There's no other choice. This is what God was doing by laying his hand on his people. The privileges he has given us, they are for our unity. So brothers and sisters, let us stand together. Let us stand together as those who have received his glory and let us stand together as those who have been showered with his love. Let's pray. Our father, give us faith to see how good we have it. Give us faith to believe how much you love us, how much you've done for us. I pray that every person here would have at least an afternoon of rejoicing in how they have been loved in Christ. And Lord, help us to take hold of our responsibilities. Help us to be those who demonstrate to the world that we have been so loved, that we have been given such a glory. Let us prove it by our unity. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.