Open your Bibles, please, to John 17. We're going to continue our journey through the Gospel of John. You'll remember, as we've seen in our previous study of Jesus' high priestly prayer here in John 17, that He began by praying for Himself, as recorded in verses 1-5 in particular, and then He turned to praying for His disciples has recorded, especially in verses 7 through 19, and today we'll see how Jesus turned to praying for those who would believe as a result of the disciples' gospel ministry. There's sort of three stages to this prayer. This begins in verse 20 and extends through verse 26, but we're going to examine only the first portion of that passage today and take up the second portion next week, Lord willing. I'm going to back up, though, and begin reading at verse 6 where he begins to pray, or begin to shift to thinking of his disciples. He actually starts to pray for them as he moves on in the text there in verse 7. Beginning in verse 6, Jesus says, 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." Notice repeatedly he talks about having given them the word from the Father. It's very important as we'll see. Pray that you should take them out of the world, he says in verse 15, 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, and 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." Let's pray. Holy Father, we come to you this morning as the poor in spirit, as those who know we need you. We know that all the spiritual riches in the heavenly places are ours in Christ. And any good thing that we have comes from you. And Lord, we acknowledge that we would never have believed had you not blessed us with eyes to see and ears to hear. We'd never have seen your kingdom or entered your kingdom, but by the work of your Spirit in our hearts. And we recognize, therefore, that we are utterly dependent upon your Spirit every day in every way. And we pray this morning that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit and with understanding, so that we might grasp what our Lord Jesus meant when he prayed these words to you, so that we might have them recorded in this Gospel and learn from them. We ask as a result, Lord, that we would become more like Christ, that we would experience more fully the things for which he prayed here. We ask these things in the name of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As we've studied the upper room discourse here in John, beginning all the way back in chapter 13, you have Jesus in the upper room and as he identifies Judas as the betrayer and he begins to teach the rest of the disciples, and we get more and more of His teaching until all we have is just constant teaching from Jesus by the time we get through chapter 16 and into verse 17. We have this wonderful prayer. But we've seen pretty consistently as we've examined these chapters in the upper room, telling us what happened there, that Jesus was seeking to prepare the 11. They're not 12 anymore, remember. The 11 for the coming days in which he'd die on the cross and be buried. Days in which they would encounter very intense trials and be tempted even to turn away from their faith in Christ, as Judas had done. In fact, one of the trials that they would have to deal with is the very fact that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. Remember what Jesus said to them. He identified Judas as the betrayer. Back in chapter 13, there's a section there in verses 18-27 where that happened. But here's the question we need to ask ourselves. What made Judas any different from them? What made the other eleven any different from Judas? They all wondered if they were the one. There was a reason for that. They all knew how fickle they were deep inside. So what made them any different from Judas? Why is it that their faith endured? Why, despite their brief denials of Jesus, which he had also predicted by the way, did they remain faithful to him in the end, whereas Judas did not? The answer was revealed by Jesus himself when he predicted the betrayal Judas and said in chapter 13 verse 18, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. In other words, they had been chosen for salvation, but Judas had not been chosen. And what he's talking about in that context, as we studied it back in chapter 13, is salvation. But there's another reason that we see in this passage that the eleven remained faithful in the end, whereas Judas did not. It was because Jesus prayed for them, and he didn't pray for Judas. He prayed for those whom the Father had given him, and for those who would believe as a result of their word. He didn't pray for Judas. Remember, he was the son of perdition. and he was left out. In fact, Luke records for us how Jesus stressed this important fact in his response to Peter in the presence of his fellow disciples in Luke 22. In verses 31 and 32, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you, and that's a plural there, you, all of the disciples, to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, and now he personalizes it with Simon here, Clearly, he prayed for all the disciples, but since he's talking to Simon, he wants Simon to know that he prayed for him, not just as a group, but him specifically. As he did for all of them, we can be sure. He says, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, because he knows Peter's going to deny him three times. He's talking about when you've repented of your failure, right? Strengthen then your brethren, he says. There you have it. Even the faith of Peter, who denied our Lord Jesus three times, did not fail in the end, and this was because Jesus prayed for him. Just as he prayed for the other disciples. But, praise be to God, Jesus did not stop there. He prayed for all of us too. The same Jesus who kept the eleven from all these terrible trials and temptations to turn away from Him, so that their faith would remain true and intact in the end, prayed for us too. And we see this beginning in verse 20. where he says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. So we see that Jesus wasn't just praying for the 11 now, but also for all who would believe as a result of their gospel ministry in the world. And this means that he was praying for us, doesn't it? R.C. Sproul wrote of this verse that, this is a very special text, one that should be treasured by every Christian. I sometimes ask my students, where in the Bible does Jesus pray for you? The answer is right here, if you are a believer. And he later added that Jesus' words give us an idea of what he does in his ongoing ministry of intercession at the right hand of the Father, where he intercedes for us daily. I think he's right. And I think we need to keep this in mind as we examine the rest of the passage, which indicates more precisely what Jesus prayed for us. But we must also remember that when Jesus referred to us as those who would believe through their word, referring to the eleven there in their foundational gospel ministry, he wasn't talking about their own word, was he? He was talking about the Word of God that had been revealed to them. Notice as Jesus prayed for him, and that's why we went back and read through the whole prayer of Jesus for the eleven. How many times he emphasized the fact that they had been given the Word, and that they had been kept by the Word, and that they had kept the Word. For example, in verse 6, we won't look at all of them, I'll just remind you of three places. Verse 6, Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men who gave me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Verse 14, 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. Verse 17, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So as we continue to examine Jesus' prayer for unity and love among all believers, we must keep in mind that this unity and love is centered on faith in Christ and on faith in the Word of God. These are inseparable. I know that's not fashionable these days. I know that there are a lot of people that say you can believe in Jesus, but you really don't need your Bible. That is nonsense. It is a lie. It is a direct opposition to the teaching of Jesus himself. Nothing could be further from the truth. So when Jesus goes on to talk about or pray about unity, It's not a unity he has in mind that is detached from the centrality of Christ and who he really is as he has been revealed to us, not as we want to make him to be or imagine him to be, but as he has been revealed to us in the Word. There is no unity for Christians without the Word, because there are no Christians without the Word, not in the mind of Christ. We have to keep that in mind when we look at this following prayer. And I have to say that. I shouldn't have to say that. But I have to say that. Because in our current evangelical cultural milieu, people seem all too quickly to forget that. And there's a reason for that. It's because they don't want Jesus as He really is. They want an idol who can do their own bidding. I'll get off that hobby horse now and move on to verse 21. where we see what he's praying for here. "...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." Now this wasn't the first time that Jesus had spoken of the unity of believers as a really important thing to him. He'd emphasized this point in his earlier teaching and ministry, and in this same prayer. earlier on. I'll give you an example of each. Moving back into his earlier teaching ministry, back in John 10, where he talked about himself as the shepherd of the sheep, who gives his life for the sheep. He said in John 10, 15 and 16, as the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, referring to the Gentile believers who had come to faith. them also I must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd." The unity that all believers possess is ultimately due then to the work of Jesus in giving his life for them and calling them to himself. They didn't make themselves one. We didn't make ourselves one because we like each other or because we started a club. We were made one by Jesus, who died for us and calls us to himself. And of course, we have heard his voice calling us through the proclamation of the word that had been given to the disciples that is recorded for us in the New Testament, in addition to our Old Testament, which the Spirit of Christ revealed. for our benefit. In the prayer here, earlier in the prayer, John 17.11, he said, 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. Not only are we not made one by anything we have done, we aren't kept one by anything we can do either. So Jesus wanted all those who believe in Him to have a unity that is in some way analogous to the unity that He has with the Father. And here in verse 21, He further described this unity in terms of a mutual indwelling of the Father in Himself. He prayed that they may all be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You. That they also may be one in Us. As I studied this, I had to ask myself precisely what does our Lord mean by this statement? In what way can we be one as He and the Father are one? Now notice He doesn't say that we are one in one another. We are one in the Father and the Son in some way analogous to the way the Father and the Son are one in one another, right? We are one in them. We are one in the triune God. In what way, then, did Jesus desire that we be one as the Father is in Him and as He is in the Father? And how may we be one in them? Obviously, this has to be an analogy. It can't be an exact equivalent because God the Father and God the Son have been one in the fact that they share the same being from all eternity. That's an impossibility for us. Jesus can't mean that. He says just as. He sees an analogy here of some kind. He sees a comparison, but he doesn't mean that we're one in the Father and the Son in the same way that the Father and the Son are one in one another. He means an analogy of some kind, but what exactly does he mean? What kind of an analogy? I really wrestled with this, and as I thought about it, I struggled to think of how to explain it, what I was thinking. And as I was struggling with this, what Jesus meant by these words, I came across William Hendrickson's discussion of this text. And it, I think, is the explanation that's come closest to my own thinking, only I think he says it better than I can. So I'm going to quote him for you. and just say, I agree with his explanation, and I think he'll say it better for you than I could. Here's what he says. The unity for which Jesus is praying is not merely outward. He guards against this very common misinterpretation. He asks that the oneness of all believers resemble that which exists eternally between the Father and the Son. In both cases, the unity is of a definitely spiritual nature. To be sure, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in essence. Believers, on the other hand, are one in mind, effort, and purpose. These two kinds of unity are not the same. Nevertheless, there is a resemblance. God is love. What is true with respect to each divine attribute holds also with respect to love. It constitutes the very essence of God. Now it is exactly in loving one another that the oneness of all believers comes to expression. We now understand how Jesus can say that they may all be one even as thou, O Father, art in me and I in thee. Moreover, there is more here than a mere comparison between the oneness of all God's children on the one hand and the oneness of the persons of the Holy Trinity on the other. The latter, he says, is not merely the model, it is the foundation of the former. It makes the former possible Only such men as have been born from above and are in the Father and in the Son are also spiritually one, and offer united opposition to the world. Now this oneness of all believers, which in turn has its root in their oneness with the Father and the Son, and which is patterned after but not identical with the oneness which exists eternally between these two divine persons, has as its glorious purpose that the world may believe that Thou didst send me. That's a mouthful there. That's a lot to take in. Here's the gist of it. There's an analogous way in which we're one to the way the Father and the Son are one. It is a spiritual oneness. In that we are in Christ, each one of us individually, and Christ is one, we are one. is a fact. This isn't something we strive to. It's something that is already true about us, if we're Christians. As David Gusek put it, we must believe that this prayer was answered and that the church is one. Our failure is in failing to recognize and walk in that divine fact. I agree with that. In fact, I think the Apostle Paul had such an idea in mind every time he talked about Christ being in us, or us being in Christ, and that was the basis of our unity. For example, he wrote to the Corinthian church about the unity of believers in Christ, and he said this in 1 Corinthians 12, 12 and 13, For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For with one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, it doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, and have all been made to drink in one Spirit." He's talking about having been brought into the body of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, according to this text, into the body of Christ. And he says we're one because of that. Of course, the problem is that Corinth was really divided. They weren't divided because they weren't really one in Christ. They were divided because they refused to act like they were really one in Christ. They refused to acknowledge that in their daily lives, the truth of that. But it didn't stop being true because they didn't acknowledge it like they should have. It was true nonetheless. And we, too, need to live out the unity that we already possess in Christ. If you are a believer in Christ, you are one with me, and I am one with you, and that's just a fact. We just need to recognize it in the way we treat one another. This unity will be expressed through love, just as it is expressed in the love displayed between God the Father and God the Son. Remember in this regard Jesus' previous command to them earlier on that same night in the upper room. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So Jesus prayed here for all believers that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. There's an evangelistic goal. It's not just for our benefit that we're winning Christ. It's for the benefit of a lost and dying world and for many more people who need to be called to faith in Christ. They will recognize Christ in us when they see the love of Christ in us. When they see the love of Christ in us, they will see the oneness that we really do possess in Christ. And that's not something the world can fake, at least not for long. They'll see something real then, something otherworldly, something supernatural. As R.C. Sproul has observed, the love, concern, and compassion that we have for one another should be so atypical of the world that they serve as definitive proof that Jesus was not simply a great moral teacher, but the second person of the Trinity sent by God. I think that's what Jesus has in mind here. So we must understand that all believers truly are one in Christ. since we have all trusted in Him as Lord and Savior, and since we've all been baptized with the Holy Spirit into one body, and have thus become members together of the one true Church. We may not always recognize this as we should. We may not always display this unity as we should. But it's real, nonetheless. Christians who are divided, and I'm talking about not having different ideas about certain doctrines and still loving one another and cooperating in spite of that. I'm talking about divisive spirits. Churches that are filled with that are churches that are wanting Christ and are denying reality. They're self-deceived. This is a real unity. We must realize it if we're going to live it out. It's the result of Jesus' redemptive work on our behalf, and it's the result of His praying for us. It's also the result of the glory which He's bestowed upon us, which He goes on to speak about in verse 22. And this is another thing that's difficult to grasp. What's He talking about? And the glory, He says, which you have given Me, I have given them that they may be one just as We are one. So, how do we become one, just as the Father and the Son are one, in the way that Jesus intends for that to apply to us? Well, we know we've come to faith in Christ through faith in the Word, but Jesus also says that there's a glory He's given to us that has brought this about. What on earth does He mean by that, though? He'd spoken earlier in this same prayer about the glory he had with the Father before the world was. He can't mean that. He says there's a glory here which the Father had given to the Son and in turn had been given by the Son to all of us, all who would believe and were among them. And this sheer glory somehow helps make us one in Christ. But what is it? I don't think he can be referring to the glory which he was talking about in verse 5 when he said, And now, O Lord, glorify me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was. That's a pre-existent divine glory that we could never possess. That's being God having that kind of glory. He can't mean that. He must then be speaking of a glory which the Father had given Him as the God-Man in His role as the Messiah. A kind of glory He took on and received from God in His messianic work. He must be referring to that kind of glory that He received from the Father in which He passes on to those who believe. This glory was exhibited by His revelation of the Father to others. To give you an example of what I think he might mean here, I'm going to go back to chapter 5, where he uses the same Greek word, doxa, translated glory. I'm going to read the ESV version of this. I typically prefer the New King James. I'm reading the ESV because the King James translates Angus here as honor a couple of times. And we miss that it's the same Greek word, where ZSV is more consistent. So I'm going to read that text in John 5, 37-44. And listen closely to the way Jesus uses glory here. It can't be the glory He had with the Father before the world was that He's talking about. It has to be something else. Beginning in John 5, 37, Jesus says, And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me, His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, and you do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe the One whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about Me. Yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. What's he mean then? Who does he receive glory from? The Father. His glory as the Messiah that they're supposed to believe because the scriptures foretell Him. God has given Him this glory and they're not seeing it. But that doesn't change the fact that He has it because it doesn't come from them in the first place. It comes from the Father. It's another way of saying, I'm the Messiah whether you receive it or not. I'm the great revealer of God the Father whether you believe it or not. And if you believe the scriptures that you claim to believe, you'd see that. But don't think for a second that my glory depends on you and whether or not you accept me. It doesn't. That's not where my glory comes from. Here he has to be talking about a messianic glory in his role of the Messiah. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you." There's love again, only the absence of it. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in His own name, you will receive him. How can you believe who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Now what can he mean by that? Here, he's talking about a glory that can come to us from God, when we believe in Jesus as the Messiah, whose glory comes from God. And he's talking about all this in a context in which this depends on accepting the Word, the revelation that comes from God through Christ. So, the glory of God that the Jews ought to have sought was the revelation of His glory in their lives as they received His Word. I think that's what Jesus is getting at. The revelation of His glory in their lives as they trusted in Jesus as their Messiah and lived lives of faithful obedience to Him. God had bestowed His glory on Jesus as the Messiah. And He'll bestow this kind of glory on all those who believe. in Jesus, and trust Him as the Savior. I think this is the glory of sonship through Jesus Christ. Back in chapter 1, John talked about how those who receive Jesus are given the right to call themselves the sons of God. Well, Paul picks up this theme when he talks about the glory of God in believers. In Romans chapter 8, for example, and he says that this glory that's given to us is most fully revealed in the future. He says this in Romans 8, 16-19, for example, where he says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If we're joint heirs, we share in some sense in the same glory. And he says, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Later on he'll identify this as the end result of sanctification. It takes place in the resurrection. He says, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The glory that has been given to us will one day fully be revealed in us in the future. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. And he'll make clear that that happens in the resurrection. Yet even now the glory of God is being revealed in us as we grow in Christ. Paul could say that too. For example, in 2 Corinthians 3.18, he says, but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. We've been predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son. And that means the glory that was given to the Son is in some sense also given to us. It's a kind of perfect holiness, a perfect humanity that sinlessly loves and worships God forever. Some people, when they think about Christ and His humanity, they try to look at our humanity and say, if Christ is to be really human, He has to be like us. And they get that backwards. Christ is the only truly human person since Adam, before Adam fell. If you want to know what real humanity is, you look to Jesus to find that out. We're poor substitutes for what human beings ought to be like. But we'll be like Him. We do not yet know what we shall be. But we know when we see Him, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. Praise be to God. I think there can be any doubt that Paul learned this way of speaking from our Lord Jesus, who had revealed the Gospel to him in the first place, and who uses this language of glory in what must be this kind of way here in his prayer for us. And so as we are transformed more into the likeness of Christ, from glory to glory, on our way to future glorification, in its fullest sense. The unity that we have because of that will be more and more visible to a lost and dying world. The glory of our Messiah will be seen in us and have a greater impact. That's what Jesus wants us to know. He makes this even clearer in verse 23. Our final verse for this morning. He says, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Or as the ESV says, that they may become perfectly one. Completely one. And that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. So the reason that Jesus has chosen to manifest his Father's glory in us is twofold, isn't it? One, He wants the world to see that He was truly sent by God the Father. He really is the Divine Son of God. Secondly, He wants the world to see that the Father has loved us even as He has loved His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus wants the whole world to know that the Father loves you as much as He loves Himself. as much as he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. That's hard to believe with these sinful ears. To hear, even. But it's true. God the Father has the same kind of love for me that he has for Jesus because I am in Christ. Because the righteousness of Christ has been credited to me. If that doesn't humble us, brothers and sisters, I don't know what will. But there's an evangelistic emphasis here, though, in our realization of this. As D.A. Carson has aptly put it, the unity of the disciples as it approaches the perfection that is its goal, serves not only to convince many in the world that Christ is indeed the supreme locus of divine revelation, as Christians claim, but that Christians themselves have been caught up into the love of the Father for the Son, secure and content and fulfilled because loved by the Almighty Himself, with the very same love He reserves for His Son. It is hard to imagine a more compelling evangelistic appeal. Why is it hard to imagine that? Because I think it is hard to imagine a more compelling evangelistic appeal. But it's also hard for us to imagine how God could love us this way. Well, that's why it's such an evangelistic appeal. The world can see in us a love that is otherworldly when they see how much God loves us. We're sinners. We don't deserve it. And yet, we get to be sons. We're sinners who don't deserve it, and yet we get to be loved, even as Jesus is loved by His Father. People want that kind of love, deep down. And the world doesn't have it. It can't produce it. It can't fake it. And Jesus has many other sheep He wants to call, and they're going to hear His voice speaking through the Gospel, and what is that Gospel about? God's love to undeserving sinners. That's what it's about. Such love can only be found through faith in Christ, and it is only as we trust Him every day that we'll exhibit this kind of love, that we'll be who we truly are in Christ. In conclusion, I'd like to end where I began. I'd like to encourage you to leave here with one final thought. Mainly that our Lord Jesus is still praying for us. He hasn't stopped. Remember that the author of Hebrews tells us that our Lord Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them. You want to know what Jesus is praying for you? We don't know everything He's praying for us, but we know some of the things He's praying for us if we look into the Word. And we have a good example of that here in this prayer. So we need to recognize anew this morning that we truly already are united as one in Christ. That's a fact. So we need to pray daily with Jesus, what He's praying for us, that we'll exhibit this unity more and more fully so that others may come to know Him as we have come to know Him. We haven't truly grasped the love of Christ for us until we want others to know it too. It hasn't yet overwhelmed us like it should. And so we can't help but want to tell everybody. about this great love that we found in Christ. Let us remember that our success, our triumph over all the trials that we face, our unity and our expression of it together depends on Jesus and His work and on anything we can do in our own strength. We need to look to Him because He prays for us. because He still prays for us, because He will always pray for us, we know we can be triumphant. And we know the only thing that makes us different in the end from Judas Iscariot is the same thing that made Bartholomew and Nathanael and Andrew and Peter and James and John and the rest of the eleven different. And it wasn't anything in them. We're just as fickle as they are. And we deny Jesus, too, in all kinds of ways. Maybe not with our mouths, but with our lives. What makes us different from the great betrayer of Jesus Christ? He chose us. He died for us. And He prays for us. Let's pray. Holy Father, thank You so much for Your great love for us. I hope I've been able to Make clear the thoughts that our Lord Jesus expressed in his prayer to you here for us by interpreting scripture by scripture, by looking at the way Jesus used this terminology before and the way he taught his apostles to teach it. I pray that we'll leave here with a better sense of who we are in Christ today. a deeper appreciation of the fact that we are no different from anyone else in this world. We deserve hell. We are saved only by your grace because you have loved us, because you have called us, because you pray for us, Lord Jesus. That's how we are still faithful. That's why we haven't fallen away. And that's why we will continue to be faithful. We will be preserved by the power of God and the prayers of our Savior. So help us to go forth into a lost and dying world with humility, recognizing we are sinners saved by grace. We're no better than anyone else. We've just received your love that they can have too, despite their own sins. Help us to realize, Lord, that we need then to call people to repentance. from their sins and faith in Christ and help us to be faithful in doing it because this love you've shown us is too big to be contained by our hearts. It must be expressed to a lost and dying world. We pray these things for your glory and in the name of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.