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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.
Jesus Prays For Christians
Series The Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 914151652331 |
| Duration | 46:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 17:20-23 |
| Language | English |
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