You know, we're privileged to glimpse a portion of Scripture this morning that allows us to enter into some fairly private time that Jesus, our Savior, had with God the Father. We're going to listen in and hear Jesus pray for His followers the apostles for sure, but also us, we who follow in their footsteps. I wonder, have you ever considered how Jesus prays for you? You know, when I was a little boy, I was blessed to grow up in a home where I had a praying father. And I can remember my dad every night in his den, literally on the floor, the lights off, pouring out his heart to God in prayer. And I, at an early age, had really no clear sense of what that was all about, but it seemed very special to me. I wasn't to go in there at that time. But I remember doing so. Not a lot, but every once in a while. So what in the world is he praying about? That was interesting to me. And I don't remember the details at all, but I do remember my father praying for his family, myself included, in ways that I would not have thought of at the time. I'm certain that I had tests that were coming up and he didn't mention any of that. I'm sure I struggled to get along with my sister who had the spiritual gift of irritation. And he didn't mention any of that. And some of us might be surprised this morning to find that Jesus prays for his disciples in ways that maybe we would not expect. We're going to look at a prayer that doesn't say anything about Jesus wanting his disciples to have a better Monday than their Friday was. In fact, this was a particularly grim Friday they were facing. We're going to hear Jesus pray nothing about his desire that his disciples would never experience hardship. They are about to experience unspeakable hardship. You know, we often think in terms of what we desire from Jesus, and that's why we pray. We do well to do that. In fact, Jesus in John's Gospel, which I hope you've turned to by now, there's always this wind-up part. Have you noticed that? But you're in John 17, right? And Jesus, we've seen, has already told His disciples this. He says, "...ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." And so it is right for us to desire much from Jesus and to expect much from Jesus. and to be the joyful recipients of much from Jesus. But I wonder, have you thought much about what Jesus desires for you? What is His heart's desire as He intercedes for us? Well, the communion table has already reminded us, I trust, that the great desire of our Savior for His disciples is that we be one. that we be intimately associated to the same degree that He, God the Son, is intimately associated with God the Father. That's amazing to me. And as with many of Christ's great works, there are sort of two sides to it. And I want to just explain those two sides at the onset, because I'm going to flip back and forth between them throughout our time in this passage. First of all, there is a sense in which we are already united in Christ. We just celebrated that because we are saved and kept saved by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. We are a family and we're not a family because we're here breathing the same air, listening to the same person, singing the same songs. We're a family. by blood relation, the blood of Jesus Christ. And just as we can't choose or change our biological family relationships. In the first service, there were siblings looking at each other, even poking each other. But you people seem better behaved than that. But you couldn't change that if you wanted to, right? Your parents have made sure of that. And so it is in the body of Christ. But you know, there's also a sense in which this oneness, this positional oneness, is also intended to be experiential. It would be wrong for us this morning to turn to a passage and study oneness, and then leave the building with no sense of having experienced it. having given no thought to the precious truth that Jesus actually wants us to experience this oneness. And I'm just going to call that experiential unity because I couldn't think of anything else to call it. But you can call it whatever you want. The reality of this oneness. And as we grow individually in our union with the Lord, we will grow corporately in our union one to another. And so this morning I'm praying that the Lord would do lots of things, but two things in particular, that we would be encouraged with a reminder of our oneness, our unity with Christ. But we would also be challenged a bit, that this oneness is one that the Lord would have us actually experience. This is Jesus' prayer for His disciples. In verse 6 of John 17, He says, Father, 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. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth." What an amazing prayer from the heart of Jesus for His disciples. Jesus, in verse 6, makes it perfectly clear that He has fully revealed God to these eleven apostles, and through their teaching and by His Spirit to us. God is Spirit, to be sure, but to see and hear and know Jesus Christ is to know God, because Jesus is God. And so the Lord says, I have revealed them. I have manifested you, Father, to these men. You know, God has revealed an awful lot about Himself in nature. It's interesting that we even call it nature. Creation speaks to us of the nature of God. And God has revealed much of Himself in His law, for sure. But the full revelation of God is in Jesus Christ. If you know Jesus this morning, you know God. If you do not know Jesus this morning, very frankly, you do not know God. You may know some things about God, but you don't know Him. He's known through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the complete revelation of God. And I want you to notice with me that these 11 disciples, remember Judas, the son of perdition, whom Jesus has just referenced in this prayer, is now gone. He's gone off to betray the Lord. But these eleven disciples for whom Jesus is praying are those who have been pulled out of the world. They've been pulled out of the world and given by the Father to the Son. I want you to just put a bookmark there in your head for just a moment because we'll come back to that. That is true positionally of all believers. And it is experienced as reality. when we live in a manner that suggests we've actually been pulled out of the world. Okay? But we'll come back to that. This happened, this being pulled out of the world. Remember, the world in John's Gospel is just not the whole wide earth. It's specifically talking about that mass of people that is living in willful or ignorant rebellion of God. Okay? And so, they've been pulled out of disbelief and placed into a right position with God. And they are precious to God the Father. How precious? Well, so precious that they've been given to the Son as a gift that they might know God through Jesus Christ. And I marvel at this prayer, folks, because of what is not contained here. Jesus doesn't pray, Father, these guys are driving me nuts. They say they believe, but they sure don't act like it. They say they understand, but I can see on their faces that they do not. They're more concerned about which of them is greatest than they are stepping into the mission that we're about to send them off to. So much that Jesus could be praying for these. so much that Jesus could pray for us. But I want you to be encouraged this morning that He doesn't do that. He prays for His disciples and sees them for who they are in light of God's grace. His concern in this prayer is not for their imperfection. It's not for their incompleteness, their sinfulness. He intercedes for them on the basis of who they are because of their union with Him. I wonder if Christ might have us look at one another that way. If someone were to say, what do you think of so-and-so Barney over here? You say, well, Barney's a flaming jerk, you know. He's really irritating. He really gets under my skin. In fact, the whole town of Bedrock feels this way about Barney. You know which Barney I'm talking about. Short guy, you know. Big nose. What do you think of so-and-so? He's my brother in Christ. He's been washed clean of all of his sin by the blood of our Savior. I see him in light of the grace of God. The same grace that has saved me. There's much in this prayer for us to learn. Because Jesus still intercedes for His disciples today. Do you know that Jesus prays for you? Intercedes for you. And make no mistake, He intercedes for you on the basis of who you are in Him. His preoccupation is not with your spiritual ineptitude, however large that might be. I know I don't like to think of my own. His preoccupation with us is the glory that we bring to God through our union with Him. And so it is in this prayer for His first disciples. Notice in verse 8, the basis for our union with Christ is not performance. Jesus is praying for a bunch of men who have already failed and are about to fail even more. In fact, we look at the history of their lives before Pentecost and are comforted as much as scandalized because we see our own imperfections in them, don't we? I mean, am I the only one here who loves to read about Peter? What then is the basis of their union with Him, if not their performance? Look at what Jesus says, I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them. I wonder this morning, have you received in your heart the truth about Jesus Christ? That He is God who became man and lived a perfect life that you could not even think about living, let alone actually live out. And then died on a cross and shed His blood. And in doing so, absorbed all of the wrath of God that ought to be directed at you. You see, these men, however imperfectly were in the process of doing that. They have received them and they have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me." You see, being united with Christ is a work of God, for sure. A disciple is given by the Father to the Son. And this unity with Christ manifests itself in receiving the truth about Jesus. Committing oneself to him. Everybody in this room who is a true follower of Jesus this morning has this in common. We speak in terms of our union. What is it that gives us union? Well, we are united in our affection for Jesus Christ. If you're here this morning and very frankly you have no affection for Jesus Christ, you do not yet belong to the family of God. Because it is the nature of those who are attached to Christ the true vine to have affection for Jesus Christ. He has made it so. He has made it so. And what unites us one to each other is not that we're sitting in the same warm, dry place once a week. but that we have a mutual affection for Jesus Christ. And so it ought not surprise us if that is true positionally. It also is true experientially. What helps the experience of our unity in this church? But nurturing our private affection for Jesus Christ. Husbands and wives, what helps your unity in your marriage? Is it the fact that this fellow that you married 34 years ago, he's finally doing everything you want him to do? She's already shaking her head! I mean, how is he hopeless in that way? And so are all of us husbands. And so are all of you wives. No, the beauty of union in marriage, Christian marriage, is the bringing together of two hearts that are desperately in love with Jesus. Changes everything. Disciples are united in affection for Jesus. We certainly don't want to think that unity in the body is based upon some sort of earthly affection for one another. A family setting is an interesting example of this for me because I have one sister. I think that's all the Lord figured I could handle. And he knew it was all she could handle, you know. And though we are blood relations, What's the expression? We fought like cats and dogs. All through our growing up years. I'm pretty sure we drove our grandmother who babysat for us insane. She came out of it later in life as we aged, but it was rough sledding for her. But you know, what couldn't change was the fact that my sister and I were related. We couldn't change that. We weren't related because we had some natural earthly affection for one another, though my parents desperately wanted to see some sign of that. And it's come. But let's not think that in the body of Christ either, that somehow our unity means that we are all alike, that we always agree to the same things, that we all like the same things, that sort of thing. No. Our unity in this fellowship is all because we jointly have affection for Jesus Christ. I wanna encourage you this morning that once you belong to God's family, you will always belong, just like my brother and sister will, my sister and I will always belong to our family. You, as a child of God, will always belong to God's family. You don't get to decide against that, not that you would want to, but no one else can decide against that either. In fact, you can't do anything to change this relationship. Look at verse 11. Jesus says, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are. God's name is His character, His nature. All that is true of God, which we couldn't even begin to describe this morning, is contained in His name. Aren't you glad this morning that you are kept in Christ by the name of God Himself, not by you? I am so grateful this morning that I am not kept in the family of God by my own performance. Because let me just confess to you something you already know and are thinking about anyway. I wouldn't make the cut. We are kept by the character and nature of God, not our own character and nature. There's no work of man, be it our own or anyone else's, who can change that. And Jesus prays that His disciples would so be kept by the very nature of God. And you know, friends, we need to see each other this way, too. Do you mind if this is practical this morning? It's just us, right? We need to see each other this way too. It's when we focus on our differences, and our varied preferences, and our imperfections. Some of you have noticed that there are others in your life who are not perfect, and usually what you mean by that is they're not like you, right? And when we focus on those things, Rather than understanding that we are one in Christ, our experience of this unity starts to wobble a bit. It's true in marriage, it's true in our homes as family members, it's true in business relationships that involve believers, and it's certainly true in the local church. Disciples are united in affection for Christ. I want you to notice with me that the disciples here, Jesus prays that they would also be united in direction from Christ. Look at verse 17. He says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Their unity would be characterized by the fact that they're following the same direction. What direction? The Word of God. The Word of Truth. And it began the moment they received Jesus, the Living Word, as the One who is the Truth of God. And it would continue throughout their earthly experience as followers of Jesus. They're going in the same direction because they're following the same map, the Word of God. You remember Jesus had many difficult things to say in His teaching. Some of them were so difficult, the Scripture says that some folks who had been following Him just bailed. They just couldn't take it. And there was, on such an occasion, Jesus turned to these very men that He's praying for, and He said, you know, are you guys going to take off too? And of course, who speaks up first? It's impetuous, imperfect Peter, right? He speaks up for everybody. And he says, Lord, John 6, 68, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we've come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. By God's grace, these men believe that Jesus' words are in fact the Word of God. The very words of life, eternal life. There's nowhere else to go, Peter says, on behalf of them all. And as imperfect as their followership is, as spastic as it is, it ebbs and flows. There is agreement on that point. And I trust this morning that all of us who are disciples of Jesus look to this book and understand that this is actually the Word of God, amen? That it isn't a helpful devotional book that will kind of give us that little boost that we need for the next day. It is that, but that's selling it a bit short. It is the Word of eternal God to your heart. and to my heart. And our unity, positionally, is based upon the fact that we are all in an affectionate relationship with the One who is the Living Word, and we are all following, in practice, the Word of God. Disciples are united in direction. Let me just make a bold statement, and some of you will be mad. I've mentioned refunds earlier, we do give those. When there is a problem in relationships between believers, somebody isn't right here. I know that because in my life I've had problems in relationships. Is it just me? No. And then I turn to the Word of God and the Word reveals God's heart to me and reveals a little bit of Steve's heart to himself. And I find that, good heavens, I think I've contributed much to this problem. You see, our unity is based upon being united in direction. You know, I've noticed that even when I rebel against God, do you ever do this? Even when I rebel against God, I turn to the Scripture and I realize the problem is with Steve, not with the Word of God. Why is that? Because God the Holy Spirit has made it so I understand and accept that this is God's truth. Okay? And each one of us who is a follower of Christ this morning believes this. Or we wouldn't even be here, listening to the truth of God's Word. Disciples are united in direction. Let me tell you something, in our marriages, one of the most wonderful things we can do to have a marriage that brings not only us joy, but speaks to those around us of the nature of Jesus Christ, is to spend much time taking in and meditating upon the Word of God. And men, we're to lead out in this in our homes. We want our kids to see us set this example in our homes. Because this unity is not some contrived thing, you know, give it your best shot, that sort of thing. It is the fruit of us all following the direction of God's Word. And so Jesus prays here that His disciples would be sanctified. In other words, that they would be set apart, set out of the world, the system that is in rebellion against God, and set apart to the glory of God. And that is God's desire for your life and for my life this morning. And you wonder, well, how is that going to happen? Is God going to zap us with something? kind of a spiritual mojo that we get. No. He's going to do it through His Word, which is His truth. And so we cooperate with this desire of God as individuals we take in the truth of God's Word. Disciples are united in direction. I want us to just notice one last thing here about our unity with Christ. Look at verse 18. Jesus says, to the Father regarding His men, as you sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." God in love sent His Son who perfectly revealed the grace and forgiveness, and righteousness, and justice, and reality of God." Jesus is, and was then, the full revelation of God. And so Christ sends His disciples out into the world, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, to do what? To reveal the grace, and forgiveness, and justice, and righteousness, and reality of God. The world says today, show me that God is real. And God says, look at my body, the church, the visible expression of God the Son in the world today. And we wonder sometimes why there is a struggle to believe that God is. In fact, Jesus will later say in this very prayer that it is the unity of Christ's followers that most loudly proclaims the reality of God to the world. Because it just doesn't make sense in any kind of earthly equation. My point is simply this. Disciples are united in affection, we're united in direction, and we're also united in mission. The Father sent the Son, the Son has sent His disciples. In fact, the word apostle simply means sent one. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. So far I've been speaking mostly of positional things, positional unity. If you're a believer this morning, you are united to every other believer in this room. by the blood of Jesus Christ. And you have affection for Christ, and you have a desire to follow His Word, and you've been sent here with a specific mission, whether you embrace it fully or not. Most of us do not. But you know, within this tender prayer of Jesus, is more than a whisper of the fact that He wants His men to actually experience this unity that His cross provides for. He wants them to experience it. And He wants us to experience it too. I would ask you, what good is a possession that is never experienced? In fact, can we even say that we possess it if we never experience it? I was half joking in the early service Pam was here, and I remember just at the time, that's probably why she didn't come to the second service. She didn't say. I remember when I proposed to her, as I was proposing to my future wife, the police were wheeling away the body of my neighbor who had just died next door. It was all very awkward. And it almost ruined the moment. Almost. But I figured this was my shot, and so I got, and I gave to Pam this gold band that has what I told her was diamond breath on it. Just a hint of diamonds on it. I was a college kid. I didn't have two dimes to rub together. But can you imagine how she would have reacted if I had said, oh honey, I got you the most beautiful ring. Well, let's see it. Oh, you can't see it. Well, I want to wear it. You can't wear it. Well, I thought you said you got me a ring. I want to have it. Well, you can't have it. I just want you to know that it's yours. That would make no sense whatsoever. And I've said lots of things to Pam that make no sense. But I didn't say that. And it makes no sense for any believer to speak of union with Christ and then not actually possess it. And it makes no sense for any believer to speak of union with other believers and then not actually experience it. This is a prayer then from Jesus that we would actually experience this union, this unity that we already have by right, by position. And as we peek through the window of the early church in the book of Acts, we see that this union with Christ, this unity in Christ, was actually a joyful, measurable, real experience. I want to just give you a couple examples of it before we close. In Acts 4, verse 32, we read this. It says, Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. Here are a bunch of Jewish believers in Christ now, new believers, but they're from all over the Roman Empire. In fact, at Pentecost, you recall, the gift of languages was manifest so that people from diverse areas could actually understand the truth about Jesus, right? And so, So here are a bunch of people that are from different hometowns. They have different cultural backgrounds, but different economic backgrounds, all of that sort of stuff. But they're united by what? Mutual affection for Jesus Christ. Believing the truth, God's truth, about Jesus Christ. And they are together in this sense of having been sent now by the Savior out into the world to represent Him And what's the nature of their relationship? Well, it said that they were of one heart and one soul. It almost sounds a little bit like marriage or something, doesn't it? It sounds kind of serious. It sounds kind of intimate. There was a oneness there. Paul says this to the Ephesians about unity. In Ephesians 4, he says this, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. That's kind of interesting. It doesn't say create unity. It says keep the unity you've already got. the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body in one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. If I might paraphrase, Paul has simply said, look, in chapters one through three, I have exalted Christ and shown you your position in Christ. And now here in the onset of chapter 4, I say to you, live up to that. Live in a manner that is equal to who you are in Christ together. I pray that we will not just be informed by this, But I pray that we would be open to thinking about this on a deeper level than we sometimes do. We just noted through communion the high price that was paid to bring us into union with Christ. And that same high price brought us into union with one another. And you might wonder, with respect to relationships between believers, what allows us to actually experience this unity? What allows us to grow in our experiential understanding of this unity? Well, could it not be as simple as nurturing our private affection for Jesus Christ? Could it not be as simple as taking in the Word of God and actually following its direction so that we are experientially united together in that way? Could it not be as simple as so fully embracing the mission of Jesus Christ that some of making Him known by our living and by our words that some of the differences that we tend to focus on and pick at just don't seem like that big of a deal anymore? Father, we thank you so much for the truth of your word. We thank you this morning, especially for sending your son. We thank you, Lord, that we have been brought into your family, not merely as individuals, but corporately together. We belong to you, and therefore we belong to each other. And Lord, I pray that what is positionally true will increasingly be our experience too, that we might not just be filled with Your joy for our own benefit, but Lord, our relationships would give off the fragrance of Jesus Christ to our world. And we pray this, Lord, in Your name. Amen.