When Jesus Prayed

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Quote From Part 1: “It is in this chapter that the veil is drawn back, and we are escorted into the Holy of Holies. We approach with our Christ the very throne of God. We come into the inner chamber of the Trinity, the sanctuary; the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High is opened to us. It is here that we put off our shoes, that we listen with humble, reverent, and eager hearts; for this is, perhaps, the holiest ground in the Scripture.But, as a Son to a Father, He reckoned Himself in submission. He acted as an obedient son, who, as a man, called on the Father to fulfill His promises.” J.Macarthur

Quote From Part 2: “The mediation of Jesus Christ, His mediatorial work, His intercession on our behalf is as real and indispensable as His death and resurrection. It was His death and resurrection that gave us life, it is His intercession that sustains that life. The ongoing interceding work of Jesus Christ before the throne of God often in response to the accusations of Satan who is continually before the throne of God accusing the brethren is what sustains our salvation and our eternal life, and brings us from justification through sanctification glorification. I think sometimes as believers we tend to think that the greater work of Christ is done in the past and now He can sort of relax a little bit. Not so. He ever lives with an ongoing involvement in our lives and a never-ceasing intercession on behalf of every child of God.” J. Macarthur

Quote From Part 3: “There are so many great and profound truths in this prayer, but there’s one that sort of pervades all of it, and that is the amazing love that Jesus has for His own. That’s what prompts this intercession. What prompts His prayer for His disciples and for the church is the profound and great love, which John said, “Behold what manner of love,” which Paul talks about, “the great love wherewith He loved us.” This immense, astounding, really undefinable, unimaginable, and infinite love is expressed here as the Savior prays for His own.”

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Well, as you know, I have been in a prolonged study of the Scripture, working through all of the material on the study Bible, and as I have gone through it I have gained again a renewed and refreshed appreciation for certain monumental portions of the Word of God. And because I am not able to get back immediately into the continuity of our teaching in 2 Corinthians and to begin what we’re planning to begin a study of the gospel of Luke, I have been drawn to bring before you a portion of Scripture that just rises from the text of the New Testament like a peak, like Mount Everest, if you will, one of those monumental chapters, and it just falls wonderfully into three segments that I can give to you this morning, tonight, and then two weeks from tonight. I want you to turn to the seventeenth chapter of John’s gospel. The gospel of John chapter 17.

One of the great reformers was Philipp Melanchthon. Philipp Melanchthon lectured on this chapter in the last lecture of his life, and in that lecture he said this, and I quote: “There is no voice which has ever been heard, neither in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime than the prayer offered up by the Son of God Himself.” End quote. The words of this chapter are plain, yet majestic; simple, yet mysterious. This is considered by many to be the greatest chapter in the Bible in depth, because it plummets the realities of the communion between the Father and the Son and the intimacies of the Trinity, and in scope because it stretches all across redemptive history. This magnificent prayer is so rich and so deep that none of us could ever fully fathom it, yet stated so clearly that we can grasp its truths and be transformed by them.

It is in this chapter that the veil is drawn back, and we are escorted into the Holy of Holies. We approach with our Christ the very throne of God. We come into the inner chamber of the Trinity, the sanctuary; the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High is opened to us. It is here that we put off our shoes, that we listen with humble, reverent, and eager hearts; for this is, perhaps, the holiest ground in the Scripture.

We’re going to divide this chapter into three portions, that’s the way it falls. The first part, Jesus is praying with regard to Himself. The second part, He is praying with regard to His disciples. The third part, He is praying with regard to the church. But just being involved in this prayer is an overwhelmingly thrilling spiritual blessing. The focal point of this prayer is the cross; that’s the centerpiece, and everything really flows from that.

The apostle Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ.” And a hymn writer many years ago wrote these words, “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time; all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.” The cross has always been the glorious centerpiece of Christianity – glorious to us, glorious to Christ, and glorious to God; and here in this section, particularly the first five verses, the Lord Jesus focuses on the glory of His cross, the glory from His perspective.

Now you know the background of the chapter I think. Jesus has just been in the upper room with His disciples…From chapter 13 to the end of chapter 16 is the table talk, Jesus giving the legacy to the twelve; in fact, to the eleven, Judas having at one point left to betray Christ. He promises them all of the great realities of spiritual life that belong to believers who are His. That table talk, that legacy, that series of great pledges and promises culminates at the end of chapter 16 in verse 33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

With that pledge, that climactic promise of ultimate victory, Jesus ends His talks. He promised them peace. He promised them joy. He promised them support and supply. He promised them answered prayer. He promised them power. He promised them intimacy. He promised them the Holy Spirit. He promised them fellowship. He promised them trouble. But in the end, He pledged triumph.

But immediately upon that promise of ultimate victory comes this prayer in chapter 17. It is Jesus who is saying to us, “In order to transform the announced victory into reality requires the action of God. Things don’t just happen. They don’t just happen because God says they will, they happen because He makes them happen.” So Jesus turns to God and prays this prayer, focusing on the divine necessity for God to fulfill the promises Jesus has made. It’s the most thrilling prayer ever prayed in all the Bible, and you’ll see that as you are exposed to its wonders.

It is also true that as Jesus prays there’s one dominating event on His mind, and that’s the cross. The betrayal is going on at the very hour of this discourse. Judas is doing his deed. Jesus will soon face the soldiers, the prison, the scourging, the execution. This prayer really marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

But it also looks forward to His great work of intercession on behalf of all the believers of all the ages. It’s very transitional. It signs off on His earthly ministry and launches His intercession. In fact, if someone were to ask me, “What is the intercessory work of Jesus like?” They were perhaps reading in the book of Hebrews about the fact that we have a sympathetic, merciful High Priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, because He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. We have one who can succor us, who can comfort us, because He’s been where we’ve been in terms of the exigencies, vicissitudes, struggles, and pains of life.

But the book of Hebrews may exalt Him as priest and may talk of His priesthood in terms of definition, but if you want to see it in action you go to this chapter. Here the priest is interceding. Here then really is the first great intercessory work of Christ. Jesus could’ve prayed, by the way, silently, and we never would’ve known what He said. But I believe He spoke not only to tell us about this prayer, but to show us what His intercession is incessantly like.

This wonderful, beautiful prayer is an example of the communion, the communication that was constant on earth between the Son and the Father. And while it was an unbroken communion and an unbroken communication because They were one, there were points of time in the earthly ministry of Jesus when He engaged upon uniquely prolonged times of prayer. Luke 3:21 tells us while He was baptized He was praying. Mark 1:35 says that when He began His public ministry, He rose up a great while before day, went out and departed into a solitary place, and there He prayed. Luke 6:11 and 12 tells us that He was about to appoint the apostles, and wanting to do the Father’s will in making that selection it says He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. In fact, it was while He was praying that He was transfigured, according to Luke 9:29. And even while dying on the cross, according to Luke 23, He died with a prayer on His lips.

But in those cases, with the exception of the brief prayer at His death, which is recorded for us, we don’t know what He said. And we’re thankful for this chapter, because this lets us into the communion between Christ and God the Father. The whole prayer is recorded for us. It is an immense treasure, the Great High Priest interceding. And here we see His mediatorial work in action.

Now as we approach it, I want to take the first section, verses 1 to 5, in which the focus of His prayer is personal. He is praying in regard to Himself, but its implications touch even us, as does this whole chapter. Let’s look, first of all, at how it begins, verse 1: “These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said.” We’ll stop there.

“These things Jesus spoke,” or “these words” refer to 13 to 16. Everything He’d been saying in that Upper Room Discourse, all those table talks with the disciples, that was done now. He had signed that off with a promise of ultimate victory at the end of chapter 16. After having spoken those things, He turned away from His disciples, and lifted up His eyes to heaven. And here He is going to pray to the Father to bring to pass all redemptive purpose, to bring to pass the plan which was from eternity, to bring to reality all the pledges and promises that Jesus made.

And there’s something I can’t resist commenting on this point. I suppose if there was anyone we would assume would not need to pray such a prayer it would be Jesus since He was perfectly omniscient; and that is, He knew everything. He knew the mind of God, and He knew what God had promised. He knew what God was doing, and He knew what God would do, what’s the purpose in praying. And yet in His willing subjection and submission, He humbled Himself, restricted the exercise, the free exercise of His divine prerogative, submitted Himself to the Father’s will, and acting as a man as we must, knowing the Word of God did not cause Him to cease to pray, but passionately to call out to God to do what He had He had said He would do.

It’s reminiscent, isn’t it, of Daniel 9, where Daniel, reading the Scripture reminds himself by the reading of Jeremiah’s prophecy that the captivity of Israel must end at 70 years; and knowing the 70 years has passed, he pours out prayer to God and says, “O, God, do what You promised You would do.” That’s much of prayer. Prayer is lining up with God’s purposes. And if Jesus in His wonderful humiliation and submission came before God in prolonged and passionate intercession for God to do what God has pledged to do, how could we do less? When you have taught and when you have instructed and when you have set the example and when you have counseled, you must then pray, beseeching God, who is the power source for the accomplishment of all the truth that you have passed on.

John Calvin rightly said, “Doctrine has no power unless efficacy is imparted to it from above.” It’s not just sowing the Word, it’s not just watering the Word, but it is praying that God will give the increase. That’s why it is said of the apostles in Acts 6 that they gave themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And so, Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven – a common posture for prayer, acknowledging God’s throne above, showing humility and subjection, the sign of a pure heart entering God’s glorious presence.

You remember the publican? He wouldn’t lift his head. He bowed it low and beat on his breast, and wouldn’t so much as look up, lest his gaze stain the purity of God’s throne. Not so Jesus, who in purity and perfect righteousness lifts His face to the Father above. He says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast send. I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”

First of all, He addresses God as “Father, Abba,” literally “Papa, Daddy,” a term of endearment used by a child for his parent; and it marks the close familiarity between Jesus and the Father. He speaks from the vantage point of His humiliation to God as His Father, and He says, “The hour has come.” Now that’s an amazing statement, and I want you to focus on it for a moment, because of its import to the understanding of this whole text.

Jesus was always conscious of the unfolding of redemptive history. There was never a moment of which He was not completely conscious. There was never an element within that moment, implied or explicit. There was never a reality that passed by Him the fullness of which He did not grasp. Every moment was part of a divine, unfolding scheme, and He was 100 percent and perfectly cognizant of every moment.

But there were some moments more monumental than others. History and its redemptive strain is the moment-by-moment materializing of the plan and will of God, and He knew the reality of all those moments, but there were some that were immensely more important. And here is the most important one. The hour has come. The hour; what hour? What time is it in redemptive history on the clock of unfolding, divine purpose? The hour is the crux of redemptive history. It is the event of the ages. It is the crossroads of two eternities meeting in wood.

The hour has come in which the Son of Man, Son of God, would end His humiliation, would terminate His labors by rendering the one and only atoning sacrifice for sin. The hour has come when He who knew no sin would be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was the hour to fulfill all the great prophecies. It was the hour when the serpent’s head would finally be bruised. It was the hour when the one who came from Shiloh would finally take His scepter and reign. It was the hour when the greater son of David, son of Solomon, the Messiah would come to glory.

It was the hour when all of the symbols of sacrifice were finally fulfilled, when the true Lamb of God was slain for the sins of the world. It was the hour every prophet spoke of and every man longed for. It was the hour of triumph over the prince of this world, the kingdom of darkness. It was the hour of dismissing the old and ushering in the new. It is the hour for which Jesus came.

In John chapter 12 in verse 23, Jesus answered them saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Verse 27 of the same chapter, “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.”

It is that hour, it is glory hour, it is the climax. It is the coup d’état. It is the Hierpunkt. It is the moment when God through Christ will blot out the curse, reconcile sinners to Himself, illuminate the obscured spiritual kingdom of Christ; and it would all be accomplished on a cross, as the King of Glory was nailed to wood and made sin for His beloved people to bear the wrath of those who hate God. And what a moment it was; the sun refused to shine, the earth rocked and reeled, the graves opened, and dead men came out.

To men, the cross appeared an instrument of shame; but to Christ, it was the moment of supreme glory. And so Jesus, looking at the cross says, “The hour has come; glorify Thy Son.” The world saw it as the shaming of Jesus Christ; and hell, no doubt, held high carnival as He was crucified there thinking they had won the day. Both were wrong perspectives. It was glory for Him, glory for Him. Jesus is simply praying, “Father, bring Me to the glory that shall be Mine at the cross by means of this event: my death, My resurrection, My subsequent ascension and coronation. Do it, Father; let it happen as planned in eternity past.”

Do you remember, before the foundation of the world, the Father predetermined to save a humanity that He would create, and to save that humanity for the express purpose of giving that redeemed and glorified humanity to Christ as a gift of love, so that they would forever reflect His glory, bearing His image, and would praise and glorify and serve Him through all eternity? The Father had made that pledge and that promise to give to the Son a redeemed humanity. He had written their names down in a book. The Son knew who they were and came into the world to pay the redemptive price so that the plan could come to pass. And the Son is now saying, “I know the plan. I ask You, Father, let it happen.”

Is this a selfish prayer that He might be glorified alone? No. Back to verse 1: “Glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.” The Son would be glorified in providing the sacrifice for sin that brought the redeemed humanity to God, but God would also be glorified in that His plan was fully complete. The Son receives honor from His Father and gives it back. Christ’s prayer is utterly unselfish. Jesus wants to be glorified in order that He may give the Father glory. The cross and the crown will reveal not only the glory of the Son, but the glory of the Father.

In fact, when you look at the cross you see God on display like no place else; for it is at the cross that you see His love as He sends the Son to die in our place. It is there you see His grace. It is there you see His mercy. It is there you see His power over sin and death and hell and Satan. It is there you see His righteousness, because He cannot just pass by sin, there has to be a sacrifice. It is there you see His holiness as He turns his back on the sacrifice, the sin-bearing sacrifice. It is there you see His goodness as out of the mouth of Jesus comes those unforgettable words to that dying thief, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise,” and that most magnanimous statement, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

It is also on the cross that you see God’s glory on display in terms of wrath and justice and judgment. It is there that you see His wisdom made clear, because He has concocted such an amazing and astonishing plan to accomplish all of His purpose: “Put Yourself on display on the cross, even as You glorify Me there.”

So Christ is looking to His own glory, not in a selfish way, but in order that He might glorify the Father through that glory. And the question then comes in this text, “How is the Son glorified in the cross?” and the answer is threefold, and I’m going to give you three ways in which the Son was glorified in the cross. And it is to this that He prays: He is glorified, first of all, on the cross because, through it He provided eternal life, through it He provided eternal life.

Verses 2 and 3, “Father,” – He’s saying – “glorify Thy Son, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” He says, “Father, glorify the Son in the cross as the means by which He will give eternal life.”

Here is the first, by the way, and the most obvious glory of the cross for which Christ is to be honored: by it, He provides eternal life. Because He died, we live. Verse 2 says that He has given authority. That authority is defined for us. It is an authority over all mankind, that to all of mankind whom the Father has given Him, He may give eternal life. It is the authority then to give to the elect eternal life.

He is then saying, “I want to do what we’ve planned to do. I want to be glorified as the source of eternal life. You gave Me power to give eternal life. You committed that power to Me.” In fact, He said that back in chapter 5 in one of His great discourses to the Jews, and He is only asking now for the Father to make a reality out of a promise. He requests to do what God has sent Him to do, and that is to give eternal life to the elect: “Let it be, Father, let it be.”

Someday, all chosen by the Father, all whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, all who believe, will receive that eternal life in its fullness. But even though we have yet to die and enter into the glories of heaven, we are already experiencing the fullness of eternal life in the sense of the true definition of that life.

Verse 3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” May I hasten to say, eternal life is not a quantity of life, it is a kind of life, it is a quality of existence. He says, “This is eternal life knowing You, Father, knowing You.” It was through the cross then that Jesus gives us the knowledge of God which lasts forever.

But notice that little phrase in verse 2, “to all whom Thou hast given Me.” That comes up again. It came up in John 6, you remember, if you’ve read through the gospel of John recently. In John 6, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me.” And I just want to point this out briefly.

To understand that our Sovereign God predetermined before time began, as Titus 1:1 and 2 tells us, our Sovereign God predetermined before time began that He would save a group of human beings, that He would bring a redeemed humanity to glory; and the reason was not for the sake of that humanity primarily, but secondarily. The primary reason for salvation is not you and I entering heaven, but rather, you and I being given to the Son as love gifts who forever and ever will praise and glorify and serve Him. In other words, the whole of saving purpose is in order that the Father may express His love to the Son, and He uses us as the gifts to do that. “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me,” – Jesus said in John 6 – “and him that comes to Me, I’ll never turn away.” He would never spurn a love gift from the Father.

God chose us to be love gifts to His Son. And so, He says then in verse 2, “all whom Thou hast given Me.” Seven times in this chapter Jesus speaks of Christians as love gifts from the Father, seven times. “It is the Father’s determination to predestine us, to be conformed,” – Romans 8:29 – “to the image of His Son, that His Son might be the prōtotokos, the Supreme One among many who are like Him.” He wants a redeemed humanity who somehow as glorified humanity can reflect incarnate deity. We will be like Christ, as much as that is supernaturally possible. This is an immense reality.

Jesus looks at the cross and sees this entire scene: “Glorify Me by letting Me give them the eternal life, that they may fulfill the plan and purpose of being brought to glory to serve and worship Him as You have designed.” As Jesus Christ then is God’s love gift to the world, John 3:16, so believers are the Father’s love gift to the Son. Christ acknowledges that and says, “Father, I want to give them that life. Glorify Me in the cross, which makes it possible.”

Clearly, in the gospel of John, one of the main emphases is on Jesus as the giver of life. John 1:4, “In Him was life.” John 5:26, “He hath life in Himself.” John 5:40, “You will not come to Me that you might have life.” John 10:10, “I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 6:33 says, “He gives life,” 6:35-48, “He’s the bread of life,” 8:12, “He that follows Me shall have the Light of life,” 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And the whole purpose of this entire gospel summed up in chapter 20, verse 31, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing you may have life in His name.”

In fact, in 1 John chapter 5 and verse – well, verses 11 to 13, it tells us, “And this witness is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” And then down in verse 20, He says Jesus Christ, His Son Jesus Christ, “This is the true God and eternal life.”

What is eternal life? It’s knowing God. It’s having Christ; and that’s eternal. So the first thing that Jesus anticipates in the cross is the glory that is His, as the dispenser of eternal life. “Father, give Me that glory,” He says.

Secondly, the Lord Jesus saw that He would be glorified in the cross in another way. Look at verse 4: “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” Jesus knew, first of all, that He would be glorified in the cross by providing eternal life; secondly, by consummating perfect obedience, by consummating perfect obedience.

Verse 4 is a statement of the perfection of the life of Christ: “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” In other words, Jesus said, “I did everything You asked Me to do. I never disobeyed anything.”

Here is an affirmation of the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ. He reminds the Father that He has been totally obedient. And it is so, as the writer of Hebrews says, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. It was the Father who commended Him most, it wasn’t Pilate, though Pilate said, “I find no fault in the Man.” It was the Father who commended Him most when the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

At that time, He had lived thirty sinless years, and He lived three more. From the time He drew His first breath coming out of His mother’s womb until the moment of His execution, He never sinned a sin, He never had an evil thought, He never spoke an evil word. He lived a perfect life. He was submissive to the Father. He conformed Himself to the Father. He humbled Himself and became obedient, even when the Father said it meant to die, and even to die as a sacrifice for sin.

Do you remember when He was baptized, and John asked Him why He was being baptized? He said, “I must fulfill all righteousness.” What did He mean by that? It was imperative that Jesus live a perfect life, that He fulfill every righteous requirement of God, which includes for men baptism as a righteous act of obedience. It was imperative that Jesus live that perfect life. Why? In order that by justification that perfect life might be imputed to you.

Now, when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, He conquered death, and by that conquering provided eternal life. But it was His perfect life of obedience culminating in His willingness to die on the cross in submission to the Father that brought about the consummation of a perfect life. And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ the perfect life of Christ is imputed to you, it’s as if you lived it. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if He committed your sins, though He didn’t, so that He could treat you as if you lived His perfect life, though you didn’t. That’s imputation. That’s the doctrine of substitution.

Jesus came to live a perfect life, and the ultimate act to prove His obedience would go to any level was that He would be a sin-bearing sacrifice on the cross if the Father asked Him. He was glorified in the cross because by it He provided eternal life, and by it He demonstrated the complete commitment to an obedient life. And because of the glory of the cross, His powerful life, His ability to destroy death and hell and Satan transfers us into the kingdom of life, and His perfect righteousness is imputed to our account. God looks at me and sees the righteousness of Christ. God looks at me and sees me only as if I lived Christ’s perfect life.

You say, “How can He do that?” Because Jesus bore all my sin. He took my life and gave me His. And from God’s vantage point, He treated Jesus as if He’d lived my life, so He can treat me as if I lived His. That is monumental. Jesus says, “Get Me to the cross, so that I can provide eternal life and a culminating and consummated life of perfect obedience to be imputed to sinners.”

And then, thirdly, in verse 5, He says, “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” The cross was a glory, because through it He provided eternal life, through it He provided perfect righteousness, and through it He personally returned to the Father. In other words, He was restored to the glory He enjoyed before the incarnation.

He is saying here, “I want to go back. The humiliation is over; the redemption is accomplished; the obedience is finished. I want to go back, pros ton theon, face-to-face with God. I want to go back to the equal glory that I enjoy with You before the world began.”

It’s the joy of a mission accomplished, and He wants the fellowship that He gave up. Salvation’s been provided, Satan’s been defeated, sin’s been destroyed, death has died, and now it’s time to go home to the Father; and Jesus sees in the cross the road to glory, because it provides eternal life, because it provides righteousness, and because it is the path back to the full glory where He can intercede for His own and bring them to glory. He asks no more glory than He already had, there isn’t any more. He just wants to go back into the Trinitarian relationship that He had before His willing humility. He wants His resurrection. He wants His coronation.

He wants the fulfillment of Philippians chapter 2, verse 9, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,” – and that is the name Lord, by the way – “that at the name of Jesus” – which is Lord – “every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

He was like a knight, I guess, who left the King’s court to perform some perilous deed, and who having performed it, came home in triumph to enjoy the victor’s glory. Only that’s not quite it. He was like the King Himself who went out dressed as a knight to perform some perilous deed and came back to take His throne.

Jesus came to the cross. Yes, there were times in the garden when the overwhelming reality of the cross was riveting, and it literally caused Him to sweat as it were great drops of blood. There were times in the garden when the wrestling with this eminent reality was overwhelming, and He asked that if the Father would be so pleased and the plan could be accomplished another way, would the Father please excuse Him from this. But hastily said, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” There were moments of anticipation that we cannot fathom as the Sinless One anticipated bearing all the sins of all who would ever believe.

But the perspective here in John 17 was all the glory, all the joy of bringing about eternal life, of consummating a life of perfect obedience to be imputed to undeserving sinners who came in faith and received the gift of grace, of getting through the cross and out the tomb and into the Father’s presence, from which He could intercede for His own, continuing to meet all their needs, and someday to bring them to glory. He says to the Father in John 6 that His plan is to receive all that the Father gives, and raise them all, and bring them to glory. So as Christ looked at the moment of His death from His perspective, He sought the glory that would come to Him, and through Him would return to the Father whose plan it was in the beginning.

What does all this mean to you? Nothing if you reject Christ, nothing; it’s meaningless. But for those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, we see the majesty of what our Christ has accomplished, don’t we, for us, and what He is accomplishing now seated at the right hand interceding for us. The cross was glory, because in it He provided our eternal life. The cross was glory, because in it He provided the perfect righteousness imputed to us. The cross was glory, because through it He ascended to the right hand of God, from which He intercedes for us to bring us to glory. And that’s just the part that pertains to Him; and it pertains to us.

For those who don’t know Christ, this means nothing. The most monumental event of human history, the most monumental moment in all the created universe means nothing. But to those who come to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and embrace Him, it means everything, and it settles our eternity.

Those of you who don’t know Christ, we would love to share with you the simple gospel, encouraging you to put your trust and faith in Him as Lord and Savior. And after the service is over, you can come to the prayer room over by the exit sign. There’ll be some folks there who’ll talk with you and pray with you. You do not need to die in your sins; Christ has made provision for you.

Starting in verse 6, Jesus begins to pray for His own. You come back tonight and we’ll take verses 6, Lord willing, through about verse 19. Let’s pray together.

Father, we echo the words of the hymn writer, “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time; all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.” It is the crossroads of two eternities in wood. It is the hour of all hours, the moment of all moments, when the Son of God purchased eternal life, eternal righteousness, and eternal glory for His own. O, we thank You for this glimpse into that glorious reality; and we are stunned by Your grace in saving us, overwhelmed by Your mercy, for we are utterly undeserving. We thank You that You treated Christ as if He had lived our lives, so that You could treat us as if we lived His; what grace.

Father, I pray for every person here, that those who do not know Christ may come to Him, and ask Him to save them from their sins, and to grant them eternal life, righteousness, and glory. For those who do possess those wonders, may our hearts be filled with praise and gratitude that translates into a life of obedience and honor to Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.

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Join me in just a word of prayer as we approach the Word of God. Father, as we come to this seventeenth chapter again of John’s gospel, as we enter this most holy place of communion between the Son and the Father, we just ask that You would give us spiritual insight and wisdom which does not belong to the natural mind to discern those things which are so transcendent; and not for the sake of knowing mysteries, but for the sake of knowing You and the mighty and glorious work You are doing on our behalf. Bless us with spiritual wisdom and insight, enlighten us, that we may know You better and serve You more faithfully, in Christ’s name. Amen.

John 17. Again we return to this very important chapter in the Word of God, a chapter in which we are let into the throne room, as it were, of the Trinity and the communication between the Father and the Son. This morning we looked at verses 1 through 5 in which Jesus prayed primarily with regard to Himself, although the implications were for us. And now we’re going to look at verses 6 down through verse 19, or at least make a good attempt to do that, where the focus of Jesus’ prayer turns from Himself to His disciples.

Certainly the greatest miracle which we experience is communion with the living God on a constant, personal basis both in time and throughout eternity. This is now prayer. We who know and love Jesus Christ have been by that faith given the right of immediate access to God’s throne. We come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in time of need, the writer of Hebrews has said. It is a remarkable and amazing privilege to be able to seek God’s resources, to invite His assistance and His help, and to know He will act in loving response to all of our prayers; that is His promise.

In verse 26, I should say, of chapter 16, He says, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you.” Jesus is saying, “You’re going to ask, and I’m not going to have to beg the Father to answer, because He loves you.” What an incredible reality that is, to know that we can pray and God answers.

Beyond that, we also realize that other believers are praying for us, and God is answering. All of us have, to one degree or another, depending on how long we’ve lived in our Christian experience, had the joy of seeing God answer the prayer of others in our behalf, and vice versa. I think back to the accident which almost took my wife Patricia’s life, and when they gave her less than five percent chance to live, how that the prayers of thousands of saints in this church and around the world were raised before the throne of God. And in great mercy to me God spared her life; and not only to me, but to all the others who love her and need her in this life. We have all experienced the faithfulness of God’s answered prayer on behalf of others.

And beyond both the answers to our own prayers and the prayers of others there is an incredible promise in the Word of God given to us in Romans chapter 8 which tells us that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and that the interceding Holy Spirit who dwells within us always prays according to the will of God because He knows the mind of God. So in addition to the promise of our own answered prayers and the intercession of fellow believers, we have the promise of the faithful intercession by the Spirit of God dwelling in us on our behalf; and His prayers are always answered because He always prays in the will of God. All of that prayer power marshalled in our behalf is thrilling.

And there’s more. Beyond all of that, Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, the Bible says, ever lives to make intercession for us. Our blessed Christ Himself is constantly and unceasingly praying for us, always according to God’s will and purpose, and always with the appropriate answer from God Himself. What a promise. The mediation of Jesus Christ, His mediatorial work, His intercession on our behalf is as real and indispensable as His death and resurrection. It was His death and resurrection that gave us life, it is His intercession that sustains that life. The ongoing interceding work of Jesus Christ before the throne of God often in response to the accusations of Satan who is continually before the throne of God accusing the brethren is what sustains our salvation and our eternal life, and brings us from justification through sanctification glorification. I think sometimes as believers we tend to think that the greater work of Christ is done in the past and now He can sort of relax a little bit. Not so. He ever lives with an ongoing involvement in our lives and a never-ceasing intercession on behalf of every child of God.

And as I mentioned to you in the message this morning, in this chapter we get an inside look at the character of intercessory work on the part of Christ. Having completed His earthly work we now are introduced to His heavenly work. This magnificent chapter unfolds what He does as the interceding High Priest in order that we might move from justification to glorification. This is the work that guarantees the pledge that Jesus made in John 6 when He said, “All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me, and I will lose none of them but raise them up on the last day.” It is this intercessory work that pledges to that end.

Having completed His redemptive work on the cross and through the open tomb, He ascended to heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father carrying on a faithful ministry for our benefit, for the healing of our weaknesses, for the strengthening of our helplessness, and for the maturity of our infancy. He knows well the limitations of His own. He knows the power and the strategy of the enemy Satan. He knows what it is to wrestle with humanness, He understands the weakness of our flesh, and He identifies Himself as the Shepherd and Caretaker of our souls. And this High Priestly intercession is not only effective but unending: He ever lives. That is to say He has an unending priesthood exercised in our behalf.

In 1 John chapter 2 we have a glimpse of this in these most important words: “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” When we sin and the enemy would rush to the side of God to point a finger at our iniquity and disqualify us from the unfolding and full realization of redemptive purpose, we have an Advocate, a lawyer for the defense, who rises to our defense; and the defense is this, “I have already borne the penalty for their sins; and thus, Father, there is to be nothing held to their account.” He eternally secures our salvation. This ministry formally began after Christ’s ascension and His coronation at the Father’s right hand, but previewed here in this chapter before He leaves, so that we might have insight into the character of His redemptive work.

Now as we look at this work of intercession that culminates His redemptive purpose and brings us to glory, we have already seen the glory that is His in the cross, by providing eternal life, by perfecting obedience, and by personally returning to the Father, so that He may intercede for us to bring us to glory. But as we look at verses 6 to 19 we’re going to go into that third aspect, that aspect of Him being glorified and bringing us to glory, and we’re going to see three questions answered here, simple questions: “For whom does He pray? Why does He pray?” and, “For what does He pray?” To put it another way, we’re going to look at the subjects of His prayer, the reasons for His prayer, and the requests in His prayer.

Let’s start with the subjects of His prayer in verses 6 to 8: “I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee; for the words which Thou gavest Me I’ve given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.”

The subjects of His prayer initially are identified here as “the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world.” And He’s referring, obviously, primarily here to the disciples, particularly the eleven. Certainly beyond them, to all who believe in Him; but primarily He is addressing the disciples, who really are the firstfruits of all the rest of believers to come. The disciples had depended upon their beloved Master for everything. They were now to be left alone; from their viewpoint, thrown on their own resources. In a real sense, they could anticipate that Christ was to be gone, and this was a startling and frightening reality to them. Though Jesus had promised them that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, even in the discourse that just was completed in chapters 13 to 16 in that upper room, He Himself would send the Spirit, and the Spirit would in reality be the Spirit of Christ returning, and it would be Him, in fact, coming back.

In spite of that pledge and promise, He knew they were heading for serious trial that was likely to shatter them and bring them to stresses that they never experienced when His visible and immediate presence was in their midst. Christ had always been their guide. He could be seen and followed and heard and touched and questioned. He had always been their guardian; He was ever-present; He was all-sufficient as a friend. He had borne their infirmities. He had upheld them in their weaknesses. He had protected them from evil. He had loved them with a capacity of love, the likes of which they had never even conceived of. And they had experienced His strength and they had experienced His gentleness. They experienced the fact that He had a word for every occasion and an answer to every problem. And the thought of losing Him was a paralyzing thought. And it’s in that vein that He says to the Father, “I manifested Thy name to the men Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word.”

But He knew He was leaving. “Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee;” – He says – “for the words which Thou gavest Me I’ve given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came from Thee, and they believe that Thou didst send Me. I ask on their behalf,” – verse 9 – “on their behalf.” It is for the disciples and for His own who will greatly miss His absence that He is praying; they are the subjects of His prayer.

And in a larger context, we are included in this. He says, “I have manifested Thy name to them.” And, of course, the idea of God’s name is the summation of all of His attributes. In the Old Testament, the expression “the name” is used in a very special way. It doesn’t just mean the identifying word to sort somebody out from the crowd, it means the whole nature and character of the person so far as it is known.

Psalm 9:10, “They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.” That is to say, “They that understand Your character.” Psalm 20, verse 7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 22:22, “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren.” Those who know His name know His character. And so, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is saying, “I have declared Your name to them.”

In fact, more clearly, more perfectly than ever before, the full character of God has been manifest to them in the person of Jesus Christ who said, “If you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father.” He was full of grace and truth. He manifested the very nature of God to them, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, and it was the glory as of the protōtokos, the Premiere One who had come from the Father.”

There’s another thought here that I find fascinating as well. The name of God was so sacred. Because of all that it inherently contained of the expression of God’s nature, it was so sacred that it was never pronounced by the Jews, except that the high priest pronounced it when he went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Apart from that, no one ever spoke the name of God, the tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters that might be transliterated best as Yahweh. It just was never spoken, it was too sacred. Even the biblical Scriptures that we have coming down to us in English from the original Hebrew do not use it. Instead of Yahweh, they took the consonants out of that and added the vowels out of the term Adonai, which means Lord, and created a word that doesn’t exist in the Hebrew, Yehovah or Jehovah, a substitute rather than speaking the sacred name of God.

You see, to them God was distant and transcendent and fearful and awesome and far away, remote, invisible; and His name was not for ordinary men to speak, or even extraordinary men for that matter. But Jesus says, “I came speaking God’s name.” Over and over again in the gospel of John He says, “My name is I AM.” That is the name of God, that is what Yahweh means. That name so sacred could be spoken; and Jesus spoke it often.

It should be spoken, because Jesus provides access to God. He’s no longer remote; He’s no longer distant; He’s no longer fearful and awesome and far away. We can even say, “Abba, Father.” So Jesus said, “I came and I showed them Your character, Father. I showed them Your nature, and I brought them near in a new intimacy, so that the humblest Christian, the weakest Christian can speak the sacred name of God without fear.”

Christ then moves to describe the subjects of His plea. He tells the Father who they are in detail. Let’s look at the detail. First He says, “I manifested” – verse 6 – “Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world.” And there is that reference again to the fact that every saved person is a gift from the Father to the Son.

I told you this morning, I say it again: seven times that is stated in this chapter, seven times. Jesus is here praying for those who are gifts from the Father to the Son, chosen by the Father before the world began, their names written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life; they are to be given to the Son as love gifts. And though they may have been despised by men, and particularly these eleven hated by the leaders of Israel, and though they were certainly the objects of Satan’s enmity and fury, they were nonetheless the chosen children of God, treasures given to the Son to show the Father’s love to the Son. It is a staggering thing, it never ceases to stagger me to realize that the Father chose me to give to the Son as an expression of His love. Every Christian is that love gift, given to the Son, received by the Son, kept by the Son, raised by the Son to glory.

Why is He saying this to the Father? Why is He reminding the Father that these are love gifts from the Father to the Son? He says, “You gave them to Me,” – verse 6 – “and they’ve kept Your word.” The mark of a true Christian always is obedience.

“Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee.” In other words, “They have a full knowledge of who I am, of why I came. They know You. They are Yours to give to Me; I have kept them. They have received the words You gave Me to speak. They’ve believe” – verse 8 – “everything that I have said and that I came from You.” In other words, He’s identifying them every way He can: “They are love gifts that You gave Me. They are obedient to Your word.”

And that is a mark of a true disciple. John 8, Jesus said this: “If you continue in My Word, then you’re My real disciple.” The manifestation of their true character is shown in the path of obedience which they willingly follow. That’s not the perfection of their life, but it is the direction of it.

And so, Jesus says, “Remember, they are the elect, and they are the obedient. They have followed and believed and obeyed. They believed that I have come in the flesh, God in human form sent from You.” So, they are love gifts, they’re obedient, and they’re orthodox; and they are the subjects of His prayer. All believers fall into that category.

But what is the reason for this prayer? We know now who the subjects are, but what is the reason? This is really wonderful and it’s contained in verses 9 and 10. He says, “I pray for them, I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine; and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.” This is just marvelous. Jesus says, “I’m praying for them, not the world.”

People ask me the question often, “Does God plead with all sinners to repent?” And the answer is yes, He does. The gospel invitation, the gospel in its widest sense is extended to the world.

And then sometimes people will say, “Well, does Jesus then pray for the salvation of everyone?” Well, the answer to that question from a theological standpoint would be that Jesus would pray for the fulfillment of the Father’s will, and the Father’s will is to save whom He’s chosen. But the exegetical or textual answer to that is right here: “I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me.” He’s praying for the elect and the obedient and those who have come to an orthodox understanding of who He is, not the world.

There is one place in the New Testament where Jesus prayed a very broad prayer, and it was the last prayer He prayed before He died, and it was very short; and this was it: “Father,” – what? – “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He was praying for the forgiveness of God on the terrible sin of executing Him. That’s the limit of Christ’s praying for the unregenerate. If He had wanted to He could have instantly forgiven them.

And I think He gives us a pattern there by just, in a broad sense, praying for their forgiveness. And I think that’s the way we need to pray. Obviously we need to pray that God would fulfill His divine purpose; but I think broader than that we need to pray for the ungodly and the Christ rejecters that God would be gracious and forgive their sins.

Jesus teaches us something similar to this in Matthew 5:44 where He says, “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” God does have a concern for the lost. God does have a concern for those who hate Him and persecute His people; and you will manifest God-like character when you have a concern for them and pray for those who persecute you.

Christ wants sinners to be saved. He wants men and women to be forgiven. And once on the cross He prayed for that in a very broad sense; but directly here, He is interceding in His high priestly work only for those whom the Father has designed to give to Him. This again is a staggering and humbling reality. What is it that causes me to be a part of this chosen group? Purely and only the goodness and mercy of God, to which I make no contribution.

The emphasis here is not on gospel effort, it’s not on a gospel invitation or an extension of the call to believe that can be broad and wide; this is an emphasis on intercession; and He only intercedes for His own. To put it another way, the unsaved just have to fend for themselves; but we have the eternal Christ as our Advocate.

He prays for those who are the true disciples because they are the personal property of God. Look at it in verse 9 again: “Thou hast given them to Me; for they are Thine.” They were His even before they were saved, because they were His by predetermination. “And all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” They are God’s and they are Christ’s personal possession. And so, He says, “I’m praying for these who belong to You and to Me.”

Everything that belonged to the Father belonged to Him, everyone that belonged to the Father belonged to Him. And He is simply saying, “Father, I’m praying for them because You gave them to Me. I’m praying for them because they’re ours; and I’m asking You, Father, to care for them because they belong to us.” This is beautiful. We are the personal property of the Trinity, beloved and cared for; what a thought. We are the personal treasure of the eternal God.

At that moment it was a motley little group of outcasts, unsynagogued, hated, Galilean hicks and their friends. The men of their day saw nothing to mark them as eminent. But they were as always so wrong; for that little group was the treasure of the eternal God.

Way back in seminary as I began to understand the greatness of these truths, I developed a special love for a hymn, which occasionally we sing, and which I’m sure at least several times every month I sing in my own meditation. It says this: “I am His, and He is mine. Heaven above is softer blue, the earth is sweeter green; something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen.” Why? “Because I am His, and He is mine.” It’s an incredible reality.

Another hymn writer wrote it this way: “I belong to the King, hallelujah.” Another one said it this way: “I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice.” Another one put it this way: “Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly.” And yet another said, “Now I belong to Jesus; Jesus my Lord will love me forever. From Him no evil can sever.” And there are many more. And so, Jesus is simply saying, “The reason I’m praying for them, Father, is because, one, You gave them to Me as love gifts to care for; and secondly, they belong to both of us.”

And there’s a second and perhaps even more important reason why He prays for them, verse 10, at the end of the verse, “I have been glorified in them. And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that we may be one even as We are.”

Just taking the first part of that eleventh verse and the last part of verse 10, Christ is saying that He wants the Father to care for the disciples so that they will be all they can be in order to display God’s glory. He says, “I have been glorified in them, and I want that to continue. I want to see them come to full glory. I’m no more in the world;” – verse 11, He’s now anticipating His leaving and it’s as if it already happened – “but they’re in the world and I’m coming to You. Father, keep them, in order that they might come to the fullness of glory. I’ve already been glorified in them. My glory is manifest in them and certainly through the work on the cross, the gift of eternal life, imputed righteousness, the hope of eternal glory.”

But He says, “I’m leaving. I’m leaving, and the glory display of My presence and their surrounding that presence will change, and they will remain. O Father, keep them.” What He’s really praying for is this: “I want them to continue to radiate My glory even when I’m not there.” And that is what He prayed for. He prayed that we would manifest the glory of Jesus Christ even in His absence. The glory of God was revealed in Christ on earth; and when He left, Jesus said, “I want My glory revealed in My church, in My disciples, in My people.”

Paul said, “It does come to pass, it is reality, Christ in you the hope of glory.” Paul said, “We become the temple of the Spirit of God radiating the glory of Christ to the world. Through us Christ shines.” “Let your light so shine, that men may see your good works and” – what? – “glorify your Father who’s in heaven.”

Is the shekinah still here? Is the shekinah of God that was in Christ and manifest when He pulled aside the veil of His flesh and was transfigured, is the Shekinah here? Yes. Where? In us, in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ.

Jesus left, but when He did He said, “Father, send the glory back to dwell in My people. Care for My true disciples, that the glory may shine through them.” So Christ is leaving, but only in the sense that His physical body is no longer to be on earth. His presence, His glory will remain and radiate through the body of Christ, the church.

So He prays for those three reasons. One, because we are the personal possession of the Trinity, a gift from the Father to the Son; and because we are the reflection, the radiation, the display of glory in the world that manifests the light of Christ to others. Second Corinthians 4 Paul makes this absolutely crystal clear in most glorious words. He says this: “For God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” That’s an incredible statement. The glory of God, shining in the face of Christ placed in us, radiates, and we have this treasure, he says, in clay pots. As we learned when we went through 2 Corinthians, we’re just common, cheap, disposable, replaceable clay pots; but in us is the shining glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So Jesus prays then for us, because we are His love gifts, because we are the personal possession of the Trinity, and because we are – listen carefully – the lights in the world, Philippians 2. He’s made us to shine as lights. Now we come to the main part. We have talked about the subjects of His prayer, the reasons for His prayer; let’s come, thirdly, to the requests in His prayer.

What is Jesus desiring in your life? What is He desiring in mine? What does He ask the Father for? What does He specifically plead for in behalf of the beloved followers who belong to Him and to the Father? What does He want from those for whom He died?

First of all, one sort of glaring statement stands out in verse 15: “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world.” That’s the one negative element in this intercession. “I am not praying that You take them out of the world.”

We see two things in the chapter Jesus doesn’t pray for: He doesn’t pray for the world, and He doesn’t pray that believers will be removed from the hostile world. Why? Because we are the instruments through which the glory shines, that men may see our good works, glorify our Father who is in heaven, and come to the knowledge of Christ. Jesus never prayed that His disciples might find escape; He did pray that they would know victory.

The kind of Christianity, by the way, that buries itself in a monastery or a convent would not have seemed real to Jesus at all, and is not what He’s praying for. The life that is withdrawn from the world is a sad confusion of what Jesus intended for His own. Of course, there are times when we need to withdraw and retreat into the place of meditation, times when we shut out the world to be alone with God; but that is not an end in itself, but a means to the end that we go back into the world stronger to demonstrate the power given to us in those quiet times.

Jesus does not offer us easy peace, but He does offer us triumphant warfare. We must never desire to abandon the world, but always desire to win those whom the Father has set His purpose on. The apostle Paul, of course, is the great model of that; he was willing to give his life in the gospel enterprise. He says in Titus 1:1 he was a bondservant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of the elect. He suffered everything he suffered in order to get the gospel to those who would hear and believe.

And so, Jesus does not pray to take us out of the world; we are here to unfold His purpose. In fact in 2 Corinthians 5, you remember the verses from 18 to 20 where it says He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation, He’s given us the word of reconciliation, and we are therefore ambassadors as if God was begging through us that sinners would be reconciled to God. We’re here for that primary purpose.

In fact, as I told you in years past, the primary reason we’re left here is, in fact, the only compelling reason we’re left here is to fulfill this responsibility; and we would be better off in heaven on every other count. We will be perfectly righteous there; we’re not here. We’ll have perfect fellowship there; we don’t have it here. We’ll lift up perfect praise and worship there, which we are unable to do here. We will have perfect and pure motives there, which we do not have here. Everything could be better achieved in heaven except one thing, and that is the proclamation of the gospel to sinners who need to hear and believe.

So He doesn’t pray that we’ll leave, that’s not His prayer. This is what He prays for. First of all, verse 11 and 12, end of verse 11, “that they may be one even as we are, that they may be one.” He is saying, “Look, I am no more in the world, I’m leaving. Father, You’re going to have to take over.”

You know, I think maybe He had His anticipation even of the cross and the period of time between His execution and His sending of the Holy Spirit, or even the period of time between His execution and His resurrection. “Father, You’re going to have to hold them during that time.”

Do you understand, beloved, that you would lose your salvation in a heartbeat if you were not upheld by God? And Jesus is passing the responsibility on in that brief period of time, perhaps even between His death and His resurrection. “Father, You’ve got to take care of them. I’ve taken care of them; it’s Your turn. I’m coming back to You, and You need to take care of them.”

And how is the Father going to do that? Of course, by the sending of the Holy Spirit. And what was the goal? “That they may be one, even as We are.” They were about to face the world alone without the bodily presence of Christ. Jesus was going to the cross and then to the Father’s throne. There they would be without their friend, their guide, their guardian. But Jesus had promised them in chapters 14, 15, and 16 that the Spirit would come. And now He prays to the Father to make it happen. I love that. Even Jesus doesn’t take anything for granted; He knows that what God promises He has to do.

So the Savior speaks to the Father that His beloved little flock given to Him by the Father now belonging to them will be deprived of His personal care and exposed to the world, and it is up to the Father to activate all the promises that He has given them. Verse 11, He says, “I’m no more in the world; but they’re in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

“O Father, hold on to them, hold on to them. Keep them through Your name.” What does that mean? “Keep them according to Your holy character and Your truthfulness. You said You would, and You’re holy and consistent to do what You say.”

You know, such concern on the part of Christ to me is a thrilling thing. I mean, I look at my own life, I don’t know how you do yours, I look at my own life and I look a long time to find anything that I could offer up to God as satisfactory. Do you? I mean, even my best efforts seem woefully short of what God is worthy of. And I am best at sorting out all of the things that displease God, and I would not at all be shocked if there was teaching in the Scripture that said, “If you blow it big you’re out of the picture, buddy.” But it is inconceivable to me that Christ could have this kind of commitment to me where if there is a moment in the flow of redemptive history when He can’t give full attention to one of His own, He passes the responsibility on to God so that nothing might happen to that one.

This is the extent of love, isn’t it, and infinite grace. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” And God so loved His Son that He gave Him a people who, conformed to His image, will all through eternity sing His praises. And we are valuable thus to Christ as love gifts from the Father, as the very possession of the Trinity itself, so valuable that He prays for our security. People want to debate and argue about eternal security. It doesn’t seem to be a debatable issue to me. It’s not up to me, it’s totally up to Him; and here’s a glimpse of how important it is to Him.

And He guards them with a view to them being one. What does that mean? I think one in common eternal life which we possess at salvation, I think there’s an element of this prayer that was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit came and indwelt every believer, and continues to do so that we share one common eternal life. There is a spiritual unity that did come to pass in direct answer to this prayer. But I think more than that, it’s oneness of a separated body of those who belong to God. It’s a oneness of separation from the world, that we would be one body opposed to the world.

He’s not praying that someday all denominations will get together and we’ll have one big ecumenical hash. He’s not praying that we’ll have one world church, as some have thought. He’s simply praying that believers who share common eternal life, the very life of God dwelling in them, will be united in their separation from all that is ungodly and worldly, expressing spiritual love and power and obedience, all affections for God burning with the same flame, all aims directed at the same end, all pursuing the harmony of love and holiness.

He not only prayed that we would know that kind of holy separation, but verse 12 He says, “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished.” Isn’t that marvelous? Jesus said, “The whole time I was taking care of them, Father, nobody perished.”

“Now, Father, the son of perdition is going to come.” That’s Judas, named from his destiny, that’s Judas. “I kept them, Father, and I never lost them, and I promised I wouldn’t,” John 6:37 to 39. “I guarded them even in the garden,” John 18, I guarded them when the soldiers came, and I guarded them when they came; and they would have taken them prisoner if I had allowed it. And I said to those soldiers, ‘Who do you seek?’ and they repeated, ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ twice, and therefore articulated with their own lips that their orders did not allow them to take those disciples. For if they had taken those disciples I would have lost them. But I made sure they didn’t take the disciples,” – John 18 says – “so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. I lost none of them. It would have been a temptation more than they could bear, so I never let them have it. I protected them all the way.

“And I’ve kept them, and I told You I’d keep them. And now, Father, the son of perdition, Judas, the damnable one, the son of condemnation, so named because he is designated unto perdition, unto destruction, unto eternal hell, he’s coming, and the whole issue of betrayal and crucifixion is going to take place, and sin-bearing; and Father, You’re going to have to care for them, and You’re going to have to keep them holy, and You’re going to have to keep them separate from the world. You’re going to have to make sure they don’t go back in, but they stay united and separate.” And so, He prays for their holy unity; and secondly, He prays for their joy, verse 13.

By the way, the end of verse 12 the Scripture did predict that this would all happen in the plan of God. Psalm 41:9, Psalm 109 talks about this whole betrayal with Judas. But verse 13, “But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” Jesus has prayed aloud in the presence of His disciples. Right now He’s praying as He prays this, and they’re hearing Him, and He says, “I want them to have joy. I’m coming to You, and I’m speaking these things out loud right here where they can hear, so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”

What does that mean? “When they hear My love for them articulated, when they hear My concern for them to be protected and secured articulated, it’s going to give them great joy.” It was their joy that was on His heart in chapter 15 when He said in verse 11, “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

“O Father, I want them to hear this prayer because it will bring them joy.” Does it do that to you? It sure does to me. Wow. Wow. When I hear the Savior pray for me like this, intercede for me like this, when I realize nothing can separate me from the love of God, as Romans 8 says, in Christ, because of this kind of love and this kind of care and protection and intercession, it produces joy in my heart, it takes out all the fear. For us to understand this kind of loving intercession is a constant source of joy.

And there’s a third thing Jesus prayed for, not only their holy oneness and separation from the world to be maintained, but their joy; and thirdly, their protection, their protection. Verse 14: “I’ve given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they’re not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” He forms the hostility there. “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from” – whom? – “the evil one.”

If there’s one thing that Satan wants to do, if there’s one great enterprise that he would like to accomplish, it is the destruction of saving faith. There is nothing that would be more satisfactory to Satan than to exhibit the kind of power it would take to tear someone out of Christ’s hand. You understand that? This is a battle over one who wants to be sovereign and is not. And what Satan wants more than anything else is to take those who belong to God out of God’s hand, out of Christ’s hand. He’s the one ultimately in John 10 who is “unable to pluck them out of My hand, or My Father’s hand.” But that’s what he wants to do.

He wanted to do it to Job. He went to heaven, he said to God, Job chapters 1 and 2, he said, “Look, all these people worship You and serve You because You bless them all the time. Stop blessing them; let their life go bad, and then see how they treat You.” He was going to prove to God that saving faith could be destroyed by negative circumstances. God said, “Have at it. You can do anything to Job except take his life, and let’s see if saving faith can be destroyed.”

Now I don’t think Satan wanted to kill Job, because that wouldn’t prove the point. What he wanted was a living Job who denied his God; and so he assaulted him, and destroyed his family, and destroyed all his possessions, and turned him into a destitute and sick man, sitting in a heap of dust scraping scabs off the boils on his body. And all he had left was his wife who kept saying the wrong stuff, and he probably wished that she had been shipped out along with everybody else.

And then the Lord sent him three friends, and as you well know, they sat there for seven days and said nothing; and that was the last contribution they made. As soon as they opened their mouth, all wisdom left, and they compounded his pain by incessant accusations against him, which were not true. But in the end his faith never was broken. In fact, it was strengthened. In chapter 42 he said, “I have heard of Thee with the hearing of mine ear; but now my eye sees Thee, and I repent in dust and ashes. Sorry, God, for any inkling of distrust through all of this; I know see You far more clearly than ever. You can’t break saving faith.

Satan came to Jesus in Luke 22 and said he wanted Peter. And so Jesus told Peter. He said, “Satan desires to have you that he may sift you like wheat. And I told him, ‘Go at it.’” He wanted to destroy Peter’s faith; couldn’t do it. Jesus said, “And when it’s over and you’re turned around, you’ll strengthen the brethren.” And there was a demon attacking Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, and he prayed three times for that messenger of Satan to be put away, and the Lord three times said no. Sure, Satan wants to destroy the faith of Peter and the faith of Paul, that would be monumental, but it can’t be done. Why? Because the Lord Jesus intercedes; and here He commits that care to the Father, “Keep them from the evil one.”

They had received the Word. They had been begotten again, born again of the Word, washed by the water of the Word. They were converted, they belonged to God. But now the supernatural powers of hell were unleashed against them, particularly in the absence of Jesus. And you remember, you began to see their tremendous attack as Peter is warming himself, you remember, around the fire, and the assault on his faith comes. And all the rest of the disciples are scattered in fear, and it looks like the whole thing is going to disintegrate. Jesus anticipated that, and He wants the Father to hold on to them in that time when He’s unable to do that, and protect them from the onslaught of the wicked one.

And then there’s a fourth component. He prays for their holy unity, for their joy and their protection; and lastly, He prays for their sanctification by the Word. Verse 16, He says, “They’re not of the world, even as I’m not of the world.” There’s a beautiful identification. “I’m holy and separate and set apart, and so are they.”

Verse 17, one of the most wonderful things Jesus ever said on our behalf, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth.” Sanctify, hagiason, make them holy, make them separate from sin.” How do you do that? By the Word. Let the Word do its work. I love this statement: “Thy Word is truth.” It doesn’t say, “Thy Word contains truth,” it says, “Thy Word is truth. And take that Word and set them apart from sin.” David said it, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin.”

Verse 18: “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, I set Myself apart to this task of death, I set Myself apart, that they themselves also may be set apart in truth. If I don’t die they could never be sanctified by the Word, by the truth. I will set Myself apart willingly to die on the cross, that they might be set apart to You through the truth.”

This is the prayer of Jesus: “O Father, give them a consistent, holy oneness, separate from the world. Don’t let them blend in. Don’t let them fall back. Give them a full joy in the knowledge of My love and Your love for them, and Our care. Provide complete and ongoing protection from the evil one and all his forces. And finally, set them apart as pure and distinct, as they come to know and live out the Word of God.”

He knows all this is God’s will, He knows all this is God’s promise, He knows He must die to make it possible; but nonetheless, He prays that God would bring it to pass; and we see the passion of His heart for us. This is a remarkable passage, unlike any in Scripture, as the Savior intercedes for His own. This didn’t just happen one day on the Mount of Olives two thousand years ago, this same kind of intercession is going on right now for you and for me, for our holy, loving unity, for our full joy in the knowledge of His love, for our complete protection from the evil, one and for our sanctification through the Word.

With all of that understanding of the divine purpose and the divine power, there’s a remarkable mystery in all of this – and I close with this – and that is that though God will do this, some of us will experience the doing of it with full joy and blessing, and some of us will experience it kicking and screaming with reluctance. I don’t know about you, but if I had my choice, I would rather be perfected by the truth than by trials, wouldn’t you?

Is the fullness of this prayer really the passion of your heart? Are you pursuing a holy, loving unity? Is your heart ever overflowing with joy in the knowledge of the love of God and Christ for you? Are you rejoicing in the unrelenting protection that He offers you from the evil one, and are you taking advantage of the armor provided? Are you pursuing the Word with a passion and an eagerness and taking it in so that it can be translated into a sanctified life?

I don’t know about you, but if these resources are laid at my feet and I have the smallest dose of wisdom, I will pursue them with all my might, wouldn’t you? I want the fullness in this life of all that God has for me. Yes, He will bring us all to glory; but the trip should be a blessing and not a constant chastening.

Father, we thank You for this great chapter, and more than that, this great reality, that Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for us. We’re overwhelmed by all of this, thrilled by it. Lord, may we be committed to it. And the mystery of all of this is that somehow we participate with a willing heart in the answer to these prayers, and experience the fullness of blessing; or we are unwilling and dilatory and resistant and rebellious, and we forfeit the blessing. We thank You for the mercy that will bring us to glory, and we seek to know the fullness of blessing of a compliant and eager heart. Grant us that by Your Spirit we pray for Christ’s sake. Amen.

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One of the great heroes of the Reformation in England was a man named John Knox. In fact, if you go to Scotland today and go into one of the Scottish churches, they will identify the pulpit of that church typically as the John Knox pulpit because it was John Knox, the great, bold, fiery preacher, who brought the Reformation to Scotland. John Knox, the great and legendary preacher of Scotland had a terminal illness, and in the remaining days of his life after he had taken on this illness, he requested that he be read a portion of Scripture every day.

     And that portion of Scripture that he wanted to hear every day up until the day he died was the seventeenth chapter of John’s gospel. In fact, he died on November 24th of 1572, and the record indicates that the last words that he ever heard before he entered into glory were the words of John chapter 17.

     Turn in your Bible, if you will, to that chapter because it is the text that we’ve been looking at. This is what is commonly known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer. It is a picture of Jesus interceding for His own. And we noted that the prayer really falls into three very obvious categories. In the first five verses, Jesus prays with regard to Himself, with regard to the salvation that He is about to accomplish through His death and the return to glory when He goes back to the Father. From verse 6 through 19, He prays for His disciples primarily, prays for them and the strategic role they will play in preaching the gospel of salvation.

     And then starting in verse 20, He prays for the church, for all of those who will hear the message of the gospel through the apostles and will believe and then spread the message across the world. This is Jesus, then, interceding for His own.

     Most importantly for us tonight, from verse 20 to the end, interceding for the church. He says this: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone but for also who believe in me through their word” – referring to the apostles and those who believe through their word the written Scriptures as well as the early apostolic preaching – “that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected in unity that the world may know that thou didst send me and didst love them even as thou didst love me.

     “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am in order that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou didst love me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known thee, yet I have known thee and these have known that thou didst send me, and I have made thy name known to them and will make it known that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.”

     There are so many great and profound truths in this prayer, but there’s one that sort of pervades all of it, and that is the amazing love that Jesus has for His own. That’s what prompts this intercession. What prompts His prayer for His disciples and for the church is the profound and great love, which John said, “Behold what manner of love,” which Paul talks about, “the great love wherewith He loved us.” This immense, astounding, really undefinable, unimaginable, and infinite love is expressed here as the Savior prays for His own.

     We’ve seen glimpses of it before in the washing of the feet of the disciples. Earlier that evening, you remember, when John 13 opens up, Jesus takes a bowl and puts a towel around His waist and washes the disciples’ feet and in that way demonstrates the love that He has for them. But here in chapter 17, we come to a picture of love that stretches beyond a simple foot washing. This takes us into a profound expression of the love, not in a physical action but in a spiritual communion with God Himself. Nothing is more emblematic or more demonstrative of the love of Christ than that He intercedes for His own.

     He has you in His heart, He has me in His heart, and He carries us to the throne of the Father that He might plead on our behalf for all the best gifts that God can give. That’s how much He loves His own. That love depicted in this high priestly prayer is then sealed forever in the willingness expressed in His death as He went to the cross to die for those for whom He had just interceded. No greater evidence of His love can be seen than the cross, but next to the cross, this incredible picture of His high priestly intercession demonstrates how deeply He loves us.

     Now, as we look at verses 20 to 26 tonight, in just the little bit of time we have, I want you to notice three things that sort of take apart this passage and allow us to see it more clearly. Number one, the subjects of His prayer; number two, the requests of His prayer; and number three, the confidence of His prayer. First of all, the subjects of His prayer. As I noted for you, in verses 1 to 5, He prayed basically for Himself, not selfishly but that He might be glorified with the glory that He was due, having accomplished the work that the Father had sent Him to accomplish.

     And then starting in verse 6 and running down to verse 19, He prayed for His living disciples, particularly the eleven apostles who were alive at the time who would be the preachers of the gospel who would largely be the writers of the New Testament. And now as He comes to verse 20, His prayer sweeps into the future, beyond the apostles, and it gathers up people of all ages and all countries, all cultures, the believers of all history to come. Look at verse 20. “I do not ask in behalf of these alone” – that is, of the eleven, the apostles – “I do not pray for these alone.”

     And by the way, I can’t resist noting for you, that’s the third negative in this prayer. There are three things that Jesus says in this prayer “I do not pray for.” The first one is back in verse 9, “I do not ask on behalf of the world.” He is not interceding, He is not the high priest of the unregenerate world. Verse 15, “I do not ask thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

     He does not pray for the world, and He does not pray for believers to be taken out of the world but rather to be delivered from the evil one in the world because it is crucial that they be in the world for the purposes of unfolding the advancing kingdom through the preaching of the gospel. And then in verse 20, “I do not ask in behalf of these alone.” He prays not only for the apostles “but for those also who believe in me through their word.”

     Whether it was the written word of Scripture, which the apostles and their associates penned, or whether it was through their preaching, all who heard what the apostles said, all who read and read what the apostles wrote, are involved in this intercession. The sovereign, omnipotent eye of the Lord Jesus scans the centuries from that moment all the way on to the end of redemptive history, and He presses to His loving heart all His true followers in all the centuries yet to come as if they had been saved already, their names already written in the Lamb’s book of life.

     Already eternal God has set His affection upon them, already it has been determined that they will be embraced in a covenant that will bring them from darkness to light, from hell to heaven, and they belong to God in anticipation from eternity past, and so Jesus prays for them at this moment. Though most of them have not yet lived, they are already on His heart, their names written in His book – He was about to pay for their sins on the cross.

     So this is not some general prayer. This is a very specific prayer, and He’s very specifically praying for you and for me and every other believer through all of redemptive history until the end of the age and the establishment of the eternal state in the new heavens and the new earth. This is Jesus interceding. You want to know what His high priestly prayer ministry is like? This is it. He unveils His loving heart. He gives insight into His intercessory work. In fact, this goes on all the time. What He does here in chapter 17, He does even now because it says in the book of Hebrews, “He ever lives to make intercession for us.” He’s praying for you right now, He’s praying for me right now, even as He always has.

     He identifies these as “those who believe in me.” True salvation comes from faith. We don’t need to say much about that, we know that, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,” Acts 16:31 says. True saving faith is what identifies God’s own. Now, it’s important to mention this here because we’ve talked about the fact that they were predetermined from before the foundation of the world. Jesus knew who they were. God knew who they were. They were the chosen, their names were written in the book, but all of that does not come to fruition apart from personal faith, and so He prays for “those who believe in me.”

     And how did they come to believe? This is so important. “Through their word,” that is, the word of the apostles. By the gospel preached through the apostles and the associates of the apostles, by the scriptures which they were used by the Spirit of God to write, they have provided the source of gospel truth which men and women have believed through all the ages and thus been saved.

     Before the apostles died – and, of course, we know that most of them were martyred – before they died, not only did they teach and preach, not only did they found the church, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, embodied in the books of the New Testament was their doctrine and its evidence, they gave an account of the life of Christ, an account of the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, they gave an account.

     In fact, they gave four accounts of everything that Jesus taught and then what they taught in the book of Acts and how the church grew. They recorded the miracle works that Jesus did and the works that they did in His power, also in the book of Acts. In these writings, they continued to testify of the Savior. And then some of them were inspired to write the epistles, as we know, and there they recorded all of the theological significance of everything that Jesus said and did.

     They, then, are uniquely the source of the gospel, of saving truth. As Paul said, “Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.” And so says Paul, “Salvation comes by hearing the Word.” So when we preach the gospel, we preach the Word of the apostles. That’s why in the book of Acts, it says the early church studied the apostles’ doctrine. Their message, written in Scripture, preached, their message is one that will lead to faith in Jesus Christ.

     It’s an amazing thing to think about because at that moment, there were only eleven of them. One was a serious, serious defector who had left the room that night to go and betray Jesus this very night. And it is right away in chapter 18 that the Romans, along with leading Jews who were against Jesus, come marching into the garden where Jesus has been praying and take Him captive, and the execution is at that point imminent. And when Jesus is arrested, you know what happened to them, they all what? Scattered and fled.

     And Peter, who was the most formidable of them (at least apparently so) and their leader by all recognition, denied Christ on three separate occasions and may have even denied Christ multiple times. He certainly did more than three times, on three occasions, but on each of those occasions, there may have been multiple denials. It looked like a massive defection.

     How was it ever going to be that the world of believers from that moment to the end of redemptive history would come to believe through the influence of these men who momentarily were shattered and scattered and fled in fear and who were turned into deniers of the very Christ who had called them and commissioned them? They would soon abandon Him. But His confidence was unshaken, and He was praying for those whom He knew in omniscience would be saved by the powerful chain of witness that was going to begin with those so-weak disciples.

     You know, I think it was good for them to hear this. It was good for them to hear this prayer with all the events to come, to remember that Jesus had this kind of confidence, that the whole flow of redemptive history would come from their influence. So Jesus prayed for His very own sheep yet unborn and unconverted.

     It’s amazing to think about, but two thousand years ago, Jesus was praying for you – as well as dying for you. We are His personal possession, a love gift from the Father, cherished by the Son, guarded, protected, and someday to be raised up to glory. And you see Christ immediately here taking care of His own by interceding for them. And that’s how He cares for us now. This constant intercession goes on and goes on. When we get to glory, we can thank Him.

     Let’s look secondly at the requests. We talked about the subjects of His prayer, and it’s us and all others who would believe following the apostles. What is on His heart? What’s He praying for? Really, there’s only two things here. In verses 21 to 24, there’s a lot said there, but there are really only two themes. And we could take a lot of time digging into every nuance of this text because it’s so deep and rich, but suffice it to say at this point that there really are two things on the mind of Jesus, and it is these two things that capture His interest. One is He prays for our oneness, our unity.

     Now, that one is wonderful to think about, but the second one is staggering. He prays for our oneness and secondly, He prays for our personal presence with Him. That’s the staggering one. Let’s look first of all at oneness. Verse 21, “I pray that they may all be one.” I want to stop right there. This is a very simple statement, but it might be at first kind of hard to sort out what He’s talking about.

     That’s a very popular verse and an often-used verse by those who would like to get us to sort of set aside our doctrine and all embrace each other and just kind of waltz around holding hands with disregard for any doctrine or anything that might divide us. That’s sort of the ecumenists’ verse. That verse is used to sort of intimidate folks who have some strong convictions, and they say, “What do you want to do, go against the grain of Jesus? He prayed that we all may be one.” Well, are we simply talking about an emotional unity there? Are we talking about some kind of a practical acceptance of one another? What are we talking about?

     Some would even suggest that what it’s talking about is that we should only have one church in every city – there’s a movement to that effect – that we should all be one so that there should be no denominations, no associations, no difference, just one church in every city, and certainly if not that, there should only be one association of Christians, not many denominations. Others think that this is some kind of practical unity where we just look like we got it together as a group and that we really need to show that we all get along really well, and that we take care of each other very well, and we support each other, we hold each other up, and we have a great internal support system among us.

     And, you know, all of those things certainly play a role in life in the church, but I don’t think any of those things is really what is on the mind of Jesus. And I’ll tell you why. He says, “that they all may be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee.” Now, there’s the analogy. Whatever kind of unity He’s praying for, it’s the kind of unity that exists between the Father and the Son.

     Now, that eliminates some of the more trivial things, doesn’t it? As important as it might be for us to have kind of a good mutual support system, I don’t think that’s the essence of that analogy. As important as it is for us to sort of join in a united front and sort of all belong to each other, as important as it is to not let things divide us and all get together on a sort of a front basis so that the world sees one image of Christianity, that does have a role to play, none of those things really deals with the statement of Jesus that this oneness is the kind of oneness that exists between Himself and the Father.

     He goes on in verse 21, “that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me.” This oneness has to do with convincing the world that Jesus is God. It has to do with convincing the world that the gospel is true, that Jesus is the Savior, that He can transform lives. Now, stay with me because this is very important. There are a lot of organizations that hang together very well. There are some tribes that hang together very well. There are some cultures that hang together very well. There are some false religions that put on a good face of unity in the world.

     There are some religious groups and some non-religious groups that do a good job of supporting each other mutually and making sure they meet each other’s needs and acting philanthropically toward each other. That’s not what it’s talking about here. There’s something much more profound than that, and the bottom line is this: There is an essential unity of holiness. There is an essential unity of holiness here. The Father and the Son are one in holy perfection. Take it a step further, one in holy love.

     There is an affection in the trinity, there is a profound affection. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. There is no question about that. There is a love beyond our capacity to comprehend between the Father and the Son, the Son and the Father, and the Spirit as well. There is an immense interchange of affection in the trinity. Verse 23, at the end of the verse, talks about “how much thou didst love me,” Jesus says. Verse 24, end of the verse, “thou didst love me before the foundation of the world.” Verse 26, “the love wherewith thou didst love me.”

     There is a love that exists in the trinity, and the only way I can express it is it’s a holy love and it’s a love of holiness. It’s a love of what is pure and what is holy and what honors the other. The Son wants only to express that holy love by honoring the Father; the Father wants only to express that holy love by honoring the Son. When Jesus is praying that we may be one, I believe He is praying that we might have a holy love or we might have a love of a holiness, and where you have people all loving holiness, you will have amazing unity because if we all are tuned in to holiness, we’ll all experience the unity of that holiness. That’s the issue.

     Jesus wants us to confront an unholy world, an ungodly world, a disconnected, shattered, broken, ruined world, with a vision of holy, loving oneness. And you can’t set theology aside if you’re going to get that because holiness is predicated upon sound doctrine. It is a oneness, it is a separate oneness, it is a oneness apart from the world. He wants people to look at us and say, “Jesus Christ must be a saving God, Jesus Christ must be a Savior, Jesus Christ must have come to deliver from sin because look at the holiness of those people.” That’s the issue. So the sad part is that when unbelievers look at the church, they don’t necessarily see unity, and they certainly don’t see holy unity.

     I was reading an article in a magazine when I was away about a woman who’s been ordained to be the new pastor of a homosexual church in Los Angeles. That’s what the world sees. The world sees – and that’s supposed to be an evangelical church. The world sees Christianity as this strange and bizarre mixture of the holy and the unholy, of the real and the phony. That’s the issue.

     What Jesus was praying was that the Father would make one people, and He did that and does that through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, where we’re all baptized into the one body, and that that holy oneness would be made manifest by holy living and holy loving in the church.

     The church is never going to get organized into one organization. We’re never all going to want to worship God the same way. There’s too many cultural variables around the world. But that’s really not the issue. There is a much more penetrating and profound issue that transcends all of those kinds of things and that is the issue of purity and righteousness and virtue and godliness and holiness that ties us together. It’s a unity and commitment to holiness out of which springs holy love. That’s what He’s talking about.

     I mean there are so many ways that we are one, anyway. According to John 5, we are one in rights, all believers – that is, we all inherit the same privileges. That’s true of the Father and the Son. John 5, Jesus talks about He and the Father having the same authority, He talks about He and the Father having the same purpose, He and the Father having the same power and the same honor. That’s all in John 5:16 to 23. And He also says in verse 26 of John 5 that He and the Father have the same power to give life.

     They have the same will, John 5:30; they have the same works, John 5:36; they have the same name or nature, John 5:43; they have the same doctrine, John 7, John 12, John 14; they have the same purpose in saving men and they have the same glory, they share the same glory, we saw that earlier in chapter 17. The Father and the Son share the same essential character or nature, and it is a nature of holy unity. They are one in holiness.

     If there’s anything that defines God, it is that He is separate from sin. He’s separate from sin. And that’s the most defining reality about Christ, He is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, the writer of Hebrews says. And that’s the same kind of oneness that God is desirous of having in His church. That’s what Christ is praying for. He’s praying that we would be one in mind, yes; one in heart, yes; one in will, one in purpose, one in truth, but ultimately that we might be one in holiness.

     Then back to verse 21, “that the world may believe that you sent me.” The convincing argument that there is a Savior who delivers from sin is a holy life. How else is the world going to believe? You say, “Oh, yeah, Jesus came and He saved me from my sin,” and someone looks at you and says, “I don’t see it. I look at you, I see sin.” We can’t really expect the Father – expect, I should say, the world to believe that the Father sent the Son and that all of Jesus’ claims are true and that Christianity is true unless there are some holy people to evidence the power of God over sin.

     Verse 22, “And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one.” This is just a rich, rich truth. In order to produce this holiness, in order to produce this holy, loving unity, this unity that comes out of a commitment to righteousness, virtue, purity, and holiness, the Lord has given us glory, He says. That’s what it says in verse 22, “The glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them.”

     What is this? What is the glory which God gave to Christ? Simply His own glory – His own glory. Jesus was God in human flesh. And Jesus is saying, “I’m giving them the same glory.” Amazing. “Father, you gave me all your attributes, all your character in human flesh, and I’m giving your attributes to them.”

     What happens when you’re a Christian? God comes to take up residence in your heart. You remember, Jesus showed the glory of God at His transfiguration, Matthew 17, pulled back the flesh and the manifest glory of God was revealed to show that this is indeed God with all the nature of God. And Jesus has committed Himself to us to take up residence in our hearts. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “We have the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ in earthen vessels.”

     You couldn’t live a holy life, you couldn’t life a pure life, a virtuous and godly life unless God lived in you. And that’s why in verse 23, He puts it this way: “I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected in that holy unity, that the world may know that thou didst send me and didst love them even as thou didst love me.” The only way the world is going to know the transforming love of God in Christ is through our holiness.

     The greatest detraction to the viability of the gospel is sinning Christianity, people claiming to be Christians who aren’t and living a life of iniquity. People who are Christians living iniquitous lives tear down what is endeavoring to be built concerning the viability of the gospel.

     So Jesus is not praying for something that can’t happen, He’s praying for something that can happen. He’s praying for a holy unity that can be reality because He, the incarnate God, in His Spirit takes up residence in us so that verse 22 is true, “the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them.” “You gave me your nature,” in that sense, incarnate, “you gave me your Spirit.” Jesus even said, “I do what I do by the Spirit of God” and now He’s saying, “I gave them that same reality.” God manifested Himself in Jesus, and Jesus has manifested Himself in us. This is credible truth. And when there is that loving, holy, pure, righteous character, the world will say, “Jesus must be a Savior.”

     And then in verse 24, we have the second feature of Jesus’ prayer – praying first for our holiness, our oneness in holiness even as the Father and the Son are one in holiness, but secondly, He prays for our eternal fellowship with Him. And this is this most overwhelming thing. This is how the whole prayer ends. It really is overwhelming. “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.”

     I mean – you know, there aren’t even too many famous people in this world who are interested in having us around, are they? We’re not many noble, not many mighty, and nobody in the palaces of the world is calling me. Nobody in the Oval Office ever calls me. Nobody in the Supreme Court wants to run around with me. Nobody is interested in most of us. In fact, I guess in some ways, we’re sort of the dregs, aren’t we? Especially in this culture in which we live in today.

     Is it not remarkable that the glorious Son of the living God prays to His Father that He might have us with Him? Is that not a staggering thing? An overwhelming request? He asks for the Father to grant the eternal presence of all of us with Him. He’s praying, of course, consistently with God’s purpose because that’s God’s purpose. God chose us before the foundation of the world, wrote our names down, gave us as love gifts to the Son. We’ve gone through that many times. And as John 6 says, “All that the Father gives to me shall come to me, and him that comes to me, I won’t cast out, but I’ll receive and I’ll guard and I’ll raise in the last day.”

     To be with Christ, that’s God’s plan. God planned that we would eternally be with Christ. That’s our prayer. We pray that we might enter into the glories of eternal joy in the presence of Christ. But it’s not just our prayer and the Father’s plan, it’s the Son’s intercessory petition as well. This is such a humbling thing because we’re so unworthy of this. To think of the Son of God praying that we would be with Him – why?

     Why does He want us? Well, you might be surprised at this. Back to verse 24, “In order that they may behold”  – my what? – “my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou didst love me before the foundation of the world.” Why does Jesus want us to be with Him? So that we can – what? – see His glory. That’s why. And He has every right to desire that. He wants to put His glory on display.

     You know, the disciples saw Him, but His glory was veiled, and when for a moment it was unveiled, they almost died on the spot. They really never knew the real Lord of heaven. They only knew the one veiled in flesh. And you and I, we have to fall into the category of “whom having not seen, you love,” right? We see Christ with the eye of faith and the eye of hope. We lean on Him with trust. But there’s going to come a day when He wants to show us what He really is and He wants to put Himself on display fully, and He wants us there for that great display.

     You know, we’re like Moses. You remember Moses – back to Exodus 30:33, he saw God’s glory veiled, remember that? Second Corinthians 3 talks about – had a veil over his face and he couldn’t look fully at the glory of God and he had to cover his face and wear this veil. There’s going to come a day for us when all the veils are off. He emptied Himself of all that glory and came to earth and was incarnate, but He went back to glory, and He’s in full glory display right now, and He wants us to be there with Him so we can see that. More than that, He wants us to reflect it and that’s why in 1 John 3:2, it says “we’ll be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

     You see, the point of bringing us to heaven – and I’ve said this many times, but the point of bringing us to heaven is not so much for us as it is for Him. He is worthy to have this whole redeemed humanity of believers, throughout all the eons of redemptive history, He is worthy to have them all see His glory and praise Him and worship Him and adore Him forever. And that was the whole purpose of God in the beginning, to call out a redeemed humanity who would have as their express purpose the praise and worship of God and the service rendered toward Him. So Jesus is saying, “God, bring them all to glory – bring them all to glory.”

     Remember what I told you last time? It’s so fascinating to me. He’s anticipating the time on the cross and He’s going to be going through the sin bearing and the suffering, and He’s really just saying to the Father, “Hang onto them while I’m gone for a while, and, Lord, bring them to glory. I don’t want to lose any of them. Bring them to that place where they’ll trade this vile body for a body like unto His body.” We will have a body like Jesus Christ, reflecting His glory. To be with Jesus, that’s heaven, that’s heaven. To gaze at His glory, that’s heaven. That’s what it is. Nothing more wonderful than that, nothing more profound than that. And that’s why He wants us there, so we can see His glory, praise Him for it, and adore Him for it.

     And lastly, the final two verses, verses 25 and 26, talk about the confidence of His prayer. The subjects of His prayer, the requests of His prayer for our holy unity and our personal presence with Him, and then this confidence as He closes. This is a long “amen,” by the way. “O righteous Father, although the world has not known thee, yet I have known thee, and these have known that thou didst send me. And I have made thy name known to them and will make it known that the love wherewith thou didst love me may be in them and I in them.”

     These two verses just breathe the confidence that the Father will listen, that the Father will hear. He said, “I’m only asking for those who know you. I’m only asking for those who are yours. I have known you,” and that’s the basis for asking, “and these have known you,” and that’s the basis for the petition and the blessing. “I’m praying for them, those who know you. O righteous Father, do what I ask, make them holy, bring them to glory.”

     Here is a perfect illustration of prayer. He knows the will of God and He prays for it. Prayer is not so much changing God’s mind about things as it is affirming God’s will. That’s why we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,” and the next line says, “thy” – what? – “will be done.” I tell you, when we think about the Lord interceding for us, it is a staggering thing. And the Son always prays like the Spirit, according to the will of God, and the Father will always answer.

     Seven things, I’ll sum them up for you, that Christ asked the Father for in this chapter, and they all relate to you and me. One is preservation, “Father, keep them.” Two is jubilation, verse 12, I think it is, “that they might have my joy fulfilled in them” – verse 13, rather. Preservation, “Father, keep them.” Jubilation, “that they might have my joy fulfilled in them.” Liberation – liberation, verse 15, “that you would keep them, guard them from the evil one, free them from Satan’s power.” Sanctification, verse 17, “Sanctify them in thy truth, in the truth which is the Word.”

     Unification, verse 21, “that they may all be one in holy unity.” Association, verse 24, “that they may be with me where I am forever.” And glorification, verse 24, “that they may behold my glory,” and the only way we could ever behold His glory would be if we were glorified because if we were still in any kind of human form, the full sight of His glory would kill us, right? Because no man could see it and live. So Jesus prays for our preservation, jubilation, liberation, sanctification, unification, association, and glorification, and then closes by saying, “And Father, do it.” “Do it,” knowing full well the Father will.

     Well, isn’t it a wonderful thing to be the beloved of the Father and the beloved of the Son as well?

     Lord, thank you for such a wonderful time tonight. Our hearts are so greatly refreshed by the testimonies which we have heard, so blessed again as we see people coming out of the darkness into the light. So overwhelmed are we at the incredible intercessory work of our blessed Savior. We’re so thrilled to be a part of what you’re doing in the world. We don’t understand all of it.

     Lord, we just thank you so much that you picked us up out of the darkness and you made us your own. We thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you ever lived to make intercession for us, that we might be holy and that someday we might be brought to glory. We thank you, Lord, and we know that our thanks should translate into the way we live. A grateful life is an obedient life. Thank you, Lord, for what you’re going to do in us as we come to understand more and more your love for us. In Christ’s name. Amen.

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