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Take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. We are going to read the chapter in its entirety.
! John chapter 17, verse 1.! Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine, and glory has come to me through them.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them, and I kept them safe by the name that you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your prayers for us while we were gone. I can tell you that your prayers have reached the throne of grace and that God has answered by sending grace and has had no trouble finding us on the other side of the world with that grace that we needed in our time of need.
And I bring you warm greetings from Brian and Nessie Ellis from the Cabal Reform Baptist Church. They wanted me to thank you for letting us go and to be with them in the Philippines.
And they wanted me to thank you for your financial and your prayer support of CCM Ministries, Christian Compassion Ministries over the year, for the labors of Stan Heaney and Cindy Scott and now more recently Aaron Shavey and Ashton Heaney.
That church in Cabal loves Grace Fellowship Church. And so it was a privilege to go and represent you there. I hope to give a full report just as soon as I can figure out how to get pictures onto a presentation and maybe by next Sunday morning we'll have a Sunday school report on the Philippines, but hopefully before too long, to report the wondrous things that God is doing in the Philippine Islands.
It was last week, a week ago today, that I was preaching this sermon. The situation was much different, and yet much was the same.
But as I looked out, the first part of the congregation is made up of about 40 young girls from the children's home. And there they sit with all the workers with them.
And over here on the right was the boys' home, the workers and half a dozen boys. And when they sing, you hear children's voices singing the praises of Jesus.
It's an encouraging and a different, unique situation. But they sat and listened to the Word of God. And the Lord was blessed to meet us in His Word. And if He's pleased to do so, as we turn to this passage this morning, we'll come away with a greater love for our Savior and His present work, what He's doing right now for us.
So if your Bible's open to John 17, I want to say that our prayers are a window into our hearts. Our prayers are windows into our hearts.
They give a look inside and reveal what is important to us. Jesus said it, that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's inside comes out.
And that's never more true than in our praying. When we pray, we see what's in our hearts. That's true of you, it's true of me, and it's true of the Son of God.
When He prayed, it's through His prayers that we have a window to see what's upon the heart of the Son of God. Now, our Lord had a few things on His heart this night, as you will recall in John 17.
It's the night of His arrest. Judas has already gone to get the arresting mob. Jesus knows that after His betrayal, there will be the ugly trial, the false accusations, the sentencing, the beating, the whipping, the crucifixion to follow, in which He will receive the worst of man's wrath, but also the worst of God's wrath, standing in as the substitute for His people.
And yet, with all of this, just hours away, Jesus is not self-absorbed. He's not turned inward upon Himself, just thinking of Himself.
Rather, what we find Him doing is praying to His Father. And though the first few verses have to do with His relationship with His Father in His prayer, the greater part of this prayer has to do with us, His disciples.
He was thinking of us on the night of His betrayal, praying for His people. What a Savior that He would have us on His heart at such a time as this.
He states within His prayer just who it is He's praying for. You notice in verse 9, He says, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Now, the ones He's speaking of are those apostles that the Father gave Him to be with Him. And He says here that, I've revealed You, Father, to them, and they have believed and obeyed Your Word.
So He's praying for His apostles. But it's not only His apostles that He prays for. Verse 20, He says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.
Jesus was praying for those who in the future would believe on Christ through the preaching, the word of the apostles. Folks, we have the word of the apostles.
And we have believed on Jesus through their word. Jesus was praying for us this night. All who would believe on Him through the apostolic word.
What an inestimable privilege it is to belong to that group of people for whom the Son of God in heaven is praying. One of the most encouraging things that I have experienced is to have some of you or one of you come to me and say, Pastor John, I'm praying for you.
Many of you did that as we went to the Philippines, but not only them. But to know that you are mentioning my name before the throne that rules the universe. You are taking my poor name to that throne where grace and mercy is dispensed just for my time of need.
That is tremendous encouragement. Here is something that is even more encouraging to know that the Son of God who's reigning at the right hand of the Father, that He's praying for me.
That's what this passage is telling us. What encouragement that He would mention our names to His Father and plead blessings and grace for us.
Suppose tomorrow morning as you are on your way out the door to go about your tasks, to go to your jobs, to go about your errands, that as you were making your way toward the door, you noticed in one of the rooms a man kneeling and praying.
And let's say for the sake of illustration, you won't find Jesus on His knees praying there because He's in heaven. But imagine that it was the Son of God praying. And you paused and you listened in to that prayer and as you listened, you heard your name on His lips.
As the Son spoke to His Father, you heard Him praying for you. Would that make any difference on how you went out the door that day? As you went into your work, as you went about your errands, your tasks, would it put any expectation into your step and into your hearts of receiving blessing from God that day?
I dare say it would and that's the reality, brethren, that not that He's praying in our living rooms but at the throne that rules the universe. There He mentions our names and pleads grace from the Father.
Because Jesus lives forever, He is able, He has a permanent priesthood and therefore, He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him because He always lives to make intercession for us.
Hebrews 7, 25. And so in John 17, the passage read, we get to listen in on His prayer for us and in so doing, we learn what is really important to the Son of God about us.
It's a wonderful opportunity for us to check our own hearts to see if our priorities are the same as His for us, to check our prayer lists.
Do we find on our prayer list the things that Jesus has on His? Do we pray for ourselves the way that He prays for us? He's praying from the perspective of one who is leaving the earth, going back to His Father where He will carry on this intercessory work.
And so what we have here is a prototype of His high priestly work that He carries out on behalf of us today. There's four petitions for us. Four things that He asks the Father for us.
Now He says many things in this prayer, but I believe there's four things that He asks, four petitions He makes. See if you can see the first one as I read again verses 11 through 15.
Jesus says, I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me. None of them has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them. I have given them Your word and the world has hated them for they're not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. The first thing He prays for His disciples is protect them.
Twice in this passage, He makes that petition from His Father that we be protected. So get the picture. Jesus has just walked in this earth for 33 years and now He's going to leave the world and go back into heaven.
And as He does, the first thing He asks for His Father is, Father, protect them because they're not coming with Me. I'm leaving them here. And they need protection.
No one knows better than Jesus the dangers in this world. The strength and deceitfulness of our enemy and the helplessness and vulnerability of His people.
And knowing what He knows, He prays that the Father will protect us. Now that ought to wake us up to our danger that Jesus prays for our protection. He knows how weak and helpless we are.
He likens us in the Scriptures to sheep. He says to His disciples, I have sent you out like sheep among wolves. Now a sheep is a defenseless creature.
It has no means of protecting itself. The lion has powerful claws to protect itself. The porcupine has its spines. The turtle has its shell.
The skunk has its scent. And even birds have wings to escape. But sheep have no defense mechanism, no defense to protect themselves.
They are completely dependent upon the shepherd for their protection. Brethren, that's us in this world. We're exposed to danger and we do not have it within us to protect ourselves.
My friend, do you have the good shepherd Jesus as the one watching over you and protecting you? Do you have His prayers for protection? It's not safe to be in this world without it.
He knows our spiritual weakness and helplessness. There's no strength of our own to defend against sin and temptation and evil. And where are we?
Not only what are we? We're defenseless, but where are we? Well, we're in this tempting world with a busy devil. And that's why Jesus prays for our protection.
This world isn't a safe place for sheep. Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God? Is that what you found this world to be? A helper on to God?
Or rather one who would tear you away from God? What makes this world such a dangerous place? Well, it's the work of the evil one, isn't it?
Verse 15, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but you protect them from the evil one. There's a real devil who hates the sheep of Jesus Christ and seeks to steal and kill and to destroy them.
Jesus knows his rage firsthand, and so he taught us to pray. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Peter knew his rage firsthand, and so he says to us, Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, standing steadfast in the faith.
And what makes his work so effective is you can't see him. He's invisible. It's an invisible lion. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, Paul says, but against spiritual enemies.
Powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And because we can't see our enemy, we may forget his presence.
It's one of the great advantages given to any army to be unseen. To not, so the enemy doesn't know where you're going to strike or when.
Tremendous advantage. And so our enemy is unseen. And so we're likely to forget him.
He doesn't stay away from church. You don't see him, but he's here today. He and his angels, the fallen angels, Jesus says, wherever the word of God is scattered, the demons are here waiting to snatch up from your heart immediately.
As soon as that word hits your ears, they're waiting to snatch that word away so you will not become a doer of it. You don't see this enemy, but he's dangerous. He's a supernatural enemy.
Fallen angels we're talking about. Supernatural knowledge. Supernatural power. That's more power, more knowledge than what you bring to the equation. We're no match.
Luther said, on earth is not as equal. Among men, there is none to stand equal to Satan and his hosts.
He's an unseen enemy. He's a supernatural enemy. He's an experienced enemy. He's been at it for 6,000 years since the Garden of Eden. He's been studying man.
Studying human nature. Studying particular sinners. I dare say he knows you better than you know yourself. He knows your weaknesses. He knows the time of the week, of the day when you are most vulnerable, the areas you're most weak and prone to fall in.
And that's where he'll hit you. He's experienced. And so he plants ideas in your mind. And he suggests sinful responses that seem right to a man. And he appeals to your own evil desires.
And he has no scruples at all about hitting you when you're down. And if Adam and Eve fell to this enemy when they were in a state of perfection in the garden, what hope do we fallen sons and daughters of Adam have of standing against such an enemy?
Our only and all sufficient hope is in Jesus Christ who prays to his Father. Father, protect them from the evil one. So there's Peter that night.
He's hearing this prayer of Jesus. He's hearing Jesus ask the Father to protect them. He's just hours away with a struggle from a struggle with the fear of man.
there in the courtyard of the high priest. It would be a servant girl and some others gathered there that would be involved. But behind it all would be the evil one.
And so he's going to fall and he's going to fall hard. And Jesus on this night assures him, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you.
I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail and when you've turned back strengthen your brothers. Do you know if Satan had his way, Peter would not have denied his Lord three times.
He'd have gone on denying him all the way to hell. That's what Satan wants. He wants to see you turn your back on Christ and forget him and forsake him.
He wants to see you in hell. And that's what Satan was pursuing that night. But it was the prayers of Jesus that interrupted him, that frustrated the devil from his plan and from Peter's ultimate fall.
And so when the Lord looks at him and the cot crows, Peter goes out and weeps bitterly and repents and comes back and strengthens his brothers with a lifetime of ministry just as Jesus had prayed for him.
And so his faith is restored, you see, because Jesus prayed. What is the difference between Peter's apostasy falling away and Peter's perseverance?
It is the prayers of Jesus. What do we owe to the prayers of Jesus Christ for us? Our perseverance in holiness all the way to the end of our lives.
Our entering into heaven. That's what we owe to the prayers of Jesus, our safe arrival home. Brethren, we don't know the half of the many ways that Jesus, that his prayers have been answered in our lives this week.
How many, how many ways of escape appeared for you this week because Jesus was praying for you? how many times when the temptation was there, we were diverted by some other attraction or thing in answer to the prayers of Jesus, spared from some temptation during our time of weakness, shielded from the strength of the temptation that would have been too much for us, strengthened just in time so that we would go on resisting yet once more and once more.
We've been protected and all in answer to the prayers of Jesus for us. And how many times when we've fallen has it been his prayers that have recovered us and brought us to repentance and brought us to confess openly our sins to him?
All in answer to the powerful prayers of Jesus and our faith has been revived so that we are walking with the Lord without this intercessory work of Jesus.
We have shipwrecked the faith many times, you and I. Blessed be the Lord Jesus who prays for our protection.
Second petition. See if you can pick it out from verses 16 through 19. Jesus praying, they are not of the world even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified.
Sanctify them. That's the second petition. Protect them. Sanctify them. Set them apart, Father, to yourself. Jesus Christ wants his people to be holy.
It's the burden of his heart. It's the thing he's praying for on the night of his arrest as he's heading to the cross. Father, sanctify your people. He's leaving them in a very unholy world.
Now we might think that if he wants us sanctified and holy, then he ought to just take us out of this unholy world, right? That's the way to keep us holy. Take us to heaven. But that's exactly what he says he's not doing.
And why not? Because our mission takes us into the world. Verse 18, As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And bringing the gospel to lost and dying sinners means contact with the world.
How are sinners to believe if they do not hear the gospel? And how will they hear if somebody doesn't bring them the message? That involves you and me, Christian. That's the mission that Christ has given us.
He wants us in contact with the world without being conformed to the world. And that's more than you can do. It's more than I can do. What happens when we get in contact with the world?
Well, there's enough flesh in us that we want to be like the world and we want the things that we see in the pleasures of sin. We're drawn to the world and we start conforming to it. That's what Jesus is here praying that would not happen.
Sanctify them. They're in an unholy place. Make them holy. And think what glory comes to God to have a holy people in an unholy place. To have a good apple in a barrel of bad apples.
To have a holy Daniel in an unholy Babylon. To have a holy church in unholy Corinth. To have a holy church in unholy Bremen.
Or in Manila. What a glory comes to God. To have a holy people in an unholy place. It was Leonard Ravenhill who said that one of the greatest miracles God is doing today is taking an unholy taking unholy men out of an unholy world making them holy and then putting them back in the unholy world and keeping them holy in it.
That's what Jesus is praying for here. Not to take us out of the world but to keep us holy in it. Think how absolutely essential holiness is to our mission to this world.
How important it is that we be holy. That's why Jesus is praying for it. Imagine that someone knocks at your door selling diet pills and he's obviously 100 pounds overweight. Are you going to pay attention and buy?
Or maybe he's got some miracle hair growth formula and he's bald. You immediately say I'm not interested. Well how are you when someone comes up to you and talks all about Jesus and what a wonderful Savior he is but who lives no different from the world.
They're just as unholy as the world they live in. Are you interested in hearing about the way his Savior saves from sin? No.
We are ambassadors of a holy Jesus and our message to this sinful world is Jesus saves from sin. We sang it this morning he breaks the power of reigning sin.
He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. And so in our mission we are claiming that there is a blood that cleanses from sin and breaks the bondage of sin.
It is done so for me. Does your life back up your message? You see why Jesus in sending us into the world praise for our holiness.
Those bearing this message to the world are to be themselves living demonstrations of sin cleansing power. We're to be the walking proof of the gospel that saves from sin.
Whose holy lives commend our holy Savior. Who adorned the gospel of God our Savior by holiness. We make the gospel attractive by a holy life.
Men cannot argue with the power of a holy life. Spurgeon said it. The beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of the Spirit of God.
The power of a holy life. It's not unholy men who will do this. It is holy men who will do this unholy world the most good.
And Paul challenges Timothy that if a man will cleanse himself from these unholy sins, then he will be made holy, useful to the master, and prepared for every good work.
He'll be made holy, useful to the master. We're only as useful to the master as we are holy. as the master has mastered us, as the gospel has broken the reigning power of sin in us.
And so on the eve of sending his disciples into the world on a gospel mission, what does Jesus pray for? Not for more money to fund their labors. Not for greater giftedness in speaking and preaching.
Not for more prestige in the world's eyes, but for more holiness. That's what he prays. And so for you and your mission into your family, into your neighborhood, into your community, your workplace, it's greater likeness to Jesus that we need.
Now what is God's instrument to make his people holy? Notice the prayer in verse 17. Sanctify them by the truth.
Your word is truth. We have God's truth in a book, don't we? And this is the holy scriptures, the truth of God.
And our commitment to holiness is no greater than our commitment to this book. Because it is by this word that we are sanctified, that we are made holy.
we need to know it, we need to understand it, we need to believe it, we need to think it, we need to live it.
You know there's everything in here for life and for godliness. That's holiness, godlikeness. Everything we need for holiness is here.
This is the instrument God uses to make us holy. It is useful for training in righteousness. That is holy living. It's here that the glory of Jesus Christ is revealed.
And as we behold his glory, we are being changed from glory unto glory into his same likeness. So let's never miss the very practical purpose for which God has given us his word, Christian.
He didn't give you this book to just make you a smarter Christian, to give you a bigger head, who knows more facts about the Bible. No, he gave you this word and he prays to his father, father, sanctify them through this word.
Sanctify them. So measure your proficiency in the word of God, not by how many memory verses you can quote, but by how much of its ways and thoughts are your ways and thoughts.
that's the true proficiency in the word of God. What changes have you recently made in your life simply because you've read something in this book and you stopped doing something or you are praying against and seeking to put your foot upon some area of your life and say, no more, John, look what God says.
Or when's the last time that you said, I've got to start doing this or I've got to do more of this simply because of what you've read in the book. Sanctify them through your truth.
Your word is truth. So make holiness your aim every time you come to this book. As you sit down and have your daily reading in scriptures, pray, oh God, sanctify me through this.
Make me more like Jesus because of what I read here. Make me a doer of your word. Oh, but Jesus did more than pray for our sanctification.
He lived and died for it. He says in verse 19, for their sakes I sanctify myself that they may also be sanctified. Jesus sanctified himself in order to sanctify us.
He lived the perfect life. His life was perfectly given over to God. Not my will, but yours be done was the way he lived. And in the wilderness temptation, we learn that he would rather starve than sin.
This is the holy Jesus sanctifying himself. And notice verse 19 says he did it for us. For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they may be truly sanctified.
And his sanctifying himself led him to obedience even unto death, even to the death of the cross. By sanctifying himself, he went to the cross, didn't he?
And there he died to make men holy. Because he sanctified himself. We can be sanctified. John Flavel, the Puritan, said, so in love is Christ with holiness that he will buy it for us with his blood.
He wants us holy. He prays for us to be sanctified by the truth, but he also sanctified himself. you know, if he hadn't sanctified himself, the cross could have done us no good.
It only takes one leak to sink a ship. It would have only taken one sin to make Jesus no savior for us. Just one sin.
But no, he sanctified himself that he might by his death sanctify us and set us apart unto God. his death has purchased the answer of his own prayers for our sanctification.
For we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Christ once for all. I wonder if you've ever thought of your Lord Jesus praying this prayer for you.
Father, sanctify John Heaney. Get rid of those sins that are still dogging him. Get rid of those wrong ways of thinking and speaking and living that still are found in him.
Make him more like myself, Father. Make his life to be an example of the sin-breaking power of the blood of Christ.
You need to think of your Savior as praying that for you. Can we hear our Savior pleading with his Father for our personal holiness and not be moved with gratitude to pray the same and to strive for the same ourselves?
So what did you pray for yourself this last month? What were you asking God to do? Did you ask him to make you holy? Let the prayer of Jesus inform your prayers.
Robert Murray McShane often prayed, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be, this side of heaven. Sanctify them. Protect them, sanctify them.
Thirdly, verses 21 through 23. That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
What's the third thing that Jesus prays? Make them one. Unify them. Unify them. Protect them. Sanctify them. Unify them. Now how important is the unity of the body of Christ?
How important is it to you? How much value do you place upon it? What efforts will you make to maintain it? We heard it this morning in our Sunday school class how important this is.
Fathers, you treasure the unity and love in your family, don't you? you enjoy seeing your children getting on well with each other. Jesus does the same with his family.
He enjoys seeing the unity of his family. To hear the Lord Jesus praying on the night of his arrest is to realize just how important this matter is to him and how grievous divisions and infightings are to him.
Not once, but five times in this prayer, he breathes out his holy desire to the Father for our unity. Make them one. And may that emphasis be reflected in our priorities.
Now, this very day that Jesus was praying this, earlier in the day, the disciples had been arguing with each other who was the greatest. And when you're arguing with others who is the greatest, you're usually not united, are you?
That wasn't the case with them. They weren't united. And now Jesus is praying, and they're hearing him pray that they would be one. Do you think that would make it any more difficult to go back to their old argument?
Arguing who's the greatest? It ought to. And as we fix our hearts and minds upon Jesus' prayer for us, it ought to make it very hard for us to tear into each other out of selfish ambition and vain conceits.
Now, notice the pattern of our unity. It's the very unity of the Godhead. Verse 11, that they may be one as we are one.
Verse 22, that they be one as we are one. Verse 21, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
So it's the harmony in the relationship of God the Father and God the Son that is to be the pattern for our unity. How united are the Father and Son?
Are they ever bickering? Are they ever quarreling? Oh, I want to do this. No, I want to do that. What we find is they are of one mind, one purpose, one will. And that is to be the pattern for our unity in the body of Christ.
Notice the source of our unity. Our unity with each other grows out of our individual union with Christ and his Father. So, as I am united to Christ and you are united to Christ, we are united to each other.
There's a lot of differences in this room. We have economic, educational, ethnic, age, gender, differences. What is there that is strong enough and big enough to bring us all together and to make us one?
well, it's our union with Christ. We have the same Savior and he has made us all one in Christ Jesus.
We have the same Father and so he prays that they also may be one in us, Father. I in them and you in me.
That's the great unifying factor that brings us together. And it's good to remember when your relationships with one another start to feel some tension to remember that the same Father that chose me to be saved has chosen them to be saved.
And the same blood that cleansed me from my sin was shed for her to cleanse her from her sin. And the same Spirit of Christ that dwells in me dwells in him.
And as we think of that, our union in Christ together, we will find the source for our unity.
It's the indwelling Christ that provides the resources for our unity. What is there strong enough to overcome our differences and to keep our differences from being things that break out in quarrels and fighting?
Well, it is the grace that we find in Christ. the indwelling Christ. I in them, Father. So all the love, the patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control that you need is found in Jesus Christ.
You say that person's impossible. Well, that's just the kind of grace that's found in Christ. The kind of grace that makes all things possible. It's supernatural.
It's the grace of being a branch united to this vine, this fruitful vine that is able to enable us to be at one with each other. The source of our unity is Christ and our union with him.
The effect of our unity. What's the effect of our unity? What does Jesus pray for? There's a specific reason Jesus asked the Father to make us one. He says it twice. Verse 21, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Verse 23, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you've loved me. Do you see that our evangelistic mission to the world is never far from Jesus' heart in this prayer?
It's ever in the background and sometimes breaks through into the foreground. We've seen it already. Our evangelistic mission to the world. Jesus says I'm not taking them out of this dangerous world, but I'm sending them into it.
So protect them there from the evil one. He says as you sent me into this world, I'm sending them into the world, so sanctify them, for only holy people will have a redeeming influence upon this sinful world.
And now he says Father, unify them so that the world may believe that you have sent me. According to Jesus, the thing that will impress this world is not how many celebrities are Christians, not how rich we are or good looking we are or smart we are, but how we love one another and how at one we are that the world might see that and know that you have sent me, Father.
Now think about the gospel message, how unbelievable it really is. we are claiming in the gospel that God the almighty has sent his one and only eternal son into this world.
That's something supernatural. That's beyond our scope of thinking and reasoning. It has to be revealed to us. That's not a small thing to believe.
And then to believe that that son has come into the world on a saving mission that by his life and death and resurrection, he might save an innumerable people from their sins and hell and take them all to heaven.
That's a big thing to believe. Now what is going to help this world believe such a supernatural message? Well it will be a supernatural unity.
When a world that's biting and devouring one another and hating and being hated and breakup and divorce and division is the order of the day when they walk into a people of God, a church of Jesus Christ and they see people loving one another, working together, praying together, worshiping together, caring for one another, meeting each other's needs, loving each other, they'll say there's something different here.
This is not natural. This is supernatural. And by that supernatural unity and love for one another, they will be more likely in the very means that God uses, God will use that in order to bring them to believe the other supernatural thing, that God sent his son into the world to save sinners.
And so it's by our unity that Jesus prays the world might believe upon him and his saving mission. well, unite them.
Unite them. Protect them, sanctify them, unify them, and lastly, glorify them. Notice verse 24, Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you love me before the creation of the world.
it's amazing that Jesus would ever say such a thing about any one of us. Father, I want them to be with me.
Just let the reality of that sink in a moment. It says that Jesus doesn't like the present state of things to go on forever. Granted, he's with us by his spirit, but he is not with us in body, is he?
His body was raised and he's at the Father's right hand. And we're here on the earth. He's in heaven. There's some distance between us. And he doesn't want to see that distance go on.
It's the same feeling that a bride and bridegroom would have in their engagement time. The fiance, as they're engaged and there's distance.
Maybe one's living in one place and another's living in another place and there's distance and they don't want to see that distance go on and they're not satisfied until the distance is gone and they're together forever.
So Jesus in heaven says, Father, I want those you've given me to be with me where I am. that tells me that there is an unfulfilled desire in the heart of Jesus even this morning.
There is a desire in Jesus to have us be with him and he is making that petition to his father. I want those you've given me to be with me to behold my glory.
glory. I wonder if I'm as anxious to be with him as he is to be with me. Whenever a believer dies, this petition of Jesus is answered in part.
The one that Jesus purchased that the father gave to him goes to be with him and to behold his glory. Do you want to know what heaven is like?
What is the glory of heaven? Here we have it. To be with him and to behold his glory. The glory he had with the father before the world began. That glory that was veiled as he came to this earth and lived for 33 years and then he went back into heaven and received again that full out shining of majesty and splendor that was his before the creation of the world.
Now he's there and he says father I want them here to see it. I want them here to see and to experience and to enjoy forever the glory that you have given me.
The glory that we had together before the creation of the world. You know we were made for glory. To see glory. To enjoy glory. To appreciate glory.
The queen of Sheba heard about the glory of Solomon and his wisdom, his power. She was a long way from Jerusalem.
But the rumors that she heard picked her fancy and she made the long journey to see Solomon. And you remember her response and she saw him and she questioned him and she saw his servants and she saw the gold and she saw the wealth and she says the half has never been told.
we've been told a little bit about the glory of Jesus and what we have heard has made us want to see him, want to be with him.
But when we see him we will say the half has never been told. And forever and ever that glory will be unfolded to us in answer to Jesus' prayer.
Father, I want them to be with me to behold my glory. Well, believers, how blessed we are to know that Jesus is praying for us.
For our protection in this dangerous world, for our sanctification, our holiness in this unholy age, for our unity in the midst of a world of division, and for our glorification when we will see him and be made like him, Jesus ever lives.
He's alive today. He's carrying on this work of praying for us. It's what he's doing now. Look up by faith and see him there. Remember these four things that he's praying for you.
While we sleep, he prays. While we work, he prays. He never slumbers or sleeps. And his prayers cannot go unanswered.
So drink it in for your encouragement. And then, are these four things that important to your Lord? That he prays for them on the night of his arrest? And this is a prototype of his ongoing intercessions for us.
Then, pray for the same things for yourself. Father, protect me today from the evil one. Didn't he teach us to pray that way? Father, sanctify me by your word today.
Father, unify me with all your people. When it is your time, take me to be with yourself and glorify me. Unbelievers, do you have such a Savior praying for you?
No, you don't. No, you don't. You need this one. You're not up for the challenge. The dangers are greater than what you can handle.
you need to be made holy by the blood of Jesus, for without holiness, no one will see the Lord. You need his spirit dwelling in you, making you holy.
You need to be made one with God and one day be glorified and taken home to see him. But without Christ, you'll be separated from him, not be one with him forever.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, thank you for this prayer of Jesus that you had John record that we might thousands of years later, two thousand years later, read it and realize what our Savior is asking you on our behalf.
Hear and answer him, Lord. Lord, we need these things that he prays for us. Help us to pray them for ourselves and help us to seek them with all of our hearts. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before his presence with exceeding joy to the only God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever more.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.