SPEAKER_01: Today's reading is from John chapter 17, verse 1 to 26.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_01: Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given His authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given to Him.
SPEAKER_01: And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_01: I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
SPEAKER_01: I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
SPEAKER_01: Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and I they have believed that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I am praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
SPEAKER_01: All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
SPEAKER_01: And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
SPEAKER_01: While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.
SPEAKER_01: I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction, that the script scripture might be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_01: They are not the world, just as I am not of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_01: As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be that they also may be sanctified in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I made no I made known to them your name and will continue to make it known that the love which with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
SPEAKER_01: And so reads God's word.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Mark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the leaders here uh at uh City Church.
SPEAKER_02: Uh John 17, folks, I don't know if you picked it up in Abby's reading, but it's dense.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we're we're only gonna go scratching around the surface of it.
SPEAKER_02: But you really like I know I say this every Sunday, but you need to have it in front of you, uh, or else you're just gonna be completely lost.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I've even done slides.
SPEAKER_02: Like that's that I know, right?
SPEAKER_02: That's how that's how dense I think this is in order to try and uh pick it.
SPEAKER_02: And even at that, I'm just gonna skirt over the surface.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, otherwise, we would be here um until uh until midday or beyond.
SPEAKER_02: If you need a Bible, there are a couple down there you can jump down and get them or look it up on your phone.
SPEAKER_02: You can go to Bible Gateway and look at John 17.
SPEAKER_02: We're using the English Standard Version of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Um over the last couple of weeks, uh, I have asked uh some of you uh to basically stalk either your friends or your spouse and uh and record uh their their prayer life.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're in a couple, I've spoken to the other person uh and asked them to video uh privately your prayer life.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna watch it nah, roll roll VT.
SPEAKER_02: Uh no, don't click the slide.
SPEAKER_02: That was a joke.
SPEAKER_02: Because wouldn't that be awful?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you, some of you there were looking at your spouse going, you what?
SPEAKER_02: Got you.
SPEAKER_02: It's not uh it's not uh April Fields Day is a Saturday, but that would be imagine, just imagine if we projected your prayer life, if we all got a glimpse into how you pray.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps uh the video would be very short, uh, because frankly, it's non-existent.
SPEAKER_02: Uh that could be because you're actually not a follower of the Lord Jesus here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: If that's true of you, we're very glad that you're you're here with us.
SPEAKER_02: And so you're wondering, well, why would you pray?
SPEAKER_02: Whatever that is.
SPEAKER_02: But I suspect that even uh Christians fall into a pattern of prayerlessness.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe actually uh what we would see uh projected onto the screen would be a kind of in case of emergency, break glass sort of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: You might be one of those people that when when the sun is shining and life's going well, you kind of like, well, I got this God, thanks very much.
SPEAKER_02: And you kind of forget about him, but as soon as the storm clouds roll in, you're like, Lord, what why has this happened?
SPEAKER_02: Uh and you you run and you make those bargains.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know, if you help me get through this, you know, I'll never do this again, or I'll always do this.
SPEAKER_02: You know it's an emergency break glass sort of prayer life.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe if we projected some of yours, it would be it would be shopping list, divine butler sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I need this, Lord, I need you to help me with this exam.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to get through this, I need you to work in this person's life.
SPEAKER_02: Request, request, request, request.
SPEAKER_02: Going to make a confession, uh, something that's true of me, and I hope is true of some of you.
SPEAKER_02: You ever have the conversation?
SPEAKER_02: This is a very Christian conversation.
SPEAKER_02: You have a conversation with somebody, somebody shares uh a need, and uh you say to the person uh towards the end of the conversation because it's what Christians should say, you say, Oh, I'll be praying for you.
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
SPEAKER_02: I'd say nine times out of ten, I forget.
SPEAKER_02: Is that just me?
SPEAKER_02: There's a prayerlessness there this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Thankfully, we don't get to glimpse everyone else's in this room's prayer life, but we do get to have a sneak peek into Jesus' prayer life, and hopefully that's going to be much more encouraging.
SPEAKER_02: I don't draw the contrast in order to make you feel bad.
SPEAKER_02: I draw it in order to encourage you, because what Jesus prays here in this longest recorded prayer of Jesus in any of the Gospels, what he prays for here is, I think, what he prays for us still in his heavenly ministry in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: These are the sorts of things that Jesus prays for us.
SPEAKER_02: He prays for us, us mind wandering, falling asleep, praying, fickle followers.
SPEAKER_02: The prayer itself is so rich, we can barely uh plumb its depths this morning.
SPEAKER_02: But uh, in order to kind of just orientate ourselves briefly, this is where you can give me the next slide, uh, it breaks up into three sections, roughly.
SPEAKER_02: Verses one to five, Jesus prays uh for himself.
SPEAKER_02: Uh verses six to nineteen, he prays specifically for the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then uh the final section, verses uh 20 to 26, Jesus prays for all believers.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in a little while, when we get there, basically what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take two and three up there and uh and blend them into one, because I think actually what he prays specifically for the disciples is also echoed in what he prays for us.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna synthesize those into one group of prayers that he prays.
SPEAKER_02: But in terms of if you're following the structure, if you're taking notes, if you want to uh go back and read it for yourself, you can snap a picture of that.
SPEAKER_02: That's the rough, that's the easiest structure.
SPEAKER_02: There are more complicated structures.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is cycling around different things themes, but this is the the clearest way to orientate ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Now, before we get into all of that, I want to note something super obvious.
SPEAKER_02: So pens at the ready, if you're taking note, here's a really obvious point.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prays.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's what that's why I earned the big bucks, right?
SPEAKER_02: Because I get to make points like that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prays.
SPEAKER_02: I say that because before we consider what he prays for, just pause for a moment and consider the fact that he prays.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, why would he?
SPEAKER_02: He's about to assert and does assert in uh in verse two that he's been given all authority.
SPEAKER_02: So why would he pray?
SPEAKER_02: That's often the question that uh that that people ask as they're exploring Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: If God is sovereign, if he is the one that has all authority, why should we pray at all?
SPEAKER_02: But here we have God, the Son, speaking to God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Well, there are at least two reasons as we get into it.
SPEAKER_02: The first reason why Jesus prays is he prays because he loves his father.
SPEAKER_02: He prays because he loves his father.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer for Jesus is an expression of both intimacy and dependence.
SPEAKER_02: Note all the way through.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, the father is giving things to the son.
SPEAKER_02: There's a functional authority of the father over the son.
SPEAKER_02: And the son has this functional dependence upon the father.
SPEAKER_02: Not that he's lesser in terms of value or essence or any of those things.
SPEAKER_02: It's still God speaking to God.
SPEAKER_02: But yet there is both an intimacy and a dependence.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you pray as a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: You pray because you love your father.
SPEAKER_02: You pray as an expression of intimacy and dependence.
SPEAKER_02: The second reason why he prays is there right at the very start of uh of verse one.
SPEAKER_02: You would skip right over it in your in your study, but it's worth just uh bearing in mind.
SPEAKER_02: Verse one, first sentence, when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, when Jesus had spoken these words, what words?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we've just been given uh three chapters of words of teaching the disciples about God.
SPEAKER_02: What God is like, the promise of the Holy Spirit, who's gonna come on the other side of the cross and resurrection, who's gonna teach and guide and comfort the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: He's been speaking at length to his disciples about God.
SPEAKER_02: And now he speaks to God about his disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, this is the pattern of gospel ministry, this is the pattern of the Christian life, that we both speak to speak to others about God, and then we speak to God about others.
SPEAKER_02: When he had said these words, he prayed.
SPEAKER_02: Both are required in Christian ministry and Christian evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: And so can I encourage you that if you are whichever one you major on, maybe you're maybe you're a great prayer warrior.
SPEAKER_02: You pray for your non-Christian friends, but you get all cotton-mouthed when you go to speak to them about God.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe it is that you're uh you're a fervent evangelist and you want to share Jesus with your friends, but you forget in your prayer life, whichever one you aren't particularly given to, can you go away this morning?
SPEAKER_02: Uh perhaps as an application point to try and emphasize the other one.
SPEAKER_02: We speak to others about God and then we speak to God about others.
SPEAKER_02: That's the pattern of our evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: So, with all of that said, what does Jesus pray for?
SPEAKER_02: Don't need to move on yet with the slides, you can just leave it, uh leave it up there.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's fine, just leave that.
SPEAKER_02: The first thing that Jesus prays for, as we've noted up there, is that Jesus prays for himself.
SPEAKER_02: That's verses one to five.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not going to read all the verses because we'll be here, this is gonna be a long enough sermon as it is, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So brains, brain switched on, take a slip of caffeine, let's go, right?
SPEAKER_02: There is one central petition in verses one to five.
SPEAKER_02: It's there in verse one and it's there in verse five.
SPEAKER_02: It forms kind of bookends of this section.
SPEAKER_02: The one central petition, you see it there, you look down your phones, look down in your Bibles, it is glorify your son.
SPEAKER_02: Or verse five, now, Father, glorify me.
SPEAKER_02: What's the central petition that Jesus is asking for in these first five verses?
SPEAKER_02: He's asking to be glorified.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean when Jesus asks to be glorified?
SPEAKER_02: Now, remember all the way back at the wedding at Cana, uh, when we looked at it all those months, probably about a year ago now.
SPEAKER_02: The wedding at Cana, Jesus turns the water into wine.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody's familiar with that, I presume.
SPEAKER_02: But one of the little phrases there is that we're told that the disciples glimpsed Jesus' glory and believed in him.
SPEAKER_02: That something about the miracle showed something about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is that there is a there's an there's a pulling back of the veil that happens when it when when Jesus performs a miracle that shows who he really is.
SPEAKER_02: Glorification is the full revealing of Jesus' true character, of his true nature.
SPEAKER_02: So, like on the Mount of Transfiguration, if you know your Bibles at all, the Mount of Transfiguration is there in Mark chapter 9, for example.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus goes up on the mountain, and when it says that he's transfigured, basically what it has is that the the veil of uh of his flesh, of this uh of this worldly um uh you visage, this worldly um presentation that the that the Son of God was going about in is removed temporarily, and they see his glory, they see him for who he truly is.
SPEAKER_02: That's what glorification is.
SPEAKER_02: It's the revelation of Jesus as he truly is.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus is praying to the Father and saying, Father, the hour has come, take away the veil.
SPEAKER_02: Take away the veil completely, so that they will see how I truly am.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is asking for the full character of God to be put on display.
SPEAKER_02: There's another, there's an incident in the Old Testament that we've alluded to when we've been talking about this, where Moses up on the mountain says to God, Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_02: And God responds and says, I will cause all of my goodness to pass before you.
SPEAKER_02: And so he passes over Moses and declares the Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: He declares his character, he reveals his character to Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying, Show that to everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Show my character, my goodness, my wisdom, my faithfulness, my steadfast love.
SPEAKER_02: Put it on display, Father, for all to see.
SPEAKER_02: This, of course, uh would be somewhat egocentric if it were not true, if Jesus were not truly God.
SPEAKER_02: And so, again, if you're here this morning and you're not a follower of Jesus, and one of the questions is bubbling around your head, one of the questions that you've been asked as a Christian, or one of the assertions it's made, has been Jesus never claimed to be God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is claiming to be God here because he thinks that he deserves divine glory.
SPEAKER_02: He thinks that in the veil being removed, they will see a divine character.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus understands understands himself to be God, and this prayer is evidence of it.
SPEAKER_02: When will glory happen?
SPEAKER_02: When will the glorification, this veil being removed, when will it take place?
SPEAKER_02: When will all of the goodness, love, mercy, and justice of God be revealed to the world?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Jesus gives us the answer.
SPEAKER_02: He says that the hour has come.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to belabor this too much, but for those of you who are new and haven't followed the John series, the hour in John's gospel is a reference to Jesus' death on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: So back to the wedding in Cana in Galilee, back in chapter two.
SPEAKER_02: He looks at his mum uh and uh and says, Woman, don't do that on Mother's Day, um, woman, what is this to do with me?
SPEAKER_02: My hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_02: The hour is the hour of full glorification.
SPEAKER_02: That is the hour of his death.
SPEAKER_02: So when Jesus says, the hour has come now, well, when is it?
SPEAKER_02: It's the night before the crucifixion, the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_02: The full display of the character of God happens at the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is praying and asking his father that at the cross people would behold the love and the justice and the mercy and the wisdom and faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to Nicodemus back in John 3, he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, don't worry about that.
SPEAKER_02: But as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so when the Son of Man is lifted up, that's him, I will draw all men to myself.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying, Father, lift me up now.
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing, isn't it, that that lifting up that draws all men to himself is lifted up upon a cruel cross.
SPEAKER_02: That's just the paradox of Christianity, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: This is the this is the coronation of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: And his throne is a rugged cross.
SPEAKER_02: Glorify me now.
SPEAKER_02: Why does Jesus want to be glorified?
SPEAKER_02: Again, I said a moment ago that it's not egotism.
SPEAKER_02: And we get the answer again in verse one.
SPEAKER_02: Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_02: Glorify your son.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: That the son may glorify you.
SPEAKER_02: Now remember what glorify means.
SPEAKER_02: It means to reveal, to reveal the character of, to pull the veil away.
SPEAKER_02: So the son is saying, Father, glorify me, that is, reveal my character so that as they see my character, who I truly am, that on the cross they will see the character of God.
SPEAKER_02: That He will reveal the glory, the love, the majesty of the unseen Father.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, how do we know what God is like?
SPEAKER_02: We do not look and contemplate a sunset, nor gaze into the face of a newborn baby.
SPEAKER_02: We do not lose ourselves in lofty metaphysics, nor in obscure philosophy.
SPEAKER_02: We see the glory of God most fully, most beautifully, most clearly in the grind and blood and horror of the crucifixion in history.
SPEAKER_02: How does the cross bring?
SPEAKER_02: Glory to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Well, here we finally move on to verse 2, 25 to go.
SPEAKER_02: How does the cross bring glory to the Father?
SPEAKER_02: Let's try and follow the logic here.
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you of the verse, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
SPEAKER_02: And this is eternal life, that they know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_02: I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence.
SPEAKER_02: What has the Father done?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the Father has done two things.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to know who a sinner is, it's you.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: So murder time, it's me.
SPEAKER_02: He has given sinners as a gift to the Son.
SPEAKER_02: That's the first step of the logic of what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: And then he has also simultaneously given the Son the authority to give those sinners eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: And the Son gives sinners eternal life when they come to know, that's verse three, when they come to know the only true God.
SPEAKER_02: Now that knowledge of the only true God is not just an intellectual knowledge, it's a personal, relational knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: And how do they come to know what God is truly like?
SPEAKER_02: Well, they do it when they see the character of God revealed at the cross of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: How do you come to personally know the Lord Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: How do you come to personally know God?
SPEAKER_02: Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders.
SPEAKER_02: You look at the cross and you see him.
SPEAKER_02: And in faith, like the centurion, you cry out, surely this was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: And in doing so, you receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: And the Father is glorified.
SPEAKER_02: Thus, the Father and the Son are glorified in their salvation of sinful people like you and me.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in a moment, we're going to move on from this section.
SPEAKER_02: And we're going to see how it is that Jesus prays for his people.
SPEAKER_02: But you need to realize something as we make this transition.
SPEAKER_02: And again, this is another reason why Jesus' prayer here is not egotism.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that Jesus is about to pray is based upon and grounded in the cross and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: None of these prayers come about except by Jesus' death for you and resurrection to newness of life.
SPEAKER_02: The cross is the basis for everything that he is about to pray for you now.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prays five things for his people.
SPEAKER_02: You can bring up the next slide.
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
SPEAKER_02: You see them.
SPEAKER_02: We'll go through them in a second.
SPEAKER_02: There's no second, there's no third slide.
SPEAKER_02: Once that's done, we're done, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So another slip of coffee.
SPEAKER_02: Before we look at these five things, I've got a little hidden sixth.
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm like a I'm like an album that you used to get.
SPEAKER_02: There'd be a hidden track at the end.
SPEAKER_02: I've got it at the start for you there.
SPEAKER_02: Before we ask, uh before we look at these five things, let's just see something else wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I could give you two.
SPEAKER_02: One of them I haven't written down.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that Jesus prays here, he's already talked about.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that Jesus prays here, he's already talked about in the upper room discourse.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, after he had said these things, he looked, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he prayed?
SPEAKER_02: He's praying in stuff that he's promised to do.
SPEAKER_02: He's promised to give them joy.
SPEAKER_02: He's promised to keep them, to unite them, that the Father and the Son would come and make their home in the life of the believer.
SPEAKER_02: You go back and read the Upper Rim Discourse with these five things in mind, you say, oh, he's praying about stuff that he's already promised to do.
SPEAKER_02: Those are great prayers to pray.
SPEAKER_02: Pray these prayers, folks, because God has promised to answer them in his Son, his crucified, risen, and ascended Son.
SPEAKER_02: The second thing is that before we look at any of these petitions, you need to consider who it is that Jesus is praying for.
SPEAKER_02: Who are Jesus' followers?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6 I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
SPEAKER_02: This is fundamental for your understanding of who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Yours they were, and you have given them to me.
SPEAKER_02: Before you ever ask who am I, you must ask, whose am I?
SPEAKER_02: Believer, brother and sister, you belong to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: You've belonged to the Father since before the ages began, and his and he gave you as a love gift to his son.
SPEAKER_02: Before you ever ask, who am I?
SPEAKER_02: Ask whose am I?
SPEAKER_02: You belong to the father.
SPEAKER_02: Now what does he pray?
SPEAKER_02: He prays five things.
SPEAKER_02: First, Father, guard them.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 11 to 15.
SPEAKER_02: He says that I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.
SPEAKER_02: I am coming to you, Holy Father.
SPEAKER_02: Keep them in your name.
SPEAKER_02: That is, guard them.
SPEAKER_02: So why does Jesus pray for his disciples in this way?
SPEAKER_02: Well, because he's leaving.
SPEAKER_02: And again, just note such loving concern here.
SPEAKER_02: Remember the context.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is about to, this is meaning, this is the last section of teaching.
SPEAKER_02: We're about from next week to go into the arrest, the betrayal, and the crucifixion of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's all about to kick off.
SPEAKER_02: And what's on Jesus' heart?
SPEAKER_02: It's not, Father, I don't really want to do this.
SPEAKER_02: Or Father, could you could you make it hurt less?
SPEAKER_02: Now, yes, he will, he will fall down on his knees in Gethsemane and say, Father, if it is possible, take this cup, cup of suffering, cup of judgment, take this cup away from me.
SPEAKER_02: But here, right before his crucifixion, his heart is not for himself, it is for his people.
SPEAKER_02: Saying, Father, I'm leaving.
SPEAKER_02: Please look after them.
SPEAKER_02: Such love, such concern.
SPEAKER_02: He says also that the believers are no longer uh part of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Well, and as a result, the world hates them.
SPEAKER_02: There's opposition from the world, and also from we're told the evil one, the evil one being uh the devil.
SPEAKER_02: We believe that the devil is real.
SPEAKER_02: We don't see the devil under every rock.
SPEAKER_02: Um, some Christians do, we don't tend to, but he is a real foe.
SPEAKER_02: Peter tells us that he prowles around like a like a ravenous and roaring lion.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is praying, in light of those foes, keep those who are yours, preserve them to the end.
SPEAKER_02: These are not trivial prayers, and so we should not make our prayers trivial.
SPEAKER_02: These are big foes, big enemies against the people of God, and so we should pray big prayers.
SPEAKER_02: How does the Father uh keep or guard the believer?
SPEAKER_02: He keeps them, verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Jesus asks, in your name.
SPEAKER_02: We're thinking, you know, nobody's kept in mark.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Keep them in your name.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the uh the name here in this context, in the ancient context, is a uh is a is shorthand for character or essence.
SPEAKER_02: So he's saying, Father, keep these believers faithful to opposition, through opposition, rather, I should say, by helping them to cling to who you are, to your revealed character, to your goodness, your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: Help them to persevere in faith.
SPEAKER_02: And this plays out in the experience of the believer, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the things that happens when you face trial and suffering, is one of the things if you're maturing as a believer that you should do is be thinking, well, God is good.
SPEAKER_02: You know, in the same way that the moon is always rhind, right?
SPEAKER_02: Is the moon always rind?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, right?
SPEAKER_02: Do you always see the moon is rhind?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Is sometimes the moon completely hidden from you?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: But is the moon always rind?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: In the same way God is always good.
SPEAKER_02: You do not see the full goodness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes his goodness is hidden from you, but God is always good.
SPEAKER_02: In the same way that the moon is always round.
SPEAKER_02: And in doing that, that are that arouses in the maturing believer a sense of, okay, well, I'm gonna, I know I am gonna keep on persevering, I am gonna keep on persisting.
SPEAKER_02: And it is the Father by His Spirit who helps you to be kept in his love, to be guarded against all manner of opposition.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, it's Father, delight them, father, give them joy.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves.
SPEAKER_02: All the way through the upper room discourse, as I've already noted, Joe, um, he has been, uh Jesus has been pointing out to the disciples that joy is coming.
SPEAKER_02: The sorrow, the labor pains, as we saw last week, will last for a moment, but then your sorrow will turn to joy, and that joy will never be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_02: And so Father, and so Jesus says, Father, may that be true.
SPEAKER_02: Bring that joy about in their lives.
SPEAKER_02: Because he has been raised from the dead, and because he has been raised from the dead, we can know that fullness of joy, even despite suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Because, as I said last week, our joy is not based in circumstance, but in a person.
SPEAKER_02: This is the mark of kingdom people enduring joy, even in suffering and trial.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prays that you may have joy.
SPEAKER_02: So can I encourage you?
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Third, he prays, Father, sanctify them.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 16 to 19.
SPEAKER_02: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_02: As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate, same word, I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.
SPEAKER_02: So, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: So you're all wondering, well, sanctify is a bit of a bit of a Christian, Christian Ease word.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does sanctify mean?
SPEAKER_02: Well, there are some senses in other parts of the Bible where sanctify uh has this idea of progressively becoming more holy, killing sin, becoming more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That is the process of sanctification, right?
SPEAKER_02: That's not the sense that Jesus is going for here primarily.
SPEAKER_02: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's just said that he sanctified himself.
SPEAKER_02: So has Jesus just become progressively more holy?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus had he was a good guy and all, but he had a few things to work on.
SPEAKER_02: No, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not what Christians believe.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does he mean saying, well, I've sanctified myself, so you guys sanctify yourself?
SPEAKER_02: Do you know in the in the old sacrificial system, back in the in the old testament, you know, in the temple, and they were uh you know, killing lambs and goats and bulls and all of those things and and burning them on the great sacrificial altar.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, obviously, when you're when you're burning things on an altar, what what what collects at the bottom is lots of ash, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so from time to time you need to shovel out the ash.
SPEAKER_02: It's very practical.
SPEAKER_02: And in the Old Testament, the shovel that you used to shovel out the ash from all of the dead carcasses was said to be sanctified.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It means that it isn't used for anything else.
SPEAKER_02: It was set apart for one task.
SPEAKER_02: It was set apart, it was dedicated to the Lord to the task of shoveling out the ash.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus says, I have sanctified myself, I have consecrated myself, he says, I have set myself apart for this one task.
SPEAKER_02: What is this one task?
SPEAKER_02: It's the cross and resurrection, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: And so when Jesus is praying for his disciples, he's saying, I'm praying that they may be set apart, that they may be distinct, that they may be dedicated to the Lord alone.
SPEAKER_02: How?
SPEAKER_02: How is this done?
SPEAKER_02: Well, again, Jesus tells us, sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_02: How do we find our lives conformed more and more to the will and plan of God for us?
SPEAKER_02: Well, by the word of God, as it takes root in our lives, by its sanctifying power.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 1, I encourage you to go and read it in your own time.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 1 talks about the uh the blessed man or woman who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night.
SPEAKER_02: And as he or she meditates on the law of the Lord, the image in Psalm 1 is that they become a strongly rooted, vibrant tree bearing fruit in season.
SPEAKER_02: Or Romans 12, where Paul says, Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_02: Your mind becomes more and more sanctified, set apart for God's purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Why does Jesus want his believers to be dedicated to the Lord, sanctified?
SPEAKER_02: It's for the sake of mission.
SPEAKER_02: You see that in these verses?
SPEAKER_02: As you said, so sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Your word is truth, verse 17, verse 18, as you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world.
SPEAKER_02: Why does Jesus want you to be set apart, sanctified, holy?
SPEAKER_02: It's not so that you can all huddle away together here, but it's so that you can be sent out into the world.
SPEAKER_02: Reveal the glory of an unseen Savior by your love for one another, by your love for the world.
SPEAKER_02: The purpose of our growth in holiness is not so that we might hide away or cower because of the fear of opposition.
SPEAKER_02: No, we are sanctified so that the world might see the glory of our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Your growth as a Christian should fuel your mission to the world.
SPEAKER_02: How will we plant more churches, more churches than Redeemer?
SPEAKER_02: Today and two more Sundays, and then they are gone.
SPEAKER_02: How will we go again?
SPEAKER_02: How will we plant more churches?
SPEAKER_02: Only when people who are growing in holiness and have dedicated themselves, sanctified themselves wholly to the Lord, set themselves apart for his mission in the world.
SPEAKER_02: Fourth, Father, unite them.
SPEAKER_02: This comes up first in verse 11, and then down again in verse 20 to 23.
SPEAKER_02: This is the pivot where he begins to pray for all believers.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_02: Again, there's a missional evangelistic focus, pointedness to Christian unity.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_02: Now, unity is a is usually a buzzword, probably in defining you ever say, Oh, Christians should be more united.
SPEAKER_02: You know, why are Christians more so divided?
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus says that we should be one just as he and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_02: How?
SPEAKER_02: Feels like their oneness is pretty unique.
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus saying that we believers should be one at the level of essence and being uh with God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, no, that would be Mormonism, uh, I think.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, it's not one at the level of uh of being, not one at the level of becoming divine ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Jesus is praying in line with what he's already taught.
SPEAKER_02: He's taught about the Holy Spirit uniting us to Jesus and Him and the Father coming and making their home in the believer, that beautiful mystery that comes by faith.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 22, uh Jesus goes on to say, The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.
SPEAKER_02: Unity comes as a result of glory beholding.
SPEAKER_02: That is, uh, they've all had, or we've all had uh the same divine Jesus revealed to us.
SPEAKER_02: How do we see the glory of the divine Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we see it as we hold fast to the teaching of the disciples, which is why we're going through John's gospel.
SPEAKER_02: John, the beloved disciple, one of the twelve, not even one of the twelve, one of the inner three, Peter, James, and John.
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying, I'm asking for those, I'm praying for those, verse 20, who would believe in and through the word of the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: It is through the word of the disciples that we see Jesus' glory.
SPEAKER_02: And so we share, in a sense, that same revelation and come to unite ourselves around the same Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So what that means for us as Christians is that unity can only occur, Christian unity can only occur with other believers who cling to the Jesus once for all revealed in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: It is not quite sufficient to say, I believe in Jesus, well, so do I.
SPEAKER_02: So, well, what Jesus do you believe in?
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in the Jesus of the scriptures?
SPEAKER_02: The Jesus of the apostles, once for all delivered for all time to us.
SPEAKER_02: Do we share that?
SPEAKER_02: If the answer is yes, then we can have great, wonderful, deep, glorious unity.
SPEAKER_02: But oftentimes it is the Jesus of people's own projections and imaginings.
SPEAKER_02: And with that we cannot have unity.
SPEAKER_02: But where we have unity with other believers, the purpose is mission that the world may see.
SPEAKER_02: And just also just to note, this is unity.
SPEAKER_02: This unity does not mean uniformity.
SPEAKER_02: It does not mean that there cannot be any difference.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: As Jesus says, may they be one as we are one.
SPEAKER_02: Is the father the son?
SPEAKER_02: No, right, okay.
SPEAKER_02: This Trinitarian theology 101, right?
SPEAKER_02: This is the first page of being a Christian, right?
SPEAKER_02: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: The Father's not the Son, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Is the Son the Father?
SPEAKER_02: No, there you go.
SPEAKER_02: We were on a roll now.
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
SPEAKER_02: Let's try it again.
SPEAKER_02: Is the Spirit the Father or the Son?
SPEAKER_02: No, good.
SPEAKER_02: You've done it.
SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
SPEAKER_02: We can go on to page two now, right?
SPEAKER_02: There's difference as well as unity.
SPEAKER_02: There's room within the Christian church for both diversity and unity.
SPEAKER_02: And so we are one just as He is one.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, finally, finally.
SPEAKER_02: We got there.
SPEAKER_02: Point five.
SPEAKER_02: Father, glorify them.
SPEAKER_02: Glorify them.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 24 to 26.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory, that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_02: What does Jesus want for you, believer?
SPEAKER_02: He wants you to be where he is.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: So that you can see his glory.
SPEAKER_02: That is what it is for us to be glorified, to be brought into Jesus' glory and to have our true selves revealed.
SPEAKER_02: And indeed, as Paul says in Romans 8, the creation is great.
SPEAKER_02: Eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_02: The creation longs that our true selves might be revealed.
SPEAKER_02: And it will be revealed when we behold his glory and see and savor it eternally.
SPEAKER_02: This is what makes heaven heavenly.
SPEAKER_02: Not that you get to meet up again with loved ones.
SPEAKER_02: Not that you get to swim and dance and feast and sing in the new creation.
SPEAKER_02: No, what makes heaven heavenly is that we get to see Jesus' glory.
SPEAKER_02: All of those things are true and undergird a wonderful hope.
SPEAKER_02: But the thing that makes heaven heavenly is that we get to see Jesus glory.
SPEAKER_02: That is what we were made for, and that is what Jesus prays for.
SPEAKER_02: And can I say that if that feels like an anti-climax, if you think that that is the least the least stirring thing about being at h in heaven, can I entreat you, encourage you to fill your heart with more of the Savior now, so that when you see him in heaven, it won't be a disappointment.
SPEAKER_02: These are Jesus' prayers.
SPEAKER_02: It is what he longs for for his people.
SPEAKER_02: It is what it is how our prayers should be shaped.
SPEAKER_02: My hope is that we would take some of these things and that we would harmonize with the prayers that he is praying for us in eternity, that we may be one, that we may be set apart for his mission in the world, that we may not just behold, but put on display his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, please visit our website found in the link below.