SPEAKER_01: My last semester of seminary contained the best and worst class that I have ever taken.
SPEAKER_01: The course was prayer and the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Now it was the best class because it's difficult to imagine a more fruitful time than studying what God's Word has to say about prayer, and then every single day of the semester having to pray for 40 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: We studied the mediatoral prayers of Moses, we studied the quick, effective prayers of Nehemiah, we studied the earth-shaking prayers of the early church, and we broke down the pastoral prayers of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: But I also said it was the worst class that I've ever taken because it exposed my lack of prayer about as effectively as a hundred thousand lumen flashlight.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine for a moment when you are turning in your prayer journal for the week and you're typing, Dear Professor Hairgrove, just let it sink in for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't able to complete 40 minutes every single day this week because of ministry, because of my family, because of, etc.
SPEAKER_01: What excuse is possibly good enough to not pray?
SPEAKER_01: I think you've all heard the quote, right?
SPEAKER_01: That prayer is like breathing for the Christian, so if you're not praying, it's kind of like holding your breath.
SPEAKER_01: But I think if we're all honest, we've grown quite accustomed to holding our breath, to our shame.
SPEAKER_01: But that's actually not what this sermon is about tonight.
SPEAKER_01: There was one final prayer life that we studied in that course, and it filled me with such hope and joy that I don't know that I could possibly talk about anything else tonight, given the chance to open God's word together.
SPEAKER_01: As discouraging as our prayer lives may be, I want you to take heart tonight that the prayer life of Jesus is filled to overflowing with hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: There is strong encouragement to be found in the prayers of Jesus on behalf of his people.
SPEAKER_01: If, as James says, the prayers of a righteous man have great power as they are working, then surely the prayers of the righteous man have great power as they are working.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed this prayer before his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: But we also have this prayer recorded so that we as his disciples can know tonight what it is that Jesus prayed for us.
SPEAKER_01: And I am hoping tonight that this will bring you great encouragement as we look at three prayer requests that Jesus made for us before we were ever even born.
SPEAKER_01: Take heart.
SPEAKER_01: If your prayer life is weak or even absent, your Savior is praying for you right now, just like He did this very night.
SPEAKER_01: And the first prayer request that Jesus makes for us is that we may be one.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
SPEAKER_01: This verse here begins the final turning point of Jesus' high priestly prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The context is that this is the night before Jesus' betrayal and arrest.
SPEAKER_01: This is the night before his death.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spent the night at supper with his disciples, keeping them close, teaching them, encouraging them.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 13 through 16, we see what's known as the upper room discourse.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 13, Jesus begins the Last Supper by washing his disciples' feet and urging them to follow his example of love and service.
SPEAKER_01: He urged them to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 14, he addresses their understandable fears and he encourages their faith.
SPEAKER_01: He tells them, Believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to bring you with me one day.
SPEAKER_01: But first I'm going to leave and I'm going to send the Holy Spirit with you.
SPEAKER_01: And no longer will I just be with you, but I actually, through my Spirit, will be in you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, in chapter 15, Jesus says, Because I'll be abiding in you through the Spirit, you abide in me.
SPEAKER_01: Your fruitfulness depends on your abiding.
SPEAKER_01: Stay in prayer, stay in my word, steady your affections on me.
SPEAKER_01: And then in chapter 16, Jesus drops a reality bomb on them.
SPEAKER_01: The world hated me.
SPEAKER_01: They watched his ministry, they saw it.
SPEAKER_01: So the world's going to hate you too.
SPEAKER_01: But don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: My spirit will guide you and bring you what you need in the very hour that you need it.
SPEAKER_01: I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: And it's after this whole discourse with his disciples still with him, John chapter 17, verse 1, when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he begins to pray before them.
SPEAKER_01: And in verses 1 through 5 of John 17, Jesus prayed for himself.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed that his life, his resurrection, his death and resurrection would bring glory to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: In verses six through nineteen, he gave glory to the Father for their salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for their joy.
SPEAKER_01: And he prayed also for their preservation, not only from the evil one, but he even prayed for preservation from their own sin.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed that they would be sanctified in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And then here in verse 20, the all-seeing and all-loving eyes of the God man turns his gaze into the future.
SPEAKER_01: And he sets his eyes upon those in verse 20, referred to as those who will believe in me through their word.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 20 to 26 of John 17 are Jesus' prayer for future believers.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was praying for you then.
SPEAKER_01: And he's praying for you still now.
SPEAKER_01: This prayer of Jesus was answered in Acts 2, 3,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: Later in Acts, 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: This prayer has been answered consistently and effectively for millennia.
SPEAKER_01: We just call it church history.
SPEAKER_01: This prayer has been answered in this very room tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And earlier today, while I was sitting at home, I was praying that that prayer of Jesus would be answered again tonight, maybe for someone for the first time, that you would believe in Jesus for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: The first request that Jesus makes for us is that we may be one.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at verse 21 to 23.
SPEAKER_01: He prays, 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 love them even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_01: If you read through chapters thirteen through seventeen of John, you'll see that Jesus speaks about unity explicitly, about nine times, washing each other's feet, loving one another as a commandment, and also saying that by your love for one another, the world's gonna know that you're my disciples.
SPEAKER_01: But here in verses 20 to 23, Jesus is speaking explicitly and only about unity.
SPEAKER_01: And in these three verses, we see the model of unity, we see the means of this unity, and we see the mission of this unity.
SPEAKER_01: So, first, the model of this unity.
SPEAKER_01: If you look back at verses 21 to 23, three times there's this little Greek phrase that is translated just as or as.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to listen and look down at your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: He says, That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 22, he says, that they may be one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 23, he says, That they may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_01: The triune Godhead is the very source of this unity that Jesus is praying for.
SPEAKER_01: Because the eternal triune God is unity in his essence.
SPEAKER_01: The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Spirit proceeds from the love of the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_01: Theologians call this paracurasis.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Father, the Son, and the Spirit being bound together in perfect unity.
SPEAKER_01: It's love and life flowing unbroken between the three of them, without any mixture, without any confusion, perfect unity and perfect love, one essence and three persons.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the very triunity that Jesus prays that our unity would be as.
SPEAKER_01: But how?
SPEAKER_01: How are we to enter into that unity?
SPEAKER_01: What is the means of our unity?
SPEAKER_01: And before we speak about this, it's important to make a distinction that we being sons, like the Son is the Son to the Father, is different.
SPEAKER_01: We are sons by adoption.
SPEAKER_01: The Father, in his love, by the work of his son and through his spirit, has adopted us into his family.
SPEAKER_01: But the Son of God is a son by nature.
SPEAKER_01: There's a distinction there.
SPEAKER_01: As much as the scriptures talk about us being united as the Father and the Son, you must always keep a reality check that you are like God, but you are not God.
SPEAKER_01: This distinction is extremely important.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that term sons by adoption, sons or daughters by adoption, versus a son by nature is an important distinction to keep in our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, what is the means of this unity?
SPEAKER_01: How are we to enter into this unity?
SPEAKER_01: Look back down at verse 21 to the second half of it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 22, he says it this way: The glory, Father, that you've given to me, the Son, I have given to them.
SPEAKER_01: If it wasn't for the fact that these words were recorded out of Jesus' mouth, this would be impossible to believe.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of the Father and the Son being given to us by the Son?
SPEAKER_01: What does that even mean?
SPEAKER_01: How are we even close to able to participate in that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, of course, it's grace.
SPEAKER_01: The way that we enter into this unity, the means of our entering into this unity is by faith in Jesus Christ, in which he sends his spirit to dwell in us, and in that way we are united to God through Christ by His Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that indeed is a glorious reality, which is why Jesus says, I've given this glory to them.
SPEAKER_01: There are two passages that I think will help us to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 5, if you want to read with me, John chapter 5, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 5, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: There's some religious leaders who are mad because Jesus keeps saying he's God.
SPEAKER_01: That bothers them.
SPEAKER_01: They don't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: So he says this to them in John chapter 5, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
SPEAKER_01: For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
SPEAKER_01: And then go down to verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is united to the Father in such a way that they have one life and one work.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to how the Apostle Paul speaks about our unity to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, he says, I've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_01: And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_01: When you are united to Christ by the Spirit, it means that you have one life with him.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians says that your life is hidden with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 6, verse 57, if you turn over just a little bit, John chapter 6, verse 57, Jesus says this statement.
SPEAKER_01: By faith you are not only united to the Godhead, but faith is also here illustrated as feeding, consuming, taking in, partaking in, embracing who he is.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way you are united relationally to him as well.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something important that I want you to see here, and we'll turn to one last text.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go to 2 Peter.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Because our unity is an objective fact.
SPEAKER_01: What we've read tonight so far is that our unity is an objective fact.
SPEAKER_01: By faith you are objectively united to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that can change that.
SPEAKER_01: It's a done deal.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to what Peter, who was there when Jesus was praying in John 17, writes about this.
SPEAKER_01: Second Peter chapter 1, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
SPEAKER_01: Objective truth, objective truth, objective truth.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Now he says, verse 5, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
SPEAKER_01: While our unity to God is an objective fact, and by our unity we become partakers of the divine nature, there is still a subjective means in which we live out this objective fact.
SPEAKER_01: Note, Jesus in John 17, going back there now, is praying that we may be one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus this very night has commanded his disciples to be one by loving one another.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament uses the phrase one another over a hundred times, and the overwhelming majority of those one another's are commands and admonishments to be one and to love.
SPEAKER_01: So there is a tension here between what is already true of us and what we are being commanded to live out.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know what resolves the tension?
SPEAKER_01: Obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed for you to be united to the believers in Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed for your unity with those sitting around you, with those in this church, really with all believers, but particularly here.
SPEAKER_01: So I urge you, by the life, death, resurrection, and prayers of Jesus Christ, be one.
SPEAKER_01: Everything from getting a meal together to getting along with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Be one.
SPEAKER_01: Unity comes not by looking for preferential agreement, but by looking to the same Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to add just one footnote that I found comforting.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is commanding us as the members of his body to care for one another and to love one another, don't you think that he, as the head of the body, will take so much more care of us, his body?
SPEAKER_01: I find that very encouraging.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen the model of this unity is the triune Godhead.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen the means of this unity is that by faith the Spirit indwells us and we are brought into, we become partakers of the divine nature, and that there's also a subjective means in which we live out the objective unity that we have.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also, according to Jesus, a mission to this unity.
SPEAKER_01: Look back down at the end of verse 21, in the end of verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: He says, So that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: End of verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: So that the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me.
SPEAKER_01: This very night Jesus had already told his disciples to love one another and told them, If you do this, the world's gonna know that you're my disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Here Jesus is praying before them that their unity would bear witness to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And notice the witness is not meant to display the disciples, but it's meant to display the triune God, fully displayed in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: When the world sees your unity, what Jesus wants them to see, what Jesus prays for them to see is Him and His love for you.
SPEAKER_01: Not you, but Him.
SPEAKER_01: He must increase and we must decrease.
SPEAKER_01: And our unity actually helps Him to increase.
SPEAKER_01: Our witness is actually strengthened by our love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus prays firstly that we may be one.
SPEAKER_01: But now he prays not just that the church would be one, but he also prays now that the church would see his glory in heaven, that we may behold him.
SPEAKER_01: Look down to verse 24.
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: The Greek here emphatically displays the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It literally says, Father, the ones you have given to me, I desire that they may be with me where I am.
SPEAKER_01: This verb given might surprise you to know that it's actually the most common word in John 17.
SPEAKER_01: I was surprised by that.
SPEAKER_01: I sort of came into it thinking that glory was the most common word in John 17.
SPEAKER_01: But it's actually given.
SPEAKER_01: And this verb, specifically this verb form given, is used 33 times in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: Twelve of those occurrences are right here in John 17.
SPEAKER_01: God gave authority to the Son.
SPEAKER_01: God gave a work to the Son for him to do.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave the word to the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave glory to us.
SPEAKER_01: But five times in the Gospel of John, the disciples of Jesus are referred to as those that God had given to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that is how Jesus is praying about us in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, as he prays for us and how he's viewing us, is that he's asking that the Father, because of all the work he's going to do through the gospel and the prayer he has for us, that he would be given us as a gift from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if the Son views us as a gift from the Father, a love gift that says, I've given these to you.
SPEAKER_01: Listen again to the way Jesus prays for us.
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: I work in the hallway of ICS upstairs, Emmanuel Christian School.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the perks about that is every now and then teachers will drop by gifts from the students.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes cookies, but oftentimes it's cards written out.
SPEAKER_01: And I got a card one time while I wasn't there, and the card said, Jesus is waiting for you.
SPEAKER_01: And then someone who I have never identified scribbled under it, So am I.
SPEAKER_01: Which kind of took like the edge off the card a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But as corny as that is, that Jesus is waiting for you, I saw it up in my office tonight and thought, Jesus is saying that.
SPEAKER_01: He is saying that physically he is waiting to be with us.
SPEAKER_01: He's with us now through his spirit and dwelling us.
SPEAKER_01: But he's saying, Father, I desire that they may be with me where I am.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is waiting for you.
SPEAKER_01: So what is Jesus praying?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is praying here that we would be with him forever, beholding his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And what is this glory that we would be beholding?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says, I desire that they also whom you've given me may be with me to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This glory is us beholding with unveiled eyes fully the love of the Father for the Son.
SPEAKER_01: It is us being overwhelmed with the deluge of the reality of his eternal love.
SPEAKER_01: In a glorified state where we can actually participate in it without dying.
SPEAKER_01: And how will we behold this?
SPEAKER_01: It's by beholding Jesus with our very eyes after we've died and are glorified.
SPEAKER_01: This is the moment that what we've beheld by faith our entire lives will be fulfilled in sight.
SPEAKER_01: And this prayer would have been particularly special for Philip, who in John chapter 14, verse 8, said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Have I been with you so long?
SPEAKER_01: You still don't know me, Philip?
SPEAKER_01: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_01: How can you say, Show us the Father?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in this prayer is telling Philip, Philip, this is not the last time you're going to see me.
SPEAKER_01: And the next time you see me, it's going to be in the unveiled fullness of my glory.
SPEAKER_01: But what is beholding glory like?
SPEAKER_01: What is it like?
SPEAKER_01: I've been reading a book with my son called Wings of Fire.
SPEAKER_01: And in this book, there are a couple of, they're called dragonets, they're little baby dragons, and there was a prophecy about them.
SPEAKER_01: So these dragons are protected by older Guardian dragons under a mountain, underground.
SPEAKER_01: So they've never been in sunlight.
SPEAKER_01: One of the main characters, Clay, comes up with a plan, and they actually escape for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: And for the first time, they actually see themselves in sunlight.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this quote from the book.
SPEAKER_01: Clay opened his eyes and glanced down.
SPEAKER_01: He'd always thought of himself as just brown, plain brown scales, ordinary brown claws, the color of flat mud from horns to tail.
SPEAKER_01: But now, in the full sunlight, for the first time, he could see gold and amber glints between and beneath his scales.
SPEAKER_01: Even the browns seemed richer and deeper, like the mahogany trunk where webs kept the most delicate scrolls.
SPEAKER_01: And then he thinks of a friend he has who is also one of the dragonets, and her name is Glory.
SPEAKER_01: Then he thought of Glory and how beautiful she already was in the gloomy caves.
SPEAKER_01: None of them would be able to look at her in the full sunlight, or else they'd be too dazzled to ever speak again.
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, if we were to behold the unvarnished glory of the sun now, we would fall as if dead.
SPEAKER_01: But on this day that Jesus is praying for, we will be unhindered in our capacity to participate in and enjoy the fullness of the glory of God through the Son by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: God's joy is already full in Himself.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is praying is that our joy would be made full by being united to him, not only spiritually, but physically in heaven, beholding him with unveiled face.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus prayed for in verses 20 to 23 was the church's happiness here on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But in verse 24, Jesus is praying that the church would be happy in the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: This is often referred to as the beatific vision, literally the vision that makes happy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is our happiness.
SPEAKER_01: And the peak of our greatest and fullest joy and happiness is in the unhindered beholding of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is our joy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is our life.
SPEAKER_01: And even looking at his prayer tonight is our very hope that sustains us until that day.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
SPEAKER_01: The grace given to us through the gospel will one day be fully realized in the glory prayed for us by the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: In your presence there is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Dan some months ago reminded us that a major facet of the fullness of joy in heaven is the kindness of God displayed toward us in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Manton, writing on this verse, says this it is our burden in this world that the clouds interpose between us and Christ, that there is a great gulf between us and him, which cannot be passed but by death, that God is at a distance, that our enemies often ask us, Where's your God?
SPEAKER_01: Now we shall be happy when we shall be in his arms, when we can say, Here he is.
SPEAKER_01: And Manton goes on, and he says, In heaven there's nothing to divert us from the sight of God.
SPEAKER_01: We are withdrawn from all other objects that we may study him alone without weariness.
SPEAKER_01: John Piper, dwelling on Jonathan Edwards' own reflections on glory, says this The infinite God will never be done showing us the immeasurable riches of his grace, or the full vista of himself coming to us in love.
SPEAKER_01: Our sight of God in Christ will be both immediate and continue to ripen forever.
SPEAKER_01: It will never become static.
SPEAKER_01: And as Edwards writes, never boring, Edwards says, after they had the pleasure of beholding the face of God millions of ages, it will never grow a dull story.
SPEAKER_01: The relish of this delight will be as exquisite as ever.
SPEAKER_01: So, what does that mean right now?
SPEAKER_01: Our eternal and unbroken fellowship with Jesus has been purchased on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It's been guaranteed by the blood of Christ, and it's been prayed for by the Son.
SPEAKER_01: But why wait?
SPEAKER_01: Why wait to enjoy Him?
SPEAKER_01: Manton writes again: Let the foresight of this glorious estate wean thee from all inordinate affections to human and earthly glory.
SPEAKER_01: As the sun puts out the candle, so should the forethought of these excellencies extinguish in us carnal desire, and dissolve the enchant enchantment that would otherwise bewitch our souls and make us impatient under the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Or, as the Apostle John says it, every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself.
SPEAKER_01: A consistent dwelling on the glory of the Son helps us to live a holy life now as we anticipate the glory to come then.
SPEAKER_01: So read your Bible as if you were going to a feast.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to sermons as if the Son himself were speaking to you through his word.
SPEAKER_01: Pray as if standing before the face of God, and seek satisfaction nowhere else but at the fountain.
SPEAKER_01: One day, turn your eyes upon Jesus will no longer be a hymn sung in faith, but a reality beheld with our very eyes for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus has prayed for us that we may be one.
SPEAKER_01: He's prayed for us that we may behold Him.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, in verses 25 to 26, Jesus prays that we may know God.
SPEAKER_01: Down at verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.
SPEAKER_01: And these know that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I made known to them your name.
SPEAKER_01: Stop there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus called the Father Holy Father earlier in John 17, when he was praying that the Father would keep the disciples in his name or make them holy, set them apart.
SPEAKER_01: Here Jesus calls the Father the righteous father for this reason.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying is that all that the Father does is right and good.
SPEAKER_01: He is just in all of his dealings.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, in this prayer, he is saying that the rightness of God will be displayed in the answering of this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: God as a righteous God is going to answer the prayers of his perfect Son.
SPEAKER_01: But he is also saying that in the very means by which the foundation for the answering of this prayer, the cross, the next day is going to happen, you will also see the righteousness of God being displayed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying that our knowledge of God, our being united to the Godhead, brought into the fellowship of eternal love by the Son, is right.
SPEAKER_01: Because God promised it all throughout the scriptures, because Jesus purchased it, and because the Spirit applies it to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Paul adds that the love of God toward us is not only right, but it's also wise.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what he says in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_01: It is right for the Father to love those whom he promised to love, and those whom his son prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: In John 17, 3, look at what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells us what eternal life is in John 17, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_01: So eternal life is knowing relationally the Father, being intimately united to him in such a way that you can say, I know him, and he knows me.
SPEAKER_01: Not I know of him or about him, but I know him.
SPEAKER_01: And over and over again in John's Gospel, John emphasizes that the knowledge of God only comes through the Son.
SPEAKER_01: So of course it's the Son who's praying that we may know God.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 1, verse 18, John writes, No one has ever seen God, the only God, but the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 14, verse 6, in this very discourse, this very night, Jesus told them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_01: So here Jesus is saying in his prayer, I made you, Father, known to them.
SPEAKER_01: I made your name known to them.
SPEAKER_01: I brought them into a knowing relationship with you, into a saving relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: And this prayer that we may know God is the very foundation of our unity with God and of our beholding the Son.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we're brought into this eternal life of knowing God, we are united to God, and thus we have access to unity with one another.
SPEAKER_01: And in knowing God that unites us, we also are set on a path towards glory, where we will one day behold the Son and be united even physically with him forever and with one another.
SPEAKER_01: So knowing the Father is the foundation of the first two requests as well.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus goes on in verse 26 in this prayer, because in verse 25, in the beginning of verse 26, he says, I made known to them your name.
SPEAKER_01: So these disciples before me, and those who in his earthly ministry he's walked with, I revealed your name to them.
SPEAKER_01: But look what he says here, going on in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: And I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus has done for the disciples sitting around him that night, he, future tense, will continue to do.
SPEAKER_01: Namely, making the Father's name known to the elect.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many ways that Jesus fulfills this continuing work of making the Father known, but I want to look at two.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' death upon the cross the following day will reveal the Father in a way that nothing else ever had.
SPEAKER_01: The Father is on full display in the death of the Son.
SPEAKER_01: Look at John 17, 1, what Jesus says, the first words of his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Glorify your son that the Son may glorify you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you remember, but early on in Jesus' ministry, he's at a wedding and they run out of wine.
SPEAKER_01: And his mom says, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: She knows something about him.
SPEAKER_01: She knows he could probably do something.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Woman, what does that do with me?
SPEAKER_01: It's not my hour yet.
SPEAKER_01: The hour theme in the Gospel of John refers over and over again to the coming death of Christ and to his resurrection and his glorification, his ascension.
SPEAKER_01: And so what Jesus is saying at the beginning of this prayer is, Father, glorify yourself in my death and in my resurrection and in my ascension.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is in the gospel, it is in the death of Christ that the name of the Father is made clearly known.
SPEAKER_01: His holiness and his love are fully revealed.
SPEAKER_01: His holiness, because he is so serious about sin.
SPEAKER_01: Sin must so be dealt with that his very own son comes and absorbs all of his wrath upon himself that we deserve because he's a holy God that must punish sin.
SPEAKER_01: But also his love toward us, because his son is there, not us.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment there of the holiness of God and the love of God seen in the death of the Son, you are learning more about the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The one who holds the universe was being held up by nails on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: That tells you something about the Father's name.
SPEAKER_01: At the cross, the Father is made known loud and clear to anyone who will simply look by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So the Father's name is continually made known the very next day in the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They hear the word of God, they hear the gospel, and they believe, and the Spirit comes and makes the Father's name known.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, that person is justified.
SPEAKER_01: They're made right with God.
SPEAKER_01: They're brought into a loving knowledge of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus continues still because by his Spirit, He's actually continually revealing the Father and teaching us more about who God is, revealing His name to us as we grow and are sanctified day by day to be more like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And did you catch the difference between verse 24 and verse 26?
SPEAKER_01: In verse 24, Jesus said, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory.
SPEAKER_01: And that glory we talked about, it is it is the love of the Father and the Son for one another.
SPEAKER_01: Here in verse 26, he says that the love with which you have loved me may be in them.
SPEAKER_01: So what Jesus is praying in verse 24 is, I want them to see our love.
SPEAKER_01: Here in verse 26, he's saying, I want our love to be in them.
SPEAKER_01: I want them to be enveloped in our love, to partake in, to enjoy, and to experience our love.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, Jesus one day will fully reveal the Father when we stand before him, the very image of the invisible God, glorified.
SPEAKER_01: He's continuing to make the Father's name known.
SPEAKER_01: If Paul is right, and what we behold dimly in a mirror now is already making us more like Christ, imagine that day when we behold him no longer dimly, but fully.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you live out this final request to know God?
SPEAKER_01: You strive to know God.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus prayed that we would know him in order to enjoy fellowship with him.
SPEAKER_01: So study the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In it you will learn so much about the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Study the scriptures, go on walks and dwell on God.
SPEAKER_01: Talk to one another about God.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't feel near to God, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_01: And also tell others about the Father, because Jesus is still in the business of making him known.
SPEAKER_01: He is continuing to make his name known.
SPEAKER_01: So tell people about him.
SPEAKER_01: What is Jesus doing right now?
SPEAKER_01: John says in 1 John chapter 2, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, verse 34, Who is to condemn?
SPEAKER_01: Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed that you would be united to him and to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed that you would see his glory in his presence eternally.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus even added that you wouldn't only see it, but be enveloped in that glorious love.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, John 18 tells us that right after this prayer, Jesus crossed the Brook Kidron and went to the very garden in which he would be betrayed, arrested, tortured, and crucified for the very ones that he prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: But then three days later, he rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: And I love the way Peter said it in Acts 2.
SPEAKER_01: God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord of glory rose, ministered to many before his ascension, ascended to the glory that he spoke of in the high priestly prayer, sent the Spirit to indwell us.
SPEAKER_01: And that same Jesus is still praying for us right now.
SPEAKER_01: He is praying that you would know God.
SPEAKER_01: He is praying that you would be one with one another.
SPEAKER_01: He is praying that you would see the glory of his son eternally.
SPEAKER_01: So take heart, Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: The prayers of the righteous man are working for your good and for the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe that this prayer is true.
SPEAKER_01: And yet I must believe it because you are perfect and your word is true.
SPEAKER_01: What an incredible encouragement it is that you prayed for us.
SPEAKER_01: That you prayed for our unity, that you united us to you, the very God whose essence is unity, that you prayed your very desire to be with us, and that you've guaranteed that we will be with you in glory by your work on the cross, and that you've prayed for us to know you.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for every believer in this room to be united to one another, to behold the glory of the Son now, to study the gospel and to know you, Father, more and more every single day until that day comes.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for anyone here who has not yet believed and not placed their faith in Christ, that tonight, as they've beheld the Prince of Glory, praying for them, that they would be those who would believe because of the word.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful for your word.
SPEAKER_01: Apply it to our hearts now as we sing in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.