Sermon Cloud

INTRO = Today we will look at John 17.  This is the high point of Jesus’ teaching beginning all the way back in John 13.  Chapters 13,14,15,16,17 are all about Jesus leaving, but something glorious will still take place, because believers in Christ, indwelt by the HS, will live as a unified group displaying by the fruit of their lives, that they belong to the returning Lord. 

Now, Jesus will close this major teaching section with a prayer --  a prayer for believers to accomplish something glorious during his physical absence on earth – and in this high priestly prayer, we have from the very heart of Jesus one of the most haunting prayer requests of all time…

John 17:11 …Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

WOW, Christian believers are supposed to be a unified group!  Why don’t we Presbyterians get that one?  We are known as the “Split “P’s”” precisely because we have found all manner of reasons not to remain as a unified group.  So today we have the ARP, OPC, EPC, PCA, RPCNA, PCUSA, the LMNOP…

RevK Translay = ‘Holy Father, keep them in your name whom you have given to me, in order to exist as one, just as we are.’

Jesus prays that all believers would be “kept” (this is the Greek word for a father keeping his daughter for her betrothed.  He’s protecting and guarding her with that shotgun!”   Jesus is the groom, coming back for his betrothed, and as she awaits for him, the church must live as though we share a name, an identity, and a commitment to living in such a way that the reunion and wedding ceremony is glorious!  (As an aside – think about the social bummer it was for Joseph, betrothed to Mary, he doesn’t get to have that great party with family and friends…)

Jesus talks about unity, and a most impressive type because Jesus and the Father are unified on EVERYTHING!  We do read in another prayer of Jesus in Luke 22 that Jesus wanted whatever the Father wanted, even if it meant pain and struggle to accomplish that struggle.  Unity was the goal, not diversity!

NOW, there was a time in history when God and Man were completely one – and there was no struggle or pain – when God had created Adam and Eve, they existed in a perfect environment, they enjoyed eternal life together – heaven on earth.  Jesus will define eternal life in a way that reflects this unified and harmonious relationship that Adam had with God in John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I could make the case that Adam and Eve had that kind of eternal life – they knew God, and they knew his presence in the Garden through Jesus.  Well, that’s a great definition of eternal life, and I think it is every Christian’s desire that everyone be united – but we all want to be united on things we care about most!  And we care about them so much because we know God cares about them!  Really, we know that God would rather have us singing out of the red hymn book rather than the blue hymn book – we know it! 

Now that sounds trivial, but I guarantee you that plenty of churches have split over issues just like that.  BUT before we completely make fun of disunity, we must also agree that there will be a time, and there will be a very GOOD reason for why folks can’t work together anymore because folks have so many convictions about what the Bible actually says.

So I have an illustration before we go on; Today, June 20, 1969 – what happened? First footprint on moon.  What a united effort to get a man on the moon!  Better than that, we eventually got a moon buggy up there! Well let’s say you’re putting together the team to get that man on the moon, and you’re interviewing engineers, and you run into all kinds of opinions from these engineers about the moon.  The first engineer says that the moon has been there in our orbit for billions of years and was once volcanic, it’s covered with all kinds of ash.  Another says, he believes the moon has only been in orbit for less than 10,000 years and there is very little dust or ash on the surface.  Another engineer says the moon is made of cheese, but it’s orbit, size, shape, gravitational force, is a physical constant.  Can you hire all these engineers to work on the same project?  Yeah, the moon had never been visited so all these theories were admissible.  But one engineer tells you that the moon, the sun, and all the planets and stars orbit around the earth, and all his calculations begin with that axiom – should you hire that engineer?

Well, you might want him just to work on the moon buggy and not any flight trajectories (Lost in Space, 1965)

This illustration is just to communicate that if we are going to be unified as believers, we are going to have to be in the same orbit!  That means God’s Glory is the center point, and Jesus is in charge of our mission because only he has the absolute knowledge and authority of how to chart our course.

And from John 17, we read from Jesus as prayer, but it is clear documentation of Jesus plan for the church!  Now we find here, one simple outline, marked in three movements:

1. Jesus prays concerning himself (1-5) His earthly mission is accomplished – and the glory of his cross work and resurrection are yet to come

2. Jesus prays concerning his disciples (6-19) And their future mission, and their relationship to each other and the world 

3. Jesus prays concerning future Believers (20-26) He prays for their unity!

^ESV John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

⁶ "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

⁸ 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 they have believed that you sent me.

⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

²¹ 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.

²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ 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.

²⁴ 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.

²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

²⁶ I made known to them your name, 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."

From this chapter, we read some repeating phrases related to glory, being kept, being one, being given, and that THEY MAY understand all these truths.

I would like to isolate just 5 points of unity that I believe that Jesus was trying to express from this prayer in John 17, and by doing so, if we as the church would properly embrace these 5 points, we would be more unified in our mission to bring God glory!

1 àThat there is a portion of humanity that is known as “the world,” and lives in opposition to the truth of God.

- 17.14,16,

à .¹⁴ …the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Vs. 18,25 too.

à And with all this talk about unity, and how being “one” for the Christians seems to be a difficult task, it is rather alarming how unified the world is!!  It is universally opposed to Jesus Christ and under the sway of the evil one.  Why is the world so unified?  Because it has no room for the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  The world has an agenda, it has a way that seems right to them.  When a believer in Christ says, “Jesus is not glorified in that pursuit!”  The fangs come out!

à Listen, the church lives to bring glory to God, and there is only one perfect church member who did it completely right!  It is Jesus Christ!  SO we must be so connected to Jesus that we reflect his Lordship over all our thoughts, passions, and goals.  We must follow the words of Jesus and walk the path of Jesus in order to 1) prove that we are not of this world; 2) bring God glory.

à Now in my Bible, I don’t read a passage from Jesus telling me about the proper hymn book, or the constitution of the moon –– But I CAN FIND some very clear passages from Jesus as he expresses doctrinal truth and God honoring behavior!  And all TRUE believers are marked out by this revealed truth and morality which marks out the boundaries of His church.

à Israel had some boundaries – but you could also leave Israel by abandoning a proper belief and proper behavior… Same for the church!

à The fact is this:  The world is on a crash course because it does not orbit the son properly, and we would have all crashed and burned, had not Jesus prayed for us to be distinct from the world.

2 à à God determined, before the foundation of the world to bring a group of people out of the world but in to a unified state of Glory in Christ. 

-17.1,4,5,9,10,21,22,23,24

à à This is made very clear from the contrast made in verse ⁹ … I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

à à verses ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ 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.

à à Here is a verse that equates the love that God has for His son as being the same that God has for us.  How can God love us like he loves his son?  Because Jesus says in vs. 22, Jesus tells that he has given us HIS glory, in verse 19 he says that he has Sanctified us, or set us apart for this, in verse 6 he says that we have kept his words, and in verse 4 he Jesus says that all of this has been accomplished by him for those who believe!

à à  The only way that Jesus could speak of a future glory for us (and the Greek language is filled with the perfected verb tense meaning an action spoken of has been completed!)  The only way Jesus could speak of salvation in completed terms is if God had planned it, Christ has perfectly provided it, and the Spirit effectively applied it to a people known by God from the beginning.

à à  DO you want to know why Jesus is so glorified for his life?  Because the Father entrusted to him a portion of humanity, they were given to him.  Jesus provides a completed salvation for them, and on the Last Day he presents them back to God as his gift to the Father – as perfected, pure, obedient, glorious sons!  God is overwhelmed at the most perfect gift of all – glorious children, and Jesus loses none of them (and we have a reference to Judas as not being a person for whom Jesus came…)

3 à à à The work of Christ was performed for a particular group of people whom God has chosen and given to Jesus Christ. 

-17.2,6,12

à à à ² …you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

4 àààà That those who have been chosen by God will be drawn to belief in Christ,

-17.7,8,17,19,20,21

⁶ "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world…

⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

⁸ 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 they have believed that you sent me.

àààà This is exactly the fulfillment of our chief opening verse of John’s gospel, ^ESV John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

ààààNow in some sense we could say that this chosen group just refers to the 12 – uh, 11 disciples, and the flow of the prayer does begin with them, yet there is a future group of people for whom Jesus prays. In ²⁰ "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ 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.

àààà What are the implications of this?  1) That the disciples of Jesus were to be evangelistic!  Sharing the word of Christ to all people so that God might perform his gracious act of saving those who belong to Him. 2) That all believers throughout the age are ONE as a result of the ONE Christ and his life alone.          This means that the Jesus who saves someone from a group or culture is NOT different from someone saved in another group or culture                – this further means that all believers will demonstrate a love for the same truth and morality.  This simply means that the Jesus of the African church is the same Jesus of the Asian church which is the same Jesus of the YouNameIt church!  Yes, we might have distinctive cultural expressions – but the doctrine and the morality will be identical because Jesus frees people from worldly systems and brings his redeemed into his kingdom and under his control.

5ààààà FINALY, this drawing out that Jesus does for a particular group of people also translates into his preserving and persevering with them until the day of glory (KEEP)

-17.3,11,12,13,15,23,26

àààààà ²⁶ I made known to them your name, 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."

àààààà This work of glory, as we stated before is a result of Jesus completing the gift exchange with none lost.  All whom Jesus prays for in this passage, those who are sanctified in time, will be glorified for all eternity because it is his accomplished work which is there glory!

So here is the final passage from a long section related to how Christ would be glorified even though he would not be physically present with his disciples.  AND YET his presence would be very apparent in the way that his followers relate to each other, their oneness in being kept by the truth and by the commandments of Jesus.  They would be set apart from the world by holding to the truth of God’s word, and they would demonstrate a unified love of God by living according to his commandments.  And on this, they could never be lost in space – the mission has been accomplished!

SO how will that play out here in our fellowship, knowing that Jesus has prayed specifically for US!!.  Well, with other believers in Christ, we will serve as if we are serving Christ.  On Serve Day next Saturday, we will stand side by side with Christians who have no “P’s”, even doing the most menial tasks in order promote unity for Christ and service to our community. 

As a pastor, I will continue to meet with other pastors in our area to focus on Christ and his word, work, and worth!  I was blessed just last week to meet with a group of Presbyterian pastors representing 4 different Presbyterian denominations ministering in this area in order to affirm our desire to support each other in our respective ministries.

Next week I will meet with pastors from very different backgrounds and convictions than we, in order to pray and exalt Christ in our community.

I’m a firm believer that Jesus gets everything he prays for!  I know that in the kingdom to come, Jesus will have a completely unified and glorious church!  But in order to fulfill the reality of his prayer to an unbelieving world, I ask all of us to demonstrate the humility of unity for the cause of Christ while at the same time, being faithful to the Christ of Scripture so that we will remain the precious gift that Jesus will give to his Father!