1. "Last words carry very special weight. Legally, we prepare last will and testament, myth and lore, remember final sentences and report them in biographies. Friends and family gather around the beds of the dying, of course, out of affection, but also, perhaps for some last thought."

2. "Too often today people seem to assume that casualness is the height of intimacy. The more casual I can be in the way I refer to God or even talk to God, that must show how close I am to God. It may be like that in 1970s America. It's not like that on any page of the Bible."

3. "Reality exists. It is in her interest to find out what it is. You're not going to make it by your words. She doesn't make it by her hearing. Reality exists."

4. "Christianity isn't all about self denial. Buddhism is all about self denial. Buddhism says that you're just an ima, an imaginary thing that you will achieve nirvana when you stop realizing or stop thinking that you're real. That's not Christianity. Christianity tells us to deny our fallen selves, that is our flesh, our being, in rebellion against God."

5. "If we're here as a Christian today, we can know that Jesus prayed for us. We can follow our own hearing of the message back through those who told us or who brought us the Bibles, or who translated them, and keep going backward in this chain all the way to the apostles themselves."

6. "Imagine God before the world began. Not a sad moping God as people sometimes imagine, driven to create out of this gnawing loneliness at the core of his being, desperate to need to have some object for his love, but the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally loving and being loved perfectly throughout eternity. Unchangingly, eternally happy in his triune self."

7. "It's easy to say, you love all Christians everywhere, or pick four friends and call those, you know, hey, this is proof of my Christian love. When even the pagans have friends. No, a local church is where you get together with all kinds of people, even people you don't really like very much, or people who are awkward, you know, people you find difficult."

8. "Friend, if you're here today and you're not a believer, we're very glad you're here. Thank you for coming. You're welcome back anytime. We meet like this, every Sunday morning that we can right here at 10:30, and the main thing we do is hold out this hope to each other that we know we've sinned against God. We don't meet here pretending to be perfect people."

9. "Will he spare us? How was God's love in Christ? Defense him from poverty, from disgrace, from persecution? From the sense of God's wrath? No."

10. "Friend, think of what happens in the wake of that prayer revival that we read of in other parts around the world. At that time, just in the U.S. let's just think about the U.S. what happens in the next few years? Slavery is ended that had been here for over two centuries. Missions get going around the world in a way they never had before. Churches are founded all over the place. People without number were affected."

Observation Questions

1. In John 17:1-5, what specific request does Jesus make for Himself, and how does He connect this request to God's glory?

2. According to John 17:6-9, how does Jesus describe the people for whom He is praying? What distinguishes them from "the world"?

3. In John 17:11-12, what specific protection does Jesus request for His disciples, and what past protection does He reference?

4. Looking at John 17:17-19, what does Jesus ask for His disciples regarding truth, and how does He connect this to His own actions?

5. In John 17:20-23, what request does Jesus make for future believers, and what reason does He give for this request?

6. Throughout John 17:24-26, how does Jesus describe His relationship with the Father, and what final request does He make?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus addresses God as both "Holy Father" (v.11) and "Righteous Father" (v.25) rather than simply "Father"?

2. What does Jesus's prayer reveal about the relationship between the Father's glory and the Son's glory?

3. How does Jesus's prayer help us understand the relationship between divine truth and Christian unity?

4. What does this prayer teach us about the connection between God's love for Jesus and His love for believers?

5. How does Jesus's prayer help us understand the relationship between the church and "the world"?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you stopped everything to pray with someone who shared a concern, like Professor Wilson in the sermon example?

2. Which current members of our church could you begin praying for regularly using the church directory?

3. Think about your most recent prayers. How many of them were ultimately focused on bringing glory to God?

4. When have you experienced meaningful Christian fellowship with believers from other denominations or backgrounds, and how did it demonstrate the unity Jesus prayed for?

5. What specific steps could you take this week to combine both intimacy and reverence in your prayers to God?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 34:6-7 - This passage reveals God's self-proclaimed name and character, helping us understand the "name" Jesus made known to His disciples.

2. Romans 8:31-39 - This extended passage explores the unbreakable nature of God's love for His people in Christ, expanding on Jesus's prayer about God's love for believers.

3. Ephesians 4:1-16 - Paul's detailed teaching on Christian unity and its relationship to truth provides practical guidance for fulfilling Jesus's prayer for unity.

4. 1 John 4:7-21 - This passage deepens our understanding of how God's love for us in Christ becomes the foundation for our love for one another, reflecting themes from Jesus's prayer.

Sermon Main Topics

The Context and Weight of Jesus’ Final Prayer in John 17

To Whom Did Jesus Pray? (John 17:1, 11, 25)

For Whom Did Jesus Pray? (John 17:9, 20)

For What Did Jesus Pray? (John 17:1, 5, 11, 15, 17, 21, 23)

Why Did Jesus Pray? (John 17:1, 4, 26)

The Implications of Jesus’ Prayer for Believers Today

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Last words carry very special weight.

Legally, we prepare last will and testament, myth and lore, remember final sentences and report them in biographies. Friends and family gather around the beds of the dying, of course, out of affection, but also, perhaps for some last thought. A clearer vision of the life beyond.

John's Gospel gives special weight to the last 24 hours of Jesus's life before his crucifixion. And in our chapter for this morning, chapter 17, Jesus gives his last words in a striking way. JESUS PRAYS since his opening chapter, John has been clear with us about who Jesus is. If you open up your Bibles to John chapter one, you're using the Bibles provided you'll find that on page 1048, page1048, in this single first chapter, Jesus is identified by special titles. He's.

He's called the Son of God, he's called the Lamb of God, he's called the Son of Man, a special title from the Old Testament. And yet, for all of his specialness, you look there in chapter one, verse 11, John tells us he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Jesus came as the Savior, teaching people like Nicodemus over in chapter three, how they could be right with God, how God would give his spirit to give new life, and that Christ had been sent from God the Father and that we should believe in him. He taught in chapter four, the immortal immoral Samaritan woman, that he was the Messiah come to save his people and that everyone should trust in him and be saved. In chapter five, we see that he is the Son of God who made the lame walk, and we should love him because he has this authority, he has this power. He is the one God has made to be the judge. We have all this evidence for his identity.

All these scriptures fulfilled. Chapter 6, Jesus taught that he was the bread of life sent by God who will actually give life. He exhorted his followers to eat this bread, which means believe in him again and again. He taught that he had come from God and was returning to God, and he was doing all of this to bring God glory by bringing salvation to those who needed to be saved. And yet, throughout this Gospel, we see people responding differently to Jesus.

In John, chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And then in chapter nine, as if to illustrate this, he opens the eyes of a man born blind. He becomes the author of light in that man's life like no one else. Ever had or could.

He taught that he was the good shepherd come down to lay his life for the sheep. He taught that those who were the sheep would follow him there. In chapter 10, he taught he was the Son who was one with the Father. And then in chapter 11, we come to the last year of Jesus ministry. The disciples bravely resolved to follow him, even if he wants to go down to Jerusalem, where the religious leaders had been opposing him and making threats.

We have the story of Lazarus dying and the sisters grieving and the surprising climax that Jesus raised Lazarus literally from the dead. And yet those religious leaders who would close their eyes even against his miracle of healing the blind man in chapter nine, those same leaders resolve here at the end of chapter 11, to put Jesus to death. Our friends, the. The fulfillments and the foreshadowings and the ironies so often noted by John are thick. So here Jesus gives his life.

The leaders will take his Life. In John 12, the conflict increases as we come to the final week of Jesus ministry. Religious leaders oppose him. But notwithstanding the opposition of these earthly leaders, God had a plan to glorify himself through Christ, even through his death. And so in John 13, we come to this final night.

John 13 to 17 are called the upper room discourse because of where they were. In chapter 13, Jesus demonstrates amazing love to his disciples. He says that he would love them. And he says that even as he predicts that one of them would betray him. His is a love which exalts and displays the depth of the Father's love for the Son and the extent of the Son's love for the Father and even for us.

And he calls those of us who would be his disciples to love each other. In chapter 14, Jesus teaches his disciples what it will mean for them to continue to follow him. Jesus's disciples are to obey out of love, act on prayer, rejoice in God, trust his promises, realize we have His Spirit and His Word. And then if you turn on to chapter 15, Jesus calls himself the true vine. He calls his disciples to remain in him, to love each other as Jesus has loved us, and to persevere even through the hatred and opposition of the world.

And as we saw last week in chapter 16, he promises. He makes these promises after he's been making these commands. He makes these promises of persecutions to come, the spirit of joy, of a relationship with God and of peace. He does this to equip there. In chapter 16, verse 28, Jesus says, I came from the Father and entered the world, and now I am leaving the World and going back to the Father, verse 33.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. And then Jesus would pray. Look at John, chapter 17, verse 1.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work of you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

I have revealed you or your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.

They knew with certainty that I came from you. And they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me. For they are yours.

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer. But they are still in the world. And I am coming to you, Holy Father.

Protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe. By that name you gave me, none has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them.

For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil One. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me.

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them.

Friends, there is an infinite amount of gems in this chapter. We could just keep going and do a series for the rest of the year easily on this one chapter. But what I want us to think of particularly is how Jesus concluded his earthly ministry with these disciples that he so loved. How did he do that? He prayed and he prayed the longest prayer of his that we have recorded.

To learn from this, let's ask four specific questions. First, to whom did Jesus pray? To whom did Jesus pray? Second, for whom did Jesus pray? For whom did Jesus pray?

Third, for what did Jesus pray? For what did Jesus pray? And fourth, why? Why did Jesus pray? And I hope as you listen to this sermon, you'll learn more of who Jesus is, of what he taught, and that you'll believe what you hear him say.

First, to whom did Jesus pray? Now, the obvious answer, of course, is God. But note how it is that Jesus addresses God. See right there in verse one. And even other times in the prayer, he addresses God as Father.

Now, in and of itself, this wouldn't have been unique in first century Palestine among the Jews. But when they would use the word Father, they would always use it in a corporate sense. O Father of Israel, you are our Father. But Jesus, when he prays, he addresses God as Father with a striking sense of personal intimacy. And not just Father.

But notice how he speaks of His Father. Verse 11, Holy Father. Again, verse 25, Righteous Father. So Jesus clearly feels this intimacy with God. But this is no casual intimacy.

Too often today people seem to assume that casualness is the height of intimacy. The more casual I can be in the way I refer to God or even talk to God, that must show how close I am to God.

It may be like that in 1970s America. It's not like that on any page of the Bible. When people meet the true God, casualness is right out the window. It's not a dead formalism, but there is a reverent respect that fills the pages of the Bible. And we see it even here in this prayer.

The Father whom Jesus addresses with direct and tender intimacy is known by Jesus to be holy and righteous. He is the God who is not defined by our standards, but who rather tells us what is right and wrong, who tells us what is true and false, who tells us what is good and evil. Friend, do you know this God that Jesus prays to this God who is personal? I remember talking to a clergyman one time in England and ask him if he thought God was personal. He said he'd never considered the question.

A Christian clergyman never really considered whether or not God was personal. He always thought of God as a force. But do you know this personal God is also good? I remember being in seminary and having another student talking in this one seminar about how she was getting into in touch with the dark side of God, as she called it. Friends, we want to know the truth about this God.

What is this God we worship and to whom we pray like the one whom Jesus made known? Well, Jesus tells us here he. He is righteous, he is holy, and he presents himself as. As our Father. Furthermore, we see from the way Jesus addressed God that Jesus didn't feel that he was praying to only one of a number of divine prayer answering channels.

But you notice he says there in verse three, the only true God. Verse three, the only true God, Jesus. Here in prayer is clear that the God who is his Father, who, to use the language of this chapter, sent Jesus. This God is unique.

He is the only true God. Others are fakes and imitations. Whether or not this suits our pluralistic tastes today, it is clear that this is in fact what Jesus thought and what Jesus taught and. And what Jesus believed and what Jesus prayed.

Reality is not something that we create, friends, by our thoughts. Steve, I appreciated. Where'd you go, Steve Boyer? I appreciated that story you shared in your course seminar class this morning about the woman who just didn't want to hear about God's wrath and stuck her fingers in her ear. But I mean, that shows she's thinking that somehow what she wants to protect are her thoughts.

She doesn't want her thoughts to be messed up by the negativity. No offense. She doesn't have a clue. You weren't creating reality with your words. Reality exists.

It is in her interest to find out what it is. You're not going to make it by your words. She doesn't make it by her hearing. Reality exists. What is God like?

God has revealed himself as the only true God. Now, because of Jesus, we too can pray directly to this holy, righteous, unique God as our loving heavenly Father. Remember earlier what Jesus had just been saying to them about praying throughout chapters 14, 15, 16, throughout this message he was giving them? Look back in chapter 14, verse 13, chapter 14, verse 13, I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. And then in chapter 16, verse 23.

You're not using the Bible. 16, the large number 23. The verse numbers are the small numbers after it. 16, verse 23. In that day, you will no longer ask me anything.

I tell you the truth. My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. Until now, you've not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Verse 26.

In that day, you will ask in My name. I'm not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No. The Father Himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Friend.

The whole point of this last message of Jesus to his disciples was the whole point of his coming to save his people from their sins and to restore them to this relationship with their Creator. So, of course, what's he doing in John 17? He's modeling the very thing he came for, this relationship with God as a personal relationship. He talks to him. He knows his Father hears him and he makes requests.

And he knows that God will answer those requests. He's showing the reality of the very thing he came for. So now he's saying they can pray like this. They can pray directly to the Father. He models his whole mission as he leads them in coming to his heavenly Father, this one true holy God in prayer.

So Jesus prayed to His Father. That's to whom he prayed. But did you also notice for whom Jesus prayed? Now, another way I could have done this message was just go through these three sections. There are three pretty natural sections about for whom he's praying.

And that's a good way for you to study it. There's some other things I wanted to notice. So I haven't just done that, but I do want us to stop and notice this. That first section, verses one to five, you see, he's praying for Himself.

Verse one. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you down. In verse 5, Jesus prays glorify me in your presence. Now, leaving aside for a moment what it was, Jesus was praying for himself. Notice the simple fact that it was okay for Jesus to pray for himself.

Not going to take long on this, but I was struck by a Bible study I taught years ago. Not here, someplace else. When I mentioned praying for yourself, someone came up to me afterwards and felt that was a very selfish thing to do. You shouldn't pray for yourself. Well, actually Jesus here prays for himself.

It's a fine thing to do to pray for yourself. Sometimes Christians get the idea. Well, Christianity is all about self denial, so surely I never want to pray for myself. Well actually Christianity isn't all about self denial. Buddhism is all about self denial.

Buddhism says that you're just an ima, an imaginary thing that you will achieve nirvana when you stop realizing or stop thinking that you're real. When you sort of, you know, lose your own self consciousness. That's not Christianity. Christianity tells us to deny our fallen selves, that is our flesh, our being, in rebellion against God. But Christianity plans for us to exist as individuals forever, eternally in the presence of the God who made us and who delights in his image in us.

So he actually wants us to, to know him personally. He values each individual. That's what we see here in Jesus is praying even for himself. But the focus of most of Christ's prayer is very clearly there in verses 6 to 19 for his disciples. You see, he prays in verse 9.

And again, you can keep going through this for them. Verse 11, verse 15, verse 17. Them. Okay, who are them? Who are they?

Well, if you follow the thems, and they's from verse nine backwards up through verse eight and verse seven, you get to the antecedent in verse six, those whom you gave me out of the world. So these are the ones Jesus referred to in verse two when he said that the Father granted the Son authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. And this is the eternal life he defines in verse three. Eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ. So this is why Jesus came, to give eternal life to those the Father had given Him.

You see, he refers to them here in verse two as all those you have given Him. Again in verse six as those whom you gave me out of the world. Verse 9, those you have given me. And again at the end of the chapter, verse 24, those you have given me. So it's to those that the Son has revealed the Father, and it is to these then that Jesus shows his concern.

It is for these that Jesus prays. But this prayer is more expansive than simply being for those to whom Jesus had already revealed the Father. Because with them also. Did you notice that Jesus prayed for those who. Who will believe through their message?

Look at verses 21 and 23 and 24. Jesus clearly prays for all of them. This is extraordinary when you think about it. If. If we're here as Christians today, because we see there in verse 20, my prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. So if we're here as a Christian today, we can know that Jesus prayed for us.

We can follow our own hearing of the message back through those who told us or who brought us the Bibles, or who translated them, and keep going backward in this chain all the way to the apostles themselves. Friends, here Jesus love and concern overflowed the bounds of his own time. And they come and they engulf us here this morning in his mind and heart. That night, when he was about to be betrayed and give Himself on the cross, at that time, we really were on his mind.

Not just something people sometimes say in a poem or a song, it's here he prays for us.

But did you notice also one fact which the headings don't tell us. Note who Jesus says he does not pray for. Verse 9.

I am not praying for the world. It seems clear that there is a distinction in Jesus mind which is difficult for our contemporary to treat everyone the same idea of fairness. There is no denying that fairness is held to be at least one of the highest virtues today, without which there can be nothing good. And if we're honest, we have to admit that the egalitarianism of today can certainly leave us Christians in an awkward position. Because at the end of the day, in Christianity, it seems we end up with two companies of people, two communities, two groups.

Groups which are not the same and which do not have the same prospects in eternity. And God has told us in his word that that is the case. Jesus himself made such a distinction between people. I wonder if you noticed it here, verse 12, this strange sentence. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

This is of course, a reference to Judas. But none of the others he said, were lost. So that all of those the Father gave the Son, he gave them eternal life. So in our passage, Christians are described as those whom the Father has given the Son from out of the larger group of the world. This scandal of particularity as the theologians have called it is no scandal in the Bible.

It's simply God's clear, special concern for some people, as in Jesus prayer here. Friend, I know that whenever this theme comes up in Scripture, I get very varied reactions at the door. You know, I don't know how you're hearing this. I don't know if this seems scandalous to you or if this seems marvelous, or if this seems a matter of little interest, or if you just assume this, of course. But it's clear.

However you're responding, it's clear that Jesus in Jesus prayer here, God cares specially for his own. And if we don't like that, we have to ask ourselves one serious and telling question. On what basis would we judge God?

What ground do we stand on that we would cast a judgment upon him and his ways with us? If you have more questions about this, you can read Exodus 9 or Deuteronomy 7 in the Old Testament. You could read Romans 9 in the New Testament. So for whom did Jesus pray? He prayed for himself and for his own throughout the ages.

Dear brothers and sisters, I hope this special concern is reflected in your own prayer life. I hope that as you pray you have a tender regard in prayer for those upon whom God has set his love. So has God loved your brothers and sisters in Christ in this church in a special way. Well, then, I hope you're grabbing your membership directory in your quiet time every morning and praying through a couple pages. That's why we have him available in the church office for you to do just that, to show concern for those whom God has specially loved and has put you around.

Well, there's so much in this prayer, isn't there? Of course, what we have to notice is what Jesus prayed for. Number three. What did Jesus pray for? And for himself.

As we've already read, Jesus prayed that the Son would be glorified there. In verse one, he begins his prayer with this request, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. And he repeats this request in verse 5, where he prayed, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. What a phrase. The glory I had with you before the world began.

Imagine God before the world began.

Imagine God before the world began. Not a sad moping God as people sometimes imagine, driven to create out of this gnawing loneliness at the core of his being, desperate to need to have some object for his love, but the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally loving and being loved perfectly throughout eternally eternity Unchangingly, eternally happy in his triune self.

And so, as Jesus contemplates returning to the Father's presence, he contemplates returning to a state of glory and of good. Profound, undisturbed, eternal, everlasting good.

But the way he would reach, that he knew would be to complete his mission. Verse one, After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

So the time had come, so Jesus prayed in verse 5, now glorify me. And again down in verse 11, I will remain in the world no longer. Verse 13, he tells his Father, I am coming to you now.

Down in verses 5 and 24. This is, I think, what he means when he says he's returning to his eternal glory. This prayer that God would now glorify himself in Jesus involved Jesus's going to the cross because that is how God would fully glorify himself as his justice and righteousness, his love and mercy would there be fully displayed. Jesus glory is in God's justice and his grace. Both justice and grace both being fully displayed on the cross.

That's how we see the truth about God. Not a lopsided picture of whatever side we prefer because of the mood that we're in, our own challenges and difficulties, but that that's how we see something of the truth of who this God is and what he's like. We see it there more clearly than any place in the history of the world.

So the time had come for his glory to be fully displayed. That's what he prays for himself. Now, what he prays for his disciples, his prayer list for his followers. You see it there throughout this prayer. It's really mainly three points.

We can name a lot of other, smaller ones. But to summarize that they be protected and sanctified and unified. They be protected and sanctified and unified. First, he prays that his disciples that we really be protected. Verse 11, he says he asked God the Father, protect them, keep them, keep those you gave me out of the world by the power of your name.

Verse 15. Again, protect them or keep them from the evil one. Not that you take them out of the world. Jesus gave that qualification because, of course, the world is antagonistic to Christians. We thought about that in John 15 at the end, at the beginning of John 16 last week, how the world hates Christians.

That's why Jesus is praying here in verse 12, that God would protect them. And he prays in verses 11 and 12 and 15 for their protection said verse 14. The world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. Friend, there is no doubt that this world is dangerous for Christians. And it can be so in a thousand different ways, in every way, from martyrdom to materialism.

This world is dangerous for Christians. It has its snares. He prays that we would be protected. He also prays that we would be sanctified. Did you notice that there in verse 17, such a clear request, Sanctify them by the truth.

Jesus prayed. What does it mean to be sanctified? Well, it's our being set apart and made holy. God uses his truth to do this. So God's people are given the word of God, like we're studying it right now.

And then hopefully we obey the Word. We're given the word to hear and obey. Verse 8. They accept God's word. And that's how in verse 17, they are sanctified by God's Word.

Because God's word is, as he says there, the truth. God's word is the truth. Friends, don't miss the importance of truth here. So many times in our culture, people are trying to relativize truth and just say it's important only for certain kinds of people, Right? The only people that truth is important for is people who are alive.

If you are alive, truth is important for you. If you think truth is relative, just be really glad the next time you're on an airplane, the pilot doesn't think that way, right? Truth exists. And Jesus is praying here and he's saying, lord, your word is true. Now sanctify them through your truth.

Friends, if we're going to become more holy, more like God, it will be because of his truth. It'll be because we actually give time to studying His Word. Because the truth exposes sin's lies, just like light takes away the illusion of beauty from that which is really spiritually ruinous and ugly. In that sense, I think sin is kind of like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, you know, the wolf dressed up nicely, but with a terrible appetite. And that's what sin is like.

Dressed up nicely, but it wants to devour you. That's its purpose. God uses his word as the truth that we need. And Jesus also prayed that we be unified. That's the third big request in this chapter for his followers, that we would be unified right there, verse 21.

That all of them. And again, those who've given me out of the world and those who will believe in me through their Message, okay, that all of them may be one. And in verse 23, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. You can plainly see this huge concern that Jesus has for the unity of his followers. Now, what do you think this means?

What, what does it mean for Christians to be one?

Too often people take that to be a facet of tolerance or even of apathy. But in this prayer, I think we have some powerful antidotes to our misunderstanding of unity. Jesus clearly ties unity here to the truth, to the word of God. I love the way our own congregation statement of faith puts it in Article 1. We call the Bible the, the true center of Christianity union.

We deny there is any true Christian union. There's not union around the truth of the Bible. That's the only truly Christian union. This unity that Jesus prays for here then is not a, a content free sort of virtue. And he clearly ties it to the relationships the disciples have with each other.

They're to be united by this. This unity will be visible. People can look and can see that the Christians are gathering together like this in, in groups which you can't explain according to the world's lines. They don't have the same education, they don't all have the same background, but they are together. Why?

Because of Jesus Christ. He's that uniting factor. Well then people say, well, what about denominations? You know, isn't the Protestant Reformation the worst thing to ever happen to the church? Didn't it really mess up the answer to Jesus prayer Here?

Two quick answers to that. Number one, all of Jesus prayers he ever prayed will be answered. There is no question that Jesus ever uttered a prayer that will go unanswered. Won't happen. Not ever.

Okay, that's number one. So if you don't see how a prayer of Jesus is being answered, believe that it is being answered and then figure out how. Number two, the Protestant Reformation was, was no more messing up of church unity than the letters of the New Testament as they offered correction in letter after letter to people who were going astray. Did that end the unity of the churches? Well, it clearly threw some teachers out.

It clearly brought some division, but not between true Christians. No. It separated the sheep from the goats. It separated those who were teaching the Gospel from those who weren't. So one of the things Rome charged when the Protestant Reformation happened was, oh, listen, if you guys don't keep to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, you'll break into a Thousand parts.

You'll be divided all over the place. Friends, we've had over 500 years since the Reformation and guess what? What Rome warned us about was false. Not true at all. Not true at all.

You know, you, you can listen to an assembly of God missionary in Argentina, you can sit down next to the bus with a Church of Scotland evangelical pastor. You can talk to some evangelical congregationalist in Boston, or you can, you can go talk to an Anglican in Sydney, Australia. And do you know what you're going to hear? You're going to hear the same gospel. Do you know why?

You're going to hear the same gospel about God making us in his image and us being sinful in Christ dying as a substitute and him being raised from the dead and then appealing with that person they're sitting next to on the bus, whatever their denomination is, to repent of their sins and trust in Christ because it is so plain in the Bible and because God's Spirit makes it clear, we don't need denominational unity, we don't need to send our missionary checks to the same address in order to have true spiritual unity in Christ. We have it. We have unity with every true believer in Christ. There are brothers and sisters, regardless of what the name of the church is they go to if they're trusting in Christ alone for their salvation. That's the work of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is in them.

And we have the same spirit with them. Friends. This spiritual unity is a reality that is evidenced all over the world, even this very Lord's day. So are divisions dangerous? Yes, real divisions between Christians are dangerous because it seems to reflect a division between the Son and the Father.

Our unity is supposed to show what God is like. Evidence of our being in God is in our loving service of each other. When we lovingly serve each other, we are telling the world around us the truth about what God is like. We show that kind of overflowing self denying love for one another, the kind of love that God has shown for us in Christ. That's what we're doing in our lives as Christians.

We are making the gospel visible to the world around us. So Jesus prays for himself, that God would glorify him. And Jesus prays for others, for our protection, for our sanctification, for our unity. And friends, I just want to point out, you see how a local church is a means for all three of those things. So clearly our protection, membership, discipline, accountability, teaching our, our sanctification.

What's happening right now, God's word is being Taught, we're learning, we're growing. We get to know each other, we help each other grow in godliness, our unity. It's easy to say, you love all Christians everywhere, or pick four friends and call those, you know, hey, this is proof of my Christian love. When even the pagans have friends. No, a local church is where you get together with all kinds of people, even people you don't really like very much, or people who are awkward, you know, people you find difficult, you know, and you find like you're that person for some other people in the church, you know.

But yet, because we all have this commitment to Christ, we come together and old love young, and young love old. You know, people who have this kind of job love people who have no job, you know, and people of different stations in life with no kids love the grandparents with all the kids. It's just in all these different ways we evidence, we show forth the gospel. And the very unity that Jesus says here will mark his people. And as we do that, guess what?

God is glorified. So how does God get glory by these prayers of Jesus being answered. So do we understand that in line with that, do we pray for each other's protection and sanctification and our unity together? I hope these are the kind of things we pray about on Sunday evenings here when we get together and pray as a church, these values should be reflected. So let's gather again tonight and pray as we come together around God's table.

But finally, if we really want to get to the heart of this prayer, we have to ask that fourth question. Why did Jesus pray? Why did he pray these things? And the answer is without doubt yet again that Jesus whole life and ministry had been for the glory of God, for the glory of God. Now I know for some people when I use that phrase, the glory of God, it is almost the definition of an empty religious phrase.

They know it's the right answer. They really have no idea what it means. What do we mean when we say that this is for the glory of God? How is God glorified in this? Well, God is glorified through the Son's obedience.

That's what we see. In verse one, we read that your Son may glorify you. Look down in verse four, see that Jesus brought the Father glory by. How did he bring the Father glory? By completing the work he had given him to do, friend.

It's just like Jesus taught earlier in the Gospel. Back in chapter four, my food said Jesus is to do the will of whom has sent me and to Finish his work. It's like he taught them in chapter seven. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself. But he who works for for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth.

There's nothing false about him. So Jesus's goal, even in requests for himself, was the glory of God. His goal, even when he was praying for himself, was the glory of God. Just run that through everything you prayed about this morning for yourself? Yeah.

Yeah. Not really. Not really. Probably. No way.

Yep. Could be, if I thought about it. Okay. Everything Jesus prayed for himself was for the glory of God, that God would be glorified through his obedience. And this glory of God would not come through Christ's obedience lightly.

It would mean his death as he became a substitute for all of those who would turn and trust in him, as he displayed God's holiness and love so fully on the cross as he reconciled God's justice and mercy. Well, friend, if you're here today and you're not a believer, we're very glad you're here. Thank you for coming. You're welcome back anytime. We meet like this, every Sunday morning that we can right here at 10:30, and the main thing we do is hold out this hope to each other that we know we've sinned against God.

We don't meet here pretending to be perfect people. Actually, if you've never sinned, we don't really have anything for you here. This meeting is only for sinners, you know, I mean, we may dress up a little more sometimes, but don't be fooled by the way we dress, you know, or how polite we are on Sunday morning, you know, we're sinners. We're in desperate need of a Savior, every single one of us. If you know that to be you and you want to know more about what it would mean for you to follow Christ, talk to any of the people at the doors on the way out.

You got a good chance with any people you're sitting around, actually. But in case some of you are sitting next to each other, you know, just talk to the people at the doors afterwards, and we will try to help you understand more about what it could mean for you to follow Christ. We have a study where we go through Mark's gospel to try to make it clear we would happily do that as a group or meet up with you individually if we could arrange somebody to do that for you. So do you remember the kind of things that you were praying about? What's the last thing you prayed about?

Sort of individually and privately and personally. You didn't even tell anybody you prayed for it. Just try. Try to get something in mind and ask yourself that question. Why did you pray for it?

Why did you pray for that? Remember at one point in the little letter of James that we were looking at this time last year, he tells them why their prayers weren't being answered. In James 4. 5, when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

The Son's goal, even in his request for Himself, was the glory of God for his followers. Jesus prayed that God would be glorified by benefiting them. We've already noted that he prayed for their protection, their sanctification, their unity. He also prayed for their joy. That's another thing we could notice there in verse 13, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

We don't want Christianity associated with some kind of grim killjoy attitude. That's not. That's not the truth. And Jesus prays for their perseverance and even their presence with him in heaven. In verse 24, Jesus prayed, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory.

Just like he'd started his message that evening. Look back at chapter 14, verse 3.

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may be where I am. They were scared by his mentioning over the Last Supper that he was leaving them and that he would be betrayed and they would be left without Him. That scared them. So what is he doing? He's telling them that he wants them to be with him.

And now here in this prayer, how does he even end the prayer? By praying that God will bring them to be with him where he is. As Jesus said here, Christ wants us to be with him. Friend, do you desire that? Do you desire to be with him?

Catechism says, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And we do that by having fellowship with him, by being witnesses of his glory. I love Christ's final prayer for us there in the last verse in Our chapter, verse 26. Why did Jesus make the Father known to us? In order, he says here, in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

What a world of comfort there is in that simple verse. Richard Sibbes, the Puritan preacher that I love so much, preached two sermons on this called Matchless Love and In Being, where he just meditates on what on earth could it mean for the love of God, the love with which he's loved his own son to be in us? You can listen to those online if you want. Capbap.org SIBs Reading SIBs aloud Project I think one of them's up and the other one will be up soon. But one of the observations he had, and the one we read this week, was he asked us to consider what it means for us to be loved by God as He loved his own Son.

And among other implications, it means simply that his love for us will look like his love did for his son. Friends, what did his love look like for his son? How many times do we wonder, does God really love me? Because circumstances don't go like we would like them to go. Just think about how God the Son experienced the love of God the Father.

He was persecuted from birth. He was single. His own life. He died young, experiencing shame and rejection. Yet none of those calls into question God's love for Him.

God the Father loved him amazingly. Would we be loved even as he has loved his own Son?

Will he spare us? Sibbes asks, how was God's love in Christ? Defense him from poverty, from disgrace, from persecution? From the sense of God's wrath? No one more part we have to notice.

And in all this, one of the goals seems to be the believer's witness about Christ to the world. That is for evangelism, Christians are not of the world even as Christ was not of the world. Christians are sent into the world as Christ was sent into the world. And why are we sent into the world? Verse verse 18 sent into the world?

Why? That the world may believe that Jesus came from the Father. That's just. That's throughout this prayer, Christ desire that the Father be glorified through making sure the people know the truth about Him. So again, one last time, just look through this chapter, verse three that they may know Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Verse 7 that they know everything you've given me comes from you. Verse 8 I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. Then in verse 23, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you've loved me. Verse 25 Though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me.

So people will know that Jesus was sent by God and that God loves all of us in Christ Even as he loved Christ because of us, we have been sent to fulfill that role. And I love the fact that in verse 20 he assumes the success. Did you notice that? Those who will believe through their message. Well, how do you know anybody's going to believe?

Well, he just said they would. He's in charge. He gives gifts of repentance and faith. Those who will believe through their message so this mission will not fail. And friends, how do we know that?

Just look around you here this morning, and this is just one church in one city, in one country. Around this world, Christians bear witness to the truths of Christ's claim so that the world may believe and so that God may be glorified. This is why Jesus prayed, so that God would be made known. And this is why we should pray all that we do as well, for God to be glorified through us.

So I wonder if you find yourself in this prayer as you look through this chapter, as you've read through it and studied it this morning, do you see yourself there?

Will you, if you do, will you pray? Why? Why would you not exercise your relationship with God like this, that's been bought at such a dear price? Why would you not pray like this? Follow Christ's example, Pray to this God?

You see how God is glorified by our prayers? Examples are helpful. Let me give you three examples. Number one, my wife has prayed for me for over 30 years. I'm pretty sure every day.

How different do you think our lives have been because she's been praying for me every day for God to be glorified in our lives. Number two, I've mentioned to you before a professor I had in seminary, Christy Wilson. Christy Wilson would pray whenever you mentioned anything to him, right then and there. It didn't matter if you were on the way to take a final examination. If you see him in the hall and you just mention something, a concern and ask him to pray about it, he would say, let's pray right now.

And then he would stop whatever he was doing. And you would certainly stop whatever you were doing. Bow your head right with everybody walking by and you. He just start praying. And he did it in the most wonderful, focused way that glorified God, showing this immediate, joyful, childlike, constant trust in his heavenly Father.

Cool story. When I mentioned this about a. I use this in illustration. Not that long ago, maybe a year ago. Some of you may remember that at the door afterwards, his adult granddaughter was visiting that Sunday.

I'd never met her, didn't know her, and she just said, you described my grandfather exactly. That's what he was always like, you know, he always would just stop and pray. I've never met her before. Haven't seen her since. If you're here again today, please see me at the door again.

Third example. You can read more about this online. Lots of places. If you just look at Prayer Revival 1857, or we've got several copies on the bookstall of Samuel Prime's book the Power of Prayer, which tells the story of the New York prayer revival of 1857. On July 1, Jeremiah Lamphere was hired by the elders of the Collegiate Church there in Manhattan to be a lay missionary to New York City.

And almost three months later, he began a prayer meeting near Wall street for the people who were working there. Gospel tracts were distributed to those in attendance with instruction that they pray over the tracts and then give them to whoever God brought to mind. Friends. Soon newspapers reported that over 6,000 were attending various prayer meetings in New York City alone. And then other cities started following the pattern.

It was reported that 6,000 people were attending them as far away as Pittsburgh. Here in Washington, D.C. there were apparently five different times that prayer meetings were being held daily just to accommodate the crowds. A common midday sign on business premises read, we will reopen at the close of the prayer meeting by the following May. All right, so this started in September.

By the following May, in New York, New York's population was 800,000. They estimated 50,000 had been converted since they began in September. 50,000 people. And that's just immediately. Friend, think of what happens in the wake of that prayer revival that we read of in other parts around the world.

At that time, just in the U.S. let's just think about the U.S. what happens in the next few years? Slavery is ended that had been here for over two centuries. Missions get going around the world in a way they never had before.

Churches are founded all over the place. People without number were affected. Like, for example, the chief laundry woman at the Bureau of Engraving here in Washington D.C. who started a prayer meeting in her home here on the hill in 1867, which became a few years later, this church. Friend, how did that all happen?

What was trickled down from God's people praying from God's people, taking the example of Christ here in his last act with his disciples and showing that God is gracious. Brothers and sisters, consider how many of our prayers God has answered, including Jesus's prayer for us here, for us to be one, to be sanctified, for us all to be one and for us to be sanctified by the truth. God has answered and is answering all of these prayers for his honor and glory and he will continue to do this. God has been so faithful to do all of this. Oh there is an infinite amount more we could say, but I pray that this will encourage us to keep going to God in prayer for his glory and for our good because that's why Jesus came.

Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for how you have loved us in Christ. Thank you for using him as you did to show us the way to you and to make that way. Oh Lord, help us to faithfully follow his example every day to go to him with all of our troubles and trials, to trust them fully to you and so to bring you glory in the midst of this world you made. Do this Lord, until you bring us safely home to yourself. We ask in Jesus name amen.