Jesus and His disciples had left the Upper Room (John 14:31) and were making their way toward the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. It may have been that along the way, they passed a vineyard, and that this provided the occasion for our Lord to teach His disciples about abiding in Him (John 15:1-17).

I believe the instruction of chapters 15 and 16 was given while the disciples were winding their way through the dark streets of Jerusalem, on their way to the Mount of Olives, where they had been camping out that week. As we come to chapter 17, Jesus continues to speak to His disciples, preparing them for the future, and assuring them of His provision for all their needs in His absence.

At one moment, it seems He is teaching His disciples, and at the next, He is praying to the Father. It probably takes the disciples a few seconds to figure this out. They seem to have been talking among themselves along the way, especially concerning those things Jesus had said that they did not understand (see 16:17-19). Eventually, one of the disciples realizes that Jesus is no longer talking to them, but rather to His Father in heaven.

I can almost see John punching Peter in the ribs and whispering hoarsely, “Peter, be quiet! Jesus is praying.” Of course this is mere speculation, but it could have happened something like this.

John 17 contains the inspired record of our Lord’s prayer to the Father. In the fifth century, Clement of Alexandria remarked that in this prayer, Jesus was acting as a high priest on behalf of His people.[1] Over the years, some have debated whether this prayer should be known as the “high priestly prayer of Jesus,” but no one who takes the Bible seriously as the Word of God would dare to deny the importance of this prayer, no matter what label we may give to it.

In one sense, this prayer in John 17 is one of many prayers of our Lord. Jesus is often found in prayer in the New Testament. He was in prayer at His baptism, when the Holy Spirit come upon Him (Luke 3:21). He was in prayer when He was transfigured before His three disciples (Luke 9:29). Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4).[2] He prayed to bless the little children (Matthew 19:13), and He prayed that Peter’s faith might not fail (Luke 22:32). Often in the Gospels, we read of our Lord’s private prayers, prayers which are not recorded for us to read and to reflect upon (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; 6:46; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18).

There were times, however, when Jesus prayed for the benefit of those who were intended to overhear Him. Jesus publicly blessed the meager portion of food available before feeding the 5,000 (John 6:11). No doubt this was to make it clear that God the Father was equally at work in this miracle. In John 11, Jesus also prayed for the benefit of those who would witness the raising of Lazarus:

41 So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. 42 I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face (John 11:41-44).

The prayer of our Lord in John 17 is one that Jesus wanted His disciples to hear. To me, it does not appear that Jesus wanted His disciples to hear His prayer in Gethsemane, but that’s another story, one we shall take up later on in this message. The prayer recorded in John 17 is the longest recorded prayer of our Lord in the New Testament. It is found only in the Gospel of John. I like the way John G. Mitchell has outlined it,[3] which I will summarize in this chart:

A Brief Overview of John 17

   As the church seeks to get its priorities in order, there’s no better way to do this than to find out what was important to Jesus Christ.

   In our study today, Jesus tells us what His priorities were and are!

   It has been said that “some people pray by the yard; but true prayer is measured by weight, and not by length.” The greatest prayer ever prayed is John 17, and it takes about six minutes to reverently read aloud, which isn’t necessarily long…but there is certainly a great deal of depth and weight!

   There are some 650 definite prayers recorded in the Bible, yet none of them approaches this one!

  We might also approach these lessons in this way: If you were in great stress, what would you pray? If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you pray? If you had just been hurt bu a close friend, what would you pray?

   Pain and stress have a way sometimes of making us self-centered. When we are hurting or afraid, it is difficult for us to think of anyone else. That is part of what makes this such a remarkable prayer!

   Verses 1-5 lay a foundation for the entire prayer. While they focus on our Lord’s relationship with His Father, they have much to say concerning our relationship with the Father. Allow me to make several observations from these verses.

First, this prayer is what we might call a “conversational prayer.” About the time I was in college, “conversational prayer” became popular for my generation. Conversational prayers are more casual. Praying to God conversationally is done in terms that make it sound more like you are talking to a friend that you know well. In this prayer, Jesus might be said to be praying conversationally.

In part, I base this on the fact that in verse 1 John does not write, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and prayed, ‘Father, the time has come …’” In verse 1, the word saying and the word said are not the same Greek word, but both terms describe speech. There are several words employed for prayer, but the word “said” is not one of them. In this sense, we might say that our Lord’s prayer was, to one degree or another, conversational.

There is yet another line of supporting evidence. In this prayer, our Lord uses the word “Father” to address God the Father. Leon Morris observes:

He began his prayer with the simple address ‘Father.’ We have become used to this as a normal Christian way of beginning a prayer, but it was not usual in that day. The address was that used by a little child in speaking to his parent, but when God was addressed it was usual to add some qualifier; for example, a praying person might say, ‘Our Father in heaven.’ God was so great and so high that he must not be addressed in the language appropriate for familiar use within the family. But Jesus constantly used this way of speaking to his heavenly Father, and Christians picked up the habit from him. Notice the way it runs through this prayer (vv. 5, 11, 21, 24, 25). That God is Father was specially important at this point in Jesus’ life.[4]

The term “Father” is also a kind of “conversational” address, the kind of conversation that takes place between a son and his “daddy.”

This “conversational” element makes it easier for me to understand what took place. Jesus and His disciples had left the Upper Room and were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Along the way, Jesus taught them about abiding in Him, and He also told them of the hard times ahead. Jesus also spoke of those future things which they would comprehend only after the events of the next few days. At the end of this time of instruction, Jesus just keeps speaking, but now He is speaking to His Father— in the hearing of His disciples. It may have taken them a moment to comprehend this. How they must have treasured these words as they reflected on them later.

Our Lord’s intimacy with the Father is not only reflected in His prayer to the Father here, Jesus indicates that it should greatly influence our prayers to the Father as well. Just a few moments earlier, Jesus said to His disciples,

25 “I have told you these things in obscure figures of speech; a time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in obscure figures, but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 At that time you will ask in my name, and I do not say that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered into the world; but in turn, I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (John 16:25-28).

I believe our Lord has made it possible for Christians today to enjoy an incredible level of intimacy with the Father. We can actually experience at least a portion of the intimacy with the Father which our Lord enjoyed in His prayer life. When we do, we ought never forget the holiness and the majesty of the One we address as Father. To be able to call God our Father is no excuse for irreverence or for moral sloppiness:

17 And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. 18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, Christ. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:17-21).

Intimacy with God as our Father is a privilege which should inspire humility, gratitude, and reverence in each of us.

Our Lord’s natural transition from talking with men to talking with the Father is not altogether unique in the Bible. When I read Paul’s epistles, I find this same kind of easy transition from instruction to prayer, which seems so appropriate we hardly even recognize it:

13 For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. 16 I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, by being rooted and grounded in love, 18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, 21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:13-21).

I cannot help but wonder if this is not an illustration of “praying without ceasing.” Prayer comes so naturally to our Lord, and to the Apostle Paul, that they move almost seamlessly from one to the other. Would that our prayers were as natural and as frequent.

Second, John links this prayer with the Upper Room discourse which precedes it. Notice how this chapter, and this prayer, begins: “When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said, …” A very clear link is made between the teaching of our Lord in the Upper Room Discourse in chapters 13-16 and the high priestly prayer of Jesus, recorded in chapter 17. The sequence is, of course, chronological. The prayer of chapter 17 follows our Lord’s teaching, as recorded in the previous chapters. But I think there is much more involved than mere chronological sequence. Allow me to explain.

In the Bible, prayer is closely related to teaching and preaching. Note, for example, these verses which we find early in the Book of Acts:

1 Now in these days, when the disciples were growing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the twelve called the whole group of the disciples together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables. 3 But carefully select from among you, brothers, seven men who are well-attested, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this necessary task. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 The proposal pleased the entire group, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a Jewish convert from Antioch. 6 They stood these men before the apostles, who prayed and placed their hands on them. 7 The word of God continued to spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:1-7, emphasis mine).

Prayer not only glorifies God, it acknowledges that the preaching (and even the hearing) of God’s truth is not enough. The truth of God’s Word does not benefit us apart from the work of God through His Holy Spirit.

6 Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. 7 Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. 13 And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him?” But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).

The disciples did not understand much of anything that Jesus spoke to them until after His ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly what Jesus said in the Upper Room Discourse. The cross of Christ (including His resurrection and ascension) and the coming of the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to grasp what Jesus had said to them earlier. Our Lord’s prayer was based upon what He had taught them, but it also petitioned the Father to cause that word to come to life, and thus to bear fruit in the lives of His children.

We see this same pattern in the New Testament epistles. The apostles not only found it essential to devote themselves to the proclamation of the Word, but also to prayer. This is because the proclamation of the Word is not enough. God must “open the spiritual eyes” of men to comprehend the Word. This is why the apostles spent so much time in prayer. They prayed that God would take the Word they had proclaimed and bring it to life in the hearts of those who heard (see James 1:21-25; 1 Peter 1:23; Acts 16:14). Proclamation and prayer are, as one song writer once put it, “like a horse and carriage: you can’t have one without the other.”

Third, I find it impossible to study the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 apart from our Lord’s agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, a few moments later. I have a confession to make. As I began to study our text, I was predisposed to assume that our Lord had already prayed His prayer in Gethsemane before He prayed His high priestly prayer of John 17. After all, I reasoned, Jesus agonized over the realities of the cross which lay ahead, resolved them, and then calmly prayed the prayer of John 17.

The Scriptures really don’t seem to allow this order of events. We read these words in the eighteenth chapter of John, just after our Lord’s high priestly prayer is ended: “When he had said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. There was an orchard there, and he and his disciples entered into it” (John 18:1).

This certainly seems to indicate that after He had concluded His high priestly prayer, Jesus and His disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where His prayer of agony was uttered. Luke gives us this account of that prayer:

39 Then Jesus came out and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 When he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.” 41 Then he went away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him to strengthen him. 44 And remaining in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, worn out by grief, 46 so he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation!” 47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He walked up to Jesus to kiss him (Luke 22:39-47).

Notice the words of verse 47: “While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.” It would seem that our Lord’s arrest came immediately after His prayer in the Garden. There would have been no time for His high priestly prayer after His prayer in Gethsemane. Therefore, the order of events must be: (1) Jesus’ high priestly prayer of John 17; and then (2) Jesus’ prayer of personal agony, as recorded in Luke and the other Synoptic Gospels.

How different these two prayers were, so different that we can hardly conceive of them being prayed by the same person, within minutes of each other. In John 17, Jesus is calm, and while the mood of the moment is serious, it is not sad or gloomy.[5] When He prays in Gethsemane, Jesus is in agony. He is sweating, and His sweat is like great drops of blood. He is not standing, looking up to heaven, He is kneeling, and perhaps lying prostrate upon the ground. His anguish was so great an angel was dispatched to strengthen Him. The high priestly prayer of Jesus was uttered in the presence of His disciples, so that they might hear what He was saying. The prayer in Gethsemane seems to have been private. Some might wonder about this, since Jesus took three of His disciples with Him (Matthew 26:37; Mark 14:32-34). We are told, however, that Jesus went a little beyond the three (Mark 14:35), and that He came back to find them sleeping. This would suggest that there was some distance between Jesus and the three. Could this be the “stone’s throw” of Luke 22:31? There is no indication that the disciples heard Jesus at the time. If they had, could they have slept? Did they see the angel minister to Jesus? It seems as though this was a very private prayer, one known to the disciples only after our Lord’s death and resurrection, only after the Spirit revealed it to them.

Why were these two prayers of our Lord (the high priestly prayer of John 17 and the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which took place so close in time, never found together in at least one Gospel? Why does John record the high priestly prayer of Jesus in chapter 17, and not mention the Gethsemane prayer? Why do the Synoptic Gospels describe the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus, but say nothing about His high priestly prayer?

I think we could begin by noting that John’s Gospel has a unique purpose. His emphasis is surely on the deity of our Lord. Both the Upper Room Discourse and the high priestly prayer of our Lord contribute to this theme. The Synoptic Gospels exclude both the discourse and the prayer of John’s Gospel. It would be tempting to say that the Synoptic Gospels emphasize the humanity of our Lord, and that the prayer in Gethsemane shows the “human side” of Jesus. I’m not quite certain that we can divide our Lord into His “two sides.” I think the incarnation of our Lord united deity and humanity in a seamless way. Perhaps, then, it is not good to speak of His “humanity” or His “deity” as though they were separate entities.

For example, if one were to argue that the prayer of our Lord in Gethsemane revealed His “human side,” I think I would be inclined to insist that this prayer was informed by His “divine side.” Who but a holy and righteous God could grasp the horror of becoming sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)? Who but an all-knowing God could know ahead of time all that He was going to endure on the cross? Perhaps these prayers are kept apart, simply because we, in our humanity, are not really able to deal with them when they are in too close proximity. You will recall that the prophets of old had the same difficulty as they foretold the sufferings and the glory of our Lord (1 Peter 1:10-12). Both these dimensions are true, but we struggle to harmonize them, just as divine sovereignty and human responsibility are difficult to reconcile. Nevertheless, both are true, and both must be taught.

I am reminded of Paul’s words in Ephesians: “You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Paul has already emphasized the need to “speak the truth to one another” (4:25), but this does not mean that we may speak anything that is true, anytime we want, in any manner we wish. In verse 29, Paul tells us that our speaking must be governed by the principle of edification. We should speak in a way that edifies others, so that they are built up by our words. This does not mean that we avoid all rebuke or correction. It does mean that there is a proper time and a place for doing so.

Jesus has already said to His disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). I do not believe the disciples would have been able to bear witnessing the actions and words of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were already troubled enough. And so Jesus chose to bear this agony alone, as He would suffer alone on the cross of Calvary. The agony of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane is not known to the disciples or to the church until after our Lord’s resurrection. It is recorded in Scripture three times, so that we will not overlook the immensity of His suffering, and thus of His sacrifice so that we might have the forgiveness of our sins.

Fourth, Jesus speaks of His authority at the very time when it appears that His enemies are prevailing over Him.[6] The arrest of our Lord is imminent, and His trial, and crucifixion only a few hours away. Outward appearances are that His enemies have finally gotten the best of Him. Jesus seems to be powerless to resist or to overcome His adversaries. This is not the time you would expect Him to speak of His authority. But then much of what Jesus has been saying was not what the disciples would have expected. Jesus prays, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you—just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him” (verses 1b-2).

Notice that Jesus does not merely say that the Father gave Him authority only over His disciples and those who would later believe. Jesus says that the Father gave Him authority “over all humanity.” Here is but another example of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. Jesus had full authority over Judas, over the high priests, and those Roman officials instrumental in His death. Jesus had complete authority over the hostile mob, who cried out, “Crucify! Crucify!” While they were doing a terrible thing, they were also fulfilling the purposes and prophecies of God. As Peter would later put it,

Israelite men, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man clearly demonstrated to you to be from God by powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed through him among you, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles” (Acts 2:22-23).

As we shall soon demonstrate, Jesus was never more “in control” than He was at the cross of Calvary. He had orchestrated the time and manner of His death. He had made certain that all prophecies were fulfilled. At the proper moment in time, He gave up His spirit. No one took His life away from Him; He gave it up, just as He would also raise it up again. We need to be very careful not to think of God as “waiting”[7] on man for anything, as though He is dependent upon us. He has authority over all flesh, and this enables Him to save those whom the Father has chosen. Jesus has authority over every unbeliever. He has authority over every believer. Too often men portray our Lord as One who is dependent upon man, One who “waits” for us, and who is incapacitated by our disobedience or unbelief. Not so!

Fifth, in this text, Jesus defines “eternal life.” Jesus says in verse 3: “Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” For many, especially pagans, the best one can hope for is eternal existence. It is what we would seek if medical science permitted it. Some Christians would define it as having our sins forgiven, and this is certainly an important part of it. But Jesus defines eternal life here as “knowing[8] God,” God the Father, and God the Son. The Jews would define “eternal life” in terms of knowing only the Father and of rejecting the Son (see John 10:34-39). Jesus insists that men cannot know the Father except through the Son, and that to reject the Son is to reject the Father as well:

45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he has seen the Father.) 47 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life” (John 6:45-47).

Then they began asking him, “Who is your father?” Jesus answered, “You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too” (John 8:19).

Jesus replied, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. I have not come on my own initiative, but he sent me” (John 8:42).

37 If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” 39 Then they attempted again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches (John 10:37-39).

“I tell you the solemn truth, whoever accepts the one I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me” (John 13:20).

6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).

10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves” (John 14:10-11).

20 “You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him” (John 14:20-23).

23 “The one who hates me hates my Father too. 24 If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father” (John 15:23-24).

“They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:3).

If one defines eternal life in terms of “knowing God,” then one can hardly think of eternal life in static terms, but rather in dynamic terms. Eternal life is not just a moment in time when one trusts in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Eternal life begins with the moment of salvation and continues throughout eternity, as one comes to know God. And since God is infinite, infinitely wise, infinitely loving, gracious, and so on, then we will never come to know Him fully in this life. Thus, it will take all eternity to know Him fully. This is why we are not only called to faith, but also to discipleship. We must trust Him for our salvation, and we must follow Him as His disciples.

Sixth, in our text, Jesus speaks of His work in the past tense, even though much of it is still future. The Bible often speaks of future events by using a verb in the past tense. The “time had come” (verse 1), John tells us, and yet this “time” was the “time” of His death. It may not be far off in the future, but it is nevertheless still future. He says that He has “glorified the Father on earth by completing the work He gave Him to do” (verse 4). It will be a few hours before our Lord will cry out, “It is finished,” yet Jesus can speak of the work as though it were already finished in His prayer.

The student of the Old Testament is not at all surprised by the fact that future events are described by verbs in the past tense, as this is common in the Old Testament. From God’s point of view, the future is virtually the present. And since God is sovereign, there is no occasion when God’s purposes will not be accomplished. Thus, it is both legitimate and logical for Jesus to speak of the future as though it were the past. It is, we say, “as good as done.” It not only indicates the certainty of these events, but also of our Lord’s resolve to endure the suffering and sorrows which these events necessitate.

Seventh, in our text, Jesus speaks of His glory and the Father’s glory[9] as one and the same.[10] This is the reason Jesus can ask that the Father glorify Him. He is not seeking His glory alone[11] (see 8:50, 54), but the glory of the Father (see 13:31-32), brought about as He is glorified (see 14:13). Earlier in this Gospel, Jesus said, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God’” (John 8:54). Jesus’ request for glory is not self-seeking; it is yet another manifestation of His servanthood. He prays that the Father glorify Him so that He might in this way glorify the Father. This is because the Father is glorified in and through the Son.

Eighth, the glorification which Jesus requests of the Father is accomplished by means of the cross of Calvary. Jesus spoke of His glorification earlier in the Gospel of John. At times, this “glorification” was spoken of in more general terms:

Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee. In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him (John 2:11).

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God’” (John 8:54).

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

At other times, “glory” is used in a way that would encompass the whole of His saving work: His death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation in heaven:

(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive; for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)

(His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that these things had happened to him.) (John 12:16)

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23).

31 When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him right away” (John 13:31-32).

“I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).

In our text, the glorification of our Lord (and the Father) may include the resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus, but it must surely include His sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary. The cross is a symbol of shame to the world, but it is a symbol of glory to the Christian:

In chapter 7 He said to His brethren, ‘Your hour is here. My hour is not yet come.’ In chapter 12, when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, He said, ‘Now is mine hour come, that the Son of man should be glorified.’ Note that it wasn’t the hour that the Son should be crucified, but glorified. When the leaders took Jesus captive in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly after this prayer, He said to them, ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness’ (Luke 22:53). Did you ever stop to think of the fact that the power of darkness, the forces of hell, had an hour? Their hour was the taking of the Son of God, scourging and rejecting Him, and then crucifying and killing Him. And yet the Lord took that very same thing, and showed that the ultimate purpose of Calvary is not salvation but the glorification of God.[12]

The Jews thought of the Law as being glorious, but the teaching of the New Testament is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ (in which the cross of Christ is central) has much greater glory (2 Corinthians 3). The false teachers in Corinth, along with their followers, began to glory in human wisdom, but Paul refused to glory in anything but Christ, and Christ crucified:

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 For since in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. 22 For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, 23 but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were members of the upper class. 27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 29 so that no one can boast in his presence. 30 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:17-31).

No wonder Paul would glory only in Christ and His cross:

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14, KJV).[13]

Our Lord prayed to be glorified, so that He might glorify the Father. This glorification came at the price of the cross. He paid the price for our sins; He suffered God’s eternal wrath. We shall never fully comprehend the magnitude of His sacrifice, but we can glory in it. Earthly men glory in their shame (Philippians 3:19); Christians find glory in the shame which our Lord Jesus bore for us at Calvary.

What makes this prayer so great? Let’s make four points:

1. It is great because of the Person who prayed the prayer.

   This Person is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God… eternal God in the flesh. Each of the four gospels has its own emphasis:

   – Matthew emphasizes Christ the King, the Messiah promised in the Old Testament scriptures

   –  Mark is the gospel of the Servant

   – Luke pictures the sympathetic Son of Man

   – John’s purpose is to present the deity of Jesus.

   John 20:30-31: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. {31} But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

   Only God the Son could ask the Father to glorify Him (vs. 1). And only God can give sinners eternal life (vs. 2). And note in verse 3 that Jesus put Himself on an equal basis with God.

   A question that’s often asked: why does God pray? There are at least 19 instances in the gospels when Jesus is praying. But realize that when Jesus was ministering on earth, He did everything inn total dependence on the Father. In other words, our Lord lived by faith and depended on prayer during His life and ministry on earth, just as He wants us to do!

2. It is great because of the occasion that demanded the prayer. 

   Jesus had just finished instructing His disciples (John 13:13-16) and now prays for them, because prayer and the Word of God go together.

   If we have all Bible and no prayer, we may have a great deal of truth but no power. It would be “light without heat.”

   But if we have all prayer but no Bible teaching, we’re in danger of becoming fanatics–heat without light. Zeal is a good thing, but zeal without knowledge is usually destructive!

   But, note, too, that Christ prayed for himself here. He faced the cross and would be leaving His disciples. Yet, as He prayed for Himself, He was praying for us, since His return to glory would mean glory for us.

3.  It is great because of the petitions in the prayer. 

   Prayer that asks nothing accomplishes nothing. Jesus prayed for Himself (1-5), for His disciples’ security (6-12) and their sanctity (13-19) and for the whole church (20-26).

   – The petitions in this prayer take us back to eternity past (vs. 5) and forward into future glory in heaven (vs. 24)

   – This prayer deals with the glory of the Father and the Son (vs. 1) as well as the church glorifying God on earth (vs. 10)

   – Our Lord mentions the Father’s love for Him (vs. 24) as well as the Father’s love for believers (vs. 23)

4. It is great because of the victory it can give us today. 

   Jesus closed His Upper Room teaching with these words: John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

   In His prayer in John 17, He used the word “world” 17 times! This prayer tells us how to overcome the world! What we will learn from this prayer will give us the courage to overcome the world, and the joy of this victory that can fill and control our lives.

[1] “In the early fifth century, Clement of Alexandria said that in this prayer Jesus was a high priest acting on behalf of his people, and the prayer has often been called his high priestly prayer. Sometimes objection is made to this as, for example, when Barrett says that this does not do justice to the wide-ranging nature of the prayer. Perhaps there is more than one opinion on what we should look for in a high priestly prayer, and as there are no accepted rules to govern such a prayer the estimate is highly subjective. But the expression does draw attention to the fact that this is a very solemn and important prayer and one that is invested with deep interest for all Christian people, for it contains Jesus’ final intercession for his people before the events of the passion.” Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), vol. 4, pp. 565-566.

[2] “At least a few parallels stand out between the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray and this prayer which Jesus himself prayed. The expression ‘Our Father’ is reflected here in the simple ‘Father’ (17:1). ‘Hallowed be your name’ may find some echo in the mention of God’s name in 17:6, 11, 12, 26. … ‘Your kingdom come’ has certain thematic connections with ‘glorify your Son’ (17:1, 5). We might also compare ‘lead us not into temptation’ with ‘I protected them and kept them safe’ (17:12), and ‘deliver us from the evil one’ with ‘protect them from the evil one’ (17:15).” D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14-17 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 174.

[3] “The chapter divides itself into three simple sections. In the first five verses, it is ‘Christ and His Father.’ The great word there is ‘glory.’ Jesus requests the Father to glorify Him with the glory they shared from eternity. And then from verse 6 through verse 19, we have ‘Christ and His Disciples.’ The great word there is ‘kept.’ Jesus asks the Father to preserve His disciples. Then from verse 20 to verse 26 we have ‘Christ and His Church.’ The great word there is ‘one.’ Jesus desires for His church to be in oneness with each other.” John G. Mitchell, with Dick Bohrer, An Everlasting Love: A Devotional Study of the Gospel of John (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1982), p. 322.

[4] Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), vol. 4, p. 567.

[5] “This is the longest of our Lord’s recorded prayers, and, spoken as it is in the shadow of the cross, it is invested with a peculiar solemnity. ‘No attempt to describe the prayer can give a just idea of its sublimity, its pathos, its touching yet exalted character, its tone at once of tenderness and triumphant expectation’ (MiM). The last words are important. We so often understand this prayer as though it were rather gloomy. It is not. It is uttered by One who has just affirmed that He has overcome the world (16:33), and it starts from this conviction. Jesus is looking forward to the cross, but in a mood of hope and joy, not one of despondency. The prayer marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but it looks forward to the ongoing work which would now be the responsibility first of the immediate disciples and then of those who would later believe through them. Jesus prays for them all.” Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), p. 716.

[6] “He exercised authority in bringing men life even as He hung, apparently helpless, on the cross.” Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), p. 719.

[7] All right, I confess. I’m thinking of that hymn that goes like this, “The Savior is waiting … why don’t you let Him come in …?” The impression this hymn gives is that God has done all He can, and that He is now dependent upon us to act. This implies that He is powerless to save, ultimately, and that salvation rests primarily on our decision, not God’s (but see John 15:16).

[8] “There are two Greek verbs for ‘to know,’ and each of them occurs in John more often than in any other New Testament book. Knowledge matters for John, and it matters because Jesus has come to bring us knowledge and supremely, as we see here, because the knowledge of God and of Jesus is itself eternal life.” Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), vol. 4, p. 571.

[9] “Glory is frequently before us in this Gospel from 1:14 on. John uses the noun glory eighteen times (which is more than in any other New Testament book except 2 Corinthians) and the verb glorify twenty-three times (no other New Testament book has it more than nine times).” Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), vol. 4, p. 567.

[10] See John 11:4.

[11] “This part of the prayer is often said to be Jesus’ prayer for Himself. As He prays that He may be glorified (vv. 1, 5) there is perhaps something in this. But this is not prayer ‘for’ Himself in the way we usually understand this. Since His glorification is to be seen in the cross it is a prayer rather that the Father’s will may be done in Him. If we do talk about this as Jesus’ prayer for Himself we should at least be clear that there is no self-seeking in it.” Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), p. 717.

[12] John G. Mitchell, with Dick Bohrer, An Everlasting Love: A Devotional Study of the Gospel of John (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1982), p. 323.

[13] The KJV and the ASV use the word “glory” here, even though it is not the same Greek word found in our text. The point is that Paul saw and exulted in the glory of the cross.

Jesus was always very open and direct about the cost of discipleship with those who wished to follow Him:

23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man be will ashamed of this one when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels (Luke 9:23-26, see also verses 57-62).

We know from the parable of the four soils (see Mark 4:1-20) that those who were surprised by their sufferings did stumble over them (4:17). Jesus does not want His disciples to be taken by surprise, and so He tells them about the difficulties which lie ahead for them as His disciples. These men will be rejected by their fellow-Jews, put out of the synagogue, and even put to death. And the irony of all this is that when their opponents do such things, they will actually suppose that they are serving God by their opposition to Christ and His disciples.[1]

Who better illustrates this than Saul, before his conversion?

“I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison” (Acts 22:4).

9 “Of course, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem: not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death. 11 I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities” (Acts 26:9-11; see also 1 Timothy 1:12-16).

Up to this moment in time, the disciples had not experienced anything like this kind of persecution in the time they had spent with Jesus. Jesus’ warnings here about future persecution are prophetic. His purpose in telling them these things now is so that when this persecution comes to pass, they will not be shocked, as though it were unexpected, but rather they will be able to remember that He had told them these things would happen to them. Thus, their faith will not be shaken (they won’t be “caused to stumble”), but will be strengthened.

   Before looking at the message of this chapter, we need to remember where it appears in this Gospel.

   Following twelve chapters of largely public ministry, chapters 13 through 17 are filled with intimate exchanges between Jesus and His twelve disciples. He was deeply concerned about them as His death approached.

   As a result, the teachings in these four chapters were largely devoted to preparing the disciples for His departure from them. By the beginning of our text, chapter 16, Jesus had washed their feet, Judas had left to betray Jesus, Jesus had told them He was “going away,” and He had warned them about the persecution that would come.

——————————————————

   Saying good-bye is never easy, whether it’s at an airport, a family reunion, or the deathbed of a loved one. The single, most important message Jesus wanted to communicate was that His presence would be replaced with that of the Holy Spirit.

   At that last supper Jesus ate with His disciples, He had many things to say. But mainly He wanted them to know two secrets — one about Himself and the other about themselves:

– The secret of His victorious life.

   Time and time again throughout the Upper Room discourse Jesus referred to the vital union He had with the Father. He wanted to impress upon the disciples that the Father was in Him and that He was in the Father.

– The secret of their victorious life.

Jesus’ relationship with the Father was to serve as an example to the disciples of their new relationship with the Spirit. Just as Jesus had a vital union with the Father, so the disciples were to have a vital union with the Holy Spirit.

   Having made clear that the hatred of the world was inevitable to the disciples if they followed Him, Jesus proceeded to make more vivid what that hatred would mean.

   Expulsion from the synagogue, as in the case of the blind man (9:22, 34), and even death would be their lot. Such treatment they were not to regard as abnormal! Saul of Tarsus’ murderous mission to Damascus is an example of this (Acts 9:1ff). Shocking as it was, it was justified by the Jews on the ground that the Christians were blasphemers and. therefore, worthy of death (Acts 6:13; 7:57).

   “”All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. {2} They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. {3} They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.”

   Chapter 15 closed with several positive reasons why persecution will occur, and the proper response by God’s children. We should rely on the Holy Spirit and also stand firm and boldly testify of our faith in Christ.

   Negatively, we should not stumble (16:1) and we shouldn’t forget (vs. 4). The Greek word for “stumble” is “skandalizo,” from which we get our word scandal. When you stumble, your walk is interrupted, and that is what the Lord is trying to prevent.

   And we are certainly guilty on occasion of remembering what we ought to forget and forgetting what we ought to remember!

   There is no reason for the Christian to stumble when the world stokes up the furnace of persecution. He should expect persecution, if only because his Lord told him it was coming.

   Furthermore, they must not stumble when this persecution comes from religious people who actually think they are serving God.

   For three years, Jesus had been with them to protect them from attack; but now He was about to leave them. He told them this earlier in the evening (13:33), and Peter had asked Him where He was going (13:36). However, Peter’s question revealed more concern about himself than about the Lord!

   “I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. {5} “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ {6} Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. {7} But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

   The phrase “your good” or “advantage” means “profitable” in the original Greek language. It’s hard to imagine that Jesus’ absence could be profitable or advantageous for the disciples, but it’s true.

   The major reason, of course, is that the Holy Spirit might come to empower the church for life and witness.  As long as Jesus was on the earth, He was limited to being in one place at a time by His physical body. Also, the ascended Savior would be able to intercede for His people at the heavenly throne of grace.

   The Spirit would guide the apostles into all truth and the kingdom would not be established until the Lord returned to heaven and took His seat on David’s throne at the right hand of God (Acts 2:29-36).

   The Holy Spirit works through the people in whom He lives.  When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He empowered Peter to preach; and the preaching of the Word brought conviction to those who heard.

   “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[1] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: {9} in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; {10} in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; {11} and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had warned the disciples generally about coming persecution, but there was no need then to be as specific as He is now. He was with them, then. He will not be with them physically when they undergo the persecution of which He now speaks. He will be with them “in spirit,” or, better yet, “in the Spirit.” The disciples appear to be in a state of emotional shock. They are overwhelmed with sadness. There seems to be nothing to say. Think of it. Jesus is going to leave them,[2] and when He does, they are not only going to be forsaken by their own people, they are going to hunted down by them as though they were criminals.

Jesus notes the fact that His disciples are not now asking Him where He is going. Earlier, Peter did ask (13:36), and Thomas came close to asking (14:5). It is not that they hadn’t asked; it is that they have stopped asking. It is as though the more they have asked, and the clearer Jesus’ meaning has become (He really was leaving them behind, and they could not accompany Him), the more the disciples have become distressed. And so they simply (as we would say) “clammed up.”

This is similar, I think, to the questions which Nicodemus was asking Jesus in John chapter 3. His questions and comments got shorter and shorter, and finally they just ceased. The more Jesus told him, the worse it seemed to get, and so Nicodemus, like the disciples, chose to keep quiet. Jesus seems to be calling their quietness to their attention, perhaps gently rebuking them by doing so. They were so caught up in their own sorrow and their own sense of loss that they did not wish to consider anything else, anything beyond themselves.

D. A. Carson challenges us to consider the lessons we should learn from our Lord’s gentle rebuke of His disciples for their silence:[3] they are too preoccupied with themselves, and with their own problems, and not focused upon their Lord. Is this not true of us as well? Are we so absorbed in our own lives, that we not only fail to “fix our eyes on Jesus,” but we also fail to see the needs of those about us?

Things are not nearly as bad as they seem to the disciples. Jesus assures them that what He is telling them is the truth. That is, He is assuring them that they will see His words of comfort come to pass in the future. Our Lord’s “going away” is not only necessary, it is to their advantage. It is not that Jesus is abandoning them when He goes away, and that He is sending the Holy Spirit as a kind of consolation gift. He must go away, or the Holy Spirit cannot come. And when the Spirit does come, the disciples will see that they could never have had it better.

Here, Jesus speaks specifically of the Holy Spirit as their Advocate,[4] as they seek to proclaim the gospel to a world that hates them, a world that has crucified Jesus and would also like to kill them. I am reminded of one of my favorite scenes from the movie, “The Bear.” The “bear” is an awesome Grizzly, and he somewhat unwillingly adopts a young cub whose mother has been killed. In one of the final scenes, the baby Grizzly is being pursued by a mountain lion. Finally, the lion has the cub trapped. In desperation, the cub stands erect and sounds the most fierce “roar” he can produce. The mountain lion suddenly cowers and retreats. One wonders how this cub could produce such fear, from such a pathetic “roar.” Then the camera angle widens, so that we are now able to see Pappa Griz, standing some distance behind the cub, towering high above it and the mountain lion. Now we know why the mountain lion decided he had an appointment somewhere else, one which was so pressing he would have to skip lunch. I would contend that when we proclaim the gospel to a hostile world, we are no more awesome than that cub, but we have an Advocate—the Holy Spirit—who seconds what we say, and He is not so easily ignored.

Our Advocate has an agenda. There are certain things to which He will testify as being true, and these are spelled out in verses 8-11. He proves the world wrong with regard to sin, to righteousness, and to judgment. Let us take a closer look at each of these three elements of the Spirit’s convicting[5] work.

First, the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong concerning sin. The most compelling evidence of a person’s sin is their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus is the ultimate and final revelation of God to men (John 1:1-18; Hebrews 1:1-4). Thus, to reject Jesus as the promised Messiah is the ultimate sin. Those who have heard the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who have witnessed its truth and power, and in spite of this testimony, reject Jesus as God’s only provision for their salvation, have shown themselves to be guilty of sin:

1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, 4 while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (Hebrews 2:1-4).

It is on the basis of this rejection of Jesus that the Spirit proves men guilty of sin.[6]

This is consistent with the argument of Romans, chapters 1-3. All men have been given a certain knowledge about God and have turned from that knowledge, worshipping something other than the Creator. The Jews have received a higher revelation of God in the Law, and they stand condemned by it. And now that Jesus has come to the earth, fully revealing God, they have rejected Him. This is John’s indictment in the first part of John chapter 1. Jesus is God (1:1, 4), made known (verse 18) to men. Yet in spite of this revelation of God to His own people, they did not receive Him as God (1:5, 10-11). To reject Him who is the ultimate revelation of God is to be guilty of the ultimate sin.

Second, the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong concerning righteousness, because Jesus is going to the Father and will be seen no longer. The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong with regard to righteousness. The Jews felt they could justify the crucifixion of Jesus because they had condemned Jesus as a sinner, while at the same time deeming themselves to be righteous. To be convinced that Jesus was, indeed, righteous would be to prove the Jews wrong, and Jesus right. It is only when we see ourselves as sinners, deserving of God’s eternal wrath, and Jesus Christ as the righteous One, that we see our need to trust in Him for salvation.

The final proof of our Lord’s righteousness is His resurrection from the dead:

18 So then the Jewish leaders responded, “What sign can you show us, since you are doing these things?” 19 Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” 20 Then the Jewish leaders said to him, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and are you going to raise it up in three days?” 21 But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 So after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken (John 2:18-22).

22 “Israelite men, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man clearly demonstrated to you to be from God by powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed through him among you, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power”(Acts 2:22-24).

13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be given to you. 15 You killed the Originator of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this fact we are witnesses. 16 And on the basis of faith in Jesus’ name, his very name has made this man strong whom you see and know. The faith that is through Jesus has given him this complete health in the presence of you all. 17 And now, brothers, I know you acted in ignorance, as your rulers did too. 18 But the things God foretold long ago through all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled in this way” (Acts 3:13-18, emphasis mine).

39 We are witnesses of all the things he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him up on the third day and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but by us, the witnesses God had already chosen, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 About him all the prophets testify, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name (Acts 10:39-43; see also 4:1-2, 33; 13:27-34).

1 From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God 2 that he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with respect to the flesh, 4 who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:1-4, emphasis mine).

The point of these texts is that the resurrection of our Lord was witnessed by the apostles, and this was to be proclaimed as proof that Jesus is precisely who He claimed to be—the Son of God. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the Father’s sign of approval. It was the last and final sign, of which Jesus spoke (see Matthew 12:38-40). The enemies of our Lord remembered His prediction of His resurrection after His death, and took measures to insure that no one stole His body to give substance to His claims (see Matthew 27:62-66). The disciples were witnesses of His resurrection.[7] They testified to the fact that He was raised from the dead. They saw Jesus no more, because they saw Him after He had risen from the dead, and they watched as He ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit uses the absence of Jesus (at a minimum, the absence of His body in the tomb) to underscore the witness of the apostles, that Jesus is the righteous One, the One who alone can save men from their sins.

Third, the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong concerning judgment. The “judgment” of which the Holy Spirit will “prove the world to be worthy” is the future judgment of those who have refused to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. It is the judgment of which Jesus has spoken earlier in John:

21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. 22 Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself; 27 and he granted the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out—the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. 30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. Just as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me” (John 5:21-30; see also 8:16, 26; 9:39).

It is the judgment of which the apostles spoke:

24 Some days later, when Felix arrived with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 While Paul was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, I will send for you” (Acts 24:24-25).

The basis on which the Holy Spirit proves the world wrong, and thus worthy of that judgment which is yet to come, is the fact that Satan has already been judged. Jesus spoke of this judgment of Satan and linked it to the judgment of the world: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31).

Satan is the source of man’s sin and rebellion against God. He is the driving force behind all sin. When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, He defeated Satan. If Satan has been condemned at the cross, then surely every other sinner’s judgment is certain as well. It is the reality of Satan’s defeat, and its consequences, which the Holy Spirit drives home to the world as proof that all sinners will be judged.

   Three specific functions of the Spirit convict the world through the Christian:

– Concerning sin.

The Spirit uses the faithful, loving Christian as a visual aid to convict the unbeliever (see 1 Cor. 7:12-14). If Jesus is the Son of God, as this Gospel declares Him to be, then rejection of Him is the greatest and most fatal sin of all. It is the deliberate refusal of God’s will.

   In order to define sin there must be a standard. There can be no transgression where there is no law, no darkness when there is no light, who sin where there is no holiness.

– Concerning righteousness.

The Christian should have a standard, or lifestyle, foreign to the unsaved person.  Since the world can no longer see the righteousness of Jesus, they can only see it reflected off us.

– Concerning judgment.

Whenever sin and righteousness meet there must be judgment.  When unsaved people see the Christian’s free and unfettered life, the Holy Spirit shows them that their ruler has no power over the saint.

   The key word in these verses is “convict,” which is a legal word that means to “bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convict and convince.” The world may think that it is judging Christians, but it is the Christians who are passing judgment on the world as they witness to Christ!

   The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one particular sin: the sin of unbelief. After all, it is unbelief that condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18-21).

   The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness, not unrighteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God.

Surely this text informs us that we should not expect the world to embrace Christians with open arms. The cross of Calvary assures us that the world does hate Him. Our Lord’s words should prepare us for opposition from the world as well. If the world hates us, then we surely should not love the world in the sense that we seek its approval, embrace its values, or attempt to find our identity with it:

Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility towards God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy (James 4:4).

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; 16 because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever (1 John 2:15-17).

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you (1 John 3:13).

4 You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world’s perspective and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit (1 John 4:4-6).

The Christian and the world are in an adversarial relationship. How, then, do we explain biblical texts like this one?

When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:70, NKJV)

I believe we must view such texts in the light of other biblical texts, such as this exhortation from Paul in the Book of Romans:

16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heap burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:16-21).

We are to endeavor to live in peace with others, including unbelievers, even those unbelievers who actively oppose and persecute us (see Acts 7:60). We are to live in peace with all men, as much as possible, to the degree that we are able (Romans 12:18). We have heard it said, “It takes two to tangle.” While this statement may not be totally accurate, it is certainly true that two hot-headed people will have more strife than a hothead who seeks to pick a fight with a Christian, who purposes to live in peace.

I saw this demonstrated this past week as my wife and I were driving on North Central Expressway. There was a fellow trying to merge into traffic from the access ramp. Since there was a lot of traffic, this was not an easy task. The fellow seeking to enter the freeway encountered another fellow who was already on the freeway, and who was not inclined to reduce his speed to let him into “his” lane. The man entering the traffic, turned on his turn signals, and then just started easing over into the lane he desired. The fellow who was already in that lane did not like the way this driver was forcing his way into traffic, and so he refused to slow down. It was apparent that both men were determined not to give in, and the result was a collision, one which could have been much worse. Had one of these drivers been a Christian, who purposed to live peaceably, there would have been no accident. And so it is true that Christians who live according to God’s Word may have less conflict than others. Having said this, those who abide in Christ, and who manifest Christ in their lives, should expect to be treated as Christ was by the world.

It is sad to say that all too often there is more animosity and hostility among Christians than there is between Christians and the unbelieving world. We should recall that Jesus commanded Christians to “love one another,” while He told us to expect the world to hate and to oppose us.

It seems as though Christians in America fail to grasp the fact that opposition and hostility from the world is the norm. We seem to have a sense of entitlement, a misguided expectation that our lives should be filled with blessings, yet be free from trials and tribulations. Listen to these words from the pen of D. A. Carson:

But are there no painful aspects to being a Christian? Is all happiness and light, though Christ himself was a man of sorrows who walked through the valley of the shadow of death? Do we participate only in his joy, but not in his tears? Does he alone bear the cross? Even to ask such questions is to show that much modern evangelicalism borders on the frivolous. We are so often taught to think that the Christian way brings blessings without buffetings, triumphs without trials, witness without weariness. We are encouraged to believe that Christians exude overcoming joy, and rarely face discouraging defeat; that they live in a realm of constant excitement, and never wrestle with boredom; that they love and are loved, and need not confront persecution, ostracism, hate, rejection; that they are self-confident and ebullient, and never taste terror, loneliness, doubt; that they are fulfilled and satisfied, but not as a result of self-denial and daily death. It is not so much that the promises are false, that they have no substance, as that they distort truth by promising a crown without a cross. We too easily want the fruitfulness of a well-kept vine-branch, but think little about the disciplined pruning performed by the divine ‘gardener.’[8]

From what our Lord has told us, we should recognize that evangelism is not just a difficult obligation; it is an impossible one! We have been commissioned to take the gospel to a world that is opposed to Jesus Christ, to His gospel, and to His disciples. How, then, can we ever expect to see anyone come to faith in Jesus Christ? We can expect them to come to faith in the same way we did—through the faithful proclamation of God’s Word, and through the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, who illuminates the Word of God, and who effectually calls men to faith in Jesus Christ. Specifically, from our text, the Holy Spirit is the One who convinces men of their sin, of Christ’s righteousness, and of the judgment which is coming upon all who do not receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

This text has much to say to each of us who believes in Jesus Christ, and who are commanded to proclaim the gospel to an unbelieving and hostile world. First, we are assured that God is working in and through us to win lost sinners to Himself. While we are to proclaim the gospel, it is the Holy Spirit who works from the inside out, to convince sinners of the truth of the gospel. Surely, since the Holy Spirit’s ministry pertains to the issues of sin, righteousness, and judgment, we know what our subject matter should be—these same topics. This certainly is the case with the apostles. Notice how Peter includes all three elements in his epistle:

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, 8 (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) 9 —if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, 10 especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority (2 Peter 2:4-10).

Our text in John’s Gospel, which speaks both of the world’s hostility and the Spirit’s help, reminds me of the story of Elijah, when he confronted the false prophets of Israel. He alone withstood the 850 prophets on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). After these prophets failed to call fire down from heaven, Elijah instructed that barrels of water be poured out on his altar, wood, and sacrifice. That way, if Elijah could call down fire to consume the offering, there would be no doubt that it was God who had done this great miracle. The hatred and opposition of the unbelieving world is like those barrels of water, which Elijah had poured on the altar. It only serves to show the power of God, manifested through the gospel, and empowered by His Spirit. If the world truly hates us because of Christ, then if men get saved, it will be apparent that this was God’s doing, and not the work of men.

This certainly means that we do not need to compromise or “water down” the gospel, thinking this will make it easier for unbelievers to embrace the gospel:

14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place. 15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing— 16 to the latter an odor from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit; but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).

1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, we do not become discouraged. 2 But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:1-6).

I find it most interesting that the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as described in our text, deals with those things which cannot be seen. We cannot really see sin, righteousness, or judgment, but the Spirit of God proves the world wrong in these matters. It should not surprise us that these crucial things are “unseen” because faith deals with unseen things:

1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see. 2 For by it the people of old received God’s commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible (Hebrews 11:1-3).

Let me close by speaking a word to those who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of eternal life. If you do not believe that you are a sinner, that Jesus Christ and His righteousness are your only hope for eternal life, and that as a sinner you are under divine condemnation and will stand in judgment before God in the future, then I simply encourage you to try to forget everything you have read in this message. Try to forget what the Bible teaches you about your sin, about the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and about the coming judgment of God on all sinners. But if what our Lord has said in John chapter 16 is true, then the Holy Spirit will bear witness to these truths from within your heart. Don’t try to debate these things with me; try to ignore the inner testimony of God’s Spirit. And if you cannot, then confess your sin, and turn in faith to Jesus Christ for the righteousness which He alone can give. The truths of our text are a great source of comfort to the Christian, and the cause for much consternation and conviction for the unbeliever.

     In John’s Gospel, as the time of our Lord’s death draws near, He seeks to prepare them for the future. The Upper Room Discourse contains a significant portion of our Lord’s preparatory teaching. As we read the things which Jesus told His disciples, it all makes sense to us. Of course, He was speaking of His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and return to the Father in heaven. But what is clear to us in retrospect was not at all clear to the disciples in prospect. They were confused and greatly distraught by Jesus’ words. They did not understand what He was talking about, and what they thought they understood, they did not like.

What a change a few days will make! Once the disciples see Jesus, raised from the dead, their sorrow turns to joy. When the Holy Spirit comes, our Lord’s teaching will seem obvious, and when compared to the events which will have occurred by then, they will see that Jesus foretold and fulfilled all this precisely. We must recall that when John writes this Gospel, he writes in retrospect, looking back on the events he is describing with understanding. But within the timeframe that John is writing about, the disciples are in a complete fog. They do not understand what is happening, or what Jesus is saying. And what they think they do understand, they don’t. What they think and say they grasp, they do not like.

Lest we suppose we are dealing only with matters of history, let me remind you that in many ways, our circumstances today are very similar to those of the disciples so many years ago. They were concerned with our Lord’s departure, as He had spoken of it to them. We are concerned about our Lord’s return, as He has described it as well, in His Word. Much of what our Lord has said of His return is unclear to us, just as much of what He said to them of His departure was unclear. Even with the Holy Spirit’s presence, our understanding of spiritual things is partial and imperfect: “For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

I would say this is particularly true of “things to come”: “Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Just as Old Testament saints awaited the coming of the Messiah and the disciples looked forward to the departure of our Lord, so we wait for His final return and the consummation of all things. Our Lord’s words of instruction and comfort to His disciples apply to us on at least two levels. First, they speak of blessings which are future for the disciples, but which are present for us. Second, they instruct us how and why we should live in the present, in light of the certainty that His purposes and promises will be fulfilled. Therefore, let us heed the Lord’s words in our text, knowing that they are as important to us as they were to those men, so many years ago.

   The Spirit of God reveals the Savior in the Word and in this way glorifies Him:  “”I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. {13} But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. {14} He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”

   Three aspects of the Holy Spirit are marked in the three main verbs:

– He…will convict (vs. 8)

– He…shall guide (vs. 13)

– He…shall glorify (vs. 14)

   The first two are qualified by the temporal clause, “when He is come,” which indicates that these relate to the work of the Spirit in times as it affects the world and the disciples.

   The third aspect indicates the relation of the Spirit to Christ, who is the source of the Spirit’s teaching.

   Discussion about the Holy Spirit today is often confusing and divisive. While this passage does not say everything that can be said about the Holy Spirit, it does describe the Spirit’s mission: to lead the followers of Jesus into all truth.

   For Christians today, all truth is to be evaluated in light of what the Spirit revealed to the apostles when He guided them “into all the truth.” We are also to remember that the purpose of the Spirit is not to draw attention to Himself, but to glorify the Son. Every teaching about the Spirit must be consistent with these two truths.

While all Bible students do not agree on this point, it would seem that the Lord and His eleven disciples are no longer in the Upper Room. It appears to me that they have left, immediately after the question and answer discussion of chapters 13 and 14: “Get up, let us go from here” (John 14:31b).

I take it that the disciples are now winding their way through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, making their way toward the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.[9] Judas has long since left the group and is at this very moment making arrangements to hand Jesus over to the authorities (Jewish and Roman). Jesus can now speak freely and frankly, preparing His disciples for what lies ahead. He has spoken to them about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the world (verses 8-11); now He speaks of the Spirit’s ministry to His disciples (16:12ff.).

Jesus has much more to say to them, but this is not the time to do so. I would like to suggest that we often wish God would tell us all that He is doing, or is about to do, at the time we wish to know it. And yet how gracious God is to withhold from us those things we do not need to know, those things which would only cause us needless anguish if we did know them. Jesus withheld information from His disciples for their own good. It was another manifestation of His grace not to tell them all they wanted to know. God is gracious, both in what He reveals, and in what He conceals. I wonder if this is how we view the “unknowns” in our life. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29, NKJV).

We should also see from our text an example of the fact that God reveals truth to us progressively. Jesus had much to say to them, but not at that moment. Jesus will teach them after His resurrection and before His ascension (see Luke 24:13ff.), but most of the teaching will be done by the Holy Spirit, after our Lord’s departure. This is the subject of verses 13-16. While Jesus will be physically absent, the Holy Spirit will be present among and within them. The things which the Spirit teaches them are the things which Jesus will be teaching them. The reason Jesus can say this is that the truth which the Spirit is teaching is the truth which He hears from our Lord. The Spirit’s teaching comes from and glorifies the Lord Jesus (verses 3-4), just as our Lord’s teaching came from and glorified the Father (John 8:26, 40).

We should take note of the important fact that Jesus is speaking to His disciples here. He promises to reveal truth to them through the Spirit. He does not make a general statement, that new truth will be revealed to an indefinite number of people, over an indefinite period of time.[10] He informs them that He will reveal His truth to them. I believe that this promise of future revelation through the Holy Spirit is a promise that pertains to the New Testament apostles[11] and is not a promise which can be claimed by men today. By future revelation, I mean revelation which claims to be Scripture and which has authority as Scripture (i.e., the Bible). It seems clear to me that the apostles, through whom the New Testament Scriptures were given, were viewed as a distinct group, confined to New Testament times. Those who were to be regarded as true apostles were accredited by the “signs of a true apostle”:

1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, 4 while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (Hebrews 2:1-4).

16 For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted.” 18 When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: no prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (2 Peter 1:16-21).

Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds (2 Corinthians 12:12).

A further observation should be noted. Jesus promises to reveal all truth to the apostles. We know that this does not mean that He will reveal all knowledge. How could the omniscience (all-knowing) of God be revealed to men? John makes clear that his Gospel, as all the others, is but a sampling of the things Jesus said and did: “This is the disciple who testifies about these things and has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. There are many other things that Jesus did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:24-25).

Jesus must therefore mean that all the truth which is necessary for the church will be revealed through the apostles, and that there will be no lack to be made up later on. The words of Paul seem to support this conclusion as well:

18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming to you anything that would be helpful, and from teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. … 25 And now I know that none of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom will see me again. 26 Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of you all. 27 For I did not hold back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. 28 Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 29 I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. 32 And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:18-21, 25-32).

In this text, Paul claims to have taught the Ephesians all the truth they needed to know. If they were taught all they needed to know, then there is no need for further revelation. Beyond this, Paul warns that false teachers will seek to convey “new truth,” which is nothing more than “man-made teaching” that appeals to fleshly desires and which will attract a following.

Peter’s words also imply a completeness concerning that which our Lord will reveal to and through His apostles:

3 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Leon Morris therefore issues a sober warning:

Believers should be very careful here, for from time to time through the history of the Christian church, people have arisen who have said that they had new revelations and they have led people astray. It is important for us to keep a firm hold on the truth that the definitive revelation has been given in Scripture. Christian teaching is the teaching God gave through Christ and Christ’s apostles. Nothing can claim to be authentic Christian teaching that does not agree with this.[12]

Allow me to point out one more observation. The revelation which our Lord promises the apostles is not only from Christ, it is Christ-centered: “He will glorify me, because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you” (John 16:14-15).

The revelation which is promised is that truth which has come from the Father, to the Son, and through the Spirit. It is thus our Lord’s teaching. But it is not merely the teaching of (i.e. from) our Lord; it is the teaching concerning our Lord. False revelations are those which appeal to man’s fallen desires (2 Timothy 4:1-4; 2 Peter 2:18-22), which elevate men (Acts 20:30; 1 Corinthians 1:10ff.), and which draw men’s focus away from Christ (1 Corinthians 1:22-31; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:18-25). Any teaching which claims to be divine revelation and does not exalt Christ is false teaching. A preacher friend of mine used to say, “All false teaching is either the Bible plus, or the Bible minus.” False teaching either seeks to add to or to take away from Scripture. I think one can also say, “All false teaching is either Christ plus, or Christ minus.” Paul would say, “True teaching is Christ only.”[13]

* LET THERE BE JOY (16:16-33)

   This final section of the chapter concludes the Upper Room discourse and deals primarily with the emotions of the disciples. They were sorrowing, they were confused about some of Jesus’ teaching, and they were afraid.

   Jesus made many statements that we easily understand today, but which thoroughly confused His disciples at the time He made them. Such is the case in 16:16-22. Jesus told them that in the coming days they would not see Him, but that “after a while” they would see Him again (16:16, 17). The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ are subjects Christians constantly talk about and the events they remember and celebrate each Sunday as they observe the Lord’s Supper. However, this was an unthinkable idea before the cross. To the disciples it seemed that Jesus was speaking in impossible riddles.

   Jesus continued to prepare the disciples for His departure; because no matter how confused the disciples were on that night, Jesus knew they would be even more confused the next day when He was crucified. Therefore, He pressed on with His message concerning what was about to take place. He told them that they would weep while the world would rejoice; yet He said that in a short time, the world would weep while the disciples rejoiced (16:20-22). We can see that this is what took place in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but the disciples were unable at that time to grasp this important truth.

   One of the recurring themes in this section is joy.  The 11 were certainly not experiencing much joy that night! But what Jesus said to them eventually made a difference in their lives, just as it can make a difference in our lives today.

   Tenderly and patiently, our Lord explained how His people can have joy in their lives.

– There is a Principle to Grasp (16:16-22).

   In the upper room, Jesus has mentioned impending sorrow and inevitable persecution several times. Now He wants to clarify that this isn’t the end of their relationship.

   “”In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” {17} Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and’ Because I am going to the Father’?” {18} They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” {19} Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? {20} I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”

   The disciples would go through incredible pain and sorrow, but their grief would not last forever.

   To illustrate, Jesus draws a homespun analogy: 

   “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world”

   No matter how intense, once that tiny, priceless life is laid in your arms, the pain is forgotten. The comparison is clear. “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

    The principle is simply this:  God brings joy to our lives, not by substitution, but by transformation. His illustration of the woman giving birth makes this clear. The same baby that caused the pain also caused the joy!

   Jesus did not say that the mother’s sorrow (pain) was replaced by joy, but that the sorrow was transformed into joy. Verse 16 talks about the soon-to-occur events in connection with His death and resurrection.

   Instead of asking Jesus to explain His words, the men began to discuss it among themselves, almost as though they were embarrassed to admit their ignorance.

– There is a Promise to Believe (16:23-28)

   Jesus continued to comfort and prepare the disciples by telling them how their situation would actually be better once He ascended to the Father.

   Although they could not understand how that could possibly be true, Jesus assured them that when He returned to heaven, unspeakable spiritual power would be released into the world: His blood that was about to be shed for the sins of the world and the Holy Spirit who was about to come and take His place were two forces that would bless the world in unimaginable ways!

   Jesus had spoken to them in figurative language, because that is all they were prepared for at the time. However, they would soon understand “plainly” what He had meant (16:25). He assured them that when thy asked in His name, they would receive the answers to their prayers (16:26-28).

   Just as a violent storm turns the desert into a bed of wildflowers, so the sorrowful storm to pass over the disciples would bloom joy in abundance. But this flower has deeper roots, as unearthed in verses 23-24: “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. {24} Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

  Having broached the subject of prayer, Jesus clarifies the issue of God’s accessibility: “”Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. {26} In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.”

   There will come a time when the disciples will have direct access to the Father. And what will bring about this new relationship? Love! “No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. {28} I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.””

   The central theme of this section is prayer: “ask, and you will receive, and your joy may be full.” “That day” refers to the time after the coming of the Spirit.

   Jesus knew they wanted to ask Him some questions (vs. 19). He assured them that a day would soon come when they would not ask questions. Instead, they would pray to the Father and He would meet their needs.

   This was the promise they desperately needed to believe: that the Father loved them and would hear their requests and meet their needs. While Jesus was with them on earth, He met all their needs. Now He would return to the Father, but the Father would meet their needs.

   The purpose of Bible study is not simply to understand profound truth, but to get to know the Father better (vs. 25). If our reading and Bible study falls short of this, it does more harm than good.

   “Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. {30} Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” {31} “You believe at last[1]!” Jesus answered. {32} “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. {33} “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””

   The disciples’ response to Jesus’ words of comfort was to confess their faith in Him. Again, we recognize the importance of the word “believe” in the Gospel of John. Belief in Jesus as God’s Son is the goal of this Gospel (20:30, 31). We are reminded that John used “believe” in many ways. In some verses it means that a person accepted a claim as true. In others it means that someone accepted Jesus as the Son of God.

   Sometimes it means “going public” with one’s faith in Jesus, while at other times it means “standing firm” in one’s commitment to follow Jesus. In 16:30 the disciples were saying that they accepted the claims of Jesus to be true; they believed that He “came from God.”

   Jesus challenged their statement of faith, for He knew that they were not yet prepared to sacrifice for their convictions (16:32). He told them that they would all leave Him alone. At this point, we see Jesus looking outside the events in the Gospel of John and challenging us in our claims to believe in Him today.

   Do we really believe? We say we trust that He is the Son of God, but will we stand up for Him when doing so may mean suffering? The Gospel of John is not just the story of the disciples’ faith; it is the story of our faith as well!

    If Jesus’ teachings in chapter 16 come together in one central theme, it must be the message of verse 33.

   All the warnings, all the predictions, all the promises were for the purpose of giving the disciples peace at the most tumultuous moment of their lives!

   Jesus never promised His disciples that their lives would be free from trouble, but He did promise them the peace of God even in the middle of trouble: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (16:33).

   “I” is emphasized here. In many ways the next twenty-four hours would cause the disciples to think that the world had won and that evil had triumphed. Jesus prepared them for this by confidently affirming that He had overcome the world. It is also significant that “have overcome” is, in Greek, in the perfect tense. Therefore, it carries the sense of “I have already overcome the world, and the result of My overcoming is alreay present!”

   While the cross would not literally take place until the next day, Jesus expressed His confident assurance to the disciples that all was going as planned, and that they would be blessed by the events that would shortly take place.

Jesus made a comment about the future, which His disciples found impossible to understand: “In a little while you will see me no longer; again after a little while, you will see me” (verse 16). No one seemed willing to address their questions to Jesus. Instead, they spoke among themselves. It would appear that this took place as the disciples wound their way through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, on their way to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. How and why would they not see Jesus? To what period of time was Jesus referring by the expression, “a little while”? How and when would they see Jesus after a little while? What did He mean by saying He was “going to the Father”?[14]

Jesus overheard His disciples (although He would have known through His omniscience), and graciously began to explain His words to them, although they still didn’t understand. Jesus lets them know that He is answering the questions which they had just discussed among themselves. Soon, they will “weep and wail,” while the world will rejoice. The term “weep” is frequently employed for the mourning that occurs due to the death of someone (see Mark 5:39; Luke 7:13; 8:52; John 11:31, 33). Indeed it is used in Mark 16:10 for the disciples, who wept over the death of our Lord. Jesus is therefore telling His disciples that they will momentarily experience great sorrow over His death. At this same period of time, the unbelievers (the world) who have crucified Jesus will rejoice over His death. It will seem like their hour of triumph. At last, they are rid of Jesus, or so it appears. The disciples’ time of sorrow will be short, and then their sorrow will be turned to joy. How great the joy of the disciples was when they learned that Jesus had been raised from the dead (Luke 24:41, 52).[15]

It has been observed that Jesus does not tell His disciples that their sorrow will be replaced by joy, but rather that their sorrow will be turned into joy. There is a very significant difference. Many wish to have joy, but they want to have it without sorrow. If joy is sorrow which God has transformed into joy, then we must endure the sorrow to experience the joy. This truth is illustrated by our Lord’s words which follow in verse 21. What a blessing it is for a woman to be able to bear a child … and, what a pain! She must first endure the pains of childbirth before she can enjoy the pleasure of holding that child in her arms. The birth of a child comes only through the pain of childbirth. So it is with suffering and sorrow in the lives of our Lord’s disciples. There is a short time of pain, but that very pain is transformed into eternal joy. Paul describes it this way:

16 Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

As it is for a woman in childbirth, so it will be for the disciples. They will experience great sorrow because of the death of Jesus, but they will see Him again, raised from the dead. This will turn their sorrow into everlasting joy, a joy that no one will ever be able take away from them.

In 16:5, Jesus seems to mildly rebuke His disciples for not asking Him any more questions about where He is going. They did not ask for all the wrong reasons. They didn’t want Jesus to know they didn’t understand. They didn’t want to admit their ignorance. They didn’t want to look bad. But when they see Him again, raised from the dead, then they will not ask Him anything (16:23), because they will not need to. At that time, whatever they ask[16] the Father in the name of the Son will be given to them. Jesus commands them to pray in His name, assured that they will receive what they have requested, and in so doing, their joy will be made complete.

Consider the inference of these words. Christian joy is not to be found in having everything you’ve ever wanted. Joy is not the lack of want,[17] but rather in having needs so great that only God can fill them, and then in seeing Him provide for us in response to our prayers. The Father will give us what we have requested, so that we may experience great joy. In other words—words which we have heard before—joy is the result of abiding in Christ.

Though the disciples will experience great sorrow for the next few days, their hearts will rejoice when they see Jesus once again. This joy cannot be taken from them. The disciples were concerned because Jesus was going away, where they could not follow. They thought they were losing Him, but in truth they were gaining Him. His promise is that He will never leave them nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5). Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, our Lord will continue to dwell among them, in a more intimate and permanent way. Since their joy is in Him and He will never leave them, no one will ever be able to rob them of their joy in Him.

The disciples have not yet begun to enjoy the benefits of this new relationship. They have not yet petitioned the Father for their needs in the name of Jesus Christ. They are now encouraged to do so. Jesus assures them that when they make their requests in His name, the Father will provide for them, and in this they will experience an even greater joy than they have known up to this point in time. It is not getting worse for the disciples, as they fear; it is getting better and better.

Is this promise of our Lord’s presence, of answered prayers, and of permanent joy not ours, as well as the disciples who first heard Jesus speak of it? Why is it, then, that we find so many joyless Christians? I would suggest it may be because we are looking for joy in all the wrong places. It is His joy that we are to pursue (see John 15:11). This is not the “joy” that the world seeks. The world seeks for a “joy” that is rooted in the absence of trials and suffering, that delights in the promotion of self-interest, and often in the downfall of one’s rivals. First and foremost, our joy is knowing for certain that Jesus is alive, risen from the dead (see Matthew 28:8; Luke 24:41, 52). Our joy is in the abasement of self, in the exaltation of Jesus Christ (see John 3:29), and in sacrificial service (Philippians 2:17). Our joy is in the Lord, in His salvation, and His working in the lives of others (Acts 15:3; Romans 15:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20; 1 John 1:4; 3 John 4).

If we abide in Him, what pleases Him pleases us; what grieves Him grieves us; what gives Him great joy becomes our joy as well. When false teachers come, they seek to turn us from Christ, and to the degree that they are able to do this, they rob us of our hope, our joy, our love, and all that comes from Him. No wonder Paul is so emphatic about the sufficiency and centrality of Christ:

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not met me face to face. 2 My goal is that their hearts, having been knit together in love, may be encouraged, and that they may have all the riches of full assurance in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see the order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshy body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12 Having been united with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nonetheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross, 15 and disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:1-15).

You can see that verses 25-33 are an interchange between Jesus and His disciples. In verses 25-28, Jesus makes His disciples a very encouraging promise. He knows that they are mystified about all that He has been saying to them about the future. He is speaking in vague terms so that they will not understand immediately, but also in order that they will understand in the future. They will soon look back and recall that the very things that had happened to them were the things Jesus foretold.

Jesus promises that a time is coming when His obscure speech will be replaced by very clear teaching. At that time, He will tell them plainly about the Father. At that time, they will ask in His name, and their petitions will be granted. He has already promised this, but here He indicates a substantial change. It is but another one of those “improvements” which the disciples are about to experience in the future, because of His going away. When they petition the Father in the name of the Son, they will not merely receive the answer to their prayers through the Son. They will receive the answers to their prayers directly from the Father. Jesus will have an intercessory ministry on our behalf, but His work on the cross will bring about a personal, intimate relationship between the Father and all who trust in His Son. No wonder the veil was torn asunder when Jesus died on the cross (Matthew 27:51). We now can come to God directly, because of the Son:

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the full assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. 24 And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, 25 not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:19-25).

The Father will personally attend to the prayers of Jesus’ disciples, because of His love for them, a love which is the same as His love for the Son (14:23; 17:26). He will do so because of the Son’s coming to this earth (to die for our sins) and because He has returned to the Father. These benefits are the fruit of our Lord’s coming and leaving. Once more, it is better for them that He should depart (John 16:7).

What incredible blessings Jesus promises His disciples! But they didn’t understand a thing He was saying, as John makes very clear by the words of verses 29 and 30. Paraphrased, the disciples seem to be saying:

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? Now we get it. Okay, it’s all clear to us now. You’re no longer speaking in riddles, but plainly. Now we see that You really do know everything, so that we don’t have to ask You any more questions, to help You clarify any points. And because we now see this clearly, we believe that You have truly come from God.”

Notice what they are saying here. They have not repeated any of the content of Jesus’ latest words. They have not told Him what they think He has just said, so that He can confirm the accuracy of their interpretations. They have only told Him that they understand, and because of this, they won’t need to question Him further. This is a very neat way of giving the impression you know something that you don’t and of explaining why you are not asking any questions.

No doubt they did believe that Jesus had come from God. I do doubt that they grasped what His return to the Father was all about, and I’m virtually certain they don’t have a clue as to what He has just told them. They are embarrassed at their ignorance, and they want to look good in His eyes. They want His approval, and at the same time, they want Him to think they understand everything He is saying so that He won’t be frustrated by their confusion. The simple fact is that no matter what they profess to grasp, they cannot and do not understand what Jesus has been telling them. He has, in fact, been telling them that they would not understand what He was saying to them, not now anyway.

Jesus patiently and lovingly deals with His disciples at this moment of ignorance and confusion. He did not expect them to understand. However, He does not allow their pretense to stand, unchallenged. He is the One who is all-knowing, and this includes His knowledge of what they claim to know, and yet do not. And so He says to them (loosely paraphrased):

“I know you really don’t understand, and the level of your present belief is far from impressive. Time will tell. There is a time coming, coming very soon, when you will all abandon Me and scatter, hiding out in your own homes. You will leave Me alone, but I won’t really be alone because the Father is with Me. The reason I have told you these things is not with the expectation that you would understand them immediately (as you have professed to do), but so that you may have great peace in the future, when you see how all these things of which I have spoken take, just as I said. You will then see that all things are under My control. You will see how this tribulation of mine was purposed to bring about great blessing for you. Thus, in the midst of your tribulations on My behalf, you will have courage, knowing that I have conquered the world.”

Jesus lets His disciples know that they have not put anything over on Him, that He knows full well that they still do not understand what He is saying, or what is about to take place. The belief they profess is not nearly as strong as they suppose. The events of the next few hours will prove this, for virtually every one of them will abandon Him. And when these traumatic days pass and the words of our Lord come to pass, then they will be greatly strengthened in their faith, and empowered to live courageously in a hostile world, knowing that Christ has won the victory over the world.

Conclusion

We need to exercise caution in the application of this passage because it applies directly to the eleven disciples, and indirectly to us. We are the benefactors of much that Jesus has foretold here, and which has subsequently come to pass. We will never face some of the things which the disciples did. We will never know the sense of loss and defeat that the disciples did when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. Neither will we experience the relief and joy at seeing Jesus, raised from the dead (John 20:20). We will not be those through whom the gospel was defined and by whom the New Testament Scriptures were written. Nevertheless, while we are not apostles as these men were to become, we are His disciples, and thus this text applies to us as well.

We are able to read these words of our Lord in the light of their fulfillment. We can understand what completely confused the disciples. We will never know the bewilderment and apprehension that they did, simply because our Lord’s words were a puzzle to them at that moment in time. But we can identify with the disciples in this sense: there are things yet future for us, which are declared in Scripture, but which we do not fully understand. We live at a time when we do not yet “fully know” all that God has in store for us and for the future. We, too, “see through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12), but then we will know (cf. 1 John 3:2).

Why did Jesus tell the disciples things that they could not understand at the moment? Why do the Scriptures contain many prophecies which we do not understand at the time? One reason is to remind us that we don’t fully understand. That is what it means to be a disciple. We are learners, who learn at His feet as we abide in Him. He knows. He is the Truth. And it is clear that He does not reveal everything we might wish to know at one time. He reveals what we need to know and conceals what we should not know (Deuteronomy 29:29). As these prophecies are fulfilled and we look back on our Lord’s words, we will see that He has done just as He said He would. This will be even further basis for praising Him.

While our Lord’s words will, in the future, be understood in all their particulars, they have a message for us now, in general. From what Jesus was telling the disciples, one should discern that He knows the future, indeed, that He controls the future. His life will not be taken from Him; He will lay it down, voluntarily, and He will take it up again (John 10:14-18). We know that what is yet to happen is not only for His glory, but for our good. We know that He will sustain us through our times of trial and tribulation, just as we know that He will bring us to glory. If we know that He is in control, and that His plans are for our good, why should we worry? We don’t need to know the details of what He has for us in the future. We need only to trust in Him who is in control of the past, the present, and the future.

We should be admonished by the puffed up claims of the disciples. The disciples claimed to fully understand Jesus, His ministry, and His message. They most certainly did not. We should be very careful about assuming that we “have it all together” in matters which we may not understand as well as we claim. The fundamentals should be clear to us, but there are many other things which we will only “know” clearly and completely “then.” We should especially be wary of those who would seek to teach us, claiming they have a full and complete grasp of God’s truth. The most brilliant scholars and students of Scripture that I know are still the best students, ever seeking to understand His Word better, and willing to listen to the insights of other students of Scripture. Those who know it all do not need to learn any more, they think. They need only to teach, and not to be taught.

This passage teaches us that those things which are most perplexing, and even most distressing, are often the things which God transforms into His richest blessings. In the Bible, some of man’s darkest moments were transformed into times of blessing. The curse of death which came because of Adam’s sin became the cure when Jesus Christ, the “last Adam,” died in the sinner’s place. Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead, humanly speaking, so far as child-bearing was concerned. They tried to figure out some way to produce a child on their own, which only led to trouble. Finally, God gave them a child in a miraculous way, glorifying Himself and bringing about good for Abraham and Sarah. Think of how difficult it must have been for Noah to have spent many years of his life preparing an ark, when he may not have even seen rain up to this point in time. Think of all the people in the Gospels who suffered from blindness, demon-possession, being lame, and leprosy. It was these suffering saints who experienced God’s gracious hand, and many of them came to saving faith. No wonder our Lord could say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4).

In your darkest moments, when life makes no sense, and you have no idea what God is doing, you can rest in the simple fact that God is infinitely good, infinitely loving, and infinitely powerful. He can and will cause “all things to work together for good” to those who are His chosen, to those who trust in Him (see Romans 8:28). God delights in transforming those things which seem most threatening, most unpleasant, and most dreaded, into blessings. He took death and the fear and bondage it produces and defeated it on the cross (see Hebrews 2:14-15). Now, all that death can do is usher us into the presence of God (see 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23).

If there is one thing that has most struck me from this text, it has been this realization: It is the cross of Jesus Christ which puts everything in focus. The disciples had no idea what was about to happen. They were completely perplexed about what Jesus was telling them. The cross was the goal of our Lord’s life and the means by which He fulfilled the Father’s (and His) purposes and promises. After the cross, the disciples understood what Jesus’ mission was all about. They understood what He had been teaching them. It is the cross which makes Jesus’ teachings clear. It is the cross which is the key to understanding all of the Bible, Old Testament or New. Take away the cross of Calvary, and the Bible makes no sense at all. It is from the vantage point of the cross that the message of the Bible becomes clear. Is this not what Paul was saying in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians?

7 But if the ministry that produced death, carved in letters on stone tablets, came with glory so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory that was fading away), 8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory! 10 For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. 11 For if what was fading away came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory. 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness, 13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the end of the glory that was fading away. 14 But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16 but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:7-17, emphasis mine).

The cross is the test of orthodoxy. Those who would turn us from the cross of Christ are false teachers, who should be avoided (see 1 Corinthians 1; Colossians 1 & 2). The cross of Christ is what removes the “veil” of blindness from the eyes of unbelieving Jews, and Gentiles too. Have you come to the cross? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as the Holy One of God, who died on the cross of Calvary for your sins? Once having come to the cross by faith in Jesus Christ, we must always stay near the cross. It is the view from the cross which brings everything else into focus. This is why, in our church, we observe the Lord’s Table weekly. We must always, daily, come back to the cross. It is by means of the cross that Jesus saved us. It is by means of the cross that all of His promises will be fulfilled. It is the cross which should shape our perspective (we should take up our cross daily). It is in the light of the cross that the Scriptures become clear. No wonder the disciples could not yet grasp what Jesus was saying about the future. For them, at that moment, the cross was still future. How different it will soon be for them, as they look back from the cross and the empty tomb. How different it should be for us, looking ahead from the cross and the empty tomb!

These final verses show the disciples making a tremendous affirmation of faith:

   – first, they claimed to understand what He had been teaching them, although this claim was probably presumptuous, as their subsequent actions proved

   – they also affirmed their faith and assurance

   The final verse is the climax of the Upper Room message! In Christ, there is peace; in the world, there is tribulation. Every believer is either overcome or an overcomes.

   Although our circumstances may seem, at first, to be far removed from those of the disciples who first heard the comforting words in this chapter, is our world really so different?

   Like them, we face unexpected troubles, are tempted to lose confidence in God, claim that we believe only to see ourselves denying our confession of faith, and desperately yearn for peace in this often chaotic world.

   Jesus wanted the disciples to be prepared for the intense struggles they were about to face. Surely, His words serve the same purpose in our lives as they prepare us for whatever we may face tomorrow. “Expect trouble, and be prepared” is Jesus’ formula in John 16 for maintaining the peace of God in hard times.

   In June 1995 Captain Scott Francis O’Grady, a pilot in the United States Air Force, was shot down while flying a mission over Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was able to parachute safely to the ground, buthe knew that the people who had shot him down would come searching for him to take him prisoner.

   Putting into practice his years of intense Air Force survival training, O’Grady was able to remain hidden from the enemy soldiers for six days before he was finally rescued by Marines. During that time he survived by collecting rainwater to drink and eating bugs.

   When he was interviewed about his ordeal, O’Grady credited all of his survival training with saving his life. The Air Force had taught him to anticipate trouble, so he was ready when it came.

   Jesus does not want His disciples today to worry about all the terrible possibilities in life (Matthew 6:25-34), but He does M;ant us to know that trouble is part of the disciple’s life. Knowing this, we can be prepared, so that we will not be destroyed spiritually when trouble comes.

   This chapter suggests that many times we need to hear what we do not think we need to hear at the moment.

   People sometimes complain about a Bible class or a sermon, “It has nothing to do with where I am right now.” The truth is that we often need to hear lessons about “where we are not right now.”

   That is, we need to hear about where we may eventually be, to be prepared for situations we may face in the future. The disciples certainly did not enjoy what Jesus said in chapter 16, but Jesus knew that they needed to hear it. In the same way, we need to hear the complete message of the Scriptures.

[1] “Whether in the first century or in the twentieth, Christians have often discovered that the most dangerous oppression comes not from careless pagans but from zealous adherents to religious faith, and from other ideologues. A sermon was preached when Cranmer was burned at the stake. Christians have faced severe persecution performed in the name of Yahweh, in the name of Allah, in the name of Marx—and in the name of Jesus.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), p. 531.

[2] Notice that Jesus does not merely say, “I am going away,” but rather, “I am going to the one who sent me. …” Once again, our Lord emphasizes that He was sent to earth by the Father, and that having completed His mission, He is returning to heaven, to be with His Father. How easy it would have been to dwell on His betrayal, cruel treatment by men, and the agony of His suffering on the cross of Calvary. Instead, He focuses on the “joy set before Him” (see Hebrews 12:2). All of this emphasizes the fact that He has accomplished the task which He was given.

[3] “Christians today need to meditate long on this rebuke. Some branches of Christendom stress the believer’s experience, the believer’s privilege, the believer’s blessings, the believer’s faith, the believer’s love, the believer’s conduct. … Of course true Christianity transforms the personality and can be richly described in the categories of personal experience: but who is more concerned to please Jesus and fulfill Jesus’ desires than to please himself and fulfill his own desires?

“Other branches of Christendom underline the importance of sacrifice and the need for service. … Of course it is true that biblical Christianity demands self-denial and thrusts believers out in sacrificial service and profound sympathy for the outcast; but is it not possible to become so enamored with the trappings of self-discipline and so occupied with the urgencies of injustice that activity displaces adoration and personal sacrifice dethrones a personal Savior?

“Still others tremble at the doctrinal declension which threatens to ravage Christianity from the inside. They see defection from a high view of Scripture as an evil of mind-numbing proportions, and warn against the syncretism which is surreptitiously intruding itself into the flaccid flanks of evangelicalism. Defenders of the truth, they scent heresy in the earliest stages and are quick to pounce on it and expose it. Of course, true Christianity is indeed a religion of the Book, and it boasts certain non-negotiable doctrines and exclusive claims—the denial of which places one outside the camp; but is it not possible to be orthodox and much concerned about correct formulations of the truth while all the time only minimally concerned to follow Jesus himself in a full-orbed and adoring manner?

 “The disciples in John 16 do not fall into precisely these errors of imbalance. Nevertheless their conduct has one thing in common with such deficient representations of Christianity; something other than Jesus himself and all that he is and says receives primary attention. The other things in question may be worthy, good, and even necessary: who, after all, would demean personal experience, sacrificial service, or firm commitment to truth? Yet if these good and essential things displace the centrality of Jesus Christ in our worship, empathy, and commitment, we come close to prostituting the good news of Jesus and following the disciples’ sorry example.” D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14-17 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), pp. 136-137.

[4] “In John’s usage, the legal overtones are sharpest in 16:7-11, but there the Paraclete serves rather more as a prosecuting attorney than as counsel for the defence. NIV’s ‘Counsellor’ is not wrong, so long as ‘legal counsellor’ is understood, not ‘camp counsellor’ or ‘marriage counsellor’—and even so, the Paraclete’s ministry extends beyond the legal sphere. The same limitation afflicts ‘Advocate.’ AV’s ‘Comforter’ was not bad in Elizabethan English, when the verb ‘to comfort’ meant ‘to strengthen, give succour to, to encourage, to aid’ (from Latin confortare, ‘to strengthen’). In today’s ears, ‘Comforter’ sounds either like a quilt or like a do-gooder at a wake, and for most speakers of English should be abandoned.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), p. 499.

[5] “The verb occurs eighteen times in the New Testament (cf. Mt. 18:15; Lk. 3:19; Jn. 3:20; 8:46; 1 Cor. 14:24; Eph. 5:11, 13; 1 Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4:2; Tit. 1:9, 13; 2:15; Heb. 12:5; Jas. 2:9; Jude 15, 22; Rev. 3:19). Arguably, in every instance the verb has to do with showing someone his sin, usually as a summons to repentance … The ‘exposure,’ then, is the exposure of one who does evil and who hates the light; it brings the shame that makes the evil person shrink from the light.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), pp. 534-535. [I would only add to this the fact that when the Holy Spirit convicts so as to effectively call the lost to faith in Christ, the exposure turns the convicted sinner to the light.]

[6] Though it is not in view here, I would understand that those who have never heard the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ would continue to be judged and condemned on the basis of their rejection of the knowledge of God in nature (see Romans 1:18ff.). Jesus is talking to His disciples, who will proclaim the gospel, and who will suffer persecution from the world for doing so. Thus, those who oppose them will be those who have heard the truth and have rejected it.

[7] See Acts 1:22.

[8] D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14-17 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 114.

[9] “Are Jesus and his eleven disciples still making their way along narrow streets and paths toward the Kidron Valley? Are the men clumping together in little groups of various combinations as the confines of the way rearrange them again and again? Is this what prompts the questions to flit around the group? Perhaps so; it is difficult to be certain of the physical setting at this point.” D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14-17 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 156.

[10] In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whereby He enables Christians to understand spiritual truth, but this is not the same as having the ability to reveal truth which is regarded as Scripture.

[11] It is self-evident that more than the twelve were known as “apostles” in the New Testament. It is also apparent that a number of the New Testament books were not written by one of these apostles, but by other New Testament “apostles” (e.g., Mark, Luke, Acts, Paul’s Epistles). In my opinion, all the New Testament authors should be viewed as “apostles,” and in a distinct category from anyone else, from that time on.

[12] Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), vol. 3, p. 546.

[13] See Colossians 2:1-19.

[14] The disciples found themselves struggling to grasp what these words meant, not unlike the way we struggle to understand prophecies of “things to come” for us. At least they honestly admitted their ignorance.

[15] Some dispute the interpretation that Jesus is speaking of the disciples’ sorrow and their joy as being related to our Lord’s imminent death and resurrection. Carson forcefully defends the view that this is, indeed, what our Lord is saying:

“There are, however, several indications which argue strongly that the passage … refers simply to Jesus’ departure by the death of the cross and his return by resurrection. The following points should be noted: (1) Only John 16:16 adds the phrase ‘after a little while’ to the promise ‘you will see me.’ This is not accidental. (2) The picture of the disciples weeping and mourning while the world rejoices (16:20) fits only the period during which Jesus is in the grave. After the resurrection, John is careful to point out, the ‘disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord’ (20:20). Acts attests that the early Christians after Pentecost experienced great joy (Acts 13:52; cf. 5:41; 16:25). Only while Jesus’ body lay in the tomb were the disciples overwhelmed with grief. (3) The analogy of the woman giving birth likewise fits best into the sharp, short agony of the three-day period immediately ahead. (4) This interpretation fits best into the Farewell Discourse. Jesus’ departure and subsequent return at the parousia have already been treated, as also has his return by the Spirit; but so far Jesus has said nothing unambiguous about the three-day departure into death.” D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus, p. 158.

[16] It is important to note that in the NET Bible, the first word translated “ask” in verse 23 is erwtaw, while the second “ask” is a translation of the Greek word aitew. The NAB reflects the distinction in these verbs and their meaning by this rendering: “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you” (emphasis mine). After our Lord’s resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples will no longer need to question our Lord about the meaning of His words and the events which are taking place. They will, however, be constantly asking Him to provide for their every need.

[17] It may occur to someone that in Psalm 23:1 the psalmist says, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” We must surely see that this is no “blank check,” assuring us that we can have whatever we want (athough Asaph at one time wrongly supposed so—see Psalm 73), whatever we ask for (see James 4:2-3 here), but rather we will never lack anything we truly need, anything which is for our good and His glory.

Jesus and His disciples had left the Upper Room (John 14:31) and were making their way toward the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. It may have been that along the way, they passed a vineyard, and that this provided the occasion for our Lord to teach His disciples about abiding in Him (John 15:1-17).

I believe the instruction of chapters 15 and 16 was given while the disciples were winding their way through the dark streets of Jerusalem, on their way to the Mount of Olives, where they had been camping out that week. As we come to chapter 17, Jesus continues to speak to His disciples, preparing them for the future, and assuring them of His provision for all their needs in His absence.

At one moment, it seems He is teaching His disciples, and at the next, He is praying to the Father. It probably takes the disciples a few seconds to figure this out. They seem to have been talking among themselves along the way, especially concerning those things Jesus had said that they did not understand (see 16:17-19). Eventually, one of the disciples realizes that Jesus is no longer talking to them, but rather to His Father in heaven.

I can almost see John punching Peter in the ribs and whispering hoarsely, “Peter, be quiet! Jesus is praying.” Of course this is mere speculation, but it could have happened something like this.

John 17 contains the inspired record of our Lord’s prayer to the Father. In the fifth century, Clement of Alexandria remarked that in this prayer, Jesus was acting as a high priest on behalf of His people.  Over the years, some have debated whether this prayer should be known as the “high priestly prayer of Jesus,” but no one who takes the Bible seriously as the Word of God would dare to deny the importance of this prayer, no matter what label we may give to it.

In one sense, this prayer in John 17 is one of many prayers of our Lord. Jesus is often found in prayer in the New Testament. He was in prayer at His baptism, when the Holy Spirit come upon Him (Luke 3:21). He was in prayer when He was transfigured before His three disciples (Luke 9:29). Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4).  He prayed to bless the little children (Matthew 19:13), and He prayed that Peter’s faith might not fail (Luke 22:32). Often in the Gospels, we read of our Lord’s private prayers, prayers which are not recorded for us to read and to reflect upon (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; 6:46; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18).

There were times, however, when Jesus prayed for the benefit of those who were intended to overhear Him. Jesus publicly blessed the meager portion of food available before feeding the 5,000 (John 6:11). No doubt this was to make it clear that God the Father was equally at work in this miracle. In John 11, Jesus also prayed for the benefit of those who would witness the raising of Lazarus:

41 So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. 42 I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face (John 11:41-44).

The prayer of our Lord in John 17 is one that Jesus wanted His disciples to hear. To me, it does not appear that Jesus wanted His disciples to hear His prayer in Gethsemane, but that’s another story, one we shall take up later on in this message. The prayer recorded in John 17 is the longest recorded prayer of our Lord in the New Testament. It is found only in the Gospel of John.

As the church seeks to get its priorities in order, there’s no better way to do this than to find out what was important to Jesus Christ.

In our study today, Jesus tells us what His priorities were and are!

It has been said that “some people pray by the yard; but true prayer is measured by weight, and not by length.” The greatest prayer ever prayed is John 17, and it takes about six minutes to reverently read aloud, which isn’t necessarily long…but there is certainly a great deal of depth and weight!

There are some 650 definite prayers recorded in the Bible, yet none of them approaches this one!

We might also approach these lessons in this way: If you were in great stress, what would you pray? If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you pray? If you had just been hurt bu a close friend, what would you pray?

Pain and stress have a way sometimes of making us self-centered. When we are hurting or afraid, it is difficult for us to think of anyone else. That is part of what makes this such a remarkable prayer!

Verses 1-5 lay a foundation for the entire prayer. While they focus on our Lord’s relationship with His Father, they have much to say concerning our relationship with the Father. Allow me to make several observations from these verses.

First, this prayer is what we might call a “conversational prayer.” About the time I was in college, “conversational prayer” became popular for my generation. Conversational prayers are more casual. Praying to God conversationally is done in terms that make it sound more like you are talking to a friend that you know well. In this prayer, Jesus might be said to be praying conversationally. In part, I base this on the fact that in verse 1 John does not write, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and prayed, ‘Father, the time has come …’” In verse 1, the word saying and the word said are not the same Greek word, but both terms describe speech. There are several words employed for prayer, but the word “said” is not one of them. In this sense, we might say that our Lord’s prayer was, to one degree or another, conversational.

There is yet another line of supporting evidence. In this prayer, our Lord uses the word “Father” to address God the Father. Leon Morris observes:

He began his prayer with the simple address ‘Father.’ We have become used to this as a normal Christian way of beginning a prayer, but it was not usual in that day. The address was that used by a little child in speaking to his parent, but when God was addressed it was usual to add some qualifier; for example, a praying person might say, ‘Our Father in heaven.’ God was so great and so high that he must not be addressed in the language appropriate for familiar use within the family. But Jesus constantly used this way of speaking to his heavenly Father, and Christians picked up the habit from him. Notice the way it runs through this prayer (vv. 5, 11, 21, 24, 25). That God is Father was specially important at this point in Jesus’ life.

The term “Father” is also a kind of “conversational” address, the kind of conversation that takes place between a son and his “daddy.”

This “conversational” element makes it easier for me to understand what took place. Jesus and His disciples had left the Upper Room and were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Along the way, Jesus taught them about abiding in Him, and He also told them of the hard times ahead. Jesus also spoke of those future things which they would comprehend only after the events of the next few days. At the end of this time of instruction, Jesus just keeps speaking, but now He is speaking to His Father— in the hearing of His disciples. It may have taken them a moment to comprehend this. How they must have treasured these words as they reflected on them later.

Our Lord’s intimacy with the Father is not only reflected in His prayer to the Father here, Jesus indicates that it should greatly influence our prayers to the Father as well. Just a few moments earlier, Jesus said to His disciples,

25 “I have told you these things in obscure figures of speech; a time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in obscure figures, but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 At that time you will ask in my name, and I do not say that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered into the world; but in turn, I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (John 16:25-28).

I believe our Lord has made it possible for Christians today to enjoy an incredible level of intimacy with the Father. We can actually experience at least a portion of the intimacy with the Father which our Lord enjoyed in His prayer life. When we do, we ought never forget the holiness and the majesty of the One we address as Father. To be able to call God our Father is no excuse for irreverence or for moral sloppiness:

17 And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. 18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, Christ. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:17-21).

Intimacy with God as our Father is a privilege which should inspire humility, gratitude, and reverence in each of us.

Our Lord’s natural transition from talking with men to talking with the Father is not altogether unique in the Bible. When I read Paul’s epistles, I find this same kind of easy transition from instruction to prayer, which seems so appropriate we hardly even recognize it:

13 For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. 16 I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, by being rooted and grounded in love, 18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, 21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:13-21).

I cannot help but wonder if this is not an illustration of “praying without ceasing.” Prayer comes so naturally to our Lord, and to the Apostle Paul, that they move almost seamlessly from one to the other. Would that our prayers were as natural and as frequent.

Second, John links this prayer with the Upper Room discourse which precedes it. Notice how this chapter, and this prayer, begins: “When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said, …” A very clear link is made between the teaching of our Lord in the Upper Room Discourse in chapters 13-16 and the high priestly prayer of Jesus, recorded in chapter 17. The sequence is, of course, chronological. The prayer of chapter 17 follows our Lord’s teaching, as recorded in the previous chapters. But I think there is much more involved than mere chronological sequence. Allow me to explain.

In the Bible, prayer is closely related to teaching and preaching. Note, for example, these verses which we find early in the Book of Acts:

1 Now in these days, when the disciples were growing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the twelve called the whole group of the disciples together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables. 3 But carefully select from among you, brothers, seven men who are well-attested, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this necessary task. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 The proposal pleased the entire group, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a Jewish convert from Antioch. 6 They stood these men before the apostles, who prayed and placed their hands on them. 7 The word of God continued to spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:1-7, emphasis mine).

Prayer not only glorifies God, it acknowledges that the preaching (and even the hearing) of God’s truth is not enough. The truth of God’s Word does not benefit us apart from the work of God through His Holy Spirit.

6 Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. 7 Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. 13 And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him?” But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).

The disciples did not understand much of anything that Jesus spoke to them until after His ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly what Jesus said in the Upper Room Discourse. The cross of Christ (including His resurrection and ascension) and the coming of the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to grasp what Jesus had said to them earlier. Our Lord’s prayer was based upon what He had taught them, but it also petitioned the Father to cause that word to come to life, and thus to bear fruit in the lives of His children.

We see this same pattern in the New Testament epistles. The apostles not only found it essential to devote themselves to the proclamation of the Word, but also to prayer. This is because the proclamation of the Word is not enough. God must “open the spiritual eyes” of men to comprehend the Word. This is why the apostles spent so much time in prayer. They prayed that God would take the Word they had proclaimed and bring it to life in the hearts of those who heard (see James 1:21-25; 1 Peter 1:23; Acts 16:14). Proclamation and prayer are, as one song writer once put it, “like a horse and carriage: you can’t have one without the other.”

Third, I find it impossible to study the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 apart from our Lord’s agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, a few moments later. I have a confession to make. As I began to study our text, I was predisposed to assume that our Lord had already prayed His prayer in Gethsemane before He prayed His high priestly prayer of John 17. After all, I reasoned, Jesus agonized over the realities of the cross which lay ahead, resolved them, and then calmly prayed the prayer of John 17.

The Scriptures really don’t seem to allow this order of events. We read these words in the eighteenth chapter of John, just after our Lord’s high priestly prayer is ended: “When he had said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. There was an orchard there, and he and his disciples entered into it” (John 18:1).

This certainly seems to indicate that after He had concluded His high priestly prayer, Jesus and His disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where His prayer of agony was uttered. Luke gives us this account of that prayer:

39 Then Jesus came out and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 When he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.” 41 Then he went away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him to strengthen him. 44 And remaining in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, worn out by grief, 46 so he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation!” 47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He walked up to Jesus to kiss him (Luke 22:39-47).

Notice the words of verse 47: “While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.” It would seem that our Lord’s arrest came immediately after His prayer in the Garden. There would have been no time for His high priestly prayer after His prayer in Gethsemane. Therefore, the order of events must be: (1) Jesus’ high priestly prayer of John 17; and then (2) Jesus’ prayer of personal agony, as recorded in Luke and the other Synoptic Gospels.

How different these two prayers were, so different that we can hardly conceive of them being prayed by the same person, within minutes of each other. In John 17, Jesus is calm, and while the mood of the moment is serious, it is not sad or gloomy.  When He prays in Gethsemane, Jesus is in agony. He is sweating, and His sweat is like great drops of blood. He is not standing, looking up to heaven, He is kneeling, and perhaps lying prostrate upon the ground. His anguish was so great an angel was dispatched to strengthen Him. The high priestly prayer of Jesus was uttered in the presence of His disciples, so that they might hear what He was saying. The prayer in Gethsemane seems to have been private. Some might wonder about this, since Jesus took three of His disciples with Him (Matthew 26:37; Mark 14:32-34). We are told, however, that Jesus went a little beyond the three (Mark 14:35), and that He came back to find them sleeping. This would suggest that there was some distance between Jesus and the three. Could this be the “stone’s throw” of Luke 22:31? There is no indication that the disciples heard Jesus at the time. If they had, could they have slept? Did they see the angel minister to Jesus? It seems as though this was a very private prayer, one known to the disciples only after our Lord’s death and resurrection, only after the Spirit revealed it to them.

Why were these two prayers of our Lord (the high priestly prayer of John 17 and the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which took place so close in time, never found together in at least one Gospel? Why does John record the high priestly prayer of Jesus in chapter 17, and not mention the Gethsemane prayer? Why do the Synoptic Gospels describe the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus, but say nothing about His high priestly prayer?

I think we could begin by noting that John’s Gospel has a unique purpose. His emphasis is surely on the deity of our Lord. Both the Upper Room Discourse and the high priestly prayer of our Lord contribute to this theme. The Synoptic Gospels exclude both the discourse and the prayer of John’s Gospel. It would be tempting to say that the Synoptic Gospels emphasize the humanity of our Lord, and that the prayer in Gethsemane shows the “human side” of Jesus. I’m not quite certain that we can divide our Lord into His “two sides.” I think the incarnation of our Lord united deity and humanity in a seamless way. Perhaps, then, it is not good to speak of His “humanity” or His “deity” as though they were separate entities.

For example, if one were to argue that the prayer of our Lord in Gethsemane revealed His “human side,” I think I would be inclined to insist that this prayer was informed by His “divine side.” Who but a holy and righteous God could grasp the horror of becoming sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)? Who but an all-knowing God could know ahead of time all that He was going to endure on the cross? Perhaps these prayers are kept apart, simply because we, in our humanity, are not really able to deal with them when they are in too close proximity. You will recall that the prophets of old had the same difficulty as they foretold the sufferings and the glory of our Lord (1 Peter 1:10-12). Both these dimensions are true, but we struggle to harmonize them, just as divine sovereignty and human responsibility are difficult to reconcile. Nevertheless, both are true, and both must be taught.

I am reminded of Paul’s words in Ephesians: “You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Paul has already emphasized the need to “speak the truth to one another” (4:25), but this does not mean that we may speak anything that is true, anytime we want, in any manner we wish. In verse 29, Paul tells us that our speaking must be governed by the principle of edification. We should speak in a way that edifies others, so that they are built up by our words. This does not mean that we avoid all rebuke or correction. It does mean that there is a proper time and a place for doing so.

Jesus has already said to His disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). I do not believe the disciples would have been able to bear witnessing the actions and words of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were already troubled enough. And so Jesus chose to bear this agony alone, as He would suffer alone on the cross of Calvary. The agony of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane is not known to the disciples or to the church until after our Lord’s resurrection. It is recorded in Scripture three times, so that we will not overlook the immensity of His suffering, and thus of His sacrifice so that we might have the forgiveness of our sins.

Fourth, Jesus speaks of His authority at the very time when it appears that His enemies are prevailing over Him.  The arrest of our Lord is imminent, and His trial, and crucifixion only a few hours away. Outward appearances are that His enemies have finally gotten the best of Him. Jesus seems to be powerless to resist or to overcome His adversaries. This is not the time you would expect Him to speak of His authority. But then much of what Jesus has been saying was not what the disciples would have expected. Jesus prays, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you—just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him” (verses 1b-2).

Notice that Jesus does not merely say that the Father gave Him authority only over His disciples and those who would later believe. Jesus says that the Father gave Him authority “over all humanity.” Here is but another example of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. Jesus had full authority over Judas, over the high priests, and those Roman officials instrumental in His death. Jesus had complete authority over the hostile mob, who cried out, “Crucify! Crucify!” While they were doing a terrible thing, they were also fulfilling the purposes and prophecies of God. As Peter would later put it,

Israelite men, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man clearly demonstrated to you to be from God by powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed through him among you, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles” (Acts 2:22-23).

As we shall soon demonstrate, Jesus was never more “in control” than He was at the cross of Calvary. He had orchestrated the time and manner of His death. He had made certain that all prophecies were fulfilled. At the proper moment in time, He gave up His spirit. No one took His life away from Him; He gave it up, just as He would also raise it up again. We need to be very careful not to think of God as “waiting”  on man for anything, as though He is dependent upon us. He has authority over all flesh, and this enables Him to save those whom the Father has chosen. Jesus has authority over every unbeliever. He has authority over every believer. Too often men portray our Lord as One who is dependent upon man, One who “waits” for us, and who is incapacitated by our disobedience or unbelief. Not so!

Fifth, in this text, Jesus defines “eternal life.” Jesus says in verse 3: “Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” For many, especially pagans, the best one can hope for is eternal existence. It is what we would seek if medical science permitted it. Some Christians would define it as having our sins forgiven, and this is certainly an important part of it. But Jesus defines eternal life here as “knowing  God,” God the Father, and God the Son. The Jews would define “eternal life” in terms of knowing only the Father and of rejecting the Son (see John 10:34-39). Jesus insists that men cannot know the Father except through the Son, and that to reject the Son is to reject the Father as well:

45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he has seen the Father.) 47 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life” (John 6:45-47).

Then they began asking him, “Who is your father?” Jesus answered, “You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too” (John 8:19).

Jesus replied, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. I have not come on my own initiative, but he sent me” (John 8:42).

37 If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” 39 Then they attempted again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches (John 10:37-39).

“I tell you the solemn truth, whoever accepts the one I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me” (John 13:20).

6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).

10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves” (John 14:10-11).

20 “You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him” (John 14:20-23).

23 “The one who hates me hates my Father too. 24 If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father” (John 15:23-24).

“They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:3).

If one defines eternal life in terms of “knowing God,” then one can hardly think of eternal life in static terms, but rather in dynamic terms. Eternal life is not just a moment in time when one trusts in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Eternal life begins with the moment of salvation and continues throughout eternity, as one comes to know God. And since God is infinite, infinitely wise, infinitely loving, gracious, and so on, then we will never come to know Him fully in this life. Thus, it will take all eternity to know Him fully. This is why we are not only called to faith, but also to discipleship. We must trust Him for our salvation, and we must follow Him as His disciples.

Sixth, in our text, Jesus speaks of His work in the past tense, even though much of it is still future. The Bible often speaks of future events by using a verb in the past tense. The “time had come” (verse 1), John tells us, and yet this “time” was the “time” of His death. It may not be far off in the future, but it is nevertheless still future. He says that He has “glorified the Father on earth by completing the work He gave Him to do” (verse 4). It will be a few hours before our Lord will cry out, “It is finished,” yet Jesus can speak of the work as though it were already finished in His prayer.

The student of the Old Testament is not at all surprised by the fact that future events are described by verbs in the past tense, as this is common in the Old Testament. From God’s point of view, the future is virtually the present. And since God is sovereign, there is no occasion when God’s purposes will not be accomplished. Thus, it is both legitimate and logical for Jesus to speak of the future as though it were the past. It is, we say, “as good as done.” It not only indicates the certainty of these events, but also of our Lord’s resolve to endure the suffering and sorrows which these events necessitate.

Seventh, in our text, Jesus speaks of His glory and the Father’s glory  as one and the same.  This is the reason Jesus can ask that the Father glorify Him. He is not seeking His glory alone  (see 8:50, 54), but the glory of the Father (see 13:31-32), brought about as He is glorified (see 14:13). Earlier in this Gospel, Jesus said, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God’” (John 8:54). Jesus’ request for glory is not self-seeking; it is yet another manifestation of His servanthood. He prays that the Father glorify Him so that He might in this way glorify the Father. This is because the Father is glorified in and through the Son.

Eighth, the glorification which Jesus requests of the Father is accomplished by means of the cross of Calvary. Jesus spoke of His glorification earlier in the Gospel of John. At times, this “glorification” was spoken of in more general terms:

Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee. In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him (John 2:11).

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God’” (John 8:54).

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

At other times, “glory” is used in a way that would encompass the whole of His saving work: His death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation in heaven:

(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive; for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)

(His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that these things had happened to him.) (John 12:16)

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23).

31 When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him right away” (John 13:31-32).

“I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).

In our text, the glorification of our Lord (and the Father) may include the resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus, but it must surely include His sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary. The cross is a symbol of shame to the world, but it is a symbol of glory to the Christian:

In chapter 7 He said to His brethren, ‘Your hour is here. My hour is not yet come.’ In chapter 12, when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, He said, ‘Now is mine hour come, that the Son of man should be glorified.’ Note that it wasn’t the hour that the Son should be crucified, but glorified. When the leaders took Jesus captive in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly after this prayer, He said to them, ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness’ (Luke 22:53). Did you ever stop to think of the fact that the power of darkness, the forces of hell, had an hour? Their hour was the taking of the Son of God, scourging and rejecting Him, and then crucifying and killing Him. And yet the Lord took that very same thing, and showed that the ultimate purpose of Calvary is not salvation but the glorification of God.

The Jews thought of the Law as being glorious, but the teaching of the New Testament is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ (in which the cross of Christ is central) has much greater glory (2 Corinthians 3). The false teachers in Corinth, along with their followers, began to glory in human wisdom, but Paul refused to glory in anything but Christ, and Christ crucified:

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 For since in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. 22 For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, 23 but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were members of the upper class. 27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 29 so that no one can boast in his presence. 30 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:17-31).

No wonder Paul would glory only in Christ and His cross:

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14, KJV).

Our Lord prayed to be glorified, so that He might glorify the Father. This glorification came at the price of the cross. He paid the price for our sins; He suffered God’s eternal wrath. We shall never fully comprehend the magnitude of His sacrifice, but we can glory in it. Earthly men glory in their shame (Philippians 3:19); Christians find glory in the shame which our Lord Jesus bore for us at Calvary.

What makes this prayer so great? Let’s make four points:

1. It is great because of the Person who prayed the prayer.

This Person is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God… eternal God in the flesh. Each of the four gospels has its own emphasis:

– Matthew emphasizes Christ the King, the Messiah promised in the Old Testament scriptures

–  Mark is the gospel of the Servant

– Luke pictures the sympathetic Son of Man

– John’s purpose is to present the deity of Jesus.

John 20:30-31: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. {31} But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Only God the Son could ask the Father to glorify Him (vs. 1). And only God can give sinners eternal life (vs. 2). And note in verse 3 that Jesus put Himself on an equal basis with God.

A question that’s often asked: why does God pray? There are at least 19 instances in the gospels when Jesus is praying. But realize that when Jesus was ministering on earth, He did everything inn total dependence on the Father. In other words, our Lord lived by faith and depended on prayer during His life and ministry on earth, just as He wants us to do!

2. It is great because of the occasion that demanded the prayer.

Jesus had just finished instructing His disciples (John 13:13-16) and now prays for them, because prayer and the Word of God go together.

If we have all Bible and no prayer, we may have a great deal of truth but no power. It would be “light without heat.”

But if we have all prayer but no Bible teaching, we’re in danger of becoming fanatics–heat without light. Zeal is a good thing, but zeal without knowledge is usually destructive!

But, note, too, that Christ prayed for himself here. He faced the cross and would be leaving His disciples. Yet, as He prayed for Himself, He was praying for us, since His return to glory would mean glory for us.

3.  It is great because of the petitions in the prayer.

Prayer that asks nothing accomplishes nothing. Jesus prayed for Himself (1-5), for His disciples’ security (6-12) and their sanctity (13-19) and for the whole church (20-26).

– The petitions in this prayer take us back to eternity past (vs. 5) and forward into future glory in heaven (vs. 24)

– This prayer deals with the glory of the Father and the Son (vs. 1) as well as the church glorifying God on earth (vs. 10)

– Our Lord mentions the Father’s love for Him (vs. 24) as well as the Father’s love for believers (vs. 23)

4. It is great bcause of the victory it can give us today.

Jesus closed His Upper Room teaching with these words: John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In His prayer in John 17, He used the word “world” 17 times! This prayer tells us how to overcome the world! What we will learn from this prayer will give us the courage to overcome the world, and the joy of this victory that can fill and control our lives.

* BASIC TRAINING AND THREE GIFTS (17:1-3)

A possible theme for this chapter is: “The mission of Jesus Christ and of His followers on earth, unto the glory of God.” This is a prayer from the very heart of God in the flesh!

The prayer itself was probably spoken after the little party had left the room where the last supper was eaten, and before they crossed the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives.

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. {2} For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. {3} Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

In Luke 11:1, the disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray!” It reminds us that we must learn  to pray.

While praying is as natural to the Christian as breathing is to a mammal, even breathing must be studied and practiced if it is to be correct.

Singers and public speakers work on their breathing so that they get the most out of their voice and don’t injure it. The fact that we have been praying since childhood is no guarantee that we really know how to pray effectively.

– Posture is not important.

We don’t know if our Lord was kneeling or standing, but we do know that He lifted up His eyes to heaven. The important thing is the posture of the heart. It is much easier to bow the knees than to bow the heart in submission to God. While the outward posture ã‚á‚î‚ be evidence of the inward spiritual attitude, it is now always so.

– We pray to the Father.

The biblical pattern for prayers is to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus addressed His Father six times in this prayer…there’s nothing wrong with saying “Father” several times in a prayer! It is not a “bad habit that needs to be cured!”

We address the Father because prayer is based on sonship.  And it is more than an obligation of the Father to listen…it’s delight when His children fellowship with Him and share their needs.

Matthew 7:11: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

The Father’s heart reaches out in love to His own, and He longs to share good things with them. And the better we know our Father, the easier it is to pray in His will.

– We must yield to the Father’s will.

A storm passed over the Florida coast and left a great deal of wreckage behind. The next day, as the men were cleaning up their little town, one man said: “I’m not ashamed to admit that I prayed during that storm last night.” One of his friends replied, “Yes, I’m sure the Lord heard many new voices last night.”

Prayer is not like those little red boxes we see in buildings and occasionally on street corners, marked “use only in emergency.”

I enjoy sharing good things with my children, but if they only spoke to me when they were in trouble or in need of something, our relationship would quickly deteriorate. Unless we do the will of God, our living will negate our praying.

Phillip Brooks said: “The purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth.”

If we want to pray in the will of God then we must live in the will of God. Prayer is not something that we do; it is something that we are. It is the highest and deepest expression of the inner person.

– The glory of God should be our primary concern.

The word “glory” is used in one form or another eight times in this prayer. What does it mean?

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “glory” meant “weight, that which is important and honorable.” In the New Testament, the Greek word translated “glory” means “opinion, fame.”

Theologians tell us that the “glory of God” is the sum total of all that He is, the manifestation of His character. The glory of God is not an attribute of God, but rather is an attribute of all His attributes! He is glorious in wisdom and power, glorious in His mighty works, and glorious in the grace He bestows upon us.

This prayer teaches us to put God’s concerns before our own!

– We must pray in faith.

Suppose the Master had looked at His situation through human eyes alone. Could He have prayed the way He did? Suppose He looked back on His years of ministry and evaluated that ministry from a human point of view. It would have looked like a failure! He had very few followers, and His own nation had rejected Him. Humanly speaking, His work had failed.

Yet, He prayed “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do.”

By faith, He would be that “grain of wheat” planted in the ground, and He would produce much fruit (John 12:24).

– Peter was about to deny Him three times

– Judas at that very hour was with the Jewish council and selling the Master like a common slave

– Peter, James, and John would go to sleep in the Garden when they should have been encouraging their Lord

– Yet, He knew this small band of men would be sent into the world to share the gospel message

-And he knew they would succeed!

* Before we leave these first three verses, let’s make some quick comments:

– The idea of giving is important in this prayer. “Give” in one form or another is used 17 times in our Lord’s prayer and 76 times in the gospel of John.

– Three remarkable gifts are mentioned in these verses.

1. The Father gave the Son authority.

We’re introduced here to the mysterious inner workings of the Trinity, the plans that were made “before the world was” (vs. 5).

Authority is the right to act, to exercise power. God gave Christ the authority to do what He did on earth. He also gave Him the authority to judge.

2. The Father gives people to the Son.

God decided that His Son would live, die, and be raised…and those who would respond to this “gospel” in faith would receive eternal life through faith.

3. The Son gives eternal life to those who are given to Him.

The word “life” is used 36 times in this gospel. In fact, John wrote so that sinners might trust Christ and receive eternal life…and know they have received it!

There are five special blessings that belong to those who have been given to the Son by the Father:

– Eternal life (vs. 2)

– Knowledge of the Father (vs. 6-7)

– Christ’s intercession on their behalf (vs. 9)

– Divine protection in this world (vs. 11-12)

– Eternal glory (vs. 24)

What is the earliest recollection that you can bring back from the deep mine of your memory? I have a faint remembrance of my mother going to the hospital for surgery and my grandmother coming to care for us children, but the picture is quite dim.

The oldest written text the historians can lay their hands on is dated about 3500 B.C., and was found on some clay tablets unearthed in Iraq in 1952.

But the Bible takes us back beyond time and into eternity. Why? Because we can never really understand what is going on “in time” unless we know what happened “before the world was.”

If you and I did not believe that God was on His throne, working out His perfect will, we would sink in the storms of life.

All of which takes us to the opening verses of our text for today:

* What happened “before the world was” (John 17:4-5)

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. {5} And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Several facts emerge to help us discover the answer to the question:

– Jesus existed as eternal God.

Of course, all three members of the Godhead existed; but our special focus of attention in John 17 is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John begins with a declaration of the deity of Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. {2} He was with God in the beginning.”

It is worth noting that six different persons in this gospel bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God:

­ John the Baptist: (John 1:34: “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”)

­ Nathaniel: (John 1:49: “Then Nathaniel declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”)

­ Peter (John 6:69: “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”)

­ The healed blind man (John 9:35-38: “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” {36} “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” {37} Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” {38} Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him.”)

­ Martha (John 11:27: “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”)

­ Thomas (John 20:28: “Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”)

The Samaritans called Him “the Savior of the world” in John 4:42, a title that could only belong to Deity. And our Lord Himself affirmed His eternality in John 8:58: “I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

2. Jesus shared the Father’s glory.

John 1:14:  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 17:22:  “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:”

John 17:24: “”Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

Hebrews 1:3:  “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

While the verses clearly state this fact, we need to realize one more amazing fact: those who have trusted Jesus possess this glory now and will see God’s glory and share it in heaven one day!

3. Jesus was beloved of the Father.

“God is love” (1 John 4:8)…and before God poured His love out on mankind, the Persons of the Godhead expressed their perfect love to one another in a glorious communion.

The Scriptures especially point out the Father’s love for the Son: Matthew 3:17: “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Matthew 17:5: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

And think of what it meant when the Son left the bosom of the Father and came to earth to be hated!

John 3:16 (“”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”). takes on new depth of meaning when you try to comprehend the eternal love of the Father and the Son!

4. The Father established His eternal purpose.

No verses better teach this principle than Ephesians 3:10-12:  “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, {11} according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. {12} In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

That God has an “eternal purpose” for all things is both scriptural and logical. If God is God at all, He is sovereign. He cannot work independently of His own nature, for then He would cease to be God, something that is impossible.

His ultimate purpose is to bring glory to His name…and will do this by uniting “all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10). And it’s to be done through us, the church.

5. The Son covenanted to die for sinners.

This, of course, is a part of God’s eternal plan.

Luke 22:21-23:  “But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. {22} The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” {23} They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.”

Ephesians 1:4:  “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love”

2 Timothy 1:9:   “…who has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…”

The lessons we can learn from our text are many. Let me highlight a few and suggest some implications of these eternal truths.

First, there are lessons to be learned regarding prayer. While our Lord prayed often, we have only a few recorded prayers. I would point out that even the “longer” prayers are relatively short. Jesus warned about “lengthy” prayers, prayers extended because there was the false assumption that “longer was better.” It is not wrong to pray lengthy prayers, but it is not always necessary either. The prayers of our Lord are all different. They do not have a “boiler plate” form, in which He merely fills in the blanks. There is no one style of prayer, and not even one consistent posture for prayer. What is consistent is our Lord’s submission to the will of His Father, and His constant desire to bring glory to the Father. There are times when our Lord’s prayers are private, just as there are times when His prayers are public. There are times when others can benefit (be edified) by hearing our prayers. There are other times when our prayers need to be absolutely private (as, for example, when we confess our secret sins). Also, prayer is an essential companion and counterpart to the proclamation of God’s truth.

The principle lesson should undoubtedly come from the primary theme of our text, and that is the glory of God. It is not only the dominant theme of our text, it is the dominant purpose of history. We are all familiar with Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

We know from this text and others that God uses every circumstance to produce that which is for the ultimate good of His saints. Nothing will ever come into our lives that does not will work together for our good.

The same is true for God’s glory. God employs all creation, every human being, every circumstance, to bring glory to Himself. He uses the rebellion of sinful men to glorify Himself:

Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself (Psalm 76:10, NKJV).

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Romans 9:17).

Is it any wonder, then, that the glory of God should be the ultimate goal of every Christian?

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

11 And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and work of faith, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:11-12).

My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death (Philippians 1:20).

Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:11).

One of the most joyful wedding ceremonies I have ever performed I conducted for a couple who attends our church. These two lovely people had been dating for some time, and they wanted to be certain that it was God’s will for them to marry. We spent a good deal of time talking through some biblical issues. One evening we were all sitting in our living room, and the fellow turned to me and said, “You know, Bob, I’ve decided that whether we should get married or not depends on the answer to one simple question: ‘Will our marriage glorify God?’” He could not have said anything more true, and more encouraging to me than that. They did get married, and I was privileged to conduct the ceremony.

It is popular among young Christians today to wear a bracelet which has the letters “WWJD” on it. The letters stand for, “What would Jesus do?” That’s not a bad question. From our text and others, we can always safely say, “Jesus would do what brings glory to the Father.” Do you agonize over some decision in your life? Are you seeking to know the will of God in some particular matter? I would suggest that your first response should be that you ask this simple question: “Will it glorify God?” The answer to that question will provide you with much of the guidance you may be seeking.

Christmas is just a few days away. The Lord Jesus came to this earth to glorify God. This He accomplished by His life, by His death, and by His resurrection from the dead. At His birth, the angels who appeared to the shepherds praised God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest. …” That is what Christmas should be for us—a time when we ponder the gift of our Lord, who came to die for our sins, and then to proclaim with hearts filled with joy and gratitude, “Glory to God in the highest.” Often, the glory of God is overlooked or neglected because of our focus on other things—namely, what we hope to gain from Christmas. Let this Christmas season be a time when we seek, first and foremost, to glorify God. And let this be the pattern for the rest of the year. The glory of God is never contrary to our “good”; indeed, the glory of God is the Christian’s highest good. Let it be so for each of us.

In the days of our Lord, there were no printing presses, no Bible concordance programs on CD ROM, no Internet web sites from which to download good Bible study materials. In Old and New Testament times, books were exceedingly rare. One had to copy a book by hand, rather than reproduce another copy by a mere push of a button. Much learning took place by means of discipleship. A disciple followed his chosen “master” around, serving him, listening to him, and learning from him. This is the way our Lord taught, or “discipled,” His disciples. They accompanied Him virtually everywhere He went. They listened and asked many questions, and they learned. Jesus sometimes sent them out two-by-two, which gave them an opportunity to put their teaching and training into practice.

By the time we come to John 17, the discipleship program which our Lord had designed for His disciples was virtually complete. Jesus was ready to return to His Father, leaving His disciples behind. Chapter 17 is our Lord’s “High Priestly Prayer.” The portion of that prayer which we will study in this message is specifically focused on those eleven disciples who remained with Jesus, and who overheard this prayer as they were making their way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is not an easy prayer to expound, and reading the commentaries tends to confirm this assessment. As I have agonized in my attempts to trace the argument of our text, I found it helpful to create a grid which traces the development of this chapter by means of several themes or dimensions.

* THE DYNAMICS OF DISCIPLESHIP (17:6-8).

Discipleship is a popular topic in the church these days. It seems just about everybody is talking about discipling somebody. The word that is translated disciple in our New Testament   is used 264 times, and it is found exclusively in the four gospels and in Acts.

In the New Testament days, a ‘disciple’ was someone who bound himself to a teacher in order to learn both the theory and the practice of the subject or trade. Perhaps our closest modern equivalent would be an ‘apprentice.’

A true disciple was not simply a student who learned from books…he was also a doer who watched his teacher, obeyed him, and learned from actual practice…he wanted to be like his teacher.

In the verses for this section, our Lord outlined the stages in the experience of His disciples:

1. They belonged to the Father (vs. 6)

“”I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.”

It seems obvious that they belonged to the Father first of all by creation. Paul reminded the Greek philosophers in Acts 17:28 that it is in God that we “live and move and exist.”

We need God because we are the creatures and He is the Creator. When man refused to acknowledge his creature dependence on God, he began to magnify himself as God (remember Romans 1:18-32)? Mankind today worships and serves the creature, not the Creator; and this helps to explain why the world is in such a mess. Man is playing God, and he is not able to do the job!

The disciples also belonged to the Father through their belonging to the Jewish nation. They were the sons of the covenant; they were born into that one nation on the face of the earth that God had chosen for Himself.

2. The Father gave the Word to the Son (vs. 7-8)

“Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. {8} 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.”

Two other verses from John speak to this idea:

John 7:16: “Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.”

John 12:49: “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”

Statements like these help us to understand but in a small measure the intimate fellowship that existed between the Father and the Son when Jesus was ministering on earth. It explains why our Lord rose early in the morning for prayer, and why He often withdrew from the crowds.

The Father gave the words to the Son, just the words that the disciples (and the other people) needed to hear. What did the Son do with these words?

3. The Son gave the words to the disciples (vs. 8).

It is the Word of God that reveals the Person of God to us. While God does reveal Himself in nature and in the workings of divine providence in the world, He is more fully and clearly revealed in the Word which He has given us through His Son.

And while He was upon the earth, He gave his “seal of approval” on the Bible. He quoted from Old Testament scriptures often and promised the Holy Spirit would assist in the writings of the Gospels in John 14:26: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Verses 6-8 summarize the ministry of our Lord from the time of His coming to the moment He is speaking, only minutes from His arrest. In verses 11-19, Jesus concentrates on the time following His arrival. From our Lord’s words in verses 6-10, we see His estimate of what His ministry has brought about in His disciples:

They belonged to the Father in eternity past. verse 6

They were given to Jesus by the Father. verse 6

They have obeyed the Father’s word. verse 6

They understand all that Jesus was given came from the Father. verse 7

They have accepted the teaching Jesus has given them from the Father. verse 8

His disciples now understand and believe Jesus was sent into the world by the Father. verse 8

Verses 9 and 10 set forth the basis of our Lord’s prayer for His disciples:

He is praying for His disciples because they are believers. verse 9

He is praying for those who belonged to the Father, and now belong to Him. verse 9

He is praying for those whom He and the Father possess together. verse 10

He is praying for them because He is glorified by them. verse 10

The things which have been accomplished in the lives of His disciples are those things which our Lord has Himself accomplished. And so it is in verses 6-10 that we also find our Lord summing up the ministry which He has performed in the lives of His disciples:

1. He has revealed the Father to them—verse 6.

2. He has given them His Word—verses 7-8.

3. He has been glorified by them—verse 10.

It would be easy to spend a great deal of time on the details of these verses, but time will not permit, and it would hinder us from following the flow of the argument of these verses. I am seeking to convey the “big picture” here, and I think it can be summarized in two words: “Mission accomplished.”

Notice that virtually everything Jesus claims to have accomplished is described in the past tense. We realize that some of these “accomplished” items are not yet “realized.” We also know that these words will prove to be true. Is it not wonderfully encouraging to realize that even before His disciples have become what they will be, our Lord can speak confidently about them, as though they have already attained their destiny? This is because our destiny is ultimately in His hands:

28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 Because those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those God predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).

For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

23 Now may the God of peace make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect until that day what has been entrusted to me (2 Timothy 1:12).

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, 2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).

24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his glorious presence, 25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for all eternity. Amen (Jude 1:24-25).

What an encouragement it is to know that He is not only the one who sought us and saved us, but He is also the One who keeps us, and who perfects us! We will most certainly become what He has purposed and promised, and so it is that He can speak of our future as though it were already realized.

The emphasis of verses 6-10 is that Jesus has accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do, in terms of equipping the disciples for their “mission.” Jesus has revealed the Father to them and given the Word of the Father to them. He has told them all that they need to know,  and thus His earthly mission of making disciples of them has been completed. Of course, His atoning work on the cross of Calvary still lay ahead, but that too is as good as done. Jesus is now free to leave and to return to the Father because He has accomplished all that the Father gave Him to do.

One can hardly estimate the benefits we have gained because our Lord was able to speak these words. On the one hand, the completion of His mission means that He has defeated Satan, and that He has accomplished the salvation of all those the Father has given Him. It means that He can return to the Father in heaven, so that the Spirit can be sent into the world in a new and better way. It is the basis for our mission and ministry. It is the basis of our security and our ultimate perfection (which takes place in heaven, not here on earth—1 John 3:2).

The apostle Paul desired to “finish well” in his life and ministry. We can see for ourselves the kind of disqualification which Paul dreaded and sought to avoid:

24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. 25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. 27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

As Paul approaches the time of his departure, he can rejoice, knowing he has finished well and that the work God had given him to do has been accomplished:

6 For I am already being poured out as an offering and the time for me to depart is at hand. 7 I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 Finally the crown of righteousness is reserved for me. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will award it to me in that day; and not to me only, but also to all who have set their affection on his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Men do not always “finish well.” In the secular world, it is seldom so. This past week, we have witnessed the impeachment of our President by the House of Representatives. We have also seen the resignation of the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. What dramatic examples these are of being disqualified! We who have come to know Jesus as our Savior should dread disqualification and should desire to finish well. How thankful we can be that He who is the “author and perfecter of our faith” finished well.

* THE WORD

– is a gift from God

– generates faith (Romans 10:17: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”)

– it reveals Christ to us (John 5:39: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me”).

4. The disciples received the word and believed.

The Word of God is like seed, and it must be received into the “soil” of the heart if it is to take root and produce fruit (Luke 8:4-15).

God prepares the heart for the Word: Acts 16:14-15: “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. {15} When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.”

But we can harden our hearts against God’s word: Hebrews 3:7-14: “So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, {8} do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, {9} where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. {10} That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ {11} So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'” {12} See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. {13} But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. {14} We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”

If we ignore or neglect God’s Word, or if we treat it carelessly, we are admitting to God that He is not important in our lives.

5. The Disciples Kept the Word (vs. 6).

The word here for “kept” can also mean “obey” or “guarded. “ Certainly, the disciples were consistent in their priority to the teachings of God. And they kept the Word because they loved Jesus Christ!

John 14:23-24: “Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. {24} He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

1 John 2:4-5: “The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. {5} But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him.”

6. The Disciples Shared the Word with Others.

The Lord sent them into the world that they might win others through the lives. There is a church today because Christians have been faithful to share the Word down through the ages!

2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Suffice it to say now that a true disciple is not a reservoir but a gushing fountain, an artesian well of spiritual blessing. He does not live to get…he lives to give

– What he receives from the Lord, he shares with others

– And in sharing, he receives more

John 8:31-32: “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. {32} Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We are living in enemy territory, so, beware! The world system hates Christ while pretending to honor God. Satan prowls about as a roaring lion.

The very atmosphere we breathe is poisoned with “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The world system around us appeals to the flesh within us so that we fight a steady battle against temptation.

How, then, can the dedicated Christian remain safe and secure in such a dangerous world? Our security is in Jesus Christ!

These verses (beginning at verse nine) indicate and affirm this security.

“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. {10} All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. {11} 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. {12} 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.”

Jesus had great concerns for His disciples because they were remaining in the world even though He would no longer be in the world with them. While they would be in the world, they were not part of the world.

Because of their mission, they were being sent into the world. Jesus’ prayer about their relationship with the world brings to mind the prayer of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:4. During a particularly discouraging time in his ministry, he had prayed that God would take his life and remove him from the world. God refused Elijah’s request and soon had him working in the world once again, as a prophet of God.

Jesus’ prayer for His disciples describes for us our relationship with the world today. Although we are in the world, we are not of the world. As servants of God, our mission is to go into the world with His gospel.

Our relationship with:the world is no simple matter, but Jesus’ prayer on the eve of His crucifixion goes a long way in making this difficult issue clearer.

To be sure, He was praying for His disciples in these particular verses, but we today stand in a similar relationship to the Savior as the disciples did in that day.

In this prayer, our Lord looked upon the work of redemption as something already finished. He was to leave the world and return to the Father in heaven, and there He would enter into His “unfinished work” of interceding for His church.

Both the Father and the Son love us and are concerned for our welfare and spiritual success:

– we pray to the Father through the authority of Christ

– we come to the High Priest at the throne of grace

– and He gives us “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16)

We also need to realize that we are the Father’s gift to the Son. And eternal life is the Son’s love gift to all who believe on Him.

But one point cannot be overlooked! The Son also prayed for unity  among His church:

– “each one reach one” is a popular motto in the church

– Christ took time to take care of individuals in need

– but individuality is left when we become part of the “family”

– We’re to be one! United!

The Christian becomes a part of the Body of Christ, the church. And his life from then on must reflect this great fact!

The spiritual unity of the church is an important theme in this prayer…it’s mentioned in verse 11 and also verses 21-23: “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. {22} I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: {23} 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.”

There are several illustrations of this great truth given in scripture:

– the Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-10)

– the Body and the members (1 Cor. 12)

– the stones in the Temple (1 Peter 2:4-10)

Because we are related to Christ, we are related to each other! We belong to each other and we need each other.

Our text contains the last public prayer of our Lord before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion on the cross of Calvary. I find that this prayer becomes much more meaningful to me when I consider it in the light of two other events which are recorded for us in the New Testament. The first (and closest in time) is the prayer of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. It takes place only moments after the high priestly prayer is concluded. In His prayer in Gethsemane, we see the depth of our Lord’s agony, knowing that He is to “become sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), to suffer the wrath of God for our sins, and not for His own.

The second event is that of our Lord arranging for someone to assume the responsibility of caring for His mother (John 19:25-27). I see from these two events that even in the midst of great personal agony, our Lord does not let His suffering keep Him from attending to the needs of those whom He loves. Thus, Jesus prays for His disciples and for those who will believe through them, before He prays that agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And on the cross, Jesus sees to it that His mother is cared for. In both cases, Jesus is taking care of those He will leave behind. We can go even further with this, because our Lord’s agony itself is for the sake of others. It is by means of His death that Satan is defeated and the penalty for our sins is paid. Therefore our Lord’s high priestly prayer is typical of His love and concern for His own.

In the light of this, how dare we ever question God’s love and care for us. How many times have we found ourselves in some kind of pain or discomfort and cried out to God in our distress, thinking that He does not care (cf. Mark 4:38)? He cares enough to endure the agony of the cross. And even when the horrors of the cross are immediately before Him, Jesus cares enough to pray this prayer for His disciples. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews and the Apostle Peter can write,

5 Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” 6 So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

6 Humble yourselves then under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7).

We would do well to ponder these words by D. A. Carson:

Would to God that the truths of these verses might burn themselves into our memories. It is a rare and holy privilege to observe the divine Son of God not only formulating his prayers but formulating the grounds for his petitions. These grounds reflect the essential unity of Father and Son, and reveal that Jesus’ prayers for his people trace their argument back to the inscrutable purposes of Deity. When the Son of God himself has offered prayers for his followers like these prayers, and when the prayers have been grounded as these prayers have been grounded, it is horrifying to remember that, in moments of weakness and doubt, we still rebelliously question the love of God for his own people. This passage ought rather to engender the deepest and most stable faith, the most adoring gratitude. The disciples of Jesus Christ are loved with a special love … which distinguishes them from the world.

I am deeply indebted to D. A. Carson for reminding us that this prayer of our Lord teaches us what we should pray for:

The spiritual dimensions to this prayer are consistent and overwhelming. By contrast, we spend much more time today praying about our health, our projects, our decisions, our finances, our family, and even our games than we do praying about the danger of the evil one. Materialists at heart, we often discern only very, very dimly the spiritual struggle of which Paul (for instance) was so deeply aware (Eph. 6:10ff.). The Lord’s (model) prayer likewise teaches us to pray, ‘Deliver us from the evil one’ (most likely the correct rendering). Certainly the church will not produce many spiritual giants when it fails to discern its chief enemy.

At the outset of this lesson, I pointed out that our text divides into two major sections: verses 6-10, which focus on the time our Lord has spent with the disciples up till the present moment, and verses 11-19, which address the disciples’ needs because of His departure. If you broaden the scope of your thinking to include verses 1-5 and 20-26, then you find that this prayer of our Lord covers every period of time, from eternity past to eternity future. Verses 1-5 look back in time, to the glory which our Lord had with His Father from eternity past. Verses 20-26 look forward in time, down through the ages of church history to the present moment for us. And, this last part of His prayer includes all those yet to be saved, until the time of His return. Thus the prayer encompasses all of time.

I would suggest to you that this is really the only vantage point from which we can rightly appraise our circumstances at the moment. Jesus could pray as He did because He knew not only the past, but the future. It goes far beyond this, as you know. He not only knows what the future holds, He controls the future. Our Lord manifests the calm certainty that only God can exhibit, because He is God, and because He sees the trials and tribulations of the moment from an eternal perspective.

I could not help but recall Psalm 73, in which Asaph complains to God about the prosperity of the wicked, and the suffering of the righteous. To Asaph, it looked like God had lost control, and as though God was not living up to His promise to prosper the righteous. It was only when the psalmist began to view his circumstances from a divine and eternal perspective that he saw things clearly, and began to think and to respond rightly to God.

I was struck by the structure of our Lord’s prayer in John 17. Jesus clearly separates and distinguishes between those who were our Lord’s disciples at the time (verses 6-19), and those who would later come to believe in Him through the witness of the disciples or others (verses 20-26). I take this distinction to imply that there is a substantial difference between His disciples (or apostles) and other Christians, who are saved at a later time. There are those who would teach that there are apostles today, just as much as there were apostles in New Testament times. At least some would maintain that these contemporary “apostles” speak for God, with greater authority than others. Jesus speaks of His disciples as a distinct group, a very restrictive group. The disciples themselves seem to concur with this, as can be seen by their insistence in Acts 1:12-26 that one who would replace Judas must have been present with Jesus. It would seem as though only two men met the requirements set down by the disciples for Judas’ replacement. We need to be careful about calling men apostles today, when Jesus seems to have restricted them to His day. The apostles of the first century church seem to be in a class of their own. Our Lord’s prayer appears to assume this distinction. I am reminded of the writer to the Hebrews, who also distinguishes the apostles from those who will believe because of the gospel that they proclaimed:

1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, 4 while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (Hebrews 2:1-4).

The “us” of verse 3 seems to be synonymous with the “those who believe in me through their testimony” of John 17:20. The “those who heard him” of verse 3 seems to be synonymous with “the disciples” for whom Jesus prays in verses 6-19.

Safe. What a wonderful assurance. Earlier in John, Jesus said, 27 “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. 29 My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one” (John 10:27-30). Do you remember that song, “Safe am I”? “Safe am I; Safe am I, in the hollow of His hand.” And notice that the safety of the sheep is linked to the unity of the Father and the Son (10:30). Safety is His work. We are to abide, but He keeps us safe.

This safety that our Lord prays for is linked to the work He has given us to do. Do you remember how many times in John’s Gospel the Jews sought to kill Him? They could not lay a hand on Him until it was His time. He was “safe” from the opposition of the devil and from men. It did not keep Him from suffering, and from death. But it did keep Him from being prevented from fulfilling His mission. I would suggest to you that no one is ever more safe than the one who is pursuing God’s will, who is fulfilling their God-given mission. Blessed assurance!

This text weaves together two themes which might be considered antithetical. On the one hand, we find very clear indications that the outcome of the disciples’ lives is certain and secure. Jesus speaks of their future growth and ministry as though it were already accomplished. On the other hand, our Lord speaks of the opposition and resistance of Satan, who seeks to bring about their downfall, and ours. Our Lord’s intercession on behalf of His own, along with the Father’s “keeping” of those who are His, guarantees the future of the disciples, and, by extension, the future of all who trust in the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, in chapter 15, Jesus teaches that abiding in Christ is something that every believer needs to work at, through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and through the provision of the Word of God.

It is very clear from our Lord’s words in this passage that one of His major concerns is that there be unity among His disciples. One should not at all be surprised that Jesus saw this as a problem. Frequently in the Gospels, we read of the disciples arguing with one another about who was the greatest (cf. Luke 9:46ff.; 22:24ff.). It wasn’t just a matter of them getting along, either. It was a matter of them staying together. In 16:1, Jesus spoke of the possibility of them “falling away.” Later on in chapter 16, Jesus said, “Look, a time is coming—and has come—when you will be scattered, each one to his own home, and I will be left alone” (John 16:32a).

Indeed, this is precisely what happened. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples did not gather together for a prayer meeting; they all fled (Mark 14:50). Even after Jesus had risen from the dead and His tomb was found to be empty, the disciples “went back to their homes” (John 20:10). When it was apparent that Jesus had been raised from the dead, the disciples were seldom all together in one place, and in chapter 21, Peter sets out to go fishing, with only a partial gathering of the disciples (John 21:1-3). There was not the “unity” we would have hoped for until after our Lord’s departure (Acts 1:12-14; 2:1).

Christian unity is a very difficult issue. We should certainly say that there should never be division over matters like race or economic status (cf. Galatians 2:11-21; Ephesians 2:11-22; James 2:1-13). Neither should there be divisions over matters of personal conviction (Romans 14:1–15:6, esp. 15:6), or over material gain (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:1-8, esp. v. 7). We should, however, divide over immorality and open sin (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Thessalonians 3:10-15; Titus 3:10-11) and doctrinal heresy (Galatians 1:6-10; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 2 John 1:7-11). It is actually those who teach heresy who divide the church, and thus should be put out to avoid divisions (Jude, especially verses 17-19; Titus 3:10-11). Let us be sure that we are not denying our unity in Christ when we refuse to be identified with those who trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins, even though they may be of a different theological persuasion or belong to a different denomination. If Christian unity is so important to our Lord, it should be important to us as well.

Verses 1-5 concern the Father and the Son. Verses 6-19 pertain to the Father, the Son, and the eleven disciples of our Lord. Verses 20-26 widen in focus, to include all those who will subsequently come to faith in Jesus Christ. We are tempted to say that these verses pertain to us, but of course they include a much broader group than that. They encompass the time from the moment Jesus spoke these words to the present—2,000-plus years now, and counting.

I believe it is worth noting that our Lord’s words are carefully chosen so that they can include a great multitude of believers over a considerable period of time. While His words allow for these things, they do not necessarily indicate or suggest them. The disciples were inclined to think that our Lord would commence His reign in their lifetime. Even after our Lord’s death and resurrection, they were still thinking in terms of the near future: “So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:6).

Jesus does not wish to give them the false impression that His return is immediate, but neither does He intend to convey the fact that it is at least 2,000 years away, and for good reason:

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their food at the proper time? 46 That slave whom his master finds doing this when he returns will be blessed. 47 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, 50 that slave’s master will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee. 51 The master will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:45-51).

Our Lord desires us to conduct ourselves as though His return were imminent, even though it may not happen in our lifetime. The language of this text and others is sufficiently broad enough to allow for a long period of time before His return, but not specific enough to require a delay. I believe our Lord wants us to think in terms of “sooner,” rather than “later.”

Those who believe  are described as having come to faith through the testimony (literally “word”) of His disciples. Certainly there were those who came to faith apart from the disciples, people like the woman at the well (John 4), for example. What our Lord emphasizes is the fact that in the future, men will come to faith through the preaching of the gospel (Romans 1:16-17; 10:6-15). The gospel is declared, defined (e.g., Acts 15), enscripturated,  and defended (e.g., Galatians) by the apostles. Because it is through the Word of God that men are saved (see 1 Peter 2:22-25; James 1:21), subsequent believers can be said to have become believers through the word of the apostles.

Jesus does not petition the Father to save these people. Those who will come to faith have already been given to Him as a gift by the Father (see verses 2, 24). Our Lord prays that all those who believe may be one. This is not mere organizational unity; it is an organic and functional unity. It is the same kind of unity that the Father has with the Son. As the Father is “in” the Son, and the Son is “in” the Father, and thus the two are one, so all believers are “in” Christ. Because of their unity with the Son, they are also one with the Father, and one with each other.

This unity is both positional and practical. It is also supernatural. It is for the practical outworking of this supernatural unity that our Lord prays here. The unity of those who are believers in Jesus Christ should be visible to the unsaved world. As the world beholds this unity, they see the presence and the power of the resurrected Christ in His church. Put another way, as believers abide in Christ, Christ abides in them, and the fruit that is produced is a demonstration of our Lord’s presence and power. This is a testimony to the world that Jesus really was sent from the Father, and thus that He really is Who He claimed to be—the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

* THE MAN WHO SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN (17:22).

“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.”

There are some names that have made their way into the dictionary, names such as Jezebel, Benedict Arnold, Cassanova, and Brutus. And Judas Iscariot!

To call someone a “Judas” would be to classify him with the most infamous traitor in human history. And consider the words of Jesus in Mark 14:21: “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

In all the lists of the names of the 12 disciples, Peter is always listed first and Judas last. And the New Testament tells us more about these two men than any of the others.

Much of verses 22 and 23 is a repetition of verses 20 and 21. In both places, Jesus prays for unity among believers. Again, in both places, this unity is based upon the unity that exists between the Father and the Son. Further, the purpose for demonstrating this unity is so that the world may know that the Father sent the Son. Two new elements are introduced, however, which are very significant. We shall therefore focus our attention on these new elements, which further expand upon the petition of verses 20 and 21.

The first additional element is that of the “glory” which the Father gave to the Son and the Son has given to believers in Him. What is the nature of this “glory”? It cannot be the glory which our Lord had with the Father before the foundation of the world, the glory which the Son set aside at His incarnation. This is the “glory” which our Lord has just requested from the Father: “And now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created” (verse 5).

This is the glory which our Lord prays that His saints might behold, by coming to be with Him in heaven: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (verse 24).

How can our Lord speak of a “glory” He has already given to His own if He does not yet have it Himself? How can He speak of giving them the “glory” on earth which they can only behold in heaven? We must conclude, then, that the “glory” of which our Lord is speaking is not His “future glory,” but another “glory.”

We may begin by asking this question: If Jesus can say, ‘I have given them the glory that you gave me,’ then what is the nature of the glory which the Father gave the Son? The answer to that question is straightforward: the glory the Father gave the Son was the glory of the humility of the incarnation, culminating both in the glorification of the Son at the crucifixion and in the glory of his resurrected and exalted state. Believers have seen something of this glory, except for the glory Christ now enjoys; and that, too, they shall one day see, since Jesus prays to that end (17:24).

Jesus purposed to glorify the Father through His incarnation, earthly life and ministry, and through His death, resurrection and ascension. The earthly sufferings  of our Lord are part of His glory (John 12:23; 13:31-32; 17:1). And it is this glory—the glory of servanthood and of sacrificial service—which our Lord has given to His disciples. As Jesus was glorified by His coming to this earth, being rejected by men and put to death, so His disciples are also given the same glory, the glory of suffering for the sake of Christ:

7 Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:7).

12 Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker. 16 But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? 19 So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good (1 Peter 4:12-19).

Our Lord’s earthly glory through His sufferings was consummated in His death on the cross. No wonder He instructs His disciples to take up their cross: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24; see also Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). It was His glory to suffer and to die, and it is our privilege and glory as well, to “take up our cross,” whatever that may mean for us personally. This is the way that the Apostle Paul saw it:

20 My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me; yet I don’t know what I prefer: 23 I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, 24 but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body. 25 And since I am sure of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for the sake of your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that because of me you may swell with pride in Christ Jesus, when I come back to you (Philippians 1:20-26).

This puts our suffering for Christ in a whole new light. It is for His glory. It is also for our good. But the words of our Lord’s prayer indicate that it is also our glory. No wonder Paul writes these words:

10 My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).

The second new element in our text has to do with the intended impact of the believers’ unity upon unbelievers. Jesus prays, “I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me” (verse 23, emphasis mine). The first half of the intended result of Christian unity is repeated from our Lord’s earlier words in verse 21. Christian unity will show the world that God the Father sent the Son. But here Jesus goes on to say that Christian unity is also intended as an expression of the Father’s love for those who trust in Jesus. This love which the Father has for Christians is the same love which He has for His Son. The Father loves the Son, and because Christians are “in the Son” by faith, the Father loves us just as He loves the Son.

The unity of the believers reflects the Father’s love. Let’s consider the relationship between unity and love for a moment. In Ephesians 5, Paul is instructing husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church (5:25). Having described how the Lord Jesus loved the church (5:26-27), Paul now instructs husbands to love their wives as their own bodies:

28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is great—but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (Ephesians 5:28-33).

Remember as well the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18, 34; Matthew 19:19; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8). The assumption underlying all of this is that we do love ourselves. We love our own bodies. As members of the body of Christ, we are joined not only to our Lord, but to the Father, and to one another. Our unity should express itself in love toward one another. And since this is a divine love, it reveals God’s love to the world. Men should see God’s love in action, as Christians love one another, because they are one with one another, and with God.

This is a marvelous thought, but also an awesome responsibility. The standard for our love is incredibly high. It is not a merely human love, a love like that expressed by unbelievers. It is not just a romantic love, like we see portrayed on movie and television screens. It is the love of God for our Lord and for us, a love which will prompt one to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

Let’s consider the different acts in the drama of the tragedy of Judas Iscariot:

1. The disciple.

After a night of prayer, our Lord came down from the mountain and chose 12 men to become His disciples (Luke 6:12-16). Did Jesus know what Judas was like and what he would do? The indications are that He did: John 6:64: “Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.”

John 2:24-25: “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.  {25} He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.”

Then, why did He call him as a disciple? Because it was the will of God. Our Lord prayed all night before He called these men.

But there have been some interesting (and wrong) responses to this choice:

– Some see Judas as a victim, saying he had to betray Jesus (outside his own choice) to fulfill prophecy.

But this approach to the problem makes Judas a mere robot, a pawn of God’s omnipotent hand. It robs Judas of humanity and of responsibility, yet the Bible makes it clear that Judas was held responsible for what he did.

In fact, even Judas admitted his personal guilt in Matthew 27:4: “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied.  “That’s your responsibility.”

– Another approach is that Judas was a victim of Satan.

But this theory would make a devil out of God! James 1:13: “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”

That Satan was involved in the sin, no one can deny!  John 13:2 “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus…As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. “What you are about to do, do quickly,” Jesus told him.”

Luke 22:1-4: “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, {2} and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. {3} Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. {4} And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.”

The idea was there long before Judas entered the upper room, for he had already contacted the Jewish leaders. And he’d already been a liar and a murderer (John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies”).

2. The thief.

Judas was the treasurer of the disciple band and one of his jobs was to distribute money to the poor (John 12:1-8 and 13:26-30). But John also makes it clear that Judas had been stealing money from that treasury:

John 132:6: “He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.”

3. The traitor.

Judas had listened to John the Baptist and submitted to John’s baptism, as seen in Acts 1:21-22: “Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, {22} beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

And certainly our Lord must have done everything He could in the effort to rescue Judas…He made repeated warnings against the love of money and His denunciation of hypocrisy made no impact on him, either.

And, in the upper room, Jesus certainly made one last effort!

4. The suicide.

Judas did not repent of his sin, as seen in Matthew 27:3: “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.”

Remorse and regret are not the same as repentance. But why suicide? Because Satan is a murderer (John 8:44) and a destroyer (Rev. 9:11).

He comes first as the deceiving serpent but then turns into the destroying lion (1 Peter 5:8). He uses despair and guilt to drive people to self-destruction.

We have learned that the “world” is an important concept in John 17. Jesus used the word 19 times, and He used it in three different connotations to mean (1) the material creation, as in verse 5; (2) people, as in verse 18, and (3) “the world system” opposed to God, as in verses 6, 14, and 15.

The Christian has a unique position in life. He lives “in the world” physically, but he is not “of the world” spiritually. His resources do not come from the evil world system, but from the Lord.

While he is “in the world,” he must live unlike the world because he must have a ministry to the people who are yet in the world. We are “in the world” to win people “out of the world,” and we live with the glorious expectation of being taken from this world when Jesus Christ returns!

In other words, Christians are in enemy territory. Like an astronaut in space, or a diver at the bottom of the sea, the Christian is “out of his element.” And, like the astronaut and diver, the Christian must depend on outside resources if he is going to make it successfully.

Jesus Christ provides for us the spiritual resources we need to overcome the world:

1. HIS JOY (17:13).

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

Jesus is often described as a “man of sorrows” and certainly He did experience a variety of emotions as He ministered upon the earth:

– He had both deep sorrows and the highest joys

– His heart was broken when He saw people destroying themselves with sin

– His heart exulted as He saw God at work, saving the lost and making alive new!

– He had the sorrow of the shepherd, seeking the lost

– And He had the joy of the shepherd, bringing home the sheep that had been found

* Joy in life is not the absence of sorrow.

The Arabs have a saying, “All sunshine makes a desert.” If God were to insulate us from sorrow, we would never grow or develop mature character. Heaven is  a place of all joy and no sorrow, and hell is a place of all sorrow and no joy. But this present life is a mingling of the two!

The Christian who experiences the joy of Jesus Christ will not be interested in anything that the world has to offer. When two people fall in love, they are not attracted to anyone else because they are fully satisfied with each other. When a husband or wife starts to find greater joy elsewhere, then trouble begins.

Christian joy is a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, in which we learn more about Him and about ourselves. The more we learn about ourselves, the more we see our own needs. But the more we learn about Christ, the more we see how He fully meets those needs.

This joy from Christ does not depend on accidentals or externals. It is something we experience within and the circumstances of the world around us cannot take it away.

2. HIS WORD (17:14).

“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.”

Twice in His prayer, our Lord mentions the gift of the Word (vs. 8 and 14). Since we are living in a deceived and a deceiving world, the possession of the truth of the Word is absolutely essential. It is not our word, but God’s Word, that overcomes the deceitfulness of this world system.

– the material world was created by the Word of God (Psalm 33:6, 9)

– the same Word that created the Universe is also sustaining it (2 Peter 3:7)

– everything in the created world, except man, obeys the Word of God!

– the Word exposes the world as it truly is

– the Bible has nothing good to say about the world system

1 Corinthians 1:18-24: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. {19} For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” {20} Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? {21} For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. {22} Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, {23} but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, {24} but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

James 4:4: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

The Christian who gets friendly with the world (James 4:4) may find himself spotted by the world (James 1:26).

* Not only does God’s Word reveal to us the true nature of the world system, but it also spells out our personal relationship to that system. A true believer will be hated by the world, not because he is offensive, but because he represents Jesus Christ.

The sooner the Christian believes what the Bible says about the world and his relationship to it, the sooner he will start living in victory. It is impossible for the world system and the Christian to get along with each other! (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1).

3. OUR IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST (17:14b, 16).

“…for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”

In 1 John 4:17 John makes an astounding statement about Christians and their Lord …as He is, so also are we in this world.”

Christ is in heaven and we are on earth, yet we are united in our shared life through the Spirit. Just as the deep-sea diver needs his lifetime above, so the Christian in the world needs a spiritual lifeline to heaven.  We are united to Christ: as He is in heaven, so are we in this world.

4. CHRIST’S INTERCESSION ON OUR BEHALF (17:15).

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

Our Lord deliberately prayed that the Father would keep us in the world! Why? Because the world needs us…and we need the blessing that comes as we seek to represent Christ in the world.

There are several false ideas in the mind of some Christians regarding their relationship to the world:

– One is isolation:

This is the idea of going out of the world, which is the philosophy behind the monastic movement. Samuel Johnson once visited a convent in France and conversed with one of the members: “You are not here for love of virtue, but from fear of vice” he said.

But the Catholics are not the only ones guilty here! Some well-meaning, conservative Christians also band together like babes in the woods and try to protect themselves, forsaking the inner city and isolating ourselves from reality, burying our heads in the sand, putting on blinders…and pretending that we will find ourselves in the safe and sane 50’s. Is this true?

We are needed in the world! And it’s by fighting the battles that we grow!  Both Joseph and Daniel became great men of God while living in pagan societies.

– Another idea is insulation.

We go ahead and stay in the world, but we insulate ourselves from its problems and pains. The priest and Levite were willing to walk down the Jericho Road, but they were not willing to share the plight of the half-dead man at the side of the road. They were insulated.

It is becoming more and more difficult for Christians to maintain compassion in this world simply because we are bombarded with so many emotional stimuli.

We no longer hear of wars…we see the actual combat on TV.  Our newspapers are so filled with crime, violence and corruption that we bypass the front page and turn to the comics or the sports page–and sometimes the violence and crime are even worse there! We have desensitized ourselves! We are no longer our brother’s keeper!

– A third idea…imitation.

Some think the only way to “reach the world” is to be like the world. But history convinces us that it was when the church was the least like the world that it did the most to change the world!

* CHRISTIANS ARE SPECIAL (17:17-19)

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. {18} As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. {19} For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

In both the Old and New Testament, the word “sanctify” means “to be separated from sin and devoted wholly to God.”

– God sanctified the Sabbath Day for the Jews in Genesis 2:3; that is, He set it apart for His own purposes

– He also sanctified the firstborn of man and beast in Exodus 13:2

– The tabernacle and the Temple were sanctified because they were set apart by God’s presence (Ex. 25:8; 2 Chron. 20:8)

– God sanctified the people of Israel as His own possession (Exodus 31:13)

– He sanctified the priests to serve in His courts (Lev. 21:8)

All saved people are also set apart for special service to God:

– we’re called by His grace, saved by His blood, indwelt by His Spirit

– Our body is the temple of God; therefore, it is not for rent or for sale!

We have been set apart for special service so that Christ might send us into the world to share the message of the gospel (vs. 18).

Some Christians boast about what they don’t do, but they have little to say about what they do accomplish! True sanctification is not only separation from sin; it is also devotion to God, being set apart for His exclusive use!

* CHRISTIANS UNITED-OR UNTIED? (17:20-24)

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, {21} 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. {22} I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: {23} 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. {24} “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

All of us need to heed Joseph’s advice to his brothers, “Do not quarrel on the journey” (Genesis 45:24).

Bible history and church history bear record to the sad fact that Christians do not always get along with each other. Even our Lord’s disciples argued with each other, and Jesus was right there with them!

– our Lord’s prayer for unity cannot be fulfilled in some man-made organization

– putting together all religious groups, regardless of what they profess to believe, will not solve the problem

– disregarding doctrine and watering everything down to the least common denominator is not what Jesus had in mind

– doctrine é‚ó‚ an essential part of unity: for there is not only “one Lord,” but there is also “one faith” (Eph. 4:5)

– we’re to “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3)

Our Lord gives us every encouragement for spiritual unity by reminding us of the bonds that tie us together:

We trust the same Savior.

“What do you think about the Christ, whose Son is He?” is still life’s most important question (Matt. 22:42). The way we answer that question determines where we spend eternity.

We bear the same witness to the world.

Twice in this prayer, Jesus mentions the church’s witness to the lost world. We lived before the keen eyes of a watching world that is only too quick to detect hypocrisy and defects in the church.

It is obvious that this unity is not simply “internal” and personal. It is big enough and strong enough for the world to see. When Christians love each other and bear witness together, the world will see it.

Jesus assures us in this prayer that some will believe because of our witness (vs. 20). What an encouragement this statement must have been to Peter when he faced that crowd at Pentecost! And to Paul when he traveled to pagan cities with the gospel message!

We share the same glory.

When Moses dedicated the tabernacle, and Solomon dedicated the Temple, the glory of God moved in. The presence of God’s glory made Israel a unique people. When God guided Israel in the wilderness, it was His glory that led the way. These 12 distinctive tribes were united by the glory of God.

Each individual Christian is God’s temple, and the glory of God dwells in them. Christ has already given us the glory even though the full manifestation of this glory awaits the return of Christ (Rom. 8:19). The presence of God’s Spirit within marks a person as a true believer (Rom. 8:9).

We enjoy the same love.

The Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world (vs. 24). The Father also loves His children even as He loved Christ. The motivation for unity is not only hope, but also love. Truth and love work together to build the body of Christ.

It has well been said that truth without love is brutality (“I’m going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not!”), and love without truth is hypocrisy.

There are many lessons to be learned from our text. Let me conclude by pointing out a few.

First, Jesus informs us in our text that there are two glories. I have heard it said many times, and I know I have said it myself: “Suffering, then glory.” I believe there is much truth summed up in this statement.

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body. 11 For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body. 12 As a result, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 13 But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak. 14 We do so because we know that the one who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, emphasis mine).

11 This saying is trustworthy: If we died with him, we will also live with him. 12 If we endure, we will also reign with him (2 Timothy 2:11-12a).

Like our Lord, we must suffer in this life, so that we many enter into the glories of heaven.

There are some Christians who seek to avoid the necessity of our earthly glory through suffering. They seem to believe that Jesus did all the suffering for us, leaving us with nothing but glory. In so doing, they deny a very clear biblical truth—that in His earthly suffering, our Lord gave us an example:

19 For this finds God’s favor, if because of conscience toward God someone endures hardships in suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if you sin and are mistreated and endure it? But if you do good and suffer and so endure, this finds favor with God. 21 For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was maligned, he did not answer back; when he suffered, he threatened no retaliation, but committed himself to God who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may leave sin behind and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls (1 Peter 2:19-25).

There are those who would tell us that if we but had enough faith, we would not need to suffer now, and that we may experience heaven’s glories now. They believe that on the cross, Jesus defeated all suffering and sickness and sorrow so that if we but claim His blessings by faith, we will obtain them in this life. It is these last words, “in this life,” which are troublesome. This is the ever-popular error of “realized eschatology,” the belief that what God has for us in heaven, He has for us now. Peter, along with the other apostles, sees it another way:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. 7 Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3-9).

1 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, boozing, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you. … 12 Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker. 16 But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? 19 So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good (1 Peter 4:1-4, 12-19).

18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 23 Not only this, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, inwardly groan as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance (Romans 8:18-25).

By our sufferings for His sake, we identify with our Lord and experience a deeper fellowship with Him:

8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I might gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because of having my own righteousness derived from the law, but because of having the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is based on Christ’s faithfulness. 10 My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:8-11).

In one sense, it is proper to speak of suffering, then glory. In another sense, it is not accurate, because it implies that suffering is not itself glory. Consider these words of D. A. Carson, who comments on our text:

… the text is telling us that our true glory is the way of the cross. That way is vindicated by the glory of triumph later; but already we have something of Jesus’ glory inasmuch as we, like him, are to endure the enmity of the world and walk as suffering servants. This is our glory, not our shame. W. Barclay comments, ‘We must never think of our cross as our penalty; we must think of it as our glory. … The harder the task we give a student, or a craftsman, or a surgeon, the more we honour him. …So when it is hard to be a Christian, we must regard it as our glory, as our honour given to us by God.’

From our Lord’s words in our text, as well as from other texts in the Bible, we can safely say that there are at least two “glories.” There was, for our Lord, the glory of His humiliation at the incarnation and of His sacrificial service in His life and death on earth. But there is also His “future glory,” the glory that will be restored to Him, with interest, because of His obedient service and sacrifice (see Philippians 2:5-11). We should likewise look upon our earthly trials and difficulties as our present “glory,” while we anxiously await our future glory in heaven with Him.

This recognition that there are two glories solves what has been a real mystery for me. I have always been troubled by these words, written by Paul: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NASB).

In the light of our Lord’s words in John 17, I think I am finally beginning to understand Paul’s words above. Paul is writing about the great glory of the New Testament ministry which God has given him, the apostles, and us under the New Covenant, a ministry of the Spirit. He contrasts the glory of his apostolic ministry “in the Spirit” with the previous but inferior glory of Moses’ ministry “of the Law” under the Old Covenant. The ministry of Moses was glorious, but it was a “fading glory.” That is why he placed a veil over his “glowing” face. That glowing face grew dim over time, because that glory faded. Paul says that the glory of New Testament ministry is unfading. And every time the gospel is proclaimed, and people trust in Jesus as the Messiah, the veil is removed. With “unveiled face,” we are transformed from glory to glory. I think he is saying that we are being transformed from this present glory (of suffering for Christ’s sake) to the even greater glory of Heaven. We are being transformed from the earthly glory of suffering for Christ to the heavenly glory of reigning with Christ.

I wonder how many of us are really ready and willing to speak of suffering as glory. Jesus did. The apostles did. I think that tells us how our thinking should change in regard to suffering for Christ’s sake.

Second, Jesus’ words remind us of the importance of Christian unity. One can hardly overlook the emphasis which our Lord places on unity:

Seven times in this prayer Jesus prays ‘that they may all be one’ (vv. 11, 19; twice in 21, 22, 23, 24), and four of the seven are prayers that his followers may be one. It is clear that Jesus was very concerned with what they would be in the days ahead and that he was particularly concerned that they should be united. It is clear throughout the New Testament that unity among the believers is thought of as extremely important (which is natural enough following the last prayer of Jesus for them), and it is also clear that the early Christians found it difficult to maintain unity.

This time Jesus prays that his followers may be ‘perfected into one,’ where the verb for ‘perfected’ is interesting. It derives from a root that conveys the idea of ‘end’ or ‘aim’; to reach that aim is to be perfected. The point of this verb in this place is that it draws attention to the truth that unity is a necessary part of the perfection at which Christians aim. When we become followers of Jesus we are not embarking on a quest for individual blessing and happiness. These good gifts may well come to us, but our aim is to realize our salvation in the fellowship of Christ’s people. We belong together in the church of God.

John Wesley reports that ‘a serious man’ once said to him, ‘The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion. Therefore a man must find companions or make them.’ This is an important aspect of New Testament Christianity. It is not a faith that can be lived out in solitude. Someone has defined religion as what a person does with his solitariness. This may fit some religions, but not Christianity. We who follow Christ must bear in mind that Christ was one with the Father and in that spirit he expects his followers to be one with him and one with each other.

As I seek to take our Lord’s words literally and seriously, I come to the following conclusions:

1. To the degree that I practice “rugged individualism,” I violate Christian unity.

2. To the degree that I neglect or violate true Christian unity, I reflect badly on my Lord.

3. To the degree that I violate True Christian unity, I hinder the gospel.

4. To the degree that I violate true christian unity, I deny the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Galatians 2:11-21; 3:26-29; Ephesians 2:11-22).

5. To the degree that I violate Christian unity, I hinder the praise of God (see Romans 15:5-13).

Having stressed the importance of Christian unity, I must also state what I do not mean to say. I do not mean that Christian unity is evidenced by uniformity, and that all Christians should look and think alike. If I understand 1 Corinthians 12 correctly, unity is best demonstrated in diversity, not in uniformity (or conformity). The importance of Christian unity is not a mandate for overlooking sin (see 1 Corinthians 5) or serious doctrinal error (1 Timothy 1:20; Titus 3:10-11).

It does seem to me that homogeneous grouping in churches does violence to the doctrine of Christian unity. From a purely secular, marketing mentality, “birds of a feather do flock together.” People do feel more comfortable around others who are just like them. But God has not called us to comfort. God has called us to conform to the image of His Son. What a testimony it is when a church has a mix of races, cultures, and social strata. Here is where the world can behold true Christian unity and stand in awe. Let us be careful not to compromise biblical standards or doctrine in an effort to appear formally united, but let us strive to practice that organic and functional unity which God intended for us to demonstrate, to His praise and glory, and to our good.

One more comment about Christian unity. Christian unity is not merely to be practiced in a particular church, or even in a particular city. The unity of which our Lord speaks is surely as wide as the world—it is a global unity. In the last few days, we have witnessed the terrible plight of many in Central America due to a disastrous hurricane. As members of the body of Christ, we are one with those Christians who are suffering in far away places. And it is because of this unity that we, along with many other churches, have contributed a substantial sum of money, sending it in care of a particular church in the disaster-torn area to minister to the saints (and through these saints, to others) there. We need to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep, and minister to those in need, whether they are in our church or across the ocean. You will remember that one of the first ways the Gentile saints gave expression to their unity with their Jewish brethren was by sending a contribution to them in their time of need (see Acts 11:27-30; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8 and 9).

Third, our Lord’s prayer in John 17 surely has something to teach us about prayer. Let me mention a few lessons on prayer from this, our Lord’s prayer.

1. Our Lord prays for Himself, that He will fulfill God’s mission and ministry.

2. Our Lord prays for others, because He loves them and cares for them.

3. The primary goal of our prayers, like His, should be the glory of God.

4. Since earthly suffering can be glory, our prayers should not be obsessed with the termination of our suffering, but with the realization of God’s purposes in our suffering, for His glory.

5. Our prayers should seek our protection from Satan, the evil one, who seeks to destroy us.

6. Our prayers should seek to gain a proper perspective of the present, in the light of eternity.

7. Our prayers should look to, and ask for, the time when we will dwell for all eternity with Him.

8. Our requests in prayer should include a request that demonstrates Christian unity through us, in every way possible.

9. Our prayers should recognize God’s provisions through His Word and His Spirit.

Finally, our Lord’s prayer reminds us that our faith should be proclaimed and practiced:

The truth of the gospel, announced without the demonstration of the power of the gospel in transformed and loving lives, is arid. It may be beautiful in the way that the badlands can be beautiful; but not much grows there. On the other hand, the demonstration of love within a believing community does not by itself proclaim the source or cause of that love. Attractive in its own right, like a luxuriant south sea island, nevertheless such love does not call forth disciplined obedience or informed belief, and cannot of itself call others to true faith. It is merely a place to rest. The multiplying witness Jesus has in mind is both propositional and exemplary, both confessional and demonstrative. It is a witness of word and of love.

JOHN 17

Someone has aptly termed this chapter “The Holy of Holies of John’s Gospel.” We have the privilege of hearing the Son conversing with the Father. You could spend ma