John 17:6-26

Sermon Transcript

As I’ve already kind of intimated, we have been studying on Wednesday night the Upper Room Discourse, which means that from John 13-17 Jesus is discoursing or teaching His disciples the night before He would be crucified. Actually, the discourse stops at John 16, and John 17, the end of the Upper Room Discourse, is the prayer of Jesus. It’s commonly been called “The Great High Priestly Prayer of Jesus” or the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s prayer is not, “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” that’s the disciples’ prayer. The Lord’s prayer is John 17 where in verse 1 He says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” He turns to His Father and begins to pray. In John 17, we call it sometimes the holy of holies of Scripture because we’re actually seeing the veil pulled back, and we’re seeing the heart of Christ which gives us the heart of God and God’s priorities. We’re listening to Jesus talking to His Father. Again, the trinitarian concept of God the Son talking to God the Father. When we pray, we talk to God the Father through God the Son in the energy and the power of God the Holy Spirit. What a marvelous chapter has been John 17.

Last time we were together, we looked at verses 1-5. Now, verses 1-5, to outline the chapter real quick once again for you, Jesus prays first for Himself; in verses 6-19, Jesus prays for His disciples; and in verses 20-26, Jesus prays for His Church. So, He prays for Himself, He prays for His disciples, and then He prays for the Church universal, which actually would include you and me. This is where we appear in the Bible. He’s going to be praying for us—those who would believe on their word that they would be preaching.

Let’s read verses 1-5. I won’t comment much on it because we went into it in great depth, but I thought why not back up five verses and get the whole chapter in one swoop. So, back up with me. The text tonight is verses 6-26, but let’s start in verse 1 of chapter 17. It starts, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son”—that’s one of the priorities through this whole prayer is that the Son be glorified in order that the Father may be glorified—“that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power”—or authority—“over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5 And now, O Father”—again, He’s addressing His Father in heaven—“glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

Jesus prays for Himself, and He’s praying that He would be glorified and bring glory to the Father and mentions, “ . . . the hour is come.” So, Jesus would be arrested, He would be crucified, He would raise from the dead, forty days He would appear and speak to His disciples, then He would ascend back to heaven, and we are awaiting His Second coming.

Now, verses 6-19 is Jesus praying for His disciples, so He’s not gone out universal to the Church quite yet, He’s praying for Himself, then He’s praying for His little band of disciples, and then He moves out to pray for the Church in verse 20. Follow with me beginning in verse 6. Jesus said, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” This is Jesus praying for His disciples.

Go back with me to verse 6. Jesus said, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.” The word “manifested” in verse 1 means revealed. One of the chief purposes for Christ coming into the world is that He came to reveal God to us, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” John 1:14. In John 1:18 it says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath”—here’s the word, revealed—“him,”—or explained Him. We actually get our word “exegete” from that word. He’s come to reveal or to manifest or to explain God to us. If you want to know what God is like, take a long look at Jesus because that’s the purpose for which He came; that’s one of the purposes for the incarnation. Now, the chief and primary purpose for the incarnation was in order that He would die or be able to die for the sins of the world. He came as the sinless Son of God to be the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, but He came to reveal the Father to us, so He’s “ . . . manifested thy name . . . .”

What does it mean when He said, “ . . . thy name.” It’s not talking about the name Jehovah or Yahweh or Elohim or Adonai. He’s not come to explain God’s name, He’s come to explain God’s nature and character. Most of the time when the Bible uses that phrase, “the name of the Lord,” Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe,” or the psalmist, “Blessed be the name of the LORD,” it’s talking about His nature and His character. It’s not talking about a proper name, it’s talking about His nature and His character. Jesus came to reveal God to us.

He revealed them “ . . . unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.” The word “world” is the word kósmos. It’s used over and over and over in these closing verses tonight. He says, “ . . . which thou gavest me out of the world.” So, God the Father gave to God the Son these disciples as a gift. We’re going to see that we, as the Church, are gifts from God the Father to God the Son as well. The point is made in verse 6 that Jesus came to reveal God’s nature and character to us, and it started with Him revealing this to His disciples. These disciples were gifts from the Father to the Son. We, as well, we’re going to see in the same chapter, are gifts from God the Father as believers in the Church to God the Son. We don’t often think about it that way, but if you’re a Christian, you’re actually a gift from the Father to the Son.

Notice verse 7. He says, “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” He says at the end of verse 6, “ . . . and they have kept thy word,”—they’re keeping God’s Word, obeying God’s Word, so should we. In verse 7 we see Christ’s mission, authority, and teaching was recognized by the disciples as all coming from—having it’s source—from God the Father. So, “I’ve given them this revelation, given them Your Word, and they’ve believed it, they’ve responded and obeyed it.”

Notice verse 8, “For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me,”—so the words Jesus spoke were actually given to Him from God the Father. No wonder it says, “Never man spake like this man.” The words were directly given to Him from God the Father. “For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.” Notice Jesus explaining here in this prayer that His words have divine origin, that He was speaking the word the Father gave to Him. He wasn’t just saying His own ideas. He was divine Himself, He was the Son of God, but the Father was directing every word and every action that He made.

Verse 8, “ . . . I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them,”—literally, it’s actually, ‘I am praying for them’—“I pray not for the world”—now, it doesn’t mean He didn’t care for the world or He didn’t love the world, ‘God so loved the world,’ but it means at this point in this time, in this prayer, in this upper room, He’s praying for these specific disciples. Now, Judas has already departed the room, and He’s praying for the disciples that were there. Jesus is doing that now, He’s praying for us as our Great High Priest.

Verse 9, “I pray for them”—I’m praying for them—“I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” Jesus is praying for His disciples. God the Father gave them to Him, they belong to Him; they belong to the Father, and He said, “I am glorified in them.”

Four points I want to make mention in this little section as we continue down to verse 19 is Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, verse 6; Jesus spoke words of divine origin, verse 8; then, in verse 9, Jesus is doing it now for us in heaven praying for us. He’s praying for them, but it’s a reminder of what He’s doing for us now in heaven, praying and interceding for us.

Verse 11, He said, “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,”—just that little phrase blessed my heart this afternoon as I was studying this, ‘I come to thee.’ Here’s God the Son incarnate on earth talking to God the Father saying, “I come to thee.” I think He’s primarily speaking of the fact that, “I’m coming home. I’m coming back. I’m leaving this world. I’m coming back to heaven.” Think of the mission He went on. He had to leave heaven, come down to earth, be born a baby through the womb of the virgin Mary, live in dependence on His parents, He had to experience all the weaknesses of the human being except for sin, and He’s now going to be crucified, resurrected, and go back to His Father. His mission had been completed or would be finished.

He says, “Holy Father,” now He opens up with “Father,” which is again the word “Abba,” and then He comes to “Holy”—Abba or—“Holy Father.” This is the only time this phrase is used by Jesus, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me”—again, all through this prayer Jesus is speaking of the fact that the disciples were gifts from the Father to Him and that we, as the Church, were gifts from the Father to Him. He’s praying that God would keep them.

Verse 12, “ . . . and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” That’s a reference to Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot has already been dismissed and went out in the night and started his dastardly deed to betray the Lord. He’s praying for those that are there. None of them have left. They are His disciples, gifts from the Father; and Judas was not a gift from the Father, he was “ . . . the son of perdition.” By the way, that Scripture fulfilled is Psalm 41:9.

Verse 13, He says, “And now come I to thee,”—so, I come to thee, verse 11, now again—“And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” So, they’re going to be left here. They’re going to be in the world. I want them to have My joy.

Verse 14, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Notice Jesus gave them His Word, the Father’s Word, and the world hated them because like Christ they’re not of this world, this evil world system, this kósmos.

Verse 15, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world,”—so many times as Christians, that’s what we want, right? We want, “Take me out of this world,” or we want to isolate. We don’t want to be around sinners. If you go to a restaurant after church on a Sunday, we ask for a sanctified section. We want a Spirit-filled waitress or waiter, right? So, “Lord, just take me out of this world. It’s wicked. It’s evil. I want to be taken out.” But, He says, “No, I’ve left them here, they’re in this world, so I pray that “ . . . thou shouldest keep them from the evil”—one, literally. He’s asking that the Father would protect them and keep them from Satan, the evil one. So, “ . . . keep them,”—back at verse 11—“ . . . that they may be one”—and now in verse 15—“ . . . keep them from the evil.”

So, “ . . . keep them”—I want oneness. And by the way, I’m going to talk more about this in just a minute, this oneness that is so well-known about Jesus praying in John 17 is actually a spiritual oneness, not an organizational oneness. He wasn’t praying for one denomination or one organization, He was praying for spiritual unity that would take place when the Holy Spirit came and they were baptized into Christ and the formation of the body, the Church, which Christ is the living head. Just as He was one with the Father, so the believers, the disciples and the believers, would be one with one another.

Verse 14, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil”—one. He knew that He would be gone, the Holy Spirit would come, and He’s praying, “Father, preserve them. Keep them from the evil one.”

Notice verse 16, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” You know, as a Christian you’re not of this world. This world is not your home.

I remember when I was a young Christian, we used to actually, back in the hippie days, go hitchhiking. Anybody remember hitchhiking? That kind of blows my mind, that’s a hippie term, too. People used to just hitchhike. You’ve got to go somewhere? All you have to do is stick out your thumb, someone picks you up, you jump in the car and take off, and you’d be safe. We used to witness hitchhike. We would go witnessing by hitchhiking. Someone would pick us up, we’d start sharing Jesus with them, and they’d usually kick us out of the car.

I was with this young, zealous Christian one time. We stuck out our thumb. We jumped in this guy’s truck, and we’re all riding in the front seat. The guy driving, the first thing he says is, “Where are you guys from?” So, this young, inexperienced, zealous Christian said, (monotone voice) “We are not of this world.” I’m like, Oh, no! He said, “I’m going to let you out the next corner.” “We are not of this world,” he freaked the guy out. But it’s true, right? We’re not of this world.

Jesus said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” You ought to as a cross reference write down 1John 2:15-17, the famous verse where it says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away . . . but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” As long as we’re walking with the Lord, we’re getting more homesick for heaven, we’re feeling more out of place in this world, and we long to go to heaven to be with the Lord, which is actually our home. That’s why when a believer dies, he or she’s gone home. We weep not for them, we weep that we are going to be separated from them, but we know that they’ve gone to heaven, which is their home. They’re at home with the Lord. That’s our real home.

Verse 17 is a very important verse. Jesus prays, “They’re in the world, You’re not going to take them out of the world. You’ve got to keep them from the evil one.” Then He prays in verse 17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” This is a very important verse to remember, put to memory, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Jesus praying to the Father that the Father would sanctify these disciples.

What does that mean, “sanctify”? It’s a big, kind of Bible word, “sanctify.” The word “sanctify” and the word “saint” and the word “holy” all come from the same root word and have kind of the same meaning. It means to be set apart as holy, to be set apart as holy. “Sanctify them”—or set them apart. Again, He’s talking about the fact that they’re in the world, but they’re not of the world. So, we don’t want to love the world, the world’s values—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. We want to live like children of God, children of a new Kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven, follow heaven’s Lord, obey heaven’s laws. But, we’re going to be in this world, so as we’re in this world, Jesus wants them, and we’re going to see He wants us, to be sanctified.

You’ve heard me say many times that salvation has three tenses. You’re probably saying, “Yeah, we’ve heard you say that many times. Why don’t you just move on and not bug us,” right? Well, the word “sanctify” can be used for all three of those categories of salvation—past, present, and future. Holiness involves our past, we’ve been forgiven of sin; our present, we’re being changed into His image, set apart, made more like Jesus; and future, when one day we’ll be in His presence and we will see Christ as He is, and we will be perfectly holy and righteous. In just a moment, Jesus is going to say, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me . . that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me . . . before the foundation of the world.”

So, overarching the doctrine of salvation, which theologians call soteriology, is the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification past is positional—my sins have been forgiven because I’ve been placed in Christ, and I have been set apart. I have been made holy or declared holy because Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to me. One of the reasons why I hit this subject so often is because it’s absolutely essential and fundamental for your understanding to understand the Christian life and to be able to walk victoriously as a Christian. So, if you are a Christian, you are sanctified—in Christ, set apart, declared righteous, done deal. All your sins have been forgiven. Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to you. That’s positional truth.

The present tense is progressive. That means that you are growing more holy in your experience, so this is progressive or experiential righteousness. This is why some Christians grow rapidly and become more Christlike sooner than others, more Christians that are more spiritual. Christians that are not spiritual are struggling, they’re not growing, they’re not being—present tense—sanctified. One of the chief means by which God sanctifies us practically—not positionally, that’s complete, that can’t change—but, progressionally or practically, it’s through the Word of God, the Scriptures. Look at verse 17, “Sanctify them,”—this is what He’s talking about, the progressive sanctification—“through thy truth: thy word is truth.” This is why I always say you cannot grow apart from the Bible. You cannot grow apart from the Word of God. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform the child of God into the image of Jesus the Son of God. That’s progressive sanctification.

So, we’re all in process. Some of us are a little farther down the road than others. Sometimes we get some hiccups, some bumps in the road, and we have to ask God to forgive us and keep moving along. We’re not perfect, but we’re not what we used to be, right? I’m not perfect, but thank God I’m not what I used to be. God’s changing me. I’m a work in process. Positionally, I’m justified, I’m sanctified, set apart. Practically presently, I’m being sanctified, I’m being set apart, but that is through the Word of God.

Now, there’s other ways that God sanctifies us right now progressively and makes us more like Jesus. One of them, again, this case we don’t really like, but he does it through suffering. He does it through suffering. He allows suffering to come into our life to winnow us of things that are not of God, to break us from self-dependence and pride and bring us into humble dependence upon Him. That’s why Paul said, when he was speaking of his thorn in his flesh, “ . . . when I am weak, then am I strong.” He uses suffering, He’ll use the Scriptures, He uses the Holy Spirit, He uses other believers speaking into my life. This is the way God makes us more like Jesus Christ.

This verse makes it clear that God sanctifies us “ . . . through thy truth: thy word is truth,”—Jesus is declaring that God’s Word is truth. It’s so very, very important. This is the means by which we are being sanctified. The motive of our sanctification…forgive me, I forgot the third phase which is future, it’s perfectly or perfection sanctification. We’re positionally sanctified, we’re progressively being sanctified, and one day, when we’re in heaven and we see Jesus face to face, we will be perfectly set apart and made holy. We’ll be perfectly righteous in His presence.

Notice in verse 18 the motive of our sanctification, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Jesus is sending us into the world, that’s why He wants us to be like Him. He wants us to be holy and sanctified. Verse 19, He is the model, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” Again, this idea that God uses the Word of God to sanctify, there’s an illustration of that in Ephesians 5:25-27 where it says, “Husbands, love your wives,” a husband is to love his wife and the Bible says that he is to wash her “ . . . with the washing of water by the word,” even as Christ loved the church and sanctifies it, referring to Christ and the Church, through “ . . . the washing of water by the word.” The water is the Word washing us, sanctifying us, just like a husband’s love for his wife is like Christ sanctifying the church through “ . . . the washing of water by the word,” and the Word of God is truth. If you want to grow into the likeness of Jesus, read the Bible, obey the Bible, and allow the Holy Spirit to fill and control your life.

Here’s the last section, verses 20-26, where Jesus prays for the Church. This is where He expands His prayer out beyond Himself and His disciples and includes those who will believe on their word, which would include us as the Church. He says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” Jesus left His little band of disciples, and here we are tonight the Word of God being preached and brought down. He’s praying for all those who would believe the Word. It’s the Church.

What do we mean by the “Church”? The Greek word “church” there in the New Testament is ekklēsía which means called out assembly. Sanctify means set apart, and the Church is the called out—we’re called out of the world unto Christ. But the Church is made up of those individuals who have been born again of the Spirit and have been taken out of Adam and placed in Christ. They are the living Church, the body of Christ, who is the head of that body. We’re not talking about an organizational church, a denomination, we’re talking about the body of Christ, the Church, that Jesus said, “ . . . I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So, He says, “I pray for those who are going to hear their word.”

The Church, I believe and I mentioned before, started in Acts 2, and it will be here on earth growing until it’s complete, and I believe it ends on the earth at the rapture, when we’re “ . . . caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Notice in verse 21, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” I’m going to list the prayers that He makes for the Church, and the first one that seems to be top on the list is oneness, unity. I’ve heard so often over the years this reference from these verses that we as Christians need to have unity. A lot of times they don’t make the distinction between organizational or denominational or institutional unity and spiritual unity in the body of Christ. We’re not going to have institutional organizational unity, but we should have unity in the body of Christ. It doesn’t matter, as long as you have been born again, what church you attend, what denomination you are a part of. If you’re born of the Spirit, you are a member of the body of Christ.

Now, there may be some nonessential doctrines that we may disagree on, but if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you’ve been baptized by the Spirit into Christ, then we’re all one, just as God the Son and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are one but three separate Persons, so all of us as believers are one body, one family, one church, members one of another, and the Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

When people scream and yell and rant and rave about, “We need to be one. Jesus prayed for us to be one.” We are one. The prayer has been answered. We’re freaking out wanting oneness, and I understand it’s okay that we want to get along with other believers and not fight with other believers, not divide, but He’s not talking about organizational or institutional oneness. He’s actually going to die on the cross, be buried, resurrect, go back to heaven, send the Holy Spirit to form the Church, the body of Christ, which is one body. There’s not more than one church. There’s only one true, living Church, that which is the body of Christ found in different places in different denominations.

So, we need to keep that in mind that He’s speaking here of spiritual unity. This prayer that Jesus utters here has been answered. How can we not believe that God the Father would answer this prayer that Jesus Christ is praying. He’s praying that they “ . . . may believe that thou has sent me.” So, we as the body of Christ, the universal Church, need to recognize our oneness and not be divisive or not recognize that others who believe in Jesus are part of the Church.

It says in verse 22, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one”—even as the Father and the Son are one, so the Church is one—“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me”—He’s speaking of the Father’s love. He comes to the second petition for us, the Church, verse 24, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Again, this is one of my favorite petitions that Jesus utters in this prayer in the upper room, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me”—before the world was. Again, the eternality of Jesus Christ, He’s God, the fact that He preexisted Bethlehem.

Notice His petition or His prayer, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me,”—those that are saved by grace, those that have been sanctified, I want them to be glorified. This is why we say, at least I say, I don’t know if you say, but I do, that what begins with grace ends in glory. We are gifts from God the Father to God the Son, and He asks that we be kept, that we be protected, that we be one—we are—and that one day we actually are with Him and we see Him.

Did you know that one day you as a Christian are going to actually be with Jesus? You’re going to actually be with Him. You’re going to be in His presence. This is another amazing thing that happens when a Christian dies, you see Jesus face to face. You can reach out and touch Him. You can give Him a big Jesus bear hug. You’re going to be with Him. When a Christian dies, they’ve gone home. When a Christian dies, they’re with the Lord. What could be better - right? - than being with the Lord. We long for that. We desire that. “Lord, I want to be with You. I want to be where You are.”

How many times when I’m preaching at a believer’s funeral service or memorial service and I say such and such a person is in heaven and ask the question, “How do we know?” One of my points is always because Jesus prayed a prayer, Jesus prayed a prayer and said, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me.” Another way we know that those who die in Christ are in heaven, Jesus made a promise. He said, “ . . . I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” What a beautiful promise! “Don’t let your heart be troubled, don’t let it be afraid. You believe in God, believe in Me. I’m going to prepare this place for you.” So, He prayed a prayer, He’s made a promise, “I’m going to come again and take you home to heaven,” and thirdly, how do we know our loved ones that die in Christ are in heaven? He paid a price. He died on the cross. He paid for their sins. Jesus paid in full for their sins and for ours so that we could spend eternity in heaven with Him. So, that they might be one, that they might be with Him, and that they might see His glory.

In 1 John 3:2 tells us, “ . . . we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” We’re going to see His glory and majesty. We’re going to actually see the glorified Christ in heaven for all eternity and be with Him, never to leave us again. What a marvelous aspect that is of the Christian life. So, what begins with grace will end in glory.

Verse 25, “O righteous Father,”—He starts with ‘Father,’ then says, ‘Holy Father,’ now He says, ‘righteous Father,’—“The world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.” That’s the Christmas message: You, Father, sent Me. Verse 26, “And I have declared unto them thy name,”—there it is again, I’ve declared Your nature and Your character to them—“and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” What an amazing way Jesus closes this prayer, and we close out the Upper Room Discourse, “I want them to be with Me that they may see Me in My glory,” and He said, “I also want them to experience and share in Your love,” “ . . . the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” The same love that God the Father had for God the Son, He wanted that love to be in us. What a marvelous prayer this is.

In 1 John 3:1, it says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”—the children of God, and we are—“therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” What manner of love the Father’s bestowed upon us. Jesus said, “Father, I want the same love, the same love, Father, that You have for Me, I want it to be in them. I want them to experience this overflowing love.” What a marvelous truth.

In this prayer that Jesus prayed in closing up this Upper Room Discourse, we see the Lord’s heart and priorities. Let me put it in three points. First, the glory of God the Father. Jesus prayed over and over and over that God the Father would be glorified. That should be utmost in our prayer. That should be utmost in our priority, praying to God that He be glorified in us. I used to love singing that old chorus, In my life Lord, be glorified / In my life, Lord, be glorified / in my work, in my marriage, in my home, in my family, in everything I do, may You be glorified.

The second priority is the unity of the Church, that we recognize that they’re our brothers and sisters. They’re not just friends we have in church, we are actually brothers and sisters, and we’re to treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Thirdly, that we would be sanctified in Christ and be made more like Christ, that we would be walking in holiness, kept from the evil of this world, growing in likeness to Jesus Christ.

So, remember you are sanctified, set apart, positionally righteous; you’re being sanctified, progressively made more like Jesus Christ as you read the Word and surrender to the Spirit and God uses trials to knock off the rough edges and make you more like Christ; and we are to glorify Him and that one day we will be with Him, and Jesus is praying that we will be with Him and see Him in His glory. What a blessed hope that is!