John 17:17-26

1. We should mark how Jesus prays that His people may be sanctified.
2. We should mark how Jesus prays for the unity and oneness of His people.
3. We should mark how Jesus prays that His people may at last be with Him and behold His glory.

"Our entrance into heaven will be entirely by grace, not works, but heaven itself would be no heaven to us if we entered it with an unsanctified character. Our hearts must be in tune with heaven if we are to enjoy it. There must be a moral fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light, as well as a title. Christ’s blood alone can give us a title to enter the inheritance. Sanctification must give us a capacity to enjoy it."

"How often Christians have wasted their strength in contending against fellow Christians, instead of contending against sin and the devil!"

"We do not see Christ now. We read of Him, hear of Him, believe in Him and rest our souls in His finished work. But even the best of us, at our best, walk by faith and not by sight and our poor halting faith often makes us walk very feebly on the way to heaven. There will be an end of all this state of things one day. We will at length see Christ as He is and know as we have been known."

Questions:

1. Jesus prays that His Father would sanctify his people in truth and that his word is truth. Ryle draws out that this is a call for the Christian to grow in holiness, and that while the blood of Christ alone can give us a title to enter heaven, sanctification is what gives us the capacity to enjoy heaven. Does this strike you as it strikes me? We tend to think that when we die and rise that our minds will be wiped, but this hints that our enjoying of heaven begins now in sanctification. Are we growing in desiring the things of God now or do we expect that to happen suddenly in heaven?
2. The Lord Jesus prays that Christians should be one. Ryle points out that schisms and sect-making have been sadly prevalent in Church history and given the world much opportunity to not believe. Now, there are times and places when divisions should happen, yet do we treat such things lightly or as occasions for sadness?
3. Jesus prays for his people to be with him where He is. Ryle says that we do not now see Christ. We read of Him, believe in him and rest our souls in his finished work. But even the best of us, at our best, walk by faith and not be sight and our poor halting faith often makes us walk very feebly on the way to heaven. Yet, he encourages us to not let the vision of being with Christ be long out of our thoughts or distant from our minds. How often do we think of heaven? How will we seek to keep such hope from being long from our thoughts?