We come this morning to John chapter 17, and it is a majestic and a massive task to preach in one sermon from the high priestly prayer. It is certainly too high and too holy for me, for us, but we will at least try to touch it, though we won’t do justice to it, and at least try to learn something for what Jesus is praying for Himself and for us, and my prayer is that by the time we are done with this, there will be something welling up within your spirit, eager to cry out, “Glory, glory, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It’s one of those passages that as we look into the mystery of the Trinity could easily look to be not very practical, not particularly relevant, but one of the things I hope as we are a mature church and as we always want to become more mature as a church, that the deepest things of God look to us to be the most practical things in life, the most relevant things. Very few, if any of you, came in here this morning thinking, with everything you have going on, everything you have facing you, you know what I need this morning? I need to explore the inner workings of the Trinity. But you do, and I do, because the very vision of heavenly bliss is to be caught up in that life, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which we have the privilege to be a part of.
Follow along as I read from John 17.
“When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.'”
“‘I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You. For I have given them the words that You gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your Name, which You have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.'”
“‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent me and loved th...
