“Be One”
[John
17:20-26]
April 30, 2017, Second Reformed
Church
As we continue to look at the High
Priestly Prayer of Jesus, we saw last week that Jesus prays that the Eleven –
and, in fact, all believers, as we will see today – would be kept by God the
Father – that believers would be secure in their eternal salvation – knowing
that we belong to the Father and the Son – and the Holy Spirit – and nothing
can ever change that.
Jesus also asks the Father to sanctify
believers – not merely to make them holy – but to set them apart from the
world, so, while we live in the world – we oppose all that which is sinful in
the world and in opposition to God.
And He asks that believers would be one
with the Triune God and in the manner of the Triune God and amongst each other,
especially because the world hates us and the evil one is plotting against us.
As Jesus concludes His prayer, He returns
to the theme of “being one.” And as He
does so, He widens His prayer to every believer throughout time and space:
And we see, first, Jesus prays for all
believers.
“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. “
Jesus expands His prayer – praying not
only for the Eleven, but for everyone who believes due to the witness of the
Eleven, and those believers who proclaim the Gospel, and those believers who
proclaim the Gospel, and so on and so on and so on, until Jesus returns. Jesus prays for those believers who are alive
as His prays this pray and all those who will come to believe throughout time
and space.
And Jesus prays that we will be one with
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and with every believer. Jesus prays that we will be united in
agreement in the Gospel – the essence of the Gospel – in the mind and effort
and purpose of the Godhead.
The result of which will be that every
believer – no matter where you are from, no matter what your experience, not
matter what your denomination, no matter what your sex, not matter what your
family or financial situation, not matter what your language, no matter what
temptations you find most difficult to reject – each and every believer can
stand together and work together and proclaim the Gospel together. In glorious agreement, we can all say, God
came to earth in the Person of Jesus, lived a perfect life, paid the debt for
all of our sins, died, physically rose, and ascended back to the Father,
securing for each one who believes – the people that God the Father gave to the
Son.
We are one – first and foremost – and,
perhaps in some case – only – in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – but that belief
unites us in a way that nothing else ever could. As we have seen earlier in John’s Gospel, we
are called to a sacrificial love like Jesus’ for one another – we are a scandal
to the world as we are willing to stand together and die for each other for the
sake of the Gospel.
Jesus also prays that as the world sees us
one with one another and our God, the world will be convicted of their sin,
even as they believe that Jesus was sent by the Father and despise that truth.
Second, Jesus gives believers His
Glory.
“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 them even as you loved me.”
How does Jesus give believers His Glory?
We are helped in understanding this, as
Paul writes, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians
3:17-18, ESV).
Jesus gives His Glory to believers by
indwelling us with God the Holy Spirit, Who transforms us into the Image and
Glory of Christ – which will be complete on the last day. We are beginning to show the Glory of Christ
because the Holy Spirit indwells us, and we continue to bear and show the Glory
of Christ as the Holy Spirit works to make us holy, as Jesus is Holy.
As Jesus said, He is in those who believe
in Him – that is, He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us, and God the Father
indwells Jesus – as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the same One
God.
And, for all those who believe – all those
who have God indwelling them – sanctifying them, Jesus prays that they would
all be one – as He has already said, and – perfectly one – or, perfected into
one.
Remember, we looked at Jesus’ description
of Himself and those who believe in Him as the Vine in Whom we are the
branches. His is the root and the life
and we are grafted into the Vine so we have life and find ourselves grounded by
the root. In the way that a vine and its
branches are one – perfectly one – perfected into one – Jesus prays that all
those who ever believe savingly in Him would be one.
We’ve said this is based on the reception
and proclamation of the same Gospel of Jesus Christ and from being of the same
love – one for another – as the Godhead has for Themselves. Yet, this seems to be one of those things
that we can only take so far in our understanding:
Yes, we ought to all agree on the
specifics of the Gospel and love each other sacrificially as those who are
saved by God and indwelled by Him. But,
how, exactly, do we receive life up from the root into we the branches? How does the Holy Spirit cause us to become
holy? How are we being made into the
Image of Christ?
One commentator says that this oneness is
“infinite, unsearchable, and mysterious” (Charles Ross, Inner Sanctuary, 255).
But, Jesus does ask for one result
of this oneness – Jesus wants the world to know that Jesus loves believers in
the same way that the Father loves Jesus.
This is remarkable for at least two
reasons:
First, again, Jesus wants the world
to see this – to be convicted by this – He wants the world – all those who
never believe in Him – to see the love the Father and the Son (and the Holy
Spirit) have for believers. This is part
of God convicting of the world of their sin and unbelief.
Secondly, it makes it abundantly
clear that God the Father is not some hot-headed monster that has to be pleaded
with by His Son to save a people – no, we see from the beginning of the Gospel
that God the Father so loved us that He sent His Only Begotten Son.
And so the Glory of God becomes more
clear through our being one and our growing in the Glory of God. As we become more of who God created us to be
and show to the world Who this God is Who loved enough to sacrifice His Son to
beings engaged in cosmic rebellion against Him – to make us His – to make us
right with Him – that He would be all the more magnified for Who He is and what
He has done to save some of His creatures.
That’s what ought to happen when people look at you and me – when people
see us – their response ought to be, “What an amazing and loving God!”
Third, Jesus tells the Father that
He desires believers to be with Him.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you
have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given
me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus, Who is the Son of God Incarnate,
tells the Father that He wants His people to be able to see the Glory of the
Son – which is His – the Glory that the Son had before anything was created –
that the God-Man now has.
God the Son was glorified before the
Creation, and He is glorified as the God-Man – God the Son, permanently
enfleshed in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth bears the Glory of the Son of God
– which proves that human beings can bear the Glory of God – since Jesus is
completely human as well as being completely Divine – which means we will have
these physical bodies – but perfected – in the Kingdom, just as Jesus has His
physical body, though perfected, where He is now.
We will continue to have God the Holy
Spirit living in us in the Kingdom and we will be in our perfected and
glorified human – physical – bodies – just as Jesus is now. And on that final
day, we will be with Him and we will mutually see the Glory of God in our
physical bodies.
John symbolically described we believers
like this:
“After this I saw four angels standing at
the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that
no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another
angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God,
and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to
harm earth and sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees,
until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ And I heard
the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of
Israel:
“12,000 from the tribe of Judah were
sealed,
“12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
“12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
“12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
“12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
“12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
“12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
“12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
“12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
“12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
“12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
“12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were
sealed.
“After this I looked, and behold, a great
multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and
peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed
in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud
voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and
the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and
worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’
“Then one of the elders addressed me,
saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’
I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming
out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb.
“Therefore they are before the throne of
God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in
the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to
springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation
7:1-17, ESV).
What – exactly – does that look like? We’ll know when we get there.
For now, be assured – the Father loves the
Son – the Father loves believers – the Son loves believers – and the Son asks
His Father – perfectly knowing the Mind of God, so the answer will be “yes” –
Jesus asks His Father to glorify Him, to glorify His people, to keep His people
and cause them to see His Glory and be with Him forever.
The only way this could possibly go wrong
for those of us who believe – is if the Father stops loving the Son – which
cannot happen. So rejoice, have hope,
and prepare to be received into the Kingdom, glorified, and with Jesus forever.
Jesus ends His prayer making three
promises before the Father:
“O righteous Father, even though the world
does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made
known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love
with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
First, Jesus states that even though the
world does not know God and His salvation, Jesus made God and His salvation
known to the people God gave Him – everyone who has ever believed and will ever
believe in Jesus savingly has been convicted by God, given faith by God, and
been saved by God through the work of Jesus.
And Jesus, through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, promises to
remind us and teach us and confirm in us the truths of the Gospel as we
continue to grow in faith and obedience.
Second, Jesus promises – again through the
working of God the Holy Spirit in us – to grow that love we have been given by
the Father and the Son – and which we are to have for one another. The Holy Spirit will continue to impress upon
us the truth and the reality of the love God has for us and the love we ought
to have for one another – and He grows us in all things into holiness.
Third, Jesus promises to be with us
forever. In fact, He indwells us in the
Person of the Holy Spirit. Let us
remember, there is Only One God, so if God indwells us, God indwells us. Still, God is Three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit –
and He is the Holy Spirit Who indwells us.
It’s an important distinction to keep in mind so we don’t drift into
false teaching.
Taken all together, Jesus prays for and
promises that everyone who ever believes savingly in Him will be kept and
sanctified and glorified by God – and shall be with God in the flesh for all of
eternity. Our future is secure.
Paul puts it this way:
“For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also
called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified
he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30, ESV).
If it was God’s intention from before the
Creation for you to be with Him in and for eternity, we will be saved, we will
be one, we will glorify Him.
Paul says if we were foreknown – if we
were loved by God before we existed – and we see in this prayer that God loves
all of us who believe, then He has predestined us to be conformed and
transformed into the Image of His Son, then we have been called and justified
and we are being glorified and we will be glorified on the last day – to the
eternal glory of our God and Savior!
We are one in Christ. Let us be one together in love and faith and
obedience as we have been called and as we shall be glorified.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You loved
us before the foundation of the world and You planned to save us and keep us
and sanctify us and glorify us. We ask
that You would continually draw us to the Gospel found in the whole of Your
Word that we would grow and be all the more one with one another. And may You be glorified as You surely make
us into the Image of Your Son. For it is
in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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