Jesus Prays for The Church

God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn to John 17, John 17 once again, where we have
been for many weeks. We come again to this incredible
passage of scripture where Jesus is praying and we have seen that
he prayed in communion with his heavenly father, even for himself. He prayed for his apostles in
verses six through 19, and he turns at the culmination of this
prayer, as he closes out his passionate plea, he prays for
his church. If you would, all the way back
to verse one of John 17. Jesus spoke these things and
lifting up his eyes to heaven. He said father the hour has come
Glorify your son that the son may glorify you Even as you gave
him authority over all flesh that to all whom you have given
him. He may give eternal life This
is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent as I glorified you on the earth,
having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.
Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory
which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested
your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They
were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your
word. Now they have come to know that
everything you have given me is from you for the words which
you gave me I have given to them and they received them and truly
understood that I came forth from you and they believe that
you sent me I ask on their behalf I do not ask on behalf of the
world but of those whom you have given me for they are yours and
all things that are mine are yours and yours are mine and
I have been glorified in them I am no longer in the world,
and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to you.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have
given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with
them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them, and not one
of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture
would be fulfilled. But now I come to you and these
things I speak in the world that they may have my joy made full
in themselves. I have given them your word and
the world has hated them because they are not of the world even
as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them
out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent
me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For
their sakes, I sanctify myself that they themselves also may
be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these
alone, but for those also who will believe in me through their
word, that they may all be one. Even 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 sent me. The glory which you have given
me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are
one. I in them, and you in me, that
they may be perfected in unity. so that the world may know that
you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. Father,
I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me
where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given
me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh,
righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet
I have known you. and these have known that you
sent me and I have made your name known to them and will make
it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in
them and I in them. Jesus had prayed for himself
and as we’ve spent time in this passage For so many weeks, we
have seen Christ’s passion pouring forth. This is God communing
with God. This is God the Son communing
with His Heavenly Father. He’s not informing His Father
of anything. He’s not changing the plan, he’s
not effecting some new strategy. This is Jesus Christ, the Son
whom God sent into the world, communing with his Father about
their plan of redemption. What a powerful scene this is,
as he turns from having prayed for the foundation builders,
the apostles themselves, those who would launch this great work,
the church of the New Testament, now he prays for the fruit of
that very work. Jesus Christ picked his apostles,
Jesus Christ sent his apostles, and his apostles are going to
preach the word, and Jesus prays that it would be a fruitful production. The final section of this prayer
is fascinating and should be of tremendous interest to you
and I as believers. In this passage, Jesus Christ
literally prays for all believers of all time. Anyone and everyone
who would place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the
subject of this prayer. Have you ever wondered When you
think of Paul’s reminder to us, and perhaps it’s even somewhat
of a revelation, Romans 8, that Jesus Christ, the one who died,
who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, intercedes
for us. Have you ever wondered what Jesus
prays for you? You should. And if you ponder
for a moment those difficult life situations, times where
we don’t even know how to pray, times where we seem to hit the
spiritual wall. Jesus engages. Jesus is praying
for you. And if you have success, if you
have enjoyed some measure of success in being extracted from
some sinful. Pattern from some sinful situation. You can rest assured that Jesus
was interceding on your behalf. This passage, this passage is
special to believers. It was special to R.C. Sproul. R.C. Sproul said about this passage,
it’s a special text, one that should be treasured by every
Christian. Jesus Christ prayed for all who
would be brought by faith by the ministry and testimony of
his apostolic band. Anyone who is a Christian today
is in that state of grace because of the fidelity of the apostolic
community in broadcasting the teaching of Christ and bringing
it to the world so that it has been faithfully passed down to
our generation. Now that is a mouthful. What
he says is, we should be thankful for the work of the apostles
because without their faithfulness to Christ in the preaching of
the gospel, we wouldn’t be here. The church would not have launched. The church would not have flourished. Lives would not have been saved. He wraps up by saying, in a very
real sense, we as believers were in the mind of Jesus on that
night he prayed this prayer of intercession. Isn’t that powerful? To think that in God’s heart,
in whose heart we were from eternity past, that Jesus Christ on the
very night that he prayed this prayer was thinking of you and
I. Absolutely remarkable. Absolutely
remarkable and what a powerful prayer. We are the objects of
this prayer. It’s for us he prays. And there
has been a time in this section where Jesus identifies those
for whom he’s praying. And in a very real way, in addition
to praying for us, as believers, he’s also praying for the world. In verse 9, he made it very clear,
I do not ask on behalf of the world. I’m not praying for them
at this moment. I’m not praying, God bless everyone
in the whole wide world. But now he does. He does begin
to pray for the world. He does begin to pray not only
for the apostles and the preaching of the gospel, that it would
begin to flourish and it would begin to grow the church, but
he also prays for the witness of the church, that the witness
of the church, the witness of you and I in this day and age
would be effective. Look at verse 21, that the world
may believe. It’s all about the gospel. It’s
all about the salvation of souls. It’s all about the building up
of the kingdom of God. Look at verse 23, so that the
world may know that you sent me. This is a glorious prayer. It’s an incredible prayer. And
when you think of the privilege that we have to have been in
the mind of God the night that he prepares to go to the cross,
that he took time to pray for you and I, What an amazing thing. Jesus Christ prays for his church. And the first thing that he asks,
the first thing that he prays about to his heavenly father
is that the church would show forth a divine unity. Go back, if you would, to verse
20. And verses 21 through 23, they
all kind of coalesce together. Jesus says, I do not ask on behalf
of these alone, that is the apostles, I’m turning my attention now
to all those who would believe in me through their word, through
the preaching of the gospel as they go forth, through the writing
of their epistles, through the writing of their many letters,
that there would be many that come to believe, I do not ask
on behalf of these alone but for those who will believe in
me through their word that they may all be one.” There were commentators
that took that in a number of different ways. Some would say
that God would wrap his arms around all the people that he
would have to come and that he would lose not one. We know that
that is a biblical truth. Is that what he’s saying here? We’ll look in a moment. I think
what he’s talking about is the unity of the church and that
becomes even more clear as the passage unfolds. Look at verse
21. That they may all be one, even
as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may
be one, and I would insert that, in us. That they would be unified
in the Godhead so that the world may believe that you sent me.
I’ll come back to that thought in a moment. Look at verse 22,
the glory which you have given me I have given to them that
they may be one just as we are one. There is no disunity in
the Godhead. There is no variance. There is unity in God. Verse 23, I in them and you in
me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may
know that you sent me and love them. Jesus prayed this same
prayer, a prayer for unity or oneness on behalf of his apostles. In chapter 17, verse 11, if you
just look back, I’m no longer in the world, yet they themselves
are in the world. I come to you, Holy Father, Keep
them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they
may be one even as we are. We looked at that and saw that
it clearly points to unity, not just the fact that he had secured
apostles, but he begins to expand the prayer here, the prayer for
unity, to all those future believers. I do not ask on behalf of these,
these apostles alone, but for all who would believe in me through
their word. The fascinating thing there,
that word, those who believe, it’s in the present tense. Jesus
is taking for granted that there are going to be believers. Jesus knows that there are going
to be those who respond in faith to the apostle’s message. And
in a very real sense, there are already believers in Christ’s
mind. Jesus continues his prayer here. And as he unfolds this prayer
for unity, he wants to really paint the picture for the apostles
who, may I remind you, are listening in. He wants them to have the
fullness of the understanding of this unity. First of all,
the extent of this unity. If you’re jotting notes, put
a letter A under this first point. The extent of this unity. Look
at verse 21, that they may all be one. That all who come to
Christ may be of one mind, one doctrine, that they may be of
one purpose. He prays for unity. in the context
of the Father, but it also ties in the great drawing of all the
sheep who are going to be part of the great Church of Christ. This reminds us immediately,
doesn’t it, of the Great Commission. Till the whole world hears of
Christ, down to the last one. even to the remotest part of
the earth. As the opening of Acts says,
there’s a recurring metaphor in the New Testament, isn’t there?
It’s the metaphor of the lost sheep. Remember the parable of
the prodigal son, lost coin, lost sheep, lost son. Jesus says elsewhere, using this
same metaphor, In Luke 15, what man among you, if he has a hundred
sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in open
pasture and go after the one who was lost until he finds it?
When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulder rejoicing.
I tell you, in the same way, there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Bring them all
in, Jesus says. 2 Peter 3, 9, there is that very
familiar mockery that we often hear even in this day. Where’s
the promise of his coming? Peter responds by saying, the
Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all
to come to repentance, the fullness. Jesus had just reminded the apostles
in the hearing of the prayer on their behalf that he had guarded
his little flock, that band of now 11, and not one of them perished except one. and that by God’s
providential design. Jesus first of all says, bring
them all in. Bring them all in that they may
all be one. And we see the extent of the
unity, but the next thing we see is the source of the unity.
And the source of the unity is God himself. This unity is divine. Look at verse 21 again. That
they may all be one, even 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 sent me. The unity of Christians, the
unity of the church of Christ, is like the unity of the Father
of the Son, Jesus prays. It is an eternal unity. It is oneness with God that essentially
embraces all who named the name of Christ. First Corinthians. 1126 Paul is dealing there. If you remember in chapter 11,
he’s dealing with the Corinthian church, which had its share of
troubles. And what he’s dealing with in
chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians is disunity, bickering, infighting. And Paul takes them to task and
he basically tells them, you can call this celebration whatever
you’re doing, you can call it whatever you want, don’t call
it the Lord’s table. And he admonishes them strongly. And he finishes by reminding
them that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we proclaim the Lord’s death, the world is watching. And we
are called to a divine unity. It won’t ever be the same in
nature. It won’t ever measure up to God’s
standard with his son. It won’t ever be perfect in that
regard here on earth. but it is supposed to reflect
God’s glory. It is supposed to reflect the
unity that is in the father and the son. The bottom line in this little
section is that the real source of unity in the church lies in
that little phrase, one in us. That if we are in God, there
is a call and a cause and a means for unity. It’s built upon the
father-son relationship in the Godhead. It’s by God’s grace that we are
at peace. It’s by God’s grace that we are
one. We can do nothing on our own.
John 15 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in me, I in him, he bears much fruit. Apart from me, you can
do nothing. Paul would say it much more simply.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. Not only the extent of
this unity, that it embraces all believers, the source of
this unity, it is divine, the cause of this unity. It is the
glory of Christ. Look at verse 22. the glory which
you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one just
as we are one. There is this knowledge of God,
there is this knowledge of God’s plan of redemption. There is
this realization of our sinful condition. There is this understanding
of God’s provision in His plan of redemption of a Savior who
has paid our penalty that leads to faith. It leads to faith. Look at the passage, the glory
which you’ve given me, I have given to them. Jesus says, I
proclaimed the father, I showed them the father. If you have
seen me, you have seen the father. Jesus represented him perfectly. Jesus says that he is preparing
to go and to be with the father. to have that glory restored as
we saw in those first five verses, that the whole foundation of
the unity of the church rests on the glory of Christ as revealed. Jesus Christ has revealed the
Father. He has shown us the Father. He has shown us the glory of
God. And we place our faith in Him
because of that testimony. Fourthly, letter D. Jesus prays that the church would
show forth a divine unity and we see that that unity is all
embracing. We see the source of the unity
is divine. We see the cause of the unity
is the glory of Christ as all witness it. Fourthly, We see
the purpose of that unity is the salvation of souls. The purpose
of the unity of the church is the salvation of souls. It’s
not static. It’s not an end in itself. Look
at verse 23. I in them and you in me that
they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that
you sent me and love them even as you loved me. You see, our Christianity is
on display. We might choose to cover it over. We might choose to refuse to
take a stand. We might choose to kind of hide,
as it were, pretend that we’re not really believers, to refrain from letting people
know that we are born-again Christians, sometimes would try to hide it,
wrongly so. But the whole purpose of the
church, the whole purpose of your existence on the earth,
the whole purpose of our living and breathing here as believers
on the earth is as a witness, a testimony to others. It’s so
that the world might see the unity and glory of the church. And so as the church, as the
world rather looks at the church in its functioning, it should
see a church that is loving and compassionate towards others.
And the care and concern that we have for one another becomes
a testimony. It becomes a proof of divine
things. Look at this passage in its entirety
again. Go back to verse 20. I do not
ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in
me through their word. The apostles would go about preaching
the gospel. Many would come to faith that
they may all be one, even as you father are in me and I and
you, that they may be in us. Why? So that the world may believe. That thought is repeated in verse
23 so that the world may know that you sent me. This unity
of which he speaks is a it’s a oneness of heart and mind. J.C. Ryle spoke. Passionately
about this unity when he said the Lord prays for a unity of
heart a unity of will and doctrine and practice It is a substantial
spiritual internal heart unity Which undoubtedly? Exists among
all the members of Christ in every church In other words,
this is this is one of the necessary components of our Christianity That first little request in
verse 21 was that the world might be introduced and might come
to believe. But the second request goes even
more powerfully, more deeply and more powerfully than that
when it says that the world may come to know that God, an experiential
knowledge, that they would come to know and recognize that Jesus
is the Christ There’s a very important reason
why we need to guard the unity of the church. There’s a very
important reason why we need to be on the same page, moving
in the same direction. Intent on one purpose, as Paul
says in Philippians. That reason is that we want the
world to believe. We want souls to be saved. One pastor said it is this very
unity which shakes the world as they see the church unflappable,
as they see the church committed to one another, moving in the
same direction, unmoved by the threats and strife in the world. It shakes the world and obliges
it to confess the truth of Christianity. The problem is that the absence
of that unity has disastrous consequences, doesn’t it? It does great damage to the cause
of Christ when there is division. And that division has come almost
immediately. We see it almost immediately
in the book of Acts. And it trickles down all the
way to our day, doesn’t it? It shouldn’t surprise us when
there is disunity. Barnabas and Paul had a falling
out. Paul and Peter apparently had
quite a row. There was disunity in the Jerusalem
church. There was disunity in the fledgling
church. There was disunity in the Corinthian
church, in the Philippian church, in the Thessalonian church. The divisions The divisions of
Christians does great damage to the cause of Christ. One pastor said, if all the believers
at this moment were of one mind and would work together, they
might soon turn the world upside down. Because we’re watched, aren’t
we? But we’re watched by those that aren’t favorable to what
we believe. In fact, we’re not even watched
by those who are entirely objective about what we believe. Samuel Davies said we’re watched
by those of opposite tendencies. We’re watched by enemies. We’re
under daily examination, he says, and your Christian life is under
a perpetual scrutiny. John Rogers, a Puritan, said,
this rebukes those Christians who remember not with whom they
live, but as if they were only going among the good. Because
if we blew it in front of one another, we’re going to get a
lot of grace and mercy and patience, long suffering. as if it were
only among the good which would hide their frailties or interpret
them to be the best, not as if they were among the wicked. We
forget who’s watching. Not among the wicked who seek
occasion against God’s servants that desire no better victory
than the fall of a professor of Christianity. They can’t wait until we blow
it. Unity is crucial. Unity is not just important for
the local peace, it’s important for the mission. It’s important
for the sake of the world for whom Christ prays. That as they
look at our Christianity, they would see that it is indeed
legitimate. that God is indeed real, that
he does touch lives and save souls, sinners transformed by
his grace. When I was in seminary, I came
across a little verse and a little saying by a man named Isaac Watts,
great hymn writer, godly pastor, And I seized on this, and it
basically has been my life phrase. It’s on a lot of our church documents. It’s on our front door. And it
really summarizes this entire section. For the honor of God,
he says, that everything that we do should be for God’s honor,
not our own. For the honor of God, for the
glory of Christ, that it would please and magnify Him for the
honor of God, for the glory of Christ, and for the salvation
of the souls of men. That’s Christianity. That’s the
church. That’s why the church is here,
is to show forth the glory of God and to proclaim Christ. I’m going to do what I almost
never do. I’m going to cut it right here.
We’ll come back and look at the remainder of John 17 next Lord’s
Day. There are two additional primary
points as Jesus prays for the church, but I want you to ponder
this morning. I want you to ponder the cause of Christ and your
role in it. I want you to ponder these features
of unity. that we’ve just considered, that
it is supposed to embrace all. If you are a believer, you are
supposed to be at peace with your brother. If you have named
the name of Christ, you are supposed to be one in the church. One of the gravest
warnings throughout Paul’s writings is this tendency for schisms. That’s the word that we use.
And that’s the Greek word division. One of the greatest tendencies
in the church is to build factions and groups and to tear apart
at the heart of the unity, and it cannot be. If we are in Christ, that unity
is already produced by God himself, it’s divine. Jesus has given everything. Jesus
has shown us God. He has glorified God by revealing
Him to us. And that it is ours to maintain
the unity that God has produced. Not to tear at it. Not to try
to destroy it. Not to allow it to be destroyed. Because salvation, the salvation
of souls hangs in the balance. We want to proclaim Christ. We
want sinners to come to Christ. We want people to be saved. We
want to build and grow the kingdom of God, not tear it down and
destroy it. Would you humble yourselves before
the throne of grace? Our merciful God, we thank you
for the unity that exists in this church. And Lord, we have
seen over the history of this church that unity is an extremely
fragile thing. Lord, we thank you that this
isn’t something that we can produce or drum up, something that we
can bring about through our own effort. It is divine in its nature. You produce it. You give it.
You sustain it. Seemingly, all we can do is destroy
it. Or by your grace, maintain it.
Lord, the cause is so great. The cause is so great. The world
needs to see that we are for real. They need to know that
you touch sinners and turn them to saints. The world needs to
know that we are in Christ and in Christ there is unity. Unity with God and unity with
one another. We proclaim that. Every time
we take communion, we proclaim that truth. And if the world hears confusion,
if they hear a different message, Lord, how tragic. We plead with you to preserve
the unity in this church. We pray that you would cultivate
unity Among the body of Christ, the greater body of Christ, and
we rejoice that in a very real way you have done that already.
In our fellowship of churches. Lord, we pray that that would
grow and flourish and that many would be drawn in. To a peaceable
unity. And to a promotion of the gospel
of Christ that many would come to repentance. And to faith in
our Savior. Lord God, allow us to get practical for
a moment. If there is anyone with whom
we’re at odds, if there is anyone against whom we’re harboring
a bitterness, against whom like that unmerciful slave we refuse
to forgive. Lord, if there is someone or
something that we need to do We pray that you would lay it
heavily upon us. We would go and make it right.
Secure peace, restore unity. Lord God, if there are those
who do not know Christ in our midst. Unity is not something that we
can seize hold of. Unity is only possible for those
who are at peace with Christ. It’s Jesus Christ who enacted
that peace treaty by dying on the cross for sinners. Lord, the first act of business
for those who do not know Christ is to place their faith in him
alone for salvation. Lord God, we pray. We pray that your will would be
done in each person’s heart and life. The unity would be preserved
and restored. There would flourish. That sinners
would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great testimony. It’s in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen.