John 17:22
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted
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v 22) Prays that the church would be marked by glory
v 22) Prays that the church would be marked by glory
What is glory?
glory: The created brightness that surrounds God’s revelation of himself. In another sense of the term, it refers to God’s honor. (13E.20)
As God the Father shared His glory with God the Son:
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
So Jesus gave glory unto His people.
In what ways does Jesus give us glory?
The glory of His presence
The glory of His Word
The glory of His Spirit
The glory of His power
The glory of His leadership
The glory of His preservation
Paul also understood that Jesus give His glory to His people:
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
In all these aspects, there is the essential aspect of the presence of Jesus, God the Son. Scripturally speaking, when God gives or displays His glory to His people, it is some type of manifestation of God’s presence. God’s glory is, in some way, the radiance or shining of His presence, His essential nature.
It is very important to remember that the glory that God the Father gave to God the Son was glory that often appeared humble, weak, and suffering.
It was glory that was ultimately displayed in radical sacrifice. The glory of Jesus is almost the opposite of the self-glory and vain glory of man.
The glory of Jesus was ultimately displayed in His work on the cross. John 7:39, 12:16, 12:23
The presence of glory- among the Persons of the Godhead and the member of Jesus’ church- this glory contributes to the oneness and unity of God’s people.
Where there is a sense of God’s glory, unity is so much easier. Lesser things that often divide us are set far in the background when there is a sense of God’s glory at work.
v 23) Unity in love
v 23) Unity in love
Jesus again referred to the living, organic unity He prayed would exist among His people. This isn’t the totalitarian unity of coercion or fear, and it isn’t the unity of compromise. Jesus prayed for unity of love and common identity in Him.
What I find intriguing about this is the similarities of this unity to sanctification. This oneness is simultaneously something already achieved and something that needs perfecting.
Jesus is also taking the idea introduced in John 17:21 (so that the world may believe that you have sent me) and expanded it. Pay close attention to the repetition and the expansion of the idea.
He expanded the idea, now praying that the unity among generations of believers to come would also demonstrate to the world that Jesus loves His people, and loves them after the pattern of God the Father’s love for God the Son.
This clues is to the importance of unity and love among Christians. It is as if Jesus gave the world permission to doubt both His mission and His love if the world does not see unity and love among believers.
This is difficult, because sometimes the most unloving and critical among the followers of Jesus directly justify their divisiveness and sharp criticism as love, as in “I only demand that you be exactly as I am because I love you.”
This is difficult, because sometimes it is true that there must be criticism, correction, and rebuke in the name of love.
This is difficult, because even as we understand the words of Jesus here, we also understand that there are many, many other reasons why people don’t believe:
13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Christians have a great responsibility to display Jesus to the world through their love and unity, but often Christians are too quick to blame one another for an unbelieving world.
“But what a sad thing was it, that a heathen should soon after have cause to say, no beasts are so mischievous to men, as Christians are to one another.”
What’s the application?
v 24) “See my glory”
v 24) “See my glory”
Jesus asked the unity between Himself and His people be completed. Remember His promise not that long:
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
The words “I desire” mean something. They mean that Jesus for the consummation of all things, greatly desiring for His people to be gathered to Him in heaven. Jesus longed for heaven’s completion of all things.
“Where I am” Jesus was not in heaven yet, but He spoke as if He already were there. In a sense, we are called to do the same, understanding that we are seated with Jesus in heavenly places even as we remain on earth.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
“Was he not carried away by the fervor of his devotion? Where was he when he uttered the words of our text? If I follow the language I might conclude that our Lord was already in heaven. He says, ‘rather, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.’ Does he not mean that they should be in heaven with him? of course he does; yet he was not in heaven; he was still in the midst of his apostles, in the body upon earth; and he had yet Gethsemane and Golgotha before him ere he could enter his glory. He had prayed himself into such an exaltation of feeling that his prayer was in heaven, and he himself was there in spirit.” -Spurgeon
When talking about Jesus’ glory what sticks out to you?
What blows my mind is that Jesus said this would occupy the attention of His people in heaven- to behold the glory of Jesus. There must be something so deep, so enthralling, so vast to the glory of Jesus that it can occupy our attention in the life to come.
Jesus clearly connects the glory that the Father gave to the Son to the fact that God the Father loved him before the foundation of the world.
This glory was given in the context of a love relationship, and a love relationship extending into eternity past.
This again gives us insight of what was going on before creation, there was unity and harmony between the Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. Even if Jesus had not specifically told us this, we might have understood it by other Biblical truths, understanding that God is eternal:
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
and that God is love:
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
There was never a time when God did not love and was not love.
Genuine love must have an object outside of itself to love; therefore love existed between the Persons of the Godhead before anything was created. The Triune nature of God is not only Scripturally correct, it is a logical necessity given what we know of God through His revealed word.
vv 25-26) The conclusion
vv 25-26) The conclusion
[25] Jesus understood that His present and soon-to-be-endured pain did not diminish the righteousness of God the Father in even the smallest ways.
The world failed to see God revealed in Jesus. But a few disciples did, and they believed that God had sent Jesus. On the eve of His crucifixion, there were only a few faithful hearts in the whole of mankind- and even those were about to forsake Him!
Jesus first mentioned this idea earlier in this prayer:
8 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.
Whatever their weaknesses and failings, the disciples understood that God the Father sent God the Son.
[26] Jesus declared the Father’s name to His disciples when He was with them.
This meant that He revealed the Father to them. His words and works were the words and works of the Father. They saw in Christ a perfect expression of the Father.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The world called Jesus a blasphemer:
33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
a drunk, a glutton, and an associate of sinners:
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
A demon-possessed pagan:
20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
An illegitimate child:
41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
Jesus received love from God the Father, and this love relationship was the strength and sustenance of His life. Here, concluding His great prayer, Jesus prayed that the same love that was His strength and sustenance would fill His disciples (both near and far).
This speaks to the essential place of love in the Christian life and community. Jesus thought it so important that He specifically prayed for love when He might have prayed for many other things.
Take love from joy and you have hedonism.
Take love from holiness and you have self-righteousness.
Take love from truth and you have a cold bitter orthodoxy.
Take love from mission and you have conquest.
Take love from unity and you have tyranny
“And I in them” Jesus prayed that His disciples would not only be filled with the love of God the Father, but that they would also know the indwelling presence of Jesus Himself.
This continues the emphasis on abiding and the indwelling Jesus from the words of Jesus earlier that evening.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.