JOHN 17:20-26 (NLT) 20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
John 17 is a prayer of three sections.
· verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself.
· verses 6-19 He prays for that immediate group of eleven disciples gathered around Him.
· verses 20-26, He prays for all believers yet to come.
Beyond His death, Jesus expected a dynamic and growing church that would last throughout the ages.
· When Jesus looked at the face of Peter in that circle of eleven, He saw behind Peter the whole of Pentecost and thousands more behind them.
· When He looked at the face of John, He saw the church of Ephesus and all the churches of Asia Minor.
· And when He saw the gap where Judas Iscariot had been, surely he thought of the face of Paul and all of the churches of Europe.
· And crossing generations and oceans, right down to this very day, He said I pray for every one of them who will believe through the Word of that original eleven.
He moved beyond the eleven and prayed for the generations to come. In verse 21, what He prayed for them, He then prayed for all believers.
Jesus prayed just one thing. He prayed for believers unity, so that the unity of Christians would make such an impact that the world would believe He had sent Jesus the Son.
We need to note here that Jesus asked God to give us unity as a request. That means that unity is given and not achieved. It is indeed received, or Jesus wouldn’t have urged the disciples to "be one." Rather, He looked to the Father and said grant to them the gift of unity. The unity of God’s people can never be fabricated by man … it must be generated by the Spirit of God. It can never be organized by the church it must be vitalized by the Spirit of God.
Jesus prays that the present church on earth and the future church in heaven will see His glory. "Glory" is the visible manifestation of all the divine attributes. It is what we see when we look at God.
Christ has already revealed all the glory we can comprehend on earth below. In verse 22 Jesus says, "I have given them the glory that you gave me." We see in the divine manhood of Jesus Christ all the glory that our eyes are capable of seeing below. Verse 22 continues saying that the purpose of showing us His glory was that "they may be one." Even now, when we get our eyes off of one another and contemplate the revealed glory of God in Christ, we are one. That glory transforms us even now. Paul told the church in Corinth: "We...are being transformed into His likeness with an ever-increasing glory."
Christ will fully reveal all of His glory in heaven: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory (:24a). There is more to come. We will be perfectly one when we perfectly see his glory. The final object of believers’ thought will be on the exalted Jesus Christ. The more we look at Him, the more we will see forever. The more we see, the more we will become one forever.
That glory is the outward, visible expression of love between the Father and the Son. The last part of verse 24 states: "the glory You have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." We will spend eternity meditating on the love between the Father and Son!
~Bits and Pieces of sermon by Bobby Gilstrap
