Advancing God's Glory Part 1 - Jesus Prays for His Disciples - John 17:6-8

2:00And what he's doing is we looked at last time, verse five, first five verses, it's clear that Jesus wants to advance his Father's glory. He wants to advance God's glory. He wants to advance His Father's glory in his own life, and so he prays for himself. And then He goes on to pray for His disciples, and we'll begin looking at that this time. And then He's going to pray for those who believe based upon His disciples' message, and that includes us. And so that's how the prayer is broken down. And so this morning, I want us to begin looking at this prayer. I'm just going to read verses six through eight.

2:52I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me. 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 believed that you sent me. And in verse 9, he's going to actually start making his specific requests for his disciples, those 11.

3:29But I thought what I would do before we jump right into the prayer, beginning in verse 9, I want us to take a look, a careful look at these disciples. Because there are several characteristics that is evident about them. And we get that from what Jesus is saying about his disciples while praying to his father. Now, look back at verse 4. And notice what Jesus came to do. He said, I glorified you on the earth, speaking to his father. I glorified you, Father. Glorified you, Father God. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. He came to glorify God by accomplishing the work that his father had given him to do. And that's the way we glorify our heavenly Father, is by accomplishing the work that he has given us to do. To do.

4:32But notice now, beginning in verse 6, Jesus speaks a little more specifically about the work that God gave him to do. Look back at verse 6. I have manifested your name to the men you gave me. And that's the work. I have manifested your name. I have declared, I have revealed, I have made known your name. That was a specific work. How did Jesus glorify his Father? By declaring who he was. Isn't it wonderful that the Father's character is such that just making him known glorifies him? He is so wonderful, so good, that just making him known is glorifying him.

5:32And that's what Jesus came to do. Now it's important to understand that God's name is not just an articulation of sounds coming out of a person's mouth, but the name, biblically speaking, refers to the essential being, the character, the personality, all that this individual. Is so manifesting or making known God's name, Jesus is saying, I have made known your essential character to these men. They know you, Heavenly Father. You see, Jesus revealed the name of God by revealing his essential nature. We do not have to wonder what God is like because the person Jesus has revealed him. In fact, if you look at John 1, you're going to see a lot of echoes here from back in John 1. You remember in verse 18, no one has seen God at any time.

6:54The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained him. He has narrated him. He has interpreted him. He has reported about him. He has described him. That's the concept. Jesus has narrated God. He has explained him. He has exegeted God. And no one has ever seen God. God is Spirit. And therefore, he's invisible to the physical eye. And that's why we see. Him by faith. Jesus made the heavenly Father known by showing us his essential character. So, what is God like? Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus.

7:47I want you to turn to Isaiah 52 for just a moment or just listen carefully. We're in a context of Isaiah where Isaiah has announced judgment is coming and it's going to be upon the people. And then I'll just start reading in chapter 52, verse 1. After all these announcements of judgment, God says this, Awake, awake, clothe yourself in strength, O Zion. Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come into you. There's coming a day when you will not be characterized by the foulness and the dirtiness of sinful man, even if they do come in religious garb. The uncircumcised, the unclean will no longer come into you. Shake yourself from the dust. Rise up, O captive Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the Lord, you are sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord, The Lord God, my people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there. Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause, and then the Babylonians are going to come. Now, therefore, verse 5: What do I have here? Declares the Lord, seeing that my people have been taken away without cause. Again, the Lord declares, Those who rule over them, how? And my name is continually blasphemed all day long. Verse 6: Therefore, my people shall know my name. Therefore, in that day, I am the one who is speaking. Here I am. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and proclaims good news of happiness, who announces to salvation and says to Zion, Your God reigns.

9:59You know, Jesus announced peace. He brought good news, and he announced salvation by manifesting the name of his Father. That's what he did. That was the announcement. That was the declaration. And you begin, excuse me, and you begin to see that Jerusalem, beginning with these disciples, as a basis. Of celebration, a basis of good news. So it's important. And I know many world today look at Jesus, oh, he's a good teacher, good ethical teacher, wise, humble, and they marvel or pay some kind of respect to the man of Galilee. And let us not lose sight of his humility. Let us not lose sight of his good teaching, wise in every sense of the word. But let us never fail to remember that the eternal God has walked among us and that his fundamental purpose was to make known his father, to reveal the only true God.

11:34Treasuring his name is treasuring the heavenly Father. Treasuring the name of Jesus is treasuring your heavenly Father. And that's the connection Jesus makes. But notice that he manifested his name to the men, to certain men, to these. 11 men specifically. Judas is gone. There are 11 men now that are in view. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me. There's a special category of people here, these disciples. And I want you to see this special category of people because Jesus goes on to say several things about them. And I want you to see this special category of people to whom he manifested the name of his father to, and through whom Jesus is going to advance his glory throughout the earth.

12:46And there are five characteristics, five characteristics that I believe come out of these verses. Five characteristics of the true disciple. And these are his true disciples. When you boil it all down, these we know for sure are true. They're there. And so, first, characteristic of these true disciples is that they are not from this world. I mean, I'm sorry, that they are from this world. See what happens when you get too far away. It's just. Actually, but that's not my problem.

13:33Look back at verse 6. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They are from the world. They did not originate from some heavenly parlor and then just materialize here on earth. No, their origin is very much the same as ours. They came out of the sinful, fallen, weakness, fallen, darkness, sinfulness of humanity. That's where they're from. They had nothing to commend themselves to God or a disposition that would even warrant God's favor. And they were aware of this. You remember after Simon Peter saw that great catch of fish in Luke 5 and verse 8, what does he say to Jesus? Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

14:40Once these men lived in darkness, I think that makes them a little, that makes them people we can relate to, doesn't it? Their origin is not any different than yours or mine. They are out of this world. Second characteristic. They belonged to the Father. They belonged to the Father. Look at verse 6 again. I have manifested your name to these men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. They were yours. They were being yours. And the emphasis here is upon the possessive. Yours, they were.

15:28They were belonging to you. You see, they belonged to the Father. The Father had the right to do whatever he wished to do with them. Father, God owned them. They belong. He is the one over all humanity. He owns. He owns you and me. He has the right to do with whatever he wants. In fact, in Romans 9:15, Paul says, For he says to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it does not then depend upon man or who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For this, for scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.

16:40They were yours, Father. They were yours. Let us not lose sight of this detail here. We're in the Holy of Holies. Jesus Himself, Son, is speaking to the Father. They were yours in a real sense. They belonged to you. They were your possession, and you could do whatever you wanted with them. And what did he do? Third characteristic: they were given to Jesus. Look back at the text. Verse 6: 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.

17:28They belong to you, and you gave them to me. Do you see that? And he says it twice, right, in the same verse: the men you gave me, you gave them to me. All this, so many echoes from what John has already said. You remember in John chapter 6, verse 37. Jesus said, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up.

18:16What a blessing, these 11. A gift from the Father to Jesus. That's what Jesus is saying. Pay close attention. What a blessing. To be given to Jesus is the greatest expression of God's favor upon your life, upon anyone's life. To be given, listen, if you had a good mother, you are blessed. If you had a good father, you are blessed. Your children are blessed. If he sets in their home a good mother, a good father, let me tell you something of the amazing worth of the great shepherd being given to him.

19:17Can you think of a blessing higher? What a gift. They belong to him. They were given to Jesus. Let me ask you: Do you want to belong to Jesus? Do you want the Father to give you to Jesus? Do you see the value in that? Do you see the incredible worth of that? Then ask your Father to give you to Jesus. And guess what he'll do? Say no. It's contrary to his character. That's why he made his name known.

20:07Yeah, teaching like this takes us to the absolute end of ourselves, doesn't it? It kills every work that we can possibly come up with. We belong to God. He can do whatever he wants with us. So, Heavenly Father, give us to Jesus. I'm at the end. I can't commend myself to you. You must give me to the Great Shepherd. That's the right response to this truth. It's not to sit back and say, well, that's not quite fair.

20:41Let me tell you: you're not someone to sit in judgment upon God. You're to come under his teaching, under his word. And he holds this out. Do you want to belong to Jesus? Ask him. And you will belong. Fourth characteristic of a true disciple. First, they are from the world. Second, they belonged to the Father. Third, they were given to Jesus. And fourth, they have kept the Father's word. Look back at this, and this is striking.

21:27I 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. They have kept it. Perfect verb here. Not they will keep it when I'm all done with them. They have kept it. Not they are in the process of keeping it, they have kept it. Remarkable, completely unexpected, especially in light of what Jesus has just said about their defection.

22:07And yet he can, in all sincerity, describe his disciples in the holy of holies, son to father, and say, they have kept your word. Now, how can that be? I'm glad you asked, because we need to understand that, right? What's interesting is. Is throughout the scriptures, there are many commands to keep God's word. Keep, keep, keep. But as one commentator pointed out, this is the only place where human beings are said to have kept the word.

22:52How can this be? How can this be? Jesus certainly has something very specific on his mind, and there is a real sense in which they have kept his word. What is it? What is it? I'll give it one word: Jesus. They have held on to the logos. That's the word he uses here. And the word they have kept. The logos, singular, your word, they have kept. What is, and in a few verses, he's going to use the word rhema to speak about Jesus' words. But here he is saying, they have kept your word. And as you go through John's gospel, the word logos, and sometimes he'll use the word rhema, sometimes he will use the word plural for logos, logoi, and he will talk about words and word and sayings. But when he's speaking about the word singular, John is talking about God's message.

24:00Main message, God's purpose, God's definitive statement, his overall picture, the main message. And what is that main message? Jesus, God, Messiah, sent from the Father. That's the main message. It centers around. That is, in fact, John will start his whole gospel keying on this word. In the beginning was the word. And so here, Jesus is praying, your word, they got it. They've got your main message. They understand me. And that's the good news. The gospel. They got it. They got the message. The word for kept, look at this, the word for kept is the idea of treasuring.

24:57Treasuring. They have kept. Sometimes the word can be used as guarded. Like you want, there's some, like maybe even the context of a prisoner, is keeping somebody in, something of great importance. Or it can, it's, it's the idea of paying attention to, observing, it's treasuring like a treasure as of something great value, of great value, treasuring it. They have kept, they have treasured. In fact, the disciples, and appreciate the way Calvin. Articulated this, treasuring Christ, treasuring God's word is not merely, open quote, nodded. These disciples did not merely nod their assents like donkeys, like, oh, yeah, yeah, we believe, we believe, or profess with the tongue, we approve of your teaching, but have held on to Jesus and his word as a precious treasure. That's what they have done. They have kept. They have kept.

26:11They have treasured the Father's Word. Make sure you note that, but they have kept your word. So, if Jesus is saying, and this is the plain meaning of the text, if Jesus is saying that they had treasured the Father's Word as spoken, as embodied in Jesus, how is that consistent with their pending defection? If they have really treasured and they have kept this, how do we explain their pending defection? I'm glad you asked. You know, we're tempted to make a comparison here. That's not right.

26:58We're tempted to. Make a comparison between the post-resurrection, the post-Pentecost faith of the disciples to their pre-resurrection faith. And we say, wow, what a difference. In fact, we might even be tempted to compare them to our faith. We have the whole canon, we have the rest of the story. And we sometimes will start judging them or looking at them, weighing them in the light of perfection. Sure, they did not, they were not fully mature, right? They had a lot to understand, but that's the wrong comparison. The comparison that needs to be made is the comparison right here in their historical context, the comparison between the belief and the obedience of the disciples before the resurrection and the unbelief and the disobedience of the world before the resurrection. Now, let's put them all in the same context here. Full moon coming over Mount of Olives, 11 disciples. Let's look at their faith. And now let's compare that faith to the rest of the world. Now, that's the comparison. And when you start making that comparison, All of a sudden, they shine, don't they? They stand out. They stand out. You remember in John chapter 6, after Jesus had given that hard teaching, many of the disciples left. Said, this is too hard.

28:51Jesus turns to his disciples, you're not too going to leave, are you? They said, Where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the holy one of God. You are the holy one of God. And even they're ready to go. Peter's ready to die. The closest disciples, you know, Thomas, let's go up in 11:16, let's go up and die with him. They know Jesus has the words of life. They're not going to let go of Jesus.

29:39Rest of the world defects, leaves. But as compared with the world, these disciples are there. They have given up. They have faith. They are keeping. They are holding on. They know that God. Is in, with, and doing something in Jesus. And so, regardless of what's going on, they remain. And when you compare, put them in that setting, they stand out from the rest of the world like bright stars on a black night. These men treasured God's incarnation of Himself. They sure, they didn't understand it all for sure. Their faith was immature, their knowledge was immature, but they got it.

30:44And that's what's very important. You don't have to understand all the mystery, you don't have to understand everything that's come. We don't understand all that's going to be happening, right? But we know that God is in Christ. He has the words of life, he is the one we are to follow. And we trust. And that's the disciples at this moment. How did they get there? What brought them to this point? And the question, maybe bringing it more to home, how do we get to that point?

31:28Well, I want to look at the fact. Fifth characteristic of these men. The fifth characteristic of these men. And that is, they all maintained a right attitude to Jesus' words. And that's the fifth characteristic of a true disciple. They have a right attitude toward Jesus' words. Because they kept, guarded, and treasured the Father's incarnate word, they maintained a right attitude to Jesus' spoken words. Jesus, the incarnate word, speaks. In fact, if verse 6 tells the story of the disciples' salvation from the divine perspective, verse 8 tells the story of their salvation from the human side, from their responsibility. And you'll see this over and over in Scripture. Unquestionably, as we have seen, there is a divine aspect driving where these disciples are.

32:44But in the same passage, Jesus, and at the same moment, he will speak of their responsibility. He will speak using active verbs, which the disciples did. And you see this tension between, again, God's sovereignty over. These men's lives and their responsibility to the word, and that responsibility that you and I have is to maintain a right attitude towards Jesus' words, as with anyone, as with these. You see, because the Father's Word is understood through the words of Jesus. Look back at verse 8: For the words which you gave me, I have given to them. Interesting. For the Father's words, I have given to them.

33:46I have delivered. And there, again, it's that perfect word, I have delivered them, kind of like when a package is delivered. The UPS driver pulls up and he delivers the package. And that's what Jesus is saying here in this holy of holy moments, praying, Son, to the Father. And he is saying, I have delivered your words to them. And because the disciples had maintained a right attitude toward Jesus, they maintained a right attitude to his words, and those words greatly impacted them. And that's what his words will do to anyone. It's what God's word does. Does it impact?

34:34As Peter had said earlier, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. We're going to continue to listen to you. So, a proper attitude toward Jesus shows up in a proper attitude to his words. And there are three actions that stem from a proper attitude to Jesus' words. Three actions that stem, do you have a proper attitude to Jesus' words? Well, if you do, there are three actions that will come out of your life.

35:12I hope that you will desire to maintain a proper attitude toward Jesus' words. And I don't care who you are, that's a responsibility of mankind. And if you do not maintain a proper attitude to Jesus' words, your condemnation is upon you, as it was with this world and the religious establishment that should have recognized, should have listened, but they didn't. Well, there are three actions, and these are active verbs that the disciples did. Look at verse 8, or look back at verse 7. They received his words first.

36:00They had a right attitude, a right attitude shows up, and that they received his words. Verse 7: 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. They received them. Back to that UPS illustration. The UPS guy brings up the package, and sometimes he comes in and wants to get what? A signature. And by signing, you are saying, I am receiving this package. And that's what Jesus is saying. I have delivered your words to them, Father, and they have received them. They have taken them in.

36:48Right? You see, Jesus wants to share his Father by sharing his words. And the disciples responded to the Father's words spoken through Jesus by taking them in. And having received the word, guess what? It went to work in their lives. And that's what the word of God will do in yours. That's why you were to take it in. And that's what, remember the parable of soils in Mark 4:20. And these are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil, and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. 30, 60, and 100 fold. These 11 disciples are good soil that received.

37:41And the exhortation of all of Mark 4 is: listen, Jesus is the one sowing the word. Listen, take it in. Second, I need to move. Move on. First action that stems from an attitude, from a proper attitude to Jesus's words, is that they received his words. Second action that stems from a proper attitude to Jesus' words is that they learned from his words. They learned from his words. And Jesus mentioned two specific truths that the Father's words spoke, spoken through Jesus, taught them. First of all, the word taught them that Jesus' power came from the Father. Look at verse 7. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. Everything they had witnessed, all the authority that Jesus had, they knew it was given to Jesus from God. They knew Jesus' power came from God. It did not come from the world. It came from God.

38:57Did not come from anywhere else. Second thing, That they learned from this word, the words. Look back at verse 8. For the words you gave me, I have given to them, and they received them, and here it is, truly understood that I came forth from you. So, the second thing the received word taught them is that of Jesus's origin. He came forth from the Father, from the side of the Father. He did not emerge from the earthly realm, he did not emerge from any other realm except for the side of the Father, from the presence of, from the, as he will say early, John will, from the bosom of the Father. So, the word taught them about the power of Christ. This they understood. And they understood the origin of Christ. The power is of God, and the origin, the kinds of work he was doing is something that they knew.

40:05That they knew. And you should, even a casual reading of scripture, you ought to pick that up. This is no ordinary individual that is written on the pages of scripture. Third, third action that comes out of a proper attitude to Jesus' words is the Believed. They believed his words. Not only did they receive the words, they learned from the words, and they believed his words. Look at verse 8, the end of it. And they believed that you sent me. They sent me. So the word taught them something about the power of God, taught them something about the origin of God. Sorry, the power of Christ coming from God, the origin of Christ coming from God. Now, the emphasis here is upon the mission of Christ. The Father sent me. They know you have sent me for your purpose. They know I have your power. I have come from you, and I am accomplishing something for you. That they know for sure. That much they have got their minds around.

41:23And listen, that's all it takes. That's where faith is. Receive that, and the rest will come. The rest will come. Yeah, he's on mission. You see, obviously, they didn't have complete, they did not understand the complete ramifications of Jesus' words, but they knew enough to know that God was with Jesus in a unique way and that he was on earth to do his will. And that's something any casual reading of scripture would inform us. Well, the Father, God, through the incarnate word, had drawn near to his disciples. He had spoken to them the Father's words, and they received them. And they were drawn in, and they were connected not just to Christ, but to their heavenly Father.

42:29You see, if they're going to advance the Father's glory, guess what? They're going to need to know him. If you are going to advance your heavenly Father's glory, guess what? You're going to have to know him. And it is Jesus' delight for you to know him. And that's why he, the incarnate word, came speaking the words that the Father had given him, so that your relationship is with your heavenly Father. That's what Jesus is doing. A relationship with the Father is being established.

43:19But don't lose sight of their progression. First, they understood that Jesus is empowered by the Father. Second, they understood that Jesus is from the Father. And third, they understood that Jesus is on. Earth accomplishing something for his father. Well, these are the characteristics of these men, these special men. And I wanted us to take some time before we look at Jesus' specific prayer for them to focus on these characteristics because it is through these that God is going to advance his Father's glory to the ends of the earth.

43:58Five characteristics. They are from the world. They belong to the Father. They were given to Jesus. They have kept the Father's word. And they have maintained a right attitude toward Jesus' words. And as a result, guess what? They came to know the Father's name. They came to know the Father's name. Beautiful image of this. I'll just read to you in Exodus 33. You remember in chapter 3, Moses says, what's your name? And God says, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to them, I am has sent you. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then later in Exodus 33, Moses is interceding after this horrific event with the golden calf. And he says, Moses says to the Lord in verse 12, see, You say to me, Bring up this people, but you yourself have not let me know whom you will send with me. Moreover, you have said, I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you.

45:20And then he goes on in verse 18, I pray you, show me your glory. This is Moses, show me your glory. And what does God say in verse 19? I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I show compassion. And here's Jesus, the incarnate word, having passed his glory and more, much more to come in front of the eyes of the disciples and manifesting the name of the Lord, name of the Father in Jesus.

46:12But there is two specific items that I want to make sure you don't lose sight of, or I want to call to your attention, two specific items that the Father had given to Jesus. First of all, verse 6, the Father had given Jesus the Lord. Men. In verse 8, it's also clear that the Father had given Jesus his words. And what did Jesus do with the men that God gave him and the words that his father had given him? What did he do? He brought them together, didn't he?

46:51He wed them. And you know what happened? Some of the majestic ones of the earth came to life. Psalm 16:3 says, As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones, in whom is all my delight. You see what God's word does when it joins and receives and is received into the soul of man. A majestic one, a saint is born in the earth, resurrected. You know, even now, compared to what we will know in eternity, we understand very little about what God is doing in us and in Christ, but we hold on to him. We hold on to him.

47:45Romans 8:18 says, This, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the Son. Of God. And here in passage, we see 11 of these sons of God. And by the way, that doesn't negate daughters. Creation itself is longing for the revealing of the children of God. No, we don't have a full picture of what's ahead. And when you compare it to eternity, very immature, but we know enough. As the disciples, even before Jesus went to the cross, even before the resurrection, knew enough to say, they have kept your word.

48:44They treasured the incarnate word. And because of that, they maintained a good relationship and a good attitude towards Jesus' word. They received that word. They learned from that word. They believed that word. And as a result, they knew the Father's name. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, indeed, we come to your text, and sometimes it is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. And sometimes our tendency is just to walk away from some of the clear implications of your word. But, Father, as we stand here, Reading, reflecting upon this event, this prayer, we are stretched beyond our ability to fully grasp, fully understand.

49:42But we do know that you sent your son. We do know that he came from you. We do know you are with him. You gave him all authority. Help us to respond properly. Change us.