To See the Glory of God • John 17:20-26

Teaching begins 23:16

Notes

Here in John 17 Jesus prays for the most glorious thing He can ask for, and it’s not for some far-off time in the future. It’s for right now.

It’s glorious because His request will make the world believe and know the truth about God. Remember, up to now the world hates God without a cause. This will make the world turn around towards God.

His request is glorious because it affects the very core of our being and brings us joy unspeakable, full of glory.

Jesus’ request is for His disciples to be with Him where He is and to see His glory.

This will affect the whole world for the next twenty centuries because people will be able to grasp what is the whole point of existence: to be united into the family of the Father in love.

I’m reading in John 17 from verse 20.

1. Here we see who God is and the basis for reality — that the Father and the Son are one.

A. God is three persons in one unity.

1. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinct persons. They are not one person in three different phases of existence. The Son eternally proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit eternally communicates between them.

2. Even as they are distinct persons, it’s not biblical to say there are three gods. They are one, a complex unity. The Son is of the very being of the Father and is eternally one with Him in the Spirit.

B. God made an illustration of this for us when He created man.

1. You recall that God made Adam of the earth. Then He breathed into Adam the breath of life. Breath and Spirit are the same word in Hebrew, and also in Greek. God breathed into Adam the Spirit of life, His own Spirit.

2. Then out of Adam God took Eve. She was bone of Adam’s bone, flesh of his flesh, spirit of his spirit.

3. They were distinct from one another, different, and yet they were one with each other, sharing the life of God Himself.

C. In all eternity the Father has loved His eternal Son. That’s the glory that Jesus speaks of in verses 22 and 24. Jesus has always proceeded from the Father, has always existed as the Son, and has always been loved by the Father.

D. Think about how great is the Father.

1. We see His genius and the scope of His mind in what has been created. Think about how complex atoms are. So tiny they cannot be seen, and yet there is power in them enough to destroy the world.

2. And you think about the different elements, think about light and electromagnetic spectrum. Think about planets, stars, galaxies, the size of the universe.

3. Think about what we have on earth: living solar powered air fresheners that give food. Those are trees. Animals, insects, fish, birds. Oceans, land masses, atmosphere.

E. Think about the genius who thought all this up, loving you. On top of all that genius and imagination and power, this person is eternally loving, kind, faithful, gentle, merciful.

F. Jesus says, that’s glory! That’s the glory the Father gave to Me! Glory from this creation doesn’t even count in comparison. It’s a blip. But to have the Father love you — ohhhh! That’s glory! That is eternal life!

2. In light of this Jesus is praying for ALL His disciples. What we want to notice is that His disciples are a very different group of people.

A. Just these eleven disciples. Two sets of brothers. A tax collector, and a political zealot who would naturally despise a tax collector. One of these guys is a hard-headed realist who doesn’t believe things without proof. Another believes without seeing.

B. But Jesus is praying for more than just these eleven disciples. He’s praying for all who will believe in Him through their word.

1. That is, people from every ethnic group. It starts with Jews. But it also goes to Jews living in very different locations all over the Roman Empire. Then it goes to Gentiles living in the Middle East, all over Europe. Africa. North and South America. Russia. China. India. All kinds of islands and climates.

2. Jesus’ disciples have different customs, different languages, different stations in life. Slaves, kings, soldiers, businessmen, artists, writers, farmers, scientists, famous, obscure, academics, peasants, musicians, astronauts, doctors.

3. Different time periods over the next twenty centuries. Ancient times, medieval times, renaissance, industrial revolution, computer age. Changing political scenes, nations rise and fall, different empires and political groupings. Different histories for different people groups.

C. Disciples of every kind in every time, Jesus prays for them to be one.

3. To be one requires the love of the Father and Jesus to be in us.

A. There are so many differences in Jesus’ disciples.

1. Jesus is not praying that we become all the same. We get to stay different.

2. He’s not praying that we get perfect in every way. That’s coming, but not in this life. We are not all smart, not all strong, not all powerful or mighty. There’s so many ways in which we fall short.

B. But this is about the unity of love. Jesus says, the glory which You gave Me I have given them. Verse 24 You loved Me before the foundation of the world. All that intellect, power, and kindness with which the Father loved the Son, the Son now gives to His disciples in every place and time.

C. It is also the unity of a person.

1. Jesus says that I might be in them as well as the love of the Father. Jesus Himself lives in His disciples.

2. He does this through the Holy Spirit. He said, I will send you a Helper of the same kind as Myself. The Holy Spirit communicates the very life and love of Jesus to each of Jesus’ disciples.

3. You cannot be Jesus’ disciple without the Holy Spirit. You can’t say, well, the Father is okay, Jesus I get, but I don’t like the weirdness associated with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. You must have the Holy Spirit living in you.

D. The Holy Spirit brings us into a family relationship, and everyone in the family shares the family resemblance. Not the family nose, but the family heart of love. These are some quotes from 1 John 4 and 5.

1. 1 John 4:7-13 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. You can have theological knowledge of God and still not know God. The proof that you know God is that you love.

2. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

3. 1 John 4:20 - 5:1 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.

4. So we have been born into the family of God, and the family resemblance is love just like the Father.

4. When we are one, the world will believe and know the love of the Father.

A. Love is the evidence of the truth and presence of who God is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1. The world, being separated from God through sin, cannot love. People treat one another badly, unfairly, stealing, abusing, lying, murdering, faithless. They take life, they don’t give life. This is in families! Family without love is abusing and suffering. Why be together? Better to get out as soon as possible.

2. But here’s a group of wildly different people all acting like family! They have almost nothing in common with each other. The only thing they have in common is so overwhelming that it minimizes all the differences. They can live together in unity, they can serve one another, be patient with one another, give to one another, help one another. They love one another.

3. This unity is unique. There is nothing like it in the world. No religion, no education, no amount of money can produce this love.

B. The world can see a group of imperfect, different people perfect in unity. They forgive like Jesus. They lay down their lives for one another like Jesus. They love like Jesus.

C. The world can look at that and see what God is really like. They hate God without a cause, but they can see that God isn’t like they thought. God isn’t like their father who beat them and never told them “I love you.” This group of weirdos is way better than my family.

D. The world is dying for love. Every single one of us is made in the image of God and we were made to receive the love of God. Our rebellion cut us off from that love of God and there is no substitute for that love. Without that love we’re dead even as we exist.

E. So if the world sees that love, there’s a chance, a hope, that it might be for me as well. Real love convinces even the world. That’s what is recorded in history. The pagans despised the Christians. Hey, we wrote the classics! We’re smarter than these dopes! We build the architecture of the world! We are the scientists and the philosophers and the great men of the world! We are them! But look how they love one another. They care for their sick and dying. We can’t even do that. They’re such scum. How do they do that?

F. Likewise, when the Christians do not love one another, the world says, see, I knew there was nothing to it. They’re all a bunch of hypocrites. We can safely ignore these weirdos.

5. What amazes me here is that world evangelism is not Jesus’ main focus. He’s focusing on us.

A. Jesus’ ultimate prayer is in verse 24: I want them to be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory. He wants all His disciples to be where He is, and to see the love of the Father from all eternity.

B. That’s how Jesus declares the name of the Father to His disciples.

1. Remember, “name” is all you that should come to your mind when you think of someone. It’s like a brand name. It’s the meaning associated with the name.

2. Remember the name of God: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in covenant love and faithfulness. Think about it, the name of God is family in love.

3. That is who God is: Father, Son, Holy Spirit loving one another in all eternity. That is the relationship the Father calls Jesus’ disciples to

C. Jesus wants us to see that perfect relationship, perfect love, eternal, not shakeable, not capable of being damaged or destroyed.

D. When we are there, in eternity, and see the love and glory of the Father loving Jesus, then we know how the Father loves us.

1. It’s not about what I do to become worthy of that love. It’s not based on me. It’s based on the Father, and who He is in Himself.

2. I can be secure in His love. I can consent to Him loving me. I let Jesus live in me. I let the Spirit pour out His love in my heart. I can be filled up to all the fullness of God.

3. There is more where that came from. There’s more than I can handle. There’s more for people who are unloveable, who are irritating, stubborn, rude, arrogant, insufferable. Hey, here’s more for you!

E. Everything else is going to come out of this one thing, knowing the eternal love of the Father for me. World evangelism and all the rest is not a problem. But nothing really happens until I am where Jesus is and see that eternal love of the Father.

6. So what?

A. The Father has answered Jesus’ prayer. We know this because so much of the world has believed and known the love of the Father. That love has been displayed over twenty centuries, in many different types of people. And where it is displayed, so many in the world believe and come to know for themselves. They go from being in the world to not being of the world. They come into the Father’s family. This is historical fact.

B. So we know that we are going to be with Jesus where He is and see that perfect love of the Father. That’s future.

C. But Jesus meant that for us in the present. Right now, see Jesus, see the love of the Father.

1. 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. We don’t see it perfectly. But what we do get to see helps us to see more and better.

2. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

D. There is one place where you can see the love of the Father and the love of Jesus at the same time. The glory of God. That place is the cross of Christ. When I need to know that God loves me, that is where the Holy Spirit takes me. Look at the Father giving His only begotten Son to take away my sins. Look at the Son laying down His life for His friends. That’s where you belong. Keep looking at the love of God at the cross. Let that love affect you.

E. For you who do not know the love of the Father, this is for you. This is what you are dying for. Open up and receive Jesus and let Him in. Be filled with the love of the Father and with Jesus.

Let’s pray.