We find ourselves in the 17th chapter of John. This is early on Friday morning of Passion
Week. In the darkness of the morning hours before
dawn, our Lord has around Him the eleven disciples. Judas has already left to launch the betrayal
that will take place in just a very brief time, after which our Lord being arrested,
will go through a mock trial; and on Friday, will be crucified; on Sunday, rise from the
dead. But we are still deep into the darkness of
early Friday morning. Our Lord has been spending the whole evening
giving promises to the disciples. They are recorded for us in John 13, 14, 15,
and 16. They are promises of blessing, promises of
persecution, all kinds of promises. But the greatest promise of all is that He
will send the Holy Spirit to provide the fulfillment of all His promises, and to be the power they
need to serve Him and witness for Him in the world. What we have then in John 17 is a prayer prayed
by our Lord. This is actually the Lord's Prayer. He stops on the way toward the garden of Gethsemane
in the dark of the night, still surrounded by the eleven disciples, and He prays this
prayer in which He asks the Father on behalf of the disciples and all who will ever believe,
to bring them to the fullness of the promised salvation. It is the only glimpse in Scripture of what
we call the intercessory work of Christ, the much more work, the mediatorial work of Christ
where He mediates for His own. It is an example of what our Lord is doing
now, what He ever lives to do, and that is to make intercession for His own. Paul says in Romans that "He died for us,
providing the sacrifice for sin in which He paid the penalty for our sins. But much more, He lives for us. He lives before the Father, ever-living to
make intercession for us, so that nothing overpowers us, overcomes us, and we all are
brought to eternal glory." This is the much more work. You have a glimpse of it here. Literally in this chapter, we are brought
into the heavenly Holy of Holies where the Son comes before His Father on behalf of His
own. Let me give you a little bit of a background
to understanding this. You remember the exodus from Egypt in the
history of Israel, and you remember that when they came out of Egypt and they arrived in
the wilderness, they were there for forty years, and they basically were wanderers for
those forty years living in tents. They would stop and pitch their tents, and
they would be arranged around another tent. They would be arranged around a larger tent. It was a large tent in the center. That was God's tent. Around that were the twelve tribes and God
was in the center. God's tent was the largest tent and the one
to which they focused their attention. It represented the presence of God. In the middle of that tent - called also the
tabernacle - there was a small tent right in the center of the tabernacle, and it was
called the Holy of Holies. It symbolized the presence of God. In that Holy of Holies, that small tent inside
the large tent, was the ark of the covenant; and on top of it, the mercy seat. Now, that was forbidden for anyone to enter. The presence of God was not accessible to
the people, except for once a year, one day when one person could enter to that Holy of
Holies. That was on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur;
and the man who could enter was the high priest. He would take with him two things. He would take with him the blood of the animal
sacrifice to be poured out on the altar, and he would take with him incense, symbolizing
prayer. His responsibility on the Day of Atonement
was then to provide the sacrifice of atonement, and to offer incense as prayer. He would take the blood of a slain animal
to symbolize the atonement for the sins of the nation, and the incense as the symbol
of offering prayer to God to forgive the people on the basis of the atonement. The clothing that the high priest wore is
really fascinating and very symbolic. In the 28th chapter of Exodus, we hear this
from the Lord: "They shall also make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet material
and fine twisted linen, the work of the skillful workman. It shall have two shoulder pieces joined to
its two ends, that it may be joined. The skillfully woven band, which is ion it,
shall be like its workmanship, of the same material: of gold, of blue and purple and
scarlet material and fine twisted linen. You shall take two onyx stones and engrave
on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names
of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth. As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall
engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall set them
in filigree settings of gold. You shall put the two stones on the shoulder
pieces of the ephod, as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron - " the
high priest " - shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial." He was given a very important garment that
was placed on the front; and then above that, two shoulder pieces that were joined together. On the shoulder pieces were two onyx stones;
engraved on each, the names of six tribes of Israel. The point of that was this: the high priest
carried the nation on his shoulders when he went in to make atonement and to offer prayer,
literally carrying all the twelve tribes of Israel. This was one man offering one sacrifice and
one prayer for the whole people of God. He went in to offer the sacrificial blood. He went in to offer prayer for their forgiveness. He sprinkled the blood and waved the incense
and left. This is a picture of what we find in John
17. Here we have the great High Priest, and the
great High Priest has entered into the Holy of Holies of the presence of God, and He has
on His shoulders all His people. He bears them all before God. He has offered His own blood on the heavenly
mercy seat as the one true atonement for sin; and now He carries on holy shoulders, above
His loving heart, all His people, to offer prayers to God on their behalf. Atonement has been made, and prayer is now
offered. The high priest went in, did this, turned
right around and came out. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He went into
the Holy of Holies and He is still there, He is still there, and He will be there until
all believers are finally gathered into eternal glory. "He is there - " the writer of Hebrews says
" - ever-living to make intercession for us." It is as if He sprinkled His blood on the
heavenly mercy seat, satisfying the justice of God, an atonement for all who would ever
believe; and now continually until the last believer is gathered into glory, He offers
prayers before the Father. As our great High Priest, He carries us into
the very presence of God. What is on His heart? His love. Chapter 13, verse 1, began this whole section:
"Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them - " eis telos " - to the max." Why does He do this? Why does He offer His atoning blood for us? Why does He ever live to make intercession
for us in the presence of God? Because He loves us. He loves us infinitely. He loves us to the same degree that God can
love anything, and does love. We are on His shoulders. But even more importantly, we are in Him. When He is there in the presence of the Father,
we are there in Him. We are loved by the Father the same way the
Father loves the Son. You say, "Wait a minute, that's got to be
stretching it." That isn't stretching it. Go down to verse 23 of this prayer, which
I read a little while ago. Verse 23 says, "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 loved
them, even as You have loved Me - " and the end of verse 26 " - so that the love with
which You loved Me may be in them." This is an astounding reality. We are loved as the Son because we are in
the Son. That truth is all over the New Testament. The writers of the epistles of the New Testament
talk often about being in Christ. "We are in Christ. We are in Christ." What that means is exactly what it says. We are in Him loved as He is loved. We are in Him righteous as He is righteous. We are in Him blessed as He is blessed with
all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. The Father loves the Son infinitely and eternally;
and because we are in the Son, He loves us infinitely and eternally. We are as accepted as the Son is accepted:
"This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And we are in Him, loved as He is loved. That is our justification, that is our sanctification,
and that is our glorification. How amazing is it to be loved by God as He
loves His own Holy Son. And let me stop and just say something about
Christianity that you need to understand. You might not think that the Trinity is an
important doctrine, but it is absolutely foundational to everything that is true about God. John says in 1 John, "God is love." If God was only a solitary, singular person,
that could not be a part of His eternal nature, because there would be no one to love. There is a difference between the true and
living God and Allah. Allah is a single, solitary deity, invented
by men and demons, who is all judgment, all fear, all terror; and so would any singular
god be, and people would only exist to do what he wanted them to do. But the triune God is eternal love, and has
loved eternally within the Trinity. If Jesus was a created being, God would love
us like He loved Jesus, another created being. But Jesus is not a created being. He is the eternal Son, the eternal second
member of the Trinity. God loves us like He loves His Son. This is a love beyond anything that any creature
will ever experience. With that infinite, holy, perfect love, He
loves His Son, and He loves us in His Son. This is salvation fullness. This is life. This is blessing. This is glory. So when Christ goes into the heavenly Holy
of Holies and comes before the Father, as He does continually, we are there in the throne
room with Him. We are there in Him. In Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14 we read,
"We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our confession. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without
sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence
to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." We have a great high priest, who not only
loves us as only God can love, but having been man, understands us. He carries us to the Father on His shoulders,
in His heart, in Him. The Son of God, the great High Priest, then
prays for us. His mediatorial work is real. It is indispensable, it is glorious, it is
faithful, it is encouraging; and by that work, He brings all His sons to glory. Let me help you understand the gospel maybe
in another perspective. God loved His Son. God loves because it's His nature to love. And God's love is so boundless and so infinite
that God determined He wanted many more sons to love. And so He set in motion creation, and filled
that creation with an infinite, wondrous universe, that those on earth could see and read His
love by the lavishness of what He has provided, even in a temporal way. He is a lover by nature. Because of this love, He chose many sons and
brings them to Himself, places them in His Son, and everlastingly loves them as He loves
His Son. This prayer marks our Lord's transition from
His earthly to His heavenly ministry. Here we see as only in this place in Scripture,
the beloved Son carrying us and all who believe into the presence of the Father. They are His, He said, "They're Yours." We've seen that - verse 6, verse 9,"They're
Yours. You gave them to Me. And now I'm coming to intercede on their behalf
to bring them to glory." "All that the Father gives to Me - " John
6 " - will come to Me. I have lost none, but will keep them and raise
them in that last day." This is what the intercessory work of our
Lord is. It is bringing many sons to glory to satisfy
the loving heart of God. Judas is gone now. Only the eleven remain, and they hear this
prayer. I can't comprehend what it must have been
like for them to hear this, that they are loved by God as the Son of God is loved, that
they are the concern of His own heart cry. He is interceding for them. But not just for them, because in verse 20
He says, "I do not ask on behalf of these alone - " these eleven " - but for those also
who believe in Me through their word." They're going to preach the gospel, and they're
going to be used to write the New Testament. "And I'm praying for all who will believe
through that revelation." Praying for them all. And He prays for us out of incomprehensible
and infinite love. Let's look at verse 11 and we'll just cover
a very brief part of this section - verses maybe 11 and 12 - although His requests for
them run all the way down to verse 19. Let's just look at 11 and 12: "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 of them perished but
the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." "I am no longer in the world." He's anticipating His exodus, His own leaving. About six weeks away at this time, He would
ascend into heaven and He would be gone. In just a few hours, He would be under the
wrath of God. They need to be guarded while He is suffering
for sin, and they need to be guarded after He's gone, "because - " as verse 11 says " - they
themselves are in the world." "I'm out of the world; they're in it." What is the world? It's the system of sin that dominates this
realm. It's the corruption, the demonic power, the
human power of sin that literally controls the world, under the leadership of Satan and
his demons. That's the world. "They're in the world, Father. The world is dark, the world is demonic, the
world is dangerous, the world is deadly." He already told them back in chapter 15, verse
18, the world would hate them because it hated Him. He told them in verse 20, the world would
persecute them. He told them again in verse 23 that they would
be hated because the world hates Him and hates the Father. In chapter 16, He told them in verse 2 they
would become outcasts and they would become martyrs; they would lose their lives. This is a dangerous place for the children
of God. They can't survive without divine support. The temptations of Satan are powerful, overwhelmingly
powerful, and they need divine protection. So our Lord then, beginning in verse 11, starts
to ask for some specific things by way of our protection. Number One: Spiritual security. Spiritual security. "They're in the world - " He says " - and
I come to You." And He's talking, obviously, about His ascension. "I come to You. Holy Father, keep them, keep them, keep them." Why Holy Father? God is absolutely holy. Can't tolerate sin; is angry with the wicked
every day; can't look on evil, iniquity. This is the Holy Son, the Holy Child, praying
to the Holy Father. It is the desire of the Holy Son and the desire
of the Holy Father to protect the unholy sinners. That's what's happening here. He says Holy Father because it just makes
a stark contrast between who God is, who Christ is, and who we are. Why would the Holy Father care about unholy
sinners? Answer: Because they are in His Son. They are in Christ. When Christ comes into His presence, we come
on Him and in Him. He says, "Father, Holy Father, keep them in
Your name, keep them in Your name, consistent with who You are, and even beyond that, not
because they deserve it, but because they belong to You. They are Yours. They are Your sons and daughters. They are Your children. They carry Your name - sons of God. They belong to You, a name which You have
given Me. They're in My name too: sons of God, Christians. They're Yours and they're Mine; keep them." Back in the 10th chapter of John and verse
27, there's a reminder of this in some of the most familiar words of our Lord: "My sheep
- " My sheep, My sheep " - hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I
give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of
My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater
than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." "They're Mine and they're Yours. You owned them; they were Yours; You gave
them to Me. I have held them. Now, Father, You hold them; You guard them;
You keep them. You and I are one. While I was with them - " He says " - on earth,
I was keeping them. The ones that belonged to You, and now to
Me, I was keeping them." Keep means "to watch over protectively." We're going to see an illustration of that
in chapter 18 that may be the most remarkable illustration of that promise or that purpose
of Christ in the whole of the gospels. When in chapter 18, they come to arrest Jesus,
they want also to arrest the disciples. The Lord never lets that happen; He protects
them from that, because theoretically, it could have destroyed their faith. But He will never let anything that could
do that happen. We'll see that in chapter 18. He is about to suffer. He is about to come under the weight and burden
of sin, and take His hands away from His disciples; and the Father needs to guard them for those
hours. And then when He comes back to heaven, the
Father needs to continue to guard them, which He promises to do through the Holy Spirit,
whom He gives to every believer. "I guarded them," He says in verse 12. That's phulassō , it means "to protect from
outside threats." It's used in Luke 11 of a strong man guarding
a house. It's used in Acts 28 of soldiers guarding
Paul. "I guarded them; I kept them. I now need You, Father, to take over and guard
them. And by the way, while I was guarding them
- " He said " - none of them perished." Now, if the sentenced ended there, we'd have
a problem: "None of them perished." We'd all be saying, "Wait, wait a minute. There's only eleven here. There's Judas. What about Judas? What about Judas? Isn't Judas proof that a disciple, a visible
associate of Jesus, a preacher for God, can be lost? Isn't Judas the prototype of a believer who
is saved and then loses salvation because he turns and rejects the Lord he once confessed?" If our Lord didn't say anything here about
Judas, we would have a serious dilemma. So to make sure that never happens, He injects
into this otherwise magnificent and beautiful prayer, this one ugly, dark, black note in
the whole prayer; it's the only one. "I guarded them, and not one of them perished." Not one of what? Not one of whom? "None of the ones You have given Me perished. None of them. None of the ones who were Your and now are
Mine perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." Judas was never a son of God, he was always
a son of perdition. Son means "nature." Perdition is the word for "destruction, waste,
ruin." He was a son of ruin. It's used in Matthew 7:13, "The broad road
leads to destruction." He is a son of destruction, not a son of God. He is an outsider. Back in the 6th chapter of John at the end
of the chapter, Jesus us with the disciples, and Peter says, "'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that
You are the Holy One of God.' Jesus answered them, 'Did I Myself not choose
you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?' He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot,
for he was one of the twelve that who was going to betray Him." There was a devil there from the beginning,
a son of perdition, never a son of God. You say, "Well, isn't this a terrible blight
on the plan?" No. This was the plan so that the Scripture would
be fulfilled. Back in chapter 13 on that very same evening
in the upper room, Jesus said, "I do not speak of all of you - " 13:18 " - I know the ones
I have chosen. I know the ones I have chosen. I know the ones - " in 17 " - the Father has
given Me; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled - " Psalm 41:9 "' - He who eats
My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.' From now on I'm telling you before it comes
to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am, that am God, because I
know about Him what you don't know, and I know what he will do. He is a son of perdition, he is a devil." That same night in the upper room, Satan entered
into Judas. Judas was nonetheless treated with love by
the Lord that same night. Chapter 13, Judas was treated as the honored
guest, given the first piece of bread to dip in the sop, as they called it, the meal. Judas is guilty on his own. The fact that Scripture prophesied he would
do this is not a determinism, he did what he chose to do. Listen to Matthew 26:24, "'The Son of Man
is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is
betrayed! It would have been good for that man if had
not been born.' And Judas, who was betraying Him said, 'Surely
it is not I, Rabbi?' Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself.'" So our Lord says, "I've guarded them. None of them has been lost, none of them have
perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." Does the Father hear that prayer to keep and
guard His own? He does, He does, and we have testimony to
that. In Romans, chapter 8, at the end of the chapter,
do you remember these words: "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." We can never be separated from the love of
God. God will bring us to glory. God will get us to heaven, because we are
in His Son, and He loves His Son perfectly, and thus, He loves us as He loves His Son;
and that love will bring us to glory. Peter understood this and wrote these marvelous
words, praising God that he will hear and answer our Lord's prayer. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living
hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which
is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who
are protected by the power of God, through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
at the last time." Our Lord prays for our spiritual security. Our Lord prays for us because He loves us
like He loves the Father. The Father hears His prayer and answers it,
because He loves us like He loves the Son. That's a stunning thing to realize that what
secures our salvation is eternal love, which is behind eternal election, which is behind
eternal justification and eternal glorification. So our Lord prays for our spiritual security. Just briefly, He secondly prays for our spiritual
unity. This is just briefly stated in verse 11, and
it'll come up again at the end of the chapter. We'll just look at it here. Back in verse 11, the end of the verse, "Keep
them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We
are, that they may be one even as We are." This is not talking about us getting along
with each other in the church. That's a different issue. It's nice; it's an important issue; the Bible
addresses that issue. We need to have a real, practical, living
unity among believers. That's not this prayer. What this prayer is is beyond that. It is that we may be one even as the Trinity
is one. Salvation - listen - is not just a ticket
to heaven. It is not just forgiveness of sins. It is not just escape from punishment. It is God, listen, pulling us into the eternal
life of the Trinity. All of us who are justified literally are
pulled into the life of the Trinity. We are in the Father; we are in the Son; we
are in the Spirit. The Father is in us; the Son is in us; the
Spirit is in us. We've seen that all through this section of
John. The indivisible unity of the Trinity engulfs
us and we are one with Christ. That's why Paul says, "I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. I'm in Christ and Christ's in me. I'm in the Spirit, the Spirit's in me. I'm in the Father, the Father's in me." That's why when we talk about joy a little
later, Jesus says, "You have My joy." And when He talks about peace earlier, "You
have My peace. Why? Because you have My life." What does it mean to be a believer? It literally means that God loves us with
such an infinite love, that He loves us the same as He loves His own Son, with an eternal
and infinite love, and with that love pulls us into the very Trinity. That's what this prayer's about. Paul writes Philippians and Ephesians that
talk about practical unity. This is a prayer for invisible unity, for
the reality of the life of God to be sustained in our souls forever. Do you understand this, that you are secure,
not just because God said you are, but because He makes sure you are, through the intercession
of the Son? That God is a Trinity is absolutely critical. And when we talk about image of God and man
being made in the image of God, what we're essentially saying is, we were created with
a capacity to love. We were created with a capacity for relationships. That's the image of God: meaningful relationships,
loving relationships. Animals have relationships; they don't have
love. Our Lord prays then that we would be spiritually
secure and that we would be spiritually one. And the answer to that prayer from the Lord
is, "Absolutely. That is the divine purpose." Look down at verse 21, "That they may all
be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You." This is not some kind of external practical
unity, this is the unity of common life, existence, "that they may be one, as You, Father, are
in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us." He says it again, verse 23, "I in them, You
in Me, that they may be perfected in unity." Do you want to get a grip on the greatness
of your salvation? That's it. So our Lord goes into the Holy of Holies,
bears us on His shoulders, comes before the Father who loves us as much as He loves the
Son, and prays to the loving Father to do what the loving Father already has determined
to do. He prays in perfect accord with the will of
God to bring about our spiritual safety, our spiritual security, and our spiritual unity. We are literally drawn into the love relationship
of the Trinity. That's where we live and move and have our
being. It doesn't yet appear what we shall be, but
someday, we're going to see the fullness of that in His presence. Father, as we come now to the Table that takes
us back to the cross, we do so with joy and gratitude. Without the sacrifice, without the blood being
sprinkled, the intercession would be meaningless. The Savior can only intercede for those for
whom He has atoned; and He bears us on His shoulders as our great High Priest. Father, we thank You, that You hear and answer
His prayer, because He offered His own atoning blood as the full, perfect satisfaction for
Your justice. Thank You for the One who is the Lamb and
the great High Priest. Fill our hearts with gratitude. And, also, we come before You confessing our
sins and failures, Lord. How we could ever sin against such love, such
eternal love, is hard to imagine. But it's a battle, as we are still incarcerated
in unredeemed flesh. So, Lord, we need Your cleansing. Open our hearts to confess, amen.
