The Joy to Be

In your Bibles, turn to John 17:20-26, we are going to be wrapping up this chapter rather quickly this morning and I say quickly, not because we’re getting kicked out of here but because of the amount of overlap that exists between what we are going to look at together this morning and what we read last night. In Christ’s High Priestly prayer, He turns His attention specifically to us. He directs His prayer towards all believers that would come to faith through the teachings and writings of Christ’s immediate disciples and as He does this, there are several elements of His prayer that are just as applicable to the 21st century Christian as the 1st century Christian. What we are going to read about is that Christ prays that we would be unified, that we would be of one mind and one body. He prays that we will be in the world but not of it and He prays for the advancement of the Gospel and none of these themes or elements are new to the prayer. What I want to focus on this morning is the joy to be. I want us to look ahead to the future glory which is to come for all of us as Christians and as we look ahead to that reality, we are reminded that God truly loves us. As I mentioned Saturday morning, this prayer really shows us the person, heart, and mind of our Savior. In this prayer not only do we see that Christ really loves us, we also see that He is someone that we should consider lovely. He is someone that you and I could truly love. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will dive into these verses. John 17:20-26 says,

John 17:20–26 ESV

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Our Lives Matter

The first thing that I want to draw your attention to in these verses is the fact that our lives matter. You matter. I think that sometimes in preaching and theology that we sometimes miss the importance of man, of ourselves. Now this isn’t to place us on a pedestal and say that our crap doesn’t stink but we do matter because we matter to God. We obviously don’t replace God and I hope by now that you recognize that the world doesn’t revolve around you but we really do matter. You really are significant you really do have purpose! And as we read and will reflect on more a little bit later, you really are loved by your Heavenly Father. You matter to Someone and the person that you matter to is the most important Person in all of creation to matter to. Understand, Heaven and earth was moved for you, that’s just how important you are in the eyes of God. The immortal became mortal, the One that is from everlasting to everlasting died for you, He that was rich became poor so that many sons and daughters would be brought to glory! I am fully convinced that Christ would have gone to the cross for just you if you were the only person in the world. Why? Because God cares for individuals! He cares for you and we see God’s purposeful love towards individuals time and time again in the Bible. We see it with Noah, we see it with Abraham, we see it with Lot, and Joseph and David and Peter and Paul. We see God purposely love and work towards the individual and this often results for the greater good of not just the individual but the many as well. You do have a purpose, you do have a role to play in this crazy thing called life. Remember what I’ve said before, you are a joy to your Heavenly Father. You aren’t someone that God is just simply tolerating. He is not tolerating you now just waiting for you to get to this point where you are lovable or worthy of love. If it was just that, if God was just waiting for you to arrive at a moment of worthiness, there is nothing inside of us that would ever reach that point. Yet God in His infinite grace and infinite mercy and infinite love sees us as we are and says, “That one’s mine.” We matter to God and our purpose is to show the world that they matter to Him as well. Jesus says at the end of verse 21 that our unity as Christians and our work as Christians is designed so that the world will see Jesus and believe that He has been sent by the Father. D.A. Carson said, “As the display of genuine love amongst the believers attests that they are Jesus’ disciples, so this display of unity is so compelling, so un-worldly, that their witness as to who Jesus is becomes explainable only if Jesus truly is the revealer whom the Father has sent.” You exist to magnify God. You’ve heard me say before that the will of God for your life is not hard to figure out: You exist to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Now how you do that, that’s between you and the Lord. If you spend your whole life working for McDonald’s you cook those nuggets to the glory of God and make sure people know that! Whether you are a pastor or a student or a barista or a missionary or ceo there is a plan for your life. There is a clear purpose that has been bestowed on you to live a life that reflects the God you serve. So you all have to ask yourselves this question: Is your conduct in line with the Gospel? Are you living a life that is so Christ-centered that when others look at you, they believe that Christ has been sent by the Father? This is Christ’s prayer for your life!

Where Christ Is

Let’s turn again to John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” For Jesus to request this means that He desires that all believers, all that have been given to Him by the Father would be with Him and see His glory and He grounds this request in the perfect love that the Father has had for the Son for all eternity. Here we see 2 great things: the future glory of the Christian and the assurance that we have of our salvation. As Christians, we know where we are going. We know that this world is not the end. We know that this life that we now live is not the end. Christ wants us where He is. So, where is He? He’s in Heaven. He’s in the place of utmost glory and absolute perfection. When we die, we don’t go off to this great unknown. We don’t get absorbed into the all-soul of the universe and we don’t stay here as weird 18th century ghosts. We don’t go to purgatory to continue paying off our crimes or sins and we don’t phase into nothingness. The believer knows exactly where they are going. They are going before the very throne of God. It is here where Christ is in all His glory. While there are a lot of people who want Heaven, not everyone will get Heaven. Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” For every true Christian, Heaven and Christ are their reward. It is the promised land of all true believers and it is there home for all eternity. In these verses I believe that we can see that a Christian can have assurance of salvation and that they can know for certain that they are saved. How can we know for sure that we as Christians will make it to Heaven? It is because Christ Himself has asked that we would be there and this is a request that will not be denied. How do we as Christians know that we will endure to the end and make it to Heaven? Because Christ told us that we could come. It is Christ’s great desire that where He is, you too shall be. Understand your assurance of salvation doesn’t begin with you. Your salvation, beginning, middle, and end rests entirely in the hands of God Himself. Look at it this way, let’s say that you and your Dad are going hiking and when you reach the tip of this mountain, you misstep and just when you think that all hope is lost, you notice that your father is holding onto you. Who is in control of your life at that moment? Your life is entirely in the hand of your father. It’s not your strength that will pull you up because you don’t have a grip on anything. Your entire existence rests on the grip that your father has on you. Now look at it from the viewpoint of our Heavenly Father. Look at God’s hold of you in view of Romans 8:31-39

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul speaks of our future glorification in such certain terms that it is like it has already happened. Look at the list that Paul gives here. There is no threat to the eternal security and salvation to all those whom Christ has saved. Leon Morris said, “Paul sees no possible shadow of doubt. And the perfect points to a permanent state. This is no passing whim. The apostle proceeds to make his point by listing potential candidates for separating us from God’s love. If none of these can effect a separation, then why should believers fear? They are assured that God will always keep them secure in his great love.” There are no hands in which we are safer. There’s no love which is greater and that is what we are going to see in our closing verses.

The Perfect Love of God

Let’s look at 2 final verses together. John 17:23 “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” And then John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”” How do we know that God loves us? We know because He has sent His Son on the greatest rescue mission ever done. You can turn practically nowhere in the Bible that speaks of God’s love and not see how He loved us. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Or look at 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” James Montgomery Boice said, “If God had merely sent Jesus simply to teach us about himself, that would have been wonderful enough. It would have been far more than we deserved. If God had sent Jesus simply to be our example, that would have been good too and would have had some value- though, of course, no one ever would have lived up to that example. These things would have been good. But the wonderful thing is that God did not stop with these but rather sent his Son, not merely to teach or to be our example, but to die the death of a felon, that he might save us from sin. This is the fact that overwhelms the biblical writers and emerges almost without fail whenever they speak in depth of the love of God.” To be loved by a perfect love is incredible and we know that this love is perfect because Christ asks God to love us with the same love that He has for Christ. If ever there was a perfect love it would be the love between God the Father and God the Son and yet here we are being asked by Christ the Son to be loved with that very same love. Not on the basis of anything good in us but because Christ is in us and He Himself loves us and that love for which He has for us is never changing. God is never changing which means that His love for us can never grow any higher or lessen in any degree. Christian understand this God cannot love you anymore than He already does and the amount of love that He has for you is the same amount that He has for His Son. If you were doubting the assurance of salvation, you shouldn’t be doubting it now! There might be moments in your life where you may not be able to see God’s perfect love for you but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. No one doubts that the sun is gone just because there are clouds out right? There are moments of darkness in our lives right where we just need to know that we are loved. It may not necessarily make the situation better or remove us from a certain situation but it pays to know that we are loved, valued, and known by someone that is important to us. One great example of this comes from the greatest tv show ever made Bluey and the greatest episode of television ever made is an episode called Sleepytime. Now for my Bluey lovers in here, you know what episode I’m talking about but in this episode Bluey’s 4 year old sister Bingo is trying to go the whole night sleeping in her own bed but she struggles with it. There’s this part towards the end where Bingo is asleep and she’s having this dream where she’s in space and she’s cold and alone and she starts to cry and the music gets real slow and dark and you feel the weight of Bingo’s sadness and you know she’s afraid. Bingo’s mom hears her crying and in Bingo’s dream this comet picks Bingo up and you see this comet rush her to this planet that is right next to the sun and the music has this big crescendo and you can see the joy on Bingo’s face because what happened in that moment is that Chili, Bingo’s mom came to her and in that there is comfort and love and warmth and at the very end Chili says, “Remember I’ll always be here for you even if you can’t see me because I love you.” Then Bingo goes back to sleep. The situation didn’t change but her perspective did because she was reminded of the presence of her mom and reminded of the love that she has for her. In a way, is that not similar to what we experience right now? We’re not taken out of the world but Christ’s presence is with us. Our physical situation has not changed but the love of God remains constant for us. 1 John 3:2 reminds us: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” We will see Christ in glory and we will be like Him in glory and as we stand before the throne of God, we will never again question if we are loved because we will see the glorified Christ and we will see the nail prints in His hands and feet and we will be able to say beyond any shadow of a doubt: God really and truly loved me. Where He is, we too shall be. Let’s pray and then we will be dismissed.