The Love of God Revealed

As we jump back into John 17, we are aiming to start pulling the whole picture together. What we are going to find is that this prayer of Jesus carries far greater depth than what we pick up on the surface. But to pull it all together, we need to do a little lexicology.

Is anyone familiar with that word? “ Lexicology”

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics that aims to study words, their nature, their meaning, and how they are used. It involves defining words, exploring origins and their usage in language. A Lexicologist would study the relationships between words and their role in communication.

In a sense, you and I are already building our Lexicological skills just by defining it. Who knows, maybe by the end of our time here you may develop a longing to become a Lexicologist!

There are three words we need to be familiar with and luckily for us, Pastor Dave helped us with two of them last week.

“Holy.”

Just to briefly help us with this word, we can think of God’s Moral Purity. God is entirely free from any moral blemish or imperfection. In every way He is free of sin, because He is separate from it. When we speak of God’s holiness we are speaking about His absolute moral perfection. This is why he is unable to tolerate sin.

It also involves God’s “otherness” or the fact that He is separate from His creation. He is is not in creation or part of it. He is totally distinct from it. Which also points to His transcendent nature.

In short, when we think of the word Holy, we can define it as being supernaturally set apart.

Sanctified

Sanctification

Is definitive in that in the moment of your salvation in Christ you are set apart by God.

It is also progressive in that it is a process of becoming holy. All through our lives, we will continue to grow and mature into the image of God. On this side of heaven, no one will ever be pure, undefiled, in their holiness. It is a renewing of commitment to Christ and His ways day after day that I slowly begin to break away from sinful habits, thoughts, and desires. The more humble and present I am with Christ, the more my state of impurity is cleansed by the leading of His Holy Spirit. Meaning that we can think of Sanctification this way, it is the process of becoming more like Jesus.

As believers in Jesus, we all have hope of eternity, where our old selves will pass away and we will be given new bodies. Where our final sanctification will make us complete, fully conformed to the image of Christ, fully purified from our sin.

Consecrated

Last week, we learned that Jesus consecrated Himself in order that we might be sanctified. To be consecrated is to the act of setting something apart, so that it can only ever be used for holy purposes.

Biblically, we see that God’s priests were consecrated - they were set aside from the other Israelites to be used by God for Holy purposes only.

We see certain festivals and the Sabbath Day consecrated as Holy days of worship and rest. Days where Israel was called to stop everything they were doing and be present with God.

We also see specific locations consecrated in the Old Testament. Places where people had divine encounters.

Now that we have a grasp of these three words, I want to use them to help recap where we have been and where we are going today. What we will find is that in the perfect love of God, these three words actually point us to a fourth. In fact, this fourth word is so much more than a word in that it is one of the dominating longings of Jesus in this passage.

We see this development of thought in the convictions Jesus shares with the Father:

Jesus longs for the Father to be glorified and has glorified the Father through His obedience, teaching, miracles, operations on earth, and in preparing Himself to go to the cross.

In every way, Jesus submitted Himself to the Fathers will and brought glory to God.

Jesus longs to be glorified by the Father. That through His death and resurrection he would return to the eternal communion He left when becoming a man. By dying on the cross, Jesus is glorified as the only way for humanity to be saved from sin and be reconciled with the Father.

These first two longings represent the shared glory between the members of the Trinity. It is because of their shared glory and love for one another, that we are given the opportunity to be saved from our wicked hearts.

Thirdly, Jesus prays for a type of Godly Joy and Godly protection for believers. That these would be an evidence that those who have been saved are set apart from this world by God. Meaning they have been sanctified by the truth. So, we have received the divine truth from Jesus and in receiving it, God’s Holy Spirit uses it to sanctify our souls, to start making us holy.

Last week, we learned that Jesus consecrated Himself in order that we might be sanctified. To be consecrated is to the act of setting something apart, so that it can only ever be used for holy purposes.

So Jesus, consecrated himself, setting himself apart as the only savior of the world. But in consecrating Himself, He sanctifies us. Meaning, he invites us into His holiness. So we are both Sanctified and Consecrated in the saving work of Jesus.

Are you tracking with me?

Because of the shared glory and love between the Trinity Jesus came. He came to glorify the Father. In glorifying the Father, He saves us and is Himself glorified by the Father.

Did you catch it?

You and I can experience salvation from this dark, depraved world. Our hearts, our minds, our souls can be purified because the Father loves the Son and in return the Son loves the Father.

It is out of their perfect, unified, pure affection for one another that we can be saved.

Jesus came as an act of submission to the Father.

The Father glorified Jesus before all men because He submitted.

Consider Philippians 2:9–11 “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Or 2 Peter 1:17 “17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,””

Throughout all of John 17, Jesus is focused on what it means for the Trinity to be in perfect unity, to be perfectly generous, perfectly affectionate. Collectively, these all speak to God’s perfect love.

Friends, this is a window that allows us to look with clarity at the God of all the universe. The creator of all things. Yahweh, who’s words are so powerful that when He speaks His very words have the power to create..... God is so clearly above us. He is glorious and majestic in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.....

When do we stop to allow ourselves to resonate with David in Psalm 8:4–5

“4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

How is it that we fit into this picture at all????

You might be thinking,

John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

While that answer carries truth and some meaningful weight, it’s only a partial answer. The humbling thought I had this week is, “Perhaps the love of God for us is nothing more than an overflow of His love for the members of the Trinity.”

- Your immediate reaction to that may be “that statement diminishes God’s love for us.”

No, it doesn’t. We are not talking about human love.

When we talk about God’s love we find that Its perfect in every way, its pure in every way, and it’s capacity is so great that it’s overflow from within the Trinity would dearly love mankind and make inexplicable sacrifices for worthless men and women. There is no shortcoming and there is no imperfection. It’s full, its rich, God’s love is complete in every way.

When we consider the fulness of the love of God within the Trinity, its profoundly humbling. When we evaluate God’s love in full, we have to see the depths of our selfishness. The imperfections of our love. How we are so damaged and distorted. Not one of us can relate to the purity of His affections. Our love is impure, it is often self-motivated, it easily becomes defensive and at times is willing to exploit.

But God just continues to give and give and give. Out of the depths of His love He never holds back. He is always giving of Himself.

And it is because He is giving of Himself, because His love is so perfect and pure, because He never holds back anything that is right and true that He invites us into His perfect love.

This is the picture that the chapter is painting so far. Today, we are looking at how this revealed love of God is given to humanity.

Based on the fuller context of the chapter we have to ask,

What does it mean for men and women to be consecrated by a holy God?

That you and I would be set apart for His holy purposes?

What does it mean that He has sanctified and is sanctifying us through His Spirit?

That God never abandons us to any measure of wickedness, but forgives and restores? And continues to invest in us?

Why is God so set on Sharing His Holiness with us?

Why is he looking at us, sinful, wicked people who are imperfect in almost every way and long to give us that which is most pure and precious?

I am not going to pretend to have all the answers. But verses 20-23 offer us some clarity on how

John 17:20–23 “20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 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. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 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.”

You may have noticed, there is a lot of familiar language that has already been used in this chapter. Jesus, is pulling it all together. But what we have to pay attention to is that Jesus has book-ended everything from verse 11-23. The book ends on both sides are the same call. Everything in between helps us have greater clarity on how to live it out. The call, the fourth word that Consecration, Sanctification, and Holiness all point to in how Jesus Develops the passage is “Unity.” But not just any unity, it is God’s divine, all loving, unity. It is the unity that is shared by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s completely pure and generous in every way!

Here, Jesus shows how this perfect unity extends by the perfect love of God to humanity.

He starts in verse 20;

John 17:20 “20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,”

He is still praying to the Father about the disciples and other followers. But now, He includes all people for the rest of time. That if any of them would believe, if any would receive this perfect love of God, that they would be brought into perfect unity, bound together by God’s overflowing love.

This extends from one believer to another. It is a commitment and loyalty to each other before God. First, we find it among those in our own local church. But it is not to be isolated to this specific body. The call for unity is across all believers, which means we need to be unified within our local community of churches as well as with anyone who has put their faith and trust in Jesus. Anyone who is also walking towards Jesus.

John 17:21 “21 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.”

So unified together that we would function as one being. The longing of Jesus is that you and I would be so committed to one another before His throne that we would function as one. Just as Jesus, The Father, and the Holy Spirit are one.

Friends, this is a major call throughout the Bible. We see it in the Old Testament and in the New. But here, we get a sneak peak at the very words of Jesus. His longing in prayer is that you and I would eagerly keep our focus on Him together. That we would help each other stay focused on the Lord. That we would encourage and build up. That we would live on mission for His kingdom. We are called to be vitally connected to each other because when we are, we reflect Jesus.

“So that the world may believe” Our unity is a clear reflection of the very person of God. Which means we must be diligent not to divide over differences in personal conviction. We must aim to be to God, to His gospel, to live in purity with one another.

“Just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that THEY ALSO MAY BE IN US.”

So this unity is not separate in form from God but very much the same in that He is in us.

You see, at the moment of salvation, when you put your faith and trust in Jesus there is that Definitive Sanctification we talked about earlier. Where God sets you apart as one of His own. Its in that same moment that the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Which means your body becomes God’s temple.

Which ought to make us think about the ways we treat God’s temple.

Do we steward it by submitting it to Him, keeping it pure from defilement?

God’s Spirit lives in those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus. Meaning that every believer is supernaturally unified in ways that we cannot fully understand. Its why earlier that same night, Jesus shared with His disciples

John 13:35 “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

The longing of Jesus is that all who believe in Him, for all time, would be so unified with one another by His Spirit that our very existence would be a reflection of the person of God.....

Jesus confirms it again in John 17:22 “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,”

Friends, I love this church. I love how God has pulled us all together, to function as His bride. I love the united effort to worship the name of God and the desire to reach those who don’t know Him with the good news of the gospel. In so many ways, we have linked arms with one another and we have moved the lines of ministry forward.

I praise God for that!

I praise God for you!

..... At the same time.... the reality of this passage exposes us. It reveals that though we are unified in so many ways, there is still work to do.

This may be the most humbled I have been by scripture for quite some time. And it’s not because we have failed. But it is because, we are not there yet.

So I want to ask you to join me.

Would you closely evaluate your personal unity and connection within the church?

Your commitment to be present for worship

your commitment to finding opportunity to serve God’s kingdom.

Would you evaluate your relationships with all of the brothers and sisters who worship the Lord in this room?

Is there anything between you? Is there anything holding your back from generously loving them in how you move forward?

Would you evaluate if there is anything you are holding back from God or from this community of believers?

Pause

How is God calling you to take a step towards unity within His church?

Is He calling you away from anything, so that you can make a meaningful move towards loving unity?

It is so disarming when we consider that we as the family of God have been set apart together. That He has consecrated us for His purposes and He purposes that we do it together.

Our charge to be unified is not limited to the extent of our having been sanctified, consecrated, and being made holy. Rather, for believers who are being sanctified, consecrated, and made holy - these are the catalysts unity in direction. Because God saved us, because God is doing a holy work in us, because God has called us to live on mission together.

If there is anything between you and another believer, be diligent to humbly confess your frustration. Be active in working through the tension - not so that you get your way - but so that we can collectively be united in worship and in mission. Anything that is with held or ignored will be a hindrance to ministry here.

Are you willing to put in the work to mend differences you may have with others who worship here?

How might the Lord move, if we prioritize Him with one another in this way?

Jesus finishes this section by pulling the whole picture into one sentence - 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.”

It all ties together, because of His perfect love.

Are you growing in His perfect love?

Lets pray

“Thank you Lord for your perfect, Overflowing Love, that brings profound unity when we are submitted to you. Help us to be your sanctified people, consecrated for your purposes, United before your throne. Where there is rift, Lord we pray for humble unity.”