Joy Unshakeable: Finding Our Delight in Christ John 17:16–26

Summary: In John 17:16-26, Jesus expresses His deep desire for unity and joy among His followers, praying for their protection and sanctification. He reveals the profound connection between His joy, the mission of the disciples, and their relationship with Him and the Father.

Application: This passage reminds us that true joy is found not in our circumstances but in our relationship with Christ. As we face doubts and challenges, recognizing our position as beloved children and the purpose Christ has for us can encourage us to embrace joy amid struggles.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that joy is a fruit of our relationship with Christ and is sustained through the unity we share as believers. By diving deeper into prayer and understanding our identity in Him, we can experience and share this joy with others.

Big Idea: True joy is found in our relationship with Christ and manifesting that joy through unity and love among believers as we live out our mission in the world.

1. Sanctified for Joyful Mission (16-19)

Perhaps you could begin by exploring how Jesus emphasizes the disciples' identity in the world but not of it, underlining the joy that stems from being set apart by truth.

3 John 1:4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth"

Psalm 119: 1-3: "Joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts"

Linking sanctification and mission highlights our source of joy: participating in Christ's mission through holiness. This should encourage each believer to find unshakeable joy in living a life that is distinctively guided by truth and aligned with Christ's purposes.

John Explanation of the Text

The same term was used in 10:36 where we translated it as “set apart” (ἡγίασεν) to refer to God’s consecration and dedication of Jesus for his mission to the world. As v. 18 is about to explain, the disciples are consecrated here and “set apart” for a related purpose, for God’s (continuing) mission to the world.

Jesus prays for the Father to sanctify them (vv. 17–18). To “sanctify” is to set something aside for a special use—like fine china reserved for special occasions. The disciples have been set aside for a special use. God chose them to fulfill a specific role in his plan. They serve as his witnesses to the world. The first disciples are the foundation of the church. God has a special role for them to play, and the world is their stage. They fulfill their role as his set-apart witnesses while remaining in the world (v. 15). Their example shows us what it means to be in the world but not of the world. It would be much easier to be out of the world, but we’re not called to monastic living. Kent Hughes observed that for some Christians, “It is possible to go womb to tomb in a hermetically sealed container decorated with fish stickers” (John, 402). Christians often take one of three different approaches to dealing with the difficulty of being in the world but not of the world.

Some practice isolation, believing the gospel needs to be protected instead of shared. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s Word, and they disengage from all non-Christians. They think, What better way to keep from falling away than to keep yourself as far as possible from any temptation? These Christians would love to buy forty acres of land at least fifteen miles outside of town, fashion a compound, and never set foot outside their barbed-wire fence. Their legitimate desire to remain faithful to God’s truth has caused them to disregard his mission.

Some practice inoculation, believing the gospel has made them immune to temptation and worldliness. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s mission and immerse themselves fully in the world. They ask, “What better way to reach the world than to blur any possible distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian?” These Christians minimize the biblical teaching on sin and repentance, choosing to live exactly as their non-Christian neighbors. Their legitimate desire to remain faithful to God’s mission has caused them to disregard his truth.

Isolation and inoculation are not the only options. A better perspective is insulation, believing a daily focus on the gospel protects us from temptation as we seek to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. Insulation means working diligently to balance faithfulness to the truth and faithfulness to our mission. We recognize Christians should live differently from non-Christians but not by removing ourselves from the world of non-Christians. We live differently in the midst of an unbelieving world, and the difference is seen in the unmistakable fruit of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Folks, you need to engage with the world. You may wish all ungodly, corrupting influences were removed from your life and you could forsake the world, leaving it to its own devices, but you’ve been given a mission to live out and share the gospel in the world.

The disciples will remain faithful because of the work of God. He will keep them faithful to his word and his mission. As they embrace the truth, they will be empowered to accomplish their mission to the world. When the power of God through the instrument of his Word comes to our hearts, it gives us the ability to obey and please him. God works through his Word to empower his people to keep following Jesus, even when following Jesus is tough.

In the mid-1800s John Paton left England on a boat as a missionary to the cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands. God used his Word to keep John Paton faithful to his mission. On one occasion, measles swept through the islands, killing thousands. Paton and some other missionaries were blamed, and their lives were again threatened. Listen to what Paton wrote in his diary:

Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. His Words, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold him, as Stephen did, gazing down upon the scene. I felt his supporting power.… It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after 20 years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smiles of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being leveled at my life. (Quoted in Piper, Filling Up, 81)

Jesus asked the Father to keep his disciples faithful to his words, and the word would keep them faithful to the mission. His prayer has been answered repeatedly over the centuries in the lives of the apostles like Peter and Paul and missionaries like John Paton. And we have confidence his prayer will be answered for us. God will keep us faithful to his Word, and use his Word to strengthen us on our mission to spread the glory of Jesus to the nations.

2. Unified in Joyful Fellowship (20-23)

You could discuss how Jesus' prayer for unity among His followers serves as a source of true joy. The unity Christ desires mirrors the relationship within the Trinity, showing that our joy is rooted in divine fellowship. This unity serves as a powerful testimony to the world, reinforcing our collective witness. Encouraging believers to foster this unity may help them experience joy as they reflect the nature of God and fulfill their mission.

Exalting Jesus in John (Jesus Prays that Believers Will Be United in Him)

Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be United in Him

This portion of the prayer has an overarching theme: “May they all be one” (v. 21). Jesus pauses to ask his Father to bring a supernatural unity to his church. While the weight of all the world’s sin is being placed on the shoulders of Jesus, our unity is on his mind. What does this unity that’s so important to Jesus look like? Let’s start with what it’s not.

Unity Is Not Compromising the Truth

D. A. Carson wrote,

[Unity] is not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator, but by common adherence to the apostolic gospel. (John, 568)

Jesus is not praying for unity based on our own personal opinions of who God is but a unity based on who God really is as revealed through his disciples. We are the people who believe on Jesus through the word of his disciples (v. 20). We believe what God has revealed about Jesus in the Bible. Our unity began when we heard the truth about God conveyed through the word of the disciples, and our unity continues based on that truth (cf. 1 John 1:3).

Every Sunday afternon when my church meets, I look around and see salesmen and accountants, managers and students, blue-collar workers and management, small business owners and retirees, moms and dads, husbands and wives. There’s no reason for them to sit in the same room listening to me unless I am teaching the truth about Jesus revealed in his Word. We didn’t go to the same colleges, we don’t like the same sports teams, we don’t have the same hobbies, but our bond is far stronger than the bond shared by those at the same country club or stadium. All of us know and understand we’re sinners deserving of God’s punishment and have received God’s grace because we believe on Jesus through the word of the apostles. We share something more powerful than a common experience or shared interest. We share Christ, and we don’t need to compromise the truth to be unified. Our unity does not come from deemphasizing the truth of God’s revelation.

Unity Is Not Outlawing Any Diversity

If you’ve seen a military documentary, then you can probably picture scenes where battalions of soldiers line up, all wearing matching uniforms, all standing the same way. They are faceless, nameless, and opinionless, but they’re uniform. Some believe the church should be a battalion of nondescript soldiers ready to assault the world. This often happens when a leader demands everyone think like he thinks. He often uses the pulpit to bully people into his positions. He’s trying to create good soldiers who think, look, and act just like him.

A rigid push for uniformity can actually be one of the most disunifying forces in a church because it denies the reality of the Spirit’s unique gifting (cf. 1 Cor 12:4–6).

4 Now tthere are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

The beauty of diversity is summed up well in the classic quotation: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Unity, not uniformity, is what Jesus is praying for.

Unity Is Participation in a Shared Relationship with Jesus

Unity is not compromising the truth or outlawing all diversity. The unity Jesus asks for is a unity of relationship. It’s receiving a new identity as one with Christ—being swallowed up in fellowship with God himself, his Son, and his Spirit (vv. 21–23). Christian unity is a result of entering into the deep relationship that exists within the Trinity. Jesus describes the foundational relationship between the Father and the Son (v. 21). The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Next he describes the relationship between believers and the Son (vv. 21, 23). The Son is in believers, and believers are in the Son. As a result, believers are in the Father (v. 21). Do you see how Christian unity is rooted in our relationship with Jesus?

Our relationship is not exactly the same as the relationship between the Father and the Son. The Father and Son are distinct persons, but they are eternally one in essence. We are brought into relationship with them through faith. We are placed “in Christ,” and the Spirit of Christ comes to live in us. By virtue of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, we enter into a deep, abiding, never-ending relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit.

The nature of the church’s unity is the unity modeled and enabled by the triune God. Just as the Father and Son are distinguishable yet perfectly unified, so we though different, with different gifts and backgrounds, preferences and appearances, are perfectly united in and through Christ. If there is a river of love that has eternally flowed between the members of the Trinity, then we find our unity with one another by immersing ourselves completely in it. We get so close to Jesus we become drenched with his love, with the result we cannot help but love one another.

The church in the ancient city of Philippi was experiencing disunity, with disagreements and conflict. Paul writes a letter to help them deal with their conflict:

Make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phil 2:2–4)

Don’t fight and argue, but instead be humble and have unity. How? What’s Paul’s antidote for disunity in the church? He continues in verse 5: “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.” He describes the humiliation of Jesus, how he came as a servant and was put to death as a criminal. What’s his point? The only way to draw closer to one another, the only way to grow in unity as Christians, is to become more like Jesus. Our unity is based in and empowered by Jesus alone.

Christian unity is a unity of relationship, and it’s also a unity of mission. The context of this passage is the mission Jesus had given his disciples. As believers discover their unity with one another in their union with Christ, they discover a unity of mission. The Father and the Son are unified in their desire to rescue sinners from the shackles of death (that’s why Jesus came), and as each church draws closer to Jesus, their unity will be displayed in a common dedication to the mission of Jesus. Like a nation whose homeland has been attacked by an enemy, the vision of that church will focus more precisely on the mission they’ve been given. All of the distractions will fade as a common passion develops to see men and women rescued from the horrible clutches of sin. When unity of relationship spills out and overflows into unity of mission, men and women will hear the truth about Jesus from the mouths of disciples of Jesus and will respond in faith to Jesus.

Tim Keller believed that a lack of joy in life can be due to a lack of mission

3. Joyful Hope in Glory (24-26)

Maybe it would be meaningful to reflect on how Jesus longs for His followers to be with Him and witness His glory, a source of ultimate joy. This anticipation of eternal communion provides a reason for joy despite present challenges. Emphasizing Christ's love and desire for us lays a foundation for joy that transcends circumstances, urging believers to focus on the hope of eternal life and the joy it brings.

Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be Reunited with Him

Christians experience a unique union and fellowship with Jesus right now, but it’s only a shadow of what we will experience for all eternity in his presence. In his Father’s house we will see his glory (v. 24). We will see the full display of divine goodness. We will experience the presence of Jesus in unveiled splendor. We get a taste of it now—through his Word and by his indwelling Spirit—but in the future we will experience the full delight and joy of unhindered fellowship with our Savior. John Calvin describes the difference:

At that time they saw Christ’s glory as someone shut up in the dark sees a feeble and glimmering light through small cracks. Christ now wants them to go on to enjoy the full brightness of heaven. (John, 402–3)

The apostle John said it this way in his first letter:

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

We will see him as he is. We will worship him face-to-face. What a privilege! What a promise! We, who know Jesus and have been received into his family, are going home. We’re going to a home unaffected by divorce, unmarked by abuse, and untainted by sin. We’re going to a home where we will forever experience perfect and complete harmony. Why? Because we’re going to our Father’s house.

Joni Eareckson Tada tells a wonderful story about a little boy named Jeff:

At the end of a five-day retreat for families affected by disabilities, a microphone was passed around so all the participants could share a couple of sentences about how meaningful, how fun the week had been. Little freckle-faced, red-haired Jeff raised his hand. We were so excited to see what Jeff would say, because Jeff had won the hearts of us all at family retreat. Jeff has Down syndrome. He took the microphone, put it right up to his mouth, and said, “Let’s go home.” Later, his mother told me, “His dad couldn’t come to family retreat because he had to work. Jeff really missed his dad back home.” (“Heaven, Our Real Home”)

It won’t be long until we get to go home. Not much longer and we’ll forever enjoy peace and unity in the Father’s house. In just a little while we will experience the uninhibited love the Father and Son have shared from before the foundation of the world. But we can begin to experience it here.

The church can be a taste of heaven. When people with different preferences, hobbies, jobs, genders, backgrounds, skin colors, accents, and tastes love one another with a love surpassing all human love, they open a window to heaven, and people begin to feel a breeze from a far-off country and in their souls awaken a long-dormant hope. They want to go to that place and be with those people who know, see, and feel something different, something beyond, something more.

The love of God assures us we have a home and a country on the other side of the sea. This knowledge binds us together and spills out in a love that feels strangely foreign but still familiar. When people see this love displayed in a million little ways, they will hope it’s real, and when the hope is confirmed, they will understand the story is true. They will know Jesus lives and Jesus loves.

Romans 8:11–13 ESV

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.