Our text this evening is John chapter 17, verses 20 to 26. That's found in page 1,150 in your Pew Bible. As you turn there, I was reminded, struck rather, about a play I'd seen some years ago. And in this play, there's this working class father and his son, and there's very little love expressed between the two. And at one point, this son, kind of exasperatedly, asks his father, do you like me? The father kind of gives him a good strapping down, doesn't have any words of love for him, but points as an evidence to that child everything he'd done for him, and then he leaves. And you're frustrated seeing that, because the love that father has for his son is ambiguous. What kind of love does this father have for this son? Is it big? Is it small? Is it begrudging? Well friends, before we read John 17 verses 20 to 26, I want to let you know that God's love in Christ for us is nothing like that love. God is so expressive about the magnitude, the height, the depth, the width, the breadth of his love for us. And it's a love that brings us not afar, but into the life of the Trinity. You know, don't you, that God the Father and God the Son have this relationship between them. They love one another. They are one and they have affections exchanged between one another. And God's blessings aren't just from afar given to us, but God with his mighty arm takes us Christians and brings us under the waterfall of the love exchanged between God the Son and God the Father. So we'll see that in this text, John 17 verses 20 to 26. We'll actually just read the whole prayer, but let's keep in mind we're going over 20 to 26, so the whole prayer. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me. and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me. I'm praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. And this is our text from 20 to 26, the end of that prayer. 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 am them and you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love 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've given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know you 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. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this mighty word. We ask that it would go forth in power. We ask that you would manifest something of your glory. Be in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, brothers and sisters, if you've been with us since June, we'd first gone over Jesus's prayer to the Father on His own behalf in verses 1 to 5. Then we went to Jesus's prayer specifically for His disciples from verses 6 to 19. And we applied all of that truth to us by way of Jesus's prayer directly for Him, then Jesus's prayer for the disciple, for the disciples, rather. Now we come to verses 20 to 26, and we find in verse 20 this truth, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. So now we've come to the third and last division of Jesus' prayer to the Father, and it concerns you and me. Christian, if you're wondering where you're at in the Bible, you know, you see Paul writing to the Ephesians and writing to the Philippians and Jesus praying for the disciples, you're right here. If you've believed on Christ savingly and you've believed on him through the truth preached, then guess what? You're right here. Christ is praying specifically for you, you who are seated in the pews in front of me and me behind this pulpit. Look at the language closely. Not only is everything forwards from verse 20 on for us, everything backwards. I don't ask for these only. Everything that the disciples were prayed for, Christ applies to us in this prayer. It's an all-encompassing prayer. And looking at Jesus's prayer for us, we're going to divide this prayer in two requests. The first request is found from verses 21 to 23, and then the second request is found from verse 24 with truth that's relevant from 25 to 26. So for that first request that Jesus levels to God, He prays. that all of those given to him may all be one, just as the Father is in me, or in him, and he is in the Father, that they also may be in them, so that the world may believe that you have sent him. So this is what we find from this, that God has set forth an example for believers, us, to imitate, and that's the unity between the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son, two distinct persons, yet one sharing one divine nature and one in purpose, one in action, one in will, and one in mind. And Jesus is praying to the Father that all his disciples, you and I seated here, would imitate God and Christ in being one. one in love towards one another, one in reciprocity, serving and glorifying one another, and an absolute inseparability, us not being divided from one another. And this ought to come as no surprise. Acts 4.32 says that the church is defined by unity. Acts 4.32 says, now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. We see language in verses 21 to 23 about us being in God and in Christ and Christ being in us. While it's certainly true that Christ dwells in us and lives in us, I think it's safe to say that that kind of language is pointing towards John 15 kind of language. Us being reliant upon God, relying on Him so fully for fruit bearing and for communion with Him. So two things we see right on the outset. Number one, a union with one another. And number two, a communion with God and Christ, reliance on Him to bear fruit. So that's just the preliminary stuff. But what exactly unites believers? What unites these united ones? So many people, and I don't know if you all have heard this, will point to a verse like this and say, denominational divisions, particularly between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, or Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox people, and Evangelicals, Reformed people, they'd say that this verse, that they all may be one, is being disobeyed. that we're sinning against God by not uniting together in the gospel with Catholics and with Orthodox and other old and ancient believers, Church of the East believers and Oriental Orthodox believers all throughout the globe. But what unites these united ones? I see two things uniting them in this verse. The first is verse 20, they're the ones who have believed in the truth that the apostles have preached. So they're united and there's true unity around the truth, what the apostles have taught. We might see from that implication that there's no true unity without a unity around the truth. So it's the believers, those who have believed through the things that the apostles have taught. And we can see this so clearly if we maybe just think of an example. Say you read this verse and you're convinced that we've got it all wrong. We need to get together with Catholics and Orthodox people and partner together. And every kind of division is from Satan. Christ prays that we're one. So you take your Catholic friend, let's say Francis, and you say, Francis, I'm convinced of John 17, 20 to 23. Let's be one. Furthermore, let's go out and preach the gospel together. And Francis says, great, let's go. So you guys go, and you walk through the streets of Grand Rapids. You see someone at a bus stop. Francis, let's go preach the gospel to that guy. And you go up to him, and you start to preach the gospel. Francis is next to you. You're preaching the gospel, and you're telling this non-Christian Look, you stand condemned and guilty before a holy God, but God has sent his only begotten son who was born the sins of sinners. He's died, he was buried, he's resurrected, and he's now ascended. If you'll turn from your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, you can be forgiven and be saved. Your Catholic friend just startled at what you've said. You talk about free grace and you talk about there's no place for works in your salvation except as an evidence and he's startled. He looks at you in a startled way and starts to interrupt and no, no, no, that's not what the gospel is and starts to give his own version. What's happening there? There's disunity because there's a lack of unity around the truth. So Christian, we have more in common in the gospel, we are more united with, and assemblies of God Christian or an Arminian Christian, who's truly Christian, who has the gospel right. More than Catholics, more than the Eastern Orthodox, because we're united around truth. There's no unity without truth. But secondly, these believers are united by a glory that Jesus gives them. You notice that in verse 22. The glory that you've given me, I've given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. And just to be transparent, this is a very, very difficult verse, and you'll find tons of commentators and theologians and exegetes disagreeing with one another. It's like if you consult one, they disagree with the other, but there's some mainstreams of thought. As I wrestled with this, I think I've come to this position, that that kind of glory that's given to the disciples is the glory given to them when they behold that John 1.14 glory given by God to Christ in His flesh. And what happens is when you Christians behold the glory of Christ, you're turned and transformed into that same glory. 2 Corinthians 3.18, we behold the glory of the Lord. We heard that this morning. And we're transformed into that very image. What I think this means is Christians, they look to Christ, And the image of God in them is being renewed and they're being changed more and more to the image of Christ. And when Christians see that in one another, this repaired image, this kind of regenerating work, what happens? You've experienced it maybe yourself. You're drawn to that person. You're drawn to one another. So those who've beholden Christ's glory in the gospel are changed into his image and then they recognize that glory in one another and are drawn to one another. So we see that this unity is defined by mutual adherence to the truth, united around the truth, and regeneration. So apart from adherence to the truth, adherence to scripture, and regeneration, seeing the image of Christ, and being renewed by that image, and then being drawn to one another, there's no union whatsoever. Very well, so the purpose of this unity, there is this unity, grounded on truth, grounded on regeneration, but what's God's purpose in it? We find that in verse 21, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And again in verse 23, that the world may know that you sent me and love them. Friends, the purpose of God-given unity, Jesus bringing together us to be united with one another, is a powerful call of evangelism to the world. Christians who are bound by the truth, but also bound to one another, attracted to one another, oftentimes with very little in common. If you're a true Christian, you found this to be true. You fellowship with and love believers that you would have never loved if it wasn't for Christ. But in Jesus Christ, because of that gospel work in you, you are compelled to loving one another. Think about this from the world's standpoint. If the world were to come in to this church and to see people with everything in common with one another united, it'd be perfectly explainable. They'd be able to explain it through sociological data or, well, they're all the same age, they're all singles, they're all married couples. But if there's seemingly nothing in this world attaching these people other than something unexplained, there's an inexplicable power and witness to the world coming in our midst, seeing people united with one another and not being able to explain why they're united. So that phenomenon of believers united to one another through nothing save the gospel and loving one another based on nothing save regeneration and then being born again and knit into the same family, it startles non-believers. So when the unbeliever comes into the church and sees the way we love one another, and that should be happening, evident love for one another, sticking around and fellowshipping with one another, praying with one another, They're compelled. There's something here that I've not seen elsewhere. There's a unity with the truth and in love that I can't explain. So if you're just on your own evangelizing to someone at work, and that's a good thing, we ought to do that. I heard a pastor say this once, if that happens, That person can label you as just a fanatic or someone strange or someone that takes their faith particularly seriously, but if they come into a community of people who love your God and who are bound to you, loving you, and united to you, It's almost like throwing paint on the invisible man. He sees what he is. He sees that there's something different about him, something you have that he doesn't have. And God can either convince him that he doesn't have that and he can leave, or God can use that as a means to drawing that sinner to saving faith in Jesus Christ. So note evangelism. Regular preaching of the scriptures, all of that stuff, are means to bringing people to saving knowledge in Jesus Christ. But your unity, brothers and sisters, your unity which Christ prayed for for the sake of a lost and dying world is another means of evangelism. So to some degree this unity, though we should strive for it, shouldn't be forced. If you're born again, you love other Christians. It's a mark of God's regenerating work in you. But at the same time, are we looking at Christ's unity as something that evangelism Salvation of the lost hinges on, to some degree, our love for one another, our giving ourselves up to one another, sacrificially placing ourselves down and being united around the proclamation of the truth. We see that as something hinging upon the evangelization of sinners and their knowledge of God. Secondly, do we see how seriously God in Christ takes unity and, by virtue, disunity? Maybe you've experienced a church split or lack of unity in another church you've been to. Well, be encouraged that God in Christ so desires unity that he uses the highest example of unity imaginable, unity between Christ and the Father, and just by analogy, Separation among Christians should be so ugly as separation between the undividable, indivisible Father and Son. That's how ugly it should be. So you can't even conceive of separation between the Father and the Son. And in the same way, we ought to see church disunity in that kind of ugly way. So that's all that unity portion, but notice verse 23. He prays that they be perfectly one, which means this unity can always be improved upon and it will eventually be answered in glory. But with what love, that love that he wants non-believers to know, with what kind of love does God love us with? It's found in the end of John 17 23, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me." Christian, God loves you. You see it in the pews, me behind this pulpit. God loves you as he loves his only begotten son. As I said at the beginning of this sermon, of this preaching, God does not put us out at arm's length when it comes to His love, but brings us into, as nearly as possible, the love that His Father and Him share. You are loved the way the Father loves the Son. With that kind of magnitude, with that kind of breadth, with that kind of height and that depth, That perfect love that God has for Christ from eternity past is reserved for the wandering, the wavering, the compromising, and God pours it out on us. Just as a side note, we ought to note that John 17, 23 is to be compared with John 15, 9. Jesus says to the disciples in that farewell discourse, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Notice, Christian, God loves us with the very love He loves the Son. And the Son loves us with the very love that the Father has for Him. You're seeing this picture, are you not? You're caught in between the Trinitarian love of God between Father and Son. And again, it's not just a blessing from afar, but God grabbing ahold of you and putting you in the midst of the Trinity in all its love. So unlike our performance, Christian, if this is a God that's between, or a love that's between God the Son and God the Father, unlike our performance that wavers, unlike our performance that's inconsistent, like our performance we are so grieved by so often, this love does not vary, can't be broken and can't be shifted. If we take these words seriously that God loves his son as he loves us, rather the reverse, we ought to see verse 24 talking about that very love that God has for us because he had it for his son. Verse 24, you've given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. So Christian, that love that God had for Christ was also placed upon you before the foundation of the world and it's unbreakable. Unshiftable, can't get any bigger than that, God's love for Jesus Christ throughout your life. So if this love is unbreakable, unshiftable, unchanging, what about when God comes into contact with our sin? We'd all admit that God is displeased with the sin, even of Christians. And the answer to even that is discipline flows from a fatherly heart of love. Read Hebrews 12. Discipline, whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. So friend, God's love for you is unshakable, utterly unshakable, as stable, as strong, as wide, deep, and high as his love is for his only begotten son. God's love for you is that very same way, and your sin won't turn it down, won't mute it, won't change it, because this God is unchangeable and this love that he has to his son is pledged to you and poured out upon you forever. So friend, maybe you're like me, but when struggling with sin, dare we to think that God would prohibit us from accessing his presence? If we've had a day marked by personal failure in so many ways, we've said things that we were ashamed of, we've gossiped or we've told a lie or we've done something shameful, can we run from his presence knowing this very fact? Friend, you cannot because he loves you as he loves his only begotten son. And for the self-doubter, for those who think that when you enter God's presence and you've perhaps fall in some way. And friends, every one of your actions is tainted by sin. Don't think you have some perfect act to bring to him. That's legalism. That's saving yourself by your good works. But if you're the self-doubter who thinks that because of sin or because of your inconsistent performance, God will grimace at you or you come into his presence and he frowns at you and he doesn't want you near him. Friend, what more extravagant, what deeper and higher term can God express concerning his love for you? I actually challenge you to think about that. How could God love you any more than he loves his only begotten son? What more can he say? There's no love greater than that love. And he lavishly gives us that love that he gives to his only begotten son. So all that kind of looking down and doubting and skirting away from God's presence because of our personal sin and our personal failings, it's absolutely inexcusable. There's no excuse for it because God's love's unchanging and God's love for you is as strong, wide, deep, and high as his love for his only begotten pure Son. So that's that first petition. Now for the second request. This one is just unbelievable. A second request is this found in verse 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 love me before the foundation of the world. We could literally park here for an hour and just preach from this text for the next hour. We could park here for several sermons, to be honest with you. We notice a few things from that request from the Son of God to the Father. First, that Jesus desires that you be with him. Jesus desires that you, Christian, those who have believed in the truth, would be with him where he is. In John 14, two to three, Jesus says to his disciples in that farewell discourse, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? So he tells them through truth, he preaches to them that he's going to a place and preparing a place for them to be with him. But then in John 17, 24, he's praying truth back to God. And he's adding, he's not saying, Father, they're going to be with me. He's saying, Father, I desire that they be with me. Why is he doing that? It's because in John 17, 24, the curtain is drawn back. It's not just bare truth. It's not you will be with me where I am. It's I desire with a strong desire that your people would be with me." You see the heart of the Savior in this petition. It's not just bare truth. It's accompanied by Christ's strong desire, I desire. And this desire is as immutable as His love. So Christian, Jesus desires you seated here. in his company and in his presence to be with him where he is. Listen to two quotes, quotes that I wish I could have written myself, it's absolutely impossible. One of them is from a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin. Listen to this, glorious truth. Thomas Goodwin says, it is as if he had said, the truth is I cannot live without you. I shall never be quiet until I have you where I am, so that we may never part again. That is the reason of it. Heaven shall not hold me, nor my father's company. If I have not you with me, my heart is so set upon you. And if I have any glory, you shall have part of it. It's amazing. It gets to the heart of that desire aspect of Christ's prayer. Listen to Robert Trail. It's amazing. Our portrayal says, Christians, behold the amazing difference between Christ's way of praying against his own hell, the cross, and his praying for our heaven. When praying for himself, it is, Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. But when Christ is praying for his people's heaven, it is, Father, I will that they may be with me. Friends, this truth of Christ desiring us to be with him where he is is found all over the scriptures. Think about Ephesians 1, 4. We don't think of Ephesians 1, 4 talking about this. We think about it being us being predestined and then being in God's presence as a holy and righteous and just person. But we miss the in his presence part. Ephesians 1, 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless, before him, before him. How amazing is that, brothers and sisters? Jesus wants me to be with him where he is. We have to be so enraptured by such a love that not only wants to save us and justify us, but to bring us in his presence where he is that we might be in company with him and fellowship with him. We are more reluctant, Christian. We are more hesitant to be in Christ's presence than he is to have us with him. We'll look at our sin, we'll put our heads down, we'll walk away, we'll do other things because of discouragement, but his desire is unbroken. He would have us to be with him. But this being with Christ is for a purpose. Why does Christ want us to be with him where he is? It's for this purpose, verse 24, to behold his glory. Look at that in verse 24. I am them, he keeps going, Father, I desire that they also may be with me to see my glory, to see my glory. This strong desire is not just for us to be with him, as I said, but there's a double gloriousness about it. It's that we might behold his glory. Christian Jesus wants you to see His glory. Before we meditate, before we dive deep into this, we can pass over words like glory and manifestation of glory without thinking about it. What does Christ mean when He says that He has a glory and He wants us to see that glory? Is the glory of God a fog? Is it a mist? Is it a light? Is it a feeling? The glory of God Just to cut to the chase, in this instance, is the display, is the putting out of God's holiness for us to see. His holiness put on display, and we see His power, His beauty, His matchlessness. We look upon it and behold Him as He manifests that to us. So that's what the glory of God is. It's the putting on display, it's the manifestation of Christ's holiness for us to see. And that's what our destiny is, Christian. It's Christ's awesome holiness bursting forth for all eternity, set out on display, and Jesus wants us there to see it. Christian, I wonder if you've thought about it this way, the glory of God, the glory of Christ, Christ's glory, God's glory, is what makes heaven heaven. What else would make heaven heaven but Christ's beaming, explosive glory. And we see that again throughout the scripture. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read a series of verses to you. that kind of center around this theme, proving to you that heaven is about the glory of Jesus Christ. It's about seeing His glory, and it's about His glory being manifested for all eternity. Check out these verses. I'm just going to read them out. 1 Peter 5.10, After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, In Acts 7.55, as Stephen's about to be beheaded, he looks to heaven and he sees this view that God gives him. What is it? But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. Jude 24. Unto him who was able to keep us from falling, to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. 1 Thessalonians 2.12, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 1 John 3, 2, 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, glorified bodies, because we shall see him as he is. 1 Corinthians 13, 12, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So friends, you wanna know why? Books like 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven is for Real, you wanna know why those books are trash, they're rubbish? They talk about all the other stuff in heaven and stuff that's not in the Bible and they miss this point. So you'll get Don Piper in 90 Minutes in Heaven, not John Piper, Don Piper, saying that he sees a choir and he's reconciled with loved ones and there's joy and happiness. You'll see that child and his father that wrote that book, Heaven is for Real, saying the Holy Spirit's blue and Jesus rides on a rainbow horse and I sit in his lap and angels sing to me. They're getting all that, but they're missing what the Bible puts a premium on. The stunning, beautiful, awe-inspiring, soul-thrilling, ecstatic experience of beholding the glory of Christ. So this is our ultimate experience, Christians. It's to behold His glory. He wants us to behold His glory, and yet all those books, all those books talking about going to heaven, they don't really talk about that. They talk about all that other stuff, but they miss that, which proves to you that they know nothing of the joys of heaven. That kind of view of heaven is man-centered. It's man-created. Man can create all kinds of pleasures and novelties and think that it's in heaven, but it's so clear that God is the author of a heaven that consists of beholding the glory of Jesus Christ for all eternity. In fact, when you go home, I encourage you, check out Revelation 21. What's the glory of heaven? What's the glory of the New Jerusalem? It's the Lamb. He's the glory. He's the light of the New Jerusalem. Not any of this nonsense. But as we talked about from 1 Corinthians 13, 12, we'll see, we'll behold powerfully in heaven, but our beholding, our seeing begins here. 1 Corinthians 13, 12, we see in a mirror dimly. We see by faith now. God gives us views of the Lord Jesus Christ, experiences of knowing his beauty, his glory, his worth, Through the scriptures, through the preached word, through prayer, through fellowship with one another. And through that we see Christ's glory dimly through that mirror. The question is, are you seeing that? Are you beholding or seeking to behold Christ in the scriptures? Christ glorified by sitting under the preaching of God's word, seeing more of him. Friends, Luke 24 makes clear, all the Scriptures testify of Jesus Christ. And we're to spend ourselves seeing this glory. Joy is to be given to us here. Are we using the means of grace as a means to behold more and more of the one to whom all the Scriptures testify? And yet, Christian, you know, if you are beholding the glory of Christ, and I trust that you are if you are a Christian, It's a weak sight, it's an interrupted sight because of our sin. Our sin and the frailty of our flesh and living on this earth limits our enjoyment and our view and our beholding of the glory of Christ. So here it's an interrupted sight and a partial sight, but oh friends, this beholding by faith will be transformed at death to a sight, a direct sight of the glory of Christ. It makes me think of an analogy. It's like the Queen of Sheba. You all remember in 1 Kings 10, the Queen of Sheba hearing of the report of Solomon and all his worth, all his riches, his wisdom. She hears about it. She's compelled to see him. When she sees all of the riches of the kingdom, her breath is taken from her. And she says to Solomon in 1 Kings 10, Behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpassed the report that I heard. Friends, that's what you'll experience at death if you're in Christ. Beholding Christ's explosive, beautiful, glorious glory. Church members of Seventh and just as Christians, you've experienced in your own life through those you've known and in this church death, Christians dying in Christ. Let it be known that every death in Christ in this church and in every church across the nation, across the world, every death in Christ is but the answer to this desire of Christ having his people with him where he is to behold his glory. It's like that desire is so powerful but waiting for God's will to be accomplished through us in the world, through doing work for his name's sake. And then finally, there's a period where God has willed it enough and his desire wins over and he brings us over into his glory. Christian, just to wrap that up, every good pleasure that you experience on earth, is but the merest shadow of this ecstatic, explosive joy in Christ. Friendship, companionship, good food, nature, and then even spiritual things, reading the Word of God, praying, is but a shadow pointing towards its fulfillment in that sight that we will have of Christ in His glory. Christian, you were tailor-made as a Christian for the sight of this joy. You as a believer, you as a born-again believer don't love Jesus for what he gives, but you love him for who he is. And who he is will be opened up to you for all eternity. He will open himself up to you to be delighted in. You will be betrothed to him. You'll be married to him in glory, and he will open up to you his beauties, his glories, his joys for all eternity. And that's why we totally understand why Paul in Philippians 1 said, you know, he was stuck between the two. To stay on earth is better for you, to go and to depart, but to be with Christ, that's how he talked about heaven, to be with Jesus Christ is far better. That's all that heaven is. Listen to these hymn words from a wonderful, wonderful hymn called The Sands of Time Are Sinking. It brings this truth home. Oh Christ, he is the fountain, a deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted, you beholding Christ through a mirror dimly. Streams, you're tasting streams. The streams on earth I've tasted, more deep I'll drink above. There too an ocean fullness, his mercy doth expand and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, nor on his pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land." So brothers and sisters, If Christ will be our greatest satisfaction in heaven, let him be our greatest satisfaction on earth. Go forth boldly and take a hold of the means of grace to get to know as much of the Savior on this side of eternity that you might be ready to behold him fully on that side. And that kind of satisfaction, we talked about it last time, John 17, 13, that joy in us, full of joy, of Christ's joy, such a satisfaction as that will render every worldly pleasure dim. It's like the other hymn said, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full on his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Friends, that's your destiny. But at last, we go to the last two verses of this chapter, where Jesus prays to the Father, O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know you, 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. Friends, just as we go through, we see Jesus shares glory with us. Jesus shares love with us, the love he experiences between the fathers shared with us. And lastly, he shares knowledge, knowledge of God with us. You notice that language of name and world. Jesus praying that they don't know the name, but he makes it known to the disciples and to Christians. That's just a summary of what we saw in John 17.6. Jesus' mission on earth was to make known God's name, who he was at his core. Notice that no man can know God. Makes me think of Revelation 19.12, Jesus on that horse and no man knows his name. But guess what? Christ, Christ in his full divinity knows God fully and that's a proof that Jesus is God. Who can know the eternal God except for eternal God, eternal mind? And Jesus doesn't only know this God, God the Father in his fullness, he pours it out, he gives it to us. This is linked to what we said in John 17 verses 6 to 19. The knowledge he has, he lights us with. He gives us that knowledge and opens our eyes to know Christ. Without that, we can know nothing of God. Again, Christian, the only reason we're here, saved, is because Christ manifested God's name to us. You're sitting here a born-again Christian because God made known to you, Jesus made known to you God's name. So look at what he does, look at verse 25 and verse 26, I made known to them your name. So verse 26, I made known to them your name. Jesus made known the name of God and that's why we're sitting here saved. Notice that second part, I will continue to make it known. Jesus is talking about his ongoing ministry in heaven now. Not only that the disciples and old believers would know God, but he would continue to open up knowledge of God to sinners across the world. Notice that if you're here and you're not trusting in Jesus Christ, you've not put your saving faith in Christ, Jesus is still on mission making God's name known to those who have not been reconciled to God through him. So is that you? Are you one of those? who don't know God. You know about Him. You've heard about Him. You don't have this intimate relationship we've been talking about, seeing God's glory, beholding His glory, worshiping and fellowshipping with Him. Friend, if that's you, the good news is is that Christ continues to make God's name known. And He does it by calling all non-believers to look upon His only begotten Son. came and took on flesh, lived a life fulfilling the law and fulfilling all righteousness, and instead of being treated as one of the righteous, bearing the sins of sinners in his body on the tree, being treated as one of the wicked, dying, being buried and risen again, so that all who would trust in the one treated as guilty in their place would be saved and justified. So friend we just we call upon you in love tonight trust in this Christ, trust in the Savior, he's continuing to make known the name of God. But then that last last point, Christ does this work of making us know God but what's the goal of making us know God in that way? Two things, it's that the love You read it in verse 26, the love with which Jesus was loved of the Father may be in them. And secondly, that Jesus would be in them. So the very love we talked about in verse 23, the love that God loves us with, that God loves His only begotten Son with, is not only to be a mere intellectual adherence to the truth, but is to live within us. We as Christians, Jesus's desire and God's design is that through salvation we would be the experiencers, the feelers, the knowers of the love that God has for Jesus in us. The very same love that God loves us with. And that Jesus's presence, that Jesus would indwell us. So friends, those two things The love of God in Christ in us and Christ in us ought to remind us of one thing. And this is the last place we're going to go and we're going to close here. It ought to remind us of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 3 with me. And in Ephesians 3, this is what Paul prays for the Christians. He bows his knees that according to the riches of God's glory, he may grant Christians to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner being, two things, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith and that we being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend and to know, verse 19, the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. So Christian, at your salvation, God places in you the love that God has for Christ in you, and he indwells you. But are you content with the love that you've experienced at the beginning, and can you live that way for the rest of your Christian life? I think that we can look at Ephesians 3 as a warrant to ask God for more knowledge of that love placed within us, and more knowledge of a manifested, indwelling Christ in us. We have God's warrant to ask for more of the knowledge of the love of Christ in us, given to us, not an intellectual knowledge, but a sensed knowledge of the love of Christ and the knowledge of Christ dwelling in us. Christian, will you petition God for more of that knowledge? Will you seek Him for more of that knowledge? Friends, that's John 17 verses 1 to 26 as we've gone through it in the past three sermons. May we revel as a body upon what Christ has revealed about his love for you. That election is not some intellectual exercise, but that you were the sheep given to Christ from eternity past. that Jesus deeply desires your sanctification in the word of God. Jesus deeply desires his joy fulfilled in you. And in this section of scripture, Jesus desires that you would be with him, united, that you'd be with him where he is to behold his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for the truth of scripture and we thank you for the truth of Christ's prayer for us. As we wrap it up, Lord, we just ask in Jesus' name that you would give us views of the glory of Christ, help us to be united with one another in Jesus. Lord, we ask that you would cleave us to you. Lord, let Christ's beauty be our obsession as a church body. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.