The following sermon is brought to you by Capitol Community Church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home, or from out of town, looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers, please join us for worship at 1045 a.m. every Sunday morning, and six o'clock p.m. for our evening service. If you have any questions, please email us at info at CapitalCommunityChurch.com. We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ. I invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 17, and we are, Lord willing, going to finish studying the true Lord's Prayer, the High Priestly Prayer this morning. As you're turning there, let me pray for our time studying God's Word. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray, that you would speak through me in the power of your Holy Spirit. I pray, Lord, that you would make your word clear to us and that you would apply its truth to our hearts. And Lord, where we need to be convicted, I pray that you would convict. And where we need to be encouraged, I pray that you would encourage. And if there are any, Lord, who do not know you, I pray, Lord, that you would open their eyes to the truth. And I ask all these things for your honor and your glory. Amen. Well, Jesus' high priestly prayer, as we have seen in John chapter 17, breaks down into three sections. The first section, verses 1 to 5, is when Jesus prays for himself, where he prays for his own glory. Verses 6 to 19, is where he prays for all of his current disciples, and he prays two things for them. He prays for their conservation, that God would protect them, and he also prays for their consecration, that God would sanctify them. And now we come to verses 20 to 26, and these are just absolutely astounding verses. just mind-blowing verses because Jesus prays for you and for me. I struggled what to title the message this week. I basically have two titles. You'll see I have two different titles. There's a different title in the bulletin than what's on the note sheet. On the one hand, I called it The Disciples and the Future. These are the disciples of the future because Jesus looks forward in time and he prays for the disciples of the future. I was watching, I should say, a 4th of July parade and I saw all these guys, they were probably all Gen X guys, driving DeLoreans. It was like a whole slew of them. It was like a DeLorean club. And as they were driving, they had the doors open. These are the cars that have the doors that open up. And they were all holding that pink hoverboard. They were all holding the pink hoverboard in their arms that you remember Marty McFly went to the future, saw what was in the future. And then he saw that instead of skateboards, people didn't ride skateboards anymore. They rode on hoverboards. So he saw what was in the future. And of course that hasn't happened yet. We're still riding skateboards, not hoverboards. But Jesus is omniscient. He is divine. He is sovereign. He is the Lord of history. And he knows and is working for the future. In fact, he is praying for the future. So in one sense, this is the disciples of the future. But what Jesus prays for, and this is the second title, is the disciples in unity. Jesus's prayer is for unity, and we're gonna see why. But I think it is interesting that of all the things that Jesus could possibly pray for, he prays for the unity of his disciples, the unity of his church. Let me show you how verses 20 to 26 break down. It's basically an Oreo sandwich. So verse 20, Jesus intercedes for the future disciples. It's the work of Christ intercession, verse 20. So the cookies of the Oreo are all Christ's work, and then the cream filling is what Christ does to us. The cream filling is verses 21 to 24, and that is the unity of the church, the unity of the disciples. That's what Jesus prays for, and Jesus is going to explain what it is and what he's asking the Father to do in terms of the unity. And then we come to the work of Christ again, verses 25 to 26, and this is Christ's work of revelation in the future, that Christ reveals the Father to future generations, that he will make God's name known and people will come to faith and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that they will know God and they will know the love of God. So, if we look at this first part of Christ's work in verse 20, look what Jesus says. This is his intercession for future disciples. He says, I do not ask for these only, talking about the 11 now that are with him as they are going towards the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, I don't ask for these only, nor the other, the 70, I don't ask for them only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Notice the future tense, those who will believe in me. Also notice the certainty in which Jesus speaks. there will be a future church. The church will not end with these 11 disciples. There's a certainty. There's a fixed fact about what Jesus is doing that the gospel will advance that the church will be built. In fact, Jesus had told the disciples in Matthew chapter 16, do you remember he said, and I tell you, talking to Peter, after Peter had made his confession, he said, and you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. and Protestants and Roman Catholics have gotten in all sorts of arguments about what Matthew 16, 18 means. Was Jesus telling Peter that he would be a pope and would establish a perpetual papacy throughout history? No, he was not. But what he was saying to Peter is that as much as Peter was the representative of the other apostles, which he was, and Peter's confession that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that work of confession, that message of the apostles would serve as the foundation of the church. We are all here because of the message of the apostles that they proclaimed. But Jesus says, as they proclaimed the message, who will build the church? Did he say that the apostles will build the church? No, he says, I will build my church. Jesus will build his church. His power is what establishes the church through the work of the Holy Spirit. And he says, the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Hades represents the place of the dead, evil. Evil will not prevail against the church. So here we are, over 2,000 years since Jesus said those words, and we are worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has preserved and Christ has prevailed in his church. There's a series of church history books that I like to read called 2,000 Years of Christ's Power. That's what the history of the church is called. 2,000 years of Christ's power. That's what the history of the church is, is it's Christ's power displayed for 2,000 years. So the advance of the church is not accidental or haphazard or was really ever in jeopardy, it was guaranteed. Michael read a few minutes ago, Psalm 102, 18, let this be recorded for a generation to come so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. So there will be a future people and if Christ tarries and does not come back in this generation, guess what? there will be a future generation of Christians. The church will prevail, the church will go on because Christ is sustaining it. Now if you look at verse 20, our Lord gives three marks. or characteristics about this church. And I call it the church universal because what Jesus is referencing in verse 20 is not a specific local church, it's not talking about the institutional church, but he's referencing all true believers throughout history. And this is called the church, sometimes the church Catholic. That just means universal. That means all the Christians throughout time that have been truly born again, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how Jesus describes the church. First, he says the church is defined by its faith. He says, I do not ask for those only, but those who will believe, those who will believe. The true people of God throughout history are always marked by one thing, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not faith in works, not faith in penance, faith alone. faith alone in the person of Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible, not the Jesus of our imagination, not Jesus who is merely a man and not God, but Jesus who is truly man and truly God. Paul says, Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him. John 3, 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The people of God throughout the past 2,000 years have always been people of faith. And it's not just that you have faith, a lot of people have faith, but it's faith in Christ. Secondly, The church is established through the word of the apostles. Again, look back at verse 20. Jesus says, those who have believed or will believe in me through their word, through their word. So it is the message of the apostles, the gospel message, the New Testament revelation, which is proclaimed, which builds the church. If you look back at verse eight, John 17, eight, Jesus says, for I have given them, this is to the apostles, the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. And as we've seen past two weeks, Paul says in Romans 10, 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So the true church, is always dependent upon the Word of God. Always. It always looks to the Word of God as authoritative. And when the church has been empowered to do great things throughout its history, it's always because there's been a recovery and a rediscovery of the Word of God. where God's word is faithfully taught in the church and God's people respond, they're convicted through the word of God because the Holy Spirit uses the word of God as his instrument to build the church. Jesus says in John 10, 16, I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. They will listen to my voice. So the true church is always built up through the power of the word of God, always. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for the Jew first and also to the Gentile. So the true church believes in the power and efficacy of the word of God. you are born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. We've covered this again and again, but Jesus keeps emphasizing that it is the word of God that builds the church. And then third, This is spectacular and amazing to think about, but you see Christ's love for his church. So first, the church has always been people of faith. Second, they've always been people who have come to faith through the word of God. And third, these people are immensely loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we notice this by the sheer fact that Jesus is praying for you, for us, for his church. Jesus is praying for his church, not just the present disciples. In Ephesians chapter five, Paul calls the church the bride. The church is Christ's bride. How many brides does Jesus have? One, and we're it. Christ's love for later disciples is no less than his love for the present disciples. Even though James and John and Peter, Jude, are all there with him, Jesus loves his future disciples just as much as he loves them. That's really amazing to think about. You know, we are Johnny-come-latelys to the party of Christianity. But Christ loves us just as much as he loved his present disciples. There's no lack of love throughout history. The writer of Hebrews says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His love is infinite. From his fullness we have received grace upon grace. There's no shortage of the love of Christ. It flows throughout history to each and every new generation, and I find that so encouraging because it's easy to look back at generations of the past and to look back, for example, at the time of Spurgeon or the time of Whitefield and the Westleys and Edwards and the Great Awakening, or to look back in the early church, great preachers like John Chrysostom and Athanasius. It's easy to look back and say, wow, God really carried his church then. God did great things then. Those people were especially loved by the Lord. And then to think less highly of our current situation, as if Christ has less love for us. But that's not true. Christ loves us just as much as he loves all his disciples. And so we need to go to the throne of grace and say, Jesus, Show your love and power upon your church. If you worked that way in the days of Wesley and Whitfield, would you work that way again in and through us? Lord, we are your body that you love. So Lord, show us your love in manifold ways because we know it's true. I saw this verse this week, Psalm 118. Let Israel say, his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say, his steadfast love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say. His steadfast love endures forever. But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love of Christ for you has not run dry, and therefore he prays for you. Think about that, that is marvelous. And guess what? He always lives to make intercession for us. His intercession continues and it is an intercession of love. So never doubt the love of Christ for you. Don't doubt it. So that's the first part, all right? So here's what he prays for. He prays for the church's unity, and the reason he prays for this is because Jesus says that the church's unity will be pivotally important for the church's witness to the world. So look at verse 21. Jesus prays. that they may all be one. All the disciples throughout history, that they would all be one. Literally, he just says, the number one, that they would be one. Same word Jesus uses in Matthew 19 five, when he quotes Genesis two, the two shall become one flesh, talking about a husband and a wife. Same word that Jesus uses in John 10, 16. So there will be one flock and one shepherd. The people will be one. The Apostle Paul picks up this idea. This is Galatians 3, 28. He says, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one. You are one entity in Christ Jesus. Paul says in Ephesians 2.15, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, in place of the Jews and the Gentiles, so making peace. So what Jesus is praying for is the unity of the church, and this is very important to understand. This is by implication. If Jesus is praying for the unity of the church, who is it that creates unity in the church? God does. We do not create unity, and that needs to be put on blast and repeated a hundred times, because people always talk about we need to do reconciliation, we need to do something to unify the church, but if you approach unity that way, you are dead in the water from the very beginning, because it is always God who creates the unity. We do not, you do not have the capacity to create one ounce of unity, none, none. If you worked at it for a thousand years, you could not create any unity. We are instructed, Paul says in Ephesians four, to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. So we work to maintain, to hold fast to the unity that God creates, but we don't create the unity. The unity is something that the Lord does. So I want you to see the origin of our unity. Jesus explains where it comes from. This is a technical phrase. Some of the things that Jesus says are high theology, difficult to understand, but stay with me here. But in verse 21, he says, he uses an analogy. He says, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. So there's this sense where there's a mutual indwelling between the Father and the Son, so much so that whatever the Son did, the Father does. Whatever the Father does, the Son does, because we have one God, three persons, but yet each of the persons is God. So there's a sense, this is high Trinitarian theology, that whenever one person of the Trinity, even though that person of the Trinity is distinct, There's a sense where God is acting in that action. When Jesus died on the cross, it was the son who was on the cross, not the father. not the Spirit, but yet there's this sense, because Jesus is God, that all three persons of the Trinity are at work in bringing about redemption. And it's nearly impossible for our minds to comprehend the depth of this, but Jesus, for example, said to Thomas in the upper room, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. because I display the character qualities of God in such a way, so much so that God is in me that if you see my qualities, you see the qualities of God the Father himself. So take that analogy, difficult as it may be, and Jesus says, that they also may be in us. So there's a mutual indwelling of the Father and Son, and Jesus then says basically, there is a mutual indwelling of God the Father and God the Spirit through the believer. Okay, is that confusing? That's hard to understand. But what he's talking about is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the reason I know that is because you always, when you come across a hard text, you always want to interpret scripture with scripture. So what does he mean, I in you? This is difficult language to understand, but if you turn over, turn over with me, I want you to see this. We covered this probably four months ago now, John 14 verse 18. Jesus is talking about sending the Holy Spirit. And if you look at verse 18 of John 14, he says to his disciples, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. He will come in the person of the Holy Spirit. Remember, that's kind of that language of mutual indwelling. The Holy Spirit comes, but Christ is coming through the Holy Spirit. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you also will live. Now look at verse 20. In that day, what's that day? That's the day of Pentecost. That's the day that the Holy Spirit comes. You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. You see it? He's talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, if you would turn back to John 17. So with that in mind, and when you look at what Paul teaches, Paul teaches that every Christian after Pentecost, when you are born again, receive the indwelling Holy Spirit. that you receive a birthday gift, so to speak, and the Holy Spirit comes and takes residence in your heart, in your soul, forever. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit took residence in the temple, in the tabernacle. In the New Testament, He takes residence in us. Let me give you some cross-references. 1 Corinthians 6-11. Paul says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, and by the Spirit of our God. And then he says, famous words, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, For in one spirit, notice that language, listen to that language, in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews are Greeks, slaves are free, and all made to drink of one spirit. Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 4, 4, talking about unity. He says there's one body, one spirit, and one hope that belongs to your call. Here's why this is important. there is only one Holy Spirit. One Holy Spirit. And that one Holy Spirit works in similar, almost the same way in every single Christian. You have Christians throughout the past 2,000 years from just a myriad of nations, cultures, ethnicities, but you have one Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit works in almost exactly the same way in every single Christian. You see why that's important for unity? So the Holy Spirit brings about conviction of sin. You're going along in your life and somehow you become convicted over the sin that you are walking in. The Holy Spirit through the Word of God brings about the new birth where you are regenerated. and you come to have this new affection for God. The Holy Spirit brings about repentance, which is a turning from sin towards God in faith, where you look to Christ and you trust him alone for your salvation. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells you and he continues to empower you for ministry, and the Holy Spirit has done this for 2,000 years. The world does not have that experience of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Ephesians 6, he says that there are rulers, principalities, powers in the heavenly places. The devil can possess somebody, remember the devil possessed Judas, but the devil is not omnipresent like the Holy Spirit. There's only one devil, he can only be in one place at one time, so the devil utilizes all sorts of demonic activity and authorities to work in various people's lives. And what that means is the unbeliever has very different experiences in different places and different religions. You have Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism. And Paul teaches that behind all the veil of those religions are demonic authorities. But it's a different demonic authority. So it's a different experience that you're getting in Buddhism than it is Islam. And the demons work in different ways. You have some that drive people into legalism, like modern day Judaism. And you have others that drive people to Las Vegas. where they live in drunkenness and licentiousness. You have all sorts of different demonic activity that are leading people into different experiences. And a lot of unbelievers say, sign me up for all of them. I'm just gonna try the gauntlet. I go from one to the other and none of them will satisfy, but that's the devil's game. The Christian universally has the exact same spiritual experience. So when I was up in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago on vacation, we walk into a church, never been there in my life, don't know a soul. You start talking with that person that's in the cafe, you're like, wow, we have a connection. The connection is the work of the Holy Spirit in her and in me, and it is worked the same way. It's really remarkable how you see this happen. And here's one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit does this. Why there's this unity that God the Holy Spirit creates. Look at the end of verse 21. This is amazing. He says, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The reason for this unity of experience that the Holy Spirit creates is so that the world will take a step back and notice and believe that Jesus Christ was sent into the world. Now the world, remember we've studied this word cosmos. Is it a neutral term? No, it's a negative term. The world is opposed to God. The world is under the control of Satan. So does the entire world believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do they all come, is this belief in terms of saving faith? Well for some people it is, some people are called out of the world to follow Christ into the church. But for many people this is a belief of conviction. that through the church and through the experience of the Holy Spirit that people have, that people are brought to the reality, they're brought face to face with the reality of Christianity, with the reality that Jesus came into the world, but many stay in their unbelief. But Jesus' point is that the unity of the church acts as a witness to the world that Jesus has come. when I was walking through the Billy Graham Library in Wheaton, not the museum over in Charlotte, the library in Wheaton. One of the interesting things is they were kind of tracing the lineage of evangelists through American history. And so, in the museum, they had a picture of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Remember, they were evangelists in the 1740s. And then, in the 1800s, you kind of walk through that little room, they have a picture of Asel Hill Nettleton and Finney, probably shouldn't have included Finney because his message was a little out there, but they had those two evangelists, those were early 1800s, and then what evangelist do you think followed those? D.L. Moody followed them, and then after Moody, a baseball player named Billy Sunday. And then after Billy Sunday, they had Billy Graham. And the point of the display, I think was obvious, right, is that you have a line of evangelists that essentially proclaim the same message. It's the same. There's a lineage here. And what Jesus is saying is that unity, that unity that believers have of the experience of the Spirit, the unity of the message, acts as the witness to the world that Jesus has come. Does that make sense to you? Okay. That serves as a powerful proclamation of the truth that the world cannot deny. So that's the origin of the unity, and now he explains the evidence of the unity, and this is very important, very important. Again, high theology, this is difficult to understand, but I think it'll make sense. Look at verse 22. He says, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. That is a very complex, challenging statement to interpret, and I read all sorts of commentaries this week, and the commentators are all over the map in interpreting this one statement of our Lord. So here are the three possible interpretations. And the reason why there's three possible interpretations is because all of these could be legitimately true. The first one is this. is that all disciples are brought into a knowledge of Christ's glory. In other words, his attributes of who Christ is. Through the witness of the apostles, we understand present day what Jesus was like. We understand his love, his justice, his righteousness, his mercy, all those things. Secondly, some said the glory that is given to us is the glory of a future resurrection body like Christ's resurrection body. Again, you know, Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. This is the hope that one day when the Lord returns, whether we are still alive or already asleep, that we will meet the Lord in the air and we will be given a resurrection body, and that is called the glory. So, some believe that that is what he is talking about. The third option is the one that I think is most likely, because I think it best fits with the context, and that is this, is he is referring to the glory that he gives us, Christ's ministry through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the reason why I think that is because he continues to talk about the indwelling. Look at verse 23. I in them, Christ in them, and you in me, And then in verse 22, he says that they may be one even as we are one. So he's talking about, I think, the unity of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in us, producing to the world the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. And the Holy Spirit works through us so that we produce Christ-like qualities that are seen by the world. I want you to turn to the right over to Galatians chapter five. This might be one of the most important chapters for understanding sanctification, for understanding what the Holy Spirit does in and through the believer. The evidence of the unity. Remember we said that God, the Holy Spirit, is the one who creates the unity. Remember that. How does he create unity between us and other disciples? Well, one, he brings us to a unified understanding of the truth. We'll talk more about that later. But secondly, he also produced the same qualities. Look at verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So the Holy Spirit produces the character qualities of Christ in us. Notice that there is not multiple fruits. It's not as if the Holy Spirit produces love and peace, but not joy. The Holy Spirit produces all of that fruit in and through the Christian. What do you think happens when you have a group of Christians and the Holy Spirit is working that fruit out in every person's life? You have a lovely place. You have a wonderful group of people that the Holy Spirit is producing this lavish fruit in our lives, this abundant fruit, and what that does is it brings people together and it builds unity, the unity of the Holy Spirit. It is probably the loveliest thing that you will ever see on this earth because you are seeing the character of Christ displayed. you're seeing the glory of Christ displayed. So does it matter that you treat somebody else in the body of Christ with love and respect and peace and kindness? Does that matter? Yes, it does. Not only for your sake, not only for the sake of the person, but for the witness of the church. And my hope and my prayer is that our church would abundantly display the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That we would be long-suffering with one another. Do we all bring fleshly proclivities and tendencies into the body? Yes, we are not 100% sanctified yet, last I checked. Anybody here? I don't see anybody. We all have annoying things that we do, and if you don't believe me, just wait till you get married, and your spouse will tell you the annoying things that you do. And when you have a group of people this size, it is easy for people to begin to rub each other the wrong way, and so we have to be dedicated to walking in the Spirit, and look at verse 24, to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Here's my fear. So much of the modern church does not walk this way. So much of the modern church, rather than walking in the spirit, you know how they walk? In the flesh. In the flesh. And when you walk in the flesh, you will always 100% of the time have division. Look at verse, I think it's verse 19. The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality. You do those things, you bring division to your marriage. Division. Then, sins against the Lord, idolatry, sorcery. You do idolatry, you engage in witchcraft, you are bringing division between you and God. And then look, these other sins relate specifically with division with other people. Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. It's easy to be offended. It's easy to walk in the flesh. That's our autopilot. But when you do that, you bring dissension and division into the body. The last couple, he says, the last two sins, drunkenness, orgies, things like these. Do those bring division into a family? Drunkenness? My goodness. That's the history of America. in orgies, things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you keep displaying the flesh and the Holy Spirit doesn't bring you to conviction and repentance. Paul's saying if that's the pattern of your life, you're showing that you are not a believer. But some believers fail to crucify the flesh as they should. But let's take a step back and think about Jesus' larger argument. What's he saying? He's saying the unity of the church acts as the witness to the world. Is that not what he's saying? He's saying the unity of the church acts as the witness to the world. Look at verse 23. I in them, you in 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. The love that we display to one another is the testimony to the world that Jesus loves us. That Jesus is at work in the world. So question, how is the modern church doing? How are we doing in terms of love for one another, care for one another? If we walk in this, I promise you that God will richly bless our church. God will richly bless our church. That we will be a lighthouse to the world because the world, what they know is the dissension and division. Because why? Because the world walks according to the flesh. All they know is everywhere they look is division. Everywhere they look is division. Don't think for a second that somebody who's not a Christian has a means to bring reconciliation in any way, especially if you're involved in national government, okay? The only way that you will find true unity is by seeing it worked out by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is a very compelling thing and is a compelling witness to the work of Christ in this world. The third thing that Jesus talks about in terms of unity, and this is so amazing, is he says that every single true believer throughout the past 2,000 years has the same destination. Look at verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am. I'm talking about where I'm going to heaven to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world. Talking about seeing the radiant display of his glory. Jesus is praying that one day all the disciples, all of us, will be with him in heaven and that we will see the manifest display of his glory. Sometimes that is called throughout history, the beatific vision. Because it's the most beautiful thing that you will ever see. It's the vision of blessing. We can't even describe how amazing and wonderful it will be to look at the glorified Christ. It's indescribable. It's indescribable. You read Revelation. And everybody around the, go read Revelation 4, that's your homework. Everybody around the throne, the 24 elders, they just, they see the glory of Christ, they just bow down on their faces. Say, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. There is nothing better than seeing the glory of Christ. Paul says, my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Far better than what? Anything in life. What's on your bucket list? Go see the Taj Mahal, eat some more ice cream. I mean, what's on your bucket list? Do you think that anything that you have here is better than what you're gonna have, Christian, on the other side? I guarantee it. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the joy you will have in beholding Christ. Nothing even compares. And here's the cool thing, and this is what unifies us, is that we all will be there someday. if you're a true, genuine Christian. You will be there someday. Because Jesus is praying for it. He's praying for it. That you will behold his glory where he is. And one glorious day, we will be around the throne. It's hard to even imagine what that will be like. but we will experience that glory and that joy together. So that is the unity that he prays for, and then, as we said, Jesus closes by talking about his work, and this is his work in bringing it about, his work of revelation, that he will reveal himself, reveal the Father to future generations, and they will come to know the truth, believe the truth, Look at verse 25. O righteous Father. God the Father. He doesn't say, O holy Father, as he did earlier. He says, O righteous Father, because God is just. God is righteous. He says, even though the world, the world that is antagonistic against you, he said, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these know that you have sent me. These refers to the disciples and the future disciples. All future disciples come to trust that Jesus Christ is God. They come to have a knowledge of the truth that Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners and on the third day rose again from the dead. They know the deity of Christ. They understand the doctrine of the Trinity, that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and reveals God the Father to us. We understand these things. Verse 26. I have made known to them your name. Talking about your name means your character. And I will continue to make it known. And that's what Jesus has been doing for 2,000 years, is he's continued to make known God's character to new Christians, to new people. and people come to know who God is. That's what it means to become a Christian, is you're awakened to the reality of a holy God, and when that happens, you understand that you are a sinner who needs saving, and that Christ is the Son of God who was sent to seek and save that was lost, and who purchased your salvation by dying your death on the cross. You come to that knowledge, and when you believe it, The Holy Spirit, again, comes and dwells inside you, and you experience the love of Christ. that Christ's love flows in you and through you. That's what he says at the end of verse 26. This is amazing to think about, that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them. Have you ever just been walking at the beach and you looked up at the sunset and you just felt in your soul the abundant love of Christ for you? Or maybe it was a funeral of a loved one and you were the most down that you've ever been. and you didn't know how you could take another step forward in this world, and then all of a sudden in your soul you felt the abundant love of Christ overflowing in your soul. That is the work of Christ through the Spirit, and he continues to do that work, and he will do that work until he returns. He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not stand against it, and the testimony to that is our unity with one another. Three quick application points. First, recognize that Christianity is a religion of grace. It's a religion of grace. It's Christ's work from beginning to end. Notice verse 20 begins with Christ praying. Verses 25 and 26 end with Christ revealing himself and the Father to future disciples. The reason why Christianity advances is because Christ gives grace to sinners. It is all of grace. How much can we take credit for in the advance of Christianity? Zilch. There's no seeker games that we could ever contrive that could build the church. It's always Christ working through the word. It's all of grace. Second, in terms of unity, we need to be discerning and understanding about who is a Christian. If we are called to unity, which we are, we need to understand to whom we are to be unified with. To whom are we to be unified with? Remember at the very beginning, verse 20, what did Jesus say were the marks of his church? They believe in him through the word of who? The apostles. So if you take those two marks right there, and of course we understand Jesus' love then for the church, but if you take those two marks, okay, they believe in Jesus and hold fast to the word of the apostles. Let's take the Mormon church, for example. Do they believe in Jesus? Some say they do. but they also claim that you can become like Jesus, so therefore they don't believe the Jesus of the Bible. Do they hold fast to the word of the apostles? No, they invented their own book, Book of Mormon, when Moroni and Angel appeared to Joseph Smith, so on and so forth. Take liberal Protestant Christianity. Do they hold fast, do they believe in the deity of Christ? No, they do not. More people deny the deity of Christ in the 20th century than the whole first few centuries put together. They don't believe in the biblical Jesus. Do they hold fast, do they believe that God's word is authoritative and inerrant? No, they do not. Let's take Roman Catholicism. Do they hold fast that salvation is faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ? Not according to the Council of Trent. I'm not saying that every Roman Catholic holds to this, but the Catholic Church says that you are saved by faith and works. Is God's Word solely authoritative in our lives? No, it's God's Word and tradition, God's Word and the ex-cathedra words from the Pope, et cetera, et cetera. So we need to be discerning, who actually is a genuine born-again believer? Do they demonstrate genuine faith? Do they hold fast to the authoritative word of God? And then, are they displaying this glorious fruit, the fruit of the Spirit? If somebody, you know, the demons can believe all that stuff, They have orthodoxy, but they don't display the fruit of the Spirit. So, does somebody display the fruit of the Holy Spirit? And when you're discerning of that, you pursue unity with those people. You pursue unity. You want to preserve the unity that Christ has created. All right. Third, and this is the final point, be eager to maintain unity with those who are genuine believers in the truth. We have to go out of our way, we have to die to ourselves, we have to die to our flesh, display the fruit of the Spirit in order to maintain the unity of the Spirit that God the Holy Spirit has created. And just, last word. As Capital Community Church, We need to do this. The devil is going to work overtime, is working overtime in order to create division. And if you walk in the flesh, you will be part of that work of division, I guarantee you. The devil wants to create division. He is looking, and it always begins with a root of bitterness towards somebody. Somebody does something to slight you, and instead of forgiving them as Christ forgave you, you allow that root of bitterness to sit, it grows, and then you begin to sow seeds of division, schism, envy, anger, all those things. So let's put sin to death, shall we? Let's come to the Lord's table today and say, look, if I have sinned against somebody or somebody has sinned against me, I put it to death. I put the flesh to death. And I am going to endeavor to walk in the Spirit. Love and joy and peace and those things. Lord, may those things overflow to other believers. And in that way, we will be the lighthouse in this state. I promise you. I promise you. So let's, as we prepare for the Lord's table, let's bow our heads, and I invite our ushers to come, but I want you to do some heart work. And if you have a root of bitterness in your heart towards another believer, I want you to confess it, and I want you to be willing to forgive that person. If you've sinned against somebody else, confess it. If you've sowed seeds of division or discord, envy, anything like that, I want you to repent of it, and I want you to come to this table with clean hands and pure hearts. So let's pray silently and come before the Lord. Thanks for listening. For more sermons, information, and events, check out our website at capitolcommunitychurch.com.