John 17:24-26

John 17:24-26 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples' ministry on Earth and for their position in the family of God. Then He expands the vision to include God's salvation plan for all who will believe as we read in the last breakfast when He said, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their (the disciples') message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. Jesus explains this unity shows how God sent Jesus because He loved the world even as He loved his Son from the beginning of time. As Jesus walked this Earth, He showered the love of the Father on his followers and all who called upon him as Lord that they might be one as the Father and the Son are one. As Jesus said: I in them and you in me. (See John 17:20-23) In today's verses, Jesus explains the inexplicable, the exceeding abundantly marvelous aspects of God's redemption plan. As this plan unfolds throughout his prayer, He utters words we find hard to comprehend even now: Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Just as He will soon offer himself as the propitiation for the sins of all people for all time, Jesus speaks words of light and life in the presence of his dearly beloved. He desires to open their eyes and ears to their hope for the future. He knows the disciples will answer the call to action when the Holy Spirit comes upon them after his death and resurrection and reminds them of all He told them and empowers them to go forth with this message. "Hear me!" He says from his heart of love. He wants them to understand his prayer: "I know the Father. He knows me and sent me; for we are one. I introduced you to him and will make your love relationship with him secure forever; for I am alive in you through his love, and I have shown him to you through my life and my words."

Through Christ, we see the triune God is inseparable. Jesus and the Father are one in everything, all they do: You are in me and I am in you. The Spirit, Breath of God, intrinsically binds all the Father and Son do in Heaven and on Earth. When the women found an empty tomb after Christ arose from the grave, the news spread quickly. Astounded and upset, the chief priests paid the soldiers who guarded the tomb a large sum of money to say, His [Christ's] disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep. (Matthew 28:12-13) Such lies did not thwart God's plan then, and they do not stop a move of God now when people listen to God and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. After the resurrection when the disciples obeyed Jesus' instruction to go to a mountain in Galilee and wait, they saw him and worshipped him there in truth and power. His words that day came forth as clearly as when they heard his prayer to the Father on their behalf before He went to the cross. We know beyond any doubt when they saw and heard the resurrected Christ, they remembered his words. They recalled his passionate pleas to Father God for their protection by the power of his name, for a full measure of joy, for complete unity, and for the love of the Father given before the creation of the world.

When Jesus met them on the mountain, He would give very important instructions: a divine commission for all who would follow after him. He would not tell them to go back to their fishing or to resume tax collecting or to do whatever they might like to take up for self-satisfaction and contentment as new creatures in him set free from the strongholds of the enemy. He would not say, "Seek self-fulfillment as the happiest people on Earth, rejoicing because I am sending you back to your hometowns to relax and to enjoy peace and harmony with no more problems or stress." No! He said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20) And we know He said this with the same passion as when He spoke with the wealthy young man who asked how to inherit eternal life. Jesus loved this fellow and looked upon him with compassion; yet knowing his heart, He said, One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me. But he [the man] was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:21-22 NKJV) Something else other than God was his treasure, his lifeline, and his source. Following Christ has to be Everything!

As Christians, we experience the love of the Father for the Son that Jesus describes so fervently. We do not represent ourselves before the Father: we come in Christ's name, through his atoning sacrifice, clothed in his robes of righteousness. The Father loves and accepts Jesus his perfect beloved Son: therefore, He accepts those hidden with Christ through the cross. Jesus alone paid our way into the Father's house, forever. We are now with the Father because Christ is the Way, and his blood covers our sins. His resurrection from the grave stands for all time as our resurrection because his word is true: I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. (John 11:25-26) As resurrected beings, we show forth the nature of Christ to others. No longer citizens of this world, we look for the world to come while serving Christ here. Alive unto Christ, we no longer function as mere finite beings. That life belongs to the unbeliever, the unrighteous pagan who has not tasted the good things of God. We are created in the image of God, cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb, and perfected day by day by the loving Holy Spirit. If that were not so, we would stumble in the darkness and perish in our sins. In Christ, we ask the Spirit to help us to listen and to obey as Paul encouraged the church in Philippi: Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. . . (Philippians 2:14-16) All that Jesus did fulfilled the Father's plan, revealing God's heart of love that we might have the fulness of God revealed in us just as Christ prayed to the Father. Today, rest in the knowledge that God, the Father, loves you with an everlasting love in Jesus' name. Go forth in by faith, believing in God's grace and mercy; and make disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!