Chapter 17 Verse 14

•Jesus says here “I have given them Your word.” What a statement. What an expression of love and oneness with the Father! What’s that Matt?

•Well look, there in the Greek…a heart cry from the Son to the Father. He says, “I have given to them,” in the Greek “ego didomi autos” or literally, “I have, on my own accord and for their advantage, bestowed to them a gift.” And the gift? Jesus says “Your word” or “Thy word.” In the Greek “sou logos.”

•“So what Matt, how is that an articulation of love and oneness with the Father? I’m not following,”…recall John Chapter 1 verses 1 and 14. “In the beginning was the Word, the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God. And the logos became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…”

•Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven, heavy with the grief of sin’s penalty…yet utterly consumed by His love for His children, He lifts His eyes and says…”Father, I am ready, I have given to them, because I love them, because they need me…I have given them Myself…and truly I am Yours!” What worship to the Father! What resolve of heart and completion of love! What clear rendition of prophecy!

•Prophecy? Yea! Remember way way back in Genesis 22, Abraham takes Isaac up on Mount Moriah and there he is commanded to offer his son as a burnt offering unto the Lord. But then when he gets up there Isaac says, “dad, look we have the fire, we have the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham, knowing what he was commanded to do yet having great faith in the promise that God had already made that He would raise up a great nation from Abraham…says to Isaac, “My son, God will provide Himself the lamb.”

•Jesus says “Dad, Thy word, Thy Son…because of My love for them, I have given to them Myself!” What kind of love is that? What kind of strength is that? Extraterrestrial! Out of this world! Completely foreign to the essence of evil! And so Jesus says here, “the world has hated them.”

•Of course the world hates this kind of love, this word of God…because light casts shadows and the world sings “don’t tread on me!” And the light exposes both decay and truth…the light testifies of truth…that there is indeed good and there is indeed evil and if there is good and evil then there must exist a Giver of good and a separate giver of evil because the two are not compatible! Light and dark cannot, will not, have never and will never dwell together…and so we get to the heart of the matter…

•If there is a Giver of good who is now and forever only good, then we have Someone to be accountable to…the world hates that! Jesus said to Nick there in Chapter 3 verse 20, “for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” And if exposed, judged. And if judged, condemned.

•This truth of God, the Son of God, the world hates and Jesus says why here, “because He is not of the world.” Nope, He is of eternity!

Chapter 17 Verses 15 – 16

•Understand the Lord does not will for us to be separatists. No combines, no islands…wouldn’t work anyway. Remember that movie CastAway with Tom Hanks…He was there, all alone with Wilson…remember that…was his relationship with Wilson wonderful and perfect and charming and fluffy? I mean it was only him and Wilson right…no one to mess it up…no one to interfere…but what happened? He threw Wilson out of the cave man! Harsh! Poor Wilson.

•We have this false notion that if we could just cure this world of evil then we’d be all good…we’ve forgotten that it’s not the world itself, this physical abode, this planet that is evil…it’s us! The battle rages within! We must take responsibility for the evil and pursue revival not in a tent that we put up for a weekend Holy Ghost party and not in the White House…no we must pursue revival in our own hearts!!

•No private islands, no combines…survey history! They don’t work. The pilgrims left England, why? So that they could go and enjoy pure religion. Remember! They left for religious freedom. What happened? Welcome to ‘merica! About the farthest thing there is to a land that honors the God of the Bible! You see it doesn’t work.

•So what is His will for us you might ask? Check out the next verse…

Chapter 17 Verse 17

•You see the Lord’s will for us is to be sanctified! But what does that mean? That’s such a churchy word…well most basically, it simply means “be different.” Be “set apart.” Be “reserved!” Reserved, what do you mean by reserved?

•Reserved for the King of Kings! Reserved for the Lord of eternity! Hagiazo in the Greek…to be holy! Isn’t that cool! Although you’re in a mess, although your circumstance, your situation, your job, your marriage, your day is filled with issues and problems and frankly aspects and characteristics that aren’t very pure…you still can be! How?

•Jesus says, “sanctify them by Your truth…Your word is truth!” It is the Word that guides us into all righteousness and truth…the Holy Spirit revealing to us the truth of God and the truth of existence and the truth of eternity and then look…we simply activate our free will and walk in it…and what happens? Sanctification!! Now notice the order here as Jesus continues His prayer…

Chapter 17 Verse 18

•God has given us His word, He has given us His Spirit for guidance and protection…He has commanded us to heed His word and therefore be sanctified by the truth…be set free from this world system and be tuned to what really matters…the next world’s system…love and grace and fellowship with the Father…and now look > Just as Jesus was sent not to condemn the world but that through Him all men might be saved…He now sends us…the lesser light as His ambassadors!

•Check this out! Genesis 1:16. God appointed the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night. The greater light shines now in heaven where there is day and never night…however here, while the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age continually darkens this world and the night persists then who has He appointed to shine! Who is the lesser light? It’s not Jesus…He’s not lesser. It’s not the Holy Spirit, He’s not lesser. It’s you…and it’s me!

•Jesus here says take My word, devour it! Live it! Keep at it, keep it in, keep going and in that you will find yourself holy and wholly sanctified from this decaying and dying and dark world…and oh by the way, don’t forget…you’re not here on your own accord! I’ve sent you!! Bam! What great encouragement and what powerful fuel! The God of all power and love and grace and strength…the God of all…you’re sent by Him! You rep Him!

•And all the while…where is HQ? His word! I love it! So simple. So practical! Yet so elusive even in the church today! Why? Because our eyes are on us and our days are a waste! Because even though we may speak with the tongues of men (all wisdom) and of angels (all things heavenly) yet we have not love we are worthless! Where is love! Man God IS love! And He said so clearly that we search everywhere for Him…is He in this success or in that accomplishment or in this program…when He left His calling card time and time again…in Psalm 40:7 and Hebrews 10:7, and John 5:39…you will find me in the volume of the book!!!

•And I love this because the pattern continues…Jesus says because of My love for them they have the word, the word is truth and if they press in they will be sanctified and they will find Me and I will send them to free My kids who are chained by sin and by bondage! And all of this…because I will do for them what they cannot do for themselves…look at verse 19…

Chapter 17 Verse 19

•This is a direct reference to the cross! Flip over to Hebrews Chapter 13 and meet me at verse 12. He did all so that we might be set apart and truly alive!

•In the last three verses he has said sanctify, sanctify, sanctified…man do you see it? His will for us, God the Father’s will for us, the absolute best life we can have on this side of eternity is to be sanctified! Jesus says here that He is sanctified by His own obedience to the Father and His own suffering for love’s sake and now He passes the torch, as it were, to us…

•He was sent to reveal the truth of God. So are we. He was sent to be a witness of God and truth and eternity. So are we. He came with one focus and one aim…to seek and to save those who are lost and hurting and hungry and thirsty. So are we!

•He was sent to be a very bright light in a very dark place. So are we. He was ever about His Father’s business. So are we to be. That’s not a “Jesus Freak” or a “crazy Christian” or a “goodie-goodie…” man that’s just a normal Christian! The church has so lost sight of that! Paul wasn’t some superhero…he was a regular man born-again by the Holy Spirit…are you!? Have you lost touch with Hebrews 12:29, “God is an all consuming fire!” Or are you living in Matthew 6:24, serving two masters…the world and God…money and God…sex and God…pride and God…are you for real about Jesus? Man He was and is so for real for you!

Chapter 17 Verse 20

•I love this! This is so cool because who is Jesus praying for now? That’s right…you and me! Because it is us who have heard and come to believe by the word that He gave to them that were with Him that night!

•And what is His prayer for us…check it out…unity.

Chapter 17 Verse 21

•Such a powerful evangelist was George Whitefield that 30,000 people would regularly attend his open-air meetings. So anointed and eloquent and engaging was he that history records many orators and actors would come just to watch him.

•Charles Wesley, a contemporary of Whitefield’s, was also preaching to multitudes. Yet so diverse were the views of these two men on certain doctrines (Whitefield was ultra-Calvanistic while Wesley was ultra-Arminian), they took out advertisements in the newspapers (ancient Facebook) explaining why they believed what they did…and why the other was amiss.

•People thought that these men hated eachother because of their differing views until one reporter asked Whitefield, “Tell me, Mr. Whitefield, do you expect to see Charles Wesley in heaven?”

•“No,” answered Whitefield. “He’s going to be so close to the throne, and I’m going to be so far back, I’ll never see him!”

•You see the heart of Jesus…unity! Here these guys, both being used powerfully by the Lord, both having very different views on non-essentials and very different flavors of ministry yet absolute unity through love even in their diversity!

•God’s will for His church? Unity! It’s high time to put a stop to prejudice in the body of Christ! Oh you don’t pass the plate or your don’t recite the Nicean Creed so you’re a lesser church than us…that is so detestable to the Lord! The body of Christ is not divided! 1 Cor 1:13. And look the more we as this church and they as that church continue to harp on structural and stylish and denominational differences between us…the less souls are being saved! The less Jesus is lifted high! It’s time for us to grow up man and just accept wrong and not bomb back and just be ok with what they say…we know who we serve right? And in serving Jesus man He has called us to forge unity…

•So how do we forge unity? By not offending? By not mistreating? Not a chance! Blessed are the peacemakers Jesus said…in other words…they are the greatest! And He also said the greatest among you shall be the servant of all…not the friend of all, not the equal of all, not the constant of all…the servant of all!! Surely I say to you, Jesus said, whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done to Me!

•Now think on how you treated the cashier at Walmart…how you interacted with that bank teller and tell me, matter fact tell Him, are you forging unity? Are you living according to His will? Are we as a church with the church down the street?

•Not to be married to doctrines of demons and false teaching or the world…not that…we are quite rigid in the essentials of Christianity…but within the unessentials…man love covers a multitude of wrong…and we better not start thinking that we have no wrong…the church will not be complete until we are with Him in heaven…

•There is great pleasure in unity! Psalm 133:1 says “behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. There is great power in unity! Proverbs 30:27 says even the locusts go forth all of them by bands and together great is their power! How effective, how powerful and how worshipful would the body of Christ be if we would all together just love eachother in unity despite the fact that one wears a tie and the other wears sweet kicks! Not uniformity, unity! God’s will for you and for me…for today…to glorify Jesus! Look at verses 22 – 23…

Chapter 17 Verses 22 – 23

•How is it that the world will know that we are sent? How is it that we will be able to identify brothers and sisters in the Lord? Oh oh confidence…nope. Oh um righteousness…nope. Oh well what about cleanliness…you know it’s said that cleanliness is godliness…not even close…its love man. Love, not the emotion, the action. Not the thought the verbal exhortation. Not the intention but the object and subject of prayer and true worship. Jesus said you will know they are Mine by their love…

•And in that we find oneness with Jesus.

Chapter 17 Verses 24 – 26

•Here it is. The very heart of Jesus. His own will as He says, “Father, I desire…” We began this scripture set all the way back in Chapter 13 verse 1, “Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end…to the uttermost…” and now we end with what that looks like…that His love for you and for me is so unstoppable, so fervent…so desperate for us to be with Him, saved and sanctified for all of eternity…that He resolves here...in verse 26…”I have declared them Your name, and I will declare it!”

•I will go to the cross. I will love them with love that is real…not fake, two way, reciprocated and circumstantial affection but genuine love…love that ends self…with eyes wide open…

•The Book of Hebrews says “for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” For the joy that was set before Him…who’s joy? Yours and mine…and the Father’s together. That’s the will of God…that’s the cross.