John 17:6-11 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Back in the Gospel of John, John 17, we began last week and got through the first few verses of the first five verses.

[0:19] And just well, well, the end, what we covered toward the end last week before we stopped was the last couple of verses and Christ, of course, telling what I spent, I guess, the most time on was the definition of what eternal life is. And Christ gives that definition.

[0:47] Eternal life is knowing God, knowing the Father, knowing Christ. And truly that is the definition that Christ gives.

[0:58] And of course, Christ is requesting in these verses, namely in the first verse, but on throughout the rest of those five verses at the beginning of this chapter, his desire to glorify God, his desire to glorify the Father.

[1:16] And he's requesting God glorify him, glorify Christ, that Christ may glorify him. And that's been Christ's purpose of coming here. I know he was coming to destroy the works of darkness, to destroy the works of the devil. I know he came to seek sinners and to save that which was lost and all that. But all of those were done to glorify God. And so Christ is requesting God glorify him so that he may glorify God in those verses. So all that being said, as much of a mess as I may have just made of that recap, y'all forgive me for that.

[2:05] But all that being said, we'll begin at verse 6 in John chapter 17. Christ says, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy words. Christ here says, I have manifested thy name, I've manifested the name of God unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world now.

[2:36] Something to keep in mind in these verses that we're in right now. Christ is speaking specifically of the remaining 11 disciples that are there.

[2:49] Now, I know before we began John 17, I said, Christ is praying for them, he's praying for and by extension praying for us. We find that in verse 20 of chapter 17 where Christ actually says, I'm not only praying for these, I'm praying for those that will believe on me through their word, through the disciples word. When they go out and they preach the gospel and it begins to spread, so by extension this is all toward us as well. But specifically, Christ is speaking of the 11, the same 11 that he's been talking to through this entire farewell discourse. He is now praying to God about in the in these verses that we're in right now. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.

[3:39] He says he's manifested the name of God to these men. He has shown them, he has revealed the name of God. Now, that doesn't mean that he has revealed the name Yahweh or Jehovah to them. He's not talking about a proper name such as that. He's saying he has revealed God, just like we have talked about how it is to pray in the name of Jesus Christ and we approach the throne of God in the name of Jesus Christ. We're coming with the affiliation of Jesus Christ as being associated with Christ and here, here Christ is saying, I've manifested your name, the name of God, to these men which you have given me. I've revealed you to them. I've revealed your power.

[4:32] I've revealed your might. I've revealed your wonders. I've revealed your compassion, your love, your mercy, all these things. Everything that Christ has done has been done because this was the work that the Father had given him to do. You remember in John 5 when they were at the when Christ tells the disciples, he says, I can do nothing save that which I've seen from God.

[5:06] I can do nothing except what I've seen from the Father. So Christ here is saying, I've manifested your name to these men. I've revealed you to them and you have given me them or you've given me these men out of the world.

[5:22] Thine they were and thou gave us them me and they have kept thy word. Now this does not mean when he says, thine they were. This doesn't mean that God just relinquished the disciples to Christ because what is Christ is is God's. What is the Father's is the Son. What is the Son's is the Spirit. What is the Spirit is also the Father and the Son's. There's no separating separating them. What is one's is the others.

[5:53] But he says, the men which thou gave us to me out of the world, thine they were. I know that's past tense but again this isn't God just giving them up to him and we'll see that here in the next couple of verses as well. But thine they were and thou gave us them me and they have kept thy word. That's key here because Judas Iscariot was once part of these disciples was he not?

[6:21] Judas Iscariot did not keep the word though. Even though he saw the same revelation of God through Christ that the rest of them did, these 11 that he's referred that Christ is referred to here, they are the ones that have kept that word. They kept the word of God. Verse 7, now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me me are of thee.

[6:49] They have known that all things whatsoever that has given me are of thee. They know that everything that I have, everything that I've done, everything that I've showed there, everything that I've manifested unto them, they've known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Remember back in John 14, very beginning of that when he says, he believed in God, believe also in me. That couple's very well with what he's saying here.

[7:20] He says, whatsoever thou hast given me, all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Everything that I have is yours. And on the flip side of that coin and vice versa, however you'd like to say that, everything that Christ has is God's. So again, as I said just a couple minutes ago, it's not that God has relinquished anything solely to Christ. If it is God's, it is Christ. If it is Christ, it is God's. Verse 8, for I have given unto them the words which thou gave us me, and they have received them, and I have known and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou that thou did send me.

[8:07] So again verse 8, for I have given unto them the words that thou gave us me. What did he say just before this? Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Then he says, for I have given them the words that thou gave us me. So you gave me the words, and I gave them the words that you gave to me.

[8:27] We know from John chapter 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We know that in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. But here he says, for I have given unto them the words which thou gave us me, and they have received them.

[8:45] That's the key principle in this whole thing. They received them. Again we can go back to Judas. Judas heard the words too. Judas heard everything that these other disciples did, say what's been said in this farewell discourse.

[9:00] But Judas heard every bit of it, but he did not receive. He did not receive the words, he did not receive Christ. He has not received salvation. He's not receiving the promises that are given to all those that believe here, that believe.

[9:18] Judas received none of those things because he did not receive the words of Christ. He heard them. Folks, much of the world hears them. There's people in John chapter 6 that heard and saw miracles that Jesus Christ was performing. But it says that many of his disciples turned away.

[9:36] They walked away, not to walk with him again. And Jesus turned turned to the 12 and said, well you go away also. And Peter asked a wonderful question, where are we going to go?

[9:49] You have the words of eternal life. You've got it all. Where would we go? But some heard but did not receive. Some of those 12 that Christ turned to there in John chapter 6, I was just talking about too. One of those 12 heard but did not receive. And he's the one that went scampering off into the night a couple of chapters before where we're at right now. But again, for I've given one of them the words which they'll gave us me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did send me. So not only have they received the words, they have believed that I am from you, that you sent me. They believe that you know the reasons I'm coming into the world, they didn't believe it with a perfect understanding though. And that gives that brings me great comfort because I don't believe the word with all understanding.

[10:48] But I believe it. I believe it. It's not that they they have perfect understanding as I just said, but they believed what Christ said and they believed whom Christ was sent from.

[11:02] It's just like Moses. You go back to Exodus chapter 3 and when Moses has his encounter with God through the burning bush and what does God tell him? He says to go to Pharaoh and tell him that the I am has sent you. He's telling Moses to go and basically reveal God unto Pharaoh, reveal God unto the Egyptians but also to the Israelites. And we all know that the Egyptians sure didn't have perfect understanding and the Israelites didn't have perfect understanding. They had very weak faith that they had any faith whatsoever. But it's the same principle. Moses was sent to reveal God. Christ was sent to reveal God to people, not only to the world, whether they would accept him or not, or whether they would accept or reject, but to all those that have been given Christ by the Father. And if not surely they have come out from, that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me. So again back to John 14 where he says you believe in God, believe also in me. The disciples, the 11 here, had indeed believed that. And we must believe the same thing.

[12:24] You know this bulls down to what cross do you believe in? Y'all have heard me say that. I know Brother Verne said it. I've heard you know that said here and elsewhere many times and I've said it myself. If we believe the cross to the world, if we believe the cross, the cross that the world's concocted in their heads, or some cross that we've concocted ourselves in our own heads, that's the wrong cross. And we're believing the wrong cross, we're believing the wrong words. Therefore if we have salvation, it's a false salvation that's not going to get us anywhere besides hell. But anyway, verse 9 he says, I pray for them, I pray for who? Again specifically here he is praying about these 11 disciples.

[13:11] But by extension for us as well, I pray for them, I pray not for the world. And this is something that the world needs needs to grasp a hold of if they can. Because everybody's got this Jesus in their head that loves everybody, that wouldn't dare let one soul go to hell and all these other things. And cross says here very plainly, I pray for them, for these 11, those that have believed that God has sent in, those that have heard the words and those that have accepted the words, those that have received the words that cross has spoken to them. They've received the gospel in other words. He says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world. Cross does not up there being an intermediary or a mediator or an advocate on behalf of lost sinners. He is being an advocate on behalf of those that have repented of their sins and believed the gospel. That's who he advocates for.

[14:21] He's not up there praying for lost people right now. And he wasn't praying for lost people here. He was praying for people that had heard the words and had received the words that he had spoken and had believed that God sent him to fulfill this mission. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are thine. Well just a couple of verses before this, he said, he was talking about these that God had given him. That's when I said, you know, we'll get to it in a couple more verses, that they're also gods. And here cross plainly says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are thine. So they are cross and cross says they are yours. So what is God's cross? What is cross is God's and so on. But he, but the key thing here is he prays for them. He's praying for us. He advocates for us and there's too many people in the world and much of it is the church's fault because the church has portrayed a cross like that in the past and in the present as well as portrayed a cross that, you know, has no, or has regard for everyone I should say and has portrayed a cross that is only love and a cross that is only compassionate and cross is those things and God is those things. But folks even when God or even when Christ was portraying God and revealing God, manifesting God as we read just a few verses ago, even when he was doing that throughout his ministry, he not only manifested and showed and revealed the compassion and mercy and love of God, the folks, it wasn't compassion and mercy and love that cost him to flip the moneychangers tables was it? No, that was Rochester's indignation that Christ was showing, but that was a revelation of God as well. So when we hear from the world, we hear from people in general, whether it's from the pulpit or from someone in general in the world about this Christ who only loves and this Christ who only shows compassion and only shows mercy, folks, that's not the cross of the Bible. When he revealed God, he revealed every attribute of God to man. He completely and totally revealed God to man. I pray for them, I pray not for the not for the world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are thine.

[16:58] Verse 10, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. So once again, we have all mine are thine, everything I have is yours God, all thine are mine, everything you have is mine God, but he says, and I am glorified in them. And folks, those are amazing words.

[17:20] Those are amazing words that Christ is glorified in us. He was glorified in these 11 disciples, but once again, we can go back to what I said just a few minutes ago, once again, he's not glorified in our perfection because we're not perfect.

[17:38] He's not glorified in our total and complete obedience because we're not totally and completely obedient to him, but we have received the words which he has spoken. We have received the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We've received the words of this book.

[17:59] We've received those, and therefore we have received Christ. We not only heard the words, and there's many people out there in many churches, Sunday after Sunday, that have sat there for years and some of them even decades that have heard and heard and heard, but they've never received. And that is a sad, sad thought, but you'll never convince me that everybody that sits in a church house is saved.

[18:26] No one will ever convince me of that. I don't care how long they've sat there. I'd like to think that they are, but I'm not goable enough to think that everybody that sits in church services after service, after service, is saved. Some have never received all mine are done and done are mine and I am glorified and then God is glorified in us. Christ is glorified, glorified in us. How so? One, because we're saved. If we've received the words and we have been saved, that glorifies God, but he's glorified through our obedience. However imperfect it might be, it's through our obedience, it's through our faithfulness.

[19:13] However imperfect our faithfulness might be. He's glorified in those things. He's glorified in us striving to keep the words which he has spoken himself. That's what we've been talking about for the past couple of verses. The words, the words that were spoken and the words that were received, this is how Christ is glorified. Yes, God's glorified in salvation. God's glorified with every soul that comes to him, every person that comes to him in faith and repentance, God is glorified. But that glory continues every time that we strive to be obedient, every time that every time that we strive and we seek to be made more like him, we seek God, we seek the face of God, we seek the Word of God.

[19:59] We go before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy. Every time we do these things that we see within the words of Scripture, every time we're obedient to the Word, Christ is glorified. He's a glorified in us, sinful creatures. That's what's so amazing about it. As Christ is glorified, he could have chosen to be glorified in anything that he wanted to and he is glorified in those things. But that's not what's brought up here.

[20:25] We are brought up here. He doesn't say I'm glorified in the stars, in the moon, and all the galaxies that are all around and all these other things. He is glorified in those things. Don't get me wrong, he's glorified in all of creation. But that's not what he brought up here.

[20:44] He brought up us, us, lowly creatures. He's glorified in us, praise God. Verse 11, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. And now I am no more in the world, and people will read this, they'll say, well, he was in the world, he was there in the garden to get them, and he blah blah blah blah blah. It was as good as done, folks.

[21:18] It was as good as done, because Christ knew he wasn't going to back down. God knew Christ wasn't going to back down. Christ could say these things and rockfully say them. But he says, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Now when he says, I come to thee, he's not talking about, I come to thee here in this garden, praying on their behalf. No, in the context of this verse, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come unto thee. He said, I'm leaving these here in the world. Remember, while I got this whole farewell discourse started, was Christ telling the disciples, I'm leaving. I'm leaving. Now he circled all the way back around to that once more. He said, and he says, I am come unto thee. I come unto thee. I'm coming to you, God, but I'm leaving these here. The folks, he didn't just leave those 11 there for no good reason, just like he hasn't left us here for no good reason.

[22:23] We have a commission. We have what's known as the Great Commission, to go into the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. We are to do, and don't get me wrong when I say this, but we're to do just as just as Christ did. We are to reveal God to the world.

[22:39] We're to reveal Christ to the world. How? The same way that he did. Same way he did. It was with the words that he spoke, and people receive those words. We are to reveal Christ to this world through the preaching of his gospel, and that's the only way that we could reveal him.

[23:00] Well, I shouldn't say the only way. Sure, we can do good works. We can do things to help people. A lot of people around here, Burns already brought it up this morning. A lot of people need help around here right now, and we can help those folks. But if we're helping those folks outside of Jesus Christ, what real good is it going to do them?

[23:19] It'll do them temporal good here. It'll do them very, very temporary amount of good here. But if we share the gospel of Jesus Christ as we are helping those folks, and we are shining our lights before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. If we're doing it the correct and proper way, that'll bring glory to Christ. It'll be us fulfilling the commission, and everybody's going to be happy.

[23:46] Granted, some people aren't going to accept the gospel. They won't accept it. They'll accept all the help you want to give them, but leave that gospel out of it. Show them the gospel anyway.

[23:57] Show them the love of Christ anyway. I mean, it hasn't stopped us before. It shouldn't stop us now. It hasn't stopped the church in the past. It shouldn't stop us now. Show the love of Christ wherever you're at.

[24:09] Hey, Jesus showed his love. Jesus showed his love to a lot of people. Jesus showed his love to them up to that cross. Because cross could have done all kinds of things to those, not only to the Jews that were screaming for his crucifixion, not only to the Romans that carried out his crucifixion. Jesus could have done all kinds of things to have brought that to a real abrupt halt had he wanted to. But he knew that's why he was there.

[24:37] He knew that's why he was here, period. And now I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world. I'm leaving these with you. He says, but these are in the world and I come to thee.

[24:47] Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me. So he says, Holy Father, keep through thine own name, through your own power, to your own glory. And folks, the glory of God is the glory of Christ and vice versa. The cross here says, with your own power, with your own might, with your own strength, with your own will, with your own sovereignty, with everything about you, you keep these which I'm leaving down here in the world.

[25:21] He says, I'm coming to you. And so he did, not too long as far as weeks go after this, to cross the sin to the Father. Now I'm no more in the world. These are in the world. He's left these in the world, left these disciples, and he's left us in the world.

[25:42] And I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are, speaking of the unity of the Father and the Son.

[25:57] And that's a perpetual unity. It's an eternal unity. It's always, it's always been that way. There's always been the Father. There's always been the Son. A lot of people will take certain songs and say, well, Christ was begotten. They'll take certain New Testament scriptures and say, we'll see Christ was begotten. Just like people will say, Christ hasn't always been eternal because of a certain verse in the and the Book of Romans that says, death no more, or death has no more dominion over him. But it must have had dominion over him beforehand. Folks, that's taking stuff way, way, way out of context.

[26:32] And plus it goes contrary to the rest of Scripture. It goes contrary that the God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Spirit are co-equal in existence. They're co-equal in power.

[26:44] They're co-equal in everything. And they have always been. They have always been. But here he says that they may be one as we are. Folks, this speaks volumes about these 11 and it speaks volumes about us as well. Christ here is talking about the unity between him and the Father. But he says that they may be one as we are one. The body of Christ should be a completely unified body.

[27:17] A completely unified body. I'm not saying that we should go out and invite just anybody to come along with us. In fact, we need to be very careful whom we associate with. Because as I said before, there's many Christs out there in the world. There's many Christs that the world will try and convince you of and convince me of.

[27:41] So we have got to be very careful whom we associate with. I've got to be careful whom I associate with. Because I've had a lot of offers from a lot of different people. But they've got some way far different beliefs than what I do. As far as the scripture goes and as far as really salvation in general goes. So we must be careful of that.

[28:05] But Christ here is telling or requesting the Father that he keeps them with his name, with his power.

[28:15] All those that have been given him by the Father, which are also the Fathers, we've already covered that. He says that they may be one, that they may be unified. Unified in what? In glorifying Christ. We should all be unified in glorifying Christ. The church body, that should be our number one goal.

[28:37] And people will say our number one goal should be to see center saved. And that should be a goal of ours. The folks that glorify Christ. Our number one goal in mind should be to glorify our Savior. Glorify the one that came here and laid down his life for us. That should be our number one goal, to glorify Christ.

[28:58] And salvation is part of that. Yes, yes, it should definitely be a goal for us to see centers come to know God through Christ. Yes, that should be a goal of ours. But the number one goal should be to glorify God. That they may be one as we are. So he compares the relationship that these disciples should have had, these 11 should have had with his and the Fathers. It should be that unified. And it should be that unified within the body of Christ. And you know what? I don't think I'm going to go any further in that this morning. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?

[29:38] Alright, God bless y'all. I appreciate you.