If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to John's Gospel, Chapter 17. The Gospel of John, Chapter
17, where we began last week to peep into the veil, to ear-hustle
in on a conversation that should be at the height of every believer's
interest. I told you last week that John
17 is the holiest of all ground in Scripture. That's a lofty
statement, but I believe it to be true. And if a Christian is
going to really be grounded in the things of God, he wants to
know what this prayer that his or her mediator has just uttered
in request to the Father is all about. Because Christ prayed
in John 17 with the intention of every believer hearing it. And so when our master talks
to his father audibly and publicly, it means he invites us into the
Holy of Holies to hear what God has to say. And if you are interested
in your salvation, you want to know just exactly what it means
for Christ to have requested the things that he did in John's
gospel Today's message is the mediating love of the Son to
us. Last week we talked about the love of the Father for us. Today we are talking about the
mediating love of the Son to us. And we affirmed last week
that the root of our salvation, the cause of our salvation, the
basis and origin of our salvation as believers was in the Father. that the father conceived a plan
before the world began by which he would have a people for himself.
And in that omniscience and determination and prerogative of the father,
he placed all of his people and his son in order to secure their
salvation, which is the thing that we marveled at last week. How that before we were in the
Son, we were where? In the Father. Before we were
in Adonai, the strength, the firstborn of God's power, we
were in Jehovah. Before we were in Christ, we
were in God. And that idea is designed to
strengthen the believer's understanding of the filial love of God towards
us. That is the family love. the
family love. You see when you think about
John 17 what you must understand is that a son is talking to his
father. Now the joy of the dialogue or
rather the monologue between the son and the father is that
the subject is us. This is why I'm saying God God
wants you to actually sneak on up to the veil and pull the curtain
back and stick your hearing ear inside the veil and listen to
what the son has to say to the father about his people. This
is the holiest ground in all scripture. This is God talking
to God. And this will allow us to understand
the electing love of God for our Souls weren't we comforted
last week? when we understood that our being
was not an accident it was not the consequence of abstract impersonal
sort of biological matter evolving but rather a real intentional
prerogative on the part of a radically personal being called God and
who had your interest in mind even before you had a being.
And remember what David said in Psalm 139, your thoughts towards
me, oh God, are so high I can't even attain unto it. Which means
David snuck up to the veil one day too. Stuck his ear in and
heard the son talk to the father. Now you know David heard the
son talk to the father, right? Several times in the Psalms.
The son said in Psalm 2, verse 7, give me, O father, since I
am your firstborn and I sit on your throne, give me the heathen
for my inheritance. And the father said, I will,
I will. And you remember David heard
the son talking to the father and the father promising the
son in Psalm 110, sit thou at my right hand and I'll make all
your enemies your footstool. I happen to have been one of
God's enemies. And he made me a footstool where he can rest
his feet on my heart and claim me as his subject. So you're
in good shape when God's feet is on your neck. Right. So the psalmist knew something
about this entering into the veil of which you and I want
today to peer in a little bit more. May God give us hearing
ears. Hearing ears to understand the
privileges Believers in Jesus Christ and when when we work
through John 17 today and next week and maybe one more week
Understanding the relationship between the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost and us Here's a word. I want you to capture
around this and that's the word gift gift The word gift actually
encompasses all of our salvation see the Father gave us as a gift
to the Son. And the Father gave Christ as
a gift to us. And the Son gave the Holy Ghost
as a gift to us. And the Holy Ghost in return
gives the Son and the Father as a gift to us. You see what's happening within
the circle of the family of God? They're just giving one another
stuff. Because the nature of love is to give. So what you actually are going
to learn through John 17 is the giving nature of three glorious
persons who love each other so much that they are just jazzed
by sharing the people of God among themselves. Hope you get
the vision. We're just getting passed along to God here. Passed
along the Godhead from the father to the son to the Holy Ghost
back to the father again to the son And this is what I call a
family affair And this is the way Paul puts it in Ephesians
chapter 3 verse 14 and 15 I want you to capture this because I
want your understanding of the the family of God doctrine to
be enlarged and It's in Ephesians chapter 3. Just grasp this concept. As the Apostle Paul said, thinking
about the love of God. Verse 14, we'll go there. Thinking
about the love of God in Christ. As he told the church at Ephesus
about this magnanimous salvation that he called a mystery. And
as he was unfolding it in chapter three, one of the things he discovered
was that his heart had filled up with the joy of the proclamation
of the gospel. We are told in verse 14, these
words, as Paul is, is reveling in the idea that God would save
sinners for this cause, I bow my knee unto the what father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. See the family affair idea verse
15 of whom the whole what in heaven and earth is named. When Paul says he bows his knees,
he says he bows his knees to Pater, Abba in the Hebrew. Abba, father, Hebrew, Greek.
He bows his knees to the father because of the son. And then
he says that all the saints are family. And he says they got
one name. Do you know what that name is?
Christian. Because all of us are begotten and adopted in the
beloved who is the son of God. And because we are adopted in
the beloved and can claim ourselves to be Christians, we are part
of the family of God. This is a beautiful reality.
And as we work through John 17, what you need to know is that
Jesus, our great high priest, is mediating to his father in
the behalf of his people with the objective of making sure
his people achieve everything for which God had promised the
son. And if you read those 26 verses
carefully, the aim and goal of God for his people is glory. If you read the 26 verses carefully,
the aim and goal of God and Christ for his people Glory now, I told
you last week that our master divided his requests in John
17 into three categories verses 1 through 5 can be categorized
as Christ's prayer for his return to his father to once again enjoy
his unrivaled indistinguishable and shared glory as God and When
you read verses 1 through 5, what Jesus says to his father
is, Father, I'm done, and I'm ready to come home. I want to
return to that state of glory that I had with you before the
world began. Now, this is critical because
the second request says, Father, keep all those you have given
me. And then the third request is,
and those who are going to be preached to by those you have
given to me, keep them too and make them all one so that they
might enjoy the glory that I had with you before the world began.
What an amazing request on the part of our mediator to his father
towards us. And if this is important to Christ,
it ought to be important to you. Now, I know when our elder read
John 17 and he made his way to the second portion of that request,
and you heard our master saying in his closing statements, so
that they might be one, even as we are one, you may quickly
fall prey to a socialistic idea of one. Please don't do that. Jesus is not meaning by one that
we all sing kumbaya as if somehow oneness is just a feeling of
social agreement. This oneness transcends any idea
of cultural harmony. This is a oneness that reaches
to the level of the Godhead. And just to give you a hint,
here's how he says it, but we've got to develop it. I want them
to know the oneness. that you and I have. Not the
oneness on a horizontal plane, but the oneness on a vertical
plane. However that oneness is between the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost, that is the oneness He wants us to have.
So I want to learn about that, don't you? Because that's His
request. And do you believe that God will
honor His Son's request? Right. So today I want to share
with you and I hope to impress upon you the privilege of you
as a child of God having a mediator. Now, this is going to be important
because, see, you might think you get up every day and go about
your life on your own strength. You might actually believe that
you live and move and have your being independently and autonomously
of God. But I got another thing to tell
you, that you can't breathe in or breathe out. You won't get
up and walk straight apart from the grace of God. It won't happen.
Right. So it's important for you and
I to know the mediatorial work of Christ, keeping you sane every
moment of your life. All right, so as I unpack these
three propositions today, All they are going to be are very,
very important truths with which all most of you are going to
be able to do is hear with your ears. Because most of y'all are
not real serious about God's word. So I'm going to be speaking
in parables to a lot of you because you're not that serious about
God. Our knowledge of God is shallow. Our understanding of
God is shallow. Am I making some sense? But grab
it anyway. Get a hold of it as a promise
and ask God to keep you over the next several weeks and months
and help that thing to make sense in your heart because we are
dealing with the high-hanging fruit of the love of God in Christ
for his elect. The high-hanging fruit of the
love of God in Christ for his elect and particularly in the
realm of mediation. Again, which most of us are not
conscious of. There is a person that stands
between you and God. whoever lives to make intercession
for you. You got that? There's a person
that's, if you're a believer in Christ, if you're not, none
of these promises matter to you. If you're a believer in Christ,
there is a person that stands between you and God to see to
it that everything that the Father has purposed for you comes to
pass in this life. Every bit of it now and i've
said this before this is a comforting thing because the mediator with
whom we are about to Contemplate some thoughts. He doesn't sleep
or slumber when we do Did you get that in other words when
you're asleep he's still mediating Do you see that when when you
and I are wayward in our thoughts? He's still on the job But the
other thing you need to know about your mediator is that he's
successful at his mediation In other words, his father always
says yes to him because of what he has accomplished for us already
at Calvary Street. I think we learned something
of that last week. Remember, all the promises of God are yes
and amen in him. And then three weeks ago, we
learned that when God says no to you and he has to say no to
you often because your desires don't always correspond with
God's will. Even when he does that, he's
saying no to you for Christ's sake. Is that true? So when he
says yes, it's in Christ. And when he says no, it's for
Christ. Right. Because he's actually
going to accomplish his purpose in your life. And by the way,
sometimes your mediator is mediating against you. That's right. Right. In other
words, your God is not a sugar daddy. Don't ever teach him to
be such. Don't ever teach him to be such.
Don't ever teach people that God will always give you what
you want. Don't ever do that. You are utterly ignorant of the
word of God. If you think that God dances to your beat, actually,
as a child of God, you supposed to be learning to dance to God's
beat. But this is why I say a whole bunch of us are hypocrites because
we we're not even spending time with the father to learn. We
talk. We talk. So now I want to work
a little bit with our with our text and see if we can develop
this thought around our master today Christ the second person
of the blessed godhead is our subject today He is the one that
the father gave to us. This is the father's love to
us How do I know the father loves me? He gave me his son You guys
got that not because I got a job Or have good health or have prospered,
et cetera. He does that to everyone. He
reigns upon the just and the unjust. He reigns on people that
don't care about him, that cuts him out, that deny his existence.
That's just how God is. But when you are questioning
the love of God for your soul, you can be sure of this. If Jesus
is your savior, God loves you. And that love is permanent and
eternal. You guys got that? You got that?
If Christ is your Savior, the love of God is yours in measures
you can never ever fully comprehend. It is therefore on that appeal
that we would say to you that don't know Christ, you need to
know Christ. If you want to know the love
of God, you need to know the love of the Son. You need to
know what the cross is all about, the death of Christ, the resurrection
of Christ is all about to your soul. Because a God who is able
to save you from a hell that you deserve is a God of love. Now, we've said it many, many
times. If you end up in hell, That's
your fault. If you end up in glory, that's
God's fault. You understand that? If you end
up in hell by rejecting the gospel and therefore rejecting the objective
manifestation of God's love in Christ, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. If you reject Christ and
end up in hell, that's your fault. If you make it to glory, it's
because he chose you in Christ before the world began and revealed
Christ to you in the gospel and Christ becomes to you everything. And this is what we are about
to work through now under three propositions. The Father gave
Christ to us in this fashion. He gave him to us in that Christ
bears God's nature and Christ also bears our nature. And in that Christ bears God's
nature and our nature, we now can be made partakers of the
divine nature. Did you guys see that? When he
gave Christ to us, he gave Christ to us in order that Christ might
bear our nature. And in bearing our nature, he
also bears his father's nature, which makes him the God-man.
And as the God-man, we now can be made partakers of the divine
nature through Christ. In other words, when Jesus said
in John 17 3, and this is eternal life, that they might know you,
the only true God, and what? Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. What he meant was, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
No one comes unto the Father but by me. And when we talk about
the oneness that God and Christ are desiring for us, it's a oneness
at the level of nature. Every true believer becomes a
son of God through Christ. And this is where the privileges
come in at today. Let's think a little bit about
our mediator. Are you guys ready? Point number one, main point,
the strategy of Christ's threefold request. I told you in verse
five, he lays out returning to the father. Father, restore unto
me the glory that I had with you before the world began. Amazing
concept. Under point number one, we have
three sub points to consider. A return to his unrivaled, indistinguishable,
and shared glory with his father. What does that statement mean?
Unrivaled. That means the glory of the Son
and the glory of the Father are never at odds with one another.
That even though there's a distinction between the Father and the Son,
there's an equality of nature so that the glory of God is equally
shared between the Son and the Father. This is why Jesus could
say to Philip, Philip, why are you asking me to show you the
Father? Because if you have seen me what
you have seen the father now for ignorant folk They try to
make Jesus and the father one nothing could be farther from
the truth What Jesus was saying however is because Jesus is God
just as the father is God yet They are one in nature in order
to see the father in any form or shape or conception You must
see the son Because the Son is the express image of the invisible
God. He is the glory of God. He is
the revelation of the invisible God. He is the icon of God, as
Colossians puts it. And the outshining of God is
manifested to us in Christ. This is what Christ meant about
returning to it. In other words, what he was saying
is, Father, since my work is done, I'm ready to take my seat.
in my position with you to enjoy you in the way I enjoyed you
before I came here. Now this speaks again to the
filial love of the son towards the father. He's done his time. 37 odd years. Three and a half years of what?
Hard ministry. You know what he's saying? I'm
ready to go home. Sub point number two. In his
second request, we see what I call a transfer of direct responsibility
to keep his apostles while separated from them. In John 17, six. This
is what he had said, or actually John 17, nine. He said this,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me for they are thine. And then
he says in verse 11, and now I am no more in the world, but
these are in the world. Who was he talking about? His
11 disciples. And I'm coming to you, Holy Father.
Now watch this saints, keep through your own name, those whom you
have given me that they may be one as we are one. Now the implications
of that I want to draw out more fully here in a moment under
the historical context because the first group of people for
which the master is speaking are the sheep that God his father
had given to him, namely the 11 apostles. Christ knows what
is about to occur in their life. And before he is separated from
them, he prays for them this prayer in John 17. so that he
could secure for them their destiny while he is gone. Now this speaks
volumes to the character and nature of a shepherd. When a
shepherd knows he's about to be separated from his sheep,
will he not put them in a sheepfold in a pen that he can trust? He's
about to put the apostles, our disciples who will be apostles,
in the sheep pen of his father's hand. and he wants his father
to take care of them until he comes again. That's because he
is a what? Good shepherd. Going back then
to our second sub point so that we can understand this even more
fully when we say the strategy of Christ's threefold request
to his father is to return to his unrivaled glory. But secondly,
a transfer of direct responsibility to his father to keep his apostles
while separated from them, underscores essentially what Christ had said
last week, which was the title of our message. Father, thine
they were. Remember that? Two times. Two
times he said that in verse six and in verse nine. Father, thine
they were. Now watch this. And you gave them to me. You
gave them to me. They were yours and you gave
them to me. Now, I want you to understand
something about this transfer of responsibility. The transfer
of responsibility from the father to the son before the world began,
where in all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ
to you and me, was not God giving his elect away, but actually
entrusting them into the hands of his son. You guys follow that
logic? So as you envision the Father
giving us to the Son and the Son giving us to the Spirit and
vice versa, it's not a giving away, it's an entrusting. In other words, the Father entrusted
all of his people into the hands of Christ. In fact, he looked
and he couldn't find anyone better to entrust than his own son. And so the son being privileged
to know that he had a responsibility when he came here for these 37
years to keep his sheep, he kept them all the way up to this point.
This is what we're going to see more fully next week, but even
hinted at today, Christ kept them. Did he keep them? He kept
them all the way up to this point. Is he keeping us? And will he
keep us all the way? Right. And so, and so what he's
saying is, father, I have kept them. Now I want to transfer
the keeping back to you and you utilize a means by which they
can be kept in order to fulfill their task and bring them home.
What love of God to us. When I thought about, when I
thought about it, there are other implications that fall out to,
to this doctrine of what we call the preservation of the saints.
You guys know what that doctrine is. The preservation of the saints.
Most of y'all don't. I told you very shallow. Long ago, everyone
would have understood the doctrine of the preservation of the saints.
When a thing is preserved, that thing, that object, is placed
in a secure place. Long ago, we used to make what
was called preserves. Remember how they used to do
it, the old folk? They used to cook it, boil it, sugar it, do
all that stuff, and then they would place it in a canister,
and they would put the lid on the top of it, and they only
knew that it was ready when the lid went, whoop, Right? That's
called preserving. And that's what God did for his
elect when he placed them in Christ before the world began.
He preserved us so that we would not contaminate, that we would
not spoil, that we would not corrupt, that we would not deteriorate. Now watch this. Preservation
is what God does for us. Perseverance is what we do towards
God. Are you hearing me? So, so, so,
so go back because what we're dealing with here is the, the
son saying to the father, preserve them continually until I return. So now the father is preoccupied
with the task of preserving the apostles. And under that rubric,
we are talking about a transfer of direct responsibility to keep
his apostles while separated from them. And I've only given
you one verse, John 14, verse 16, but look with me there at
Verse 16 through 18, so this point can come home again. Mind
you, what our master is saying in John 17 is really about the
relationship between God and his people, making sure, because
he is now our mediator and our head, he's making sure that all
that we have from him gets done in our life because he can trust
the Father. John 14, 6, Jesus said what? I am the way, the
truth, and the life, and no one comes into the Father, what?
If you had known me, you would have known my father also. And
from henceforth, you know him and have what? Seen him. And
this is where Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the father
and it suffices. And this is what our master said
to Philip. Jesus said unto him, have I been
so long with you and you have not known me, Philip? He that
has seen me hath what? seeing the father and how says
thou then show us the father and our lord begins to develop
in this teaching in the minds of the apostles the oneness between
him and his father and their purpose to keep his people this
is why he says in john chapter 14 verse 16 i will pray the father
watch it and he shall give another what comforter that he may abide
with you forever And this is at the heart of what's taking
place in the mediatorial prayer of Christ. Christ knows that
he's going back to the Father. So he said, I'm going to pray
to the Father to do what? Send you another comforter. Well,
that's what we're hearing in John 17. He said this in John
14. We are hearing it in John 17,
are we not? He's talking to his Father in
John 17, keep them. And the means by which he will
keep them is the sending of the third person. into our lives. I will pray the Father, He shall
give you another comforter. The word comforter there needs
to be understood too grammatically. Sometimes we get an emotional
kind of connotation out of it, right? Like, you know, God is
supposed to kind of rub us on our back and wipe our tears away.
That's what the role of the third person is. But no, not really.
The word really is a technical term that means to come along
and to instruct. To come along and to instruct.
You know what that means? When you're truly God, you're
His disciples. And His goal is to teach you.
Now his instructions are designed to grow you up into Christ. That's
what that means. The word comforter means the
paraclete means the one who comes alongside calling you to himself
and personally tutoring you in the things of God. And the tutoring
process is effective enough to not only cause you to become
sons of God, but to conform you to the image of Christ. Isn't
that a great word? And so this is what's going on under this
second sub-point, a transfer of direct responsibility to keep
his apostles while separated. The third one, a guarantee of
the apostles what? Success in the gospel for the
elect's sake, dash, even me. Hallelujah. 2,000 years later, on this very
day, at this very hour, at this very second, I am believing the
gospel. Are you? And it's a consequence
of Christ's prayer being answered by his father. to send the Spirit
of God to keep the apostles as they preach this glorious gospel.
And we have heard them, have we not? And we believe what they
say, do we not? And as such, God is keeping us. It's a guarantee of the apostles'
success in the gospel for his elexic. The second point I want
to call your attention to then quickly, the second point that
we need to now contemplate is Christ's plea for their safety
is their having been kept first by Christ. Now this is a wonderful
insight into the way in which our mediator talks to his father.
Listen to this, let's draw up near to the veil and consider
this. As Christ made his plea in verses one through 10, and
then he says to his father in verse 11, watch this saints,
and now I am no more in the world. Yes he is, but in a moment he
won't be. Now what I love about this language, this is called
a sort of prophetic perfect, a prophetic perfect. He will
talk as if he is there when he's not, but he can do that. Now
you can't. Now a lot of you religious folk
love to talk about speaking things into existence. Problem is you
got to learn how to speak things out of existence first. And you
haven't done that yet. Well, I'm just going to speak
that into existence. Well, first speak stuff out of
existence. First, speak your sin out of
existence, your negativity out of existence, your doubt out
of existence, your fear out of existence, your anger out of
existence, your cantankerous ways out of existence. Then if
you can speak that out of existence, maybe you can speak something
into existence. But you won't ever do that either. Can I tell
you why? Because you're not God. These line folks in our churches
are a mess, aren't they? Lying folks. Lying folks, don't
lie on God. You're not going to make anything
happen. You're going to just get frustrated with God and leave
him. Because God's going to be God
when you're trying to bring things into existence and you can't
bust a mustard seed. Are you hearing me? You and I
are impotent by nature. We can't even control our own
thoughts. We can't even remove evil thoughts from our mind.
Those crazy passions that rise up in us, we got to pray that
God moves that. How are you going to speak anything
into existence? Stop it right now. Stop it right
now in the name of Jesus. You silly Christian. You silly
rabbit. Stop it right now. But the proposition is wonderful.
Pulling up our PowerPoint, I want them to see it. The proposition
is wonderful. We could be here for a long time. I want you to
see the intimacy and the comfortableness of the equality between the father
and the son. And the son saying to his father,
I'm already out of here. Now, conceptually, we could be
in another place while in a different place. Isn't that true? I was
talking to a sister yesterday. She was telling me, pastor, I'm
so gone from my job. I understood what that means.
Her body is there, but her mind is somewhere else. Watch this.
But that's not what Jesus is talking about. He can actually
do better than that because he said it himself in John chapter
three. What if the same one that descended is able to also eat
us in who is already right now in heaven. Because Jesus being
equal with God in his nature, he is everywhere present. He
can be in heaven and he can be in earth. He can be in the far
regions of the universe. He can be in our hearts as he
is by faith through the Spirit of God and by the Word of God,
and yet be seated at the right hand of God Almighty. See, in
other words, when Christ said, I am already out of here, he
was speaking in reality about his nature as God, but he was
also speaking to the certainty of the things that are about
to take place. And in our third point, I wanna really bring it
home. contextualize what we're talking about our master really
is saying to the father again I'm out of here father and here's
the reason why I want you to grant my request because watch
this he had kept them all the way up to this point chapter
17 verse 11 and 12 no more am I in the world but these are
in the world and I am coming to you holy father here it is
Keep through thine own name. The word name here is not referring
to the nomenclature of the title. It's referring to the character
and the attribute. Keep through your character and
your attributes, through your power, through your ability,
through your reputation, those that are yours. So be very careful
about that. Christ has already revealed the
name of God to his people. Do you know what that is? Father. Keep through thine own name those
whom you have given me That they may be one even as we are one
now notice what it says in verse 12 While I was what with them
in the world. See he's saying i'm out now You
notice what he's doing here. He's jumping over the next three
days And the next 40 days and viewing himself at the right
hand of god because tomorrow in fact tonight in this text
He's going to face his accusers and be killed. He's already in
glory telling his father to grant him the authority to protect
his apostles while he's gone. Is that a caring shepherd or
not? And this also speaks to the intimacy of the knowledge
between the son and the father. If Christ were not equally God
as the father, he couldn't use this kind of talk without being
a fool or an idiot like you and I are. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? This gives us insight into the
eternality of Christ as he speaks of, I am no longer in the world,
but these are. And here's his request. I kept
them in your name. Do you see it in verse 12? I
kept them in your name. Who did he keep? Those that you
have given me, I have kept. Isn't that good? Now stay with
me now. I want to work this with you
because the mediator right now is concentrating on 11 men. These 11 men will be the foundation
of the New Testament church. These 11 men are with him right
now where he is. These 11 men Hearing him make
this petition to his father right now. That's what I told you in
John 14 He says I'm gonna pray in John 17. What is he doing
praying? These 11 men are air hustling
in on the father's request for them. This ought to be extremely
comforting to them. Isn't that right? Listen to the
son talk to the father about keeping us now. What did he say?
He has kept them all the way up to this point From the time
he called them in Matthew 3 and 4, in Mark's Gospel chapter 1,
Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Those 11
men, including Judas, followed Jesus every day of their life.
We're learning this, are we not men? In our men's theology class,
this is what we call discipleship. This is what we call biblical
mentoring. This is the work of taking people
and shaping them into your own image. This is why you and I
don't make disciples. You don't make disciples because
your job is not to shape people into your image. You will prepare
them for hell if you do that. Let me help you. Because again,
we jack up theology. Discipleship is when you take
somebody and bring them under your bosom and they live with
you 24-7. They don't simply adopt your
theology or your philosophy or your ideology. They adopt your
whole lifestyle. They actually embrace the totality
of your personhood. Christ, as the Great Shepherd,
Took 11 men 12, but one is about to disappear and they lived with
him for three and a half years that Discipleship, you know what
that means Saints? I'm not your discipler. You know
what that means? You're not my discipler You know
what that means if you're being discipled you're actually being
discipled by Christ through the Holy Ghost according to the Word
of God and I'm just one of your teachers and Do you hear what
I see? And my wife will tell you this
real quick. You don't want to come live with me because you'll
get real bad habits living with Pastor Jesse. Now, I can show
you some things about consistency of life. I can show you some
things about dedication to God. I can show you some things about
how to get right when you mess up. But my life will never, ever
be a proper means by which you become a true disciple of Jesus.
Those 11 men lived with Jesus. And when it was all over
with, the Sanhedrin said, we could tell. Isn't that what they
said in that spot? We could tell. They've been hanging
with that dude. because there was a radical likeness
of Christ in their life later on. So what our master says here
in our text, in our outline, when he says, Father, keep them
in thy name, those you have given me, because I have already kept
them and none of them, verse 12, is lost but the son of perdition
that the scriptures might be fulfilled. You see, our master
is explaining to you and me this truth. He kept all of his own. But there were one that was among
them that was not his own. And that one that was not his
own did not benefit from his teaching. So stay with me now. I'll show you a truth as we get
ready to really work this through and deal with our final point.
Judas Iscariot was an individual more privileged than any human
being on earth to actually be able to live with, walk and observe
the life of the God-man for three and a half years. You can't get
closer to God than that. And then to walk away and turn
him in as a Benedict Arnold and as a traitor must mean that you
were never his in the first place. Are you guys hearing me? Will
you hear me now? Will you hear me now? And so our master said,
according to the scripture, he's a son of perdition. He came close,
but never made it in. Now the warning to you and me
is make it in. Quit playing church. Don't play
games with God. Don't draw near. Go all the way
in. Close with Christ. Because if
you're his, he will keep you to the end. This is a comforting
word to the disciples, a very comforting word to the disciples.
And the verb form here for keeping them is wonderful. It's an imperfect
verb form, which means that Christ ended his responsibility to keep
the 11 men right here in John 17. This is going to be an important
point as we deal with our third point here. Christ knows his
job with them in terms of his immediate mediatorial work stops
right here. Transfer of responsibility back
to the Father. Transfer of responsibility. In
other words, those of us who are kept by God are kept by all
three persons. The Father keeps us. The son
keeps us, the Holy Ghost keeps us. You got that? The father
keeps us, the son keeps us, the Holy Ghost keeps us. And in this
context, he is making sure as a good shepherd that these 11
men are here then taken care of. Under point number two, Christ's
plea for their safety. Is there having been kept by
their father? Four things I want you to mark quickly under this
mode of keeping them. How did Christ keep the apostles
from the day he introduced himself to them to the point where he
is now? Four verbs I want you to mark. I will not develop them.
I'll simply quote them. Four verbs. First, he called
them. First, he called them. What we
say to every man and woman who professes to be a believer in
Christ is that you have to be called by God. That you have
to hear the gospel call. And that gospel call must penetrate
your heart in a saving revelation of God. That's the call everyone
must hear if they're going to be saved. So we read in Mark's
gospel, chapter 3, verse 30, where he went up to a high mountain
And Jesus called whom he would. He went up into a high mountain,
as it were, a new Moses operating under a new kingdom paradigm
as the king of that kingdom. And he called whom he would. Mark 3, verse 30, please. And
he called whom he would. He didn't call everybody. He
didn't call everybody. Verse 13, let's see, maybe it's
verse 13 or 14. I want you to deal with the demons. Verse 14,
he didn't call everybody. He goes up into a mountain and
he called unto him whom he what? He didn't call everybody. Listen
to me, ladies and gentlemen, not everyone hears the gospel.
Not everyone hears the gospel. Ma, remember what we were talking
about last Sunday? Hear it again, hear it again. My mother said
to me, now baby, I've been under the gospel a long time. She says,
I know the difference between the gospel and that which is
not the gospel. Listen carefully to me. Most
people don't. Do you hear me? Most people don't. Do you know how comforting that
was to a mother's son? Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's
Day. Listen carefully to me. Listen,
listen, listen, listen. Religion. is not the gospel. Your words plus Christ's words
is not the gospel. Good words are not the gospel. Only the grace of God in Christ
apart from words is the gospel. Are you hearing me? And that
only comes by revelation. Only by revelation. Only by revelation. He is calling his people from
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Do you see it? Watch
this now. And they come to him. You know
what the text says? And they come to him. Have you
come to Christ? Have you believed on Christ?
Are you trusting Christ? Do you love Christ? Then you're
his elect. Then you're his elect. Then you're
his elect. And if you have not come to him,
If you have not trusted him, if you have not bowed the knee
to Christ, you have no confidence of glory at all. He plainly says
to his father, the only one that abandoned me was the son of perdition
that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Jesus calls and according
to our second sub point, he does what he teaches. He called them,
Mark chapter 3 verse 13, but in our second set point, he taught
them, that's Matthew chapter 5, 1 and Ephesians 4, 21. Was
our master a teacher? Watch this, saints. He wasn't
just a preacher. And he certainly wasn't one of
the whooping preachers. Can I deal with it for a moment?
Because this present generation is trying to get a sidebar into
heaven. apart from biblical preaching
and teaching because we get the heebie-jeebies when we got to
be taught. But see, the reality is you won't
be taught of God effectually until you keep your mouth shut
and sit at his feet and learn of him. This is the danger of
church. Church knows how to make all
kind of noise and pretend it's at the feet of Jesus. But when
you're really at the feet of Jesus, you know what you do?
You sit there as a little child with your mouth shut, listening
to your master speak. Remember Mary and Martha? Martha
in the kitchen cooking gumbo and chitlins. And don't get me
wrong, that's all good. I like it. I like it. Martha,
you cook. But Mary said, uh-uh. Jesus don't
come over my house every day. I'm sitting down with Jesus,
and she sat at his feet. Do you remember what our master
said when Martha came complaining? Don't you see I'm in here doing
all the dishes, all the cooking, all the baking, all the cleaning,
and you're going to just let her sit here and listen to you
while I work? You know what Jesus, our master,
said? Yeah. That's the short version. Yeah. Here's the reason why. Most people
are perishing in religion because they're not actually taking teaching
seriously. So what Martha did was sit at
Jesus feet, Mary that rather, and hear her master talk. And you know what our master
says? Mary has chosen that one good thing and it will never
be taken away. Whoa. You know, we talk about
the takeaway principle, how people pretend they have Jesus and then
Jesus gets taken away because their life get encumbered by
all kinds of other junk. See, Jesus said concerning Mary, because
she prioritized Jesus, because she says, you know what? I'm
not going to try to impress him by a clean house. Forget this
raggedy, nasty house. He already here now. He didn't show up at the door.
What are we going to do, keep him outside while we clean up?
You know, that's our OCD personality, you know, obsessive compulsive.
Jesus say right here, we got to go clean up before we let
Jesus in. Martha would have told Mary,
leave him outside until we clear up. Mary didn't even tell Jesus,
tell Martha that Jesus was at the door. She opened it. Come
on in, master. Come on in. House raggedy and everything.
Come on in. Because when Jesus comes in,
the house immediately becomes clean. Did you get that? The house immediately becomes
clean. It becomes clean immediately. Immediately, it becomes sanctified.
Immediately, it becomes holy ground. Immediately, it experiences
the glory of God, the dirt and all, the dirt and all. That's
a picture of who we are when Christ enters our heart by faith
and takes its place on the throne of our heart. We're still dirty.
We're still nasty, but it's glorified dirt right now. Do you see that
a little bit? Do you see that a little bit?
Do you see it a little bit? Do you see it a little bit? Come
on in Jesus because if the sinner has to clean himself up before
Jesus come the sinner will never ever clean up enough for Christ
to get in But come on in Jesus. Come on in Come on in So he calls
them and he teaches them and according To a major major reality
in our text. He shows them things doesn't
he? So we're at our third sub point and I want to work with
you on this for a moment that I'm laying the foundation for
our clothes here. See, he wasn't, as I told you, your commitment
to Jesus has to be greater than five minutes on Sunday. God have
mercy on those who are listening to me. Do not fool yourself.
Do not fool yourself. Do not fool yourself. Do not
fool yourself. Jesus has to be more important
to you than everything. Everything For you to affirm
the fact that you are his child and you are a disciple of him,
you must prioritize the issues of the kingdom. I told you those
11 men, 12 at the first, who when Jesus says, come and follow
me, do you know what they did? They dropped everything. That's what it means to be a
Christian. The rest of us are religious. They followed him
for three and a half years. Now let me show you what went
on. Not only did he preach the truth and tell the truth, in
John 17, it says that he gave them, Christ says, Father, I
gave them your word. Father, I revealed your name
to them. Father, I have given them the glory that you gave
to me. In other words, Christ gave them a lot. But the manner
in which he gave it to them, coach, was this way, by word
and by deed. So immediately when Peter, James
and John started following Jesus, the first thing that Jesus did
was to start preaching in Peter and James and John's neighborhood.
He also started casting out devils and healing the sick and opening
the eyes of the blind. And in order for God to impact
Peter, you know what God allowed to happen? Peter's mother-in-law
got sick. Jesus is kicking it at Peter's house and Peter's
mother-in-law got sick. You know what our master did?
He healed Peter's mother-in-law in the presence of Peter to affirm
the intimacy of his discipleship with Peter so that Peter could
know firsthand that Jesus is the real deal. He is the Messiah.
He went on to heal everybody in that city and for three and
a half years what the disciples saw with Christ was preaching,
teaching, and healing. Preaching, teaching, and what?
Healing. Preaching, teaching, and healing.
He was showing his Father through his messianic work. Are y'all
with me? And there were miracles that our Master did according
to He showed them that are powerful. Mark 1, He heals in Peter's territory. Mark 6 verse 49 is the account
where Christ has just told the disciples, you guys catch a ship
to the other side. We just got through preaching
to these folks and I'll meet you there. Same night they're riding
the ship to the other side, they see this dude walking on the
water, coming towards them. Now Christ did that on purpose
to show them who he was. Remember how scared they got?
How fearful they got? And when Jesus came near, what
did he say? Peace be unto you. Be of good cheer. It is I. He revealed himself to them as
the incarnate son of God. Equal in power with his father.
For who can walk on the water but God? He showed that to them
as his disciples. Then down the line, down the
line, he gets in the boat with them and they're riding to the
other side. And the storm is rising and the boat's about to
be destroyed. And you remember what the disciples
said? Master, do you care for us? And remember what the master
did? He stood up out of his sleep.
He's the eschatological Jonah, remember? But he cared for them,
didn't he? He stood up and he said to the
sea, peace, be still. In the Greek, it's a powerful,
abrupt verb, which means to muzzle. Literally, he said, shut up.
And immediately, the sea stilled. In other words, it didn't slow
down. You know how you, no, it went. Watch this. In the moment it
did it, the disciples got even more scared of that than they
were of the storm. What was Christ doing? He was
impressing upon them the reality of His uniqueness as the Son
of God. He was showing them, showing
them the Father. They said, what manner of man
is this that we're dealing with? He can speak to the wind. He
can speak to the sea. They were blown away. We are
dealing with the showing aspect. He calls, he teaches, he what?
He shows, he shows. And then the second to the last
one is when they were up in the Mount of Transfiguration. Christ did that on purpose. He
said, come on, fellows, I'm going to show you something. And his
deity was leaked out in front of them. And the Father spoke
from heaven one more time in their presence. This is what
Peter called the Mount of Glory in 2 Peter chapter 1. We were
with him in the Holy Mount. You guys follow me? Our Master
is doing more than little bitty Bible studies. He's discipling
11 men who will turn the world upside down. Are you guys with
me for a moment? Upside down. Upside down. Now, here is the
kicker. Our master knows that this three
and a half year seminary, this three and a half year PhD program,
this three and a half year massive instructional intensive study
that these disciples have gone through. Are you with me now?
This is our last one. Wore them out. I'm getting ready to lay the
foundation for the clothes. It wore them out. Just three and
a half years. This is why I'm getting to my
last point. Not only did he call them, not only did he teach them,
not only did he show them, he prayed for them. Our master's
high priestly prayers throughout his gospel ministry were so powerful
in their impression upon the minds of the disciples that like
little children, they said to him, Lord, you, you got to teach
us how to pray. You got that? You gotta teach
us how to pray. Cause we've never seen anyone
pray like you. Now we got a bunch of Pharisees,
Lord. And we got a bunch of Sadducees, Lord. They don't pray. They don't
even believe in prayer. We got a bunch of Herodians, a bunch
of Libertines, a bunch of very stickler religious folks, but
we have never ever seen anyone Get in contact with the Father
like you. Teach us how to pray, which will
be at the heart of my message to us in a few weeks on forgiveness. The disciples learned by what
they observed what it means to be a Christian. You have to be
taught. You have to first be called,
taught. You have to be shown. And you
have to know what it means to get a hold of God. This is where
we are as we close. My fourth point then, I'm going
to wrap this up here real quickly. My third point. Third point.
Think about this. This is the context now, ladies
and gentlemen, of John's gospel chapter 17. Do I have your attention?
This is the context. This is what we call the historical
narrative context out of which all of this language is emerging. And in this context, what we
are seeing is the mighty and gracious and loving prayer of
the son to the father for his disciples. Is that true? This
prayer that the master is rendering in John 17 is rendered, ladies
and gentlemen, in the midst of a lot of pain. Let's grasp it
right now. Christ is in pain. His pain started a few hours
earlier in John's gospel, chapter 12, when he said now is my hour
come and now is my soul troubled even unto death this is just
a few hours earlier in chapter 13 they have the Lord's table
because we are right now in the context of Passover feast do
you know what's going on contextually all over Israel they are preparing
the Passover. That means lambs are being slaughtered
all over people's houses, synagogues, and temple. Right now, simultaneous
to what Christ is saying to his Father, the lambs that are being
slain in Israel is preparing Christ for his what? His death. Do you see it? The Passover lambs
are already being what? Christ and the disciples are
in the midst of a symbolic fulfillment of the reason, the very reason
Christ came. Christ is fully aware of what's
about to happen to him because it's on this day that he's about
to fulfill Exodus chapter 12, which says, prepare the lamb
for every household. for seven days and then kill
it and take the blood and put it on the doorpost and when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. Hence, what's taking place
contextually, Christ is very much aware, very much aware of
the fulfillment of scripture. His soul is in agony. At the
table of Passover, his enemy has just betrayed him. He knows
his enemy is about to go get the whole kangaroo court system. He tells his disciples from John's
gospel chapter 13, 14, and 15, and 16, right? 13, 14 comes after
13, right? I know y'all go to government
schools. Watch this now, watch this. 14, 15, and 16 are one
long running commentary. One massive, monumental, amazing
sermon. And then he says in chapter 15
and 16, let's go. It's in chapter 16, he says to
the disciples, time to go. We're getting ready to go. This
is where the context is. The Master has given his last
words to the disciples. This is in John's Gospel, chapter
16. Look at verses 14 through 16. Actually, don't do that. Just go to chapter 16 and let
me start with you at verse 32. Verse 32a. John 16, 32a. Are
you there? Behold, the hour coming. Yea is what? Now come. Here's what he says to them.
And you will be scattered. Do you see the burden? Let me
see if I can press it home. He already feels the weight of
the transfer of the guilt of all of his elect placed on him. He already has recognized that
the last few hours are transitioning. His enemy has left him and it
became night. He knows his disciples are tired
after three and a half years ministry. They are tired. They
are tired. And yet they got to go through
one more thing. You know how you tired, but you
got to go through one more thing. And they're going through one
more thing. And they are now walking towards Gethsemane. Stay with me. This is the other
thing about prayer I love. When you get past religious prayer,
you can pray anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Watch this now. Our master is walking towards
the Brook Kidron. That's chapter 18, verse 1. But
before he gets to the Brook Kidron, while he's walking with his disciples,
he stops in the middle of his walk and he looks up to heaven. Hence he starts John chapter
17 Do you have the context now? He's walking with his 11 They're
headed to the brook Kidron to cross over the brook into the
garden John chapter 18 verse 1 John 18 verse 1 John 18 comes
after John 17, right? We're walking. I'm showing you
how that this is a prayer on their way to his crucifixion
John 18, 1, are you there? And when Jesus has spoken these
words, what words? John 17. John 17. Raise your hand if you're
with me. All right, please. John 17 is
a prayer that our master is praying in agony, in pain, in passion
as he now travels to his betrayal. Hence, we are to pray always,
praying continually. praying as we go. Is that what
our master is doing? Show you a beautiful truth about
this. John 17 1.8. Amazing. This is what we call
observation of the text. This is how you sit and let the
text open itself up to you. Are you at 17 1? Now notice what
it says. John 17 1. These words speak
Jesus and he lifted up his eyes to heaven. Do you see it? He's walking with his disciples.
And it's just the 11th. And this is a dark, dark period
for Christ. But ladies and gentlemen, he
is not thinking about himself. He's thinking about his elect
who are with him right now. And he stops. And he lifts his
eyes to heaven. He doesn't have his hands in
his pocket. He didn't wear slacks. I'm just doing this. But I want you to get it. I want
you to get it. I want you to get it because the Holy Ghost
wrote this down for you to get it. His posture of prayer was
heavenward so that his disciples could know that his thoughts
were heavenward. They are observing him pray physically
with his eyes to heaven. And as they observe him stop
and pray, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is what?
Father, father which is affirming to
them yet and again that they got it right when he told them
in Matthew 16 Peter flesh and blood have not revealed these
things to you my father has revealed them to you they are listening
to the son talking to the father as the son is about to take them
into watch this now the final an ultimate scandal. Are you
with me? A scandal that is going to rock
their boat. And because he knows that, he
stops and does what for them? Not only does he pray, he lets
them in on the prayer. Because he knows they need to
hear this. They need to hear that their
shepherd, their mediator has spoken in request for them before
they hit the wind. Because they're about to hit
it. Are you with me? They're about to hit it. They're
about to hit it. He lifted his eyes to heaven.
He did this twice. Speaking about different prayer
postures. Don't argue with people about posture for prayer. Don't
even do that. One way is not better than the
other. It's not about the posture. It's about the attitude of the
heart. relative to knowing the true
and the living God. But I'll tell you something. I'll tell
you something. This is the thing I teach our
saints in prayer at grace. There's a difference between
private prayer and public prayer. When you are praying privately,
you are only concerned about God hearing what you say. When
you are praying publicly, you better know that your prayers
are designed for the public audience to hear. That means you learn how to pray
mediatorially, intercessorially, supplicating for those that are
hearing as Christ is doing now. He did the same thing in John
chapter 11 when he rose his head and said, Father, the only reason
I'm praying to you is not because I don't know whether or not you're
going to hear me. You always hear me. It's for these folks
I am praying publicly out loud. Are you guys learning something
today? Contextually, he is so concerned about these 11 men
because he knows what they're about to go through and hence
the prayer. So under our last point, Christ
will soon be separated from them to his horror and his what? Y'all got what I got in your
third point? And Christ will soon be separated from them to
his what? Horror and hope. Is that yours? Is that what you
guys got in your third point? Oh, I'm sorry. No wonder you're
not as excited as me. It's only three points, right?
Good. Well, let me just say it just
because you don't know it. He's praying in horror and hope. That's the tone of John 17. Don't
miss it. The idea that Jesus is kind of
just cool and calm and praying John 17, you miss the whole thing. It's driven with passion. It's
driven with pathos. It's driven with concern. It's
driven with weight. It's driven with burden. It's
driven with burden. It's driven with burden. Because
what's about to happen now is the biggest scandal for the disciples
ever. Do you hear me? They are about
to forsake him. Are you hearing me? So watch
this. When you have a mediator and
a high priest and a surety and a substitute who ever lives to
make intercession for you, a high priest who knows his father will
always say yes to him, a high priest who has the nature of
God and the nature of man, a high priest who can see the end from
the beginning, aren't you in good shape? Let me say it again,
because I want to get another point across. When you got a
high priest like Jesus, aren't you in good shape when you fall? Because they are about to fall. Are you hearing me? But he said
in Luke's gospel, chapter 23, I have already prayed for all
of you that when you fall, your faith fails not. You got it? You got it? You got it? You guys
see the context? This is a holy ground scenario. This is a holy ground scenario. Christ is keeping His sheep,
isn't He? He's keeping His sheep, is He
not? He's standing in the gap for
His sheep, is He not? He's prevailing with His Father for His sheep,
is He not? And so we see the Passover. We
see the Master has given His disciples the last word. They
are tired, weary, worn, and weary after three and a half years
in the school of Christ. You see that, right? they are
about to go through a massive trial that's chapter 16 verse
32 the whole chapter he says the hour is coming that you shall
be scattered every man to his own horrible and you shall leave
me alone but I'm not alone because the
father is with me the last two sub points three sub points they
will abandon Christ and their abandonment of Christ will be
their final what? Capture it. Capture it. So sometimes for God, graduation
for his elect looks like failure. Get it, get it, get it, get it,
get it, get it. Sometimes graduation for God's elect looks like failure. Did you guys get it? Are you
guys following me? See the paradoxical nature of the gospel? Watch this.
Before honor is humility. Before honor is humility. Here's
the last test that they have to take. They're in school. Here's
the last test they have to take. And do you know what the test
circumscribes? Do you know what the nature of
this test is? Are you ready? Watch this now. Here's the proposition
that's given to the eleven and is given to you and me. Ready?
Ready? Do you, as a Christian, have any strength to do any good
for God's glory of your own. What's the answer? This is what
they're about to find out right now. They are about to seal the
reality that salvation is by grace alone, that the work of
Christ, he had to do alone. that of the people there was
none with him. No, not one. That when they preach
the gospel, they will be able to say that Christ saved us all
by himself. all by himself, that when he
went to Calvary, he went alone. We all abandoned him. We all
turned from him. We all went our own way, including
the apostles. They would learn here on this
day what it means for God to save by sovereign grace altogether,
apart from human works. They will not form their lips
and tell men and women that the gospel is the gospel of Jesus
plus the apostles. This is the gospel of grace alone.
Listen to me, child of God. And you know that when you fall,
when you fall and then the master comes along and says, get on
up, get on up. They went back fishing. I'm out
of here. And our master meets them on
the shore. John chapter 21 fried catfish. I know. hot water, cornbread. They're making their way back
in. And he says to the little children, isn't that how he put
it? Isn't that a good shepherd? All
whom the father giveth me will what? Come to me. And he that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. The children that the
father had given to Christ, they come to him. But we will go through
falls to learn how we have a mighty mediator in the Lord Jesus, whoever
lives to make intercession for us. Amen. Amen.