Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles to John chapter 17. This is a message that I've been
thinking on almost a year. one that I feel burdened to bring
and because I want to be clear about what I want to bring forth
here because it's important. And I'm hoping that when we leave
here tonight, we can leave having a better understanding of what
it is to be united to Christ and how in everything When we
look at any spiritual benefit to the believer, it must always
be viewed in light of union with Christ. We must use those eyes
any time we look at anything that we're given as a spiritual
benefit of a believer. Now, this world seeks after a
sign. Miracles, wonders, a display
of power. The creature entreats his creator
to manifest that he exists. how far-reaching the effects
are of sin and unbelief that we would petition our God to
do just this. There's always questioning, but
never believing. They say, what is God's will
for my life? And you can bet every time someone
that says that is just saying that for the purpose to justify
what they're doing in that moment. But I do want to know what God's
will is, and I'm interested in knowing, and I'm sure you are
too. Because nothing happens outside of God's will. All the
purposes, all the decrees, everything that happened today, that will
happen tomorrow, happened within God's will. I want to know what
His will is. And if you can believe me, we
can find out what His will is here, reflected in His Word.
We're witness, in John 17, to God the Son communing with God
the Father. The Father's purpose and the
Father's will are having been executed here. And if we look
here at these first few verses, these words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. as thou hast given power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. And here now we find this is
the work that he's been given to do. I've finished, in verse
4, the work which thou gavest me to do. Look down in verse
6. I've manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. And in verse
8, For I have given them the words which thou hast given me,
and they have received them, and have surely known that I
came out for thee, and they believe that thou didst send me. And
in verse 12, while I was with them in the world, I kept them
in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost. And in verse 13 he says,
And now I come unto thee. And so, right here we've seen,
this is the Son manifesting to us what the work was that the
Father gave Him to do. He's manifested His name. He's
given the words, given the gospel to them which God had given to
Him. He said, I've kept them, and
not one of them is lost. And now, I'm coming unto you. So the Son clearly lays forth
the work that He was given. But in verses 20-24, we see something
we'd see nowhere else. We see the desires of the Son.
Let's read those together. I'll start in verse 19. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, and that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me. that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast
sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me,
for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Now,
there are many things that I desire. We've heard here the desires
of the Son. Many things that I desire that I have absolutely
no power to bring to come to pass. Here we witness the power
and the desires of the Son. And in verse 20, what means does
the Son employ to gain the ear of the Father? Does He show us
a display of His power? Does He show great shoutings?
Does He present a list of His accomplishments as to why He
should be heard? The Son employs the use of prayer.
What is often our last means of petition, the Son uses as
His only means for petition to be heard by the Father. And what
does he ask for in verse 20? Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
He prays for them which shall believe on Him. And in verse
9, He lets us know, He says, I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, for they
are Thine. So this doesn't mean everyone everywhere. These are
just the ones whom the Father gave Him. All the ones whom He
said were not lost. Those that shall believe on Me.
That's how we know who they are. Through their word. What's through
their word? That's the preaching of the Gospel.
Do you know that the only way that you can believe and come
to know God and to know His Son is through the preaching of the
Gospel? That's the only way. Men are taught through preaching.
If you believe on Jesus Christ, the Son, through the preaching
of the Gospel, it is you here that He is praying for. I have
no confidence in what I do, but if the Lord prays for me, how
much confidence do I have in that? I have all confidence in
Him. So if He prays for me, is there
any way that it can't come to pass? Before we look at what
the Lord asks for, it's very important we attempt to have
some understanding here of how God operates, how He exists,
and how He decrees things that are in time and out of time.
Because God is not beholden by time. He exists. His name is
I Am. He always is. He's always I Am
in the past, I Am in the present, I Am in the future. Before time
what but before time God was and that in itself the description
of it is wrong because we're defining him by time God always
is time is just part of the the equation It's the only way that
we can understand it weird if we are limited by time so we
have to describe things in terms of time he said to Jeremiah before
I formed thee in the belly I I knew thee, so how can that be? Because
God is not beholden by time. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. How? It had to come through election. Those had to be chosen before
they ever were or else they wouldn't have believed at all. That's
the only reason we can believe is because we were elected. There
were decrees given by God before time that necessitate execution
in time for them to be completed, such as the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. Now, He bore the wounds of His
cross before this world ever was. He was the Lamb slain. So,
God here is not defied by time. But yet, in the course of time,
these things have to come to pass. John 3.14, as Moses lifted
up a servant in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. He had to be lifted up in order
to be crucified, in order to purge the sins of His people.
These things were decreed before time, but had to happen in time.
He must needs go through Samaria to reveal the Gospel to one of
His people. Christ must needs have suffered and risen again
from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you,
is Christ. So he must needs have suffered.
Now, there's a sense in which I've always been in Christ, but
yet there was a time when I was a stranger to God and didn't
believe. How do we reconcile these things? One happened in
time, one happened before time ever was. I always was in Christ,
but yet there was a time I didn't believe. But God can never have
known me in sin, yet I'm holy in Christ. But how do you feel
right now in your experience sitting here tonight? You don't
feel holy, you don't feel these things, but yet God sees me as
holy and I always have been in Christ. So what we are witness
to here in John 17 is the execution in time of what always has been
before time began. Yet it must happen in time to
be fulfilled. So these are the purposes and
decrees of God before time that have to come to pass. And so
that's what we're seeing here in these last four verses we
just read out of John 17, the desires of the Son. These things
had not come to pass yet. So here we find the desires of
the Son, and in verse 21, we list the first one, that they
all may be one. And this word one here means
of one accord, of one mind, of one will. Do you believe that
Christ is all in salvation? Is God true and right in all
that He does without respect to how it affects you personally?
His absolute perfection before God's law, the only thing that
ought to be accepted by God. The Son desires the mind and
will of His people to be one with His. There is no discord
here, and this can only come through the giving of the Holy
Spirit, the birth of the new man inside you. There's no way
that I can be agreed with God finding how He deals with me,
irrespective of what good or bad happens, apart from me having
the Holy Spirit in me, from Him birthing that new man in me.
So this is how we're made one in mind and will. So my thoughts
are in complete agreement with His. I side with Him against
myself, and we can only do that through this birth of the Holy
Spirit. The second desire of the Son involves His glory, in
verse 22, and the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given
them, that they may be one. This is the indication that had
been done yet, that they may be one, even as we are one. Do you know that the only reason
that you'll be accepted into heaven is because of His glory? That's the only reason that God
can look on me. And He can't look on me apart
from me being in His Son. Back to kind of what I said in
the beginning, we can't look at any of these things apart
from union with Christ. So, if God only accepts His glory,
and I'm accepted, it's only because I'm in Him. Without His glory,
what would you have? His mercy and His goodness are
all I have, and thank goodness they're all I ever need. His
glory will be the subject of eternity. That's what we will
be able to rejoice in. As a kid, you think of heaven
being eternity and think of an eternal church service, if you
will, and it's like, wow, I couldn't sit through that. But we won't
be bound by time. We won't be bound by the thought
of, this gets old. It will always be new, it will
always be fresh, and we will always be in awe of the glory
and the works of the Lamb. So, in verse 23, here's another
one of His desires. And this blows me away. I am
them, and thou and me, that they may be perfect in one, that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. The Father's love to you, the
same as His Son? How can that be? How can we even
understand that? We can conceptualize why the
Father loves His Son like He does, but that the Son would
desire For the Father to love me in the same manner that He
does His Son, for my life of me, in terms of my experience
in this world, it's hard for me to take that in. It's hard
for me to understand that, because I know what I've done. I know
what I am. But yet, when we see this, we
have to look at this in terms of union with Christ. When He
looks at you, He looks at you in Christ. He sees His Son. There
is no separation. There is no you here and Christ
there. He sees His Son. So, how can
this be the way we are? Witness now the power of the
Son, bring to pass that which was not yet completed, But what
will be through eternity known is one of the greatest acts that
God ever would do. And this is in verse 24, which
is kind of the subject of our whole time here. This is where
we see union with Christ. Father, I will, not been done
yet, that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where
I am. that they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world." Union with Christ, His nature, yes. His glory, yes. The love of the Father, the same
love that I'll get would be for the Son, yes. But that's not
enough. He takes it a step further. He's
saying, I want my people to be made one with my person. His
people are His body. We cannot be brought any closer.
There's no standing off to the side. Some will be higher, some
will be lower. We will all be brought into the body of Christ.
We feel, though, as He treats us, He begrudgingly forgives
us and tolerates us because, you know, I know I forgave your
sins and you're clean now, but I know what you did. That's not
so. We are made clean and made just like Christ. We are part
of His body. He says, Father, I will. This
is the Lord's desire indicating something to be accomplished
that in the course of time had not yet been executed. And you'll
see why I make a purpose of that point. I want to give you three
ways that union is pictured before we see that. First, the easiest
one to understand is in marriage. So, the two shall become one
flesh. This is what we preach when we're
doing a marriage ceremony. Everything that I had or that
I owed became my wife's when we became married. Everything
that my wife had or my wife owed became mine when we got married. He is the husband. We are the
bride. Everything that he had became ours when we got married.
Everything that we had became his when we became married. And there was no trading. Megan's
things didn't leave Megan. They were Megan's and mine. My
things didn't leave me. They were mine and Megan's when
we were married. There was no taking away from me and taking
away from her. These were shared together. So,
what did he bring? And what did you bring? So this
is the point here, using the illustration of marriage. The
second illustration we can see, turn back to John 15. It shows
us the vine and the branches. We'll read these first seven
verses. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he takes away. And
every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they're burned. But if you
abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you
will, and it shall be done unto you." So illustration here is
that I was thinking of the vine and the branches. When you look
out into your yard, and are describing it, you don't say, hey, look
at those leaves, branches, trunk, and roots. Those are all the
individual parts. No, you say that's a tree. But
yet the tree is made up of individual parts. This is the same picture
of being united to this oneness in Christ. There is no you. There's separation as Christ.
We are made one. This is what it's saying. When
God sees me, he sees his Son. I am part of his body. And so,
that's what the picture of this vine and branches are showing
us. So, what happens if a branch is taken away from the vine?
It says it withers and dies, signifying that the life is in
the vine. We live because Christ lives
in us. Colossians 3, 4 says, when Christ,
our life, shall appear. Christ, our life. So, He is our
life. He's the source of our life and
He's the only reason we have any life before God. He says,
without me, you can do nothing. So, apart from Christ, all we
can do is be dead. And that's all we are outside
of Christ, is dead. Before I had Christ, I was dead.
I didn't know what life was until He came to me. But thank God,
He can graft us into that tree. The third example I want to give
you is in 1 Corinthians 12. Let's start reading in verse 12. For as the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond
or free, we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For
the body is not one member, but many. If the foot say, because
I'm not of the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? And if the whole were hearing,
where were the smelling? But now hath God set them members,
every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if
they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say unto the
hand, I have no need of thee. Or again, the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members
of the body, which seem to be the more feeble, are necessary.
And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable,
upon these we bestow so more abundant honor. And our uncomely
parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no
need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to the part which lacked." And this is kind of
the takeaway here, verse 25 and 26, that there should be no schism
in the body, no division in the body. but that the members should
have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. So one member suffers, all the
members suffer with it. One member be honored, all the
members are honored with it. My friends, this is how Christ
was made to be sin. We see back in our text, in verse
24, this is where He united Himself to us. Christ didn't commit any
of these sins. He was the sinless Lamb of God.
But I did. I bore the guilt of my sins.
I had nothing to do with the righteous works that He wrought
while He lived on this earth. But yet, He did. And when we
are united, this is how we are made the righteousness of God.
And this is how Christ was made to be sin, when he was united
to me. all my shame, all my guilt, all
my estrangement before God. My sin was united to Him at this
time when He said, I want them to be one with Me. Hebrews says,
He was made like unto His brethren to make reconciliation for the
sins of His people. This being made like unto His
brethren is not just being made a human. This is being made like
unto us. He was made guilty. He was made
to be everything that God hated about sin, and that's why God
killed him for it. This is how he accomplished it.
Before this time, and the reason we know it is, before this time
he had communion with his father. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. He was able to talk to the father.
The father responded to him. But yet at this time, when He
said, Father, I will that they be with me where I am, and we
be made one with Him, He'd bear our sins in His own body. This
is union with Christ. And it was only after this time
that He said these things. In the next chapter 18, it says
He sweat great drops of blood. In the Psalms, He said, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee. Thou hast known my reproach,
and my shame, and my dishonor. This is union with Christ. He was made to be what I am as
the sin sacrifice. At this time, He had no communion
with the Father. The Father forsook Him. He was
guilty. He felt shame. He felt dishonor. This is substitution. We are
made one. There's no exchanging of the
ledgers here. There's only shedding of blood. How real was it? It was Christ that died. And
justly so. Isn't this what we confess in
baptism? Christ lived for me. He was perfect. He was without sin. When I was
united to Christ, He died for my sins. He made them His very
own. We died together. We die in baptism. That's why we go under the water
together. If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that's risen again. Because
of who he was, his death satisfied God. If one member be honored,
all the members rejoice with it. So, in the same way, me being
united to Christ, we all suffered together. We died together. But
when we're raised together, when sin's been paid for, all the
members rejoice together. This is how we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. God raised Him from the dead,
and me too, because I was united to Him. All the sin is gone. So what's left? He hath made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. This is speaks of union. This
is how all who are in him really are made righteous. My sin never
left me. He united himself to me and bore
the burden for me. He became guilty for me. The
new man and the old man cannot reside in the same house. And
in time, we're going to lay down this body. The old man's going
to be put down, and the new man will be given a new body, part
of the body of Christ. That's how we will be united
to him in terms of time. But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sin, sat down. This is love. In time, he came
and united himself with vile sinners. And when God looks at
me, He sees His Son. He doesn't see me and what I've
done. He sees what His Son has done.
He sees the righteous works that His Son has done, and I don't
have to be ashamed. I don't have to be looking for
things that I... If you've ever been ashamed of
something you've done, and that you're forgiven for it, but you're
not really, because you know you've still done it. There's
no more of that. The memory of sins are all wiped
away. I'm part of his body. Everywhere
the head goes, the body goes. That's what he asked for here
in verse 24. I pray that they be with me where I am. So if he is in heaven and high
places, I'm with him because I'm part of his body. Just what
we read in 1 Corinthians. The head can't say, I'm going
to be rid of you and go over here. No. The head is attached
to the body. We are really with him. If the
head is honored, then so are the rest of the members. In John
15, he says to abide in me. If you look back over there,
there are two things to wrap this up. We abide in two ways. First,
we do this passively, abiding in Him. That was happened outside
of our control. That was done in eternal election.
We abide in Christ before this life and time ever began. We abided in Him. The Father
put us in Christ. And the second way that we abide
in Him is that you are actively abiding in Him because you're
commanded to believe. I've abided in Him and that I've
always been there, but yet in the course of time, you're commanded
to believe. And all those who were put in
Him will believe. He'll give you the Holy Spirit
and He'll cause you to believe, give you ears to hear, eyes to
see, and a heart to receive His Word. If we come to God any other
way than in His Son, we're going to come alone, because that's
the only one who can come in the presence of the Father, is
the Son. Now, I want to be one of the
many, it speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12, one of the parts of his body
that is united to him. And the scripture says that he
is able to save them to the uttermost. Now, whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. All believers, all the believers'
benefits, and I say this one last time as I close here, all
the believers' benefits, anything we look at in terms of righteousness,
has got to be viewed with being united to Christ. This is the
only way I'll be accepted, the only way that I can stand before
Him, the only way that He can look at His Son and see me. So,
as He is, so are you in this world. You are united as the
body of Christ to His Son. And that's all we have and that's
all we'll ever need. That's all I've got for you now.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.