John 17:20-26 - Perfectly and infinitely loved in Jesus

Introduction

The late actor Robin Williams said, “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anyone else to feel like that.”

Many people use phrases like worthless, not good enough, unlovable, or broken to describe themselves. Why? The truth of the matter is that people view themselves this way because everyone is broken. And when things are broken, they need fixed. Jesus came to do this, to make us whole and new. He came to tell and show us who he made us to be.

Today we will see from John 17:20-26 what Jesus and the Father think about us, who we really are, and how they want us to view ourselves and live. We are full-fledged children of God who are loved with a perfect and infinite love because of our union with Christ.

Context

It is the night before Jesus will be put to death on the cross. Jesus’ disciples just celebrated the Passover, and Jesus gave them his very important final words, which we call the farewell discourse.

They have learned the importance of abiding in Christ, and how the world will hate them because they are witnesses to him. Now, we get a glimpse of what Jesus really thinks, how he really feels, and what he really wants. We get to hear Jesus’ private prayer to his Father.

In John 17:1-5 Jesus prays to be glorified by the Father. Then, in verses 6-11, Jesus prays for his disciples. He prays for them because they belong to the Father, they bring him glory, and he is about to leave them. Then, because of this, he prays that the Father would protect them (11-16) and sanctify them (17-19).

And now, in the passage we are going to look at, he prays for all believers that they would be one (20-23) and be perfected to see his glory (24-26). Let’s read verses 20-26.

Content

A question you might have is this: Are these words really for me?

Before we dig into the heart of this passage, I want us to see something in verse 20. It says, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word…”

Have you come to know God through the Scripture and through people preaching the Gospel message? If so, Jesus is praying for you. Isn’t that amazing?

Jesus is praying to the Father for all Christians of all time. This was written for you and me, for anyone who believes in Jesus through the disciple’s word. And what is it to believe through their word? It is to entrust oneself with complete confidence in Jesus through the disciple’s word, what they taught and wrote in Scripture, which is the Gospel or Good News of Christ…that Jesus lived, died, rose, and ascended to heaven to pay for our sins, give us his righteousness and make us children of God.

But what is Jesus really asking for?

Verse 21 continues, “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus’ ask is that we, and all Christians, would live and act as one. He asks that we would exercise such unity that it would look like the unity of the Father being in the Son and the Son being in the Father. Jesus wants all Christians to be in both the Father and the Son, for the purpose of the world believing that the Father sent Jesus into the world to reconcile us and all who believe in him to God.

But what does it mean, for us to be one? It means unified in mind, effort, and purpose. That we would act as if we were one person, one body, as if we were one spiritual whole. To act in such unity that a watching world that does not know Christ can see that we are united to Christ. The world needs a tangible example of us being found in the Father and the Son. The world needs to see us live in one mind, effort, and purpose, to see us live in love with one another. When we are united in faith and we present a common picture to the world, we display the power of God. This must be our witness, the unity that we have because we are in the Father and Son.

But how do we live united with one another like this? Isn’t this hard? Yes. This is why Jesus says “just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in us”. The unity of the Father and the Son is a unity of mutually indwelling each other (10:30, 38; 14:9–11), so the unity of the believers consists in the mutual indwelling of each believer with the Father, Son, and Spirit. This is seen in the vine and the branches in chapter 15. The branches are unified with each other because of their vital connection to the vine, which is Jesus.

Thus, without a vital relationship with the vine, Jesus, we cannot hope to live out this prayer. We cannot hope to live out our mission of making disciples of the nations. But don’t lose heart even though it may seem impossible. We can have confidence because Jesus prayed this prayer for us. This is what Jesus wants for us.

To the glory of Christ

The reality is, even with Jesus’ prayer, this seems like an impossible task. This is why verse 22 continues, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one…” Here Jesus gives hope and help to us so we may live in unity.

Jesus says that just as the Father has given glory to Jesus, so Jesus has given glory to his people so that they might be one, just as the Father and Son are one.

What does it mean that Jesus gives his people glory? Verse 24 seems to point toward the glory of Jesus as being the special object of the Father’s love. Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, gave this same glory to the disciples and all his children, that they are also the objects of the Father’s love, and have truly been adopted into the same family and thus are legitimate sons of God who share in that infinite love.

We know this is true in life. The child who is loved by the wealthiest person alive has a certain amount of glory. They are the child of that person, and they are loved by them they share his name and thus privilege and honor. How much more so if we are loved by the Creator and Sustainer of the world, who loves us with the same love he loves his one and only Son.

The Father loves me!

Verse 23 continues, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” Here Jesus wants us, his people, to know what it means to be one as he and the Father are one.

This is so important to Jesus that he repeats it again in his prayer to the Father and expands on its implications. Yet now it is not only that we are in the Father and Son (Verse 21), but it is Jesus in us and the Father in Jesus. Thus, both the Father and the Son are in us, his children!

It is this union that makes Christians live as one. And it is this that shows the world that the Father sent the Son and that God’s children are loved by the Father just as much as the Father loved Jesus.

In other words, it shows the world that Jesus makes his people his true children who are loved with an eternal, infinite, and powerful love. Since the Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in his people, they are truly joined together in one because the Father and the Son are within every believer. And we know that the Spirit is in every believer as well. Thus, the Trinity lives in us!

What would impress unbelievers more than large churches, superb music, and well-oiled worship services? Jesus thinks it is living as one in a life of loving union with he and the Father in the Spirit, as well as with one another as a united community, experiencing and manifesting the fact that we love each other, and are loved by the Father and the Son.

Jesus wants us to be with him

Have you ever had someone call you or write you a letter and tell you that they can’t wait to see you again in person? How did this make you feel? Loved, right?

Verse 24 says, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” Here Jesus expresses his desire or will to the Father. His will is for us, God’s children, those the Father gave him, to be with him so they might see his preexistent glory, which was given to him because he was loved before the foundation of the world.

We will not see Christ's full glory until we see him face to face. Yet, in the present, we participate in the glory of Christ because he and the Father live in us, and we know and can experience the love of the Father and Son that is beyond our comprehension.

And so, as we are in Christ, we share with Christ the delight of being loved by the Father. And so, we also share in the glory which the Son receives in his ultimate exaltation. When Jesus returns to heaven, he returns to that eternal love which he has always known, but which was veiled while he was on the earth.

And Jesus wants us to come and experience the fullness and completeness of his love, being able to see first-hand his glory. He wants us to be with him. Why? Because he loves us. As Jesus longed to return to his Father, because of the love he knew, and the Father longed for him to return to his side, so Jesus wants us to be with him. But we still have work to do…being God’s ambassadors who are seeking the lost.

True knowing

Jesus continues in verse 25, “O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.” Here Jesus expresses to his righteous or just Father that though the world doesn't know him, we and the disciples have come to know that Jesus was sent by the Father.

Jesus is distinguishing between those who the Father has given him, his people, us who receive him, and those who were hostile to him and rejected him. To those who did receive him, he has already asked the Father that they would be with him in glory.

Here two groups stand before the Father. One group has rejected Jesus and is outside of God's love and will experience his justice because they did not know Jesus and because of this subsequently cannot know the Father. The other group is in the Father's love and will experience the joy of his love and the wonder of seeing Jesus glorified because they know Jesus, the only one who truly knows the Father.

Knowing the name, love, and presence of Jesus

Jesus continues in verse 26, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Finally, Jesus expresses that the reason that his people are loved by the Father is that Jesus has made it possible for them to know and be known.

Jesus continues to make the Father's name known. In other words, there is an ongoing revelation of the Father through the person and work of the Gospel that is preached through the message of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.

The point or purpose of this revelation is that the love with which the Father loved Jesus from eternity would be in us, God's children, and Jesus would be in us as well.

Conclusion

And so, we can summarize this whole thing like this. Before the world began, Jesus, the Son, was the object of the Father’s special love. And now, because of what Jesus did on the cross, he is asking his Father that we would also be the object of the Father’s love. We are loved by the Father and the Son with the same love that they love one another with!

Consequence

What we have seen in this series, and in today’s sermon is that God’s people are truly full-fledged children of God because of our union with Christ. We are not strangers or in some way unloved stepchildren.

We are truly God’s children. Because of this, we are allowed access to the pantry, the fridge, the car, and all the other things that children are allowed to have that others aren’t. Through Christ, we are able to go right up to our Father at any time, knowing that he listens and hears us.

The Father has love and affection for us, and we always have his attention. He cares for us as a child. He clothes us, protects us, and provides exactly what we need in our current circumstances. Because we are children in the Son, sharing in the sonship of Christ, we can go into his presence crying “dearest Father” and receive from him whatever is necessary for our support and comfort. Instead of feeling like a servant, the child of God can rush, as Luther said, “…into the presence of his Father, leap into his lap, and nestle in his bosom."

God’s people are loved by the Father with the same love that the Father loves the Son. Therefore, we are not orphans. We are children of the living God! We are loved with a love so deep, so high, and so wide, that the apostle Paul had to pray that we would be granted spiritual power to understand God’s love for us.

Because of this, we should understand and believe that the Father is a perfect, all-powerful Father who will not withhold any good gifts from us, his children. Rather, he makes all things happen for our good. He has promised strength, power, and wisdom to help us through the Spirit, even as he grows us and encourages us through trials and tribulations. We must remember not simply who we are, but whose we are in Christ.

This understanding of adoption and sonship should give us encouragement, direction, and hope in a world that tries to find worth and value in what we do instead of in whose we are.

And so, we don’t have to make jokes and make people laugh to keep them from feeling worthless, instead we remind them whose they are and how they are loved with the same love that the Father has toward the Son and the Son has toward the Father.

How will you remind yourself and others who are in Christ of whose they are? And will you also make it a point to tell others about this incredible message of hope and joy in Christ?