Identity, Purpose, & Destiny

[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're new to Susan's Church, welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're so glad to have you with us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Mike M and I, along with Terran Mays, oversee our teaching and training programs here.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got your Bibles, please go ahead and grab them and turn John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna look through the whole chapter today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're gonna be taking a look at what is often called the High Presley Prayer of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I chose this passage because it connects with three different ministries that I've had in the privilege of serving with this fall and part of this passage answers this question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever heard someone talking about you behind your back, like you heard something that you weren't supposed to hear, usually that's not a good thing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would it sound like to hear Jesus talking about you behind your back?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would he say about you?

[SPEAKER_00]: First off, this passage connects to our student's ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: This semester, the students have been studying what the Bible teaches about identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And recently, I have the honor of teaching at our student's retreat focus weekend.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we talk about the three identities that all believers have in Christ that we are suffers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we are sinners, but most of all, we are saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is, we are the adopted, favored, and commissioned children of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this passage answers for students this, John 17 answers, according to Jesus, what is the identity, the purpose, and the destiny of the saints, the adopted children of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, John 17 connects with our Bible classes, where we're studying the book of Hebrews this semester.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the book of Hebrews teaches us that Jesus is our eternal and ultimate, high priest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as high priest, Jesus offered Himself as a once for all, a toning sacrifice for the sins of His people, to purify and perfect them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But,

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews also says that Jesus has another priestly work that is not finished, that is going on even now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 725 says this, consequently, He Jesus is able to say to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 924, for Christ's entered, not to the Holy Places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: and now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: For those in our Bible classes, John 17 answers this.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus is our high priest who is always interceding for us and speaking to God on our behalf in the very presence of God, what exactly does that sound like?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is He saying when He prays for us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, of course, it connects with our becoming like Jesus' sermon series.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you were here with us last week, Jamen pointed us to Mark 1434, where Jesus said this.

[SPEAKER_00]: My soul is very sorrowful, even on to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remain here in watch and going a little farther, he fell in the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him and he said, Abba, father, all things are possible for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remove this cup from me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet not what I will, but what you will.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jamie pointed out that while Jesus was feeling agonizing feelings, that he didn't choose what would make the feelings go away, and said he chose what would glorify his father.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, how did he do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: John 17 illuminates the answer to this question also, while feeling crushed with dread under an impossible weight,

[SPEAKER_00]: facing his very death, how is it that Jesus chose not what was served his powerful feelings, but what was served his loving father?

[SPEAKER_00]: What can we learn?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are we supposed to learn from Jesus about what we should do when we face our darkest hour?

[SPEAKER_00]: As we've been going through the sermon series, I don't know about you, but for me I've learned a lot of helpful things.

[SPEAKER_00]: about our faith, about myself, how to grow, in loving God with all that I am, heart, soul, mind, and strength, so that I can become more like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're anything like me, maybe, also, the sermons have somewhat highlighted all the ways that you're not exactly very much like Jesus at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm not really loving Jesus with all my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I should probably try to memorize more verses, do a little more QT.

[SPEAKER_00]: I personally was really convicted by how the disordered loves of our heart reveal our source idols, comfort, control, approval, and power, and we're supposed to figure out which one is the main one.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if I'm super honest, I kind of feel like I've won it all four of those at different times, and I don't think there's a bonus for collecting a full set.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I just learned I haven't watched out for emotional and health.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that makes me anxious, am I allowed to feel anxious?

[SPEAKER_00]: When we're faced with this daunting challenge, become like Jesus, what?

[SPEAKER_00]: How is it that we keep from giving up when it seems so impossible?

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems so intimidating.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 17 answers that too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is because in John 17, Jesus' praise first for himself,

[SPEAKER_00]: and then for his disciples, and then for all believers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this prayer, in Jesus' own words, we see how he sees himself and how he sees those who trust in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he clearly describes both his identity, purpose, and destiny, and that of his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I mean by identity is who am I?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it that defines me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the most important thing about me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Purpose is simply, what am I for?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the meaning of my life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why am I still alive?

[SPEAKER_00]: And destiny is what's going to happen to me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, what's going to happen to me in the end?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's this all going?

[SPEAKER_00]: In every philosophy, every religion has to answer these questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for our culture today is basically you decide your identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: You decide your purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: You decide your destiny.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember Jesus asked in Matthew 16, who do you say that I am?

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked his disciples that, who do you say that I am?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they gave various answers.

[SPEAKER_00]: But over and over again in the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus is a very clear understanding of who he is and who his father says that he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll see a summary of that here as he prays for himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take a look at John 17 verses one through five.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus praying for himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Glorify your son that the son may glorify you.

[SPEAKER_00]: since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is eternal life that they know you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

[SPEAKER_00]: I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do and now Father glorified me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus sees His own identity as God's very son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has God's very divine authority over all flesh, all people belong to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has the sole right to give the gift of eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: The summary of His purposes to glorify His Father, a purpose that He says right here that He has already accomplished.

[SPEAKER_00]: His purpose is to give eternal life to everyone that the Father has granted to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: and his destiny is to return back to the Father's presence to be glorified by the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm sure that doesn't really strike many of us as that strange.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you're in church, you're kind of used to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to understand how incredible this must have sounded to the disciples as they were listening to this prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because nobody talked like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no rabbi who spoke this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus doesn't describe him as any son as a son of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many people in the Bible are described as a son of God or sons of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he describes himself as a son who is worthy of God's own glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: a son who exercises God's own power, a son who claims God's own people are his.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, he even redefines the meaning of eternal life to make it about himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say, to live a long time and never die.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that they know you the only true God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, knowing me is to live forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: But more than that, he looks into the way he ends his prayer for himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ends with this request.

[SPEAKER_00]: He basically says, God, I glorified you, now's your turn to glorify me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to do the same for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you think of anyone in the Bible?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever talked to God this way, Lord, I glorified you as best I could not return, could anyone speak to God this way and not expect to be destroyed?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And without getting into every other, all the verses one by one by one, which I wish I had time to do, throughout the rest of this prayer, Jesus will

[SPEAKER_00]: unpack and claim to be one with God the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have received God's very name for Himself to use as His own, to not be of this world, to be the only one in the whole world who's ever actually known God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember at Matthew chapter 4 when Satan tried to tempt Jesus after 40 days in the wilderness.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: The way that Satan tried to attack Jesus was by attacking his identity, he asked him if you were truly the Son of God, then trying to make him doubt who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He tried to get Jesus to question himself, to fail like the Israelites in the desert, failed, where they asked, is God with us or not?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did he lead us out here to destroy us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does God even care?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does he know what he's doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus, when He's in the desert, does not even sway for a moment in the desert, He's not swayed for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the garden years later, He's not swayed for a moment, not by Satan's testing or by the intense emotions of that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jesus is someone who is supremely confident in His identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: in his purpose and in his destiny.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows where he's from, what he's doing, and where he is going.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's totally rooted in who he is, and who his father is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that is who Jesus says that he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then who does he say that we are?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does he say about us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so for the rest of this prayer, he first addresses, he prays for his historic disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: in place for them in particular, but the truths of that prayer can be applied to all believers who come later, and then he expands out to all who will believe in his name that includes you in this room if you claim the name of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I ask you at the top, when you imagine Jesus talking about you behind your back, talking about you to his father, what do you imagine it sounds like?

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, I know Mike is a real disappointment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He keeps breaking all his promises.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying it's going to be better and better and better, but man, it's been years and years.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, could you just hang in there?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we have to love him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like him either, but we have to love him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's barely making it, but I mean, what are you going to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that the way you suspect Jesus talks about you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he's sort of just tolerating you?

[SPEAKER_00]: That he sort of loves you because that's his job.

[SPEAKER_00]: It isn't really like you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's walk through this prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse six.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to walk through his prayer and see how Jesus talks about his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to the tone, listen to the content of what he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: In John chapter 17 verse 6 through 18, he's praise for his historical disciples, but you can apply these truths to ourselves.

John 17:6–18

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 6, who are we?

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the people who belong to God the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, yours, they were, were.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they were the fathers, and they still are.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they are also now the people who the father has given to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not your own, you are bought with a price, a priceless price.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no one else.

[SPEAKER_00]: no one else can lay a claim on owning who you are, not Satan, not the world, not cancer, not depression, and not Alzheimer's, nothing and no one can lay a claim on you because Jesus claims you for himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the people who have kept the Father's word.

[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is the seed of the gospel has been planted in us and it did not wither away or get choked out by thorns or get eaten by the birds or destroyed by the sun.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it took root and produced fruit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word is kept in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 8, for I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and they have come to know in the truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me.

[SPEAKER_00]: The words that God gave to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: for safekeeping, are now kept by his disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse nine, I am praying for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me for they are yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus says about us is that we are the ones that he is praying for in a special way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He prays for us in a way that he does not pray for anyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 10, all of mine are yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yours are mine and what I am glorified in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the ones in whom Jesus is glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not might be glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not one day glorified right now glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was true two thousand years ago and is true today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to remember that Jesus is praying this before His death, before His resurrection, before Pentecost.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that evening that all his disciples will fall asleep when he needs their company.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that all his disciples will run away when he needs their support, that his closest friend Peter will deny him three times.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet Jesus says, I am glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will be glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says this before Peter was restored, before Matthew wrote a gospel, before John was exiled to Patmos.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before every disciple, later died, proclaiming the gospel to the end, glorifying God with their lips as their lives were claimed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is right now, right now, before they have done anything, I'm glorified in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has glorified in you in the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you clean yourself up, before you finally figure out your routine, before you finally kick that habit, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that true?

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 11, holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one while I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus says is that we are the ones who are kept, catch by who?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look carefully, look at verse 11, Father, keep them in your name, the Father, God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, He is the one who keeps us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But look at verse 12, while I was with Him, I kept them in your name, Jesus, the son of God, He keeps us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But how does he keep us?

[SPEAKER_00]: In your name, which you have given me?

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the ones who are kept by both the Father and the Son inside God's name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is really important.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have time to get into the whole thing of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God has a name that only he's allowed to use.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, God has given me the right to use that name.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm manifested.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is really important because God's name is not like your dog's name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: In that it's not a sound, like your dog's name is the sound that you make when you want to get your dog's attention.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the label that you give in your dog so that you can call him.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not how God's name works.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the Bible talks about God's name, it's talking about the expression of three things.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's name is the expression of God's divine character.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's name is the expression of God's divine nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God's name is the expression of God's divine power.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, he owns all rights to that name in perpetuity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Only Jesus knows and can express God's divine character, nature, and power fully.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what does he do with that?

[SPEAKER_00]: He keeps us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is why the Apostle Paul asks in wonder, if God is for us, who can be against us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep going, look at verse 12 again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look what else he says, he says, I have guarded them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever heard of guardian angels?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not exactly certain that the concept of personal guardian angels is exactly biblical, but you know what I know for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is our guardian, God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is better than angels, y'all.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was chapter one, if you know, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 13, but now I'm coming to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And these things I speak in the world that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the people who Jesus conspires to give us his very joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not to increase our existing joy, but to give us his joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of joy does Jesus have?

[SPEAKER_00]: a complete joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: How much joy does Jesus have?

[SPEAKER_00]: Infinite joy, it's yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus says about us is that we are not people who retreat from the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not people who try to fight the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not people who try to compromise with the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are in the world, but we are kept.

[SPEAKER_00]: from the evil one.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are kept from falling.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are citizens of heaven and foreigners to this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of that is our identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 17, we get to our purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the purpose of the people of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are we doing here?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the purpose of being saved?

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, John 17 doesn't hold everything there's to know about everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is really important.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 17, 18, and 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus prays, sanctify them in your truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your word is truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you sent me into this world, so I have sent them into the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for their sake, I consecrate, I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus tells us about the purpose of the people of God is two things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are sanctified and we are sent.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are sanctified into God's Word, and we are sent into God's world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're sanctified into God's Word, and we're sent into God's world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why these two things?

[SPEAKER_00]: because Jesus says it's true of Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus sanctified Himself and He was sent into the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And look what he says, He says, for their sake I consecrate myself, for their sake I sanctify myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this word sanctified here does not mean progressive sanctification like He grew in holiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what it means.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is like in the Old Testament, when the priest would sanctify, consecrate themselves, they'll be marked for their role.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here, it's actually something very specific, when he says, I consecrate myself, he's talking about he's marking himself to be a sacrifice that what you would consecrate a lamb.

[SPEAKER_00]: He marks himself for death.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I am marked for death, and they will be marked for death.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a Christian, you're marked by God for death.

[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds super depressing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to remind you,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are not in Christ, you are also Mark 3 death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Death is part of the fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: The way that Jesus is Mark 4 death is that his death will not be meaningless.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will not be the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is marked by a death unlike any other death.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will die and rise again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone who's in Christ is Mark 4 the same kind of death.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will die in Christ and be raised like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is consecrated into that kind of death and resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so are we.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are sanctified, and we are sent Jesus is sanctified, and he is sent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at John 17, 20, and 23.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I and you that they also may be in us

[SPEAKER_00]: So here, he expands his prayer beyond his original disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't ask where only these that are in front of me right now, but I pray for everyone who will believe in me, but look at, believe in me how, through their word.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is part of their purpose, the purpose of the disciples, and we who are disciples is that through our word, through their word, that Jesus received and gave to us, that we are kept in, that others might believe and be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you think about John 3, 16, probably the most famous, verse in the Bible, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: you can apply that to the Christian in this way because we're the same mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: For God's soul of the world that he sent his many adopted sons and daughters that whoever believes in their word, that through their word, they may not perish but have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We partake in the very work of the Savior, not because we have anything in and of ourselves, but because He commissions us to be His disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who believe in me through their word, we are such people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the purpose of the people of God, that we would be sanctified, that we would be transformed, that we would be marked into a death and a resurrection like Jesus, and that we would be sent on a mission like Jesus into all the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: But where does this all end?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the destiny of the believer?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: that they may be one, even as we are one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I end them and you and me that they may become perfectly one.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our destiny is that one day we will be totally united with each other and with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The world is very fractured right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our country is so divided right now, but the people of God cannot be, and one day we will see face to face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all this confusion will fade away.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not a God of confusion.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to see something in verse 22, and we'll see again in verse 24.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember way back in verse five, Jesus prayed sort of an astonishing thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked his father to glorify him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Give me glory, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does he do with that glory?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does he lord over us and show off?

[SPEAKER_00]: Press us, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look what he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: The glory that you gave me, what did he do with it?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd give him it to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gave it to believers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that doesn't mean some people have taken this in a very strange way.

[SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't mean that God is turning us into God's, that we are glorified with the same glory that God has in the same way that Jesus is glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: What He means is, I have shown them the fullness of my glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have seen, I've shared that vision with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 24.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, maybe with me, where I am, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Our destiny is to be with Jesus wherever he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wherever he is, that's where we're gonna be.

[SPEAKER_00]: You decide where that is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where I am, see that the right hand of the Father, in throne, coming on the clouds of glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: create your new heavens and new earth, to rule and to reign forever and ever, wherever Jesus is, that's where we will be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we can play harps in the clouds like bugs money, you know, so that we don't have to work anymore, everything's super easy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: To see my glory that you have given me, because you love me.

[SPEAKER_00]: before the foundation of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our ultimate destiny is that we will see the fullness of God's glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: His majesty has loved directly and intimately with no mediation, just directly.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the desire of everyone in the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses said, God, show me your glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna see you and God warns again and again, if you see me, you will die.

[SPEAKER_00]: To see God is death.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus says one day, we will see Him and we want to not die, it will make us alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is called the Beatific Vision to see Jesus and to be filled with joy, everlasting.

[SPEAKER_00]: To experience the intimacy of direct knowledge of God, increasing more and more and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: to understand the fullness of his genius, of his created order.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that there is, not by it's trying to surprise things theologically or guess things through the law of nature but by seeing him face to face, to talk with him, to walk with him in the garden like Adam did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want you to remember how Jesus defines eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, he defined it in a peculiar way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't say it was living a super long time, although that is part of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't say that it was something else.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is eternal life, to know the true God and to know Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at these last two verses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, right, just Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, I know God, even if no one knows God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has eternal life in himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He alone has intimate knowledge of God the Father, and He desires to share that knowledge with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 26, I have made known to them your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we'll continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I want you to hone in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I made known to them your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will continue to make it known.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you think about the way he defines eternal life, another way you could say this is, I have given them eternal life, and I will continue to give them eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will know Jesus, we know Jesus, and we'll continue to know him more and more and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eternal life is yes, a quantity of life, but it's also a depth and a quality of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have it right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eternal life does not start one day when Jesus returns.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It have already begun.

[SPEAKER_00]: that is what we talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a cosmic already, but not yet, and there is a personal already, but not yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have been transformed renewed in the twinkling of an eye, and yet you are not fully, fully there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has given you eternal life, and he will continue to give you eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we call perseverance of the saints, or a better preservation of the saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus holds onto us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He preserves us by the power of His Word, by the power of His character, the power of His divine nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: To bring this back to where we started.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jim and talk last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: The point of the Christian faith, the point of our church, is Christ's likeness to become like Jesus, Romans 8, 29.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that true?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then we should expect, not only that our character would be like Jesus, that our minds would be like Jesus, that our hearts would be like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, all of those things are feelings.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also we should expect that our journeys, our stories will become like Jesus as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because Jesus was sanctified and sent, all those who follow Him are also sanctified and sent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But where do that sending take Him?

[SPEAKER_00]: This prayer, the High Priestly Paris found in chapter 17 of John in the very next chapter, chapter 18, is where we find him in the garden.

[SPEAKER_00]: She is praying all night, greatly distressed, greatly troubled.

[SPEAKER_00]: My soul is very sorrowful, even on to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he asks his closest friends to stay awake and keep watch and his friends do not do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he asks his father, in Mark 1436, our father, all things are possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remove this cup from me and his father does not do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, how is it on that night that when Jesus were betrayed instead of drowning in his feelings?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus can obey the Father yet not what I will but what you will.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jesus is absolutely rooted, absolutely certain in His identity, in His purpose, in His destiny, He knows who He is.

[SPEAKER_00]: will face a dark night of the soul like some of you have already faced it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the only way to face that darkness, without weathering away, without collapsing into yourself, without trying to fight it, or flee, or fawn, will be if you know who Jesus is,

[SPEAKER_00]: There will come a time, there will not maybe, there will come a time in your life when your body will fail, when your mind will fail, where your very heart will fail and you will want to give up, you will want to shrink back, you will want to run away and your strength will not be enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible verses you memorized will not be enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your prayer life will not be enough, your devotional life will not be enough, all the brownie points that you think you've been starting up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will not be enough, there's not only basis of whether we fail or not, because this is our hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus will never fail.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 6, 37, 39, Jesus says this, all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

[SPEAKER_00]: For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose nothing of all that he has given me but raised it up on the last day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus identity is the perfectly obedient son and his purpose is to do all his fathers will and his destiny is that he will raise up every single person that the father has given

[SPEAKER_00]: He will never reject anyone and comes to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: For this to be overturned, would either mean that Jesus, the perfectly obedient son of God, would have to become disobedient, unrighteous, sinful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or it would mean that God the Father, the unchangeable, immutable, would have to go back on His Word, change His mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 10, 28 through 30, Jesus says this, I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: My father who's given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: I and the father are one.

[SPEAKER_00]: What provides our security?

[SPEAKER_00]: When you're trying to become like Jesus and you keep seeing all the ways that you're not like Jesus and you're not, you're feeling a little insecure.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the source of your hope?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the thing that you fall back on?

[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot be how tightly you grab on to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: With this verse, these verses say here, when your grit fails, you are held.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice who holds you though.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, no one can sash them out of my hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're in Jesus' hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, no one can sash them out of my father's hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are in the father's hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are two hands holding you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have heard of eternal security, but Jesus here teaches double eternal security.

[SPEAKER_00]: For you to be lost both the Father and the Son would have to grow weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're all mighty hands at fashion, the stars, and how low the seas would have to lose their grip.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what is not gonna happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: How is it that we can have any confidence that we can become like Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: When it's so clear that we're not like Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: How is it that we hold on to an identity when this world tells us to build our own?

[SPEAKER_00]: We listen to the voice of our high priest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want to ask you a quick question before we close.

[SPEAKER_00]: In all that I read, the whole prayer, did you hear any tone of sneering of disdain, of disappointment, of anger,

[SPEAKER_00]: of impatience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is our high priest.

[SPEAKER_00]: He died for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was raised for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ascended to the right hand of the Father for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And right now, right now, He is interceding for you personally by name.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when He prays for you, He does not sound disappointed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does not sound disgusted.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does not sound discouraged.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is supremely confident in Himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not because we're killing it because he was killed and he rose again, believe what is your identity, what is your purpose, what is your destiny, is your answer more informed by what the world says, by what your feelings say, or will you listen to what

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you God that we are held by your eternal hand, by the hands of the sun.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you that your will is immutable and unchangeable, that your characters unwavering Lord, we thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even though we change day after day, we go up and down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, there's no shadow of turning in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you that our bodies, our frailty, our sin, our fear, the culture of the world do not get the last say.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, but you get to speak a better word over us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we pray that you would help us to answer the question, who do you say that I am?

[SPEAKER_00]: the way that you would answer about yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: That we would answer, and so on asked us who we say we are, that we would answer the way that you would answer God, that we would know you fully God, that we would see you, that we would trust you, or that we would be kept in your name, God, glorify yourself, glorify your son, oh God.

[SPEAKER_00]: or that through us, Lord, that we would bring many sons and daughters or into your kingdom, sanctify us and send us the Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.