Given, Kept, & Sent

So here we're at the Passover meal.

So the setting this morning in John 17 is that we are at the Passover meal and it's coming to a conclusion.

And Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples, and he's already washed his disciples' feet.

He's already testified to Judas's betrayal.

He's already foretold of Peter's denial.

And we've seen Jesus walk through a long series of discourses, ultimately to prepare his disciples' hearts and souls for what's about to take place.

What is coming?

It is the hour.

The hour had come.

The hour that Jesus himself often alluded to all throughout his public ministry was now at hand.

The hour of his sacrificial death for the sins of his people by means of Roman crucifixion.

Fully knowing what lies ahead, and having labored to strengthen the hearts of his followers, as if it were that he had no more words to speak to them, Jesus lifts up his eyes to heaven and he prays for the good of his people.

So this is where we are at the end of this Passover meal in the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

Now, what does this mean that this prayer is the high priestly prayer?

Well, let's talk about what a priest is.

A priest is a mediator between God and man, right?

He's someone who acts on behalf of a people before the creator of all things, that he might have relationship between the two, right?

And so priests were equipped and able to conduct ceremonial worship before God on behalf of the people that your normal common folk in the community could not.

Now, a high priest, a high priest was set apart from the other priests within Israel.

And the most important duty of the high priest was to lead the service on the Day of Atonement.

Now, only the high priest was allowed to enter what was known as the most holy place behind this curtain veil within the temple, which contained the Holy of Holies, and he would go in with the sacrifice and sprinkle the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, what was known as God's throne, with the blood of that sacrifice.

Only he was allowed to enter, only he was able to stand before the presence of God.

It was only him who could do this after all these ceremonial rites and preparations had been made and come out of that place alive.

So when they're saying that this is the high priestly prayer of Jesus, we see Jesus first and foremost as a mediator between God and man.

He's the one who, through him, in him alone, are we able to have relationship with God because he is our true priest, and he's the high priest because he was the one who sprinkled his own blood upon the sacrifice of sin, and he alone was the one who came out alive on the other side of it.

That's the beauty of the resurrection.

That Jesus is the true and better high priest because he was able to stand in the presence of God and he comes out alive on the other side.

And so Jesus is preparing himself, he's preparing his disciples for this hour that had finally come.

He's offering this high priestly prayer to establish himself as the ultimate mediator between man and God, the true and better priest for the people.

As Jesus is praying, we're brought intimately into the eternal love that he has for the Father and the deep love that he has for his people.

This prayer reveals some essential truths for us to better equip us to know, treasure, and delight in that love.

This prayer is soaked with the love of the Son for the Father, the Father for the Son, the Godness of them both for the particular people.

This is what this prayer is all about.

And we're gonna see these truths come out.

Now, our hope at Sacred Mission is always that as we preach through the scriptures, you walk away with a bigger vision, right?

And a deeper love for who Jesus is, what he's done for us, his grace for us, his love for us, his mercy for us, and it causes your life to calibrate in such a way where Jesus becomes more and more centric to your life.

And so as we walk through this, this is our only hope.

Our only hope is to be faithful to the text, insomuch that you see Jesus bigger and more beautiful, and you walk out of here with a deeper affection and heartfelt gratitude for the gospel.

Now, these essential truths that we're gonna discover within this prayer.

One of the challenges, if you just read this prayer outright, is that they're not given in to us in a kind of linear sequence, right?

We we can't just follow this linear path and be able to see it clearly step by step.

Jesus kind of hits a subject and then hits another one, then comes back to that one and then goes over here to a different one, then he comes back later to this one.

And it's kind of this woven nature all throughout the prayer that these truths are uh saturating what Jesus is trying to show us here at the end of this Passover meal.

And it creates for us this beautiful tapestry.

As we said, it's a tapestry that displays the Father's love for the Son, the Son's love for the Father, and their shared love for a particular people.

What's shown for us in this prayer is that in divine love, we are given by the Father, kept for Jesus, and sent on mission.

I believe that these are the three kind of core truths, essential truths that we're going to discover this morning.

That we are given by the Father, kept for Jesus, sent on mission.

Now, as we work through this prayer, I want us to think about the efficacy of Jesus' prayers.

So, what do I mean by efficacy?

If Jesus prays a prayer, does it get answered?

Does it get accomplished?

Right?

If Jesus is going before the Father as this mediator priest, and he's praying on behalf of his people, does Jesus' prayers get answered?

I think that's something that we really need to wrestle with as Christians.

I'm going to submit that Jesus' prayers always get answered.

Always get answered.

Because Jesus sets himself up.

We see this in the uh in the revelation of New Testament scripture.

Jesus sets himself up as the one who is always mediating for his people.

He is the eternal mediator of his people before the Father, and every prayer he prays is accomplished.

This talks about the efficacy of Jesus' prayer.

Let me kind of help us see some things here.

Jesus says, everything that the Father gives him to say.

Jesus says, everything that the Father gives him to say.

Let's look at John 12, 49 through 50.

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me as himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life.

What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.

We see other areas of Scripture where Jesus only did what the Father told him to do.

So when we're reading this prayer and we're asking about its efficacy, its ability to accomplish what it set out to, we have to see this prayer of Jesus as the words of the Father.

Okay, that's the first part.

Let's look at John 11, 41 through 42, and see that Jesus has full confidence that the Father hears his prayers and answers them.

So they took away the stone.

This is the resurrection of Lazarus, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

I know that you always hear me.

But I said this on account of these people standing around, that they may believe that you have sent me.

So, so what's Jesus saying there?

I'm praying publicly so that all of these people around me may be able to believe that you have sent me, but but this isn't for my own good.

I know every time I pray, you you hear me.

I have full confidence in that.

So, so as we're going to this high priestly prayer, we have the words of the Father coming out from the Son.

We have the confidence of the Son that the Father always hears him.

Thirdly, Jesus has perfect oneness with the Father.

Jesus has perfect oneness with the Father.

John 10, 30.

I and the Father are one.

Now, as we take these three factors into account, I believe that we can build a case that shows us that every prayer Jesus prays is accomplished.

You see, I believe the Bible shows us that Jesus' prayers are efficacious in nature, that they fully accomplish all that they request because they are inseparable to the very heart of the sovereign Father.

Now let's work through this prayer as Jesus sets forth to accomplish a priestly task and duty for us as his people.

As Jesus opens this prayer, he declares that the hour has come for his death and resurrection.

And he prays that through this atoning work, the Father would glorify him so that Jesus may glorify the Father.

Verse 1 Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.

Now, this theme of glory isn't something just dropped into John 17 or something that John's only introducing for the first time here in his gospel account.

It's a theme that the apostle has woven throughout the entirety of this gospel account, from the very opening prologue.

We read in John 1:14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

So John in the opening prologue, verse 14, he's saying, he's talking about this glory, right?

And what we see is that when John is referring to Jesus' glory that has been seen and that testifies to him being the Son of God, he's speaking of the goodness and loving kindness of God most clearly known in the death and resurrection of his son Jesus.

So the opening of Jesus' prayer is actually uniting the hour and glory.

We see these two things tethered together, inseparable realities of each other.

Jesus is going to be glorified in his death and resurrection on behalf of poor, helpless sinners, and he will glorify the Father through his perfect obedience to the Father's will, and obedience unto death for the good of his people.

Now, Jesus is going to connect his desire to be glorified and to glorify with a primary reason for his desire with sense in verse 2.

So let's think about this for a moment.

He's saying, The hour has come, glorify me.

What's getting ready to happen?

He's getting ready to die through Roman crucifixion.

He sees that as his glory.

And he's saying, Do this because, since, verse 2, you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Now, I believe this brings us to the first essential truth of God's love found in Jesus' prayer, that we are given by the Father.

We are given by the Father.

Throughout Jesus' whole prayer here, the concept of given, give, gave appears 15 times.

It speaks to the radical generosity of God.

And it's tied to four key themes.

We see these four key themes: authority being the first one, people, message, and glory.

Authority, people, message, and glory.

These are the four key themes that this notion of given or gave is tied to.

First, Jesus says that the Father has given him authority over all flesh.

There is not one person throughout human history that Jesus has not been given authority over.

Not one.

In this, we see the vast and comprehensive nature of Jesus' authority over all people.

But what did the Father give him authority for?

Though it's been given over all flesh, it's been given for a purpose.

To give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

So Jesus has been given this authority to give the divine gift of eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.

This is the extension of God's loving kindness and generosity that he has given a people to the Son that they may be given eternal life in him.

Notice the vast expanse of Jesus' authority in relation to the limited nature of those of whom he will give eternal life.

Authority over all flesh, given eternal life to those who the Father has given to him.

This is the love of the Father for the Son, and it's the love of the Son for those of whom the Father has given him.

That Jesus would accomplish something.

What we look at is that Jesus accomplished a definite atoning work on behalf of the people whom the Father had given him.

We talked about the efficacious nature of Jesus' prayers.

We have to talk about the efficacious nature of his sacrifice on behalf of sinners.

Did Jesus accomplish what he set forth to do?

And we would argue or submit gently, absolutely, that not one, as one word of Jesus' prayer is not wasted or falls dead to the ground, neither does one single drop of his precious blood.

Every drop purposed and able to accomplish what he set out to do, to bring eternal life to those whom the Father had given him.

And Jesus informs us through his prayer of what the substance and nature of this eternal life is.

We see in verse 3, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

You see, to know God is eternal life.

Often when we think about eternal life in heaven, we probably have a very uh skewed perspective or image of what that would look like.

If we don't see Jesus in the center of our heaven, if we don't see the worship of the Lamb who was slain, who is the light and life of all men, if we if he's not front stage of our heaven, we have a warped view and image of what heaven's gonna be like.

Because eternal life is this eternal life is to know the Father and to know his son Jesus of whom he has sent.

To know the Son is to know the Father.

Because we can only know the Father through the Son, and in the Son the fullness of his image was revealed, and the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, Colossians says.

So we can know God because he has given us his son, for God so loved the world that he gave.

Look at the generosity of God for his people.

That he gave his only begotten son.

But not only did he give us his son, he gave us his message also.

How can we know him?

Because he's revealed himself to us through both the person and the proclamation of his son.

It says in verse 8, for I have given them, again, this theme of giving, the words that you gave me.

Jesus gives the Father's message to those who have been given to him by the Father.

And in that there is a glorious outcome.

They have received and believed that Jesus has been sent by the Father as the Savior King of His people.

Look at verse 8, continued.

And they have received them, what the words, right?

They have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

So we're seeing Jesus' mission, his work that he was sent by the Father to do being accomplished in real time.

I came, you gave me your message, I gave this message to them, and we're seeing faith being produced in these ones, these ones whom you have given to me.

So God's love has demonstrated itself in radical generosity through giving his son ultimate authority to give eternal life to a particular people through the giving of a saving message, that the son may be given glory, and that that glory may be given to us.

You see, verse 22, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.

So if we look at the purpose of glory, the way that Jesus sees it, the way that Jesus is communicating it here in this prayer, the purpose of glory is for relational union.

Right?

That's what we see here.

There's a relational union as a byproduct of receiving glory.

The glory of the Son is union with the Father, and the glory of the church is union with Jesus and with one another.

This glory, this weighty union is set center stage on the drama of history, so that all may know the sending and saving work of Jesus.

This is verse 21.

That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.

Why?

So that the world may believe that you have sent me.

So Jesus is asking for glory.

He's asking for glory to glorify the Father.

This is going to establish that this uh well, it's going to display this union with one another.

And he's saying, I gave them the ones you've given me, I've given them that glory.

And this glory is that they may have union in me, but also union with one another.

And what's the purpose of our union with one another?

So that the looking world may see and believe that Jesus has been sent by the Father.

And so the glory of the church, if we want to ask ourselves, what is the glory of the church?

It is union with Jesus and union with one another, because that's what testifies to the watching world that Jesus Christ has come to save them from their sin.

And so we need to relish in that glory.

We need to be a people who contend for the reality of that glory in our life.

Because the glory given to the church is one that testifies to the glorious union of the Father and the Son.

A glorious union that is most clearly said.

In the selfless sacrifice and perfect obedience of Jesus.

Seen and realized through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is the gospel alone that brings union to the church, and that union testifies to the world the glorious gospel of grace in return.

So God is a giving God.

His generosity is unmatched, and his generosity is a source of joy to his people.

To know that we have been given by the Father to the Son, and that Jesus the Son gave himself for us, it should cause us to have deep joy, what the scriptures call a joy inexpressible and full of glory.

You see, I can rest and I can have peace in knowing that my soul is in the radically generous hands of God who loves me and gives all of himself for me.

But in this prayer, Jesus shows us something else of God's loving kindness for his people.

He shows that we are not just simply given by the Father, but that we are kept for himself.

The second essential truth I believe we need to see is that we are kept for Jesus.

We are kept for Jesus.

Now, as we look through this prayer, what we discover first is before we're kept for Jesus, we're kept by Jesus.

And this is a critical aspect to his saving work.

He says in verse 12, While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.

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

So here in this part of the prayer, Jesus is directly praying for his disciples.

And when he's talking about the one who was lost, he's talking about Judas.

Now, was Judas lost in that Christ was unable to keep him?

No.

What it says there at the end is that so the scripture might be filled.

Judas's uh purpose in the grand plan of redemption uh was that he would be the one who would betray Christ.

And so it wasn't this isn't a prayer in which we can look at Jesus as unable to accomplish what he set forth to do in the losing of Judas.

That's not what Jesus is saying at all.

He's saying that in full submission to the will of the Father and to fulfill what had been prophesied, Judas was brought in that he might betray Christ and hand him over to the Romans.

Now, we see the theme, though, of being given by the Father, applied to both the disciples and those who have yet to believe in Jesus.

So when we look at this, we can't say, oh, this is just about the disciples, not about anybody else.

Well, that's very short-sighted on our part.

That's not what's happening here either.

If you just look through verses 20 through 26, we see that the given nature of the Father, given of a particular people to the Son, it carries on through 20 and 26, as Jesus says, of those who have yet not believed, but that you have given me, right?

Uh so we see that theme carried in beyond the disciples, and we can also see the interrelation of those who have been given to Jesus and Jesus' full ability to keep those whom the Father has given to him throughout the gospel narratives.

Jesus reveals this interrelation most clearly in the Good Shepherd discourse of John 6.

So if we look at John 6, which we covered uh a couple months ago, in verses 37 through 39 we read this.

Does this sound familiar?

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out, I will keep.

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

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should what?

Lose nothing.

I should keep of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

So so we see this interrelation.

All that the Father has given the Son, the Son will keep.

This is what makes him the good shepherd.

When Jesus comes forward and says to those who are listening to his teaching, who are following after him, and he steps up in front and says, I am the good shepherd, what is he saying there?

He's saying, Every single person whom the Father has given to me, not only will they come to me, will they hear my voice and be brought into my fold, but I will not lose one of them.

That's what makes him the good shepherd.

Because if he lost a single sheep, he would fail to be the good shepherd that he says that he is.

So those whom the Father has given to the Son are fully kept by the Son, who perfectly accomplishes the will of the Father.

Jesus is the good shepherd because he does not lose a sheep.

But the hour is coming, and now in this prayer, Jesus is petitioning the Father to keep them in his name and from the evil one.

Lest the temptation they're about to face be too great to bear.

Jesus is praying for the Father to come alongside his keeping work.

Him and the Father are one, they are in perfect union with one another.

We see the power and effectiveness of Jesus' prayers, though.

So when we talk about the keeping nature, especially in face of temptation, I want us to look at Peter for just a moment.

At the Passover meal, Luke is the only one who records this unique exchange between Jesus and Peter.

And as Jesus was foretelling Peter's coming denial, he says this in Luke 22, 31 through 32.

He says this, Simon, Simon, Peter.

Behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Okay.

Is Jesus' prayers efficacious?

Do they accomplish what they set forth to?

Are they heard and received by the sovereign father of all creation?

Absolutely.

Because why?

We see this in Peter himself.

Consider for a moment the effectiveness of Jesus' prayers.

All that he prays comes to pass.

And Peter's ultimate hope was never going to be in his own ability to remain faithful to Jesus.

He tried to convince Jesus, it won't happen, Jesus.

I'm not going to deny you.

I'm not going to be that type of guy.

I'm not like Judas who betrayed you.

That's not me.

And Jesus says, Peter, it's going to happen.

But here's my promise to you.

It's not in your ability to remain faithful, it's in my prayers being received and answered by the Father.

I prayed for you, Peter, and you're going to be kept because of that.

Man, that's powerful.

When we understand this rightly, Jesus' prayers.

That's what Peter's ultimate hope had to be in.

That Jesus' prayer was heard and received and answered.

Because Peter was going to fail.

That's us.

Think about this in relation to our own Christian life.

When we have to be in awe and amazement and wonder at the keeping power of Jesus.

Because if it was up to me and you, we would lose our salvation.

We'd be the sheep that wanders off the edge of the cliff.

We'd be the sheep that sees the wolf and be like, maybe he's fun to play with.

We'd be the sheep who would do something dumb.

And we would lose our if we think that our salvation is somehow in our own ability to remain faithful.

Peter couldn't do it.

You think you're going to be able to in this world?

My hope is not in my ability to remain faithful.

I'm a fool.

Of course, I'm going to wander astray, pursue my own lusts, follow after my flesh.

I'm going to give in to the temptation of the world.

That's going to be me.

But my hope isn't in me.

My hope is in Jesus' effective prayers for me.

Because he keeps me.

Returning to Jesus' high priestly prayer, we see that he has kept his people and he is now praying for the Father to keep them so that they may be kept for him.

Man, think for a moment as we dive into this.

How much Jesus delights in you and loves you.

He's praying here before his hour has come at the end of this Passover.

And one of his key prayers is, God, let them be with me.

Let them be with me.

His desire is to have his people with him.

Verse 24.

Why?

To see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Jesus has kept us.

He is praying for us to be kept all so that we would be with him.

So that he would have us.

Those whom he has laid his life down for, for his pleasure, is to have his people see the glory that the Father has given him because of his eternal love for him.

This is the image of unveiled to us in Revelation.

Right?

So when I talked about your image of heaven is skewed, if Jesus isn't at the center, here's the glory he's talking about.

That in Revelation we see the curtain peeled back, revealed to us that in that time, in that glory, it is God's people around his throne.

And Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, seated upon it, the life and light of men.

There's no need for a son because his radiant light is unable to be stomped out.

And what's in him?

His nail-pierced hands, still seen.

His nail-pierced feet, still seen.

When we talked about his hour and his glory, the interrelation, the inseparability of those two, that's what heaven is.

Heaven is standing around this glorious throne saying, praise and honor and power and glory be to the Lamb who was slain.

And Jesus wants us there with him.

Because our glory is in his.

Ultimately, our we you want to know what we are?

We are glory thieves.

We try to walk around and we try to steal or detract from God's glory and apply it to ourselves.

We want glory.

And Jesus says, I'll fulfill that desire.

But I'm going to fulfill it in a way that you've never even understood or imagined.

Because it's going to be fulfilled in my glory.

And when I get my glory, that is due to my name, that I rightfully deserve because of who I am, you get the fullness of your glory.

And so Jesus lays his life down for our ultimate good.

The Lamb seated on the throne with the wounds of his loving sacrifice still seen in his flesh.

This is the glory he desires for us to see.

This is the reason he prays for us to be kept for him, for his glory, for his worship, that we would know the fullness of life eternal in the life-giving sacrifice of him.

What glorious and mysterious love that our glory is found in his glory, and that his glory is known in his all-satisfying death and resurrection.

Now there's still more to be discovered in this prayer of Jesus about God's loving kindness.

In fact, we could go months through this prayer and not exhaust all that Jesus has in it for us.

But so far we've seen that we are given by the Father and kept for the Son.

But God's love invites us and commissions us to participate in his work of redeeming a people for his glory.

And so the last thing we're going to cover this morning is that we are sent on mission.

We are sent on mission.

So the sending nature of God is the third loving theme we see in Jesus' prayer.

The Father has sent the Son to redeem his people through Jesus' death and resurrection.

And the accomplished work of Jesus in the lives of his followers is that they believe he has been sent by the Father.

God sent Jesus into the world to show his steadfast love to his people, and now Jesus sends his people into the world to proclaim the gospel of God's love fulfilled in his death and resurrection.

Verse 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

You see, in the same way that Jesus was sent into the world to proclaim the message of his Father and to lay his life down so that those who were given to him would come to saving faith, so we are sent into the world with the message of the gospel, called to lay our lives down, so that those who are his would come to saving faith in him.

Now, we may be sent in joy, but we are not always received in joy.

This is what Jesus prays in 14 and 15.

I have given them your word, the gospel message, the message of the kingdom, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

There's a unfaithful, unbiblical, anti-gospel movement within culture to pursue separatism.

Right?

We're afraid of what the world's going to do to us.

We're afraid of what the world's going to do to our family.

And so we work as hard as we can to separate ourselves from it.

That is completely unbiblical.

That's completely against Jesus' prayer right here in John 17.

His desire is that we be in the world, not of the world, but engaged in it with what?

With the words, the message that has been given to us by him, the message of the kingdom.

Because we're sent in joy, even if we are not received in joy.

But count it all joy if we share in the same sufferings of Christ.

If the world hates us, let us praise his name.

If it rejects us, if it casts us out, let us give honor and glory to him because we get to share in his sufferings.

Why do we not count that as joy anymore?

Why do we count joy as separatism and retreat and being over here all safe and comfortable so that we can just hold out to that last breath is drawn, or maybe Jesus comes back in glory before that time.

But if we can just stay away from all of this, maybe life will be good.

That's not the kingdom, that's not the mission of the church, is to engage a hostile world who will not receive you in joy, but we are sent in joy because our message is the only hope that they have.

Paul experienced this in his own ministry.

As Paul's being opposed and reviled in Corinth for sharing the gospel, the Lord speaks to Paul in a vision, saying this in Acts 18.

He says, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent.

Why?

Two reasons.

For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.

Two, for I have many in this city who are my people.

What was Paul's confidence?

Jesus said, No one's gonna do anything ultimately bad to you in this moment, but Paul already kind of started to understand that there was gonna be an end in the shedding of his own blood.

That end was gonna come.

In this moment, though, he said, I'm gonna keep you safe.

But look at the second reason he commands Paul to go and continue preaching the gospel.

For I have many people in this city.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about the ones whom the Father gave to the Son, that the Son shed his blood for, that the Son kept in his name, and who have yet to hear that gospel message be proclaimed to them, that they may be awakened from their slumber and have saving faith in the finished work of Jesus.

The Lord tells Paul that his sufferings, his persecutions are worth it because there are people in the city who are his and who will receive and believe in him.

Look, in Mason and in Westchester, in Fairfield, in Hamilton, in Sharonville, in Lebanon, there are people who are his.

And in some mystery, God has ordained that those people are awakened by the hearing of the gospel being preached to them.

And so what does he do?

As he sent his son, so he sends his church.

Why are we seeing, why are we not seeing more people come to faith in Jesus?

Why are we not seeing revival in the way that we prayed for it too?

Why are we not seeing the harvest being reaped within our city?

Let me submit to you, because we are so terrified of the sufferings of this world that we have clamped our mouths shut so we can preserve our own life.

And what does Jesus say?

This is a warning to the church.

If you seek to save your own life, you're going to ultimately lose it.

But it's those who lose their life that will save it.

Jesus even said, the problem isn't about the harvest.

The problem isn't that there's no fruit on the vine.

He said it's that there's not enough laborers in the field.

And so for us, we are sent in joyful mission.

We joyfully lay our lives down for those who will believe, those who are the Lord's, those who will know the joy of his salvation.

And in this, we participate in sharing God's love with the world.

His son came to save.

Let's close with this.

Through Jesus' prayer, we're brought into a deeper understanding of God's love for his people.

It's known through the steadfast loving kindness of a Father who sent his son into the world to fully accomplish the work he had given him to do, to declare the message of his kingdom, and to give his life for a particular people who will forever be kept in the splendor of his eternal glory.

That's the story of the gospel.

That's the story of Jesus.

That's the story we're brought into.

And we as his people, we go into the world to tell of that story, of that gloriously good news.

Church, Jesus' prayers are always heard, always received, always accomplished.

And that should give us perfect peace.

To know that Jesus is standing before the Father, mediating for you even now.

To know that he has prayed for us and to know the efficacy of his prayers is all that a troubled and timid heart needs.

So we can rest upon this prayer, this high priestly prayer.

For if we're sitting here this morning and we've received and believed the testimony of the accomplished work of Jesus, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are sitting here because we have been given by the Father.

We are being kept for the Son.

And it is all for his glory and our ultimate good.

Let's pray.