The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, Part 3

Transcript

GR 405
6/14/1981
The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus Part 3
John 17:20-26
Gil Rugh

John 17 in your Bibles, John's gospel and the 17th chapter. John chapter 17 is a concise, compact unit in that the entire chapter records the entire prayer that Jesus Christ offered on behalf of those who believe in Him. In the first 5 verses the focal point of His prayer was on His own glorification, the Father would glorify Him and this would be the means by which salvation would be secured for all who would believe in Him. Then in verses 6 through 19 the focal point was on the disciples primarily, those eleven men who were present with Him on this occasion. But the implication of this prayer is more encompassing than just the eleven, so while they are primarily in view in verses 6 to 19 as we come to verse 20, Jesus indicates "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word." So that the closing part of the prayer has as its focal point those who would come to believe through the word of the apostles and that would include you and I, who have been saved through the ministry of the apostles and their word. From the stand point that they were used to record the Scriptures. So someone came and shared with us John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." and we believed and we're saved, that was through the word of the apostles John as the Spirit caused Him to write it. But as we see in these closing verses and we'll note that as we move over them, that the prayer blends together because in effect what He prays for the eleven disciples is also to be true of all of us who come to believe in Him. And those things which are to characterize the eleven are to characterize every believer, so you and I are to function in a unique relationship with God and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Three primary areas that He covers in this closing section. Verses 20-23 He's going to pray that they may be one, the unity of those who will believe. Now He has prayed regarding unity over in verse 11, as He prayed in connection with the eleven and here you see some of the overlap. At the end of verse 11 "that they may be one, even as We are". Then in verses 20-23 He indicates "I'm not just asking for the disciples to be one like we are, I'm asking for all believers for all time to be one as We are." Then He's going to pray in verse 24 that those who believe in Him may be with Him, so the privilege of being in His presence, be
holding His glory, sharing in that glory is the desire of His heart for believers. Then He'll close by telling us something of the purpose that there was in making known to us His Father. Unity and oneness is the key burden in this prayer of Christ in verses 20-23. He zeros in on that "I do not ask in behalf of these alone", the these alone would refer to the eleven who are with Him, who are privileged to hear this prayer that Christ is offering. He says, "They are not the burden of My heart alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word", so this expands what He is praying, for whom He is praying to include all who will come to believe through the word of the apostles. And as I indicated that includes you and I because Romans chapter 10 says "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." So it is not possible for anyone to be saved today who does not hear the word of the apostles. Now I do not believe that we have apostles living today, but we have the word of the apostles contained in the Scriptures which has been given down to us today. We talked about this matter earlier in our study in this section in John, where the Spirit of God revealed the truth of God and then He inspired men of God to record that truth so that what we have now is the word of the apostles which is really the Word of God given through the apostles. Important to note here how Jesus says that salvation or faith in Him will be accomplished, "They will believe in Me through their word." Now that's crucial because if you break the chain, if you cut off a person from exposure to this word you remove any possibility for salvation. Now that means that this is the means that God is pleased to use to bring men to salvation. So, it's not primarily through religious activity, not primarily through churches, as we think of it but through the Word of God. Now if the church is being what it ought to be Biblically it will be a place where the Word of God is taught, but if you remove the Word of God, men and women cannot come to believe in Jesus Christ. "They believe in Me through their word", so here Jesus Christ is praying for you and I today who have come to believe in Him.

And His prayer, verse 21 "that they may all be one", that they all may be one the unity the oneness of all believers. Note, "I pray for these eleven, I pray also for those who will believe in them." You and I almost two thousand years later and He prays for the oneness of us all, so note it's not just oneness at a period of time, it's a oneness that transcends time. Now it's important to not misunderstand what this oneness is. Many today talk about this oneness as an organizational oneness, as a oneness in structure, but this is a oneness that transcends that kind of idea because it is a oneness that includes those who lived two thousand years ago. "That we may all be one", so it's a unity that goes beyond structural or organizational unity. It is a spiritual unity as is made clear by the next statement, "that they may all be one; even as You, Father, art in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us". It is a spiritual unity and a spiritual oneness, the same kind of unity, now this is an analogy that is made that is not the same in every detail. Jesus Christ and the Father are one in essence and you and I never will be because they are both deity and we will never be deity but there is an element of sameness in the oneness. That spiritual unity that binds us together, that we have become partakers of the life and character of God, we have entered into a personal relationship with Him, we now dwell in Him and He in us. We are His children so there is that link and that bind. Now He's praying that just as Christ and the Father are one so all believers will be one brought together in a unity and a harmony.

Skip the last part of that verse and come down to verse 22 "And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them; in order that they may be one, just as We are one;". Verse 23 "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity", you see that stress “that they all may be one, just as we are one, that they may be perfected in unity", stressing the reality of this unity, the assurance of it, the completion of it, it's a perfected unity. I tell you what He is talking about is the oneness that every believer has with every other believer. What we're talking about is the body of Christ here. That every believer from Acts chapter 2 down to the present time is bonded together in a relationship of unity with one another. So I have this relationship of oneness with the apostle Paul just like I have this relationship of oneness with you who are believers here this morning. It is a oneness that transcends time. Now the expression of this oneness is seen more clearly when we are in the same time. We can express this oneness in relationships with one another right now, but this oneness is seen that even the oneness we have with the apostles by the fact that we agree about Jesus Christ, that we are committed to the same Lord, submitted to the same Lord, that we hold to the same truth that has been revealed by God. But the oneness in its daily expression is seen more clearly among believers who are living together today. So closeness of proximity gives opportunity to manifest that oneness a little more clearly. But that oneness is just as real with all believers from all time because of that relationship with that one Lord.

Turn over to I John chapter 1. John begins his first epistle on this very note. And here you see exactly what Christ was praying about, those who would believe through the ministry of the apostles. Now John begins his first epistle saying "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life-".
In other words what we have seen and learned concerning Jesus Christ. "And this life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." "Fellowship" means to share in common, to share together. And John says "I am writing to you concerning Jesus Christ, so that you might come to believe in Him and share together with us, even as we share together with God the Father and God the Son." That's the pattern, we have fellowship with God, we share together in the life and light of God as John develops it. And we also share together as believers in a relationship of oneness and harmony. So the relationship goes both horizontally and vertically but the foundation for this unity is the relationship that we have with God. Note how John clarifies that "we proclaim this to you", in verse 3, "that you may have fellowship with us". In other words you must hear concerning Jesus Christ and believe in Him to have fellowship with us. This is the great fallacy in organizational unity. Organization unity has a place if it reflects spiritual unity but many today want to promote unity and it has no doctrinal foundation, no basis in the truth. The unity and oneness we have is founded upon our agreement concerning the person of Jesus Christ. If you do not agree with what the Scriptures say about Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who died to pay the penalty for sin, who was raised from the dead because the penalty was paid, there is no unity between us. There is no fellowship. There is no in-depth relationship. Now we can have a superficial relationship, we use that word "fellowship in a broad sense today. I have friends who are unbelievers, I am not one with them. We do not have that basic relationship of oneness.

Come back to I Corinthians. Stop in II Corinthians, I ought to check a passage there with you in chapter 6 then we'll back up to I Corinthians. II Corinthians chapter 6 stresses the fact there is no harmony among the believer and the unbeliever. There is no fellowship, there is no relationship. Verse 14 and this verse is often used for marriage and it would include a believer marrying an unbeliever which would be forbidden here. But it's much broader than that, the context here is not marriage, the context is all relationships of a binding nature. II Corinthians 6, verse 14 "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership (for what fellowship) have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God...Therefore, come out from among them", he goes on to say in verse 17. You see the stress there that even though superficially a believer and an unbeliever can seem to have things in common, maybe you and an unbelieving neighbor both like the color green, maybe you both like to drive a certain color automobile. You have certain superficial things in common but when you get to your basic nature, what you are, you are a child of God who partakes of the character of God, the unbeliever is a child of the Devil who partakes of the character of the Devil. So that's why God exhorts through the apostle Paul, "don't be joined together in binding relationships with unbelievers because you have nothing in common. And it's most clearly seen in the most binding of human relationships, in the marriage relationship. And when you have a believer who is planning on marrying an unbeliever they are just indicating that our relationship has not proceeded beyond the superficial, and because we seem to have certain superficial things that seem to be in common we're going to plan life together and Paul says that that will create difficulties.

Now he speaks on another occasion, back in I Corinthians regarding those who are married and one of the partners becomes a believer and we're not going to develop that this morning, so we'll leave that. Come back to I Corinthians chapter 12. I Corinthians chapter 12 the analogy of the body of Christ and there are a number of ways you could pursue the unity and oneness of believers through the New Testament, but just note I Corinthians chapter 12, and we don't have time to go through the whole chapter. Talking about the giving of the gifts, the Spirit of God comes to indwell a person the moment they trust Jesus Christ as Savior.
When He comes to indwell them, He gives them a special supernatural ability to be able to function as an effective part of the body of Christ and this ability is an evidence of His presence. Note it doesn't mean necessarily a spectacular enablement but every believer, the moment he is born into the family of God is fitted by God as a necessary part of the family or the body. And has an ability that the body needs to function most effectively. And so the first part of the chapter talks about that. Verse 11 "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills." The stress here that there's one Spirit who gives all of the gifts, so every believer gets his gift from the same Spirit. But the gifts are given to individuals, so just because it's one Spirit doesn't mean that He just throws out a lot of gifts but they are tailored for the individual according to God's plan for them in the body.

Verse 12 "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." So you see the stress, you can look at the body from two sides. This is just one body and it has many parts or you can look at it with an emphasis on the diversity of the parts, you can focus on the fingers and on the hand and on the arm and on the ears, the eyes and so on, and on, and on. And be amazed that there are so many parts, but you can't loose sight of the fact that there is only one body. Now that's the way it is with the unity that we have in Jesus Christ. And so the oneness that we were talking about in John 17 does not mean make them all the same, remove any diversity. No. Make them one but there will be diversity. So we're talking about a spiritual unity, but you won't be the same as me. The gifts and abilities that God gives you will be different, but we will complement one another and blend together with one another because we are one. Basically this body is one so there is a harmony and a unity even among the exercising of the various parts. So in the body of Christ, here we have a group of people, a number of us, different backgrounds, different interests in many areas, different experiences but there is a oneness among every single person here who is a child of God. And what will enable us to blend together in unity is the controlling of the Spirit of God in our lives, that One who has made us one. Keep your finger in Corinthians we're going to come back there and thumb over to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1, you're seeing this concept of unity that Christ prays regarding, is brought repeatedly through the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 22 "And He put all things in subjection under His feet (talking about Christ's feet) and gave Him (Christ) as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all." So you see again the unity in the body is under the headship of Jesus Christ. This hand is under the same authority as this arm over here because this head controls all the activity of all the parts. So when this head says "Pick up this book", this hand picks up the book. The head says "Put it in this hand", and this hand you set it down, no conflict. You dont' find them pulling apart here, this hand saying "No I won't". Why? Because there's one head and that's the way it is in the body of Christ. One head, Jesus Christ. Many parts in the body but only one body. Paul goes on in I Corinthians 12 to elaborate the fact that every part needs the other. It would be an ugly body if it was all the eye or all the ear or all the arm, it would be grotesque. The beauty in the body is the diversity of the parts all working in harmony to the same end. That's amazing. I decided I needed some exercise, so I took up jogging and I'm reconsidering the need right now. You know you read all these great things, it depends on who you read. Someone reads and they give you all the list of the great things that will be true of you if you jog. I go and read somebody else and they say things like after two years of jogging your joints could be like sawdust. I think "Well I'm going to go to all this work to turn my joints to sawdust, so I can spend all...you know." But any rate what I was amazed at was they talk about how many parts of the body work together in doing these various activities. I would say, "That is amazing, you know I never thought about it, as you're running, you know, around in circles which is what I do, literally. You run, you know I never thought now, there are X number of connections doing these number of things. It all just works in perfect harmony all those parts doing just what they should. And that's the way it is in the body of Christ, the perfect harmony that God intends to be there.

Back up to I Corinthians 3, should note this. Note there is no harmony among believers and unbelievers. This is why where you have a local church and you have that church drift from the truth of the Word of God and unbelievers become part of that assembly and come into positions of responsibi1ity in that assembly, you have a divided group. You have people who have nothing in common, so how can they work together toward common purposes for the glory of God? They cannot. They are under two different authorities for two different purposes. The end is conflict. But even among believers there can be conflict. In I Corinthians 3 Paul writes, "I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ." Now note there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ, all of us were at one time. Just like there's nothing wrong with being a human baby, everybody gets his start that way. What is wrong is being a babe in Christ when you should have become an adult. Verse 2, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able". The solid truth of the Word still escapes you, you're still on the infantile things because you're not developing as you should. Note here what a carnal Christian is, it's a Christian who should be able to handle the more solid things of the Word by now and he can't, that's one evidence of a carnal Christian.

But note verse 3 "for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? Then the divisions that exist and "I am of Paul", "I am of Apollos", "I am of Cephas" and on and on. They had divided and set up for themselves, men that they wanted to follow and there was strife and conflict among believers. Now wait a minute, we said that the believer and unbeliever have nothing in common but believers have been joined together in a relationship of oneness under the headship of Jesus Christ. Where does the conflict come from? You know if there's a conflict in my body, one part of my body no longer obeys the dictates of my head that is a malfunction to be corrected if possible. Now in the spiritual realm you have believers who are in conflict, the head Jesus Christ is not in conflict. Someone is not taking his orders from the head of the body. "Jealousy and strife", now it could sound good here. I'm sure if you had talked to the followers of Paul they could have given you the good reasons why Paul was their authority and what was wrong with Peter. And if you would have talked to Peter's followers they could have told you why Peter was more effective more knowledgeable and what was wrong with the apostle Paul. So what had seemed to them good spiritual reasons, but you note the problem, fleshliness. There would have been differences in all of these individuals but that should have not caused strife and disunity. Paul says it's simply a matter of immaturity. Just like children, they sit out in the sand box and fight over sand, and they've got more sand than they could ever use. You say "It's ridiculous", you call the kids in and say "Now this bickering has got to stop, there's no need for it." I sometimes wonder if God's not looking down on us as His children and saying "This bickering has got to stop". Here we are like big babies, bickering with one another, and I am sure I'm right. There can be no doubt. Now we're not talking about disagreements over the doctrine and truths of the Word. There are some who believe you ought to sacrifice the truth of the Word in the name of unity and harmony. You cannot do that. But I need to be careful in my attitude that I am reflecting the oneness. That becomes very important.

Back up to John 17. So that oneness is there, it is a reality, it is true for all those who come to trust Jesus Christ as Savior. Now the manifestation of that unity is sometimes not as clear as it ought to be and that becomes a tragedy of tremendous significance. Impressed as I was studying this section that there are few things in the Scripture as serious as dissension among believers because note the purpose expressed twice here by Christ for this unity. Note verse 21, "that they may all be one; even as You Father, art in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us", and let me just remind you, before we move to the next point that that harmony between the Father and the Son is perfect harmony. There was never any disagreement, there was never any conflict it was a perfect unity, that's the kind of unity that He prays for among us as believers. We have that in our relationship with God through faith in Christ. That perfect unity is manifested in our relationship with one another in the way we walk.

Note the reason, verse 21, "in order that the world may believe that You send Me." Do you see how crucial that unity is? It is the testimony that is to be used of the Spirit of God to draw the world to Jesus Christ. Now can you understand why the devil works so hard to divide believers, to set believers against one another in the bickering and the back biting because this unity is God's plan for drawing the unbeliever to Himself, "in order that". I've got that underlined in my Bible, you ought to mark it, circle it. "In order that the world may believe". I ask myself, "Are people coming to trust Jesus Christ as Savior through the testimony of this local church?" "Are there as many people as we might expect and desire coming to trust Jesus Christ as Savior?" If not then we must back up and ask ourselves "Is there something wrong in the display of unity which ought to be there, for this process to be accomplished?" God has told me what He will do and then the devil get in and sets Christian against Christian, Christian against Christian and the ugly thing about the whole thing is, often the Christians are there battling with one another and at the same time trying to witness to their neighbor and they wonder what's wrong? I don't seem to be getting through. Maybe I need to back up and find out, is there something wrong in the relationship with one another. This unity is a testimony used by God to impress upon the world the unbelievers the work that He has accomplished in His Son, Jesus Christ. I don't understand all of that. That's not the way I would have put it, "that they may be one that the world may believe"? I would have said "that they may be one in order that you may be glorified". I would have said the ultimate end is glorification. But the immediate purpose that Christ stresses here in His prayer is the salvation of the world, their faith. So I really have a burden for the unbeliever, I really have a burden for the lost. Is that manifested in the unity that is evident among us as believers? Now again, that is a unity within the confines of the Scripture, it is a unity that is only true among believers. It is only evident among believers who are walking in submission to the Lord of the body Jesus Christ.

Look down to verse 23. "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know" (underline that in your Bible) "that the world may know". Up in verse 21, "that the world may believe". Down in verse 23 "that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You loved Me." Now that's remarkable, Christ prays for our unity and oneness as a testimony that will enable the world to know that He was from God and now we belong to Him. So I come and I share with someone about Jesus Christ the Son of God has come and died for your sins, He'll cleanse you from your sin. The impact of that testimony is effected, affected by the unity that is displayed among believers. And we will not realize, until we get to glory, I don't think, how detrimentally the testimony for Jesus Christ in the world has been affected by the bickering and back biting that goes on among believers. That continual bickering ought not to be there, we need to be careful, concerned about our testimony. "That the world may know", I take it that's parallel with "that the world may believe". The only that the world will know that Christ came from the Father and that we are in the Father and the Father is in us, that He loves us is through this testimony, it's God's intention that it be that way. So you see something of the burden here as He's leaving, how are we going to make an impact on the world? He'd already prayed remember "Don't take them out of the world, but keep them in the world." And then the mission that we were given, we were sent into the world even as Christ was sent into the world. Verse 18, "As You did send Me into the world, I did send them into the world." The impact of our testimony, us as a local body, this church right here, a place where we can display and manifest the unity that we have. We need to be very careful that we are not under the ugliness of pretending a spirituality causing strife and division and disharmony which detrimentally affects the testimony and impact that we need to have on the unbeliever for Jesus Christ.

Verse 24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am", amazing in this prayer. He's going to conclude and in His concluding remarks "Father, My desire is that the ones that You give Me will be with Me where I am, in order that they also may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me from before the foundation of the world." Christ prays that you and I will be privileged to be in the glory of His presence. I take it that ties to the security of the believer. He's praying not only for the disciples but for all who will come to believe in Him. He's praying for all who will come to believe in Him to be privileged to be with Him in His presence. I take it that prayer will be answered, will be realized, that we are destined for His presence. Note the reason "so that they may behold My glory", "Father, I want them to come and be with Me so that they can behold My glory, the glory of My presence". Now He's talked about glory already up in verse 22 "And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them". I think there's two aspects that we can emphasize here, the glory which was given to Christ has been given to the disciples. What was that? Well during His earthly ministry that glory was to exalt the Father to make the Father known, to reveal the Father that was the glory given to Christ during His earthly ministry. That's why He could talk about glorifying God in His death because through His death and resurrection would be a full display of the glory of God in providing redemption and salvation for fallen humanity. Now that glory, not in providing salvation but in revealing God and making Him known, is given to us. Where does the world look today to see the character of God displayed? When Jesus Christ was on earth, they looked at Christ and saw in Him the full display of the character of God. Where today is the world to look to see the character of God displayed? In the believer, it's His character being produced in us, so that that glory which had been given to Christ has now been given to us, that privilege of revealing the character of God. There's also a future aspect that could be considered here, "the glory which you have given Me I have given them". Now it's not that "I will give to them" but it also can be viewed as an accomplished fact because of the surety of it. Over in Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about this aspect of the glory and this ties to verse 24, where Christ that we will be able to behold His glory in His presence because we will be privileged to share in that glory. It's the glory that He has given to us, in other words a privilege that is guaranteed to us, that we will share in His glory. In Romans 8, verse 17, verse 16 "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." He talks further down, verse 23 "the redemption of our body" ties to this realization of glory. Down in verse 30 He talks about the fact that we have been glorified, viewing it as something that is a settled fact even though it is a yet a future reality as far as our experience is concerned.

So when He prays back in John 17 that they may behold My glory. Up in verse 22 He has said that He gives the glory to them both the privilege of revealing God during this life and also sharing in glory in His presence. We speak of this when we talk of the glorified body, a body suited for the glory of His presence and that aspect of glory which we will be privileged to share because we are the sons of God. And again we've noted this but we just read it in Romans chapter 8, that's what enables you to suffer the hardship and difficulties of this life. Remember when He said in verse 22, He has given this glory to them, that was a hard road that Jesus had, when He was making God known. Paul said "the sufferings of this life aren't worthy to be compared with the coming glory". So you need to keep in mind that balance that even in the glory we're privileged to have how in making God known does mean that it will be easy or without conflict and so we can praise Him for what He's doing. That's what Paul wrote to the Corinthians "that when he is weak he is strong", he realized in his sufferings God was exalted so he could praise God for suffering for difficulty, trial and so on.

But we're destined, we looked at this in chapter 14 of John, where Jesus said "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also." The glory of His presence, His glory seen in Revelation chapter 1, a description of the glory of the place we are destined for in Revelation 21 and 22, that we may be in His presence to see His glory. "The glory which You have given Me", note, "for You did love Me", verse 24 of John 17, "before the foundation of the world." The love between the Father and the Son is an eternal, endless love. It is a love without limits, going both directions. His glory will be manifested because of the love of the Father.

He concludes, "0 righteous Father although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You didst send Me; and I have made Your
name known to them, and will make it known; that the love where with You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Again the note here, "the world doesn't know Me, but these have known", "the world doesn't know Me but these have known that You sent Me". In other words "they really know Me, they know where I'm from, they know who I am, that I am the Son of God.", the world is in ignorance of this fact. "I have made Your name known to them and will make it known", in other words He is not finished and it's through the events of the cross and the resurrection that the fullness of understanding will be given to these disciples. "That the love wherewith You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Note why He makes His name known, "that, in order that the love where with You loved Me may be in them", God's love may be in them. I take it God's love for them, he is talking about here, may be in them. "And I in them", in other words what He does is blend together here, both the Father and the Son are in them. The Father's love is in them the Son is in them. These are those who are privileged to have that special unique relationship with God the Father and God the Son, the special recipients of His love and His presence. That's why He made His name known to us, that was the purpose of the revelation that we might enjoy the salvation that has been revealed in Him. So He concludes His prayer by making note that I am praying for all those who believe in Me, I desire that they may be one, that the world may believe, that the world may know. I'm praying for them so that they may be with Me and behold My glory which time we'll be privileged to share in the glory that we behold. And He notes that He made the Father known, He revealed God so that we might be privileged to be the objects of the love of God and have the Son of God dwell in us. Two questions: One- Are you one with Jesus Christ? Have you entered into that relationship of unity with God the Father and God the Son? You note how that is accomplished- by believing the word of God, believing the message concerning Jesus Christ that He is the Son of God who died to pay the penalty for sin. Ever come to believe in Him, salvation is not found any place else, any other way. Secondly- If you have believed, is that oneness reflect itself in your dealing with other believers? In the attitude that we have with one another, do we really reflect the oneness that is ours in Jesus Christ, that we might have the impact in our testimony before the world that God intends, that who else but almighty God could bring those diverse and different people together, blend them together in such harmony and such love to testimony to the salvation that God has provided in His Son Jesus Christ. I pray that we might be a body of believers that the world looks at and is impressed by our love, by our joy, by the oneness that we have together as God's children.