Overhearing God's Heart (John 17)

Pastor Jeremy Tetreau
The Upper Room  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  37:42
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Pre-Introduction

Introduction

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[Transition Sentence]
Post-Introduction
For the last 9 weeks, we’ve followed Jesus’ teaching in the Upper Room on the night before his crucifixion.
This morning is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Many of the Jews thought that Jesus was there to overthrow Rome and set up his political kingdom on earth. You can imagine the disciples’ confusion and dismay, then, when later that same week, Jesus explains to them that he going away to His Father, and that the world will hate them and persecute them. The kingdom that Jesus envisions isn’t one that his disciples were expecting.
After Jesus’ teaching, we come now to John 17, which many have called Jesus’ high priestly prayer. Jesus could’ve prayed this quietly, just between himself and God the Father, but he chooses to pray outloud so that his disciples can overhear him. And as you overhear Jesus’ prayer with his disciples, you’re going to see that
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
And the best way to know God’s heart is to hear it from God Himself.
Structure
The prayer is divided into three main points, each point having its own paragraph. And each point or paragraph is one main request.
So, from verses 1-5, we see Jesus’ first request. In verses 6-19, we see Jesus’ second request. And in verses 20-26, we see Jesus’ third request.
So by overhearing these three requests from Jesus, we can KNOW God’s heart.

3 Requests That Reveal God’s Heart

Transition: Let’s look at the first request in verses 1-5: “GLORIFY Your Name.”

1. “GLORIFY Your Name” (vv. 1-5)

John 17:1–5 (ESV)
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Explanation

God’s greatest motivation is God’s glory.
Look at what Jesus says in vv. 1, 4, and 5.
John 17:1 (ESV)
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
John 17:4 (ESV)
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
John 17:5 (ESV)
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
That word “glorify” in this passage means something like “make much of” or “draw attention to.”
Jesus prays that God the Father will make much of Jesus so that Jesus can make much of God the Father.
This has been going on for all eternity. In verse 5, Jesus says that before Creation, God the Father and God the Son enjoyed a perfect relationship of radiant joy and love, sharing equal glory as each poured delight into the other.
We’re on the verge of the incomprehensible, here.

Illustration

In his famous sermon “Heaven a World of Love,” Jonathan Edwards tries to help us conceptualize this:
God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun . . . fills the world with light. . . There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love . . . proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love.
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
The Triune God is the fountain of love. There is no-one as glorious as God, so it’s RIGHT that God wants God to be seen as glorious as He really is.
God’s greatest motivation is God’s glory.

Explanation

Here, as Jesus is praying, he’s about to go the cross, but He’s still asking for God to glorify Himself.
To the world, the cross looks like a defeat. But Jesus is praying that it will be a glorious triumph.
How?
Verse 2 gives the answer:
John 17:2 (ESV)
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Jesus’ apparent defeat on the cross will reveal God’s glory because it’s through his death that God’s chosen people — the people He has given to Jesus — will experience eternal life.
And eternal life isn’t just about the quantity of life; it’s about the quality of life. Look at verse 3:
John 17:3 (ESV)
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
You were not made just to know about God. You were made to know God.

Application

Christian, we have access to so much information.
Your smartphone has more computing power than the computer on board Apollo 11 that put a man on the moon.
When it comes to information about God, we have more than we know what to do with.
But all of it is worthless if we don’t know God Himself in a personal way.
A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him.
J.I. Packer (1926-2020)
Jesus says knowing God Himself — That’s eternal life.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
When you KNOW God’s heart, His greatest joy becomes your greatest joy.
And God’s greatest joy is the glory of God.

Illustration

How could it not be?
I will confess that one of my favorite things to do when I get overly stressed out is sit down on the couch and watch an episode of “Antiques Roadshow.” And on Antiques Roadshow, people bring in all kinds of paintings and vases and comicbooks and all kinds of things and there’s an appraiser there who talks about the item and gives an estimate or an assessment of its value.
Indulge me for a minute.
Imagine someone comes to the Antiques Roadshow with a rare painting by Leonardo DaVinci. It had long been thought to be lost, but here it is, in perfect condition. Then, moments later, someone else walks in carrying an identical painting, claiming the same thing. Upon inspection, it turns out that the first painting is almost identical to the second, but actually is a copy of the second, and the second is the original.
Which painting should the appraiser assess as more valuable? The first or the second? The copy, or the original?
If God assesses the true value of everything in the Universe, and if God Himself — One God in Trinity — is the most valuable of all Beings, being Himself the source of all goodness, beauty, and truth, would God be righteous if He doesn’t assess Himself as the most valuable of all Beings?
For God to be God-centered is simply to say that most valuable Being imaginable should be properly regarded and esteemed as the most valuable Being imaginable.
When human beings are human-centered, we’re lying about reality.
When God is God-centered, He’s being honest about reality.
Sometimes, people object to the idea that God’s glory is at the center of God’s motivation.
But the follow up question is worth considering: “If God is not at the center of the Universe, what should be? You? Me? If we were at the center of the universe, I don’t think that would be a very good universe.

GOSEL CALL

In fact, this is the reason why our world is in the mess that it’s in. God created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But we rebelled against Him. We wanted to glorify us and enjoy us forever. We seized autonomy and wanted to define the world with reference to us instead of with reference to God. And the result? Chaos. Curse. Death. God cast us out of His presence in the Garden and guarded the way back with an angel and a flaming sword.
Romans 1:25 (ESV)
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
But here in this prayer, Jesus is praying for us. He’s thanking God for choosing a people from before the world was made and He’s bursting with joy at the idea of giving them eternal life, restoring what was lost, knowing that the only way for us to get back to the Tree of Life is for the sword of God’s wrath to fall on him. So that by his life, death, and resurrection in our place, we can have the sentence of death forever removed, if we will just turn from our sins and trust in Jesus.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.

Application

I’m afraid that we live in such a “me-centered” world that we miss this big truth: God’s greatest motivation and greatest joy is God’s glory.
And as Jesus is going to the cross, the primary and foundational motivation of His heart is the glory of God.
“GLORIFY Your Name”
How about you?
What’s the primary motivation of your heart?
Is it the glory of God? or it is the glory of you?
[Application?]
[Transition Sentence]
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
Transition: The first request in verses 1-5 is “GLORIFY Your Name.” The second request is in verses 6-19: “SANCTIFY Your People.”

1.“GLORIFY Your Name” (vv. 1-5)

2. “SANCTIFY Your People” (vv. 6-19)

John 17:6–19 (ESV)
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
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.
13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Explanation (4.5 min?)

God’s GLORY is God’s first and most foundational motivation, but the very next thing on God’s heart is the good of his people. “SANCTIFY Your People.”
At this point in the prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples who are right there with him in the upper room.
Jesus says they’ve been chosen by God and made into His holy, special people, and set apart for service in his kingdom.
But as Jesus is preparing to leave them to return to the Father, He knows that they’re going to face opposition.
But he doesn’t want to pull them out of the world; he wants them to stay faithful while they’re in the world, so that through them, the message of Jesus could extend to every people group.
John 17:15 (ESV)
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Jesus prays that God will protect them or KEEP them, and that He will make them holy, or SANCTIFY them, making them effective for service.
This is why we often call this prayer Jesus’ “high priestly prayer,” because Jesus is stepping in and being their high priest, representing them before God, asking God to help them.
We see those two requests in verse 11 and verse 17: Keep them, and Sanctify them.
John 17:11 (ESV)
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
John 17:17 (ESV)
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus is entrusting their spiritual wellbeing into God’s hands, asking for God to protect them from evil, and to make them holy and effective for kingdom service.

Illustration

When we got Walter, our Golden Retriever puppy last Fall as an early Christmas gift for the family, we were pretty nervous about leaving him when we took our first trip away. We couldn’t take him with us so we found a local kennel to keep him for a couple days. And you know we’re reading all the Google reviews and looking at the pictures online. And when we get there we take a look at the facility to make sure everything looks good. And then even when we’re out of town we stalk their Instagram page to see how He’s doing. While we were away we wanted to make sure Walter was Ok, and we were trusting the Kennel to take care of him while we were gone. It was up to them to make sure he was safe.
Here, Jesus has been given a gift from His Father — His precious People — and He knows that its his time to leave, but He wants to make sure that they’re OK. That they’re kept safe and made holy for God. So Jesus here prays that God would SANCTIFY them while he’s away.
Explanation
But notice with me again in verse 17 about the way they will be KEPT and SANCTIFIED:
John 17:17 (ESV)
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
The way that His disciples will be made holy is through the truth, through the Word of God.
John 6:68 (ESV)
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
And from everything Jesus has taught in the upper room, what will be the answer to his prayer here? How will God answer Jesus’ prayer?
The answer is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.
He will draw their attention to Jesus. He will help them remember the truth. He will sanctify them and empower them.
God is too committed to His own glory AND the good of His people to allow us to be left on our own.
God is not a negligent parent.

Illustration

Just this week I read a story almost too horrific to contemplate. But the investigators working the case testified in court that it was one of the most heinous crimes they had ever witnessed in their entire career.
A mother in Ohio left her 16-month old toddler all alone in her playpen with a few bottles of milk and and then went on a 10-day summer vacation in Puerto Rico and Detroit, leaving the her daughter all alone. Needless to say, this sweet baby died an excruciating death all alone, crying and crying and crying, with no one to answer, facing starvation and extreme thirst.
Everything inside us screams when we hear stories like this. There’s something in our bones that says, “NO.” It isn’t supposed to be like this. This is wrong. This is wicked.
God is not a negligent parent.
Can you hear God’s heart for his disciples? He doesn’t want them to be alone. He doesn’t want them to fail. He wants them to thrive, to be HOLY, ultimately for God’s glory, but also for their JOY. Look at v.13.
John 17:13 (ESV)
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
Christian, what’s true for God’s people in the first century is true for you today. Jesus prays “SANCTIFY Your People,” because God is not a negligent parent and He’s proved it by giving us His Word and giving us His Spirit.

Application (2.25 min?)

Q. How important is HOLINESS to you?
Do you love the things of God? When God speaks in His Word, do you conform your life to it? Or do you try to conform God’s Word to you?
“Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word.”
J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
Here’s another question: Q. How important is the TRUTH to you?
The truth of God’s word is what will keep us in the faith. The truth is what will sanctify us. If you want to be more holy, are you availing yourself of the TRUTH of God’s Word?
We need to be people who love holiness and people who love the truth.
Transition: The first request in verses 1-5 is “GLORIFY Your Name.” The second request is in verses 6-19: “SANCTIFY Your People.” And finally, verses 20-26, “Unify Your Church.”

1. “GLORIFY Your Name” (vv. 1-5)

2. “SANCTIFY Your People” (vv. 6-19)

3. “UNIFY Your Church” (vv. 20-26)

John 17:20–26 (ESV)
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
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, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Explanation (4.5 min)

Here in this closing section of Jesus’ High-Priestly prayer, he focuses his attention not just on the disciples who are right there with him, but all who will ever believe because of their testimony.
In other words, he turns to you and to me.

Illustration (2.25 min)

Calvin says
“This prayer of Christ is a safe harbor, and whoever retreats into it is safe from all danger of shipwreck; for it is as if Christ had solemnly sworn that he will devote his care and diligence to our salvation.”
John Calvin (1509-1564)

Explanation (4.5 min)

Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
Jesus wasn’t just praying for his disciples; he was praying for you and me.
Notice the main request throughout this section. You can see it in verses 21, 22, and 23:
John 17:21–23 (ESV)
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Jesus is praying for the Unity of His Church. God’s heart is that our spiritual unity as God’s adopted sons and daughters would show up in our relational unity together as a church.
It is a sad state of affairs when the church of the Living God looks more like a divided and polarized Washington D.C. than the body of Christ on earth.
It’s a terrible indictment on the church of Jesus when the the resources and tools of Christianity are used as instruments of personal power instead of vehicles of self-giving love.

Illustration (2.25 min)

An acquaintence of mine was recently reflecting on the current state of affairs in some of the churches that he has been a part of, and in deep pain and agony and discouragement he voiced his lament:
Right now it can feel like nearly everything that Christianity has meant to me in terms of my actual practical experience with it has been deeply hurtful and painful. I have felt deeply hurt and betrayed by broader evangelicalism. Growing up, I was abused by my Christian parents. And now I've been spiritually abused by my own church. If it wasn't for actually believing Christianity was true (factually)— Evangelicalism and Christians themselves have given me no reason to believe it in terms of my actual lived experience with Christianity. Many Christians have not only failed to lend credibility to the faith, they have actively contributed to discredit it. It's like Christians are doing the exact opposite of providing an apologetic for Christianity—they're only giving me reasons to find it all simply hurtful and unserious. Honestly, if you were to create a playbook on how to push someone towards apostasy, this could be it. It's like, are they trying to give me every reason not to be a Christian? It honestly feels like it. What happens when the Christians who preach good news of escape from hell end up creating your hell? To be clear, I still believe in Christ. I still am committed (deeply theologically) to the importance of the local church. I believe in Christianity. But this is all despite everything I'm experiencing.
When the world looks to the church of Jesus Christ, what should it see?
John 17:23 (ESV)
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
How is the world going to see that love of God practically and tangibly displayed in the world if they don’t see it in the church of Jesus?
This brings us back to Jesus’ big command in this section:
John 13:34–35 (ESV)
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
Can you hear the Love on God’s heart for his people—for you and for me—as Jesus closes his High-Priestly prayer?
Listen to these closing verses as Jesus gives voice to what our unity should look like:
John 17:24–26 (ESV)
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Again, we are on the verge of the incomprehensible here.
Jesus is praying that His people — the people God has given Him as a gift — would taste and see and enjoy the glory of God, which is the overflow of God’s love for God.
If the church of Jesus is not a place where the unity and love of the Triune God is on display for the world to see, we are missing God’s heart for our church.
To be clear, the kind of unity that Jesus prays for is not unity at all costs.

Illustration (2.25 min)

The human race assembled at the Tower of Babel was a great example of unity. They shared a common vision and mission. They were together and of one accord. The problem was that their unity was a unity of rebellion. Their unity was not a unity of truth; it was a unity of sin.
We don’t want that kind of unity.
We want a unity in the truth.
Ephesians 4:3 (ESV)
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
And God’s heart cares deeply about the Unity of the Church.

Application (2.25 min)

Q.1. Does yours? Do you care about the unity of the church?
That assumes that you are regularly and vitally connected with more believers than just yourself. And the rest of the New Testament makes clear that that happens in the context of relational commitment. Are you relationally committed to the other members of our church? Are you active in pursuing the spiritual good of the church members who are in your life?
Q.2. As a church, are we quicker to point out the things we don’t have in common with every other church, or the things we do?
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the fact that there are different Christian denominations and churches.
But the way we organize ourselves into different denominations and different churches should happen in a spirit of love and unity, not a spirit of condescension and elitism.
Now, certainly, when it comes to churches that have compromised the Gospel or compromised basic Christian ethics, I can’t cooperate with them at any spiritual level, because light and darkness don’t go together.
But if the church is preaching the same Jesus and the same Gospel, we can happily partner in some way and at some level.
Q.3. Not just with other churches, but how about here in our own church? Are you an agent of unity or an agent of disunity?
Unity doesn’t mean unanimity, as though everyone will always have the same idea. But it does mean that we actively choose to pursue what is in keeping with our spiritual unity.
It means we are a team. We assume the best. We put ourselves in each others’ shoes. We weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We eagerly seek resolution to conflict through others’-oriented love and humility.
If we’re supposed to be a testimony of God’s love to a watching world, we need to pray for God to “Unify His Church”

Conclusion

Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
As we overhear this prayer, we hear 3 Requests that reveal God’s Heart:
1. “GLORIFY Your Name” (vv. 1-5)
2. “SANCTIFY Your People” (vv. 6-19)
3. “UNIFY Your Church” (vv. 20-26)
What we learn when we keep reading in the New Testament is that Jesus’ prayer for His people doesn’t stop when He leaves earth and ascends to His Father’s side. He continues to plead and intercede for us.
It is likely this very prayer that is on the mind of the Writer to the Hebrews when he writes in Hebrews 4:14-16
Hebrews 4:14–16 (ESV)
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Big Idea: Your greatest need and your greatest joy is to KNOW God’s heart.
It is to know that for the Glory of God, for the Sanctification of God’s People, and for the Unity of God’s Church, Jesus has come as our Great High Priest.
Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea A great High Priest whose name is love Who ever lives and pleads for me
Let’s pray.
[Transition into “Before the Throne”]
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