Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me:
for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it:
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,
and I in them. Joh 17:24-26
for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it:
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,
and I in them. Joh 17:24-26
The truth that people are judged by their desires finds its highest illustration in Jesus. The perfection of His nature is shown in the perfectness of His wishes. When His desires shall be all fulfilled, then there will be nothing more in the universe to be desired. The wish of the text is a prayer; but a prayer is merely a wish turned Godward. It was the instinct of Christ’s nature that He looked for the fulfilment of His wishes, not to Himself, and not to the things about Him, but to His Father. He was desiring in His heart that his people should be with Him.
The meaning of this is the Savior’s affection for His disciples. When friend is going away from friend, the wish springs up into words: “Oh, if I could only take you with me!” And so it is a part of the greatness of Jesus that He so simply feels and utters this human affection, and says, “I will miss you. I wish you could go with Me.” We want not merely to admire this in Jesus; not merely to feel its charm. We want to catch it from Him.
But, within this prayer, knowing it would be His last expression of love and speaking a blessing down through time, that would reach you and I- His words extend through time and eternity, to reach everyone of us, who would choose Him, and follow Him. It was His intercession of love, and an embrace to all of us, directed to the Father, all He could ask for us. In His words, He was wanting to draw us as close to Himself as He could, and we hear His heartbeat of love for His people. The power of that prayer is as real today, as the night he spoke it, and the Father has registered it as intercession presented for you and I before the throne of God.
His desire is for us to share in all He has prepared for us, to know Him in His glory, His great love for us. To share in all of the wonders of the heavens He has created. That we would be presented faultless to the Father, redeemed and glorified with Him in glory.
Within these verses we hear His hearts desire for our companionship, a relationship with Him as a Friend, a Savior, and our eternal Father.
Jesus' prayer rises as it proceeds. He asks for His people to be preserved from the world, that they would be sanctified and be made one. Then that they would be with Him and behold Him where He is, and behold His glory. It's a prayer of a divine pattern winding up as a ladder to heaven and continues into the realms of glory, out of sight.
Lorna Couillard
The meaning of this is the Savior’s affection for His disciples. When friend is going away from friend, the wish springs up into words: “Oh, if I could only take you with me!” And so it is a part of the greatness of Jesus that He so simply feels and utters this human affection, and says, “I will miss you. I wish you could go with Me.” We want not merely to admire this in Jesus; not merely to feel its charm. We want to catch it from Him.
But, within this prayer, knowing it would be His last expression of love and speaking a blessing down through time, that would reach you and I- His words extend through time and eternity, to reach everyone of us, who would choose Him, and follow Him. It was His intercession of love, and an embrace to all of us, directed to the Father, all He could ask for us. In His words, He was wanting to draw us as close to Himself as He could, and we hear His heartbeat of love for His people. The power of that prayer is as real today, as the night he spoke it, and the Father has registered it as intercession presented for you and I before the throne of God.
His desire is for us to share in all He has prepared for us, to know Him in His glory, His great love for us. To share in all of the wonders of the heavens He has created. That we would be presented faultless to the Father, redeemed and glorified with Him in glory.
Within these verses we hear His hearts desire for our companionship, a relationship with Him as a Friend, a Savior, and our eternal Father.
Jesus' prayer rises as it proceeds. He asks for His people to be preserved from the world, that they would be sanctified and be made one. Then that they would be with Him and behold Him where He is, and behold His glory. It's a prayer of a divine pattern winding up as a ladder to heaven and continues into the realms of glory, out of sight.
Lorna Couillard
Christ Our Intercessor
This last step of our Lord’s prayer is not only above all the rest, but it is a longer step than any of the others. He here ascends, not from one blessing which may be enjoyed on earth, to higher, but mounts right away from all that is to that which is reserved for the eternal future.
Not only does it rise as to its subject, but it even ascends as to the place which the Intercessor appears to occupy. Has it not been so with yourselves in prayer, that you might have cried with Paul, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.”
Still the prayer rises, not only as to its matter and place, but in a higher style. Before, our Lord had asked and pleaded; but now He says, “Father, I will.” It is well not only to groan out of the dust as suppliant sinners, but to seek unto our Father in the spirit of adoption with the confidence of children, and then, with the promise of God in our hand, lay hold upon the covenant angel, and cry, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Importunity is a humble approach to this Divine “I will.”
Let us begin as our text begins with THE HOME-WORD—“Father.” Is it not the centre of living unity? If there is to be a family gathering and reunion, where should it be but in the father’s house?
What can be more right than that children should go home to their Father? From Him they came, to Him they owe their life, and should not this be the goal of their being, that they should at last dwell in His presence?
“Father!” why, it is a bell that rings us home. He who hath the Spirit of adoption feels that the Father draws him home, and he would fain run after Him. How intensely did Jesus turn to the Father.
Our Lord looked upon those whom the Father gave Him as one—one body, one Church, one bride: He willed that as a whole the Church should be with Him where He is.
Then He looked again and saw each of the many individuals of whom the one Church is composed, and He prayed that each, that all of these, might be with Him and behold His glory. Jesus never so prays for the whole Church as to forget a single member; neither does He so pray for the members individually as to overlook the corporate capacity of the whole.
Observe the fellowship which exists in the glory land. “That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” So when the Lord brings His people home, we shall be one with Him, and He one with the Father, and we also in Him one with the Father, so that we shall then find boundless glory in beholding the glory of our Lord and God. (Biblical Illustrator)
THE HOME ATMOSPHERE. Love: “Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” Can you follow me in a great flight? There was a day before all days, when there was no day but the Ancient of Days. Oh the intensity of the Divine love of the Father to the Son! There was no universe, but God alone; and the whole of God’s omnipotence flowed forth in a stream of love to the Son, while the Son’s whole being remained eternally one with the Father by a mysterious essential union. Love is both the source and the channel, and the end of the Divine acting. Because the Father loved the Son He gave us to Him, and ordained that we should be with Him. Let our saintly ones go home if that is the design of their going. Since all comes of Divine love, and all sets forth Divine love, let them go to Him who loves them. Hold your friends lovingly, but be ready to yield them to Jesus."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Not only does it rise as to its subject, but it even ascends as to the place which the Intercessor appears to occupy. Has it not been so with yourselves in prayer, that you might have cried with Paul, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.”
Still the prayer rises, not only as to its matter and place, but in a higher style. Before, our Lord had asked and pleaded; but now He says, “Father, I will.” It is well not only to groan out of the dust as suppliant sinners, but to seek unto our Father in the spirit of adoption with the confidence of children, and then, with the promise of God in our hand, lay hold upon the covenant angel, and cry, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Importunity is a humble approach to this Divine “I will.”
Let us begin as our text begins with THE HOME-WORD—“Father.” Is it not the centre of living unity? If there is to be a family gathering and reunion, where should it be but in the father’s house?
What can be more right than that children should go home to their Father? From Him they came, to Him they owe their life, and should not this be the goal of their being, that they should at last dwell in His presence?
“Father!” why, it is a bell that rings us home. He who hath the Spirit of adoption feels that the Father draws him home, and he would fain run after Him. How intensely did Jesus turn to the Father.
Our Lord looked upon those whom the Father gave Him as one—one body, one Church, one bride: He willed that as a whole the Church should be with Him where He is.
Then He looked again and saw each of the many individuals of whom the one Church is composed, and He prayed that each, that all of these, might be with Him and behold His glory. Jesus never so prays for the whole Church as to forget a single member; neither does He so pray for the members individually as to overlook the corporate capacity of the whole.
Observe the fellowship which exists in the glory land. “That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” So when the Lord brings His people home, we shall be one with Him, and He one with the Father, and we also in Him one with the Father, so that we shall then find boundless glory in beholding the glory of our Lord and God. (Biblical Illustrator)
THE HOME ATMOSPHERE. Love: “Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” Can you follow me in a great flight? There was a day before all days, when there was no day but the Ancient of Days. Oh the intensity of the Divine love of the Father to the Son! There was no universe, but God alone; and the whole of God’s omnipotence flowed forth in a stream of love to the Son, while the Son’s whole being remained eternally one with the Father by a mysterious essential union. Love is both the source and the channel, and the end of the Divine acting. Because the Father loved the Son He gave us to Him, and ordained that we should be with Him. Let our saintly ones go home if that is the design of their going. Since all comes of Divine love, and all sets forth Divine love, let them go to Him who loves them. Hold your friends lovingly, but be ready to yield them to Jesus."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Bring Them Home
Thus, then, we understand Christ’s longing for the companionship of His disciples. He wanted them to be with Him. That wish of His must have run through all the scale of companionship which we have traced, but it must have completed itself in the desire that they should be like Him, that they should have His character, that in the obedience of God, where He abode, they should abide with Him.
He wants His disciples to be with Him, "that they may behold My glory." Before these words can be cut entirely free from low associations and soar into the high pure meaning which belongs to them, we must remember what Christ’s glory is which He desires us to see. Its essence, the heart and soul of it, must be His goodness. It is Christ’s goodness then that He would have His people see. Think for a moment what prospects that wish of our Lord opens. Only by growth in goodness can His goodness open itself to us. What is He praying for then? Is it not that which we traced before in the first part of His prayer, the same exactly, that we might be like Him? So only can we see Him. It is His glory that He wants us to see; but back of that, He wants us to be such men and women that we can see His glory. The only true danger is sin, and so the only true safety is holiness. What a sublime ambition. How it takes our vague, half-felt wishes and fills them with reality and strength, when the moral growth, which makes a man complete, is put before us, not abstractly, but in this picture of the dearest and noblest being that our souls can dream of, standing before us and saying to us: "Come unto Me," standing over us and praying for us,
"Father, bring them where I am." (Phillips Brooks, Sermons, p. 299)
He wants His disciples to be with Him, "that they may behold My glory." Before these words can be cut entirely free from low associations and soar into the high pure meaning which belongs to them, we must remember what Christ’s glory is which He desires us to see. Its essence, the heart and soul of it, must be His goodness. It is Christ’s goodness then that He would have His people see. Think for a moment what prospects that wish of our Lord opens. Only by growth in goodness can His goodness open itself to us. What is He praying for then? Is it not that which we traced before in the first part of His prayer, the same exactly, that we might be like Him? So only can we see Him. It is His glory that He wants us to see; but back of that, He wants us to be such men and women that we can see His glory. The only true danger is sin, and so the only true safety is holiness. What a sublime ambition. How it takes our vague, half-felt wishes and fills them with reality and strength, when the moral growth, which makes a man complete, is put before us, not abstractly, but in this picture of the dearest and noblest being that our souls can dream of, standing before us and saying to us: "Come unto Me," standing over us and praying for us,
"Father, bring them where I am." (Phillips Brooks, Sermons, p. 299)
