OUR LORD’S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER   Part 8

Jesus Prays for the Believer’s Reunion with Him in Heaven

John 17:24-26

INTRODUCTION

Many believers here in affluent America live as if going to heaven would be an unwelcome intrusion into their busy schedules—an interruption of their career goals, or future plans.

When the church loses its focus on heaven, it becomes self-indulgent, self-centered, materialistic, spiritually weak and lethargic. The pleasures and comforts of this present world distract and divert it from its mission of living and proclaiming the gospel to a lost and dying world.

The church is increasingly in danger of being so earthly minded that it is of no heavenly good.

The earthly minded church is the product of a disobedient church. The Lord commanded His followers to “store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal” (Matthew 6:20)

Paul exhorted believers in Colossians 3:1-2 to set their minds on things above where Christ is, not on the things that are on earth.

The reality of the believers reunion with Christ in heaven is the subject of the last part of the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer. Verses 24-26 set forth the request, the reason, and the relationship of the believer’s reunion with Christ in heaven.

THE REQUEST FOR THE BELIEVER’S REUNION WITH CHRIST 17:24a Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.

Our Lord’s request was in perfect harmony with the Father’s purpose in choosing a people from Adam’s fallen race before the foundation of the world and giving them to His Son as gifts of His love.

Jesus prayer (as all true prayer) was consistent with the will of His Father: This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise them up on the last day John 6:39

But our Lord’s request was more than merely a plea that the Father’s will be done; it also expressed His desire (thelō – to want, to yearn, to long for).

What will make heaven so glorious for believers is not it gates of pearl, or streets of gold, but the presence of the Lamb.

THE REASON FOR THE BELIEVER’S REUNION WITH CHRIST 17:24b so that they may see (theoreō – may understand and experience), My glory (doxazō – majesty and honor) which You have given (dedōkas – have granted) Me.

The glory which Christ speaks of here is the visible manifestation of the fullness of His glory that believers will one day see in heaven.

In the incarnation, Christ’s glory was partially veiled. But when Jesus returned to heaven, the Father restored that fullness of glory to Him, as He had requested in verse 5: Now Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Though filled with Christ’s glory through the indwelling Holy Spirit, believers won’t enter the fullness of Christ’s glorious presence until they die or are alive when the Lord returns.

So overwhelming will the manifestation of Christ’s glory be that the only possible response will be praise: Worthy! Worthy! Is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing Revelation 5:12

All of the blessings believers will one day experience in heaven flow from the reality that the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE BELIEVER’S REUNION WITH CHRIST 17:26-26

O righteous (dikaios holy in character and action) Father, although the world has not known (ginōskō – has not known you by experience & relationship) You, yet I have known You (by experience & relationship); and these have known (by experience & relationship)  that You sent Me (apostellō – to be sent on a mission); and I have made Your name known (by experience & relationship) to them, and will continue to make it known (by experience & relationship), so that the love (agapē – the special love) with which You loved Me (agapaō – always loved in a moral sense) may be in them, and I in them.

No other attribute more fully characterizes the very nature of God than “holy” or “righteous”.

In making His final request to the Father He fully trusts Him to always do what is right. The Father is righteous in everything He does; His judgments, ordinances, and Word are righteous.

Jesus restates the point that His request is not for the world, which does not know the Father (does not have a relationship with the Father) and therefore has no right to receive His special love or the Son’s intercession.

Apart from repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, it is impossible for sinners to come into relationship with God. As such they will never experience God’s special redeeming love but only His eternal judgment.

In John 3:18 Jesus warned, He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, while in

John 3:36 John the Baptist added, He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Christ’s goal is that even now His disciples might experience the love with which the Father loved Him.

God’s love is poured out on believers at salvation, continues in them as Christ indwells them by the Spirit, and is fulfilled perfectly in them in heaven.