That the World May Know

John Farley
Pastor Teacher
Sunday,
March 24, 2024

“That the world may know...”

Jesus is going to leave the world, but His disciples will remain in the world.

JOH 17:15-16

So Jesus now turns to His Father in intercessory prayer.

1. He asks the Father to glorify Him.
(Verses 1-5)

2. Jesus prays for His disciples.
(Verses 6-19)

The Father’s name here refers to His shepherding qualities :

His rod (power to keep and protect)
and His staff (grace to care for and rescue).

Jesus asks His Father to protect His disciples from the evil one.

He also asks the Father to sanctify His disciples: to set them apart for their task.

JOH 17:17-19

3. He prays for all who will believe in Him through the word of the disciples: the church.
(Verses 20-26)

First, He asks for unity:
that they may all be one.

JOH 17:20-21

He prays for His church to be one in the same way that He and His Father are one!

It’s an evangelistic purpose, hand in hand with the convicting work of the Spirit.

JOH 16:7-11

We fulfill our mission by being perfected in unity.

This is our corporate witness to the world. We are one body in Christ.

JOH 17:22-23

We have been given a measure of the glory that the Father gave Christ on earth.

Glory is the demonstration of who God is.

We reveal what God is like by preserving the unity that He has established for us.

Then He asks that they may be with Him so that they may
see His glory.

JOH 17:24

Seeing Christ in His glory will be the consummation of eternal life for us.

We live now in the hope of seeing that glory one day.

COL 1:25-27

JOH 17:25-26

And the final purpose of making the Father’s name known?

That the Father’s love may be in them,
and that Christ
may be in them.