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One in the Father and the Son:        John 17.13-26

                    Genesis 12.1-3,  1 Corinthians 1.10-17, John 17.13-26                                                  March 5, 2006

This sermon is also available in MP3 format here.

The disciples have been drawn from the world (Jn 15.19), they are world people, but no longer belong to it. Now they are being left in the world by Jesus - actually sent back into it. So Jesus prays to his Father that the will be protected. From the evil one, whom we have met before in this gospel - he is the murderer and liar (8.44). How will the Father protect these disciples in a murderous and deceitful world?

Jesus prays that they will be set apart in the truth, set apart as people who hear and know and live by the truth. he tells us that the word he has brought to them from the Father is the truth. They have already been made clean by the word he has spoken to them, and they will keep each other's feet clean by the same word. But the truth will also protect them because the Spirit of truth will lead them into all the truth (16.13), just as they already know the truth which has set them free (8.22). But not all the truth is yet known because Jesus will set himself aside also, in his death, so that the full truth about the Father and the Son can be known and they may be able to live as the people of truth.

Jesus also prays for those who will come after these first disciples and believe because of their word. His prayer is similar to the one at the beginning of the chapter, that they may be one. Their oneness is not primarily a social unity, although it is meant to include that. It depends on their relationship with Jesus and through him with the Father. The kinds of descriptions that are used in v21 and 23, show both the purpose (so the world will know and believe) and also the means. It is as the disciples are in the Father and the Son, or as the Son is in  them, or as the Father's love is in them (v26) and the Son is also in them, that the oneness of the disciples is known.

That is the oneness of the disciples depends on them first of all being included in the fellowship of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Because they are in the Father and the Son through the Spirit, they are therefore one with each other. This oneness which reflects the relations of the Father and Son, shows the world that Father sent Jesus (v21,23).

As we listen in to this prayer how shall we react? We certainly want to look on in wonder and respond with praise for God's amazing love to us. We also have great encouragement to look forward to the answer to the last part of Jesus prayer. One day we will see him clothed with the glory he had with the Father before the world was created. As John said in another place, we do not yet know what we shall be like, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.

And in the meantime, if the truth protects us, we can continue to deepen our understanding of th4e word which Jesus brought from the Father and trust the Spirit to continue to lead us into that truth, so that we know the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

Dale Appleby