How Does Jesus' Prayer Still Shape the World Today? Part 2 | John 17:20-26 | Darien Gabriel
Series: Signs & Glory
Title: Part 2: How Does Jesus’ Prayer Still Shape the World Today?
Scripture: 📖 John 17:20-26 NIV
Genesis 11:1-7
Preacher: Darien Roger Gabriel
Bottom Line: Jesus’ prayer shapes the world today by forming a unified, loved, and mission-driven people who embody His presence in the world.
INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT
📖 SERMON OUTLINE
CONCLUSION
NOTES
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
🎥 YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
MAIN REFERENCES USED
Opening prayer: Lord God, help us grow to be and do like Jesus, while abiding in him and leading others to do the same.
Bottom Line: Jesus’ prayer shapes the world today by forming a unified, loved, and mission-driven people who embody His presence in the world.
INTRODUCTION
There's something powerful when a group of people are unified in their commitment to the vision and values of their organization.
When a college football team buys into their coaches vision, value, and philosophy, they can be very successful for a long time. We've seen this in college basketball, not to mention other sports.
The US Army has a slogan, "An Army of One." I love that. They share a common mission and values. And they train accordingly.
The Bible even has a powerful example of this in Genesis 11:1-7.
Now imagine what would happen if God supernaturally united his people around his purpose, mission and love.
Pastor Kent Hughes writes:
"Christian unity is supernatural because it comes from God's nature and is only experienced in its fullness as we draw close to him: "That they may be one even as we are one."
That unity, though, does not mean uniformity in everything. In the Trinity there exists a unity in diversity-three distinct Persons, yet they are one.
Suppose, for a moment, that we could bring some of the great Christians of the centuries together under one roof. From the fourth century would come the great intellect Augustine of Hippo. From the tenth century, Bernard of Clairvaux. From the sixteenth, the peerless reformer John Calvin. From the seventeenth century would come John Wesley, the great Methodist advocate of free will, and along with him George Whitefield, the evangelist. From the nineteenth century, the Baptist C. H. Spurgeon and D. L. Moody. And, finally, from the twentieth century, Billy Graham.
If we gathered all these men under one steeple, we would have trouble!
We would be unable to get a unanimous vote on many things. But underneath it all would be unity. And the more the men lifted up Christ and the more they focused on him, the greater their unity would be. There would be unity amid a great diversity of style and opinion.
Christ's prayer for unity does not mean we all should be the same, though many Christians mistakenly assume that. Too many think other believers should be just like them-carry the same Bible, read the same books, promote the same styles, educate their children in the same way, have the same likes and dislikes. That would be uniformity, not unity. We are not called to be Christian clones. In fact, the insistence that others be just like us is one of the most disunifying forces in the church of Jesus Christ. It engenders a judgmental inflexibility that hurls people away from the church with deadly force. One of the gospel's glories is that it hallows our individuality even while bringing us into unity. Unity without uniformity is implicit in Paul's teaching on spiritual gifts." - Hughes, pp. 412-413
Bottom Line: Jesus’ prayer shapes the world today by forming a unified, loved, and mission-driven people who embody His presence in the world.
Let’s listen in on the most powerful prayer ever prayed—and see how it still shapes our world today.
CONTEXT
• This is Jesus’ final recorded prayer before His arrest—called the High Priestly Prayer.
• It concludes His upper room teaching (John 13–17).
• The cross is just hours away.
• Jesus prays for the Father’s glory, the disciples’ protection and holiness, and the church’s unity—all for the sake of the world.
A Lutheran theologian coined this the Lord's high priestly prayer because Jesus both "consecrates himself for the sacrifice in which he is simultaneously both priest and the victim." (Bruce)
SERMON OUTLINE (with help from ChatGPT & Matt Carter)
I. United...(20-21a)
Past and present disciples
Around "Their message" aka the Gospel; Ex. Found in the Bible Ex. "The Message" paraphrase
That we may be one just as we see in the Triune God
1 God
3 Persons unified but also diverse in role and rank
Displays Jesus' body or people or way to a wandering world
The Church is A Photograph
"The church is the visible display of God's goodness to this world. Each local church is the visible display of God's kindness to its community. We don't have any photographs of Jesus. The church is the photograph. The church is the picture of his love and mercy. There's a picture frame around each church and a sign above us that says, "Come, see what God is like."" Matt Carter, p. 349
II. Loved...(22, 24, 26) "To be with me"-- Abiding in Christ; Christ in me/me in Christ like Christ in the Father and the Father in Christ
Jesus gave them (and us through them) his glory
Transfiguration was a sneak peak as was the resurrection
Also demonstrated his power, love, truth and holiness for 3 years
His love most demonstrated on the cross
His "desire" is to be with us and us with him; to know and be known
Heaven is not as much a place as it is a person.
Long-distance relationships are hard because we're not together
We do what we need to do to be together; it almost doesn't matter where as long as we're together
Heaven is the place but what really matters is that we're together
And to share more of his glory in the future forever
Glory he received because of the Father's love for Jesus and is why Jesus shows it to us
Love is the bottom line reason
Do you love your neighbor as you love yourself?
Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ sacrificially?
Jesus made the Father known to his followers (and will continue to) so that the love the Father has for Jesus may be in us and that Jesus may be in/with us forever
III. Mission-driven people,
Why does it matter that the world know God sent Jesus? Because that's when they will believe that Jesus died for them so that they will live for him
Jesus revealed God to us
Jesus continues to reveal God to us through his spirit
We're to reveal God to others like the moon reflects the sun rays to earth; it looks like the source of moonlight but it's not
Why? Because he loves us as the Father loves him
We are here as Christ-followers because others shared and passed on the love, truth, holiness and message of Jesus.
Do you realize that?
We are still here because Jesus wants to continue to pass this on to others...through you and me.
Do you realize that? Are you on board with that?
Jesus' antidote to worry was being mission-driven motivated by love.
"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33 NIV
Our mission unifies us.
A coach of our ultimate frisbee team shared this at our debrief at the end of practice this week:
Illustration: A symphony—different instruments, one beautiful sound under one conductor. A symphony—different instruments, one beautiful sound under one conductor.
IV. Who embody His presence in the world. (21b, 23b)
The NT tells us that we are "the body of Christ."
That means that while they cannot see him like the 12 did, the world can still see Jesus in us.
He is most visible when we love one another in unity of mission, truth, holiness and love.
Our unity is a witness to the world.
He is the head--we are the body. When we are in sync with him, we will be in sync with one another.
When we are unified it will be around the things that matter most.
The secondary and tertiary things will not matter as much.
When we abide in Christ, we will not let those disagreements matter too much.
Illustration: The most important rule in Ultimate Frisbee is called the Spirit of the Game rule. It states: "
“Spirit of the Game is a set of principles which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play.” USAultimate.org
This is how we're to view God's most important law--the law of love. Christ-like love. Sacrificial, unconditional love. The only debt we're to really have. The debt to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love each other as Christ loved us. This is The Way. Imagine if everyone at GCF would do this, not perfectly, but, consistently. We'd change this city.
If you've seen a military documentary, then you can probably picture scenes where battalions of soldiers line up, all wearing matching uni-forms, all standing the same way. They are faceless, nameless, and opinionless, but they're uniform. Some believe the church should be a battalion of nondescript soldiers ready to assault the world. This often happens when a leader demands everyone think like he thinks. He often uses the pulpit to bully people into his positions. He's trying to create good soldiers who think, look, and act just like him." -Matt Carter, p. 344
At the same time, we all have a uniform as well and that is the robes of righteousness that we wear in Jesus. So we actually do wear a uniform of sorts and I think that unifies us it reminds us that we're unique and in his kingdom.
"As John Stott has pointed out, the unity enjoined here is not only a unity among present believers, but a unity with the apostolic church and its teach-ing. Christ says in verse 20:
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
Stott goes on:
It is first and foremost a prayer that there may be a historical continuity between the church of the first century and the church of subsequent cen-turies; that the church's faith may not change but remain recognizably the same; that the church of every age may merit the title "apostolic" because it is loyal to the teaching of the apostles.?
The unity for which the Savior prays is a unity that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and grows as we draw nearer to God by being..." Hughes
Application: Our unity in love is God’s greatest apologetic—it shows the world who Jesus really is.
CONCLUSION
Illustration: A broken mirror--each shard reflects only part of the image. And we are broken shards. But when the pieces come together, the reflection becomes whole again. The Church's unity reflects Christ's full image to a watching world.
Jesus ends where he started. He came to show us his glory: his holiness, truth and love. That was his mission. Now he's handing it off to his must trusting disciples to carry-on where he left off. He leaves them equipped and trained. He leaves them with this Holy Spirit so that they are empowered and protected. He leaves them with his word so that they will remember what unifies us without getting off message.
Bottom Line: Jesus’ prayer shapes the world today by forming a unified, loved, and mission-driven people who embody His presence in the world.
INVITATION
What about you?
Peter puts it all in perspective in his first sermon:
““Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”” Acts 2:36-39 NIV
How do we respond? Answer 2 questions:
Take out a card or piece of paper right now. Write down the answer to these questions:
What is God saying to me right now?
What am I going to do about it? Write this down on a sheet of paper.
What I hear you saying, Lord, is ___________________.
[my name] is going to believe/do __________________________________________________ as a result.
Finally, share this with your Home or Mission group this week when you gather as a testimony about what God is doing in your life. You don’t have to get too specific to give him praise.
Lord's Supper, 1 Cor 11:23-26 is good passage.
Also, say something like, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." (past, present, and future)
Pray
NOTES
Quote
“If we are distracted from real-time connection with the mercies of God, so that our hearts grow cold and our mouths become reckless and our eyes wayward and our feet wandering, we are only one misstep away from life-shattering catastrophe. We do not have to give ourselves to raw evil to end up there; we only have to unguard our hearts, we only have to stop being vigilant. Every one of us is always five minutes away from total disaster. But if we are receiving by faith the outpouring of Christ’s love in constant supply from his Throne of Grace, we cannot lose our way.”—Ray Ortlund
"Jacques Ellul, the French sociologist, in his book The Meaning of the City, says the driving force behind ancient history was the desire to come together and advance in the face of this disunity. Thus the rise of the city.
However, he points out, with the formation of cities came the practice of laying the foundation stone on the body of a human sacrifice, a practice, he maintains, we moderns have replaced with the sacrifice of millions of souls?
The world's attempts to come together without God are always at the expense of human life." Hughes
I thought this was a good picture of how God works, and how we respond to his work freely, but dependently:
"The disciples were responsible to believe, but even their belief was the result of what God said and did.
Let's say you showed up to church one morning with your beautiful, ten-month old baby, dropped him off at the nursery, and headed in to the service. The nursery worker begins to talk to your ten-month-old.
"You look so nice. Did you take a bath this morning?" He nods his head yes. "It looks like you're full. Did you eat a yummy breakfast?" Once again, he nods his head yes. "I love your outfit. Did you get dressed in your nice clothes?" Again he answers yes. So he has answered yes to all three questions. He took a bath, he ate breakfast, and he got dressed.
But that's not the whole picture. As his parent, you drew the bathwater, lathered him with soap, and rinsed him off. You fixed breakfast, fed it to him, and cleaned up his mess. You washed his clothes, changed his diaper, and then got him dressed. It's true he took a bath, ate breakfast, and got dressed but only because of what you did. You did the work he couldn't do himself. He simply responded. God does the work of calling sinners to salvation. Our responsibility is to respond to what God does.
Let's summarize two principles from verses 6-11: God did the work.
Everything the disciples did was in response to what God had done. The disciples kept the word, but who gave them the word? God. The disciples believed on Jesus, but who sent Jesus? God. And behind all of this was God's choice of them and gift of them to the Son. God not only did the work, but God used his word. The way God brought them to faith was through his words. He didn't use visions or apparitions. He didn't open the heavens or rain down fire and brimstone. He created new life in the disciples simply through his words."
Matt Carter, pp. 338-339
John Knox
"John Knox, on his death-bed in 1572, asked his wife to read to him John 17, 'where' , he said, 'I cast my first anchor." And almost
his last words show how much his mind dwelt on this chapter, with its implications for 'the troubled church of God, the spouse of Jesus Christ, despised of the world but precious in his sight.* He clearly appreciated that the church's true life is lived on a higher plane than the turbulent political stage in which he had been so much involved and with which he was by now so thoroughly disillusioned"
That’s a great quote from F. F. Bruce, and it captures both John Knox’s turbulent life and the spiritual depth that marked his final days.
Here’s the background Bruce is referring to:
1. Knox’s early life and conversion.
John Knox (c. 1514–1572) was born in Scotland and originally trained as a Catholic priest and notary. In his thirties he was deeply influenced by the reformer George Wishart, whose preaching of salvation by faith in Christ alone cost him his life. Wishart’s martyrdom in 1546 marked Knox profoundly; soon afterward Knox openly embraced the Reformation and became a fiery preacher of the gospel.
2. Years of persecution and exile.
After the fall of the Protestant stronghold at St Andrews Castle, Knox was captured by French forces in 1547 and spent nearly nineteen months as a galley slave—a brutal experience that left him ill for the rest of his life. He was eventually released and went to England, where under Edward VI he served as a royal chaplain and helped shape the Protestant Church of England. When Mary Tudor (“Bloody Mary”) came to the throne, Knox fled to the Continent, spending several years in Geneva with John Calvin. There he found a model for what he later called “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles.”
3. Return to Scotland and political storms.
Knox returned to Scotland in 1559 and became the leading voice of the Scottish Reformation. His preaching and leadership were instrumental in overthrowing papal authority and establishing the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. But his ministry was constantly entangled with the intense political struggles of his time—especially his confrontations with Mary, Queen of Scots. He championed the sovereignty of God over kings, the authority of Scripture over tradition, and the independence of the church from civil control.
All this conflict took a toll. By the time of his death in 1572, Knox was weary and disillusioned with politics and with the divisions and corruption he still saw in Scotland’s church and government.
4. Why John 17 mattered so deeply to Knox.
On his deathbed he asked his wife to read John 17—the prayer where Jesus intercedes for His disciples and all believers, emphasizing their unity, sanctification, and eternal fellowship with Him. Knox said, “There I cast my first anchor.” That chapter had been his spiritual foundation from the beginning of his ministry, reminding him that the true church lives not by political triumphs but by Christ’s intercession.
Bruce’s comment highlights that contrast: after a life of public controversy and political entanglement, Knox’s mind rested on the heavenly reality of Christ’s prayer for His people—a church “despised of the world but precious in His sight.”
Would you like me to summarize how John 17 specifically connected to Knox’s theology of the church and his hope for Scotland?
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What do I want them to know?
Why do I want them to know it?
What do I want them to do?
Why do I want them to do it?
How do they do this?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discovery Bible Study process: https://www.dbsguide.org/
Read the passage together.
Retell the story in your own words.
Discovery the story
What does this story tell me about God?
What does this story tell me about people?
If this is really true, what should I do?
What is God saying to you right now? (Write this down)
What are you going to do about it? (Write this down)
Who am I going to tell about this?
Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast
Alternate Discussion Questions (by Jeff Vanderstelt): Based on this passage:
Who is God?
What has he done/is he doing/is he going to do?
Who am I? (In light of 1 & 2)
What do I do? (In light of who I am)
How do I do it?
Final Questions (Write this down)
What is God saying to you right now?
What are you going to do about it?
🎥 YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
Description:
What matters most to Jesus’ heart? In John 17, we overhear the Son of God praying—for His glory, for His disciples, and for every future believer. Just hours before the cross, Jesus prays that we would live for God’s glory, be sanctified by His truth, and be united in His love. This is the prayer that still shapes the world today.
Bottom Line: Jesus prayed for His glory, our sanctification, and our unity—so the world would know His love.
Chapters:
0:00 – Introduction
2:45 – Jesus Prays for His Glory (John 17:1–5)
10:20 – Jesus Prays for Our Sanctification (John 17:6–19)
19:45 – Jesus Prays for Our Unity (John 17:20–26)
28:50 – How We Live as the Answer to Jesus’ Prayer
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MAIN REFERENCES USED
“John,” by R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary, Edited by Kent Hughes
Exalting Jesus in John, by Matt Carter & Josh Wredberg
The Gospels & Epistles of John, FF Bruce
John, RC Sproul
John, Köstenberger
The Gospel According to John, DA Carson
Let's Study John, Mark Johnston
The Light Has Come, Leslie Newbigin (TLHC)
The Visual Word, Patrick Schreiner (TVW)
“Look at the Book” by John Piper (LATB)
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
Thru The Bible with J. Vernon McGee (TTB)
Outline Bible, D Willmington (OB)
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB) https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/
Chronological Life Application Study Bible (NLT)
ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) https://www.esv.org
The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com
Nicky Gumbel bible reading plan app or via YouVersion
ChatGPT AI