I Will That They Be With Me
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 27th July service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Jhn 17:24 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.
Jhn 17:25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Jhn 17:26 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.
I Will That They Be With Me
In our verses today we are presented with a clear statement of Christ’s will for His people. ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.’ Some argue that man’s ‘freewill’ should determine who goes to heaven. For our part we are content to accept that the will of Christ the God-man has primacy in such matters. Sovereign divine will has pre-eminence over fallen human will and we believe the Saviour’s good pleasure will not be denied.
Christ’s covenant success
The Lord Jesus emphasises the covenant nature of His work. He is speaking of the people given to Him by His Father and committed into His care and protection in the eternal council of peace, ‘before the foundation of the world’. In the covenant of grace the Lord Jesus accepted responsibility to secure the salvation of the Father’s chosen people by fulfilling every requirement for their deliverance. Now, upon completion of His work, the God-man asserts His right under the terms of the covenant and claims the reward of His labour.
A word of hope and joy
How uplifting Christ’s words are to believers. How comforting for you and me who trust in Him according to the preached ministry of the apostolic gospel. How reassuring ‘for them also which shall believe on me through their word’. Christ has won our salvation with His blood. He wills our glorification with all His heart. His Father being righteous, must in justice and shall with gladness, comply with Christ’s demand. It is made upon the ground of divine satisfaction and the fulfilment of God’s holy pleasure.
The great divide
Here the Saviour again distinguishes between ‘the world’ and those who are not of the world. This is a real distinction. Faith is the knowledge of divine revelation, Paul calls it ‘sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth’. It separates between those who are Christ’s and those who are not. The incarnate Word who from the beginning was with God, and was God, has revealed God to us. He has revealed His Father’s nature, glory and will. Especially, He has revealed His grace and mercy in the gospel to save a people for Himself.
Christ Alone
Only in and through Jesus Christ is there any true knowledge of God’s salvation. Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life. He told Thomas, ‘no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’. The Lord Jesus revealed His Father to His disciples during His ministry. He continued to declare Him after His death and resurrection when the Holy Spirit came to ‘teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’.
God’s love in us
The Saviour continues to declare the Father in the heart, soul and mind of His people by the Apostolic gospel and His quickening Spirit. He reconciles God’s enemies to Him. He restores fellowship and mediates God’s grace and love to His people. He intercedes for us with God. The great end of His coming into the world is that ‘the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them’. This is Christ’s will.
Particular love
We are reminded that the self-same love the Father has for the Son is bestowed upon His people. All God’s chosen people are partakers of the love of God. Under the terms of the everlasting covenant divine love, as divine grace and mercy, is applied particularly to those who are in Christ. Here, in Christ’s own words, God’s love is expressly limited to those in whom Christ dwells. We experience the love of God by believing in His Son and trusting Him for salvation.
Christ’s will for us
In our service tomorrow we shall look at these four great privileges Christ wills for us here in these final verses of His High-priestly prayer. First, our eternal destiny, the endless presence and company of Jesus our Saviour. Second, that we see His glory and share in it with Him. Third, that we do in this life, and evermore, experience personally the perfect love of God, our Father. Fourth, that Christ Himself dwell in us to work in us mightily.
A precious conclusion
It is our happiness in this our lifetime to have ‘so learned Christ’. To know Him to be our victorious Saviour and to have been brought to trust in both the success of His work and the supremacy of His will. Our knowledge of Christ and the great gospel doctrine of grace is enlarged and enhanced by this wonderful prayer. Our Lord shows how He intercedes for us, even yet, with His Father. May we treasure John 17 always and return to it often to relish its depth and rejoice in its truth.
Amen
Hymn 121
Christ and Aaron. Exod. 30. 10; Lev. 9. 7
I. Watts C.M.
1
Jesus, in thee our eyes behold
A thousand glories more
Than the rich gems and polished gold
The sons of Aaron wore.
2
They first their own burnt offerings brought
To purge themselves from sin;
Thy life was pure without a spot,
And all thy nature clean.
3
Fresh blood, as constant as the day,
Was on their altar spilt;
But thy one offering takes away
For ever all our guilt.
4
Their priesthood ran through several hands,
For mortal was their race;
Thy never-changing office stands
Eternal as thy days.
5
Once in the circuit of a year,
With blood (but not his own),
Aaron within the veil appears,
Before the golden throne.
6
But Christ, by his own powerful blood,
Ascends above the skies,
And, in the presence of our God,
Shows his own sacrifice.
7
Jesus, the King of Glory, reigns
On Zion’s heavenly hill;
Looks like a lamb that has been slain,
And wears his priesthood still.
8
He ever lives to intercede
Before his Father’s face;
Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,
Nor doubt the Father’s grace.
Hymn 125
Faith in Christ our Sacrifice. Rom. 5. 11; Heb. 9. 12
I. Watts S.M.
1
Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
2
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
3
My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of thine;
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.
4
My soul looks back to see
The burdens thou didst bear,
When hanging on the accursed tree,
And hopes her guilt was there.
5
Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing his bleeding love.
The Lord Jesus Christ concludes His high-priestly prayer by claiming four privileges for His people. That we be with Him, that we behold His glory, that we know the love of God & that Christ dwell in us. These privileges are ours by the will of Christ our Saviour.