Point of Grace Worship 3.26.23 Sermon Notes – “Conversations with Jesus on the eve of the Cross –John 17”

The conversation crescendos in John 17!

Jesus prays as one in a sacred romance! The deep love of God battling for the hearts of people!

John 17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

The “glory of God” – the true essence of His nature, heart and character is Love… deep, eternal, powerful, sacrificial intimate, gracious …. Love!

The Magnificence (magnified essence) of God’s Magnificent Love is revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus!

John 17 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Jesus is Magnificently Loving His disciples as He prays they are kept in “Jesus-union” with the Father and experience the joy this relationship brings!

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus is Magnificently Loving His disciples as He prays for their protection from the evil one and sets them apart to be people of Truth!

John 17 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Jesus is Magnificently Loving “us” as He prays that we live in deep personal union with Jesus as loved lovers of God in a Sacred Romance … so that the world might believe!

“… that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” -Jesus-