Gospel Life Sermons Gospel Life Church

There seems to be many things in our society that are causing division within the church. Jesus prayed for us the night before He went to the cross and asked the Father to make us one, as they are One. Jesus then bled and died to purchase our unity with Him and our unity with one another. We are called to display His glory by being united in Him. It is where we will find our joy and it is our witness to the watching world, that the Father sent His Son to save sinners.

In part two of Jesus’ prayer in John 17, we learn that Jesus is asking the Father to preserve our unity and our faith with His joy, His protection from the enemy, and His Word. Two thousand years after this prayer, the Christian continues to have great hope when trials come because we know that Jesus has already given us everything we need to stand firm and to stand together for His glory!

As we arrive at John 17, Jesus shifts from a posture of teaching to a posture of prayer, inviting us into an intimate conversation that He has with His Father mere hours before the cross. And while His prayer includes many things for us, John 17:1-15 shows that it is not about us. Instead, His prayer is all about glory and we learn that the glory of Jesus causes everything else to fade into the background because of Him.

Like the disciples, we easily misunderstand Jesus when our belief is shallow. When we assume the “good news” is about our immediate problems and our vision of the good life, we are going to be disappointed, confused.
However, a robust faith is led by the Spirit to see what God has done in Christ—the world is overcome and we have direct access to the Father—only then do we have peace and confidence in the middle of trouble, and that is truly good news.

We might be tempted to think that joy is found in the absence of sorrow, but Jesus tells us that true joy is found in His presence! Which means that we can have true joy, even while passing through some of life’s most sorrowful circumstances. As believers in Jesus, we have His Spirit alive in us and that is our guarantee of an eternity in His presence, where we will have infinite and indestructible joy!

When Jesus is just hours away from his death, He tells his disciples not to be afraid about what’s to come – the Helper is coming! In fact, in light of His ascension, we learn that the Holy Spirit has been sent to convict us through the message of the gospel and comforts us through the man of the gospel – Jesus Christ!