John 17

Now when we are bespangled with holiness, our lives are walking Bibles: this is according to God's will, and it pleases him. 2. We please God when we do the Work that he sets us about (John 17:4). I have finished the work which you gave me to do, namely my mediatory work.

Branch 5. Christ being exalted at God's right hand, this is for the comfort of believers, that they shall one day be exalted to that place of glory where he is: Christ's exaltation is our exaltation. Christ has prayed for this (John 17:24): Father, I will that all those whom you…

Question: Who does Christ intercede for? Answer: Not for all promiscuously (John 17:9), but for the Elect. The efficacy of Christ's prayer reaches no further than the efficacy of his blood; but his blood was shed only for the Elect, therefore his prayers only reach them.

As the angel called Lot out of Sodom, when it was ready to rain fire; so God calls his people from the fire and brimstone of Hell, and from all those curses they were exposed to. 3. He calls them out of the world, as Christ called Matthew from the receipt of custom (John 17:16).…

Well, let me lay down some motives to glorify God. 1st Motive: It will be a great comfort in a dying hour, to think we have glorified God in our lives; it was Christ's comfort before his death (John 17:3): "I have glorified you on earth." At the hour of death all your earthly co…

Ans. The Spirit's conduct is agreeable to the Word: Enthusiasts leave the Word. The word is truth (John 17:17). And the Spirit guides in all truth (John 16:13).

What is the Heaven of the angels, but the smiles of God's face, the sensible perception and feeling of those joys which are infinitely ravishing and full of glory? And to encourage and quicken us in seeking after them, consider, that Christ died to purchase this joy for his sain…

As the Spirit is at work in the heart, so is Christ at work in Heaven. Christ is ever praying that the saints' grace may hold out (John 17:11): Conserva illos — Father, keep those whom you have given me; keep them as stars in their orb, keep them as jewels, that they may not be…

And have not they coalition and union with Christ; Christ is the head, they are the body (Ephesians 1:23). This is a near union, much like that union between God the Father and Christ (John 17:21). As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us.

It is so pure, that it purifies everything else. (John 17:17) Sanctify them through your truth. The Scripture presses holiness so as never any book did: it bids us live soberly, righteously, godly (Titus 2:12).

Has Christ a place in the celestial mansions, so have the saints (John 14:2): In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you. Has he his Father's love, so have they (Psalm 146:8; John 17:26): That the love with which you have loved me may be in them. Doe…

Quest. How may sanctification be attained to? Resp. 1. Be conversant in the Word of God (John 17:17). Sanctify them through your truth.

1. By reading the Word. The Word is a great means to sanctify the heart, and bring it into a Sabbath frame (John 17:17). "Sanctify them through your truth," etc.

(1.) The near mystical union between Christ and his saints. As the meat which is eaten incorporates with the body, and becomes one with it; so by eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood spiritually, we partake of Christ's merits and graces, and are mystically one with him…

2. The unity of the persons in the Godhead consists in the mutual in-being of them, or their being in one another. The three persons are so united, that one person is in another, and with another (John 17:21). You, Father, are in me, and I in you.

2. Christ causes perseverance and carries on a saint till he comes to the heavenly Kingdom, vi orationis, by his intercession: Christ is an advocate as well as a surety; he prays that the saints may arrive safe at the Kingdom (Hebrews 7:25): "Therefore he is able to save them,"…

They stick at no service; they will run through a sea, and a wilderness; they will follow the Lamb wherever he goes. 3. They are a heavenly people, stars (John 17:16). You are not of the world.

And this brutish apprehension of theirs, arose from no other principle but this, that the Son had only a temporal existence, and was not the Eternal Son of God. But that I may not in this brief discourse digress to other controversies than what lies directly before us, and seein…

For this cause, although he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation, by taking on him the form of a servant, and made in the likeness of men, that being found in the fashion of a man, he might be obedient to de…

Q. What is his exaltation in respect of his Godhead? A. It is nothing else but the manifestation of that divine power and glory of his, which had been so much concealed in all the time of his humiliation (John 17:5; Romans 1:4). Q. And what is his exaltation in respect of his ma…

Q. Do you mean then that a true believer can never totally nor finally fall away, but shall persevere in grace to the end? A. Yes, I mean so indeed; this perseverance of believers in the state of grace being plainly and plenteously taught in the holy Scriptures (1 Peter 1:5; Luk…

Q. Who is the subject of redemption, or of all that deliverance obtained by Christ? A. Not the blessed angels, because having never fallen they needed no Redeemer, nor all the race of mankind, for Christ would not pray for the world (John 17:9). Q. Who then were redeemed by Chri…

But if we consider that actual efficacy, the price is paid in the counsel of God, and as touching the event only for those which are elected and predestinated. For the Son does not sacrifice for those, for whom he does not pray: because to make intercession and to sacrifice are…

First, if Jesus the Christ be not our Prophet to teach us, he will not be our King to protect us (Matthew 28:10): "Teach them," says Christ, "to observe all things that I command you: and lo, I am always with you to the end of the world." Secondly, if Christ be no Prophet to tea…

He will then be your King to protect you (Matthew 28:20). Your Priest to intercede for you (John 17:20). Your Judge to acquit you (John 12:48).

And the same will yet farther appear if we consider the grounds whereon it is inforced in the Gospel, which are principally these that follow. 1. As the head of all other considerations the Lord Christ expresseth it as that which was to be the great evidence to the world of the…

Faith is of God's elect, and they only believe truly who are ordained to eternal life. (2) The Lord Christ intercedes that this faith may never fail, or be utterly lost (John 17:8, 11, 15, &c.). (3) The power of God is engaged in the preservation of it (2 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:5;…

And so are they called (Hebrews 5:14). This our Savior prayed for in the behalf of his Church immediately before he procured it by his sacrifice (John 17:23): [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], that they may be perfected. And the end of the institution of the ministry of the Gospel, t…

This the whole Scripture testifieth to, namely, a real communication of glory to Christ by the Father after his ascension which he had not before. See Luke 24:16; John 17:24; Acts 2:33; Acts 5:31; Romans 14:9; Ephesians 1:20, 21, 22, 23; Philippians 2:9, 10, 11; Hebrews 1:3; Cha…

When he undertook this office, and said, Lo I come to do your Will, O God, the Soul of God rested in him (Exodus 23:21; John 5:20, 21, 22). And to him he gives an account at last of his discharge of this thing (John 17:4). And on our part, unless we resign ourselves absolutely t…

The whole preparation to, and actual oblation of himself, was accompanied with most fervent and effectual intercessions (Hebrews 5:7). And such was his solemn prayer recorded (John 17). These things themselves in the first place were the good things to come: For these they were…

Sometimes it is used in the sense of [in non-Latin alphabet] in the Old Testament, to separate, dedicate, consecrate. So is it by our Savior (John 17:19), [in non-Latin alphabet]. And for them, I sanctify myself; that is, separate and dedicate myself to be a sacrifice.

Christ himself was sanctified, consecrated, dedicated to God in his own blood. He sanctified himself (John 17:19), and that by the blood of the Covenant (Hebrews 10:29), even when he was consecrated or made perfect through sufferings (chap. 2:10). So was the Church and the whole…

It supposes the accomplishment of the work of the redemption of the Church. His words in this appearance before God, are expressed (John 17:4): I have glorified you on the Earth, I have finished the work you gavest me to do; and now I come to you. He was sent of God into the Wor…

(4.) Since, or rather, from the Foundation of the World. This expression is sometimes used absolutely for the original of the world in its creation; for the absolute beginning of time and all things measured by it (Ephesians 1:4; Matthew 25:34; John 17:24; 1 Peter 1:20). Sometim…

Yet we must not so oblige ourselves to the times, seasons, and order of these things, as to exclude the prayers which he offered to God, before the oblation of himself. Yes, that solemn prayer of his recorded in John 17, wherein he sanctified himself to be an oblation, was princ…

To know God as he is revealed in Christ, is the highest privilege whereof in this life we can be made partakers. For this is life eternal, that we may know the Father the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3). Persons destitute of this saving knowledge, ar…

For therein, 1. He sanctified or dedicated himself to God to be an Offering (John 17:19). 2. He accompanied it with Prayers and Supplications (Hebrews 5:7).

And yet at another time while he was in this world, he gave us the best estimate and representation of his present intercession that we are able to comprehend. And this was in his prayer recorded in John 17. For therein his confidence in God, his union in and with him, the decla…

And the election must obtain (chapter 11:5, 6). So the Lord Christ prayed that he would take care of all those that he had given to him, which were his own by election (your they were and you gavest them to me) and sanctify them by his Word (John 17:17). In pursuit of his own pu…

Many will say, Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils, &c. yet he will profess that he never knew them; and they must depart from him for ever: see (Matthew 7:21, 22). Many think they have Christ, who yet indeed fall short of him: not…

2. If you love him, you will love those that are his (1 John 3:14), and on this account, for that of him, that is in them: and he that does not love the people of God, does not love God himself (1 John 4:20). If we love him, we shall love them that are his, because they are his:…

And when he is seen he appears so to be to the soul: he is so in himself, and will be so to his for ever. His prayer for his was, that they might behold his glory (John 17:24). A little glimmering of which, here, at times, outbids all that the world has to give; and makes us des…

Well then, if we must in this manner believe in God, then we must also know him: for we can have no faith in the thing which is utterly unknown. Therefore if we would believe in the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, we must know them in part (John 17). This is life eternal to know you…

He rejoices over them with joy, and rests in his love (Zephaniah 3:17). It is no ordinary affection that God bears to the righteous; the sun shining upon a burning glass, sets on fire only the object which is near the glass; the beams of God's love are more intensely inflamed to…

When you deride men for their holiness, you deride them for that which is the express image of the glorious God, and so deride God himself. Holy brethren, as the Saints are styled (Hebrews 3:1), should no more be a disgrace than holy Father, as God himself is styled (John 17:11)…

Isaiah 53:11: The knowledge of my righteous servant shall justify many. John 17:3: This is eternal life, to know the eternal God and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. In these places, by knowledge is meant faith grounded upon knowledge, whereby we know and are assured that Chris…

This Church is the fullness of Christ, he would be bodyless without it: therefore since Christ will be a head without a body, if the Church be not preserved; in order to the preservation of it, all things must necessarily concur by the wise disposal of affairs. Therefore since t…

God gives the Spirit not by measure to him, that every one that is his might receive according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This therefore was the great blessing he prayed for in that wonderful prayer, that he uttered for his disciples and all his future Church, the eve…

3. Also, "without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6); but "faith is from hearing, and hearing through the word of God" (Romans 10:17). 4. "This is eternal life, that they (men) may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). "…