The sermon covers John 13:31-17, focusing on Jesus' teachings and prayers during His final evening with His disciples. Key points include the glorification through His crucifixion, a new commandment of self-sacrificing love, and the promise of peace amidst a tumultuous world. Jesus emphasizes His exclusive claims as the way, truth, and life, and stresses the importance of prayer, promising to hear and respond. He introduces the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, dwelling with and in believers, and highlights His perfect union with the Father, extending this union to His disciples. The true vine metaphor illustrates Jesus as the source of life and spiritual sustenance, while His friendship with the disciples underscores their special relationship and His openness with them. Jesus also addresses their relationship with the world, being called out yet sent back to witness. Finally, Jesus' continuous intercession for His disciples is highlighted, assuring them of His ongoing love and care beyond His earthly ministry.

So join me in John 13, starting in verse 31. So when he had gone out, Jesus said, now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me.

And as I said to the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come. Now I say to you, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you. That you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?

Jesus answered, where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward." And Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake. Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times. Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know, Thomas said to him, Lord we do not know where you're going and how can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And from now on, you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.

Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me? Philip, He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, He who believes in Me, the works that I do, He will do also and greater works than these He will do because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name I will do it. If you love me keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever.

The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans I will come to you a little while longer and the world will see me no more. But you will see me because I live. You will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

He who has my commandments and keeps them, It is He who loves me. And He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love Him and manifest myself to Him." Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with Him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to you remembrance all things that I said to you.

Peace, I leave you. I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you love me, you would rejoice because I said this. I am going to the Father for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes that when it does come to pass you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me.

But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do arise." Let us go from here. Chapter 15. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. In every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you these things I command you that you love one another if the world hates you you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they would do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which was written in their law. They hated me without a cause.

But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. Chapter 16. These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues.

Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God's service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I go away to him who sent me and none of you asked me where are you going?

But because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you.

And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now however when he the spirit of truth has come He will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you all things that the father has are mine therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me because I go to the father Then some of his disciples said among themselves, what is this that he says to us? A little while, and you will not see me. And again a little while, and you will see me.

And because I go to the Father they said therefore what is this that he says a little while We do not know what he is saying. Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask him and he said to them, are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said a little while and you will not see me? And again a little while and you will see me? Most assuredly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman when she is in labor has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she is given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish.

For joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and your joy no one will take from you. And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world again I'd leave the world and go to the Father." His disciples said to him, see now you are speaking plainly and using no figure of speech. Now we are sure that you know all things, and have no need that anyone should question you.

By this we believe that you came forth from God?" Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes has now come, that you will be scattered each to his own and will leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

Chapter 17. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son also may glorify you. As you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours.

You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given me and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

All and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I come to you, And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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 pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they all may be one as You Father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and These have known that you sent me, and I have declared to them your name, and will declare it that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.

Let's pray. Oh Father, what great blessing there is in the reading of Your Word in large chunks. Oh Father, thank You for Your precious gift of Scripture. Thank You for the faithful men who scribe these words that we might be blessed so many years downstream. We praise you and thank you for the work that you have done and completed.

How precious are the words said on the cross, it is finished. Oh Father. Join our hearts together in You. Let us be attentive to the leading of Your Spirit and speak clearly through our pastor. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, this should be no problem summarizing the end of 13, chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17. Let's pray. Father, your word is sweet to our taste. There's nowhere to go. Your Son has the words of eternal life.

There's no other refuge for us. So how sweet it is just to hear it read and to dwell on it. To read a large portion of it and just let the words of your Son wash over us. To savor them. Let our hearts be captured by the words of your Son.

These are words of life. We are so thankful for them. Pray that you would help us in the remaining time today. In Jesus' name, Amen. What was just read was the subject of 28 sermons.

And the starting point, chapter 13, verse 31, the sermon on that text was preached on January 13th. You go back to 13 verse 1, which is really the beginning of the section where the last evening with his disciples begins. There were 32 sermons. We began that on December 16th. So we really are reaching back in time.

Listen to how the section starts in chapter 13 verse 1. John writes, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. So John frames the section. And the framework for the section is the love of Jesus for his disciples. He loved them all the time he was with them, and he loved them to the end.

If there was ever a time where you would excuse a man to be preoccupied with himself and his own troubles, it would be Jesus on the last night before he hung on the cross. That is not what he was doing. He was not preoccupied with himself and the events of the next 24 hours. He actually loved his disciples to the end, so the last evening of his life, he spends teaching them in a long discourse and then praying many of the things that he taught. What we learn in those chapters is that Jesus' love for his disciples didn't stop at his crucifixion, resurrection, and Ascension.

John frames this section by saying that having loved his own in the world, he loved them to the end. But what we find out in the succeeding chapters is the end wasn't the end. The end was just Jesus talking about him going to the cross, the end of the incarnation. Certainly not the end of his very hands-on practical love for his disciples. That love for his disciples would just keep on going and going and going.

And by the way, it extends to and beyond today through eternity. He loves these 11 men that he is speaking to now, today. They are not in the body anymore, but to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He is face to face with them, loving them, today as I speak. That brings me to a final introductory remark.

These eleven faithful men, not meaning particularly smart or particularly reliable, but at least they threw themselves upon their disciple maker and trusted in him. They were faithful in that sense. We're Jesus' disciples, and I am Jesus' disciples. I am also not particularly smart or reliable, but I am full of faith. I have thrown myself on the Lord Jesus.

So while the things Jesus says to them and about them in these chapters may be true of them in a particular way, These truths apply to all disciples in a more general way. So I don't want to make the mistake of ignoring that Jesus was speaking to these 11 particular men and make myself into an apostle, you understand the error that I'm identifying, he was actually speaking face to face these words to eleven particular men. So if you take them in every sense as for yourself, you've sort of turned yourself into an apostle. They are true of these disciples in a particular way. They have a special place in God's founding of the New Testament Church and bringing the New Testament Church into the doctrine of Jesus Christ as he taught it to them face to face.

But I also don't want to make the opposite mistake and say that these truths have nothing to do with me. They are disciples saved by grace. I am a disciple saved by grace. These truths apply to them in a particular way, but all of these truths apply to me because I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus. So I encourage you not to make an apostle of yourself by how you look at these verses, but I encourage you also not to distance yourself from these truths and rob yourself of the encouragement that God means for you to have as a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

You can lay claim to these. You absolutely can. You can and should lay claim to these truths. It's a fool's errand to try to summarize 23 hours of sermons. I'm being gracious to myself and saying 28 sermons, an average of 50 minutes per sermon.

And there was coughing and scoffing at that. So you can't take that 23 hours of preaching and summarize it effectively in a few minutes. So here's what I'm going to do. I love these summary sermons because I view it in a sense as a freebie. Not that I don't take it seriously, but I know that it's a fool's errand to try to boil down 23 hours of preaching into maybe 20 or 30 minutes.

And so I use this as an opportunity to just step back and look at the text and draw things out that I think are fantastic. There are other fantastic things that I won't touch on at all, but I've spent since last December trying to carefully handle each of these texts. So that's not even my purpose this morning. What I'm going to do is draw out 12 things from what was read this morning that I think is fantastic and that should bless all disciples of Jesus. These are truths that we have a right to lay claim to, be encouraged by, be strengthened by.

Number one, Jesus' cross is His glory. He teaches that. He actually prays it in chapter 17. This section that was read this morning starts in 13 verse 31 where Jesus says, Now the Son of Man is glorified. Now the Son of Man is glorified.

In the last three and a half years, He has healed the sick, given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, He has walked on water, He has raised the dead. He says, Now the Son of Man is glorified. In the last three and a half years, He has healed the sick, given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walked on water, and raised the dead. He says, now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. Then at the beginning of his prayer in chapter 17, verse 1, he prays, Father, the hour has come, the hour being the time of his substitutionary death, Father, the hour has come, Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you." Jesus lived a wonderful life, a life worthy of four Gospels and then some for the recounting of the wonders of his life.

But nothing compares with the cross in terms of bringing glory to him. The cross was a pre-appointed honor. Jesus was appointed to the honor of being the only Savior and Redeemer of a sinful people before the foundation of the world. Before any of the foundations of the world were ever laid, This honor of being redeemer had been given to his son. Jesus' cross is his glory.

In Revelation, he's seen, Revelation chapter 5, as a conquering king? No, but he is a conquering king. As the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? No, he is that. As the Lion of Judah?

No, he appears as a lamb, as if it had been slain. It is because his cross is his greatest glory. By the way, that should make us happy about what's coming. We're coming into the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension narratives. His glory is no more perfectly on display than in the chapters that are coming.

Number two. This is the appearance of the New Commandment. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, no. Love is all over the Old Testament. There's nothing new about the commandment to love.

As I have loved you, that you love one another. That's what's new about the new commandment. The lay down your life, self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ becomes the standard of His people until He returns. The people of God have always known that they ought to love one another, but you never could have really appreciated it until you saw Jesus bleed and die on the cross. Now that becomes the new standard, the higher standard of love, self-sacrificing love.

The New Commandment, by the way, is in chapter 13 verse 34. Leading into that verse where he speaks of the New commandment, as I have loved you so you ought to love one another, he washed their feet. He says you should do likewise. He's just showing them, giving them a picture of what it means to lay aside your pride and love one another in a self-sacrificial way. Don't you want to live in a kingdom like that?

I want to live in a kingdom like that where the King lays down his life for his subjects, where the King will actually stoop and wash your feet and he calls you to do the same. We should be well-loved people. We're living among Christians. We really should be well-loved people. Number three.

Jesus loves His disciples by confronting them, or us, with the truth. Jesus is the friend of His disciples, that's a later point. He is their friend. But He is not simply the buddy of His disciples who is content with the ungodliness still resident in his disciples. He actually brings truth in a confrontational way to his disciples so that he doesn't just leave them where they are.

There are many corrections in these five chapters. At the end of chapter 13, Peter says, Why can I not follow you? I will lay down my life for you. Does Jesus just bypass that? No.

He confronts Peter with the real truth that before the cock crows, he will be denying him. Peter had one view of himself, it wasn't the right view, and Jesus didn't let the wrong view of himself fly. Ever been in that position, disciples? I've been in that position many times where I thought I was one thing and I was confronted either by just promptings in my thoughts or by the Word of God. More often than not you come and you read this book and you think, whoa, I'm not who I thought I was.

I'm not who I need to be. Jesus has a way of doing that. Or at the end of chapter 16, let me reread this. I know we just read it. Let me reread 16 verses 29 through 31.

This disciple said to him, See, now you are speaking plainly and using no figure of speech. Now we are sure that you know all things and have no need that anyone should question you. By this we believe that you came forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Indeed, the hour is coming.

Yes, it has now come that you will be scattered each to his own, and will leave me alone, and I am not alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Again, this is sort of the corporate version of what Peter experienced at the end of chapter 13. He came thinking he was one thing, Jesus confronts him and tells him he is another. Now all the disciples are saying, oh now we get it.

Now you are not speaking figuratively. Now we understand. Jesus says, oh really you understand. The hour is coming. And actually, literally an hour is coming.

A few hours away and all will be scattered. They'll be leaving him alone. They thought one thing about themselves. Jesus brought the truth to them about themselves. Jesus has a way of doing that with his disciples.

We should thank God that he doesn't just leave us where we are. We actually need to make a lot of progress. We look very little like Jesus. Christ-likeness is the objective. Once you're born again, God wants to conform you into the image of a son.

It takes time and it takes pressure. Jesus brings pressure. He confronts us about our false views of ourselves. We should thank God that He does. It's actually a mercy when He confronts us with truth.

Number four. Jesus wants his disciples to experience a peace that surpasses, that passes understanding in a world that he promises will be tumultuous. Let me say that again. Jesus wants his disciples to experience a peace that passes understanding, to use Paul's phrase for it, in a world that he promises will be tumultuous. So there are two things here.

They're both absolutely true. They're both on the lips of Jesus. What was read this morning? You can know a peace that passes understanding. Meaning you might not be able to explain it, but you'll experience it.

It will ground your heart. And at the same time, He promises you a world that is tumultuous for the believer. You're going to encounter storms. He doesn't say he'll put you beyond tumult and you'll experience a kind of peace that comes from not having any pressures, but that you'll actually be able to experience this peace that you might not be able to explain right in the middle of the pressures in two months. He promises both.

We see really bookends of this in chapter 14. Listen to 14 verse 1. Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And then he promises them a place with Him in heaven.

He says, I'm going to make heaven ready. In my Father's house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. And then almost the same words, Book End chapter 14. Listen to 14 verse 27.

Jesus comes back to this topic with his disciples and says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid." To me there's a sense in which he is putting us at liberty to command our hearts not to be troubled.

Because of the footing that The cross and our reconciliation with God gives us rock to stand on. We are now at liberty to command our hearts not to be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. You don't have to let your heart be troubled. Command it.

Bosh your heart around. Tell it you're standing on rock. We're standing on rock, those of us who are in Christ. Number five. Jesus unrelentingly presses his exclusive claims on his disciples.

He will not relent. He has these exclusive claims and he keeps bringing them forth. We've been seeing that almost every week in the Gospel of John. 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Not a way, not a truth, not a life.

The way, the truth, the life, making the exclusive claim, no one comes to the Father except through me. If you are a student of Jesus, a pupil of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, those are all just synonyms for a disciple. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, he won't relent in his exclusive claims. He won't share his glory with another. He won't allow you to add to him in your salvation.

He will not have it. He does not play well with others in that way. He makes his exclusive claims and he will not back away from any of them. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to his Father except through him.

Number six. Jesus promises to hear and respond to his disciples. Prayer. He invites them to pray by giving them extravagant promises. Ask anything in my name and I will do it.

He promises to hear the prayers of His people, of His followers, and to respond to his disciples. He bids us to pray. He invites us to pray. He commands us to pray and he makes extravagant promises when we obey Him and we pray. He will answer us from heaven.

He will give us the things that we request. Number seven. Jesus gives his disciples the best and most comprehensive teaching about the Holy Spirit. We talked about this in chapter 14, 15, and 16 are filled with Jesus teaching about the Holy Spirit, His sending, His role, His ministry. When you're going to start understanding the Holy Spirit, please don't start in 1 Corinthians 12 with signed gifts.

Please start in John 14, 15 and 16, and then you'll have a context for understanding why the Spirit pours out power through His people to do astounding things at times. But it's all grounded in what Jesus has taught in John 14, 15 and 16. Jesus gives His disciples the best and most comprehensive teaching about the Holy Spirit in these chapters. He promises to send the Helper. He gives Him a name.

Other translations render that comforter. They are both fine. He calls him the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is in the truth business to teach us all things and to bring to remembrance all the things that Jesus taught. Jesus teaches that He dwells with us and in us.

These are sweet teachings about the Holy Spirit. So much would remain unknown if you stripped these three chapters out of the Bible, you would be in a hurt when it came to understanding the Holy Spirit. Number eight. Jesus teaches His disciples of His perfect union with His Father. I am in My Father, My Father is in Me, and the union of His disciples with the triune God.

Then after He teaches of His perfect union with His Father, He draws us into it. We will come and make our home in Him. We will be in the disciple." I believe you connect the dots and say, through His Spirit, but Jesus doesn't actually connect the dots here. He teaches this, but then he prays this in John 17. John 17 is actually, what he prays is a good summary of what he's taught in the preceding chapters.

Listen to John 17 verses 20 and 21. Jesus prays, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's us. That they all may be one, as you Father are in me, and I in you. That they also may be one in us.

That the world may believe that you sent me." Jesus is in his Father, his Father is in Jesus, and they bring his people into that. Can't fully explain that. Jesus teaches it. Number nine. Jesus gives His disciples an unforgettable word picture.

I am the true vine. Can you ever forget that word picture from the beginning of chapter 15? I am the true vine. It was the last of the seven I am statements of Jesus in John. He says his father is the vinedresser, taking out branches that don't bear fruit, and pruning, trimming the branches that bear fruit so that they can bear more fruit.

It's about Jesus being the source of life and sustenance for His people, and about how God takes people who are bearing fruit, and actually makes them bear more fruit, and how fakers who have no source of life are taken away, they wither, and they are burned in the fire. About fruitfulness, Jesus gives us, who are disciples, an unforgettable word picture. He is the true vine, the true source of life and ongoing sustenance for His people. Number ten, Jesus teaches His disciples that they are His friends. Is He their teacher?

Yes. He is their teacher. They are His disciples, pupils, students, followers. Is He their King? Yes.

He is their King. Is He their Lord? Yes, they are always calling Him Lord. Is that all that He is? Nope, He is their friend.

Listen to John chapter 15 verse 15. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you. Servants are on a need to know basis. Jesus' disciples go so much beyond a need-to-know.

He tells us what is on his mind and his heart. He actually explains himself to us when he owes us no explanation. He treats us as friends. He calls us his friends. You know the king can have friends.

So you don't take the friendship with Jesus and allow it to erode reverence for him. If you're the friend of an earthly king, you better not let your friendship with him erode a sense of duty and obligation. He's still the king. He might be your friend, but he's still the king. With Jesus also, we maintain our reverence.

He is God. And yet, He has stooped to call us friends. He's treated us as friends. He's shared His mind and heart with us. Number 11.

Jesus helps His disciples know their relationship to the world. What is our relationship to the world? If you have repented and believed the gospel, what is your relationship to this past? Well, we are called out of the world. We weren't born again, we weren't born saved, we were part of the world.

In all its defilement and sinfulness and rebellion against God, we have to own that, We were part of that. He called us out of the world, sanctified us, set us apart for sacred service, and we're hated by the world. When you come out of the world, out of darkness into his marvelous light, a battle line is drawn and you're going from a traitor to a loyal subject of the King is not lost on the world. They get it. So you can expect to be hated.

But then we are sent back to the world. We actually are sanctified for sacred service and that service is to go back and proclaim Jesus Christ as a sufficient Savior to all sinners. We are called out of the world. Yes, we are hated by the world, but we are sent back into the world of the Aces because Jesus has a people there and we get the privilege of calling them out to come be with us as happy subjects of the King. Number 12.

Finally, Jesus ever lives to intercede for his disciples. That's what all of Chapter 17, this final chapter that we've been in, was about. It's Jesus' prayer. Well, That prayer from start to finish is about His intercession for His people. He is praying for His disciples in chapter 17.

That is His occupation today. Romans 8 verse 34, Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Paul in Romans 8 is arguing that if Jesus acquits, who can condemn? If Jesus who shed His perfectly pure blood and has washed you clean, who can come and say you are defiled?

When the blood of the Son of God has washed you clean, who can come and bring a condemnation? The logical answer to the question is no one. Jesus not only washes us clean, there He is at the right hand of His Father making intercession for us today, right now. It was his occupation then in John 17. He is praying for his disciples.

He is now face to face with his father, still occupied with the same task, interceding for his disciples. Hebrews 7 verse 25 says much the same thing. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. He always lives to make intercession for them. He always lives to make intercession for them.

Oh beloved, the Lord Jesus loved these eleven men to the end. And the end wasn't the end. The end wasn't the end. He keeps loving them. You know what?

That might be true of those eleven men in a particular way, but I have a claim on that. He'll love me to the end of my life, and The end won't be the end. There is an eternity where we will be the objects of his love and care for eternity. His right hander pleasures forevermore. It's because he loves us.

When we began the section in chapter 13, the sermon that was the beginning was chapter 13 verse 1. That was the scope of the sermon. We had a couple of sermon texts that were two verses, maybe a couple that were three and four. We've been going slow. Twenty-eight sermons through that small of a space in Scripture makes you think that maybe we were preaching through one of Paul's letters.

It's so dense with doctrine. Where we've been would rival any of Paul's letters for density of truth. We're just forced to slow down. It would be unthinkable to me to try to preach a chapter and make coherent sense. Jesus could do it, I can't do it.

We have to subdivide and subdivide the subdivisions in the ways that we have. But we're coming to narrative. We start chapter 18 next week. Next week will be verses 1-11. We have a preaching schedule laid out that has us finishing right at the end of the year.

We're going to go fast now because we're not in dense doctrinal teaching. We're in historical narratives. We're being taught the history of the resurrection and the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. So we're going to be picking up speed. But we'll be reading about the most important thing that's ever happened in human history for sinners.

If you're a sinner, you should love these next chapters. If you're not a sinner, you're not in the right place, because you don't think rightly about yourself. Let's give thanks for where we've been. God, thank you. Thank you for the sweetness of the time to just look back over many months, not nine plus months of dwelling in these chapters.

They are good friends to us. These chapters are good friends to us. They have served us so well, as all of your Word does. God, I pray that you would help us now as we embark on the bitter sweetness of studying the death of Jesus Christ. No one was ever more innocent.

No one ever deserved to be spared from that kind of death in human history. No one ever deserved to be spared that death. Only your Son. And yet, he willingly gave himself to it. I pray that you would use this just to encourage us and to send us running to your son in a fresh way.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.