When we talk on evangelistic student ministry this morning I want you to see the bigger picture. So many times when it comes to world mission or evangelism, people will quote the great Commission from Matthew 28 (All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make diciples of all nations...). And then they will say: let's be obedient to this commandment given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

And there is nothing wrong about that. But, I would like to show you something else this morning. A bigger picture. The greater story of God's love and his world mission. And I hope this will help us to understand better our own situation. To understand how we are involved in this story and what is our part in this story, God's story of salvation, God's world mission.

At the centre of the universe is a relationship.
A relationship which existed before the universe was created. The relationship between the eternal Father and the eternal Son. A relationship so dynamic, vital in itself that the vitality in its own is a person: the Holy Spirit: Mutual love – mutual glorifying - compassion – conversation – mutual self-giving – an intimate communion. At the centr of the univers is a relationship!

With this prayer in John 17 we are taken into the inner dialogue of what is in the centre of the universe, into an inner-trinitarian dialogue. (Almost the only conversation between the Father and the Son we know.) Jesus reveals to us his heart, his passion - in order to change our hearts: that our hearts might be filled with the same passion and love; that this becomes our heartbeat as well. At the centre of the universe is a relationship.

To know this relationship, to be drawn into this relationship, into this heartbeat – that is the true life: This is the eternal life: that they may know you, the only God , and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (v 3). Life is: to be in a relationship with a God who in himself is relational, who in himself is a relationship.

The subject of the prayer: God and the world. Jesus is talking to his Father about God and the world (18 times in 26 verses we read the word 'world').

World = his creation, his creatures, his people, you and me;but no longer as is was meant to be in the beginning; it's a world separated from God, it's a world full of brokeness, a world which has lost God and, as a consequence, has lost itself / life, is characterized by disease, suffering, death. World, how John uses it in his gospel means: a human society organizing itself without God.

God = the only true God; a God who does not distance himself from this world; movement Father > Son > disciples > world. God turns towards the world in order to turn the world towards him: This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God... may they be in us so that the world may believe(v. 3.21).

The subject of the prayer: God and the world. A world broken away from God. A world which God wants to bring home into a relationship with himself.

A text too great to comprehend. Listen into this conversation of the Son with the Father! Following this movement of the text: Father-Son-diciples-world!

1.The Father and the Son (v. 3 – 5)

Jesus came into our world out of the eternal unity with the Father. He was not one of us, even not the best of us. He is the hand God stretched out toward us (v. 8 I came from you and they believed that you sent me. ek = out of). The Father is sending his Son into this world = world mission. An action taken by God; God has taken the initiative!

The content of the mission: The Son glorifies the Father! (I have brought you glory on earth; I
glorified you on earth)

To glorify = the Son reveals the Father to the world; he reveals to the world the Fathers heart; his character / nature.. The invisible God became visible in Jesus, in his talk, in his words, in his acts, in hiks encounters with people, loving them, healing them, forgiving their sins. To whatch Jesus shows us how God is. In Jesus we see God; God has a face within our world; it is possible to look at him.

To glorify = Jesus glorifies the Father as he turns himself towards the lost, living among us in the humble state of a servant.

Father, the time (the hour) has come. The hour, that is the hour of death, it's the hour when Jesus will die, hanging on a cross. It is the(!) hour in the life of Jesus. His most successful hour. The hour of his victory. In this very hour, the Son glorifies the Father. Because in these events the Fathers love for the lost, sinners, the world becomes evident. That is the Fathers glory / of the God we believe in.

Not only brilliance, or power, but the humble state of a servant, a Servant King, love for the lost. The Son glorifies the Father by revealing this very character of the Father. And he reveals the very character of God, he reveals the nature of God's heart by being obedient to death, even death on a cross. The cross is the(!) sign of God's glory. There, says Jesus, I spelt out your character in detail!, as another english translation puts it.

Glorify your Son! (v.1)
Son> Father, Father > Son
The Son is glorified by the Father in the resurrection, in the ascension to the Father;
but even more on the cross: here the Son receives a glory from the Father he did not have before. He becomes the Lamb. And that is his glory! And he in all eternity remains the Lamb. All through the Book of Revelation Jesus remains the slain Lamb. His glory is that he gave his life into death – for us. And that by this he overcomes the world (hell, death, satan).
A glory the Father gave to the Son; a glory which he had not before.

And then Jesus says: I have completed the work you (the Father) gave me to do. It's finished!
This already includes the cross. But it is remarcable that even before we hear about the disciples / about people who are called to evangelise, we hear: it is finished. The work to rescue mankind is a work God performs all alone. Redemption – something between the Father and the Son; it happened without us - but for us. We do not have to save the world. God already has saved the world! It is finished!
World mission is not primarily our duty, but the expression of Gods love (consequence). Coming into a world, broken away from life, but still loved by God.

2.The Son and the disciples

Trinity is not a closed-up society. Father, I want (!) those you have given me to be with me. Jesus / God longs for his people, for you and me. Jesus wants to draw us into his relationship with the Father, to draw us into the love between the Father and the Son: that the love you have for me may be in them (!) (v.26). He wants us to participate in his relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants us to experience the same love as he himself experiences by the Father!

The disciples – who are they? People given to Jesus by the Father! You gave them to me (v.6b).
Such was the situation when Jesus during his days on earth said: Come, follow me! And people stood up and followed him. - People given to the Father by the Son. Every disciple – a gift by the Father to the Son. The call of the disciples on earth was preceded by a decision taken by the Father in heaven. And it has been the same case with us! You and me, the Father's incomprehensible gift to the Son, given to the Son out of the grace of the Father. I am somebody the Father gave to the Son as a present. A present in which Jesus rejoices, which is incredibly precious to him.

We are not first seen by God as people, called to do a job; we are called to experience the Father's love, in the same way Jesus himself experiences the Father love. (v.26)

The disciples – who are they? People, hated by the world!
This is a question of our ultimate loyalty. The world will hate us because we are, in an ultimate sense, not loyal to our parents, not loyal to our friends, not loyal to our society, not loyal to our country or nation, not loyal to our church – but only loyal to HIM, Christ.

But the world will ask us for ultimate loyalty towards it: for example ultimate loyalty to a so-called idea of tollerance which knows no longer good and evil, wright and wrong, and which asks us not to claim truth, when we proclaim our faith. Ultimate loyalty, called to worship an idea of tollerance instead the only true God. (other examples)

The disciples – who are they? People, accompanied and surrounded by the prayer / intercession of Jesus: I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given to me (v.9).

Not for the world, because the world no longer can remain world in its enimity against God. Jesus prays for his disciples. Not a big number, just a handful of seed corn; the harvest lost / destroyed. The only hope to survive: that this handful of disciples (not more than the number of a small student group!), this handful of seed corn bears fruit. Therefore Jesus pray for them, for their protection:
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them them from the evil one (v.15).

3.The disciples and the world

God's mission is not interrupted at this point, its move does not stop with the move from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the disciples. God involves us(!) into his mission. In this movement – God towards the world – the disciples suddenly receive / take over an important position / part, an indispensable part: As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (v.18).

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world (v.11). That is not God's retreat from this world, it is you and me acting on God's behalf. My life is on display in them, says Jesus. This is the way God has chosen to go towards mankind.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is the truth. To be sanctified that is: To be seized by God and for God; to be set apart for God and for his purposes. At the end of this movement (God's world mission) – God's deep desire to draw people back into the relationship with him: My prayer is not for them (the disciples) alone . I pray also for those who will believe in me throuhg there message. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be us (v.20-21). That is what God / Jesus is longing for: to bring God and world together; to let us all participate in the Sons relationship with the Father!
There are not some chosen people, chosen to enjoy this fellowship – and that's it. No! There are some chosen people, the disciples, there you and I, chosen to reach out for all. (v.20-21!)

This is Jesus' conversatiion with his Father. We are invited to listen to his thoughts, to his plans. More, we are invited to discover his heart, his longing love towards our world and towards his people. But the prayer also reveals our vocation, our place in God's plan. We are involved! Involved in this movement from Father > Son > Disciples > World.

V. 3! Amen

MH