Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzalez, your bachelor encourager here in Southwest Florida. And thank you for being with me as I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for over 30 years.

So thanks for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord Jesus to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with us, you know that we are doing a series that I’m calling Passion Week Portraits of God. We’re kind of extending our Easter observance from last April all the way through the spring because there are so many portraits that unfolded in Passion Week leading up to the Lord’s work on the cross on Good Friday and, of course, Resurrection Sunday.

But if you’ve been with us, you know we started in Palm Sunday and saw the Lord as our humble king, celebrated king, rejected king, and the anguished king who on Monday was the anguished king who cleansed the temple. We looked at what I call Teacher Tuesday as we saw the Lord as our thorough teacher, talking about parables and insights, woes and blessings and prophecies and promises. then Wednesday I call woeful Wednesday because that’s when Judas Iscariot cut a deal with the religious Pharisees and Sadducees to have Jesus taken down as it were he’s our betrayed Messiah and now we’ve been on Monday Thursday let me get it right what we now call Monday Thursday all the things that happened then when we saw these portraits of the Lord he’s our Lord’s Supper He is our foot-washing Messiah. He is our betrayed lover. He’s our comforting betrothed, though John 14 unfolds that so beautifully.

John 15, we covered he is our fruitful vine, another marvelous passage. Then we looked at how he is our eternal joy. And now we come to John chapter 17, the great intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are actually two portraits I’m going to share with you today.

The first is how he is our priestly intercessor. We’ll talk about that, but then we’re going to camp on the second one, how the last part of John 17 talks about how he is our loving oneness. He is our loving oneness.

So those are the two we’ll cover today And as we get started let me just give you a quick reminder that all of these messages are archived on my website at markpg markpg I call it Helping You Hear God That first landing page are all kinds of tools to help you. One of them is a box that has the word broadcast. Click on that. And then on the next landing page, just click on Portraits of God and boom, you’ll have a list of all of these recent archived messages. most recently on these Passion Week Portraits of God.

That’s markpg.org and I hope you’ll check it out. Well, as is our custom, as we get ready to take a journey through the scriptures today and today, as I mentioned, in John 17, as we look at the Lord as our priestly intercessor and then our loving oneness, let’s just go before the Lord and ask him to speak, shall we? well Lord I love sitting at your feet there’s no better place to be and Lord sometimes we can just get so antsy and we can just kind of drift away we’re not sitting at your feet very much lose that sense of oneness with you as we’ll talk about today but Lord as we find ourselves gathered together in your awesome holy gracious merciful presence we uh we want to hear your heart, O Lord.

So open our hearts that we might receive everything you have for us today as we continue a nice, slow journey through the Passion Week portraits that you displayed for us so clearly on that road to the cross. Oh, thank you, Lord. We love you, Lord. And we pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, and forgiving blood amen amen and amen all right my friends well let’s pick up in as i said in uh in john chapter 17 as we have just come through the scriptures seeing in chapter 13 uh the the last supper and all the different portraits i mentioned a moment ago john 14 telling his disciples let not your heart be troubled and he told them why and how he did it in language of someone who was getting betrothed, a groom getting betrothed to his future fiance.

And then John 15, the vine and the branches discourse, all of that. And we saw two things there, how he’s our fruitful vine. He’s our eternal joy. And then that takes us to John chapter 17, where the Bible says this, Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven and said, oh by the way got to back up got to back up to verse 33 in there in 16 to set up this priestly prayer because he been telling them all about how things are going to unfold how your sorrow is going to be turned to joy, how the Holy Spirit’s going to be given to you.

And then he says this in the last verse of chapter 16, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. in this world you will have tribulation but take heart i have overcome the world wow let’s just be reminded we do live in a world where we have all kinds of tribulation challenges suffering that’s just par for the course my friend if you’re living a life thinking that as a christian the lord’s going to shield you from all the struggles and problems and troubles that unfold because we’re living in a fallen world, because we are still works in progress. We still struggle. We still have an enemy who prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour through lying to us, through deceiving us. I mean, it’s spiritual warfare out there.

And Jesus said, you will have tribulation. You will have suffering, but take heart, I’ve overcome all of these things. And he’s been giving them all of these portraits of himself. And now he comes to this one where we see him as our priestly intercessor, the high priestly prayer.

By the way, it unfolds this way. He prays regarding himself there in the first five verses, and then he prays for his immediate disciples, the ones we read about. And then when we get to verse 20, then he prays for all believers, those that are outside the disciple circle. Ironically, disciple means follower, but we kind of given it a special designation disciple in this context.

But then he starts playing for all those who will believe in him. We’re going to see that. And that’s where we’ll see the portrait of him as our loving oneness come into focus.

So those are the three sections of this priestly prayer. Let’s take a quick peek at how he prays regarding himself. Again, 17 verse 1, he prays, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son so that the son may glorify you for you gave him authority over all flesh so he may give eternal life to all you have given him by the way that’s a quick reference to how the father and son were in tandem i mean of course they’re one but yet they’re distinct and that’s the mystery of the godhead of course the holy spirit was thrown in the previous chapter the trinity is a marvelously deep and truth and we can fully grasp it But here we see a lovely interchange of how they unfolds which we can fully grasp But it’s nice to get a peek.

In verse 3, he says, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ. I have glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory ahead with you before the world existed. Oh, I love that.

Is that just amazing? here we get a reminder of how the Lord Jesus Christ existed before the world existed before time space were created by his spoken word as part of the Godhead the Father Son and Holy Spirit all existing in pre-time is that just phenomenal or what in fact we get a peek let me just give you a peek at verse 24 where he says it again he says Father I desire those you have given to me to be This high priestly prayer. Jesus as our priestly intercessor is giving us a glimpse of how he loves the Father. The Father loves him. They’ve been in communion in eternity past and will be in communion in eternity future.

The Holy Spirit part of that. and phenomenally as his prayer unfolds we’ll see how he yearns for us to get in on that very oneness from eternity past that will be into eternity future but i’m getting ahead of myself here we get a marvelous glimpse of the intimacy between the father and the son i love that well then he starts praying for his disciples verse six i’ve revealed your name to the men you gave me from the world all right these are the 12 following him they were yours you gave them to me and they have kept your word and now they know all things you’ve given to me from you because the words that you gave me i have given to them they have received them and have known for certain that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me and I pray for them.

Now I’m not praying for the world, but for those you have given to me because they are yours. Let me stop there a moment. In this immediate portion of… of the prayer. He’s talking about the 12 that had followed him, but then he’s going to say the same thing, or he’s going to expand it in verse 20.

Let me give you a peek when he says, I pray not only for these, that is the original 12, but also for those who believe in me through their message. Beloved, if you’re a child of the living God, if you’re a son, if you’re a daughter of the living God by faith in Jesus Christ, entering covenant with him, becoming one with him, getting saved, getting born again. The Bible puts it so many ways. He’s talking about you and me.

How he wants us to be blessed beyond measure in our oneness with him. Verse 10 now. All my things are yours and yours are mine, O Lord, and I have been glorified in them. And I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you.

Oh, Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me so that they may be one as we are one. And this is where we get the oneness theme that’s going to be unpacked for the rest of the prayer and why I’m going to pivot from a portrait of seeing the Lord as our priestly intercessor in this classic intercessory prayer in John 17.

But now he’s going to get more specific in talking about the theme of oneness. And I’m going to call it his loving oneness. He is our loving oneness. And as we pivot there, let me just give you a reminder of an overview of how I have been sharing with you over the last several years, a little five stage or five levels of intimacy with the Lord.

I call it, He is our deeper dive. And the point of entry when you dive into the ocean or the sea of Jesus Christ in this metaphor. The shallow waters are how he is our merciful Savior. We talked about that.

Receiving our salvation by humbly admitting our sin and asking to be saved. Asking to be a child of God or marry him as the bride of Christ. All those things. Again, many metaphors in scripture.

Well, that’s the entry level. That’s not it. That’s all there is, not just a ticket to heaven. The second level is he is our gentle teacher.

And we’re to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And be discipled. And know the scriptures. And cultivate a prayer life.

All those things that we can know more about him and know him heart to heart.

So that we can grow But don stop there Some people stop there with just getting Bible knowledge and stuff And Bible facts And even Bible trivia Go deeper Because we’re not just to sit and soak. We’re to serve as part of the family. Part of his kingdom. Building his kingdom.

He is our gracious master. And we get to be his servants. We don’t have to be his servants. We get to be.

Isn’t that marvelous? I love that.

Now let’s go on.

Because the next level down is how He is our, are we ready for this?

Because we don’t tend to go this far, number four and five. He is our loving Father or loving Bridegroom. Oh, my friends, we need to understand that the Lord loves us more than He can possibly imagine. And we’re going to talk about that more in a few moments.

But now I also want you to see that the fifth layer down in this deeper dive is how he is our fruitful oneness. And part of the way to get to that fruitful oneness, to bear much fruit, is to abide in him or abide in his love. He said this in John 15. We’re going to look at it again here in John 17 as we continue to look at the scriptures together.

So, what do we have here? Verse 12. While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost except the son of destruction.

Of course, that was Judas Iscariot. And we talked about that a couple of broadcasts ago so that the scripture may be fulfilled.

Now I’m coming to you and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. Oneness, understanding our oneness. and as we learn to pray, praying for this oneness every day, just so that we’ll remember it. It’s there. We just need to remember it.

Receiving our oneness. It’s there. We just don’t receive it. We forget about it and we just kind of neglect it.

Walking in his oneness. All of this is what we’re talking about today. The deepest dimension of our walk with Jesus Christ is walking in oneness in unity in union with him. And Colossians talks about this being the greatest mystery of them all, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

And that’s why I’m excited about what we’re talking about today and what Jesus is praying for us today, because he knows that his joy will be completed in us to the degree we pray receive and walk in his oneness Verse 14 I have given them your word The word hated them because they are not of the world But as I am not of the world but I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. As I mentioned earlier, it’s spiritual warfare out there, my friends. The enemy is trying to disorient us and discourage us and lead us to a life of dismay and depression and disorientation and all. We must fight against that.

How? By remembering our oneness with the Lord, hiding in him, hiding in the Lord, letting him be our rock, our fortress. It is in our oneness that we have our strength because his love becomes our love, his grace, his mercy, his truth, his steadfastness, his purity. All of that becomes our, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, as we become people of God who pray, receive, and walk in this oneness and remember that in the toughest of times.

And I’ve been telling you, we’re going through a tough time in our family with a lot of health issues my wife is struggling through. And there are times when I’m going, really? Still? It’s going on, Lord?

You know, you could change this, but there’s a deeper thing he’s doing as we go through the process. You read through Paul’s letters in the scriptures, how at the times he was beaten, the times he was stoned. I mean, struggle after struggle after struggle after struggle. Being a Christian doesn’t guarantee, doesn’t even promise everything’s going to be rosy.

In fact, it’s the opposite. You will have tribulation. There is warfare, but take heart. Jesus has overcome it.

And through the degree we hide in him, abide in him, in oneness, it’s in that oneness that we are strengthened. In that oneness, we have our peace. In that oneness, we have our joy. In that oneness in his love, because he is our loving oneness, we can have strength in the midst of turmoil, trials, and tribulation.

Wow. And that takes us to verse 20. Or Jesus, in this great intercessory prayer, as our priestly intercessor, gives us a picture of himself as our loving oneness. Look at this verse 20.

I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me. That’s all of us, my friends. Is that just cool or what? I pray for all of those who believe in me through the message may they all be one here it is that oneness again now look at all the ones that we going to be talking about in the next verses and I going to break out the bullet points for you But I just want to read you the two so you can get a feel for it All right Here the prayer then I pray not only for these but also for those who believe in me through their message Watch this now.

May they all be one as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they be also one in us. Oh, I love that. Can’t wait to come back and tell you about it.

Verse 22, I’ve given them the glory you have given me. May they become one as we are one. Oh, that’s going to be fabulous to talk about too. Verse 23, I am in them, you are in me.

May they be made completely one. Are you seeing how this is unfolding? Oh, extraordinary.

So the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you’ve loved me. What? Absolutely. Can you imagine that?

Verse 24, Father, I desire those you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. What? That’s how long and that’s how deep the love of the Lord is for his son.

And he’s saying, and for us as well. That’s extraordinary. 25. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, however I have known you, and these have known that you sent me.

I made your name known to them and will make it known so the love you have loved me with. What? Yeah, let me read that one again.

So that it will be known that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them. Are you kidding me? Do you see why in my understanding of our Christian experience and journey in the Lord over the decades, he yearns for us to go into the deeper waters. He is our deeper dive.

He is indeed our merciful Savior that we should always be grateful for, our gentle teacher that we should dig into, our gracious master, not a harsh master, that we get to serve, not have to serve. He lets us get in on his ministry.

But here we go, the two deepest levels of all that we tend to not go to. He gets stuck in the first three. He’s our loving father or loving bridegroom. Both metaphors so strong.

He loves you more than you can possibly imagine.

So much so, it’s Love that’s manifested and distributed and experienced by you and me in oneness. Hence, He is our loving oneness. Here are the bullet points if you’re a note taker of John 17 verses 21 through 26 as He is completing His intercessory prayer for all of us. he prays for all of us to be one all of us to be one in him there should be no outcasts we should not ostracize any of those in the family of faith are we unique yes are we irregular yes are we kind of messy every one of us is messy are we dysfunctional absolutely every family Every church has dysfunctional elements, but he wants us to be one. He wants us to take a brief breath and say, you know, we may not be completely alike.

Of course we’re not completely alike.

But we are one in the family in Christ in the Father by the Spirit He says it clearly verse 21 that they may be one in us do you see that one in us your bible translation should have a capital u there because it’s referring to the trinitarian us father son and holy spirit who existed before time space and this world began and we’re invited into that oneness, that loving oneness.

So he wants all to be one.

Next bullet point, he says that we are one in us, in the Trinity. He says he wants us to be one as we are one, as he talks to the Father. As the Father and Son are one, we’re to be one with him. Whoa, extraordinary, completely one.

I love that in verse 23. He used the word completely earlier in verse 13, that my joy may be completed in them. My friends, the more you dive deep to how he is our fruitful oneness and our loving oneness, you will have a peace that passes understanding, a joy that deeper than anything this world can provide not a happy giddy thing something far deeper in that it in our oneness he says i want you to be one in our love Also in verse 33 You’ve sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. We have a love from the Father that’s identical to the love he had for the Son.

You ever get discouraged? Feeling like God’s not coming through for you? Maybe forgotten you? Maybe distant?

It’s not so. he loves you like he loved his only begotten son who he sent to die on the cross for us my friends wow we are to be one in that love one in that pre-time love verse 24 because you loved me before the world’s foundation. And then he wraps it up. Verse 26. To be one with the Holy Trinity of pre-time in divine love.

I made your name known to them and will make it known so the love you have loved me with pre-time part of the Trinity may be in them Wow And I may be in them You know as we wrap this up my friends I got to tell you that the times when I find myself frustrated or maybe feeling overwhelmed losing my peace losing my joy, losing my focus, it always falls back to the fact that I have drifted out of those deeper waters of oneness, floating somewhere up in the, he is our gracious master and I may be doing the right things and serving and all, but it’s more out of duty. There’s a dryness. There’s not a joy. That’s a quick signal that we’re not abiding in His love.

We’re not abiding in His oneness. We’re not abiding in His loving oneness. We’re not diving deep and being immersed in that. And the Lord said, come on, swim deeper.

I got you. I got this. It’s okay. Receive my love, my joy, my peace in the midst of this.

I love that. Lord thank you for being that kind of God so gracious to us we love you Lord thank you for your loving oneness with us in Jesus name Amen well I’m Mark Gonzalez and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org until next time fall in love with Jesus our loving oneness