1Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; 2even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. 5Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
6“I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. 7Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, 8for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20“Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one; even 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. 22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, 23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. 26I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Burned With Fire
John pictures a powerful Jesus. Many of the characterizations of Jesus are those of a weakling, one who accepted all and judged none. Actually, the reality is quite the opposite. Jesus baptizes those who come to Him by faith with fire. He did indeed love us before we loved Him (John 4:19). That was causative in our coming to Him by faith. We are saved by grace through faith, but there is another side to the story. Those who reject Him in disbelief are doomed to eternal separation and the lake of fire. John is clear about this aspect of Jesus. He says that His “winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor.” Those are words with which we aren’t familiar in our modern world. A winnowing fan is, in reality, a weighing device.
Winnowing Wheat in the Field
Grain was beaten and thrown into the air. With the help of this fan, the wind would blow through it, removing the chaff. The chaff is the light stuff that has no weight. It has no substance to it. In modern combine machinery, a squirrel cage fan blows across the beaten grain, shooting the chaff out the side of the combine. I have driven a combine (combination mower and thrasher), and it is astonishing to see all of the chaff blowing out of the side. The good grain travels up through an auger into a chute, where it is either gathered by the machine or dropped into a truck alongside the machinery.
There will come a day when all people who have ever been born will either be gathered up with those whom God considers useful and good, or they will be found light, defective, without value, and will be shot out the side of the combine. And John adds the warning that the chaff will be burned up in an unquenchable fire. This is all very frightening if you don’t know Jesus. It is comforting if you do know Jesus because in knowing Him and receiving Him, you are glorious in Christ. Interestingly, the word in Hebrew for glory has to do with weight. It is something weighty, heavy, and something of worth. That’s the grain. That’s the stuff of value. As Jesus approached the cross, He prayed these words to the Father. “22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22-23 WEB) If you have received Christ as your Savior, give God glory and praise that you are counted among the good grain.