This sermon was preached at Deer Creek Church, on May 31st, 2026. The text is John 17:17–23. You can watch the sermon using the link above, or listen to the sermon below. This is an edited summary.
I want you to ask yourself a question. What does the word of God do to you? When you hear it preached on a Sunday, or you read it privately, or you memorize it and hide it in your heart, what does it do?
There are multiple answers to this, but Jesus, as he prays to his Father, shows us three. If you read the Gospel of John closely you will eventually notice something peculiar. John 17 is unique in that it is the only lengthy, detailed prayer of Jesus found in his gospel.
Speaking of both the Apostles, the Twelve disciples who lived with Jesus, and the future believers like you and me, Jesus prays: Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Two words need to be explained here to grasp what Jesus is asking for.
This word sanctify is simple at its core. It means to set something apart unto God. Jesus is saying, “Father, set these men and women apart, for your purposes.” This then leads to the second term. Jesus asks that Christians would be set apart by God’s word.
This little phrase “word of God” is packed with significance. All throughout the Bible, the power, authority, and rule of God Almighty is consistently tied to his spoken word. In the beginning, God speaks and creation is formed. God speaks, and the sea parts. God speaks, and delivers the Law to Moses. God’s word is a shorthand way of referring to everything that he has said and revealed. For us today, we have access to the word of God in our Bibles, both as it is preached, or read privately.
Jesus is asking God the Father to wash, seal, and sanctify his people in his spoken, authoritative word. But then Jesus goes further and reveals that he has specific intentions behind this request. Jesus wants the word to do three things in the lives of believers. This morning we are going to look at each of these.
According to Jesus’ prayer, the word does three things in our lives:
- Unites us to one another.
- Unites us to God.
- Unites our witness.
United To One Another
In verse 20, Jesus asks this not just for the apostles, but for all who will come to believe, that they may all be one. Just as the Father and Jesus are one, so the church shall be.
Here, Jesus uses the richest image imaginable to get at his desire. God is Triune. Three persons, one God. Father, Son and Spirit, existing in what one writer called “an eternal dance of love.” The Father has always been with the Son and Spirit, and vice versa.
Jesus is saying: let them be sanctified by the word, that they might be knit together the way we are knit together.
So what does the word do to us? First, it binds us to our local church. God’s intention is that the more and more you experience being set apart by his truth, the more you will be drawn near to your brothers and sisters in Christ. This means there is no such thing as “just me and Jesus.” Being set apart by God’s word means that you are increasingly united to the body of Christ.
The Church is an amazing thing. It is the place in which we receive the Word of God, it’s where we gather together to sing praises unto God, it’s where we take the Lord’s Supper, and witness baptisms. And part of God’s design, is that church is also a people who dwell in loving fellowship with one another. You need that. I need that.
“I love Jesus, but I’m not too crazy about his people” does not work. Sitting under the word of God does not just make you smarter, or a holier monk. It makes you into a lover of the church.
When my wife and I were about to move here to Colorado, we were saying goodbye to some of our friends who are not Christians, and multiple of them had the same fascinating reactions to our news. The first question was always: so you guys have family there, right? No. “Friends?” No, not yet.
They were very supportive and encouraging, but you could tell that it was a rather odd thing for them to consider. Only after did Faith and I realize what made things so different. Faith and I knew that when we moved, even though we knew no one, that we had a family waiting for us in the church. There was no concern. Because Jesus’ word was, and is true. The more we understand God’s word, the more we are shaped by it, the more we experience, and depend upon our church community in real, unified relationship.
Unites Us To God
Second, Jesus reveals that the intention of this sanctifying word is not just to unite Christians to one another, but also to unite Christians with God himself.
Verses 21b, 23a, Jesus says: sanctify them in your word, so that they (meaning you and me!) might be in us. What an incredible statement. Do you see what Jesus is saying? Sanctify them in your word. Wrap them up in your Scriptures. Your truth. So that they might be wrapped into our eternal, Triune love. Wow. Think about that for just a moment.
So many people today, particularly where we live, think Christianity is utterly boring and stale. They see the Bible as a list of do’s and don’ts. Belief in God is restrictive. Out of touch with the goods and joys of life.
Of course you would never admit it, but perhaps some of you think the very same thing. Sure, being a Christian is good for your family. Good for your morals. Good for a structured household, or the anxieties of life. But if you were totally honest with yourself you would say that Christianity really is not much more than that.
But do you see what Jesus is saying? Nothing could be further from the truth. God washes us with his holy word so that we might be caught up into the eternal stream of love that has always flowed between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is the opposite of stale and boring. That is ravishing. That is incredible.
One of the favorite ways the Bible paints this picture of being “in” the love of the triune God is through the imagery of marriage, and the joy of a spouse. The church is the Bride of Christ, afterall. There are certain moments you can share with a spouse where everything is right, and you just can’t help but feel that this person who is different from you is somehow one with you, as though you share one heart, one mind.
The last year has been full of decisions that my wife and I have needed to make about our futures, our families, our living situations and so much more. This meant we had so many conversations about life. I can remember multiple of them having this incredible sense that we were just miraculously on the same page. We understood each other, and what we needed, we wanted the same things, and so when we talked there was just this synergy about what needed to happen. Coming out of those conversations I just could not help but think: she is my person. We are one. We are on the same team. She knows me, I know her, and that is enough.
Take that love, and sense of unity and multiply it by infinity, and you have what Jesus is talking about.
Your soul was made to be enraptured, totally caught up in something ecstatic and wonderfully whole. Now, that might sound like an ad you could see in New York City. But it's not! That glorious message belongs to God. Before marketers came around and warped it, this was the truth that Jesus Himself preached. This is what he prayed for. That you and I, washed in the word, might be united to the love of God.
Unites Our Witness
Third, Jesus ends by revealing the final result of this sanctifying word. Verse 21c, Jesus says: do all of this, unite them to one another, and to us, so that the world may believe you have sent me.
As we are shaped by the word of God, these two things will happen. We will be drawn into fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters. We will be drawn into the very love of the Triune God. And these two things will create such a mark on our lives that our very existence will become evangelistic.
When it comes to evangelism, we often think about going out onto the streets, maybe spreading tracts, or preaching in the open air. Now, let me be clear, those are great, legitimate ways to evangelize. I’m not trying to downplay that. And, we need to heed Jesus’ words here. When a Christian is washed in the word of God, united to their local church, and wonderfully united to God himself, something happens where the world looks at us and is forced to conclude that Jesus is God and has poured his love into our lives.
Richard Sibbes was a Puritan writer, and he once made this point by talking about birds basking in the sun. He wrote:
“As the shining of the sun enlarges the spirit of the birds to sing in the spring time, so proportionately the apprehension of the sweet love of God in Christ enlarges the spirit of a man, and makes him full of joy and thanksgiving. He breaks forth into joy, so that his whole life is a matter of joy and thanksgiving.”
In this sense, as we are shaped by love for one another, and even more so by the very love of the Triune God, like birds warmed in the sun, the very qualities of our lives become an evangelistic song.
Brothers and sisters, you need to hear this. When Jesus, the living Word of God, went to the cross to die for your sins he did not just wipe your slate clean. Because of the cross, you have been joined to Jesus Christ himself, united into the love of the Trinity.
In the most glorious sense, Jesus becomes the answer to his own prayer. He, the living word, goes to the cross and in doing so makes it so that all who come to him in faith will be sanctified and find these incredible blessings.
If you are here this morning and you do not know the Lord, but you’ve heard what we’ve spoken about. You’ve heard about this incredible unity between God and man, and something inside of you years for that – there has never been a better day for you to come to Jesus in repentance and find forgiveness. Come to Jesus in faith and you will find yourself joined to a people, joined to your Creator, to display the glory of God before the world. Let's pray.
