We Are They - John 16-18

John 17:6 (ESV)

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Throughout chapter 17 of John we read about people Jesus refers to as they.   This is a little series I put together years ago for my soccer team for our season theme. It emphasizes that we are people important to Jesus as He tells us what them (the disciples, all Christians who follow them, you and me, included).  

We are They series:

#1 - We are THEY because we were His:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  (See also: Romans 14:7-8)

#2 - They have come to know the truth: John 17:7-8

Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. (See also John 16:23-24).

#3- That They may be one:

John 17:20-21

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

#4 - That THEY may have Joy fulfilled: 

John 17:13

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

#5 - That THEY may be kept from the world and the evil one ... to be sanctified:

John 17:15-19

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

#6 - That THEY may be with Christ in Glory:

This is our blessed hope!!!   

John 17:24

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

#7 - That THEY may know the Love of God and show the love of God:

John 17:26

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”