The Call to Holiness and Unity

In his message at TGC Chicago's 2022 Regional Conference, Kevin DeYoung expounds on John 17, teaching us how to pray like Christ through his high priestly prayer.

DeYoung summarizes Jesus’s prayer in three sections: Jesus prays for himself to be glorified, his disciples to be sanctified, and his church to be unified. Jesus also prays for the safekeeping of his disciples, knowing they'll sin and fail. In this way, we must also pray for protection and safekeeping from the temptation to sin and drift from God.

Jesus’s prayer illustrates the story of a God who gives good gifts. DeYoung says, “This is a prayer, start to finish, replete with God, the Trinitarian Giver of gifts. The Father gifts the Son, to give the disciples and the church eternal life and the words of life, that they might participate as a gift in this life of glory.”