The Unity of the Race
What a vision Jesus must have had of the essential oneness of the race. Man is one continuity of the race throughout all the ages. Bird and beast are always beginning; they are what bird and beast were thousands of years ago. Man is the exception. In his life today, he shows a whole past of human knowledge. It is the whole race of man which is the image of God; for ever in the making, never made. We are members of Christ; we are members of the whole body of humanity, past, present, and to come. The whole family in heaven and earth centres in Him; derives its life and spirit from Him.
I. In speaking the words of the text, Jesus was leaving the world and returning to the heavens; for party interests in the world were too strong to allow Him to live. But of one thing He was sure that men would believe in Him; that after His death, the affections of men in the world would go out of the world, and would seek to centre themselves in Him. Our poor animal senses may be shut up in the world, but our hearts never. The hearts of the most sceptical men refuse to be dictated to by their unbelieving brains. The world cannot hold back its heart from Christ that is the supreme fact in the world; and when other facts and attractions have had their day, human hearts are found struggling away towards the Christ of God and the Christ of humanity. He was sure, therefore, that although His last day in the world was come, He was only at the beginning of His reign.
II. "The Father Himself loveth you," says Jesus; "that you all may be one love and one glory." There is but one revealed glory living glory and that is the glory of God, the eternal love. He says, "I will give to the children that glory; I will centre it in their souls as the very fountain of their power." What an inseparable, unutterable union, this indwelling of the Divine glory will make. First of all, our union with God Himself; not by anything that is from ourselves, but first of all, by the glory of God Himself being put into our souls, and so uniting us with Himself, by Himself, and the very bond which unites us with heaven unites for ever one with another.
J. Pulsford, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 177.
References: John 17:22. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 182. G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 114; Bishop Simpson, Sermons,p. 81. Joh 17:22, John 17:23. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1472; Ibid., Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 222. Joh 17:22, John 17:23. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxx., p. 17. John 17:23. Spurgeon, Morningby Morning,p. 213. Joh 17:24. W. B. Pope, Sermons,p. 140; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., No. 1892; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 82; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 82; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. i., p. 123; A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,p. 208; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College,p. 148; Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 31; vol. xvi., p. 234; New Outlines on the New Testament,p. 76; J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table,p. 198; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount,p. 77; W. Wilkinson, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 67.