John 17:1-26 KJV
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Purpose seems like a big word when we think of the cross of Jesus, but as he prayerd in the garden, we see a whole page of words of Christ, that the other three gospels did not cover. Remember there were James, Peter and John went further up the hill to pray with Jesus then the other eight disciples. What was spoken at each level maybe not even full understood. Yet the will and purpose clear in John 17. The reason God sent Jesus was to redeem his people. To call his people to himself, to call them by the word, the word being who God sent being Jesus. Remember to relate his chapter to the first chapter in John. Where it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Any preacher carrying the word of God is not Christ but carries the word in the since a part of God, Christ was that very part of the word. The word of God that sanctifies, purifies the people that hears the call of the word, God the Father and Spirit. Christ came as the prophetic word to the people. Came as tangible evidence of the word and being the word.

Will of God was more then just Christ going to the cross it was the call of faith, the call of repentance, the call to come follow God and his word. To follow Christ. Is it hard to see the tangible word, the spoken word being more then just light, or something coming to be, but being fully a projection of mankind in the since of perfect untaint form of image of God. Jesus was the only being in the flesh that could save man because of who he was as fully the word of God. The word is what saved Abraham, Noah, David and so forth, before the birth of Christ. The word was literally speaking not by Spirit alone but in tangible form as the Messiah, the one not of our world, but alien traveling back home into eternity after his ascension after the resurrection. Yet the spiritual written word of God would remain with man by Spirit and word. The word would come forth by ministers of faith and people of faith that believed the word of God and retold the story of Jesus, the word of God in the flesh that became incorruptible by the will of God and because he always was from the beginning of time.

Jesus states his purpose to redeem the people from their sins, and then he prays for the unity of the believers of faith. This month we will be talking about unity by the word of God through Christ instructions to man to love. Yet we must get through Resurrection Sunday and the ascension into heaven. John depiction of the prayer in the garden tells more of the will of God then the cup Christ is about to drink for mankind. The agony in which he will and does go through to take away the sins of the world. Christ reflection on his purpose is important to the cross as he talks to the Father about his will for Jesus to pay the price for sin. Important to fullfilling the word of God by Christ going to the cross.

Tomorrow we will go to where they nail Jesus, a short display of the trial. Saturday being the day before the resurrection and Sunday I will be going over the resurrection. I hope you will study the chapter above out of John. I am not even doing that passage justice but it a chapter to really just read meditate on. I have writen plenty of Easter devotion and they can be found by looking in the update section at the general timeline of when Easter is. Yet to reflect each year is important on the cross and resurrection.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the prayer of reminder of your purpose and for your believers in faith. Thank you for not loosing not one of us that believe. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Ephesians 4:3-7 KJV
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.