To [the Lord’s people] God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:28)

“… that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26)

As our study ends this week, our prayer has been that your soul has been touched by the “eternity” of it all. As we continue to listen in on God talking to Himself in John 17, we hear something that is both easily relatable, yet endless and mysterious. The Apostle Paul is touched by the same thought in his letter to the Colossian Church. God the Father has decided to reveal His character and attributes — His GLORY — to and through us by an interesting means: Christ in you.

Beginning in John 17:16 we are given insight as to how Christ is formed in us. There is something here that requires deliberate submission on our part. You will encounter (depending on your translation) a very religious-sounding word. Don’t let that derail your understanding of what Jesus is praying for. If you read the word “sanctify,” picture cleaning your fine china and silverware for a special meal. Whenever you prepare something for a special task (like a formal dinner), you are “sanctifying” that thing. God is preparing us for a special task as He cleans and polishes us, and He is using a specific tool to prepare us for that end.

This last section of Jesus’s prayer is directed specifically to us: those who have not seen Him physically, but have come to know Him through His calling on our lives, through the work of the Spirit and the Word. This week you will encounter how Jesus’s prayer has impacted our own Church body as we look back at the work of the Spirit in a movement of churches that helped give birth to our own. If we are truly impacted by Christ in us, and by our recent historical trajectory (220 years), we should conclude that we are, in this time and place, part of a continuing movement to spread the fame and glory of God on the earth. Jesus did not come to establish a dead institution, but rather a fervent, glory-infused representation of Himself that is filling the earth with the knowledge of God. He is, in fact, moving through us and fulfilling the last line of His prayer in us!

Finally, consider Jesus’s intentional group size for preparing His Disciples to reveal His glory to the world. Twelve people, one room, a simple meal and the stirring of the Spirit of God as the Word of God is shared. Our study is about to end. However, we want to personally challenge you to grab 5 or 6 or 10 of your study-mates from this last 35 days and continue to pursue Christ in His sanctifying Word. “Big Church” is a great place to hear the Word and worship. Sunday School can make the Word more accessible through study and create some amazing opportunities for service. But small groups are where most of our growth and fruit-bearing occurs because it is in the 8-to-12-person group size that “one another” can be easily practiced and lived out. This was Jesus’s pattern, and the power of small group to create authentic community and accountability is proven throughout Church history as the perfect place to acquire the genuine glory of God in the face of Christ. If you don’t have genuine community around you, take the lead, gather some friends and dig in! Jesus WILL be in the room with you — HE PROMISES THAT! (Matthew 18:20)