Sermon Tone Analysis

I am very excited to be spending this weekend with you all, it’s not every day that you get to have YC or a church service in an indoor water park.

This is definitely a first for me but I am excited and I know that all of you are excited to go out and see what the resort has to offer so I am going to try and get through this quickly but also efficiently.

If you have your Bible with you, turn to John 17 and we are going to spend all 3 of our sessions in this one chapter.

There are actually 3 natural divisions in this chapter and each of those 3 divisions will make up what we are going to do today and tomorrow.

John 17 is a wonderful chapter, an incredibly heartfelt and comforting chapter.

I think it is very refreshing and applicable for your life and for my life so I think as we come here to relax, have fun, and fellowship together, this chapter is perfect for us.

We’re in the dead of winter and I know that there is a darkness that comes with the winter season.

There’s the physical darkness of the days being shorter and colder but there is also an emotional and spiritual darkness that often comes alongside it so with that in mind, I can’t think of many chapters in the Bible that would be better for us than John 17. John 17 is an incredibly important chapter in the Bible and it contains the longest prayer that is recorded for us in Scripture that comes from the lips of Jesus.

It’s referred to as Christ’s High Priestly prayer and this prayer is divided up into the 3 parts that I mentioned earlier: In verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself.

In verses 6-19 He prays for His immediate disciples and then in verses 20 to the end of the chapter, He prays for every believer that would come to know Him through the teaching of the disciples, so you could say that He is praying for every believer between Acts 2 and the return of Christ.

This is an amazing prayer that we are about to go through because it really shows the heart of our Savior.

The great reformer, Martin Luther said, “This is truly, beyond measure, a warm and hearty prayer.

He opens the depths of His heart, both in reference to us and to His Father, and He pours them all out.

It sounds so honest, so simple; it is so deep, so rich, so wide, no one can fathom it.”

The Scottish Reformer, John Knox, loved this prayer so much that he had this chapter read to him every single day at the end of his life.

Matthew Henry called this prayer, “the most remarkable prayer ever uttered.”

While we often think of the Lord’s prayer being in the sermon on the mount, the prayer of John 17, really is the Lord’s prayer.

It is in this prayer where we not only see the work that Christ performs, but we see what is at the center of His very heart.

I have often found that in order for us to really love someone, we need to know them.

It is hard for us to love a total stranger but Jesus does not have to be a stranger to us.

He lays out exactly who He is in these verses and that is what we are going to read this morning.

Let’s pray and then we will turn to John 17:1-5

Verses 1-2

I think what might be best for us is to just go through these verses as we come to them and as we do, we will come face to face with the heart, person, and work of Jesus.

We know that Jesus Christ truly existed.

We know that He came into this earth at a set time with a set purpose.

We also know that Jesus knew that He was not just another person or another prophet or another ruler.

We know that He was fully aware of His deity and the purpose of His coming to this world.

In verses 1-2, we see the answer to several questions but for time’s sake, we will only look at a couple of very important questions and those questions are Who is Jesus?

Why did Jesus come?

And finally what authority does Jeus have?

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

For those of us who have grown up in Church, grown up with the Bible, grown up with believing parents, we probably have an idea of what the answer to that question is but when we look at verses 1-2, we can learn several important truths as to who Jesus is and these things are just as important to the seasoned Christian as the unbeliever to know.

The first thing that I will point out from verse 1 is how Jesus addresses God as Father.

This is not a generic term of endearement but it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.

All that God is can be found in His Son.

Hebrews 1:1-3 says,

Hebrews 1:1–3 (ESV)

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

This is no ordinary man talking to an ordinary father.

This is the eternal Son of God praying to the Heavenly Father.

The Son of God and God the Father are also the example of how we are to love each other.

For all eternity, the Godhead has loved one another with a perfect love.

We see that Jesus is one that is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory because He is God in the flesh and we know that His greatest desire is to glorify His Heavenly Father.

We see that Jesus is sovereign over all things and that it was His desire and the desire of His Heavenly Father for Him to come at the exact time that He did.

The hour that Christ speaks of in verse 1 is the hour by which He and His Father had chosen in eternity past to accomplish what would ultimately be the greater glorification of God and the salvation of the lost.

Jesus is sovereign over all things, from the alignment of the universe, to the ongoing ticking of time, to something as small as the falling of the hairs off our head.

God has come into time as the One that is sovereign over time to accomplish exactly what He predestined to take place.

Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5

Galatians 4:4–5 (ESV)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

What we also see is that Jesus does not lose His life; He lays His life down at the very moment of His choosing.

Jesus says in John 10:17-18

John 10:17–18 (ESV)

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father.”

No one takes the life of Jesus without His say so.

Christ’s betrayal, arrest, abuse, and death do not happen outside of His divine permission.

John Calvin said, “Here is another consolation to encourage the disciples at the death of Christ.

He is not forced to die, but offers Himself willingly for the salvation of His flock.

Not only does He deny that men have power to kill Him without His permission, but He declares that He is free from all violence of necessity.”

What we see here is that Jesus knew of the work that He was to do and He did it voluntarily.

No one forced His hand.

At any moment, Christ could have said, “This cup shall pass from me” but instead He fully submitted to His Heavenly Father.

He fulfilled the Law perfectly and He submitted to His Heavenly Father perfectly and He died to pay the price for the disobedience of mankind.

We could spend forever talking about who Jesus is from these 2 verses because each truth that we unravel flows into something else beautiful but for time’s sake, let’s look at our next question: Why did Jesus Come?

Why did Jesus Come?

When it comes to that question, there is a primary and a secondary reason as to why Jesus came into the world and why He did what He did and that which is the primary or the main reason may be a surprise to you.

Let’s start with the secondary reason.

The secondary reason that Jesus came was that we would receive eternal life.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Jesus came not to make salvation possible but to make it an actuality.

Jesus came to accomplish the plan of salvation with 100% certainty.

This doesn’t mean that every single person in the world will be saved but that all for whom the Heavenly Father has given Him, every Christian will be saved, period.

We are saved because the Father desired us to be.

R.C. Sproul said, “The only reason I can give under heaven why I’m a Christian is because I’m a gift of the Father to the Son, not because of anything I’ve ever done or could do.”

Now you might be wondering how our salvation is the secondary purpose behind Christ’s coming.

You might be thinking, “Time out, I’ve been told my whole life that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, to give eternal life to sinners.

How can that be the secondary reason that He came?

And if that’s the secondary, what’s the primary?”

Jesus gives the answer to that question when He says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

Christ’s primary purpose for all eternity has been to glorify the Father and it is done best in His submission to the Father and by bringing about the salvation of mankind.

Christ dies and is resurrected so that we may have eternal life and the purpose behind the giving of eternal life is that we may glorify our Heavenly Father.

Jesus prays for the Father to glorify Him so that He may in turn glorify the Father.

Again we see the perfect unity between Christ the Son and God the Father.

Each desires to glorify the other.

Christ asks that God would glorify Him so that the glory of God may be seen through what Christ accomplishes on the cross.

He asks that God would glorify Him as He suffers, bleeds, and dies so that through His death, God would be glorified.

What then is the primary purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world?

It is the glory of God the Father.

Finally, the last question that we will answer from these first 2 verses is the question, “What authority does Jesus have?”

What Authority does Jesus have?

We won’t spend a lot of time on this question but when it comes to the authority of Jesus, He has all of it.

We read in Matthew 28:18

Matthew 28:18 (ESV)