John 17:1-10

Gospel of John  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Intro

John 17:1-10
When I was very young, my Uncle Mike said something during a visit to their house that I have not forgotten to this day…
Uncle Mike said, you can tell a lot about a man…by his shoes. I think he was right.
My dad taught me how to polish my shoes. It might have been a military thing. Uncle Mike and my dad both served in the military.
Back when Jena and I attended a church where getting “dressed up” was expected. I had the routine of polishing my shoes every Sunday morning. My work boots that I wore during the week and my church shoes would both get the treatment. I’d lay out an old newspaper…put an old tube sock on like big mitten…and start applying the polish.
I’d think of Uncle Mike’s words as I took the final step of sweeping the horsehair brush back and forth over each shoe …admiring the increasing intensity of the shine with each sweep.
As my children would be getting ready for church…I would try to take the opportunity to teach them the simple act of polishing shoes…beginning with the words of Uncle Mike…
You can tell a lot about a man…by his shoes.
Then I’d add my own line… “It’s ok to be well worn…just always try to be polished.”
I think Uncle Mike was right. A book could probably be written about the correlation between certain shoes…and their condition…and the person wearing them.
What are some other ways…we draw conclusions about others?
Maybe what they drive is important? Where they live? I have a friend that can draw a lot of accurate conclusions about someone…by the watch they wear on their wrist.
How they…fill in the blank_________.
I still have a lot to learn and I could be way off… but the older I get…the more I believe…You tell a lot about someone…by the way they pray.
I love to listen to others pray. As a pastor I get asked to pray quite often before meals or at events…I usually keep it short and to the point in those settings as I know It can feel more ceremonial…than conversational.
But I’d much rather hear you pray. We’ve had friends over in the past…not sure of the faith background…I always try to pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the meal.
It’s fun to have that invitation reciprocated…and on more than one occasion…I’ve observed the wife…look at the husband…before we eat…as if to say… “This is where you’re supposed to pray.” As if the experience at our house has set some lofty expectation.
I love those awkward prayers…because they’re genuine…and they’re simple…
But I feel bad…because they usually reflect the unfamiliarity with the one whom they’re addressing.
You can tell a lot about a person…by the way they pray.
You really want to get to know someone? Ignore their shoes…and pray with them.
If you were with us the week before Christmas…every family received a gift from the Lansing’s…a book by Timothy Keller titled Prayer.
I hope that you have that on your list to read this week…here’s a quote that struck me…
(read pg 23 last paragraph)
If I had to pick just one area of my life for improvement…and there are many…but if I had to just choose one …if I had to pick just one spiritual practice to challenge you to grow in this year… it would be prayer.
This a great place to stop and just do self-evaluation… How would you grade your prayer life?
Prayer, in its simplest definition, is described as a form of communication or interaction with God.
John Calvin described it as "The chief exercise of faith, by which we daily receive God's benefits". That sounds pretty important.
If prayer is the chief exercise of faith, by which we daily receive God’s benefits…We should grade ourselves and hunger to improve.
I must confess that more days than I care to admit…I care more about the shoes on my feet…then I do about my knees hitting the floor.
The Gospel of John chapter 17 records for us…the longest extended prayer of Jesus in all of scripture. It’s absolutely unique. You won’t find it anywhere else. And it tells something about Jesus.
John chapter 17…if you brought your Bible you can go ahead and turn there…if you need a Bible you can grab the pew Bible and we’ll be on page____________ this morning.
I’ll be reading from the ESV today…if you’re using the pew Bible…that’s the New Living translation…so our words won’t line up perfectly but it’s still a good idea to follow along
John 17 starting a verse 1 and we’re just going to be looking at the first 10 verses today…
John 17 starts like this…
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
What are the words that Jesus had spoken? Everything we covered last week in chapter 16…
Remember Jesus has just had a serious conversation after Passover dinner with his eleven remaining disciples. If I could some up the words Jesus as spoken in 3 bullet points it would be this…
-Plan on being persecuted,
-I promise to send the Holy Spirit when I leave,
-He will convict unbelievers, guide believers, and glorify Me.
In a few hours they’ll be in the garden of gethsemane and Jesus will be betrayed…a few hours more and Jesus will be scourged…a few hours more he will be nailed to a cross…he will die later that day and be buried. He will rise again and he will ascend to heaven.
This is it. This is a serious conversation about how the disciples who’ve just spent the last 3 years with Jesus… Jesus explains how they’re to move forward…without him.
And Jesus ends with verse 33 of Chapter 16… “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
they still haven’t even left the upper room yet…. And while they’re still in this upper room Jesus prays for them.
At our house… when one of our out of state children visit…we have a final meal knowing that they need to leave…there are some final words…If there’s any money left in my pockets…I hand it over…in case they need gas or caffeine….and then I try to huddle everyone up…and I pray for them in a circle…and we wave goodbye.
I learned this from 30 years of visiting my father-in-law in PA…he still does this too.
You can tell a lot about a man…by the way he prays….
I just imagine Jesus has eaten, shared his final words, he’s emptied his pockets…with the promise of the Holy Spirit…and he says… hey guys… huddle up…and He prays…
We know that the disciples are confused and heartbroken…and now…but based upon vs 33 of chapter 16…would you assume Jesus’ tone in this prayer is confident or sad? On this scale of sad to confident…What would you expect the tone of Jesus to be as prays….
He’s just said… “But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
He’s confident. This is a prayer of victory…
It says “He lifted up his eyes to heaven. He didn’t bow his head and close his eyes… that’s a Western culture thing…we strive to be reverent and free from distraction…so we will often bow our heads and close our eyes…
But the most common posture for prayer in this culture…would have been with eyes lifted…The traditional posture of prayer at this time was to stand, raise your hands and lift your eyes to heaven.
He says Father the hour has come… for so long he would say “my hour has not come”…I won’t go there…or let’s leave here…“my hour has not come”…
If this prayer hadn’t been recorded…we would have said…Oh how I wish we could have heard the prayer…that summed up his ministry and life…and prefaced the incredible darkness that would immediately follow. If John and written… “and then Jesus prayed…and we left” … we would have said…Oh to have heard that prayer… I’d give anything to hear Jesus pray especially at such a hinge point in His story…
But guess what…we have it. I’ve never appreciated it like I should have. This chapter is a treasure of the faith…. Jesus prays…
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
Jesus says…when he goes to the cross…it’s going to glorify his Father. Think about that.
What was a symbol of shame and embarrassment…naked and nailed… It glorified the son and it glorified the father.
Preacher and Commentator David Guzik says it like this… I’m paraphrasing…”Jesus wasn’t just gritting his teath…trying to just get through the next 12 hours… kind of zoned out… Just get me to the empty tomb….let’s just get through this…
No…he was locked in…on Glorifying the father.”
I have to ask…and you know that I’m preaching to myself every weekend…so I’m not exempt from the pointedness of this question.
How concerned are you about giving Glory to God in your life? (pause)
I’d suggest for most of the world…it is of no concern to bring God glory with their lives.
But for those of us you claim to be disciples or followers of Jesus Christ… Shouldn’t it be our primary purpose…to bring Glory to God through our life?
Shouldn’t we be concerned about making Him famous…more than anything else.
I’ve been using a paper calendar and schedule for many years… This year I decided to try to do everything on my Google Calendar… and as I look at that calendar…I have 3 primary colors that represent 3 different roles or jobs that I’m responsible for. None of them really connected…
Until, I began to look at them all with this question… How can I bring Glory to God in this next appointment.
Whether it’s color coded red, blue or green…I even thought about putting in parenthesis with each appointment…[Glorify God]
Showing for a client…glorify God. Coffee with a congregant…Glorify God. Presentation at a school…glorify God.
What would it look like for us to be intentional about our schedule and our day…giving glory to God.
We don’t have to be preacher or go to Bible college…to give God glory.
Unless you have on your calendar “ to steal car” or “root for the Green Bay packers”…then we should be trying to Glorify God in all we do…
Jesus praying outloud…
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
What a statement…claiming to have authority over all living things. If anyone would have been listening through the window…they’d have thought he was crazy…
But he’s simply stating the truth…
Paul reaffirms this in…
Philipians 2:10-11 he says…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Vs. 3…
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Knowing God is the source of eternal life.
Knowing by intuition vs. knowing by experience…it’s this experiential knowing that Jesus uses.
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
If we’d been there…knowing what we know…we’d say…wait a minute…you haven’t accomplished the work…it’s not finished yet…in another 12 hours maybe…
Lamb slain before the foundations of the earth…
He’s been praying to the Father about himself…now he’s going to pray to the Father for his people…
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
Have you ever been prayed for…and your learn something about how they feel about you… the
Jesus thought about his 3 years with these men…and he says I’ve manifested your name…
If you’ve given your life to Jesus…that’s our responsibility…to manifest Jesus to the world.
You are the Bible most people are going to read.
We pray all of the time…help us be your ambassadors to the world. Maybe we should pray …may we be your accurate ambassadors…
Jesus says… “They have kept my word”… but wait…Jesus knows that in a few hours they’re going to scatter. Only one will be present at the crucifixion… John… the rest will be hiding and denying… But he says… “They have kept my word”
Let that encourage someone today… you’ve started on this faith journey of following Jesus… you’ve tripped up a little… Jesus sees the end…and he say… “Hey I know you’ve got a long way to go… you’ve kept my word…. that’s a great start.”
Last 2 verses…
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
I’m not praying for the whole world…I’m praying for my disciples….
The way to reach the world was through those disciples.
I am glorified in them…
How amazing would it be to hear Jesus pray that over us…. Just imagine him sitting next to me in the morning…and praying… “Father, this guy right here…he’s still work in progress…but he is yours…and he is mine…and I am glorified in him.
This dear sister…faithful through hard seasons… still some room grow and mature and be pruned…but she is yours…and she is mine…and I am glorified in her.
The idea of giving God glory with our life. Pretty foreign thought. But you sense it don’t you. It’s what you were made for…It’s your ultimate purpose… to glorify God with your life…and to live to further His kingdom…on earth. How do we do that… manifest Jesus to the world.
Pray.
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