Famous Last Words: The Prayer of Jesus
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Listening In
Listening In
Have you ever been in one of those awkward situations where you were listening in on a conversation? That conversation had you as part of it but it wasn’t directed at you?
We do it with our kids right? It seems like their sweet little ears perk up as soon as they get an inkling that you might be talking about them. Or maybe you have walked in on some people, who all of the sudden stop taking because you entered the room. Than you get all insecure wondering if they were chatting about you or maybe something that had nothing to do with you.
Today we are finishing off our series, “Famous Last Words.” Words that Jesus spoke to his disciples just before he would be taken away for execution. And in this last section in John chapter 17 we actually get to see the disciples being talked about, but also, we are part of the conversation.
It is a prayer Jesus prayed to his Father on his own behalf, on behalf of his disciples, and on behalf of anyone who would follow Jesus in history. It says in James,
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Jesus lived a perfect sinless life so when we look at his prayers, they mean something.
Isn’t it great to know when someone is praying for you. We had a little old lady from the church I grew up in who would come up here and visit occasionally. She would always make a point of coming to me and saying, “I pray for you often.” My parents, I know, pray for me everyday and it a great comfort to me.
While the disciples of Jesus were around him he began to pray. He knew he would soon be arrested and so he turned to his Father and prayed, and the disciples got to listen in on their conversation, just like we do today.
In his prayer there are two requests that Jesus made for himself, two for his disciples, and two for all believers including you and me.
Lets look at Jesus prayer and discover Jesus’ heart in the hours before his death.
John 17:1-
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Sometimes we think that Jesus started his life when he was born to Mary. It is easy to see him that way because all of as can relate to it . Twice here, Jesus is asking his Father to restore to Jesus the glory that once belonged to him. These are the only two requests that Jesus makes for himself. He models what he told his disciples in a few of the other passages we looked at these last few weeks.
Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
John 16:
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:
Jesus had such a deep intimate relationship with his Father that what he asked for, he knew it would happen, because he knew his Father. Keep in mind, Jesus was fully human, human body, human mind. He was also fully God, but he put aside some of those attributes of God so that he could experience life as one of his creation.
His knowledge of who he was, where he came from, and where he was going was given to him through the Scriptures as they were revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. He didn’t have this image of what he was before he lived on earth as part of his memory. He learned what it was he was like through the Old Testament, and the work of the Spirit in him. So this prayer was a real ask, but it was asked with certainty and trust.
Along with this there was Jesus’ exclusive claim which we have seen throughout this series.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 17:
The word true here is singular and refers to God. What is the significance of that? If other ways were also true for salvation this would have been plural. It would be “you are one of the true ways.” But the text does not give that option and we have to wrestle with that.
For thousands of years people have tried to get to God without going through him, and in the Bible the only way to God is through his Son Jesus. Anything that leaves out Jesus is heresy, it is a lie, it is false.
Jesus knew who he was, and what he came to do, and at this moment he was seeing that his time on earth was coming to an end and the Holy Spirit’s time to be here was coming. His coming death was not a loss for him because he knew that the end of his life would lead to him being raised from the dead and going back to taking on his full role with his Father in heaven. All the glory that he put aside for a little while would be restored to him. He knew what he was asking because he knew the Father’s will for him. Because he knew his Father.
Do you trust the Father? Do you trust Jesus?
Do you trust the Father? Do you trust Jesus?
A step you can take to build that trust?
A step you can take to build that trust?
Be alone with God
Be alone with God
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
You don’t have to be some scholar to do this. You don’t have to be a great Christian to do this. All you need is the Bible and yourself and a desire to meet the one who loves you so much that he would take the time to come to earth for you.
So Jesus finishes praying for himself and moves on to the disciples.
John 17:6-
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
His three requests for the disciples.
Protect them for the sake of unity, that comes up again so we will look at that in a bit but he also prayed, and protect them from the evil one.
Protect them for the sake of unity, that comes up again so we will look at that in a bit but he also prayed, and protect them from the evil one.
and protect them from the evil one.
Evil One here does not refer to the bad things around us. The hurt we experience, the sin that affects the world. This refers to a person. Satan, the Devil, Lucifer. Ultimately in this age Satan is referred to as the Prince of the Power of the air. The earth. He has influence in it. And his primary task in this age is to discredit God by any means possible. Most often that happens through him working to take down followers of Jesus, either through sin, or death.
Death we don’t have much control over, but sin is a very real issue. We see it’s damage all around us and if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we would rather choose sin, choose independence from God so we can satisfy ourselves. There are three influences on us that do that, first and foremost is our own desire to sin, it comes easy to us because we are born into a sinful world, second is the world itself which Jesus talks about in his prayer, in a large way the world is against God and against his followers, it does not want to be told that it needs Jesus and apart from Jesus is doomed to hell, and finally the devil who tries to manipulate the other to in a quest for power and self promotion.
Jesus prayer for his disciples?
Protect them from the evil one.
Sanctify them by the truth.
Sanctify them by the truth.
What is truth, the Word of God. Jesus said, your word is true.
Sanctify is almost exclusively used in Biblical Greek. It simply means to be set apart for God’s use. That was Jesus prayer for his disciples. How do we stay connected to Jesus? How do we stay set apart for God’s use? The Word of God. Jesus was praying for this small community that they would remain true to the truth he had given them. In it was life. In it was the way to the Father. As the word invades our life as God works through the Holy Spirit it produces sanctification in us. And more and more we see how God has set us apart for his use.
Where do you stand when it comes to what is true? Where do you find your sources for truth?
Jesus said,
Notice Jesus doesn't pray, God, if they are worthy please sanctify them. He prays sanctify them through the truth. Jesus was going to take care of the being worthy part by dying for the sins of all people for all time and then being raised by the Holy Spirit so that anyone who would confess their sins, and follow Jesus would be worthy to become sanctified.
If you follow Jesus you are already worthy to be set apart. The Bible calls it justification.
Jesus said,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus knew that he was leaving and he knew that he had prepared the disciples properly. They had learned everything that Jesus had come to teach and show them. So he prayed for us.
Jesus knew that he was leaving and he knew that he had prepared the disciples properly. They had learned everything that Jesus had come to teach and show them. So he prayed for us.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Are you willing to be set apart to be used by God?
Are you willing to be set apart to be used by God?
Notice Jesus doesn't pray, God, if they are worthy please sanctify them. He prays sanctify them through the truth. Jesus was going to take care of the being worthy part by dying for the sins of all people for all time and then being raised by the Holy Spirit so that anyone who would confess their sins, and follow Jesus would be worthy to become sanctified.
If you follow Jesus you are already worthy to be set apart. The Bible calls it justification.
Justification is God saying, in Jesus...
“You are holy”
“You are holy”
you are set apart. You are my child.
Sanctification is God saying, in Jesus...
“You are becoming holy”
“You are becoming holy”
You are becoming sanctified. God is saying, “This is who I say you are, and nobody can speak against it.” That is Justification, then God says, “Now mature into what I say is true about you, follow me, learn from me, be set apart for me.” that is sanctification.
Are you willing to be a set apart one and mature through the truth that God gave us through the Scriptures?
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Jesus knew that he was leaving and he knew that he had prepared the disciples properly. They had learned everything that Jesus had come to teach and show them. So he prayed for us.
John 17:20-
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
First see that God is praying for you, follower of Jesus. Very everyone who believes in Jesus because of the same message about Jesus that has been handed down through 1000s of years. This prayer is for them. This prayer is for you. This prayer is for everyone who will come to believe in Jesus.
The prayer was for oneness. This final part of this prayer is one for unity. In God we see perfect unity in the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. All making up the person of God but being distinct in their function as God. All in perfect harmony and purpose. What is the purpose of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? To bring glory to God. Jesus brought glory to the Father by completing the work he was given and was returning to take his position in glory. The Holy Spirit would bring glory to Jesus by continuing that work through the life of followers of Jesus. And that work continues today. The unity that Jesus talks about is not an organizational unity. Where one type of church would be better than another. It is a spiritual unity, centered on Christ. The world needs to see not one denomination although that is often what is said. Why are their so many denominations. Why. Because without them the church long ago would have become a massive corporation that cared little about those separated from God. In each point in history many denominations have played critical roles in advancing the hope of Jesus to those who need him. We aren’t unified around denominations, we are unified around Christ and his mission to make disciples.
If we are going to understand the unity we share we need to understand the unity that God shares. What is church to me and to you. If church is about me, than it is no better than any other organization on the planet. If it is truly about Jesus and his call on us to make disciples the world will see. The world will notice. And people will find a home in it.
The final part of this prayer is the most encouraging. Jesus wants you and I to see his glory. At the start he prayed “Father, glorify your son.” now he prays, “I want all of them to be with me and to see my glory.”
That is Jesus’ prayer for you and for me. Be encouraged by that. In all your failures, in all your struggles, in all your joys. For a follower of Jesus there is part of this prayer that we are still waiting for, and it was given by the only one who can make it happen. Jesus Christ. The hope we have in Jesus extends past this life into the next and we will share and participate in the glory that is yet to be revealed in Christ.
In the tempest of life put your hope in that.
This week read over this prayer and claim hold of what Jesus prayed for you. commit to living as one who is set apart for God’s purposes, and hope in the certainty that God will let you see Christ in all his glory because he has made a way.
This week read over this prayer and claim hold of what Jesus prayed for you. commit to living as one who is set apart for God’s purposes, and hope in the certainty that God will let you see Christ in all his glory because he has made a way.
And we want others to have an opportunity to be invited into this prayer of Jesus and into the unity we share in Christ. In a very practical way we are inviting us to display the unity we have in Christ through a new vision God has given to us and some other churches in Canada and Thailand.
Ryan come on up here and share that with us.