Sermon Tone Analysis

ME:

We have been building and building toward the climax of John’s gospel for months now

This morning we find ourselves in

In , we see what is known as the High Priestly Prayer

It is Jesus’s longest recorded prayer

It is a demonstration of Jesus interceding for God’s glory, petitioning to the Father on behalf of His disciples, and praying to God for you and for me

Matthew Henry referred to it as “The most remarkable prayer”

But he is not alone, many theologians over the years have summarized this prayer in powerful ways

Arthur W. Pink said, “In this wonderful prayer there is a solemnity and elevation of thought, a condensed power of expression, and a comprehensiveness of meaning, which have affected the minds and drawn out the hearts of the most devoted of God’s children to a degree that few portions of Scripture have done.”

Martin Luther commented, “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.”

A lesser known Reformer, Philip Melanchthon, shared in his final lecture, “There is no voice which has ever been heard, either in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than the prayer offered up by the Son to God Himself.”

Anglican Bishop, JC Ryle stated, “The chapter we have now begun is the most remarkable in the Bible.

It stands alone, and there is nothing like it!”

Assemblies of Brethren scholar, William Kelly said, “Next follows a chapter which one may perhaps characterize truly as unequaled for depth and scope in all the Scriptures.”

More recently Bible translator and professor, Philip Comfort has written, “It is universally felt that in some wonderful sense, the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel is the sanctum sanctorum of Holy Scripture—the holy of holies.

Here our Lord treats the Cross as behind him and permits us to hear him commune with the Father as from the other side of the torn veil.

This chapter of twenty-six verses is a prayer—yet there is something so entirely beyond what constitutes prayer for us that we may call this communion.”

And lastly, looking toward the cross, Baptist Pastor, Matt Carter, writes, “It’s the fulfillment of a promise made in the garden [of Eden] that God would send a Rescuer to save humanity from sin.

It’s the moment when everything will change—when sinful creatures can once again enjoy fellowship with their Creator, when spiritual life triumphs over spiritual death.

At the climax of the story, Jesus stops to pray.

He pauses at the doorway to the cross to take a moment and cry out for the Father’s help.”

This is the passage that lies before us this morning

So, like Jesus, let’s stop and pray to God before we look at Jesus’s prayer to the Father

WE:

This chapter is one of my favorite portions of Scripture for much of the reasons mentioned in the variety of quotes I shared

We will see one of Jesus’s key focuses in His prayer is for unity amongst believers

So, I believe it is no coincidence that the many theologians from diverse doctrinal convictions all seem to be united in their appreciation and understanding of Christ’s High Priestly prayer in chapter seventeen

But before Jesus prays for believers, His prayer begins as a prayer for glory

So let’s look at Jesus’s prayer for glory in ;

Our chapter starts by saying “When Jesus had spoken these words,”

Jesus’s prayer in this chapter is the consummation of the narrative of Jesus’s teachings known as the upper room discourse that began all the way back in chapter 13

chapter after chapter, Jesus was teaching His disciples in an intimate setting

and now, He concludes with this prayer

As we have highlighted throughout John’s Gospel

Jesus was sent by the Father down to earth

and while Jesus was down to earth He glorified the Father

We see at the start of this chapter, Jesus, down to earth lifted up His eyes

and prays up to heaven

And His prayer begins with a caring and empathetic request;

“glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”

This request reveals the first theme of Christ’s prayer

Glory

But not just glory in general, the Father’s glory

DA Carson defines the glory of God as His “display of divine goodness”

It is God’s majesty, His splendor

Here Jesus is asking the Father in heaven to honor and magnify Him, as the Son of God

so that, as the Son of God, He may honor and magnify the Father

and He has the authority to make such a request, because He is the Son of God

But He is not just talking about the glory of God

He is asking that God be glorified

the glory of God is a noun

glorifying God is a verb

God being glorified is the appropriate response to His “display of divine goodness”

To summarize it simply, the glory of God is His divine goodness displayed

glorifying God is His divine goodness celebrated

Jesus is praying that His divine goodness would be both displayed and celebrated

Just before this request, Jesus again brings the hour of His death to the forefront of our minds

This is His final mention of His hour in John’s Gospel

As He is readying to die, He stops to pray this prayer to the Father

Jesus is basically saying, Father, it is time for me to die, use my death for your glory

Jesus is asking the Father to display and celebrate His divine goodness through Jesus’s death

a puzzling request, yes, but a request that has been realized nonetheless

It is also worth briefly acknowledging that Jesus begins His prayer by focusing on God’s glory

demonstrating what He taught His disciples in when He told them they should start their prayer acknowledging that the Father’s name is hallowed

that God is holy

Then we get to vs. 3

where Jesus explains what eternal life is

to know God and the One God sent, Christ

And to know here, as it is often in Scripture, does not simply mean to grasp intellectually

no, when Jesus says to know God and Christ, He is implying affection and commitment

As one NT dictionary puts it,

“Faith’s knowledge focuses on Jesus Christ, the incarnate God and the mediator between God and man.

Faith seeks specifically to know Christ and His power.

As Jesus taught in , it is reciprocal, ‘He knows us and we know Him.’”

To put it more simply, their is a connection, a relationship, between knowing and believing

This parallels what Jesus taught in John 3

As says,

Then in , Jesus says

So Jesus taught what the judgment was in chapter three

But prior to that He said whoever believes, will have eternal life

then using the same structure, Jesus says in ,

and this is eternal life

to know God and to know Christ

In John 3:19

So whoever believes in Christ exercises faith in Christ

and those who believe, who have faith in Christ

will know Christ and know God affectionately

We who believe, will get to have a relationship with God and Christ

As Augustine expresses it

As Augustine expresses it

God created us for Himself

“Life consists in fellowship with God ‘who created us for Himself, so that our soul is restless unless it finds its rest in Him,’ as Augustine expressed it.

Knowledge, here as so often in Scripture

Our soul is restless until it finds rest in Him

So life is a relationship with God

Pastor Matt Carter expands upon this;

“Eternal life is a relationship with the everlasting God.

Eternal life is forever delighting in the manifold glories of God.