Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /Jesus Prays for Himself /

/ /

*/17/*/     //After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: /

/“Father, the time has come.

Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

//2 //For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

//3 //Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

//4 //I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

//5 //And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.//

/

/ /

/Jesus Prays for His Disciples /

/ /

/6 //“I have revealed you//a// to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

//7 /*/Now they know /*/that everything you have given me comes from you.

//8 //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*.

//9 //I pray for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

//10 //All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.

And *glory has come to me through them*.

//11 //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.*

//12 /*/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.

//13 //“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.*

//14 //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.

//15 /*/My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one./*/

//16 //They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

//17 /*/Sanctify/**/b/**/ them by the truth/*/; your word is truth.

//18 /*/As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world/*/.

//19 //For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.//

/

/ /

/Jesus Prays for All Believers /

/ /

/20 //“My prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also *for those who will believe* in me through their message, //21 //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.

//22 //I have given them the glory that you gave me, that *they may be one as we are one:* //23 //I in them and you in me.

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

//24 //“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.

//25 //“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

//26 //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.”//

//John 17:1-26 (NIV)*[1]*/

 

1.

*/This is the written record of a spoken prayer./*

It was meant to be heard.

The prayer that we read from John 17 has become known as the “High Priestly Prayer” of Christ.

Jesus is our High Priest, our advocate.

I love that notion that we have such a priest.

I remember my father-in-law in school advocating that part of a husband’s role in the family is that of “priest”, the person responsible to minister first to his own family.

I had a friend in Moncton, a Frederictonian, Baptist, Woodside who married a French Catholic lady from Tracadie.

One of the nicest people that you could ever meet.

Nicer than many people that I have met who call themselves Christians.

It’s amazing how some people carry their faith.

Some labor at it and it makes them so serious that they are ineffective in their efforts to communicate their faith to others.

Even worse, their demeanor, their countenance is counterproductive to their witness.

People run from such sour representations.

And they do it all in the name of devout-ness.

You see, if you believe that you are the fulcrum, the hinge point and that the eternal destiny of others rests squarely on your shoulders, you will take yourself far too seriously.

You can’t carry that load.

Only God can.

 

Lee was talking to his then 8-yr.

old son Corey about me.

He said, “Corey, you know that Karl is a pastor don’t you?”

 

“Yes, I do.”,

Corey replied.

“You know what a pastor is as well?”  Lee asked.

“Oh yes, a pastor is a fake priest.”

Christ is the real number and this beautiful prayer is a wonderful picture of the priestly role of Christ.

It was uttered at some point following the Last Supper and prior to the “private prayer” that he prayed in the garden.

It could have been offered in the Upper Room or on the after supper walk to the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is significant for numbers of reasons but perhaps more so than any other is that John preserves it so carefully as though it frames something incredibly significant to the Christian.

Its presence brings greater significance to the events that follow.

It helps us to see that Christ was not a victim of an intolerant religious system but a deliberate sacrifice offered up for the disciples that heard this prayer and those of us who read it today.

You were on His mind as He prayed.

He saw you as much as he saw the 12 disciples.

It was a prayer that was meant to communicate great truths immediately and over the centuries and into time yet to come.

It was a prayer that was meant to be heard by both God and man.

Because it was meant to be heard and preserved, it was spoken aloud in an unforgettable manner.

It made a lasting impression on John the Beloved, etched deeply in his young mind and stored for the day when God’s Spirit began to move his pen to write his account of the person and ministry of Christ.

I know that many of you have a difficult time praying out loud and a person can pray without praying aloud.

But it is a beautiful thing to have someone pray out loud for you.

Mark this, that you must always speak the Amen firmly.

Never doubt that God in his mercy will surely hear you and say "yes" to your prayers.

Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone; rather, think that the whole of Christendom, all devout Christians, are standing there beside you, and you are standing among them in a common, united petition, which God cannot disdain.

Do not leave your prayer without having said or thought, "Very well, God has heard my prayer; this I know as a certainty and a truth."

That is what Amen means.

-- Martin Luther, from "A Simple Way to Pray" (1535) in "Martin Luther--Later Years and Legacy," Christian History, no.

39.

 

Do you know what a blessing it is to have someone pray for you - I mean “really” pray for you?

I went into the hospital on Friday afternoon to visit one of our senior ladies from St. Anne’s Ct.

Her name is Zoe Brown.

Zoe means “life”.

She was still in the emergency room and I found my way through the maze of curtains to bed #4.

I had to wake her up and then prayed with her.

When I was done she squinted at me and asked if she could pray for me.

She prayed the most beautiful words over me and I was touched.

I was blessed by this dear lady more than I can tell you today and I shook my head just slightly as I left Emergency that day feeling that I was the one who was ministered to.

We are reconfiguring our prayer ministry at 1st.

It is not feasible for us to reduce prayer meeting to one option a week, that being Wednesday at 7:00pm.

There are many people who attend weekly small group meetings and there is the danger of “death by meeting” especially for well meaning, earnest followers of Christ who want to squeeze as much as possible out of the Christian walk.

Add to that choir people, musicians, people who lead or assist in midweek programming for our children and it is clear that we can easily assist people in a natural tendency to over commit themselves.

I think that when we allow ourselves to be swept along in life’s rapids, the current, the swirling eddies of life’s relentless rush we lose something of what God intends for us to be.

If you spend life “in a hurry” it is a tragic thing.

When I am in a hurry, I forget things, I miss things, I offend people, the quality of my work suffers.

The frame of mind is crucial to a person’s approach to life and their response to the unexpected.