John #44 The Lord's Prayer
That You May Believe and Have Life #44
John 17
You may have noticed my sermon title “The Lord’s Prayer” …
And perhaps you thought of Matthew 6, during the sermon on the mount discourse, early in Jesus’ public ministry.
Our Father … Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be they name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done, on earth as in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
Lead us not into Temptation
But deliver us from Evil …
Now we know that prayer as “The Lord’s Prayer”
We pray that prayer often as part of worship times and public prayers.
But this was not so much the Lord praying, but it was the Lord TEACHING us How to Pray. It was a response to the disciples asking him for instruction in how to pray.
But now, at the end of the public ministry of Christ, Jesus is truly praying …
This chapter, John 17 IS the “Lord’s Prayer”
Jesus Christ is our High Priest.
The High Priest had two primary duties 1) to offer up sacrifices for the sins of the people 2) to offer continual intercession, prayers for God’s People
This prayer has also been referred to by many, rightly so, as the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus
As our High Priest, before the Father, Jesus fulfills those duties
1) he has offered up himself as a sacrifice once and for all for our sins and
2) he is ever interceding before the Father for us.
Romans 8:31-34 (NIV)
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
How are we going to make in this world?
How are we going to survive the attacks of the Evil one?
We can survive, because Jesus Christ is interceding for us before the Father.
I have often wondered about the way, the pattern, the type of prayer that Christ is offering. I know that he knows when a sparrow falls. I know that he knows the number of hairs we have on our head. However, I don’t think he loses sleep over the things that we lose sleep over. I don’t think he is concerned about some of the trivial things we get worked up over.
But how does he pray for us?
I think if we want an idea of the type of prayer Christ prays when he is interceding for us. I believe John 17 gives us a peek, an idea.
We are going to paint a broad stroke in studying this prayer.
I believe that we find ourselves in a situation very similar to Jesus’ disciples. We live in a world that is hostile to the gospel. This world has a disdain for the name of Chris. Here in John 17 Jesus is at the end of his public ministry and he is about to complete this mission he has been given.
Listen as we read for Words of Victory and Intercession from a Savior. Hear his concern for his disciples and the world.
Notice that the “world” is referred to 19x.
Listen to the Lord’s Prayer to the Father, for his people present and future
READ John 17
Now, I want to do something I don’t normally do, that is Read our Text Again
But this time
Listen now as he prays for you
No matter where you are right now Jesus is praying for you
If you are struggling he is praying a prayer of victory for you
If you are a follower he is interceding in prayer for you
If you do not know him he is praying a savior's prayer for you
Because you are in the church he is praying a savior's prayer for you
So listen to him pray for you
READ
So, what can we learn
What strength can we gain …
In a sense offers three prayers in One.
But it is the “hat” he wears, it is the TYPE of prayer he offers
First of all … this Prayer is …
1. A Victor's Prayer (vv1-5)
Why is it important for you and for Me that the prayer is a Victor’s Prayer?
Because if he is praying for you, don’t you want to know that a winner is praying for you? Don’t you want to know that the one who is praying for you …
A. Finishes the Work Given
1. All through the life and ministry of Christ there is a clear understanding of his purpose and plan
2. He told his Mother “my time has not yet come”
3. and Jesus says in verse 1 here “the time has come” …
4. Jesus was not yet on the cross, but the dye was cast, the decision was made and he could faithfully say “I have completed the work you gave me to do”
5. What work did God give him to do? Phil. 2 says he emptied himself of Heaven and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. The Father sent him … it was FOR THIS PURPOSE … that he came
6. Jesus Christ came as a perfect sacrifice to offer himself to the Father as a “propitiation” that is a big theological word meaning substitute, I say it just because I like it. Jesus Christ offered himself on our behalf so that all who believe, turn from their selfish life of sin and embrace the sacrifice of God can be redeemed, forgiven, imputed with righteousness.
7. Jesus said “I have completed the work you gave me to do … and in doing so … the one who prays for us
B. Glorifies the One Giving
1. The Father gave this task to the Son and the Son completed it to bring GLORY to the son.
2. The word Glory is used 8 times. You think Jesus is trying to teach us something? The Glory of God is a chief aim of the life committed to him
3. the Only Glory that Jesus asked for was Glory for the purpose of bringing glory to the Father.
4. Then he said “reinstate” my glory, in your presence, what I laid down, return to me
5. Jesus said all those who have given up houses and lands, possessions, anything would be restored by the Father. Jesus had his Glory returned in God’s presence.
Jesus Christ knew the Cross was coming and he didn’t avoid it any more than a runner avoids the finish line or a football player avoids the endzone or a baseball player skips home plate.
It didn’t matter what he had to go through. The cross was the finish line and he was NOT a Victim at the Cross, he was a Victor. If he had stopped short he would have been a victim.
If he stopped when they taunted him, a victim
If he stopped when they wanted to stone him, he would have been a victim
If he stopped when his own family didn’t believe in him, he would have been a victim but he was a VICTOR.
If he didn’t Glorify the One who sent him he would NOT have been a true Victor. But he didn’t care about himself. He had emptied himself of his OWN glory when he left Heaven. Here on this earth he was bringing glory to the Father.
In 2006, the Pittsburg Steelers won the Super Bowl. Bill Cowher had been the coach for 15 years. In many of those years many questioned his ability to finish, to win the big game. So, when he finally won the Big One. What did he do? Did he say “see, look at me, I told you I was good enough?”
No, he did a very interesting thing.
He took the Trophy, on Global Television, and he walked over to Mr. Rooney, the owner whose family has owned the team all these years. Bill Cowher said “I have been waiting for this day for 15 years to give you this trophy Mr. Rooney, this is for you” …
Jesus Christ is a Victor and has one desire and that is to glorify the Father. Any glory he received was to glorify the Father
So because Jesus Christ is a finisher, you can be sure that he is praying for you with finishing the Work of God in mind
Faithful is he who called you who will also bring it to pass
Solomon said that the end of a matter is better than the beginning
Jesus Christ is praying and He has God’s ear because he is a finisher and because everything he does, everything he prays for has the singular purpose of glorifying the Father.
Not only is the Lord’s Prayer a Victors Prayer … it is also …
2. An Intercessor's Prayer (vv6-19)
Notice Jesus says here that he is praying specifically for his disciples as compared to the World and he prays for them in three important ways …
A. For Sending to the World
1. Jesus Prays for us because he is sending us into this world and if anyone knows what it’s like, it is Jesus.
2. Why does Christ send us into the world? V18 – because God sent HIM into the world – John 3:16 – it is God’s love that sent Christ into the World and it is God’s love that sends us INTO the world
3. he is praying for us because he knows how we will be received by the world. In 1 John 3:13 John writes “do not be surprised if the world hates you” … hmmm where did he learn that? … John 15:18-19 Jesus said if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, tit would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
4. Paul taught us that the world is trying to squeeze us into its mold and when we walk in the ways of God, the world will not like it. when we aren’t what we ought to be what do we want? Someone to join us. Satan got Eve, Eve gave to Adam … and when we won’t follow their ways, they will hate us for it … So Jesus Prays for us
5. He sends us AS the Father sent him …
a. emptied of self
b. full of love
c. faithfully obedient
d. glorifying the Father
6. Jesus is praying for you because you are sent into the world. “But I don’t want to share my faith” “But I don’t want to help my neighbor” … make your list … but recognize Jesus is praying for you, because you have been sent JUST AS he was Sent …
He is offering an Interceding prayer …
B. For Sanctifying / Separating from
1. we are IN the world but not OF the world
2. we have been sent INTO the world but not expected to copy the world
3. Jesus Christ is praying for us as he is making our outside match our inside.
4. we have given our hearts to Christ and we have been made into the righteousness of Christ … but I’m not all the way there yet.
5. Jesus is praying to the Father “I am Sanctified, that they too may be TRULY sanctified – Oh we have given our hearts to Christ, we have been sent into the world, we call ourselves Christians … but are you fully formed in holiness yet? Jesus prayed that you would be sanctified … the word means – to separate from profane things and dedicate to God –
6. Jesus Unfortunately sometimes in the church we fall into one of two extremes … we are either in the world, like the world, no different from the world, no distinction as the people of God, the Sheep of his Pasture … OR we Separate ourselves as HOLY to God, but we completely remove ourselves from contact, connection, or communication with the world. Both of those extremes take us away from what Christ is praying that we will be.
We are to be separate in LIFE but not in LIVING
Separate in Allegiances but not in Addresses
7. We are sent INTO the world and yet Jesus is calling us to be sanctified as Holy in the World …
But you might say, “HOW can I strike the balance that Christ is praying for me to have?
Well I’m glad you asked because Paul described that he said “not to be conformed to the pattern of the world, but be TRANSFORMED by the Renewing of your Mind …
How do we renew our Mind?
Jesus is praying for that as well … he is praying
C. For What he has Said - his Word to
be rooted in US … He has GIVEN us the Word of God – Jesus said “I gave them the words you gave me … they believe that you sent me”
“they have obeyed your word”
“I have given them your word, and the world hates them, for they are not of the world”
Jesus prays for us because the Word IN us, believed and lived is the force that will
1. send and sanctify – you cannot read, study, meditate, and act on the word of God and be HOLY but not sent. Nor can you do those things and be sent but not Holy. It is WHAT the Word of God does …
He is praying for the Word … because it will
2. give joy and hope
“I say these things so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” --- The Word of God gives joy and hope. Every Word of God can bring you Joy and Hope if you will obey it and live by it. Whether commands, instructions, or promises, it is all intended to give you Joy …
And the Word of God is designed …
3. to protect and provide – Jesus makes note in this prayer that while he was here, HE protected and provided, but NOW we find that strength in what he has said, and in the Spirit he has placed in us
Aren’t you glad Jesus is Interceding for you?
He is interceding for you to be sent, and separate, and transformed by his word. And he doesn’t just pray one prayer of Intercession … he IS an Intercessor it is what he does as our High Priest
The prayer the Lord is praying is a Victors Prayer, it is an Intercessors Prayer, and praise God it is …
3. A Savior's Prayer (vv20-26)
Don’t miss the Heart of the Savior. He is praying for us, transforming us, sending us. But he didn’t save us to leave us separated. Yes he saved us to Sanctify us, he predestined us to be conformed into the likeness of his Son … for the PURPOSE of …
A. Salvation
1. v20 I don’t pray for them ALONE … I pray also for those who WILL believe in me THROUGH their Message
2. do you see that … Right there, Jesus Prayed for YOU 2000 years before you believed in him he prayed for you
3. he prayed that you would believe in the message … that you might know him as Savior.
4. I wonder who Jesus is praying for on my street, on your street, at work, school, or at the park. I am CERTAIN that he is still praying for those who will believe through the message of the Disciples.
5. How will they hear the Message? Paul said they won’t hear unless someone preaches, and someone won’t preach if they haven’t been sent … that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
6. It’s a Savior’s prayer. And if he prayed it for his disciples I believe he’s praying it for us … he’s praying for those who will believe in him because of the message that we give for Christ, with our words and with our lives.
7. He Saved YOU … through the work of someone else … and he Saved YOU … to save someone else through YOU …
And the Savior prayed for
B. Unity
1. The Savior prayed a very important prayer for those of us who are his followers … he prayed for Unity.
2. “that they may be ONE” … and then there’s that definer … “just as, you are in me, and I am in You … may they be in US …” – Oh so often in the church we become divided over territory and over personal plans … “this is my ministry and you stay out of it …” “This is the direction I think the church should go in” … Father, Son, and Spirit … were completely unified in purpose and plan … and Jesus prayed that we would be one Like That … We should be able to come together as a diverse group with a unified heart and mind.
3. Why do we place so much emphasis on Unity here at New Life? Why do we talk about it and plan for it, cast vision of it? We do that because it doesn’t come natural to us. We do that because it is at the HEART of the Mission of God in Christ Jesus. We do it because it’s NOT just Something that Christ thinks would be neat for us to do … he prayed for us to be one …
4. so that the World may Believe – Completing the Mission of God in the World to win the Lost is directly tied to our unity. We can’t let the world see a body fighting for power, failing to love and come together in unity, because it compromises the Work of God IN us … and it is HIS glory … that is HIS Reputation that we bear … Our Savior is praying about
He unifies us to glorify himself to Save somebody else
C. Glory –
1. Three kinds of Glory have been talked about here – remember that Doxa = opinion, judgment, view, estimate, splendor, brightness, magnificence. – when you put all that together it means the thing by which you are known, your reputation.
a. Jesus prayed about the Father’s Glory
b. He Prayed about HIS Glory
c. and then OUR Glory
2. he said “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” We wear his name, when we walk in his ways, we glorify him, and he lifts us up and people are drawn to Christ.
3. he is working in your life to glorify himself through you. Perhaps your trials, even sickness and pain, can be his way of giving his glory to you. His reputation will be enlarged through your struggle as someone watches. Perhaps you have been healed in sickness, and you wouldn’t have been healed from your sickness if you didn’t have the sickness in the first place. If he healed you, he did it for the purpose of reaching someone through you. The Trials you faced and received comfort were that someone else might be saved, encouraged, strengthened through you.
He is Glorifying himself through you … SO THAT … the World may believe
REMEMBER we have a SO THAT God and he is called us to be SO THAT people …
4. He has given you his glory, SHINE SHINE SHINE
You have a Savior praying for you in
D. Promise
1. v24 – He is praying … “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory …”
2. do you know that Jesus is not only preparing a place for his children now, so that where he is, we can be also, but he’s praying for the day to come
3. Oh what a Savior we have … He Saved us FROM this World
Sent us into the world to speak of his Salvation
Sanctified us in this world
But he is Saving us OUT of this world one day as well to be WITH him where he is … and when he DOES we will SEE him as He is and then John said we will be LIKE him … 1 John 3:2
Well, I need to finish and this is a powerful and encouraging word … but Our Beautiful Savior … even Gave us an example of how to Pray to the Father …
E. An Example - vv 25-26
Look at it again – READ
1. Can you pray like that every morning and every night?
2. “Righteous Father … the World does not Know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.” – Oh that world you live in at least know that God has sent you, even if they have yet to Know Christ themselves. Do you have a reputation for being on a Mission from God?
3. Have you taken up the mission? Can you pray verse 26 “I have made you known to them?” --- Have we done that? And will we take it a step further and say “and I will continue to make you known” … What are you committed to continuing on mission, continuing to proclaim Christ.
4. WHY? Because it is SO GOOD! Why else would we want anyone else to know. If I didn’t know better I would think that some of us don’t think we got a good deal when we got Christ. If I didn’t know better I would wonder if we really are amazed every moment at what we Got when we Got Jesus … May we be able to pray and have a heart “in order that the LOVE you have for me may be IN THEM …”
OH can we follow our Savior?
He is interceding for us
He has won the Victory FOR us …
It is the Prayer of our Savior
Our Intercessor
Our Victorious Lord and God
The Wonderful Counselor
The Mighty God
The Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace
Jesus …
Oh He is GOOD
ALL THE TIME
GOOD!