Who do you give glory to?

Today, we are going to finish our study in the book of John. We will end this chapter where Jesus prays in the Garden before He is taken to be crucified. This chapter gives a clear picture of Jesus purpose on earth and how that affects us if we are His children.

Have you ever heard of the Make-A-Wish foundation? It is a program where kids who don’t have very long to live are given the opportunity to live out their dreams. One kid was made a super hero for the day, with a cool car, and a thousand people cheering him on as he fought crime. Some ask to go to disneyland, one kid wanted to kill a bear. The point is that you get to fulfill your wildest dreams.

It says in this passage that Jesus hour “has come”, Jesus is preparing for what will occur next. So what is the first thing that Jesus does? He goes to His Father and prays. This chapter is Jesus’ endowment onto all believers. Jesus told His disciples in the last chapter that having the Holy Spirit was better than having Him there. What Jesus talks about in this chapter is what Jesus left us with. Riches greater than we could ever imagine. In His prayer, to His Father He asks for the Father to give His authority to the disciples and future believers in light of His obedience. What He wants is for the church to work in the unity of the Spirit to glorify the Father.

If Jesus needed to pray for strength, why wouldn’t we?

Did Jesus know what was going to occur? Yes.

-So why did Jesus need to pray?

-We actually have an incentive to pray when God has a plan, to give us strength to honor Him.

We pray that God may be glorified in our lives

-Jesus is praying that God may use the suffering that He would go through we be to the glory of the Father.

-So what does it mean for Jesus to be ‘glorified’?

-Jesus is asking that He may be “clothed in splendor before the Father. He knows that in order to enjoy the great reward He first has to deal with the troubles that come on this earth.

-We can learn to praise God more, not less, in difficult times. Here Jesus calls Him Father, then in vs. 11 Jesus calls Him “Holy Father”, then later on He calls Him “righteous Father”. He doesn’t get frustrated as He thinks what will be next, He leans farther into what God has called Him to and trusting in Him.

-Jesus prays that He may bring eternal life to others. Everyone needs eternal life, we all need to know this incredible gift God has for us. We must tell others about Jesus, who the Father sent so that we could have eternal life.

So what is eternal life?

-Well Jesus gives us the answer. That we know the “only true God, and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ”. It is personal knowledge and relationship with the Son of God. To know Jesus is to know the Father. It is fellowship with Christ, it is trusting Him, it is a relationship with Him.

-Do you trust Jesus? Do you desire a relationship with Him? Or do you just want the benefits?

I know this is crazy to hear, but I used to be in middle school and high school too. I know what it is like to make friendships and to try and get in with the right crowds. I remember what it is like to want to be friends with someone not because you like them, but because they have something that you want. Whether it be they have cool friends that you want to hang around or they have a lot of money and so if you are friends with them you can enjoy all their cool stuff. You can make friends because they can benefit you in some way.

-I had a close friend in high school and he was an only child. And his family was well off. So they would bring me to sporting events, we would play video games at his house. They had this awesome pool in their back yard. It was a bunch of fun. But I was not his friend because his parents had money. It was just a nice benefit of being his friend.

-So we have to ask ourselves the same question. Do we desire to know Christ for who He is or just what He can give us?

If we truly believe in Christ than we will allow our lives to be changed by Him and live our lives seeking to know Him.

Jesus prays on our behalf

This is a prayer of Jesus, mediating before God for us. Praying for our strength and unity.

-If you think about the disciples who Jesus prays for. Were they always obedient?

-They often were prideful, they didn’t have the faith they needed, and they doubted what Jesus said. So how could Jesus say that they “kept your Word?” Because they had given their lives to following Jesus. They remained with Christ and had courage to trust in Him and to leave their previous lives behind.

Jesus gives us the knowledge we need to know the Father.

Through Jesus we are able to know the Father because Jesus revealed the Father. Jesus has shown us the way to eternal life in believing in Jesus and the one who sent Him. In accepting Jesus they have faith.

How does Jesus describe eternal life? Knowing God the Father and knowing Christ the Son. What does it mean that we know God? How does Jesus describe it? How many ways do you see Jesus says that we know God?

-Jesus is praying that in the same way that His relationship to the Father allowed Him to face the temptations in the wilderness. In the way that He knows He will be able to accomplish the work on the cross. He is praying our relationship to the Father and with one another may help us to face these temptations. That our unity is like the unity that He has with the Father. Because Jesus’ knows His unity to the Father is what allowed Him to accomplish His work. So if Jesus needed the Father why wouldn’t we?

-We are sanctified when we meditate on God’s Word, when we learn to love the Bible, when we allow it to train us and correct us.

How many times has Jesus talked about our joy being completed? John 3:29, 15:11, John 16:24, John 17:13. THEN John uses the same phrase in 1 John 1:4 and 1 John 1:12 What does this mean? To have Jesus joy completed in us? It means that in believing in Jesus what we are sharing in is the joy that Jesus has in being with His Father. Our joy is completed in our relationship to the Father growing so that we can be obedient to His will and be WITH Him. Our joy is ultimately completed in the work of Christ as we give up ourselves in order to benefit the kingdom.