A Glorifying Relationship
Sometimes you can learn a lot by listening in on another person’s conversation. You can the real heart of someone.
Jesus openly and honestly prays to his father in the presence of his followers. Listening to the prayer of someone often provides a glimpse of that person’s relationship with God, and certainly that is true in this prayer.
This Summer – I invite you to commune with Jesus as we walk our way through the 17th chapter of John, and along the way we will discover what is on the heart and mind of Christ. We will discover more about how Jesus prayed that can help fuel our own prayer lives.
Background of this prayer
The book of John is 21 chapters long. The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as he is on his way to the cross takes place in chapter 12. Chapter 14 begins what is regarded as his “final discourse” where in ch 14 – 16 Jesus is ‘wrapping up and summarizing all his teaching with his disciples.
One commentator tied the idea with Jesus departure from the upper room in 14:31 and he and the disciples make their way to the temple where Jesus delivers this prayer before he leads them across the Kidron valley to the Mount of Olives where he prays again 3 times while is followers sleep, before his arrest. This prayer is different from the one in the garden, where we see drops of sweat falling from his brow. Here we get a glimpse of the determination, courage and hope that Jesus has as he approaches the cross. We begin to see his heart for his followers, and that includes us.
The prayer in chapter 17 reveals the heart of Jesus. We learn of His origins and His future; His mission & what it means to succeed at it; We will discover His concerns and His hopes.
It is the longest prayer that we have from Jesus. In it Jesus encapsulates his mission and summarizes his mission, why he came.
Perhaps the Lord’ s prayer (Matt 6, Luke 11) is the most recognizable and well known of Jesus’ prayers, but it does not offer the depth and range of ideas offered here in John 17.
Jesus intends for the disciples to hear this prayer. The disciples are in an experience of great intimate, close communion with their Lord and in the fullness of all their attention, he is laying things out as plainly, completely and concisely as he possibly can.
There are three themes in this prayer:
- Jesus prays about GLORIFICATION; that his obedience in this hour will actually bring glory to God.
- 2. He prays for his FOLLOWERS SURVIVAL; will they survive the enmity of the world; will they remain united despite their differences; do they truly possess the tools he has given them – knowing God’s love, His word and obeying his commands
- 3. He prays about HOLINESS; will his followers emulate the holiness he has shown them? Will their lives reflect the life of the son living in them that they will actually become living testimonies to the world?
Two guidelines and activities that are going to be important to us:
- Wider Context: There are themes in this prayer which must be seen in the wider context of the gospels theology. John built the gospel assuming the readers would read it straight through and see how the themes are built on one another. Looking at this prayer in isolation of the broader message will misrepresent and miss all together what Jesus was getting at
This summer: Read through the message of John to this point; 1 chapter per week starting with this week by reading chapter 1 by next Sunday.
- Personal connection: Chapters 1-12 are the stories of Jesus public ministry, his miracles, signs and extended teaching and it is written to a broader audience. In chapter 13 things change and Jesus begins speaking directly to his disciples. As a Christian, I must make a shift in the way I understand and study this material. From chapters 13-17 His teachings and promises are for all His disciples, including me. I am a disciple, a recipient of Jesus teachings, care, and life and while I may not enjoy all the priviliges bound by historically not being their (like having my feet washed) I do enjoy the timeless gifts and promises
This summer: we are going to celebrate communion every week to remind us of the relationship and personal promises he makes to us today.
This morning – we are looking at the first verse of this prayer
17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
-Jesus was a man of prayer - He connected with God by prayer
Through the gospels we see Jesus praying many times from the beginning at his baptism in Lk 3:21-22 to his ascension in Lk 24:51; 23 times we witness Jesus praying to the Father. But this one is significant because we learn much about how Jesus prayed personally.
Jesus himself was divine, He was God and yet as God he valued the interaction and community of prayer. He longed to communicate and relate with His Father. Because of the depth of this prayer, this could not have been the first time Jesus spoke in this way with His Father. This had been an ongoing dialogue with His Father.
He approached God on the basis of Son-ship. While it is true Jesus has a unique relationship with His Father as the Eternal Son of God, but each of us may have “the Spirit of His Son” in his or her heart through faith in the redemptive work of Christ and so we can cry out “Abba, Father”. We need no human ‘go-between’ or earthly alter to ensure an audience with God
Throughout this prayer, Jesus calls out “Father” six times and each instance reveals more of who Jesus knew He was praying to. He uses the word “Pater” = “Father” (not Abba, daddy)
He starts out with “Father…” and we can sense the immediacy and intimacy of His relationship with His Father. Jesus lives in unbroken on communion with Him, He is one with Him, His Father is ever with him. There is a fervency in His praying. We can feel the warmth of His spirit and the throb of His own heart as He communes with and petitions His Father.
“Prayer is as much, if not more, the outgoing of the spirit as the utterance of words.” Pickford
The Psalmist prays Ps 141:2 “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
Like taking a pan of red hot coals and placing them on the altar of incense, on top of the sticks of incense, soon fragrant smoke is making it’s way towards heaven. Without the coals of fire, the incense has little value. In the same way, we need a heart on fire to lift our prayers to heaven with any fragrant acceptance.
Jesus refers to His Father as “Holy Father” (v11). That the sinless Son of God should refer to Him as “Holy” reveals the high reverence Jesus has for His Father and the nature of our own approach to our Heavenly Father. The Father is high and lifted up, Holy, sacred and separate from everything else. He is glorious in holiness.
Jesus also refers to Him as “righteous Father” (v25). Not only is He holy in nature but righteous in all His actions and ways – He knows His Father is good and does things right – he trusts him
He is true to His word, keeps his promises to His people and fulfills His purposes, our Father is right and does right by all who put their trust in Him. Therefore, as Jesus knew, we can turn all our concerns to Him with confidence that He knows and does right always.
Jesus was -Aware of the times - "Father, the time has come…”
Jesus is facing the crisis of the cross. His fatal hour has come. He knew this day was coming, he had spoken of it many times with his disciples and now it was upon him. Jesus was aware to the times.
At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus John 2:4 "…My time has not yet come."
In John 7:30 and John 8:20 “Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.”
There are times that are determined by eternal purposes, and nothing can hasten or delay their timing.
Jesus was always aware of the time and now was the time for Him to make his final journey to the cross. This was to be His finest hour and he starts it out in prayer. This is not a spur of the moment decision, prompted by desperation, but it is a normal impulse of His life which is bathed in prayer. He is always in touch with the Father, for they are one, and whatever situation arises He is assured the Father is right there with him with all the resources he will need to face the hour.
When we meet with God on a day-to-day basis we can know God will be with us on the day of our crisis.
Jesus always knows what is going on, he knew when his disciples were grumbling and when they were tired. He knows what is going on in his critic’s hearts and he knows when it is time for his betrayer to work his evil and he knows what is going on in our lives as well.
He speaks to the father with the spirit of submission – he is recognizing and affirming the hour that is upon him. In prayer he is submitting himself to the Father and the purposes for which he has come into the world.
- Relationship of Glory – “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”
Jesus makes only one request for himself, he asks the Father to glorify him. This is not a selfish request, because he seeks that which will enable him to glorify His Father in every moment of his fatal hour. He desires through all the ordeal of His trials, the brutal beatings from his persecutors, the pain and anguish of the cross, the unspeakable moments of feeling utterly forsaken and the grim cold sweat of his own death that His Father be glorified by His loving obedience.
Thro ugh his suffering and death Jesus is “crowned with glory and honour” (Heb 2:9)
So that he may bring “many sons to glory” (Heb 2:10)
We are made to bring glory to God..
Ps 86:9 All the nations you have made- will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
This last week, all of Vancouver, and Canada, has been bringing glory to the Canucks. They praise them, hold them in high esteem, regard them highly, make them into heros, they wear their shirts, but their flags, they bring glory to the Canucks.
Jesus knows that Obedience glorifies God. Jesus seeks to bring glory to the Father now. He has already preached, spoken, talked and demonstrated the goodness and greatness of the Father and now he will demonstrate the glorifying the Father in a new and deeper way, by fulfilling the mission he was sent here by the Father to do, to redeem the status of humanity into right relationship with God, by dying for His creation, men and women he loves.
If the Canucks win the Stanley cup, can you imagine the glory the members of that team will receive. For their sacrifice and hard work, at putting a hard piece of plastic in a net.
Jesus is able to bring the Father glory by obeying Him and fulfilling his purpose for coming to earth and by doing it he too will be glorified…
Phil 2:8-11
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus openly lives his life and makes God’s will known, even in the pain of his crisis.
**Message:
** We bring God glory by openly and honestly obeying God
Are you living in a way that brings glory to God? The things you do and say?