John 17
Introduction
- I had a great conversation about where Biltmore needs to go in the future with my dear friend Candy.
- The great thing about bouncing things off Candy is that I can trust her to always tell it like it is. I greatly appreciate that.
- Where should we go next? I really don’t know; I think we need to focus on attracting young families and children and youth.
- Yes, there are so many strengths in what we are doing now, so what next?
- Candy made a very good point: “we just need to wait on the Lord to show us.”
- And, she continued with: “we need to wait for Him to do it in His time.”
- I certainly can’t argue with that. And it ties in well with our Scripture today.
- Specifically, the latter half of verse 10 really jumped out at me when Jesus says:
And glory has come to me through them.
- Imagine that: us bringing glory to the Lord of the universe!!
- It hardly seems possible that us mortals can bring glory to the creator.
- Why would He need us to bring Him glory? What can we possibly do?
- John chapter 17 is entirely a prayer; a prayer from one part of a deity to another.
- We have the Son, appealing to the Father, who is His equal in the Godhead, but in His mission on earth we see the Son deferring to the Father – through prayer.
- With this Scripture, we are getting a view into their private conversation.
- Jesus wanted us to know the content of this conversation to truly understand the dynamics of what goes on behind the scenes of God.
- There are three things that Jesus is praying for here:
- Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
- Jesus Prays for His Disciples
- Jesus Prays for All Believers
1. Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
- As I often point out, the Lord’s Prayer is so important because Jesus teaches us to pray.
- I think this is another time that He is teaching us how to pray. We should pay attention.
- When we think about where we are going or where we think we should go, this prayer can help. In fact, this prayer may be a key.
- In this first part of the prayer, Jesus is praying for Himself.
- We can think about this as it relates to us. It’s OK to ask for ourselves.
- Jesus took a big step walking away from His role in the Godhead to take on human form.
- Not only did He take on human form, but He allowed Himself to be sacrificed on a cross.
- To perform this remarkable feat of love and kindness meant He had to set aside His glory
- So, what is this glory and what does it mean?
- According to Matthew Henry:
Now here are two petitions which Christ puts up for himself, and these two are one—that he might be glorified. But this one petition, Glorify thou me, is twice put up, because it has a double reference. To the prosecution of his undertaking further: Glorify me, that I may glorify thee, in doing what is agreed upon to be yet done. And to the performance of his undertaking hitherto: “Glorify me, for I have glorified thee. I have done my part, and now, Lord, do thine.”
- Basically, the Son and the Father had a deal that is essentially circular.
- Jesus would sacrifice Himself for us, thereby bringing glory to the Father.
- We, by accepting Christ and embracing Him as our Savior, bring glory to Jesus.
- The glory comes from putting Jesus back on the throne in heaven,
- The difference is that WE also are glorified as we join Him in heaven in His glory.
- Jesus says to the Father in verse 4:
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
- I believe it is fair to say that we can grab onto that same idea.
- We have been very obedient to God’s call here and though not finished; we have made enormous progress.
- I think we can say to the Father: “we have brought you glory through our work here.”
- And I think we can expect a positive response to our request in support from God.
2. Jesus Prays for His Disciples
- The next part of His prayer is focused on His disciples.
- Of course, His disciples at the time, were His closest, most devoted, followers.
- To put this in perspective, WE are the disciples of today.
- But in a greater sense, we also have disciples who are Biltmore’s closest, most devoted, followers.
- Do you have any idea who those people might be? Look around this room.
- Beyond this room though, there are others who meet this test. Any ideas?
- How about the people who support our clothes closet?
- We have friends from Hunton Baptist church, Greenwood Methodist, and even the Mormon church.
- We have friends from the neighborhood and the neighborhood is steady getting bigger.
- He begins this part of His prayer in verse 6 with:
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word.”
- Flash back to my conversation with Candy. God will act in His own time.
- The people that we have are people that God has sent us.
- These are His people, and He has sent them to us because we reveal Him in our work.
- He continues in verse 7:
Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
- We have been diligent to point to this very same fact that all that we have comes from God.
- We talk a lot about how we can more effectively witness to our “customers”.
- Maybe we aren’t as far off from this goal as we think we are.
- We have the same deep concern for OUR disciples that Jesus had in His prayer.
- We are dealing with people who are still very much in the world and the world is the enemy,
- Jesus said: “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.”
- Maybe we need to say this same prayer as it pertains to our disciples.
- Jesus prays for Sanctification of His disciples so that they may protected from the world.
- Matthew Henry describes it like this:
The disciples were sanctified, for they were not of the world; yet he prays, Father sanctify them, that is,
- “Confirm the work of sanctification in them, strengthen their faith, inflame their good affections, rivet their good resolutions.”
- “Carry on that good work in them and continue it; let the light shine more and more.”
- “Complete it, crown it with the perfection of holiness; sanctify them throughout and to the end.”
3. Jesus Prays for All Believers
- Finally, Jesus kicks off this part of His prayer for all those beyond the disciples:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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.
- God sends us between 100 and 200 people every time we open the clothes closet.
- God sends us many more people every time we have a yard sale.
- God will send us over 200 people for school supplies and backpacks.
- Jesus prayed that the message to the others through His disciples would turn people to belief in Him.
- What is our message to them? The love of Christ, helping others, care and concern.
- We should pray just like Jesus prays that our message will lead people to Him.
- We should continuously work on improving our message delivery.
- I’m not asking you to fix it.
- It’s hard for me not to jump into solutioning the problem because that is my career.
- The answer is not in logistics; the answer is in prayer and the prayer is right here.
- Jesus gives us the key in verse 22-23:
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
- Did you catch the key word that Jesus threw out there? UNITY
- Jesus is appealing for UNITY amongst His believers.
- This is the objective that we should seek out and pray for.
- Unity is a hallmark of this church fellowship; we always pull together.
- So, while we are on the right track, Jesus is showing us a way to use prayer.
- We need to move forward; we need to grow and evolve; we need to improve.
- But, we just need to wait on the Lord to show us
- AND, we need to do it in God’s perfect timing.
- Jesus showed us HOW to pray for it and WHAT to pray for.