For weeks we’ve enjoyed the Last Supper with Jesus.
We watched as He washed His disciples’ dirty feet.
We listened as He prophesied of a betrayer, a denier, His trial,
our tribulation, and His ultimate triumph.
Now, as we cross the threshold from one year to the next, it’s
humbling, and encouraging, that we do so as we walk through, The High
Priestly Prayer, of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit’s timing is perfect.
Some call the Upper Room Discourse, (John 13-17) the Farewell
Discourse, or Farewell Address.
Chapter 17 is basically, the benediction; called the Farewell
Prayer of Jesus, or the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Only recorded
in John.
It’s the longest recorded prayer in red; longest recorded
prayer of Jesus. You can read it in about 4 minutes—however, it’ll probably
take us 3 weeks (at least) to walk through it.
It can be outlined in three sections.
1.
Praying Like Jesus—for yourself, John 17:1-5
2.
Praying Like Jesus—for your own, John 17:6-19
3.
Praying Like Jesus—for others, John 17:20-26
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and
said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may
glorify You,
Jesus prayed for Himself.
How’s your prayer life?
It’s okay to pray for yourself. We need prayer.
How’s your prayer life?
Jesus prayed. Often. Earnestly. He’s, our example.
How’s your prayer life?
In a couple hours or so, Jesus will say to, Peter, James and
John:
Matthew
26:41.
Watch and
pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak.”
He asks them to pray for an hour. They can’t do it. They fall
asleep.
Prayer punches a hole in this natural realm to a place where
real battles are fought and victories are won.
Ephesians
6:12
For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
In this arena, the flesh is weak.
That’s why for some, the best cure for insomnia, is prayer.
Start praying and the next you know… you’re waking up. What happened?
That may be because we don’t understand prayer. We need to
know it’s something we get to do—not have to do.
It’s not a chore, not a burden; but a burden lifting joy.
God doesn’t need our prayers. We need prayer, for our
emotional, mental, spiritual, well-being.
Philippians
4:6-7
Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.
You may say, I don’t know how to pray.
You probably do. You may not know that you know how to pray.
If you know how to communicate, you know how to pray.
Kids learn to talk by listening to other people talk. So,
perhaps the best way to learn to pray is by listening to Jesus pray.
So, let’s watch Jesus, listen to Jesus.
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven…
Look up.
Notice Jesus looks up. He looks toward Heaven. He knows where
His help comes from. No matter the question, the Answer is always found in
Heaven.
Jesus said in another prayer, “Our Father which art in
Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10.
Look up.
This world is weird and wicked, and winding down. Look up.
This world is not forever. Look up. This world is not our Home.
Prayer is pulling God’s will from Heaven, to
earth.
Look up, not back. We only get
discouraged looking back at our past mistakes and failures.
Look up, not to the side. We only get
distracted looking to the side at what’s going on around us, what others
are saying about us.
Look up, not forward. We only
get deceived or fearful by looking forward, jumping to conclusion about what
we think is going to happen.
Look up, toward Heaven.
Jesus looked up and said…
“Father…
Father.
Jesus uses Father, 100 times in John, 65
times in the synoptic gospels; Matt. Mark, Luke.
This word is used of God only about 15 in the Old Testament.
Jesus changes everything.
He welcomes us into the Family. Come on in, meet my Dad. He’s
awesome!
This may be a comfort or a hurt, depending on your earthly
father.
If comfort, you’re blessed. Thank God.
If hurt, you are blessed to be here to hear, that you can have
a Good Father. God is a Good Father. You
are sooooo loved by Him. He loves you as His son, His daughter. He won’t abuse
you. He won’t use you. He will never abandon you. You have a Good Father. You are
not an orphan. You are not alone. He is a Good Dad. A Good Provider. A Good
Protector.
There is also a message to men.
God is a Good Father, and He calls men to represent Him, to be
Godly Fathers.
No, it’s not too late, for you. You reading this is proof.
Stop doubting. Look up.
I don’t know how.
To be a good father, you must learn to be a good son, to our Good Father.
You must get to know Him so much that you act like Him, think like
Him, talk, walk, LOVE, like Him.
How do I do that?
Simple. Hard. But simple.
Hang out with Him.
That means:
Pray. Often. Earnestly.
Listen to God. Often. Earnestly.
Read your Bible. Often. Earnestly. Orderly.
Never miss Church.
Only feed your soul (mind, will, emotions) Godly food. Does what
you watch and listen to honor God? Does your communication honor God? Do your
thoughts, honor God? Yes, you can control your thoughts.
Then, you can’t help but be a good dad. Because God is a Great
Dad. Hanging out with Him, will make you like Him.
…the hour has come.
The old cowboy looked at the clock tower, before walking into
the train station. Then, he looked at the clock over the counter. Then he
looked at his pocket watch. Then, he looked puzzled, and asked the clerk; “What
clock should I go by? The tower says quarter to. Mine says, ten to, and yours
says five after.”
“You can go by whatever clock you want to, mister—but you probably
want to know, there’s one thing you can’t go by.”
“What’s that?”
“The five o’clock train—it’s done gone.”
Jesus knew the hour had come because He wasn’t watching the clock
on the tower, the wall or the pocket. Jesus knew His hour had come because He
wasn’t watching earth’s clock, but Heaven’s.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not recognize their
hour had come, the time of their visitation; HIS visitation. Luke 19:44.
They were not prepared because they were not prePRAYERed…
PrePrayering reveals to us our Divine Eternal Clock which is
synced to the timetable of our Divine Eternal Purpose.
Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Abraham walked
with God. Moses walked with God.
These men walked with God and did things for God, because they
listened to God.
Jesus knew the hour had come, He walked humbly in Divine
timing because He was ever looking up, watching for, listening to, His Father.
We can, and should, do the same.
Micah 6:8 What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God
Speaking of walking humbly…
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify
You,
What’s He talking about?
If we said it, we might mean, glorify me, make me rich and famous,
and then, I’ll glorify You, I’ll say, I want to thank God… for making me so
awesome.
That is NOT what Jesus meant.
God’s glory, and the world’s glory are entirely different
things. Only through the eyes of prayer can we see the difference.
The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.
Jesus said:
John 12:23, 27-32
23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified
27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
28 Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
29 Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
Remember the head crushing Seed
of Genesis 3:15.
The serpent will strike the heel
of the Seed.
The Seed will crush the head of
the serpent.
The cross the devil meant for
harm, God used to glorify the Father and the Son, by raising Him from the
dead.
2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
Once Again, let’s let Scripture interpret Scripture:
Philippians 2:5-12
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Notice the reason, the purpose, the goal for the Authority: THAT
He should give eternal life…
It’s not His will that any perish, but all, enter eternal
life.
Jesus has all authority. He is King of kings, Lord of lords.
He has given us some authority; not over all flesh, but there
are some He has given us. Some He wants to reach, through us.
LORD, as many as You have given us, we pray
that they will know You; that they receive eternal life from You.
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know
You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
It’s about relationship. To know Him. That’s the goal,
that’s the prize.
Eternal life is… to know Him.
To count all things but dung for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ. The power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His suffering. Philippians 3:8-10.
He did it all, so all could know Him, really know Him.
So, none would need to hear Him say: “Depart from Me, I never knew
you.”
Alas, against His will, many will stop their ears, until they hear
those fateful words.
4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have
finished the work which You have given Me to do.
I have glorified You…
His work was to glorify, God.
Our work is to do the same.
Can we say, “I have glorified You on the earth”?
If we died this moment, would our obituary read, “They
glorified God to their last breath.”
If we can’t say yes, we can change that, right now.
How?
Exactly what we’ve been talking about.
Prayer.
Father, help! I don’t want to die without knowing
You. Without You knowing Me. I don’t want to die without glorifying You. I don’t
even know what that looks like. Help. Please. Help me, know You. Really know You.
I have finished the work.
He completed the work.
We must do the same.
Good intentions and half-done projects, don’t count. We must
finish the race to receive the prize.
The work You gave Me to do…
It was the work His Father gave Him to do. His Divine
Eternal Purpose.
We also have a Divine Eternal Purpose to pursue to our last
breath.
It might resemble our gifts, our strengths, our potential,
however, the results are measured entirely by Heaven’s standard, not earth’s, not ours.
5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together
with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the
world was.
Thinking about Home.
Jesus sounds a bit Homesick. Father, I’m thinking about Home,
about the glory we shared together.
This world is weird and wicked and not our Home.
Father, I’m looking forward to coming Home. To be with You,
forever.
In the meantime, while I’m still here.
Father, I die to myself, glorify Your name through this
vessel.
I love You, forever.
Amen.
Questions:
There, now we see how Jesus prayed for Himself.
Now let’s ask our Father how we’re doing compared to that.
1)
Father, where are my eyes? Where’s my focus? On
heaven? On You? Or, on the earth?
2)
Father, can I call You Father? Is my relationship
like that? I want it to be. How can we fix it?
3)
The hour has come… What clock do I go by? Am I
walking in sync with You? With my Divine Eternal Purpose?
4)
Do I seek Your glory, or mine?
5)
Are my priorities, right? Is eternal life for
myself and others my most important passion?
6)
Does my life reflect that I know You? Do people
know You better by looking at me?
7)
Do I glorify You?
Am I doing Your work, or my own? What do I still need to do to complete
my Divine Eternal Purpose?
8)
Do I consider Heaven my Home?
Prayer Requests:
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Email: pray4measap@aol.com
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Jesus—for yourself, John 17:1-5
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John 17:1-5
Thank you for sharing.
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