Sermon Tone Analysis

*The High Priestly Prayer*

 

John 17:1-26

 

April 26, 2009

 

 

| Today we’re back to John and finally at chapter 17 – I’m confident that we will finish this book, someday.

This entire chapter is Jesus’ prayer -  for Himself and for His disciples and for us, His future believers.

It is often called the High Priestly Prayer.

As we’ll soon see, it’s a passionate prayer, a prayer to overcome the power of Satan and set believers apart.

Before we get in to it let’s listen to the words of Henry Blackaby regarding this battle between the son of perdition and our Savior.*Today,

Henry Blackaby speaks about “God's Complete Protection”, and quotes John 17:12, which says:*“While I was with them,I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me.I guarded them and not one of them is lost,except the son of destruction,so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.”—John

17:12Nothing that Satan can do to you should cause you to fear (2 Tim.

1:7).

Jesus chose the twelve disciples the Father had given Him and then jealously guarded them from the evil one.

Jesus sent His disciples into the world where they experienced difficult and dangerous circumstances, but He interceded on their behalf with His Father that they would have His strong protection from the evil one (John 17:15).In the same way, Jesus said that we, as His sheep, are held securely in the Father's strong hand (John 10:28).

There is no better place to be than safely in the hand of almighty God.

Do you believe this, or are you fearful of what Satan or people can do to you?

The apostle John encourages us that we do not need to fear: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

This is not merely a theological concept but a profound reality in which you can have absolute confidence.

It is not just a truth for meditation in the security of your home; it is a promise you can cling to in the midst of a hostile and menacing world.What you do reveals what you believe.

If you are living a fearful, anxiety-filled life, you are proving your lack of confidence in God's protection, regardless of what you may say.

Live your life with confidence that Jesus is continually interceding with the Father on your behalf.

If you trust Him completely, you will have nothing to fear.Did you hear that last statement?

Jesus is continually interceding on our behalf.

What have we to fear?Let’s read today’s key Scripture passage.

Please turn to John chapter 17 and we’ll begin reading at verse 1.

While I’m reading, listen for the three divisions; prayer for Himself, prayer for His disciple, prayer for us.

It’s a long passage, but one which should bring you great joy.

Let’s begin: /When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, \\ since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

\\ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

\\ i glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

\\ /At this point, Jesus begins to pray for His disciples.

/And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

\\ "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.

Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

\\ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

\\ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

\\ I am praying for them.

I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

\\ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

\\ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

\\ While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.

I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

\\ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

\\ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

\\ i do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

\\ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

\\ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

\\ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

\\ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

/Now,  listen as He concludes by praying specifically for us./

\\ "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, \\ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

\\ The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, \\ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

\\ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

\\ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

\\ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

/Most scholars who have sought to harmonize the accounts in the four Gospels have the Lord Jesus praying the prayer of John 17 in the Upper Room after He had finished His instructions to the disciples.

Then He and the disciples sang the traditional Passover psalms, left the Upper Room, and headed for the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus had been accustomed to meet with them and pray (see Matthew 26:30-46 and Mark 14:26-42).

Whether He prayed it in the Upper Room or en route to the Garden, this much is sure: it is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer recorded anywhere in Scripture.

John 17 is certainly the “holy of holies” of the Gospel record, and we must approach this chapter in a spirit of humility and worship.

To think that we are privileged to listen in as God the Son converses with His Father just as He is about to give His life as a ransom for sinners!

No matter what events occurred later that evening, this prayer makes it clear that Jesus was and is the Overcomer.

He was not a “victim”; He was and is the Victor!

/“Be of good cheer,”/ He had encouraged His disciples in John 16; /“I have overcome the world”/ (John 16:33).

The word /world/ is used nineteen times in this prayer, so it is easy to see the connection between the prayer and John 16:33.

If you and I will understand and apply the truths revealed in this profound prayer, it will enable us to be overcomers too.

The progression of thought in this prayer is not difficult to discover.

Jesus first prayed for Himself and told the Father that His work on earth was finished (John 17:1-5).

Then He prayed for His disciples, that the Father would /keep/ /them/ and /sanctify/ /them, set them apart for His holy service./

(John 17:6-19).

He closed His prayer by praying for you and me and the whole church, that we might be unified in Him and one day share His glory (John 17:20-26).

Why did Jesus pray this prayer?

Certainly He was preparing Himself for the sufferings that lay ahead.

As He contemplated the glory that the Father promised Him, He would receive new strength for His sacrifice (Heb.

12:1-3).

But He also had His disciples in mind (John 17:13).

What an encouragement this prayer should have been to them!

He prayed about their security, their joy, their unity, and their future glory!

He also prayed it for us today, so that we would know all that He has done for us and given to us, and all that He will do for us when we get to heaven.

In this prayer, our Lord declares four wonderful privileges we have as His children, privileges that help to make us overcomers.

Our Lord began this prayer by praying for Himself, but in praying for Himself, He was also praying unselfishly.

“A prayer for self is not by any means necessarily a selfish prayer,” wrote Dr. R.A. Torrey, and an examination of Bible prayers shows that this is true.

Our Lord’s burden to glorify the Father, and this glory would be realized in His finished work on the cross.

The servant of God has every right to ask his Father for the help needed to glorify His name.

/“Father, the hour is come,”/ reminds us of the many times in John’s Gospel when “the hour” is mentioned, beginning at John 2:4.

Jesus had lived on a “divine timetable” while on earth and He knew He was in the will of the Father.

He realized His time was in the Father’s hands just as David’s was when he prayed,  /“My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

”/ (Ps.

31:15).The important word /glory/ is used five times in these verses, and we must carefully distinguish the various “glories” that Jesus mentions.

In verse 5, He referred to His preincarnate glory with the Father, the glory that He laid aside when He came to earth to be born, to serve, to suffer, and to die.

In verse 4, He reported to the Father that His life and ministry on earth had glorified Him, because He (Jesus) had finished the work the Father gave Him to do.

In verses 1 and 5, our Lord asked that His preincarnate glory be given to Him again, so that the Son might glorify the Father in His return to heaven.

The word /glory/ in this prayer is an important theme.

He glorified the Father in His miracles (John 2:11; 11:40), to be sure; but He brought the greatest glory to the Father through His sufferings and death (see John 12:23-25; 13:31-32).

From the human point of view, Calvary was a revolting display of man’s sin; but from the divine point of view, the cross revealed and magnified the grace and glory of God.

Jesus anticipated His return to heaven when He said, /I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do./  (John 17:4).

This “work” included His messages and miracles on earth (John 5:17-19), the training of the disciples for future service, and most of all, His sacrifice on the cross (Heb.

9:24-28; 10:11-18).

It is on the basis of this “finished work” that we as believers have the gift of eternal life (John 17:2-3).

Another repeated word is “give”.

The word /give/ is used in one form or another in this prayer at least seventeen times.

Seven times Jesus states that believers are the Father’s gift to His Son (John 17:2, 6, 9, 11-12, 24).

We are accustomed to thinking of Jesus as the Father’s love gift to us (John 3:16), but the Lord affirms that believers are the Father’s “love gift” to His beloved Son! “Eternal [everlasting] life” is an important theme in John’s Gospel; it is also mentioned at least seventeen times.

Eternal life is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son (John 3:15-16, 36; 6:47; 10:28).