6/2/19 John 17:1-11 “Jesus’ Powerful Prayer!”

31 May 6/2/19 John 17:1-11 “Jesus’ Powerful Prayer!”

6/2/19      John 17:1-11        “Jesus’ Powerful Prayer!”

We are going to change gears a little bit again and we will get back to Genesis.  Hopefully you have noticed over the time we have gotten to know each other a bit is that I place a lot of importance on prayer.  Chapter 17 is the end of the narrative that John has on the last supper.  This chapter is called Jesus’ priestly prayer chapter because in it He prays for His disciples and us in a priestly manner.  In those days you went to a priest and he prayed for you, he interceded for you, not unlike what we still have in some churches today.  Today we are going to look at the first half of this priestly prayer and see how it applies to us today.  I wonder if we can pick up any tips on prayer from Jesus.  Let’s see.

Bruce Ball tells the story of a young fellow who went to a logging camp and asked for a job.  The boss asked if he could fell a tree with an ax.  This had to be a long time ago because I don’t know if they use an ax much anymore.  Anyway, the young man cut a tree down like he was a pro and the foreman hired him.  The first day out in the woods he out did everyone else.  Then something strange happened.  Each day after that, he got slower and slower.  Finally, on Friday he could barely cut down one tree.  He sat down on the ground reflected on what he was doing.  His swing was good and he was hitting the right spot but nothing was happening.

About this time the foreman came over and the young man told of his problem.  The boss said he knew what was wrong.  He told him that he had been so busy all week trying to do all the things that a logger does that he had forgotten to do the basics of the job and sharpen his ax.  This is what we are going to talk about today as we try to find ways to sharpen our acts(ax) of prayer so that they may be beneficial to all.

I think that this is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible.  This prayer that Jesus prays is in three parts.  The first part is a prayer about Himself, the second part a prayer about the disciples and the third part is about all believers.  And I think that it is important to understand that this takes place just before Jesus is betrayed by Judas.  There are a lot of bad things that are going to happen in the next few hours to Jesus and yet listen to the gentleness of His voice.

He begins by saying that his time has come.  This is a phrase that John uses quite a bit in his gospel.  And now the time has finally come.  Jesus came here so that he would die on the cross for us.  He taught us a lot of things in his three short years of ministry but this is the real reason that He came.  And what does He ask for in this dark hour?

He asks for glory, but not the kind that we might think.  He asks for the glory that comes when we glorify the Father. He goes on to say that He, Jesus,  has all authority over all people and He is asking to glorify the Father.  If you notice one thing about Jesus, please note that He always tried to glorify the Father and not himself.

So just let me be blunt, how is your prayer life?  Are you stuck in a rut?  Are you asking for the same things over and over?  Well, once again and as He always does, Jesus has an answer for you.  Whenever we pray we should be praying for the glory of God.  We should be praying that no matter what we ask for, it will be for the glory of God.  I know that many times we forget to do this and I am just as guilty as anyone else.  We get so caught up in asking for help for this person and that person that we forget to ask for these things for God’s glory.  Remember this when you pray.

And there is something else here that sticks out rather obviously.  Jesus begins by praying for himself.  I would hazard a guess here that due to our North Dakota heritage or even American heritage most of us pray for ourselves as an afterthought if at all.  Or maybe in some cases, that is all we pray for.  One of the reasons that we should start the body of our prayers with ourselves is like the analogy that I used about the seat belts a while back.  We cannot help anyone if we are injured due to not wearing a seat belt.  The same thing is important about our prayers.  If we don’t get ourselves squared away, if we don’t get Satan put out of our systems, then we will do little good praying for someone else.  I know this is hard for some of you but this is coming directly from Jesus.  Take care of yourself, pray for yourself first.

This is one of the few places where Jesus tells us directly who He is.  He is God and has been given all authority.  In verse 5 He tells us that He was there before the world began.  Jesus has told us these things before but not in such straight forward language.  This is something that we should remember when we pray.  We are praying to the one who was there before the world began.  He made the world.  He is that powerful!  And yet, yet He is willing and wanting to talk with you.  You are that important to the very maker of the universe!

You cannot be bad enough, disgusting enough or anything else enough that Jesus does not want to talk with you.  He made you and He wants to have a relationship with you.  No matter what you think, you were made to be in a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.  This is where we all belong.  If you don’t have this, or if you have strayed from this, then ask Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to live in your heart today.  This is important because your eternal life depends on this.  As we learned from Scripture, repent and ask Jesus into your life.  You will never regret it.

The last thing I want to point out about this part of the prayer is that Jesus is telling us that He has brought glory to the Father by completing the work that the Father gave Him to do.  He has done his job and now it is time for Him to leave.  It will be another 40+ days before this finally happens, and we celebrate this every year and it’s called Ascension Sunday.  His work was done and He was coming home.

I have heard this said many times and I have thought it just like the rest of you.  I have thought, “Why did Jesus bring this person home when they are so young or when they are just getting started in life or when they have so much more to give?”  And here is the answer.  Their job was done.  It is not for us to know or understand why this is.  We need to understand that our thinking is not like the thinking of God.  There is no way we can ever understand how God works or how He thinks.  We are just human and so are our ideas.  But each one of us has a job to do and when we are done, and then we get to go home to paradise.  We may not know, and usually we don’t know what our job is except that we are to follow Jesus.  We need to be satisfied in this and bring all glory to Him.

As we move to the second part of this beautiful prayer, I want to ask you if you can feel the love that Jesus has for you so far.  God’s love for you is immense.  The second part of this prayer is where Jesus is praying for the disciples.  These are the men that God gave to Jesus so He could train.  These men have been faithful except for Judas.  They have been with and watching the master for three years.  And now tough times are ahead.

To illustrate this Tim Zingale tells the story of how a senior bank executive in one of New York’s largest banks came to his power.  He had started out years ago as an office boy.  One day the president of the bank called him aside and said, “I want you to come into my office and be with me each day.”  The young man replied, “But what could I do to help? I don’t know anything about finances.”  The president replied, “Never mind that!  You will learn what I want to teach you a lot faster if you just stay by my side and keep your eyes and ears open.”

“That was the most significant experience of my life,” said the now famous banker.  “Being with that wise man made me just like him.  I began to do things the way he did them and that accounts for where I am today.”

These disciples had learned from the very best of the best, Jesus.  This prayer applies to us also.  Jesus came to model to the disciples so they could pass it on.  And here we are 2000 years later with the same information and the same instructions and the same instructor, Jesus Christ.  Have you ever known someone that for some reason that you can’t explain, seems to have Jesus and goodness flowing out through every pore of their body?  These people are our modern day disciples.  These are the people to learn from just like our banker friend did.

`           And there isn’t a person here today that cannot do the same thing.  Jesus has been calling you all of your life.  He calls you to come together in church for fellowship with other believers.  He calls you to pray to Him on a regular basis so that He can instruct you on what you are to be doing.  He calls on you to read his Word and study it on an on-going basis.  All the things that we talk about every Sunday, Jesus calls on you to do.  And there are people here today who I look up to because of what Jesus has done for them and what He is doing right now.  This is what being a Christian is all about.

Then we have Jesus praying for his disciples for protection and for sanctification or growth.  Jesus will be leaving very shortly and these eleven men carry the responsibilities of the world on their shoulders and they don’t even know it.  They will be facing severe hardship in the future.  There would be only one of these 11 who would not be put to death in some fashion for his belief.  Jesus knows this and He asks the Father to protect them.  He also knows that they will falter.  Peter will deny Him and Thomas will doubt Him.  He knows all of this and still He asks for their protection.

Without this protection, they will not be able to grow.  We all need to be able to grow.  As a culture, we are pretty well protected and we have it pretty nice.  But we have not done a great job of growing.  The latest fad is that all religions pray to the same god so all religions are right.  But this is not so.  This is wrong!  We seem to be very tentative and afraid to take a step in faith.  I mentioned this before that several years ago, we took some students up to the food pantry to help distribute food to the needy.  It was a wonderful event of stepping out.  Anyway, on the way home one of the students said, “You know doing this just gives me a good feeling inside.”  A good feeling inside.  That my brothers and sisters in Christ, is Jesus telling that young person that he had done a good job.

Sometimes when you attend church you are honored to witness a baptism.  This is a good time to take note of this prayer and apply it.  The child getting baptized is going to need all the protection that we can pray for if she/he is to achieve the goal that Jesus has in mind for them. Therefore we need to be praying for ourselves so that we can help him/her grow in a Godly manner.  Once again it’s like wearing seat belts.  We cannot help anyone if we don’t take care of ourselves. We need to pray that Jesus will protect these babies or children and guide them in life.

These are the things you should be asking for in your prayers for anyone and everyone.  Forget about asking for more money, or a new job or more possessions.  Ask that Jesus would be in control of your loved ones lives.  Ask that He would protect them and help them to grow.  These are the great things of life.

And don’t forget that Jesus fed the 5000, the 4000, walked on water, raised Lazarus from the dead, turned water to wine to name just a few of His miracles.  Don’t you think that He might be able to do something small and mundane like protect you and help you to grow?  Don’t let your stubborn heritage keep you from talking to Jesus today.  Talk to Him!

Jesus goes on to pray for all believers after this.  I urge you to finish reading this section to learn some more about this great prayer.  And I also urge you to try these things we talked about today in your private prayer life.  These are ways to get a glimpse of our wondrous God.

This should be your goal-to get a glimpse of God every morning and every evening.  Then you can build on this as you get the hunger to grow more as you talk to Jesus even more.  Soon you will be overflowing with unbridled enthusiasm for Jesus.  I have seen it in some of you and I pray that you will all achieve this.  God made you so we could have an intimate relationship with Him.  Use this prayer and talk with your Creator.  He loves you more than I can ever tell you.   Let’s go to Him today.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.