The Time Has Come To Pray #3 Series

October 22, 2003

Title: The Time Has Come to Pray

Text: John 17:1-5

Introduction

1. The last few Wednesday Evenings, we have been looking at the "Lord’s Prayer"...

not the one found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount...

where Jesus teaches the disciples to pray..."Our Father, who art in heaven"...

which rightly has been called The Disciples Prayer...

But this is The Lord’s Prayer...

the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus...

the Prayer that Jesus prayed to His Father...

as the disciples were looking on.

And, as we join those early disciples by looking on...

and listening to Jesus as He prays...

we will learn much about Jesus...

and we will learn much about prayer...

and we will desire to spend more time in prayer with OUR heavenly Father too.

2. John chapter 17 is easily divided into 3 sections...

Section 1, verses 1-5, Jesus Prays for Himself.

Section 2, verses 6-19, Jesus prays for His disciples,

and Section 3, verses 20-26, Jesus prays for all believers.

Tonight, I would like to focus our attention on that first section.

Read Text: John 17:1-5

Body

There are 3 lessons that we should learn from this passage of Scripture:

1. First of all, when we come down to the end of our lives, we should most certainly find our refuge and strength from our Heavenly Father.

A. This was the last night of Jesus’ life.

By this time tomorrow, Jesus would be wrongly accused of being a criminal...

He would be beaten...

spat upon...

mistreated...

nailed to the cross...

and killed...

and the incredible thing is...

all these events, although carried out by man...

was part of God’s plan of redemption for mankind.

B. With Christ as our example, it behooves us to be in such a close relationship with God...

so that when our day to die comes...

and we may not even know when that day has arrived, like Christ did...

but when that day comes, whenever it is...

may we find our refuge and strength from our relationship with our Father.

C. Jesus isn’t expressing fear...

even though He knows death is near...

He doesn’t express disbelief..."I’m not going to die"...

He doesn’t whine..."it’s not fair"...

like a petulant child...

But Jesus knew death was near...

He knew that horrible events awaited Him within the next 24 hours...

and He turned to the Father for strength and support.

D. Illustration

A farmer took his little son on a visit to a distant village.

Along the way they came to a fast running stream with a rickety old bridge

Just the thought of crossing that bridge scared the boy half to death.

What scared him even more, was on their return trip,

they would be crossing it in the dark.

On the trip home, the boy began to panic.

Asking his dad, "how will we be able to cross that bridge in the dark"?

The father, aware of the boy’s fear, lifted the boy and carried him in his arms.

Long before they even reached the bridge,

the boy fell fast asleep in his father’s arms.

The next morning, as the sun streamed into his bedroom window,

the boy awoke to discover that he was safe at home.

E. That is a beautiful picture of death for the Christian.

When we die, we fall asleep in the Savior’s arms

only to wake up in our Father’s house...

with all our fears forever gone.

2. The second lesson we should learn from this passage of Scripture...which we talked about in some detail last week...Our main goal in life is to glorify God...

A. Jesus mentions this several times in these 1st 5 verses...

It was obviously very important to Him to bring glory to God...

And notice, In verse 4, HOW Jesus brought glory to God...

He says, "I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do"

That was obviously Jesus’ main objective...

Jesus is basically saying...

"My work is done...

I have completed the job that You gave Me to do...

I have done it...

It is finished"

And now that My job is complete...

I am ready to come be in Your presence for all eternity"

B. What is important for Jesus is important for us as well.

Our primary objective is to bring glory to God...

and how do we do that?

The same way Jesus did!

By completing the work that He gives you to do.

I was blessed by the Living Truth 2 concert Sunday Night.

It seemed like their main message was...

"Stop making excuses...

get up...

get to work...

do what God wants you to do...

the harvest is ripe...

I need YOU...

Get off the bench...

and get into the game!"

And the best way for us to glorify God...