Jesus Prays Series

If you have your Bibles today, please open up them up to John 17:1. If you want to use the red pew Bibles that would be about page 1070. If you have been here for a while, you know we have been going through the gospel of John. I looked back and we have been going through the gospel of John since February of last year. The good news is that we are on track to finish April 29. We are at a very appropriate place in the gospel because we are in Jesus’ last week of public ministry on earth. It is very appropriate because this week starts what is known throughout Christianity as the Passion Week. It is the week leading up to the death, burial, and ultimate resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are at a very appropriate place where Jesus had gotten away from his public ministry and he spent time with his disciples. Really he is done talking with his disciples and what he decides to do at this point in John 17 is offer up a prayer to God. All of chapter 17 is considered Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. We are going to read all the way through John 17:1-26 and then we will go back and key in on some specific areas. (Scripture read here.)

That is a rather lengthy prayer. A lot of meat in the prayer. If you were paying attention, you see that there is basically one prayer broken down into three requests. Jesus prays for himself. He prays for the disciples. And he prays for all believers. In fact, if you are using the NIV you probably see these headings in your Bible. Even though we can’t go through the individual sections, I am going to try to key in on what I would consider three key requests.

The first request that we see is Jesus praying for himself. What he prays for is that he might be able to receive glory. He says “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” It is difficult for us to think about a prayer like this. It almost sounds a little bit arrogant. We don’t like the idea of somebody seeking their own glory whether it is a celebrity or an athlete or someone like that. Really Jesus is just trying to receive back the glory that he had before the world began. Just like we would have trouble with somebody seeking their own glory, I suspect that the disciples might have had a little bit of a problem with Jesus seeking his glory because, in the Old Testament, if we had time to look at it, we would see that God the Father doesn’t share his glory with anyone. What we see again is that Jesus is really simply seeking the glory that he had before the world began. If you were with us from the very beginning and think back on John 1 where John laid out all of John and laid out the key themes. One of the key themes early on in John was from chapter 1 of John 14 where John says “The word became flesh and made its dwelling amongst us. We have seen his glory. The glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and full of truth.” John is letting us know that this man, Jesus, that has come into the world has some glory attached to him. We see Jesus just reassuming the glory that he already had before the world began. As we get into the crucifixion, as we get into the resurrection, as we get into what is called the Passion Week, it is a very good time to consider what Jesus gave up. What Jesus gave up to come down to earth and experience what we would call the incarnation; the taking on of flesh. I don’t have this verse on the screen. Basically, Paul lays it out very clearly in the book of Philippians. He says in verses 2.5-8 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and he became obedient to death; even death on the cross.” He had all the glory with God. He was co-equal with God, yet he did not consider that equality, that power, that glory something to be grasped, something to be retained, something to be held on to, but was willing to set that aside and become a man. In theological terms, that is called the kenosis. It is the setting aside of the glory and power of Jesus. To lay down and take on that frail humanity. We see Jesus asking for that glory back that he had from the very beginning. It is not like Jesus wants the glory for himself. He wants to share the glory with the Father. He gave the Father glory by completing the work he came to do. We see that in John 17:4 where he says “I brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”