A couple of weeks ago Jim called and asked if I would give the message tonight so he could go on the men’s retreat. I said I would and I need to begin by telling you about a dream I had shortly after. I dreamed I was supposed to be giving the message tonight and I had not done anything at all about it. It was time to give the message and I grabbed my Bible and turned to Psalm 103. I would think of something or just wing it. But I kept leaving the room for something…I don’t remember what it was. I don’t remember who was all here, but I do remember the Milby’s and Laura and some others. But something kept happening and I kept leaving the room. Finally I remembered I need to go back and give the message. When I returned, only Laura was here. So tonight if you wish to leave OK, but Laura please stay. Then I can say my dreams come true.
Do any of you observe the season of Lent? I hadn’t been observing it, and to be honest I did not know much about it. Then I started going to IBC a few years ago and we do observe it. Rememember this is a Bible church, not an Anglican or Episcopal or Catholic church.
Lent is the 40 days preceding Easter beginning with Ash Wednesday. It will culminate with Easter Sunday. This year Lent began on Wednesday 6 February. I really like the idea of observing Lent for the same reason I like observing Advent. Too often we think of the joy and glory of Jesus’ resurrection. It is right for us to do so. But we also need to think of the time leading up to Jesus resurrection. Because when we see the events of the Passion unfold, it gives us a much greater appreciation for what Jesus did. Today at SEFC the Senenkai showed the movie, The Passion of the Christ. If you’ve seen it, you know it is not an easy movie to watch. But it best shows us how Jesus suffered and what He did to make our salvation possible.
During the season of Lent our pastor at IBC encouraged us to do several things. He encouraged us to do 3 things; prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Now probably the one most people don’t like is fasting. He didn’t encourage us to physically fast during the 40 day period, unless we felt that’s what God would have us to do. But he encouraged us to give up something important to us and use that time to focus on God and what He did for us because of His love for us. Just so you know, last year I gave up movies. I’m not going to tell you what I’m giving up this Lent season, because I won’t be flying any 777’s until after Easter.
There’s a really neat website I’ve included in the outline, www.ibclent.com. Take a look at it.
Last Sunday I gave a message at SEFC that I really considered giving tonight, but I’m not going to. The message I gave was titled “Where’s Rabbi Klein?” And just to satisfy your curiousity, I told our English group about Rabbi Gerald Klein who was a Rabbi for over 50 years. I first met him when he married my father and my stepmother. I never got to know him very well, except on passing occasions. He took the title of Rabbi Emeritus in 1988 and no longer presided over the congregation but continued in life functions like, weddings, Bar Mitzvah’s, baby naming ceremonies, tombstone dedications and funerals. Most of his duties was to conduct funerals because he had been at Temple Emanuel for so long.
In 1994 I attended High Holy Day services at the temple with my mother. After the service, she and I went down to the front of the sanctuary to say hello to the Rabbi’s. One of them, Rabbi Robbins said, “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m glad you’re spending the High Holy Days with us. When we went over to say hello to Rabbi Klein, he would not shake my hand. He looked away. I had never talked with him about my believing in Jesus, but apparently he knew about it. That was the last time I had ever seen him in person, except when I read the obituary column in the Dallas Morning News and saw there was a funeral at Temple Emanuel, it usually said “Rabbi Gerald Klein officiating.”
He was in his 80’s but still very active. I had wondered if he was still around and last November I did a web search, and found an article about him…in the obituary column of the Dallas Morning News. He died last March at 85.
And the question I put to our group, and there was some discussion is where is Rabbi Klein now? Assuming he was not a believer in Jesus Christ, where is he now?
Does that make you uncomfortable? It is not pleasant to talk about someone being eternally lost. I know because most of my relatives are in the same category. But if you give another answer, and the question I asked at SEFC was, “Do you really understand what the gospel is?” Because if there is some other way that we can be saved, other than believing in Jesus Christ, then there was no reason for Him to go through what He did. Think about these as we move closer to Easter.
When most of us think of the Lord’s Prayer, we immediately go to Matthew 6 where Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount told the multitudes how to pray. But the prayer, that many call, and rightly so, the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17. And that is what we are going to look at tonight. Now I know what you’re thinking. Let’s hurry and get Jim back from the retreat. Or we’ll never make it to Royal Host. By the way, what time does Royal Host close? I’ll make sure we’re out of here 15 minutes before.
Time does not permit me to cover everything in this prayer. I gave 4 messages on it at our English service. We could probably spend months in it. There are whole books written on this chapter alone. But what I would like to do is give us an overview of what Jesus prayed for on that night. Because it affects each and every one of us. And as one of my seminary professors, Dr Pentecost said, “this prayer is one of the most intimate glimpses in Scripture of Jesus mind and heart as He prayed this.”
OK let’s dig in. Jesus prayed this just after His farewell discourse with His disciples. He began by washing their feet in John 13. He went on and talked about several things, like being a servant, the Holy Spirit and abiding in Him. I’ve included on the outline the 3 groups Jesus prays for. I will look at the high points of His prayer. Hopefully this will encourage you to spend time reading this yourself and see what Jesus prayed for you and me. Because let’s face it, it is a very difficult passage. If you have translations like the KJV or the NASB you will see lots of Thee’s and Thou’s, Thy’s and Thine’s. No, let’s look at something easier.
But just remember this as we look into this passage. All through the gospel, Jesus has been saying He was sent by His Father to do His will. He did not come to do His own will. He makes claims to deity when He calls God, My Father. Because Jesus has made claims nobody else made and the Jews didn’t like it. So let’s see if these things about Jesus are true.
Jesus first prays for Himself. We see that in verses 1-5. And Jesus’ prayer is for the Father to glorify Him. He wants to glorified in His death and ultimately to be returned to the glory He had with the Father before He came to earth.
All through this gospel, Jesus has been referring to “His hour.” He is talking about the time when He will be arrested and ultimately crucified. We refer to this time as the Passion. Because all through John’s gospel, Jesus has been making references to His hour and that the time had not yet come. Now it has come. And you will notice that Jesus never was distracted from what He came to do.
You will notice a lot of giving in this passage. In verse 2 we see the authority Jesus was given by the Father to give eternal life. What is your definition of eternal life? John best describes it in verse 3. Eternal life is knowing Jesus and the Father who sent Him. It is a personal, continuing intimate relationship with God. It is dynamic.
Because what do we think of when we think of eternal life? We think of an endless existence. Because each of us will spend eternity somewhere. The question is where will we spend eternity. I love going into Tokyo. I love the places where there are lots of people, like Shinjuku and Shibuya. And when I see the multitudes I am reminded that God knows each one by name. And each person will one day give account of himself or herself to God. I remember the response of one of my English students when the chaplain asked her about spiritual things. She said, “I’m sorry but I cannot talk about God.” She may not want to talk about God, but one day she will have to give account to Him. I pray that she will face Jesus as her Saviour and not her Judge.
Jesus, in John’s gospel makes it very plain that He came to glorify the Father. In verse 5 He prays that the Father will restore Him to the same glory He had before the world was. I think this is one of the strongest proofs that Jesus existed in the beginning. I remember when I was 6 or 7 years old, I was asking my father questions about God. And I remember him telling me that God will exist forever. OK, I can take that. But then I asked my father, and I don’t remember my exact words, when did God become God? And my father told me He always was God. How can that be? He had to have a beginning somewhere. Because you and I had a beginning.
But God has no beginning, my father told me. And after graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary I still cannot answer that question. The Bible tells us He created the heavens and the earth in the beginning and He existed before the foundation of the world. And I came to this conclusion. If God had a beginning He wouldn’t be God. Because He would have had to be created. So there would have had to be a Supreme Being higher than God.
OK, we saw Jesus pray that the Father will be glorified and Jesus will be glorified with the glory He had before the world.
Let’s look at what Jesus prays for His disciples. And while this part of the prayer is intended for His 11 disciples, we will see how it affects us and includes us as well. This is in verses 6-19.
In verses 6-8 Jesus acknowledges that He manisfested Himself to the disciples with 2 results. The first is that the disciples believed that Jesus came from the Father. You see that while many people deny the existence of Jesus Christ, the Jews, for the most part, don’t deny He existed. He was a Jewish Rabbi, my father told me. And when I went home for Christmas, my sisters came to the Christmas eve service with me at IBC. And like she told me later, she believes in God, she doesn’t believe Jesus was God. And that’s where we differ with most Jews. Because they do not believe Jesus came from God. In chapter 5 of this gospel, for the first time, we see the Jews wanting to kill Jesus. He healed a man on the Sabbath and He called God His Father making Himself equal with God. The second thing the disciples believed is that the Father sent Jesus. It is important to know that they believed this. Because when you get into the events of the Passion, and you see the disciples abandoning Jesus and Peter denying Him, you wouldn’t believe it. Their faith will be tested like never before. And they will fall away, but you will see them all return to Jesus and given the Great Commission. Don’t believe me? Read Acts.
The next thing we see Jesus pray for in verse 9-12 is their protection. And for that there is something we need to understand. Notice in verse 9 Jesus is not praying for the whole world, but only for those the Father has given them. Because remember the world is opposed to Jesus. And the unbelieving world is still under the dominion of Satan.
But for the disciples, and I believe this ultimately includes us Jesus prays for protection. Because He has been with the disciples and He kept them and none of them were lost except the son of perdition who is Judas Iscariot. And that was in fulfillment of Scripture.
Jesus also prayed in verse 11 that they may be one, just as He and the Father are one. I’m going to say more about that later, but Jesus is praying for their unity.
When Jim is here and we study Philippians we sing our theme song, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And last week Jim asked us what are some of the things we rejoice in other than the Lord? I think you know what I always rejoice in. Just so you know, yesterday I wasn’t rejoicing because my computer was very slow. If you think your computer is slow, it can’t possibly be slower than mine.
Jesus in verse 13 prays for the disciples that they have Jesus joy fulfilled in them. Let’s face it, the events coming up may not be cause for joy. And as I said earlier the disciples faith will be sorely tested. The joy that Jesus is talking about is a joy that only He can give regardless of circumstances. I guess we do need to sing our song again.
I’m going to read to you a quote from Chuck Swindoll about joy. He said that “a joyful countenance has nothing to do with one’s age or one’s occupation (or lack of it) or one’s geography or education or marital status or good looks or circumstances Joy is a choice. It is a matter of attitude that stems from one’s confidence in God…that He is at work, that He is in full control, that He is in the midst of whatever has happened, is happening and will happen.”
A first class seat on a 777 will not give you this joy. And neither will getting the job you always want or getting out of your present circumstances. No it only comes from knowing God is at work and in control. It is a supernatural joy that doesn’t come from the world. The world cannot even give it for that matter.
Because you see, in verse 14-16 that while the disciples are in the world, they are not of the world. The world hates them because of their belief in Jesus. And you and I may also encounter hostility because of our faith. I shared with you Rabbi Klein would not shake hands with me. A friend said he thought that was awful. Well the way I look at it was that Jesus and the disciples had a lot worse things happen to them than a Rabbi not shaking hands with them. I did not know Rabbi Klein very well. And I bet if he got to know me he would really have liked me. But it was who I believed in that Rabbi Klein wanted nothing to do with.
But Jesus wants more for the disciples than their protection. He wants their sanctification. Look at verse 17.
What does it mean to be sanctified? To be sanctified means to be set apart. In this case Jesus prays that the disciples be set apart from the world to God. And this is what He wants for us as well.
Let me just say a few things about sanctification. That is a whole topic that we could spend many months looking at. But let me just give you some examples of how we are set apart to God.
First, we are set apart to God when we come to believe. I’ll give you some Bible references on this.
Romans 5:1 ¶ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 5:2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Our faith in Jesus is what initially sets us apart to God. We refer to this as past sanctification.
We are set apart to God as we live in obedience to Him and we are made more and more like Jesus. I won’t have us read the whole passage because of time, but read Romans 6-8, and Galatians 5 on the fruit of the spirit. This is our present or experiential sanctification. We will never see this completely while we’re here on earth. I will probably still get impatient when my computer is slow, this side of heaven. Don’t get discouraged if you blow it from time to time. Remember this world is Satan’s domain.
But we also have the future when we are with Jesus, and will be just like Him. Here are some verses.
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Jude 1:24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy--
Jude 1:25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
That is our future sanctification.
How are we set apart to God in our daily lives? I think, as Jesus prays for the disciples in verse 17, we are set apart through the truth, God’s word. I get asked why I always preach from the Bible. I can say because that’s what I was taught to do in seminary. But the real reason is because I want to know and live by God’s truth. And I want others to see it as well. I think we’ve talked about how God’s word works in our lives as we’ve looked at Philippians. But if I could choose only one book it needs to be the Bible. I remember when we had our graduation chapel, Dr Zuck told us, “don’t tell them what you think, tell them what God thinks.” Now we all attend different churches, but I believe all of us are taught the Bible. But can I ask you one of those difficult questions again? You can say no but I’m going to ask you anyway. You come to church and hear messages from the Bible. But is that your only exposure to the Bible? If listening to one or two messages a week is your only exposure to the Bible,then you are missing out on what God has for you. Do you spend time on your own reading your Bible, studying it and meditating on it? Several years ago, I had the chance to travel to China with The Bible League. The purpose of our trip was to smuggle Bibles into China and get them to the believers who do not have access toGod’s word. Our group took 5000 Bibles into Shanghai and Beijing with nobody getting their Bibles confiscated at customs. In addition we distributed 2000 Bibles on the train between Beijing and Guangjhou. In China, as well as other places in the world, the Christians face persecution for having Bibles. But the Bible is God’s written word to us, and it is what He uses to make us more like Jesus. So please make sure you are making your time in the Bible a priority.
Let me also say briefly, that Jesus prays for His own sanctification in verse 19. Why does Jesus need to be set apart to God when He is God? I think He is talking about the death He is about to face on the cross. Because, you see, His death on the cross was the payment for our sins, and that is what first enables our being set apart to God. Remember Jesus had no agenda of His own. His agenda was to follow His Father’s agenda.
We will conclude Jesus prayer with His prayer for you and me. From verse 20-26, Jesus prays for us.
Do you know that your being here is a result of the witness of the disciples? After Jesus was raised from the dead, and before He returned to the Father, He commissioned the disciples to take the gospel into the whole world. They started in Jerusalem and spread out from there. Each disciple shared with someone who in turn shared with someone. At our Thanksgiving dinner we heard Rich share about 15 generations who have believed the gospel. There will be generations after us and we need to be faithful in passing it on down to them.
See, Jesus wants 2 things for us. He prays for our unity. I’ll say a little more about that in a minute. The result of our unity is that the world knows the Father sent Him.
He wants us to experience His glory and know His love for us. As a matter of fact this is what He wants the whole world to know. But for the world to know that the Father sent the Son and His love for us, we need to be one, or we need to be in unity.
What does it mean that we are one? Let me tell you what it does not mean. It does not mean that everyone votes the same way. When I was on the missions committee at Scofield Memorial Church, we had the privilege of approving or disapproving new missionaries for support. I’m happy to say that we often approved them and the vote was usually unanimous. That is we all voted in favor. I also remember when I had my ordination council, in which they unanimously voted to ordain me. I was relieved at that.
Unity does not mean we are all alike. When I was in the Navy I was part of a company. There were 75 of us from all walks of life. If you saw us at first, you could tell that each of us was different. Believe me, there was nobody like me in Company 950. For one thing, I was the only Jew in my company. But if you saw us at the end of 9 weeks of Boot Camp, you would see us all function together as Company 950. We all looked like the same in our uniforms. Now we may have been different on the inside but on the outside we were all the same. That is called uniformity. That’s not what Jesus is praying for.
At American Airlines, as well as other airlines, most groups are represented by labor unions. A union is a political organization which does not necessarily include individual agreement. The pilots, flight attendants and ground workers all have unions. Now within each union there may not be unanimity and uniformity. But they are all together on making their objectives known to management. They do it as a group because there is strength in numbers. And this year all 3 unions have contracts that are up for renewals. It will be interesting because actually it can be quite contentious between labor and management and can go as far as a strike. But Jesus is not talking about this.
The unity Jesus is praying for is that we are all one. We are one in our faith. This is a unity of inner heart and essential purpose. That is the unity Jesus is praying for.
Several years ago at Scofield Memorial Church, our senior pastor resigned after 25 years as senior pastor. He resigned to go into another ministry. And a search committee was formed to seek God’s will on our next senior pastor. Scofield had not been without a senior pastor in 70 years. So the search committee had their work cut out for them. Throughout their search which was bathed in prayer, each person on the search committee shared that none of them came with their own agenda. They were there to seek God’s will. And as we heard testimony they shared that they did not always have unanimity. That is everyone didn’t always vote the same. But they always had unity. They were there for the same purpose and there was the unity of inner heart among each member of the committee. And God’s will was done, in that we found our new senior pastor. He quit 13 months later but that’s another story.
Jesus is praying for our unity, that we may be one. And that is not impossible because notice Jesus says He and the Father are one. Because, you see there are 2 results from our unity, and that is in verse 23. The world knows God’s love for the Son and for us, and that He sent the Son. And the only way this will happen is if we are one.
I gave a message on this particular part of Jesus prayer. Let me say that all of us have seen divisions in the churches and even among denominations. Don’t believe me? How should we baptize, by sprinkling or immersion? And more importantly, who should we baptize? Can we baptize infants? Can anyone who comes to church take communion? Or is it only for believes in Jesus Christ? And should we use grape juice or wine? What about our style of worship? Do we use an organ and hymnals? Or do we go to a contemporary worship service? Does the Bible allow divorce? And if so, can a divorced person remarry? What about speaking in tongues? Was it just for the apostolic church? Or is it a valid gift for today. And here’s the big one, that goes back 30 years ago, are you a 4 point Calvinist or a 5 point Calvinist? See me later and I’ll explain that one to you.
See these are differences among Bible believing Christians. We may never see eye to eye on these. But if we can remember the unity we have because of our being believers in Jesus Christ, this is a visible sign to the unbelieving world of God’s love for us and more importantly our love for one another. And it also results in what Jesus wants the world to know, that the Father sent Him.
When we have intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ and with one another this is what gives testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son.
The last thing Jesus prays for us is that we see His glory and we be where He is. Verses 24-26 have this.
Despite the fact that we are in the world, one day we will be in the presence of Jesus and experience Him in His glorified state just as we are in our glorified state. Jesus is with the Father. If you are a believer when you die or at the rapture, you will go to be with Jesus in the presence of the Father.
Can I ask you a question. What hinders you from worshipping Jesus Christ? You don’t need to answer that question, but most likely it is something that has nothing to do with Him. Probably it is a concern of the world. When we go to be with Jesus and see Him in all His glory and we are unhindered by sin, we will be truly able to worship Him as one.
I realize we have these differences and it is not my intention to prove which one is right or wrong. And when it comes to issues of the faith, such as we can be saved only by believing in Jesus, we do need to be united on this one. Because it is that kind of unity which will be a testimony to the unbelieving world. And there are many things about us that the world can scoff at, but when they see us functioning in unity and love for one another, they cannot deny that.
My mother was not in good health. She was in and out of the hospitals and had several surgeries. I remember when she had some major back surgery, my pastor visited her in the hospital and prayed for her just before she went into surgery. And this was on his holiday. After the pastor left she told me the Rabbi’s never do that. Many people from my church reached out to her. And while I don’t know if she ever came to believe in Jesus or not, she did see a difference between the people at Scofield Memorial Church and the people at Temple Emanuel. Mom even told one of our pastors that the people from church show more love and concern than the people at the temple.
This is what happens when we are one. The world sees the love the Father had for the Son and His love for us. And when we love each other with the same kind of love, we are a testimony to the unbelieving world that the Father sent the Son. Let’s be those kind of people who are a visible witness to a world that is hostile to Jesus Christ.
