Jesus Last Prayer – What’s in it for me
Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
John 17
John 17:1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
John 17:6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. 12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected 1in unity, so that the world may 2know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
John 17:25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
What a strange title I picked for this sermon. My Seminary teachers encouraged me not to worry about titles. Why? Because people will read the title and decide about what the message is all about before they hear it. So, let me ask you to think about this question for a moment. What preconceived thoughts do you have because of my title?
What’s in it for me is a phrase I have heard repeatedly in my twenty-five years of pastoring. Let’s start with the meaning of Jesus’ prayer in 90 CE. The movement had sixty years under its belt. Around 90 CE is when Emperor Hadrian started the hardest persecution of all religions that were not the state religion, except for Judaism. So, the proto-orthodox church came under a lot of pressure. There were also other expressions of Christianity around the Empire during that day, and they suffered too. It was the proto-orthodox church that survived the persecutions and became the church we know today. Well, there was more unity. Well, the façade of unity existed.
Because of being persecuted and lacking time and energy, Christians did not argue over doctrine and definitions very much. In the second century CE, when the persecutions lightened up, different interpretations of Jesus’ words emerged. That’s when the disunity started. After Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the Empire in 325 CE, disagreements about doctrine and definitions arose. Constantine solved this problem by declaring himself the head of the Catholic-Orthodox church and forced unity.
That really worked until Constantine died. With the acceptance of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, there was time and energy to spend on doctrines and definitions. The Gospels, nor Paul’s letters, defined everything that the church needed to grow and survive. Theologians over time helped shape and change doctrines.
The understanding of the works of Jesus Christ changed throughout the early centuries. Around 450 CE, the Dark Ages occurred, the Roman Empire had fallen, and the arguments in the church over doctrine moved slowly. Pelagius in the seventh century came up with the church doctrine about a person’s ability to receive salvation. He believed it was the person’s responsibility to obtain salvation by their works. What happened to Jesus’ role in this idea? Certainly, one had to follow Jesus’ ways and accept him as Lord. It was good works that had to be done. This caused a lot of uproar with the church’s hierarchy who believed Jesus offered salvation and a person had no hand in it, however they needed to do good works, anyway. Some splintering occurred and today we have several ideas on good works, which the church calls works righteousness.
When the Dark ages ended around 1000 CE, different doctrines and definitions emerged. However, the idea of unity within the Christian community was still in play. Salvation came to the congregation of the church. The idea of individual salvation was not the order of the day. Everyone in a Christian community worked together to obtain salvation for the entire community. This was the way it was in Jesus’ day.
When did it change to what’s in it for me? That occurred when the Modern period began. 1500 CE is considered the beginning of the Modern period of history. The idea of individualism took over. Between 1000 and 1500 CE saw the rise of nations. These groups of people would then wage war against other nations. There was a lot of death and destruction. To stop this, the philosophers came up with the idea of individualism. This meant that a person lived for themselves. It did not stop Kings and rulers from getting their subjects to fight wars for them. The idea was that individualism would stop wars because people would say no to the rulers. Nice idea.
After 1500 CE salvation became an individualistic idea. The Bible text may be read that way, but the authors referred to the entire community even when the verse talked about individuals, as people understood when it was written. That was the custom of the day. Well, after 1500 CE, the idea of individualized salvation took over.
It would appear from Jesus' prayer that individualism was important. The beauty of the Bible is that it is a living document which does not change and fits every time period. So, the question people started asking is “what’s in it for me?” What does a person receive when they come to know Jesus Christ as the Messiah, or as a part of God?
After all, people today expect something for their time on Sunday morning. Now I should note here that individualism is being replaced by communities. 2000 CE is marked as the beginning of the Post-Modern period. Virtual communities are now the rage. I know a person who has over 2000 friends on Facebook. That is her community. Maintaining social connections with 2000 people is not possible. Robin Dunbar, in the mid-nineteenth century, showed humans can handle around 150 social connections at one time. So, the 2000 friends are not social connections but a virtual community.
That being said, we have to remember that virtual communities are what our youth are being taught. Most of us are not Post-Modern thinkers and are looking for the answer to the question “what’s in it for me?” Jesus’ prayer gives the answer! Eternal life is offered by the LORD to all who come to faith in God and Jesus. There it is. Simple and easy, right?
No, it is difficult. Some churches and preaches like Rob Bell in Michigan love to say that eternal life is easy to obtain. He preaches that there is no Hell, and everyone goes to heaven. His church has a huge following because people like the answer to the question “what’s in it for me.” Bell says love God and love Jesus and you are in. He does not elaborate heavily about what that means, or a better question is how to obtain it.
Let me tell you what the Bible says about obtaining eternal life. First is that you want this. Let me add one really important point. You want eternal life in Heaven with God and Jesus. Now that is the answer to the question, “what’s in it for me?” How do you get this sanctification which is needed for Heaven? To get sanctification, you need to follow the Laws in the Bible as Jesus showed us for eternal life with God. Out of all the prophets and kings, there is one person who teaches us how to please the LORD, which is what we need for eternal life and that person is Jesus Christ.
You cannot go wrong following the ways of Jesus. Twenty years ago, there was the WWJD movement. WWJD was short for “What would Jesus do?” What a significant question to ask before you do anything. What would Jesus do? If you ask this question, you are doing something that pleases the LORD. Everything that Jesus did in his lifetime was for us. He wanted to teach us how to live so that in time we would join him in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, I will lay the task out before you. Follow the ways of Jesus Christ and an afterlife in Heaven is yours. It really is that simple. Jesus asked the LORD to give us help. That help is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is always with you; therefore, you need to call upon the Spirit for all your decisions, actions, and speech. You cannot go wrong when you are being directed by the Holy Spirit. As you go out into the world, remember to call upon the Holy Spirit for guidance in all your decisions, actions, and speech. Then do it.
