[continuing the pastoral prayer]… Glorify your servant today. Help him to preach well so that those who hear might be impressed and tell their friends how great he is. Grow our church so that our fame might be spread throughout the area. Make my name a household word among Christians like Chuck Swindoll. Lord, please glorify me today. Amen.
What’s wrong? Don’t you like my prayer? Why not? I can see the elders calling a special meeting right after the service, or they should if I would ever pray a prayer like that seriously. In fact, they should dismiss me immediately and suggest I go to the state mental hospital at Larned. No person in their right mind would ever pray like that unless, of course, you’re the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to John 17, John 17, where John records the “real” Lord’s Prayer, the prayer our Lord prayed the night before He was crucified.
John 17:1-5 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (ESV).
Doesn’t that sound strange? It would if Jesus were a mere human being, but He’s not! He is God, the Son, in the flesh, so…
HE ASKS GOD, THE FATHER, TO GLORIFY HIS SON.
Jesus asks His Heavenly Father to increase his Son’s fame throughout the world, to make His Son’s name great.
There are some who say that Jesus was just a good man, a wonderful teacher, or a great prophet. But Jesus’ prayer here eliminates that possibility. A good man would never pray this way, only a stark, raving lunatic. Jesus’ prayer here leaves us no other choice. He is either deranged or He is deity, because nobody but God would ever pray like this in all seriousness. So, if you believe that Jesus is a good man, you also have to believe that Jesus is the God-man,
He is God the Son asking God the Father to glorify His Son. That’s because Jesus glorified the Father. He brought honor to His Heavenly Father while He was here on this earth.
In verse 4, Jesus told His Heavenly Father, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do,” which was to give eternal life to all the Father gave Him (vs.2).
And just what is that “eternal life?”
Verse 3: And this is eternal life, that they KNOW you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life is knowing God—not knowing ABOUT God, but knowing God intimately. The Greek word for “know” here is the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe the relationship between a husband and his wife. It describes an intimate, personal knowledge.
When Sandy and I were growing up, our parents took us to a place called Sandy Cove Bible Conference a lot. We must have played together on the same playground equipment many times, but we never “knew” each other until the summer of 1977. Then, the staff director invited her to work with me in the bookstore one weekend, and we started to get to “know” each other. We started dating a year later and four years after that got married.
Before then, if someone had asked me about the girl with the brown hair, I would have said, “Who is that?”
Now that we’ve been married for over 42 years, I can tell you what a great wife, mother, and companion she is. I can honor her better than most people because I “know” her better than most. I have an intimate, personal relationship with my wife.
Now, that’s how Jesus glorified His Father. He gave His followers an intimate, personal knowledge of God. He brought them into a relationship with His Heavenly Father, so they could tell the world what a great Father, Provider, and Friend He is.
Let me ask you a very important question: Do you know God? I’m not asking, “Do you know ABOUT God?” I’m asking, “Do you KNOW God intimately?
You can through Jesus Christ, His Son. Just trust Jesus with your life. Live your life in dependence upon the One who died for your sins and rose again. Then He will give you eternal life. I.e., He will give you an intimate, personal knowledge of His Father so you can glorify Him too.
That’s the reason why Jesus came. Jesus came to glorify His Father, and He did it!
Now, Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him. Jesus prays that God would honor Him.
Look at verse 5 again: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Jesus existed before this world ever began. In fact, Jesus existed from all eternity past without beginning (or end). John 1 makes that very clear. Jesus was WITH God and He WAS God in all His splendor and glory from forever ago.
Then, 2000 years ago, Jesus veiled that glory in human flesh. He came to this earth, where instead of His creation honoring Him as God, they despised Him. They rejected Him. They laughed at Him and crucified Him.
Now, Jesus asks the Father to lift the veil, as it were—to reveal His glory again, and to honor Him in front of the whole world as God.
The question is: How does Jesus want the Father to do that? How does Jesus want the Father to glorify Him? Does Jesus want His Father to write a message across the sky in big, bold letters – “JESUS IS GOD”? Does Jesus want His Father to instruct Gabriel to blow his trumpet and announce it from the banisters of Heaven? NO! Jesus wants the Father to glorify Him through US! Can you believe it? Jesus wants God to use US to bring Him glory. That’s why, after He prays for His glory…
HE PRAYS FOR OUR SECURITY.
He asks God to protect us eternally. Jesus pleads with His Father to keep us forever, to give us an eternal life that can never be taken away.
John 17:6-8 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me (ESV).
Jesus is praying for His followers, who have come to believe that He came from God.
John 17:9-10 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them (ESV).
Do you see it? Glory comes to Christ through us!
John 17:11-15 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one (ESV).
Jesus kept His followers while He was with them. Now, that He is returning to His Father, He asks His Father to keep them in His absence. Jesus prays for our protection.
Why? Well, 1st of all He doesn’t want to lose any one of us. He doesn’t want any one of us to be separated or lost. In verse 11, Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in your name… that they may be one, even as we are one. Jesus wants to preserve His Body, the Church, complete—without one piece missing.
Several years ago, Sandy was working on a Milton-Bradley, 500-piece, jigsaw puzzle, which she found fun and frustrating at the same time. You know how it is when that one little piece with a splotch of red or another one with the green stripe going through the middle eludes you. But when you get to the end, there is that feeling of triumph when you put that last piece in.
Well, on this particular puzzle, as Sandy worked her way through all the frustrations, the last piece was missing. Do you know what that did for her? It ruined the whole puzzle. There was no feeling of triumph, only a feeling of loss and disappointment.
Now, if someone feels that way about a silly little puzzle, how much worse do you think Jesus would feel if one of His own were lost, if a piece from His own precious Church were missing? That’s why He asks His Father to protect us. Because He doesn’t want to lose any one of us.
And He wants to preserve his own reputation. He wants His name to remain great. You see, if any of us were to ever lose our salvation, God would lose His good name; God would lose His glory. That’s why Jesus prayed in verse 11, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which you have given me…” Both the Father and the Son’s name are at stake here.
The missing piece from that Milton-Bradley puzzle not only ruined the puzzle for Sandy, it also marred the Milton-Bradley name. It put a black mark on their reputation. At least that’s what the Milton-Bradley people were afraid of.
When Sandy found that a piece was missing from their puzzle, she wrote them a letter. Do you know, they sent her a new puzzle and three letters?! Each letter apologized for the missing piece and expressed their wish that the new puzzle would restore her faith in the Milton-Bradley name.
Tell me. If Milton-Bradley is concerned about losing their good name over a missing piece, how much more do you think our Lord would be concerned about losing his good name over a missing person? How much more do you think our Lord would be concerned about ruining His reputation over a person for whom Christ died, a person needed to complete the picture of the Body of Christ in Heaven.
God’s reputation is secure when we are secure. He is glorified when we are “kept in His name.” That’s why when Jesus prays for His glory, He prays for our security. Then…
HE PRAYS FOR OUR SANCTITY.
Jesus asks His Father to make us holy, to set us apart for himself.
John 17:16-18 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world (ESV).
Believers are not FROM the world, but Jesus sends them INTO the world to represent Him. So He tells His Father…
John 17:19 And for their sake I consecrate myself [literally, I set myself apart] that they also may be sanctified in truth [or set apart (same word) in truth] (ESV).
In the same way Jesus sets Himself apart to His Father, so God truly sets Jesus’ followers apart from the world unto Himself. That’s the status of every believer in Christ! God has sanctified or set them apart for His own special use.
Paul addresses a group of sinning, selfish believers in Corinth as “those who have been sanctified”—or set apart (1 Cor 1:2). And he tells them, “You were sanctified”—You were set apart (1 Cor 6:11). Their practice was far from their status, but in Christ, God considered them holy, sanctified, set apart for His use.
I have here a very nice tie. It’s not like any other tie hanging on the racks in the store. Do you know why? Because this tie belongs to me. I picked it out and purchased it. No other tie was so favored. In a sense, you could say, “It has been sanctified. It has been set apart from all the other ties in the store for my own special use, specifically to make me look good.
The same is true of every believer. God picked us out and purchased us with the price of His own Son’s shed blood. And He has set us apart from everyone else in the world for His own special use.
Why? To make Him look good, of course! God sanctified us so we could glorify him. He set us apart from the world, so He could send us back into the world, to impact the world for Christ, to bring Him glory.
When I wear this tie, people say, “He looks nice; he’s sharp; or he’s all right.” At least that’s what I hope people say about me.
So it is when God puts us on (so to speak), when God puts us before a watching world. He wants the world to say of Him, “Wow! He’s nice; He’s sharp; He’s all right!”
But what happens when we sin? What happens when we get our lives spotted and soiled with evil attitudes or actions? It’s very simple—we cease to bring glory to God.
It never seems to fail. Whenever I get a nice, new tie, inevitably I spill something on it. Ties make nice bibs, you know, and I have several ties with big, old food stains right on the front. Now, what would happen if I wore one of my dirty ties? Do you think people would say, “Wow! He looks nice”? NO. They’d say, “Yuck! He’s sloppy. I don’t want to get near him.”
So it is when sin stains our lives. When we’re all spotted and soiled with bitterness, pride, lust, or any other sin, people say of our God, “Yuck! I don’t want to get near Him.” When we sin, we cease to bring glory to God; and therefore, we lose our usefulness to Him.
God cannot use us when we’re living in sin. He cannot use us until we’re clean again. He cannot use us until we confess our sins and let the blood of Christ cleanse us from that sin.
The Bible says, “God is light,” so, “If we walk in the light [i.e., if walk in the truth], as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:5, 7-9).
Dear believer, if you’ve stained your life with bad attitudes and actions, please, confess your sin and let the blood of Jesus cleanse you from that sin, so God can use you for His glory again. For Jesus wants God to glorify Him through you and me! That’s why He prays for our security. That’s why He prays for our sanctity. And #3, that’s why…
HE PRAYS FOR OUR SOLIDARITY, as well.
He prays for our unity. Jesus asks the father to make us one.
John 17:20-23 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (ESV).
Jesus wants His church to be unified, because it brings Him glory. It causes the world to know and believe that God sent Him. It causes the world to see Him as something special.
There is a small Catholic church in Carinthia, Austria. It’s called the Sankt Maria church, and sometimes the pastor has to pause his sermon for an unusual reason. A road runs through the middle of the church. The pastor preaches his sermon in the sanctuary on the east side of a one-lane road, while the churchgoers sit in a building on the opposite side of the road.
In 1443, church officials erected a wayside shrine (called a Marterl) at this point on a former Roman road. At the time, the road was an important trade route from Venice to Salzburg, and the shrine gave travelers a place to pray.
In 1754 the roadside shrine was replaced by a chapel. Since there was not much space between the road and the slope, a chapel was built with the sanctuary about six feet above the road, and worshipers gathered on the street in front of the church.
Eventually, a pastor felt sorry for the pilgrims who often stood in front of him in the rain, and had a two-story structure built on the opposite side of the road about 15 feet from the chapel. In this building, there are two rooms with chairs and benches. This building is also open on the side facing the road and the chapel, and the open side of both buildings have wrought-iron safety fences.
Services now took place in two buildings: the priest stood in one, and congregants in the other. If a vehicle came by, he had to interrupt his sermon. This happened more often up until 1905 when a bypass road replaced the federal road going through the church. However, local traffic still passes through the church today (“Geteilte Kirch am Kreuzbichl, Divided Church,” Atlas Obscura; www.atlasobscura.com/places/geteilte-kirche-am-kreuzbichl?mc_cid=4798b398c7&mc_eid=a2b367b1a6; www.PreachingToday.com).
The physical divide of this church reflects the spiritual divide in Christ’s church these days, and that must break His heart. It breaks His heart when His followers divide over politics, race, or other non-essential issues. Instead, we need to focus on Jesus, the truth about Him, and spreading the gospel.
When we do that, people honor Him. Otherwise, a divided church ruins its witness when it tries to declare that “God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The world rejects the testimony of a divided church when it declares that Jesus died for “the sins of the whole WORLD” (1 John 2:2). They cannot believe that Jesus loves them when His followers don’t love each other.
That’s why when Jesus asks His Father to glorify His Son, He prays for our security, our sanctity, and our unity. It’s His only plan for saving the world and causing people to honor Him.
Imagine the scene with me as Jesus returns to glory after his time on earth. He bears the marks of his cruel cross and shameful death. The angel Gabriel approaches him and asks, “Master, do they know all about how you loved them and what you did for them?”
“No,” Jesus replies, “not yet. Right now only a handful of people in Palestine know.”
Gabriel is perplexed. “Then what have you done to let everyone know about your love for them?”
Jesus says, “I've asked Peter, James, John, and a few others to tell people about me. Those who are told will tell others, and my story will be spread throughout the earth. Ultimately, all mankind will know about my love.”
Gabriel frowns, “But what if they fail? Do you have another plan?”
Jesus answers, “No. I'm counting on them” (Bible Illustrator #2723-2725; 5/1992.29).
That’s why Jesus prayed for us and continues to pray for us! Now, may God answer His prayer in our lives and in our church today.
