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...
is to stop making excuses...
get into the game...
and play our hearts out...
It’s not so important how many points you score in the game...
It’s not so important whether you are the team superstar or not...
The key is, GET IN THE GAME
GET TO WORK
THE HARVEST IS NOW!!
GOD NEEDS YOU TO COMPLETE THE WORK THAT HE HAS GIVEN YOU TO DO!
C. You might be thinking, "well, God hasn’t given me any work to do"...
and my response would be, "you just aren’t listening"
God has something for everyone...
maybe it’s teaching a Sunday School class.
maybe it’s helping in the Nursery...
maybe it’s writing cards and letters...
maybe it’s witnessing to your neighbors...
maybe it’s inviting people to church...
maybe it’s several things...
maybe it’s only 1 thing...
whatever it is...
Just do it to the best of your ability...
and leave the results to God.
3. The 3rd Lesson for us in this passage of Scripture...
A. Eternal life is impossible by another other way...
The only way to heaven...
the only way to eternal life...
is found in verse 3, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent"
People who don’t believe in God, but instead follow some prophet...
or some other entity...
they are going to miss out.
People who believe in God, but deny Jesus Christ...
they are going to miss out.
Eternal life is KNOWING God AND Jesus Christ.
The Greek work for KNOW is "ginosko" which has the meaning "to be acquainted with by experience"
It is also present tense which reflects a continued, growing knowledge.
(Beacon Bible Commentary, vol 7, page 190)
In other words, you can’t just know ABOUT God...
You can’t just believe that He exists...
You need to have a personal, vibrant and real relationship with Jesus Christ...
and once you get saved, you don’t just sit back and enjoy the ride...
you grow...
you develop...
you learn...
you become more like Christ.
B. And that is how you acquire eternal life
Conclusion
1. Jesus starts off His prayer by praying for Himself...
1. He knows He is about to die, and He turns to God for strength and help...as we should do.
2. He glorified God by doing what it was that God wanted Him to do...as we should do.
3. He acknowledged that eternal life comes from KNOWING God and GROWING closer to Him each day...as we should do.
