Talking to God - John 17:1-11
By Rev, Alan Cummins
Greetings to you all!!! Whether you’re watching at 10 a.m. this Sunday, 24 May in Timaru, or you’re at a different time and/or in a different place, welcome!!!
You may be up and dressed ready for church, or you may be in your night gear, or tucked up in bed! Only God and you will know!!
However we meet, wherever we meet virtually, God is with us!! It’s all been a new and different experience for us all. This is certainly new for me, apart from my wee story on trains which some of you will have seen!
Perhaps just as we get used to it all, it will be time to come out of hibernation, as it were and resume worshipping life with some of the old and lots of the new. Only time will tell!
Conversation, chatting, passing the time of day, small talk – whatever we call it, we all like to talk. Some of us more than others. Some like to talk a lot, they like the sound of their own voice, we cheekily say, while others like to listen. Some are natural talkers; others are natural listeners, but in the course of a day we do a lot of both.
Who do we talk to and what do we say? We talk to family members, colleagues, neighbours, business people, the list goes on. As for the topics, we talk about what’s worrying us, delighting us, frustrating us. We talk business, we talk pleasure, we talk love, we talk sport – quite simply, depending on who it is we’re talking to, we talk about everything. Sometimes the topic is specific; other times it’s general; sometimes it’s serious; on other occasions it’s just humorous and fun!
When you think of it prayer is just the same, isn’t it? We talk to God about anything. We talk to God about everything. Sometimes we’re worried, frightened, concerned, anxious and unsure. At other times we’re joyful, full of praise, excitement, thankful and satisfied with life and our situation.
We do a lot of talking to God. We try and remember to listen as well. If you’re anything like me I’m sure you’ll admit the scales are unevenly balanced in favour of our talking to God. The listening side is a bit light!
Prayer is vitally important in our lives. It is necessary; it is essential. We can’t live without it. As someone has wisely said, ‘Seven days without prayer makes one week!’
Some great quotes on prayer…..
“Prayer is a breath of faith, Prayer meetings are the lungs of the Church.” -Charles Spurgeon
"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." - Martin Luther
"God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil." - Mother Teresa.
We all know how important prayer is for us. It’s important in our own personal lives and in our shared life together. Jesus exhorts us, ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.’
Jesus spent time in prayer, he often withdrew to pray. To be silent in his Father’s presence. He taught on prayer and he gave us the greatest prayer of all time to pray and to enjoy, The Lord’s Prayer.’
So now we turn to today’s Gospel – John 17: 1-11. Chapter 17 contains Jesus’ longest prayer. 26 verses of Jesus pouring his heart out to his Father. Just after he has told the disciples he must leave them, he prays for them. He is about to be arrested and face the Cross, but he takes time to pray specifically!
Chapter 13 forms a break in The Gospel of John:
Chapters 1-12 deal with the entire ministry of Jesus Christ, about three and a half years, whereas, chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 cover one night.
In the New Testament, Chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse given by Jesus to eleven of his disciples immediately after the conclusion of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, the night before his crucifixion.
This prayer of Jesus is not the same as Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke.
The content and the words used link this chapter to the preceding ones.
The vocabulary is uniquely John – glory, glorify, sent, believe, world, love.
This prayer is intended to summarize in Jesus’ own words his relationship with the Father and the relationship he wished his disciples to maintain with him and the Father.
The prayer is made up of three parts:-
Jesus prays for himself (1-5) He prays for his disciples (6-19) and he prays for all believers present and future (20-26)
The prayer was spoken either just before this group left the room where they had eaten together, or as they made their way out of the city, across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane.
John recorded the gesture of Jesus: ‘He lifted up his eyes.’ This was a typical Jewish gesture of prayer, whether to God or to idols. (Psalm 121:1; John 11:41)
The general conversation began with the announcement ‘The time has come.’
Jesus’ consciousness of living by a ‘calendar’ was evident from the beginning of the Gospel. The clock was ticking from the word go.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry he says on a number of occasions, ‘my time has not yet come.’ However, now he acknowledges that the time of crisis has arrived. This announcement enhances the significance of the prayer because it becomes Jesus’ evaluation of the purpose of his life, death, resurrection and ascension.
The glory of the Father and the glory of the Son are closely connected. Through Jesus’ death God would be glorified and all believers would receive eternal life.
Eternal life – an infinitely high quality of life in living fellowship with God – both now and forever. We don’t have to wait until we die to receive eternal life, it began the day we accepted Jesus into our hearts and lives.
God’s initiative in salvation is stressed; the mission of Jesus is emphasized.
v4. ‘I have brought you glory’ – Jesus. Christ’s mission was not self-centred. He came to do the work of the Father; Jesus emphasizes his Father’s supremacy.
v5. ‘Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.’ Jesus asks the Father to return him to his previous position of glory; to exchange humiliation for glorification. This occurred at Christ’s resurrection and exaltation to God’s right hand.
The word ‘world’ occurs 18 times in this prayer. This is a world that is hostile to God and His people.
By far the largest part of Jesus’ prayer relates to the disciples. He was much more concerned about them than himself. He was sure of the suffering that was inevitable and the victory that was certain. The disciples, like us, are a bit of a ‘mixed bag.’ They were likely to fail. He had already predicted that they would desert him. Nevertheless, he prayed for them with confidence that they would be kept by the Father’s power and presented for a future ministry.
The disciples had been given to Jesus by the Father. The gift was irrevocable and the Father was able to guarantee it. Jesus had no doubt of the final outcome. The disciples were obedient; they had accepted the message Jesus gave them. In spite of a lot of misunderstanding on their part, the disciples never rejected or doubted the truth Jesus had given to them in the upper room.
Now that the supreme test of their faith was impending, Jesus prayed that they might be preserved against the persecution that could separate them from him and from one another.
v7. ‘Everything comes from you.’ Only as people see the Father at work in Jesus do they have a proper concept of God. For the disciples the ‘penny had finally dropped.’
v8. ‘I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believed you sent me.’
Here three things are mentioned about the disciples. (1) They accepted the teaching, unlike the Pharisees and others who heard it but did not receive it. (2) They knew with certainty that Jesus was divine. Acceptance of this led them further into truth. (3) They believed. John 1:12 ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ Membership in God’s family is by grace alone – the gift of God. (Eph. 2:8-9) It is never a human achievement. The imparting of the gift is dependent on our reception of it. ‘Received’ and ‘believed’ make this very clear.
V9. ‘I pray for them. I am not praying for the world.’ The only prayer Jesus could pray for the world was that it would cease to be worldly. That is, opposed to God. That was one prayer he could pray. How about us? Could we, are we, praying the same prayer?
v10. ‘All I have is yours and all you have is mine.’ Jesus assumes his equality with the Father.
v11. ‘Holy Father, protect them.’ A form of address found only here in the New Testament. Other verses refer to God as holy, but this title used by Jesus is specific and unique. The name suggests both remoteness and nearness. The theological counterparts are transcendence and immanence.
God is both awe-inspiring and loving.
‘That they may be one as we are one.’ This final part of the prayer emphasizes unity. Here the unity is already given, it is not something to be achieved. The meaning is ‘that they continually be one’ rather than ‘that they become one.’
The unity is to be like that between the Father and the Son. It is much more than the unity of organization, but the church’s present divisions are the result of the failures of Christians.
To conclude: - We’ve listened to the first half of Jesus’ heartfelt cry to the Father. He prays for himself, and he prays for his disciples.
It’s real outpouring of love and concern. It’s primary focus and intention is to bring glory to the Father and the Son. That the Father and the Son may be glorified through the mission and work of the disciples.
In this prayer, Jesus’ final prayer, the whole of his ministry and purpose is explained and summarized to the reader. It is beautiful to read and to listen to.
Jesus was returning to the Father. He was sent to those whom the Father had chosen. He had found them and had revealed to them the knowledge of the only true God. All that he had done was in fulfilment of the work the Father gave Jesus to do.
Now Jesus was returning to the state of glory with the Father that he had before the world began.
In this prayer Jesus is saying, ‘I’ve come full circle. My mission on earth is complete. Now it’s your turn. With the help of the anticipated Holy Spirit, your mission will be to bring glory to the Father and the Son through all that you do in my name.’
Our task as Christians in 2020 is to do exactly the same? Are we ready? Do we accept the mission God has given us to do? Amen.