John 17:9 • I Am Praying
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
John 17, that I'll ask you to look at now, is reminding us of another aspect of God's great love for us as we consider Christ our advocate: what He does in our behalf. Just as we're orienting ourselves to some final chapters in the book of John here, let me remind you where we are. The first ten chapters of the gospel of John cover thirty years of the life of Jesus. The first half of the book covers thirty years. The last half of the book, roughly the last ten chapter, covers only one week. And five of those ten chapters cover only one meal: the Last Supper. We're now at the end of that meal, and one entire chapter will be devoted to Christ's prayer at the end of that meal. In that prayer, we are reminded: Not only does the Holy Spirit intercede for us with groanings too deep to utter, but Christ Himself prays for His people. It's been several years, but I can still remember the occasion when I was invited with a number of other pastors in our town and Christian workers to be part of a very long receiving line that was welcoming the President of the United States as he was coming to our town. And as he came, he was running a little bit late, so he was in a bit of a hurry. The real purpose for coming to our town was a fundraiser. But it was a good photo op to meet with a lot of church people. [Laughter] And so he kind of hurried down the line. But as he was hurrying down the line, shaking hands, it was apparent also that he was looking quite harried. We were at war. And the minds of everyone were on the possible terrorism that might still come. And so as the president got to me and hurriedly shook my hand, I just said to him, "Mr. President, we pray for you." He was hurrying, so he kind of went on and took a step or two until it registered what I had said. And then he stopped in his tracks and turned back. And I confess my first thought was, "I wonder what he thinks I said and whether you can be arrested for that." [Laughter] Instead, he turned back to me and looked me in the eye, and he said, "Thank you for praying for me. That means everything to me." He walked on down the rest of the line. And then, as his handlers tried to kind of rush him on out the room to the fundraiser, instead he turned to the front of the room and spoke to all of us. He said, "I know that you're worried about me. But," he said, "I have lots of energy, and I can sleep at night because I know that the people of this nation are praying for me." Well, it was really a wonderful thought. It reflected a bit on something Kathy and I have experienced in these last weeks as so many of you have told us how you are praying for us. At the same time I recognized while the president was saying thank you for the people of the nation praying for him that there was an even greater spiritual reality that God assures us of in His Word. It was not merely that the people of the nation might pray for a president but that the King of the universe might do the same. After all, what this passage is telling us is that Jesus prays for His people. I knew it as the simple truth. But when we are in crisis or trial or stress, it is easy to forget, and it will mean absolutely everything to encourage, comfort and strengthen us to remember this very simple truth: Jesus is praying for you. What difference does that make? We begin to perceive the difference as we just consider the opening words of John chapter 17. "When Jesus had spoken the words at the Last Supper, he lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come to glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.'" In those words are reminder to all of us that the difference it makes to us that Jesus prays for us is that He can make a difference. He is, after all, God. When Jesus says in this particular portion of Scripture, "Father," you must recognize that this is the culmination of a controversy that has been building in the gospel of John. You may remember it began much earlier when in the fifth chapter Jesus identified Himself as the Son of God and the Jewish leaders wanted to stone Him immediately, because they said by claiming to be the Son of God He made Himself equal with God. In that culture with the rules of prima genitor and family inheritance, to claim to be the Son of God is, meant that you had the right and the privileges and the stature of your father. And for Jesus to claim to be the Son of God was to give Himself equal status with God. But now it's not just status that's on display. Previously, He taught us and His disciples to pray, saying, "Our Father." But now it's much more intimate and personal. He lifts His eyes to heaven, and He just says, "Father." As the closer He gets to the cross, the closer are His expressions of affection for His Father. It's a remarkable statement of His equality with God and the intimacy of their relationship. And the intimacy of that relationship is expressed not only in the reality of Him having equality with God but the authority that He has been given by the Father. Do you remember? Verse 2, the Son wants to glorify the Father, verse 2, "'Since you have given him authority over all flesh.'" Again, it is the culmination of a controversy. Do you remember from the very opening words in the gospel of John? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without him was not any thing made that was made." Not only is Jesus giving Himself the status of God: The claim there early in John is that Jesus is the actual Creator. As we see again on display the economy of the Trinity: Where the Father wills, the Son performs and the Holy Spirit is the instrument. Here is Jesus Himself saying that He has been given authority over all flesh, that God the Father has given to Jesus the ability to bring creation into being and for that reason He continues to have authority over all that is earthly. And still that is not the end of the expression of His divinity. For He goes on to say not only does He have this authority over the flesh, the end of verse 2: He has also been given the right to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him. He has been commissioned not only to deal with the matters of earth but with the matters of eternity. Even the right to give eternal life to all that the Father gives to Him. What does that eternal life mean? There's probably no better expression of that in all the Bible than in verse 3 of John 17. When we talk about eternal life, we somehow, you know, move to kind of expressions of angels and wings and clouds and harps. But Jesus says something much more specific that is the nature of eternal life. Verse 3, "'And this is eternal life, that they,'" that is those the Father has given Him, "'that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.'" Now, a number of you have studied the scriptures before and you know that that word "know" is a special word. It doesn't just mean that there would be people who would intellectually know about God. This biblical understanding of knowing another means to know their thoughts and feelings, to share heart to heart. You know occasionally this same word is used in the Bible to talk about sexual intimacy as Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bear a son. But it's not just about that kind of a relationship. It is about knowing someone so much that their thoughts, their concerns, their priorities would be your own. And when Jesus says He now has authority to give eternal life, that He's actually been commissioned by the Father to grant it to those the Father has given Him, He is saying, "I have been commissioned to bring more people into the eternal family." That as Father, Son and Holy Spirit exists as the heavenly eternal family, so Jesus has been commissioned to tell more people in such a way that they would know, that they would be in relationship with God the Father and with the Son, which means that they would be precious to God. It's what the apostle Paul says: "You who were once far away have been brought near. And now you are not only citizens but members of God's household." That's who we are: treasured, precious to God. All that Jesus is saying thus far is who He really is. He is one who is equal with God, has the authority of God and has the affection of God because He is God. And while that may not be news to you, you have to recognize it's actually the power of understanding why it is so important that Jesus prays for us. Because if He's God, He can make a difference. We struggle at times to think of Jesus being God. We know He came in human form. We recognize that He just, in this chapter, is steps away from the cross on which He will be crucified and will die. But the fact that He took on human form and offered Himself in sacrifice never means that He failed to be God. I've related to some of you before that when I began preaching I was actually still a student in seminary and was asked to pastor a little rural church in southern Illinois. And I would drive over on Sundays, and I knew so little about preaching that I thought what preaching involved was taking my notes from the theology class, putting them in a pulpit and just regurgitating what my professors were saying. Now, I know sometimes you think I still do that. But I don't. [Laughter] And I can remember one particular Sunday that I was preaching on Philippians 2, where it talks about Jesus, "Though being equal with God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, emptying himself of heavenly glory, taking on the form of a man and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." And I took such care to say to the people in that church, which, by the way, on Easter we had about 25 people come. That was, that was, you know, that was the highlight, you know, of our experience there. I can just remember being so zealous and inspired about saying, "You have to understand that when Jesus emptied Himself, He was still God; He was still God." I pounded the, "He is still God." And I know people went home and at lunch that day they said, "I wonder what the pastor was so worked up about today," you know. [Laughter] Two weeks later, we had our mission conference. And we're about to have the Global Impact Conference here next month. But we had our mission conference there. And to our little church in southern Illinois, we invited Paul and Caroline London. The London's had been long-term missionaries in a very arid part of Africa. But when Caroline got sick, they had to go to New York City. That's where they ministered to Africans who were living in New York City. But they came to our mission conference. And as Paul opened up his Bible and announced what he would be preaching on, he said, "Today I'm going to be preaching on Philippians chapter 2." And I thought, "Oh, no, we just covered that." [Laughter] "All my people will be bored because I've told them exactly what that passage means already." [Laughter] As he was explaining what that passage meant, Paul just talked about his experience a little bit. He said, "You know, when Caroline and I were in desert parts of Africa, the people there dug wells to get water because there was no standing water anywhere. But it's not a well like you're thinking of where you dig a hole and you lower a bucket and you take the water out." He said, "They dug deep slit wells into the ground, scores, maybe hundred feet more into the ground. Little narrow shafts that had slits on each side of the shaft going down into the well. Because what would happen is the men of the tribe would actually walk down into the well. And at the bottom, they would take cloths and they would wipe the walls of the well, the condensation and seepage off the wall, and then wring it into animal skins, because that's all the water there was." He said, "One day there was a, there was a man, a large and very strong man, who went down into the well, into the darkness. But after he had gathered up his skin full of water and was coming back up, one of the slits gave way. And as it gave way, he fell to the bottom of the well, broke a leg, and now they had to get him out. But no one in the tribe knew how to do that. Who was strong enough? Who was able to go down and get this great man out of the darkness? Until finally the chief came to the well. And learning that one of the members of his tribe was in the darkness, he took off his headdress, he took off his royal robe, and he went down, down, down into the well, picked up the man that was hurt and carried him back to the light." Now Paul London said to my people, "Now, folks, when that great chief took off his headdress and his robe and went down into the well, did he stop being the chief?" What did they say? He was still the chief, even without the glory. And then he said, "And, folks, when Jesus came down into this dark world to rescue you and me and He took off His heavenly glory, did He stop being God?" What's the answer? No, He was still God. Now, I have to tell you that at the end of that sermon I had the misfortune of standing next to Paul London as people left the church that day. [Laughter] And one person after another said, "Why, Pastor London, that was the most wonderful sermon. Why, I never understood that passage until you." [Laughter] What does Jesus want you to understand? The reason that it is so precious and powerful that He prays for us is that He was God. And when He prays for us now, He prays with an understanding of earth and eternity. And what comes about as a consequence of this God who loves us enough praying for us, the one who can make all of the difference is the difference that He makes is constructing earth and eternity in ways that are best for us. It was His purpose. Because, you see, He is not just able to make a difference: He was sent to make a difference. It's what He reminds us of in verse 2. Speaking to the Father, Jesus says, "Father, you've sent him; you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him." What difference would that make? It's what He began to explain right at the end of verse 1. He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." The reason that Jesus would come is He was commissioned to bring glory to the Father. But how would He do that? "The hour has come," He said. You've heard that language before, haven't you, in the book of John. What does it mean that the hour has come? You may remember way back in John chapter 2 at the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus' mother came to Him and said, "We're out of wine." And Jesus said, "Why are you asking me?" My," what? "My hour has not yet come," which means don't ask me to display the glory yet, because it's not time yet for the consequences of that display to occur. It happens again in John 7. The scribes and the Pharisees, now that Jesus has claimed to be the Son of God, send others to arrest Him. And, yet, we're told in John 7 they could not arrest Him, because His hour had not yet come. But then you get to John 12 just before Jesus washes His disciples' feet and this last supper begins, and we read this word: "Jesus declared to his disciple, 'My hour has come, for unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit.'" What does it mean that the hour has come? The hour has come to die. But curiously enough, that death is to bring glory to the Father. Jesus is asking God, saying, "The hour has come; now glorify Your Son." Now, wait. The hour coming means He is to die in sacrifice. But that is to bring glory to Jesus in such a way that it ultimately will bring glory to the Father. How does sacrifice bring glory first to Jesus and then to God the Father? I think one of the best expressions that I have read recently is what happened in the life of a priest named Maximilian Kolbe in February of 1941. He had sheltered over two thousand Jews from the Nazis in Poland and then was found out. So he was sent to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, despite all the depravations and all the harm that was done to so many, he continued to seek to pastor others. But then came the day when a man escaped from Auschwitz. And to make an example and to keep it from happening again, the commandant said, "Now ten must die by torture and by starvation so that no one will try it again." Ten were chosen. One man who was chosen had a family and began to weep that he was going to leave a family without any care. At that point, Kolbe stepped forward and said to the commandant, "He has a family; I have none. Put me in his place." For more than two weeks, the torture and the starvation went on, each day Kolbe leading the others in prayer and hymns to encourage them as they faced their eternity. Finally, he was the only one left alive. And because the Nazis had tired of the starvation, they put him to death by lethal injection. But it was glory. It was absolute glory. That one would be willing to die for another. It is what Jesus has told us about His own life and His own glory: not that He would die for one but that He would die for the sins of the world, that that would be the great glory that would be manifested in the Son. And it would redound the glory to the Father. And to perceive kind of the magnitude of that, look at these strange words in verse 5. Jesus says, "'Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.'" I mean, it's amazing words. What's the glory that Jesus is to receive? The glory that He is to receive is to be the ransom paid for many, to be the sacrifice in order that others would have life. And now He's saying, "Father, glorify Me so that I will have the glory that I had from the beginning before the world was made." Which is to say if Jesus has the glory then that He has as a result of being sacrificed, that means the glory He had from the very beginning was the glory of a God who so loved His people that He would send His Son to die for them. After all, the same apostle John, remember, in the book of Revelation will say of Jesus, "He was the Lamb sacrificed before the foundations of the world were laid." The glory of God was to know what would be taken to rescue you and me, and still He would send His Son. And that plan was made from time in memoriam, so that Isaiah 53 that you and I love to recite says, "It was God's will to crush him, but it was the Son's glory to receive the blow." And that glory was in the plan, the mind and the heart of God from the very beginning of time. Jesus' sacrifice in death was not happenstance. It was not something He did not anticipate. It was not something He just fell into. Here is the great heart of God on display to say, "My great glory is that I knew from the beginning what would be needed to save you, and I sent My Son anyway." His glory is that He was designed to be our Savior. And God, our Father, knowing all of that, sent Him to save. It's part of the great glory that He would come and offer Himself. It was the glory made complete. When Kolbe, the last one living, when they came in to gave him the lethal injection actually raised his arm to receive it: "I by this will save." And the man he saved lived 53 more years, dying at age 94. But the people Jesus saves: Over them death has no power. They live eternally, and it is to the glory of Jesus and God the Father to make it possible. Jesus not only can make a difference: He does make a difference. But to whom does this glory apply, this great affection, this great care? We're always troubled by the end of the passage, verse 9, as Jesus now the great provider says what He will provide. He makes first the wonderful sweet words, praying to the Father, verse 9, "'I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.'" [Chuckles] Well, who is Jesus actually going to pray for as this great advocate in our behalf, the one whose glory comes by saving His people? Who's Jesus actually going to pray for? Well, He's obviously not going to pray for the world. Now, the reason for that, you have to remember, we've been told is as the word "world" is being used in this portion of the gospel of John, it's a reference to those who are going to hate Christ, kill Him and persecute His followers. So Jesus says, "Listen, I am not going to pray for those who work against us. You know, I'm not going to pray for the Cubs. I mean, I'm not going to pray for those who are going to ac--." [Laughter] You know, be against the purpet--. Just ignore that, okay? [Laughter] Jesus say, "I'm not praying for that which is going to undo the purposes of heaven." Who is He praying for? Well, He says, right? He says in verse 9, "I'm praying for them." Who are they? You have to only go back up into the preceding phrase of verse 8. Jesus has been describing a group of people. And His last phrase in verse 8 says, "'They have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them.'" I am praying for those who believe that You sent Me, Father. That it was the plan to bring the glory to Me that I had from before the world was made to be now exhibited in death and resurrection on behalf of My people. Those are the ones who believe. Those who believe that, they are the ones for whom I'm praying. But still we wonder: Well, who are they specifically? And to answer that you have to back up. I'm just doing this because you and I know these are sometimes controversial verses in scripture. But who are they that the Father has given Jesus for whom He is now praying? Go to verse 6 and we'll just see it unfold. Jesus, speaking to the Father in the presence of His disciples said, "'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 when you read "kept" not as in obeying but as in holding onto it: They have held onto Your Word. Who are those people? Verse 7, "'Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.'" They are people who have grown in understanding so now at this point they know that everything that I have is from the Father. And verse 8, "'For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and they have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.'" Did you get the progress? They are those who have received the words. Now they are believing the words. And I am praying for them. Who are those people who now they believe, didn't originally, but now they believe, and they have grown in that understanding? Who are those people? Those are the ones who are around Jesus as He's praying. Those are the disciples. And just so that you'll see it clearly, it's explained in chapter 18 in verse 7, if you'll look there. Remember, at the end of this prayer, the soldiers now do come to arrest Jesus. They ask, "Where is Jesus of Nazareth?" He identifies Himself. And do you remember? They fall back. They weren't expecting this rebel rabbi to identify Himself so readily. They wonder what's going to happen to them. So they fall back. So Jesus, in verse 7 of chapter 18, asked them. He asked them again, "'Whom do you seek?' And they said, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' Jesus answered, 'I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go.' This was to fulfill the word that He had spoken: 'Of those whom you gave me I have lost none.''" When Jesus says there has been those given to Him, who's He talking about? The disciples that are right there with Him. He says, "These are those that were given to Me: Of them I have lost none." So Roman solider: Let them go. He's defending those very ones. Now here's the problem: This whole sermon I've been assuring you that Jesus prays for you. But if you see who He's praying for right now, you understand it's just the disciples. And you're going, well, that's not me. That's why you need John 17:20. Can you go there? John 17:20. It's toward the end of Jesus' prayer. He's still speaking to the Father. And He says, "'I do not ask for these only,'" that is the disciples around Me, "'I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word.'" Who are those people who will believe in Jesus through His word? Who are those people? Everybody raise your hand. [Laughter] We are those people. Jesus is saying, "I am praying for those who have heard and do hear and will hear by these people." That's us. And Jesus is saying, "I'm going to pray." And He's praying even for those who will hear. He's anticipating His resurrection state: that there will be that time in which He will have ascended to the Father. He will be beside the throne, and He will be praying for us. It's what Stephen precisely saw. Do you remember that? Stephen who has given his great testimony of Jesus whom God has sent. And again the Jewish leaders, wanting to get the message down, they began to stone Stephen. And Stephen: Remember the account in Acts 7? The heavens open, and what does he see? Jesus beside God interceding for him. It is Jesus in His resurrection state praying for believers, even praying for Stephen's eternity in the moment of crisis as Jesus is now saying, "For you and for Me; I am praying for you." Wouldn't that make all the difference? To believe no matter what you're going through there is an advocate who has eternal priorities who is beside God praying for you; who knows the heart of God; who has the power of God and has your interests at heart. And He's praying for you. You know, there's right here a warning as well as a promise. Jesus is saying He is praying for those who believe in Him, who believe that the Father sent Him to glorify the Father by dying for our sins in the hour that had come. If you don't believe that, if you don't believe that Jesus died for your sin, then He's not promising to pray for you. There is a warning. But if you believe that the Father sent Him for you, that is not just a past benefit: It is a present and eternal benefit that when we cry out in hours of crisis we have this assurance from the Savior. He prays for me. He prays for me. A few weeks ago, we got an email from friends writing these words, "I just had a really, really bad day yesterday. My husband's day was even worse, because the only thing worse than prepping for colonoscopy." [Laughter] "And having a colonoscopy is finding out you have cancer. Pray for us. The kids only know that Daddy has a stomach problem. So we're trying to keep from talking much about it." [Chuckles] "Not talking much? Have you met us?" [Laughter] "But by the grace of God, one of my best friends is visiting this weekend. It was planned weeks ago. And I can cry and rage with her. We do some of that anyway about everything from fat pants to misbehaving children to wanting things we can't afford. And now, well, now we'll rage about cancer. I really hate cancer. We have seen it ravage health, take lives and build faith and unite families and spark eternal hope. God is bigger than anything this world can throw at us. I guess He's going to show us what that means for us. Did I mention: Pray for us." When we received that email, we did pray. But as I prepared this message, I recognized something even more precious: We weren't the only ones praying. Jesus was praying, too. Jesus prays for us: for you, for me. He prays for us. I know it was kind of sweet in that moment that the president going down the receiving line to kind of take in the fact that we pray for him. And to acknowledge later that he was comforted by knowing that the people of the nation pray for him. But you know what really had, would have made this strange photo op is if in that moment of turning back to me he had gotten on his knees and said, "I pray for you." But in John 17, you see something even better. Here is the King of the universe, the Savior of the world, who says to people who are scared and hurting and broken and wondering: He simply says, "I pray for you." If you walk away with anything this morning, would you just walk away with that? You may have some things to pray about. But when you pray, would you just remember this: Jesus prays for you, and He's God. That can really make a difference.