By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10.45am Svc, 2010-07-18

Text: John 17:1-5

One of the things we do regularly in our morning worship services is to recite the Lord's Prayer together at the end of the opening prayer. But although it is called the Lord's Prayer, it was not a prayer that the Lord Jesus Himself prayed. It was only taught by Him in the Sermon on the Mount, and was meant for His disciples to use. Hence, some commentators propose that it should be called 'The Disciples' Prayer' rather than the Lord's Prayer. 

This morning we are going to look at a prayer which really is the Lord's Prayer, because it was prayed by the Lord Jesus Himself. This prayer is recorded in John 17 and it takes up the whole chapter. It is 26 verses long and we will study it in two sermons. Today we will consider the first 5 verses. This passage highlights an important aspect of our Lord Jesus - His prayer life. Our Lord had a very consistent and vibrant prayer life. We have already seen glimpses of it in our series of sermons on John's Gospel. When we studied chapter 6 we saw Jesus giving thanks in prayer just before He multiplied the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes to feed 5000 men. After that He withdrew Himself to a mountain to spend time alone with God. When we came to chapter 11 we saw Jesus praying again when He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41-42). Then in John chapter 14 He assured His disciples that He would pray for them, so that they may be filled with the Holy Spirit. The other Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke - record many more instances of His prayer life. But what is so intriguing in all this is who Jesus is - that He is One we do not expect to have any need to pray at all.

It should really amaze us that of all people, it is Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, the second Person of the Trinity, who needed to pray so much. Doesn't this put many of us to shame? If He needed prayer how much more do we. How foolish it is for us mortals to give so little priority and time to prayer or even to neglect prayer, seeing how much the Lord prayed when He lived on earth. And He did that despite the huge demands on His time from His ministry of teaching, preaching, healing and ministering to people all over Israel. And here in John 17, despite the very short time that was left before His arrest, trial and crucifixion, He still made it a point to pray. In fact after making this prayer, Jesus went on to pray some more - agonising in personal prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He really was a man of prayer.

Dearly beloved, let us follow the Lord's example of unceasing prayer: You should pray not only at times when you feel like praying, but also at times when you don't feel like praying and when your mind is pre-occupied with important matters at hand. There is a lot for us to learn from our Lord's example of prayer. And there is also a lot that we can learn from what Jesus prayed for that can make a tremendous difference in our prayer life. 

Have you ever felt that there is something lacking in your prayer life? Why is there no power in your praying? Perhaps you pray quite often, but your prayers don't seem to be answered at all. Well, if that is your experience of prayer, here in the first 5 verses of John 17 you will discover 3 things that can absolutely revolutionise your prayer life. Firstly, what Jesus prayed for in these verses revealed His intense commitment to glorify the Father. Secondly, it revealed His indomitable compulsion to accomplish the Father's work. And thirdly, it revealed His intimate communion with the Father. We shall begin by looking at the first one:

I. An Intense Commitment to Glorify the Father

This commitment is evident in the first verse, where Jesus prayed, 'Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.' This commitment to glorify God should be the very heartbeat of all praying. It aligns us fully with God. You may have memorized that the chief end of man is 'to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever' from the Shorter Catechism. But do you know what the chief end of God is? This is not from the Shorter Catechism, but someone put it this way: The chief end of God in everything He does is to glorify Himself and to enjoy His own glory forever. Jonathan Edwards puts it like this: 'All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase: the glory of God.' If we can only grasp this truth well, we will be able to see that our greatest fulfillment in living is to live for His glory! Dearly beloved, real joy is found not in living for self as the world claims, but in living for the glory of God. That's what we were made for.

This morning, I would like us all to check our own commitment to glorify God. Do we have the same kind of attitude as John the Baptist who said, 'He must increase and I must decrease?' (John 3:30) 1 Peter 4:11 tells us that God must be glorified in all things. He must be glorified in our worship - everything we do here in our worship service must be directed to bring glory to Him and not to the preacher, the worship chairman, the choir or anyone else. God must be glorified in our service - in whatever area of church service we are serving, whether in the music ministry, children's ministry, children's ark, Sunday school, missions or the preparations for our church's 60th anniversary - we must not allow any thought of self-glory or pride to come in and rob God of His glory.

And God must be glorified even in our mundane daily activities. As 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us 'Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Therefore if we are intensely committed to glorify God, everything we do in life would be subordinated for His glory.

And God must also be glorified in our praying. The ending of the Lord's Prayer captures this very well: 'For thine in the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.' Do we really seek for God's glory when we pray? What are our real motives for praying? Some years ago Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book called The Prayer of Jabez which sold over 9 million copies. It was so popular because it claims that if you repeatedly pray the prayer of Jabez recorded in 1 Chronicles 4:10 ('Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!') then you will certainly receive bountiful blessings from God for the rest of your life. This obviously promotes selfish praying.

Actually Jabez made such a prayer only because of the awful circumstances that had led to his birth and also to his being named 'Jabez,' which means sorrow. His prayer wasn't meant to be a formula for blessing. And the answer God gave him merely demonstrates God's grace to him and God's awesome ability to bring blessing out of a very sad situation. God was therefore glorified through that prayer. That is what we ought to seek in all our praying. We should be asking only for things that will bring glory to God.

And what you ask for in prayer should ultimately seek for God's glory even though that glory may not come in the way you expect. When God doesn't answer our prayer the way we expect Him to, it is only because His way brings much greater glory to Him. For instance, the apostle Paul prayed 3 times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. If God had simply removed that thorn in Paul's flesh, God would be glorified through Paul's health. But God did not remove it. Instead He left the thorn in Paul's flesh and gave Paul His sufficient grace to bear the suffering so that the power of Christ would be manifested through Paul's weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Doesn't it bring more glory to God to be glorified through a person's weakness than through his health? 

God's ways are always so much higher than our ways. He knows best how to derive greater glory for Himself out of every situation! He knows how to derive more glory for Himself through pain than through deliverance. He even knows how to derive more glory for Himself by death than by life. 

Here in John 17:1 Jesus prayed that God would glorify Him. But how? Not by effecting a glorious rescue of Jesus from going to the cross (In Matthew 26:53 He said that He could pray for such rescue and the Father would send more thatn 12 legions of angels to rescue Him.) Jesus pray that God would glorify him by enabling Him to endure the worst trials and gruesome suffering as He went to the cross, and by accepting His personal blood sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of the world so that His death would not be in vain. How would all this bring greater glory to God than if He had rescued His beloved Son from going through all that? By displaying the love of God in a glorious way that had never ever been seen before. Romans 5:8 brings out the awesome majesty of God's love that could only be shown at the cross: 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

A few days before Jesus went to the cross, as He contemplated all the awful pain and suffering that He would have to go through, He said, 'Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.' (John 12:27-28) Dearly beloved, let us follow our Lord's example. Let us resolve to pray sincerely 'May God be glorified in my life and in my death; in my strengths as well as my weaknesses; in my gains as well as my pains; in my gladness and also in my sadness.' Make that your prayer, and see how it transforms your life!

Thus we have seen that the prayer Jesus made in John 17 revealed His intense commitment to glorify the Father. Now we go to so see another thing that this prayer revealed-

II. An Indomitable Compulsion to Accomplish the Work of the Father

This is clearly revealed in vv.2-4. God the Father had given Christ power over all flesh in order that He may accomplish a very important work - the work of giving eternal life to God's people. He is their eternal lifegiver. This was the work that Christ was about to accomplish very soon through His death on the cross. And so intensely driven was He by His indomitable compulsion to accomplish this, that in v.4 He already anticipates its full completion by saying, 'I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.' Actually this was completed only when His full atonement for sin had been made when He cried out aloud, 'It is finished' as He hung on the cross of Calvary. 

Every prayer that Jesus made reflected this same compulsion to finish the Father's work. Even when He agonized in prayer at Gethsemane His prayer was, 'Not my will but Thine be done.' (Luke 22:42) And this ought to be true of our prayers - they should reflect a strong compulsion not for our wills to be done, but for God's will to be done. This is why Jesus taught His disciples to pray 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' And we are reminded of this whenever we recite the Lord's prayer together.

The accomplishment of God's will must always be the central motive for all our praying, just as it should be the central motive for all our living. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, 'Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.' In Matthew 12:50 Jesus said, 'For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.' And in John 4:34 Jesus said, 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.'

This compulsion for God's will to be done can also be seen in John Bunyan's definition of prayer: 'Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.'

If our prayers are not made with submission to the will of God, they may not even be answered at all. This is what James wrote in James 4:3 'Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.' If your prayers are made for entirely selfish reasons such as satisfying your own lusts and desires God will not answer them. It only shows that what you want is more important to you than what God wants. The next time you pray, do make it a point to listen to yourself pray. Think through and analyze your prayers, to examine precisely what you are asking God for and why you want them. You might be convinced that most of your praying is not for the things you should be asking for.

When Solomon became the king of Israel the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Ask what I shall give thee.' (1 Kings 3:5) It was like giving him a blank cheque - He could ask for the anything at all, and the Lord would give it to him. He could have asked the Lord to give him great riches or a long life, or victory over all who would oppose him. But all these selfish requests would only reveal that he is really unfit to rule the Kingdom of Israel. What did Solomon ask God for? He asked God for wisdom to know how to rule the Kingdom well, so that God's people would get to enjoy all the blessings that God wanted them to have - such as justice, peace, and prosperity. And that's exactly what the Lord Himself wanted for His people. Here was a king whose prayer was driven by an indomitable compulsion to accomplish the work of God's kingdom. And because of this, God gave him not only the wisdom that he asked for, but also all the other things he had not asked for. He was clearly pleased with Solomon's prayer. This is vastly different from the prosperity gospel preached in many megachurches today.

And God will surely be pleased with your prayer if it gives the highest prority to the work of His kingdom. As Matthew 6:33 says, 'seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' Dearly beloved God has a great work to accomplish in this world, and He wants to do it through you and through your prayers. Will you let your prayers be used to accomplish God's work? Thus far we have seen two things revealed in the prayer of Jesus in John 17 - His intense commitment to glorify, and His indomitable compulsion to accomplish the Father's work. The third thing is:

III. An Intimate Communion with the Father

This intimate communion that Jesus had with the Father is revealed in His prayer in at least two ways. Firstly, it is revealed in the way that He addressed God as His Father. In v.1 Jesus said, 'Father, the hour is come' and in v.5 He said, 'O Father, glorify Thou Me' In the rest of the chapter Jesus addressed God as the Father another 4 times, making a total of 6 times in this prayer. And the actual term that Jesus used is the Aramaic word 'Abba' This is a term of endearment, that a little child normally used to speak to his father. The Talmud says that 'Abba' was one of the first words that a Jewish child learned to speak. The Arabs today still use the term abba to refer to daddy or papa. The fact that Jesus used this to address God in His praying shows how close His communion with the Father was. 

And we too can enjoy such close communion with God because when Jesus taught His disciples to pray He told them to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven' And Jesus also encouraged them to regard God as their Father in Luke 11:11-13 'If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?'

These verses present to us the most heart-warming picture of prayer: A picture of a loving father who desires his children to gather themselves to him to ask him for their needs, and he is happy to grant what they ask of him if it is for their good. Those of us here who are parents can understand this a little better. How do you feel when your little child comes to ask you for help to do things that he cannot do on his own?

As our heavenly Father, the Lord longs for His children to come to Him. Some may wander away for a time, like the prodigal son. And like the loving father in the parable, when the Lord sees any signs of them turning back to Him, He is filled with joy to welcome them back into His presence (Luke 15:20-24). As our Father, God wants His children to look up to Him and depend upon Him fully. He takes great delight in hearing our prayers and our cries for help. He wants us to come to Him often with child-like faith, to express our full trust and confidence in Him. And we can come to our heavenly Father at anytime, knowing that He is always ready to receive us. Thus we have seen how Jesus sets an example for us of the intimate communion He enjoyed with God, when He called God, 'Father' in His prayer.

Another indication of the intimate communion that Jesus had with the Father is found in v.5. Here He asked the Father to glorify Him with Himself with the glory He enjoyed with the Father before the world existed. The preposition 'with' which is found twice in this verse speaks of intimacy. Before He came into the world, Jesus had been with the Father from all eternity. As God the Son, He was equal with the Father in power and glory. Then He laid aside His glory and was sent into the world to accomplish the Father's work. And now, as that work was soon to be completed, He longed to return back to heaven to be with the Father and to share once more the glory that He had with Him. 

This ought to be our greatest desire as well. God made us for Himself and we can never be fully satisfied until we enjoy intimate communion with Him. In fact, eternal life is all about enjoying intimate communtion with God forever and ever. This is brought out very well by what Jesus said in v.3 'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' The word 'know' in this verse speaks of the close personal relationship with God that man was made for in the beginning. 

And it would really take an eternity to really know God completely because He is infinite - there is no end to the knowledge of God. Thus, we should not think of eternal life merely as endless existence. Everyone will exist somewhere forever but the question is - in what condition or relationship will we spend it?

If anyone here is not saved yet, let me ask you: In what condition or relationship will you be spending your eternity? Without Christ, your eternity will be spent in complete isolation from God and from all life, and in complete desolation because of the extreme pain and the fires of hell. What a terrible and hopeless way this is to spend eternity! But if you have Christ in your life, your eternity will be spent in the very presence of God, the giver of all life, and in the permanent bliss of heaven. And there you will enjoy the most intimate communion with God that any mortal being can ever have. 

If this is how you want to spend eternity, then you must come to Jesus to receive it from Him right now. Jesus Himself said in v.2 that He has been given power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. But how can you tell if you are really one of those whom the Father has given to Him? The answer is, By coming to Jesus. Jesus has said this in John 6:37 'All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' Please don't delay to come to Jesus for eternal life. Ask Him now to save you from your sins and from eternal death.

For those of us who are already saved, there is a very important thing to learn from v.3 of our text: What eternal life is all about. If your concept of eternal life is not like this, then you need to correct it. Some may think that eternal life is simply enjoying a better life 'up there'. A life free from all the pains and inconveniences we now experience, and that the way to obtain eternal life is to know God. But if you read v.3 carefully you will see that knowing God is not merely a means to an end. Knowing God is actually the end itself. V.3 says, 'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' Eternal life is therefore a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

This means that if you are saved you should have already started to enjoy eternal life with God. You should be having daily intimate communion with God through prayer and reading His Word. You should be cherishing every moment you can spend with your heavenly Father in your daily devotions, in your prayers and also in corporate worship together with other Christians. 

But if you have hardly any desire for these things, and you allow them to be crowded out of your life by your work, study or play, then you have missed the whole point of being a Christian. Christianity is not just about getting saved, attending church every Sunday and following a set of rules and regulations. It is about experiencing God in a personal way every day of your life, and growing in your knowledge of Him. It is about spending the rest of your life and eternity with the One who loves you more than anyone else ever can. And you will no longer be afraid of death when it comes, because you know that death is only a passage way to the glory of being forever with the Lord.

As Jesus came nearer and nearer to the hour of His death, His thoughts were filled with anticipation of being back with the Father in heaven. His heart was set on enjoying the fellowship and glory that He used to enjoy with the Father, as He prayed in v.5, 'And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.'

May we all learn to follow the example of Christ by looking forward to every opportunity that we have to commune with the Father in prayer. And may your prayer life from now on be characterized by an intense commitment to glorify Him, an indomitable compulsion to accomplish His work, and an intimate communion with Him.

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