Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Listening In: Jesus’ Prayer By bringing the disciples into His
company, Jesus introduced them to huge truths they had never before understood. Just
before He left them, the Master reviewed a number of these truths in His prayer. 1. Victory The word ”eavesdropping” is
old English. It has to do with when it is raining outside and a person was trying to seek
shelter, he or she could duck under the eaves of a house. Of course, that would put that
person in an excellent position to hear any conversation going on within the walls of that
house, hence the name “eavesdropping.” It became a pretty common expression as
well as practice, along about the beginning of the second world war, when they figured out
how to wiretap and of course during the Cold War. It is like listening in where you are
really not invited. That does not sound very Christian to me. What we are doing is not eavesdropping
into a conversation we are not supposed to hear. As a matter of fact, we are supposed to
hear this prayer. Jesus goes to prayer deliberately in the presence of his disciples,
fully intending for them and for us to get the words. We are going to explore this prayer.
It is 26 verses long. It is the last recorded and longest prayer of Jesus, and absolutely
loaded. What I have discovered is that the first five verses, basically the first
paragraph of the prayer, sets us up for the rest. He hits on these big themes that He will
hit on again as we move through the rest of it. John 17 We covered the first three themes a
week ago, I’ll not review them. 4. Authority Jesus is talking about authority. “Even
as You gave Him authority over all mankind.” Authority does not mean “might
makes right.” I have a definition for authority that I like. Authority is when an
individual has both the power and the position to take control. Legitimate authority
requires both power and position. A deposed king, who had to flee his country because of
an invading force or some other circumstance, may have position but no power. On the other
hand, a rebel leader who ran him out does not have authority either, having perhaps the
power but not the recognized position. What Jesus is saying when he is
acknowledging the fact that the Father has given Him all authority is, “You have
given Me both the power and the position to make You look good, to finish the work You
gave Me to do.” He is in a unique position. He is all alone. First of all, He has authority over
time. This is a tricky issue. He begins His prayer. John is witnessing what is going on.
He is recalling the eyes of Jesus going toward heaven, reminding everyone present that
this is the realm with which we are now dealing. This is the real place. He addresses His
Father, “Father, the hour has come.” The time is now. It’s time. Jesus has
authority over time. Maybe we can’t exactly pin down
the notion of time because we only live “now.” In that sense we live forever if
we only live “now.” But we do know that time is linear. That means it is not a
cyclical rehearsing of events over and over again, over eons of time. It does not repeat
itself. Time is linear in that it has a definite starting point and a definite ending
point. God claims control of both and all events in between. God is a God of history. He controls
time. Jesus has that authority so when Jesus says, “It is time,” that is exactly
what He means. God operates outside of time. He does not need a watch or a calendar. He is
way ahead of the rotation and the revolution of the earth. God is outside of time. He is
free to use it at His disposal. Isn’t it interesting how He does that occasionally?
It had to have been among the most mind-boggling miracles of all time when the children of
Israel were going after the Amalekites and Joshua said, “God, I need a little more time.”
So in the book of Joshua, God suspended time so that his people could continue spanking
the Amalekites. Hezekiah also asked God for more time.
He figured he was too young to die. God, I’ve been a pretty good boy. Extend my life,
please. God said OK, I’ll give you 15 more years. “How will I know?” “Watch
the shadow on the stairs. Whereas as the sun moves on its course through the sky the
shadow lengthens, watch, Hezekiah, from your place on the bed, the shadow will recede, not
lengthen”. So God controls time for Hezekiah. God is in control of time from
beginning to end, so when Jesus says “not” to his mother as in John 2, “My
hour has not yet come,” or to his brothers in John 7, “My time is not yet here”.
In John 17, He says, “It is time. Let‘s go” and He proceeds from this room
and this prayer to the garden, to the betrayal, to the trial, to the cross, in His time.
He has that measure of authority. He also says You have given Me
authority over all creation; that is, over all flesh. The Bible translates it “over
all mankind” as though to say over all the fallenness of this created order, Lord, I
have authority. I have authority to fix it. I have authority to call people out of it. It
is mine. God has given Me the authority. In Matthew 11, is what is called the
calling of a curse. Theologians call it imprecatory praying or imprecatory preaching. In
other words, “God, bless them with a brick on the head.” In Matthew 11, Jesus is on the northwest corner of
the Sea of Galilee where he had done a lot of miraculous works. He is addressing those
communities in which He had done those miraculous works. He is saying, “You have sure
missed your chance,” reproaching the cities in which most of His miracles were done,
because they did not repent. Matthew
11:20-28 Tyre and Sidon had been judged several
centuries before. It is as if Jesus is saying, “Too bad for them. Worse for you.”
Jesus is master of the hypothetical. If this had happened to them, they would have
repented. Your hearts are even harder than their hearts and you look down on them. How can
it be? He upbraids them accordingly. 22"Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Capernaum -- his home away from home,
where Peter came from, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. You will descent to Hades -- here is
the meek carpenter from Nazareth speaking in terms of hell and judgment. 24"Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." Sometimes we draw a distinction
between this verse and verse 25. He prayed... 25At that time Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, “The wise and intelligent”
-- The spiritual elite, the ones who were sure they had enough righteousness to be right
with You. They did not get it at all, but rather You have revealed this to babes. 26"Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. We are an exclusive family fraternity,
Jesus is saying. The Father and I work together in our authority to expand that family,
that fraternity. He then says: 28"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest. “I will give you rest,” --
Because I have authority over creation. I have authority over its healing. I have
authority over its change. I have authority over eternity. Come to Me. I alone have that.
And you will find rest for your souls. It is fascinating to me how He takes
the notion of authority, sprinkles in a little hellfire, and brimstone and comes out on
the other end with, “Come to Me. It is My authority, not just My good sentiment, my
winning smile, but My authority. I have it to give you rest. 5. Giving Giving speaks of grace. In other
words, God is a giving God. He is always giving. As I studied the 17th
chapter of John, I saw that word or a form of it over and over again. In 26 verses some
form of the word “to give” is used 17 times. Thirteen of those 17 times the
Father is giving something or someone. God is a giving God. God’s giving began at
creation as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in their triunity were absolutely
content and fulfilled and happy and for God’s reasons desired to create and so He gave
light and He gave form and mass and matter. He gave energy. He created a
place and gave night and day, stars and moon and sun, water and animals and fish.
He gave and gave and gave. Then He put a man in there and gave
the man that creation. He is always giving. God gave to the man Himself. He began at creation and still does, all along the way, as we read the Bible and see how man rebelled. God gave him provision to be right with Him. As the people became a nation, God met their needs. Think of the wilderness. He gave them water from the rock. He gave them manna from heaven. He gave ten plagues to deliver them. He gave and gave. He gave them a second chance, a third chance, a tenth chance. He gave them reminders of who He was, written evidence of who He was, spoken evidence of who He was, natural evidence, internal evidence, miraculous evidence, always given. And He gave His Son. God is continually giving. He gave
Jesus authority over all mankind, so that to all who God has given Him, Jesus may give
eternal life. Here is a salvation mystery. The Father gives the Son people. It doesn’t
only say it here in verse 2 (even as Thou gave Him authority over all flesh, that to
all whom Thou have given Him, He may give eternal life). Let me read from John 6: John 6:37 Coming to Jesus, means there is a
sense in which, you or I are given to the Son by the Father, as a gift perhaps? John 6:39 “Him who sent Me” --
that can only be the Father. “That of all that He has given
Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” That is good news! The
Father gives Jesus someone. That person is home and He won’t lose anyone. John 17:6 John 17:9 This is a mystery, a good mystery. I
am so glad the Father gave me to the Son. He will not lose me, not misplace me, but He
will raise me up on the last day and keep good track of me. God is marked, by being a God
of giving. Sometimes we forget that if God lives in me, by His Spirit, should I not be
similarly marked? Christians should be more known for our giving than we are for our
taking. 6. Life This is where it gets absolutely
fascinating. 2even as Thou gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom
Thou have given Him, He may give eternal life. Then He goes kind of parenthetically
and says this is what we know eternal life to be and describes it. Most amazing! 3"This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. We would think if we took a poll among
Christians -- what is eternal life? “That’s where you live forever and ever when
you die.” I think we can not particularly trivialize it, but oh, can we minimize it.
“Oh, that’s what happens when I die. I get to live forever, that‘s eternal
life” Jesus says it is so much more than that. You get to live forever when you die,
but that doesn‘t just mean you just exist forever when you die, much more than that.
He gives life as yet another gift. That reminds me of that classic
passage of salvation theology in Romans 3:25, talking about those who have come to faith.
They are justified or made right with God as a gift because God is a God who gives. In
Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 we are justified as a gift.
“For by grace are you saved through faith.” Eternal life is a gift
of God. No immediate personal cost to you. There are interesting words used in
this verse. The first one is the word for “know.” What is eternal life? It has
to do with knowing You; that is, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
That word “know” is a deliberate choice of a word that the apostle uses that
means, “to know by experience.” There are basically two ways to know,
one is by experience and the other is intellectually, just in the head. This is
experiential knowledge, personal knowledge because God is a person. Being Christians,
knowing that we are going to heaven when we die, the essence of Christianity is not
embracing a body of dogma, it is embracing a living God. It is a relationship first and
foremost. This is where we say, “Do you know the Lord?” Jesus uses that.
Personally, relationally, that is the point. Jesus outlines it for us fairly
clearly. You know your wife, your husband, your parents and your children. You know them
relationally, correct? Do you know the God of heaven relationally? The other kind of “know” is
like head knowledge, which you can get from a book or you from just sitting in church.
Some just like the facts of the faith. Jesus is arguing here for a relationship with the
God of the faith. It sort of reminds me of what has been
going on in the media recently regarding President Bush’s nominee for the Supreme
Court. It is very interesting because the notion behind these two words “know”
come directly into play when he is telling them of the nominee, who is relatively unknown,
that “I know this woman. I have known her for years. We are personal friends.”
So obviously, he is saying to trust his experiential, personal knowledge of her. The press and everyone else says,
“We don’t know anything about her.” They want the facts. He knows the
person. It illustrates for me the difference. He is nominating someone he knows. They don’t
know her. They just want facts about her, at least for the time being. It is experiential
knowledge. Please don’t miss that. Some say the difference between heaven and hell is
18 inches, the distance between your head and your heart. We need a heart knowledge as
well as a head knowledge, but a personal knowledge is the key. It is also an ongoing
relationship. The verse literally says that they may be perpetually, continually, knowing
God. Some say, “I know Jesus. I went
forward when I was ten.” That means
something must have happened, but are we really on solid, biblical footing to say “I
once had this experience” or “I once had this thing I did” and therefore I
must be OK. That does not jibe with what
Jesus says is eternal life. Are you “knowing”
Him? It is an ongoing relationship. This is how it works with
relationships. First you have to meet the person. Most people get married that way --
first meet the person. That’s how it is with God. We use the expression, “I came
to know the Lord.” That normally would point to the time I was converted and I
decided I am not going to trust myself to get myself to heaven any longer. I might be
nice, but I’m not that nice. I have to trust someone who is worthy and good and
perfect and righteous. That would be Jesus, so I trust Him. I put my own works where they
belong, in the ashcan, and I go to heaven on His merit, not mine. So I have met Him. Then
I grow in my knowledge of Him and He kind of tunes me up in life. He directs my path and
teaches me right from wrong and rubs the rough edges off. He develops my character until
over time the character of Jesus actually begins to be seen. The relationship is one that
is a growing relationship. It is a relationship which we ought to enjoy. If going to heaven on the merits of
the One, who has authority over all the universe, does not make you smile, what would? It
is huge! We should enjoy our relationship with God as He takes us on our journey. He is changing us and as Jesus points out, He is
not letting go, ever. That is really good. He
gives us life that we may “know You”, that we may “come to know You”
and be “continually knowing You”. This is what it is -- knowing the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Sometimes we use relationships as a
barometer of our lives. In other words, someone who “doesn’t have a life”
normally means something is lacking socially. Do I have a life? It is because who we know
matters. When it is funeral time, the people who show up are the people by whom in part,
we can define our lives. I did a funeral one time when the only ones there were the dead
guy, me, and the mortician, and the guy who was going to backfill the grave. That’s
pretty sad. We’ve all been there where it is
not like that, where it is a celebration of someone’s life because there are many
people there saying, “This is who that person was.” It is just a microcosm of
what awaits us in eternity. The gift is life and the question is, “Do I have a life?”
A better question: Do I know Him? He is even defined for us here in this verse, “the
only true God.” Not one of several, as though there were a pantheon of gods and
goddesses in a gallery and we get to choose and call on the one we think may help us. No
such thing. “The only God,” as opposed to many.
The only God there is. That rules out everybody else. The only true God.
That is, the God whose character and whose works are evidenced by what He has claimed
about Himself. He is a God of integrity. He is a God
who is true. He is not capricious, not fickle. He is not somewhere we cannot get hold of
Him. He is a true God, not like the gods we make up. One expression that always makes me
more than a little nervous is when I hear an individual say, “My God would . . .
“ We are honestly, not fundamentally concerned about your god or my god in that
sense. We are concerned with the God of the Scriptures who claims to be, and is proven to
be, the only true One. That is where Jesus says you need to go. Interestingly, in John 17:3 Jesus
names himself. (This is strictly a sidebar.) We use the expression Jesus Christ as the
name of our Lord regularly, routinely. This is the first time it is ever used and He uses
it of Himself. Probably the root of where his name came to be by the apostles. The only
true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 7.
Eternity I cannot get a loop on eternity. I can
give it a shot and maybe if we combine all our finite brains we can do a little better
than just one of us alone. Whenever it comes to eternity, as Christians, if we have any
honesty at all, we need to admit we are now in over our heads. Those who claim to be
theologians and who claim to have a handle on the things of God and try to explain
forever, thinking they can either understand or explain it, they are sorely mistaken. Eternity puts us in over our heads.
Look at John 17:5: 5"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was. There is an interesting word picture
here. We are transported to the aspiration of Jesus to be in the halls of heaven once
again. The word he uses “with You” is the word “with alongside of.” He
is saying, “Father, make me look good now just like it used to be when I was with
You, alongside of You. Put me back there with You again. I want to be back alongside You
again. Glorify me Lord, with the glory which I was having.” He is talking about three states...
existence, pre-incarnation and glorification, Jesus and Father side by side. The Spirit is
there somewhere. They are doing fine! God did not have to create. God didn’t need
anything or He is not God any longer. He is fine in eternity past, but He wants to create
in His own image, beings, who will praise Him because He deserves it. So He created. We have Jesus and the Father, the
Father and the Son in eternity past. He says now -- drawing attention to the fact that He
is on the earth -- incarnate, God in the flesh, thoroughly explaining the Father to anyone
who cared to look and He wants to go back. John 16:28 touches on this -- this
business of Jesus before, Jesus now, and Jesus in the future with the Father. He explains
to his disciples in John 16:28, it could not be in clearer terms. John 16:28 Very clear -- “I am going back to
the halls of glory, back to the realm of eternity.” The word He is using for “glory
that I was having with You;” the word “having” is kind of like knowing. The
sense that it is suggesting is ongoing. He did not say the glory I had. That may be an
English translation. What He is saying is “the glory I was continually having with
You.” In the beginning (John 1) was being the Word. And the Word was being with God.
And the Word was being in an ongoing continual state of being eye to eye with God. He says
I want that again. We had it, we were having it, for all those millions of eons of time. Again -- we are over our heads at that level. Where He is going with this prayer, He
is not only expressing to the Father His desire that He rejoin him in the halls of
eternity, but He is saying, “I want my people with Me.” He is going back and He
is taking people with Him. That is great! That is wonderful! What an existence! All will
be well at that point. It is as though God is saying “I will create.” He says in
the halls of heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are co-existing forever. “I
will create,” God says, “and I will look good in My creation. I will be
glorified.” Ultimately, that is the point of all
creation, to make the creator look good. I ask you, how is that going? We live in a
beautiful place. We view beautiful splendor every morning when we get up as we look at
those beautiful mountains. Sometimes it is hard for us to remember that in homes up and
down the Bitterroot Valley there is a lot of pain, a lot of loss, a lot of frustration, a
lot of anxiety, a lot of grief, a lot of sickness, a lot of debilitation. We think -- maybe the politicians will
help. Read the paper. There is no hope in the world. The world is not interested in making
God look good. The world is busy trying to figure out if there is a God and if so, what
her name might be. The world offers no hope. At best, an honest politician is simply
trying to do the best with a bad situation, temporarily. Jesus said “I have authority over
all time and over all creation. Come to Me if you want rest, want a relationship, want to
be knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent and want to be with Him
where He is going forever and ever. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it has not
entered into the heart of man how glorious that truly will be.” We cannot handle it
right now. We only know it will be most amazing. Don’t you know this is why Jesus,
when He instructed His disciples to pray several years earlier, said “May Your
kingdom come. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He knows what it is
like in heaven. He says some day all creation will link up, will get in line, and will
bring praise and glory and honor to the God of heaven. For you and me today, do we know
Him? There is a time just to look ourselves
in the face and be brutally honest and say, “Do I know Him? If I know Him, when did I
meet Him? If I have met Him, how is He changing me?” If nothing seems to click, I’ll
bet you don’t know Him. To know the God of the universe is most amazing. If you don’t
know Him, simply pause before Him and decide OK, I have trusted in myself long enough. Now
I am going to put all my trust in Him. He will take it from there and begin to work
changes in the heart and in the mind that only He can work. He will begin doing a work in
the heart that only He can do. If you do not know Him or you do not
know if you know Him, I would love to visit with you.
Nothing would make my day brighter than to visit with someone, who is
seeking to trust the Lord Jesus. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2005, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |