John 17:1-19

Do be seated. And again, if you've got a Black Church Bible, turn to page 903, John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

! John chapter 17. And we're going to spend the next three weeks in this prayer.

John 17 · chapter mention

I'm preaching from just one chapter. It's in some ways easier to get into a chapter than it is to get into a whole book of the Bible.

So three weeks in John 17.

It's actually the Lord's Prayer.

It's not the Lord's Prayer we often pray.

Because the Lord Jesus could never have prayed what we often call the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus did not need to ask for the forgiveness of his sins, did he?

But you and I do. That, in many ways, is the disciples' prayer, our Father in heaven.

But this is the Lord's Prayer in John 17.

And it's really holy ground. It's, in many ways, the kind of inner sanctum.

John Knox, the father of Presbyterianism, the Scottish reformer in the 16th century,

he said that the Lord used this passage to bring him to faith in the Lord Jesus.

And apparently, when John Knox was in the last illness, the last few weeks of his life,

he kept asking people who were visiting him,

can you read to me John 17?

He said that to his wife, read me that scripture where I first cast my anchor.

And what I want you to do over these next three weeks,

as the church in IPC Ealing,

is really to cast your anchor in John 17.

If you look at verse 13,

Jesus is speaking to his father there,

but he's deliberately speaking so as to be overheard.

I'm coming to you,

but I say these things while I'm still in the world,

so that they may have,

so that they may have,

my joy fulfilled in themselves.

And so as we get into John 17,

it almost feels like we're intruding,

listening in on Jesus' prayer,

but it's not an intrusion,

because Jesus is inviting you and I to overheard,

eavesdrop on this conversation,

this private conversation between a son and his father.

It's overwhelming, really.

We're not spectators.

We find ourselves being drawn into it.

I was in Paddington Station the other day,

and I was standing in the middle of the concourse.

It was very full.

It was about eight o'clock in the morning,

and the Bakeloo line was shut.

And suddenly,

a brass band started playing all around me.

I didn't know what was going on.

And I found myself,

along with a couple of others,

right in the middle of this brass band.

And I was drawn into the music.

I didn't kind of join in, you know.

But I wasn't just listening to it.

I was part of it.

I was there.

And that's what we find with John 17.

As we hear it,

suddenly we find ourselves drawn into it,

into this most intimate relationship

of the father and the son.

The father says,

I'm coming to you.

Father, he says,

I'm coming to you,

and I'm saying these things while I'm in the world,

so that these people who hear my prayer may have joy.

There's a sense in which we're not spectators,

we're participating.

So there's three sections,

and you can see them.

Verses one to five,

he prays for himself.

And verses six to 19,

he prays for his disciples.

And in verse 20 to the end,

he prays for those who are going to come

to believe in him

through the witness of the disciples.

So it's the night before he's about to die.

It's the night before the cross,

and he is thinking about 21st century healing.

Isn't that amazing?

They're about to crucify him.

They're about to execute him

by the most cruel form of punishment

devised by man,

and his thoughts are to the ends of the earth.

And he is praying for them to believe in him

through the testimony of his apostles.

You've got it on your lap.

And that's what the Bible is.

It is the testimony of the apostles.

And there are people from all over the world

who are coming to believe in the Lord Jesus today.

According to the stats,

56,000 people will become Christians

in China alone today.

Through the testimony of the disciples.

All because of the prayer of Jesus.

And so this is something actually really profound.

And we're going to look this morning at verses 1 to 5

where Jesus prays for himself.

Doesn't that strike you a little bit strange, doesn't it?

Don't you feel a little bit awkward about that?

Or even embarrassed about that?

We've been schooled, haven't we,

not to put ourselves first?

But Jesus does.

He prays for himself.

I remember hearing about a young lady,

I think she was middle-aged.

She was in a church.

She was desperate to get married.

But she didn't want to pray for herself.

So she prayed,

please send my mother-in-law a son-in-law.

Please send my mother a son-in-law.

I've ruined the joke there, haven't I?

Please send my mother a son-in-law.

It's a rubbish joke, isn't it?

But we can be a little bit embarrassed by that.

And we can feel awkward, can't we,

about praying for ourselves?

But Jesus prays for himself.

What does he pray for?

Look, that's even more embarrassing, doesn't it?

Look at these verses.

Father, glorify your son.

Verse 5.

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence

with the glory that I had with you

before the world existed.

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence

there's only one request that Jesus is making for himself.

It comes up five times in five verses.

He prays for glory.

Father, glorify me.

That's his prayer.

That's the longing of his heart

as he goes to the cross.

Father, glorify me.

That is a little bit embarrassing, isn't it?

Is that the sort of prayer that anyone should pray?

Lord, puff me up so that everyone will see

how important I am.

We don't like leaders, do we,

who puff themselves up.

Power and glory almost always goes to people's heads.

And so what do you make of this prayer?

Father, glorify me.

Has Jesus become some kind of megalomaniac?

This carpenter from Nazareth

who spent 30 years fixing coffee tables and chairs.

Father, glorify me.

It sounds, doesn't it, so ego megalomaniac.

So self-indulgent.

What about if I was to pray this morning?

What about if I just prayed,

Father, glorify me.

Glorify Paul Levy.

Let's stop meeting in this building on Drayton Green.

We'll knock it down.

We'll build a great cathedral

and let's call it St. Paul's.

And you'd think he's lost it, wouldn't you?

That's what Jesus is praying.

He's praying that his name would be known

throughout all the world.

That the disciples, through their testimony,

that their testimony would spread

to every generation and every culture

and people all around the world

would find out about him

until the end of time.

Father, glorify me.

Glorify your son.

Listen to these words from the French philosopher Rousseau.

The person whose thinking led to the French Revolution.

Listen to what he said.

He said,

The person who can love me as I can love

is still to be born.

No one ever had more talent for loving.

I was born to be the best friend that ever existed.

Posterity will honor me.

I rejoice in myself.

My consolation lies in my esteem.

He believed that every town in France

should build a statue in honor to him.

It's obvious, isn't it?

His mother never said no to him

when he was a little boy.

But we recoil, don't we,

from such self-glorification.

It doesn't seem right to us.

Although we indulge in it ourselves

from time to time,

instinctively we know it's inappropriate

for human beings.

And yet Jesus says,

I want to be glorified, Father.

Glorify me.

How can Jesus get away with it,

but you can't?

Why is it a good thing for Jesus

to be glorified and not me?

Well, I've got two points.

Firstly, because of who he is.

And secondly, because of what he's accomplished.

How can Jesus get away with it?

How is it good for Jesus to be glorified?

Well, first of all, because of who he is.

And look at verse one.

When Jesus spoke in these words,

he lifted up his eyes to heaven

and he said,

Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son.

And then in verse five.

And now, Father, glorify me

in your own presence

with the glory that I had with you

before the world existed.

Can you see what Jesus is saying there?

He's saying,

I am no ordinary human being.

The person speaking these words

is the preexistent son of God.

And that puts him into a completely

different category, doesn't it?

Let me try and explain this.

I was and I am useless at maths.

Awful.

If you know me,

I'm innumerate, pretty much.

Imagine someone like me

who is hopeless at maths

and science and physics.

Imagine at the end of this year,

it is announced that Paul Levy

will receive the Nobel Prize for physics.

It wouldn't glorify me, would it?

It would humiliate me.

Because at some point,

it wouldn't take long

for someone to realize

that they've made a huge mistake.

And I wouldn't be glorified by that,

would I?

I'd be mortified.

Because you would be doing

something to me outwardly

that doesn't correspond

to what I am like inwardly.

Inwardly, when it comes to physics

and maths,

I'm no help to the kids

in the homework.

It would be totally inappropriate

for me to receive

the Nobel Prize for physics.

But when Albert Einstein

was given the Nobel Prize for physics,

that's quite different, isn't it?

That's totally appropriate.

It's a public recognition

and outward recognition

of what he is inwardly.

He was a brilliant scientist.

And so when Jesus prays,

Father, glorify your son,

he is saying,

Lord, Father,

show the world

who I really am.

So if I pray,

Father, glorify me,

what I really mean

is disguise who I really am.

Because if you really knew

who I was,

if you really knew

what I was like

and what my heart is like,

you wouldn't sit here

listening to me this morning.

You see,

when we say,

Father, glorify me,

we are really praying,

Lord,

pull a veil

over what I'm really like

because I don't want

what I'm really like

on the inside

to be put out there.

Disguise what I'm like.

But when Jesus prays,

Father, glorify your son,

he's saying,

Father,

I want people

to know

outwardly

and see who I really am.

Take away the veil.

And that's what

the transfiguration was,

wasn't it?

Do you remember?

Jesus goes up

on a mountain

with Peter

and James

and John

and God

draws aside

the curtains

and they get a glimpse

really of who Jesus is.

This carpenter

from Nazareth,

just for a moment,

suddenly they see

his dazzling glory.

They see the reality

of who he is.

And there's a voice

that booms from heaven

and it says,

this is my son

with whom I'm well pleased.

And just for a moment,

the father

pulls aside

the veil

and glorifies

his son.

And what he saw

was that glory

that he had

with the father

before the world began

and it just radiated

out of him.

Just for a moment,

the glory

shone through.

And so what I'm saying

is what is totally

inappropriate

for you and me

is entirely

appropriate

for him

because he is

the pre-existent

son of God.

And that means this,

he is altogether

different from us.

You and I

were created.

The son of God

is uncreated.

There was a program,

I can't remember

what the question was,

but you had to

kind of identify

something.

And the contestants

on this show,

they had to identify

either an object

or a person

or a place,

I think it was.

And the first question

was,

are you animal,

vegetable,

or mineral?

Do you remember that?

And so in asking

that question,

are you animal,

vegetable,

or mineral?

You're acknowledging

there are different

modes of existence.

There are different

levels of existence,

different orders

of being.

And so if this

afternoon I go

and pick a bunch

of flowers

from our garden

and I offer them

to you,

you wouldn't take

that in the wrong

way, would you?

You wouldn't phone

the police

and accuse me

of murder

just because I picked

up a bunch

of flowers.

Because picking

flowers from a garden

is perfectly

acceptable,

isn't it?

It's perfectly

acceptable to pick

flowers from a garden

and decorate a room.

You wouldn't say,

how inappropriate

is that?

Of course not.

It's what flowers

are for.

It's why God

created flowers

for you to enjoy,

to create joy

and colour

and life

into our existence.

So it's quite

appropriate for you

to decorate your home

with flowers.

Or you've got a pet

and you're training

it to behave

or you should be

training it to behave.

Let's say it's a sheep

dog, isn't it?

And the farmer

trains the sheep

dog.

Or a...

It's not a blind

dog, is it?

A guide dog.

And the dog

has to be trained

and go through

kind of rigorous

training.

And so they're

training for the

sheep dog

farmer,

they're training

for the guide dog

and nobody goes

to the trainer

and says,

that is so

egotistical of you.

How dare you do that?

You expect your dog

to perform tricks?

You expect your dog

to work for you?

To be a guard dog?

To be a sheep dog?

You're a megalomaniac,

you are.

No one's going to say

that.

Why?

Because,

believe it or not,

you are on a different

level to your dog.

And you and I

are on a different

level from flowers

in the garden

and pets in our home

or the lunch

on your table.

The distance,

metaphysically speaking,

between you and your dog

or the flowers

in your garden

and you,

it is measurable.

It is appreciable.

There is an appreciable

difference

because we are all

part of creation.

But the difference

between you and Jesus

is off the scale.

Altogether,

he is the uncreated one.

He is the pre-existence one.

And so when he says,

Father, glorify me

with the glory I had

before the world existed,

remember who he is.

Remember that in Hebrews

it says about him,

the sun is the radiance

of God's glory,

the exact expression

of his nature.

And God's angels

all worship him.

Do you see?

And if the angels

worship him,

so much do

because there is nothing

inappropriate

about worshipping Jesus.

He is the pre-existent one

and because he is

the pre-existent one,

Jesus does not exist

for you.

You exist for him.

You and I,

we long to be glorified.

We've got a craving

for the limelight.

We've got a need

for recognition

and admiration.

That's part of what it is

being a human being.

But Jesus has no such need.

Jesus does not need you

to worship him.

When he prays this prayer,

Father, glorify your son,

it's not because he's kind of

got something psychologically

wrong with him.

He's got some need in him.

He's got a craving

for recognition

that needs to be met.

No, this is not

what it's about.

A.W. Tozer

wrote a little book.

And he said this

in this little book.

He said,

the reason that God

made man

in his image

was that he might

appreciate God

and admire

and adore

and worship him.

So that God

may not be a picture,

so to speak,

hanging in a gallery

with no one

to admire him.

I think that's a

brilliant way of putting it.

So that he may not

be a picture

in a gallery

with no one

to admire him.

Do you see

what he's saying?

So think of those

great pieces of art

that are not on display.

They're hidden away

in some vault.

They're no lesser

works of art,

are they?

For not being displayed.

But it's such a shame.

It's a shame

for a glorious

work of art

to be hidden

from the public.

Gathering dust

in the vaults.

Why shouldn't it

be on display?

Such a work of art

ought to be on display.

I've told you

about it before.

We've got this thing

in our house.

There's Aunt Layla's

china.

One of Claire's aunts.

And it comes out

once a year

on Christmas Day.

What's the point

in having a dinner service

taking up room

in the house

that never sees

the light of day

apart from once

on a Christmas Day?

I said to me,

well,

if you had kids

like ours,

you wouldn't use it

every day.

It's too precious,

isn't it,

to get broken.

I want to say,

well,

better to break the thing

and use it

than sit in the cupboard.

Beautiful things

are meant to be used.

And so this is the point

that A.W. Chose is making.

He's saying,

God doesn't need us.

He doesn't need you

to come here on a Sunday

and worship him.

Don't think that.

He wants you to.

He calls you to,

but he doesn't need you to.

There's nothing

psychologically wrong

with God.

He's not got a craving

for recognition.

He is just simply

the glorious one

who ought to be worshipped

and ought to be enjoyed.

And that's the reason

why you were made.

The reason why

you are,

you exist,

is because God

created you

to glorify

and enjoy him.

And so this prayer

of Jesus

is not out of place

at all.

It's not egotistical.

Jesus is the preexistent

son of God

and he deserves

our worship.

I wrote a chapter

in a book once

about Jeff Thomas,

Barbara's husband

who was a minister

for 50 years

in Aberystwyth.

I was reading it again

this week.

Something like reading

your own articles,

is there?

And one of the students

that I interviewed

in that article

said that Jeff Thomas

in his ministry,

in the way that he spoke

Sunday by Sunday,

he always preached

the Lord Jesus.

And he said

he could remember

a particular sermon

one week

when Jeff said,

on one occasion,

I remember him saying,

I was talking on the door

to a Jehovah Witness

this week

and at one point

the JW said

something about Jesus.

Caused the man

on my door

to reply,

oh but we mustn't

put him on a pedestal,

must we?

Oh but we must.

We must.

We must put Jesus

on a pedestal.

He's different.

Father, glorify your son.

So first of all,

as Jesus prays this prayer,

it is because of who he is.

But you notice secondly,

and the thing that really

comes out strongly,

is because of what

he's accomplished.

Look at verses 4 and 5.

Verse 4 says,

I glorified you on earth,

that's what I've done,

having accomplished

the work that you

gave me to do.

So Jesus was a man

who lived according

to God's will.

And now Father,

glorify me in your own

presence with the glory

I had with you.

Before the world existed.

He speaks about

completing the work

that the Father

had given him to do.

Look at verse 1.

He says,

Father,

the hour has come.

Literally,

the hour has arrived.

The time is now.

It's one of the big themes

of John's Gospel.

It's something that runs

right the way through.

So in John 2,

Jesus goes to a wedding

where the wine has run out.

And what does Jesus say

to his mother

when his mother comes

and says,

can you sort this out?

Jesus says,

my hour has not yet come.

I'm at a wedding,

but it's not my wedding.

The time has not yet come

for him to go to the cross

and shed his blood

for his bride.

In chapter 2 and verse 4,

he says,

my time has not yet come.

Chapter 7, verse 30.

When the temple police

come to arrest him

and they can't

and they have to go back

with their tail

between their legs

and confess

that they weren't able

to arrest him.

And Jesus says,

the reason why

they weren't able

to arrest me

is because my time

has not yet come.

Or chapter 8,

in verse 20,

when he's teaching

in the temple

and no one has seized him

because his hour

has not yet come.

And then in 1223,

the Greeks come

looking for him

and we're told,

Jesus eventually says,

the hour has now come.

It's time.

The hour has come

for the Son of Man

to be glorified

and he leaves us

in no doubt

what he's talking about.

He says,

unless a grain of wheat

falls to the ground

and dies,

it remains by itself.

But if it dies,

the seed produces

a huge crop.

And he says,

now is the time

for that to happen.

My soul is exceedingly troubled.

Father,

save me from this hour.

It's for this reason

I've come into this world.

So Father,

glorify your Son.

And then a voice

comes from heaven,

I've glorified it

and I will glorify it again.

Why?

Because Jesus is glorified

the hour that the grain of wheat

falls into the ground

and dies.

The hour,

the moment

when Jesus is glorified

is that hour

that fills him with dread.

And so he cries out

in the Garden of Gethsemane,

Father,

save me from this hour.

The hour is the time

when he is going to be lifted up

for the sins of his people.

And so in our culture today,

we're trying to edit

Jesus Christ

out of history,

aren't we?

We no longer call it

B.C.,

before Christ,

and A.D.,

in the year of our Lord.

We call it the year

of the common era.

They won't say

before Christ

and A.D.

because they don't want

to mention his name.

The hour,

which is

the hour that is

at the center

of human history,

the world wants

to deny it.

And so for the Christian church,

it is this hour,

it is his death

that we should celebrate.

It's the most important hour.

It is the hour

that has come,

and Jesus says,

for the Son

to be glorified.

Father,

the hour has come.

You see what's happening?

He is embracing

the cross.

He's saying,

Father,

take me to the cross

even though everything

in me shrinks from it.

And do you see

how committed he is to it?

Look at verse 4.

He speaks of it

as if it's already happened,

even though it's

24 hours off

into the future.

He says,

having accomplished

the work that you

gave me to do,

it's a done deal

as far as Jesus is concerned.

There's no going back.

I read somewhere

about a Scripture Union camp.

It's called

Camp Bevington.

And it's named

after a Royal Naval

Chaplaincy,

Chaplain,

the name of the guy

was called

Ronald Bevington.

He was a chaplain

in World War II

on HMS Perth.

It went down

in the Battle

of the Java Sea

in 1942.

And Ronald Bevington

was on an

overcrowded

life raft.

There were others

clamoring to get on board

and Ronald said,

apparently,

according to the article,

I'll get out.

and you get in

because I know

where I'm going.

Ronald Bevington

was listed

as lost at sea,

never seen again.

He drowned.

If he hadn't done that,

we would never

have heard of him.

I wouldn't be

mentioning his name.

There would be

no Scripture Union camp

called the Bevington Camp.

In laying down

his life,

he glorified himself.

and he brought

glory to God.

And so how much more

does Jesus bring glory

to himself

and glory to God

by laying down

his life

for the sins

of the world?

Do you remember

what the writer

of the Hebrews says?

The writer of the Hebrews

says,

for the joy

that was set

before him,

he endured

the cross.

What made

Jesus

go through

with his death

on the cross?

It was

the joy

of bringing glory

to the Father.

It was the joy

of seeing people

believe in him.

It was the joy

of seeing people

in every culture

throughout time

being saved,

being rescued

as a result

of what he's done.

Father,

the hour has come.

If it were possible,

save me from this hour,

but I'm going to go

through that.

Not my will,

but your will be done.

I don't know the date,

but pretty soon,

isn't it,

sometime next year,

they will take

Prince Charles

to Westminster Abbey

and they will crown him

king.

And they won't take him

to Pentonville Prison

and chop off his head.

But that is what

they did to Jesus.

His crucifixion

is in fact

his coronation.

The moment

of his humiliation

is the moment

of his glory.

Jesus and his finished work,

it's the best news

in the world.

Father,

I've completed the work.

And unless

you have trusted

in the finished,

completed work

of Jesus,

you can never

have assurance.

You can never

have confidence

about this life

and the world

to come.

You can never

know you've done enough.

There's always

something more

to do,

something else.

But the good news

of the Bible

is Jesus says,

Father,

I've done it.

I've completed

the work

that you gave me

to do.

It is finished.

And so that is

why the church

should be obsessed

with worshipping Jesus.

Because of who he is.

Who is he?

He is the pre-existent

son of God

who made us.

But also because

of what he's done.

And he's done

I remember seeing

a church I grew up in

and there was

another church

over the road

that had a

poster on it

and wayside pulpits

and kind of cheesy

posters that

people would drive

past.

And one of them

was,

read the Bible

free gift

inside.

Read the Bible

free gift

inside.

Can you see verse 2?

Since you've given

him authority

over all flesh

to give eternal

life to all

whom you've given

him.

Romans 6.23

tells us that

the wages of sin

if I keep living

the way that I live

the wages that I get

at the end

is death.

But the free gift

of God is eternal

life through Jesus

Christ our Lord.

Eternal life

is not like

chewing gum

is it?

where you kind

of chew it

and you chew it

and you chew it

and in the end

it loses its

flavour but you

keep on chewing.

No, look at

verse 3.

This is eternal

life.

It is to know

him.

Remember what

Jesus said.

Jesus said in

John 10,

I have come to

give you life

and to give it

to you in

abundance.

And so eternal

life is not

kind of enduring

forever.

But knowledge

of the one

who is

everlasting.

It's not so

much the

quantity

but the

quality.

You know

what it's like

when you're

at the dentist.

Time drags.

When you go

to the

child's

Christmas

concert

and you

go to

watch your

kid's

performance

and you

say to

the person

how long

is this

going to

go on

for?

And they

say oh

forever.

Forever.

So what

heaven will

be like?

When he

died on

the cross

the Lord

Jesus died

to bring

us into

a relationship

with the

one who

is everlasting

and that

is why

you've

been made.

Back in

the garden

right at the

start of the

Bible in

Genesis 2

and 3

in the

cool of

the day

right in

the garden

Adam

walked with

God.

He knew

God.

It's a

beautiful picture

of what you

were made

for of a

relationship

with God.

And Adam

when he

sins and

when he

falls that

relationship

is broken

and death

comes and

sin is

the wages

of death

is the

wages of

our sin.

And the

man and

the woman

they hide

from God

because the

relationship

is broken

and there's

biological

life but

the spiritual

life is

gone.

There's no

eternal

life because

sin has

broken that

relationship but

Jesus has

come and

he's come to

restore that

relationship.

He died

just for

the unjust

to bring you

to church.

No.

He died

just for

the unjust

to bring you

to God.

To restore

a living

relationship

with the

God who

made you.

And so

Jesus says

to me

Father I

brought you

glory on

earth by

completing the

work that

you gave

me to

do.

It's

accomplished.

It's

finished.

Let me

finish

with a

description of

a funeral.

It's a

humanist

funeral.

The author

says this

one of the

five speakers

summed up

my brother-in-law

Mark's brief

40 years

with his

favorite line

from his

favorite song

from his

favorite band

Radiohead.

If I could

be what you

wanted all

the time.

If I

could be

what you

wanted all

the time.

The sad

fact is

and all of

us at the

funeral knew

it Mark

didn't come

anywhere near

achieving that

and nor did

the rest of

us.

As the

songwriter

acknowledges

with the

line if I

could be

if only

it's a

desperate

line.

If only

I could

be what

you wanted

all the

time.

It's such

a contrast

to the

message of

the Bible.

If only

I could

be all

that God

wanted me

to be

but I

can't

and neither

can you.

But the

message of

the Bible

is thank

God

Jesus

was

all that

the Father

wanted him

to be.

Let's

pray.