"High Priestly Prayer"

"High Priestly Prayer"

 

High Priestly Prayer

John 17:1-26

October 2, 2022

 

Read John 17:1-26

This is the Word of the LORD.

John 17 is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In context, this is the last thing that happened before Jesus was arrested.  Even though it is included with his final discourse – his final teaching time with the disciples – it is a different kind of thing.  Here, John provided us with a rare look inside Jesus’ prayer life.  Jesus spoke these words aloud within John’s hearing (if not all the disciples) and intended for these words to be heard by them.  It is where we get the model for our Prayers of the People.

The prayer has three sections.  The opening section deals with the relationship between the Father and the Son; the mission for which the Son had been sent; and the result of the faithful completion of that mission: specifically, glory.  The middle section deals with the relationship of those given to the Son; namely the disciples. Because Jesus was going away, he prayed for the Father’s protection.  The final section deals with those who would follow – people like us – that we would know faith, unity, and the joy of being witnesses for him.

               Glory

The opening section dealing with the relationship between the Father and the Son is full of statements about “glory.”  What does glory look like?  The word “glory” in Greek is the word we use for the Doxology that we sang in presenting our offering this morning:

                 Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

                 Praise Him, all creatures here below;

                 Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;

                 Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Glory means praiseworthy or worthy of praise.  It means to “think upon, dwell, venerate, or extol.”  Being present in glory is to be immersed in awe; unable to see, perceive, or comprehend anything else.

To get a sense of what is the experience of “glory,” we go back to the Old Testament and Moses.  In Exodus 33 and 34, we find Moses speaking with the LORD after the Golden Calf debacle.  Moses was interceding on behalf of the people who had broken God’s covenant almost as soon as they had entered into it.  Moses was asking God to have mercy.

Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight.  Consider too that this nation is your people.”   [The LORD] said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  And [Moses] said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.  For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us?  In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”

The LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”  Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.”  And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.  But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.”  And the LORD continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

… Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me, on the top of the mountain.  No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”  So Moses … rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him.  The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, “The LORD.”   The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,

      “The LORD, the LORD,

      a God merciful and gracious;

      slow to anger,

      and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

      keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,

      forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

      yet by no means clearing the guilty,

      but visiting the iniquity of the parents

      upon the children

      and the children’s children,

      to the third and the fourth generation.”

 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

Glory is found in the encounter of the person who is too in awe to see, perceive, or comprehend anything else.  In his High Priestly Prayer Jesus was asking the Father to use him – all of him, including his current and immediate future circumstances – to accomplish God’s purposes which would be so overwhelming as to elicit a response that was nothing short of awe and praise.

And what was it that would cause that response of awe and praise?  It was this: Jesus was given authority over all people, “to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

When we consider what God has done for us in Jesus Christ – it is absolutely praise-worthy.  It is awesome.  Giving glory to God can be difficult to put into words, but it certainly involves words.

I grew up in the church.  We went to church every Sunday that it was physically possible to go to church.  When we were old enough to stay in service through the sermon, we did.  My parents’ faith mattered to them.  They taught Sunday School for years.  They were in Bible studies for years.  They talked with each other about what they had learned in their small groups while the three of us children were in the room – sometimes paying attention, sometimes not.  I saw in them a deep sense of faith and a conviction that Jesus was core to their being.  My parents put words to their faith.

As someone who grew up in the church, Jesus’ death on the cross for my sins was a known and a given.  The equation -- Jesus for my sins – was simply the baseline. There were times in my younger years when I thought the message of the gospel was such a known that I simply stopped talking about it.  All my friends, peers, and acquaintances went to church (or so I thought), so why cover what they already knew?  I mean, Bible study was one thing; but outside of church?  It was easier to assume they all believed the same as I did, so that I did not need to say anything about it.

And then I encountered someone who received Christ as an adult and realize just how complacent I have become about the joy of my salvation.  And then I remember how great God is.

There are days when God reminds me of how awesome is he.  And how awesome it is to be saved, to be a child of God, to be a brother in Christ, a co-heir of the kingdom of heaven.  And, how awesome it is to be called and commissioned to tell other people about Jesus.  And how awesome it is to be in relationship with those who also are called and commissioned, and to hear how awesome God has been in their lives.

Sitting in Aunt Betty’s Studios yesterday recording Rob and Dan’s “Behind The Curtain” (to be posted next Friday) was one of those moments.  As they were talking, I was marveling at the stories they were sharing.  I was uplifted in walking through their experiences with them.  I was renewed and encouraged in my faith by hearing theirs; and all I could think was, “Praise God!”

Giving glory to God may be difficult to put into words, but it certainly involves words.  “Praise God!” is a good start to putting it into words.

Glorifying God also involves more than words; it involves more than tipping your hat in respect.  Glorifying God means tangibly responding to what God has done with action.  Because of what God has done for us, we can respond as Moses did: in worship, in service, and in giving.

Moses bowed his head in worship.  Moses went back down the mountain and served God by telling the people what God had said and what God required.  And Moses gave of his life to lead God’s people in response to God’s leading.  Because the people had seen the power of God in delivering them from slavery in Egypt, because the people had seen the ferocity of God’s holiness when they broke God’s covenant, they had hearts ready to worship, serve, and give.

When we think about God, we worship. When we contemplate who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised, we worship.

Because we belong to God, we serve.  We study God’s word together, we gather for praise, and we enter into mission and ministry because we belong to God and this is what He has set before us.  And, as part of our worship and service, we give.

In Exodus 35 Moses instructed the people about an offering the LORD had commanded. Moses said, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded: Take from among you an offering to the LORD; let whoever is of a generous heart bring the LORD’S offering…”

We are at the beginning of our stewardship season.  You will be receiving letters and pledge cards in the next couple of weeks.  The theme this year is “Remember.” Remember what God has done.  Remember who God is.  Remember what God has promised.  Then, prayerfully consider what you will be offering in worship.  Yes, one reason we do pledges is so that the session has a baseline from which to discern how to prioritize the mission and ministry of this congregation in 2023.  Yet another reason – a more important reason – is to encourage God’s people to remember and glorify God through their giving.  It is to remind people to respond first to God in praise and gratitude and then look to their own needs.  Giving is a tangible act of trust, declaring that God has been, is, and will be faithful; that God is worthy.

For what it is worth, for those who know the Exodus story, you may recall that those who had seen God’s power of deliverance and God’s ferocious holiness gave an initial offering so great that Moses had to tell them to stop.  “The people were restrained from bringing; for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.”  You all are generous, to be sure…

In all seriousness, though, what I want you to hear is the important clarifier in Moses’ delivering of God’s command, “Whoever is of a generous heart.”  A generous heart belongs to someone who has known God’s goodness, who has remembered God’s hand and promises, and is inclined to give glory to God.  Give because of who God is and what God has done – not because you feel obliged, like it is a tax; not because you feel guilty, like a penance; and, not because you feel as if you are paying dues to belong to a club.  Give out of a generous heart, thankful to a generous God who has given you everything.

This opening section was all about glorifying God and glorifying the Son for what God had done in Jesus.  Jesus concluded this opening section of his prayer this way, “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.”  Glorifying the Son is to be immersed in awe.  It is safe to say that when we see face to face and not in a mirror dimly, we will be so overwhelmed that we eternally will be giving glory.

               Protection In His Name

The middle part of Jesus’ high priestly prayer was for the disciples.  Here, we see the movement of God in the incarnation of Christ through his ascension.  The Father had given Jesus the disciples.  Jesus shared everything the Father intended for the disciples to know.  Jesus was glorified in them; in other words, they witnessed and were amazed by what he taught and by what he did.

But now, as Jesus was concluding his earthly time, he was planning to return to the Father.  He would be leaving the disciples.  He asked the Father to protect the disciples in the Father’s name.

The protection involved two things: first, that the disciples would be united – one – even as the Father and the Son are one.  Their one-ness would be found in Christ, their unity would found in the strength of their carrying the Father’s name.

What does that mean?  When Jesus said, “in the Father’s name,” he was referring to the power of God’s character inherent in the name.  Jesus was saying that the faith in the Father he had revealed would be like a uniform that marked them as a part of the Father’s team.  Their time with Jesus had been a training period for the mission that God had prepared for them.  The disciples were to work together to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of God, and to call sinners to repentance unto Life.  “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news,” was Jesus’ proclamation initiating his ministry in the gospel of Mark.  With Jesus heading to the Father, the disciples were going to be carrying on that mission.

Teamwork was essential and foundational.  Unity was essential and foundational.  We see the development of that teamwork in God’s name in the early days after Pentecost when, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the braking of bread and the prayers.”  Faith was not a solitary endeavor; they were given to each other to pursue the mission of proclaiming God’s glory – together.  It took work.  It required intentional effort and mutual submission.  Ultimately, unity – to the extent they experienced it – was a blessing from God.

The second thing that protection in the Father’s name involved was guarding from evil (or, the evil one). Note: Jesus did not ask the Father to protect us from hardship, difficulty, pain, or struggle.  The protection was to keep us from being taken away by the evil one.  The protection was to keep us on the team, to hold us in and through times of trial.  Playing with the team illustration for a moment, think of it this way: their uniforms were going to get dirty, get worn, get torn, and get abused, but they would always be identifiable and precious parts of the team.  They were not going to get traded.

Jesus was the Good Shepherd, asking the owner of the flock to keep his own from being snatched away by poachers or predators.  “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.”  Just as Jesus had been sent into the world but was not of it, the disciples were going to be sent in the world.  The mission for which they had been prepared was in the world.  They were not of the world; that is, they were not going to be wearing the uniform of the world and were not to act like the world.

They were going to be different.  And, in that difference, they were going to be considered the opposition, the enemy, the target for all the vitriol of brokenness that the world could muster.  Friends, you need to hear this: the protection of the Father was from the evil one, not the things the evil one could do.  All the things Jesus endured, all the things Jesus suffered, all the trials Jesus faced – so would his disciples.  That included injustice, hardship, physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, loss, and death.  They would experience those things for his name’s sake.  In that suffering they would show forth the exceeding worth of Christ, the overwhelming love of God – in other words, in their suffering God’s glory would be revealed.

Paul is helpful here to understand what protection looks like:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written,

      “For your sake we are being killed all day long;

                     we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

They were more than conquerors through him who loved them; they were protected in his name for the purpose of proclaiming his glory.

               Unity

And, so are we. We, too, are conquerors in Christ because he has made us so. The final part of Jesus’ high priestly prayer was for us. It is not too far a leap to see how Jesus’ prayer for the disciples in his immediate presence also extends to those who were and are to follow. If Jesus’ contemporaries needed protection from evil in order to be unified in their efforts to pursue the mission Jesus would be leaving them, so also would those who followed need that same protection.

We need God’s protection. Jesus prayed that protection for us.  “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,” – that is us – “that they may all be one.”

The unity that Jesus prayed for his immediate disciples, he prayed for us.  We look around and see all the divisions and denominations and discord and we wonder, did God say “no” to Jesus’ prayer for unity?  There is brokenness, yes; however, there also is a deeper truth underlying what we see.  Specifically, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the diversity in the body, we know that there is incredible diversity among the parts of the church.  There are quite a number of congregations in this town – of different denominations – that wear the uniform of God’s name.  There are differences, disagreements, and even error that exist in the body in this town; just as there are differences, disagreements, and even error that exists in the body nationally and around the globe.  Yet, we can have confidence that God knows what He is doing, that God is directing the various people in the ministries and missions He has prepared for them.

Ultimately, our eyes need to be on where we are headed and not judging the faithfulness of others.  Jesus prayed for our unity and also prayed that “I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”  Our unity is in Christ, in his gathering us together, and calling us to be with Him – it is not based on our ability to get everyone to agree with us.

               Communion

That brings us back to this table on World Communion Sunday.  Communion is the great reminder of our unity: we all stand in need at the foot of the cross.  We are all sinners in need of a savior.  What brings and holds us together as the body of Christ is the unifying power and lordship of Jesus.

By sharing in this meal together, we are bearing witness to our unity in him.  By sharing in this meal together, we encourage one another.  By sharing in this meal together, we are doing what is best in the big picture.  By sharing in this meal together, we are telling the gospel by our actions.  By sharing in this meal together, God will use us to produce a harvest of righteousness.  And, by sharing in this meal together, we look forward with knowledge and insight into eternity, anticipating the day when we will share – face-to-face – in a banquet with the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the celebration of this meal, let us glorify God and engage in enjoying Him forever.

Amen.

Questions:

1. When or how have you experienced God’s glory? With whom have you shared that testimony?
2. How do you deal with the struggles and trials in your life? Were you frustrated that God did not protect you from those things?  What does “protection in Your name” mean?
3. What is our role in unity? How do we join Jesus’ prayer for unity of his disciples?