Introduction
This evening we are looking at just the first part of the longest prayer that Jesus said – at least the longest one that was written down. There are many times when Jesus is recorded as praying, but because he was on his own the disciples did not hear the prayer, and so could not write it down. Only going up to verse 11 seems to me a very strange place to stop, but lets see how it works out. As we work through the things that Jesus prayed for we must remember that this prayer was made in public, and as such Jesus would have been trying to pass on a particular message.
Background
During the week of prayer, back in January, I proposed a format for our prayer to help us to pray. It was based around the acronym ACTS:
A – Adoration
We start our prayers by telling God that we adore him. I found this quite difficult – quite strange when I first tried it, but I'm getting used to it now. By starting with adoration, we focus our minds on God, the most important thing for effective prayer.
C – Confession
Next comes confession. It is quite a natural follow on from adoration. Once you focus on God, the Holy Spirit can much more easily help you bring to mind the areas in you life that God would like to improve. Or in more biblical and direct language – we can tell God of our sins, that we are sorry for committing them, and that we have the intention of not repeating them.
Now we are focussed on God. We have confessed our sins, and God has forgiven us. There should now be nothing to block our communication.
T – Thanksgiving
Next we move on to thanking God for all that he has done for us and for those around us. We remember the many good things that we have, and the many answered prayers that we have seen.
S – Supplication.
Finally we come to the list of things that are troubling us. Maybe it was this list, or just one or two of the things on it that got us to the point of prayer in the first place, or perhaps it is just a part of your regular communication with God.
It's during this time that we can spend time quietly in God's presence listening for what he is saying to us.
I have used this form on occasions in our prayer meetings for Warner and our Church, but there have also been times when we have just prayed.
Formulas for Prayer
Jesus is not known for creating formulas for doing things, He just gets on with it. He did give us some direction with the Lords prayer, but that was only because he was specifically asked. We should realise here that the layout of this prayer is not meant as a model. There is a message in this prayer for the disciples, and for us. This is Jesus, how could it be otherwise.
Jesus prays for Himself
v1
Jesus starts by looking towards heaven, or the heavens, there was no real difference in the 1st century mind between the sky and heaven. This is a common Jewish way of addressing God, to look towards him. Jesus then notes that the “time has come”. He is clearly running to schedule. There have been many places in John's gospel where this phrase or something similar has appeared. Right at the start, or rather before the start of his ministry, he tells his mother at the wedding that the time has not yet come. - John 2:4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied. My time has not yet come. “
Later he refused to go to the feast of tabernacles,
John 7:8 “You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.”
and gets into an argument with his brothers about how secret his ministry has become. They go, and he follows in secret.
Then again he upsets people with what he says, and they threaten to get hold of him, presumable to have him punished: John 8:20 “He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no-one seized him, because his time had not yet come. “
So we can see that Jesus is working to some timetable, and now is the right time.
Jesus then asks that the Father Glorify his son, so that Jesus may glorify him. This is Jesus recognizing that he will complete the work that God has given him to do.
V2-5
Jesus goes on to describe part of the work that he has come to do. God has given Him authority over all people (Jesus has been made 'King of the World'), so that He can give eternal life to those that believe in Him. Eternal life is to know Jesus and therefore God. Finally He finishes the pray for Himself, by reminding God of the Glory that he had before the world was created.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
We now move on to look at the way that Jesus prays for this disciples.
V6
Speaking to God, Jesus says 'I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world'. It struck me that God should be obvious surely. There is God, or at least some aspect of him in creation – maybe not in the crops and flowers, but in the whole of creation, the Earth with its rich diversity, and the cosmos with its many mysteries – surely all this must lead to God?
It certainly leads to something. Who ever we are we cannot help but be in awe of the night sky – when we can see it through the back-scatter of our homes and street lights, that takes the dark away from the night. I thought back to my experience of coming to faith. Did God have to be revealed? My experience involved many conversations, evenings in the Coach and Horses- discussing what the bible said about all sorts of things. At first I couldn't understand it. At first I didn't believe what it said. Slowly though, I began to see that there might be some truths there. Eventually a picture began to be revealed, I started to see the Christian faith as a whole, and it made sense – well the pieces I could see did. It's not just the biblical stories I'm talking about – its also the modelling of Christian behaviour. With out the two – the theoretical – the Bible stories, and their interpretation and explanation, and the example of how that works out in the practice of every day life, I would not have been able to make any sort of commitment. So as I look back it is clear to me that the truth was indeed revealed. I had not gone looking for it. People brought it to me. “Look what I've found”. That is also how scripture describes it.
In Chapter 12 verse 40 John records Isaiah “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn— and I would heal them.” and in 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
So the truth that Jesus brought into the world has been revealed to me and to you as is was to the first disciples by Jesus himself.
As a result we are able to turn and be healed, and because we can, and we have, we have become obedient to God.
V7
We like the disciples know that everything that comes from Jesus has come from our Father God. We have been and are still going through a process where we learn more and more about the will of our Lord. Or perhaps I should say, to keep the sense of what I'm saying:
We like the disciples know that everything that comes from Jesus has come from our Father God. We have been and are still going through a process where more and more of God's will is being revealed to us. It's an important difference. If we say that we are finding things out and learning about them, then we attribute the effort and the results to ourselves. If we say that more and more aspects of our faith and belief, and the will of God are being revealed to us, then it is God, through the Holy Spirit who is taking the action and the initiative.
V8
This sense is important in the light of the next verse. In verse 8 Jesus says that the disciples, and therefore by extension you and I, have accepted God's words. We have not discovered them, or found them, or looked them up – we have been presented with them and accepted them. They (i.e. we) knew with certainty that Jesus came from God. “and believed that you sent me” implies that he came with a purpose.
V9-10
Now a little while ago I mentioned Chapter 12 verse 40. “He has blinded their eyes ...” remember?
Who is the he? - well Paul gives us the answer in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians - “The god of this world” better known as the evil one, or Satan. That being the case the next part of Jesus prayer should not come as a surprise. In verse 9 Jesus reminds God of who he is praying for. Its important that the context is correct. “I am not praying for the world” - not everyone. This prayer is specific. Its for those that have been given to Jesus, because those are the ones who also belong to God.
Throughout this passage we have seen that anything or anyone who belongs to Jesus also belongs to God, and the same is true of anything that's attributed to belonging to God, it too belongs to Jesus., There is no separation of ownership, if it belongs to one it belongs to the other. This is again underlined in verse 10.
Then Jesus says “And Glory has come to me through them.” What already, they haven't done anything yet. Well they have. They have accepted that Jesus was sent by God. They may not yet have accepted that Jesus must die on the cross, but they HAVE accepted that He is from God. So the next stage in God plan for salvation is beginning, and Jesus has accomplished that.
V11
In verse 11 the trouble really begins. Jesus knows that he is leaving the world. I wonder what the disciples who were obviously listening intently made of that? Jesus know that he is going home, back to be with God. Then he uses a phrase that is not used anywhere else in the bible. He addresses God as 'Holy Father'. This is just a lesson for the disciples I believe.
Then he asks God to protect the disciples, and therefore those who will believe without seeing. What sort of protection would you expect Jesus to pray for at this point?
Some sort of protection from the worst excesses of the evils the world can throw at them?
Protect them from despots, like Caligula, who will burn them as torches?
Protection from sickness, and diseases that lead to a lingering and very painful death?
Protection from poverty and starvation?
No – none of these.
The disciples are in the world, and in order to complete the tasks that they have been given they must stay there. The protection is from the evil one (v20), and it is so that the may be one.
There are a huge number of document written about Christian Unity, and it would not be right to for me to spend the entire sermon on the subject. Christians appear divided even on this. There are those who rant about the lack of Christian unity, saying that the body of Christ is broken, and that this sin above all others is the worst sin. They complain that the church is not in fact THE church at all, but has turned into a choice of whatever flavour you want – Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Anglican, Pentecostal, and anything I haven't mentioned.
There are those that make excuses one way or another, who see the limited unity that we have as sufficient. If you can say with you mouth and believe in your heart that “Jesus is Lord” that's all that is required. The rest, they say, doesn't matter. One baptism, one Holy communion services, whether you speak in tongues, or have other gifts of the spirit, whether you meet in a cathedral, or a house, or via the web, whether there is a bishop in charge, or just a group of elders, whether they are men or women, whether they are heterosexual or not – none of it matters.
Of course, there are as many different places where you could draw your line as there are Christians in the world.
For me, and just for me, I'm sad that we cannot speak clearly with one voice on the really important matters of the day:
The starving and poverty stricken – and there will be many more of them soon
The headlong rush towards growth, (called greed) that is damaging the world.
The breakdown of society, particularly in the western world, where individualism is the key to life.
The oppression, both political and religious, of various minorities around the world.
Instead I find a church that concentrates its efforts on deciding if women should become bishops, or spend way too much time debating the sexual preferences of its clergy, and whether that should be part of the selection process for ordination.
So we are not one. I expect that some of you will have disagreed with some of what is said. Perhaps this isn't even what it means to be one.
Perhaps what it means to be one is to recognise that we have been shown something – that something has been revealed to us. As a result of what we have seen, been given and accepted, we have changed sides.
Now we are for God. Now we are not trying to go our own way, now we are trying to go God's way, but God's way can be difficult to find in a broken and sinful world. There are some things we know about Gods way that help us to see where to go.
God sent his son into the world to reveal God to a few people, that they would then reveal him to a few others, and a few others, and so on.
When Jesus returned to heaven after the ascension he was met by Gabriel at the entrance to heaven:
“Well Lord, how did the mission go?”
“Very well thank you”
“What are your plans now?”
“I have given my message to a few fishermen, a tax collector , a zealot, an some others”
“Yes, Lord, I have heard that, so what's the plan?”
“They will take the message to everyone else”
Gabriel starts to get a bit grumpy “Yes , Lord, I know, but what is your plan now?”
Jesus replies “That's it – that's the plan”
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