The High Priestly Prayer

Well, take your Bible this morning, turn to John chapter 17. You should know by now that we will be in John chapter 17. It's a familiar place in your Bible because we are going verse by verse through this study in the gospel of John, John chapter 17. Now we're transitioning into a new portion of scripture this morning. We are still in this block of scripture between the Last Supper or the Passover Celebration and the arrest of Jesus, which is in John chapter 18. Now after finishing this portion of scripture, we will now progress into this lengthy prayer of Jesus.

The teaching portion of scripture that started back in chapter 13 and continued into chapter 16, we finished that last Sunday, our last Lord's Day. Now by way of introduction, I will share with you how we will get started in chapter 17. This morning's message will be more of an introduction to the chapter. Rather than diving straight into dividing the verses, I see the need to prepare us for what we're going to encounter when we get into the chapter. Currently this is a necessary introductory message. We will be instructed from God's Word and this is not merely informational. There are truths that I believe can be applied to all of our lives.

Now many of the Bibles today have a heading above chapter 17. I would invite you to look at your copy of God's Word, see if there's a heading there. Many of them read the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Most New American Standard versions, most English Standard versions and even the King James, they seem to have this heading. I went back in my study and in my home and I looked at some of the translations that are in my home. The New International version seems to have a heading that's different. Jesus prays for Himself. The New Living Translation. This title, our heading, says the prayer of Jesus.

Now besides the tip off of the heading, an easy observation shows us that all of chapter 17 is a prayer. Look with me at verse 1. You see there in the second part of verse 1, "Father, the hour has come." So this shows us that this is a prayer. Look over about halfway through the chapter, verse 13, "But now I come to you and these things I speak in the world." This shows us that this is the continuation of Jesus' prayer. And then if you look at the end in verse 26, what do we see? "And I have made Thy name known to them." And He's continuing and we see this is the end of this prayer. Now my New American Standard is a red letter edition.

I don't know if yours is, but if it's a red letter edition, this helps us see that this is an unbroken, lengthy prayer. You see it pick up at the second part of verse 1 and go all the way to verse 26. So we see that chapter 17 is a prayer by Jesus and a very lengthy prayer at that. Now we have many written prayers within the entirety of God's Word. New Testament and Old Testament give us many great prayers. Now I want to show us a few prayers. I'm going to start with the Old Testament. This is an incomplete list. These are some things, some prayers I ran across in my study and some that were on my mind in my own personal study.

First we see a great prayer of intercession with Moses in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 11 through 14. I list this because this is one that I'm very familiar with and I have prayed very regularly. Here we see that Moses intercedes from the Israelites while they're in a terrible condition of rebellion against God. Then if we turn over a page or two to Exodus 33, we see a prayer for success in verses 12 through 16. Moses prays for success in being a godly leader for God's glory to display through the people. So I love these two examples. These are two that have meant a lot to me in my life.

This prayer of intercession and this prayer for success and ultimately the glory of God in Exodus 32 and 33. The next prayer is a favorite of mine as well. This is a great prayer of brokenness. We see this in 1 Samuel chapter 1 starting in verse 9. We have the story of Hannah. Hannah was a barren woman. She was childless and she was burdened greatly because of her barrenness and she prays in this great brokenness for God to give her a son. As a matter of fact, she was so broken that the priest Eli thought she was coming to shiloh to the house of the Lord drunk. So this was a great prayer of brokenness. Then we see a great prayer for wisdom.

Most of us are familiar with Solomon. In 1 Kings chapter 3 starting in verse 6, we see that Solomon as he is embarking on this journey being the king succeeding his father David, he prays for wisdom and God answers Solomon's prayer and God made him a very wise ruler. The next we see a great prayer for God's glory. Most of us are familiar with Elijah, the great prophet of God in the Old Testament. In 1 Kings chapter 18 starting in verse 36, Elijah prayed that God would reveal himself as the one true God as he was in opposition to those prophets of Baal. We know that God did answer his prayer and revealed himself as the one true God.

And then the last prayer I mentioned from the Old Testament and we see a great prayer for repentance. We see this in Jonah chapter 2 starting in verse 1. Remember the story of Jonah? Jonah had refused to obey God. God had commanded him to go to Nineveh and preach to those Ninevites but he refused and God punished Jonah and the great fish swallowed Jonah up and in the very belly of that fish Jonah repented and he prayed that prayer of repentance. So there are a few prayers that I mention here out of the Old Testament.

Now I want to show us a few from the New Testament, specifically from the age of the church and the birth of the New Testament church, primarily from the book of Acts but I'll mention another verse or example in Colossians. The first one is one we're familiar with and this is a great prayer of devotion, a great devotion to prayer. We see this in Acts chapter 2 verse 42. The disciples continued in prayer. They were devoted to prayer and we see this devotion to prayer continue on through the book of Acts. Another prayer is a great prayer during persecution. In Acts chapter 4 starting in verse 24 we see this prayer.

Great persecution had broken out against the early church and they prayed and in their prayer they prayed for God to validate. They prayed that God would validate them as messengers and they prayed that God would validate their message and the Messiah that they proclaimed. So this is a great prayer in the midst of persecution. We see a great commitment to prayer by the leaders that God had put in place over the church. We see this in Acts chapter 6 verse 4. This was a great time of growth in the life of the church but it was a great trial in the life of the church.

We see through this trial that the apostles committed themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. They were faithful to pray as God had commanded them to pray. Then we see a great prayer of commissioning. This is one of my favorite that I have meditated over through the years. This is in Acts chapter 13 starting in verse 1. Paul and Barnabas there, they're at the church of Antioch. That is their home base, their home church so to speak. And after much prayer and fasting, the church at Antioch commissioned Paul and Barnabas for that great missionary work and ultimately they sent them out on their first missionary journey.

So there's a great prayer of commissioning. And then I love this one, I've referred to this one many times in my years here. This is a great layman of prayer out of the book of Colossians. We see this in chapter 4 verse 12. Paul himself, the great apostle, attested to this man, Apipras, that he had a great ministry of prayer. Paul stated that he carried a prayer burden for two congregations, the church there at Colossians and the church at Laodicea. Now not only do we see great examples of prayer in the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see the greatest example of prayer in Jesus Himself. All four gospels record Jesus praying.

But the gospel of Luke records Jesus praying the most. Jesus' prayer life was so impactful on the disciples that Luke 11 records the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. Now we really, really need to see this. The disciples had heard Jesus teach like no one before or after. He was a greater teacher than John the Baptist. You must realize that these men probably heard John the Baptist preach. And he was a great preacher and a great teacher, and he was the last of the Old Testament prophets. But they did not ask Jesus to teach them how to preach. They had seen Jesus perform great miraculous signs.

They had seen Him do great works that benefited humanity, such great healings, healing blind eyes, touching lame limbs. They had seen Him demonstrate great powers over nature. They had seen Him perform great miracles that clearly attested to His deity. Is it not what we see in Nicodemus when he comes to Jesus at night? What does he say? No one could do the things you're doing unless you were from God. But they did not ask to be taught to perform great miracles or signs. They asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Clearly Jesus' prayer life had made a greater impact on them than most of us realize.

Now of Jesus' recorded prayers, I believe we can see a few which were great. Now this is an objective list again. These are some that have really come to the surface for me during this week of study. Now you might would alter your list or this list. You might would add to this list. Now these are clearly my opinion. This is my opinion of great prayers. I'll give us a few. First Jesus prayed all night before choosing the twelve disciples. I see this in Luke chapter 6 starting in verse 12. Now we do not have the prayer recorded. But this prayer was definitely impactful on the disciples.

This choosing, designating them as apostles, changed their lives. And this night of all night prayer in the life of Jesus was at the center of this work that changed their lives forever. Jesus giving the disciples the Lord's Prayer. We see this in Luke 11 starting in verse 2. And then there's a longer version of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6.9. Now here Jesus does not actually pray this prayer. Jesus simply teaches them this model of prayer. This was impactful in that this gave these men a model for prayer for the future. And then there's Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. We see this in Matthew 26 starting in verse 36.

Here Jesus comes face to face with the cross. He prays not as I will but as you will as he's praying to the Father. He dies in this prayer so as to go to die on the cross. Now many consider Jesus' prayer in the Garden as the greatest prayer of Jesus which is recorded. John Piper is a very famous pastor, preacher, teacher. He declares of this prayer in the Garden and I quote, "Here Jesus prays the greatest prayer in the world. What hung in the balance was the glory of God's grace and the salvation of the world. The success of Jesus' mission on earth depended on Jesus' prayer and the answer given." And then I mention the High Priestly Prayer.

This prayer in John 17. Here John gives us the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Scriptures. Many consider this to be the greatest of the prayers of Jesus. The Bible commentator Warren Wiersby says of this chapter, I quote, "It is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer recorded anywhere in Scripture." Warren Wiersby goes on to say and I quote, "John 17 is certainly the Holy of Holies of the Gospel Record and we must approach this chapter in a spirit of humility and worship." John MacArthur says about this prayer in John 17, "Of all the prayers of Jesus, the one recorded here is the most profound and magnificent.

Its words are plain yet majestic, simple yet mysterious. They plunge the reader into the unfathomable depths of the inter-trinitarian communication between the Father and the Son and their scope encompasses the entire sweep of redemptive history from election to glorification, including the themes of regeneration, revelation, illumination, sanctification and preservation." He goes on to say, "The veil is drawn back and the reader is escorted by Jesus into the Holy of Holies to the very throne of God." So here we have this great prayer of Jesus, the high priestly prayer. Some say the greatest of all his recorded prayers.

But notice this prayer is very personal. This prayer is very personal by nature. Jesus is talking to his fathers and his disciples are listening. This prayer, it is Christ-centric. For Jesus prays for glory for himself. Then also notice this prayer, it is holistic. For Jesus prays for glory for the Father. But then we see that this is intercessory because Jesus intercedes for his disciples and the church. He prays for their protection, he prays for their sanctification and he prays for their ultimate unity. This prayer is high and holy. It is majestic.

Jesus escorts his disciples to the very throne of God and he allows them to hear the very things which are on the heart of God because they are on the heart of Jesus. And if these things are on the heart of Jesus, then they are on the heart of God. And in John's recording this prayer, he escorts us, you, me, us into the throne room of God and we are able to hear these things which are on God's heart as well. Now I want to make a little correction here. I do not want any of us to have a misconception with this prayer. This is not a gloomy prayer from a helpless victim. This is a prayer of victory. Look back with me at chapter 16 verse 33.

This is how Jesus ends this great teaching time in victory as an overcomer. What does he say? "These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace, in the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world." Warren Wiersby says of this prayer that this is a prayer of the victor, not the prayer of a victim. Leon Morris says that this is a prayer of an overcomer. Jesus has overcome the world and he has overcome all that is in the world and this prayer is a great reflection of that victory. Now I want to offer you a breakdown of the chapter.

This is not the outline that we will use as we progress through the chapter. I do not mean to confuse you. I will refer to this along the way. Now you might say, "Pastor, why do you give us an outline that we're not going to use?" This will help us get our minds around this chapter, 26 verses. This will help us get a feel for what is in the chapter. I ran across this in some of my study this week. I thought it would be helpful. And this Bible commentator lists seven petitions in prayer. In other words, this is a breakdown of seven individual prayers that are contained in this large prayer.

First there is a prayer for the glorification of the mission. We see that in verses 1, 2, and 3. A prayer for the glorification in the mission. Here Jesus is praying for glory for the Son, for glory for the Father. He is praying for glory for the plan of God which was determined in eternity past. The great plan of redeeming man. That is the mission. And Jesus is praying for glorification for the mission of redemption. Then the second prayer is a prayer for the return to glory at the conclusion of the incarnational mission. We see that in verses 4 through 8. Here Jesus yearns for his return to glory. This is at the end of his earthly mission.

Now notice the word "incarnational." We have learned that Jesus was the incarnation of God. He was the God-man being fully God and fully man. He is longing to return back to glory, back to heaven after this incarnational work is complete. So we see a prayer for the return to glory. Then third we see a prayer for the protection of God's representatives in the world, his people. This is longer, verses 9 through 15. Here Jesus becomes intercessory in his prayer. He is praying for the protection of his own who are in the world. These are the ones that the Father has given him. He says that he has guarded them while he's been with them.

But after he leaves them, he knows that they will need the protection of the Father. And he prays for that protection. So this is a prayer for the protection of God's representatives in the world. This fourth prayer, a prayer for the holiness of God's representatives in the world. Jesus maintains this intercessory prayer for the disciples and now he prays for their holiness. The word "sanctify" is used in verse 17 and 19. The word "sanctified" is used in verse 19. This is a prayer for their holiness, for them to be set apart so they would be sanctified. So there's a prayer for their holiness.

The fifth prayer, a prayer for unity in the mission. We see this in verse 23 through 23. A prayer for the unity in the mission. Here Jesus prays for their oneness or that they may be one. Now this is unity. Now this unity is not just a unity with one another, but with God and himself. He prays for a unity for them that will be greater than a unity that they could have among themselves. So this is a prayer for unity in the mission. And then sixth, there's a prayer for the disciples to reach their destiny. We see that in verse 24. Here Jesus prays that in the Father's time the disciples will be with Him in glory. This is none other than heaven.

So He prays for their eternal protection. And then the seventh prayer is a reality in prayer, verses 25-26. Now here's some dispute if this is a prayer or if this is, these are simply reflective statements. Here Jesus is reflecting in prayer to the Father. The reality of Christ's relationship to the Father is prayed back to the Father from Jesus. He states that He has known the Father and has been sent to this incarnational mission by the Father. So there's a reality in prayer. Now again, why do I give you this information? I believe this outline can help us get our arms around the chapter.

It can help us get a feel for what is in this long reprayer, these 26 verses that are before us. Now I want us to turn our attention to one verse. Really just one portion of one verse. If you would look with me at verse 1. We're only going to deal with the first portion. These things Jesus spoke in lifting up His eyes to heaven. He said, "Father, the hour has come." Now I want to take some time and I want us to divide just that small portion of verse 1. I want us to see four observations that are out of this verse. This will be the beginning of dividing the chapter and I believe this will set the tone for where we will go in chapter 17.

Now I do want you to hold on to these for your own personal study. So therefore I will give them to you. I encourage you to write them down, to study them during the week because we will make application and I do believe that this can impact you and me more than you know. So you see what we're going to look at. These four observations. Jesus was looking back. Jesus was looking up. Jesus was looking to His Father and then Jesus was looking out. So let's look at this first observation. Chapter 1, Jesus was looking back. Look back at the verse. These things Jesus spoke.

This is clearly connecting chapter 17 to all of this teaching since chapter 13 and the Last Supper. He had taught them of sacrificial service and a love for one another in chapter 13. He had taught them of abiding in Him and He abiding in them in chapter 15. That's the end-me-life we talked about in Wednesday night Bible study. He had taught them of the cross and His imminent departure which had so filled their hearts with sorrow. He had taught them of the Holy Spirit in chapter 14, 15 and 16 and how He would come to be with them and ultimately end them.

He taught them of the rejection and the persecution that they would receive from the world. But then He taught them of victory, victory over the world and not just over the world but all that was in the world. So what do we see here? As Jesus is about to pray, He is looking back. Jesus was reaching back to all this great preparatory teaching which He had given these disciples. As the time was drawing near, Jesus gave these men all they needed for His departure. The farewell discourses had a purpose and the great purpose was preparation. You might say, "Pastor, this is a small review." Yes it is. What does He say? These things Jesus spoke.

This is referring to all that He had taught them. Now see the significance here. Jesus is reflecting back to what He had taught them. Now the disciples are about to see all that He would pray for them. They are about to experience the second half of the preparation which was the prayer. Second observation, Jesus was looking up. Look at the verse, these things Jesus spoke and lifting up His eyes. Here we see Jesus do something that the disciples had seen Him do so many times. He was lifting up His eyes to heaven in prayer. Now if we go back in time, we see that Jesus started His earthly ministry in prayer at His baptism.

Before many of His miracles, we know that Jesus prayed. He prayed before the feeding of the 5,000. He prayed before He raised Lazarus from the dead. He prayed at the Last Supper. And here at the end of His ministry, Jesus prays. Here at His high priestly prayer and then later in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prays. So Jesus lifts up His eyes in prayer before His disciples which was a very normal thing for them to see. They had seen Him pray just like this many times and in many different circumstances. In all of these three years, they had been with Him. Now what's the significance here?

Although He was the perfect Son of God who knew the will of God and obeyed the will of God perfectly, Jesus still needed to pray. And those men needed to see Him pray. And at times, they did see and hear Him pray many times. And no doubt they needed this right here in Chapter 17. The third observation, notice Jesus was looking to the Father. Go back to the verse. These things Jesus spoke and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father." I guess it's better to say that He is praying to the Father. Now this approach to God was totally non-Jewish. You might be surprised by that. Jews in that day never addressed God in this manner.

They were very fearful of taking the Lord's name in vain. They would say more commonly, "Our Father," but not simply, "Father." Here Jesus was revealing His close relationship to the Father. He is revealing His submission to the Father, but at the same time emphasizing His equality with God the Father. So He was looking to the Father. Now see the significance here. The disciples not only see Jesus' closeness with the Father, but we see they have an ability to be close to the Father as well.

Because of Jesus' perfect and perpetual intercession, they are able to say to the Father, "Father." And this approach to God, or closest to God, was never seen in the Jews. But we see it now in Jesus' Son, and we will see it in His disciples. And then fourth, notice Jesus was looking out. Go back to the verse, these things Jesus spoke in lifting up His eyes to heaven. He said, "Father, the hour has come." Here Jesus was revealing that His time had come.

All throughout the Gospels we hear Jesus say, "My hour has not yet come." "My hour has not yet come." "My hour has not yet come." In John chapter 2, when Jesus was at the wedding feast, they ran out of wine. And Jesus' mother told those who were in charge to bring the problem to Jesus. What was Jesus' response? He said, "My hour has not yet come." And we see this change at the Last Supper. In verse 1 of chapter 13, John writes, "Jesus, knowing that His hour had come." Right there, everything changed.

Here at the beginning of this great prayer, Jesus says to the Father again that, "My hour has come." And of course, this was the cross, the redemption of man, and all that the cross would entail. Now what is the significance here? The eternal plan of God was coming to its great and wonderful climax. The eternal plan of God for the sacrifice of sin was about to take place. This was the hour which would affect all of history. Now I said earlier that I would make some application out of what we're learning. Again, this is not just informational. I think just with this one portion of verse 1, there's a lot that can be applied to our lives.

So if you would, allow me to challenge you from this division of verse 1. Now I don't mean a challenge like rah rah, Jesus. I mean a challenge that would move us to more Christ-likeness and obedience. So first, I want us to see that we should look back. We should look back. We should be faithful stewards of God's Word and God's teaching. We should look back on all that He has taught us. We should look back again, back again, and back again. That should be a perpetual habit of our life. I'm so afraid we've come to church for years. We've heard sermons and we walk out the door and we never give them a second thought.

We are to be doers of the Word and we are to look back and back and back. We must allow God's Word to bring about change in our lives. What about some of the things we learned in John 13? I'm just picking those out. Did Jesus teach them about service? He washed their feet. He took upon Himself the lowest of low of servants. He did what a slave would do. He did what no one wanted to do. And He was exemplifying a sacrificial service. And what does He do? He basically looks at them and says, "You do the same." And so we are to learn to be sacrificial in our service.

He goes on in John 13 and verse 34, He says, "I'm giving you a new command that you love one another like I have loved you." We are to go back and learn that and know that and live that. See, we should go back and go back and go back year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day. So we do not forget what God is teaching us. Second, we should look up. We should be a people who continuously look up in prayer. We must be a praying people, yes privately, but also publicly. Now if Jesus was the perfect Son of God and He needed to pray, then how much more do we need to pray? Now a question, why do we need to pray?

Do we need to pray to tell God what we want Him to do? No. That's not prayer. We need to pray to know God. First of all, to know the God that we love that has saved us. We need to pray to open our hearts and open our minds and open our wills to God's will and God's purposes. In prayer, we are moved to His purposes. In prayer, we are adjusted and changed towards His will, His purposes, and yes, even His character. And we should look up. Our lives should be characterized by looking up. When Jesus prayed here, the disciples were not caught off guard.

Our lives should be so characterized by prayer that those who are closest to us are never caught off guard when they see us pray. And then third, we should look to the Father. We should look to the Father. We must see that as redeemed people, we have a loving, heavenly Father, a wonderful relationship with that Father. Because of Christ's redeeming work in us, we have access to the Father. Christ is that perfect, perpetual intercessor. Sadly there are some here, and you cannot look to the Father in this matter. You are not born again. You are still in your sin. And when you look to the Father, you feel conviction for your sin.

When you look to the Father, you feel guilty for your rebellion against God, rebellion against His word, and rebellion against His ways. Then when you look to God, you feel the impending judgment that is to come. Your only hope is to look to the Father and look to the Father for salvation. Now I want to give you a warning here. Don't look to other places to appease your guilt. Don't look to other people to make you feel better. Do not look to the Father. You might say, "Pastor, if I look to the Father, I feel the guilt. If I look to the Father, I feel the weight of my sin.

You must look to the Father, because if you're not born from above, you will never be redeemed. You have no hope otherwise." So we as born-again Christians, we should look to the Father. He has redeemed us, and we have that wonderful relationship with Him. And sinners should look to the Father for their salvation. And then fourth, we should look out. Go back to the verse. These things Jesus spoke in lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come." As Christ looked out to His time and hour, we should do the same. Now our hour, our time is the age of the church.

Our time is our time to serve Christ, yes in our home, yes in our community, yes in the world. But this is done through the local church. And we should look out and ask God to call us to our service and our ministry within the local church. We should willingly lay down our life for Christ and for the brothers and for the sisters and ultimately for the church, just as Christ did in the garden. What did He say? "Not my will, but yours." We should look out and we should be compelled to pour our lives into reaching the lost, yes, into ministering in our families and homes, yes, but ultimately into the ministry of the church.

Now what is the title of the message? I think it's before you, the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Now this is just the beginning of so much that the Lord is going to teach us out of this prayer. But I think that this portion of verse 1 and all of the introductory material sets us up for what He wants to say. May the Lord work in our lives through these verses, through these individual prayers and ultimately through this great high priestly prayer.