The Lord’s Prayer we recite is a prayer Jesus taught His disciples.
• It is not His prayer to God but a prayer meant for us.
• Jesus need not have to pray “forgive us our sins” for He had no sins.
In the Scriptures, the longest prayer of Jesus is found in John 17.
• This prayer was made just moments before Jesus was betrayed.
• We can tell a lot about people by the way they pray.
• What do we learn about our Lord as we listen to Him pray, so close to being crucified? If you know you are about to die, what will you say?
One thing we discover is that Jesus’ primary thoughts were not about Himself, but the wellbeing of His disciples.
• Looking at the whole prayer in chapter 17, only the first 5 verses concern Himself, and the rest is His prayer for His followers.
Considering the fact that He is about to suffer and be crucified, He still show concern for His followers.
• We want to remember the needs of those who are closest to us.
• Jesus shows us an intercessory heart. And He is still doing that today.
• He is “at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Rom 8:34)
In this prayer, Jesus reveals a few things about the Father.
1. The basis of our prayer – the Father’s love
2. The assurance of our prayer – the Father’s control
3. The reason for our prayer – the Father’s heart
Jesus began His prayer, “Father, the time has come.”
• When He taught His disciples in Luke 11, He said “Our Father in heaven…”
• When Jesus prayed outside the tomb of Lazarus, He said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” (John 11:41-42)
He is our heavenly Father.
• We know He is our Creator; He is the Lord of the Universe, and the King of kings.
• Although He is all of these, when we come to God in prayer, Jesus taught us to say “Our Father”.
Understanding this relationship is important. We come as His children.
• Each time we pray, we are not coming before an unwilling Judge but a loving Father.
• Knowing that He is our Father is important. It broadens our perspective of prayer.
• A common error we make is to rush into God’s presence and start presenting our petitions, without any regard to WHO God is.
It is more of a child and father talk, not a subject and his king.
• We experience a calmness and assurance. No fear. No suspicion.
So in prayer, we are not engaging in a theological dialogue.
• When we talk to our boss, or those in high-ranking people, we plan our words.
• We do not want to say the wrong things. We are anxious.
• But we do not have to be too bothered by these in prayer.
Jesus calls Him “Father” and taught us to do the same.
• We don’t have to put on special clothing, or use special language. We just come.
• We need to see it this way each time we pray. We need it.
• God has a father’s heart, a father’s love.
Why did Jesus use this phrase, and not ‘Our God, our Creator, our King…’?
• I believe man needs love. We need to know someone cares.
• Each time we pray, this is the case.
• Each time after prayer, we have a sense of peace.
• There is assurance, knowing that your heavenly Father has heard you.
Haddon W Robinson writes in What Jesus Said about Successful Living,
“In the OT, the Israelites did not individually address God as Father. As far as we know, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, or Daniel never fell to their knees in the solitude of their chambers and dared to address God that way. Yet in the NT, God is called Father at least 275 times, and that is how we are instructed to speak to Him. All that a good father wants to be to his children, Jesus told us, God will be to Christians who approach Him in prayer. We can pray as children.” (Discovery House Publishers, p.190.)
It is by grace that we can do that.
• Heb 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
The assurance of our prayer – the Father’s control
17:1 “Father, the time has come”
• This was hardly spoken; mostly we hear Jesus says, ‘It’s not time yet.’
In Gospel of John:
1. At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, His mother pressed Him to do something about the lack of wine. John 2:4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.”
2. John 7:1-9
Verse 6: Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right…. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." 9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.
3. John 7:30
At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.
4. 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.
In other Gospels:
A few times, after healing the sick and delivered the possessed, Jesus warned them not to tell others who He was – it was not the right time.
Mark 3:11-12“Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
Mark 7:36 After healing a deaf and mute man.
Matt 12:15-16 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was.
He warned His disciples on 2 occasions not to tell anyone that He was the Christ
(cf. Mark 9:9 after the Transfiguration; Matt 16:20, after Peter’s confession)
It seems that Jesus has been looking at a clock, not an earthly clock but some celestial clock.
• Everything He did appears to have been regulated by this clock.
• He was very aware of what He needs to do and when to do it.
• Even His death on the cross was scheduled. It was divinely determined.
This is not just a ‘clock’ for Jesus’ 3-years ministry.
• In fact, the Scriptures tell us even in OT, right from the Fall of Adam & Eve, that God has set in motion this plan for Jesus to come and redeem the world.
• It’s not just the right time in Jesus’ life, but the right time in the whole of human history – a span of 4000 years.
• We can be assured today - God is in control of our times. Every thing happens ON TIME in our lives!
We can be assured today; that God knows the best time for everything that happens in our lives.
• At some points it may seem that events are going out of control.
• When we look back one day, we’ll see that God’s purposes are fulfilled. Nothing can surprise God.
The raising of Lazarus from the dead shows us that nothing can stop God.
• Even if Jesus was 4 days late in our eyes. God can ratify anything and whatever.
• God is always punctual. He is always right on time.
See Psalm 2:1-6
• Why does He laugh? Because as He sees the little people of this earth boasting, He knows that at a word He could destroy them all.
• God is all-powerful. And all things will work out according to His schedule. His, not ours.
The reason for our prayer – the Father’s heart
Now is the time for Him to be glorified – that is, to be nailed to the cross and finish the work He has come to do. Jesus set us an example.
• His entire life was lived to the glory of God; to do the Father’s will.
• And what is the Father’s will? Verse 3 – to give man eternal life; those who are willing to trust Jesus will have eternal life.
• This is how He glorified God – by saving the lost and giving them eternal life.
• His entire ministry is committed to fulfilling this aim.
Suppose you knew you would die in a few days, what would you say to God?
• Would you be glad because you’ve completed what you need to do?
• Or would you be leaving behind many unfinished tasks?
At this point, Jesus reviews His 33 years of life of earth, and sums it all up in one tremendous statement.
• 17:4 “I have brought YOU glory on earth by completing the work YOU gave me to do.”
• He lives for God! There were probably many things the disciples (and others) wanted him to do but He resisted.
• His main concern was to follow His Father’s agenda, not man’s, and not his own.
Jesus has given us an excellent example.
• There may be many things people or the world wants us to do, but we have always ask what God wants us to do.
• We need to individually ask God what He wants me to do, and stick to it.
God the Father has given Jesus a commission and He completed it.
• Jesus has, in turn, given us the same commission.
• How can we glorify God? By saving the lost. Bringing people to Jesus so that they too will have eternal life.
Jesus’ prayer is enlightening.
John 17:3 “…that they may know you, the only true God, AND Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
• Here Jesus puts himself on the same plane as the only true God. Man needs Jesus to be saved. Jehovah Witnesses make a big mistake. They say Jesus is not God.
• In John 14:9 Jesus said to Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
John 17:5 “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
This is a task that has eternal value; many things we do today do not have eternal value.
• At the end of our life, can we say like Jesus, we’ve completed the task God has given us?
• Yes, if we are focused, just like Jesus – in 3 yrs, He completed the task & trained up 12 good disciples who could really carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth!
Selwyn Hughes (Every Day with Jesus, Our Lord at Prayer, Mar/Apr 2006) 20 Mar:
Jesus was great by what He did, but He was great also by the attitude with which He did it. Through His life He had a heart that was ready to obey, an ear that was ready to hear, and a will that was ready to be subject to the Father.”
Do we have the same attitude behind all that we do for God?
Aren’t be blessed to have such a Father in heaven?
• The basis of our prayer – the Father’s love
• The assurance of our prayer – the Father’s control
• The reason for our prayer – the Father’s heart
