JESUS PRAYS (WEEK 1 OF 4): FATHER AND SON
John 17:1-5
#JesusPrays
INTRODUCTION… https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/g28397/like-father-like-son/?slide=1
I’d like to start out with a bit of fun this morning. Many times fathers and sons look alike. I found some pictures of famous fathers and sons to show you and what I thought I’d do is show you the son and see if you can guess the famous father. Saying, “Oh yeah that one guy from that one show” is acceptable. The pictures are of the father and son from the same age from an entertainment magazine. There were 74 in the article, so I just picked a few.
1) Jaden Smith || Will Smith
2) Colin Hanks || Tom Hanks
3) Prince Harry || Prince Charles
4) Chris Pine || Robert Pine
5) Jason Ritter || John Ritter
6) Damon Wayans Jr || Damon Wayans
7) Ziggy Marley || Bob Marley
8) Scott Eastwood || Clint Eastwood
9) Robin Thicke || Alan Thicke
Fathers and sons do often look alike. In the passage we are going to look at today, the Son is talking to the Father and much is shared between them. In fact, John 14:9 shares with us that if we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father. There is a lot that is about to go on in the life of Jesus and in this passage we find Him praying.
CONTEXT OF JOHN 17
I’d like to put John 17 in a bit of context. In John 13, we find Jesus in the Upper Room with His disciples before He is arrested. He washes their feet. He foretells of Peter’s denial. In John 14, Jesus talks to the disciples about Him being the way, the truth, and the life. He promises them the presence of the Holy Spirit. In John 15, Jesus teaches about how He is the vine and believers must abide in Him as branches. John 16, Jesus continues to teach the disciples about the work of the Holy Spirit and is reflecting about the hardships He would soon endure.
Then we have John 17 where Jesus prays for Himself, the disciples, and then even those who would believe after the disciples. So, in John 17, Jesus is with His disciples in the Upper Room and is preparing Himself and them for events to come. John 18 records for us the betrayal and arrest of Jesus… which were the events He was preparing for.
John 17 is a prayer of Jesus. We are going to spend 4 weeks looking at John 17 and this wonderful prayer that is recorded for us. We will find much in this prayer of Jesus. The prayer can be divided into three parts as I mentioned a moment ago:
Verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself
Verses 6-19 Jesus prays for His disciples
Verses 20-26 Jesus prays for all believers
As I reflected on the first five verses, which is the section where Jesus prays for Himself, I noticed that Jesus is very much relating to God in a Father-Son manner which makes sense since Jesus is God’s Son. He talks about several things with this Father-Son relationship in mind and those truths mean much for us.
READ John 17:1–5 (ESV)
“When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, 2 since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.”
BACKGROUND LESSONS
Before we get into the verses and the important truths Jesus shares with us in His prayer, I noticed two items that I wanted to mention because they are there and I think they are important. We are reading a prayer from Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, so everything is important.
First, I noticed that Jesus “looked up to Heaven.” I hope you know that bowing your head and closing your eyes and folding your hands to pray is not in the Bible. I actually cannot come up with one passage where bowing heads and closing eyes and folding hands is in the Bible… even thought this is a good position to focus our thoughts and keep ourselves from distraction while we pray. There are many positions people take in prayer in the Bible which include kneeling and lying flat. What we see in this passage is Jesus looking up to Heaven and praying with His eyes open! Jesus is being reverent while praying and is doing so with His eyes open looking up to focus on God. The focus is there. The reverence is there. The dedication to prayer is there. May we do the same. However we pray, we need focus and reverence and dedication like Jesus.
Second, I noticed, based on the context of what was about to happen to Jesus, that when He was faced with stress and hardship and betrayal thoughts of pain and anguish… He prayed. Jesus absolutely knows what is about to happen to Him at the end of the evening. Jesus knows how His Friday is going to go. He prays. Jesus prays and centers His heart for the work set before Him because He wants to be faithful and He wants to fulfill God’s Will. Prayer anchored Jesus. You and I can learn from Jesus and emulate Him. When stress or anger or pain or anguish or hurt or hardships are coming our way, you and I can do what Jesus did and focus our hearts and minds in prayer to endure the emotional and spiritual storm. Prayer can anchor us.
Those are two truths I wanted you to notice even before we get into the passage. The main thoughts for us today center around the Father-Son relationship that existed between God and Jesus.
GLORY TO GOD THE FATHER
RE-READ John 17:1–5 (ESV)
“When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, 2 since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.”
Jesus looked up to heaven, striking a focused posture in prayer and addresses the God of the Universe and Creator of all as His Father. The opening petition has the end result of God getting all the glory. Glory is honor. Glory is praise. Glory is worth. Glory is fame. Glory is majesty. Jesus wants to go through the next few days in a way that gives God all the honor, praise, worth, fame, and majesty. It all belongs to God.
READ John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”
Depending on how we read those verses, we can focus on Jesus Who is the Son… but the focus of those two verses and even of Jesus Christ Himself is to point people to God and give Him credit for all he has done.
#1 God loves us boundlessly and should be praised
#2 God gave His Son for others and this should show us clearly God’s worthy character
#3 God provides eternal life to the broken and should be honored
#4 God does not condemn, but offers salvation and this should be made known
APPLICATION
This is what Jesus is praying about as He prays for Himself and aligns His heart in prayer to God the Father. I am pretty sure that you and I need to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and make sure that in our lives God gets all the honor, praise, worth, fame, and majesty for how faithful and good He has been to us.
* We can glorify God by our publically expressed faith in Him. One Suggestion: May I suggest posting less on social media about politics and devil shoes and self-centered complaints and more about how faithful and great God is in our lives.
* We can glorify God by focused and proper worship. One Suggestion: May I suggest we prioritize corporate in person worship 4 out of 4 Sundays a month and place other activities on the back burner.
* We can glorify God by serving someone else in love. One Suggestion: Choose a person to serve this next week and tell them that the motivation for our serving them is because of God the Father and how He has loved us.
ILLUSTRATION... https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/30689-sermon-12-john-17-the-real-lords-prayer
Former NFL football player Bill Glass had a son named John—an all-state athlete in the eleventh grade, a 250-pound bruiser, the apple of his father's eye.
Then John had a knee injury that put him out for months and in the hospital for weeks. One time, Bill came home and couldn't find John. Upstairs he noticed the door to his son's room was cracked just a bit, and his son was on the bed sobbing as if his heart would break.
Bill said, "As I listened to my son cry, I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what to say. So I stood outside that door and listened to him sob, and I said to myself, I will go in to my son and say to him, "John it's OK, son. We're going to lick this thing. We’re going to ask the Lord to lead us. We will find the best doctors. We're going to lick this thing."
So Bill finally pushed the door open, walked in, and then he started crying. He put his hand on his son's shoulder, and the son looked up and noticed his dad crying and said, "Dad, it's OK. We're going to lick this thing. We'll ask the Lord to lead us, and we're going to be all right."
In other words, the son said to the father what the father was going to say to the son.
Something like that is happening in John 17. We see a relationship so intimate that before the petition poured forth from the Son, it was in the mind of the Father. They were sharing in prayer. In John 17, we see a beautiful relationship, and more important, it is the relationship God the Father would have us have with the Son in our intimate prayers.
Everything Jesus was praying about and was about to experience was for the glory of God the Father. We can follow Him in this.
TRANSITION
The main thoughts for us today center around the Father-Son relationship that existed between God and Jesus. The first is ‘Glory to God the Father.’ The second is ‘Glory to Jesus the Son.’
GLORY TO JESUS THE SON
RE-READ John 17:1–5 (ESV)
“When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, 2 since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.”
Jesus looks up to heaven, striking a focused posture in prayer and addresses the God of the Universe as the respectful submissive Son. Jesus asks not only that God would be glorified, but that He… Jesus… would also be seen clearly. Remember, glory means honor, praise, worth, fame, and majesty. Jesus wants to go through the next few days in a way that gives God all the honor, praise, worth, fame, and majesty, but also shows very clearly Who He is… which is the Very Son of God. Jesus is God. Jesus will be fully taking His place as the Ruler of the World as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What is about to happen to Him is a huge deal!
Jesus prays and asks that as the plan of salvation and deliverance comes to fruition and is finished, that He would use the authority given to Him and the task given to Him for the benefit of all who would believe in Him. Jesus has followed the plan. Jesus has fulfilled all the prophecies and intentions of God. Jesus now steps into His full role as Savior.
Two Old Testament prophecies come to mind that I believe Jesus was also thinking of as He prayed for the will of God to be done. In just a few days’ time, Jesus will be fully stepping into His role as Savior of the World. Isaiah 9 and Daniel 7 come to mind.
READ ISAIAH 9:6-7 (ESV)
“For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
READ Daniel 7:13-14 (ESV)
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
APPLICATION
This is what Jesus is praying about as He prays for Himself and aligns His heart in prayer to God the Father in preparation for all He would do and all He would fully become. I am sure that as believers, you and I need to make sure that the clear message of Jesus’ Identity needs to be made known:
* We can glorify Jesus by letting those know who are hurting that He is the Wonderful Counselor
* We can glorify Jesus by stating He is Almighty God
* We can glorify Jesus by sharing that in the midst of terrible things He is the Prince of Peace
* We can glorify Jesus by telling others Jesus upholds justice and righteousness
* We can glorify Jesus by sharing the Gospel to any person, nation, or language
Everything Jesus was praying about and was about to experience was for the glory of God the Father and would fully reveal to us Who Jesus is as the Son of God. We can make a concentrated effort to make Jesus famous for being our Savior.
TRANSITION
The main thoughts for us today center around the Father-Son relationship that existed between God and Jesus. The first is ‘Glory to God the Father.’ The second is ‘Glory to Jesus the Son.’ There is one last thought that I noticed from verse 3 that I just can’t get away from. In fact, I was going to finish up the sermon here, maybe be a little shorter than normal, but verse 3 just kept nagging at me.
PURPOSE OF ETERNAL LIFE
RE-READ John 17:3 (ESV)
3 And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
In the midst of Jesus’ intimate exchange with God, He is praying and reflecting and preparing Himself for all that is ahead of Him. He reflects on truth about the eternal life He would be offering those who believe in Him.
The purpose of eternal life is not to just live forever.
The purpose of eternal life is not to just get out of Hell.
The purpose of eternal life is not to just get to Heaven and then exist.
Jesus declares in His prayer that eternal life is for the purpose of knowing God and also knowing Jesus. Eternal life is the opportunity to discover and deepen our relationship with God forever.
Eternal life comes from knowing both God and Jesus. Eternal life, which can start in this physically bound life, is about deepening our personal relationship with Jesus. Knowing God is not confined to intellectual knowledge; but it involves living in fellowship with Him and experiencing Him. Jesus Christ is the One and Only Son and the only way to God (John 14:6).
APPLICATION
As I reflect on this small part of Jesus’ prayer, I must ask you and ask myself and ask anyone who is listening if our relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit is our #1 priority.
Is abiding in Christ our #1 priority or do we just want a ‘get out of hell free card?’
Is our relationship with Christ our #1 priority or do we just do Christian things because it is expected?
Is deepening our faith extremely important or do we just go through the motions to avoid arguments?
These are important questions to ask as we reflect on Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Jesus knows He is about to be beaten and die on a cross to complete the way for us to have a personal impactful deep relationship with God. He prepared Himself for us. How have we responded?
CONCLUSION
As we conclude today thinking about the first part of this prayer of Jesus in John 17, I’d like us to think about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We are His children and He is our Father.
Do we give glory to God the Father?
Do we give glory to Jesus the Son?
Are we deepening our relationship with God in preparation for eternity?
PRAYER
