Gospel of John [17:1-3]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 2. Php 2:8; Joh 6:39

Title: Gospel of John [17:1-3]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 2. Php 2:8; JOH 6:39

 

"in the New Testament, religion is grace, and ethics is gratitude." [Thomas Erskine]

 

We have been studying a lot about walking in a manner worthy of your calling, i.e. the balance between who we are in Christ and how we live in this world. Blessed are the genuinely humble, the contrite of heart, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. These flow from gratitude for all God’s grace gifts and tremendous gratitude flows from love.

 

Christ and the Father share this love with one another and so Christ, in His humanity, accomplished all that was required. His intercessory prayers for the Church start here, this night, as now, unlike any other time in history, through Him, this love that He and the Father shared between one another has now been extended to every member of the Church.

 

The picture is not that of: an orante, standing ever before the Father with outstretched arms, … pleading our cause in the presence of a reluctant God", but that of "a throned Priest-King, asking what He will from a Father who always hears and grants His request." [H.B. Swete]

 

This statement led me to think of our Lord’s intercessory ministry from a different angle. I want us to become as children who wonder, imagine, and believe the illogical when viewing from this angle.

 

The humanity of Christ is in time and subject to time. This is vastly unlike His deity. There is a definite time for this prayer as it is appropriate for the night before His death. So He continues in time at the right hand of God. He is waiting for the Father to tell Him to return. Waiting is for those who are in time. Day after day as He waits for that glorious moment He continues to intercede for the Church, for each member in the Church, and for each circumstance in their lives. He has been given all authority over the world and the Church. Could we imagine that it is He that is directing the course of the Church-age through prayer at the right hand of God? We picture God in eternity past planning or decreeing everything, and rightly so as our minds are chronological and can only see events in past, present, or future. In God’s word we have prophecy. God foreordained certain things to happen, most especially the humanity of Christ and His cross. Yet in the CA there are no prophecies but the Rapture, and no one knows when it will be, not even Christ. Is there a past, present, and future to God when we attempt to picture Him outside of time? I bring up unanswerable questions as these so that we don’t belittle the intercessory ministry of Christ by imagining that He is praying for things already determined and so is redundantly wasting His time. We say that the prayer was already heard in eternity past and I think that, even in a small way, belittles prayer by Him and from us. I would only say that we don’t understand eternities that are before and after time and so any “conclusions” about them should be tentative at best. I would also say that prayer, mentioned multiple times by our Lord in the upper room, is given great significance in the NT; both our prayers and our Lord’s prayers.

 

Prayer “in My name” is reserved for the upper room, for the time of the Church.

 

JOH 14:13 "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

 

John 14:14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

 

 “in My name” means in what His name signifies. His titles point to His authority. When you say this you are claiming those titles.

 

JOH 15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

 

JOH 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.

 

JOH 16:23 "And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name.

 

JOH 16:24 "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.

 

JOH 16:26 "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf;

 

They are not just redundant and they are a source of intimacy, but not meaningless intimacy. Christ may just be orchestrating an entire age as the Head of the Church; an age that has no prophecy, and as such, He would be doing so in real time. As the intercessor of your prayers, “in His name,” they become real time parts of His masterful orchestration, which is always within the will of the Father, as He demonstrated during His life on earth.

 

Joh 17; our Lord's priestly prayer.

 

This is the longest prayer recorded in the NT. It was offered on the most tender and solemn occasion that has ever occurred in our world, and it is perhaps the most sublime composition to be found anywhere.

 

JOH 17:1 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee,

 

JOH 17:2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life.

 

This is a part of our Lord's intercessory prayer for believers which He continues from the right hand of God throughout the CA.

 

It has been repeatedly stated throughout the gospels that His hour had not yet come, but now it has come.

 

Christ was on a divine timetable. It is repeatedly stated that His hour had not yet come, but now it has come.

 

PSA 31:15

My times are in Thy hand;

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

 

How amazing to imagine God, who is outside of time, to humble Himself in the person of Christ in order to put Himself on a timetable under the will of the Father.

 

The word glory is used eight times in this prayer and so is an important theme. This glory would continue in human history through the gospel, the good news, and the revealed NT.

 

A few days prior:

 

JOH 12:23-24

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

 

Now He prays for that glorification, of which, the cross is the beginning.

 

The cross is to be the vehicle of His glory. Christ prays for its success and completion.

 

He has done the Father's will throughout His entire life and now that will has led Him to the base of the cross where He must be obedient to the point of death.

 

Php 2:8

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

JOH 17:1 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee,

 

JOH 17:2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life.

 

His acceptance of the cross is an exercise of that authority which the Father has given Him over all mankind.

 

JOH 19:19

 And Pilate wrote an inscription also, and put it on the cross. And it was written, "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

 

Though written by order of Pilate, it is still true that His kingship is proclaimed. By accepting the kingship of mankind, through the cross, He will bless mankind with eternal life.

 

This authority is the result of complete and total victory. All opposition has been destroyed. History must be finally played out but that has no effect on the victory.