When Jesus Prays

What matters most to you?  Is it your health, your family, your relationship with your spouse? Have you ever wondered what matters most to Jesus?  Was it His relationship with His disciples? Was it His compassion for the broken and disenfranchised people of the world?  Or was it His mission of laying down His life for the sin of the world?  What matters most to Jesus?  Wouldn’t you like to know the answer to that question? Well, you can. Because as we return to the gospel of John today, we’re going learn what matters most to Jesus when Jesus prays:

1.When Jesus Prays, He wants to bring glory to the Father After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” John 17:1-5

What matters most to Jesus is bringing the Father glory. Jesus brings the Father glory by giving eternal life to those the Father has given Him. Jesus brings the Father glory by finishing the work He gave Him to do.

What matters most to Jesus is bringing the Father glory:  Jesus begins His prayer with a single request:“Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”

The term “glory” of God is a noun, and it speaks of God’s majesty or His splendor, the His display of divine goodness. So what Jesus is asking the Father for in this prayer, is that the beauty of all His goodness would be seen in what Jesus was about to do.

Now this is a difficult thing to ask. Because what Jesus was about to do is to endure the worst torture and humiliation devised by evil man. How could this reveal God’s goodness? For on the cross, God is going to pour out His wrath upon sin. How can this possibly display the beauty of God?  After all, God’s Word says that “You must not leave the body hanging on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” Deut. 21:23

He is asking the Father to glorify the Son as He makes this sacrifice for all mankind. He’s also asking the Father to open our eyes to see the heart of Jesus, who left the glories of heaven, to become a man, and die a death he did not deserve, so that the Father could give eternal life to those who only deserved death…  Jesus prayed that we might see the goodness of God in giving His only Son to die in our place.  And in seeing His goodness, we would glorify God for saving us, and praise Him for His goodness!

Jesus brings the Father glory by giving eternal life to those the Father has given Him.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:1-3

Jesus went to the cross not just to save you, but so you could know the Father. That’s the definition of eternal life.  Eternal life is not just life that goes on forever.  It’s life where you can truly know God, not just know about Him. Jesus made it possible for you to know God personally.  This is what happens when you trust in Jesus. This is what was prophesied by Jeremiah: No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34

Jesus brings the Father glory by finishing the work He gave Him to do. Jesus’ work was to reveal the Father to His disciples and prepare them to continue this work upon His departure. That’s what He says in this prayer: “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word.  Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  For I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  John 17:6-8 Jesus has prepared his disciples to continue His work of making disciples of Jesus. And here’s the evidence that His disciples were fully prepared:

• His disciples had accepted the Father’s word.
• His disciples had obeyed the Father’s word.
• His disciples knew with certainty Jesus had come from the Father.
• His disciples believed the Father sent Jesus.

Jesus has completed His work.  Now these disciples would continue His work by making other disciples of Jesus.  And as they continued His work, by their work they would bring glory to the Father.

2. When Jesus Prays, He wants what’s best for His Followers: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. John 17:9-10 Jesus makes four requests so they can continue His work:

He prays for their protection: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” John 17:11-12 The very first thing Jesus prays for His disciples, is not that they’d be fruitful in making more disciples, but that He would protect them while they are in the world.  This makes sense, when we realize the last thing Jesus said to His disciples before He began this prayer was this: “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Remember Jesus told them to not be surprised if the world hates them, because it hated him first.  But the world won’t be their only adversary. They’ll need protection from the world, but they’ll also need protection from the evil one. A few verses later, Jesus says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” John 17:15

Now, notice how Jesus asks the Father to protect them: “by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” The Father protects Jesus followers in the world by the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus.  And that power is found in the community of faith united together in Jesus.  That’s why praying for their protection has something to do with us doing life together in His name.  So that leads to the second request:

He prays for their unity  “that they may be one as we are one.” John 17:11 One of the evil one’s greatest strategies is to make you think you don’t need other Christians – to make you think you are strong enough to go it alone. But Jesus knows better.  That’s why Jesus asks the Father to protect us, not just by His name, but by our union in Christ with one another.  He put us together so we would rely on one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, and carry one another’s burdens.

He prays for their joy “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”  John 17:13 One of the schemes of the evil one is to deceive Christ followers that pursuing happiness in the world is what matters most.  If he can get us to take our eyes off Christ; if he can get us to seek satisfaction from the world rather in our relationship with God, then he can get us to walk away from our greatest source of joy – our relationship with Jesus Christ.

So don’t’ be deceived. Joy is not happiness on steroids. Joy is connected to life with God, to knowing God and resting in His goodness.  Joy is rooted in God and His kingdom.  It’s available to us at all times because God and His kingdom is always available to us.

He prays for their sanctification “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17 The way Jesus wants His disciples to be set-apart for His purposes in the world, is to hold to the truth – to be transformed by His truth.  His Word is truth.  His truth helps us know God personally. His truth helps us rest on the reality that there is no one like our God, that He is great in power and might; that He never changes; and that He reigns over all He has created.  His truth reminds us that His love for us will never end.  His truth reminds you that you belong to Him, and that He is coming back to set up His kingdom.

The greatest tool we have to stand against the evil of this world and the attacks of the evil one is to be transformed by His truth. For when we know the truth, the truth will set us free.  This is what Jesus wants for His followers. He doesn’t want us to fall prey to the world or the evil one.

Jesus wants us to live free, to experience the beauty of fellowship with God’s people, to know the joy of the Lord and walk in His truth. For when we live this way, we will not just show the world a new way of living, we will do what matters most to Jesus – we will bring glory to the Father.  That’s what happens when Jesus prays.  Perhaps then, we should make His prayer our prayer too.