Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. I would take your Bibles and
actually turn to John 17 tonight.
I didn't mean to give you the large note guitar book for your
handout tonight, but some of you have been appreciative of of the
larger font. That's just the way I do my
notes and I forgot. Usually I translate it back to a
smaller font to put it on smaller pages, but I think we
were going to be at 4 pages no matter what tonight.
I actually think you've come for a good night.
I do. I think this is a, this may be a
study you've never done before, or if you have, it's been a
while. This is a very important study,
maybe to me the most important one on prayer that we do.
So I want this passage to stick in your heart quite a bit.
In the early to mid 1490s, Jerome 77 Nerola preached and
prayed passionately while at the San Marcos Church in Florence,
Italy. He was praying and his desire
was that God would save the lost masses around him and revive his
church. And God heard his prayers and
God answered his prayers, and thousands of people were
converted and a spirit of revival was unleashed upon
Florence for over 2 years. It's interesting when we pray
for things like that. And we're going to talk about
not just revival or spiritual awakening, we're going to talk
about Kingdom prayer tonight, which may be a phrase that's not
as common to you in our last session.
And I appreciate you being here physically as well as those who
are listening to this online. So I hope you go back,
especially those who who haven't been here with us.
I hope you go back and listen to the last session on the model
prayer. Often we call that the Lord's
Prayer. We often commentators will refer
to that as the disciples prayer. Tonight we're actually going to
talk about the Lord's prayers, the prayers of Jesus himself,
which is an amazing thing when you think about God the Son
talking to God the Father. And so in our, that last
session, we talked about that prayer from Luke 11 in Matthew 6
as he was trying to teach his, his disciples to pray.
But in one aspect of that teaching, if you'll remember, is
that part of the part of that model or Lord's prayer is that
his Kingdom would come and as earth be done, our ours will be
done. Excuse me, I'll get this right.
His his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And so that idea of the Kingdom coming and, and the
accomplishment of his will on earth is something that will be
a focal point of what Jesus is going to show us tonight.
But this is only going to happen as we experience the reign of
Christ in our personal lives, as we trust in him and and then as
we continue to grow in our discipleship, it'll be enhanced.
So in this session, I really want to examine an example of
the actual Lord's prayers as again we see Jesus in this
amazing trinitarian moment of God the Son talking to God the
Father. And we're going to 0 in on one
prayer range specifically because it's it's quite long.
We won't look at every bit of it, but it but it helps me think
in terms. And we've talked about this in
the past, when you go all the way back to last summer and some
of our sessions, we were talking about theological triage and the
Trinity and things like that. What are some of the primary
doctrines we have to believe in? What are secondaries and
tertiaries? And to think about this
incredible, this incredible fully man and fully God actually
feeling the need to pray and, and as fully man, there was a
definite need not to just teach about a pedestrian experience.
And there were times in his his ministry where Jesus sought to
be alone. While he was conducting his
earthly ministry, he pulled away to pray.
A few of these passages are listed on on your guide.
Matthew 1423 says and after he had dismissed the crowds, he
went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When evening came, He was there alone, or Mark 135 and rising
very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed
and went out to a desolate place.
And there he prayed Luke 516 But he would withdraw to desolate
places and pray, Luke 918. Now it happened that he's, as he
was praying alone, the disciples were with him.
And he asked them, Who did the crowd say that I am?
And so we don't know everything that He prayed in all of these
prayer sessions because often you see that one sentence and
then he comes down to make a decision or he comes down to
perform a miracle. Often, sometimes these are also
after performing great miracles. There are times where he has
been, he's been healing it, you know, all day long and everybody
is coming to him with all of these needs.
And so you do believe, I believe that being fully man, even
though he is fully God, but also being fully man.
I'm sure there were moments he was seeking strength from the
Father. He needed to to re re energize
in a sense with the father. Then later, which is where we're
going to focus tonight. Later, toward the very end of
his earthly ministry, in fact in the last weeks and week of his
ministry, Jesus begins to model this Kingdom focused prayer.
And we're going to look at it in John 17.
So make sure that you actually are turning and looking at John
17. Now I owe a, a huge debt.
I want to give him credit and I, I want everybody to note this.
I owe a huge credit debt to a friend of mine named Doctor
Chris Schofield. Some of you might not know
Doctor Schofield. Doctor Schofield used to be the
leader of prayer and spiritual awakening for the North American
Mission Board. Then he came to North Carolina
and did something similar for the state convention here for
many, many years. He and I are going to be
recording a podcast, I think next week.
By the way, today, today we recorded a podcast on podcast.
So pretty soon, not up to yet, but soon there'll be a podcast
on podcast at the very top of the podcast where you can, if
you hit that first, it'll tell you how to get to everything
else. OK, Because we have a lot of
questions about how do I get to the podcast.
So if you're going to cast a pod, you better give
instructions on how to get to the pod.
So I actually start off by saying where it's ironic that
we're doing a podcast for people who can't find podcasts.
So they can because they'd have to listen to this podcast in
order to find the other podcast. It was a podcasting moment.
Anyway, I owe a debt to Doctor Chris Schofield for his research
and writing on John 17. And I want to give full credit
to Chris, dear friend. He and I've done conferences
together and just he and Tammy are just good friends at Teresa
Knife. Wonderful guy.
And we're going to do some things together in the future
too. But anyway, Jesus is sharing in,
in John chapter 13 through 17, these chapters, he's sharing
what we would call the farewell discourses.
In other words, he knows he's getting ready to die.
He knows he's going to leave. And so he's trying to get this
teaching to these disciples done to help them along the way.
So the, the, so there's a multi chapter kind of thing that's
going on here. And these represented very
intimate moments of fellowship and instruction for these
closest followers. And so this material is only
found in the Gospel of John. It's not found in this, what we
would call the synoptic Gospels in Matthew, Mark or Luke.
It's only in John. And so this is a very special
moment. So his crucifixion and, and his
soon departure is coming very quickly.
And it's something that he knew his disciples didn't fully grasp
yet. The Holy Spirit's going to have
to help them with that along the way.
And so, and he also knew that they didn't like talking about
it because they'd, they'd even had some conflict about that in
the past. And so, but he also knew that he
had to prepare them for what was coming up because this was going
to be a very hard time for them. So I really feel like this is a
pretty appropriate passage for us with Easter right around the
corner. And so he is, he's assuring them
in these passages of his abiding presence, of his peace, of this
victory. He's also instructing them on
about promises relating to praying in his name back in
chapter 16. You know, here's how you should
pray, teaching them some more about that.
But then we get to John 17, and this is often referred to as the
high priestly prayer. And so we're going to try to
break down John 17 as much as we can in the time we have.
And here we are in the last week of his earthly ministry.
So this is prioritized wording at this point.
You know, at this point, you got a few minutes left.
He's he's going to say things that are important that he
really needs them to grasp. And so we need to grasp these
things too. These are vitally important
instructions. And so over the next few days,
we're going to see that Jesus is betrayed.
He's arrested, he's beaten, he's crucified and resurrected
finally his sins. And so during this very intense
time, Jesus could have steered all of his prayers toward what
he was getting ready to go through.
It would have been understandable.
And we see him in the Garden of Gethsemane and we'll talk about
that in a little bit, in a minute to where he he, he is
struggling with the cup and struggling with that load a bit.
Maybe struggling is not the right word, but dealing with it.
And so, but all of these prayers could have been very much about
him and what I'm about to go through because of the the
massive load that was on him that he was aware of.
But that's not what he's praying.
Instead, he's praying on, on that the Kingdom and the mission
would be fulfilled, that the Father's purposes would be
fulfilled. And that's an incredible lesson
for us. So in a nutshell, what we see
here in summary is Jesus is desiring to please his Father
and fulfill his desire to see God the Father's will completed
and his followers prepared for what was getting ready to hit
him. And so this very much everybody
but me kind of idea with Jesus is a great example.
But but he's also, he's also praying that the Kingdom of God
would be proclaimed. There's an evangelistic missions
aspect of these prayers. He wants to see it move forward
through the testimonies of the disciples after he's physically
gone. So there's this after I'm gone
aspect of these prayers too. So I want to prepare you for
this. But also after I'm gone, what
needs to happen next? So these are intense and
intimate passages. Look at verse one of John 17.
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, since You have
given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to
all whom you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that
they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent. I glorified you on earth, having
accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory
that I had with you before the world existed.
And that verse 5 is loaded. But anyway, so we're going to
just walk through this, just these verses for a little bit.
So what we see, this most pressing desire of the heart of
Jesus is to complete the Father's mission and to please
the Father. He had this intimate
relationship with the Father and the fact he begins with that
word in verse one in the word Father.
And, and it's interesting because one of the things that
we need to note about prayer is I think we make a mistake
sometimes and it's and it's and it's our fault.
It's when I say are, I mean people like me, we make prayer
just something that we do. And I wish we would think of
prayer more. And I appreciate Chris really
helping me to understand this as being something that we are.
Let me explain that more. And so Schofield writes that
prayer is relational because of my relationship with the Father.
So I don't want, I want to be careful that I don't separate
myself from my prayers. My prayers are not just some
list I read and then I put it on the shelf and it has nothing
else to do with me. God answers the prayers of his
followers. He answers his followers, not
just our prayer list. So he's really interacting with
us and we need to really understand this relational
dynamic of who we are with the Father.
And so the word father or some form of that word father
actually occurs 6 times in John 17.
And so there's a re emphasis over and over again of this
intimacy, this relationship that we have with the ABBA father.
And then and then Jesus is also talking about what's coming up.
So the phrase the hour has come points to his understanding.
If ever you wonder who Jesus is or if he knew what was next, he
always knew what was next. And so he, he, he understands
the Father's eternal purpose that's going to be accomplished
because of what he's getting ready to go through.
He's got the, the crucifixion, the resurrection, all of these
things that are coming. And so the hours come for that.
It it my time here has run out on earth.
It's time now for what we would call the passion.
And so Jesus knew exactly why and who he was and, and, and we
need to embrace. You know, you hear me talk about
why and who a lot are, I think I think I do.
And I hope you hear that because it's a powerful thing.
It's a powerful thing to know why you are.
It's a powerful thing to know who you're supposed to be very
powerful. And Jesus had that down.
He knew that perfectly so soon after his triumphal entry, which
we'll celebrate on Palm Sunday, we actually hear Jesus talk like
this back in John chapter 12. Listen to this, He says.
Now is my soul troubled? And what shall I say, Father,
save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have
come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will
glorify it again. And the crowd that stood there
and heard it said that it had thundered and others said, an
Angel has spoken to him. And Jesus answered, this voice
has come for your sake, not mine.
Now is the judgement of this world.
Now will the ruler of this world be cast out, And I and, and I,
when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself. And so he knew and and, and,
and, and when it says his soul is troubled, that word for
troubled in the Greek language, it's a very deep down inside
word. He's agitated.
It's not a, it's not some, some flippant little feeling he has
about something. His soul, his spirit is
disturbed because he knows what he's got to face.
And yet this is what he's always come for.
And he knows that too. And so being fully man and fully
God hard for us to grasp. And then later in the Garden of
Gethsemane, you, you know that struggle.
Perhaps in Mark 16 you could look at Matthew as well, a very
similar passage. Mark 1634 says.
And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and watch, talking to those disciples.
And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed
that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
And he said, ABBA father, all things are possible for you.
Remove this cup from me. Now, if he'd if there was a
period right there and that was all there was, we'd we'd have a
very different story to tell, wouldn't we?
Yet not what I will, but what you will.
So you see the honesty. It's very authentic, isn't it?
It's very, very wide open. You see the heart, you see the
struggle. You see, you see him recognizing
the pain and the experience he's getting ready to go through.
And yet he also knows what's on the other side.
So we hear the surrender. We, we hear the surrender in his
voice. We hear the surrender in Jesus's
will to the Father's will as he prays.
So he, he knew that the cross, the grave, the resurrection and
the ascension were coming. And so in this passage, he asked
the Father to go ahead and complete the work.
Now, if you notice back in Chapter 17 where we were before,
he's asking the Father to complete that work.
And part of that is, is he prays for his own glorification.
Seems like a weird thing to pray for.
You know, Father, glorify me so that I can glorify you.
And he mentions this more than once.
So, so, you know, if I'm glorified, then I'm going to
glorify. You know, this might sound
prideful. Glorify me, God, you know that
that can't be the only part of the sentence.
You know, don't just ask for God to glorify you, but the reason,
Jesus and his perfection and sinlessness, you understand
there is no pride in him that he's asking God to glorify him
so that the Son might then glorify the Father.
And then he goes on, I've glorified you on earth back in
17 four, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence in the with
the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
You got to remember, Jesus knows who he is and he knows who he
was before he took on flesh. And so there's a very honest
prayer. And but the whole point here,
glorification obviously refers to to giving proper esteem,
proper honor, proper position. But the idea here is that Jesus
desires that that all would recognize who the Father is
through his own glorification. In other words, the more Jesus
is glorified and the more than he can point to the Father, the
more powerful that will become. And so the glorification of
Jesus is very much tied to the crucifixion, the resurrection,
and the ascension. And so the Father is glorified
as the Son is lifted up. The Father's glorified on the
cross, the God is glorified. God the Father's glorified for
the empty tomb. God.
God is glorified even as Jesus sits at the right hand of the
Father, now interceding For us who believe, we're reminded of
what Hebrews says that consequent.
Consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw
near to God through him, since he always lives to make
intercession for them. So the Father is made known, the
Father is glorified as Jesus obeys, and Jesus is lifted up.
So let's go back and and look at some earlier passages for a
minute. John, 828.
So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am he and that I knew nothing on my
own authority but speak just as the Father taught me.
So everything he's doing is supposed to be a big arrow
pointing to God the Father. Or again, chapter 12, verse 32,
we read a minute ago and when I am lifted up from the earth,
when I and I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw a
people to myself and Jesus even prays specifically.
Then let's go back to that verse 5 and 17.
This is also talking about the ascension and what happens after
the ascension. And now, Father, glorify me in
your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the
world existed. So there's this reunification,
so to speak, of the Son returning back to his throne in
eternity. And he obviously knew the Spirit
would be sent, and he knew that the Spirit would continue and
begin drawing people to the Father through the Son.
And the Holy Spirit's going to convict the world concerning its
need for the Son. And and so we see this entire
Trinity at work in this incredible and in this
incredible prayer experience. John 16-8 says, and when he
comes, he is the Holy Spirit, He will convict the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
So eternal life's made possible and is given to all who know the
Father through the Son, which the way that happens is through
the Spirit. And so all three persons of the
Godhead work together for salvation, for our for our
justification back in 17 two, since you have given him
authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you
have given him. And this is eternal life that
they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've
sent. So as Jesus is glorified, the
lost are redeemed, the Father is ultimately made known and the
Father is ultimately glorified. And so you see this, this
incredible circle of the Trinity working together.
And it's not just for our salvation.
And, and make sure you understand that God in his
nature of love, he wants us to be saved.
He wants us to know him. But remember, our ultimate
mission is to bring him glory. And so our salvation isn't just
for our salvation. Our salvation is for his
glorification. One of the ways God has
glorified is when somebody's saved and acknowledges him.
So you're not just saved for your own benefit.
And sometimes in our individual autonomous type culture, that's,
you know, well, I want that for me.
That's for me, That's all about me.
Well, no, it's not. One of the primary reasons
you're saved is so that you can be a testimony to Him and make
Him known and give Him glory, which is why it's so important
to share about Him with other people.
It's why it's so important to actually come and worship the
way we should because we're acknowledging this publicly
together that this is what this is all about.
It's not about us, it's about Him.
So you see, we see the heart of our Savior's prayer as, as you
know, he, he, he could have been sitting there praying.
Lord, I really don't like these Romans.
I really don't like nails. I really don't like a wooden
cross. I really don't want to die.
I really don't, I really don't want to hurt.
I really and, and, and I mean, and we saw the struggle in the
garden, but at this point we see his ultimate heart.
Father, I want you to be known. Father, I want you to be
glorified. And so the cross is going to do
that. The resurrection is going to do
that. The ascension is going to do
that in a moment. We're going to see the testimony
of the disciples are going to do that and sometimes I just wonder
can we say the same thing? He's same thing about the way we
pray and when we see this type of praying, do we pray Kingdom
type praying like this or is it God, I want God, I want you to
God. I want you to God, I want you to
as a Cherokee word want you to you know what I mean?
Instead of Lord, I really just want you to be known.
How can I make you known today? How can how can every breath,
every second, every heartbeat of my life help you to be
glorified? Verse 6 let's read a little link
there a passage. I have manifested Your name to
the people whom you gave me out of the world.
Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept
Your word. Now that they know what
everything that you have given me is from you.
Or note that now that they know that everything that you've
given me is from you. For I've given them the words
that you gave me, and they have received them.
And I have come to know in truth that I came from you, and
they've believed that you sent me.
I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world,
but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours,
All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in
them. And I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, keep them in Your name which You have given me,
that they may be 1 even as we are one.
While I was with them, I kept them in your name which you have
given me. I have guarded them, and not one
of them has been lost, except the Son of destruction, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you, and
these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy
fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and
the world has hated them, because they are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you
keep them from the evil. 1 They are not of the world, just as I
am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth.
Your word is truth. And as you sent me into the
world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be
sanctified in truth. I mean, it's a powerful passage.
So Jesus seems to be so confident that the Father heard
his his cries regarding the completion of the mission and
the glorification that he transitions now to a season of
prayer for his disciples. So it's not, it's not about me,
it's now this is about them. And notice how many times that
they're mine and you've given them mine and they're yours and
they're mine. You see the owners, the sense of
who these these men belong to these disciples.
And Jesus just knew again that the next few days were going to
be very difficult even for the most faithful.
He knew that Peter would deny him.
He knew that others would run away.
He knew it was going to be hard. And so he was seeking to prepare
them for the task that especially when he wasn't going
to be with him anymore to to guide him and to help him.
And so the disciples were going to be eyewitnesses to this
incredible glorification of Christ.
First they're going to have to go through the death, but then
they're going to experience the resurrection and the ascension,
and they're going to be eyewitnesses to this thing.
And they're going to need to bear witness of those things to
others. They don't have a whole Bible
yet. They need this witness
desperately. We can go all the way back to
the book of Acts and start talking about it again.
So Jesus assured them of his provision, the promise of the
Holy Spirit's going to come. The Holy Spirit's going to help
you. It talked to them already and
back in chapter 15 about how he was the true vine.
And if you abide in me and I in you, so you got to stay close to
me. And then he's instructing them
on how to pray in his name back in chapters 14 through 16.
So he's, he's all the way through this, this court, this
courses, he's giving them instructions, he's showing them
how he's, he's giving them all the guidance they need.
Now they're not getting it at this moment.
We know that they, they need the Holy Spirit to help him in a
minute to get it and he will. But we, we also recognize that
he also knew that if they were going to be successful in taking
the gospel to the world, that they're going to have to walk
with him and they're going to have to walk with his character.
They're going to be, they're going to have to be like him
that that they needed to ensure they needed to ensure adequate
representation of Jesus in the world.
And and that's our job. We have to ensure adequate
representation of Jesus in our world.
And so so he's going to work with him on that.
And in essence, they needed to be the gospel as they were
sharing it, right? So, so these are not some
self-centered prayer requests that we might find ourselves
trapped into sometimes much richer, much deeper than that.
So central to all this is this idea again of the Father's
glorification, that moving forward of his mission through
the vicarious suffering and also the victorious resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11.
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.
They're stuck here. I'm not I believe and they're
they're still here and I'm coming to you Holy Father, keep
them in your name, which you have given me that they may be 1
even as we are one. So Jesus is praying that his
disciples to be kept. The word keep here would be a
military type guard it to be guarded.
But in this passage, it's really interesting because in that
first part it's related much more to keeping them in intimacy
in the personal relationship with the Father rather than is
to protect them from some outside threat.
Right now he's more concerned that they're going to walk
closely, that they're going to abide in me and so guard them,
keep them close. This isn't just about protection
from the enemy. This is about keeping them and
guarding them in this close intimate relationship with us,
so to speak with God. And so he desires that they're
attached to him. Back to the the whole vine idea
again. So their hearts would be focused
both personally, but also corporately as a group on his
heart. And so this departure's
happening. He's getting ready to go.
It's happening fast. And the burden for this is
fairly overwhelming, I would think.
But he, he's praying that they would remain in him and they
would focus on the mission. So he demonstrates in prayer
this, this important idea of dependency upon the Father.
If we want, if we want to be adequate representation of Jesus
in our world, we have to depend upon the Father for that.
The vibrancy, the authenticity of our witness, our testimony,
our lives are going to depend upon him.
That's where the power of evangelism comes from.
It's, it's not something we can create.
It's because we're walking with Christ and it's just an overflow
of that in our lives. And so we see that how important
that is. There's also this, this idea in
the prayer of, of, of intimacy and oneness in their
relationships with one another. You are supposed to be a
community together. You're supposed to be one with
one another. And we, we need more of this
today, especially in this culture.
We're so independently individualistic and frankly
selfish that in this culture today, what this world needs to
see is genuine Christianity being lived out by real Christ
followers who really love one another and work well together
as well as testify to his glory. We need that both and and so
this will happen as the Father keeps us in Christ's character,
keeps us in intimacy with Him guards us there keeps us abiding
and that abiding connection to the vine so that we can bear
fruit. And when that happens and
believers then are going to be engaged by real Christians.
I've shared with you before and this is no joke.
This is not a guess. This is a study.
I was a part of a team that we did this and and most lost
people in the United States of America could would say that I
don't even know anybody who claims to be a real Christian.
You think it's absurd, especially in Rocky Mountain,
North Carolina, where there's a church building on every half,
half block. That doesn't matter.
The buildings mean nothing. A real Christian, somebody's
really living this out. Who really believes this.
We've had a a visitor, and I'll be very careful I tell this
story because they're still around.
But we've had a visitor who has been coming here some and they
come from a very different tradition and they've been
sharing with a friend of theirs and they said, your, your priest
really believes what he's saying.
My priest never did. So that authenticity that, that,
that realness that that matters. Because when that when this
happens, unbelievers are engaged by real Christians walking with
a real savior who can really deliver them from real darkness
that Colossians Paul writes about in Colossians 1.
He says He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We want that transfer to take place.
Look at verse 15. I do not ask that you take them
out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil. 1 So
Jesus is also praying for that outside protection, not just
that you keep them close, but you also keep them safe from the
evil one, right? It very much parallels what he
prayed and what we would call the Lord's Prayer.
He knew protection from Satan and he knew the protection from
his deceit were only going to be possible to the Father's power
through the Spirit helping that this.
And so he's very concerned for them is because he's going to be
departing soon and he obviously doesn't want them to fall into
temptation, but to be delivered from from Satan's Wiles and
strategies that you might read about in Ephesians 6.
Because Satan's a thief. He's a liar and a thief.
He's a the father of lies and a liar and a thief.
Did you hear that? You're a liar and a thief and
listen to what he says. He wants to steal and destroy
your joy. He wants to steal and destroy
your testimony. Listen to John 1010.
The thief comes only this is all he knows.
He wanted to steal God's glory, wanted to steal God's place in
heaven. Now he just wants to steal
yours. He he comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. Jesus came that they might have
life and have it abundantly. So Jesus understood his
disciples are going to fail. Listen, they're going to fail on
their own ability. He's in fact, it's going to
happen soon and they're going to fail in their own ability to be
able to overcome this. So but to be able to succeed, to
be able to be victorious, they had to be dependent upon God and
not their own wisdom, not their own ability, or they're just
going to fall flat. Same thing is true for us.
You're not strong enough on your own.
And so the, the part of the fear is that the mission of God
creeps forward today in North America.
In fact, if you look at the continents of the world, there's
only only a couple of them where it's just creeping.
Other places it's growing And North America and Europe is
creeping, maybe Australia. But the reason is creeping here
is because many of Christians are just being deceived by an
enemy. They think they're fine.
Even Christians, even quote UN quote Christians.
And that's not a judge mental statement.
I don't know who's what who think they are, but they're not,
or who once were and they're not anymore, or never understood
what 1 was but grew up in something so they claim it.
And so living a godly life and holiness can't take place apart
from the work of God's power that we experience through the
Holy Spirit. Spiritual warfare is real and
prayer is the key to a believer's ability to
successfully say no to the stupid, lying, stealing thief of
an enemy. I don't like him much.
So this is spiritual warfare that's actually proactive.
Chuck Lawless talked about that when he preached for us a few
weeks ago that many times we're just reactive in our prayers.
We need to be proactive praying against this and praying for the
abundance that God has for us. I mean, it's interesting that
that Jesus when they asked him back in Luke 11 when they said
Lord teach us to pray and we see the the bigger section of that
in Matthew 6 that we studied in the last session.
He teaches them to pray for the protection from the evil 1 back
in Matthew 613 deliver us from what evil and he prays the same
thing here. This is important.
He's repeating it. This is important.
This an important prayers that we ought to be praying for each
other. See, not just for ourselves, but
for each other. You need to see his urgency that
recognizes the spiritual battle that we face.
Because again, Lawless reminded us a few weeks ago or whenever
that we a couple weeks ago, that most of our praying is just
reactive, not proactive. We start praying after we learn
if somebody's losing a battle, not before.
And we need to make it proactive, but Jesus also prayed
for his followers to be sanctified.
If you notice in this passage to be set apart, to grow, to be
discipled, to to be holy. And, and the way that is, is
it's in his word, it's through the truth.
You'll see that look at verse 17.
Sanctify them and the truth. Your word is truth about as
clear as you can get. Here's how they're going to
grow. Here's how they're going to
mature. Here's how they're going to be
discipled. They got to grow in the word of
God. And so if his witnesses were to
have his character and they were actually going to be the the the
proper representatives of him in the world, then they're going to
have to show his character. They're going to have to live
that their lives have to be shaped.
Their lives have to be directed. We have to be defined by the
word of God and Jesus prays specifically for their personal
sanctification. And and you got to recognize
that the word truth or the idea of truth in John's gospel is the
representation of the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the truth and that's how it gets presented.
In fact, you know that verse, You know John 14, six I am the
what? Yeah, He is the truth.
And so they're going to be sanctified through him.
And then for us, we have this wonderful thing.
Now we have this wonderful addition to that called the Word
of God, the Bible, the whole Bible that we get to have and
study. So not only do we have the
presence of Christ, the truth, not only do we have the Holy
Spirit helping us to understand all that, but now we have this
written thing that actually helps us even more, that's alive
and active. We're in much better shape.
And so he he also refers to his own sanctification.
Which he accomplishes through his work, and then he
accomplishes those things so that his fathers or followers,
excuse me, I'll get the words right.
His followers could also be sanctified in the truth.
Look at verse 19. And for their sake, I consecrate
myself that they may also be sanctified in truth.
In other words, I'm, I'm going to live out this mission.
I'm going to live out this perfect life.
I'm going to live out and I'm going to die for our for your
sins. I'm going to rise again.
I'm going to go through this whole experience of consecration
and sanctification that I'm going through and glorification
that I need to go through a so the Father can be glorified and
known, but also so that you can share in this thing called
sanctification. You have a chance now of being
holy. You got a chance now of being
like Jesus. You got a chance now to actually
live this life that he's modeling for us.
And so this prayer referred to the life of obedience as they
encounter the truth of God in Christ and in his word, right?
And so when we pray for believers to be sanctified, the
truth, we're praying for daily encounters, not just with the
Bible, but with Christ himself, who is the truth, the living
Christ in US. How am I abiding in him?
How am I living for him? So Jesus sanctified himself
their obedience and gave us truth in the living and active
word of God. And so these encounters, this,
this idea ought to lead the Christian to, to live a life of
radical obedience to him. And, and, and we need to be
different. We need to be set apart.
If this Pagan world around us is going to believe Jesus is the
one who can give him eternal life.
They've got to see something different in US.
And this intentional, proactive prayer life is essential for
that to happen. I look at verse 20.
I do not ask for these only. This is huge because now he's
getting ready to pray for you. Believe it or not, Jesus prayed
for you before he died on the cross.
And, and I don't ask for these only, but also for those who
will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one,
just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may
be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me
the glory that you have given me.
I have given to them that they may be 1 even as we are one, and
I and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one,
so the world may know that you sent me and loved me even as
limb, even as you love me. Father, I desire that they also,
whom you have given me, they may be with me where I am to see my
glory, that you have given me because you loved me before the
foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, even
though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know
that you have sent me. I made known to them your name,
and I will continue to make it known that the love with which
you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
I mean, what a special passage. So he prays not only for his
followers, but for those who are going to the the generation
after generation after generation who are going to
believe because of what they share.
Praying for those future generations of his followers who
are going to believe because of the disciples testimonies and
also because of their disciples testimonies and their disciples
your testimonies.
He's praying for us. He's praying for the way for the
mission to move forward after he's gone.
How's this going to continue age after age after age.
The impact on the world will be huge.
And so he he prays over. Notice the the prayer for
oneness that you see here especially look at verse 21.
Perhaps, but especially this is oneness that centers on the
father and the son being one and and we're to be 1.
I I don't know that there's anything more disheartening when
believers are not one. We got to go back and remember
that one of the great themes of the book of Acts in the early
church is that they were of 1 accord.
They were one together. They had problems, but they were
1. And I see church after church
after church after church. Anyway, drives me nuts.
We've got to be together with him and with one another.
And so this passage again, we we see this revelation of some of
the mystery of the Trinity as we see all three persons of the
Godhead working here. So Jesus was praying for unity
that has experienced the work of the Spirit and focuses on the
intimacy and relationship of oneness with the Father.
But this is not unit unity that centers around some kind of
temporal ideology or methodological presuppositions
or worship styles or attitudes or personal preferences.
It's this is much bigger than that, much different than that.
This is oneness that centers on the Father's mission and glory,
which takes place as we unite our hearts together and join him
and what he wants us to do. So there was nothing about Jesus
and his character that obviously needs sanctifying because he was
perfect. Yet his act of pleasing, his act
of obeying the Father is central to the act of sanctification.
So just as he was set apart and completed the mission, this is a
model, this is an example, not only not only for his perfection
and what he needed to do, but also for us to see the obedience
we need to have to the Father. And so the disciples now needed
to bear witness to that truth, and they would be able to take
it and walk in obedience as they're being sent out.
And so this prayer aims at a oneness with the Father through
the Son and demonstrates the dependence that Christians must
have on Jesus to experience the love of the Father and to be
involved in his work. Again, this prayer, according to
Chris Scofield, puts the glory put the Father, puts the
Father's glory at the center, and spreads out a concentric
circles of his will and purpose. And so the result of this unity
is that the mission moves forward.
So if ever you see me drawing diagrams where I have the word
mission at the center, there's a reason for that.
It's the center of everything. Our mission here is to bring God
great glory and to join him in his work.
That's the simplified version. That's what we're here for.
That's why we're alive. That's why this church exists.
That's why this building's here. That's why we come together.
And so we recognize that that Jesus is trying to point his
disciples and protect them in this look at verse 24.
Father, I desire that they also whom you've given me, may be
with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
And we know what he's talking about now.
I hope so here. He's also praying toward his
desire for his followers to be with him.
He loved these guys, and he looks forward to the day they're
going to be with him again in eternity, these specific people,
but also for us. And so we see this
eschatological promise, we see an end time type conversation
here where we we get to be with him, where he is in his future
glory. And so the day when life is
over, Christians are going to experience the bliss of heaven
with Jesus forever. We're going to talk about that
in our upcoming series. What is heaven like?
Who's there? What's hell like and who chooses
to be there? We're going to talk about some
false paths and some false teaching about these things, as
well as what the Bible really says about these things.
But, but, but those of us who really believe and who trust in
Him are going to experience this with Him.
But this prayer shouldn't just be understood as talking about
that future blessing of heaven. Don't misunderstand it.
It's not just about that. It's also about the fact that
eternal life is something that we experience right now, and so
it allows us to participate in the redemptive activity that the
saving activity of His present glory that's at work right now
around us. We're going to baptize 4 people
Sunday and some of them amazing testimonies.
I won't. I don't want to give it away.
It's too good of a surprise. We got some phenomenal
testimonies on Sunday, and if we ever grow tired of that, shame
on us. And so it's amazing what he's
doing right now in his glory right now in our midst.
And so we see that this is for right now too.
And so maybe one of the reasons the gospel isn't running rapidly
in North America, but just kind of creeping forward is that the
church isn't praying to be with Jesus where he's at work in the
world right now. We don't get to pick the place.
We need to pick his place and his way.
We got to join his work. And so Jesus consistently
pointed us back to this relational aspect of Kingdom
prayer where the Father's glorified and his purposes and
his desires are fulfilled and sought after.
And then he also emphasized our relationship with the Father and
the Son as it relates to oneness among believers.
As we join together, this is essential for us to be
successful. Unity is essential for it.
Again, Schofield writes being the gospel.
And notice that Word being the gospel before a lost world makes
makes it thirsty for the Christ we represent.
Being the gospel before a lost world makes it thirsty for the
Christ we represent. And so when our our Christian
talk and our Christian walk are incongruent, why should anybody
believe us? We confuse the world when we say
one thing, we act another. There's got to be a consistency
of oneness in our character and our behavior.
So Christians are dependent upon the Father for protection in
order to help us do that, to stay clean, to stay pure.
And so prayers that move the Kingdom forward are those that
focus on seeing several things, the lost, saved believers
growing and maturing, the glorification of the Father and
and us as his followers joining him and his redeeming work.
So it's all part of why we're here.
So the church isn't making slow headway in North America because
I'm afraid much of its praying is earthly.
Much of its prayers are temporal.
We don't pray for eternity. We pray for temporary things.
We pray for things for ourself. And there's an old adage, a very
famous old adage. You may have heard that and you
may have said it a million times.
Maybe you never heard it before. But that's the church goes the
culture goes as goes the church, so goes the culture.
And you may think that's backwards, but it's not.
There's a reason our world's the way it is.
We haven't done our job. We haven't done our job.
So as the church, as goes the church, so goes the culture
we're desperate for Spiritual awakening.
Theologian and historian Jaya Winor, he defines it this way.
He says an awakening is a movement of the Holy Spirit
bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the
Church of Christ and it's related community.
Spiritual awakening is when revival spills out into the
lostness of the world around it. Malcolm McDowell, another
professor, says this. He says revival is God's
invasion into the lives of one or more of his people in order
to awaken them spiritually for Kingdom ministry.
So to pray for revival. There's a reason why I have
preached through Nehemiah. It's a reason for it.
You may not see it until this Sunday, but there's a reason we
needed to remember that story because God's people needed
restoration. And So what we recognize is that
the spiritual degradation that we face in North America can in
part be attributed, I think, to the absence of this Kingdom
mindedness in our prayers. We pray too small.
We pray too selfishly. We pray too temporarily.
I'm not saying we don't pray for those things.
James tells us to pray for those things.
We should pray for the sick. We should pray for the hurting.
We should pray for our friends. We do that.
We're supposed to do that. But if that's all we do, where's
the balance? Where's the balance?
So the church often, not necessarily Englewood, but the
church as a whole in the United States of America is hunkering
down in the trenches in fear because the culture around it
grows more and more Pagan. And we're just in a defensive
circle, the wagons mode, and it's time for us to strike out
in faith. And if a church like this
doesn't do it, I don't know what church will.
You think there's a reason why I'm here.
I know why I'm here. I know why I breathe.
I know why I'm alive, and I know why I'm at Inglewood.
And I'm going to beat that horse till you ought to either ride it
or I eat it for dinner. So our praying will often
reflect where our hearts and minds are focused.
When you listen to somebody pray, you can see what they're
thinking about, what they're focused upon.
All right. And so we often pursue the
things for which we're praying and that and that's why we need
to focus our prayer on the Kingdom coming as Jesus did,
that your Kingdom come, that your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Again, we want to pray for our
hurting friends. We want to pray for the person
with cancer. We want to pray for that person.
We just had a dear friend lose a dear friend.
We had a death again in the church this week.
And and so to think about if you don't know Aretha James passed
away, if you don't know about Missus Miss James, but and we
need to pray for the Brian. We need to pray for the family.
We need to lift up our friends. That's part of this.
That's part of the oneness, right?
That's part of the oneness. But we got to look beyond us
too. We got to look beyond this.
Our wood is get trapped in that's in that temporal cycle.
So Christianity that's patiently, passionately praying
and taking the gospel to the this is in the essence what
Jesus is praying for in this chapter.
I mean, what would happen if most of our praying was God
centered and focused on his purpose, his desire and and his
will to be accomplished in the world instead of simply what I
want, what I wish if we could refocus.
Spiritual awakening includes a renewing or reviving of the
church. And it's desire to be holy, it's
desire to be godly, it's desire to be 1, to abide with the true
vine, to be in right relationship with Christ, That
oneness is about him. And that lack of Christ like
character. Frankly, and this is not a
guess, but the lack of Christ like character is frankly
paralyzing the American church. We don't act like him.
We talk about him, but we don't act like him.
Now, fortunately here at Inglewood, I, I think we're
better than that. I pray we're better than that.
And so Jesus prays in John 17 for his disciples characters.
He prayed for them to be guarded, to be kept in His name,
and to be protected from the evil 1 and set apart for His
truth. You see these things coming
about, and when this happens in our lives, it represents a life
that's truly, wholly, intimately related and depended upon Him.
So that proactive praying is much better than the reactive
praying that just seeks to restore the integrity of a
believer after it's lost because somehow we failed to walk in our
intimacy with Christ. So this type of John 17 praying
produces a spirit filled living and intimacy with Christ that
that's eternal as we walk with him and we join him in that
mission. So wherever Christ, wherever the
Christ is, if you'll notice in this prayer, wherever Jesus is,
he wants his followers to be there too.
That's future one day I look forward to that.
I'm I, I cannot even imagine. I mean, I, I read and I read I'm
a biblical literalist. So I read the Book of Revelation
pretty literally. I see all that.
I see what happens. But it's also right now it's in
your prayer closet. It's in your daily actions, your
thoughts, your life with him. He wants us to be with him right
now. For some of you, that might even
mean salvation because you're not with him right now and you
need to talk about what it means to be saved.
So praying for the believer to be on mission with Christ then
can lead to this revived life. Be involved in that redemptive
activity as we're experiencing him on a continual basis.
And that that really is awakening in its beginning form.
But this is only going to happen as the church practices
heartfelt prayer toward God's Kingdom coming and his will to
be done on earth. So if the church, if the church
were to faithfully give itself to the biblical prayer patterns
found here in John 17, if we really did have this Kingdom
mindedness in ministry and moving forward, the moving
forward of the Kingdom in times of spiritual awakening, we would
be much more likely to see it. Stanley Grants, who wrote a
powerful book on prayer, writes this.
He says the challenge that we face today, it's the challenge
to pray. Meeting this challenge requires
that we cease merely talking about prayer and begin to pray.
Let us therefore pray. Let us invoke the in breaking of
the Kingdom into the situations of life that we face.
Let us cry for the Kingdom. So before we quit tonight, I
want us to have a time of prayer and I want you to reach out to
God. I want you to reach out to God
and to ask him to help you to be one with him, to be one with
other Christians, to to to be focused upon his Kingdom work
and how he can use you and that Kingdom work.
And then I'm going to pray for us in just a moment.
Take a moment to just silence you and the Lord.
Go to your garden, go to your prayer closet with Him and just
ask Him about how far off of oneness with Him are you?
What needs to change for you to be one with Him?
What needs to change for you to really be pursuing Kingdom work,
To be that that appropriate, effective represent
representative of Jesus here on earth, to live such a life that
it makes it makes them thirsty for Him.
They want what we have. They want what you possess.
Because they see it in your life.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to
heaven and said, Father, the hours come.
Father, we seek your glory, we seek your Kingdom, we seek your
will, we seek your truth. Father, my prayer is that it
would shatter the barriers of our lives and Pierce us to the
deepest part of our soul or spirit.
Lord, that we might walk with you in a new way, that we might
pray in a more powerful way, that we might live in a greater
service. Father, we have people all
around us who do not know you. They don't know oneness with you
or with us, and Father, they desperately need that.
And we, Father, are the ones who now possess the testimony.
It has been handed down to us and entrusted to us, generation
after generation after generation, from your disciples
to us. And we now possess the mission
that we are to accomplish for you.
We now are the ones who must participate.
So, Father, help us, Lord, to turn whatever corner we got to
turn, to turn whatever page we got to turn, to confess whatever
we need to confess, to make right whatever is wrong, so that
we can be your disciples truly, so that we can walk with you and
serve you in a new way. Father, I pray for our church.
I know what you want to have happened here.
And I pray, Father, this Easter season, we'll begin to see.
Father, please help us. Help us to abide and to be
obedient. Help us, Lord, to truly walk
with you. Thank you, Father, for the way
that you have helped us. We thank you that the Son is
interceding on our behalf, that the Holy Spirit is helping us,
Father, all of you, working with us and for us.
What an amazing, powerful thing. Help us, Father, to embrace it,
to enjoy it, to love it, to live abundantly, protect us, keep us
close to you, and protect us from the evil one in Christ's
name, Amen. Thank you so much for listening
today, and I also hope that you'll go to
ourwebsite@inglewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless you and your families.
Thank you once again.