Connecting Through Prayer: Jesus' High Priestly Prayer

But there’s a principle, I think, that’s important in pastoral ministry and that is that the place of all the services in the church where people get to know each other is the prayer meeting. And the reason for that is you really get to know somebody’s heart best of all. Not when you’re talking to them face to face but when you’re listening to them face to face with the heavenly father and hearing how they approach him, what they say to him, what they feel about him, what they desire from him. [00:15:12]

And if that’s a privilege that we share in the church, there could surely be no greater privilege for Jesus’ disciples than to listen to him pray. And so it’s very striking thing that this Farewell Discourse in John 13 through John 17 ends with an elongated account of our Lord Jesus Christ at prayer. Now, the disciples have become completely silent. There is only one voice that speaks and he no longer addresses the disciples. But rather he allows his disciples to overhear him addressing his loving heavenly Father. [00:94:32]

And part of that ritual was engaging in an extended season of prayer. And when he prayed, he was expected to pray for three concentric circles of people. First of all, he was to pray for himself and for the ministry that he was about to exercise. Secondly, he would pray for his more immediate family – those who were roundabout him who knew him best and whom he knew best that they might be consecrated with him to the service if the Lord. And then the third of these concentric circles was the way in which he would intercede for all of the people of God. [00:356:00]

And strikingly, this is the form in which John 17 comes to us. You’ll notice in verse 1 through 5, the Lord Jesus is praying for himself and about himself and then verse 6 through 19, he’s praying for his immediate disciples those who have been with him in these three years of ministry. And then in a most remarkable way towards the end in verse 20 through verse 26, he’s actually praying for all who will become Christian believers. “I don’t ask for these only,” he says, “but also for those who will believe in me through their word”. [00:410:24]

And this is a high moment of emotion for Jesus, isn’t it? The time has now come for him who has been obedient to his Father all through his ministry to become, as Paul says, obedient now to death even the death of the cross. And he is now praying to his heavenly Father. Now, I want us to look in this session at what it is that Jesus prays about himself. He is conscious, you’ll notice, first of all, that the time has come. He says “Father, the hour has come.” [00:517:68]

And yet, do you see what it is that he believes this our holds for him? When Jesus had spoken all these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said (John 17:1) “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son in order that your Son may glorify you”. First of all, what is it that Jesus is asking for? It’s very remarkable prayer, isn’t it? “Father, glorify me”. This is one of those statements from the lips of the Lord Jesus that actually highlights and pinpoints his consciousness of his own deity. [00:694:88]

He knows the Old Testament Scriptures. He knows that at the heart of the Old Testament scriptures lies the statement of Yahweh of Jehovah, “I will not give my glory to another. My glory is absolutely the property and possession only of God”. And Jesus is in this way giving expression to his consciousness that he is the Son of the Father, that he is the word who was with God and was himself God and sweetly, not stretching beyond his rights. He is saying to his heavenly Father, “Father, will you now glorify me so that I may glorify you”. [00:745:60]

And Jesus is praying that something of that glory will be seen marvelously in him. As I said, he had given little glimpses of it. He gave another glimpse of it, didn’t he, when he stilled the storm and the disciples were left wondering “Who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?” And there were three of them in the room. Three of these eleven apostles who had accompanied Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration and there they’d seen something that none of the others thus far had seen. [00:904:72]

And Jesus is now praying to his heavenly Father. He’s really praying to his heavenly Father as though he were saying “Father, I not only emptied myself into the incarnation but there is a sense in which I have hidden my majesty in the incarnation. Will you not now, by your power, unveil that majesty so men and women will see who I really am? And as they see who I really am face to face with you, able to look into your effulgent glory.” [00:960:08]

And so Father, unveil that glory that I had with you before the world began.” And it’s an amazing expression of his consciousness of deity. You know sometimes when people say, “Well, does the New Testament really teach that Jesus was God?” We go to some of the big text like Romans chapter 9 verse 5 or to other verses but here are words straight out of the mouth of our Lord Jesus that are either expressions of his deity or the worst conceivable expressions of blasphemy. [01:20:08]

And here is this one who has never breathed polluted air. Here is this one who’s never experienced antagonism. Here is this one who has been loved from all eternity, surrounded by angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim and sharing in the blessed fellowship of the Holy Trinity and in the joy that they have in one another. And now he’s come down into a world where he is demeaned, where the pollution of our sin has poured upon his Holy Spirit day after day after day after day, and now towards the end as they will breathe their pollution on him in order to destroy him rather than to trust him and to be changed to be like him. [01:275:36]

And so he prays that what he once knew, he will again know that the Father and the Son will live in this most intimate of fellowship with one another where the Father will gaze upon him and say to him “My son, I have watched you every single day. I have felt as it were in my soul the pollution of the atmosphere into which you have gone to fulfill our purpose and to save these polluted sinners. That’s why I want highly to exalt you and give you the name that is above every name that at your name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that you are Lord.” [01:354:48]