High Priestly Prayer

Knowing God.

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And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3 ESV

In what has come to be known as His high priestly prayer, Jesus gives us a wonderful definition of what it means to have eternal life. For far too many, eternal life is little more than heavenly “fire insurance,” a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card that will allow them to escape the penalty and pain of hell. Eternal life gets them a guaranteed place in heaven. In other words, it becomes all about a future destination. But Jesus emphasized that it is really all about a relationship that begins here on earth and culminates in heaven. The whole point of heaven is the unbroken relationship with God it will provide – free from the effects of sin. The whole point of hell is that it will be an eternal existence completely separated from any kind of access to or relationship with God. The point is far less about the physical pain and suffering of hell than it is about the emotional and spiritual suffering that will be the result of an eternal existence completely severed from any hope of a relationship with God. There will be no more common grace extended by God to any and all. No joy, no laughter, no gentle rains, calming breezes, no moments of rest or the simple pleasures of a good meal. In this life, it is God who graciously allows all to experience the joys of his creation. “For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike” (Matthew 5:45 NLT). In hell, wherever it will be, those things will no longer be available because God’s presence will be inaccessible and unavailable.

But in His prayer, Jesus did not focus on heaven, even though He had already promised His disciples that He would return for them and take them to be with Him there. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3 ESV). His prayer equates eternal life, not with heaven, but with a relationship with God the Father and with Himself as the Son of God. Eternal life is about a restored relationship with God. It begins at salvation and finds its full fruition at the point of our glorification when we see Jesus face to face. The moment anyone, by faith, acknowledges Jesus as their sin substitute and the sole source of their salvation, they are reconciled or made right with God. They go from being His enemies to His adopted child and heir. “You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21-22 NLT). “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son” (Romans 5:10 NLT). The salvation provided by God through Jesus is not about a destination, but a relationship. It is about God reconciling lost and hopeless men and women to a right relationship with Himself. It is about God doing for us what we could never have done on our own. We could never have earned our way back into God’s good graces. “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT).

Eternal life is about knowing God. It is about having a right relationship with Him and Jesus is the one who makes it possible. But being made right with God, while wonderful, loses its significance if we do not find ourselves desiring to grow in our knowledge of the one who made our salvation possible. In Paul’s prayer for the believers in Colossae, he asked “God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-10 NLT). A growing knowledge of God – that is the essence of eternal life. Warren Wiersbe has described this growing intimacy and awareness of God in this way. “To know God personally is salvation. To know Him increasingly is sanctification. To know him perfectly is glorification.” We are to experience a growing and ever-expanding understanding of God as we live submitted to His Spirit, read about Him in His Word, and grow increasingly more committed to His will for our lives and this world. Coming to know Christ was intended to allow us to get to know God – intimately, personally and progressively more and more. That is the essence of what it means to have eternal life. It is less about knowing where you are going when you die than it is about knowing God – the one with whom you will spend eternity after you die.

The High Priestly Prayer.

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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.” – John 17:1-2 ESV

John 17:1-26

Jesus had just told His disciples that He would be leaving. He had warned them that the hour was coming when they would desert him and scatter in fear. He was on the eve of his betrayal and arrest. Jesus knew that the fate for which He had come was near. And in spite of all this, Jesus was able to tell His disciples, “Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:32-33 ESV). And after He had spoken these words, He prayed. Jesus was not alone. Even though His most faithful followers would end up denying Him and running in fear at His arrest, His Father would be with Him. And it was to His Father that He turned. The prayer that He prayed is both amazing and inspiring at the same time. It provides us with a glimpse into Jesus’ relationship with His Father and reveals the scope of the divine plan for man’s redemption.

Jesus was well aware of His circumstances. He was not surprised or caught off guard. It was for this very moment that He had come to earth. His incarnation, God becoming man, was in order that He might live a sinless life and die a sinner’s death on man’s behalf. And that hour had come. But Jesus’ response to His impending death was far from fatalistic. His was not a helpless resignation to an event over which He had no control. No, Jesus was facing His circumstances willingly and with a deep desire to see His Father glorified. He prayed, “glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” Jesus knew that God was going to glorify Him through His own death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Long after the events surrounding Jesus’ death and ascension, Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11 ESV). Jesus knew He was going to die, but He also knew that His Father was going to bring Him back to life. Not only that, He knew that He would be restored to His rightful position at the right hand of God. He would be glorified and His Father would be glorified. But at the moment Jesus prayed this prayer, it was all a matter of trust on His part. He would still have to go through a humiliating arrest, a series of sham trials, all kinds of verbal and physical abuse, and the excruciating pain of a Roman crucifixion. But Jesus knew His Father well. He was intimately familiar with His Father’s will and His own role in it. So He rested in the fact that His suffering was an essential part in the redemptive plan of God.

The purpose of Jesus’ coming was to provide eternal life to man. God had given Him authority to do so. After His ascension, Jesus would tell His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18 ESV). Then He would proceed to commission them to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus had authority over all flesh. He had both the power to save and to judge, to forgive and condemn. His death, burial and resurrection would become the final determiner regarding the eternal fate of all mankind. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NLT).

Jesus faced His fate with faith, knowing full well that His Father loved Him and that His Father’s will for Him was best. Even in His prayer in the garden, just moments before His betrayal and arrest, Jesus would pray, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 ESV). His human nature did was what was normal and natural – it desired another way. It resisted the idea of the gruesome death ahead. Which is why Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42 ESV). In His humanity, He preferred a different solution. But in His deity, He knew that His Father’s will was best – not only for Him, but for all mankind. What a sobering reminder of our need to trust our heavenly Father. So often, we find ourselves facing difficult circumstances and we pray that God would remove us from it, but we fail to trust His will and rest in the reality that He is ultimately in control and has our good and His glory in mind at all times. We can trust Him. Because Jesus trusted God, we now have a relationship with the Father and the promise of eternal life. So no matter what we might face in this life, we can know that our future glorification is assured, and rest in that unfailing promise from God.

2 Samuel 17-18, 1 Corinthians 11

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Disunity and Division.

2 Samuel 17-18, 1 Corinthians 11

But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. – 1 Corinthians 11:17-18 NLT

The house of David was divided. His own son, Absalom, had turned against him, taking over his throne and occupying his royal city. Ever since Absalom had taken revenge against Amnon for raping his sister, Absalom and David had been in a less-than-ideal relationship. They had never fully healed the wounds between them. Absalom had developed a growing resentment for David and had lost respect for him as both a father and a king. So he plotted to take over his father’s throne and was even determined to take his father’s life in order to solidify his own kingship. The amazing thing to consider is that this is all taking place within the nation that had been hand-picked by God to be His chosen people. The Israelites were to be an example of what it was like for a people to live under the leadership of God Himself, experiencing His presence and power, and obeying His righteous commands. But ever since the days of Moses, they had struggled with the concept of unity, constantly finding themselves arguing and whining against one another. Division, disunity and in-fighting were a constant problem among God’s people. We can only imagine how the Philistines and the other enemies of Israel must have loved watching Absalom destroy the nation of Israel from within. The enemy has always preferred watching the followers of God destroy themselves, which is why he has made division and disunity such a high priority in his war against the people of God. It is also why Jesus prayed for our unity in His high priestly prayer recorded in John 17. “ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” (John 17:21 ESV).

What does this passage reveal about God?

Unity is important to God. It was important to Jesus. The Father and the Son enjoyed perfect unity. There was no division between them. They were unified in their love for one another, their love for mankind and in their plan to provide a solution to man’s sin problem. Jesus knew that our unity was just as important, even intimating that the unity of the people of God would be a testimony to the world of God’s presence among us. Jesus went on to pray, “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:22-23 ESV). Our unity is a work of the Spirit. It is not human or natural. It is made possible by the power and presence of God in our lives. And our ability to live in unity is a testimony to God’s love, Christ’s redeeming work and the Spirit’s power. Without God’s help, we are prone to selfishness and self-centeredness. Division and disagreement are a constant threat because they are manifestations of man’s sin nature. But God’s love has unified us. We share a common Savior and have been made part of the body of Christ. Paul writes, “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV). Our common dependence upon Christ’s saving work has unified us into one, unified body. We share all things in common. None of us are more deserving of God’s love than anyone else. We have no more value in God’s eyes than any of His other children.

What does this passage reveal about man?

But even among the people of God, disunity and discord can raise its ugly head. Just as Absalom was led to see himself as superior to David and worthy of taking his place as king, so too can one believer view himself as more important or worthy than another believer. Paul witnessed this very problem taking place among the believers in Corinth. He wrote, “when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18 ESV). In other words, when they gathered together for their church services, they were doing so with divided hearts and a spirit of disunity. Their times of corporate worship were marked by selfishness, self-centeredness and an unhealthy spirit of arrogance. Even their marriages were being impacted by this disunity, as wives and husbands failed to properly maintain their god-given roles and responsibilities. Husbands were failing to lead spiritually and their wives were abusing their new-found liberties in Christ to the point that they were undermining God’s order of authority and responsibility. The end result was disunity. There was a spirit of independence that had infected the church and was destroying not only their unity, but their witness in the community. Which is why Paul reminded them, “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God” (1 Corinthians 11:11-12 ESV). Their self-centeredness had caused them to remember that it was God who was to be at the center of the homes, marriages, and worship services. He was to be the focus, not themselves.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

Absalom was driven by anger, resentment, pride, arrogance and a growing self-centeredness that eventually caused him to forget that God had chosen his father to be the king of Israel, not him. Absalom’s will had taken precedence over God’s will. He had no problem dividing the kingdom God had established in his efforts to create his own kingdom. And as a result, many would die needlessly, including himself. His actions would bring shame on the nation of Israel and joy to the hearts of the enemies of Israel. How much easier it is to sit back and watch us destroy ourselves from within. If Satan can get us to live together in DISunity, he has won a major battle. If he can divide us from within, he has won a major battle without having to lift a finger against us. This is why Jesus prayed so fervently on our behalf, “the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” (John 17:14-17 ESV). Like the people of Israel, we are surrounded by a world that is hostile to our very existence. Which is why our unity is so important. We cannot afford to allow internal strife, division and disunity to weaken us. We cannot allow our pride and selfishness to get the best of us. We must remember that God has joined us together. He has placed us in His family. He has unified us through a common faith in His Son’s death, burial and resurrection. Together, we make up the body of Christ. But it is our unity that makes us effective. It is our love for one another that proves we are His disciples. It is our supernatural harmony that witnesses to the world of God’s presence and power among us.

Father, the world longs to see what true love, harmony and unity looks like. They are dying to see marriages that are marked by Your power and presence. They desperately need to see believers who have been transformed by Your Spirit loving one another regardless of color, class, nationality, income or social standing. May we truly be one as Your prayed that we would be. So that the world may believe in Your Son. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 125 – John 17:1-26

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What Would Jesus Pray For You?

John 17:1-26

“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.” – John 17:9-10 NLT

Think about it. If Jesus were to pray for you, what would He say? What would He ask the Father for on your behalf? Just imagine what it would be like to have the Son of God lift you up in prayer. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it, because His prayer for you is recorded in John 17. It’s often referred to as His High Priestly Prayer. What’s fascinating about this particular prayer is that it appears that Jesus prayed it right in front of the disciples. On so many other occasions, we see Jesus getting away by Himself for extended times alone with God in prayer. But in this case, right in the middle of a discussion with the disciples, He stops, looked up into heaven and prayed this prayer. They would have heard every word of it. And the vast majority of it contains requests from Jesus to the Father on their behalf. But Jesus made it clear that this prayer was not just for the disciples. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message” (John 17:20 NLT). That includes you and me.

Now, what does He pray? What kinds of requests does He make to God on our behalf? This ought to get our attention. What we discover here should give us a very solid understanding about what Jesus regarded as important for as lives as His followers as we live on this planet. He made it clear that He was leaving, but His followers were staying. He was leaving them behind, fully knowing that they no longer belonged to the world in which they were staying. As His followers they would be aliens living in a strange land. They would be outsiders and outcasts in this world because of their faith in Him. Jesus made it clear that His prayer was for His followers only. He was not praying for the world, but for believers, both present and future. “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory” (John 17:9-10 NLT). And while this prayer is packed with all kinds of significant truths regarding the Church, a few things jump out.

First, Jesus prays for our protection. He asks God to protect us by the power of His name (Verse 11). The name of God is synonymous with the very character of God. His name represented who He was. It reflected His glory, greatness, love, mercy, power, faithfulness, steadfastness, holiness, grace, righteousness, and justice. To ask the Father to protect us by His name was to guarantee the outcome. God is faithful and true. He cannot do anything that would contradict His character or bring shame to His name. But why does Jesus ask the Father to protect us? What is He asking the Father to protect us from? “…so that they will be united as we are” (John 17:11 NLT). This theme of unity and oneness runs throughout His prayer. He is asking God to protect us so that we might remain unified in the midst of a world that was going to try and destroy or unity. If you study the letters of the New Testament, one of the central themes had to do with division within the Body of Christ. The early Church was a composite organism made up of all kinds of people from all walks of life. There were Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, male and female, rich and poor – all gathered together into this new thing called the Body of Christ. As a result, there were tensions, disagreements, disputes, and the constant possibility of the unity of the Body being destroyed. The Church was new. There was no common doctrine, no New Testament yet, little in the way of qualified leadership, and the constant pressure from the outside world. So Paul and the other authors of the epistles that would eventually make up the majority of our New Testament, wrote to instruct these new believers and to warn them about the danger of division.

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. – 1 Corinthians 1:10 NLT

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them! –Romans 16:17 NET

Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. – 1 Corinthians 12:24-25 NET

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28 NLT

Jesus went on to pray that the unity of believers would reflect the unity that He and His Father shared. This miracle on unity among so many people of diversity would reveal that it was all the work of God. When we live as one, He gets glory. Jesus prayed, “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:23 NLT). Our unity is proof of Christ’s deity and of God’s love for us.

But Jesus was not done. He went on to pray that God would keep us safe from the evil one (John 17:15). Satan hates us and wants to do everything in his power to destroy our unity. He loves to cause divisions within the Body of Christ. That’s why the early Church put such a high priority on removing all those who threatened unity and tried to stir up division. Disunity in the Body is one of the greatest turn-offs to the lost.

Jesus also asked that the Father would make us holy. The word He used has to do with sanctifying us or setting us apart. But He is specific in His request. He says, “Set them apartin the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17 NLT). Remember, there was no New Testament at this time. The truth Jesus seems to be referring to is the reality about who He is and why He had come. He had revealed the truth of His identity to the disciples and they had believed that truth. So Jesus asks the Father to set them apart in that truth. Let that be their identifier and distinctive. Our holiness or otherness in this world must be based on the truth of Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Jesus asked God to protect you so you could live in unity. He asked God to keep you safe from Satan. He asked His Father to make you holy, to set you apart and make you distinctive based on the truth about who Jesus is and what He has done. Obviously, if Jesus asked these things of the Father on your behalf, they must have been important to Him. So how important are they to you? How much weight do you put on unity within the Body of Christ or with other believers? Do you strive for it and do everything in His power to avoid division? How about the enemy? Do you recognize his reality and understand his unbridled passion to destroy you? What about your holiness or set-apartness? How important is it to you? Is what makes your life distinctive and different your belief in who Jesus is and what He has done for you? These things were important enough for Jesus to pray on our behalf. So they should be important enough for us to make them a high priority in our own lives, and to pray them on behalf of one another.

Father, may these requests be what we pray daily for ourselves and for one another. We desperately need Spirit-empowered unity so that the world might sit up and take notice. We need protection from the enemy, because he is alive and active all around us, trying to destroy us an individuals and as a community. Finally, we need to live distinctive, set-apart lives that reflect our uniqueness based on our belief in who You are and what You have done for us. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org