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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. If you notice that the Christ candle isn’t up in the chancel area, it’s because last Thursday we celebrated the ascension of our Lord. Whenever the Ascension of our Lord is celebrated, the candle is snuffed and put away, except for maybe funerals or baptisms. But otherwise, we don’t get out the Christ candle again until Christmas Eve.
So last Thursday we talked about the Ascension, but today we focus on a prayer that Jesus continues to pray for you, for your comfort. It is the only recorded prayer in all of Scripture from our Lord’s lips today, other than, of course, the Our Father that we pray all the time. But this prayer is prayed in the garden before He is arrested. While the disciples are sleeping, He prays this prayer. It is not as if it was a one-shot, one-prayer thing. This is an ongoing prayer for all of you. It applies to you, and they are words only of comfort. That is, only to those who cling to Jesus through faith.
It’s hidden from the world, these words of comfort that our Lord proclaims and prays over you. It is only for those who find comfort in His forgiveness, and only for those who find comfort in His or her adoption as Christ’s children or sheep. How few there are who love Christ and His holy work for them by faith. You are among a minority, not a majority in this world. So Jesus prays for you continually in heaven these words. He wishes you to know with confidence what the Father’s heart is toward you.
The reason being is that we allow ourselves to go through a struggle or a trial, and we question whether God is punishing us because of something we failed to do or should not have done. Let everything go along smoothly and we think the only reason God is allowing it is because we haven’t done anything like other people have done. Look at the disciples. They have to live with the reality that one of their own, who they knew intimately for three years, denied Christ and walked away from the whole thing.
Peter, in his epistle, talks about suffering for the sake of Christ. Because when we suffer, we think God is punishing us. It is the same here with Jesus as He prays. He prays for these apostles because He knows what is about to happen to them. What’s about to happen to these apostles in that garden when Judas brings those soldiers? They scatter. He is praying for these apostles, and what do they do in response to this prayer but scatter? Does that seem as if Christ’s prayer was ineffective? No.
It’s no different than when this is prayed over you and has been prayed over you since you were conceived in your mother’s womb. You and I think about all the times that we have scattered from our Lord rather than standing up for Him. This prayer is for you to be comforted that the Father’s heart toward you is only one way—loving. Because of the work and the glory that God received in Christ Jesus’ death, we live in a sin-filled world.
We live with sinners who are unbelievers, and you live with sinners who are believers, and you struggle with them. You mistreat them just like I mistreat them, and they are still believers. Isn’t it interesting? Show differentiation between one believer and the other when they are both to be treated equally. This is for our protection in the midst of differentiation among us. This is for our protection also when our faith is being moved from Christ to something else.
We are to impress these words of comfort upon our hearts, for these words are only for us. You do not have an angry God. You have a loving God. Find refuge in this prayer for you. When He spoke about glorifying the Father, He’s talking about the wounds where you and I find refuge. For all the times when there has been differentiation shown to us, we can find refuge there. And for all the times that we’ve shown differentiation in how we’ve treated one another, we can find refuge there.
This is His ongoing prayer for you. He wants this truth in this prayer to stand. He wants all false belief, all sinful thinking to be crushed. He wants us to know that the Father’s heart toward us isn’t based on our actions or performance in this world. He wants us to know that the Father’s heart toward you is based on this God-man’s action for you, this God-man’s performance for you.
Let’s take a look at that prayer. In your bulletin, you’ll find the text. The prayer actually is the entire 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. When you and I pray, we don’t think too much necessarily about having it recorded. Although sometimes we feel like we prayed a pretty good prayer, when the Lord God prays for you, we should take notice, should we not? These are just the first 11 verses.
When Jesus had spoken these things, He refers to teaching them all those things in the upper room. Now He is praying. He’s talking to the Father. Remember, this is when Jesus is sweating drops not of sweat, but of blood. Father, the hour has come. The moment when all of the wrath of God is going to be poured out, not on you, but on Him. Glorify your Son. The only way that the Son could be glorified is in His death and resurrection. You can’t have a resurrection without a death first.
The Son will glorify you, not just in the resurrection and ascension, but in the death. Notice why. Verse 2: You have given Him authority over all. Why is it that Jesus doesn’t just say that? Over all. Why does Jesus use that definite adjective of all flesh? Because He’s referring to your flesh. Not just your spirit. He is not just a spirit. He is flesh and blood. He has authority over everything that you and I have in common with one another.
To give eternal life—and only Christ has that authority—to give eternal life to whom you’ve given Me. In the sixth chapter, Jesus talks about the Father giving those who are to believe into Jesus’ hands. In the tenth chapter, Jesus the Good Shepherd says, I shall lose none of those that you have given Me. You’ve been served up in a beautiful, beautiful receiving blanket and given to the Son, Jesus, by the Father.
He has authority to give you life, and He’s given it to you at your baptism. He continually gives it to you regardless of your performance, and especially when you’ve been a stinker just like when I’ve been a stinker and need to graciously and most humbly repent. Then He quantifies and defines eternal life: that they know you. Knowing the Father and what the Father’s heart is toward you—the only true God. Amen. But not just Him, the Son who became flesh, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
There is this union. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do. Every facet of His life was lived in perfect performance for all of our lack thereof. Every facet of His life was lived in perfect obedience for all of the rebellion that you and I have exhibited. Obviously, it climaxes in His death. Glorify me in your presence in a bodily fashion. Because Jesus isn’t going to rise and ascend into heaven as a spirit. We spoke about that last Thursday. He arose and ascended into heaven in flesh and blood. He will come again with flesh and blood. Glorify that flesh and blood, as you shall be glorified who have been baptized into Him.
Then He goes on. I have epiphanied your name. I have revealed or manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. What do you and I struggle with the most? Living as if we belong to this world or if this world has any meaning or merit, rather than living as if this world is transient and our life is transient. All that matters is loving God and those whom God has placed in our lives as we first have been loved. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
How can He say that about you when you haven’t? How can He say that about me when I know I haven’t? Is He lying? Is He playing a word game? He is praying this because His gift of faith lives in this constant state of which you find yourself and myself in. It is being faithful unto death is what God has called us.
Now, verse 7: they know that everything you have given Me is from you. I have given them the words that you gave Me. They received them and have come to know in truth that I have come from you, and they have believed that you sent Me. I am praying for them. It makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it, if someone prays out loud something about you and what you need, if you don’t necessarily feel like your back’s against the wall or that you are completely incapable.
It’s interesting how embarrassed we get when someone prays for us. Why? Because it is humbling. Your God prays for you every day, every moment. Why? He is praying this prayer ongoing for you, for your protection, for your comfort, for your confidence in the midst of all your and my inconsistent life. He doesn’t just pray for you when you please Him. He prays for you especially when you and I live inconsistent lives, which is all the time, isn’t it?
Now when He says, I’m not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, it’s not as if He’s not praying for others. He is. He’s praying for them as they come to know Him. Through whose word? His word in you. His word in you as you proclaim it and live it out. Living it out, not just speaking it. All mine are yours, and yours are mine.
Then a mind-blowing statement when He says, I’m glorified in them. Not one of you fathers and not one of you mothers can say that about your children all of the time. Your children did not and have not glorified you as parents all of the time. So how in the world can He say this about me and about you? Because it is Him who gives that glory and not we ourselves. He’s given us His Word, and that’s what brings glory. The faith that you have in that Word. And who gave you the faith to begin with?
Now we know why He prays for us. Verse 11: And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, you and me. And I am coming to you, Holy Father, keep them in Your name—the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The name that marks you as Christ’s. The name about which Peter wrote, if you suffer for the name of being Christian, do not be sad, but you have glorified God in suffering for His name’s sake.
And that they may be one. You and I are not one in color. You and I are not one in ethnicity. You and I are not one in our social background or education. You and I are not one in our hair color or even our attitudes. You and I aren’t one about anything in this world except one thing: faith in the same one true God. So then why should we be surprised that it’s difficult for us to love other people, including believers who are in your life? No one’s like us.
And the gift of marriage that God has given many of you, you have found out very quickly that even the one whom you love the most is not like you. In fact, the other reveals within you your and my inconsistent life. But He does not. He only reveals to you His victory for you and shows you that the Father’s heart toward you is not vengeful or wrath-filled, but He wishes to reveal to you it is loving and gracious.
You and I must turn away from our false understanding of how we stand in God’s sight, why we are His children. You have experienced that once, but you and I forget so easily, don’t we? We must embrace the grace that He has won for you and has given to you as He prays for you, for your comfort, for your protection, and more importantly, for your unity with other sinful stinkers in this congregation with whom you live and breathe and have the Lord’s Supper—even them.
You can imagine that the disciples when Jesus was captured—and even after they came back together—there was a lot of tongue wagging. You know there had to have been about Judas, as they tried to figure out why Judas walked away. And what did God continually push those men to do but love, as they have been loved, forgive, as they have been forgiven, serve, as they have been served.
That is what He has done to us. That is what He prays for us as a church who is in the minority in this world and will always be, and as we suffer for His name’s sake.
In the name of Jesus who prays for you. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
