Christ s High Priestly Prayer: The Calm before the Storm

Transcription

1 June 1, 2014 Easter 7a Text: John 17:1-6 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, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6 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. (ESV) Christ s High Priestly Prayer: The Calm before the Storm During WWI, the Allies and Germans were hunkered down in their trenches in some cases only yards 50 yards from one another. Fierce fighting went on in the bitterly cold winter of But on Christmas Day, something remarkable happened. One man recalls a moment of peace amid the bloodshed. He heard a familiar melody. From the German trenches he heard singing. They were singing, Stille nacht, heilige nacht. Alles schläft; einsam wacht (Silent night, holy night ). After the last note, a lone German infantryman appeared holding a small Christmas tree glowing with light. Merry Christmas, he said to the entrenched allies. We not shoot, you not shoot. Weary men climbed hesitantly at first out of trenches and stumbled onto no man s land. They shook hands, sang carols, lit each other s cigarettes, and swapped tunic buttons and addresses. But the Christmas truce was short-lived. Soon thereafter the fighting began anew. 1 But for a brief period of time, there was a calm before the storm began again. In the life of Jesus, there was also a calm before the storm. In our text, we find Jesus in the upper room with his disciples. It was Maundy Thursday evening. For Jesus, it was a calm before the bloodshed. Before this, his enemies wanted to do away with him. Shortly after the calm in the upper room, he would face the storm of arrest, condemnation, and crucifixion. In John 17, in the interlude before the storm, he prays his longest recorded prayer. At a time like this, a man does not pray for trivial things. He prays for those things that are of uppermost importance to him. In this high-priestly prayer, he prays for three things: for himself, for his apostles, and for all present and future believers. He lifts up his voice to his heavenly father and prays for his own glorification. He says, 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. 2 The Son prays to be glorified. But his idea of glorification is the opposite of the world s. The Page 1 of 5

2 world thinks of glory in terms of fame, wealth, beauty, and power. But Christ s idea of glory is altogether different. Listen to Jesus speak about his glory. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23-24). 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. (John 12:27). [To his disciples, he said], Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. (John 16:32). 3 Jesus, here, speaks about his hour. And he connects his hour with his death. Jesus is saying, My glory is not to rule with power but to die for sinners. My glory is to suffer and die to reconcile them to my Father. I die so that I can give them life, spiritual and eternal life! Christ s glorification cannot be understood by worldlings. Indeed, it is folly to them because death looks like defeat and crucifixion looks like weakness. That is why St. Paul said to the Corinthians, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 4 In our text, Jesus also prays to his Father that the gift of eternal life be extended to all. But then he adds, This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 5 Here, we see that eternal life is given to those who know God. To know God means to trust in him. But, then, Jesus adds that God may be known only through the Son. That is, the only access to the Father is through Christ. Jesus is repeating his claim to be the only way to heaven. Only a short time after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he began to teach them many things. One of his teachings is this: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 6 As Christians this is what we believe, teach, and confess. But in these last days, many believe in what we may call a new kind of mysticism. The new mysticism teaches... that you must experience salvation, that you must feel saved, and that you must sense the presence of God within. But this is contrary to the teachings of Scripture and of Jesus himself. Christ always connects faith and salvation to the words of Scripture. For example, he says, Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. 7 He also says, The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 8 Moreover, he says, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. 9 But more and more Christians are falling into the snare of the new mysticism. As such, they urge fellow Christians to follow where their hearts lead them. They say to us, What does your heart say? What does your gut tell you. And this is the way that many Christians make decisions these days. But we must resist all such appeals to look within. Page 2 of 5

3 But following the promptings of our hearts can be dangerous. For example, John Ortberg tells of a Mexican vacation with his family and friends. His friend Jim and his son Davey were playing in the ocean while everyone else was on the beach. Then disaster struck. A rogue riptide swept Davey out to sea. Immediately his father tried to rescue him. But he, too, was swept away by the riptide. Jim was a strong guy an Olympic Decathlete but he was powerless against the ocean. As the water carried him further out, he had a single, chilling thought: My wife and my daughters are going to have to have a double funeral. But Jim s cousin knew what to do. He let the riptide take him to a place where he knew there was a sandbar. He knew that to fight against a riptide meant death. When he got to the sandbar, he stood on it and ran in the direction of Jim and Davey. They were still fighting against the tide. Spotting them, he shouted out, Swim out to me. Come to me. Soon, they too stood breathless on the sandbar. They were saved. 10 So, if you try to go the way your gut tells you to go the shortest distance to shore you will die. If you rely on your own reason, you will die. The Bible says pretty much the same thing. In matters of salvation, if you go with your gut, you will die. If you go with your own reason, you will die. If you go where your heart leads you, you will die. But Jesus says, If you come to me, you will live. That's it death or life. Trust in me and my promises, he says, and you will live. But if you trust your instincts you will die! Verse 6 of our text is pretty amazing. Regarding his disciples Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; they were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 11 They have kept your word? Really? Everything in me wants to say, No they haven t. I mean consider the track record of these men. Judas had betrayed him. And all of them would soon flee for fear when the soldiers arrested their Master. James and John wanted Jesus to give them glory even though he taught them to be servants. Peter would soon deny him three times. Thomas would soon deny Christ s resurrection. Given this, how can Jesus say that they had kept his word? It would seem to be the very opposite. But despite their many sins, they all still trusted in him. Thus, Jesus forgives them even now. The same is true for us. Our track record is one of sin. But Jesus, in his mercy, forgives us as well. Thus, both we and Christ s apostles are accounted as ones who have kept his Word! But when Jesus finished this prayer, the interlude of peace was over. See him now as the calm before the storm erupts into a hurricane of hatred and violence. Hurriedly, he is arrested, Page 3 of 5

4 condemned as a blasphemer, judged worthy of death, and finally murdered by crucifixion. And you and I get all that Jesus won for us by his death. Through faith in him, God opens his treasure chest. Without cost, he withholds nothing but gives us forgiveness, perfect righteousness, and salvation. For Jesus the battle storm is over. He has defeated Satan. He has risen and ascended. His saving work is done. So now the devil focuses on us. He urges us to look for a divine light within. By means of deceitful lies, he promises that, if we follow our hearts, we will always make the right decision. He insists that we go with our gut instead of trusting God s promises. But it s all a lie. The most profound truth is the simplest. It is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Indeed, everything we need to know about Christ and his salvation is in the Scriptures. And so we pray to the heavenly Father In the name of Jesus: Amen. Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed. Soli Deo Gloria! Endnotes 1 For more information, see 2 See John 17: When Jesus says, Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come the last two words are in the perfect tense which indicates that, in his mind, his apostles have already left him. This is a nice little nuance in which Jesus tells his apostles in advance what they would do. Matthew says as much, for when Jesus was arrested, he writes, Then all the disciples left him and fled (Mat 26:56, ESV). 4 See 1 Corinthians 1:18, ESV. 5 See John 17:3. 6 See John 14:6. Page 4 of 5

5 7 See John 5:24, ESV. 8 See John 6:63, ESV. 9 See John 8:31-32, ESV. 10 Adapted. Taken from Preaching Today. Subscription required. 11 See John 17:6, NASB. Page 5 of 5