See here. Everybody in?
Almost.
Well, good morning, saints. It’s good to be with everybody this morning on this beautiful Sunday. What a way to start the day.
You know, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been up here to share a word, except for an occasional opening. So I’ve been looking forward to the privilege and pleasure of being able to share this morning what’s on my heart.
And it’s been something that’s quite precious to me. I never thought I’d really have an opportunity to share it, but when I was talking to Jerry Amon a few weeks back over breakfast, I had mentioned it. Lo and behold, he asked me if I would be willing to share, and I gave it some thought and thought, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”
So that’s how I’m up here this morning, thanks to Jerry’s encouragement.
Now, a while back, I shared an opening on this idea of considering our Lord Jesus. It was from a verse in Hebrews, and it was an opening that I used to draw us into worship. That has been a couple of months ago.
But when we think about considering our Lord Jesus, whether it be for the sharing time or merely in an opening, it actually brings us into worship. When you think about His holiness, His love for the Father, His sacrificial death on the cross, or any manner of His character, we’re drawn into worship, no matter where we are.
There can be no other response when we consider our wonderful Lord but worship in our hearts. So indeed, worship flows from our hearts as we meet around this table.
However, the thing about an opening is that you have a limitation there. You’ve got a time constraint where you really cannot develop a thought very far. It can be a precious thought to have, but you need to focus in pretty quickly because of the time limitation. You do not want to let that opening overpower your worship time by being long.
So this morning, what I’m saying is that more can be said with the time that I’ve got now. I do not feel like I’m under quite as much of a time constraint, and I’ll hopefully be able to share this word with you in a way that will be a blessing this morning. So we really are looking to the Lord for that.
So before we get started, let’s just have a moment of prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, how we thank You that we can be before You this morning. Lord, when we look at Your Word, we have no doubt in our hearts that Your words are truly life to us. Lord, where would we be without Your Word? Lord, it is so precious to us.
And Lord, we just thank You for the privilege of having this time before You, Lord, to look into Your Word, knowing that You will open Your heart to us. And Lord, I really do invite You to open Your heart to us this morning, that as we look at John 17, this mighty priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus, You would show us much in there—what we need to see.
And as a result of that, Lord, we will have a greater, deeper, more abiding love for You. Lord, that’s our goal this morning: not just to have information, but Lord, we want to see You afresh. Lord, we cannot go on without seeing You afresh each week.
So, Lord, thank You for this time this morning. And Lord, I do ask that You would help me to share these thoughts upon my heart, Lord, that I would be clear and concise, understandable and entreatable. Lord, we want to see You above all else. So, Lord, we commit this time to You this morning, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
All right. So this morning, I am going to say, “Reconsidering the Lord Jesus.” A few weeks ago, we just considered Him, but this morning we are reconsidering Him in light of His being a man of passionate prayer.
Maybe you saw my email a couple of days ago that I sent out, just giving you a heads up that we’d be looking at John 17. That really is a very precious prayer of the Lord Jesus. It is twenty-six verses, and it is a little lengthy.
So, just starting off this morning, I’m not going to have you put it up there because that’s too much to bite off at one time. As we go along, we’ll be looking at passages as we go. I did not want to overwhelm you with the entire prayer right now.
Now, like I mentioned, this prayer in John 17 is often referred to as Jesus’ high priestly prayer. Was everybody pretty much aware of that? I mean, that’s not something unusual. In my Bible, it has a title there, so you know what’s coming.
But I think that really is an appropriate name for this prayer, no doubt. Some have even called this prayer the Lord’s Prayer, like we see first introduced to us in Matthew 6, when we see the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray.
In fact, many of y’all know I grew up in the Catholic Church. One of the first things you learned in your catechism class was the Lord’s Prayer, and we called it the Our Father. That was the title of the prayer. So you had to memorize that as one of the first things you ever did. And boy, you better have memorized it.
But seriously, when we look at what we call the Our Father, as in Matthew 6, that truly captures what we ought to pray. It is a comprehensive prayer, especially highlighting our need for forgiveness. That’s a big part of that prayer, and we all need forgiveness.
But the prayer of our Lord Jesus found in John 17, on the other hand, is quite different. It can only be prayed and expressed by the Lord Jesus alone. That prayer is so special, so powerful, so intense, that only Jesus can do that.
That is His prayer. That is truly the prayer of our Lord Jesus. It is personal, it is passionate, and it is the greatest intercessory prayer that we will ever hear the Lord utter. And I mean that.
That is truly an intercessory prayer that only our Lord Jesus can pray for us. Wonderful prayer.
So regardless of what you call it, in a few minutes we will begin to take a closer look at this wonderful prayer. Incidentally, it happens to be the longest prayer that Jesus prays in the Bible. I did not realize that until recently—just a little point of interest.
Like I said, I do not intend to read all twenty-six verses at one time because that’s overwhelming. We will definitely be exploring some of the verses as we go along, taking a closer look at some of the verses that I think are the highlights of this prayer.
Actually, this prayer of the Lord Jesus has been on my mind for a long time. And I’m talking years, not merely months or even weeks. I’ve thought about this, and like I said, I never thought I would have an opportunity to speak about it.
But like many of you, I have read this prayer a number of times, primarily in the NIV. That’s been the Bible that I typically have used over the years. But something was a little different this time.
Once I read it in the J. N. Darby version, I was struck by one word that was not used in the other versions I’ve read, especially the NIV. J. N. Darby uses one word that really jumped out at me, which these other versions did not have.
And it totally changed my outlook on this prayer. It absolutely changed it. It was a game changer for me, and I saw for the first time just how precious and powerful a prayer the Lord prayed.
So I’m excited to have this opportunity to share my thoughts with y’all on John 17. But I do not pretend to be an expert or to have the final say on this word. I want you to leave with a greater appreciation for this prayer and to understand just how precious and powerful it is.
I feel like I just do not have the words to express how mighty a prayer this is. But Darby did help me, and we’re going to try to explore that here in a few minutes.
But first, in laying somewhat of a foundation—and it’s always good to have a solid foundation—just think back and reflect upon the time the Lord Jesus spent in His earthly ministry.
Now, how did He spend most of His time, the majority of His time? I think probably we would all know the answer to that. I suspect, if I were to ask you, you would say, “In prayer.”
That’s what our Lord Jesus did. He was a mighty prayer warrior. He was always before the Father, seeking His perfect will.
For example, Jesus declares in John 8:28:
I do nothing on My own, but speak only what the Father has taught Me.
No matter what situation was before Jesus, He always consulted the Father. He never acted out of His own self. He was always so in tune with the Father before He did anything, and I think we all realize that.
There was such close communion and oneness between them. We will see this over and over again in John 17. That’s just the very nature of our Lord Jesus. But this notion of oneness—remember that. That’s important.
Whenever Jesus performed miracles, what often preceded a healing? It was prayer. These prayers mostly were uttered audibly, not only for the benefit of the one receiving the miracle, but for those gathered around the Lord, especially His disciples. It was for their benefit.
So that’s why often He prayed audibly. There was a reason for that: that they would know that He was the Christ, that He was the Messiah, the One sent from the Father. He was always purposeful when He prayed.
There are many other instances where the Lord Jesus would disengage from His disciples and the crowds. He would just up and disappear, and they’d be looking all around. “Where’s the Lord? Peter, have you seen Him?” “No, I haven’t seen Him. Where is He?”
He was nowhere to be found. That’s what really confounded the disciples—how He would withdraw like that suddenly from them.
But He would find Himself in a place of solitude, away from the crowds, away from the people, where He could spend that intimate, quiet time with His Father. And after He was spiritually recharged, I’ll say, then He would reappear and they would be back with Him.
So what I’m driving at by saying this is that we need to see that our Lord Jesus was truly a man of prayer first and foremost. How important it is that we know that. And we should thank God for that. Otherwise, where would we be today if that were not so?
So that’s really my introduction here. I just want to emphasize the fact that our Lord Jesus, first and foremost, was a passionate man of prayer. We will see that as we look into John 17.
Now, before we get started in the text of John 17, I want to share an experience of long ago that I will call an educational aid or tool.
Most of you probably know that I like to share real-life experiences to drive home a point. I do not share a story just to entertain or anything like that. That’s not the point. It is to show us a lesson and help us to understand something.
But recently, I was looking through some old obituaries of my high school in Williamsburg. Ryan, my old high school was about a mile down Jamestown Road from Confusion Corner. You know what I’m talking about? Walsingham Academy—that was my high school.
Anyway, I came across the obituary of my old tenth-grade English teacher. Now, I was not the least bit fond of English, except for one thing: the bell that ended the class. I was a whole lot more fond of math and science than I was of English.
But nevertheless, I did like Mrs. Bounds—Mrs. Nancy Bounds. That was my old teacher. I still remember her well after, gosh, probably over fifty years now.
As a matter of fact, I recall her opening the class each day with a prayer. Since we are talking about prayer this morning, I do not think I’m straying too far off the ranch to mention this.
The prayer went like this—I still remember that after all this time:
In the name of the Father who created us,
the Son who redeemed us,
and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us,
I offer this act which I am about to perform.
That was her prayer at the beginning of English class every day. Isn’t that cool? Of course, that was back in the seventies. For the sake of you younger brothers and sisters, we were actually allowed to pray whenever we wanted, as much as we wanted. But it was a Catholic school, so that was the privilege we had then.
Now, back to what I’m getting at. I do not remember much about English, except that I do recall a concept that Mrs. Bounds pounded into our heads over and over.
This concept was that, when reading or writing anything, she used the idea of utilizing the five Ws. Maybe if there are any old English teachers in here, you might know what I’m talking about.
It consisted of the who, what, when, where, and why of things. That was how she approached everything, whether you were writing or reading. She looked at it from that angle, and the sooner you figured that out, the better off English went for you.
I do remember that much. But I never thought I would remember this tool, much less be able to apply it fifty years later.
But here’s the point: John 17 is actually divided into three distinct parts, of which we will be reading some more closely as we go along. Before we do that, I want to take a high-level, bird’s-eye snapshot of this prayer so that we’ll all be on the same page as we begin to explore this beautiful prayer.
So, if you have not read these passages in quite a while, I’ll just call it a refresher.
First comes the who. Remember, who, what, when, where, and why. So, starting off with the who: in this prayer, it is the Lord Jesus audibly praying.
Second comes the what. As I’ve mentioned before, this passionate prayer of Jesus is often referred to as His high priestly prayer: first for Himself, then for His disciples, and finally for future believers who will come into the kingdom.
Third is the when. This prayer is offered up to His Father soon after the Passover meal in the upper room.
Fourth comes the where. Some believe this prayer occurred while Jesus and His disciples were still in the upper room, but most think this prayer was uttered along the road to the Garden of Gethsemane.
And fifth, finally, comes the why. Clearly, this is by far the most important consideration, and we will be looking at this in greater depth. But a brief answer to the why of this prayer is that the Lord Jesus is passionate about His relationship with the Father, His disciples, and all who will believe in Him as the Christ.
And we fall into that category. Praise the Lord—we’re included in that.
So as we begin to take a closer look at this high priestly prayer, as I mentioned, we find that it is divided into three important parts.
Now, it is not my intention to analyze this prayer verse by verse. That’s for a Bible study, and there are plenty of commentaries out there that are very good if you want to take more time to really look into it and meditate upon it. There is a lot there.
But we do need to see the significance of these three parts and how they build one upon the other.
Another way to describe this prayer is akin to the growth of a thunderstorm.
When I’m on vacation down south, I’ve always been interested in weather. On a hot, humid day down south, you begin to see these billowing tropical clouds that you seldom experience in Virginia.
What I like to do is sit back and focus in on one of these little cumulus clouds. As you watch this little cumulus cloud, it begins to expand and grow vertically, and then it becomes what is known as a cumulonimbus cloud.
For all you other people, that is a thunderstorm. That’s a cumulonimbus cloud—an expansive anvil that you see high in the atmosphere.
So what I’m saying is that this mighty prayer of the Lord Jesus grows in magnitude to a crescendo, just as this thunderstorm would. And it has an absolutely precious ending, which we will behold.
It is important to realize that this passionate prayer is uttered for the sake of the disciples to hear, unlike the Lord’s private prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Okay, it is time now that we have a closer look at John 17. Incidentally, I would like to use the Darby version, as I have mentioned, and you will see why here in a few minutes why it is so special to me. Remember, I said that it really transformed my understanding of this prayer. Amazing how that happened.
Okay, let’s have a look at some Scripture now. We are going to look at John 17:1-5.
These things Jesus spoke, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee,
as Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh, that as to all that Thou hast given to Him, He should give them life eternal.
And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have completed the work which Thou gavest Me that I should do it.
And now glorify Me, Thou Father, along with Thyself, with the glory which I had along with Thee before the world was.
—John 17:1-5
Notice the opening of this prayer is confined to the relationship just between the Lord Jesus and His Father.
So we are in this little cumulus cloud phase of this prayer, the very beginning of this prayer, as I mentioned in my illustration.
Now, Jesus speaks of the hour which has come. What does He mean by this?
In John 12:23, He says:
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
And Jesus further states in John 12:27-28:
Now My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour.
No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.
But His disciples did not understand this. They were confused. When we read those accounts, we see they were fearful that the Lord would be seized and taken away by the authorities.
But now we see His hour has indeed come. Indeed, it is time for Him now to be delivered up to sinful man. It is foremost upon His heart.
It refers to His going to the cross. Why would He go to that cruel cross? It is because He could give eternal life to all that the Father has given Him, including us.
The Lord Jesus alone earned that authority, and this act of obedience—dying on the cross—glorifies God His Father. His Son has accomplished the work of redemption.
And Jesus stresses to His Father in John 17:4:
I have completed the work which Thou gavest Me that I should do it.
So His purpose for taking on the form of man has now been fulfilled, and man no longer has to live separated from God because the Lord Jesus has overcome and defeated sin once and for all.
So it is finished. Oh, brothers and sisters, how those words should just explode in our hearts. How glorious those words are: It is finished.
So in the beginning of this prayer, our Lord passionately desires His Father to glorify Him with the glory He had before the foundation of the world.
Do you see the precious relationship that God and the Lord Jesus have? In the beginning of this prayer, it is between them. It is so passionate, so intense, yet so precious.
So this is part one of John 17.
Now, the second part of this prayer, which is John 17:6-19, deals specifically with the Lord’s disciples.
Remember my storm analogy? The scope has expanded from only the Father and the Son, and now His prayer has grown into stage two of this thunderstorm. It has now risen heavenward. You begin to see the formation of this storm.
Verse 6 says:
I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world.
That is to say, He made known the Father’s name to them. The disciples’ faith has now been strengthened.
And John 17:8 declares in part:
They have known truly that I came out from Thee, and have believed that Thou sentest Me.
They know with certainty that Jesus has been sent from God and that He is the Messiah. There is no question in their hearts. They know.
Now, they are not perfect, but they have believed in the One who is perfect. That’s the essence of this.
And that blesses the Lord’s heart more than anything else. Oh, how He treasures their faith.
That’s what He is looking for. He is looking for faith. He sees it in His disciples, and He is just blessed by that to such a great extent.
Now, because of this, Jesus makes a startling statement beginning in John 17:9:
I demand concerning them; I do not demand concerning the world, but concerning those whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine.
Boy, that’s a powerful statement right there. Wow.
We need to have a closer look at that word demand for a minute. This is my moment where we’re going to have a little fireside chat before we move on. This is an inflection point in this prayer.
Does anybody in math know what that means? That’s where it turns and starts heading in another direction, right? Wow.
Let’s look at this word demand for a moment.
Recall, I said that one word in Darby changed my perspective on John 17. This is that word.
Incidentally, I’ve only seen this word demand expressed in the Darby version. I did check around at the other versions to find out if maybe it was used elsewhere and I did not know about it, but for the life of me I could not find any other version that uses the word demand.
All of the others in verse 9 say merely, “I pray.”
So when I first saw this word, demand, using the Darby version, I cringed. I could not believe what I was seeing. It seemed like such a strong word, and I thought, “Am I really seeing this right?”
My mind went all over the place as I tried to apologize for Darby, maybe misinterpreting or seemingly having a disrespectful translation. I just could not come to terms with that word demand. It did not seem right.
How can this be? Who demands anything of God?
So maybe it was not Darby’s fault after all. I do not know. Or could Darby’s actual translation be correct?
Could it be that the Lord Jesus Himself actually did demand of the Father? I think so. I do not know. I was struggling with this over and over again. I just could not come to terms with it.
Or could it be that perhaps the Lord was so excited and passionate in His pleading that His words became more of a demand than a request? Maybe that was what was going on there.
I was trying to rationalize this and come to terms with it. So what’s the answer? What tough questions we have before us here?
At any rate, I was arrested at this startling verse, and I could not find, like I said, any other cases in the Bible where somebody demanded anything of God. It just did not seem to exist. Requests, yes, everywhere. Demands, no. I did not see anything.
But anyway, as I have thought about this over time, I have just come to accept it at face value. As a matter of fact, it has grown on me to where I actually embrace this word demand. I believe it is extremely significant.
So before we move on, let’s take a closer look at this word demand in the context in which it is used. The essence, I’m convinced, of John 17 really hinges on this word demand—at least in my mind it does.
So the best way to substantiate this is to look directly to the Greek word for intense prayer. I think that’s the answer to the riddle here. I think that will bring resolution to why that word was used.
And that Greek word for intense prayer is aiteō. Aiteō. Now, that’s a mouthful, as all Greek words are.
But seriously, this word means:
So there it is. There it is.
Darby has chosen to use this word demand, rightfully so, because the Lord Jesus is not simply asking something calmly or casually of His Father. No, not at all.
The Lord is intensely passionate in this prayer. This is no ordinary prayer. It is presented to God in power that can only reflect the radiance of our Lord Jesus. He alone can pray this prayer in such power.
So maybe you think I’m making too big a deal over the word demand, and perhaps I am. But I still have a few more thoughts to share, if you can bear with me on this, before we move on. We’re not out of the woods yet on this.
What I’m saying is, if you do not remember anything else this morning, that’s okay. But do not forget this marvelous word and the power that it projects in this prayer. It is absolutely powerful.
All right. Now, for the rest of our time, I’m going to frequently use this word demand. So we just need to get used to that for the next few minutes. Like I say, that’s the word that drew me to this prayer, and it is now time that we move on.
So what is Jesus demanding of His Father? He is demanding what God already wants for His disciples, as well as all believers.
He is not asking for anything outside of His Father’s perfect will. In fact, He is reinforcing and embracing God’s will for the disciples.
And I call these the righteous demands of Jesus:
So there are the five righteous demands that we see in this second part of the prayer.
In other words, the Lord is only petitioning the Father for what we would describe as the ordinary essentials for living our Christian life. He is not demanding extraordinary, lofty, or unachievable things that only a select few Christians could ever attain to. He is not saying that at all.
He is so down to earth, approachable, and entreatable. He is only praying for things that we would expect Him to pray for. Even though it is a powerful prayer, it is still simple enough that we see what His heart is here.
The things He prays for are those things that are essential for us to live, and it is nothing more than that. It is just how it is presented to the Father that makes it so powerful, that He alone needs to be the One praying for us.
All right, now why is He right to make these righteous demands?
It is because Jesus is in such perfect harmony with His Father that God absolutely delights in these righteous demands being cast upon Him.
God would have it no other way. He wants His Son to be so powerful in His beseeching to Him that it delights His heart.
As we saw in John 17:1-5, they are so in tune with each other that they are one, and they glorify one another so that both share identical desires. There is no conflict there. They are so in tune with each other.
Now, there is one last thing I would like to say about the Darby translation before we move on. This is something for us to think about and ponder.
Why do you think it is that only Darby uses the word demand rather than simply the word prayer, as all the other versions seem to?
I’ve been wondering about that for quite a long time, and I thought, “Am I the only curious cat wondering about this? Why is this?”
In fact, I have never seen anything written, expressed, or said about this—why the word demand is used in Darby.
Now, I cannot prove this, and it is only my opinion going forward. But I believe Darby wanted us to see just how incredibly God and the Lord Jesus are for us.
Let me state it this way, that we can all agree on. I’m borrowing this from what Jerry said in his message a few weeks ago:
Jesus and our Heavenly Father are all in for us.
I believe we can understand and accept that. But I think that is the core of this. That is the reason.
When you realize that, there can be no further questions. There cannot be any doubt that the Lord Jesus and His Father are all in for us in this prayer.
Romans 8:31 powerfully declares:
If God be for us, who can be against us?
It doesn’t matter if God is for us.
So what I’m saying is that the word prayer, as seen in the other versions, simply will not do because it is too weak. I think it fails to convey the depth of feeling that has to be expressed. It is just too weak.
This word demand fits the bill for what we are looking at. It should not be any other way.
All right. In these verses that we will be looking at in a minute, the Lord states that soon He will no longer remain in the world after His resurrection, but His disciples will remain.
So Jesus demands of the Father that He would strengthen and keep them in the days ahead, and that they would endure and persevere together and grow into one, just as He and His Father were one.
John 17:13 says:
And now I come to Thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in them.
We mentioned that word joy. The Lord Jesus is the very essence of joy.
Hebrews 12:2 says in part:
Who in view of the joy lying before Him endured the cross.
Yes, even in the face of death upon the cross, our Lord Jesus was full of joy because He saw the outcome: that many sons would be brought to glory.
So it is the joy of the Lord which sustains us. Someday in heaven, I have no doubt that we will hear the testimony of many a saint that made it through because of the joy of the Lord that they held in their heart. I think we can look forward to that.
Now, John 17:15 says:
I do not demand that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them out of evil.
Now here the Lord makes another demand. The disciples remain in the world, and they will be needing God’s protection from the evil one. Oh, how they needed such covering.
The disciples, in their infancy, did not yet know the power of the cross, but in time they would. The victory of the cross over sin and death would soon be their actual experience.
John 17:17-18 says:
Sanctify them by the truth: Thy Word is truth.
As Thou hast sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.
And sanctified simply means set apart or made holy by truth. As His disciples are sanctified, they become more like the Master. His disciples are now ready to go forth into the world and spread the gospel.
Okay. It is time to pause and take a deep breath, for we are coming up on the ending. Hope I haven’t lost you so far.
All right, brothers and sisters, we have now arrived at what I call the zenith of this mighty prayer.
What is His greatest desire that surpasses all other desires? Think about that.
John 17:20 says:
And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on Me through their word.
And now John 17:24:
Father, as to those whom Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
This final declaration of the Lord’s high priestly prayer is the mature stage of our thunderstorm. That little cumulus cloud has now reached to the heavens, displayed in mighty power and beauty. The storm is now mature.
The Lord has fully expressed His burden to the Father at this point. More cannot be said than what the Lord has already expressed.
The Lord’s burden has been discharged, and He need not make any further demands. Like I said, they have all been made. They are so inclusive, so comprehensive. He has covered it all. He has not missed a thing.
Now, this is where we are included in Jesus’ demand. This is our ultimate position in Christ.
It is the climax of our Lord’s exhortation to His Father. How glorious it is that we be with Him. That’s the desire of His heart.
And what is furthermore His desire? Let’s look at that a little more closely: that we would be one together with Himself and the Father, forevermore beholding His glory.
This speaks of what I believe is the consummation of the age, the very marriage feast of the Lamb.
Let’s read Revelation 21:2-3, and then we’ll wrap up.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His people; and God Himself shall be with them, their God.
—Revelation 21:2-3
Yes, brothers and sisters, our dwelling place is to be with God and His Son. Can there be a higher, more glorious calling? I think not.
I’d like to conclude this morning with the very words of Martin Luther that were penned so long ago. Martin Luther said this, speaking of the prayer in John 17:
This is truly beyond measure, a warm and hearty prayer. He opens the depth of His heart, both in reference to us and to His Father, and He pours them all out. It sounds so honest, so simple; it is so deep, so rich, so wide, no one can fathom it.
Brothers and sisters, this is the Gospel of John, chapter 17.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we just want to come to You again this morning and thank You for opening Your Word to us. Lord, these words are precious to us.
And I pray, Lord, that this morning we will just find a greater, deeper, more abiding love for You as we have looked at this mighty prayer that our Lord uttered for us to the very throne.
Lord, how thankful we are that even today, Lord, I believe You are still praying this prayer for us. Oh, Lord, You are the great Intercessor.
How we thank You in Your precious Word that You have left this prayer for us to see, just to know how truly You love us, how passionate You are for us, Lord, and how You have demanded the glorious desires of Your Father on our behalf.
And we know that our Father is indeed delighted, Lord, when You pray, Lord, when You express Your heart to Him.
So, Lord, do bless the rest of our day this morning as we look to You. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.