Welcome to our program. Now,
today I'm going to be preaching from the book of John, chapter
17. And the title of this message is, The Lord's Prayer. Now, normally
when you hear that term, the Lord's Prayer, our minds automatically
go to Matthew, chapter 6, in the Sermon on the Mount, where
we read the prayer, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. And that is an awesome, great
prayer. But that is really not the Lord's
prayer, technically. That is the model prayer. That
is the Lord teaching His disciples to pray, or how to pray. And in that great prayer, He
issues forth the elements of prayer, which first and foremost
begins with with uplifting and worshiping and acknowledging
the greatness and the holiness and the awesomeness of God. But
that's the model prayer. That's how the Lord teaching
the disciples to pray. But here in John 17, we have
a very special passage of Scripture where the Lord is not teaching
his disciples to pray, but he is praying for his disciples,
praying for his people, as the high priest of his people. Now this is sometimes referred
to as the Lord's high priestly prayer. And you need to understand
the issues of the priesthood to understand what's going on
here. This is sometimes called the Lord's intercessory prayer
where he intercedes for his people. The Bible says that Christ ever
lives to make intercession for his people. What that means is
that Christ is the mediator. The Bible says there is one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. God from the very beginning,
after the fall of man, showed Adam and showed others as history
unfolded that we as sinners cannot come to God, we cannot approach
God, and find acceptance and favor and peace and blessedness
apart from a representative, a substitute, a mediator, one
who is appointed of God, one who is anointed of God, and one
who is willing and able to intercede on our behalf, to stand for us,
Because we're sinners and the soul that sinneth must surely
die. The scripture says that God is holy and he will by no
means clear the guilty. The Bible says that God must
punish sin. He cannot forego his holiness,
his justice, his truth in order to save sinners. Therefore, no
sinner can approach God and find mercy and grace and acceptance
and peace and blessedness apart from an able, willing, and appointed
substitute. Well, the Bible teaches that
the only, the one and only proper, the one and only acceptable,
appointed, willing, and able substitute is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. Now Christ taught that plainly.
throughout his preaching on earth, in his ministry on earth. We
read back in John chapter 14 when he said this, he said, I
am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Now any sinner, now this is what
it tells us, and this is where our minds have to be set in the
Word of God, that any person, any sinner, who seeks to approach
God apart from Christ, the Living Christ, the Crucified Christ,
the Risen Christ, the Interceding Christ, the Great High Priest,
the Scripture calls Him. Any sinner who attempts to approach
God apart from Christ will only find nothing but damnation. It'll
be justice against their sins. They'll get what they deserve
based upon their sins. And that means the most religious
or the most irreligious. It doesn't matter. There's a
great illustration in the Old Testament of the first recorded
examples of worship in Cain and Abel. Abel brought the blood
of the Lamb, the blood of sacrifice, which was a picture of Christ,
the substitute, the sin-bearer. the sin offering, the mediator,
the substitute who was a great high priest. But Cain brought
the works of his hands. In other words, he sought to
approach God apart from Christ, apart from the blood of Christ,
without the righteousness of Christ. And Cain was rejected. When God instituted the Old Covenant
Law of Moses on Mount Sinai to be given to Israel, He instituted
the tabernacle. And inside that tabernacle, at
the very center of that tabernacle, was the Holy of Holies. And in
that Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, which contained
the Law, and over that Ark was a lid called the Mercy Seat. And the only one who was allowed
by God to come into the holiest of all behind the veil and approach
the Mercy Seat was the High Priest of Israel. And he had to have
blood, the blood of the Lamb, because blood represents that
sin demands death, and God could only be satisfied in the death
of his appointed substitute. The Bible says without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sins. Now all the various
high priests down through the years, that 1500 year period
that the Old Covenant was in effect, all of those high priests
were types, they were foreshadowing, they were pictures of the one
true eternal High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here Christ
in John 17 is offering up a prayer to His Father for His people. Here He is enacting His office
as High Priest. He's about to go to the cross.
They had already left the upper room and they were on their way
to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane. Some scholars
argue whether or not he actually prayed this particular prayer
in Gethsemane or if it was before then. We don't know and it doesn't
matter. The fact is he prayed this prayer and it shows the
awesomeness and the power and the value of the priestly office
of Christ. When we talk about Christ as
the mediator between God and sinners, we're talking about
Christ in his three offices as priest, as prophet and as king. Those are his mediatorial offices. And you see, he is the king of
kings. That refers to his lordship and his glory as God-man who
finished the work which the Father gave him to do. And his prophecy,
Christ as prophet, refers to him as the embodiment and the
revelation of the Word of God. Now, his office as king and his
office as prophet is based upon his doing and accomplishing the
work of his office as priest. See, in order for him to have
the word to tell, the good news of grace to tell, he had to die
on Calvary. He had to be buried and raised
again the third day. He had to ascend unto the Father,
to be seated at his right hand, to ever live to make intercession
for his people. And that is His Lordship. He
rules and reigns and disposes over all things to bring about
the glory of His Father and the good of His people. Now, this
prayer can be divided into three parts. The first five verses,
for example, has to do with Christ in His relationship to His Father. Christ is the second person of
the Trinity. He's the eternal Son of God.
He's the Alpha and the Omega, has no beginning and no end.
In his essence of his nature and being, he is very God of
very God, co-equal in every attribute of his character with the Father
and the Spirit. But in order to redeem his people
from their sins, his sheep, his church, known as God's elect
in the Bible, in order for him to stand in their place and take
their punishment, and establish righteousness for them on the
cross of Calvary to be charged to their account, to enable God
to be just and justifier, he had to become subservient to
the Father in the covenant of grace, making himself as God-man
subject unto the Father. And in that way he obeyed the
law, he was made under the law, the scripture says, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law. Now what he's doing here in the first part of this prayer
is praying to his Father as the Son of God incarnate, as the
substitute and mediator of his people, the one who was sent
of the Father to do the work. The second part of this prayer
is recorded in verses 6 through 19, and there he prays specifically
for his disciples who were with him at that time. And he prays
for them because he knows what they're about to face. They're
going to face some trials, some persecutions, opposition. So
he prays for them. He intercedes for them as their
great high priest. And then the last part of this
prayer, which goes from verses 20 through 26, where Christ prays
for the whole church. And that is God's elect out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Every believing sinner
from the first one recorded, which I believe was Adam, and
then Abel, and then so on, and to the last one who is yet to
come in the future. Everyone for whom Christ died,
everyone whom he redeemed, everyone whom He justified on the cross,
and everyone whom He sends His Spirit to open their hearts in
the new birth, and give them eyes to see, and ears to hear,
and hearts to know and love Him." So that's the high priestly prayer.
Look at verse 1. Here's Christ praying in His
relationship to His Father. And it says in verse 1, these
words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said,
Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee." Now, he says, Father, that's the Son
of God praying to the Father. And again, that shows that he
is subjected to the Father for the purpose of redemption. He's
equal with the Father in every attribute of his being, but subject
to the Father in the covenant of grace as the Son of God incarnate
to redeem his people from their sins. And he says the hour is
come. Now the hour of which he speaks
is the hour of his death. That day of his death, that hour
of his death was set up and appointed before the world ever began.
The Bible says in the book of Revelation that he is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And what that literally
means is that he's the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world.
Now, what it's talking about is before this world was ever
created, before time ever began as we know it, and I know it's
difficult for us to understand such concepts, but it's so in
the mind of God as he reveals it in his Word. Before time ever
began, God the Father and God the Son covenanted or agreed
together to save a people out of Adam's fallen race. God the
Father chose them and gave them to His Son. And His Son agreed
to do everything that was necessary to save them to the uttermost.
The Son agreed to become incarnate because the ones whom the Father
chose were humans. They were men. And the Son of
God had to become incarnate. He had to become flesh, in essence. He had to unite with human flesh,
body and soul, without sin. And he had to walk the earth
in their place, and go to the cross of Calvary in their place,
and die in their place, and be buried in their place, and raised
again because of their justification. That was set up before this world
was ever created. That was established by the Father
and the Son before time ever began. These things that Paul
wrote to Timothy were given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. That means God purposed to save
his people from their sins before there was ever sin in the world.
Now, that's an awesome thought. You say, well, preacher, I can't
understand that. Well, that's okay. This is the
Word of God, and we're to bow to what God's Word says. You
see, the purpose of redemption and salvation is older than the
fall of man. And it was all to the glory of
the Father and the Son. That's what he said, this hour
has come, and this hour was his death on the cross to redeem
his people by his blood and justify them by his righteousness charged
to them. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin. That was the sins of all of his
sheep were laid to his charge, all whom the Father had given
him. He said this, he said, This is
the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. And he said he gave his life for the sheep. The Good
Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So this hour of his death,
and then he says, Glorify thy son. Now in his essence as God,
as the second person of the Trinity, he had all glory, and he needed
no added glory. But this is speaking of his glory
as the high priest. This is speaking of his glory
as God-man. You see, as God and man in one
person, he had to be glorified by the Father upon finishing
the work that he was given to do. And that's what he's speaking
of, this hour of his death. He's about to accomplish something
in time that had been purposed and planned before time. And
it was his glory not as God absolutely considered. It was his glory
as God-man, as the Redeemer, as the Savior, as the mediator
and the surety of his people. He's about to finish what God
purposed. for him. So he says, glorify
thy son, and the specific glory that he's talking about has to
do with his resurrection and his ascension unto the Father.
And he said this, now here's the whole purpose of it all.
He said, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Now, in other words, God is going
to be glorified through the Son. Now that's speaking specifically
of the Father, But it also speaks of the entire Godhead, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you what I mean by
that. The Bible teaches that in Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In other words, if we're going
to see the glory of God revealed in a way that we can grasp it
to a point, we must see it in the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For example, when Christ did
his great work on the cross, he glorified the Father. He enabled
God to be both a just God and a Savior, and that is his glory,
for it is in Christ On the cross, finishing the work, gaining victory
over sin, victory over Satan, and victory over the curse of
the law, redeeming His people to the fullest, justifying them
based on His righteousness charged to them, it is in Christ that
we see every attribute of the Godhead working consistently
together in the salvation of sinners. Everything. God's holiness
is revealed in Christ. God's mercy is revealed. God's
justice is revealed against sin, but at the same time, God's grace
is revealed in saving sinners. God's truth is revealed in Christ
on the cross, but also God's infinite love in which He purposed
to save His people from their sins. You see, without Christ,
if you approach God without Christ, all you will see is God as a
righteous judge who must punish you in your sins. But in Christ
we see both God as a righteous judge as well as a loving father. We see God as both a truthful
God who judges according to truth but as a merciful God because
Christ is the mercy seat. So we see every attribute of
God. We see the glory of the Son for it is in his victory
on the cross that His glory is revealed as God's man. And we
see the glory of the Spirit because it is from the Father and the
Son that the Spirit comes to give sinners life and bring them
to a saving knowledge of how God saves sinners in Christ. So, in other words, the glory
of the Son, the Son of God incarnate, in finishing His work, is also
the revelation of the glory of the Father and the Son and the
Spirit. And that's an awesome thought.
This is what he's praying for. He's about to go to suffer and
bleed and die. In verse 2, now listen to this.
He says, "...as thou hast given him power over all flesh, so
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him." Now, that verse is so, so instructive. First of all,
he prays that the Father, would give him power over all flesh. Somebody might ask, well, didn't
he already have power over all flesh? You think about this. You know, even in his earthly
walk as God-man, he was able to heal the sick. He had that
power. God is the great healer of all,
whether he uses means or not. In his earthly walk, the Bible
says, he was able to turn just a few loaves and fishes into
enough food to feed more than 5,000 people. And he did that
on two occasions. And then, in his earthly walk,
he was able to calm the storm. Now, only God can calm the storm. When they came, later on we're
going to see in the book of John, when the army, the Roman army,
came to arrest him. And they sought him, and Judas
came and kissed him, and they asked the question, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth, and he said, I am, and that army fell backwards,
just at the pronouncement of his word. Doesn't it sound like
he already had power over all flesh? Well, he absolutely did.
So what then is he praying for here? Well, now read the whole
verse. He says, "...as thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him." What he's talking about here is the power of God unto
the salvation of his people. Upon Christ finishing the work,
he was exalted as the God-man mediator and given all power
over all flesh to save his people from their sins. Now, he had
that power as God's man when he walked on earth. But upon
his finishing his work of, as Daniel put it in Daniel chapter
9, of making an end of sin, of finishing the transgression and
bringing in everlasting righteousness and sealing up the vision, all
that he accomplished, his power is to give eternal life to all
whom the Father had given him. Now, what does that teach us?
Well, it teaches us that God has a people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation which he means to save. It tells us
that he sent the Son into the world to stand in their place
and be their high priest, to be their substitute and their
surety. It shows us that he gave them
to the Son. Now, when did he give them to
the Son? Not upon their believing. He
gave them to the Son before the foundation of the world. God
placed all of the responsibility of the salvation of his people
squarely upon the Son and upon the Son of God alone. All conditions
of salvation were placed upon Christ. And what he teaches us
here is this, is that everything that God Almighty required for
the salvation of his people was all placed upon Christ and Christ
met every requirement. He met every condition. He finished
the work. And those whom the Father gave
him shall be saved." This is eternal life. It's a gift from
God. It's nothing you earn. He said
He has power over all flesh that He should give eternal life. My friend, the wages of sin is
death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You don't earn it. And
let me tell you something, you do not earn it by your believing.
There are a lot of people who, they won't admit to it, but what
they actually teach and preach is that you can earn it by believing. No, sir. You don't earn it by
believing. Believing, saving faith, is part
of the gift. Bible says that, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. None of us would believe, apart
from the free gift of God, in giving us faith, in bringing
us to salvation. Somebody says, well, how do I
know if I'm one who was given to him before the foundation
of the world? You'll hear the gospel and you'll believe it.
Now, that doesn't relieve your responsibility to seek the Lord.
I had a man ask me one time, he said, where does all that
leave me? It leaves you where you need to be. With no hope
of salvation, no hope of acceptance or blessedness or eternal life
but in Christ. And you need to see that. You
need to see, I need to see, we all need to see that we have
no hope of salvation, no hope of eternal life, no hope of being
justified before God except in Christ and Him crucified. Don't
look anywhere else. He says in verse 3, and this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. My friend, eternal life
is not just a span of time. Eternity is not time at all.
Eternal life is a quality of life, and the quality is gauged
by a saving knowledge of God in Christ. This is life eternal. How do I know I have eternal
life? Because I know God, the God of all grace, who saved me
from my sins by His grace through Christ. I know Him to be both
a just God and a Savior. I know Him to be a sovereign,
holy, and just God, but not only that, a merciful, loving, and
gracious God. How? Through Christ. You cannot
know God apart from Christ. You cannot have eternal life
apart from Christ, for He is life. Christ is life. He said it, I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Sin demands death, righteousness
demands life, but Christ is our righteousness. Christ took the
sins of his people and gave them in return his righteousness,
which demands life. And then he says in verse 4,
I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. He's speaking in terms of the
cross here. He speaks of it as a past act,
but actually the construction of the original language here
really doesn't even rely on time. It could be something that happened
in the past, it could be something that's happening right now, or
something that will happen in the future. Either way, it's
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll continue
there next week. I hope that this message has
been a help to you to understand the Scriptures. And if you'd
like to get a copy of this message, listen to the announcer as he'll
give you the details. The title of the message is,
The Lord's Prayer. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word.