Jesus Prays Two Amazing Prayers (2)

We are still in John chapter 17. So let's open our Bibles to John 17. I believe we will make it through John 17 this week, although I thought we would last week. We shall see. It's been good, good study, good discussion, good questions, and I'm grateful for that. I enjoy that very much. I think that's what we want to do on Wednesday nights. So we'll go as far as the Lord allows us to, and we'll be content with that. What we're looking at is what is often called the High Priestly Prayer of Christ. It is Jesus praying for the disciples, and for us. It is a prayer that He actually prayed before they left the upper room on the night before He died. And so we're actually looking at two amazing prayers. That one and then the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. But we'll begin and try to finish tonight the prayer for the disciples and us in John chapter 17, where we've already seen that Jesus prays, first of all, for His glory. Then He prays for His people, praying, first of all, for our protection. Then for our testimony, that's where we were last week talking about our testimony before the world. What it means to be separated from the world, not to be isolated, not to be assimilated, but to be sanctified. It's set apart from the world. And what that means, we had some great discussion on that. The third request that Jesus makes for His people is for our unity. And beginning in verse 20, we find Jesus talking about that. In fact, this is the part of the prayer. If you remember that Jesus actually specifically turns his attention to us because He says, my prayer is for not for them alone, speaking of the disciples that He's been praying for up to this point. But He says, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Now notice in the next three verses, the emphasis on unity. He says that all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I've given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. And them, I am them and you and me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. So three times Jesus mentions unity or oneness in these verses. So it's obviously the focus of His prayer here. But I think it's important that we grasp what this is not and then what it is. And we're going to start with what it is not. And the reason why I want to start here is because there's a lot of, I believe, erroneous ideas about unity that are promoted from this passage. And so let's talk first about what it is not. What Jesus is not saying. Unity is not, and let me just give you these three words that kind of help tie everything together, I think. Unity is not uniformity. Jesus is not praying for uniformity. Now what are we talking about when we talk about uniformity? What does that bring to mind for you? Everything the same. Uniform, right? Everybody's wearing the same uniform. Uniformity means that everybody looks alike, talks alike, smiles alike, reads the same books, has the same expressions. It's like cookie cutters. Everybody is made out of the same mold, and everybody is exactly alike. That every church should be the same style, same organization, same everything. We should all have the same personality. We should all get amused at the same things, and be upset about the same things. That's uniformity. That's putting everybody into the same mold wearing the same uniform. And that's not what Jesus meant. God loves variety. Jesus chose a great variety of men, even for his 12, didn't he, who followed him. And so he's not looking for cookie cutter Christians, he's not looking for uniformity. So that's not what he's talking about when he talks about unity. Secondly, he is not talking about unanimity. I should have put these up there because I can hardly say them much less spelled them. But unanimity basically is the idea that there is absolute agreement on everything. Uniformity, everybody looks and acts the same, has the same likes and dislikes and so forth. Unanimity means that everybody is an agreement on everything. On every little detail, no disagreements, no differences of opinion, or anything like no differences of preference or conviction or anything like that. That also is not what Jesus is talking about. Throughout church history, you could probably take all the great theologians of church history and the great Christian thinkers through the ages put them in the same room and you would never get a unanimous vote on anything. I know if they were Johnson Chapel, you'd never get a unanimous vote, but I'm just teasing. Certainly, Jesus is not talking about everybody has to agree on everything that's not unity. There's the third thing that I think, and this is often the misrepresentation of this passage. Jesus is not talking about union. I didn't say unions, although I don't think there's talk about that either, but Jesus was not talking about union. In the sense that this passage is often taught or used to teach that everybody needs to get in the same organization. Drop all the denominational labels, and everybody come together in one big happy family. Well, that would be wonderful in some sense. Obviously, there was agreement in the early church because there had not yet been time to develop different interpretations of Scripture and so forth, even though that happened very early on in church history. Within 20 or 30 years of the writing of the epistles, actually, while they were still being written, there were differences of opinion and groups beginning to go their own separate ways. I don't think Jesus is saying that drop all your differences and be united in one big world organization. That's often presented from this passage. I don't think that's what Jesus meant. We'll see quite clearly that's not what he meant in just a moment. So he's not talking about uniformity, unanimity, or union. Everybody coming together and in one big organization. So if that's not what he's talking about, what is he talking about? Well, again, Jesus uses the word unity, and he talks about being one. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about unity is unity is a oneness, but it has to do in the scriptures with a unity of or a oneness of heart, of faith, and of purpose. Those are the kinds of things that unity is built on. In fact, I'll go a little further than that. Jesus identifies specifically what kind of unity he's talking about. He mentions two things. First of all, it is a unity in truth. Notice verse 20. He says, my prayer is not for them alone, not for the disciples alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Okay. This unity begins with people who believe on Christ through the message of the apostles. So there is a unity in truth. There's a unity in basic doctrine. The apostles taught what the church should believe. The apostles wrote it down in the New Testament. There is a basic core of truth that this unity is centered around. Obviously the gospel, but more than that, the Bible talks about the faith. Jude, in his epistle, talks about the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There's a core body of doctrine that is essential to being considered a Christian or the Christian faith that is communicated by the apostles. And unity is agreement on those basic doctrines. Now, you're probably going to ask me, okay, list them for me. What are those basic doctrines? There's been a good bit of disagreement on those things through the years. For instance, one major Christian university listed five major basic doctrines and then added a sixth one. That was you got to believe exactly what we believe about separation. So they made that one of the articles of faith just like the deity of Christ. I think that was inappropriate. But there are core basic truths that without believing them, you cannot legitimately call yourself a Christian or you cannot say you're legitimately in the Christian faith. And they would be, I mean, the core basic truths like the Bible is the word of God. This is God's word. God is Trinity, three in one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is fully God, fully man, the deity of Christ. Okay, the coming of Christ to be our Savior, that salvation is only through the death of Christ, that Jesus literally arose from the grave. Jesus is literally coming back at a second coming. Those are core truths, foundational truths of the Christian faith. That was the message of the apostles. And Jesus says, I'm praying for not everybody who claims the name Jesus, not everybody who claims to be Christian. I'm praying for those who believe on me through the message of the apostles. So there is a core doctrinal unity here, core doctrinal agreement in this unity. So those who use this passage to say, well, let's just forget all about, you know, that matter what you believe, if you claim the name of Jesus, we ought to be able to come together, right? Wrong. That's not what Jesus was praying. Someone who claims to be a Christian, but is very liberal, a denomination that may be very liberal, may even carry the name Christ in the nomination or whatever, but does not believe in the deity of Christ, they haven't believed the message of the apostles. And so Jesus wasn't including them in this unity, okay, and He's prayer. So I'm not going to include them in the unity either. If Jesus wasn't, Jesus says, the people I'm praying for that I want to be one are people who have believed the message of the apostles. They have this core doctrinal agreement. So it is unity and truth. That's that's key. That doesn't mean that, and this is where it gets difficult. Doesn't mean you have to again agree on every little thread of doctrine. But those core doctrines without which you cannot really consider yourself a part of the Christian faith, that's the core message of the apostles. Okay, no. I believe very strongly in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church that Jesus is coming to take the church out of this world before the tribulation. But there are many good, godly people who believe the rapture will occur after the tribulation. I don't believe that's correct, but they do believe that Jesus is literally coming back. That's the core of the truth. And so I can count as dear brothers, people who may differ with me on the rapture, but they believe in the coming of Christ. And they believe in salvation through the blood of Christ. They believe in the scriptures as the word of God. They believe in the Trinity. They believe those key doctrines. I can have unity with them. I don't have to break fellowship over issues like the rapture or other issues that are more minor. And I know this is very delicate because people disagree on what's major and what's the minor. But for me, it basically is what if you lock off, can you really not say anymore, I'm a part of the Christian faith. I mean, this is core to the Christian faith. Okay, so this unity is not a union of everybody in the world who ever claims the name of Christ. And there are lots of people who say that's what it should be. That's not what Jesus was praying. There has to be a core doctrinal agreement. Okay? Almost hesitate to ask if there are any questions on that one. Any questions before we move on? Okay, I didn't think so. Let's move on. So you have any questions? Anything you want to pursue further there? I think I'm a brave man. Sometimes I'm not sure where bravery stops and foolishness begins sometimes. You know, or angels there to tread. But I think that's part of what Jesus is praying here. Unity in truth. Okay? Then secondly, it is unity in nature. Jesus clearly says this is unity in nature too. There is a spiritual oneness. There's a doctrinal compatibility on basic doctrines. But there's also a spiritual oneness of nature. And notice how Jesus says this. He says it several ways. He says verse 21 that all of them may be one father. And he says just as you are in me and I am in you. So whatever this unity is, Jesus makes it very clear that the Trinity, father and son, he specifically mentions here, you know, it's clear that the Holy Spirit is also on an equal plane. But he's just talking father and son here because he's praying to the father. So it's a communication between the two of them. And that's why he doesn't include the Holy Spirit here, although the Holy Spirit is also equally God. But whatever this unity is, it's just like the unity that the father and son have. That they may be one just as you are in me and I am in you. Then he goes on to say may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you've sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one as we are one. And there it is again. And then again in verse 23, I in them and you in me. So he's comparing the two again. So whatever unity this is, it's unity first of all in truth. But it's also unity in nature. The unity of the father and son is not that they are one person. Right? They're separate persons. They have the same nature. That's the way typically theologians, Bible scholars, speak of that. They have the same nature. They share the same attributes. They're both God in nature. So that's how Jesus and the father are one. And what he's saying is I want them to have the same unity. And that is that we share the same nature. In fact, Peter goes so far as to say in his first epistle that we actually are partakers of the divine nature. And Jesus talks about that here too. He says, I mean or you and me and I and them. Okay. So there's there is a nature that we share being in Christ that is the same as the father and the spirit. It's not that we're God, but we share a new nature, a divine presence within us. And so it's a it's a oneness in nature. And it is that it is that nature of being in Christ, having a new nature as a child of God that we share with every other believer. Now this does go beyond doctrinal compatibility. This is something we share with every believer. Okay. And you know, so there may be there may be believers who may disagree on some of those points of doctrine that I mentioned earlier. But they they do know Christ and we do share the nature with them. And so we share that oneness. You can go anywhere in the world and find other believers and immediately establish a connection with them. There is a connection that you do not have with anybody else. I've seen it happen in many different places. I'll never forget preaching in Venezuela in a little town about an hour and a half from the major city where I was teaching a module back in 2006. There's just a little town and and missionary Tim Darling took me to this church and they had never had an American there before. And of course, you know, I went to Venezuela at the height of the antagonism between Chavez and the United States government. It was just a couple months before I went that Chavez stood in the United Nations and called President Bush a devil. And so the State Department was saying, don't go to Venezuela. Don't you know, that's not good. Well, the people down there kind of saw Americans as the enemy. And so these folks had never had an American in their church. They did not know what to expect. But Tim persuaded this pastor to let me preach that Sunday morning. I will never forget he was very cool and distant toward me before the service started. He just didn't know what to expect. He probably had prayed half the night that I wouldn't tear up his church or something like that, you know. And so I got up and started preaching. And as I got into the message, I know he could sense and Tim was interpreting for me, of course. And I know he could sense that there was okay, there's doctrinal compatibility. He realized I was preaching the word and preaching the truth. What he believed, the Bible. But more than that, you could see five minutes into the message. He was loosening up a little bit. You could see him get more comfortable. And then I could see him start to smile. And by the end of the service, you could just sense the oneness that we had. And I remember two people got saved that morning in that service. And the pastor through Tim told me afterwards that one of them was someone they had been praying for in that church for years. And we were just backslapin and rejoicing after the service. So what started before the service is very cool and distant because of the truth and because of our same nature that we shared in Christ by the end of that service. We were brothers and we were rejoicing with each other and fellowshiping with each other. It was great. That's the kind of unity that Jesus was talking about. It's not organizational unity. It is unity based on core truth and unity based on the fact that we share the same nature in Christ. Any comments or questions about that? Okay. All right. Let's move on then as to what results from this unity in verses 21 and 23. What is it that is the result of this kind of unity? Verse 21, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you've sent me. Verse 23, I am them and you and me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. What's the result of this kind of unity? Testimony to the world. It is a powerful testimony to the world. In fact, Jesus is saying it can even lead people to be convinced of the truth of who Jesus is, the truth of the gospel. We need to remember this that the purpose of this unity is to be a testimony to the world. Now, why is this kind of unity such a powerful testimony to the world? What does the world see that they don't experience? Pardon me? Oneness, okay? Love? Fruit of the Spirit? Okay. Part of that nature being demonstrated? Peacefulness? Yes. Certainly. You know, the world can be a very cold place, can't it? And I know there are some exceptions. I know there are certain groups of people who are very close and so forth. But generally speaking, the world is a place of loneliness and isolation and fragmentation. And when the world sees a group of people who come from different backgrounds, different educational backgrounds, different socioeconomic backgrounds, but they love each other and there are no class distinctions and their brothers and sisters and they're just like family. The world looks at that and says, wow. You know, that just doesn't happen because really the world typically fragments along so many different lines. If you're not of my class, my side of the tracks, my race, whatever, then fragmentation takes place typically, just a part of our fallen human nature. In Christ, all of that is redeemed and God breaks down all those barriers and the hostilities and people become one. People of different backgrounds and different races and all of that, different nationalities. And when the world looks at that, they're seeing something that is not natural, that's not normal. So that's a powerful testimony that God is in that. And that's what Jesus will say in here. Okay? Any comments or questions about that? One other thing Jesus prayed for will just mention it quickly and that is for our security, for our security. Now notice how he says it in verse 24, Father, I want those you have given to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you've given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. That's a pretty strong statement, isn't it? Jesus says those that you've given me and he's identified those earlier in the chapter as being believers. So those who have believed in me and he says, remember I'll lose none of them, he's making this request. I want them to be with me to see my glory. If that request is answered and obviously it will be, that means all who trust Jesus as Savior, those the Father's giving him, all who trust Jesus as Savior will be in heaven and see his glory. That's eternal security. So Jesus was praying for our security. I want them with me, he says, in heaven, in glory. And then he finishes the prayer this way, righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you. And they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. And then comes back to that unity that is found in Christ. What a tremendous prayer this is, great, great prayer. And the wonderful thing about it is that it very well may be a model for the way that Jesus prays for us even today. And the great thing is that we have looked at that Jesus prays. Look at this verse on the screen, Hebrews 7.25. Therefore, he speaking of Christ is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. Part of what Jesus is doing right now in heaven is he is praying for us, interceding for us for all of those who are saved. Those who come to God through him, that's the group he's praying for. All believers, he always lives to intercede for them, to pray for us. And this may well be a model of the kinds of things he's praying. It's interesting that he prays this for his followers, for those whom the Father had given him right before he leaves them, right before he dies and goes back to heaven. And so that indicates to me this is on his heart, right before he goes back to assume his role of intercessor, praying for us. So I think this is on his heart. I think he's anticipating the kind of ministry he would have after the cross and the resurrection. So this may be a model prayer for intercession for us today. Doesn't mean he doesn't pray for anything else, but I think it may serve as a pattern. Okay, comments or questions about the Lord's high priestly prayer before we move on to the next prayer he prayed. Okay, we're going to just dip quickly into chapter 18, then we're going to move to Mark chapter 14. The prayer in Gethsemane is recorded in the first three gospels at some link, but in John's gospel, only this first verse, but it gives us a critical bit of information. And we'll come back to this later. Chapter 18, verse one, when he had finished praying, the prayer that he's just prayed in chapter 17, when he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples. Okay, so he's leaving the upper room where they've had the Passover meal. He's instituted the Lord's supper and now he's prayed with them. He's washed their feet. He prayed for them. Okay, he leaves with his disciples and he crossed the Kidren Valley. On the other side, there was a garden and he and his disciples went into it. Now, if you'll flip back to Mark 14, we're going to look at Mark's account of what happened in that garden. Mark chapter 14, verse 32. The garden is named here. They went to a place called Gethsemane and Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. Okay, in Mark 14, what's going to happen next? This is the next event in our Lord's life. The last event that will take place before his arrest and trials, crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus is going to face now what I believe I can legitimately call the biggest battle of his life. Physically, that is certainly true. You're going to see the physical toll that it takes on him, but also spiritually. He's prayed for his disciples. They leave the upper room and they're going to the place called the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means oil press. And it was a walled olive orchard with its own olive press. Now, an olive press was an instrument that mashed the olives to press the olive oil out of the olives. It's getting great Jews out of grapes. You get olive oil out of olives. And this press was something that extracted the olive oil from the olives under great pressure. I think it's very fitting that Jesus will endure the greatest pressure, stress of his life. He's going to talk about it and let us know how severe it is in this place that is known as the oil press, the olive oil press. But let's back up just a little bit before we see what happens there. Let's get a feel for where it is and what it looks like. So we're going to look at a few pictures. This is a map. Here is the place in Jerusalem just south of the temple mount. This whole area is the temple mount, the outer courts and so forth. Just south of that is the area where typically the upper room is located, although obviously we don't know for sure that that's tradition. They would have left the upper room walked across probably in this area near the Gihon spring, the Kidren Valley, the Kidren Valley is a valley that runs along the eastern and then swings around the southern end into the Hennum Valley, and just outside of Jerusalem it is just outside the temple area. And just on the other side of the Kidren Valley is the Mount of Olives. On the side of the Mount of Olives is this garden called Gethsemane. Now we're going to take a look at it in a picture. Here's the Kidren Valley right here. There's actually a road that runs down through there now. It used to be a creek bin, riverbed, small river. Quick, you're going to West Virginia. This is the Kidren Valley. This is just outside the temple mount. It's a Muslim cemetery now. Here's the Kidren Valley. On the other side you start going up to the Mount of Olives. This is the Mount of Olives right here. On the side of the Mount of Olives there are a number of sacred places, if you will, that have been memorialized by churches. One of them is the Church of Mary Magdalene. I believe that one's right there. There's a Dominus Flavett Church, which is supposed to have... I believe that's right there. Mark the place where Jesus wept as he came into the city. But the one that is the most prominent is this one right here. You see this building? It has a beautiful facade and it's a large... It's called the Church of All Nations. The Church of All Nations was actually built over a rocky outcropping that tradition says is the Garden of Gethsemane. And sure enough, there is still even there today a grove of olive trees. You can see it right here. Let's take a little closer look at it. This is the Garden of Gethsemane. Olive trees, walled stone wall, partitions and pathways and so forth through it. Let's get a little closer up view of an olive tree. This is an olive tree. Sometimes you will hear people say these trees are 2000 years old. They were probably there when Jesus was there. One of these trees is no doubt maybe where he prayed. Well, that's a little fanciful to begin with where we're good bit higher than the level of strata that would have been there in Jesus day. If you go to Israel a day and go through Jerusalem and you find the ruins that were there in Jesus day, they're basically usually a little lower than the surface now. But anyway, the Romans destroyed all the trees when they destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. They tell us very plainly they burned everything including all the trees. There are probably not any trees that old, but these are very old. That doubt that one of them was there when Jesus was there but still they're very old. This is what a large olive tree would have looked like. Let's go to the next slide. This is just an artist's rendition of Jesus going into the Garden of Gethsemane and the olive grove being there and him telling the disciples with this rocky outcroppings on the side of the Mount of Olives. Sit here and rest of while while I go and pray. The Church of all nations next slide, the Church of all nations. Here's one of the entrances. It is actually built as I said over a rocky outcropping that tradition says, and again, you don't know for sure, but it's got to be there somewhere pretty close. Tradition says this is the actual rocky area where Jesus would have prayed. In fact, you see this right here says sculpture. You may not be able to read that. But carved in this rock, let's go the next slide is actually someone has carved a sculpture of Jesus praying prostrate on a rock. That's actually carved into the stone there at the Church of all nations. Inside the Church of all nations next slide, there is a portion of the rock that is, again, tradition says the actual place where Jesus prayed. And so people will come there even today and pray around that section of the rock. I think that's the last picture we have, isn't it Tim? Thank you. But that gives you an idea of what the Garden of Gethsemane is like. It is a literal Garden of Olive Trees. It had its own olive press. It was a rocky area and it looks very much the same today as it would have back then. Alright, let's take a look and see what Jesus, what happens with Jesus there in the last few minutes that we have. I want to just describe verses 32 to 36 the battle for Jesus. In other words, the battle that Jesus faced in the Garden of Gethsemane. I hope we can get a sense of the depth of this, the awfulness of this, the intensity of this. Verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemane and Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be, notice these words, deeply distressed and troubled. The word deeply distressed, the verb there, the Greek verb carries with it the idea of astonishment or terror, horror. It is a shocking word, really, to be used of what Jesus was feeling. But it helps us to understand the intensity of what Jesus was feeling. One of the things that is shocking is that up to this point, Jesus has been very much in control, very even in his emotions, hasn't he? Right up to this time. In the upper room, he has calmly led the disciples into the Lord's Supper and instituted that and taught them. And washed their feet and just everything has been very calm and deliberate. We've talked about the fact he has said, my hour has come, the time has come, there's no sense of being frantic or anything like that. But now we're seeing something that is a little different. It's not panic, but it is a very strong word. The word has the idea of astonishment or terror or horrified, being horrified at something. That's what it means. Now, although Jesus knew exactly what he was facing and he knew what lay ahead, there is something about what he's going to face. It's the cup, because that's what he's going to pray about. There's something about this cup that right now, he is looking into it. I mean, he is staring what's going to happen in the next few hours right in the face. And now it is the time for the very hard part of what he came here to earth to do to start. It's the time for that to start. And as he looks into that cup and sees what is in it, he is horrified. He is terrified. He is astonished. Not surprised. He's known all along what was happening. But remember Jesus is fully man as well as fully God. And what he is facing horrifies him. It astonishes him. It terrifies him. Please understand the real emotion that Jesus was going through in the garden. Because there is something that we will see, we won't have time tonight, but there's something that we'll see that steals his soul. Steele STEEL that provides steel backbone in his soul that enables him to go through with this in spite of the astonishment and the terror and the horror. And it's prayer. It's prayer. That's what we're going to see happening in the Garden of Gethsemane. Look at what he says in verse 34. This is hard to imagine. But he says, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. This is an expression that was used for the utmost of depression. Is it Jesus? He says it clearly himself. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said to them, stay here and keep watch. What I'm saying to you, and we're going to have to stop, but what I'm saying to you is that in his humanity, were it not for his prayer and dependence on the Father? He might have been overcome with sorrow to the point that it would have killed him in the Garden. Were it not for prayer that put Steele in his backbone? I hope we can see the intensity of this. And there are going to be physical manifestations of that as we get into this. But we're going to have to go. Our time is up. And we'll get back to it next time. We'll see how Jesus actually fell first of all to his knees. And then the Gospel say, fell all the way on his face as he is overwhelmed, overcome, astonished, terrified. And next time we'll also take a look at what it was he saw in that cup. There are two things the Scriptures indicate he saw in that cup that terrified and horrified him so much. And we'll take a look at what those were. Okay, let's pray. Father, we are amazed that you would love us enough to see your Son go through this. And we are amazed, Lord Jesus, that you would love us enough to go through this for us. Or it would help us to take enough time to enter into what it meant for you to go through with the cross. Help us to be once again amazed at your love and at the sacrifice you made for us. And help us also to learn that it is prayer, that overcomes the weakness of the flesh and fortifies the willingness of the spirit and enables us to have steel in our soul for whatever we will face to. It is our dependence upon you in prayer. May we learn from our Savior in these very dark moments that we are so privileged to hear about and walk with Him through. It's in His name we pray. Amen.