Sermons
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Easter 7, May 17 - John 17:1–11
Other Lessons: Acts 1:12–26 Psalm 68:1–10 1 Peter 4:12–19 5:6–11
The season of Easter is coming to an end as the church has celebrated the day of the Ascension, on which the entire church rejoices in the fact that Jesus is not gone and left us as orphans, but is actively serving his church as the eternal king of kings and lord of lords. He now sits at the right hand of God having received all power and authority over heaven and earth and under the earth for our sake. Everything he does is for us, to fulfill all his promises and bring all things to completion on the last day.
But now that he is no longer visibly with us, what does the church do? Certainly, the whole church continues to rejoice and celebrate the resurrection, that’s what every Sunday divine service is all about. We celebrate because not only in that Jesus died and now lives, which in itself is great cause for joy, but also because he lives, therefore we also live, in the full sense of that word. We live this full and abundant life by continually receiving Christ, who is the life. But another very important thing that the church continues to do is to pray. Now that faith is brought forth and overflows in us, it moves us to prayer. The church has a duty not only to proclaim the good by teaching and baptizing, but also to pray for all people until the end of the age.
The church prays but she must first learn to pray. Prayer is not the natural state, we all learned it at some point in our lives, either by our parents, Sunday school teachers, pastors, or all of the above. We need to learn to pray especially as we grow older for we learn to be more and more independent, more and more self-reliant. Only when you are at the lowest point in life, when you are utterly desperate do you begin to consider asking for help because experience and this world has taught us to be achievers and so seeking help is shameful. Therefore we need to be taught and to learn how to pray regularly, as well as what to pray. In John’s Gospel, the very last thing that Jesus does before his betrayal at the garden was prayer. He prays for himself, his disciples, and for his church. He not only prays, but at the same time, he teaches us to pray.
There are several things that Jesus prays for even in these first 11 verses of the chapter (the whole chapter being the prayer), but we will look at 3 unifying themes: glorification, manifestation, and preservation.
At the very beginning, Jesus prays, “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.” But what is the glory of God? Or more specifically, the glory of Christ? Here, Jesus asks the father to glorify him and gives the reason why. He says that it is to give eternal life and later in verse 4 that because he has accomplished the work that the father has given him to do. The glory, the honor and greatness and majesty and praiseworthiness is found in Christ accomplish the work of giving eternal life. It is none other than the cross, through which the sins of the world are atoned for, redeemed and paid for by his own death and blood. That’s why one of the prayers of the day in Lent starts like this: “O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy…” What Jesus prays for is therefore not for himself alone, but that he would finally complete the work of drawing all people to him as he is lifted up on the cross, so that all people may know and come to the knowledge of the truth, that he is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The next thing Jesus then prays is for God’s name to be manifest in the disciples and all whom God has given to him. This is not to say that this manifestation or revealing has not happened yet, but that this knowledge they have received would be kept in their lives forever. Jesus describes what and how this happens: “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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. (v6-8)” The name of God, and not just the name, but to know the name includes knowing who God is, what kind of God he is, is he a wicked God or a loving God, the things he does, does he punish and forgive and save, all these are manifested and made known by Jesus THROUGH the word. The word of God is given and taught by Jesus to the disciples, but above, Jesus himself fulfills that word, so that the true manifestation and revelation of God and his word is in Jesus. To know God as a loving and merciful God, to know God as a punishing and yet forgiving and saving God is through Jesus and his cross, through his death and resurrection. And by having this revelation and knowledge of God and what he has done for us through his son, we become his beloved people. Through the word of God, we belong to God, we are his and he is ours.
Finally, he prays for us that we be all kept together as one in God’s name: “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (v11)” Because now we belong to God through his word, because now we know God’s name and in fact have received his name (through baptism), and because we are still in this world of hostility, we are in the enemy’s crosshairs, we are targeted by the devil and all his cohorts. Therefore, Jesus prays that we be kept safe by being kept in the word. For it is in the word that we have Christ, and through him and his cross we have God as our father. The unity of the Christian and the church must begin with a unity or union with God, which is maintained by being in the word of God. Only then can we have true unity and communion with one another. The “communion of saints”, as we say in the Apostles’ Creed, is not based on common interests or hobbies or ideals or any kind of human imagination or efforts, but we are united, we have communion because we share the same confession of faith. We confess, the Greek is actually “homologia”, meaning “same word”, that is to say, we say the same words as God, or put in another way, we repeat what God has said because it is true. And the word is clear about who God is and what he has done for our salvation (the clarity of scripture is an important doctrine!). Therefore we confess these great truths together as one people, as the church. Any kind of unity aside, apart, away from the word is a false unity and it will not hold. In fact, it is a form of denial and rejection of God’s word, the very thing that is required for unity! The world and its king the devil will do everything to rob us of the sure word of God, as he did at the very beginning when he sowed doubt in Adam and Eve’s heart, saying “did God really say?” And so Jesus prays that we would be kept in the word as we continue to be in this world.
This is what Jesus prayed before his crucifixion, that he would be glorified by completing the salvation of mankind on the cross, that this good news of the forgiveness of sins in his name be manifest and revealed through the word, and that the disciples be kept in that word while living in this life. Jesus prays for his disciples and for all who would believe through the word, which include all of us. But in this prayer, he is also teaching us to pray.
So what are we to learn? Certainly we are not to ask for Jesus to be glorified since he already is, but we pray that he is glorified in our lives. What does this mean? It means to have Christ and his cross in our lives, which we have through the hearing of the word. For when we have the word, we have repentance and faith, that is, sorrow over our sins and the reception of the forgiveness of sins. This is God’s glory, to be gracious and merciful to us. This is what we pray for, that we may live in it daily by faith. To live by faith in the word and not by the standards of the world.
When we pray what Jesus prays then we have double confidence before God with all our needs for this body and soul. For in praying what Jesus prays, we know it is the right things to ask, and therefore God will certainly grant them, and since what we ask is Christ himself and his salvation and faith, we receive Christ and his gifts, so that we may come WITH Christ to stand before God with our other requests and needs.
This is what the church does until the end of time. The season is coming to an end and we will enter the 2nd half of the church year, but the joy and great gifts of Easter will continue. Jesus lives and reigns for us, so that we may pray for ourselves and for one another, without ceasing, and with confidence and joy and peace.
Other Lessons: Acts 1:12–26 Psalm 68:1–10 1 Peter 4:12–19 5:6–11
The season of Easter is coming to an end as the church has celebrated the day of the Ascension, on which the entire church rejoices in the fact that Jesus is not gone and left us as orphans, but is actively serving his church as the eternal king of kings and lord of lords. He now sits at the right hand of God having received all power and authority over heaven and earth and under the earth for our sake. Everything he does is for us, to fulfill all his promises and bring all things to completion on the last day.
But now that he is no longer visibly with us, what does the church do? Certainly, the whole church continues to rejoice and celebrate the resurrection, that’s what every Sunday divine service is all about. We celebrate because not only in that Jesus died and now lives, which in itself is great cause for joy, but also because he lives, therefore we also live, in the full sense of that word. We live this full and abundant life by continually receiving Christ, who is the life. But another very important thing that the church continues to do is to pray. Now that faith is brought forth and overflows in us, it moves us to prayer. The church has a duty not only to proclaim the good by teaching and baptizing, but also to pray for all people until the end of the age.
The church prays but she must first learn to pray. Prayer is not the natural state, we all learned it at some point in our lives, either by our parents, Sunday school teachers, pastors, or all of the above. We need to learn to pray especially as we grow older for we learn to be more and more independent, more and more self-reliant. Only when you are at the lowest point in life, when you are utterly desperate do you begin to consider asking for help because experience and this world has taught us to be achievers and so seeking help is shameful. Therefore we need to be taught and to learn how to pray regularly, as well as what to pray. In John’s Gospel, the very last thing that Jesus does before his betrayal at the garden was prayer. He prays for himself, his disciples, and for his church. He not only prays, but at the same time, he teaches us to pray.
There are several things that Jesus prays for even in these first 11 verses of the chapter (the whole chapter being the prayer), but we will look at 3 unifying themes: glorification, manifestation, and preservation.
At the very beginning, Jesus prays, “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.” But what is the glory of God? Or more specifically, the glory of Christ? Here, Jesus asks the father to glorify him and gives the reason why. He says that it is to give eternal life and later in verse 4 that because he has accomplished the work that the father has given him to do. The glory, the honor and greatness and majesty and praiseworthiness is found in Christ accomplish the work of giving eternal life. It is none other than the cross, through which the sins of the world are atoned for, redeemed and paid for by his own death and blood. That’s why one of the prayers of the day in Lent starts like this: “O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy…” What Jesus prays for is therefore not for himself alone, but that he would finally complete the work of drawing all people to him as he is lifted up on the cross, so that all people may know and come to the knowledge of the truth, that he is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The next thing Jesus then prays is for God’s name to be manifest in the disciples and all whom God has given to him. This is not to say that this manifestation or revealing has not happened yet, but that this knowledge they have received would be kept in their lives forever. Jesus describes what and how this happens: “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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. (v6-8)” The name of God, and not just the name, but to know the name includes knowing who God is, what kind of God he is, is he a wicked God or a loving God, the things he does, does he punish and forgive and save, all these are manifested and made known by Jesus THROUGH the word. The word of God is given and taught by Jesus to the disciples, but above, Jesus himself fulfills that word, so that the true manifestation and revelation of God and his word is in Jesus. To know God as a loving and merciful God, to know God as a punishing and yet forgiving and saving God is through Jesus and his cross, through his death and resurrection. And by having this revelation and knowledge of God and what he has done for us through his son, we become his beloved people. Through the word of God, we belong to God, we are his and he is ours.
Finally, he prays for us that we be all kept together as one in God’s name: “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (v11)” Because now we belong to God through his word, because now we know God’s name and in fact have received his name (through baptism), and because we are still in this world of hostility, we are in the enemy’s crosshairs, we are targeted by the devil and all his cohorts. Therefore, Jesus prays that we be kept safe by being kept in the word. For it is in the word that we have Christ, and through him and his cross we have God as our father. The unity of the Christian and the church must begin with a unity or union with God, which is maintained by being in the word of God. Only then can we have true unity and communion with one another. The “communion of saints”, as we say in the Apostles’ Creed, is not based on common interests or hobbies or ideals or any kind of human imagination or efforts, but we are united, we have communion because we share the same confession of faith. We confess, the Greek is actually “homologia”, meaning “same word”, that is to say, we say the same words as God, or put in another way, we repeat what God has said because it is true. And the word is clear about who God is and what he has done for our salvation (the clarity of scripture is an important doctrine!). Therefore we confess these great truths together as one people, as the church. Any kind of unity aside, apart, away from the word is a false unity and it will not hold. In fact, it is a form of denial and rejection of God’s word, the very thing that is required for unity! The world and its king the devil will do everything to rob us of the sure word of God, as he did at the very beginning when he sowed doubt in Adam and Eve’s heart, saying “did God really say?” And so Jesus prays that we would be kept in the word as we continue to be in this world.
This is what Jesus prayed before his crucifixion, that he would be glorified by completing the salvation of mankind on the cross, that this good news of the forgiveness of sins in his name be manifest and revealed through the word, and that the disciples be kept in that word while living in this life. Jesus prays for his disciples and for all who would believe through the word, which include all of us. But in this prayer, he is also teaching us to pray.
So what are we to learn? Certainly we are not to ask for Jesus to be glorified since he already is, but we pray that he is glorified in our lives. What does this mean? It means to have Christ and his cross in our lives, which we have through the hearing of the word. For when we have the word, we have repentance and faith, that is, sorrow over our sins and the reception of the forgiveness of sins. This is God’s glory, to be gracious and merciful to us. This is what we pray for, that we may live in it daily by faith. To live by faith in the word and not by the standards of the world.
When we pray what Jesus prays then we have double confidence before God with all our needs for this body and soul. For in praying what Jesus prays, we know it is the right things to ask, and therefore God will certainly grant them, and since what we ask is Christ himself and his salvation and faith, we receive Christ and his gifts, so that we may come WITH Christ to stand before God with our other requests and needs.
This is what the church does until the end of time. The season is coming to an end and we will enter the 2nd half of the church year, but the joy and great gifts of Easter will continue. Jesus lives and reigns for us, so that we may pray for ourselves and for one another, without ceasing, and with confidence and joy and peace.
