“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 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.’”

Why do we Pray?

In the aftermath of the final Passover meal, Jesus has spent time in the upper room teaching His eleven remaining disciples. The information has been heavy to receive, as Jesus lays final pieces in place to prepare them for what is coming – His death, which will happen within mere hours, as well as the hatred and persecution that awaits them in the world. His words call their eyes to look beyond the suffering that awaits them so close at hand, to the victory they’ve been delivered to through Him. He is the True Vine, He has overcome the world, and in Him we bear good fruit, in Him we know a true, transcendent joy, and in Him we have assurance that when we suffer, we do not do so alone. We closed last week’s passage with John 16:33, with Jesus telling the disciples,

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

After saying this, Jesus turns His attention to the Father and delivers an absolute masterclass in prayer through demonstration. Something I heard once that really stuck with me (a point made by Jackie Hill Perry), is that God doesn’t ask questions because He doesn’t know the answers. There are no mysteries from the Almighty One, which means that when we see Him ask questions in scripture, it’s to allow the one being questioned to provide an answer, not because He needs them to tell Him the information. This may be used to teach and guide them, to glorify God based on their answer, or ultimately to show us something as the reader. In a similar fashion, Jesus doesn’t say these things aloud for the purpose of God being able to hear Him. God knows what is in the hearts of all men, and Jesus, being One with the Father, certainly has nothing hidden. This is confirmed by Jesus Himself when He prays before resurrecting Lazarus, saying in John 11:41–42, 

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 

Jesus is fully God, but also fully Man, and in being fully Man, He doesn’t just tell us, but shows us the proper way to address and revere the Father. We see Jesus first give instruction on How to pray during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:7–13,

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Growing up, we would sometimes pray the Lord’s prayer collectively in church. I’d seen it engraved on Bibles and printed on bookmarks. It was so common, and I had such a rigid, ritualistic perception of it, that for a very long time it’s significance was lost on me. What we see is a perfect blueprint for exactly what Jesus says it is – an example of how to pray. It doesn’t mean you have to say this prayer word for word each time you go to God, but that this format, this ordering of things allows you to aim and orient yourself properly. It helps us to understand that while we absolutely matter (because if we can say that God loves us, we can certainly acknowledge that we matter), when we go to God, it’s not about us. We can look to verses like 1 Peter 5:7,

“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

And in just taking that snippet of a passage, walk away with the idea that God is just there as a problem solver. To be clear, God is the problem solver – but I’ve said it before, and I’ll most certainly say it again, God is not a genie. A little wishful thinking and we can come to think Romans 8:28,

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Means that God is working to give us everything we want out of life – as if us getting everything we want is somehow good. Cases like this are what happens when people cherry pick verses, when they read the Bible with a heart aimed at validating themselves, instead of seeking the Truth of the Word. This is why not just reading Scripture, but reading it in context is so crucial. 1 Peter 5:6–7 says,

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

God does what you to bring your fears and worries to Him – with humility and the understanding that He will address them in His time. Romans 8:28–29 says,

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

For those who love God all things work together for Good – including our suffering. This passage doesn’t promise clear skies and calm seas, but tells us that we are conformed to the image of Christ, which ties back into what Jesus spent so much of the previous chapters of John explaining – tribulation and suffering with a greater hope beyond. Everything is ultimately aimed at glorifying God, and God in His glory, loves and cares for us as His children. As we move into John 17, into Jesus speaking the High Priestly Prayer, we can see this on display, and understand how our prayers are not really about us, but glorifying our Father, giving us a better grasp on why we pray.

1.      Praying that God may be Glorified in the World

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”

Something interesting here is that we see Jesus start off by looking up to heaven. This actually isn’t unique for Him, as Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6 shows Jesus look up to heaven before saying a blessing over the food. In John 11, at the resurrection of Lazarus which I referenced earlier, Jesus looks to heaven before speaking to God. This is markedly different from our common practice of bowing our heads and closing our eyes, and it merits considering why, as it’s not wrong to assume what I’m going to call the common position to pray in. Part of it is out of humility. In Luke 18:9–14 Jesus gives a parable that helps us see this,

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’”

Praying quietly, with submissive posture steers us away from the exuberant, attention seeking style of praying that we see attributed to the Pharisees on more that one occasion. There’s also the practicality of it. Closing our eyes ensures that we’re not distracted by whatever’s going on around us, and likewise, folding our hands can keep us from fidgeting or finding distraction through touch. These are perfectly valid reasons to pray as we so commonly do, but bearing in mind how differently we see Jesus praying, does that mean there’s something wrong with what He’s doing? Is Jesus doing it to be seen or draw attention to Himself? Nothing seems to support that being the case. Does Jesus seem distracted through His open eyes? On the contrary, He seems singularly focused on God, to whom He is speaking. Considering this, and that we see Jesus pray in different ways at different points in time (for example with His face to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26), we can see that Jesus is showing us another way in which, in the right spirit, we might pray as well, and also showing us the intimacy between He and the Father. As He begins to pray, we see the first thing He says is to acknowledge that the hour has come, but then He addresses the reciprocal nature brought forth by the unity of the Father and Son. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and in Christ, God is glorified. This ties back to what Jesus said in John 12:27–30,

“‘Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine.’”

It also shows us the nature of His obedience as He prays in Matthew 26:39, 42,

“And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’”… “‘Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’”

This mirrors the start of the Lord’s prayer in its aim. The first desire is that God be glorified, which acknowledges His worthiness to be glorified, which is attested to by His holy name. By first addressing the station of God the Father, we’re led into submission. What do we ask for first? What takes precedence over and above anything else? That God’s kingdom would come, and that His will would unfold here on the earth, just as it does in heaven. It was the prophesied will of God that the Messiah come into the world, that God, by His Son, would offer up salvation from our sins. This is Jesus’ highest aim – as we have seen throughout His ministry, this desire that the will of the Father be done. He does not ask to be glorified for His own benefit, not out of His humanity, but divinely, for the glory of God. While the High Priestly Prayer is obviously longer and more complex than the Lord’s Prayer, we can see they start on the same note, with the same aim.

“since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

Continuing on, we see that in this reciprocal glorification between the Father and Son, is the authority of the Son over the flesh, to give eternal life. Again, this calls us back to a previous passage from John’s gospel, as in John 10:17–18, Jesus says,

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Genesis 2:16–17 tells us,

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

The instructions were exceptionally clear, and Eve even showed that they were understood when she says to the serpent in Genesis 3:2–3,

“… We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

We didn’t listen. We were temped, we yielded, and we earned for ourselves the wages of sin, which is death. In Jesus laying down His life, dying perfectly, blamelessly, to then take up His life again He overcomes death. 1 Corinthians 15:56–57 says,

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This start to the High Priestly Prayer, this pointing to the victory of Christ in opening up a path of redemption for the flesh guides us to something that should be a hallmark of all our prayers – that God be honored and glorified in the world.

2.      Praying that God may be Glorified in Eternity

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

This gives a very simple, black and white contrast, which calls us back to John 3:17–18,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

To know God, which is to know the Father through the Son, to be delivered into eternal life. This isn’t a casual or cursory acknowledgement, but true submission, really being changed in Christ. Isaiah 25:6–9 gives an idea of what is means for us to truly know God,

“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

In Matthew 22:37–38 Jesus reminds us of what the greatest commandment is,

“… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

To love God this way, fully and completely is to know God, to draw near Him, and for Him to do so to us.

Revelation 21:5–7 shows the image of what it means for us to know God eternally,

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

Jesus puts this so simply in the High Priestly Prayer, and in so many ways it really is that simple. But the other things that Scripture says on this matter help us appreciate the scope, the depth of the love God has for us, and what it means to have a relationship with, and to know the Father and the Son.

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

People sometimes attempt to critique John’s gospel, claiming that because it doesn’t always seem to have perfect chronology, it must be flawed in some way. Ultimately, John’s focus is on conveying the message and implications of the gospel, as opposed to delivering a chronologically perfect historical account, and so if you want to nitpick, this is an easy place to start. What’s interesting is that what Jesus says here seems to buck the chronological order of things entirely on purpose. “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” Certainly Jesus’ earthly ministry served to glorify the Father, and certainly this was part of His mission – but at this point, the words, “it is finished” haven’t been spoken, the work in its entirety hasn’t been accomplished – but in some sense, it has. This begs the question: what can stand in the way, or obstruct the will of God? He told Satan in Genesis 3:15,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God first spoke of a plan to destroy sin here in the garden, almost immediately after the fall – but the plan was in place before then. While ultimately the work wasn’t finished until the cross and the resurrection, it is comforting, and also staggering to know that the course was set and secured from before the beginning.

“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

This takes us back to the very beginning of this gospel, where John 1:1–5 opened by saying,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

It takes us back to the eternality of Christ, the fact that the Son did not first come into being when Jesus was born into the world, but has existed since before time. This is the same thing that’s expressed in Colossians 1:15–17, which says,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

This also helps us see that the Trinity has always existed – as it has to for the doctrine of the Trinity to work. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinct yet unified. For One to be eternal All must be eternal, since All are One. Given that Jesus was fully human, it can be an easy mistake to slip into seeing Him as only human. But this draws us back to the Truth that John has been illustrating since the start of his gospel account – that Jesus is God. And this glory – the glory He holds, the Light that He is which illuminates the Father, is eternal. The glory that He seeks to give God, and again, that which we should aspire to model, is eternal, existing since before time began, and extending past where it ends.

3.      Praying that God may be Glorified in His People

“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.”

We’ve looked at the world as a whole, moved from that to an eternal perspective, but now we step back and look at things on a more individual basis.

Exodus 20:7, in relaying the ten commandments, tells us,

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

I’ve written on this before, but while this is usually framed up as using God’s name in a sacrilegious or irreverent manner (which to be clear, is wrong), it actually has much deeper implications than that. To “take the name of the LORD” would be to call yourself a follower of God, in the case of Exodus, to claim to be a Jew under the Law. To do so in vain is to mock the power of God, the provision He’s made for His people, and the significance of the Law. This, the name of the LORD, is what Jesus has manifested in the world. He is God made flesh, He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and He has shone as the Light of the world, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life in the midst of a lost and dying people, so that they might come to the Father. Psalm 23 starts by saying in verses 1–3,

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

God is the Shepherd of Israel, He remains the Shepherd of Israel, but what we see from the Good Shepherd passage in John 10 is that in the transfer of the position from the Father to the Son, the flock is added to. John 10:7–9 says,

“… Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

This ties us back to the provision and protection of the Shepherd as seen in Psalm 23. John 10:16 speaks to the growing of the flock,

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

To keep the Word of God is a concept too vast, too perfect for the human mind to grasp. Yet we’re delivered to it through Christ. Romans 10:10–11 says,

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

When we follow Christ in heart, mind, and action, we keep the Word of God – and are delivered miraculously from the sin of the world. This is where we’re called to aim our prayers when we follow the example of Jesus. It’s not that we shouldn’t take any and all concerns to God – we should. But that in doing so we should always have the highest possible aim, not seeking for selfish gain, but longing in the Spirit that in any and every thing, we might bring glory to our Father in heaven. 

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-WnX4B92aU