John 17:1-5
A House of Prayer: Part III
As we have seen the last few weeks Jesus said in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer.” We at EFC are choosing to take Him seriously and now becoming a House of Prayer.
So far we’ve seen some great truths about what is needed to build a house of prayer. A House of Prayer Asks God, or Petitions Him. To build a house of Prayer requires that the men lead in prayer. It requires that we make sacrifices to pray together. It needs people who will Persevere in prayer. These are all important building blocks of a House of Prayer.
This week we turn our attention to another very important aspect of A House of Prayer. It has has a High Priest over it. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. Hebrews says, “………….” He leads us in the great ministry of prayer. The High Priest leads the priesthood in its priestly duties. One of the primary priestly duties is the sacrifice of prayer. To be an intercessor just as He Himself is devoted to interceding for us.
The Priesthood is to be like the High Priest. What can we learn about prayer from our High Priest? To answer that, we turn to John’s Gospel where we find one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible. Here, in John 17, we see what is known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In these 26 verses we have a view into the heart of our Savior as He prays to the Father. And what we see here in His heart I pray will become what is in our hearts.
This is a transitional point in Jesus’ ministry, where His work on earth is about to be done and He is now beginning the very work He will do in heaven – pray. Let’s look at this High Heavenly duty that our High Priest commits Himself to, and, that which we are to be committed as well.
The first five verses say……..
A House of Prayer Looks to Heaven (v1a)
Verse 1 says, “After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed…” Jesus had His attention exactly where it should have been. He lived His entire life with His eyes towards heaven. Key: ***Jesus did not lift His eyes to heaven when He prayed, He prayed because His eyes were always on heaven. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
The Church is prayerless today because she does not have heaven and the things of heaven in her eyes. Many Christians live without looking ever looking to heaven. They rather are living with an obsession for the world. Until we set our hearts and our minds on heaven we will not become a house of prayer.
The word, “looked” carries with it the sense of dependence. There was something that was going to be asked of heaven over the next 26 verses and the reason Christ looked to heaven is because only heaven could answer Him. Only heaven could do what He asked. Do we pray with that same dependency? Do we say with the Psalmist in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
A House of Prayer Looks to Heaven.
A House of Prayer Lives for the Glory of God (v1b, 4, 5)
The word “glory” appears 5 times in these 5 verses, and 9 times total in this chapter. Jesus says in verse 1, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” The glory of God IS what it IS all about! Our High Priest saw everything in view of God’s glory. And the House of Prayer, like the High Priest, must see everything in view of God’s glory. No matter what you do, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, do it all for the glory of God. Our praying then, may it be done for the glory of God.
What is glory? Glory is the outshining of God’s attributes. His glory is the magnificent excellence of His qualities beaming out and becoming “see-able”. It’s the glory that the Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare. It’s the glory that Moses begged God that He might see but He was not allowed to see because no man can see God and live. It’s the glory that Isaiah saw and fell on his face in terror and anguish at the sight of such glory. It’s the glory that God says is His in Isaiah 42:8 and that He will not give His glory to another. It is this glory that Jesus Christ is the perfect radiance of according to Hebrews 1:3.
We must have the scales of our eyes fall and we must become awakened faith to see His glory – to see the bright, shining out of His excellent perfections.
When that happens then the glory of God will become the passion of our praying. That was the passion of Jesus’ prayer here. It was the first thing He asked for in His prayer and it defined everything else He prayed for after verse 1.
Passion is the key. Passion is defined as “strong, intense desire”. Your passion drives your life. It directs your life. I would say that a man’s passion gives that man’s life meaning. When God’s glory becomes the passion of our prayers, His glory will become the meaning and purpose in all our prayers. His glory will direct and drive our prayers. His glory will be the “strong, all consuming, intense desire” of our hearts when we pray.
In other words, our eyes will lifted to the uttermost heights to see the grandest purpose in devoting ourselves before the Lord in prayer – the majestic, radiant, and awe-inspiring glory of God. His glory is to be the highest and most sought after goal in all our praying.
**Let no request of Him be an end in itself, but, let every request and every prayer be the means for God’s glory! May the glory of His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His wisdom, His power all be made manifest in our ministry. We want Him to be seen in all of our doing.
Jesus’ glory is the Father’s glory. They share equal glory. Jesus says in verse 5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus was returned to His exalted dignity, His rightful place of supreme authority and absolute, unfading, perpetual honor.
It is important to see that Jesus is not inheriting glory, or experiencing it for the first time. Neither did He earn glory. He had it before there was anything created – when there was just God. It is His by virtue of who He is. His glory is the outshining of His perfect excellencies – it is intrinsic.
The Godhead Relationship displays glory. Notice how Christ seeks the glory of the Father and the Father seeks the glory of the Son. Verse 1, “Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you”. Verse 4 Jesus says, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” Jesus sought the glory of the Father in everything He did. In verse 5 He goes on, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” The shared in the glory that is uniquely and exclusively theirs as members of the Triune Godhead. The relationship of the Godhead displays God’s glory.
A House of Prayer Has Eternal Life (v2-3)
A House of Prayer has Eternal Life. We are people who possess eternal life.
First of all, we have eternal life because of the authority of Jesus. The authority of Jesus is an unmatched, unchallenged, immovable power. Daniel 7:13-14 says, “In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” That is authority. And that is Jesus Christ. Matthew 28:18, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” There is nothing in all of existence that does not come under the supreme jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when He says in verse 2, “For you granted Him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.” Only Jesus has authority to give eternal life. Every man who so desires to gain eternal life must come to the only One who has authority to give it to Him. Seek no where else lost sinner lest you perish for doing so. Do not dare go to any ONE or any THING other than the One whom God has give authority to give you life.
While there are those who would seek elsewhere for eternal life and die for doing so, there are also those who would remain indifferent. They are unresponsive. And for their failure to hear the Gospel and believe they too will perish like the rest.
Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus has exclusive authority to give you access to God. Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” His name is the only name that has the authority to give you eternal life.
He has authority to give eternal life, and He has authority to withhold it. And the only reason Jesus would withhold giving a man eternal life is because that man has withheld himself from asking Christ for it.
People who become a House of Prayer know this and therefore, we have come to Jesus Christ and believed in Him for the forgiveness of our sins and for eternal life. And each of us are members of this household. Each of us are a living stone in this House of Prayer that we are building.
Not only is eternal life based on the authority of Jesus Christ, but, we must also see what Eternal life Actually is. It is knowing God. Notice verse 3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Eternal life is not just life that will never end. It is a new quality of life. It is a holy quality that leads to the new experience of God’s holiness in your life. You cannot “know” God and go on unaffected by Him. Knowing Him causes us to become like Him in righteousness. And at the same time, being like Him causes us to know Him. Think of it this way: God only practices and experiences righteousness and when we practice and experience His righteousness we gain deeper knowledge of Him and the eternal life that is His.
Holiness is eternal. Unrighteousness will perish. If you think you have life that will never end and yet you do not know the holiness of God as the experience in your life, I would recommend you take another look at what you think you have and find out for sure if you really have it. The false notion that we can have eternal, never ending life and carry on in an unholy life where we know nothing of the righteousness of God is spiritually insane. The only kind of life that never ends is also of a pure and perfect holiness. If that holiness you have received from God is not growing up and out of your life in increasing measure over time then you need to seriously look again at the word of God.
Eternal life is a quality of life that will never end. And it is given on the authority of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Are you being stirred to pray more? Listen, I can’t make you want to. It is something I have been praying that the Spirit of God would create in your heart. We can set up prayer meetings but will people come? Do you know your need to be in prayer? Do you want to see the power of God in effect in this Church? Do you want to see the glory of God shining at EFC? I’m telling you there is no going forward in this churches ministry unless we become a house of prayer first. Everything grows out of prayer.
A House of Prayer: Part III
As we have seen the last few weeks Jesus said in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer.” We at EFC are choosing to take Him seriously and now becoming a House of Prayer.
So far we’ve seen some great truths about what is needed to build a house of prayer. A House of Prayer Asks God, or Petitions Him. To build a house of Prayer requires that the men lead in prayer. It requires that we make sacrifices to pray together. It needs people who will Persevere in prayer. These are all important building blocks of a House of Prayer.
This week we turn our attention to another very important aspect of A House of Prayer. It has has a High Priest over it. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. Hebrews says, “………….” He leads us in the great ministry of prayer. The High Priest leads the priesthood in its priestly duties. One of the primary priestly duties is the sacrifice of prayer. To be an intercessor just as He Himself is devoted to interceding for us.
The Priesthood is to be like the High Priest. What can we learn about prayer from our High Priest? To answer that, we turn to John’s Gospel where we find one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible. Here, in John 17, we see what is known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In these 26 verses we have a view into the heart of our Savior as He prays to the Father. And what we see here in His heart I pray will become what is in our hearts.
This is a transitional point in Jesus’ ministry, where His work on earth is about to be done and He is now beginning the very work He will do in heaven – pray. Let’s look at this High Heavenly duty that our High Priest commits Himself to, and, that which we are to be committed as well.
The first five verses say……..
A House of Prayer Looks to Heaven (v1a)
Verse 1 says, “After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed…” Jesus had His attention exactly where it should have been. He lived His entire life with His eyes towards heaven. Key: ***Jesus did not lift His eyes to heaven when He prayed, He prayed because His eyes were always on heaven. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
The Church is prayerless today because she does not have heaven and the things of heaven in her eyes. Many Christians live without looking ever looking to heaven. They rather are living with an obsession for the world. Until we set our hearts and our minds on heaven we will not become a house of prayer.
The word, “looked” carries with it the sense of dependence. There was something that was going to be asked of heaven over the next 26 verses and the reason Christ looked to heaven is because only heaven could answer Him. Only heaven could do what He asked. Do we pray with that same dependency? Do we say with the Psalmist in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
A House of Prayer Looks to Heaven.
A House of Prayer Lives for the Glory of God (v1b, 4, 5)
The word “glory” appears 5 times in these 5 verses, and 9 times total in this chapter. Jesus says in verse 1, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” The glory of God IS what it IS all about! Our High Priest saw everything in view of God’s glory. And the House of Prayer, like the High Priest, must see everything in view of God’s glory. No matter what you do, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, do it all for the glory of God. Our praying then, may it be done for the glory of God.
What is glory? Glory is the outshining of God’s attributes. His glory is the magnificent excellence of His qualities beaming out and becoming “see-able”. It’s the glory that the Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare. It’s the glory that Moses begged God that He might see but He was not allowed to see because no man can see God and live. It’s the glory that Isaiah saw and fell on his face in terror and anguish at the sight of such glory. It’s the glory that God says is His in Isaiah 42:8 and that He will not give His glory to another. It is this glory that Jesus Christ is the perfect radiance of according to Hebrews 1:3.
We must have the scales of our eyes fall and we must become awakened faith to see His glory – to see the bright, shining out of His excellent perfections.
When that happens then the glory of God will become the passion of our praying. That was the passion of Jesus’ prayer here. It was the first thing He asked for in His prayer and it defined everything else He prayed for after verse 1.
Passion is the key. Passion is defined as “strong, intense desire”. Your passion drives your life. It directs your life. I would say that a man’s passion gives that man’s life meaning. When God’s glory becomes the passion of our prayers, His glory will become the meaning and purpose in all our prayers. His glory will direct and drive our prayers. His glory will be the “strong, all consuming, intense desire” of our hearts when we pray.
In other words, our eyes will lifted to the uttermost heights to see the grandest purpose in devoting ourselves before the Lord in prayer – the majestic, radiant, and awe-inspiring glory of God. His glory is to be the highest and most sought after goal in all our praying.
**Let no request of Him be an end in itself, but, let every request and every prayer be the means for God’s glory! May the glory of His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His wisdom, His power all be made manifest in our ministry. We want Him to be seen in all of our doing.
Jesus’ glory is the Father’s glory. They share equal glory. Jesus says in verse 5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus was returned to His exalted dignity, His rightful place of supreme authority and absolute, unfading, perpetual honor.
It is important to see that Jesus is not inheriting glory, or experiencing it for the first time. Neither did He earn glory. He had it before there was anything created – when there was just God. It is His by virtue of who He is. His glory is the outshining of His perfect excellencies – it is intrinsic.
The Godhead Relationship displays glory. Notice how Christ seeks the glory of the Father and the Father seeks the glory of the Son. Verse 1, “Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you”. Verse 4 Jesus says, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” Jesus sought the glory of the Father in everything He did. In verse 5 He goes on, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” The shared in the glory that is uniquely and exclusively theirs as members of the Triune Godhead. The relationship of the Godhead displays God’s glory.
A House of Prayer Has Eternal Life (v2-3)
A House of Prayer has Eternal Life. We are people who possess eternal life.
First of all, we have eternal life because of the authority of Jesus. The authority of Jesus is an unmatched, unchallenged, immovable power. Daniel 7:13-14 says, “In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” That is authority. And that is Jesus Christ. Matthew 28:18, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” There is nothing in all of existence that does not come under the supreme jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when He says in verse 2, “For you granted Him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.” Only Jesus has authority to give eternal life. Every man who so desires to gain eternal life must come to the only One who has authority to give it to Him. Seek no where else lost sinner lest you perish for doing so. Do not dare go to any ONE or any THING other than the One whom God has give authority to give you life.
While there are those who would seek elsewhere for eternal life and die for doing so, there are also those who would remain indifferent. They are unresponsive. And for their failure to hear the Gospel and believe they too will perish like the rest.
Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus has exclusive authority to give you access to God. Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” His name is the only name that has the authority to give you eternal life.
He has authority to give eternal life, and He has authority to withhold it. And the only reason Jesus would withhold giving a man eternal life is because that man has withheld himself from asking Christ for it.
People who become a House of Prayer know this and therefore, we have come to Jesus Christ and believed in Him for the forgiveness of our sins and for eternal life. And each of us are members of this household. Each of us are a living stone in this House of Prayer that we are building.
Not only is eternal life based on the authority of Jesus Christ, but, we must also see what Eternal life Actually is. It is knowing God. Notice verse 3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Eternal life is not just life that will never end. It is a new quality of life. It is a holy quality that leads to the new experience of God’s holiness in your life. You cannot “know” God and go on unaffected by Him. Knowing Him causes us to become like Him in righteousness. And at the same time, being like Him causes us to know Him. Think of it this way: God only practices and experiences righteousness and when we practice and experience His righteousness we gain deeper knowledge of Him and the eternal life that is His.
Holiness is eternal. Unrighteousness will perish. If you think you have life that will never end and yet you do not know the holiness of God as the experience in your life, I would recommend you take another look at what you think you have and find out for sure if you really have it. The false notion that we can have eternal, never ending life and carry on in an unholy life where we know nothing of the righteousness of God is spiritually insane. The only kind of life that never ends is also of a pure and perfect holiness. If that holiness you have received from God is not growing up and out of your life in increasing measure over time then you need to seriously look again at the word of God.
Eternal life is a quality of life that will never end. And it is given on the authority of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Are you being stirred to pray more? Listen, I can’t make you want to. It is something I have been praying that the Spirit of God would create in your heart. We can set up prayer meetings but will people come? Do you know your need to be in prayer? Do you want to see the power of God in effect in this Church? Do you want to see the glory of God shining at EFC? I’m telling you there is no going forward in this churches ministry unless we become a house of prayer first. Everything grows out of prayer.
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