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00:01 Thank you, uh, Sister Sylvia. Um, Dr. Peter gave me a great privilege,
00:08 uh, this morning, uh, to introduce our speaker. Yeah. Um, and, uh, his name is,
00:13 uh, Pastor Samuel Nason. And, uh, can I call you Sam? He's Samuel to you and Sam
00:20 to me. Okay. Uh, because I was seated with his father last night at the wedding banquet and I have his number in
00:26 my phone. Yeah. So, hence the privilege. Now uh Sam has a long list of
00:32 credential. Yeah. Uh Sam graduated with a master degree in Christian uh studies
00:38 from the seminary Theology of Malaysia and also served as a associate pastor at
00:44 Panti Baptist Church. Yeah. Formerly known as uh First Baptist Church. And
00:50 prior to that he also graduated with a bachelor of theology and a diploma in
00:55 counseling studies. Yeah. B uh Bible College of Malaysia. Now, prior to
01:01 pastoring at Pantai, uh Sam worked in the youth ministry of Calvary Assembly
01:06 of God from 2009 to 2012 and was subsequently responsible for
01:13 establishing an apologetic ministry. I think he will talk a little bit about that later.
01:19 And uh most of all Sam actually enjoys Bington and he is a commentator for
01:26 Astro. How cool is that? Yeah. Yeah. Please big
01:31 round for him. Yeah. And he had also coached professionals shuttlers both
01:38 locally and abroad. Whoa. Yeah. And uh just about two weeks ago he launched and
01:44 um explained apologetic ministry. Yeah. in partnership with our very own pastor
01:50 Mark. So I want you to put your hands together and welcome Pastor Sam. Yeah. To the pil. Thank you.
01:59 Thank you. Am I am I on? All right. I think I am. Good morning everyone. And uh it's truly a pleasure being here. Uh
02:08 just want to thank Dr. Peter for giving me this opportunity this morning to share God's word with you. Um the last
02:14 time I was actually here was um actually on June 10th about a couple of months ago and the context was radically
02:21 different from what I'm facing this morning. Today morning I'm in front of people who are expecting to hear the
02:27 word of God who believe uh hopefully uh that is an assumption on my part that
02:32 the Bible is the word of God and that God exists. On June 10th I was here um
02:37 to actually debate a couple of atheists. Uh so it was a twoon two debate. I partnered uh in the words of uh Brendan,
02:45 your very own pastor Markdan um and uh basically debated the both of them. So
02:50 everything I said I had to be so careful because I knew it was going to get torn up uh throughout the process of the
02:56 evening. But today is not quite that day. Um hopefully we we we are in the
03:01 midst of uh people that we believe that God has spoken and the text in front of me this this morning is on the high
03:08 priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. Now I'm going to get into that in a minute. Uh
03:14 but before I do that, let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our heavenly father, we come before you
03:21 God and we marvel at the works of your hands. We thank you Lord for giving us
03:27 an insight into the discussion of the Godhead. Lord, even as we go through
03:33 your word, I pray you anoint my lips to speak truth and Lord that everything that is said and done bring glory to
03:41 your son Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray and ask. Amen.
03:47 Now before we begin, I use the word high priestly prayer to describe the title.
03:55 um from which I will share from the entirety of John chapter 17. Now it has
04:01 to be said that there are a lot of terminologies that is used that is pretty uncommon to us in our day and age
04:08 biblical terminology that is for example when we use the word high priestly I
04:14 wonder what comes into your mind u because what comes to our mind could be significantly different from what
04:21 occurred into the minds of the people back in the day. So for example, we use words like kingdom. As one theologian
04:28 puts it, Jesus did not come to bring about the republic of God. He came to bring about the kingdom of God. And when
04:35 we use the word kingdom today, our understanding of kingdom is not quite the same as the biblical ones. We have a
04:43 monarch today. We have the young Aong. But the young Aong is by uh no means the
04:50 same in which the Christ is described as a king. The Aong is a constitutional
04:57 monarch. He's bound by the constitution. Jesus is not bound by any constitution.
05:02 So there is a difference that must be pointed out even before we engage the text between our understanding and the
05:10 biblical understanding. And we use the word high priestly prayer here in engaging this. Now I'm I'm going to
05:16 explain the term high priestly as we go but just a quick uh brief introduction
05:22 to it. It is the role of the high priest to basically make atonement. This is
05:29 another word which rings unfamiliarity. U the atonement is basically to pay for
05:35 sins uh that have been committed. So if sins have committed against God, God uh
05:41 expects payment for the sins that have been done. Um so uh when you look into
05:46 this text today, you're looking at a high priestly prayer where Jesus is acting as the high priest in making this
05:54 prayer. But at the same time, he prays it unlike every other high priest who
05:60 prays for the people uh who have been put under their their I mean who has been put under them. Jesus is not going
06:06 to sacrifice lambs, sheeps, bulls and goats. The
06:12 sacrifice that is offered by this high priest is none other than himself. So as
06:18 we look at it, it's a bit different and as we go through it, uh I I believe that the Lord will share to us the text that
06:25 we have before us. Let's begin with the context. I just like to run through a bit of what I believe is the context
06:31 which is important for us to understand this text. The first of all is that this is the prayer of all prayers. It's the
06:40 what is appropriately should be called the Lord's Prayer. Now, when you look in the um the Gospel of Matthew and so
06:48 forth and Luke, you will find what is often referred to as the Lord's Prayer.
06:53 But when you examine them, you realize they're not really the Lord's prayer, but rather the disciples prayer. It's
06:58 the model by which Christ is instructing his disciples to pray and how they
07:05 basically basically should should should uh commit them their things to God. But when you come here, we actually being
07:12 given a sneak peek eavesdropping if you like into a discussion that God himself
07:19 is having within that godhead. So it has to be said that Jesus in his lifetime
07:26 prayed That is an understatement because if you look at it, the disciples in the morning
07:32 would find Jesus disappeared. He would be praying. In the night he would be he would go off by himself to pray. You
07:37 just wonder when was Jesus not praying. He was always praying. Now, of course, some people would say, well, if he's
07:43 always praying, he can't be God because why would God pray? But that clearly is a misunderstanding
07:50 because there is we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity where there is a discussion and a communion within God
07:56 himself. So Jesus here constantly prays but what we have in the gospels is
08:04 really not a complete picture of the prayer made by our lord. We have snippets I should say here and there.
08:10 For example uh we have Jesus when he's praying prior to the raising of Lazarus.
08:16 Jesus prays and says Lord I thank you that you have heard me uh and basically just raises Lazarus from the dead. It's
08:22 a statement we have from Christ. You you for example you have the prayer of Jesus
08:28 uh in in different places when the the Greeks approach him he says I thank you father that you have glorified me and
08:34 basically the father responds you have snippets when you look at the prayers of Jesus Christ everywhere else in the
08:41 gospel but here what we have before us uh is really a discourse it's the
08:49 longest passage where we actually get to benefit from hearing what Jesus says to
08:56 the father. Now, I was introduced as someone who was actively involved in bminton. It's pretty hard to discern
09:02 that looking at my shape and size today. Uh because I've grown significantly uh
09:07 horizontally. Um so, uh but back then uh when I was in in Bminton, this was about
09:14 6 years ago or maybe a bit less than that, uh I I was actually managing a club in the Malaysian League. It's known
09:21 as the Purple League. Uh for those of you who watch bminton uh it was the inaugural season and we basically had to
09:28 uh pick players. I was the manager of one of the clubs and we had 20 players uh we had to name uh basically they
09:35 ought to have they have to be from a certain standard. Three out of the 20 players in my club were former world
09:40 number ones. So I was privileged to have that one of them held the Guinness Book of Records for the world's fastest
09:46 smash. I wonder if that has been broken yet. But the point is one of them a
09:51 couple of the these former world number ones were Indonesians Hendra Gunnawan and Vita Marisa they were former world
09:58 number on's in the mixed doubles category. So the privilege I had and basically coaching uh was to actually go
10:05 midame and have a word to to say to them. And sometimes you wonder as a nobody in bminton, what do you say to
10:11 these legends, these former world number ones? So sometimes what you do is just be quiet and let the two former world
10:19 number ones speak to each other and you eaves drop and then you go, "Aha, that's what I meant." Yeah. You know, that's
10:26 exactly what I meant. I meant to say that uh you took the words right out of my mouth.
10:31 So you you you have this scenario here where you actually can eaves drop at as
10:36 to two really really big names uh and basically here what are the things that
10:41 they're complaining about. You see they don't talk as normal players do. These are legends. The things that are uh
10:47 basically uh considered advanced for many of the state players are basically
10:53 elementary to these guys. These guys are veterans in the sport. Now take that
10:58 very same imagery and basically transfer it to Jesus. We're not talking about
11:03 players here. We're talking about God manifest in the flesh and he's going to
11:09 have a discussion with his father. The lessons that we learn out of this is
11:15 going to be significant for shaping the way we think. Now the other thing I want
11:20 to point out before we begin is that this comes in a context. This is not a vacuum. John 17:1
11:26 tells us that when Jesus had spoken these words,
11:32 he lifted up his eyes. So basically the context of all this is that Jesus has
11:38 given a lengthy discourse to the disciples uh in the John chapter 14-6. I
11:44 believe you've already gone through them. So if Jesus is giving a lengthy discussion between John 14:16, the fact
11:51 that this phrase here when Jesus had spoken these words uh mean here uh
11:57 basically they point to the fact that Jesus is connecting this prayer to the
12:03 teachings he has taught them. There's a connection between the teachings of Jesus and the prayer that
12:09 is about to follow. And that actually leads me to my point which is u the middle point that this is not Jesus
12:15 prayer in Gethsemane. In Gethsemane you see a prayer where Jesus humbles himself
12:20 before the father and he says not thy will uh not my will but thine be done.
12:27 This is not that prayer. This prayer is made publicly that the disciples may
12:32 hear. So to the father what's happening here is there are four things that are going to go on here. I'll divide them
12:38 into two categories to the father. This is a petition and this is a
12:44 proclamation. Jesus is going to ask the father for certain things and we need to again eaves drop for a lack of a better
12:51 word as to what Jesus is saying. And on the other hand, Jesus is going to
12:56 proclaim certain things to the father. It's almost like he's giving an an annual report of what he has done or
13:03 maybe in this case three years report of what he's done. He's going to report to the father what he's done in a very
13:09 proclamative almost as if he's proclaiming the works he has done and at the same time going to make a few
13:15 petitions in the process that is with respect to the father but to the
13:22 disciples bear in mind that this is said loud and clear that the disciple particularly John could record down the
13:28 words that Jesus was speaking to the disciples it was instruction and
13:35 revelation instruction in the sense sometimes I I'm not sure whether um you notice this you
13:41 may be uh if you've been in church for a long time that sometimes when people pray uh they tend to give instructions
13:48 as they pray have you am I the only one who thinks that or someone else here felt the same
13:55 way too you know sometimes you you hear prayers where people say Lord you know we pray that you give them ears to hear
14:00 what is being said Lord we pray that you give them a humble heart to accept uh not to be judged judgemental. You almost
14:06 feel that you're being told what to do in the prayer. Hope you get what I'm getting at today.
14:12 So, in this case, this is one of those instances where I think we have Jesus
14:17 making a loud prayer to the father. It is not the Gethsemane prayer where he goes there and and prays in secret uh
14:24 with the exception of three disciples close by. This is an instance where he's
14:29 making loud proclamations. He expects the disciples to take note. So with that
14:35 said um let's get into the text. So I'm going to divide the text uh basically into three parts. The first of which uh
14:42 is between verses 1 to5. The prayer of Jesus focuses on himself.
14:50 So part one the high priestly prayer of Jesus for himself. Now in John chapter
14:57 17 verse one. Can we go to the next slide please? Thank you. uh in John 17
15:03 verse one verse 1 to verse 5 is Jesus basically focusing on himself in the
15:08 process of making the high priestly prayer Jesus begins by praying for
15:15 himself now this is going to be really interesting what on earth would Jesus pray for himself Jesus here is going to
15:24 say the first thing he said is that he lifted up his eyes to heaven common posture for Jewish prayer and said
15:31 Father, the hour has come.
15:36 The hour has come. Now, if you've been following the Gospel of John, you realize many times Jesus would say, "The
15:44 hour has not come." Many times he would say that, you know, when he was going to ask to do this, he says, "The hour has
15:51 not come." The hour has not come. But when it comes to a group of Greeks that
15:56 meets him closer to the passion week, Jesus begins to say the hour has come.
16:03 What hour is Jesus referring to? It's the hour as we're going to see of his
16:08 glory. So Jesus in the process of his life on earth looked to the cross not as
16:16 if it was going to be a picture of his pain, not as if that is his doom. He
16:22 looks to the cross as if it is his moment of glory.
16:27 Let me just take that to our day and age when we approach suffering. And that
16:34 really is a big theme, isn't it? When you do apologetics, I mean uh when you
16:39 do debates on apologetics with atheist, one of the main things that comes up, uh it's almost the cliche that is shot up
16:46 every now and again. It is the problem of suffering. If there is a good and loving God, why
16:53 is there suffering? The interesting thing here, of course, is that the loving God himself is
17:01 suffering and yet does not look to that suffering as if it is a sort of tragedy in the
17:08 Greek way of looking at it, but that it is his moment for glory. And if we were
17:14 to look to our sufferings with that same light, I I I'll be I think it be reminds
17:19 us of that song we we we often recited when we were younger. With Christ in the
17:25 vessel, you can smile at the storm because he is there looking at it in the
17:30 way that Christ did. So Jesus is going to say here, "Father, the hour has
17:36 come." telling him that this is the moment of glory because everything else
17:41 in verses 1 to5 points to the word glory. Jesus has only one petition to
17:48 the father. The one petition that Jesus has look through verses 1 to5 there is
17:53 only one thing that Jesus is asking the father that is that the father glorify
17:59 the son. Now glorification of the sun is the only
18:06 petition we have here. And at this point the Muslim objections uh come in because
18:13 when you have the Muslim objections they look to vers three for example they take this very same prayer where Jesus is
18:20 asking uh for the glory. They look through verse three and they say they find this verse. It says in verse three,
18:26 "And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God." And they stop
18:33 there and they say, "Why do Christians worship Jesus when Jesus himself says
18:40 that the father is the only true God?" It it seems to be some sort of a
18:46 contradiction that we we are not aware of the way it's brought out. But if anyone were to look at this context, if
18:53 you were to look at verses 1 to5, you realize no human beings could utter the words that Jesus is about to utter. So
19:02 Jesus prayer deals with his glorification.
19:07 Five times it is written here, the word glory is used in different ways. Five times it is used in different ways. And
19:12 I want to quickly highlight three points on what the glorification of Jesus
19:17 points to. Number one, the glorification of Jesus is meant in this context to
19:23 reverse his state of humiliation. Jesus as a man was in a state of
19:30 humiliation. I I wonder how many of you, you know, there are times where as a person you
19:36 have to run. Uh some I I do this quite often. I've done this so much that now
19:42 my ego is completely gone. If I see bees or if I see cockroaches, I run. Uh, and
19:49 when I started dating, you know, I I I I told myself that I will never do this in the presence of my girlfriend. And guess
19:55 what? Instinct kicks in. You do that as well. Now, it's come to the point where, you know, it's it's it's a well-known fact. If I see cockroaches, I run. When
20:02 you have to run, you realize that it actually diminishes your ego just a bit.
20:07 Just a bit. And Jesus at least on two occasions in
20:13 the Gospel of John is seen to have been almost running away, escaping. The pre
20:20 the Jewish leaders are there to kill him. Jesus escapes from their midst. I wonder how did he escape. I don't think
20:25 he vanished out of thin into thin air. The likely the likely way to solve that
20:31 is that Jesus ran or maybe hid himself. But think about this. This is the Lord
20:36 of glory. This is the God who by the breath of his mouth called the stars, formed the stars, formed the universe.
20:43 And now he's running from mere men. This is the state of humiliation that
20:49 Jesus was in. He suffered this for I mean his lifetime. And now that it was
20:54 coming to an end, his prayer deals with the reversal of this state of
20:59 humiliation. He's reminding the father that the state of humiliation is over.
21:05 That's what he means that the hour has come. He says here glorify the son that
21:10 the son may glorify you. Verse two says since you have given him authority over all flesh. Um in fact a better
21:17 translation according to da Carson would be just as you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to
21:24 those whom you have given him and this is eternal life that they know you the
21:30 only true God and Jesus whom you have sent. So the picture that Jesus is painting here is you have given me
21:36 authority and I am in this state of humiliation. Reverse it.
21:44 The first part of Jesus prayer. The second thing that Jesus does is that
21:50 Jesus glorification is meant to glorify the father. It's not as if Jesus is
21:56 saying glorify me as a stubborn child cries out. But rather he makes it very
22:01 clear. glorify verse one your son that the son may glorify you. Very often we
22:08 are in the pursuit of self- glorification. It's inescapable. We love
22:13 the moments that a little bit of credit is thrown our way. Um in fact I think it was RC Sprout noted theologian who was
22:21 praising DA Carson for being uh one of the uh best New Testament scholars in
22:26 the world. To which DA Carson replied, I'm not sure which of us is the bigger sinner. You for flattery, committing the
22:33 sin of flattery or me for actually enjoying it. Um and and to which the uh RC Sprout
22:40 replied, I wasn't flattering, but you are definitely the sinner for enjoying it. You shouldn't be. But again, it is
22:45 inevitable. As much as we try and strive to be humble, we have to be honest with
22:52 ourselves. We love it when a little bit of glory is thrown our way. It's almost like we bask in it, but we don't want to
22:58 be too open about it. Um, of course, we push it away. There's false humility sometimes. No, don't say that. Don't say
23:04 that. But the heart says say it more. Come on now. What what's going on here is that
23:11 Jesus is giving us a model. The glory that is meant to go to him is not just for him. It is meant to bring glory to
23:19 the father. It is not an end to itself. The father is glorified in the glory of
23:24 Jesus. Now if I were to go even deeper, the glory that Jesus is going to be referring to is his death on the cross.
23:31 It is the moment through which the justice of God shines so clearly and yet
23:37 the love of God matches it. That is the picture that the Christ that Christ is
23:43 giving us here in this. And finally, the glory of Jesus reveals his
23:48 pre-existence. Now I I I when I read this, I I didn't get it the first time. I needed to read this at least a few
23:54 times in order for me to get it. But look at verse four if you have your Bibles. It says in verse four, I
24:01 glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you g you have gave me to do. So think look at the
24:08 context. Jesus saying I have glorified you on earth uh doing the works that you've given me to do. Verse five. And
24:15 now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with you
24:20 before the world existed. How could anyone take this verse passage
24:27 to talk about the humanity of Jesus when Jesus can stare up to heaven, look at the father and say, "Give me the glory."
24:35 Not this any new glory, not bestow your favor upon me, the unmmerited favor. No, no. He says, "Restore me to the glory
24:42 that I had with you before the world began." Jesus had a pre-existence.
24:48 Jesus did not just begin to exist. Jesus had a pre-existence. And the glory he's
24:54 talking here, there's a parallel. I glorified you on earth. Glorify me in
24:59 your presence. It's almost as if Jesus is saying to the father, "Give me what
25:05 is due to me." No human being could ever utter such words. It would not bother on
25:11 blasphemy. It would have very well crossed the line into blasphemy. But Jesus is able to look to the father and
25:17 say that. Now this stresses the divinity of Jesus more than anything else. But he
25:23 is not going to stop there. His prayer for himself is that his glory be given to him. Three parts to it. And he's
25:30 going to go on to talk about the next part. But before I do that, let's quickly look at uh the passage that Paul
25:38 gives us in uh Philippians chapter 2
25:44 where Paul actually presents a picture of Jesus humility. Let's this will be a
25:49 good picture to just sink this in. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.
25:56 This Philippians 2:51 who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped
26:03 but emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he
26:10 humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death even death on the cross.
26:16 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above
26:22 every name. The humility of Christ is what leads to his glory. I'll finish the
26:28 end of the chapter at the end of the sermon at the end of the passage at the end of the sermon. But a point I want to
26:33 stress here in this first point is this. What is our response to Christ? If
26:39 Christ is asking glory from the father in the manner in which he has asked, what more does he demand of us?
26:47 And sometimes I feel we have a very diminished view of Christ in our minds.
26:54 We see Christ as far smaller than what he actually is. The time has come if there is any instruction to be derived
27:01 from the words of Jesus here. It is that we need to have a much higher view of Christ. We need to glorify Christ in the
27:09 things that we do. Look at the glory he's demanding from the father here. Perhaps the word demand doesn't quite
27:15 cut it, but I can't find any other better words. The glory that he's petitioning from the father here is the
27:21 same glory that he has achieved through uh basically glorifying the father here on earth. And the point I'm trying to
27:28 make here is this. When we do everything, do we do it for Christ or do we do it for our own glory? That is a
27:35 question we're going to have to ask. But we'll reflect on this as we go on. The next part of it deals with Jesus' prayer
27:41 for the disciples. Jesus is going to look at the disciples and he's going to
27:47 pray for them uh in the next part. So in the next part we see from verses 6
27:53 he says I have manifested your name to the people you gave me out of the world
27:60 yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your words. The focus
28:06 shifts from the father to for the glor glorification of Jesus to the
28:12 glorification of the disciples. Here I just want to quickly point out something. It's impossible to go through
28:18 every verse. We don't have the time for that
28:23 Jesus makes here. He uses the word I have and I am a total of 11 times in
28:31 this passage in in verses 6 to9. It's 11 times he uses the word I have. I have. I
28:37 have. I have. And six times he uses it. I am. I am. I am. If we look to this,
28:43 you get a picture of what Jesus is actually praying for the disciples. The first I have that Jesus uses. And this
28:50 is by the way in the past tense. Jesus says, I have manifested your names to
28:56 the disciples. Verse six. What did Jesus do? Now most of us when when I I did a
29:03 seminar on the trinity recently and and I asked the question what is the meaning of the name of Jesus uh of course some
29:11 people knew the answer straight away. They said the angel said call his name Jesus uh for he will save his people
29:17 from their sins. Of course there were a variety of answers offered to that question. But the point I wanted to pull
29:23 out here is this that Jesus
29:28 name if you understood the angelic proclamation actually meant far more than what it seem on surface. The name
29:35 Jesus literally means Yahweh saves. Yahweh the name of God in the Old
29:40 Testament. It literally means Yahweh saves. And if you look at the way the angel is phrasing the the name Jesus,
29:47 you you get a better picture of what he who he truly is. The angel says, "Calls his name in Hebrew, Yahweh saves,
29:56 for he will save." Call his name Yahweh saves for he will
30:04 save. Can I ask you a question this morning? By implication, what is the angel saying Jesus is? Yahweh.
30:12 Because don't call his name Yahweh saves. For you have faith that in a God who saves. Call him Yahweh saves for he
30:18 will save. The name Jesus is the name of Yahweh. And if you look through the Old
30:24 Testament, you find that as I mentioned earlier, God gives his glory to no one.
30:30 The Bible says in Isaiah 42, I will share my glory with no one. Here is a man with the name of the father asking
30:38 him to share his glory with him. He is God manifested in the flesh. And the point that Jesus is making here is that
30:45 the name of God was given to the disciples. They have been familiarized
30:51 with the name of God himself. The second thing that Jesus says is that he has given them the words you gave me. Verse
30:59 eight. In other words, the teaching that Jesus gave is not from himself. It is derived
31:06 from the father's authority. Sometimes when we teach particularly as teachers and preachers we we try to be a little
31:13 bit creative and that's not necessarily a bad thing but we we need to realize if the teaching is not from Christ if it
31:20 does not originate from God there is no power. Sure it might it might interest a couple
31:26 of people who are interested in the facts but if the preaching is not derived from the power of the word of
31:32 God it will bring no effect. It may create temporary excitement but that will be it. The power really comes from
31:40 God's word. When Moses goes to Pharaoh with the help of Aaron uh and says to Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Pharaoh's
31:48 response is no. But because the word did not come from Aaron. In fact, the word did not even
31:54 come from Moses. The word came from God Yahweh in the Old Testament. Even though
32:00 Pharaoh says no, a few days later, Pharaoh is going to call them and says, "Take your people and go out. Leave."
32:07 What changed? Pharaoh in his state may say no. But because the word came from God, it had the power to transform the
32:14 mind of even a most stubborn man like Pharaoh. It has the power to transform. And the
32:21 teaching that Jesus gave was not from himself. It was derived from the father.
32:27 Jesus says to them, it's almost the proclamation that Jesus is making. He has given them the teaching of the
32:33 father. The next thing and it's an important one is that Jesus says he has guarded them. Verse 12.
32:42 Verse 12 is an interesting verse because on the one hand he's saying he's guarded them. On the other hand, he seems to be
32:47 implying something else. He says, "While I was with them, I kept them in your name which you have given me. I have
32:54 guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction
32:60 that the scripture might be fulfilled. But this is going to give us a model
33:05 there. There of course uh both Calvinist and Armenian preachers jump on this to interpret this in different variety of
33:11 different ways. I'm not going to fall into that today. But the point I want to make is this. The prayer of Jesus here
33:18 is specific. It is not a general prayer that he prays. I know that we love praying for the world. It's not a bad
33:24 thing to pray for the world. It is not a bad thing to pray for the hungry in Africa. It is not a bad thing to pray
33:31 for the victims of tragedy in different parts of the world that are suffering tragedy every day. But the fact of the
33:37 matter is when Jesus prays, the prayer is specifically for his disciples.
33:43 Do we pray for our church members? Do we pray for our children?
33:51 children are in the midst of leaving to go to college. Um when they go there, of
33:56 course, they're going to be subject to a variety of different influences. Depends on where they are. Uh when you when you
34:02 go to Sabah and Sarawak, they they're afraid of it because the moment you go to these schools and centers, u they're
34:08 subject to Islamic influences and are taught uh things contrary to the scripture. And of course if you go to a
34:15 more secular setting uh it is basically question everything and your Bible which is not a bad thing but the
34:21 presupposition is that the Bible can't be right it is so old and then we wonder
34:26 why the pe young people start losing the faith and then we start adding even more work to it. There needs to be an
34:32 emphasis on prayer. Jesus is the greatest shepherd there is. But if Jesus feels the need to pray for
34:39 his disciples, how much more you and I need to pray for those God has entrusted under us.
34:45 It needs to be there. Jesus is God in the flesh. And even then, the need is there to pray for those. I wish I had
34:52 more time. I'm going to rush through this as we go along. The other thing is Jesus says to them, verse 14, he has
34:58 given them your word. In other words, the word that is spoken
35:03 here is the very same word that is used in John 1:1, himself.
35:09 Jesus did not just give them a teaching. He gave them himself. The final thing is
35:14 that Jesus says on top of all this, it didn't stop there. Verse 14, uh, sorry,
35:22 verse 18, he also sent them into the world.
35:27 Now, the context here is going to be really interesting. I just resigned from my local church uh in uh two weeks ago
35:35 and when I was resigning you know I I had a time to meet with some of those who I've been discipling uh telling them
35:40 that you know God had called me to go into an apologetic ministry uh but at the same time there is a fear u not a
35:48 big one but there is a fear that you know will they be properly discipled you know what's going to happen to these
35:54 people I mean this I think it's quite natural to think about these kind of things as if you know that we are the ones if we don't concern ourselves with
36:00 that who else will um not true but the point is that when we concern ourselves
36:05 with these things uh imagine how Jesus would have felt now Jesus was not resigning from the world
36:12 Jesus was not just going to a different place
36:18 was going to be killed and if we understand anything about the Jewish mind to get killed means that you can no
36:24 longer be the Messiah the Jewish understanding of a messiah was a victorious one was the triumphant one.
36:30 And the moment a messiah is killed, you know he was a false messiah. Jesus prayer to the father for his disciples
36:37 is heartfelt. He's going to send them to the world. They have to have his prayer
36:42 covering them. And maybe if I could just skip the the ams as we go to the final
36:49 part. But the point I want to draw here is this. Two things we learned from the glory of Jesus. We realize that
36:56 everything we need to do needs to bring glory to Christ. The second thing that we see here, we need to pray for those
37:03 that Christ has given us. When you look at the I am phrases here, Jesus repeatedly says that he's praying for
37:09 the disciples. That's what he does. And that's really what the high priest ministry is. Jesus is not done.
37:16 Jesus is in heaven interceding for his people. As one theologian puts it, the
37:22 dust of the earth now sits on the throne room of heaven because we now have a representative before God. Today, if
37:29 you're struggling with your any needs that you have, bear in mind there is someone praying for you. I I came from a
37:36 church setting, not the a couple of churches ago, not my last one, but um I came from a church
37:42 setting where there was a lot of emphasis on pastors laying hands and praying. It's almost as if if the pastor
37:48 laid his hands and prayed uh you get a better chance of getting what you want because the pastor has more anointing.
37:54 Not true. But u that's the perception that is out there. Now if that is so imagine the power that
38:03 we have and the assurance we have knowing that Christ himself is at this very moment seated at the right hand of
38:09 the father interceding for us. and and we we read that psalm Psalms 24
38:15 be lifted up ancient gates be lifted up you doors that the king of glory may come in the picture that the psalmist is
38:20 drawing there is that a man a mere man is walking to the gates of heaven
38:27 upon his ascension he's going to heaven and he's almost telling these doors to be lifted up and it's almost in utter
38:33 disbelief no man would dare to come to these gates in heaven and open them no
38:38 man is worthy of that and it's almost like those gates are talking back and saying,
38:43 "Who is this that demands that these doors be opened?" And the word comes, the reply comes, "It is the Lord, the
38:49 Lord of glory." The very exact thing that Jesus was
38:54 asking of the father here. He seated at the right hand. He's praying for us. That should give us assurance in our
39:01 walk with him. Now the final thing that I want to go here before we uh before I
39:07 close is that Jesus doesn't just stop by praying for the disciples. He prays for
39:13 all the believers as well. Here is where you and I come in. Here is where you and
39:20 I are mentioned not in name but implied here in the prayer of Jesus. Jesus says
39:26 in verse 20, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that
39:35 they may be one just as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be
39:41 in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Now the petition of
39:47 Jesus here. I just want to highlight the petition of Jesus uh here. Uh the petition Jesus makes here is that
39:56 the first thing is found in verses 21 repeated in verse 22. Usually Jesus uses the phrase here that
40:03 day. That day that day the first thing that Jesus says here is that they may be
40:08 one. He repeats that in verse 22 as I said but it doesn't stop there. He says in verse 21 that also may be in us and
40:16 in verse 23 that they may be perfectly one. Now you get an idea in the ancient
40:22 world that when a person repeats something again and again and again and again
40:27 he's trying to make a point. And if you remember what I said earlier that this was uttered in the presence of the
40:34 disciples you get the message that what Jesus is trying to drive here. Jesus is simply saying he wants the church to be
40:42 one. Now I wonder if Jesus was setting the goal too high because you look at the
40:49 church today we realize we are comprised of different people who think differently, who dress differently, who
40:54 speak differently, who come from different languages, cultures, tribe, tongues. How on earth do we achieve
41:02 oneness? It seems like a virtual impossibility. And especially when Jesus utters in
41:08 verse 23 that they may become perfectly one,
41:14 let alone be one. That itself is mission impossible. Perfectly one.
41:20 What is Jesus getting at here today?
41:26 The prayer of Jesus focuses on the unity of the church. And here is where if
41:32 there is anything we could draw, remember I said it was tied to Jesus' examples in chap John chapter 14-16.
41:39 This prayer is a continuation of that. If you look through John 14 and 16, one of the things that Jesus does, the king
41:45 of glory takes himself, wraps a towel around himself and starts washing the feet of
41:53 the disciples. That is the context in which Jesus is speaking about these things. You know, every time, now this
41:59 is I I'm not sure we look up to the apostles, and I'm sure that God has a reason for appointing them, but if you
42:05 look through the gospel writings, every time Jesus mentions his death, the apostles would end up fighting about who
42:12 is going to be the greatest. Every time he mentions his death, can
42:17 you imagine that you are saying that, you know, I'm I'm going to leave the world, the son of man is going to go to Jerusalem to be crucified. There's a
42:22 fight there. Who is going to take Jesus place? Who is who is the greatest? It's utterly disgusting, isn't it? But
42:30 here is Jesus. How does he overcome that? He could scold them. He could beat them over the head. A very Asian thing
42:37 to do, I might add. But
42:42 Jesus wraps himself in a towel and starts washing feets to give the
42:48 illustration that he who is greatest must be the least.
42:54 And here's where Paul, again, I'm going to quote back Paul in just a minute here, uh, Philippians chapter 2, but
42:60 that passage in Philippians chapter 2 tells us to consider the example that
43:05 Christ himself has set down for us. If we were to consider others greater than
43:10 ourselves, this would be achievable. The problem is that we have a too high a view of
43:17 ourself and perhaps a wrong perception as to who Jesus is.
43:23 Kelvin puts it brilliantly. He talks about the knowledge of self and the knowledge of God. And I'm going to close
43:29 uh with this with the last passage of scripture. There are two knowledges here. There are
43:36 knowledge of who we are and there's a knowledge of who God is. And the problem
43:41 he is, I don't know which of these comes first, but they seem to be coming together. One leads to the other. I'm
43:48 not sure which comes first. In other words, if I truly know who God is, then I truly know who I am. And if I truly
43:55 know who I am, then I truly God is. Now, if we have a high view of oursel,
44:02 we look through the prophets, uh, Isaiah for example, who gives us a good model of this. Isaiah, one of the most holy
44:08 prophets. The reason I use the word holy is he predicts the death of Christ with such accuracy in Isaiah 53. Isaiah is
44:17 going to say early on that I am a man of unclean lips and I come from a group unclean people.
44:24 And the question really ought to be asked to Isaiah here. You are a holy prophet of God. Why on earth would you
44:31 think that you have unclean lips? Isaiah answers. He says for my eyes have seen
44:37 the king. the Lord of hosts. You see, Isaiah understood how depraved he is
44:43 when he saw the Lord of hosts. As long as we're looking at each other, the
44:48 problem is even the worst among us, we compare ourselves to one another. And when I compare myself to you, trust
44:54 me, I'm not going to be fair. I'm not going to be unprejudiced. I'm going to pit my strength against your weakness
45:02 and show you why I'm better than you. And that's the recipe to create this unity in the church. But the moment I
45:09 look to Christ and I realize that in his light, how depraved, disgusting, wild,
45:16 wicked, selfdeceiving that I can be. I immediately realize
45:22 that he is everything and that I am nothing. Paul gives us an example of his
45:28 boasting. When Paul begins to boast, you wonder what this man would boast about. He boasts in the Corinthian epistle in 2
45:36 Corinthians 12:13 you 11:12 you find him Paul saying let me boast like a fool he identifies that to boast is to be
45:42 foolish but even when he's boasting how does he boast he says I have been
45:48 whipped 40 minus one this many times I have been naked I have been shipwrecked
45:54 what what is Paul comparing himself to Jesus Christ you come to that state
45:60 where in your Christian walk you no longer compare compare yourselves with other people that even if you're going to boast, you want to pit yourself
46:06 against Jesus Christ and boast. That is where we ought to come to. And when you
46:12 do that, you find there's unity in the church because I must decrease and he must increase. Let's read together uh in
46:20 closing the passage of Philippians chapter 2. Shall we all read this together? In
46:26 closing, starting from verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is
46:31 yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count
46:36 equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form
46:42 of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form,
46:48 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
46:54 cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
46:60 above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven
47:07 and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord
47:13 to the glory of God the Father. Amen. In
47:18 summary, just let me wrap this up by saying that when we do all things, it
47:24 should be for the glory of Christ. Just as even in Philippians 2, Paul shows us how the glorification of Christ leads to
47:30 the glory of the father. The second thing is that we need to pray for those that God has entrusted below us. You
47:37 realize that you can't really have much disunityity against people you pray for because if you're praying for them,
47:43 you're bringing your supplication to God before them. there's not that there's not a big chance that you can end up,
47:48 you know, having a fight with these people. You may, but the spirit is a bit different.
47:53 And finally, learning to compare ourselves with Christ as we walk and
47:59 anticipate a day. And Jesus puts a brilliant verse here for us. And I was touched by this verse. Jesus says in
48:05 verse 24, "Father, I desire also whom you have given me may be with me where I
48:12 am to see my glory that you have given me because loved me before the
48:18 foundations of the world." How many of us long to see the glory that Jesus is going to receive one day
48:25 and his glory is going to be shown to the whole world? I look forward to that day and I today pray that each and every
48:31 one of us will be filled with nothing other than the glory of Christ. That we live our lives in anticipation of that
48:38 glorious day. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our father in heaven Lord bring glory to
48:44 the name of Jesus Christ. God in every deed that we do God
48:52 may Lord whether consciously or unconsciously let us bring glory to the name of Jesus. Lord I must decrease
49:01 and he must increase. Lord to say such words as humble me is
49:08 to sign a debt wish God. But if that is what it takes, God for us to truly
49:13 understand the suffering of Christ, if that is what it takes for us to be participants in his coming glory, then
49:20 so be it. God, I pray that you humble us. I pray that you bring us to our knees when we find who we truly are in
49:28 light of who you truly are. Lord, I pray for
49:34 the people that are here listening to this. I pray for each and every one of us,
49:40 God, that you keep us safe by that name, the name above every other name.
49:46 Give us grace, Father, to walk through this life, doing everything, not for our own glory, but for yours alone. In the
49:53 name of your glorified son, Jesus Christ, we pray and ask. Amen.
