John 17

If Jesus Christ thought it important to stay in contact with his Father often by prayer, where does that leave us?

Is that something we can just sort of toss out or bring in whenever we feel like it's necessary? When I'm really in trouble, that's when I'm going to go, oh God, or will I make it a constant priority to be connected with the Father? If Jesus knew that need in himself, then you and I should also know and experience that need. Did you know that the Bible records many moments where even Jesus prayed? It shows you how vital prayer is. Today we continue our countdown of Skip's top 40 messages on the Connect with Skip Heitzig YouTube channel. In the number 30 spot is a message in which Skip teaches from John chapter 17 and dives into one of Jesus' most significant prayers, where Jesus even prayed about you.

Now, here's a resource that will help you grow even closer to Jesus than ever before. When Neil Armstrong took man's first step on the moon, the whole world watched and his first words are well known. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. What is not common knowledge is that the first meal on the moon was the Last Supper. Here's Levi Lesko to discuss his new book, The Last Supper on the Moon. It begins with Buzz Aldrin 1969 July summer on the lunar surface before Neil Armstrong gets out of the Eagle to take that famous first step on the moon, the giant leap. But just before that, Buzz Aldrin opened a pouch and took out wine and bread representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And he had a personal communion service. And that moment when I found out about it about a year previously hit me like a thunderbolt, you know, just to realize that the first thing ever eaten on the moon was the Last Supper.

The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lesko, and it's our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. Okay, let's get into today's teaching. We're in John chapter 17 as we begin our study with Skip Heitig. The occasion is the Passover. It's the annual time when Jews would gather to celebrate, to commemorate what happened thousands of years before in their history. When God delivered their forefathers, a couple million of them, from the clutches of Egypt, Pharaoh especially, who persecuted them and brought them through the wilderness and gave them a new land. Every year they gathered together and every year they sat down and they had a meal together. They ate the Passover lamb and they ate all the elements that spoke of that deliverance.

And there was a lengthy gathering that was kept by a certain order of service known as the Seder. And Jews kept that regularly, annually, and Jesus did so with his disciples. Jesus knows what's about to happen.

They do not. Even though he tells them what's going to happen, the disciples wrestle with it. They have a hard time believing it. I'm sure they really didn't hear the raised from the dead part of it. They just know that Jesus said some bad things are going to happen.

And one of them is going to be betraying them and Peter is going to be denying him and they're all in a fluster. And so after the Passover meal and after he washes their feet in that beautiful servanthood gesture, to encourage and calm them, he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God.

Believe also in me. John 14, 1. When it was all done, when the meal was done, when some of the instruction was over, it was now time to go. So at the end of chapter 14, he says, arise and let us go from here. So the disciples, along with Jesus, get up and they take a walk through the streets of Jerusalem. Because it was Passover in that year, it was the vernal equinox, the moon was full.

Walking through Jerusalem on a full moon, I've done it, you get a pretty good view. And as Jesus was walking from the upper city down toward the Kidron Valley and the Garden of Gethsemane where he will lead his disciples, Jesus could look up along with his 11 men up toward the left as they were coming down the hill and see the gates of the temple. The gates of the temple were enormous bronze with some gold embossing of a vine that represented the nation of Israel. They knew the symbolism.

They knew why it was there. They knew Isaiah chapter 5, where the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. The men of Judah are his pleasant plant. And so looking up at that and being reminded of that, Jesus in chapter 15 says, I'm the real vine. I'm the true vine. You are the branches.

My Father, he's the one who tends the vineyard. And with all of that symbolism, he works his way through those beautiful promises, again telling them the Holy Spirit is going to come, remind them of the things he has said. And on into chapter 16, more instruction as they get closer and closer toward the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is going to pray by himself. But at the end of chapter 16, he says, in this world, you're going to have tribulation. Not just tonight, not just what's coming in the next few hours, in the next few days. It's going to get bad for you.

You're going to be confused. But just in this world in general, you're going to have tribulation. But boys, I want you to cheer up. Be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world. He didn't say, cheer up boys. You're going to bite the bullet and you're going to have to encourage yourselves and work your way to a happy place. Maybe you too can overcome it. He just says, I've overcome it.

I've done it for you. Now all of these great truths, you've got to know, they're not picking up on them. They're not understanding it. They're going to be very, very disheartened in a short period of time.

And they're going to tailspin and forget all of these great promises, just like we do. I'm bringing it up to encourage you so you're not the only one that feels that way. You think, oh man, I've known the Bible, I've read the Bible, but you know, in a time of crisis and a real crunch, I forget those things.

They don't come to mind. I tailspin and I doubt the Lord. Well, you're in great company. You're in the company of Peter and James and John and all the rest. But then in chapter 17, Jesus now begins a prayer. As it opens up, it says, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. All I can tell you as I get into this prayer is we are treading on holy ground.

As Jesus begins a one on one communication with his father, lifting up his eyes, lifting up his voice, he begins to talk to the father just hours before his death. Now this prayer has made an impact on my life through the years. I've resorted to it frequently. It's like I know it by heart. I've spent a lot of time in it.

I actually was so impacted by it, I wrote a little book. I don't know if they still have it in the bookstore, but it's called When God Prays put out by Tyndale House Publishing. It's a little devotional on looking at the prayer life of Jesus for instruction and encouragement in our own prayer life. But I've always loved what John Knox, that great Scottish reformer, used to say about John 17. He said, in this chapter, we are in the holy of holies of the scripture itself. If this were a tabernacle or a temple and there were courts, said John Knox, the very holy of holies would be the 17th chapter.

In fact, he loved it so much. He cherished it so much and referred to it so often that when he was on his deathbed, that great Scottish preacher had his wife read John 17 over and over and over until he passed into eternity. John 17 is the Lord's Prayer. You go, wait a minute, that's not the Lord's Prayer. I know the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. No, that's the disciples prayer.

I know your Bibles may have a little few words on top of it, a title given to it by the Bible publishers that say the Lord's Prayer. But that's the prayer Jesus gave to the disciples to pray. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus was praying in a certain place, we're told, and then after he was done praying, his disciples came to him and they said, Lord, teach us to pray, just like John taught his disciples. And so Jesus said, all right, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know, I know, we all know that prayer by heart.

It is sung at sporting events. It is prayed on a number of occasions. But that is the prayer Jesus gave his disciples to pray. This is the Lord's own prayer.

This is Jesus' prayer to his Father. It is the longest prayer recorded that Jesus prayed. Now, it doesn't mean that Jesus didn't pray longer.

Trust me, he did. We know of occasions when we are told that Jesus went off and spent all night in prayer to the Father. He began his ministry in prayer. He continued his ministry in prayer and he ends his ministry in prayer. When he's on the cross, he prays, Father, forgive them. Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit. So much of what he said on the cross was a prayer. He began, continued, and ended his life in prayer. But this is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.

632 words. I love, by the way, that the disciples came to Jesus and they had one request. They didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach. We want to go to your school of ministry. Lord, teach us to walk on water. That looks so cool. I'd love to just show off to my family when we have picnics. Lord, teach us to heal people. That would be just awesome. Isn't it interesting that of all the things they requested Jesus teach them, the only thing we are told they asked him to teach them was to pray.

Why? My guess is they saw the powerful effect of prayer in Jesus' life. They saw that's the secret. That's how he can do what he does. That's how he can keep going like he keeps going.

That's the secret. It's that relationship he has with the Father. But this, this prayer, this 632 word prayer, this is the Lord's own prayer. Brings up a question. Why does Jesus need to pray? If Jesus is God, if Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, if Jesus is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, if Jesus is who he claimed to be, one who would receive worship, know the thoughts of people like he did in the Gospels, claim to forgive sins, claim equality with the Father like he so often did, if Jesus is, as Paul said Jesus was, being in the form of God or having the very nature of God and not thinking equality with God was the thing to be grasped, if that is the Jesus that we're dealing with here. Why does he need to pray? It's a good question. It's a fair question.

It's a question you and I should wrestle with and wrangle with. While Jesus was on earth, he was in a state of submission to his Father. Absolute subjugation to the Father. He had all of the attributes of deity in human flesh, but you have to understand that Jesus had a unique nature. Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully man. He wasn't God with just kind of a make-believe body that really wasn't human. It was human. The body had to develop.

When you hit his hand or he stubbed his toe, it hurt like yours does. If Jesus in the carpentry shop were to miss with a hammer and hit his thumb, he'd say, ouch, like you would. He wouldn't go, ah. He was fully human. He was all there. But he was also fully God at the same time. So Jesus has a unique nature that we call the theanthropic nature of God.

He was theos, God. He was anthropos, man. Theanthropic.

You are not. You are anthropic. God the Father is God, theos, but Jesus was theos, anthropos, theanthropic. Fully God, fully man. Though he was God and proved himself to be God on a variety of occasions by signs and wonders, at the same time, having emptied himself, Philippians 2 is the answer. Being in the form of God, thinking of not robbery, to be equal with God, Paul said he emptied himself and became obedient.

He became like a bondservant. Serving the Father's will. Being able to say, I always do those things that please the Father. So he lived in voluntary subjugation, subjection, obedience to the Father, having a human nature at the same time divine. He was in submission to the will of the Father.

So that's why he could say, my Father is greater than I. Now Jesus since then has been glorified, has ascended to heaven, is at the right hand of God even today, but during his humanity, he felt the need to always be in contact with the Father. Spending all night in prayer, sometimes getting up very early in the morning to pray, praying through his ministry, praying till the end.

Now, here's the obvious application. If Jesus Christ thought it important to stay in contact with his Father often by prayer, where does that leave us? Is that something we can just sort of toss out or bring in whenever we feel like it's necessary? When I'm really in trouble, that's when I'm going to go, oh God, or will I make it a constant priority to be connected with the Father? If Jesus knew that need in himself, then you and I should also know and experience that need. Now notice something, we're going slower than I anticipated I realize, but notice that Jesus spoke these words, notice what he does.

What's the next phrase? He lifted up what? He lifted up his eyes, meaning he did this, right? This is a posture of prayer. It's one of the postures the Bible speaks about when you pray. Psalm 124, I believe, it says, I lift my eyes up to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. The idea of lifting up one's eyes is simply a recognition that I'm speaking to someone who's above all, who reigns over all, whose throne is in heaven, who sees everything going on on the earth and in my life.

So I'm recognizing authority by looking up. That's one of the postures in prayer. What's interesting is the Bible doesn't speak about closing your eyes and folding your hands, but what do we do? Close our eyes, bow our heads, fold our hands. The Bible speaks about lifting your eyes, the Bible speaks about kneeling, the Bible speaks about laying flat down, bowing before the Lord, dancing before the Lord. And it's funny that when we choose a posture for prayer, we decide we're going to pick one that's not a biblical one, and we'll go with that one. I would suggest you might want to start incorporating what you actually read as a posture for prayer in the Bible and just see how that works out. Lifting up of hands, that's a commandment in the Bible. Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting, Paul said. Getting on your knees and showing that you're humble, that you have humility before the Lord. So Jesus lifts up his eyes, it's one of the postures of prayer, recognizing God is in heaven on the throne overall. But something else, he also lifted up his voice, not just his eyes. He prayed out loud.

You say, Skip, how do you know that? Well, it's recorded, right? The disciples wrote it down. They had to hear it in order to record it.

Now you might say, well, you may be pushing it here. Jesus didn't always pray out loud. He may have prayed on this occasion because he's walking with his disciples, giving them instruction. Now he wants them to hear in an instructive way how he talks to the Father.

Maybe, but I doubt it. I doubt it because when he gets to the Garden of Gethsemane, he goes off by himself to pray a stone's throw, the Bible says. And the disciples were able to hear what he said and write that down. When Jesus said with a loud voice, from a stone's throw they heard it.

Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. So Jesus didn't just lift up his eyes, he lifted up his voice. He prayed aloud.

I've shared with you this before, and I'm just going to recommend it to when you pray, pray verbally, pray out loud, lift up your voice. And here's why. I know you say, well, people are going to think I'm nuts. Well, yet perhaps, in the wrong context, I mean, if you are taking orders of Taco Bell and you're talking out loud when you should be saying thank you, what else would you like?

Would you like a Coke with that? Oh, Heavenly Father, you can freak some people out. But I guarantee you, you can pray out loud when you're driving in your car.

I see people bopping and weaving and singing all the time and talking on their cell phone all the time out loud. I think you can pray out loud in your car. I like to take a walk and pray out loud, and the reason I do is because when I pray silently, I don't know about you, but I easily get distracted in prayer. I mean, I've caught myself stopping in the middle of a sentence when I pray silently and getting up and doing something I remembered to do that I've forgotten to do. It's amazing how you remember things that need to be done when you're talking to God. So you pray out loud.

It's a good habit to get into. Jesus did it, and His disciples heard it and they recorded it. And He said, Father, the hour has come. Isn't that a familiar phrase?

It should be by now. Six times, as mentioned in this book alone, Jesus kept talking about His hour. At the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, His mother said, Hey, do this trick. He said, Woman, my hour has not yet come. They tried to seize Him in the temple, but it said, But His hour had not yet come. All of those are references to this time, this hour, where He's going to the cross. This is why He came.

And that's why it is worded this way. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, as you have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. And this, verse 3, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. That's Skip Heitzig's number 30 message on our Top 40 Messages countdown.

It's from the series Expound John. Find the full message and more of Skip's teachings that you can watch from the comfort of your couch on your big screen TV at YouTube.com slash Calvary ABQ. Now, here's Skip with an important message for you. God sent His only Son to die on a cross for our sins just so we could be with Him forever.

That shows us just how amazing His love and grace really is. Well, we want to take that great news to more people around the globe. And you can help make that happen. Here's how you can help connect even more people with the gospel. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. And come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares another Top 40 message and explains how your love can be as inclusive as God's. If God loved the world, then we should love the people that are in that world as well. Jesus loves people. That's the theme of this whole series.

He loves gay people, straight people, prostitutes, thieves, drunks, atheists, agnostics, religious people, and even you and I. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.