This is Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times through verse by verse teaching of His work. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. I would like stop short in the hallway, short of their door, and just sort of listen into the conversations, very revealing, and sometimes pick up the phone to hear the conversations going on. Now, you're not surprised at that. Kids do that. You did that. But when I was first married, I would also eavesdrop on my wife's quiet times. I did that because they really weren't quiet. She would often sing to the Lord, and I would hear this voice across our apartment, and there she was, and I'd peek in, and her eyes were closed, but she was singing a song to the Lord. And it was inspiring to eavesdrop on that kind of intimate communication. By the way, you don't have to worry. I'm not running around town eavesdropping on all of y'all, though I have been accused of that by some paranoid folks.
I don't do that. But sometimes it is wonderful to eavesdrop, especially on the prayers of a child, and to read children's prayers. A seven-year-old girl by the name of Debbie prayed, Dear God, could you send a new baby for Mommy? The new baby you sent last week cries way too much. It's precious, right? Eight-year-old Angela said, Dear God, would you give my brother some brains?
So far he doesn't have any. Pure honesty. Seven-year-old David said, God, I could use a little raise in my allowance. Could you have one of your angels tell my dad? And then there was the kid who got his prayers and his poetry mixed up, and he started by saying, Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. The cadence of the poem and the prayer are identical.
Easy to get them mixed up. Today we're going to eavesdrop, and for the next few weeks, on a prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the greatest prayer ever prayed by the greatest person who ever lived. This is the Mount Everest of all prayers. In John 17, I feel like we're standing on holy ground. It's as if the veil is pulled back and we gaze into the very heart of God. I've always been impressed with John 17. I wrote a book on it a few years ago called When God Prays, so we're sort of treating this as like a mini-series within the greater series of the Gospel of John, Believe 879. Now, I'm not exaggerating when I say to you, this chapter is so meaningful and so rich, I could spend a year preaching on just John 17. I know you're thinking, we know, we know.
But I won't do that, but we'll be here for a few weeks. It is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible. I'm sure he prayed longer prayers. We're told in one occasion he prayed all night with his Father.
All night in prayer with his Father. But this is the longest recorded prayer that we have, 632 words, 26 verses. I'm going to share with you today just one verse, principally, verse one. Let's begin then in John 17, verse one, and we'll read just a few verses together for the sake of context. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son 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 that I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me. They have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them. And they have known surely that I came forth from you.
And they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those that you have given me, for they are yours. Now something about this prayer you should know. This is the Lord's Prayer. This is the real Lord's Prayer. Now typically we call our Father who art in heaven, we call that the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6. I never call that the Lord's Prayer. To me, that's the disciples' prayer. That's what he taught his disciples to pray. This is the Lord's own prayer to his Father. In fact, I would say that the other one, the disciples' prayer, it's so much for us that Jesus himself could never really pray that in all honesty.
He couldn't say forgive us our sins, our debts, as we forgive our debtors. It is for disciples. This is the Lord's own personal communication to his Father. And here's what's important to note.
And here's why studying this makes it so important. These are requests, issues, prayers that Jesus makes to his Father just hours before his death. So what would be most important in Jesus' own mind to pray about before he dies? If you had three hours to live, what would you pray for?
Besides, get me out of this. If you knew you were going to die, what kind of things would rise to the surface in your heart as being really essential things to talk to God about? And so we have here the prayer priorities of Jesus, the things he talks to his Father about before his own death. Now, I said we're going to cover verse one, and we principally want to look at that, a few other verses. I just want to show you why this prayer is so important, why it is so unique, and some characteristics of it. What is first and foremost noteworthy as we're eavesdropping is the person who spoke this prayer. It's Jesus. Verse one, Jesus spoke these words.
Now, I'll explain in a minute. These words refer to all the words he just spoke. Jesus spoke these words, comma, lifted his eyes to heaven and said, and now the rest of it is in red letters. This is what Jesus said, spoke to his Father. So what strikes us is that not only are we hearing a prayer, but that Jesus is praying. Why does Jesus need to pray?
I mean, if everything we know about Jesus from the Scripture is true, that he is God, the Son, the second person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father, co-eternal with the Father, the one who forgave sins while he was on the earth, the one who healed people's diseases, the one who claimed to be omniscient, why does he need to pray? He's equal with God. In fact, that's even revealed in this prayer. Notice that Jesus prays in verse one, glorify your Son that your Son may also glorify you.
There's an equality that is shared. In verse two, as you have given him authority over all flesh, well, that's quite a statement. See, you and I could never pray this prayer. You have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.
Now watch this. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. See the equality that's in those verses? Look down at verse 10.
And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Anyone else who dared use that language in their prayers would be a net case, a megalomaniac. This doesn't work with any other person besides Jesus.
And Paul even said Jesus who was in very nature God, in very nature God. So why does God need to pray? In fact, this is not the only time. No less than 19 times in four Gospels we find Jesus praying. Once all night in prayer to the Father. On another occasion, he got up very early in the morning before the day and prayed.
On another occasion, when they tried to make him a king by force, he stole away from the crowd, got alone with his father. When he gets to the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays. He even said to his apostles, what, you couldn't even pray with me one hour? Have you ever tried to pray one hour by yourself? So Jesus prayed.
Why? Let me just give you a spoonful of theology for a moment. Jesus had two natures. He was man, but he was God. Or you could say he was God, but he was man. He was theanthropic. That's the term. Theanthropic.
It comes from two words put together. Theos, God. Anthropos, man. He was theanthropos. He was the God-man. He wasn't just a good man. He was the God-man.
He was fully God, but he was also fully man. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, generous friends like you keep this ministry going strong, sharing verse-by-verse teaching from Scripture with people all around the world. And as we prepare to close out another year of ministry, we need your help to meet a $120,000 need by December 31st so that in the new year, more people can connect with the God who loves them and wants to be known by them. Your tax-deductible gift today will have an eternal impact, transforming lives as together we share the unchanging truth of God's word in an ever-changing world. You'll help ensure Connect with Skip Heitzig can continue expanding to reach new audiences through new radio stations in major cities and with the translation of Pastor Skip's messages into Spanish.
To give your year-end gift to help meet the $120,000 need, go to connectwithskip.com slash give or call 800-922-1888 and make an investment that will have eternal returns. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. What that means is that for 33 years, Jesus subjugated Himself obediently to the Father's will while on the earth, humbly obedient to the Father for 33 years, dependent upon the Father for 33 years. That was not the case before the Incarnation. That was not the case after the Incarnation.
But for 33 years, that was the case. And so Paul, in writing of Jesus, said He was in very nature God, but He humbled Himself and became, remember the next word, obedient. He became obedient. So here is Jesus being obedient, humbly dependent upon the Father, fully God but fully man and as a man fully dependent upon God. Did you know that the first heresy in the church was not denying the deity of Christ but the humanity of Christ? It's called Gnosticism.
We evangelicals make a huge deal and rightfully so about the deity of Christ, that Jesus was God is God. But where we're weak, perhaps, is identifying Him fully as a man. I'm going to read something to you that will make you feel a little uncomfortable. It was written by Max Lucado. It was designed by him to make us feel a little uncomfortable.
This is what he writes. Jesus may have had pimples. He may have been tone deaf. Perhaps a girl down the street had a crush on Him. It could be that His knees were bony.
One thing for sure, He was, while completely divine, completely human. For 33 years, He would feel everything that you and I ever felt. He felt weak. He grew weary. He got cold. He burped. His feelings got hurt. His feet got tired.
His head ached. Now, to think of Jesus Christ in such a light is, well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn't it? It's not something we like to do. It's uncomfortable. It's much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation, clean up the manure from around the manger, wipe the sweat out of His eyes, pretend He never snored or blew His nose or hit His thumb with a hammer. It's easier to stomach that way. There's something about keeping Him just divine that keeps Him distant, packaged, predictable.
But don't do it. Let Him be as human as He intended to be. Let Him into the mire and the muck of our world, for only when we let Him in can He pull us out.
I think that's so good. Only when we let Him in as fully God but fully human, knowing what we deal with and struggle with, can He lift us out. Now, there's a greater point to be made here. If Jesus Christ, the theanthropic Son of God, felt the need to depend upon His Father so regularly and so much, where does that leave us, we and all of our weaknesses? Should we depend any less?
No, certainly much more. He's theanthropic. You and I are just anthropic. We're just men and women, and we totally need God.
And so what an example. The person who spoke this prayer was Jesus, an example to us. The second remarkable characteristic is, of course, the power that resulted from this prayer. Now, knowing what I know about Jesus and knowing what you know about Jesus, we would be very interested to find out what He prayed for, because if Jesus prayed it, you can be sure it's going to be what?
Answered. It's going to be answered. If Jesus is going to pray a prayer, you know it's going to be the perfect prayer because Jesus was never out of sync with His Father's will. He would always ask for, pray for, exactly what was in the mind of the Father. They were always in sync together.
So here's Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, God incarnate, never asking anything apart from the Father's will. It's going to be done. Listen to this. You remember this.
I'll refresh your memory. In chapter 11, we already read it. Jesus stands before the tomb of Lazarus. He's about to raise him from the dead. Jesus prayed out loud in front of the crowd, and He said, Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. Now listen to this. And I know that you always hear Me. But because of the people standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent Me. So if the Father always hears the prayers of the Son, and it's always the perfect prayer, then what did Jesus pray for?
That would be interesting to find out. Well, let me give it to you. Here's the outline of chapter 17. Jesus prays for three things generally. He prays in verses 1 through 5 for Himself. He prays in verses 6 through 19 for His 11 apostles. And then He prays in verse 20 through 26, this is the best part in my view, He prays for you and me.
Did you know that you were prayed for in this prayer? Beginning in that verse, verse 20, He says, not only do I pray for all these, but for all those who will believe in Me through their word. He prays for us who will receive the testimony of these apostles. So Jesus prays for Himself, He prays for the 11 apostles, and He prays for all of those, including us through history, who will believe in Jesus through their testimony. Well, what does He pray for specifically?
That's generally. Let me quickly give you five specific things, a preview of coming attractions, if you will. He prays, number one, for their security. Look at verse 11.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as we are. What is He praying for? Their spiritual preservation, that none of these 11 would fall away. One already has, named Judas, right? He jumped ship.
He was a defector, a detractor. So He prays now for His 11 that none of them would be lost, that they would all be kept. Did God answer His prayer? Yes, He did. Every single one of those men lived out a faithful testimony for the Lord's glory.
We have that by history. Number two, He prays for their safety in verse 15. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.
He's praying against satanic attack. Help them overcome temptation. Third, He prays for their sanctity, verse 17. Sanctify them by Your truth.
Your word is truth. That's a Bible word for clean them up, God. Make them holy. Let them be cleaned up by the principles in the book, the truth, the word of God.
Sanctify them by that. Fourth, He prays for their unity, verse 21, that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in me and I in You, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You sent me. So He prays for a harmonious love relationship between all members of the body of Christ. Verse 24, He prays for their eternity. Father, I desire that they also, whom You gave Me, may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. So now He's praying that the apostles and everybody else, including you and I, all those through history who will believe, will one day stand together, beholding the glory of the Father and the Son in eternity. Now, in going through this little list, something came to my mind. I want to share it with you.
Here's a suggestion. If you want your prayers answered and if I want my prayers answered, I would suggest that you pray along these lines of some of these specifics because this forms for us the will of God according to Christ for us who follow Him in these five areas. If you want to see prayers answered, pray along these lines.
You've heard it before. The purpose of prayer is not to get your will done in heaven but to get God's will done on earth. Here's God's will. Pray for that. Francis of Assisi was the one who said, I always want what God wants, and that's why I'm so happy.
Great motto to live by. So Jesus was a man of prayer. Oh, by the way, did you know that Jesus still is a man of prayer? The Bible says in Romans 8 and in Hebrews 7 that He is at the right hand of the throne of God making, you know it, making intercession for us. In fact, one of the writers says He always lives to make intercession for us. Jesus is praying for us. This is His mediatorial work. This is part of the unfinished work of Christ. The finished work is His death, the atonement, but He's still working.
He's still praying. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, if you've been blessed by this ministry and want to bless others with the kind of teaching you've heard today, please consider a generous year-end gift to help meet our financial goal by December 31st. Through your support, you'll help encourage and equip more people with solid biblical teaching that takes them verse by verse through Scripture and connects them with Jesus. To give a tax-deductible year-end gift today, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash give. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross and 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.
