The
Glory
in
a Prayer
A
Study in the Gospel of John
Sermon prepared for the week
of
Dr.
Larry Thorson
First
Presbyterian Church,
Small Group Format
This sermon was prepared to be part of a six week
Lenten small group series course at the First Presbyterian Church of
Select One Person to be a Group Facilitator to keep the group focused on the questions and
activities.
Opening Prayer – sample provided or use your own
“Almighty God, thank you for your Word
and Your presence. May we grow together
in this time and come to a greater understanding of your Word and each
other. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Read the Scripture: John 17:1-5
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven
and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son,
that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that
he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is
eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you
have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave
me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had
with you before the world began.
Comments
“Father, the
hour has come.” In everyone’s life there
are moments that you dread. The phone
call from my mom back in 1989 that my dad had had a serious stroke and would
never be close to the same again was one of those moments for me. I knew that call would come one day but walking
down the hospital corridor to see him that day was like walking through a
valley of the shadow of death. But there
have been other lighter dreaded moments in my life. Like the start of the Diamond Valley
Marathon in January of 2007. I dreaded
that hour for four months leading up to the race knowing the pain and suffering
I was in for. Let me tell you it lived
up to its hype.
Discussion Questions:
1.
What have been your hours of dread?
2. What did
you do when these hours came? Some
people run and hide from it. Some people
try to numb it through alcohol or drugs or busyness. There’s a whole industry of workers trained
to help us stop running away and face straight up our hour of reckoning. They’re called counselors or therapists.
Comments
“Father, the hour has come.” These were the opening words of Jesus’ prayer
on the Thursday before his death right after he had broken bread with his
disciples. How a person prays in a time
of difficulty reveals a lot about the person. This prayer gives us a glimpse into what Jesus
was thinking on that night. It also
gives us a clue of what to pray for when we’re facing a difficult time.
Jesus’ prayer begins with…“Father, the hour has
come. Glorify your Son, that your Son
may glorify you.” There’s that glory word again that we’ve heard
throughout the Gospel of John, this time as a verb. When Jesus asked to be glorified it didn’t
mean he was looking to be on the cover of People magazine. To be glorified means to be made back into the
image of a bright light as God is bright.
According to Romans 8:29 we’re all going to need to be glorified before
we get to heaven: “For those God foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined, he also called: those he called, he also justified;
those he justified, he also glorified.”
To
be glorified means to reflect God’s glory.
When Moses came down from
Read the Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:7-14
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was
engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not
look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it
was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more
glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation
was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison
with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory
came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very
bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil
over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing
away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day
the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed,
because only in Christ is it taken away.
Comments
Jesus was about to enter the most difficult
time ever to be experienced by a human. Now
more than ever he needed to reflect God’s glory. Yes he was God but he became a man with all
the wears and tears on his being. When
you’re going through a bad time like an hour of reckoning, it wears on you. It’s not like a pastor on a Sunday morning wearing
his nice suit after having had a good night of sleep. What he’s like after he’s been up all night with
the youth reveals who he is. Let’s see
what he’s like when he has insomnia or is going through a really hard
time. What is he like when the going
gets hard? Rough times can ultimately
build us up but they also tarnish us.
So
the first thing that Jesus prayed for was to be glorified so that he could
reflect God. That’s not a bad thing or a
selfish thing to pray when you’re entering a hard time. Pray that God will glorify or reflect his
glory off of you when you know you’re going to be too weak to even fake
it.
Jesus
goes on to pray in verse 4 “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to
do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with
you before the world began.”
There it is again “And now, Father, glorify
me…” This time he’s asking to be
glorified with the glory he had with his father from the beginning. That means when he became a man he lost that
glory. He had to lose that glory or no
one would be able to look at him.
I like to compare that glory with a
mountain top experience one has at camp.
When I was in high school and a new follower of Jesus I went to a high
school conference sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ at Arrowhead Springs
above
I believe I was getting a taste of that
glory at the retreat. But then there was
the drive down the mountain. An argument
with my mom here, complaining about something over there and before I even got
back to the Bay Area I felt like my glory was tarnished. The world is a dirty place with all kinds of
counter and selfish pursuits.
I remember a godly church member I once
had who developed Alzheimer’s. As he
digressed with the disease his mouth became more and more foul. Here was a man who rarely used foul language
but apparently the foul words were lodged in his memory and when he couldn’t
control his thoughts any longer they all came out. His wife was so shocked but we live in a
dirty world and our minds are constantly being polluted with trashy words,
thoughts and pictures.
Discussion Questions:
1.
Can you remember a
spiritual high you’ve had?
2.
What brought it
about and what extinguished it?
3.
What are some
influences that pull you away from the ways of the Lord?
Comments
So God became a man but as a man he was
tarnished by the harshness of the world around him. He needed to be re-glorified or restored to
where he was before he came here. It’s
like when you go stay with someone who smokes and swears a lot and tells crude
jokes. It has its influence on you. If you’re around a negative person who’s
always complaining it has its influence.
But
it would seem strange for me to pray “God glorify me”. If you’re a Catholic or Greek Orthodox that
would be like asking to be made into a saint.
That’s reserved for people who achieved great things for their
church. The next thing they’ll be making
a statue of you for a church or a bobblehead on somebody’s dashboard.
That’s
not the biblical idea of being glorified.
To be glorified means to radiate God’s glory. That’s something God does to us, not us for
him. In other words you can’t live in
such a holy manner that you radiate God.
That would be like the room saying to the heater, I’ll work real hard
and make this room warm.
An astrologer was asked why the moon seems so
bright at night. Lynn Carter at
Discussion Questions:
1.
What images does the
word “glory” bring to your mind?
2.
What are your
thoughts about praying to be glorified?
Comments
Jesus prayed to God “I have brought
you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” What I think he means by
that is the Son has glorified the Father by revealing God’s eternal goodness in
word and deed; now the Father will glorify the Son by revealing his eternal
nature through the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.[1] He doesn’t say to God “I glorified you”
instead he says “I have brought you glory on earth.”
Think of glory as a bright halogen
flashlight. Halogen is a lot brighter
than a traditional light bulb and it lasts longer. A flashlight illuminates the way ahead. When Jesus brought glory to God on earth he
illuminated the way ahead for people to see God. Jesus did that the same way we do that by finishing
the work God gave us to do.
We can bring glory to God by lighting up the
darkness around us so that people can see God.
But we can’t light up the darkness unless we’re reflecting from the
light source, God. That’s why I want you
to come to church.
The world can be a foul and dark
place. Listen to any HBO drama series,
any Comedy Network stand up comedian and you’ll have enough foul language and
negative attitudes to fill the
Discussion Questions:
1.
In what ways has
worship at church been a helpful thing for you?
2.
What is most helpful
in a worship service for you?
Comments
If you’re going through a particularly hard time I hope that our worship
service is a place of rest and renewal for you.
I hope that you don’t think you have to fake it as a Christian here and
that if people really saw what you were like at home they wouldn’t like you or
wouldn’t think that you were a Christian.
This isn’t a place to come play a part in a play. This is a place for you to be glorified, that
is to be polished up and restored from the tarnish that the world places on
you. Then when you go from this place
you can light up the path to God for people.
Read the Scripture:
John 17:6-19
The Second Part of Jesus’ Prayer
6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me
out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed
your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have
given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you
gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you,
and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I
am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are
yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.
And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain
in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to
you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me,
so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was
with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None
has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be
fulfilled.
13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things
while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy
within them. 14 I have given them your word and the
world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the
world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the
world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As
you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Comments
This second part of Jesus’ prayer is for
the eleven men who heard it. He prayed for the disciples that they might be
physically and spiritually protected so they could carry on the work which
Jesus has entrusted to their care.
Jesus knew what would happen to the
disciples. He knew that the persecution would not end with his own death. He
knew they were going to need strength beyond their own human strength to endure
the torture, persecution, and the threat of death that would surely be part of
their lives. So he prayed on their behalf that they might have the protection
of God to sustain them.
Read the Scripture:
John 17:20-26
The Third Part of Jesus’ Prayer
20 "My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me
and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you
have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you
gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in
them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the
world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be
with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because
you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not
know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order
that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in
them."
In
the third part Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers in verse 21: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as
you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may
believe that you have sent me.” Unity in the midst of our diversity is the prayer that Jesus
still prays for his church today. It used to be hard enough to believe in the
unity of the church’s witness when it was just Roman Catholic and Protestant.
Today we seem more fractured than ever with political conservatives and
liberals squaring off one another and baptizing their political points of view
with their own interpretation of the faith. In spite of it all, Jesus prays
that we might be one even as he is one with the Father.
Conclusion
What did Jesus pray in his moment of reckoning? 1) He prayed for his own faithfulness when he
was under pressure; 2) He prayed for the faithfulness of the disciples when
they had to deal with the fallout of his death; and 3) He prayed for the unity
of the church so they’d stay together and glorify God. It’s a good pattern to pray today.
Discussion Questions:
1.
How
would you pray for your church in light of how Jesus prayed in his last night?
2.
How
has Jesus’ prayer challenged or changed your way of praying?
Joys and Concerns: share with one
another as you are comfortable starting with something like “Does
anyone have a joy they’re grateful for today or a concern that we can pray
about?”
Closing Prayer
– Pray for each other if you are comfortable doing so. You might want to close with the Lord’s Prayer below:
Our Father, who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen
NEXT WEEK
The Glory in a Perfume
Bottle
Read John 12:1-19