“A Prayer for the Ages”
John 17
May 31, 2015
Introduction. I know you are not all NBA fans, but some of you must know that the
playoffs start this week. It is now down to a seven game championship series to see who is the
best in the world. The great thing about this year is you have your perennial Most Valuable
Player, Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers up against this year’s Most Valuable Player,
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. It will be fun.
What many of you don’t know, and which I just recently learned, is that Stephen Curry is
an awesome follower of Jesus. From the time he was in high school, he has been a rising star in
basketball. But he doesn’t play the game to bring glory to himself. He plays the game to bring
glory to Jesus Christ.
For one, he wears a Bible verse on his shoes whenever
he plays. He has done this since college. It is one of my
favorites too. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength.” He also has this little hand
gesture he does during the games.
Sometimes he points upward. He
says that for him, it means this:
“Each game is an opportunity to be on a great stage and be a witness
for Christ. When I step on the floor, people should know who I
represent, who I believe in.”
What impressed me most, though, was a comment he made in
an interview back in college. Athletics and particularly, pro-sports, is all about achieving glory.
We glorify our sports heros. Listen to what Curry, as a 22 year old rising basketball star declared
when asked, “Why do you think God has given you this opportunity to be in the spotlight?”
Curry replied, “I’m not sure, to be honest with you...I try to stay as humble (as I can) and try to
use every opportunity to deflect attention off of me and on to Him. So I have that little sign I do
during games and the Bible verse on my shoes and use my humility and the situation I am in to
bring glory to him.”
To bring glory to Jesus Christ, that is Stephen Curry’s life purpose. It is a little shocking
then when we listen to this prayer of Jesus’ and that is exactly what Jesus was praying as he
begins his prayer. He is praying that the Father would now glorify him so that he could glorify
the Father. Without any question, our purpose as followers of Jesus is to bring glory to him, our
Savior and Lord, just as Curry declared. The question for us today is, what is the glory that Jesus
is praying for as he begins this prayer for the ages?
Jesus Prayer for Glory
The key that unlocks that question is found in one little word that Jesus uses. He says,
“Father, the time has come.” Or more accurately, “Father, the hour has come.” That Greek word
translated “time” or “hour” carries with it a greater sense of significance. This is not just any
time. This is not just another hour in our days. But this is a decisive time, this is the hour of
destiny. It carries this weight of being a time when God’s purpose is going to be fulfilled. So
Jesus prays, “Father, the hour of destiny has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
you.”
What is Jesus referring to? What is so decisive about this hour, this moment in time? It
is the cross, isn’t it? Jesus has arrived at that moment in time, that hour when he is going to die,
when he is going to lay down his life.
We have to be somewhat puzzled by this because Jesus is praying that the Father would
glorify him. How can Jesus dying on a Roman crucifix display glory? The cross in that day was
a symbol of shame, of humiliation, of suffering, of darkness and death. It was not a moment of
glory.
The word glory is important for us to understand if we are going to grasp Jesus’ petition.
Did you know that glory in the Bible refers to the revelation of God? When God reveals himself,
we see his glory. Think of some of those key moments in Jesus life that John records, when we
saw the glory of God. Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into the very best of wine. He healed a
paralyzed man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He took a stroll one night on the Sea of
Galilee and scared the bejebeeze out of his disciples who were rowing their boat across. He
raised his friend Lazarus out of his tomb, after he had been dead for four days. Jesus revealed the
glory of God, or more accurately, revealed that he is God through his many miracles.
Then, how does the cross reveal the glory of God? There was no miracle on the cross.
Jesus suffered immensely. His lifeless body was taken down and laid in a tomb. Yet Jesus
prayed for, and scholars agree, God’s greatest glory was revealed in the cross, the death of Jesus.
Go back to another time that God revealed his glory. I have referred to this before, but
remember when God told Moses that he would reveal his glory to him? Moses was on Mt. Sinai
to receive the 10 Commandments. There was this one moment, though, when God told Moses he
was going to let all his glory pass before Moses. He would have to cover his eyes for a time and
only let Moses see his back, it would be so overwhelming. But Moses would see this awesome
revelation of God’s very being, his glory. What happened when God’s glory passed before
Moses? God spoke and declared,
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in
love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion
and sin.”
The revelation of God’s glory to Moses was not some miracle of healing, or raising the
dead or turning water into wine. God’s revelation of his glory was the revelation of his love and
gracious forgiving nature. What did Jesus reveal through his death? The love and gracious
forgiveness of God. Without Jesus’ death, there is no forgiveness of sin. When we trust in
Jesus, and in his death on our behalf, we experience his forgiveness and compassionate love.
Richard Sterns is the head of World Vision, through which many of us are now
sponsoring children. Thanks to all of you who chose to begin to sponsor a
child two weeks ago. I think it was 25 of you who signed up, which
means 25 little lives will be changed. Sterns, in his travels around the
world, meets so many of these children who have no hope. He was in
northern Uganda once and he met a young man who grew up as a child
soldier. That is, the child was kidnapped from his family, brainwashed by his captors and forced
to perform atrocious acts of bloodshed as a child. World Vision has a center called the “Children
of War Center” in Northern Uganda, where they try to rehabilitate these children.
Sterns met Thomas when he was there and listened as this now young man, shared his
story of how he was taken from his home as a child and forced to murder his own people. As
Thomas told the story, his hands began to shake. Sterns instinctively reached out and took hold
of them. As Thomas continued telling him of what awful things these hands had done, Sterns
said he struggled to hold on to them. But then Sterns realized, this is what God has done for each
one of us. He has taken our sinful, trembling hands in his. His hands, that once were pierced for
our iniquities, and bled for our sins on the cross. He has let his love and gracious forgiveness
flow into our lives.
The glory of God was most brilliant, and most revealed in Jesus’ last hour, his hour of
destiny. For it was there on the cross that we see God revealed in all his love and mercy and
grace. Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your Son may glorify
you.” Jesus did, he revealed God on the cross.
Jesus Prayer for Protection
The next part of the prayer that begins in verse 6, is Jesus’ prayer for his disciples. He
prays for them because they are the ones who believed and obeyed him. When Jesus called them
to follow him, they left everything and followed. Now, though, Jesus is leaving. In fact, he
prays, verse 11, “I will remain in this world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am
coming to you.” This sets up a whole new situation and one that is rather foreboding.
This world was a hostile place for Jesus and it can be for those who chose to follow him.
Jesus knows this and has even predicted that his followers will face incredible trials and
tribulations. They are going to be harassed by the authorities, dragged before courts, imprisoned
and even killed because of their proclaiming of him. So at this moment, he prays for them, he
prays for their protection. Verse 11, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name...”
Then again in verse 15, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you
protect them from the evil one.”
Jesus interjects here every believer’s real enemy, an unseen enemy. We may not ever
face a hostile government like Christians in North Korea. We may never be dragged before
courts or thrown into prison like Christians are even today in China. We probably will never face
execution for our faith like so many martyrs down through history, but we still need protection,
because we have a spiritual enemy, a
scheming adversary who knows our weak spots. We all need protection from the devil.
He majors in what our sister Betty calls the dis-words. He majors in disbelief, distraction,
discouragement and disunity. First: disbelief. I am not talking about disbelief in God, but
disbelief in the Devil. He wants to stay undercover, hidden. So he convinces people he doesn’t
exist.
I ran across a revealing interview with one of our Supreme Court justices, Antonio Scalia.
He was interviewed by New York magazine journalist, Jennifer Senior. She found out he
believed in a real devil and asked rather skeptically, “Have you seen any evidence of the devil
lately?” Scalia replied, “You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of
things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. That doesn’t happen
very much anymore It’s because the devil’s smart.”
Senior: So what’s he doing now? Scalia: “What he's doing now is getting people to not
believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.  This always puzzled me.
What happened to the Devil? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New
Testament. What happened to him? He got wilier.”
Senior: Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the devil? Scalia: “You're looking at me
as though I'm weird...Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in
the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! Most of humankind
has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have
believed in the Devil.”
It is true. What the devil has done today is convince people he doesn’t exist. If he can
convince people to disbelieve in him, he has won the battle.
Secondly, he also majors in distraction. If our enemy can distract us, he can keep us from
attending to the really important things of life and the spiritual life. He can keep us from praying
and reading Scripture each day. He can keep us from worshiping on Sunday. He can keep us
from giving of ourselves to our families, to those in need, to our
neighbors, to our church family. He can keep us from doing the
really important things of life.
There are all kinds of distractions today, not least of which
is technology. There is the internet and TV and smart phones and
smart watches now. Here’s a couple of recent cartoons I ran
across. This first one has no caption. It doesn’t need one. We
don’t relate to people any longer, we text. It is the best way for me to get my daughters to
respond to me. Then in this second one, a man is asking a
key question, “What is life’s meaning?” To which the wise
one says, “My computer is down.” The point! The
meaning of our lives is dependent on technology for an
answer, rather than on God.
Listen, we are all so vulnerable today. Our culture
and world is full of distractions. It takes discipline to keep
first things first, to keep our focus on Jesus Christ and his
call upon our lives.
Thirdly, there are discouragements. The devil majors in discouragement. If he can get
us down, take away our hope, he can disengage us from living the life Christ offers us, a life of
joy and peace and love and faith.
There was an old legend told once that God called the Devil in one day and told him he
had decided to take away all his powers except one. Then God said the devil could choose which
one power he wanted to retain. The Devil slunk away dejectedly to ponder what he should do.
When he returned, he had a look of glee on his face and he said, “The only power I want is the
power to discourage people because if I take away their sense of hope, I will take away their
faith.”
Hope… it is perhaps the most important gift that Jesus has given us. He speaks of our
hope here in this prayer. Perhaps you missed it. He said, in verse 3, “This is eternal life, that
they may know you, the only true God, and me Jesus, the Christ, whom you sent.” Do you hear
that? Our hope is future, one day we will be in heaven. But eternal life starts the moment we
come to know God through faith in his Son, Jesus. We have a present hope, the hope of God our
Father and Jesus, our Savior, present with us right now.
I have encouraged you over and over to memorize Scripture, particularly the promises of
God. Over and over again he promises us his presence. Why do you think Stephan Curry has
that verse on his shoe? To remind him that he is not alone. Jesus is with him and he can do all
things through his Savior, Jesus Christ, who gives him strength. So when the problems of life
weigh you down, when your sky turns dark, when you can’t see the future, when you don’t know
how you can cope with the pain, then don’t listen to the devil. He is saying there is no hope. But
Jesus says, “I am your hope. Never will I will leave you. Never will I forsake you.” Heb. 13:5.
Memorize it.
Jesus Prayer for Unity
I have one more “dis-word” and I am almost out of time. It takes us to Jesus’ last petition
of his prayer. The devil majors in dis-unity. So Jesus prays for a great unity of his followers. He
prays, in verse 23, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me
and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
“Complete unity,” can you imagine such an experience? Perhaps not, because our world
is so fractured, so divided. And the church is too. Look at all the denominations and
independent churches that rarely get together. This is not a good sign to the world. We need to
hear Jesus’ prayer and we need to seek out ways that we can cross all the cultural and racial and
even denominational lines that divide us. The devil is trying to keep us a part, Jesus is trying to
bring us together.
Many of you know my friend, Don Frazier. He and I started pastoring our churches the
same year here in Portland, 1986. Don and I met that year and have been friends ever since. We
used to have these intense one-on-one basketball games together, then we spent months telling
each other how we whooped the other the last time we played. I won, don’t worry. For those of
you who don’t know, Don is African American. Some years ago, we started meeting together at
his church once a month with other pastors. In the group, there is another African American
pastor who leads an independent church. There is a conservative Baptist pastor and a Lutheran
pastor and a pastor who leads a series of house churches, and there is one pastor who all he does
is funerals all week. There are 7 of us, all from different backgrounds, faith traditions and vastly
different life experiences.
I told some of you, when all this trouble erupted around African American’s being killed
by cops, I called Don up and we got together. It was deeply troubling to him. He has had to train
his son how to react to when cops see him or stop him, because all his life, that is what has
happened to Don. He gets stopped in various neighborhoods, simply because he is black.
How different we all are and the experiences we have. But there is one thing that can
unite us, our need for Jesus Christ. We need his compassionate love. We need his atoning death
for our sins. We need the hope of the resurrection to eternal life. And we need his abiding
presence with us through the Holy Spirit. We are united in our need for Jesus and our quest to
follow him all our days.
Let me end where I began, with Stephen Curry. I told you about his Scripture on his shoe
and his pointing up during the game. But Curry has another gesture he does before every game.
He pounds his chest and then he points to the sky. His mom came up with this during his college
years. He says for him, it symbolizes that I have a heart for Jesus Christ. Curry says, “I do it
every time I step on the court as a reminder of who I am playing for.” Maybe that is something
we could do as a congregation. Every morning, when we step out our door and leave for work,
or school, or church, or wherever we are going, we could pound our chest, point to the sky and
remember who we’re playing for, studying for, working for, living for. Because there is only one
thing that truly unites us. We share God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the only one who can
answer Jesus’ prayer that we will be completely united, is Jesus. Let him be the one who makes
us one.