[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Easter Sunday morning, the 16th of April, 2017, Resurrection Day. Today’s service included the observance of Holy Communion. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
What we normally refer to as the Lord’s Prayer is actually the model Jesus gave us to pray by. It’s supposed to be an example we can use to base our own prayers on. It’s not a prayer our Lord Himself prayed, at least not as recorded in our Bible.
We can find a number of places in scripture where Jesus prayed to our Father God. But by far, the longest and most complete was saved for us by the Apostle John in his Gospel account. The time was near the end of Jesus’ ministry, just before He was arrested. Jesus knew what was coming in the days ahead, and it weighed heavily upon Him. I’m willing to bet He felt like there was so much more He needed to do.
So He turned to His Father in prayer, completely laying open His heart’s desires. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle John, chapter 17, and I’ll be reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…
We can find a number of places in scripture where Jesus prayed to our Father God. But by far, the longest and most complete was saved for us by the Apostle John in his Gospel account. The time was near the end of Jesus’ ministry, just before He was arrested. Jesus knew what was coming in the days ahead, and it weighed heavily upon Him. I’m willing to bet He felt like there was so much more He needed to do.
So He turned to His Father in prayer, completely laying open His heart’s desires. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle John, chapter 17, and I’ll be reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…
1 When Jesus spoke these words, He lifted His eyes toward heaven and said:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may also glorify You. 2 As You have given Him authority over all flesh, He will give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. 3 This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world existed.
6 “I have revealed Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they know that all things You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given them the words which You gave Me. They have received them and certainly know that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me. For they are Yours. 10 All that are Mine are Yours, and all that are Yours are Mine. And I am glorified in them. 11 I am to be no longer in the world, though these are in the world, for I am coming to You. Holy Father, through Your name keep those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. I have kept those whom You have given Me. And none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 “But now I am coming to You, and I say these things in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word. And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You. May they also be one in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22 I have given them the glory which You gave Me, that they may be one even as We are one: 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfect in unity, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory which You have given Me. For You loved Me before the creation of the world.
25 “O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. 26 I have declared Your name to them, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
--John 17 (MEV)
Let us pray… Father God, Your Son Jesus prayed to You as the hour approached when His work on this earth would come to a close. We pray to You now, Father, seeking Your word. Please let Your Holy Spirit speak into our hearts the message You need us to hear this morning. And then help us live that message. In the beloved name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
While a family watched the Easter story on television, the young daughter was deeply moved. As Jesus was tortured and crucified, tears rolled down her cheeks. She was absolutely silent until after Jesus had been taken down from the cross and put into the tomb. Then she suddenly grinned and shouted, “Now comes the good part!”
We first hear about the suffering and death of Jesus. Then comes the good part! The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen from the dead!
On Easter morning we normally revisit the empty tomb and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Last Sunday morning and evening we cheered as Jesus and His disciples entered Jerusalem, shouting Hosannas with all the people. On Thursday evening, we joined together with Jesus in commemoration of His last meal on earth, taking of His body and His blood, and we watched as He was arrested and carried away. Friday at noon we witnessed His great suffering at the hands of those He came to save, His horrible death by crucifixion, and His burial in a borrowed tomb.
And this morning at our Sunrise Service, we stood there at the tomb and looked in, astonished to see it empty! Death could not keep a grip on the Son of God! Jesus rose from the dead, walked out of that grave, and lives still! Jesus lives! Let the whole earth rejoice! Alleluia, Amen.
In this story of passion and resurrection, we see both aspects of Jesus - fully man and fully God. You could say that we watch as the Son of God emerges from the Son of Man. We can almost feel what Jesus felt - not just the physical pain but also the pain of taking the world’s sins upon Himself. We see the glory and grace and power of God as He raises His Son from the dead into life everlasting.
But let’s not miss something that helps tie all this together, that gives it a bit more meaning. Let’s not miss Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to His Father God, asking Him to have mercy on us.
The hour has come. Jesus knew the end of His time on earth was near. He also knew there was much work yet to be done, and that soon others would have to carry on His mission. But notice that first, Jesus asks His Father to glorify Him so that He in turn can glorify His Father.
I wonder… do we ever ask God to make us glorious so that we can better glorify Him? We’re supposed to be humble, right – humble servants? But even in humbleness, when God makes us more glorious, we can turn it around to the glory of God! This is all Jesus asks: to be made glorious, just as He was in heaven before the world even existed, so He can reflect that glory back onto His Father.
Then we get a little piece of proof of our salvation, that wonderful gift I told the kids about earlier. Most of this beautiful prayer is devoted to us: those who believe in and follow Jesus, those whom God has given to Him. Jesus prays for us, even while knowing the suffering He will soon endure on our behalf. Jesus, God in flesh, prays for us and our eternal souls.
Now understand that He is only praying for believers here, for His followers. The people who already believe in God belong to God, and those who also believe in Jesus as God’s Son are then given to Jesus to be His own. These are the ones who follow Jesus, who have been taught God’s word, who do indeed know, by faith, that Jesus was sent from God on high.
Jesus makes it clear in verse 9 that these are the ones our Lord is praying for, and not the world. He emphasizes that He does not pray for the “world”, which is everyone else, but to those who God gave to Him because of their belief and faith. Jesus offers this prayer while He is still in the world because those He is praying for are still in the world.
He asks that God watch over us in this world, and that He allow the joy of Jesus to fill us and be fulfilled in us. How is Jesus’ joy fulfilled in us? When we share His joy and love with others, all others.
He asks God to sanctify us, to set us aside for His service, to carry on His ministry of love, to spread the Good News He carried to a lost and hopeless world. Because just as God sent His Son Jesus into the world, Jesus is sending us, His followers, into the world to continue His mission here on earth. Jesus set Himself apart from the world for our sakes, to show us by example how to serve.
Now all along I’ve been using the words “we” and “us” as the objects of Jesus’ prayer, when it might seem like He is actually just praying for His disciples of that day. Why do I think He includes us in His selfless prayer, we today who call ourselves Christian? Because Jesus Himself tells us we are included, right there in verse 20. He is praying not only for His followers right there at that point in time, but also for all who will come to believe in Him through the words and testimony of those disciples. And that is how each of us today came to Jesus: through the words of His disciples as recorded in our Holy Bible, just like the passage containing this prayer.
Jesus wants us all to be as one, just as He and God are one. We are to be the one church, the one body of Jesus Christ left on the earth to continue His work. And while it may seem we are pretty fractured as a body, with all the different sects and denominations, we all still believe in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. If not, then we’re not really part of the body.
And then we have the promise, in verse 24, that where Jesus is, there we, His followers, should also be. Jesus is in heaven now, with God our Father, and this is where He wants us to be when our life on earth is over. He wants us to all be together – those of us still left on this earth to be together as one, and all of us, including Jesus and God, to be together in heaven when our day comes to go home. He wants us to be together for all eternity.
There was a part of this prayer I skipped on purpose, just to save it for here – the part where Jesus talks about our eternal life. God gave us to Jesus, who has authority over all flesh. Because of our belief and obedience, Jesus will give us the gift of eternal life, which He tells us is simply to know God, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom God has sent to man.
To know God and to know Jesus is more than just having knowledge of Them. The demons and unclean spirits that Jesus cast out knew Him very well. No, to know God is to be one with Him. To know Jesus is to be one with Him.
Eternal life is to be in total and complete communion with them. Heaven is to always be with God, to never again be apart from Him and His Son Jesus. For this reason Jesus declared God to us and asked His Father to love us just as much as God loved Him. So that we may be in Him, and He in us, forever.
In a few minutes we will take part in Holy Communion with our Lord Jesus. Some day we will be in full communion with Him, but for now we can only observe it as His last meal and His command to remember Him. We will take of His body, broken for us, and of His blood, shed for us. We do it to remember Him, to honor Him and the sacrifice He made on our behalf.
The Apostle Paul cautions us to not take Communion in an unworthy manner or with an unrepentant heart. Otherwise, he warns, we will be just as guilty of the body and the blood of Jesus as those who beat Him and hung Him on the cross. We must examine ourselves, examine our hearts, to make sure we are right with God. And we need to do that right now, right here before we receive the sacrament.
In a moment we will confess our sins before God. We need to truly confess, prayerfully, with full consideration of what we are doing. We must go past the words and lay our hearts out before God, just as Jesus did in His prayer. We must take this time of confession to repent of any sin and promise once again to follow and obey Jesus. Because by taking of the bread and the juice of Communion, we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and our Master.
Jesus loved us enough to pray for us. Let’s show our love in return by honoring His commands. All in the holy name of our Lord and Master Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, Your only Son, when He walked among us as one of us, loved us so much that He stopped and prayed for us. He was soon to face unspeakable cruelty at the hands of the very people He came to save, and He knew it. Yet He asked nothing for Himself, for His own comfort – only that You would watch over us and love us just as You have loved Him since before the creation of the world. He wanted nothing more than that we all be together, as one. Glorify us, please Father, so that we can glorify You to the world.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You from our hearts, acknowledging our belief in Your Son Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Master, rededicating ourselves to His service, promising to repent of our disobedience and sin, seeking Your forgiveness, listening for Your voice…
Lord Jesus, You tell us just what eternal life is: being at one with You and God forever and ever. You asked our Father God to sanctify us by Your truth, to set us apart from the world so that we can go into the world speaking Your truth, that the world may come to believe in You and Your Son that You sent us. You command us to love one another so that Your love can be shown. Just as You were sent to share God’s word and grace with a sinful world, You send us out spread the Good News and to make disciples of non-believers so that all might be saved. Give us the strength and courage to do just that, Lord. Walk with us as we continue the walk You began so long ago.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
While a family watched the Easter story on television, the young daughter was deeply moved. As Jesus was tortured and crucified, tears rolled down her cheeks. She was absolutely silent until after Jesus had been taken down from the cross and put into the tomb. Then she suddenly grinned and shouted, “Now comes the good part!”
We first hear about the suffering and death of Jesus. Then comes the good part! The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen from the dead!
On Easter morning we normally revisit the empty tomb and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Last Sunday morning and evening we cheered as Jesus and His disciples entered Jerusalem, shouting Hosannas with all the people. On Thursday evening, we joined together with Jesus in commemoration of His last meal on earth, taking of His body and His blood, and we watched as He was arrested and carried away. Friday at noon we witnessed His great suffering at the hands of those He came to save, His horrible death by crucifixion, and His burial in a borrowed tomb.
And this morning at our Sunrise Service, we stood there at the tomb and looked in, astonished to see it empty! Death could not keep a grip on the Son of God! Jesus rose from the dead, walked out of that grave, and lives still! Jesus lives! Let the whole earth rejoice! Alleluia, Amen.
In this story of passion and resurrection, we see both aspects of Jesus - fully man and fully God. You could say that we watch as the Son of God emerges from the Son of Man. We can almost feel what Jesus felt - not just the physical pain but also the pain of taking the world’s sins upon Himself. We see the glory and grace and power of God as He raises His Son from the dead into life everlasting.
But let’s not miss something that helps tie all this together, that gives it a bit more meaning. Let’s not miss Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to His Father God, asking Him to have mercy on us.
The hour has come. Jesus knew the end of His time on earth was near. He also knew there was much work yet to be done, and that soon others would have to carry on His mission. But notice that first, Jesus asks His Father to glorify Him so that He in turn can glorify His Father.
I wonder… do we ever ask God to make us glorious so that we can better glorify Him? We’re supposed to be humble, right – humble servants? But even in humbleness, when God makes us more glorious, we can turn it around to the glory of God! This is all Jesus asks: to be made glorious, just as He was in heaven before the world even existed, so He can reflect that glory back onto His Father.
Then we get a little piece of proof of our salvation, that wonderful gift I told the kids about earlier. Most of this beautiful prayer is devoted to us: those who believe in and follow Jesus, those whom God has given to Him. Jesus prays for us, even while knowing the suffering He will soon endure on our behalf. Jesus, God in flesh, prays for us and our eternal souls.
Now understand that He is only praying for believers here, for His followers. The people who already believe in God belong to God, and those who also believe in Jesus as God’s Son are then given to Jesus to be His own. These are the ones who follow Jesus, who have been taught God’s word, who do indeed know, by faith, that Jesus was sent from God on high.
Jesus makes it clear in verse 9 that these are the ones our Lord is praying for, and not the world. He emphasizes that He does not pray for the “world”, which is everyone else, but to those who God gave to Him because of their belief and faith. Jesus offers this prayer while He is still in the world because those He is praying for are still in the world.
He asks that God watch over us in this world, and that He allow the joy of Jesus to fill us and be fulfilled in us. How is Jesus’ joy fulfilled in us? When we share His joy and love with others, all others.
He asks God to sanctify us, to set us aside for His service, to carry on His ministry of love, to spread the Good News He carried to a lost and hopeless world. Because just as God sent His Son Jesus into the world, Jesus is sending us, His followers, into the world to continue His mission here on earth. Jesus set Himself apart from the world for our sakes, to show us by example how to serve.
Now all along I’ve been using the words “we” and “us” as the objects of Jesus’ prayer, when it might seem like He is actually just praying for His disciples of that day. Why do I think He includes us in His selfless prayer, we today who call ourselves Christian? Because Jesus Himself tells us we are included, right there in verse 20. He is praying not only for His followers right there at that point in time, but also for all who will come to believe in Him through the words and testimony of those disciples. And that is how each of us today came to Jesus: through the words of His disciples as recorded in our Holy Bible, just like the passage containing this prayer.
Jesus wants us all to be as one, just as He and God are one. We are to be the one church, the one body of Jesus Christ left on the earth to continue His work. And while it may seem we are pretty fractured as a body, with all the different sects and denominations, we all still believe in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. If not, then we’re not really part of the body.
And then we have the promise, in verse 24, that where Jesus is, there we, His followers, should also be. Jesus is in heaven now, with God our Father, and this is where He wants us to be when our life on earth is over. He wants us to all be together – those of us still left on this earth to be together as one, and all of us, including Jesus and God, to be together in heaven when our day comes to go home. He wants us to be together for all eternity.
There was a part of this prayer I skipped on purpose, just to save it for here – the part where Jesus talks about our eternal life. God gave us to Jesus, who has authority over all flesh. Because of our belief and obedience, Jesus will give us the gift of eternal life, which He tells us is simply to know God, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom God has sent to man.
To know God and to know Jesus is more than just having knowledge of Them. The demons and unclean spirits that Jesus cast out knew Him very well. No, to know God is to be one with Him. To know Jesus is to be one with Him.
Eternal life is to be in total and complete communion with them. Heaven is to always be with God, to never again be apart from Him and His Son Jesus. For this reason Jesus declared God to us and asked His Father to love us just as much as God loved Him. So that we may be in Him, and He in us, forever.
In a few minutes we will take part in Holy Communion with our Lord Jesus. Some day we will be in full communion with Him, but for now we can only observe it as His last meal and His command to remember Him. We will take of His body, broken for us, and of His blood, shed for us. We do it to remember Him, to honor Him and the sacrifice He made on our behalf.
The Apostle Paul cautions us to not take Communion in an unworthy manner or with an unrepentant heart. Otherwise, he warns, we will be just as guilty of the body and the blood of Jesus as those who beat Him and hung Him on the cross. We must examine ourselves, examine our hearts, to make sure we are right with God. And we need to do that right now, right here before we receive the sacrament.
In a moment we will confess our sins before God. We need to truly confess, prayerfully, with full consideration of what we are doing. We must go past the words and lay our hearts out before God, just as Jesus did in His prayer. We must take this time of confession to repent of any sin and promise once again to follow and obey Jesus. Because by taking of the bread and the juice of Communion, we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and our Master.
Jesus loved us enough to pray for us. Let’s show our love in return by honoring His commands. All in the holy name of our Lord and Master Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, Your only Son, when He walked among us as one of us, loved us so much that He stopped and prayed for us. He was soon to face unspeakable cruelty at the hands of the very people He came to save, and He knew it. Yet He asked nothing for Himself, for His own comfort – only that You would watch over us and love us just as You have loved Him since before the creation of the world. He wanted nothing more than that we all be together, as one. Glorify us, please Father, so that we can glorify You to the world.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You from our hearts, acknowledging our belief in Your Son Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Master, rededicating ourselves to His service, promising to repent of our disobedience and sin, seeking Your forgiveness, listening for Your voice…
Lord Jesus, You tell us just what eternal life is: being at one with You and God forever and ever. You asked our Father God to sanctify us by Your truth, to set us apart from the world so that we can go into the world speaking Your truth, that the world may come to believe in You and Your Son that You sent us. You command us to love one another so that Your love can be shown. Just as You were sent to share God’s word and grace with a sinful world, You send us out spread the Good News and to make disciples of non-believers so that all might be saved. Give us the strength and courage to do just that, Lord. Walk with us as we continue the walk You began so long ago.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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