JOHN 17:1-10 Lesson # 35.

WHAT WE PRAY REVEALS WHO WE ARE

I.? Introduction:

Q? How is someone really a success today, for a modern american what is glory?

Q? What is glory for a christian worker, or what does success look like?

Q? Is right to pray for glory?

Note:? Tonight we are going to start our look at Jesus’ famous “intercessory prayer” in John 17.? It opens with some amazing things and can teach us much about prayer.

II.? First Order of Business:? The Glory of God.? John 17:1-5

>>>> Have someone read John 17:1

Q? Is Jesus praying in secret or do others hear, what does that mean?

An = Jesus is praying to God, but others hear, He has an audience.? If He has an audience then that means we were meant to hear, to learn from Jesus’ prayer.? Lets see what we can learn….

Q? What does Jesus call God, how does He address Him?

An = As Father.

Q? What does such a title mean to you and what do you think it meant to Jesus??

An = To Jesus God is like a “father”, a good father.? Someone whose delight and great joy is in his son.? In the Middle East, often a man’s greatest treasure is his children.? He lives for them and would die for them.?

Note:? It is to such a father that Jesus now prays.? He speaks with confidence.

Q ?What does Jesus request?

An = He asks for glory.? He asks His Dad to glorify His Son.

Q? If you were to ask such a request of God what would you mean by it?

An = Begin with an honest answer yourself, and then let them talk.

Q? According to the last part of this verse what is Jesus’ goal or motive for asking for glory?

An = that He, Jesus, may glorify His Father.

RQ? When is the last time we prayed for His glory?

Q? Do you know Christian leaders or musicians that want their own glory?

An = it is so hard to get free of our own selfish motives.? It is a great struggle for me.? I have seldom got there.

Q? Do any of you struggle in this way?

Q? How would we come to the place where we seek God’s glory and not our own?

>>>> Have someone read John 17:2.

Q? What gift has this Father given His Son?

An = authority over all men and given Him the power to give eternal life to all those the Father has given Him.?

Q? What has Jesus done with His authority, especially with those the Father gave Him?

An = Jesus used His gifts to give gifts to others.? Jesus did not receive authority over all the earth and then lord it over nations, kings, etc.? He used His gift to give us eternal life.? He came to earth with great power to serve those His Father loved.

Note:? If your heavenly Father has given you gifts, it is because He wants you to use those gifts to give to others.? Perhaps, this is the first way we seek His glory, give….

>>>> Have someone read John 17:3

Q? How does Jesus define eternal life?

An = Knowing God.? There is more:? knowing His Father and knowing Jesus, the One sent by the Father.?

Note:? Eternal life is knowing God, knowing Jesus.? The two are equated.

Note:? Perhaps, this is the second way we seek His glory, show them Jesus.? When we play music, or teach a Sunday School lesson, or give a testimony, etc. are helping others see Jesus or ourselves.? A friend of mine said, “I seldom go to church and get help seeing God”.? I have noticed it is the musician that glories and helps me see Jesus, not their talent, that helps me spiritually.

>>>> Have someone read John 17:4.

Q? How did Jesus deal with His Father?

An = He brought glory to His Father and did the work assigned Him by His Father.

Q? What in this verse could help you learn how to glorify God?

An = Perhaps, the third way, is to do His work that is assigned to us.? Often, I have other things that are more important to me than His work or His assignments.

>>>> Have someone read John 17:5

Q? What is the glory that Jesus is asking for here and in verse one?

An = It seems to be connected with something Jesus had before He became incarnate here on earth.? There He was in glory, here is brought low to human status and even rejected and hassled by men and soon to be crucified.? Jesus’ glory is tied to His return to majesty of heaven, but that path led first to His humiliating death on at calvary.? Jesus’ glory does mean power, but He used it to heal the poor, not to set up a military kingdom.? Jesus’ glory does mean His honor that will soon be evident to all men but it was to be hidden until He bore our sins on the cross.? Perhaps, the fourth way is the necessary suffering our tasks entail.? Glorification means everything we think it means but it also means the cross.? It means giving that entails pain.? Sometimes pain purifies our love, our focus.

Q? How does Jesus want to experience this glory that He once had?

An = with His Father.? Perhaps, this is the fourth way, to share with Him glory.

Q? Is it right to ask for glory?

An = Yes, especially so that our glory, glorifies our Father and our glory allows us to give gifts to other.?

III.? Disciples Identified:? Obedience of and Intimacy with Jesus.? John 17:6-8

>>>> Have someone read John 17:6-7.

Q? According to verse six who are the disciples?

An = They are three things:?

1)? Given to Jesus by the Father from out of the world.?

2)? They were God’s.? RQ? Have you ever thought that you are God’s?

3)? Given to Jesus the Son.

Q? How do we know if we are disciples?

An = If we are true disciples whether we know it or not we are God’s and given to His Son, and called out of the world.? However, there is a way to know that these three things are true of us….

Q? What two things are said about Jesus’ disciples at the end of verse 6 and in verse 7?

An = They have kept His Word and they know that all they receive from Jesus is from God.

Note:? This is so important that Jesus is going to repeat it….

>>>> Have someone read John 17:8.

Q? What do the disciples do?

An = They accepted Jesus teaching from His Father and they believe that Jesus is sent from the Father.? Notice that “obeyed” (6) and “accepted” (8) are parallel and also parallel knowing that everything given to Jesus (6) and Jesus Himself (8) came from the Father.

Q? According to John 17 what makes someone a disciple of Jesus Christ, or in modern terms what makes one a Christian?

An = John 17 has put it simple in two terms obey and believe.? Do we obey what Jesus taught and do we believe and realize He and that all He taught comes from the Father?

IV.? Jesus’ First Request:? Keep Them So They Can Be One With Us.? John 17:9-10.

>>>> Have someone read John 17:9-10

Q? Whom is Jesus praying for?

An = He is asking not for the world but the disciples, those Whom the Father gave Him.?

Q? Why is Jesus praying for them?

An = Because they are God’s.?

Q? Has God given you to Jesus?? Why is this important?

An = If God has given us to Jesus, then we are His.? This makes us special, Jesus is prays for us.

Q? What do we do for Him?

An = We bring Him glory… quite a privilege.