The Text: John 17:6-19
Jesus often spent time in prayer. Jesus also taught a great deal about prayer. In
Matthew chapter 6 and in Luke chapter 11 we have some of the extended
teaching of Jesus on prayer. This teaching incorporates Jesus’ gift to his disciples of
what has become known as ‘the Lord’s Prayer’. This prayer is the model prayer that
we can pray just as it is and it is also a model for our prayers, teaching us so much
about how we are to pray to our Father in heaven.
But for all of the teaching of Jesus on prayer and for all of the time he spent in
prayer, we have surprisingly few examples in the Bible of what Jesus actually
prayed. We are given a snippet of his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane when
he prayed: ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I
will, but as you will’ (Matthew 26:39). And a little later, ‘My Father, if it is not possible
for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done’ (Matthew
26:42).
Of the seven sayings of Jesus from the Cross, three of them are prayers: ‘Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Lk.23:34). ‘My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me’ (Matt.27:46). ‘Father, into your hands I commit my
spirit’ (Lk.23:46).
And then there are a couple of other examples of Jesus’ prayers recorded in
John’s Gospel account. In chapter 11 Jesus prayed at the tomb of Lazarus. He said:
‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I
said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you
sent me’ (11:41-42). And in chapter 12, as his death drew near, Jesus prayed: “Now
my heart is troubled, and what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it
was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (12:27-28).
Apart from these few examples, more often than not Jesus would go off by himself
to pray and the content of these prayers are unknown to us. And that makes sense,
doesn’t it? On the one hand prayer is a corporate activity, conducted publicly in
church worship and family devotions. But on the other hand it is a very personal
matter, where the vast majority of our prayers are likely to be private conversations,
one on one, between us and God. Why should we imagine that it was any different
for Jesus?
But in our text for today, from John chapter 17, we have the longest example of an
actual prayer of Jesus. The whole of chapter 17, in fact, is Jesus praying. As a result,
this makes it a pretty key piece of Scripture – especially when you consider its
context.
This is on the night when he was betrayed, either just before going to Gethsemane
or on the way there (see John 14:31 & 18:1). Jesus has just shared the Last Supper
with his disciples and has given them some significant teaching in preparation for
the time after his ascension. And now Jesus prays for them.
Here we have Jesus praying for his disciples at the climax of his ministry and for
once we have some extensive content of one of his prayers. I imagine that the
disciples would have been quite interested to know what Jesus was saying about
them to his heavenly Father at this time and what he was praying for them.
This last Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus, where we rejoice that Jesus
has come home to his rightful place at the Father’s side in heaven. The Apostle Paul
tells us in his letter to the Romans: ‘Jesus…is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding for us’ (8:34). Jesus is praying for us to our heavenly Father, even as he
was praying for his first disciples that one night long ago. So do you think that we
might be a little interested in knowing what Jesus might have to say about us to our
heavenly Father and what he is praying for us?
We might be very interested, although we need to be careful what we wish for. You
see, Jesus was praying this other prayer on the night when he was betrayed. During
the course of the Last Supper the disciples had still been arguing about who was
the greatest (Luke 22:24), they had been told that one of them would betray Jesus
(John 13:21), that their chief spokesman in Peter would deny him (John 13:38) and
that all of them would scatter and leave him on his own (John 16:32).
Under these circumstances would you really want to be privy to what Jesus was
saying about you to our Father in heaven? Given the way you and I let Jesus down
do we really want to hear what he has to say about us? If we didn’t already know
the content of his prayer, we might expect there to be a fair bit of frustration
vented, maybe something like this:
‘Father, are you out of your mind! Look at what you have given me to work with
here! They just don’t seem to get it. Your plan will never work as long as they are
part of it!’
But this is not what Jesus prayed at all. Here are some excerpts of what he said:
‘Father, you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word’ (v6)
‘I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them’ (v8)
‘They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believed you sent me’
(v8)
‘Glory has come to me through them’ (v10)
Such generosity and graciousness on the part of Jesus is absolutely staggering! Here
is our Lord, on the night when he was betrayed, denied and abandoned, praying
to his Father in glowing terms about his disciples. Despite how things might appear
on the surface in the disciples’ lives and despite their many struggles and failings,
Jesus truly interceded for them, demonstrating his great love for them and respect
of them.
This is the kind of Lord we want in our corner, interceding for us at the Father’s side.
We don’t deserve to be treated with such generosity and graciousness – but it is
sure nice to be. This is how Jesus prays for us – with love and respect. This is the kind
of glowing terms he uses to describe us before our heavenly Father in prayer. This
may also cause us to think how we pray for others!
This should give us a greater sense of urgency when it comes to our part in God’s
plan for our world. Despite what appears to be happening on the surface of our
lives and despite our many struggles and failings, Jesus can still talk about us to our
heavenly Father in terms of our obedience, acceptance and faith. Jesus can still
see God’s glory unfolding in us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.
But Jesus also knows we need help and protection and he prays about it for us. He
knows that we are up against it when it comes to the calling that is upon our lives to
serve him in his kingdom. We are very much in enemy territory. As Paul said to the
Ephesians: our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms (6:12).
So for all of the glowing terms Jesus uses about his disciples and, by extension, us, he
also has some very specific prayer requests for us. He says:
‘Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so
they may be one as we are one’ (v11)
‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one’ (v15)
‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth’ (v17)
In these three prayer requests we see clearly the heart of Jesus for us. He wants us
to be protected and united by the power of God’s name – which is the name of
Jesus himself. There is so much that has the potential to divide us – from the petty
squabbles that can arise amongst us, through to serious conflicts. Some of our
anger and disappointment at our brothers and sisters in Christ can seem justified to
us in our hurt, but Jesus is praying that we may continue to be one in him. If we are
divided we are vulnerable and exposed to attack. If we are united in the love of
Christ, a love that empowers us to forgive one another, then we are under God’s
protection.
And Jesus does not want us out of the world, not yet at least. It would be far safer
for us to be tucked away in heaven. But for the time being there is work for us to do,
a calling on our lives to serve our world. There are still a lot of right places and right
times that we need to be in where God’s glory will be shown through us. And as we
do this, Jesus is praying for our protection from all evil.
And part of that protection comes about from being secure in his truth. Earlier in
John’s Gospel account Jesus said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (14:6).
And earlier still we heard that ‘the Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us’ (1:14). So when Jesus prays for us to be sanctified, made holy, in the truth
and that God’s word is truth – he is really praying that we would be made holy in
him. That’s why he can speak of us in such glowing terms. His holiness and glory is
unfolding in our lives as we remain in his word.
Our Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God and he is praying for us. He loves us and
respects us, despite our struggles and failings, and he will see to it that we are kept
safe as he continues to reveal his glory in our lives. Amen.
Month: May 2026
Sermon – Easter 6A
The Text: John 14:18
Jesus said to his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans”.
At home
Orphans the world over are a tragedy of tremendous proportions. According
to UNICEF there are 153 million orphan children worldwide with over five and
half thousand being becoming orphans every day. Whether in refugee
camps in Africa, India, Romania, Bulgaria, or South East Asia these figures are
mind blowing especially knowing the tragic affect that the loss of parents has
on children and how this loss shapes the rest of their lives.
Even a child left without parents here in our country, although infinitely far
better off than those in the countries I have just mentioned, is affected in
ways that we don’t fully understand. Children who lose their parents lose their
security and are vulnerable and powerless physically, emotionally and
psychologically. The love and care given to them by others will, in time, make
up for this but unfortunately some children never get over their loss. Some
never get over the psychological wounds that comes with being an orphan.
It’s as if they have lost their story, their roots, their history, their identity, their
sense of direction.
In the light of this, the words of Jesus take on a special meaning. “I will not
leave you orphaned” Jesus says to his disciples. Or this could be translated, “I
will not leave you desolate, deserted, alone, abandoned, unloved,
futureless”.
The disciples knew Jesus in a very close and personal way. They had walked
together, talked together, eaten together, shared good and bad times
together. They had been constant companions of Jesus. They felt confident
and safe in the presence of Jesus.
When they experienced doubt, pain and suffering, they felt Jesus understood
what was happening to them.
When they were filled with joy and happiness or overcome with sadness and
sorrow, they felt secure in the knowledge that Jesus experienced the same
emotions and feelings as they did.
When they were hungry, Jesus fed them and a great crowd with a few loaves
and fish.
When they were in danger on the sea, Jesus was nearby to rescue them.
When they witnessed the grief that death brought into their lives, Jesus was at
hand to comfort and raise the dead to life.
You see there is a kind of fatherly or perhaps brotherly relationship between
Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus could see that his disciples were dependent on him. In fact, Jesus
occasionally addressed them as “little children”. In the presence of Jesus they
were like “little children” who relied on his love and comfort.
When Jesus warned the disciples that he will no longer be with them he had
to quickly assure them not to be worried and upset, but to trust him. Now if
that’s how they felt before Jesus’ death imagine how alone and abandoned
they must have felt after Jesus’ death on the cross. Under the shadow of the
cross, Jesus knew that they will feel like orphans—lost, without hope, helpless,
powerless, uncertain about their future and confused. So he makes them a
promise:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and
be with you forever—the Spirit of truth…I will not leave you as orphans; I will
come to you….Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John
14.16,18,27).
Note this unique way Jesus reminds us that we will always have a home and
a family. He says, “I am in the Father, and you are in me, just as I am in you
(John 14:20).
This is a good passage to pause and meditate on. Simply what Jesus is
expressing is the very close and intimate relationship between himself and the
Father, himself and his disciples and his disciples and God. That tiny word “in”
describes a special bond, a unique oneness. A family relationship.
You who believe in Jesus already have the Holy Spirit. God the Father has
sent you the Holy Spirit through the Son. He did this for you at baptism.
Because of God’s work for us in baptism you have a place of belonging in
the family of God, by which you are no longer orphans, for God our Father
has made you heirs with Jesus his Son. We are sons and daughters together
with the Son. And since that is the case for every person who is in Christ then
we are all a part of that Triune God’s loving, supporting family. We are all
brothers and sisters joined together in God’s family, the church.
In this family God the Father continues to give you the Holy Spirit, through the
Son, who meets you in the word, the scriptures. Through the Scriptures the
Holy Spirit continually comes to us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are
given a new direction, a new future and a new life.
This new life is one in which we will always have a home. We will always have
a loving family—God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These words of comfort
carry the message that we won’t ever be orphans—we will know exactly who
we are and where we belong.
True enough Satan will always try to break up that togetherness we have. He
just loves to drive wedges of doubt, anger, hostility, and jealousy, either
between us and God, or between each another in his family. He will
constantly tempt us to sin and break the bond and put up barriers between
the members of the family, and break apart from it. But that’s not what God
has planned for any of us.
God wants no one to feel like an orphan. When Jesus says to us “I will not
leave you as orphans” he means that we belong to the Father, adopted and
claimed through Jesus the Son. We are loved by the Father. We are forgiven
by the Son. When there are members of the family who are feeling like an
orphan because we have had a falling out with someone, as a member of
this special family, it becomes our responsibility to make amends, whether it
was our fault or not.
When there is a member of the family who is feeling like an orphan—lonely,
scared, uncertain because they are facing illness and even death—as a
member of this special family, it becomes our responsibility to pass on the
love and care that we have received from our heavenly Father.
When there are members of the family who are feeling like orphans—feeling
unloved, needing a guiding hand, wanting someone to know their pain—as
a member of this special family, it becomes our responsibility to be a brother
and sister to that person and let them see the love of our heavenly parent
through us.
When there are members of this special family who are feeling like orphans,
needing someone to provide them with basic essentials and to empathise
with them in their circumstances, it becomes our responsibility to be a brother
and sister to that person and let them see in us the love of our heavenly
Father as we meet those needs.
Jesus’ words need to become our words to one another as people of God’s
family “I will not leave you as an orphan”, as we reflect the love and care of
God into the lives of the people around us. Let Jesus inspire us to say to our
fellow brothers and sisters, “I will not leave you desolate, feeling deserted,
alone, abandoned, unloved, futureless”.
At the 400 metre race at the 1992 summer Olympics a young Englishman,
Derek Redmond was hungry to win a gold medal after being forced to
withdraw from the previous Olympics because of injury. However, shortly after
the start of the race, he popped his right hamstring. All the other runners
continued the race leaving him like an orphan alone on the track. Amazingly
Redmond got back up and started hopping towards the finish line. The other
runners had all finished the race in a matter of seconds. Redmond, in tears,
slowly and laboriously kept hopping. It looked as if he would fall any moment.
Suddenly, a man appeared beside Derek. It was his father. He had run down
from the stands and pushed his way through the security guards to reach his
son. Redmond’s father put his arm around his son and let him cry on his
shoulder. Then, with his father holding him up, Derek hobbled to the finish line
and then he hopped over the line by himself to finish the race.
There’s a word of hope for you and me, to help us finish the race of life. It is
God’s own word. When we are feeling like orphans to run the race of life in
this world—a race we cannot run by our own strength—we have a Father
who gives us his strength to keep on going, a Saviour who walks beside us
and the Spirit who comforts us, and strengthens us in faith, pointing us to
everything Jesus said and still speaks, enabling us to cross the finishing line.
We are not abandoned because we have a God who loves us. He says to
each of personally and individually, “I will not leave you as orphans”. Amen.
Sermon for Easter 5
The Text: John 14:1-14
A Place prepared
Clean sheets on the spare bed. check.
House clean and tidy. check.
Plenty of Food in the house. check
Yep ready for the visitors to arrive.
Is that something you do to prepare for visitors to come and stay with you? A special meal, the spare bed has clean fresh sheets, and the house is tidied?
It is special when children who have grown and left home, come home. For a
mother, it is a joyous occasion when all the family are together and are at peace with one another.
Depending on where the children are geographically, there may be different ways they can travel to come home. Even when we go to places there is generally more than one way to take to reach a destination. If there is a more scenic way to get to a destination, sometimes that is a better wat than to travel on a major highway.
We can’t do that at the moment. We aren’t allowed to travel. We can’t be with our mother’s today if they live away from us. But that’s okay we can still connect with, phone, Facebook, Skype, email. Once this pandemic is over, once again we can go to their place.
Jesus tells about a place for us to go to today. He calls it his Father’s house. It’s a place where there is not just one spare room, but there are many rooms. But as Jesus says to Thomas, you can’t get there on your own. Jesus says: “I am the way”.
To know Jesus is to know the Father. In the same way, the Father knows the ones who listen to the voice of Jesus, and follow him along the way. It’s interesting that before early believers were called Christians they were called people who followed ‘The Way’.
Jesus fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah spoke of, “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall
belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray”. (Isaiah 35:8).
How are we ever able to walk the way of holiness and be invited into our heavenly
room that is prepared for us? For we know that daily we struggle with our humanity and its sinful desires. Rather than daily concentrate on the Holy life God desires of us, we follow our own ambitions.
The way to God was completely closed, and sin was the roadblock. It was like when the Israelites had been rescued out of Egypt they were filled with fear because they thought the way to freedom was blocked by the Red Sea as the Egyptian chariots were closing in behind them. It’s the same in our lives. If we think our way to freedom depends on us, then we fail to trust that Jesus has provided away for our freedom.
The way was blocked because of sin, but God wanted to rescue us from this world in which sin entered and blocked the way to the place where our Heavenly Father has these many rooms prepared. God could not simply excuse or overlook our sin
and allow us to enter his place in our sinful state. Yes God is merciful, but He is also just. Justice requires that sin be paid for. At great cost, he himself paid that price. God offers salvation to everyone who accepts it through faith in Jesus. Jesus
describes this way as entering through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Perhaps the way through Jesus doesn’t look appealing enough or has too many restrictions. But in reality, the way through Jesus is bigger than you think, because God sent Jesus to save the world. It isn’t God’s fault that many don’t accept that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
We know the way to heaven by trusting in what Jesus has done for us and what he continues to do for us through his gifts to the Church. Our journey begins in Baptism.
Through God’s Word and water Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith. Faith receives the promises of God and clings to Jesus as the true and only way. Faith receives Jesus as the way and rejects all other ways that are contrary to what God’s word says. Just like a mother, God has a lot of love to give, even lots more. God’s love is an everlasting steadfast love that endures rejection, as he sees people go on a journey in other directions to fulfil their needs. However, through the Holy Spirit, God never stops trying to alert us if we go in the wrong direction. It’s like when your TomTom or Navman tells you perform a U-turn where possible.
What I really dislike about relying on GPS is when they try to take you down a road that isn’t there. It makes us end up feeling lost and not sure where I am. Then I need to back track to get on the right way.
Likewise, God gives us a conscience to alert us when we follow a way that leads away from his way. His ways are written on our hearts, and supported through his written word to show us his way.
When it comes to walking the way of holiness, it’s the way of repentance and forgiveness. Repentance because we fail to live holy lives and need to turn back and confess our failures to God. God hears our cries for mercy and forgives us for Jesus’ sake.
He is always waiting like a mother for her children to come home. One of the best images we have of this in the bible is the story of the prodigal son.
When Jesus says, “I am the Way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” he is not meaning this to be a threat. Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, as a word of comfort.
They are a comfort for us as well, for we don’t need to panic and search for a
hidden map or look for clues, or guess if we are on the road to salvation. It’s clear and simple. As Jesus says “Do not let your heart be troubled. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going away to
make a place for you. After I go and make a place for you, I will come back and take you with me. Then you may be where I am.”
A mother’s desire is to protect her children. Have you felt the anxious wait to see your children safely arrive home? You hope they will not get lost, but will follow the way that leads to you, to the place you have prepared for them. Sometimes things occur where as parents, as a mother, you need to go and bring your child to the safety of home.
This is what Jesus did for all of us. He came down from heaven into the world, where we were lost and heading in all sorts of directions and he shows the way home. His desire is for us to be where he is. There is no other way than the way Jesus paved at a great cost to himself.
He calls us to follow him with hearts that forgive, and have compassion. With hearts that welcome home into the family a child who had lost their way. With hearts that even go looking when we notice we haven’t seen them for a while. It’s what a mother does for her child so she knows her child is safe.
It’s what Jesus does for us. There is only one true way to eternal life. That is the way of Jesus. Amen