Spiritual Disciplines

John 17:1 – “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said Father…”

Who do you talk with the most? Who do you talk about the most? That person is probably the one you love and lean on the most.

While walking on the earth, the Lord Jesus was constantly referring to God the Father. Jesus’ favorite title for God is Father and this is reported roughly 65 times in three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). In John’s gospel, Jesus refers to God as Father roughly 100 times. In the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, He begins by praying to God as Father yet again.

Our big brother Jesus is modeling some very powerful truths in His prayer.

First, we need God like a small child needs their parent. No matter how old we are, we are still the Father’s kids and always need His help.

Second, the God of the Bible is relational. The entire concept of the Trinity is that God is relational – one God in three Persons in perfect and eternal relationship.

Three, in any relationship, communication is key. When we read the Bible, we are listening to God speak to us. When we pray to God, He is listening to us.

Four, as a Father, God hears and answers prayer like any parent – yes, no, later. Just because we do not get God to give or do what we ask does not mean that He is not hearing. Rather, His answer may simply be no or later. It might not be His will, or it might not be His timing.

How is your time listening to God’s Word, and praying to God going each day?

John 17:1 – “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said…”

It seems like every good superhero movie in some form or fashion borrows the storyline of the Bible. The people of earth are in danger, and a hero comes from another planet to defeat some evil villain and save the lives of people otherwise doomed to destruction.

Somewhere deep in the human soul, it seems like we know that our only hope is a savior coming in from outside our fallen planet. The storyline of the Bible is even more fantastic than any comic. God came down from Heaven on a mission to seek and save people on the earth. His name is Jesus Christ.

The longest recorded prayer of Jesus Christ occupies the entire chapter of John 17. There, Jesus begins to pray by looking up. Prayer is how we look up to the Kingdom of God. Prayer is how we invited the hope, help, and healing of the Kingdom to come down to the earth. While we remain on the earth, we need to look up to heaven as Jesus did for at least four reasons.

This world is not normal. This world is filled and fraught with sin that brings suffering. The Kingdom of God is normal, and this world is abnormal. When we look up and pray, we are inviting God to make this abnormal world like His Kingdom.
This world is not home. One day, we will die and be in the Kingdom forever. When we look up and pray, we remind ourselves where our real Home is.
This world is not forever. This world is coming to an end and will be replaced by the perfect eternal Kingdom of God. When we look up and pray, we remind ourselves that whatever needs we are praying for today will be answered in full on the final day.
This world is where we pull heaven down or pull hell up. Standing on the earth, when we choose sin, folly, rebellion, bitterness, strife, lies, pride and the like we are literally pulling hell up into our life because in eternity the only place those things will be is in hell. By looking up to heaven in prayer, the Holy Spirit helps us choose holiness, wisdom, obedience, forgiveness, love, truth, humility and the like and, in so doing, are pulling heaven down into our life. Prayer is where we look up and pull heaven down rather than looking down to pull hell up.
What are you most looking forward to in the Kingdom of God forever?

Nearly every religion has some form of prayer. But, for the Christian, who we pray to, how we pray, why we pray, and what we pray for is unique. In God becoming a person on the earth, Jesus models for us perfect prayer. In John 17, the entire chapter is the transcript of the longest recorded prayer that we have from Jesus that is not recorded anywhere else in the Bible.

To help you understand Christian prayer, the following 8 prayer principles summarizing the Bible’s teaching about prayer might be of assistance:

Prayer can be old or new. Old prayers are when we pray the Scriptures, the prayer of another godly person, or a prayer that we have prayed in the past and return to now and then.
Prayer can be aloud or silent. Since God knows your thoughts, even if you are praying silently (e.g. on the job, or while taking a test at school), God is listening.
Prayer can be written or verbal. Prayer in written form can include things like journaling or keeping a prayer diary where you make note of answered prayers. Prayer in verbal form can be you talking to God aloud in a conversational tone or singing to God alone or with other Christians.
Prayer can be in words or songs. Some people talk to God with words of prose. Some people talk to God with words of poetry.
Can be speaking or listening. Like any relationship, it is important to learn both to communicate and also listen in your relationship with God. Prayer includes both speaking to God and listening to God.
Can be short or long. Short prayers sometimes are the best, like crying out “help” when we are in over our head. Long prayers can be helpful to help us verbally process something, unburden, or save us from gossiping to others when we need to talk something out.
Can be public or private. Public prayer can be over a meal in public, in church, during a Bible study, as a family, with friends, or simply placing a hand on someone’s shoulder who is hurting and interceding for them in love. Private prayer can be done anytime and anywhere you are alone with God.
Can be alone or in a group. Because you have a personal relationship with God, it is good to talk to God alone. Because a Christian is adopted into a family, it is good to have personal relationships with others who also have a personal relationship with God.
Which of these do you think you are strongest at having made spiritual progress? Which of these do you think you are weakest and could grow in learning?

The Bible is the most brutally honest and genuinely real recounting of the pains and pleasure of real life for real people. In its pages, we even get to see the real God unfiltered on his darkest days as a man among us. The Bible invites us in to see Jesus disrespected, dishonored, and disgraced – even by family and friends. We see him yelling in anger, cheering with laughter, and weeping in agony. We see him worshiped and tortured. We see him exalted and despised.

The Bible is not written by anybody trying to sell you anything by sanding off the edges and adding plenty of lacquer to make it shiny. No, the Bible is the result of honest people telling the true story about real life. Sometimes, when we read the Bible we can forget that it is written by real people for real people.

As we are studying Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17, it is important to make note of Jesus’ friend and disciple John for faithfully recording the prayer by the divine enablement of the Holy Spirit. This lengthy prayer does not appear in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) but is recorded in John’s Gospel alone. Had John not included Jesus’ prayer, we would be without any record of this great and vital moment in world history.

90-percent of John’s Gospel is unique to John. If he had not shared with us His eye-witness life with Jesus, there would be a gap in much of our understanding about Jesus’ life and ministry. John is like Jesus’ little brother, faithfully at Jesus’ side. He was present at the most intimate parts of Jesus’ life. John saw the miracles and the mundane. John was there for the good times and the griefs. Jesus and John are so close that he becomes one of the three disciples Jesus considers his closest advisers, and many scholars believe John is “the disciple Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). After Jesus ascended to heaven, John became the leader of the earliest pastors. He wrote 1, 2, 3 John, and this great biography of Jesus, the Gospel of John, along with the book of Revelation.

So, in John 17 we see one of Jesus’ most intimate moments in prayer with his Father related to us honestly by one of Jesus’ most intimate friends. It just goes to show that the shortest distance between two people is prayer. Jesus and John were close friends because they prayed with and for each other. If you want to be close to someone, the lesson of John 17 is to pray with them and pray for them.

Who can you be praying with and for to build your relationship?

What is your history with prayer?

I grew up in a Catholic family and even attended Catholic school for a few years as a kid. I learned to pray memorized prayers from various saints and church traditions, but I did not much understand a personal relationship with God or conversational prayer.

In college, I became a Christian reading the Bible and attended what might have been the first Bible study. The group leader meant well but put me in an awkward spot when he asked me to open our time together in prayer. I had no clue how to pray in a group and so I told him I needed to learn how to do that. He kindly opened us up in prayer which got me off the hook. By hearing other people pray, I started to learn how to pray for myself. It was kind of like learning to talk as a child – you hear other people speak and learn how to speak for yourself.

Perhaps the best way to learn how to pray is by listening to Jesus pray. In John 17, the entire chapter is the transcript of the longest recorded prayer that we have from Jesus. In it, Jesus prays for:
1) Himself (17:1-5)
2) Christians (17:6-19)
3) Non-Christians (17:20-26)
The prayer is not found anywhere else in the Bible and if the Holy Spirit had not prompted John to write it down, it would have been lost forever.

The prayer is sometimes called the “High Priestly Prayer”, and the “Holy of Holies” of the New Testament. The Scottish preacher John Knox had John 17 read to him every day as he as dying to prepare his soul for eternity. The Irish preacher Marcus Rainsford published a 500-page commentary on the prayer. The bottom line is that John 17 is a big deal. If Jesus needed to pray, we all do. If Jesus did not feel bad praying for His needs, neither should we.

Here’s how Jesus’ prayer begins as we learn how to pray for our own needs as He did:

John 17:1-5: “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’”

Schedule some time today, even right now, and let God know what your personal needs are in prayer.