Memory Verse:
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
(John 17:3)
Peter tightened his outer garment against the crisp spring breeze as they walked under the glow of the gloriously full moon, their pathway bathed with soothing light. The chill reminded him the last vestiges of winter were ebbing away. Buds of life were now returning to the high arid lands of Jerusalem.
Gethsemane lay just ahead but not sure where they were heading, he and the disciples let the Master lead. The Rabbi’s steps were slower than his usual stringent, decisive pace. Jesus was unlike any other man Peter had ever known. Months earlier, Peter had boldly proclaimed that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the anointed one, for whom Israel had waited so long. Yet this Nazarene was an enigma.
All of the disciples were weary from the late night they had the evening before, asking Jesus about the coming of the Kingdom. Tonight, Passover’s four cups of wine made Peter even sleepier. “Maybe soon we’ll bed down early for the night,” the fisherman thought.
Finally, Jesus told eight of the disciples to stop and sit and then motioned for Peter, James and John to follow him a little further. The three glanced at each other’s dimly lit faces. Miracles especially happened when the four of them were together. Peter’s weariness did not stop his pulse from suddenly pounding.
Without turning around, Jesus’s hand went up. “Wait here, as I go and pray there.” As he lowered his hand, his head also sank. He slowly went to small clearing amidst the olive and sycamore trees, not more than a stone’s throw away. There he knelt. There he fell on his face. There he prayed.
Peter knew how long his Master prayed. “This might take a while,” Simon thought, trying to sit comfortably, his back against a tree as he waited, just as Jesus had instructed. The Rabbi’s words faintly wafted over the cool air, sifting with the wind through the branches of the garden trees. Peter’s bleary eyes peered through the dark to see the full moon break through the freshly-formed clouds to shine on Jesus. His face was taut and grimacing with troubled eyes lifted upward to his unseen Father with a passion even Peter had not seen before.
Peter also prayed, but not with such boldness to lift his eyes upwards. He glanced at the young brothers, James and his kid brother John. “Hmph. Dozing already. Sons of thunder indeed…by snoring!” he thought. Peter echoed the words he had heard from the Master. “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will…” The Rock closed his eyes to concentrate on his praying.
Suddenly the voice was closer. “SIMON, are you sleeping?” Peter’s eyes jolted open to see His Lord, no longer kneeling, but standing in front of the three disciples. His piercing eyes were not judging but tenderly sad. “Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, or else you will fall into temptation. I know your spirits are willing, but your flesh is weak.”
Peter watched Him return to the clearing and locked sheepish gazes with the two brothers. “Had it been an hour already?” This time, Peter sank to the ground on his knees and elbows with the name “Simon” ringing in his ears. He had been called Simon all of his life, especially by his father Jonas as they fished and cleaned their nets, by his brother when he came running breathlessly with a tale so fantastic. He immediately thought his fanatical young brother had gone completely off the deep end.
“Simon, we have found the Christ,” Andrew proclaimed, running alongside John. Simon, not at all a religious man like his brother, was not convinced. First, Andrew was following that “crazy John the Baptizer” who was practically drowning people in the dirty Jordan River, Simon thought. Now his kid brother and little John were convinced that a Nazarene was the Anointed One. A Nazarene? They were just looking for a way to ditch fishing, leaving Simon and James to do all the heavy work. But when this man Jesus, if he was merely a man, called him “Peter,” his heart quivered. His impulsive brashness turned to a deeper boldness. He never wanted to be called Simon again.
His memories of the last three years distracted him from praying. It wasn’t just his name that changed, he had changed. He shifted his knees and tried praying in a less dignified position, now his belly on the cold ground, but elbows still up. Hearing Jesus call him Simon made his face flush with embarrassment. He loved the name Peter, the Rock, solid, dependable, not shifting. Not Simon.
His knees felt better but now it was his elbows that ached. He shifted again. He couldn’t concentrate. Simon suddenly realized he wasn’t praying. “It’s not like I’m not laying down, I am prostrating myself before the Lord…” he thought, getting off his achy elbows and fully putting his weight on his belly, chest and legs. “…just like the prophets prayed.”
Face to the ground, his thoughts wandered back to the meal. “Is it I?” he asked his Master, following the statement Jesus had made that one of the disciples was going to betray him. Jesus answered Simon with something that surely was another one of his mysterious parables.
“Deny you? I WILL NEVER DENY YOU,” Simon proclaimed as accusing eyes gazed at him around the table. “They’ll deny you, but I won’t. Jesus, please.”
The only one who didn’t look suspiciously at him was loyal Judas Iscariot. Jesus then spoke quiet words to Judas and he left quickly. “Great,” Simon had thought, “the only one who believes in me is gone now. I guess he took the money bag again to give an offering to the poor.”
Suddenly, two feet stood inches from Simon’s head, startling him from his thoughts. He rolled over to see Jesus towering over him. “Did I fall asleep again?” Simon thought. This time, Jesus didn’t call his name. He didn’t have to.
The Carpenter’s hands reached down to the hand of the fisherman and lifted him to his feet. The three didn’t know what to say. The Rabbi had plenty to say, but didn’t. He returned again, praying the same words. “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
He would not close his eyes this time! He focused on the Lord, who was praying even more intently. Jesus seemed to have gone to a different place, but it wasn’t a different place. But now there was something beside him, a rock? No, Jesus was in the same empty clearing, praying, but something was beside him. It moved! Simon gasped. It was not something, but someone! But whoever or whatever it was, it did not look human.
He glanced back to see if somehow James or John had gone down to pray with Him. No, they were behind him. Sleeping again? He turned back to see Jesus but he was now alone. Thick clouds had rolled in and maybe his eyes were playing tricks him. Christ had been heaving, sobbing almost writhing. It reminded him of the time he had seen Moses and Elijah on the mountain top. Only now did it dawn on Simon that he might have seen an angel from heaven.
As Simon watched, he though he saw shadows shifting beneath the praying master, but the disciple soon discovered once again, he was wrong. Those were not shadows but puddles, dark drops of something pooled beneath Jesus’s forehead as he prayed. Violently shaking, Jesus turned his head, eyes no longer looking heaven-ward, but clenched tightly shut. His Lord was not sweating but bleeding! Not from a wound but oozing from the agony of his prayer.
Simon tried coming closer, mesmerized as the drops plopped down again and again. Maybe he was shocked by the blood, but morbid fear fell upon the once calloused Simon. Time seemed to slow. He was more overwhelmed than when he had seen the naked, demonic man running towards them. He could not move. Sheer terror gripped his heart more strongly than when he was drowning in the middle of a night’s storm raging on Galilee. Yet he was drowning but now in Gethsemane, but not with water. He could not stand. He fell down as if the clouds above had surrounded him, suffocating him out of consciousness. Exhaustion, darkness, wine, sorrow, accusing eyes, prophecies of failure, swirling of events, heated arguments with religious leaders, sleeplessness nights, cheering crowds, heavenly voices, swirled and swirled and swirled around his pounding heart.
“Get up,” Jesus said commandingly, urgently. Peter jumped up in an instant, as did John and James. Confused, disoriented, Peter was not where he thought he had just been. Had he again been sleeping yet again?
All of the disciples were now all surrounding Jesus. All disciples but one.
Judas Iscariot was approaching. With soldiers.
Day 37: Morning
“The High Priestly Prayer”
(John 17:1–26)
This chapter is truly the “Lord’s Prayer” and is frequently called the “High Priestly Prayer.” According to Hebrews, Jesus is the ultimate High Priest.
As the Son of God, He is always able to intercede for us. He is merciful and faithful as High Priest (Heb. 2:17), who as the Son of God is more faithful and glorious than Moses (Heb. 3:1–6).
As the Son of Man, He is a sympathetic High Priest, having been tempted in every way, but never sinned (Heb. 4:14–15). God the Father glorified the Son in a priesthood greater than the Jewish practice through Aaron and the Levites (Hebrews 7). But this High Priest does not intercede for us on earth, in a temple, but rather in heaven in the very presence of the Father Himself (Heb. 8:1–4). So great of a Priest is Christ that He only had to offer one sacrifice, once and for all, and now is seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father (Heb. 9:7–28).
Now that we see who this High Priest is, what does He pray for?
He prays for __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (John 17:1–5)
He prays for His __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (John 17:6–19)
He prays for future __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (John 17:20–26)
(Answers will be in the three following lesson titles)
Today’s devotional had a lot of cross references to Hebrews. Ponder those verses carefully as you prepare to learn about prayer from our Great High Priest.
The following is a little different prayer than normal. It is a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer or the Model Prayer*. Pray it with the freshness of the wording given:
Pray this prayer to God: “O Jesus, our Prophet, Priest and King, teach me to pray even as You did with the disciples. Our Father in heaven, Your very name is sacred. Bring Your reign in my life as it is in heaven. Give me what I need today and help me be content with You alone. Forgive our sins and help us forgive those who have hurt us. Keep me from areas where I will sin, and rescue me from those evil things. Your kingdom is the entire universe. Your power is more than all of the powers of the cosmos combined. And Your glory, Your Glory, YOUR GLORY is forever and ever. Amen.”
* 9Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen
Matthew 6
Day 37: Evening
He Prays For Himself
(Read John 17:1–5)
The audacity of Jesus to pray for Himself!
Is it selfish to pray for yourself? If so, why did Jesus pray for Himself and ask His Father to glorify the Son?
If you ride on an airliner and listen to the attendant talk about the cabin decompression, you may have at first wondered why they say to put the oxygen mask on yourself first and then put it on your child. Isn’t that “me first” attitude toward providing life-sustaining oxygen a little selfish? Why would you put an oxygen mask on yourself first, before putting it on a child?
In Bruce Wilkinson’s little but powerful book The Prayer of Jabez, the author imagines the Old Testament character praying to God with a seemingly selfish request:
In my mind’s eye, I picture Jabez standing before a massive gate recessed into a sky-high wall…[R]aising his hands to Heaven, he cries out, “Father, oh, Father! Please bless me! And what I really mean is…bless me a lot!
Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez (Sisters, Ore., Multnomah Publishers, Inc.), p. 22.
Similarly, Jesus prayed for God to glorify the Son, because when God does the glorifying, that glory is like light that is shot into a diamond—the brilliance of the glory is shown all around with even greater glory shone back onto the Father.
Jesus was the most selfless Being who ever existed, and yet He prayed for Himself. You also are commanded to “make your requests known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
In addition to His glory, Jesus prays about eternal life. Write down your definition of eternal life.
______________________________________________________
Now look at John 17:3 and the definition of eternal life Jesus gives. Compare that to your definition.
Eternal life is not just going to heaven. It is having an intimate knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. J.I. Packer answered the question of “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God?” this way:
The rule for (knowing God) is demanding but simple. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God…And it is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength, and our joy.
J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press), p. 18–19.
Pray this prayer to God: “Heavenly Father, I want to know You and Your Son Jesus Christ. Bring glory to me, that I might glorify You. Amen.”
Day 38: Morning
Jesus Prays For His Disciples
(Read John 17:6–19)
Possession (verses 6–10) The disciples don’t know it yet, but their Lord is about to leave them. In tenderly praying for them, Jesus declares God’s “ownership” of the disciples. “They were Yours, You gave them to Me.” As His possession, Jesus truly loved them and sought their very best. We too now belong to Christ. How valuable are we? Our purchase price was the death of God’s only Son. Ponder God’s possession of you.
Protection (verses 11–12) Jesus prays for the protection of the disciples. Some versions say “keep” and others say “protect” and the word is used again in verse 15 for God to protect the disciples from the evil one. Ephesians 4:30 says we are “sealed” by God’s Holy Spirit. Ponder God’s protection of you.
Pleasure (verse 13) Jesus prayed for His joy to be fulfilled or completed (HCSB) in them. God wants you to enjoy life here on earth. “My joy is that your joy is full,” Jesus said in John 15:11. Jesus told a story about a man who sold everything to buy a piece of land (Matthew 13:44). The man, who represents Jesus, didn’t mind the price; in fact it says it was for “joy” that he sold everything because there was hidden treasure in the land. Heaven is called the “joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:23). There is trouble in the world, John 16:33–34 says, but God gives us peace and joy. “When you have joy, it is an answer to Jesus’s prayer.” Ponder God’s pleasure in you.
Purpose (verse 14–16, 18) We are in the world, but not of it. We are in the world for a reason. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep (protect) them from the evil one.” For the disciples, and for us, there is a message to be carried to the world. Ponder God’s purpose for you in the world.
Purity (verse 17, 19) In verse 11, Jesus appeals to His Father as “Holy” and is the same word used for “Holy Spirit” which is God’s Spirit living us. Holy means “sanctified,” “consecrated,” “set apart.” That word is also used in verse 17 as “Sanctify them.” The Bible repeatedly commands, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
If you don’t know who Pastor Tony Evans is, you need to go to www.tonyevans.org and listen to a few hundred sermons (more or less). Then imagine his voice explaining this:
“A Holy, Sanctified, Consecrated, Set Apart Father sets apart a set apart people who are kept with a set apart name, through the Set Apart Spirit by the Set Apart Son for a set apart life with a set apart purpose.”
Think about what that means as you ponder God’s purpose for you in this world.
Pray this prayer to God: “As I pray to You, Holy Father, I ask for what You Son asked for the early disciples: Your ownership of my life, for You to keep me, for You to give me a purpose in this world, and to help me enjoy it. In Jesus’s Holy Name I pray. Amen.”
Day 38: Evening
He prays for future believers
(Read John 17:20–26)
Did you know that Jesus prayed for you? He did!
Read it for yourself. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” Did you see it? Write your name in your Bible at John 17:20, because that’s where Jesus prayed for you.
Jesus prayed that you “all may be one,” meaning for you to be one with others. Being one doesn’t mean identical, but united. It’s okay to be different, but it’s not okay to be divided. Is there an individual that you are not “one” with? Is there a race or a social class against whom you are prejudiced? Is there a denomination or a worship style that is different than yours that you can’t stand? Fulfill the prayer of Jesus and be at one with your fellow believers.
Jesus also prayed for you to have His glory so that you would be one with others (verse 22). I don’t know fully what it means to receive His glory, but one thing He makes pretty clear: His glory makes us one with others and with Him. If we aren’t, we are keeping His glory from shining in us.
Jesus prays for you to be a witness to the world (verse 23). The best way to witness is through united love (verse 26). Read 1 John 4:19–21 “We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
Don’t just say you love others, show your love with your actions! Read 1 John 3:14–18: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death… And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
Can a Christian love others and not help them?
YES or NO
Jesus appealed to God as “Father,” “Holy Father,” and “Righteous Father.” Righteous means God will do what is right. In 1 John 2:1, he said Jesus Christ, the Righteous, is our “advocate” (or “one who speaks in our defense,” NIV) with the Father.
Jesus not only prayed for you in John 17, He still is praying for you. Jesus “is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:34, HCSB). How awesome is His prayer for us.
Pray this prayer to God: “Righteous Father. Make me righteous by faith. Help me to not only get along with others but truly be at one with them in love, so that I can be a witness to the world for You. I look forward to seeing You in glory and being with Your Son. Thank You Jesus for praying for me. Amen.”
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