The Time is Now!

I would like you to open to John chapter 17. Because as we jump right in, Jesus talks about time. He opens a prayer and He says, “Father, the time has come.” It’s interesting because, at one point earlier, His mother asked Him to do something and He said to her, “No, My time hasn’t come.” At yet another time, they try to kill Him and they take Him to a cliff and it says He passes through them because His time had not yet come.

I want to ask you a really important question. What time is it? What time is it in our world? What time is it in the Church’s life? What time is it in your life? And I don’t mean looking at your watch kind of time. In Greek, there are two or three different words for “time.” One is chronos that means, like, what time is it? The hour. The other is kairos and it means a pregnant opportunity, a season. It’s a time where you need to move, you need to respond, you need to be aware of what is going on.

In the Old Testament, in a really critical time in Israel’s history, it says, “The men of Issachar understood the time and knew what Israel should do.” And, by the way, God expects us, as His followers, to understand what time it is.

He was speaking to a group of religious leaders in John, earlier. And they couldn’t get what He was saying, and they couldn’t get the season and they couldn’t get who He really was. And He said to them, “If you can read the sky, how can you not know the time?”

So, if you were just pausing, what do you think the time is? Where is our world? Galatians says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. Literally, it’s when the world was pregnant, there were Roman roads, there was a known language. The world was ready for Him to come.

In the last days, it says we will know a little bit about the times, “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boasting, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self-control. They will brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness but denying its truth.” Does that sound at all like that might be the time we are living in? That’s 2 Timothy chapter 3.

And then let me ask you. In terms of, when you look back over the last five, six, seven, eight years – what God has done, how things have changed, where we are at, this time in history – when you look at what is happening politically, when you look at technology.

And more importantly, probably, what is your season? Is it going to be just to keep on living the way you’re living? Watching the news, hear about that, hear about this, hope nothing really bad happens. Or are we going to seize the day? Are we going to realize the time is now? And maybe God put us on the earth at this time to do something really, really significant but it starts one person at a time.

Have you ever wondered at this point of crisis: what would Jesus do? How would Jesus respond?  The front of your notes, let’s pick up the story. The context, He is preparing His disciples for His departure. At the end of chapter 15, He says, “Your mission is to testify.” He told them their future: “It’s going to be hard, difficult, tribulation, trouble.” Your resource: the Holy Spirit is going to come and He is going to guide and He is going to direct, He is going to empower.

And then, finally, there is hope. “In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world!” In Me, no matter what happens, internally or externally, you can have peace. So what does Jesus do in the midst of His time is now here?

What does He do? Because there is a model for you and for me. What does He do, knowing what He is going to face later that night, being arrested? Knowing what He is going to face being beaten? Knowing what He is going to face being crucified? Knowing that His followers that He has invested the last years in, they are going to falter and they are going to be afraid and they are going to deny Him? And then, are you ready for this? What does He do in light of knowing, because He is fully God and fully man – that we would be, in this time in history, and that we would be hearing what He was going to pray?

And if you’ll notice, here’s what I am amazed by and encouraged by, is what Jesus does, His final preparation is not words, it’s not instruction. He prays. He prays for Himself, then He prays for His disciples, and then He prays – are you ready for this? – for future believers. That’s us!

Follow along in John 17. He prays for Himself the first five verses. “After this, Jesus looked toward heaven and He prayed, ‘Father, the time has come; glorify Your Son that Your Son may glorify You, for You granted Him authority over all people, that He might give eternal life to all those that You have given Him. Now, this is eternal life, that they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory that I had before the world began.’”

In your notes, I have got a question: Why does He pray this? Why does He pray for Himself? And what I would suggest is: because His time has come. He prays for Himself because He realized He is going to face some things that He can’t make it without God the Father. He can’t make it without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His time has come.

This will be His final act of service to the Father. From the other gospels, we know that He is going to go out by Himself and He is going to ask three of His closest followers to, “Will you pray with Me?” And He will go through that horrendous time of being fully human and saying, “I am going to be separated from the Father. I am going to take on the sin of mankind. God, if there is any other way. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.”

So, when He prays, “Glorify Me,” what He is saying is: I need the strength to go through the crucifixion and the beating and I need to go through it so I will then rise from the dead and then I will turn and glorify You, because My resurrection will prove that all that I said was true. And My resurrection is going to demonstrate how wise and how powerful and how loving You are.

And then He makes this huge statement of deity. He goes, “Then I want You to glorify…” That word means to be seen for who He really is, to be revealed. I want the world and I want the disciples – I want them to see Me, not veiled with this flesh, but I want them to see Me like We were before the world was created: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Underneath, in the notes, what does He pray? He prays two key things. Number one, He is praying for His resurrection. It will vindicate His claims. And it will allow Him to offer eternal life, which He describes. Second, He is praying for His glorification. It’s interesting, this is one of my big prayers, by the way. I long to be able to say that I accomplished the work that was assigned for me.

Jesus said, “I got an assignment from God. I have completed it.” And then, finally, He wants to be seen in His former glory.

Well, He prays for Himself. And, by the way, did you catch His definition of eternal life? It’s in the present tense. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You.” It’s “know You,” and, “continue to know You.”

This isn’t about quantity of life. Yes, you will know Him and live forever and ever. This word is used in the Old Testament for the intimate relationship, sexually, between a man and a woman. He said, “This is eternal life,” not punching some buttons, not some formula, not just praying a prayer. Eternal life is having an intimate, deep, heart to heart relationship with God and with His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a quality of life.

And you receive eternal life the moment you turn from your sin and receive Christ as your Savior and you grow in your eternal life and it goes on forever and ever and ever. But it’s all about personal, intimate relationship.

Big question: are you absolutely certain that you have eternal life? It’s not about being religious, it’s not about going to church, and it’s not about just “the good life” and your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. This is about having a personal, deep union with the God who has created all that there is and the entire book of John has taught, “No man comes to the Father except through Jesus.” That He is the way, the truth, and the life. And that each person, not based on our merit or our good works, can have eternal life by receiving what Christ has done in our place.

The second group that He prays for is for His disciples. And we pick it up in verse 6. He says, “I have revealed You,” remember, that was His job, chapter 1, this is the work of God. He explains Him. He came to explain what God is like.

“I have revealed You to those that You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your Word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. For I gave them the words that You gave Me and they accepted them. They, with certainty, know that I have come from You and they believe that You sent Me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those given Me, for they are Yours. All that I have is Yours and all that You have is Mine.” Boy, what a claim to deity. This is outrageous. Jesus is saying, “All that I have is Yours,” but He is saying to the Father, “All that You have is Mine.”

“And the glory that has come to Me then I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. And I am coming to You, Holy Father,” here is His request, “protect them by the power of Your name.” His name represents His character, all that He is, “the name You have given Me, Holy Father, protect them by Your power so they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I protected them and I kept them safe by the name that You gave Me. None have been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. I am coming to You now, but I say these things that while I am still in the world, so that they may know the full measure of My joy within them. I have given them Your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one.”

God never intended to make us some little community over here, by ourselves, but that in the midst of a very fallen world, and even the devil himself, He is praying for their protection and keep them.

Second prayer, He goes on to say: “Sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself that they too may be sanctified.” So, you ask the question, So, why does He pray for His disciples? He prays for His disciples because their time has come. They are getting the mission passed on to them. They are going to face things, but He is leaving. They have believed; they have trusted.

By the way, if you get tired of hearing the little phrase: “the world.” It is used eighteen times in this chapter alone. The world – definition – the world is society and culture organized apart from God. In other words, what does life look like? Let’s cut God out of it. John would call it, “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” But greed, murder, power, significance, wealth, overwhelming other people with who you are. This world system that is anti-God; not grace, not humility, not kindness, not thinking of other people – God’s kingdom – this is the world’s kingdom.

And He says, “I am leaving them in the world,” and He is praying – notice – two very important things. Notice what He prays for them. He prays for, number one, their protection. And, number two, for their sanctification. He prays for their protection within and their protection without.

Notice He says, “I’m praying that they might experience My joy to the fullest within them.” For those of you that have been followers of Jesus for any time, you know that probably the most difficult issue in your life, internally, is discouragement.

The story is told, maybe it was C.S. Lewis, I’m not sure, but made up a story about – Satan was having a garage sale and he had all these, kind of, different things out on a table that demons could buy to tempt Christians.

And he had all, there’s greed, there was lust, there was adultery, there was power, there was fame. All kinds of different things that could seduce people’s hearts away. But there was one in a very small box that the price was just astronomical. And the story goes that the demons were paying different money to get these tools to get Christians to fall away from God. And they said, “Well, why in this little box, why does it cost so much? What is it?” And you open it and inside was discouragement.

You lose perspective. It can happen in an instant, can’t it? I don’t know about you, Monday and Tuesday were two of the best days I have had. I think I shared it in a little email. They were just great days. Wednesday was terrible! How can you just, like, God is so good! And He answered this big prayer and this is fantastic and I got to be involved in this and I was so encouraged and I had this really deep time in prayer. And Wednesday it was like, Where is God? And then this went wrong, that went wrong, that went wrong, that went wrong. And I just started losing perspective and I felt myself getting discouraged. Does that happen to anyone else? Thank you for your honesty on this side of the room.

But do you see what He is praying? Nehemiah would say, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” Paul would say, “Rejoice always. Let me repeat it again, rejoice!” It’s a choice. You choose joy. But that comes out of being deeply connected and having God’s perspective. So He prays for their protection from internal attack, discouragement. And then external attack, He says, “From the evil one.” We are in a battle.

And the more that you step out, the more in your eternal life relationship you draw near to God, and you start caring about other people, I will just tell you, the opposition intensifies. And so Jesus prays. He is praying for these disciples that He loves.

And He said, “Lord, I want You to fill them with My joy.” Jesus was tempted to be discouraged. Jesus knew what it was like to be alone. Jesus knew what it was like to be falsely accused. Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted in every way but not sin. He knew what was in the heart of men. He knew what they would experience and what you would experience. And so He says, “Oh, Father, fill them with My joy. Keep them in union with Me.”

Because I will tell you what, there have been other times, circumstances that have been terrible and I can just tell you, personal testimony, is just, you know what? The lens God gave me, I can’t change that, but God is in control. There is peace in my heart; I have great joy. I don’t have to control the outcomes; I can’t anyway. God loves me. I know my eternity is set. Right?

The third group that He prays for is future believers. We pick it up in verse 20. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through his message.” Who would that be? That’s every generation since those early disciples.

“…that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us,” purpose clause, “so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one – I in them and You in Me – may they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, I want those that You have given Me,” notice this passion, notice what Jesus wants more than anything else, “I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father, though the world doesn’t know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them,” and I love this, “and I will continue to make You known,” – how? By the Holy Spirit after the resurrection that will live in every follower. “…in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.” Do you hear what He is saying? This is the New Covenant.

He is praying for these future believers that are us. And He knows there is going to be a resurrection. And He knows that the sins of all people of all time are going to be paid for and that whosoever would choose to receive the free gift can have it. And His heart and His passion is, He said, “I want all of them to be with Us.” Jesus came to give His life to pay for your sin and mine and for everyone, whosoever. Even people that reject Him, He still loves them. He has made the offer.
Jesus came to give His life to pay for your sin and mine and for everyone, whosoever. Even people that reject Him, He still loves them. He has made the offer.

He is praying, back then was praying for us; God knew that we would be in this room, in this place, in this time of history, with all that is happening in America, with all that is happening in the Middle East, with all that is happening with terrorism, with all that is happening with the movement of technology, with all the things that are happening in terms of morality and family. He knew that we would be here.

And so since our time is coming, do you know what Jesus is doing right now? He is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. You know what the Holy Spirit is doing? He leads us in our prayers and when we don’t quite have the words to know exactly what to pray, Romans chapter 8, “in groanings too deep, He is praying for us.” I don’t know how all this works, but we must need a lot of prayer and it must be supernatural to live this life.

And notice He said, “That I might be in them.” Jesus, as He is praying, He wants us to understand, like He wanted those disciples to understand, It’s not just that I love you, the Father loves you in the same way that He loves Me. Can you get your head around that? If you ever get lonely, you feel insecure, you wonder about the future, Jesus said that, My heavenly Father actually loves you as much as He loves Me and I love you that way. What are we all looking for in life? Aren’t we honestly just looking to be deeply loved and accepted and have a purpose and a plan? And Jesus is saying, “That’s why I came.”

And so here is the “what” that He prayed for us. He prayed that we would be unified with Him and unified with each other. He also prayed that we would be glorified, that there would be a day that we actually would be glorified because, 1 John would say a little bit later, we don’t know what we will be like, but here’s what we know, when we see Him, Jesus, we will be like Him and that we will share in this new kingdom and that we would experience the love of God.

By the way, this idea of oneness may be the most poorly interpreted or misused verse in all the years. The unity He is talking about here is not uniformity. He is talking about a union of mind and heart and will. He is saying, “Just as the Father and the Son have a oneness of heart, a love for one another, they are one in that way so I want Us to be one with Him.”

And you think of the oneness, think of, if you could just quickly in your mind’s eye, go through the book of John and listen to all the times Jesus said, “I can do nothing apart from the Father, I only act as I see Him act.” Jesus lived in total dependency on the Father. Jesus lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. Here’s what He is actually saying: He is praying that we would be so in sync with the Father and the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way that Jesus would. In other words, we would obey from the heart out of a love relationship, that our decisions, that our lifestyles, that the words that come out of our mouth would reflect our relationship with God.

This isn’t some ecumenical sort of everyone will be one and it’s one big organization. He’s not saying that at all.

He is saying that we would be so connected in our hearts with God the Father, with God the Son, and the Spirit living within us – are you ready for this? My translation would be: that we would be Christians that live like Christians. That’s what He means by being one with Him.

And then He says, “I want you to be one with one another.” In other words, that we would love each other the way Jesus loved the disciples. Well, what did He do? He laid down His life for them. He spoke the truth in love. He made radical, radical sacrifice.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t coming to a meeting and it’s not just some sort of external morality. It’s not even being a part of a cause and helping people. Being a follower of Jesus is having your heart and your life so connected to Him that what matters to Him matters to you. And so the poor matter, a lady with two young kids that has cancer matters, someone that can’t pay their rent matters. A school of people that have come and it’s a lousy school and the facilities are terrible – it matters to Him so it matters to us so we step out.

And it’s always both things. It’s always by our deeds and by our words. We proclaim, clearly, “This is who Jesus is. And this is relationship with Him. And this is the power and this is why we do what we do.” But here is the deeds that demonstrate. It’s not just talk. Does that make sense?

Review: Jesus is going to walk through His test. He will, after all these years, be betrayed, of all ways, by a kiss because the lights will be low and there will be a pretty large group of people with weapons and Judas will kiss Him. He is the one. Everyone will flee, He will be absolutely alone, go through three mock trials, He will be falsely accused, He will be beaten within an inch of His life. It’s humiliating for anyone to be stripped and beaten, but can you fathom? Can you even fathom the Creator of the world so loving the object of His creation, but so allowing us to have choice that His own plan would be to – fully man, fully God – and be stripped and beaten and rejected by the very people that He made in order that His death could accomplish the payment price to redeem whosoever would? The humility of God is staggering. The love of God is just, it’s beyond comprehension.

By the way, all of your real spiritual growth and life transformation, it is rooted, it is rooted in understanding and grasping that God loves you, totally apart from your performance. He doesn’t love you if, He doesn’t love you because.

And when you and I – little, by little, by little – by being in His Word and encouraging one another and taking steps of obedience, the more and more we begin to experience that, then we can love. And we can love people that are different and people who disagree and even people who might even hate you or disagree in violent ways.

It raises the question for me: if this is how Jesus responded and this is how He prayed, how should we pray?

I’m guessing there’s more than a few of us that are facing difficulty, right? When Jesus faced difficulty, He prayed for Himself, He prayed for others, and He prayed for future believers that would come out of the ministry. So let’s do a little application.

How should I pray for myself? Well, here is the “what.” Out of this passage, I would suggest that you need to pray that you might know Christ and make Him known. I have heard people talk about, like, it’s unholy and I never pray for myself. Well, Jesus prayed for Himself. I’m thinking maybe if you don’t, you ought to start. Right? It’s not spiritual not to pray for yourself. Jesus prayed for Himself. And I would say the number one thing you can pray is if He came to give eternal life and if eternal life is a growing dynamic, developmental thing, I would begin to pray, God, I want to know You! That’s what Paul prayed in Philippians 3, right? Compared to everything else, I want to know You. David prayed, “This one thing I ask of the Lord, that I will seek, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”

[30:04] There’s something – ask God to create a desire. Ask God to open your mind, open your eyes that you might really know Him and testify. And that you would make Him known. You would make Him known by how you talk, make Him known by how you drive, make Him known by what you do with your money, make Him known by how you interact with your family, make Him known by what you specifically say about Him at work and in your neighborhood. Pray. Ask God. I want to know You and I want to make You known.

The second thing I would encourage you to pray is that you would finish the work assigned you. And you might jot down: Ephesians 2:10. We are saved by grace: Ephesians 2:8 and 9. And the very next verse says that we have been, we are His workmanship. Literally, the word is: His poem or His work of art, created unto a good work that God has prepared for us. And the idea is: before the foundations of the earth.

There is something. This is amazing. There is something that only you can accomplish in the kingdom of God. Your background, your hurts, your difficulties, your pains, your personality, your spiritual gifts, this time in history – everything leading up to: there’s something that God, He has a work for you to do.

I would pray, God, help me to see very clearly what it is and help me not get distracted and to finish the work.

And I have said this a lot of times and I’ll keep saying it. One of the greatest gifts Theresa gave me was, she put it in a little frame. And it’s Acts 20:24. And it’s the apostle Paul.

And the apostle Paul writes: “My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by God, the work of telling about His love and wonderful kindness to everyone.”

I’d like you to bow your head because I want you to start practicing and I want you just, right now, quietly in your own mind and heart – you can whisper if you like. But I want you to ask God to help you to know Him as He is and to make Him known. And I want you to ask God to show you what your individual work is and probably a lot of you already know what it is, and to do it. I want you to pray for you right now.

Oh, God, I don’t know that there would be anything that You would just love to answer more than hearing one of your daughters, or one of your sons say, Oh, God, will You please help me to really know You? Lord, would You give me a hunger for Your Word? Would You help me to talk with You all throughout the day? Would You help me to rub up next to people who know You even better? And then, Lord, would You use me to make who You really are known to people at my job, people in my neighborhood, people at the gym, people at the coffee shop, people at the dry cleaners, people where I hobby? Lord, I pray that even this week, in a fresh way, You will do that in every, single person’s life. And we come boldly, in Jesus’ name.

Second   I think we need to pray for others. And I think Jesus gives us a good model. He prayed for protection and He prayed for sanctification. That’s kind of one of those big words. The word literally means: to be set apart. In fact, you might write in your notes, in this context, it has the idea of being consecrated or, literally, dedicated. What He is praying is that they would be personally pure but they would step out to the task of testifying by the power of His Word and fulfill the assignment that God has given them.

So He says, “Lord, I am praying that You will set them apart, not just for their relationship with Me, but for the task that I have assigned to them.” And then He says, “Do it by Your Word, because Your Word is truth.” And then notice the very next line was, “Now, I am sending them forth just like You sent Me.”

So this is a prayer for their personal protection within and without, but it’s also a prayer for their personal holiness before God. And it’s also a prayer that they would boldly carry on the mission, that they would continue to do what was started. This is really a picture of, you know in track where the guy runs with the baton and the guy puts this, or the gal puts her hand back here? This is a passing of the baton where He is taking the mission to reach the world with the truth and the love of God, and He is taking it and placing it and He is praying that they would be effective in doing that. He is also praying for protection.

Are there two people you can think of right now that need prayer for Your protection and prayer that they would fulfill what God wants them to do with their life? Maybe they are a best friend, maybe it’s a roommate, maybe it’s someone at work, maybe it’s one of your kids. See, if we have a nice message about, Oh, this was nice. Jesus prayed – and this doesn’t change how we pray, then we have totally missed the point, because I have actually been tempted to do this with myself. Because don’t you get in ruts in your prayer life? Okay, no one is going to admit that one. I get in ruts in my prayer life and I have been tempted to like, record my prayer.

I wonder how many people, where, in heaven it’s, “And Lord, and Lord, and Lord, and Lord, and will You help me with this, and will You help me with that and will You help me with that, and will You help me be happy and would You make this work out and will You put, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.”

I wonder what would happen if we said, “I am going to pray for myself to know God and make Him known and I am going to pray that I figure out exactly why He put me on the earth and I finish it and do. And then I am going to pray, I am going to pray for others that God would protect them, give them joy within and protection from evil without. And then I am going to pray that they discover exactly what He wants them to do and He will set them apart and make them holy and pure and stay on task.”

Guess what we are going to do. You got it. I would like you to bow your head and I want you to pray for a couple people. If you only have time for one, that’s fine, but I want you to pray for someone’s spiritual protection and for their sanctification, that they would be dedicated to the calling that God has upon their life and be faithful to it and be empowered to do it.

Father, as I pray for my kids, and just people I feel responsible for, uhm, I think of Colossians 1, verses 9 through 11. And so I want to pray that for everyone in this room. Lord, I pray that everyone in this room would grow in the real knowledge of who You are, that You would give them, with spiritual wisdom and understanding, exactly to know Your will, that they could walk in a manner that is worthy of You every minute of every day.

And that that would result in You being pleased with every aspect of their life and that they would bear fruit in every good work, living in such a way that they would grow in the real knowledge of who You are. God, when that happens, like the first domino, all the other areas of their life will fall into place, so increase their faith, Father. Help them to know Your will, help them to follow it, help them to get through barriers, help them to trust You when they struggle, remove fears. And I ask You to do that in Jesus’ name.

The final thing that Jesus prays for is future believers. And how should we pray about the future? I would guess that maybe two things we could pray is that God will give us a testimony with the outside world and He would give us a testimony with one another.

So the two things I’d pray about, Jesus prayed – what? He prayed that they would be one like the Father and Son are, that they would live their life, and that they would love one another. Two things I want to pray for us is that we would be bold, that God will give you a bold testimony to testify with integrity, to testify with your life, to testify with your words, to be that unusual person in your neighborhood or at the gym or at the coffee shop, that you would boldly and unashamedly – yes, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I believe He is fully man, fully God, He died for my sin, He rose from the dead, I don’t have to preach at all. I just want to tell you what I have seen and heard and how He has changed my life. That’s God’s desire.