The Prayer of Jesus — Zac Poonen

Have for us this morning. And give us a listening heart and a listening ear, attentive mind to concentrate upon your word that proceeds from your mouth. We thank you this morning, praise you in Jesus' precious name, amen.

Jesus’ Prayer in John 17

I'd like to turn to John's gospel in chapter 17. There are only two places in scripture where the long sermons of Jesus are given in detail. One is the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and also in Luke chapter six.

And the other is around the Last Supper in John chapter 13 to 16. And in both of these places, he was speaking to his disciples, to the family of God. And that's why, like you heard me say before, Jesus always sat down and spoke whenever he was speaking to the family of God, dining table and talking to people, to his family.

And at the end of it, we read here that he prayed. And I just want you to look with me at this prayer because there are a lot of things here that we can learn. When we say we want to walk as Jesus walked, we need to pray as Jesus prayed.

And live as he lived. So let's look carefully at this chapter. There are certain things that are exclusively for him, which we can separate out. For example, it says in the first verse, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify thy son, that the son may glorify thee. We never pray a prayer like that, saying glorify us. Or that you gave him authority over all mankind, that to all whom you have given him eternal life. But here is where we can begin in verse three.

Eternal Life as Knowing God

The definition of eternal life. Now, I have found that the vast majority of Christians do not understand what eternal life is. And it's possible that a number of you sitting here also don't understand it because they, you know, many words in scripture, hypocrite, you can't get the meaning from dictionary.

You gotta see what Jesus spoke about. And same way, eternal life. If you go to eternal in the dictionary, everlasting, it means something that never ends. But that's not eternal life according to Jesus' definition.

He says eternal life is to know God and to know Jesus Christ whom he has sent. So, that is why Paul told Timothy, lay hold of eternal life. Even after Timothy had been a Christian for 25 years, he tells him in 1 Timothy 6, lay hold of eternal life.

Now, what eternal life is. Eternal life is to know God. And it's a gift, but it's not given to everyone. In other words, I can't earn it. I can't earn the ability to know God. It's a free gift. I have to receive it as a free gift.

I cannot take any credit if I've got eternal life. Many of our earthly accomplishments, we can take credit. We worked hard and got a degree or accomplished something in life. But when it comes to eternal life, it's a gift.

That's the first thing we must remember. But how can we come to this knowledge of God? Turn with me to Romans chapter six. In Romans six, we read in verse 23, the gift of God is eternal life. He's comparing gift with salary.

Give you a salary, sure, and that salary is death. But God doesn't give a salary to anyone. Christians don't work for salary. People who work for salaries are out in the world. God gives gifts. There's nothing we can earn.

Very important to understand that. Have you got some ability? Never, never glory in it as if it is something you accomplished or you developed. It's absolutely stupid. Glories in anything that God has given is on the way down because God resists the proud.

So eternal life is the greatest gift of God. So to know him is a gift. But then why doesn't he give it to everyone? He wants to give to everyone. There are verses in the Bible which says, God does not want anybody to perish.

In second Peter three, he wants everybody to repent. One Timothy two, it says, God wants everyone to be saved. He wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. There's not a single human. Well, he wants them to be saved from sin as well.

One Timothy two. Then why don't they get it? Why is it that a very few people get it? Why is it Jesus said the way to eternal life is so narrow? The gate is so narrow and the way is so narrow and very few find it.

Even though it's a gift, you have to fulfill some condition, not payment to receive it. Like you heard me say before, if I'm facing here to my left and somebody is behind me wanting to give me a gift, free gift, a very expensive gift, I cannot receive it if my back is to him.

I have to turn around, number one, and I have to stretch out my hand. Now that's not work. I can't say I worked for this gift. I turned around. I stretched out my hand. That's not a work. I mean, nobody's so stupid to think that if he turned around when somebody was offering him a gift and stretched out his hand, that's a work.

No, but that is what repentance and faith means. Repentance means to turn around, stop facing the world and start facing God. Stop facing yourself and start facing God. And faith is just to stretch out your hand and take what God gives.

So that's why many people don't receive this eternal life. They don't turn around or they don't stretch out their hand because they don't want to receive it free, perhaps. They say, let me do something and then get it.

You'll never get it. But it says here in verse 22 what it means to turn around and stretch out your hand. You know, one of the very bad habits of Christians is to take one verse. You know, we memorize verses.

It's very good. But one of the dangers of memorizing verses, and there is a danger in it, is to take it by itself and not know what comes before it or after it. And so if you memorize a verse and you don't study that verse in the Bible, you can go completely astray with the verse you have memorized.

Let me warn you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't memorize verses. I memorize a lot of verses. But that's because I can find scripture to show other people when I want to help them. But always read that verse in its context.

And I have seen lots and lots of Christians who quote Romans 6 .23 who do not know Romans 6 .22. And Romans 6 .22 also speaks about eternal life. So the two verses are both connected. Now listen to this.

How do we get to eternal life? Because at the end of verse 22, it says the final result is eternal life, becoming a slave to God. Then that results in sanctification, which is an increasing separation from the world and sin.

And finally, eternal life in its fullness. So eternal life begins when we receive Christ into our life. But it's a progression. There's not only a narrow gate, there's a narrow way that leads to life.

That's another place where a lot of people make a mistake. A lot of people who think they've come through the gate and they've come to eternal life. No, what did Jesus say? There's a way. So eternal life is something that we must keep on increasingly possessing throughout our life.

As I said, Paul told Timothy at the end of his life to lay hold of eternal life. Or in other words, another picture of it is running the race, looking unto Jesus. We don't speak about being free from sickness.

It's good to be free from sickness, but that's not the road to eternal life. That's a road to good health. And we all want that. But the road to eternal life is by being free from sin, not free from poverty.

Because the way to eternal life is not freedom from poverty or freedom from sickness. It's freedom from sin. And once you become free from sin, that's the negative side of it. The positive side of that coin, like a coin has got two sides, one side free from sin, the other side become a slave.

And government servants, your servants in your home, they're all paid. A slave is different from a servant in that he's not paid. A slave in those days was bought from the market and it became your property as much as your furniture.

You could do what you like with him or her. You could kill him, but you'd never have to pay him. You bought him. So God doesn't have, God is not looking for servants. We need to understand what it is really.

God wants bond slaves. Those who, what's the difference? Who work not for a salary, who do not work for a salary. For pay. And that pay, then you're a servant, not a slave. And God doesn't want servants.

He doesn't have servants. In the old covenant he had, the Levites were servants. So they got their salary from the other tribes. But in the New Testament, he has slaves. Those are enslaved to God. It's very important to remember that.

The reason why many Christians have a complaint, why is God treating me like this? Have you ever asked that question? Why is God allowing this to happen to me? Let me tell you something. Way back in the first century, a slave could never ask that question.

If a slave asked his master, why are you treating me like this? The answer is, I bought you, man. And if you ask God, why are you treating me like this? He'd say, I bought you on the cross with my blood.

Well, end of discussion. I think many people have not understood that the word redeemed, we sing it, redeemed, how I route to proclaim it. But what does it mean, redeemed? Redeemed means bought from the slave market of sin.

There are some people who use illustrations to say that Jesus paid a price to the devil to buy us. No, he did not. Jesus never pays a price to the devil. To whom did Jesus pay the price on the cross? To the law, L-A-W, the law of God, which condemned us to death.

It was to the law of Almighty God, his father, that he paid the price and bought us. So don't sing these wrong songs of he bought us from the devil's hand. No, he delivered us from Satan's hand. That's from our sin.

But he bought us from that slave market. The price was paid to the law. God's law demanded that if a person commits one sin, he deserves to die eternally and to be forsaken by God. That was a law. And we were all condemned by that law.

And Jesus paid that price by being forsaken on the cross and purchased us. Never forget it. Never forget all your life, you were bought with a price and you're not a servant, you're a slave. So you can never ask God, why are you doing this to me?

Why are you allowing this to happen to me? Think of that first century slave. Does it mean your life will be miserable? I'll tell you my testimony. I think I'm the happiest person in India. I can't find a person who's happier because I'm free from the sinful habits that enslaved me for so many years.

And I'm not running after money. And I'm quite happy if I'm rejected, despised, made fun of, laughed at, evil spoken of. Doesn't make the slightest difference to me. It doesn't reduce my happiness even this much because I don't belong to them.

I've been bought by God, my father. Your life will be supremely happy if you decide to be a slave. And if there's misery in your life, it's because you're a servant. You expect some reward from God, some benefit, something, God should do something for you.

Supposing God never answers any of your prayers. Can you say, oh, that's fine, I don't deserve it, I'm only a slave. Anything you give me is a free gift. Your life will be supremely happy. And not only that, you will never in your life have a problem with pride.

Pride is the thing that makes man God's enemy. And you'll never have a problem with pride if you decide I'm gonna be a slave. So freed from sin, one side of the coin, enslaved to God. And that will result in progressive sanctification along the way and the outcome, the fullness of eternal life.

So in that process, what happens is we come to know God better and better and better and better. It's not a question of how much you serve God. It's not a question of how much you study the Bible. It's not a question of how many meetings you come to.

Knowing God is an altogether different thing. All the rest of it is knowledge and service. To me, it's like the choice in the garden that Adam had between this tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

Life is to know God. Knowledge is to know the Bible. Because the Bible will tell you what is good and bad. And a lot of people, because they know the Bible, they think they are spiritual. The devil knows the Bible better than anybody else.

He's not spiritual. So Bible knowledge will never make you spiritual. It's the knowledge of God that is eternal life. And I want all of you to distinguish between the two. For 1 ,400 years, people never had a printed Bible.

How could they know the Bible? But there are a lot of people who knew God, even with the few scriptures they had. So John 17, verse three, this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Now that's very clear that there is only one true God, and he's the one who sent Christ. And that's why we believe that the faith of Jesus Christ that we trust in is the only true faith in the whole world, is the only thing that can lead anyone to eternal life.

Everyone outside of that is lost. And this is why when a lot of people come to Jesus in the final day and say, Lord, we did miracles in your name. We cast out demons, we healed the sick, and the Lord says, that doesn't impress me.

I never knew you. You never knew me. I never knew you. What sort of, maybe you did a lot of things for me, but we never had a relationship. You know, you've often heard me use this phrase, this is the example of two women working in the kitchen.

Both are rolling out the chapatis or cooking the curry. One is your wife and the other is a housemaid. Both are doing the same work, but one is somebody you know intimately. It's your wife. The other is a servant.

And even if the servant can make better chapatis than your wife, she's still a servant. You need to recognize this, that God has those whom he relates to as the bride of Christ, and there are others who are not the bride of Christ who just serve.

And those who serve may be doing many things. It's those to those people that the Lord says, you know, at the end of the day, you tell the housemaid, okay, go home. This is not your home. But the wife stays with you, and that's exactly what the Lord says.

Okay, you served me, you made the chapatis, you made the curry, you cast out demons, you healed the sick and all that. Now get away from me. I never knew you. You're not my bride. If only we can understand this, read scripture carefully, we will not be deceived by the multitude of false preachers there are today, especially those who work for a salary.

A wife does not work for a salary. A good wife does not even expect anything. It's her joy to serve her husband out of love. She wants nothing in return. That is how a true servant of God, a slave of God serves him.

And that is to know, that leads to the knowledge of God. If you have this type of relationship with God, you will know him and you'll have eternal life. And that's what delivers us from many sins. You know, if I look at sin as something I want to be delivered from by itself, I cannot be delivered from it.

The more I know God, the more I'll be delivered from it. See, the more intimate a husband is with his wife, the less he's tempted with other women. It's exactly like that. The more intimate you are with Jesus Christ, the less you're tempted by other things.

And if you're trying to battle sins in the world and worldliness and the love of money, and the solution is not to fight those things. The solution is to get close to Jesus. Your bridegroom. Then those other things will, you know, like we sing in that song, will disappear.

Like, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. So that's eternal life. Okay, let's go to John 17, verse four.

Glorifying God by Finishing His Work

The Lord says, I've glorified you on earth by having accomplished the work which you gave me to do. So that teaches us how, following in Jesus' footsteps, this is how you and I can glorify God on this earth.

God has kept us on this earth to glorify him. And I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, there's only one way you can glorify God on this earth. And Isaiah the Lord said these words, I have created you for my glory.

He brought you out of your mother's womb. He brought me out of my mother's womb so that we can glorify him. How can I glorify him? How can you glorify him? By finishing the work you gave me to do. Now the question is, God gave Jesus a work to do.

It was not only dying on the cross. You read in the Gospels many times that Jesus went and lived in Nazareth so that it might be fulfilled in what was said in the scriptures. Then he went and lived in Capernaum.

You read that in Matthew two, Matthew four. So that it might be fulfilled what was written in the scriptures. And even when he was dying on the cross, he said, I thirst so that it might be fulfilled what is written in the scriptures.

He was born in Bethlehem so that it might be fulfilled what was in the scriptures. So you find this phrase coming about Jesus' life many times, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew, so that it might be fulfilled what was written in the Old Testament.

So we see that the life of Jesus was planned right from being born in Bethlehem to dying outside the camp, outside Jerusalem city, and even to a little thing like crying, not yet come. See, there was a particular plan that God had made for Jesus.

And part of it was that he should be born not in a king's palace, but in a very, very poor carpenter's home. And that he should have four younger brothers and two sisters who would not believe in him and irritate him.

That was part of God's plan because he had to be tempted just like us. And every little detail of his life was planned out. And at the end of it, he could say, Father, I've glorified you because every little detail that you had planned for my life, I have fulfilled.

Now, one of the wonderful things you should discover if you haven't already discovered it, that God loves you as he loved Jesus and he's made an exactly the same way, a plan for your life from the day you were born.

Now, we violated that plan for a long time till we are born again. I mean, even the apostle Paul violated that plan for probably 30 years of his life, rebelled against God and fought against it. But from the time he was converted, Paul became so radical.

I think he was converted when he was around 30 years old. And for the remaining 37 years of his life, and he died at 67, you know what Paul could say in 2 Timothy 4 .7? I have finished my course. Compare that with what Jesus said here.

If you don't know that verse, please look at 2 Timothy in chapter four. And it's the last letter of Paul. And he says, the time of my departure has come, 2 Timothy 4 .6. And I have finished my course.

Very important to understand this, that even if you messed up the first 30 years of your life, like Paul, you can still finish your course. That's a tremendous encouragement. Even if you didn't start at year one, and you started at year 31, see, none of us started at year one.

All of us, there was a certain time in our life when we got converted. And even after we got converted, we were sort of sluggish and half-hearted for a long time. Then a certain time came in our life when we began to take the Christian life seriously.

I hope that has happened to all of you, at least now. But from that time, what God says to us at that time, I know this is what God has said to me, has been a tremendous blessing to me. Acts 17 .30, the times of ignorance God overlooks, but now He commands everyone to turn around and face Him, repent.

That's why I've often quoted that verse to many, many people around the world. Acts 17 .30, the times of ignorance God overlooks. Thank God for that. So many years, we were ignorant that sin was a very serious thing.

You were ignorant that getting angry was a very serious sin. You were ignorant that lusting with your eyes was a very serious sin. You were ignorant that loving money was a very serious sin. You were ignorant that gossiping and backbiting was a very serious sin.

Okay, one day you got light. Maybe you got light only after you came to CFC. Okay, don't get discouraged. The times of ignorance God says, forget it, I'll overlook it. But now, now that you got light, turn around, face me and take life seriously.

That's what Paul did. And he took his life so seriously from that day on that he could say at the end of his life, let me repeat, even though he messed up the first 30 years of his life, much worse than you and I, we've not persecuted Christians and murdered them like he did.

He did worse things, but yet he finished his course. That's an encouragement to me because I know I wasted a lot of years of my life too. Even after I became a Christian, born again, I didn't take the Christian life seriously.

But I thank God, I believe I can finish my course. I live with that faith. And so I wanna say to all of you who haven't taken your Christian life seriously as yet, at least begin now so that you can come to the end of your life and say, Lord, I finished my course.

Don't look back wishing, oh, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't done that. All of us have such regrets. But if you keep on looking back like that, you will never look forward. Think of a man who's running 100 meters race and he's always looking back.

You think he'll win? Never. And don't compare yourself with others. Do you think a man who's running 100 meters race looking around at all the others around him, you think he'll win? No, he's got only one goal, the finishing line.

Don't look back at your failures and don't look back at your successes either to see how much ground you have covered. Forget it. Look forward to see how much more ground you have to cover before you reach the finishing line and don't look around at other runners to see whether you're ahead of them or not.

You just make sure you finish your race. Those who compare themselves with each other are spiritual idiots. That's in the Bible. Second Corinthians 10 verse 12. Those who compare themselves with each other are spiritual idiots.

It's a paraphrase, but you can read it there. So don't be a spiritual idiot by comparing yourself with each other. Just run the race looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher. That's the way you can finish your work, finish your course and the work which God has given you to do.

Here's where we can follow Jesus. And that's the only way to glorify God. You may never cast out a demon in your life. You may never heal a sick person. You may never preach a sermon. You may never even have the grace to bring one person to Christ.

It doesn't matter. If you can do it well and good, but if it doesn't happen, you can still follow Jesus. Very important to understand this. Okay, we go to the next verse. John 17 verse five. And again, the father, this is a verse that doesn't really apply to us.

Manifesting God’s Nature in Daily Life

It applies to Jesus. Glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world was. We ignore that. We go to verse six, which applies to us. Jesus says, I manifested thy name. And whenever it speaks about God's name, it speaks about God's nature.

And that was a habit in the Old Testament. They called his name Jacob because he grabbed his brother's leg as he was coming out of the womb. So they called him Grabber, Jacob. Sarah laughed, so God said, your son will be called Laughter, Isaac.

You should call his name Jesus because he's gonna be savior, save people from sin. So name refers to nature. Father, I have manifested your nature to the world. Not just pre-quoted a lot of verses. By his life, he manifested the nature of God to the world.

And that's what it says in John chapter one, in verse 18. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten son of God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. How did he explain him?

By his life, it says in verse 14. We saw his glory as he dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. And he says, I explained you and your nature by my life to the world as I lived in it. Whenever people reacted with Jesus, his young brothers and sisters at home, he manifested to them the life of God.

However much they irritated him, he showed the life of God. That's our calling. And in our place of work, if people take advantage of us, I'm sure there were people in Nazareth who took advantage of Jesus when he was a carpenter and anyone who does business uprightly will know that there are dishonest crooks who take advantage of them.

And I'm absolutely sure that Jesus, in his business, people took advantage of him, otherwise he could not have been tempted as we are. Have people taken advantage of you in your business? Jesus had to be taken advantage of, otherwise he couldn't be a forerunner for you.

And how did he react to them? He manifested God's nature. When people called him the devil, he manifested God's nature. When they killed him, he manifested God's nature and said, father, forgive them.

So all through his life, he wasn't just preaching, he was manifesting God's nature in every situation. And that's why in 30 years after manifesting God's nature for 30 years at home, the father could say, I'm well-pleased.

With one who had never preached a sermon, never cast out a demon, he was well-pleased because in all the provocative situations at home, he had manifested his nature. That's why you often heard me say that when you come here on Sunday morning, God is not listening to how well you sing.

He's not listening to whether you sing in tune. He's not looking at your musical ability. He gives zero for that. If God gave marks for his musical ability, we have to say he's partial. God does not sing two lines straight without getting it wrong.

I mean, they're not born with that ability. And then there's some people who have musical ability from the age of two. So it's an inborn gift. It's got nothing to do with spirituality. Some of the world's best musicians are all worldly people.

So don't ever think that... So God doesn't listen to see how well you sing here on Sunday morning. He will listen to you if you have lived well the last six days before you came here on Sunday morning.

Then he listens to you even if you're singing out of tune. But if you're singing out of tune, don't sing too loud so that you don't disturb all the others. But God listens to you. I'll tell you, sure.

Because it's how well you live is the life I manifested your nature. The Lord says, very, very important. My brothers and sisters don't ever say, I don't have any ministry in the church. I can't preach.

I can't sing. Do you know what your ministry is? To manifest God's nature every day. In your home, when you're on the road, when all the traffic is crowded and a lot of people are angry. In the office where people are upset, I have manifested your nature.

Take that as your calling. That is the ministry of every single one of us, yours and mine. And that's the most important ministry, more than preaching or singing or anything. So that's what Jesus said.

I manifested your nature to those who gave me. Thine they were and you gave them to me. And that refers to ministry. You know that those of us who have a ministry, I think of myself, others who have a ministry.

If God gives us people whom we can serve, I should never think of them as mine. Never. To say my church or these are the people I brought to the Lord, that's garbage. The Lord says, they were thine, Father.

And you gave them to me. Never, never forget that. They were yours. If God's given you a good wife, it's not because you're clever that she belonged to God and God gave her to you. Be thankful. That's how every husband should take his wife.

Lord, she was yours and you gave her to me and I'm very thankful that you gave her to me. Or a husband. He was yours, Lord, but you gave him to me. Do you look at your marriage partner like that? It'll make a lot of difference if you do.

And now it says in verse seven, they have come to know by watching my life that everything that I have is from you. Let me ask you, as I ask myself, people who watch your life and observe it and hear the way you speak, do they get the impression that you humbly recognize that everything is a gift God has given you?

That's not because your smartness or your ability or anything like that. It's 100 God. Others have come to know, Jesus says, that everything I have is what you gave me. I mean, if you were smart enough to amass a fortune, perhaps, in your business or whatever it is, you made some money, you made enough money to buy a house or build a house, do you have the humility to acknowledge it is 100 what God gave me?

It's not because I was smart or I did this. So many of these thoughts can come into our mind. That's exactly what the devil wants you to think, to destroy you. Jesus said, everybody around me knows me, knows everybody around me knows that whatever I have, everything is from you.

I wanna live like that. I wanna live in such a way that people recognize that every single gift I have, earthly, spiritual, intellectual, is from God. And I cannot take a credit for it. I cannot receive glory or honor for it.

They must know that it is from God, and I acknowledge it. Verse eight, you know, it's amazing when you go through scripture, like last Sunday, I was going through 2 Timothy chapter three with just a few verses.

If you stop and meditate on each verse, what a lot there is in scripture, which we miss when we rush through. As I've often said, read the word of God slowly. The words you gave me, I gave them, and they received them, and truly understood, verse eight, that I came forth from thee, and they have believed that you did send me.

I'm not supposed to give to people words that come out of my clever head. The words that God gives me, if I give to others, it'll lead people to faith. Not everybody, I mean, Jesus spoke the words that God gave him.

Still, very few people came to faith, but the ones who are chosen will come to faith. This is how God wants us to live. One thing is needful, God said to Martha when she was working. Not all that work.

See what Mary has done. She's been sitting at my feet listening. The most important thing is to receive every day the word that God wants to give us. That's what we read in Genesis chapter one. The first day God said something, second day God said something, third day God said something, fourth day God said something, teaching us in the very first chapter of the Bible that every day of your life, God wants to say something to you, and if you listen to it, something will happen in your life just like something happened on every day of those six days.

And at the end of it, it'll be very good. I want it to be like that. I want the end of my life for God to look at me and say, very good. But that won't come if I don't seek to listen. What is God saying to me today?