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The Real Lord's Prayer

By Kent Hughes

John 17:1-26

PONDER WITH ME for a moment this fascinating idea. Suppose our Lord Jesus Christ were sitting physically in front of us so that we could see and hear Him, and know that He in turn could see every move we made and hear every word we utter. In such a setting, how do you think you and I would pray?

For one thing, I think much of today's trivialized prayers would vanish. We would be careful about what we asked for, careful not to "ask amiss" as James 4:3 warns us. For another, our prayers would be sublimely reverent, yet emptied of all officious, pious language. And the
awesome realness of what we are doing would cause us to seek scriptural instruction on how to pray.

We would find the structure of the Lord's Prayerwhich is really "The Disciples' Prayer"helpful with its three upward petitions followed by its three personal petitions. But I believe we would give our closest attention to the real Lord's prayer of John 17. We would want to emulate that prayer because it contains whose things that were of utmost concern to Christ's heart during His final hours on earth.

Although our Lord is not here physically, His presence is very much

with us. Where we are gathered together in His name, Jesus promises, there is He in the midst of us. So, let's pray with that in mind and let's examine the intimate and rather long prayer that our Lord offered up on the eve of His sacrifice.

The structure of the prayer is most easily remembered if we think of three concentric circles:

I. Christ prays for God's glory.

The first circle comprises the first five verses. They can best be described as Christ praying for His own glory as well as that of the Father. He begins by asking: Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. Indeed, the Cross glorified both the Father and the Son as nothing else could. What do we see in the Cross? First, we see God's absolute holiness in His hatred of sin and refusal to compromise with it. He met sin head on. Next, we see God's unyielding justice in His condemnation of sin in the person of His own Son, upon whom He had laid the iniquity of us all. And finally we see His immeasurable love in the giving of His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus. The Cross is God's way of communicating to us His glorious holiness, justice and love.

Re-glorification. In verse 5 Jesus specifically prays for the restoration of His glory, saying:

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. The Scriptures give us searing flashes of the glory of the Godhead from time to time. They all reveal that
it is too stupendous for mortals to see. For instance, God had to cover Moses with His hand when His glory passed by, allowing Moses to see only His afterglow. Even so, it so illumined Moses' mortal face that he glowed when he descended the mountain.

Of this transcending glory, The Lord temporarily emptied Himself when He came to become man. Now, returning as Jesus, He prays for His re-glorification. Never was a prayer so abundantly answered! Never has there been such glory in the universe as when Christ returned to heaven, where "God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).

The glory of God is what Christ prayed for! And this must be primary in our prayers if we are to pray in accordance with His heart. Our hearts should be constantly crying and our lifestyle constantly declaring soli Deo GloriaGlory to God alone!

II. Christ prays for His disciples.

Now, think of verses 6-19 as the second concentric circle. Here, Jesus is praying for the disciples. He begins in verses 6-8 by speaking of His relationship to them and their reception of Him. Verse 8 sums up this section well: For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. In verses 11-13 He then prays for the disciples' relationship to one another. He says in verse 11: And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. Knowing that on their own His followers would have trouble staying united as one, He asks the Father to keep their oneness through the Father's name. The latter is to be understood as the whole character of Godeverything that His name represents. However, I believe the emphasis is on the fatherhood of God. The oneness that Christ prays for is not a unity based on earthly mutuality. It comes from common paternity, the fact that the disciples have the same heavenly Father.

Public Relations. Next, in verses 14-19, Christ prays for His disciples' relationship to the world. He reveals that His followers will have trouble in the world just as He did. He says in verse 14, "the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." This is true. The more that we are like Jesus, the more trouble we will encounter in this world.

How are we to relate to this hostile world? To begin with, we are not to resort to isolation. "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world" (v. 15a). Many of us tend to arrange our lives so that we are around unbelievers as little as possible. We even have Christian diets and Christian exercise! This is a temptation we must resist, because Jesus prays, "Do not take them out of the world. Do not let them succumb to isolation."

Neither should there be assimilation, which is equally bad. Jesus re-emphasizes in verse 16, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." And He asks the Father, "but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (v. 15b). Today, the temptation to conform is probably as great as it has ever been. Sometimes conformity has been inspired by high motivation, like the desire to demonstrate the fullness of humanity that Christ brings, or to be attractive to the needy world. But the result is assimilation, so that in time, there is no distinguishable difference between us and the world.

How does Christ want us to relate to the world then? Missions! He prays in verse 18, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world."

This is Christ's prayer for the disciples. And this is how we believers ought to pray and live. The wonder of our having the same heavenly Father should govern all our dealings with one another, and the Great Commission that Christ has given us, that Christ has sent us into the world, should move all of us to reach out to the nations in active missions.

III. Christ prays for the Church.

We have seen that the first circle of Christ's prayer was for His glory; and the second concentric circle, His disciples' relationship to one another and to the world. Now, we come to the third circle, verses 20-26, which is for the future church. Here again He returns to the theme of unity. The section begins: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Christ explains here that He wants the church to unite with Himself and with the Father and within itself so that the watching world may believe that He is the Messiah. To underscore that point, He reiterates in verse 23: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. When our unity is authentically demonstrated, it stands out. Real unity among believers is a supernatural work that demands a supernatural explanationand that is Jesus in us!

Commitment. To practice this unity, we must work at it. Let me illustrate. When a man and woman become one in Christ in marriage, they make a commitment to oneness. It is an ongoing commitment to communicate, to spend time together, to share the deepest relationship possible in body, soul, and spirit. Such a relationship is supremely wonderful when experienced. But so many people never know it, not because they do not want it, but because they are not committed to it.

The same is true of Christian unity in this world. We must be committed to love one another, we must be committed to the apostolic faith, and we must be committed to humbly serving God and one another. Christ prays for this, and we must pray for it too!

As His prayer for His church approaches the end, Jesus says in verse 24:

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. The beauty of this amazing petition is in the phrase "behold my glory". It literally means keep on beholding. Jesus prays that one day we will be with Him in heaven and behold His glory. One day it is going to happen! He's going to say, "Welcome home!" And there we will see His glorynot for just a moment, but forever and ever.

Finally, He makes a heavenly promise to us in verses 25-26:

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. We are bound with Christ's everlasting love! What else is there to say?

Summary. Christ is here in the midst of us as we gather together in His name. Perhaps we have become so desensitized through the years that we do not realize it. But its reality is shocking if taken to heart. Not only is He present, but the words we have just studied are the real Lord's prayer. He prayed it on His final day here on earth. He prayed it before the eleven for an example. He prayed it passionately. Logic compels us to treasure it. The Holy Spirit calls us to pray after it.
These concentric circles should therefore guide us in prayer. We must pray as He did for His glory, and the concern for His glory must dominate our prayer and our living. Next, we must pray that our common paternity will dominate our dealings with one another, and direct us to relate to the world not with isolation nor assimilation, but missions! Finally, we must pray for the church through the centuries and for its unity. Pray without ceasing for Christ is with us and calls us to do so. o

Dr. Kent Hughes is pastor of College Church in Wheaton, 330 East Union, Wheaton, IL 60187.

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