The Savior Who Prays for You

[Below you'll find livestream video of this past Sunday's two worship services from Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, as well as the message shared during the services.]

John 17:1-11

There are many remarkable things about today’s gospel lesson.

But maybe the most remarkable is that, just before He knew He would be betrayed and crucified, then suffer and die, Jesus prays for us…for you.

As Jesus faces the cross, He prays for you.

Now, there’s no debate to be had as to why Jesus went to the cross.

He did it because you and I are sinners who stand condemned for our sinful nature and our sinful acts and thoughts from the moment we are conceived.

If you and I are going to be saved from the condemnation and death that sin brings, our salvation will not and cannot come from us. It can only come from God.

And because God loves us, Jesus, God the Son, was sent by God the Father, to save us for all eternity.

But because God is just and good and His Word is unchangeable, a price still had to be paid for our sin.

Jesus doesn’t save us by sweeping our sin under a rug and telling us, “It’s OK.” Sin is not OK. And the only appropriate price for our sin, all the ways we fail to love God or love others, is death.

“The one who sins is the one who will die,” God’s Word tells us. (Ezekiel 18:4)

“The wages of sin is death,” it says elsewhere. (Romans 6:23)

For God to be consistent and trustworthy then, death must be exacted from sinful humanity.

This is where Jesus, true God and true man, comes in. He offers His sinless life for us, taking the condemnation, death, and separation from God that we deserve so that we can have the life free of sin and death that only God can give.

In today’s lesson, by praying to be glorified, Jesus prays that He will faithfully bear the cross, then be raised from the dead, first of all, so that those who hear His Words and believe them–not “obeyed” them, as our translation wrongly puts it–will be one with God.

Now, you and I may have reasons to doubt that God hears our prayers. I have had more than one person say to me over the years, in one way or another, “I feel like every time I pray, my prayers bounce off the ceiling back down to the floor.”

Although we may be baptized believers in Jesus, we who are saints by God’s grace are also sinners by birth and inclination. There’s nothing more intrinsic to our human nature than to doubt that God has made us His own in Holy Baptism. Or to doubt that His Word gives us the capacity to confess Jesus as Lord. Or to doubt that we receive His body and blood when we receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Or to doubt that God will hear and answer our prayers offered in Jesus’ name. All these free gifts from God, graciously given, seem too good to be true.

But, as Pastor Brian Wolfmueller asked in a sermon on this gospel lesson six years ago, can any of us doubt that God the Father hears the prayers of His Son, Jesus?

Jesus, after all, is the One of Whom the Father said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

So, if Jesus prays, as He does in today’s Gospel lesson, that we would be and remain connected with Him even after He has physically left this world, can we doubt that God the Father will answer that prayer?

Can we doubt that even death itself will be unable to separate us from our unity with God and His people?

God the Father and God the Holy Spirit will always glorify God the Son Jesus just the way Jesus has glorified the Father and the Son–and saved us–through His death, resurrection, and ascension.

So, of course, God will answer Jesus’ prayers that we will remain one through God in this life where we still sin, struggle, suffer, doubt, die. And we will be one with Him also in the perfect life to come where all who believe in Jesus with repentant faith will see Him face to face.

There’s still more good news than that for us though.

God’s Word tells us that Jesus hasn’t stopped praying for us. Jesus, the book of Hebrews tells us, “always lives to intercede for” those who turn to Him in faith. (Hebrews 7:25) That’s Jesus’ mission. He is risen and ascended to intercede for us!

Jesus, the One Who already died and rose for you, is praying constantly on your behalf that the Father will protect you from temptation, sin, and other dangers to your oneness with God.

And, as we’ll celebrate next Sunday, Jesus has also sent the Holy Spirit, not only to make it possible for us to believe in Jesus, but also take the mishmash of thoughts, emotions, and mixed motives that often go into our prayers in Jesus’ name into something that God can do for our good and the good of all for whom we pray.

When my father was dying, I knew he was at a point of no return. COVID was going to kill him. And I have to tell you, I offered up the most confused mishmash of praying you can imagine. “I want him here, Lord. I want him to see his great-granddaughter,”--born just the day before he died. “I want him to be OK and not to have to suffer, with every breath he breathes right now a struggle. I…what? What?” That was my prayer in the end: “What? In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness,” the apostle Paul tells us. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

So, when you don’t know what to pray for, know that as you turn to God in Jesus’ name, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are praying with you in accordance with God’s will. They will bring order out of the chaos of your prayers.

“And we know,” as Paul also says in that passage from Romans, “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Friends, whatever this life brings to you, Jesus, your great high priest, Who died and rose to set you eternally free from sin and death so that you can live with God forever, is still praying for you and your eternal good, still keeping you one in your fellowship with God.

Jesus Christ, God the Son, is your prayer partner. Amen

Caught in the Act: Jesus, Praying for You

Here's the video of this past Sunday's online worship from Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio. Below it is the text of the message shared during the service. 



John 17:1-11
One morning a few years back, I was alone in our bedroom, on my knees next to the bed, praying. Ann didn’t know I was there and opened the door. When she saw me and realized what I was doing, she was apologetic. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s OK,” I told her. But again she said, “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

Christians can and do pray with others, of course. Our first lesson for today tells us of the first Christians disciples that after the risen Jesus ascended into heaven, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” (Acts 1:14)

But, through Jesus, God also gives us the privilege of doing just as Jesus often did, pray directly to the Father as individual believers. Our private prayers can be intensely intimate conversations with God. We confess our sins, reveal our deepest insecurities and secrets, entrust our most heartfelt requests, and own our doubts. I think that’s why Ann kept apologizing when she opened our bedroom door and found me in prayer.

In today’s Gospel lesson, John 17:1-11, we’re privileged to listen in on one of Jesus’ intimate prayers. The lesson is composed of the first portion of what’s known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer, the prayer that John says Jesus offered on the night of His betrayal and arrest. This section has four petitions. What’s remarkable about them is that, in the final analysis, each of the petitions is offered on behalf of believers in Jesus like you and me, disciples who live in this world right now. When Jesus prayed on the night He faced the greatest agonies imaginable, He was thinking of you and everyone for whom He was going to die and rise.

The first petition is in verse 1: “‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.’”

The hour to which Jesus refers is the one in which He would be glorified by God the Father through His death, resurrection, and ascension. In the gospel of John, Jesus calls these three things, Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, together as His glorification. It may be hard for most people to see any glory in a sinless Savior being nailed to a cross to die. But for the Christian, the cross displays the immensity of God’s love for the human race. On the cross, Jesus faced the wrath and endured the death that we deserve because we are born sinners incapable of making ourselves fit for life with God. And that’s a glorious, weighty thing! This is what the apostle Paul celebrates at another place in the Bible's New Testament, Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In this first petition, Jesus prays that the Father will help Him to see His mission of dying for us through. Jesus wants all people to be saved from sin, death, and futility. That can only be accomplished through His cross.

Jesus then prays in verse 5: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” This too, is a prayer for us. Jesus knew that after He was glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father, He would send His Holy Spirit to believers. In John 16:7, He already told the disciples, “...it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Many of you know the comfort that the Holy Spirit gives to you. He’s the One Who brings God’s Word to you, prompts you to pray, gives you faith in Jesus, inspires you to share your faith, empowers you to serve others in Jesus’ name.

I enjoy doing the live weeknight Bible studies on Facebook these days. But I would be lying if I said that they’re easy. I generally put in two to three hours of preparation for each night’s session. More than that, I daily pray that God will help me to explain the sometimes complicated things people need to know to more fully understand and appreciate the greatness, power, and love of God that are revealed in the books of the Bible we study. And though I’ve been an ardent student of Scripture for forty years now, there are things that I don’t understand as well as I would like to. That’s why the most important part of my preparation is begging the Father in Jesus’ name to send the Holy Spirit to make something out of what feels like the nothing I have to impart. Whatever good is coming of these studies is because Jesus ascended back to the glory He had before coming into the world and because He is constantly sending His Spirit to needy believers like you and me.

Jesus' next petition is in verses 6 through 9, where He prays for us, believers who have received the powerful, eternity-changing Gospel Word of new life through faith in Jesus. He says in verse 9: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” Earlier in the gospel of John, we’re told that many people who had initially believed in Jesus deserted Him. Jesus asks the twelve apostles if they intend to turn away from faith in Him too. Peter responds for all of them, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68) In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prays that we will stay connected day-in and day-out to Him through His life giving Word. It’s His Word that can guide us, assure us, bring forgiveness, and sustain us until the day we see the Lord personally, face to face.

Jesus’ fourth petition builds off of this. It’s in verse 11: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” God the Father, the New Testament tells us elsewhere, has given Jesus “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) The name of Jesus has power! Martin Luther said that the mere utterance of Jesus’ name by a believer will subdue Satan. Calling out to Jesus when we’re in trouble, when we’re tempted, when we need guidance or inspiration, will ensure that He is present with us, leading us on the resurrection path. The protection that Jesus asks the Father to extend to us may not prevent us from things like accidents, cancer, heart failure, COVID19, or being rejected by others for believing in Jesus. But, as we flee to Him for all our hope and help, Jesus will protect our faith, our justification, our eternal life with God. Anyone who can speak Jesus’ name with trust in Him as their God and Savior has exactly what He came into the world to bring, something we don’t deserve and could never ear, life with God that never ends. This week, ask God to renew you each day in your faith in the Savior Who, as He faced the cross, prayed for you and even now, wants you with Him for all eternity. Amen

The Open Book

John 17:1-11
Take a look at today’s Gospel lesson, John 17:1-11. Here, Jesus does an extraordinary thing: He lets us listen in on His personal prayer to God the Father.

When I’m talking with God in prayer, I don't particularly want anybody listening in. I have sins, desires, and apprehensions that I'd rather most of the world know nothing about.

But Jesus, true God and true man, has no secrets. He’s an open book. The entire Bible, in fact, reveals that God has always been an open book. Romans 1:19 reminds us that, “what may be known about God is plain...because God has made it plain…”

We see God's openness in many ways.

The Bible affirms, for example, that God’s law—His will and His commands for humanity—is written on our hearts, giving all of us a strong hint, long before we even hear the Name of Jesus, that there is a God Who made and cares about us. (Romans 2:15)

But more than that, God has taken the time and effort to sacrifice Himself on the cross out of His love for us and make it possible for all to believe in Him to have a life with God that starts now in this tough, imperfect world and is brought to perfection in eternity.

In Jesus, we see that God lives His love for us out loud for all the world to see and experience!

In the prologue to his account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, John the Evangelist says, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18).

Jesus has no secrets. Jesus is in the disclosing business. So, what exactly does He disclose to us in today’s Gospel lesson as He prays to His Father?

First: He discloses a heart filled with celebration. This is the time of year for graduation parties. The unspoken theme of all such parties is: Mission accomplished! In His prayer in today's Gospel lesson, before heading to the cross which He is intent on taking up for our sakes, Jesus takes a victory lap. He exults in His accomplishment on earth even before He goes to the cross or is raised from the dead.

Jesus can exult even in the face of His impending suffering because He knows that nothing is going to prevent Him from accomplishing what He knew He came to earth to accomplish. “For the joy set before him,” Hebrews 12:2 tells us, referring to the joy of opening up new life to all who believe in Him, “[Jesus] endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In our Gospel lesson, notice what Jesus says that He has already accomplished at the moment He utters His prayer.

• In verse 6: “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” 
• In verse 7: “Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you...” 
• In verse 8: “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you…” 

In the pursuit of His earthly mission, Jesus came to make God known, so that we could believe in Him and live!

In this prayer, Jesus rejoices in the strength that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had given Him to accomplish that mission.

As He prays, Jesus knows, of course, that He has one thing left to do on this earth, one more definitive act disclosing Who He is. He must die. He must go to the cross. This is the place of ultimate self-disclosure of God to all who are open to the truth.

Martin Luther said that if we want to know what God is like, we only need to look to Jesus on the cross. On the cross, Jesus discloses and lives and dies out of the infiniteness of God’s love for you and me.

Jesus took our sins onto Himself--all our greed, envy, lust, thievery, murderousness, gossiping, idolatry--absorbing the punishment we deserve for it all into His own body so that its power over us could be killed off in the death of a perfect Savior.

And that’s why Jesus calls out to the Father as He dies on the cross and says: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus’ mission was accomplished!

The Father wouldn’t let this be the end for Jesus, though. He had to be raised up so that all people would know of their chance to turn to Him (turning away from their sin), entrust their lives to Him, and live with God eternally. So, in this prayer, Jesus celebrates what He accomplishes for the glory of the Father and for our eternal good.

And then: Jesus discloses a request to the Father. In verse 5, Jesus asks, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…” The glory of God was displayed in Jesus in many ways. Most notably maybe, when at the waters of the Jordan River, where He was baptized, and on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Voice from heaven said, "This is My Son; listen to Him!"

And yet the glory of God disclosed in Jesus during His earthly life were only hints, dim reflections, brief tastes of the glory Jesus once enjoyed as God the Son in the halls of heaven before the creation of this world!

When the Father raised Jesus from the dead, His glory was on display for all the world to see, though some still didn't.

And one day, when the risen and ascended Jesus returns to the world, all the world, both those who believe in Him and those who don’t believe in Him, will see His glory with certainty (Matthew 25:31-46).

That will be a moment of jubilation for all who have surrendered to Christ, giving Him glory, and a moment of infinite regret for those who have ignored Him.

One of the things that Christ’s Church needs more than anything today, is a renewed sense of the glory of God! We keep trying to whittle Jesus down to manageable size, pulling Him out of a box (maybe) on Sunday mornings and then putting Him back into the box the rest of the week. (This ignores the fact that the last time people stuffed Jesus into a confined space, He couldn't be contained!)

Jesus, God in the flesh, is our Lord, our King, our Savior, and even our best friend. But Jesus is not our buddy, our rabbit’s foot, our ATM, our good luck charm, or a chump-Savior Who winks at our sin. Jesus will be there to judge us at the end of history. Jesus is God almighty.

The God we know in Jesus deserves all our allegiance, honor, loyalty, and thankfulness because, through His “amazing grace,” He saves all who trust in Him from sin and its consequence, death.

We must understand that the God disclosed in Jesus Christ is not a salesperson with whom we can negotiate a better price, but the Lord of the universe and that to have Him and the eternity only He can give, we must surrender to Him.

It's when we understand our need for daily surrender to Christ that we’ll be on the road to the wisdom that leads to life. The awe-filled fear and reverence of the God we meet in Jesus is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding that we aren't gods who can make Jesus over in our image. (Proverbs 9:10)

In this prayer in today's Gospel lesson then, Jesus, Who laid His glory by for His time on earth, is reclaiming that glory.

But here’s the astounding thing: It’s a theme of the New Testament that the life of Jesus is replicated, reenacted, in baptized believers in Him. All who are baptized and live in daily repentance and renewal can say with the New Testament, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

It was because of Christ living in him, that the first century preacher Paul, before his death, could write to the young pastor Timothy with the same sense of fulfillment and jubilation we see in Jesus’ prayer in our Gospel lesson on the brink of His death. Listen closely to Paul’s words (this is from The Message translation): “I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, [God is] an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for His coming.”

In his wonderful book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, Pastor David Platt talks about how many American Christians think that Jesus’ call and command for radical discipleship, including the call to love all the world and to carry the good news of Jesus to all the nations applies to other people, not us.

In taking this attitude, millions of Christians turn a deaf ear to the needs of 4.5 billion people who may die today without ever hearing the Good News of new life through faith in Jesus Christ.

And in thinking that Jesus’ call only applies to some spiritual elites, we also deny ourselves the very sense of fulfillment and the enjoyment of God’s glory that Jesus exults in in today’s Gospel lesson and that He wants us to have!

We, each of us, need to consider how we can restructure our daily lives to fulfill the mission Christ has given to each of us, so that we too can exult in the sense of fulfillment from a life spent in giving God glory. And I tell you that I am preaching to myself as much as anyone else in this sanctuary today. This morning, as I was getting ready, I started praying and was convicted by my sins and failings--my self-indulgence, my abuse of this body God has given to me, my failure to tell others about Christ--and, as I stood in the shower, I asked, "God, why do You put up with me?" The only answer to that question, of course, is grace, God's amazing grace. And so I asked God once again today, "Lord, help me to live my life in such a way that you will be glorified on this day."

We may not be able to go to foreign countries in pursuing God’s intentions for our lives. But each of us is called to fulfill the whole mission of Christ’s Church in our own individual lives.

And Living Water, which designates 23% of its annual budget to mission, offers all of us both plenty of chances to work together to fulfill God’s mission for us and plenty of support in finding how we can make our world our mission field.

We need to encourage one another in living out our Christ-given mission to the whole world, to start our days in reading God’s Word and prayer and getting God’s marching orders for the day. It’s to help us fulfill our mission that Jesus prays in verse 11: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed that prayer for you, believers in Christ!

When I come to the end of this life, I want to be able to pray with the same sense of jubilation and fulfillment we see in Jesus in our Gospel lesson. I want to be able to look back on a life in which I loved God, loved the world, and took my part in making some disciples of the world’s 4.5-billion unreached people. (Even at the Kroger deli counter.) I want to be able to say, “Mission accomplished.” How about you?

If it’s your desire to fulfill God’s purposes for your life, surrender to Christ each day, letting Him live fully in you each day…and then going wherever He leads you. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during this morning's worship services.] 

Aiming Toward, "MIssion Accomplished!"

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]


John 17:1-11
Please pull out the Celebrate insert from your bulletin and look at today’s Gospel lesson, John 17:1-11. Keep it handy.

In this lesson, Jesus does an extraordinary thing: He lets us listen in on His personal prayer to God the Father.

Now, I don't know about you, but there are things in my personal prayer time that I want to keep strictly between God and me. I don't want anybody listening in.

But Jesus has no secrets. The Word made flesh, is an open book.

The entire Bible, in fact, reveals that God has always been an open book. The New Testament book of Romans reminds us that, “…what can be known about God is plain…, because God has shown it…”

We see God's openness in other ways. The Bible affirms, for example, that God’s law—His will and His commands for humanity—has always been written on our hearts, giving all of us a strong hint, long before we even hear the Name of Jesus, that there is a God Who made and cares about us.

But more than that, God has taken the time and effort and sacrifice to live out His love for us and make it possible for all who turn from sin and believe in Him to live with Him eternally. God has lived His love for us out loud for everyone to see!

In the prologue to his account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, John the Evangelist says, “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

John goes on to say of Jesus, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, Who is close to the Father’s heart, Who has made Him known.”

Jesus has no secrets. Jesus is in the disclosing business.

So, what exactly does He disclose to us in today’s Gospel lesson?

First: He discloses a heart filled with celebration.

One of my nephews, Andrew, is graduating from high school. There’s going to be a celebration later today. The unspoken theme will be: mission accomplished. That's the theme of all graduation parties!

(And sometimes, their theme is "Shwew!")

In His prayer in today's Gospel lesson, Jesus takes a victory lap. He exults in His accomplishment on earth even before He goes to the cross or is raised from the dead.

Jesus knows that He already is what He was sent into the world to be: “the way, and the truth, and the life,” the only way for human beings to know God and the only way to the life that the life-giving God of the universe gives to those who repent and trust in Christ.

Look at what Jesus says He has already accomplished at the moment He utters His prayer.

• In verse 6: “I have made Your Name known to those whom You gave me…” 
• In verse 7: “Now they know that everything You have given me is from You…” 
• In verse 8: “for the words that You gave to me I have given to them, and [they] know in truth that I came from you…”

Jesus’ earthly life had a mission. He came to make God known. All that he said and did was bent to that purpose.

In this prayer, Jesus rejoices in the strength that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had given Him to accomplish it all and He prays, in essence, “Father, mission accomplished!”

As He prays, Jesus knows, of course, that He has one thing left to do on this earth, one more definitive act disclosing Who He is and Who God is.

He must die.

He must give His life for those given to Him by the Father.

This is the ultimate thing that Jesus discloses to all who are open to the truth. Martin Luther said that if we want to know what God is like, we only need to look to Jesus on the cross.

And that’s why with jubilation, Jesus, God on earth, intent on doing God’s would, on the Friday we call Good, having fully disclosed the heart, mind, and will of God, decide on the cross the moment at which He would breathe His last, call out to the Father, “It is finished,” (“My mission is accomplished.”)  and then give His life to God.

The Father wouldn’t let this be the end for Jesus, though. The sinless Savior Who offered His perfect life as the perfect sacrifice for our sin could not remain dead. He had to be raised up so that all people would know about their chance to turn to Him (turning away from their sin), entrust their lives to Him, and live with God eternally.

So, in this prayer, Jesus celebrates what He accomplishes for the glory of the Father and for our eternal good.

And then: Jesus discloses a request to the Father.

In verse 5, Jesus asks, “Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had in Your presence before the world existed…”

The glory of God was displayed in Jesus in many ways. It was seen when...

• He fed 5000 people with a few scraps of bread and some fish
• He turned water into wine
• He raised His dead friend Lazarus from the grave
• He gave sight to a blind man
• He empowered a paralyzed man to walk again.

The glory of God was seen in Jesus too, when at the waters of the Jordan River, where He was baptized, and on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Voice from heaven said, "This is My Son; listen to Him!"

And yet the glory of God disclosed in Jesus on all those occasions and others we might name, were mere hints, dim reflections, brief tastes of the glory Jesus once enjoyed as God the Son in the halls of heaven before the creation of this world!

Now, in this prayer, having accomplished all that He had set out to do in taking on human flesh, Jesus asks the Father to give that glory back to Him again.

The Father will do just that when He raises Jesus from the dead on the first Easter Sunday and so, makes the Name of Jesus the Name to which eventually, every knee will bow and every tongue confess, “that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.” 

(It turns out that even those who reject Jesus and will tragically, live with the consequence of their rejection of “the only Son of God” will also, in the end, acknowledge the glory of God seen in Jesus.)

If there is one thing more than any other that Christ’s Church needs today, it’s a renewed sense of the glory of God! 

I’ve mentioned before the woman who approached me after worship one Sunday in a former congregation. She was upset with the words of Psalm 111:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...” (The same words appear also in Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10.)

She affected that voice that some people use when trying to show their piety and said, “I don’t think that we should be afraid of God.” Look, Jesus says that we are His friends when we keep or strive to honor His commandments. He promises to stick closer to us than a brother.

But Jesus, God in the flesh, is not our buddy, not our rabbit’s foot, nor our ATM, nor our good luck charm.

He will be there to judge us at the end of history.

Paraphrasing Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable, Jesus brought us into this world and He can take us out.

He is God almighty.

He alone deserves all our allegiance, honor, loyalty, and thankfulness because, through His “amazing grace,” He saves all who trust in Him from sin and its consequence, death.

We must understand that the God disclosed in Jesus Christ is not a salesperson with whom we can negotiate a price, but the Lord of the universe and that to have Him and the eternity only He can give, we must bow, we must surrender to Him.

It's when we understand this that we’ll be on the road to the wisdom that leads to life.

In this prayer in today's Gospel lesson, Jesus, Who laid His glory by for His time on earth, is reclaiming that glory.

But here’s the really astounding thing.

It’s a theme of the New Testament that the life of Jesus is replicated, reenacted, in baptized believers in Him. All who are baptized and live in daily repentance and renewal can say with the New Testament, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ Who lives in me.” 

This is what Luther was getting at when he said that whenever the devil came knocking at his heart's door with temptations, announcing that he was looking for Martin Luther, Jesus went to the door in his place and said, "Martin Luther used to live here. But now I live here. Now, go away and don't come back any more!"

It was because of Christ living in him, that the first century preacher Paul, before his death, could write to the young pastor Timothy with the same sense of fulfillment and jubilation we see in Jesus’ prayer in our Gospel lesson on the brink of His death.

Listen closely to Paul's words (this is from The Message translation):

I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, [God is] an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for His coming.

In his wonderful book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, Pastor David Platt talks about how many American Christians think that Jesus’ call and command for radical discipleship, including the call to love all the world and to carry the good news of Jesus to all the nations applies to other people, not us.

In taking this attitude, millions of Christians turn a deaf ear to the needs of 4.5 billion people who may die today without ever hearing the Good News of new life through faith in Jesus Christ.

And in thinking that Jesus’ call only applies to some spiritual elites, we also deny ourselves the very sense of fulfillment and the enjoyment of God’s glory that Jesus exults in in today’s Gospel lesson and that He wants us to have!

We, each of us, need to consider how we can restructure our personal lives to fulfill the mission Christ has given to each of us, so that we too can exult in the sense of fulfillment from a life spent in giving God glory.

We may not be able to go to foreign countries in pursuing God’s intentions for our lives.

But each of us is called to fulfill the whole mission of Christ’s Church in our own individual lives. Our sponsorship, through World Vision of three year old Toiba in Kenya, involvement with CHAP, the 30 Hour Famine, the PPSST Food Drive, the upcoming local mission trip, Friend Day in November, upcoming servanthood evangelism events, and above all, our personal willingness to share Christ with the spiritually disconnected, are all ways in which we can lead the life of purpose that gives God glory that Jesus Christ wants each of us to experience.

We need to encourage one another in living out our Christ-given mission to the whole world. It’s to help us fulfill this single mission that Jesus prays in verse 11: “Holy Father, protect them in Your Name that You have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

When I come to the end of this life, I want to be able to pray with the same sense of jubilation and fulfillment we see in Jesus in our Gospel lesson.

I want to be able to look back on a life in which I loved God, loved the world, and took my part in making some disciples of the world’s 4.5-billion unreached people.

I want to be able to say, “Mission accomplished.”

How about you?

If it’s your desire to fulfill God’s purposes for your life, ask Christ to live fully in you…and then go wherever He leads you. Amen

A Look at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (May 4, 2008)

[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too. These reflections are coming late in the week, for which I apologize.]

This Sunday's Bible Lessons:
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
John 17:1-11

The Prayer of the Day:
O God of glory, your Son Jesus Christ suffered for us and ascended to your right hand. Unite us with Christ and each other in suffering and in joy, that all the world may be drawn into your bountiful presence, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Some Thoughts:
1. Tomorrow will bring the seventh and final Sunday of the Easter season. Next Sunday will bring us to the festival of Pentecost, celebrating the day that the Holy Spirit came to Jesus' praying followers, emboldening them to proclaim the message that all who repent (turn from sin) and believe in Jesus Christ will have everlasting life with God.

2. This past Thursday was Ascension Day. Falling forty days after Jesus' resurrection, Ascension Day recalls the day when the resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven. According to our first lesson from the New Testament book of Acts, Jesus told His disciples just before ascending, that they should go to Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit, Who would empower them to share the message of Jesus in words, actions, and living. Ten days later, on the first Pentecost, Jesus' promise would be fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came to the praying disciples.

3. The "glory of God" is an important theme in all of the lessons for tomorrow. Closely related is the use of the term "clouds." In Old Testament times, as in the account of Elijah being taken up to heaven, and in, to cite one example, Luke's telling of Jesus' transfiguration, clouds descend from heaven; within them, the glory of God is manifest. Even in our lesson from First Peter, we're told that suffering for faithfulness to Christ manifests God's glory, replicating Jesus' giving of Himself for our redemption. When we suffer for our faith, Peter asserts, we participate in Christ's suffering and so, in His glory.

4. Psalm 68 is thought to be among the most ancient of the psalms in the Old Testament worship book. It's thought to be a kind of liturgical drama recounting God's faithfulness in moving His people from slavery in Egypt to the promised land. By recalling God's past faithfulness, we're inspired to trust God in good and bad times.

5. First and foremost, John 17:1-11, is a prayer by Jesus to the Father. We eavesdrop as He prays for His Church, including those of us who are part of the 21st.-century Church.

I derive great comfort, encouragement, and hope from knowing that, despite the odds, the Church continues to exist twenty-one centuries after Jesus prayed this prayer. The Church today is an answer to Jesus' prayers. In the spirit of Peter's words in our second lesson, I'm sure that Jesus is inviting us not only to participate in His sufferings today, but also to participate in His prayers, including the one offered in the Gospel lesson.