The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 2

John 17:6-12

One of

Spiderman’s most dangerous villains is Venom. Venom originated as a symbiotic

alien organism that initially formed Spiderman’s new costume, one that not only

amplified his abilities, but also altered his personality. Peter Parker didn’t

know that the symbiote was also siphoning his powers until he (with the help of

other superhero friends) managed to tear it off, and only then did he realize  its lethal effects.  In her book, Almost Christian, Kenda Dean suggests that a version of

Christianity, like the analogy of Venom and Spider-man, has infected the

Church. 

Dean’s book

offers a bleak outlook on the state of the Christian faith, basing such on the

results of a three-year study (The National Study of Youth and Religion). In Almost Christian, Dean reveals that

America’s youth, particularly those who were shaped in a churched culture and

call themselves “Christian,” embrace a certain brand of Christianity  that is “caught, not taught” from their

parents and a church culture labeled “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” by those

who conducted the study from which Dean’s book is based.  According to Dean, the guiding beliefs of

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism can be summed up in five guiding beliefs:

A

god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth. God

wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible

and by most world religions. The

central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God

is not involved in my life, except when I need God to resolve a problem. Good

people go to heaven when they die.

According to

the study, most parents treat religion as something caught and not so much

taught; what today’s youth has caught has been essentially the “Christianity”

of their parents. In Almost Christian,

Dean explains,

Parasitologists define a symbiote as the weaker of two organisms inhabiting the same space, so that the weaker can draw life from the stronger. In the most dramatic cases, by the time the host notices, the symbiote has siphoned off its nutrients, guaranteeing the symbiote’s survival but leaving the host seriously weakened. Continuing the analogy from comic lore, Venom’s symbiote occupied its hapless victims while inhaling their souls, reducing them to hideous creatures themselves, human beings whose depleted souls left them too weak to resist the symbiote’s beguiling allure. When this symbiote inhabited Spiderman, leaving a trace of Venom behind, it was often impossible to tell them apart. The result?  When the impostor threatened to supplant the original, no one was the wiser.[1]

In John 17, Jesus’

prayer teaches us what it really means to be the Church and what it means to be

a Christian.  In verses 6-12, we discover

what it means to be loved by God and how it is we can love others. 

You Are Loved By God

When I read

these verses, I think of them as God’s way of unpacking John 3:16, “God so loved the world.” In John 3:16

God loved the world so much that He gave us Jesus, but in John 17, God loved

Jesus so much that He gave him the Church. 

The difference between John 3:16 and John 17 is important.  God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus.  Our problem is that we are sinners in

desperate need of God’s forgiveness so that we can be reconciled to Him instead

of being rejected, judged, and condemned to hell.  God sent his only son to save us from eternal

damnation; this is why Jesus prayed in verse 3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

In John 17,

Jesus prayed for those whom God has given him out of His love for Jesus.  Look at the passage a little more closely.

Jesus referred to his followers as people that God gave him:

“I

have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (v. 6a)            “Yours

they were, and you gave them to me…”

(v. 6b)…everything

that you hav

The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 2

John 17:6-12

One of

Spiderman’s most dangerous villains is Venom. Venom originated as a symbiotic

alien organism that initially formed Spiderman’s new costume, one that not only

amplified his abilities, but also altered his personality. Peter Parker didn’t

know that the symbiote was also siphoning his powers until he (with the help of

other superhero friends) managed to tear it off, and only then did he realize  its lethal effects.  In her book, Almost Christian, Kenda Dean suggests that a version of

Christianity, like the analogy of Venom and Spider-man, has infected the

Church. 

Dean’s book

offers a bleak outlook on the state of the Christian faith, basing such on the

results of a three-year study (The National Study of Youth and Religion). In Almost Christian, Dean reveals that

America’s youth, particularly those who were shaped in a churched culture and

call themselves “Christian,” embrace a certain brand of Christianity  that is “caught, not taught” from their

parents and a church culture labeled “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” by those

who conducted the study from which Dean’s book is based.  According to Dean, the guiding beliefs of

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism can be summed up in five guiding beliefs:

A

god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth. God

wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible

and by most world religions. The

central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God

is not involved in my life, except when I need God to resolve a problem. Good

people go to heaven when they die.

According to

the study, most parents treat religion as something caught and not so much

taught; what today’s youth has caught has been essentially the “Christianity”

of their parents. In Almost Christian,

Dean explains,

Parasitologists define a symbiote as the weaker of two organisms inhabiting the same space, so that the weaker can draw life from the stronger. In the most dramatic cases, by the time the host notices, the symbiote has siphoned off its nutrients, guaranteeing the symbiote’s survival but leaving the host seriously weakened. Continuing the analogy from comic lore, Venom’s symbiote occupied its hapless victims while inhaling their souls, reducing them to hideous creatures themselves, human beings whose depleted souls left them too weak to resist the symbiote’s beguiling allure. When this symbiote inhabited Spiderman, leaving a trace of Venom behind, it was often impossible to tell them apart. The result?  When the impostor threatened to supplant the original, no one was the wiser.[1]

In John 17, Jesus’

prayer teaches us what it really means to be the Church and what it means to be

a Christian.  In verses 6-12, we discover

what it means to be loved by God and how it is we can love others. 

You Are Loved By God

When I read

these verses, I think of them as God’s way of unpacking John 3:16, “God so loved the world.” In John 3:16

God loved the world so much that He gave us Jesus, but in John 17, God loved

Jesus so much that He gave him the Church. 

The difference between John 3:16 and John 17 is important.  God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus.  Our problem is that we are sinners in

desperate need of God’s forgiveness so that we can be reconciled to Him instead

of being rejected, judged, and condemned to hell.  God sent his only son to save us from eternal

damnation; this is why Jesus prayed in verse 3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

In John 17,

Jesus prayed for those whom God has given him out of His love for Jesus.  Look at the passage a little more closely.

Jesus referred to his followers as people that God gave him:

“I

have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (v. 6a)            “Yours

they were, and you gave them to me…”

(v. 6b)…everything

that you hav

The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 2

John 17:6-12

One of

Spiderman’s most dangerous villains is Venom. Venom originated as a symbiotic

alien organism that initially formed Spiderman’s new costume, one that not only

amplified his abilities, but also altered his personality. Peter Parker didn’t

know that the symbiote was also siphoning his powers until he (with the help of

other superhero friends) managed to tear it off, and only then did he realize  its lethal effects.  In her book, Almost Christian, Kenda Dean suggests that a version of

Christianity, like the analogy of Venom and Spider-man, has infected the

Church. 

Dean’s book

offers a bleak outlook on the state of the Christian faith, basing such on the

results of a three-year study (The National Study of Youth and Religion). In Almost Christian, Dean reveals that

America’s youth, particularly those who were shaped in a churched culture and

call themselves “Christian,” embrace a certain brand of Christianity  that is “caught, not taught” from their

parents and a church culture labeled “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” by those

who conducted the study from which Dean’s book is based.  According to Dean, the guiding beliefs of

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism can be summed up in five guiding beliefs:

A

god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth. God

wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible

and by most world religions. The

central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God

is not involved in my life, except when I need God to resolve a problem. Good

people go to heaven when they die.

According to

the study, most parents treat religion as something caught and not so much

taught; what today’s youth has caught has been essentially the “Christianity”

of their parents. In Almost Christian,

Dean explains,

Parasitologists define a symbiote as the weaker of two organisms inhabiting the same space, so that the weaker can draw life from the stronger. In the most dramatic cases, by the time the host notices, the symbiote has siphoned off its nutrients, guaranteeing the symbiote’s survival but leaving the host seriously weakened. Continuing the analogy from comic lore, Venom’s symbiote occupied its hapless victims while inhaling their souls, reducing them to hideous creatures themselves, human beings whose depleted souls left them too weak to resist the symbiote’s beguiling allure. When this symbiote inhabited Spiderman, leaving a trace of Venom behind, it was often impossible to tell them apart. The result?  When the impostor threatened to supplant the original, no one was the wiser.[1]

In John 17, Jesus’

prayer teaches us what it really means to be the Church and what it means to be

a Christian.  In verses 6-12, we discover

what it means to be loved by God and how it is we can love others. 

You Are Loved By God

When I read

these verses, I think of them as God’s way of unpacking John 3:16, “God so loved the world.” In John 3:16

God loved the world so much that He gave us Jesus, but in John 17, God loved

Jesus so much that He gave him the Church. 

The difference between John 3:16 and John 17 is important.  God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus.  Our problem is that we are sinners in

desperate need of God’s forgiveness so that we can be reconciled to Him instead

of being rejected, judged, and condemned to hell.  God sent his only son to save us from eternal

damnation; this is why Jesus prayed in verse 3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

In John 17,

Jesus prayed for those whom God has given him out of His love for Jesus.  Look at the passage a little more closely.

Jesus referred to his followers as people that God gave him:

“I

have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (v. 6a)            “Yours

they were, and you gave them to me…”

(v. 6b)…everything

that you hav

The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 1

John 17:1-5

Slavery is what happens when a person is controlled by

another, forced to work against their will, and treated like property.  While slavery has been outlawed by just about

every nation on planet earth, 45.8 million people are in some form of slavery

today.  What this number means is that,

more than any other time in history (even more than the entire African slave

trade), exists men, women, and children who live a hellish nightmare where

freedom is only a dream, and equality is a privilege outside of their reality.  Here are some basic facts that I found

regarding slavery around the world (although this is just a sampling):

UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children are sold

into slavery each year into the agricultural, domestic, and sex industries of

wealthier neighboring countries of Africa’s West Coast.

90 thousand Dinkas in Southern Sudan are owned

by North African Arabs, and are sold for as little as $15 dollars per human

being!  Physical mutilation is practiced

upon these slaves to both prevent escape and to enforce the owner’s ideologies

upon his “property.”  When Arab nomads

kidnapped Kon, a young 13-year-old boy, he saw several Dinka men hobbling

around because their owner cut their Achilles tendon since they refused to

become Muslims.  When threatened to have

the same done to him, Kon converted to Islam.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held

captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food.  These children are known as “carpet slaves” in

India.

Millions of children are sold to feed the billion-dollar

sex trade industry.  They are sold in

exchange for food, housing, drugs, and other commodities.  On a typical day in one brothel in India, the

average girl may be exploited 10-40 times a night for as low as 20 Rupees per

encounter, which is about 50 cents for every horrific experience. 

Even

with the 13th Amendment, the United States is the largest market for

sex slavery in the entire world.  The State

Department estimates that somewhere between 14,500 and 17,500 women, girls, and

boys are trafficked into the United States as sex slaves. 

Slavery

is not the only problem.  There is

another human rights problem in our world, and it is that of the unborn who are

treated as disposable property.  Over

700,000 babies were aborted in the US in 2018, while nearly 23,000,000 babies

were aborted this year alone.  Since

1980, over 1 billion babies have been aborted worldwide, because they were

deemed property instead of people.

The reason that slavery and abortion exist today is simple:

There is an enemy who hates the fact that we are the only creature in the

universe that bears the image of the God he hates.  That enemy is the devil, and Jesus said of

him: “He was a murderer from the

beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in

him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his

own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  We human beings have a propensity towards

perverting what God has called good, and because of our sinful nature, some of

the fruit of our sinful nature is slavery and death. 

We have a history of slavery and death, because of our own

spiritual slavery and death – a spiritual slavery and death from which Jesus

came to liberate us.  He saved us from

the bondage of sin through his life, death, and resurrection.  Although legislation is necessary in a world

full people with lawless hearts, legislation and government are not enough to

change the culture of the heart. 

When Jesus prayed in John 17, He prayed for us and He prayed

that we would experience the life that we were made to enjoy – a life rooted in

Him as our savior.  When Jesus prayed, He

prayed for the Church who is His bride. 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was “the greatest prayer offered on earth…”[1]  I want you to look with me at the first five verses of this incredible chapter

The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 1

John 17:1-5

Slavery is what happens when a person is controlled by

another, forced to work against their will, and treated like property.  While slavery has been outlawed by just about

every nation on planet earth, 45.8 million people are in some form of slavery

today.  What this number means is that,

more than any other time in history (even more than the entire African slave

trade), exists men, women, and children who live a hellish nightmare where

freedom is only a dream, and equality is a privilege outside of their reality.  Here are some basic facts that I found

regarding slavery around the world (although this is just a sampling):

UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children are sold

into slavery each year into the agricultural, domestic, and sex industries of

wealthier neighboring countries of Africa’s West Coast.

90 thousand Dinkas in Southern Sudan are owned

by North African Arabs, and are sold for as little as $15 dollars per human

being!  Physical mutilation is practiced

upon these slaves to both prevent escape and to enforce the owner’s ideologies

upon his “property.”  When Arab nomads

kidnapped Kon, a young 13-year-old boy, he saw several Dinka men hobbling

around because their owner cut their Achilles tendon since they refused to

become Muslims.  When threatened to have

the same done to him, Kon converted to Islam.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held

captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food.  These children are known as “carpet slaves” in

India.

Millions of children are sold to feed the billion-dollar

sex trade industry.  They are sold in

exchange for food, housing, drugs, and other commodities.  On a typical day in one brothel in India, the

average girl may be exploited 10-40 times a night for as low as 20 Rupees per

encounter, which is about 50 cents for every horrific experience. 

Even

with the 13th Amendment, the United States is the largest market for

sex slavery in the entire world.  The State

Department estimates that somewhere between 14,500 and 17,500 women, girls, and

boys are trafficked into the United States as sex slaves. 

Slavery

is not the only problem.  There is

another human rights problem in our world, and it is that of the unborn who are

treated as disposable property.  Over

700,000 babies were aborted in the US in 2018, while nearly 23,000,000 babies

were aborted this year alone.  Since

1980, over 1 billion babies have been aborted worldwide, because they were

deemed property instead of people.

The reason that slavery and abortion exist today is simple:

There is an enemy who hates the fact that we are the only creature in the

universe that bears the image of the God he hates.  That enemy is the devil, and Jesus said of

him: “He was a murderer from the

beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in

him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his

own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  We human beings have a propensity towards

perverting what God has called good, and because of our sinful nature, some of

the fruit of our sinful nature is slavery and death. 

We have a history of slavery and death, because of our own

spiritual slavery and death – a spiritual slavery and death from which Jesus

came to liberate us.  He saved us from

the bondage of sin through his life, death, and resurrection.  Although legislation is necessary in a world

full people with lawless hearts, legislation and government are not enough to

change the culture of the heart. 

When Jesus prayed in John 17, He prayed for us and He prayed

that we would experience the life that we were made to enjoy – a life rooted in

Him as our savior.  When Jesus prayed, He

prayed for the Church who is His bride. 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was “the greatest prayer offered on earth…”[1]  I want you to look with me at the first five verses of this incredible chapter

The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed – Part 1

John 17:1-5

Slavery is what happens when a person is controlled by

another, forced to work against their will, and treated like property.  While slavery has been outlawed by just about

every nation on planet earth, 45.8 million people are in some form of slavery

today.  What this number means is that,

more than any other time in history (even more than the entire African slave

trade), exists men, women, and children who live a hellish nightmare where

freedom is only a dream, and equality is a privilege outside of their reality.  Here are some basic facts that I found

regarding slavery around the world (although this is just a sampling):

UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children are sold

into slavery each year into the agricultural, domestic, and sex industries of

wealthier neighboring countries of Africa’s West Coast.

90 thousand Dinkas in Southern Sudan are owned

by North African Arabs, and are sold for as little as $15 dollars per human

being!  Physical mutilation is practiced

upon these slaves to both prevent escape and to enforce the owner’s ideologies

upon his “property.”  When Arab nomads

kidnapped Kon, a young 13-year-old boy, he saw several Dinka men hobbling

around because their owner cut their Achilles tendon since they refused to

become Muslims.  When threatened to have

the same done to him, Kon converted to Islam.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held

captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food.  These children are known as “carpet slaves” in

India.

Millions of children are sold to feed the billion-dollar

sex trade industry.  They are sold in

exchange for food, housing, drugs, and other commodities.  On a typical day in one brothel in India, the

average girl may be exploited 10-40 times a night for as low as 20 Rupees per

encounter, which is about 50 cents for every horrific experience. 

Even

with the 13th Amendment, the United States is the largest market for

sex slavery in the entire world.  The State

Department estimates that somewhere between 14,500 and 17,500 women, girls, and

boys are trafficked into the United States as sex slaves. 

Slavery

is not the only problem.  There is

another human rights problem in our world, and it is that of the unborn who are

treated as disposable property.  Over

700,000 babies were aborted in the US in 2018, while nearly 23,000,000 babies

were aborted this year alone.  Since

1980, over 1 billion babies have been aborted worldwide, because they were

deemed property instead of people.

The reason that slavery and abortion exist today is simple:

There is an enemy who hates the fact that we are the only creature in the

universe that bears the image of the God he hates.  That enemy is the devil, and Jesus said of

him: “He was a murderer from the

beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in

him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his

own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  We human beings have a propensity towards

perverting what God has called good, and because of our sinful nature, some of

the fruit of our sinful nature is slavery and death. 

We have a history of slavery and death, because of our own

spiritual slavery and death – a spiritual slavery and death from which Jesus

came to liberate us.  He saved us from

the bondage of sin through his life, death, and resurrection.  Although legislation is necessary in a world

full people with lawless hearts, legislation and government are not enough to

change the culture of the heart. 

When Jesus prayed in John 17, He prayed for us and He prayed

that we would experience the life that we were made to enjoy – a life rooted in

Him as our savior.  When Jesus prayed, He

prayed for the Church who is His bride. 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was “the greatest prayer offered on earth…”[1]  I want you to look with me at the first five verses of this incredible chapter