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Sunday, June 20, 2021
The Book Of John
Series: LOVED BY JESUS
Message: The Priest
Scripture: John 17:1-26 ESV
Pastor Philip Miller
Image: Pemaquid Lighthouse and Cliffs; Maine, USA
GOD BLESS FATHERS ~ HONOR AND RESPECT OUR FATHERS ~ HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
Scripture Reading Psalm 103:1-18 ESV
Psalms 103: 1–18 ESV and Audio
Bless the Lord, O My Soul
Bless the Lord, O My Soul
103 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
Image: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! By Inspirational June 6, 2004
Thanksgiving and Prayer
Philippians 1:3-4 ESV;
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you....making my prayer with joy.”
Scripture: 17:1-26 ESV
John 17 ESV and Audio
SERMON NOTES
Sunday, June 20, 2021
The Book Of John
Series: LOVED BY JESUS
Message: The Priest
Scripture: John 17:1-26 ESV
Pastor Philip Miller
The Priest: What is most important to Jesus in all the universe?
The Priest: What is most important to Jesus in all the universe?
In this passage we come to what is arguably the pinnacle of John’s Gospel. It’s Jesus’ last night, and in the next hours, He will be betrayed by Judas Iscariot from Hi inner circle. He will be put on trial, condemned, and crucified the following day.
And Jesus, knowing all that awaits him, has been pouring out His heart to the disciples. He shows them His love by washing their feet. He shares a meal with them at the last supper.
He’s intimating to them that His hour has come and that He will return to the Father by way of the cross.
And now in chapter 17, Jesus offers a final prayer known as “The High Priestly Prayer”. In this prayer we find what is most important to Jesus in all the universe.
In Jesus’ final prayer, we find four main points:
1) A Final Request:
In the face of shame, Jesus asks for the renewal of glory. Jesus is about to face the greatest possible shame in the presence of men on earth; and so, He asks for the greatest possible honor in the presence of God in heaven, that He would be raised in glory to what is rightfully His. It is the glory of the Father to glorify the Son, and it is the Son’s glory to glorify the Father.
1) A Final Request (vv. 1–5)
• In the face of shame, Jesus asks for the renewal of glory.
The High Priestly Prayer
17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
2) A Final Report: The Father sent Jesus into the world on a mission, and here Jesus is submitting His final report. In a sense, Jesus’ mission was for the whole world, but it was also particularly focused on those the Father gave to the Son. It is to these people in particular, the ones given by the Father to the Son, that Jesus has manifested the Father’s name. So, in this prayer, Jesus is focused on His disciples, and His heart is focused on those who believe. Their belief in Jesus brings Him glory, for their reception of Jesus means that His mission has been successful. So here at the finish line, Jesus is acknowledging that He has completed the mission.
2) A Final Report (vv. 6–11a)
• At the finish line, Jesus has completed His mission.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
3) A Finale Intercession: Like a high priest, Jesus prays a final three-fold intercession on the disciple’s behalf. First, to "Fortify Them" by putting the Father’s name on them, which signifies protection, providence, and preciousness. Jesus asks the Father to keep them strong, to keep them resilient, and to keep them faithful. Second, to "Sanctify Them" to keep them pure and distinct as sons and daughters of the King. This implies that as the disciples are sanctified in the truth of the Word, they will become holy, righteous, and pure. Because they have a mission ahead of them: to be sent out into the world to bear God’s name and Word into the world. Third, to "Unify Them" as one family, under one faith, in one Lord, and one baptism, despite their diverse backgrounds. Our unity is our witness to the world. We must never allow the world to divide what Jesus Christ has unified. We cannot live in the love of the Father and live in disunity with our brothers and sisters
3) A Final Intercession (vv. 11b–23)
• Fortify them (11b–16)
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
• Sanctify them (17–19)
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
• Unify them (20–23)
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
4) A Final Desire: This is what Jesus wants more in all the universe—that we would be with Him and see Him as He really is. To see Jesus in His glory is to come alive forever, to be transformed into the sons and daughters of God that we really are. Here in the end, Jesus’ deepest desire is for perichoresis, the divine dance of eternal loving embrace with the Triune God.
4) A Final Desire (vv. 24–26)
• Here in the end, Jesus’ deepest desire is for perichoresis.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Takeaways:
• Our true, real, good and beautiful life is found in intimate rapture with divine glory as we are forever enfolded in the perichoretic love of our Triune God. This is what you were made for. This is what your soul aches for. This is what we’re looking for in all the wrong places. This is the deepest meaning of the universe.
• We forever come alive in the eternal life of God.
Do you know this life? Do you live this life?
Philip Miller Senior Pastor
PASTOR TO PEOPLE
Happy Father’s Day!
Everyone I know has a complicated relationship with their fathers. Even those with the best of fathers still experience disappointments and disillusionment with them, and I have a guess for why that is.
The Bible tells us we were created to find our identity, meaning, purpose, value, and joy in relationship with our Heavenly Father. But when we woke up in the universe, we didn’t know God, and so many of us expected those deep spiritual needs to be met by our earthly fathers. Some of our fathers were decent and healthy, and others were toxic and devastating. In the latter case, the disappointment and disillusionment is almost automatic. But even the best of earthly fathers could never possibly give our souls what only our Heavenly Father can provide. Without ever intending to, some of us set up our fathers and ourselves for disappointment and disillusionment. We were looking in the wrong place all along.
Through Jesus, we now have a real relationship with our Heavenly Father. In Him we know who we are. We know what life is about. We know why we’re here, we know that we matter, and we know the joy of loving Him and being loved in return. By the Spirit we cry out Abba Father, for we are true children of God (Rom. 8:15–16). He disciplines us as sons, that we might share in his goodness, holiness, peace, and righteousness (Heb. 12:5–11). We have a Father who meets our spiritual needs in a way that our fathers never could.
So today we honor our fathers, who at their very best moments were pale imitations of our Heavenly Father, and who in their worst moments prepared us for the true and better Father whose love will never ever let us down.
Because of Jesus we have a Father. And we are loved, more than we know!
Pastor Philip
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