Ron Dunn Podcast - Prayer Of All Prayers (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series on prayer

Well, I want to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 17. There are some exotic flowers that when touched by the human hand wilt. I feel that way about certain portions of Scripture, and I feel that way about John 17, what is usually called the high priestly prayer. And I've been reading this, I don't know, over and over in different translations for a good while now, and to me it is the holy of holies. And my great fear is that putting my human hand to it, that this beautiful exotic flower of scripture might wilt.

But it's in there, and I'm going to take a crack at it. I want to read tonight, 1 John 17, verses 1 through 8. After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you. Since you had given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you,

the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. I have made your name known to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words that you gave me I have given to them, and they have received them, and knowing truth that I came from you,

and they have believed that you sent me. Time. There are two ways that we think about time or express time. There is chronological time, which is simply, or reality time, which the New Testament has a word for kairos, which is also translated time, but it is different. Chronos, in which we get our word chronology, is time in a straight line, the duration of time, the passing of time. I watch my watch and you watch your watch, and we're aware of the passing And then there is that kairos or concrete time, which means not the passing or duration of time,

but a special time characterized by some special significance. It is a time of opportunity or a time of fulfillment, a time when a decision must be made. Now, we use this idea a great deal when we talk about, and Alistair this morning talked about the times in which we're living. He wasn't talking about chronological time. He was talking about the characteristic of the days in which we are living. We say the time has come, and often we're not referring to chronological time, but we're referring to its time now for us to do something about this situation. And so there is that

chronological time, and then there is that kairos time, and when they finally meet, you have what I call a critical hour. A couple of weeks ago, I was at the New Orleans Baptist Seminary in New Orleans, amazingly, and teaching a workshop, and one of the other fellows that was there, Dr. George Guthrie from Union University, asked to take me to dinner that night with he and his family. And he got directions on where to go to this restaurant, but directions are not always, you know, good directions. And so we were on Highway Interstate 10, and it was obvious in a little while we had missed our cutoff

because of those of you that are familiar with the New Orleans area. You know that Pontchartrain Bridge? And we found ourselves on the Pontchartrain Bridge, which chronologically is a long time. I mean, well, there'll be an exit up here somewhere, but there isn't. I mean, you go, and you go, and you go, and you go, and you go. And I was hungry, and I was hungry, and I was conscious of chronological time passing. And so we made small talk and everything, and George was apologizing and all of this. And I don't know how long we'd gone.

It seemed like we must have gone 30 minutes. I'm sure it wasn't that long. But, you know, a minute of pain is a lot longer than a minute of pleasure. And so after a while, we saw a sign that said, two miles, there was an exit. Now we'd entered into K-Ross time, entered into a special time. I said, George, don't you miss that.

Boy, we got in two miles. It's coming up. Let's keep our eye on it, or we'll go forever on this bridge. And finally, we came to that. And when we came to that, that was the critical hour. Now is the time to take the exit. So you have this chronological passing of time, the duration of time.

But then you have those special moments of time, the duration of time, but then you have those special moments of time, moments of significance or moments of decision, moments of opportunity. For instance, if I had a blackboard tonight, I could draw a straight line up here, say this is chronological time of history from the beginning till 1998. But I might put here a circle and say this is the invasion of Great Britain by the Normans. That's a K-Ross time. And then over here is Magna Carta, 1215. That's a K-Ross time. That's a significant time.

And then you might put World war one or the civil war or the assassination of kennedy you see in the chronological time you're going to have those special times that are characterized by sometimes violence or characterized by opportunity but recognizing that it is a significant time and as I said once that chronological time hits that k-ross time the issue is a critical hour and that's the occasion for Jesus offering this prayer for he says father the hour has come the hour has come. The hour has come. Now, it's interesting.

You could actually divide the gospel of John up into these two divisions, not yet and now. Before his time was, his hour was, and when his hour was. And John has a lot to say about this matter of the hour coming or the hour having not yet come. For instance, if you go back to the second chapter of John, there's the wedding feast at the Canaan. And you remember Jesus' mother asked him to produce some wine. And in verse 4, and Jesus said to her, Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come. And then in John chapter 7, verse 30,

Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come. The reason that they couldn't take hold of him and seize him was his hour had not yet come. The reason that they couldn't take hold of him and seize him was his hour had not come. You'll find the same idea in chapter 8 verse 20. He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasure of the temple, but no one arrested him. had not yet come. Then there is a dramatic change in John chapter 12, in verse 20,

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And in verse 23, Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Now suddenly, the hour has come. And when did that hour come? When the Gentiles came seeking him, which I believe is symbolic of the fact that what Christ was going to do on the cross in purchasing redemption applied not only to the Jews, but also to the Greeks, also to the Gentiles. And so when these Greeks, these Gentiles came seeking Jesus, he said, now the hour is come. And you read on in verse 27, he says, now my soul is troubled. And what should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Chapter 13, verse 1, now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. And in chapter 16, verse 32, do you not believe the hour is coming?

Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. There was a time when the hour had not yet come. A predetermined, a predestined moment. And until that hour came, nobody could touch him. Nobody could lay a hand on him. But then there came that moment when the hour has come. The hour has come when the Greeks came to inquire of him.

And that hour has now really, really come. And so the occasion for Jesus praying this high priestly prayer is the hour has come. Now what does it mean by the hour? What does it mean to Jesus? Well, the hour for Jesus simply meant the time of his passion had arrived. The cross, the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane,

the kangaroo court in Pilate's Hall, the humiliating agony of the crucifixion, the nameless horror of the descent into Hades. That was what he was facing. It was an hour of suffering. It was the hour of the cross. Now we're going to say more about this later on. But notice he says, Father glorify me for the hour has come and we're going

to find that his hour was hour of glorification not glorious in what happened to him but it was the time of his glorification and so jesus realizing that now the hour is upon him when he must face all that is before him and the horrors of that crucifixion. When he drinks the bitter cup that contains all the sins of mankind and it is so revolting and so disgusting to him that if you didn't know better, you would think he faltered there in the garden when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but thine be done me, for the hour has come.

Now, this prayer can be divided into four parts. First of all, Christ prays for himself. Now, most Bible scholars say that is from verses 1 through 5. But what the hay, I don't believe that's true. I believe it's verses 1 through 8 because he doesn't really start praying for his disciples until verse 9. And so I think it this way, that from verses 1 through 8, Christ is praying for himself. Verses 9 through 19, he's praying for his immediate disciples. And verses 20 through 24, he's praying for the church. And then verses 25 and 26 is sort of a summation, an epilogue of all that he's been

praying about. And this prayer, as we get into it and study it, you're going to find several things about it. It is a confirming prayer, for one thing. As a matter of fact, if you go back, it says that after Jesus had spoken these words. What words? Well, the words of what is normally called the upper room discourse, chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16. When Jesus was giving his final instructions to his disciples, preparing them for the time when he should lead them. And as we read this prayer and study this prayer, we're going to find that Jesus reaches back upon every issue that he touched on in those chapters, and he is confirming all of that in this high priestly prayer. It is a confirming prayer, but it's also what I would call a circular prayer.

Now, Jesus prays. How can I say this and sound reverent? Jesus prays in circles, but that's the way John is. That's the way John writes. 1 John, the epistle of 1 John, is a circular letter. The main three elements there are love, righteousness, and faith. But he'll talk about them in every chapter. He'll come back.

You think, well, he's finished with that. But no, he comes back. But every time he comes back, it has a wider scope and takes in more meaning. And it's the same way with this high priestly prayer. Every time Jesus prays, he'll come back again to a subject that he's already prayed about, but this time it encompasses a wider scope and embraces wider material. But most of all, this is a teaching prayer. This is, and it is recorded. It is recorded. Jesus prayed before his disciples out loud. Why? Because this was a teaching prayer, and his disciples were meant to overhear it

and record it so that you and I can read it and study it. And I tell you, as I have delved into this chapter, I have just been overwhelmed by the teaching, the rich teaching that is found in this chapter. Now tonight, what I want to do is to see just first what it teaches us about Christ. What it teaches us about Christ. Christ in this prayer is revealing so much about himself. And let's look at that. First of all, this prayer teaches us and reveals to us

Christ's preexistence with the Father. Christ's preexistence with the Father. You'll notice he comes on down and he says in verse 5, So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. He said, I'm asking now that you restore me to the glory that I shared with you before the world existed. In other words, Christ here is enunciating his preexistence with the Father. Of course, the great text on that is John 1, 1, where he says,

in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word. He co-existed with God. He's co-eternal with God. He's co-equal with God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God it's the Greek word pros which means face to face in other words it defines equality Jesus Christ was not subordinate in that position but he was co-equal with his father living face to face with the father now John has a lot to say about this. And in 1 John, he also talks about that which was from the beginning,

the Word of life, that which was from the beginning. Why? Because one of the great heresies of that day, and continues to be so, is that Jesus was not really and truly God. That he was just a mere man. And you might call the gospel of John the gospel of the deity of the Son of God. Because John's burden, more so than the other gospel writers, is evangelistic. He's writing really to unbelievers in a sense to convince them that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God. You don't write his biography and begin with Bethlehem. Oh no. If you're going to write the story of Jesus, you have to go back to the beginning, whenever that is,

and look out into the darkness of eternity, and somehow that's where you start. Jesus Christ did not become. He always was. I love those words when he's talking to the Pharisees, and he said, before Abraham was, I am. Boy, that made those boys mad. Before Abraham was, I am.

No wonder they hated him for it because the I am was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. And how dare this man, how dare this radical rabbi equate himself with the Jehovah of the Old Testament but he is incomprehensible to us that Jesus was Jehovah, co-existent, co-eternal, co-equal with God.

And what a descent. What a descent. He came to earth. He humbled himself. I tell you what, can you imagine moving from Colorado Springs to Podunk, Texas? What a descent. But can you imagine Jesus in heaven, forever living in heaven, in the glory and splendor of heaven, takes upon himself voluntarily,

humbles himself, and moves to this earth. Some of you pastors think, boy, God moved me to the end of the world when he moved me here. Listen, you don't have anything to complain about. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth to do his Father's will. And I ought not to complain when God moves me to Poduck, Texas, which I hope and pray he doesn't. I don't even know if there is a Poduck, Kansas, is there?

We just use Poduck. Picky in Mississippi might be a better thing, you know. Because I know there is one. I've been there. And once was enough. Reveals Christ's preexistence with his Father. But, you know, as I was reading this, something struck me. Now, let's look at this prayer.

He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you. In verse 4, I glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. Now, what Jesus is saying here, praying here in this fifth verse, is that he might have that restored glory that he shared with the Father before the world existed. And yet we know that Jesus had glory here on earth. The Word became flesh and he dwelt among us and we what? We beheld his what?

His glory. Evidently the glory he had in his incarnation is different from the glory he had in his pre-incarnate state. Now the glory that he had in his incarnate state, one of the meanings of glory. Glory is one of those rich words in the Bible that through the centuries went to reveal, to honor, to manifest. And when Jesus came and it says he glorified the Father while he was here on earth, what it means is that he revealed the Father's character. He manifested the Father's character. He manifested the Father's character so he could say,

he that has seen me has what? Seen the Father. That was his glory. And that was the glory that he had while he was here on earth. I call that a revealing glory. A revealing glory. But the Hebrews developed glory, the word glory, a revealing glory. But the Hebrews developed glory, the word glory,

along a different line also, which came to be known as the Shekinah glory, which emphasized light and radiance and brilliance. A brilliance and a light so radiant that no one could look at it. You remember when Moses went up on the mountain and God met him and he came down and his face was shining and was so radiant that the people couldn't look upon him

and he had to cover his face with a veil. Little side note here. You know, when the glory faded, he still wore the veil to make people think the glory was still there. Isn't it sad? Have you ever been in a church like that where once there was glory manifested? And we did certain things and said certain things.

I remember I was in a church some years ago where they had experienced tremendous, tremendous revival. And God had manifested himself in a way just like the old spiritual awakenings you read about. I went back there about four or five years later. The glory had departed. How do I know? Because what the people had been doing spontaneously four years before,

they were having to be prompted to do now. You see? They're still wearing the veil. Still saying the same words. But the glory had departed. Now I call that radiant glory.

Radiant glory. That's what Jesus had with the Father. He dwelled with the Father in his presence in light so brilliant, radiance so brilliant, that human eye could not look upon it. And when he came to this earth as a man,

he laid aside that Shekinah glory, or else no one had been able to look at him, you see. No one could have approached him. If he had come in his Shekinah glory, you couldn't have approached him. You couldn't have looked at him. You couldn't have listened to him. And so Jesus laid aside, I believe, that Shekinah glory, and now he's praying. He's saying, Lord, oh, I can hardly wait. I can hardly wait. Take me back home.

I want to be restored. I want to have that glory that I shared with you before the world existed. Oh, that glory dwelling in your light, dwelling in your presence. So brilliant. No finite being could interrupt a fellowship or intrude upon the companionship. So this teaches us that Christ preexisted with his Father. But it also teaches us of Christ's authority

given to him by the Father. Christ's authority given to him by the Father. He says in verse 2, he said, the reason I want to glorify you is because you have given him authority over all flesh. You have given him authority over all flesh. By the way, you might want to underline that word given. That word give and gave and given appears, I didn't bother to count them,

how many times in this 17th chapter. The emphasis is upon this, and we'll get to it in a moment when we talk about eternal life, that everything Jesus had was given to him of the Father, was given to him of the Father. Jesus had nothing in himself when he humbled himself. Everything he had, he received from the Father. It was all a gift from the Father. And he says, you have given me authority over all flesh. Now, to what point was this authority given? Well, he tells us, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. When God came to this earth, When God came to this earth,

when Christ came to this earth, he had God given authority to do what? He had authority over all flesh, over all people, to give eternal life, to give eternal life. Now, we're going to come back to that in a moment. I'm afraid we're going to run out of time, and I'm going to take the privilege that Alistair set today just chopping it off and picking it up.

I want you to notice the contrast between having the authority over all flesh and giving eternal life to those whom the Father had given him. He didn't give eternal life to all flesh he gave eternal life to those whom the father had given him and he repeats this over and over again

in verse 6 he said I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from out of the world they were yours and you gave them to me. Do I hear an echo here of election? I'm glad I'm in a Presbyterian church. Now, no way around it. Jesus gave eternal life not to all flesh.

He had authority over all flesh. His authority was universal. But the gift of eternal life was particular. He said, to give eternal life not to all flesh over whom I have authority, but to give eternal life to not to all flesh over whom I have authority, but to give eternal life to those whom thou hast given me. And then he goes on to say, they were yours, now they're mine. You know, the question popped into my mind,

what do you mean they were yours? How'd God get them? I thought that these disciples, and like everybody else, when they heard Jesus and they were convicted by the Spirit, they followed him, and for the first time they entered into a relationship with God, a saving relationship with God. Well, evidently that's not, you know, really so. God had them before Jesus ever got to them. Well, how did he get them? Well, my mind goes back to Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5, where God is talking to Jeremiah, and he says,

Jeremiah, before I formed thee, I knew thee in the womb. And the word knew there doesn't mean I knew you were in the womb. I mean, you know, it doesn't take God to tell that the woman's pregnant, I mean, you know. He didn't say I knew you when you were in the womb. He said, I knew you. Not that I knew you were in the womb but I knew you I became acquainted with you I set my heart on you I drew a circle around you said you're mine that's how God got them that's how God got them. And he gave us to Jesus.

Did you think that when you came to Jesus Christ, you were making an independent decision all by yourself without any help from anybody else? Now, isn't God surprised this old sinner has come to him? God said, I had you all along. You just didn't know it. Now now I'm a good Southern Baptist trouble is a lot of people don't know that Southern Baptist theology has its root and Reformation theology we don't like to admit it I want to tell you some folks there are two things in the Bible election and evangelism

they're both there they're both there you say reconcile them not going to do it I would if I could but I can't but God and you all the words in the New Testament I would if I could, but I can't. But God and you,

all the words in the New Testament, Ephesians, Romans, I tell you what, they mean, he says he chose you. That Greek word means to choose out of a larger number. No way getting around it, friend. You go on and on and on about the verbal inspiration of the Bible

and the infallibility of the Word of God and the inerrancy of the Word of God. All right then, let's get with it. The words when he says, you were elect or you were chosen, it means to choose one out of many. You can't get away from that. That's there.

And the reason that scares a lot of people is for two things. Number one, they don't think that's fair. Tell God that. You think God uses Webster's Dictionary to get his definitions?

Man, I want to tell you something. God could send us all to hell tonight and be justified in doing it. Talk about being fair. The second reason is we believe it'll kill evangelism. It won't. It will enhance and encourage evangelism. You know, George Wesley, George Whitfield and John Wesley,

they started out together, but they broke up. You know what they broke up over? This issue of election. That's why Wesleyan is an Arminian, and Whitfield was a Calvinist. You say, are you a Calvinist? No, not really. I'm just a Bible-believing Christian,

and I don't like to be labeled by anything because I don't agree with everything Calvin says but Whitfield was a staunch Calvinist but do you know if you study his life and compare it with the ministry of John Wesley George Whitefield was far more successful in winning people to Jesus than John Wesley was. I said it's an encouragement to evangelism. Brother, when I get up and preach the gospel, I know there's somebody out there. I know there's somebody out there. I know there's somebody out there

that's going to hear and believe. But you see, you have these two things together. Jesus says, he that will come to me, I want to know why he's cast out. Of course, he said, no one comes to me except the Father which sent me, draw him. Well, here we said, no one comes to me except the Father who has sent me drawing. Well, here we are.

All right. I wish I was as smart as Paul so I could reconcile it. Oh, no, Paul wasn't even that smart. In Romans 9, 10, 11, he talks about the election of Israel and grafting into the Gentiles

and he's talking about all that. And he comes to the end of the 11th chapter and he says, oh, he just throws up his hands. I can see him. I hit my computer. I bet he threw his pen across the wall. And he just said,

oh, I give up. How unsearchable are his ways? His ways are past finding out. I can't figure it out. Well, if Paul couldn't figure it out, I can't figure it out. But I made a deal with God some years ago. I decided to let him know some things I didn't know, and we get along just fine.

You say, I can't reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. I can't either, but you can rest assured they're reconciled in the mind and heart of God. I'm not going to worry about that. I don't think you ought to preach elections to lost people particularly. Don't get them to wondering about that. I just tell people, I say, listen, if you've got the slightest desire to come to Jesus, you come on. Anybody who wants to come to Jesus,

you can come, friend. Whosoever will may come. Those whom my Father has given me, they're the ones I give eternal life to his ways are past finding out well it's time I've passed the critical hours as a matter of fact

I only have oh I've only got one more point and Jamal's gonna sing it up anyway if I give him this time oh, I've only got one more point. And Jamal's going to sing it up anyway. If I give him this time, he's going to sing it up. Aren't you? It teaches us Christ's pre-existence with his Father.

It preaches us Christ's authority given by his Father. And it preaches us Christ's pre-existence with his Father. It preaches us Christ's authority given by his Father. And it preaches us Christ's submission to the Father. He said, I have finished the work you gave me to do. I hope this doesn't sound irreverent, but when Jesus was here on earth, you know what he was doing? He was just running errands for his Father. My need is to do the will of him who sent me. And for Jesus,

and I'm going to tell you something, for us also, you know what submission to the Father meant to Jesus? And it means to us self-denial first. He humbled himself. Obedience and suffering. Which is really glory. If you'd been writing John 1,

how would you have written it and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his humiliation we beheld his glory and as we see later go on

we're going to see of that glory then, we're going to see that glory. And we're going to come back to eternal life. All that's going to happen. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn.

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