Pastoral Letter 65
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 Restrictions were extended for a week for those who are in the Greater Sydney area until 12:00 am Monday 18th of May. Hence, we will need to wear masks and there will be no singing. However, we will be serving a COVID-safe morning tea after the service.
If you are not planning to come to our Sunday’s face-to-face worship, please join us following the Order of Service that you have received, light a candle, worship and pray with us.
Let me take this opportunity, wishing health and joy to all the mothers:
Krikor
MESSAGE
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer
John 17
On the last night before Jesus went to the cross, He began to do what He now does eternally. A few hours before His arrest, Jesus interceded for His own disciples.
John records in chapter 17 of his gospel the prayer of Jesus, which is a prayer of three sections.
- Jesus Prays for Himself (vs. 1-5)
He needed His Father’s presence in His last hours during His suffering and death.
- Jesus Prays for His Disciples (vs. 6-19)
The immediate group of eleven gathered around Him.
- Jesus Prays for All the Believes and Us (vs. 20-26)
All the believers yet to come.
Beyond His death, Jesus expected a dynamic and growing church that would last throughout the ages. A church that was going to be born from the Spirit, through the Spirit and with the Spirit. That was His promise to His disciples, who were to be faithful to their call and they were, though with their weaknesses and flaws.
- When Jesus looked at the face of Peter in that circle of eleven, He saw behind Peter the whole of Pentecost and thousands more behind them.
- When He looked at the face of John, He saw the church of Ephesus and all the churches of Asia Minor.
- When He saw the gap where Judas Iscariot had been, surely, he thought of the face of Paul and all of the churches of Europe.
- And crossing generations and oceans, right down to this very day, He said, I pray for every one of them who will believe through the Word of that original eleven.
Jesus prayed just one thing. He prayed for the believer’s unity, so that the unity of Christians would make such an impact that the world would believe He had sent Jesus the Son.
Regardless of what has happened and is happening in the world, let’s not doubt that God exists and is in control of everything, even though we see and hear a lot about what’s happening in the world today, with so much hate, violence, terrorism, war, natural disasters, pandemics, family problems and so many other things. For example, the escalation of the situation in Israel and Palestine this week.
God DOES exist!
The reason why there is so much pain and suffering, is not that God doesn’t exist. Rather it is because people simply don’t come to Him.
We need to believe in Him but believing is not enough. We need to go to Him with our prayers and petitions.
James in his epistle makes it clear that believing in God is not enough, when he says:
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (Jas 2:19)
And in our Gospel reading this morning, I think Jesus also is clearly saying that belief in the existence of God isn’t enough.
There were many Jews in Jerusalem who clearly believed in God but rejected Jesus – as would be proved just a few days later – when they called for His crucifixion.
However, in Jewish thought, “believing in God” didn’t just mean intellectually agreeing to His ideas. It meant rather more. If you “believed in” a Rabbi or a teacher in Jewish culture, it meant putting His teachings into effect in your life.
And that understanding of “belief” is what John meant when he wrote: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born neither of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)
So, being a follower of Jesus doesn’t just mean believing in the proposition that there is a God. Rather it meant that belief must affect our life; and in our pain and suffering, in our trials and challenges, we need to go to Him for help. We need to pray for our needs and the needs of the others as we see Jesus does.
Our Gospel reading today is a part of the famous High Priestly Prayer of Jesus – one of the high points of revelation in John’s Gospel; perhaps the most sacred passage on the four Gospels.
This prayer reveals many things.
In it, Jesus reveals that His mission here on earth was to give eternal life to all those who are His true disciples – those whom God the Father had given to Him.
Let’s just pick up a few ideas from the passage.
1. Prayer
The first idea is the importance of prayer in Jesus’ life – and as Christians we need to follow His example.
Jesus doesn’t speak of some sort of distant deity – but He uses the word ‘Abba’ – which we might more colloquially translate as “Dad” when speaking with God.
And Jesus encourages us, as His followers, to get to know His heavenly Father more. As Christians, we can easily get side-tracked into “doing things for God” rather than “spending time with God”.
You may recall the story of the two sisters Martha and Mary.
Martha was the busy sister doing things FOR Jesus and Mary was the sister who spent time WITH Jesus.
Who was commended by Jesus? – Mary
2. The Rationale for Jesus’ Ministry
The second idea is that, in this prayer Jesus reveals the whole rationale for His ministry here on earth.
And that was to give His disciples eternal life.
Jesus put it like this:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him”.
And how is that life achieved?
Jesus’ answer is simple – by knowing God the Father and Jesus His Son.
In Armenian there are two words for “knowing”. The first is “kidnal” to know a fact of idea.
The other is the word “djanchnal” which is used of know someone personally.
And it is that second understanding “djanchnal” that Jesus spoke about when in Jn 17:3 He said:
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
3. The Simplicity of Jesus’ Mission
The third idea is the simplicity of Jesus’ mission, along with the absolute depth.
Jesus came simply to reveal His heavenly Father and Himself to His disciples – and the reference here is not just for the first century disciples to whom Jesus was actually speaking – the reference is for all of His disciples down the centuries.
That is breathtaking in its simplicity and depth.
We can KNOW God personally and can have a relationship with Him.
In an earlier chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus said this:
“Anyone who loves me, will obey my teaching. My Father will love him. We will come to him and make our home with him.” (Jn 14:23)
God dwelling in us – what a wonderful thought!
4. Changed Lifestyles
And the final idea is simply this: Being a Christian is all about changed lifestyle. Jesus asks His heavenly Father to “sanctify them in the truth” (Jn 17:17).
The word “sanctify”, like the word “holy” comes from a Hebrew root meaning “separate”.
We are called to live a different lifestyle, because we are called to live not only for God, but in a close relationship with God.
When someone becomes a Christian, God’s Holy Spirit comes and lives in him.
And the Holy Spirit transforms that person from within. As Paul tells us:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
For encountering God is a life changing experience.
Jesus is praying for His disciples and for all the believers, us, that they/we have a life changing experience. Yes, we need God’s protection, blessing, guidance, help etc., but we should be willing to change. Change of heart and mind and turn to Him for help.
He clearly says: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil.” He knows that the evil will be after them, as it was when still He was around. We and the disciples have a special task to complete, but we need His presence and protection. We need God, to continue our journey and do our ministry.
Let us remember that Jesus prayed for His disciples and us. He is still doing so by interceding for us before God.
Amen!