As the midnight hour neared, Jesus' disciples were physically and emotionally drained. Jesus had compressed into four or five hours some of the most challenging words He had ever spoken to these men. All of a sudden, Jesus began to pray. Never had they seen Him like this, nor heard Him pray like this.
Outline
When He began this personal conversation with His Father, He referred to the fact He had been . . .
I. Living on God's schedule (17:1)
Jesus "lifted up his eyes to heaven." This was the typical posture for a Jew at prayer.
He began His prayer with an announcement: "Father, the hour is come." Jesus lived every hour of His life on divine schedule.
At the wedding in Cana, Jesus answered His mother's appeal for Him to save the situation that had developed by saying to her, "Mine hour is not yet come" (John 2:4).
Later, when His own half brothers urged Him to go to Jerusalem to gain publicity for Himself, He refused to do so because His time was "not yet full come" (John 7:8).
God has a "calendar" for our lives. We know true joy in our lives when we seek to know and follow His design for us.
Then Jesus prayed to His Father, "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee."
In sharing the Father's glory, Jesus was . . .
II. Living in a circle of light (17:1)
Early in his Gospel, John had said, "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4).
What is there about light that makes it unique and different?
Light cannot be contaminated. It is transcendent above all that God created.
Light diffuses darkness. Jesus, as the Light of the world, can overcome the dark shadows of sin in human life.
Light illuminates our understanding. This is a major ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Light brings warmth and comfort.
Because Jesus lived in God's glory - in the circle of light - He was able to experience joy even as He faced the cross.
III. Living the life of eternity (17:3)
Jesus was the essence of eternal life: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee . . . and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Life is involvement with the environment in which one lives. Spiritual life is involvement with the highest kind of environment - eternal life.
Conclusion
Before Jesus began His intercessory prayer for His followers, He affirmed with His Father the fact He had fulfilled the three major areas of His earthly life. These three areas of His life form a pattern for every believer: Jesus lived on divine schedule; He lived in a circle of light; and His life mirrored the eternal life He came to offer those who would receive Him. In the same way, we live on divine schedule; we are lights in the world; and we should demonstrate eternal life in our living. The final, climactic moment would come within hours of this prayer - Jesus' atoning death on the cross. But Jesus was not finished. Yet to come was the cross and the empty tomb. We, too, must deal with the cross of self-denial and a resurrection to walk in newness of life.
Illustration thumbnails
Examine the human emotions Jesus must have experienced during these final days of His life on earth - love for His disciples, demonstrated in His washing their feet; sorrow because of Judas' betrayal; disappointment because of Peter's denial; joy because He was about to finish the work He had come to do (Heb. 12:2).
Imagine the human emotions of the disciples, who had not been able to accept Jesus' approaching death - grief at the thought of losing Him; anxiety concerning who the betrayer could be; fear concerning their future; amazement, as they listened to Jesus pray in a way they had not heard Him pray before; love for Him, in spite of the fact they forsook Him and fled.
Review diagrams of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives in Jesus' day in a Bible dictionary or atlas (Holman Bible Dictionary, pp. 765-773), and paint a verbal picture of what Jesus and the disciples saw as they walked from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Living our lives on God's schedule is like the meshing of two gears so their cogs fit perfectly - God's will and our will. When those two gears come together, good things happen in our lives for the glory of God.