How can we be sure about God? Christianity makes claims that can be hard to believe in the 21st century – for example, its exclusiveness, its supernaturalism and its age.
To say that Jesus is the only way to God appears to be very narrow-minded. Further, the story of Jesus is woven around miraculous events – a virgin birth and a resurrection. And it all happened more than two thousand years ago.
JESUS’ PRAYER
In John 17 we find the record of a prayer Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed and arrested. The greater part of the prayer was for his disciples, revealing the unique role they were to play in building on the foundation that Jesus himself was laying.
In Jesus’ words to God the Father, we discern the importance of the disciples in God’s big plan: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
The disciples were to be the link between Jesus and the rest of humanity. Much will depend on their understanding of Jesus as the Christ – the Messiah – and their courage and loyalty to him.
In verses 2 and 3 Jesus had prayed: “Since you have given him (that is, he, Jesus) authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, so that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
The ministry of his disciples would be essential if men and women were to benefit from God’s gift of eternal life. If the disciples failed in their task, if they gave in to hostile pressures and denied the truth they had been given to speak to, Christianity would have been still-born.
So Jesus prays that the Father would give each of the disciples eternal life. He also prays that the Father would protect them (17:11), keep them from the powers of evil (17:15), and make them holy in the truth (17:17). He also prayed that the love that God the Father has for the Son, would be true for them as well (17:16).
Jesus knew the road the disciples would tread would not be easy. Yet he didn’t pray that they would be taken out of the world. Rather, he prayed that they would be kept faithful and guarded from the powers of the evil one.
Furthermore, Jesus went on to pray for everyone who would come to faith: “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, …” (John 17:20).
At the heart of the disciples’ ministry would be the ministry of ‘God’s Word’ – preaching and teaching. The content of their word would be Jesus the Messiah.
From the time of Pentecost the disciples, now apostles (sent ones), began preaching, urging their hearers to turn to Jesus as the Messiah in repentance and faith. Over the following fifty years, thousands turned to Christ through their word ministry.
Furthermore, it was during those years that the apostles and others who had been uniquely trained, equipped and commissioned by Jesus, wrote the Gospels and Letters for the churches.
In 2 Peter 1:16-18, we read: For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
TRUSTWORTHINESS
Peter is saying that he and the other apostles did not pass on a cunningly invented myth. Jesus really is God in the flesh; he really did rise from the dead. ‘I have the evidence of my own eyes,’ Peter says. ‘Our testimony is true.’
Furthermore, in 2 Peter 3:15 we read: …Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother, Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Paul’s Letters also were acknowledged as God’s Word.
Significantly, in John 14:25 we read Jesus’ promise that he would send his Spirit to his disciples, to give them accurate recall and right interpretation of all he had said and done.
What we often overlook is that these men, and others with them, overturned the Roman world not by armed revolution, but by the example of their lives, their testimony, and teaching. Can you imagine that those disciples of Jesus constructed a monstrous lie? We can be confident that their testimony is true and trustworthy.
Our prayers say a great deal about us. Are your prayers like that of AA Milne’s, ‘Christopher Robin’ who, in the midst of his child-like reflections of the day, prayed that God would bless his parents as well as himself? Or do your prayers reflect the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, or the prayers people like Moses, David, and Daniel?
JESUS’ PRAYER
In John 17 we read the record of a significant prayer that Jesus prayed. It’s a prayer that tells us a great deal about him and his relationship with God, his concern for his disciples, and also his concern for all his people throughout time.
Today let me focus on the first part. In John 17:1 we read: 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, … “
Jesus knew that within hours he was going to die. Given the prayers of Moses, David and Daniel, as well as the ‘Lord’s Prayer’, it is significant there is no confession of sin. He alone is without sin. This prayer is sometimes called the great high priestly prayer, but this it is not. The central task of a high priest’s work was to pray for the removal of sin – his own as well as that of God’s people. But the focus of Jesus’ prayer is glory or honor: “Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you…”
GLORY
Glory in the Bible usually is a reference to the outward manifestation of an inner, hidden reality. So in John 1:14, John speaks of beholding the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Here in John 17, Jesus is praying that he will remain faithful to the end in implementing God’s long hidden plan. It was a plan which, contrary to human wisdom, would reveal the glory of God in the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
According to Dr. Ashley Null, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grasped this profound truth: Null explains: ‘For Cranmer, the glory of God is to love the unworthy’. This, says Dr. Null, is ‘Cranmer’s central theological tenet…’ God’s gloryis supremely revealed in the gift of salvation achieved through the one and only sufficient sacrifice made by Jesus when he died for our sin.
With the first words of his prayer, Jesus was reflecting on the certainty of his arrest, trial, and death. Judas had just gone into the night to do his dark work of betrayal. Jesus is now praying that he himself will remain faithful, as he had been throughout his life, persevering to the end.
Indeed, in John 17:5, Jesus continues: “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed”. Jesus is self-consciously divine, but he is also human and therefore vulnerable.
FINAL WORDS
One great work remained – his work of bearing the sin of the whole world, when he would be lifted up on the cross as he had predicted (John 3:14-15). His final words, in John 19:28 and 30, point to the completion of this work when he called out, “It is finished”.
As he began his prayer (John 17:1), Jesus knew that his arrest, trial, and crucifixion would be painful beyond belief. We can barely begin to comprehend what it meant for him to bear our sin and for his eternal perfect relationship with God the Father to be at breaking point. In that hour he felt totally alone.
Jesus knew that the only way he could remain faithful, passing through the deepest shadows of the valley of death and so glorifying God, would be in God’s strength. He would be treading the path of suffering in the midst of the extremes of human hostility and supernatural opposition.
Yet throughout this first part of his prayer Jesus reveals that his central concern is the glory of God. As we can now benefit from the events that perfectly reveal the glory of God – the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection – surely we too will want to glorify God in everything.
Jesus did not just pray for himself and the dark hours he faced. He prayed for his disciples, and he prayed for all his people – including you and me today.
In understanding what God in Christ has done for us, we will surely want to glorify God in our own lives by praying for people we know and by praying for ways to draw them to Jesus.
How often have you asked, ‘How long, O Lord?’ David asked it in Psalm 13. Daniel asked it when God’s people were in exile.
DANIEL’S PRAYER
In Daniel 9 we read one of the great prayers of the Bible. In fulfillment of the words of prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar had defeated the people of Judea, destroyed its city and its temple, and had taken its people into exile.
But Jeremiah had also spoken of the restoration of God’s people: ‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity’ Jeremiah (29:12).
Daniel knew these words and was certain God would not forget his promise. But he didn’t just sit around, enjoying life, waiting for God’s promises to come true. He prayed for God to act.
God’s sovereignty doesn’t take away our responsibility to pray. God’s rule is not simply a fatalistic determinism. He invites us to partner with him in the implementation of his plans.
Daniel understood this and knew that the secret to addressing concerns and fears in life is found in prayer. Confession and petition are two themes that stand out.
CONFESSION
At the heart of his confession Daniel prays, ‘O God, we have turned away from your commands and your laws’ (9:5); ‘we have not listened to your servants the prophets; we have not obeyed the laws you gave’ (9:10); ‘we have broken your law’ (9:11); ‘we have not looked for your mercy by turning away from our sins and paying attention to your truth’ (9:13).
Significantly, Daniel identifies himself with the sin of God’s people. It was not just some people or some leaders who had sinned. Rather, all Israel had sinned – including Daniel.
Throughout the prayer, Daniel acknowledged the personal relationship that existed between God and the nation. A covenant existed between them – a covenant with commands and laws.
It’s easy to think of God’s judgment simply falling on the godless and the perpetrators of evil. But Daniel’s prayer is primarily for the people of God. There is a principle here that applies to God’s people today. We need to ask: ‘Is God pleased with the church?’ Each of us needs to ask: ‘Am I living as God expects, or am I compromised by the spirit of the age?’
We cannot truly pray for our church and the success of God’s gospel without first confessing our own sin. It’s a reason we need a prayer of confession when we meet as God’s people.
PETITION
Daniel’s confession turns to petition with: Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away…
Daniel didn’t ask God to set aside his righteousness and overlook the sins of his people. Instead, he asked God to act because of his righteousness. Paradoxically this was Israel’s only hope.
Like Moses, Daniel appealed to God on the basis of God’s character: Now, therefore,… Incline your ear, O my God, and hear… We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies.
At the heart of Daniel’s petition is the glory of God’s name. He did not hesitate to remind God of what he’d already revealed in his Word and urged him to roll up his sleeves and act.
Daniel was not presumptuous. Rather, he was humble, honest and contrite about his own sin and the sin of God’s people. But this didn’t prevent him from praying on the basis of God’s character and God’s promises.
At the center of Daniel’s prayer is confidence that God is a God of mercy. The glorious and gracious thing about God is that he is always willing to receive people back when they repent and are committed to start afresh with him.
The New Testament knows of this type of faith and prayer. We see it in the faith of four men that brought forgiveness of sin and healing when they lowered their paralyzed friend through a roof.
With the coming of Jesus Christ and his commitment to build his church, how much more should we speak frankly and humbly to God, asking him to honor and glorify his name by acting with mercy towards our sinful world?
Do you regularly ask for God’s forgiveness, not just for your own sin, but the sin of others? Do you pray that for the sake of God’s name and reputation, he will act with mercy, opening the eyes of the blind, awakening them to the truth of his good news? God has promised!
King David was relaxing on the roof of the palace when he saw her. Probably in his early fifties, he was attracted by the beauty of the young woman bathing on a nearby rooftop. He invited her over. But she was the wife of one of his army officers. ‘He is away’, he may have thought. ‘No-one will know; and after all, I am the king.’
But Bathsheba became pregnant. And David’s clumsy attempts to arrange for Uriah her husband to return home and sleep with her, failed. So he developed a more devious plan. Uriah was taken to the battle-front so he would die in battle. Like the dentist in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, David seemed to have committed the perfect crime.
But David had not reckoned on God. In 2 Samuel 13, we read that Nathan the prophet set up a time to meet with his king and speak to him. Knowing the power of kings, Nathan told a story of a wealthy man who had many sheep while a poor man had just one little ewe lamb. When asked to provide a sheep, the rich man, instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, took the poor man’s lamb. David, the former shepherd, was furious: ‘The man should be taken to court’, he said. At which Nathan replied: ‘You are the man’.
DAVID’S CONFESSION
Psalm 51 is a poem that David wrote following this humiliation. While he wrote it about himself, it speaks to us too. For it shows us what we need to do about our own failures.
First, we must be honest and acknowledge that we all fail God. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it this way: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Sometimes when we have failed God we make excuses, thinking of it as a misdemeanor. At other times we express self-righteous indignation. Or we try to bury the very thought of what we have done. However, as studies show, the guilt festers and can surprisingly reappear in ways not necessarily related to the original issue at all – including physical sickness.
If we are going to find peace of mind, our hearts need changing. Repression has to give way to confession. This first step is not easy. I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, David writes (Psalm 51:3).
Second, we need to be honest with God: Against you, you alone, have I sinned,..(Psalm 51:4). Many find David’s words here difficult, even unfair: ‘What about Uriah? Bathsheba may have consented, but what about Uriah?’ we might ask.
David is acknowledging something we all have to come to terms with. We have all sinned against God. Committing adultery and murder break the second commandment, ‘Love your neighbor’. But in breaking the second commandment we also break the first, for the second commandment is consequent upon the first. To sin against our neighbor is to sin against God.
Guilt is not just a psychological hang-up. It is something objective that stands between God and us. God is not just some impersonal force. He is a moral being, a holy judge. When we sin against him, we’re not just violating social conventions. God is justified in his sentence and blameless when he passes judgment.
Third, David knew that supernatural therapy is needed: Create in me a pure heart, O God,he prays.
Too often our problem is that we don’t want to pray this prayer. But unless God’s mercy and grace are at work within us, we won’t want to change.
And, David continues: The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
The psalm is a letter of trust in God. ‘All I have Lord’, David is saying, ‘is a broken and contrite heart. But God, I know that you won’t despise that.’ David knew that God, as well as being pure and just, is also willing to forgive. Have mercy on me, O God,according to your unfailing love, he says in verse 1.
Love and compassion are words of tenderness – as of a parent for a child. No matter what we have done, God in his mercy is willing to forgive us.
And we have something David didn’t have. We have the scene of a cross and the man who died for us. The blood Jesus shed is God’s means of saving us. Jesus’ resurrection is God’s pledge to us that his promise is true.
This Sunday is the fifteenth anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. As I reflect on our experiences in New York that day I recall the way New Yorkers talked to one another, caring for and supporting one another. Churches in the city were full – people grieving lost loved ones, others looking for answers. But within weeks, for most, the non-churchgoing pattern of life returned.
Is there anything we can do that might make a difference in a post 9/11 world? Come with me to Numbers 14 and a prayer of Moses.
A little over three millennia ago, God’s people were on the southern border of ancient Canaan. Twelve Hebrew spies had brought in their reports. All were agreed on the prosperity of the land. They had a bunch of grapes to prove it!
But their report was divided. Ten said that the cities were well defended and the legendary sons of Anak were in the Canaanite armies. But two of the group, Caleb and Joshua, had provided a minority report. ‘Yes, the odds are against us,’ they said, ‘but we should go and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. God is with us’.
No one listened. Taking Canaan might be God’s promise, but it would be at a cost: lives would be lost. Could they really trust God on the basis of a ‘word to Moses’? They rejected the words of the men who trusted God at his Word – ‘the possibility thinkers’.
In Numbers 14:11f we read God’s chilling words: “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them…”
God went on to make an offer to Moses: “I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
This must have seemed extraordinarily attractive to Moses. He would be rid of this fickle crowd. However his response was to pray: “Then the Egyptians will hear of it! (Numbers 14:13).
He didn’t make excuses for Israel, pleading mitigating circumstances. Rather, he appealed to the character of God: “In your might or power you brought these people from Egypt…” he said. Aren’t you a God of your word?’
‘What will the nations think?’ he continued.“If you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’”
Most of all Moses appealed to God’s unchangeable love:“And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty…”
What a moving prayer this is. Here is a single individual praying, and the fate of God’s people hinges on it. How can the prayer of any man or woman possibly have such significance?
Moses’ prayer shows us that it is because of God’s character we can be very confident when we pray. Moses knew that God is a God of his word. Above all he knew that God is a God of mercy.
An outcome of Moses’ prayer was that God tempered his judgment with mercy. The people were forgiven, but they were destined to die without seeing the promise.
So what do we learn from this? With the coming of the Lord Jesus we live under another, very different covenant. God’s promise now is not to a specific race of people but to all people. It is not about land or material wealth.
In Matthew 16:18 we read that Jesus is committed to build his church. As he died on the cross he prayed, ‘Father forgive them…’ Following his resurrection he commissioned his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that he had taught.
We can be sure of this: God is committed to drawing men and women everywhere to himself through the Lord Jesus Christ.
What if everyone who reads this ‘Word’ were to commit to pray for three or four people? Would our prayers make a difference? Moses knew that his prayer would because of who God is.
Do you have the same confidence? Do you pray earnestly and consistently that God will act with mercy to people you know for the honor of his name?
