Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London.  It was sometime in the mid 1800s and as they planned their day they decided to go and hear the famed Charles H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?"

They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway…a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, "This is our heating plant." Surprised, the students saw 700 people in prayer…asking the Lord’s blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above.

Softly closing the door, the gentleman introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon.

William Cowper once said, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees.”  And Samuel Chadwick once said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.  He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom…but he trembles when we pray.”

On this night, as we get into John Chapter 17, what is called the “Holy of Holies in the Temple of Scripture” (John Knox), we hear the wholehearted prayer of the Son to the Father.  As we listen in, we will glimpse the innermost being of Jesus, the very nature of God the Son …His purpose, power and mission…and most acutely, most clearly, His love for us.

At the completion of the first temple in 1 Kings 8, Solomon stretched forth his hands towards heaven in front of the people kneeling before the ark of the Lord, and as he prayed…Satan trembled.

In Exodus 32, as the people crafted false gods out of gold in the valley, Moses prayed earnestly to God for their deliverance…and Satan trembled!

In Genesis 18, Abraham stood before the Lord and the bible says that “he came near” and poured his heart out for Sodom…and Satan trembled.

On this night, as it says there in Chapter 17 verse 1, “Jesus having spoken these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father!”” On this night, as Jesus prayed…Satan quaked!   

“I’ll kill them all!  You’ve made them in Your image!  You’ve created them to know You and to love You and to live!  I’ll make it my purpose to destroy them…to pluck them off like fine flowers and watch them decay in their selfishness, and their pride and their folly.” 

Satan’s pitiful proclamation as he was cast out of heaven.  Yet Jesus, God Himself, lifts up His eyes and prays “sanctify them!”  And Satan knows, he understands, he perceives, he sees, he hears, he feels…defeat!  And he just convulses!  This is the Holy of Holies, The Lord’s Prayer…and Jesus begins there in Chapter 17 by lifting up His eyes!  And what is the object of His prayer…you!

Here He is at the very door of His demise and His heart is completely focused on what?  Others!  Even at the cross, as they lifted the cross up and planted it into the ground…the very first thing He said…maybe even as the nails began to bear the weight of His flesh pinned there in excruciating, horrible, unimaginable pain…”Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing!”  Even in His most painfilled moment…others!  I wonder, is that your heart?

John Harper was a Baptist pastor who was aboard the Titanic.  Many tell the story as to how when the boat was sinking…the ship that not even God could sink…he was on the deck helping the women and the children onto the lifeboats.  He was actually traveling with his wife and six year old daughter…and first hand accounts tell the story of how his little girl cried for her father as she and her mom were lowered into the life boat that he refused to get in…why?

He was heard calling out, “women, children, and the unsaved first…then all the others!”  It’s even recorded that he gave his life jacket to a man who proclaimed to not be saved.  (Of course this incredible, amazing story did not make it into the movie…)

Then as the people clung to the boat pieces and floating objects, a man tells a story of Pastor John Harper floating over to him clinging to a piece of wood and simply saying, “sir, are you saved?”  The man replied that he wasn’t and then proceeded to get the opportunity to be saved.  After, Pastor John Harper floated away but not long after that, again, Pastor John Harper’s piece of wood made its way back to the same man at which time again, same question, “sir, are you saved?” 

John Harper died that night…but even in his time of absolute demise, on his heart and mind and lips and actions…others.  I wonder, where you’re at today…as you espouse the Lord Jesus as your God…as you claim to know Him and the power of His resurrection…are others your focus?  Are you sure you have the right Jesus?  Because just like John Harper, on this night…the night of nights…as the Lord lifts His eyes to heaven…on His heart and lips…others…

So many wade through a tough situation, a hard and painful circumstance striving and scratching for their own comfort and needs maybe even praying…maybe even calling out for help…but the superior tragedy is not the situation…its that they don’t know the Lord!  The Lord in His darkest moment, in His most intricately horrific pain and suffering, cared nothing of His own needs…His hearts focus, others! 

Man you may be in a spot today where you’re going through it at work, or you’re going through it at home, or you’re going through it with this person or that person…let me tell you something…if you’re calling out to Jesus with any other prayer than one that is focused on the blessing and needs of the others involved…then you’re offering your prayers to a false Jesus!  You’ve got Him all wrong!  The Son of Man did not come to condemn but to save!!  Save who?  HIS ENEMIES!! 

And the advice and counsel of the world will just pour in won’t it?  “Get yours, oh that’s not fair for you, you might as well just leave her…you can do better”…satanic at its very core…beware…because the folks that listen to that garbage always end up alone, forsaken and miserable.  Every sitcom today, every real housewives of whatever show today…refuse it man because it is, at its very core, the song of the angel who was cast out of heaven!

You know in those situations, you can add to your stress and to your suffering…or you could turn to the true Lord.   Just like when you live in a house, you gotta take out the trash or pretty soon your life…I mean your house…will wreak!  It will be filled with bugs and rot and decay and stench!  Ever watch hoarders?  Trash be eating through floors!  Well just like with a house, with your life, you gotta take out the trash…you gotta reject those things that are of the flesh, that are just plain bad for you or pretty soon, may…rottenness!  Your whole life, decay!  (1 Peter 3)

The heart cry of the One Way, the One Truth and the One Life?  Others!

Chapter 17 Verse 1

• At the wedding of Cana…”mom, My hour has not yet come.”  Teaching in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles they sought to take Him…but they couldn’t…because His hour had not yet come.  Back in the temple the very next day…heart broken over His daughter that they had thrown at His feet..caught in the very act of adultery...her true state He saw…just lost and lonely and scared and blind…and His heart broke for her…so they again sought to take Him, but it was not yet His hour. 
• There in the upper room, His flesh trembling with anxiety and fear and power and purpose…knowing His hour approached…so He held His kids one last time…held their feet in His Holy hands.  And now, less than an hour later…”Father the hour has come…Glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You.” 
• That word for “glorify” there is an amazing word in the Greek…doxazo.  It only means glorify when applied to God…because what it literally means is “show them!”  Show them Father, Jesus said!  Show them how much they mean to You!  You see it wouldn’t mean glorify if said about me…because my heart is wicked…its dark man!  But God!  IS LOVE, HE IS GRACE, HE IS OVERWHELMING! And so GLORY!  SHOW THEM FATHER!  Use ME! 
• Do you hear His cry?  Is it yours?  Is Christ living through YOU?  Man this is no game!  This is truth!  Are you His disciple!  Can you hear Him?  Father, show them…Even though it will cost all of Me, show them.  Even though I will be like refuse and hated and hurt and destroyed…Father show them…show them You!  Man that’s so powerful!  Does that not drive you to your knees for being so self-focused and self-seeking!  When there is such an opportunity for God to be SO MAGNIFIED…Father show them!  My prayer!
• And in that precept, in that truth, in that revelation…the purpose of prayer is made so clear.  Prayer is not the way to get God to do our will in heaven.  Prayer is the way to get man to do God’s will on earth.  Once that is understood, you will find yourself praying in an entirely different manner. 
• Jesus says glorify Me Father so that I may glorify You!  What is God’s will for the Son?  Have you every thought about that?  God’s will for the Son is that He might have a bride!  And even though the immediate result of Jesus’ prayer is that He will be pinned to the Cross of Calvary, the eternal result is hope and grace and forgiveness for all of mankind! 
• It is so radical when a believer finally gets the big picture and stops saying, “God do it my way!”  God is not Burger King where we give out orders about how things should be done and then we complain when onions are left on our burgers…He is not Burger King, He’s the King of Kings and He sees what is going to be absolutely the best in the long run.

Chapter 17 Verses 2 – 5

• Jesus says here, “I have glorified You on the earth.”  Understand this is the one and only true measurement of success in life.  You see those signs on the back of commercial trucks, “How am I driving?” and you get those surveys maybe when you stay in a hotel asking, “How are we doing?” Well just like that I think it’s good for us to say, “How am I doing, Father?  Who is receiving the glory?” 
• Maybe you are a good mother, a gifted musician, an excellent servant in the church, a wonderful neighbor, a hard worker…but who’s getting the glory?  Are you getting the glory or is God?  Are you as successful as you think?  Because in the end, what’s it all matter?  This life will soon be passed, and only whats done for Jesus will last.
• And I love what He says next here…”I have finished the work.”  He didn’t say, “I’ve started the work,” or “I was going to get to the work.”  He said, “I have finished the work.”  There is nothing more to do to secure your salvation but simply believe on the Son of God…Jesus Christ.  Salvation is by faith through grace and not of works because the works are finished.   Because Jesus completed the task!
• Just like Noah.  Noah didn’t spend 100 years piecing together the Ark to the exact specifications given to him by God and then step back and say “you know what, I’m tired…we don’t need a roof!”  Man we’d all be sunk!  He finished.
• What about you?  If you today were to come face to face with God the Father could you say, “Father, I finished the work you gave me…”  Here it is…or would there be great loss?
• Saul didn’t finish.  Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15:3, “Let not one Amalekite remain”, but Saul let Agag live…you know why?   As a trophy because he was the king of the Amalekites.  Twenty-five years later, Saul is killed by an Amalekite. 
• The Amalekites are a type of the flesh in the Old Testament…what has God called you to do, told you to stop doing, commanded that you give that devotion and part of your life to Him…but you still haven’t.  I pray for you…because you may be in year 25 and just not know it…
• It is finished Jesus says here…He said that in one other place also right?  On the cross…He paid the full price.  He finished the full work.  I wonder have you missed that?  I wonder have you missed the simple fact that your life, your entire life, belongs in the hands and in the will of the Father?
• Check this out, as we close…

Chapter 17 Verses 6 – 9a

• Jesus has manifested the nature of God through His life, His actions, His cross, His resurrection, His word…but even look…even His name.  His name is not God…that is His designation.  Lord is not His name…that is His title.  His name is Yahweh, or Jehovah…and the name Jesus is actually a combination of two words in the Hebrew…”Ya” (short for Yahweh or Jahovah), and “shua”…meaning salvation.  So Jahovah Shua or Yashuah or Jesus….transliterally is Jehovah is salvation!  So cool!
• And notice, Jesus’ qualification for them being His…they have kept His word!  There in Verse 6.  They have received His word…there in verse 8…and they have believed, not just that God exists, but that Jesus was sent by God the Father to save…that implies trust.  They receive, they keep, they believe.
• I wonder have you missed it.  Have you missed the peace and the power and the purpose and the joy of simply receiving and keeping…believing? 
• I was fortunate enough to receive a briefing from a gentleman who has completed two space walks.  On one occasion he tells of how his suit malfunctioned and he had some sort of ammonia solution leaking out of the front of his suit which caused a substantial chemical ice buildup.  Stable in the absence of elements but highly dangerous when mixed with oxygen.  So he had to stay outside of the shuttle and “bake off” as he called it in the sun.
• The interesting part of the story is that he told of how he hadn’t even noticed the beauty of the earth from space until he was slowed down…you wonder why things are so hard all of the time?  Could it be that God is trying to slow you down…get your attention…and show the beauty and reality of a life lived unto yourself, but unto Jesus?
• Paul had a harder life than anyone in this room yet he was also more full of joy…why?  Because he found this out…he said in Galatians 2:20…I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but I live on in the awesome reality of the one who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I pray you too find this…