I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came One like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14, ESV)

 A well-known Christian story recounts that in the 1940s, a theology professor took his students on a tour of England. Included in the tour was a stop at the home of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church and one of the leaders of the 18th century revivalist movement. The professor took the students into Wesley's bedroom and showed them that there were two worn impression in the carpet beside the bed. "That," said the professor, "was where Wesley spent so much time on his knees in prayer, praying for revival."

At the end of the tour, the professor noticed one student was missing. He returned to the house, and found the student kneeling at Wesley's bedside, his knees in the very same impressions that Wesley had made as he had knelt in daily prayer for revival. The student was praying fervently, repeating the phrase, "Do it again, Lord. Do it again."

That student was Billy Graham, who went on to lead an American revival in the 1960s and 70s. If you don't know who Billy Graham was, I would encourage you to look him up, and to listen to some of his sermons. Billy Graham was a powerful preacher; but before that, he was a man of prayer.

John's Gospel shows us that Jesus was a Man of prayer. Many times in the Gospels we see where Jesus would go away by Himself to pray, particularly before He preached to the multitudes or performed His miracles. We do not know what Jesus prayed during these hours of communion with His Father, but the Gospel of John gives us the text of His prayer just before He and the disciples reached the Garden of Gethsemane.

Perhaps you remember what Jesus prayed after He had reached the Garden, just before His arrest. The Synoptic Gospels record that Jesus asked His closest disciples to come and pray with Him, but the disciples fell asleep. At that time, Jesus prayed, "Father, if it is Your will, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done." He prayed these words in such agony that Luke records He sweat drops of blood.

John doesn't record that prayer like the other Gospels do. John records the prayer that Jesus prayed before they got to the garden. It has been called a High Priestly prayer. Most Bible commentators divide it up into three sections: Jesus' prayer for Himself (John 17:1-5); His prayer for the disciples (John 17:6-19); and His prayer for all believers (John 17:20-26).

Today we will look at the first section.

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may also glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as 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 have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:1-5).

The first thing that strikes me in this passage is that Jesus speaks of Himself in the third person. In the English language, we most often refer to ourselves in the first person: I, me, myself. Although it does not necessarily mean that we are putting ourselves first, that is placing more emphasis on ourselves, it does kind of seem that way in most of our prayers.

A quick English lesson: most simple English sentences are structured in this way--Subject, Verb, Object. The element with the most importance is the Subject, with the Verb coming in a close second, and the Object being the least important. In fact, in many sentences, the Object is not even mentioned. Here is an example: The woman (Subject) reads (Verb) novels (Object) can be restated, "She reads a lot." The phrase "a lot" is descriptive of the verb "reads", making the object "the woman" sound educated.

The point I am trying to make is that most times in our prayers and petitions, as well as our worship songs, the most important person is the first person (I, Me, Myself). We are the object of our worship and our prayers. Let me give you an example. We might begin our prayer, "I ask, Father, that You would bless us." It elevates us, and not the Father. Many of us sing, "I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice..."

Notice Jesus didn't pray this way.  Instead, He said, "Father, glorify Your Son." Who is the object? The Father. What does Jesus ask the Father to do? To glorify Himself in His child. We can co-opt this prayer that Jesus prayed. We can petition God to glorify Himself in us, making God the most important One and ourselves below Him.  Remember Billy Graham's prayer? "God," he prayed, "do it again." Only God could bring revival, either through the preaching of Graham or someone else.

The second thing that I see in this passage is what Jesus asks God to do. He asks God to bring glory, because God is the only one who can give glory. Glory is God's to give. We can bring God glory in our thoughts, words, and deeds, but our glory is but a shadow of the heavenly glory of Almighty God. In verse 4 Jesus said, "I have glorified You on the earth." The glory that Jesus gave is like that of the glory of God, because Jesus is God.

John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." In John 17:5, Jesus, who spent His life reflecting God's glory to us, says, "Now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

The hour had come when Jesus, through His death and resurrection, would both receive glory and also give glory to the Father. His main purpose was to bring glory to God. This should be our main purpose, as well.

The third thing that leaps out at me in this passage is that we were given to Jesus by the Father, and by that gift we have received eternal life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah, sent by God." In other words, the gift that we have been given is to get to know God the Father and God the Son throughout eternity, by the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord."

So, from this passage we see Jesus praying to the Father to glorify Him, and to give us eternal life. He will go on to pray for us, His disciples, further along in the passage. We will study more about those petitions, God willing, next time.