Mother\u2019s Day
\nMay 8, 2016
\nJohn 17:20-26<\/p>\n
“My prayer is not for them alone.\u00a0 I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.\u00a0 May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.\u00a0 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:\u00a0 I in them and you in me.\u00a0 May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.\u00a0 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.\u00a0 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.\u00a0 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 (NIV84)<\/p>\n Dear fellow worshipers of our Living Lord and Savior,<\/p>\n He is risen!\u00a0 He is risen indeed!<\/p>\n Ah, Mother\u2019s Day.\u00a0 If you were asked to pick one word\u2014 just one! \u2014 that summarized the \u201cessence\u201d of Mother\u2019s Day, what word would you pick?\u00a0 Would it be \u201cflowers\u201d?\u00a0 Flowers always go over well on Mother\u2019s Day.\u00a0 How about the word \u201cchocolates\u201d?\u00a0 Chocolates go well on any day\u2014 especially Mother\u2019s Day!\u00a0 Maybe it would be \u201cdinner reservations\u201d?\u00a0 (I know, that\u2019s two words, but give me a break!)\u00a0 While each of those words do indeed tie in with Mother\u2019s Day very well, none of them capture the \u201cessence\u201d of this day, do they.\u00a0 The one word that does capture the \u201cessence\u201d of Mother\u2019s Day extremely well is the word\u2014 love.\u00a0 No matter whether we are still able to hug our Mom with our arms or whether we can only hug her in our hearts because she is now at Home with the Lord, the word \u201clove\u201d and the word \u201cMom\u201d are all but synonymous.<\/p>\n Today, my friends, as we gather together here in the house of our God we have two goals in front of us.\u00a0 Not only are we here today to celebrate the last Sunday in the season of Easter (next week we celebrate the Festival of Pentecost), but we are also here in God\u2019s house today to celebrate Mother\u2019s Day.\u00a0 While at first glance those two goals might seem to be separate and distinct, they are actually very closely tied together.\u00a0 To help us see how the last Sunday of the Easter season dovetails very nicely with Mother\u2019s Day we are going to study our sermon text for today under the theme:\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 High Priestly Prayer\u2014 A Model for Christian Mothers.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 As we look at Jesus\u2019 prayer for His children here on this earth we see that includes three emphases\u2014 emphases which Christian Moms understand very well!\u00a0 As Jesus approached His heavenly Father in prayer He prayed that His children be:\u00a0 united in faith, perfected in glory and surrounded in love.\u00a0 Moms, does that sound familiar?<\/p>\n Our text for today once again finds Jesus is in the Upper Room with His disciples.\u00a0 It is the evening of Maundy Thursday.\u00a0 Jesus knew that very soon He would be betrayed by His friend, handed over to His enemies and sentenced to die by crucifixion. Therefore, in a very heart-felt way Jesus uses this time to discuss with His disciples some extremely deep important truths:\u00a0 Jesus is \u201cthe way and the truth and the life\u201d<\/em> (John 14:6); Jesus promised to send His disciples a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15ff); Jesus tells His disciples that it is absolutely vital for them to \u201cremain\u201d <\/em>in Jesus like a branch \u201cremains\u201d<\/em> in the vine (John 15:1ff); and Jesus warns His disciples that while \u201cremaining\u201d<\/em> in Jesus would bring \u201ctrouble\u201d<\/em> and \u201cgrief\u201d<\/em> into the hearts and into the lives of Jesus\u2019 disciples at the hands of the unbelieving world, Jesus\u2019 victory over the world would bring \u201cjoy\u201d<\/em> and \u201cpeace\u201d<\/em> into their hearts and lives (John 16).\u00a0 Now, after talking directly to His disciples about these deep important truths, Jesus allows His disciples to listen, to listen as He prays to His heavenly Father on their behalf.\u00a0 Our text for today is a portion of that prayer, a prayer which is often referred to as Jesus\u2019 High Priestly Prayer.<\/p>\n After praying to the heavenly Father on behalf of the disciples who were with Him there in the Upper Room, Jesus then looks into the future and He prays for you and for me and for all of His children down to the very end of time!\u00a0 And when Jesus prays for His children, all of His children, when Jesus prays for us, what does He ask of His heavenly Father?\u00a0 First, He prays that we be untied in the one true faith.\u00a0 This emphasis on unity is brought out very well clearly here in our text.\u00a0 Look at verse 20, \u201cMy prayer is not for them alone.\u00a0 I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Look at verses 22 and 23, \u201cI have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:\u00a0 I in them and you in me.\u00a0 May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The unity that Jesus asks His heavenly Father to give to us, His children here on this earth, is not a shallow shifting unity based on the sand-like premise that God\u2019s children can \u201cagree to disagree\u201d on certain aspects of the Christian faith.\u00a0 No, my friends, the unity that Jesus wants for us, His children, is \u201ccomplete unity.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 It is a unity that is to be modeled after the \u201ccomplete unity\u201d<\/em> that exists between Jesus and His heavenly Father.<\/p>\n But how do we know, my friends?\u00a0 How do we know if we are \u201cunited\u201d<\/em> as brothers and sisters in the faith?\u00a0 There is only one litmus test for the \u201ccomplete unity\u201d<\/em> that Jesus describes here in our text.\u00a0 It is\u2014 faithfulness to God\u2019s holy, inspired, inerrant Word!\u00a0 When we are able to raise our voices in unison and say that the Bible is <\/strong>God\u2019s Word\u2014 from Genesis to Revelation, even those parts we may not be able to understand with our limited logical minds, even those parts we personally may not like, even those parts that people today reject outright\u2014 then <\/strong>we have the unity of faith that Jesus wants us to have!\u00a0 Then <\/strong>we have the unity of faith that not only unites us with the one true God, but it unites us together as the children of God!<\/p>\n Moms, doesn\u2019t that sound familiar?\u00a0 I learned from my Mom that one of the goals of a Christian Mom is that her children be united in the one true faith.\u00a0 First and foremost, this means that she wants her children to be united with their dear Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 How can you as a Christian Mom and\/or a Christian Grandma strive to achieve this goal?\u00a0 Like Jesus, you pray.\u00a0 You pray each and every day to your heavenly Father that He keeps your children\u2014 children whom He adopted to be His very own through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism\u2014 you pray to your heavenly Father that He use His power and His wisdom and His might to keep your children united with Him.\u00a0 In between all of those prayers you do your very best to help your children grow in their understanding of God\u2019s holy Word by bringing them to church and to Sunday school and by reading Bible stories to them at home.\u00a0 The more firmly your children are founded on the rock-solid foundation of God\u2019s Word the less likely they will be led astray by those who claim that certain parts of the Bible are not actually God\u2019s Word, or that certain parts of the Bible no longer apply today, or as someone once told me, \u201cWe know more now than when the Bible was first written.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 prayer for \u201ccomplete unity\u201d<\/em> among His children\u2014 unity that is based on the rock-solid foundation of Scripture\u2014 dovetails perfectly with His second emphasis as He prays to His heavenly Father, namely, that we, God\u2019s children, will be perfected in glory.\u00a0 Look once again at verse 22, \u201cI have given them the glory that you gave me,\u201d<\/em> and now add verse 24, \u201cFather, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory that you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Through the gift of saving faith which God the Holy Spirit has created in our hearts Christ has given us His \u201cglory\u201d<\/em> as He now lives in us.\u00a0 Through this same gift of saving faith we are not only able to see Jesus, whom John describes as \u201c\u2026the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth\u201d<\/em> (John 1:14), but as our faith grows stronger and stronger we grow in our ability to reflect His (Pointing to the cross) \u201cglory\u201d <\/em>more and more in the way that we live our life!\u00a0 As Paul told the Corinthians, \u201cAnd we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord\u2019s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 3:18).\u00a0 And now, here in His High Priestly Prayer Jesus asks His heavenly Father to keep us united in the one true faith with the goal that we will be perfected in glory!\u00a0 When will this happen?\u00a0 When we are with Jesus!\u00a0 When we see His \u201cglory\u201d <\/em>face-to-face!\u00a0 When we get Home to heaven!<\/p>\n Moms, doesn\u2019t that sound familiar?\u00a0 While every Mom wants only the very best for her children, as Christian Moms and as Christian Grandmas your ultimate goal for your children is that they will spend eternity with you in the glory and perfection of heaven!\u00a0 Not only will that goal be a part of your daily prayers to your heavenly Father, not only will you ask your heavenly Father to guide them and protect them as they journey this spiritually dark and dangerous world, but by word and by example you show them how\u2014 you show them how a child of God grows in their faith through regular use of God\u2019s holy Word and God\u2019s holy Sacrament.\u00a0 You show them how a child of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is \u201cbeing transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n That brings us to the final point of emphasis found here in our text.\u00a0 Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father that we, God\u2019s children, will be surrounded, enveloped, by love.\u00a0 This is brought out in verse 23, \u201cMay they be brought to complete unity to let this world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me\u201d<\/em> and again in verse 26 where Jesus says, \u201cI have made you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Love.\u00a0 Agape<\/em> love.\u00a0 Unselfish love.\u00a0 Love that loves even the unlovable.\u00a0 That\u2019s what led the Father to send His only begotten Son into this world so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u00a0 That\u2019s what led Jesus to lay down His life for us.\u00a0 (Pointing to the cross)\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Jesus prays will surround and envelope us, the children of God.<\/p>\n Love.\u00a0 Agape <\/em>love.\u00a0 Unselfish love.\u00a0 Love that loves even the unlovable.\u00a0 Moms, doesn\u2019t that sound familiar?\u00a0 Of course it does!\u00a0 The love that a Christian mother has for her children is modeled after the love her Savior-God has for her.\u00a0 Think back to all the times when you went without this so that your children could have that.\u00a0 Can you think of anything you wouldn\u2019t do for your children\u2014 even though there are times when they drive you nuts, even though there are times that they break your heart?\u00a0 Follow the example that Jesus sets for you here in His high priestly prayer.\u00a0 In your daily prayers to your heavenly Father not only thank Him for the agape <\/em>love that He showers upon you each and every day, but ask Him.\u00a0 Ask Him to shower your children with that same agape <\/em>love.\u00a0 Ask Him to help you model that agape <\/em>love to the children He has given to you.<\/p>\n Ah, Mother\u2019s Day.\u00a0 As we gather together here in God\u2019s house today to not only celebrate Mother\u2019s Day, but to also celebrate the final Sunday in the glorious season of Easter, I pray that we have all been able to see how this portion of Jesus\u2019 High Priestly Prayer serves as a model for Christian mothers\u2014 and for all of us!\u00a0 Let\u2019s all thank our Mom and thank our Lord for mothers who pray that their children will be united in faith, who pray that their children will be perfected in glory and who pray that their children will be surrounded and enveloped in agape<\/em> love.\u00a0 May you all have a very blessed and happy Mother\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n To God be the glory!<\/p>\n Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mother\u2019s Day May 8, 2016 John 17:20-26 “My prayer is not for them alone.\u00a0 I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.\u00a0 May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you 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