This Sunday we are going to return to the Gospel of John and pick up where we left off. We will get into the 17th chapter of John which encapsulates Jesus’ high priestly prayer. This prayer has distinct sections and we will deal with each section separately. Today we will deal with the opening 5 verses of this prayer, Jesus’ petition for glorification. The opening of this prayer reminds you of another prayer of Jesus, the famous Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s prayer as you know opens with the famous line, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”. Another way of saying, may your name be glorified. I bring that up because it does seem that the first concern that Jesus expresses when He prayers to his heavenly Father is that His father is glorified. But in our prayer, he says, “Father, glorify me so that I can glorify you”. These words may seem strange to our ears because we live in such a self-promoting culture. So it is possible that many might hear these words today and think that Jesus is asking to be glorified for some selfish motive. So let me deconstruct the background we come from so that we can hear more clearly what Jesus is saying…