Famous last words:
Oscar Wilde (probably apocryphal), of the drab wallpaper in the room where he was dying: "One of us must go."
Humphrey Bogart, the actor: "I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis."
British politician Winston Churchill: "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
Comedian W. C. Fields: "I have spent a lot of time searching through the Bible for loopholes."
Today we heard part of Jesus' last words to his disciples (John 17v1-11), chosen deliberately when he knew he was to be arrested that night & die next day. What themes would you expect him to stress in his last words? They come in the form of a prayer, a conversation with God, his Father and ours:

1. He talks about his relationship with God
For Jesus, & therefore for Christianity, life is fundamentally about relationships. Above all it is about sharing a relationship with God, in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. This should be a relationship of intimate trust and love, which is what we see modelled in the relationship between Jesus & God, his Father. He thinks about how he has done everything in his life to "glorify God" (v.4), that is to show how wonderful God is and enable others to know him, and about how God will equally glorify him (v.1, 5). He meditates on how he has done all that God wanted him to do (v.4). He states clearly that the whole point of life is to know God & Jesus, that is to share a relationship of love with him - "this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (v.3)
Is this how we see life? Is it true for us that, as the song says, "knowing you Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing"? Until we discover this truth and start to live it we are missing the point of life, how ever much we may be enjoying it! When we live this truth, we discover life in all its fulness.

2. He talks about his disciples' relationship with God & himself \\ Jesus recognises that the initiative for our relationship with God lies with God himself, whose we are (v.6). He declares that he himself is the only one who can reveal God to us, so that we can know & relate to him aright (v.6). He rejoices that his deeds & words have shown his disciples the truth about God (v.7-8), so that they now realise they must keep & obey his words (v.6, 8). And he earnestly prays for God to protect his followers and keep them united (v.9, 11). Do we appreciate that this is what is most on Jesus' heart for us? He wants us to know God and himself, by seeing Jesus as the image of God and by taking to heart Jesus' words and obeying them? If we are to enter this fulness of life, which is eternal life, we must make Jesus the Centre of our life. We must get to know him ever better, through prayer, worship, reading and living his words & sharing with other Christians. We must follow his example, acting on his advice and commands. We must be Christ-centred in order to be godly. We must get beyond head knowledge to heart relationship, from belief to trust, past admiration to commitment. Knowledge, belief & admiration have their place, but what God wants more than anything, according to Jesus' last words, is a relationship of love with each one of us, which Jesus makes possible. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to turn this into reality in our experience, which is why Jesus has said a lot about the Spirit in the preceding chapters of John's gospel, as we saw last week, and as our 2nd reading will hint in a minute.
Is this your experience of the Christian faith? I had the privilege of being brought up in a Christian family and the blessing of making a Christian commitment almost 40 years ago, when I was 14. But it was another 10 years before I discovered in personal experience the transformation which the Holy Spirit can bring, in making the relationship I had begun with God, which was above all intellectual, into an affair of the heart. Please don't be short changed in missing this dimension which was so important to Jesus that he made it the subject of his last prayer to God with his disciples.

Jesus had a further opportunity for last words, when he met his disciples before his ascension. Let's listen now to his words then: (Bible:Acts+1:6-14)

3. He emphasises the Holy Spirit's power for the task of witness
Even at this solemn farewell moment the disciples were obsessed with earthly power & status, as so often in their quarrels with each other! ("Will you restore the kingdom to Israel now?" v.6) Jesus turns their thoughts away from such issues to the power which the Holy Spirit brings - not for status & prestige, but for service; not for self-gratification, but for witness to others. Jesus' desire is for everyone to share the close relationship with God which he enjoys, and which was most on his heart the night before he died, and he want us to help others find this.
If we have discovered the joy, peace & love, the fulfilment which a relationship with God through Jesus brings, do we not want to share that with other people, to witness to the blessing of knowing God? But do we not also often find it difficult to do so, and if we do speak up is our witness not often ineffectual? Then surely we too, like Jesus' first disciples, need the power of the Holy Spirit to come to us. He can help us to be witnesses. It is he who alone can convict other people of the truth about God & Jesus. It's as the Holy Spirit empowers us that we will, like the first disciples, stop just standing around talking to one another about the gospel, and will get out into the world to turn it around, as they did in the early centuries.

Matthew has a different version of Jesus' last words, but they convey much the same message: "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" (Matthew 28v18-20) The focus here too is on a relationship with God in all his fulness, represented by baptism in the name of the Trinity and on sharing this with others. Obedience to Jesus' words & enjoying his presence makes this possible. Jesus is represented as Lord as well as Saviour. As we today join other Christians in celebrating Jesus' ascension, may our readings inspire us to seek an ever-deepening relationship with God through him in the power of the Holy Spirit.