Praying for You

What Jesus Wants

John 17:1–2 NIV

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

This is the point in time that all of human history has been working toward. Jesus is in complete control as He seeks to bring eternal life to mankind.

John 17:3 NIV

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The condition of eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ

Acts 4:12 NIV

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Jesus turns to the work God has given Him

John 17:4–5 NIV

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus is about to finish His work

His primary concern at this moment is with His disciples

John 17:6–8 NIV

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Jesus’ concern is for those God has given Him

They have accepted God’s Word

They have believed God’s Word

They have obeyed God’s Word

Jesus Prays for His Disciples and for Us

John 17:9–10 NIV

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.

Jesus prayed for their protection

John 17:11–12 NIV

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Protection from the opposition

John 17:14–16 NIV

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Protection from Apostasy

Jesus prayed that they would be one

John 17:20–23 NIV

“My prayer is not for them alone. 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. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus prayed for their joy

John 17:13 NIV

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

Jesus prayed for their sanctification by the Word

John 17:17–18 NIV

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

We have a commission to go into the world with the Gospel!