Jesus Prayer for the Disciples
Notes
Transcript
Jesus Prayer for the Disciples
Jesus Prayer for the Disciples
Questions in groups?
What are hard things teenagers deal with today?
What are hard things Christians deal with today in the world?
What are hard things Christians deal with today in the church?
We deal with some hard things today. You guys deal with things that I never dealt with 15 years ago and what some of the staff dealt with 20-30-40 years ago. And yet at the same time we have all dealt with many of the same things. It has been manifested in different ways and different angels and today we see it much more publically but its still there.
Turn with me to John 17.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
I don’t want to look past this but I am going to spend more time on 11-19 than these five verses but let me point out a couple important things here.
We talked last time about how Jesus is fulfilling and will fulfill what he was sent here to do. He was foretold and directed by God to come to earth and complete the mission and he does which is why he can say, “It is finished.”
In these verses we see Jesus testified to the nature and glory of God the Father.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
3. Those that are the Lord’s have always been the Lord’s and always will be the Lord’s
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
We are His, he will never cast us out, he chose us before the foundation of the world, those that are chosen are in the book of life and can never be removed while those who are not in the book.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lets move on. verses 11-12
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Jesus’ heart is for the disciples and for us to relate properly to one another and to the lost world around us. We are going to face trials and Jesus knew that.
Oftentimes those trials or difficulties actually come from within these walls. How we are to do something or not do something. Someone is frustrated because you didn’t talk to them or maybe you did talk to them. There are challenges.
And yet the goal is unity, oneness. Ask yourself, what are you doing to create unity? Are you creating disunity?
What are things you can do the foster unity?
Invite someone over, ask them to join in your game, sit by them, etc.
Those are all good things, but do you know how you create unity? Take your eyes off of yourself and put them on Christ.
When the focus is not on us and our needs but on the worship and praise and glory of His name (v.11) then a lot of these other things come naturally and easily.
AW Tozer says this, “Has it ever occured to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically turned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So on hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.”
When you are growing in your walk personally and looking to the throne of grace, our worship together is improved and perfected.
We are reminded that we will be safe in Jesus hand.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
None of the disciples were taken away, except for one, which was done for a purpose. What was that purpose?
To fulfill the scripture, Judas fell away ultimately because he was not saved but to fulfill the scripture.
Look at verse 14
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
The world is going to hate us. Just as they hated Jesus because we are of the world and he was not of the world.
And yet look at verse 15
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Have you ever wanted to just be seperate from the world? To be isolated and kept from the hardaches and difficulties of life. Have you ever just wanted to stay at Summer Camp all year? Maybe we go from our Christian home to our Christian school back to our Christian home and then to our Christian bible study and back to our Christian home and were safe—we didn’t have to deal with any of them?
Maybe you have heard the person who says they are going to move to a cabin in the woods or a remote island to get away from everyone.
Perhaps you have felt that way or maybe as you think about it you live that way.
Those things are not bad—christian schools, home school, bible studies, church, christian homes, praise the lord for all those things.
But Jesus prayer here is not to take them out of the world. Don’t take the immediately to heaven and don’t remove them from everyone. But rather keep them from the evil one. Protect us from the attacks of the devil.
We are not the first people to fell this way.
15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
That was Moses speaking
What about Elijah
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
How about Jonah
3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
In all three cases God did not give in. We are here for a specific purpose. We are called to do what?
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go make disicples, tell them about Jesus.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Yes some people are called to the work of the ministry and will go and preach but you and I are called to tell those around us about Jesus. And to do so we must be around those who need Jesus.
There is a fine line here. We are not to live like the world.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And yet we cannot give them the gospel if we are not around them. We are not called to isolationism or assimilation but to be a light.
This means the person at the store, the contractor at your house, the UPS driver, the teammate, the coworker. Talk to them about Jesus.
Shannon Hurley has things that drive me crazy. But one thing I always appreciate when I am with him is anything can become a gospel conversation.
I get to spend some one-on-one time with him and you expect it when we are at SOS and its “his people” like of course he has to be nice and loving and compassionate they all look up to him.
But when we are at Grinders and he asks the waitress intentional thought-provoking questions not to embaress her or belittle her but to show her the love of Jesus. The guy fitting him for glasses who will never see him again and doesn’t know Shannon from King Charles, Shannon asks him how are you doing, how is life, what hope do you have?
Jesus showed us that fine line.
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
He was separated from sinner, spotless.
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
And yet he was friend of sinners, loved them and cared for them.
Lets finish up looking at the last couple verses.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
We are not of this world like Jesus wasn’t. And how can we do this, how can we grow in unity and be in the world and share the love of Jesus?
His word.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Be sanctified—set apart, made holy, by the word of the Lord.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Every stroke and letter in this book is true and it is profitable. We are drawn to Christ and we can call people to Christ only through the words of this book
This is the truth, may we grow from it by being in this and living according to how we are called to live in this book.
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Lets pray.