Jesus Prays for Our Holiness

Prayer is Essential

Communication is essential to any relationship. Without it the relationship can begin to break down. The same is true about our relationship with God. In our text for today, Jesus prayer from John 17 reveals the intimate relationship Jesus has with God the father. It also reveals his deep desire for us to be made holy. Jesus before going to the cross, before rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven prays for your holiness.

Jesus still prays for you. Hebrews 7:25

Hebrews 7:25 NLT

25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

As we pray with Jesus today, lets pray with him that we would continue to grow and be made holy by God’s truth.

Hebrews 10:14–15 NLT

14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

Being made holy, or sanctified is a process. It’s made possible through the shed blood of Christ on the cross, and continued through the work of the Holy Spirit within you.

Jesus Prayer

Jesus high priestly prayer models for us the deep relationship Jesus has with God the father. It shows us the deep desire God and Jesus have for us to share the same depth of relationship. Prayer, communication is essential to growing in that relationship. Growing in relationship with God, is being sanctified, or being made holy. Jesus prays for this in verses 17-19.

Being Made Holy By God’s Truth

Jesus prays that his disciples and also will be sanctified, made holy or set apart. That we wouldn’t live like the world lives but that we would live as Christ. This is made possible by Christ’s sacrifice and continued through the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth.

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Volume 2 Theological Perspective

sanctification or holiness. This language is often misunderstood as referring to the doing of good deeds, going above and beyond the call of duty, or trying to be “holier than thou.” But the governing idea of holiness is that of being set apart—particularly for God’s special purpose

What makes holy water holy? The water in the baptismal tank isn’t anything different than what comes out of the pipes in this building. It comes a long way from Kenoza lake to here. It’s just ordinary not so great tasting Haverhill city water.

The water in the baptismal is holy because it has been set apart to be the waters of baptism. To signify rising to new life in and through the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth.

God through the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifies common ordinary people, ordinary elements of bread and wine, and ordinary not so great tasting sometimes brown water, to be set apart for his purpose of redeeming all creation.

Jesus prays for his disciples to be set apart and for us to be set apart by God’s truth. His word is truth. How do we grow in this truth? John 16:5-15 gives us the answer.

To grow in holiness is a work of the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The same Spirit that fell at Pentecost. The same Spirit that descended like a dove at Christ’s baptism. The same spirit that hovered over the waters at creation. This same Spirit is the one guiding us in all truth. This same Spirit prays for us.

Holiness, being sanctified, is a work of God, made possible by Christ’s sacrifice, and carried on through the work of the Spirit within us. Growing in this work of God requires prayer to live in communication with God the Father, Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three in one.

God calls ordinary people like you and like me, to live like Christ. Not to live like this world, but to live in and through his life giving Spirit.

Filled with the Spirit

Romans 8:34 NRSV

34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Romans 8:26–27 NRSV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Hear the good news of God this morning. Jesus Christ came into this world and offered himself as a perfect sacrifice, so we can be made holy. So we can live, not like this world wants us to live, but how his spirit within us calls us to live. To live a life set apart and live like Christ.

The Holy Spirit and Jesus continue to pray for us. Let’s continue to pray with them.

Growing in this relationship, being made holy or sanctified, is a work of God by the Son through the Spirit at work within us. Like any relationship it requires communication.

Pentecost is next Sunday. This is the day we remember the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth filling the disciples. Let’s find ways to deepen our prayer life and pray along with Christ, and the Holy Spirit that we might continue to grow in holiness unto the LORD.