06 | John 17:9-10 | I Am Praying

INTRODUCTION

Brothers and sisters … our Savior, Jesus, prays for you.

I’ve begun this series, week after week, with a prayer of my own for you that …

… among all the voices vying for your attention

… the one voice that will stand out among the noise

… is the voice of our mediator

… speaking to the Father on our behalf.

Our Savior, Jesus, is not only the one who has worked for you.

He is not only the one who has shown his love for you in this, that he has laid down his life for you.

Our Savior offers this plea before the Father in heaven …

… that you and I, with all the church of every age

… would be one with him

… that we, also, would be with him and see his glory.

PRAY

2:00

This morning, as we consider these two verses, v9-10 we will see three things that run their way through the whole of this chapter …

… A Prayer

… A Grounded Confidence

… A Faith-Filled Response

A PRAYER

I am praying for them

Prayer is supplication.

The word supplication

It brings the request of the one who prays before the Father who loves his children …

… and who answers those who call upon his name.

The word for prayer here is not typically translated prayer.

It is a word that most simply means ask.

It is the same word that Jesus uses in v15 …

… I do not ask that you take them out of the world.

Jesus is making a prayer, a supplication, and ask of the Father.

4:00

In fact, throughout the prayer, Jesus’ ask before the Father can be summarized …

Three Requests

v1 - Father, glorify your Son

v11 — Holy Father, keep them in your name

v24 - Father, I desire that they … may be with me where I am

5:00

Now, Jesus says that he is praying, or Jesus is asking, for them.

He even clarifies …

I am not praying for the world

Jesus distinguishes those he is praying for from the world.

Let us go back to v6, where Jesus begins this section of his prayer that runs through v19.

Read v6.

Jesus is, here, praying for those to whom he has manifested the name of the Father.

He is praying for those who, as long as Jesus has been with them, have kept his word.

He is praying for those to whom the words of the Father have been given, and who have received, known and believed that Jesus is from the father.

Jesus is praying for these disciples … the very ones who were in the room with him that day.

He is not praying for the world.

Those to whom he has not manifest the name of the Father.

Those who have not kept the word of the Father.

Those who have not received, known and believed.

This bears itself out in the coming verses …

… why Jesus is so focused on his specific ask, his specific prayer for these disciples.

8:00

Look how the remainder of this section of the prayer plays out.

There is an incredible, guttural reasonableness to this prayer.

In it Jesus marches from thought to thought …

… making the motivation of his ask known to the Father.

v11 - I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world

Jesus has been with this small group of disciples for three years.

v12 says While I was with them, I kept them in your name

He has made the name of the Father known to them.

He has guarded them, and not one has been lost.

When they had questions, he answered them.

When they had doubts he confronted them.

When their pride rose up he humbled them.

When they shrank in fear he encouraged them.

Jesus has been with them, and has, himself, kept them.

v13 - But now, I am coming to you

He is leaving them, not because he does not not love them …

… but so that they might have joy.

So that the fellowship that the Son enjoys with the Father might be fulfilled in them also.

Because of his impending death in their place that they may be forgiven of sin and reconciled to God …

… he will no longer be with them in the same way.

So he prays for them.

He makes his prayer because of a specific concern.

v14 - I have given them your word, and the world has hated them

Jesus has been with the disciples like a mother nursing and nurturing her children.

The disciples have belonged with him, they have been fed the word by him, they have been safe with him.

Previously when he sent them out he told them to take no provision for the journey. But later he says …

Luke 22:35–36 (ESV) And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack.”

Jesus is making his prayer to the Father because the disciples will need provision …

… they will need the providence of the Father where they are going.

Read v15-16

Jesus know well the reality of the evil one.

He will soon suffer and die as the serpent strikes the heal of the Redeemer.

Surely, if the evil one will strike at the Master …

… he will also seek to destroy the Master’s servants.

Read v17

In the face of evil, Jesus prays that the Father will sanctify them in the truth.

Keep them wholly in the word of truth.

That they would not wonder off into error but be kept by the Father.

Read v18

Why does Jesus pray?

Because even as he is about to depart from them …

… he is also sending them into the world.

So you can see …

… Jesus is motivated by a very real, immediate reality

… to ask for very real, immediate needs.

He prays that the disciples would be kept in the name of the Father.

He prays that the Father would keep them from the evil one.

He prays that the Father would sanctify them—that he would make them holy in a world of evil.

Having made this prayer for the disciples in the room with him …

… he then turns in v20 to the third section of his prayer

… to pray for those who will believe through their word.

It is precisely because the Father hears and answers the prayer of the Son to bless and keep these first disciples …

… that the word faithfully comes to those who will later believe.

And in that third section, then, Jesus prays much the same things for these new believers …

… that he first prayed for the apostles in the prior section of the prayer.

14:00

(We’ll come back to v19 in a moment …

… but for now, I want you to see the clarity and focus of Jesus prayer.)

Jesus is praying for these specific disciples, the men in the room with him …

… because he has been with them

… he has made known the name of the Father to them

… by the faithfulness of the Lord to the word of the Father while he has been present with them

… these disciples have received, known and believed the word

… so that to this point they have been found to have kept the the word.

But now, at the time of his departure, he commits them in prayer to the keeping of the Father.

His they were, and the Father has given them to him, and the Son is glorified in them.

So, Father keep them!

15:00

APPLY

Jesus is the eternal mediator, making supplication for all those whom the Father has given to him.

This is true.

But don’t let this eternal, glorious, heavenly reality overshadow …

… the immediacy, the purposeful, immediate circumstance of the love and care of Jesus for these to whom he had so faithfully manifested the name of the Father.

Jesus has an explicit and specific prayer for these disciples.

A prayer without which there would be no church.

I want you to see in the prayer of Jesus for these eleven disciples in the upper room with him …

… that the prayer of Jesus for those who follow him is not some generic, one size fits all, stale doctrine of eternal intercession.

Jesus knows those who belong to him by name.

And he knows their circumstance.

The prayer, the supplication, intercession of our mediator …

… is a prayer that knows his people intimately and personally

… with a loving concern that care for them.

18:00

Jesus prays with a sense of urgency …

… but right at the beginning of his prayer he also prays with a sincere confidence grounded in truth.

That is, Jesus’ prays with a …

A GROUNDED CONFIDENCE

Jesus grounds his prayer to the Father in the same truth throughout the prayer.

Look at the prayer thus far.

In the first section — v2 - He has confidence that the Father will glorify him …

… because he has been given authority to give eternal life to all who the Father has given him.

In the third section — v24 - He prays that the believers will be with him and see his glory …

… on the ground that the Father has given them to him.

And in our passage this morning, Jesus prays for the disciples in the knowledge and confidence of v11.

Read v11.

This is true in a way that transcends the narrow and specific scope of Jesus request in this part of his prayer.

As I have presented, Jesus is making his specific askfor those to whom he has already manifest the name of the Father.

He is praying, he is asking, for the disciples in the room.

But, he remembers and names before the Father the doctrinal reality, the eternal truth …

… that there is an all who belong to the Father.

All mine are yours, and your are mine.

There are many whom the Father has given to the Son.

And Jesus is glorified in the redemption of the whole of the church in every time and place …

… whether the saints of Israel

… the disciples in the room with him that night

… or those who will come to believe through their word.

Do you see it?

Jesus is grounding his prayer in the truth.

He is himself doing what he prays that the Father will do for these disciples.

He is keeping the word of truth.

He is standing in the eternal reality of the covenant of redemption.

23:00

APPLY

How beautiful is the prayer of Jesus.

There is a pattern for us here.

Jesus is meeting the reality of the immediate need for these disciples for whom he so faithfully has made known eternal life.

He has a clear and present concern in his mind.

He carries the circumstances of reality into his prayer …

… and makes his prayer in light of this reality.

But he also carries transcendent truth into his prayer.

While he is simultaneously motivated by the need of the circumstance, he grounds his ask in eternal truth.

Jesus is the perfect model of grounded prayer before the Father.

When we pray, we bring our requests to God.

We do not pray and pretend that we have no need.

No, we pray because we have need.

And we pray to lay our need before the Father who loves us.

But if our prayer is made to God …

… when we pray, let us stand on the truth of God.

Name before the Father the eternal realities and the gracious promises.

Stand on the ground of grace so that you may have confidence in prayer.

25:00

Now, there is one more thing that I want you to see this morning that is interesting in each section of Jesus’ prayer.

I want you to see the faith-filled response that flows out of prayer.

You see, prayer before the Father not only calls for a response from God, but also a response by the one who prays.

A FAITH-FILLED RESPONSE

In v4, the Son, who has prayed that the Father would glorify him …

… and has prayed with the doctrinal confidence that the Father has given a people to the Son

… acknowledges that the Son has accomplished the word that the Father gave him to do.

In v26, the Son, who has prayed that the Father would gather the whole of the church to be with him in heaven, and to see his glory …

… who has prayed with the confidence that the Father has given those who believe to him

… the Son commits that he will continue to make the name of God known to all who believe.

Do you see it?

Jesus makes his ask before the Father.

He grounds his request in the truth.

And then he commits himself to the implications of his request for his own life.

You see this in our section of the prayer this morning as well:

The Son, who has prayed that the Father would keep these 11 disciples in the upper room with him in the truth

… in the confidence that they have already been given to him, for “All mine are yours, and your are mine.”

… the Son commits to consecrate himself for the sanctification of this seedling church.

That is, he commits himself to the completion of the work of redemption …

… through his sacrifice on the cross.

You can see it, right? There are three parts to the prayer of faith.

Jesus prays.

That is, he brings his request to the Father.

Jesus makes his prayer with a grounded confidence.

And Jesus sees the implications of his prayer for his own life.

30:00

APPLY

When we pray to God, we express our desire to the Father in the form of an ask.

In fact, in the third section of the prayer, that is even how Jesus words his prayer.

He doesn’t ask that the believers be with him.

He simply makes known his desire to the Father.

But the genuine desire of the one who prays not only becomes a prayer to the Father for his loving and gracious provision …

… surely it will also be reflected in the orientation of the one who pray’s own life.

Our prayer, our ask of God has implications for our own lives.

Prayer before the Father not only calls for a response from God, but also a response by the one who prays.

A faith-filled prayer to the Father …

… will surely be accompanied by the faith-filled response in the one who prays.

32:00

Let me be as practical as possible.

Let us consider one who is struggling in the circumstance of his household finances.

Motivated by his circumstance, he prays to the Father and asks for provision.

He grounds his prayer in the eternal reality of the loving provision of the Father for his children.

He prays, “Our Father. Give us this day our daily bread.”

And then, he opens his favorite online retailer and starts shopping with his credit card.

Is this the prayer of faith?

Let me be clear.

It isn’t that the one who prays makes his ask to the Father …

… and then thinks to himself that he then has to bring about his own answer to the prayer.

The one who asks of God actually knows and trusts that his hope truly comes from the Lord.

But because his hope is in the Lord, his desires align with the way of the Lord.

So, he who prays, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Will not also lay up treasure for himself on earth.

For no one can serve two masters.

The point is this.

The prayer of a righteous man avails much not only because it calls out to the Father who alone is the sovereign provider …

… but it also reorients the soul to the way of the Father.

35:00

APPLY

Brothers and sisters … our Savior, Jesus, prays for you.

In our passage this morning, he begins his prayer for those who follow him …

… specifically for the disciples in the upper room with him on that day.

And he continues his prayer for all who believe through their word.

So, he prays much the same for us.

Jesus is the eternal God and perfect mediator on behalf of the redeemed.

But Jesus sees his church, his disciples …

… not only in every age, but in each age.

The prayer of Jesus is not merely a generic prayer no matter the time or circumstance …

… an never ending mumbling of Father forgive them … Father keep them … Father unify them.

Jesus prays.

The disciples in that upper room.

He prayed for them.

And for us, we who have believed, even us in this room.

He prays for you.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

He not only knows that he has a flock.

He knows his sheep by name.

You and I are the beneficiaries of the prayer of the Son and the faithfulness of the Father to keep this seedling church in the word.

Because the Father was faithful to keep and to protect and to sanctify and unify the apostles …

… the name of the Father has been manifested to us

… who otherwise would remained lost in the world.

Because v9-19, these 11 verses, are answered by the Father to the uttermost …

… the prayer of the Jesus in v20, for those who will believe through their word

… is utterly sure.

What confidence we have in the ongoing prayer, the mediation of the Son and the faithfulness of the Father …

… because of the perfect fulfillment of his prayer for these first disciples whom the Father kept so completely.

42:00