Jesus The Mediator

As we continue in the High Priestly Prayer this morning, lets remember where we have been, in vs 1-5 Jesus is praying for himself as an offering as he is about to go to the cross and fulfill his calling. Then in verses 6-19 Jesus begins to pray these prayers of salvation for those who are following him, and then this morning Jesus will switch his prayer to something completely different.

ME

There are so many times in my life I can look back on when we have relied deeply on the Lord in prayer and our friends as well to reach the throne of God. I think of when Jenn was pregnant with Josiah and began to bleed at 26 weeks and I was terrified and we called friends to seek God for prayer.

I think back to the time when Charis was born and transferred hospitals with a collapsed lung and we had to call people to ask them to pray for us and how terrified I was.

I think back to just this year when Olive had the febrile seizures and seemed to not be breathing and having to call people and pray they sought the heart of Jesus for us.

Listen all of these things still give me a put in my stomach just thinking about them even though we are on the other side of it.

WE

Maybe you are in the same place… you’ve called and asked us to put a prayer through…

I don’t want to sound like thats a bad thing and there are so many people who are faithful in their prayers…

And what we think about all too often is how we have to get people to pray for us and we want the people we know with the most faith to pray for us. With Olive I remember I called an old pastor of mine who I hadn’t talked on the phone with in years, but I knew if I asked him to pray he would actually do it, and for some of us this is part of it we want to know that people are praying with us. However, no matter what we do no matter who we call none of it will even compare to what we are seeing this morning. This morning we are going to see a moment where Jesus is praying for us.

EXPOSITION

John 17:20 ESV

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

This morning if you are struggling, if you have been praying about situations in your life that you dont feel are getting any better and you have continually sought after God wanting him to change things, you need to know this morning you are not alone. You need to know this morning as Jesus was praying in the garden, he already had you on his mind in those final moments before he went to the cross. Look at his words, Jesus isn’t just praying for those who were with him there in person, but he is praying for everyone who would ever believe in him through the word. And this should be such a great comfort to all of us, because in the moments before his death Jesus is thinking about all of us. He is thinking about you, he is thinking about me and he wants something great for us. In the moment before his agony he was already thinking about the situation you would face.

And this will go against a whole group of people who see Jesus as only a man, who think Jesus was short sighted and didn’t look to the future. It shows he knew what would happen from the disciples he selected to walk alongside him, because he knew there would be others who would believe in Him because of what they would share. It shows he is looking forward from this moment and praying over every single person who would follow after him until the moment of his return.

And what is it these new people will hear that will convince them to believe in Jesus?

John 17:20 (ESV)

20 “…but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

And this is the most amazing part of all of this. Jesus has started using the same words we have seen all throughout Johns gospel. He says their word… and we have seen John over and over refer to Jesus as teh word.

And remember back to the very beginning

John 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So from the very beginning of this book, John refers to Jesus as the Word of God, and here Jesus is praying and all of a sudden it switches from the language of Jesus as the word to the word of the disciples. Look

John 17:20 (ESV)

20 …but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

So after all of this time, the shift is being made in these moments because Jesus knows he is leaving them, he knows from this moment forward his followers won’t come from people who hear from Him directly. Instead, from the moment on Jesus’ followers will come from those people who hear his voice and message through the voice of his disciples. This is a huge shift in history, because up until this moment everyone following Jesus has been able to see him directly or hear him directly, but from the moment he leaves that will not always be the case. It will shift to those who are sharing his message.

And when we hear this it should move us to action, because we realize the only way people are ever going to come to faith in Jesus is through his disciples sharing. Thats you and me. In fact, Paul goes deeper and tells us the same thing in his letter to the Romans. Rom 10:17

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

And I think all too often we are too scared to share the word, because even though we say we are willing to give our lives for Jesus, many of us aren’t even willing to give up our reputation for Him. We’re too afraid people will make fun of us or call us the weird one or judge us a being too Christian, or some kind of Jesus freak or something. Of course, Jesus I will die for you, but share about you and have people look at me weird, no thanks. But we get so scared we don’t share because we think it won’t work. We are afraid people will hear and not listen and then we get this weird stigma when people look at us, but this verse should give us great confidence. This verse shows us there isn’t just hope that people will come to Jesus when they hear his word, but this shows there is confidence. Jesus says he is praying for those who WILL believe. There is no doubt. Straight and to the point he his praying for those who WILL believe. We should hear this words of Jesus and know the outcome is favorable.

I think there are probably two places of push back when you hear me say this, the first people will push back will be I have shared before and people didn’t come to know Jesus. And this is the truth, I have shared with people and they didn’t give their life to Jesus, but this doesn’t mean it will never happen. This verse should take the pressure off of you because while it may not happen every time we share with people we can be confident knowing it WILL happen just as Jesus said.

The second push back would be, “Well, what is the word they are sharing, what is it they are hearing that will draw people to Jesus. I don’t even know where to begin or what I should say.” This should be quite easy, it is the exact message Jesus shared with them when he was walking and teaching them on the earth. Just remember what the Great Commission is…

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

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.”

Here is the crux of the message of what words will lead people to Him. He said, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So when we want people to come to Jesus the key has given us as we share is to teach them to observe everything he taught them. Not only that, he is telling us here it is imperative for our mission for us to go and share all of those things with the world around us, he has commissioned us to do that.

So what Jesus is showing us is a method for how we are supposed to live a life of faith, first we hear the word, then we believe in the word, then we go and spread or preach the word of Jesus so others can start that same process. Remember, Jesus has already told us, when he leaves us the spirit will come and guide us and he will give us the words we are to share and speak.

John 16:13 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

And we can be sure this is exactly what happened when the HS came to guide the apostles and Paul to write the entirety of the NT. It was the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. So while it was their words on the paper we also know it was the word of God. I think part of the reason Jesus wanted us to know the Spirit leads us in truth is so we can also know the word they are teaching is accurate. We know it wasn’t something they come up with on their own, we can take refuge in knowing it was and is the word of God. And as Luke wrote detailed the work of the disciples in Acts, he said over and over again The word of God and the word of the Lord increased. And we can see the apostles preached not of their own word, but of the word of the Lord. And when we talk about the people who received the message they did not receive the word of the apostles, but the word of God. It was evident.

And what Jesus is trying to share with us in this verse is the ministry is coming to be on our shoulders, he won’t be here anymore so now all the work he has done will become our work to do. We have to realize it is time for us to share the gospel, and as we saw he will go as far to tell them that in the great commission. So we know that means the ministry has been passed on to us.

However, as we think about the ministry we shouldn’t be intimidated or scared. We should know when it comes time to share the word if we are his followers it wont just be our words we are sharing, but through the holy spirit we will be sharing the words of the Lord. And for some of us that may not be enough to get us moving, but remember when it comes to time that Jesus is praying for you. He is interceding at the right had of the father for you and for me, he foresaw the moment you would be standing there with that person and was praying for you.

Friends it is on us… so what will we do?