Jesus Prays for Us

Introduction

Illustration: Chorded phone vs mobile phone

When you think about it sometimes its crazy that we have such easy constant access to God and seem to take it for granted. Maybe I’m just preaching to myself here, but sometimes we lose sight of what a privilege and a power it is to be able to speak to God any time that we want. In fact prayer is so essential that Jesus, who is Himself God remember, felt the need to pray all the time. We read in the gospels about Him constantly going away by Himself to pray.

And sometimes we get to read the words of His prayers. Today’s passage is one of those times. As we continue in our sermon series through the Gospel According to John we arrive at the end of the Lord’s Supper. Judas has already left to betray Jesus and Jesus has just finished teaching His disciples. He is closing in prayer as His final act before He goes to the garden of Gethsemane and gets arrested and killed for our sakes. It’s beautiful that although He does pray for Himself and His coming glorification, most of His prayer is for His disciples. Not even just for the disciples in the room with Him, but all His disciples throughout History, including you and me. Let’s read His prayer together found in John 17.

John 17 CSB

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ. I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed. “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

What a powerful prayer. We’ve talked a lot in this series already about Jesus’ glorification, and we’ll talk more about it in the sermons to come, so I though we would focus in this morning on three things that Jesus prays for His disciples. Remember again that this prayer isn’t just for the eleven disciples Jesus is speaking to at the time, but for all of us. In fact, the verb tenses are a little different then you might expect for that reason. He speaks in present tense about things that haven’t happened yet as if He is praying the very prayer that He continues to pray for us in heaven even today.

So what is that prayer? Well first He prays that God would protect us, just as Jesus protected His disciples on the earth. That they would be preserved from the evil one. Second Jesus prays that we would be sanctified, in other words set apart and made Holy for His sake. Finally Jesus prays that we would be unified, a living example of the love of God as the body of Christ.

Protection

Illustration: As a father I love my kids and I want to protect them, but that doesn’t mean that I keep them from doing anything risky. In fact there’s a certain importance to letting your kids occasionally take risks. There’s something I value just as much if not more than their safety, which is raising them to be capable adults.

I sometimes like to jokingly say “safety 3rd,” but there are some things that are more important than safety, aren’t there? Your first instinct might be to disagree, but I think deep down we all know this is true. We risk our lives every time we get on the road because we believe that the value of being able to drive is worth the risk of potential collision.

We don’t often stop and do the actual math, but many of our choices are about the risk verses the reward. How high is the risk and how high is the reward, how certain is the reward if I take the risk. That sort of thing. Then if we determine that a risk is worth the reward we can still ask, how do we minimize the risk even though we’re taking it?

In many ways I think Jesus is a great example of a loving parent here. The Bible uses the image of Him as our brother, but He is also God and called by Isaiah “everlasting father,” so I think the image stands. He sees us as His dearly loved children and He wants to protect us, but He also wants to help us grow into mature believers, and He’s determined that there is a reward greater than the risk of putting us in dangerous situations. Consider verses 11 to 15 of this chapter.

John 17:11–15 CSB

I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

Consider for a moment if Jesus had just said “I love these guys and I want to protect them, so I’ll take them with me when I ascend and then I won’t need to worry about them being hurt.” What would be the ramification of that decision? Well for starters the disciples wouldn’t have gone on to evangelize the world, turning thousands to the gospel and being used of God to save their souls. That sounds like a risk that is worth the reward, doesn’t it?

Yet Jesus does still want to protect them because He loves them, so the first thing He prays for them is that the Father would protect them.

Hold on a second though, because we know something about history, don’t we? What happened to those eleven disciples? According to our best sources most if not all of them were killed for preaching the gospel. You could be forgiven for thinking that doesn’t sound like they were protected. In fact one of the James’ died before the Bible was even finished being written, and Peter’s death is predicted at the end of this very gospel.

I think that’s because the protection that Jesus is praying for isn’t about being kept safe from hurt or even physical death. Jesus prays that they would be protected “from the evil one.” We have an enemy of our souls who is trying to take us out of the cause of Christ. Jesus is most concerned about our souls, not our physical bodies that are here today gone tomorrow. So is Jesus’ prayer answered in that sense? Absolutly.

You know I can’t pass up the opportunity to quote one of my favorite verses, Romans 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 CSB

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How many of these eleven disciples lost their faith or walked away from the cause of Christ? None. They all persevered in the faith.

My friends this prayer that Jesus prayed over them was also prayed for you. This means that no matter what dangers or trials we face, Jesus is praying that the Father would protect our souls. Those who follow Jesus can be assured that Jesus will not leave them or forsake them. That even if the crazy unexpected happened and suddenly we were getting martyred for our faith again, we could die for the gospel knowing that God is protecting us in the most important way. That my friends is a reassuring message.

Sanctification

Illustration: How many of you guys had parents who had the “special plates?” The ones that you never used unless it was a special occasion? We don’t really have special plate in our household, maybe we’re a bit to practical, but the idea is that they aren’t the same plates you eat on every day. They’re set aside for a special purpose.

This is actually sort of the kind of thing the Bible means when it uses the word “sanctified.” In the Hebrew Scriptures they had a lot of special things that were used only in the temple. These included actually things like plates and cups and utensils, but also curtains and statues and other things which were supposed to be special and used only for worshipping God. They called these things “sanctified.” That was the term to describe something being set apart for God’s special use.

The word also carries the connotation of being pure and clean and without fault, because those were the standards required of the objects in the temple. So when the Bible talks about being sanctified, it means that the thing in question is set apart for God, clean and pure and without fault. So with that in mind let’s re-read verses 16 to 19.

John 17:16–19 CSB

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

So you can see what Jesus is saying when He prays for us to be sanctified. He wants us to be set apart from the world. In fact in this very chapter Jesus talks about us being in the world but not a part of the world. That’s the set-apart-ness that is part of sanctification. He is also praying for us to grow in our holiness, in our being clean and pure and without fault.

How does this sanctification happen? Well Jesus prays specifically for the Father to sanctify us by the truth, and then clarifies that God’s Word is the truth. So the means by which God has chosen to do this sanctifying work in us is by His word. We believe as disciples of Jesus that God’s word is contained in the words of Scripture, the Bible. It gives us God’s words for us. So that means that Jesus is specifically praying here that God would make us more Holy by means of reading and studying Scripture.

That’s why we make Scripture the centre of so much that we do. That’s why I get up here every week to talk about Scripture. Why I always encourage us to read our Bibles every day, and to go deeper in studying it.

Yet this is not just being made Holy, but being set apart for special use. If we’re the special plates in that analogy, what is the special purpose that we’ve been set aside for? Our work is to do the will of God and to show the whole world the truth of the Gospel. Our job is the same one that Jesus says He did in this chapter, to reveal God to the world. So to that end may we be students of God’s word so that we can share it with each other and everyone else, doing the special work that God set aside for us.

Union

Illustration: I think we’ve all been in a situation where we’re working with a group of people who aren’t on the same page. Maybe you got assigned a random group for a group project or you’re working with people who don’t get along, or something like that. It’s a lot harder to get anything done, isn’t it?

A dysfunctional group can make a fun project into a nightmare. Conversely, working with people you get along with can take an unpleasant project and turn it into something fun.

As believers we have been given a group to work with. Think about it, God has given us work to do. Growing in our relationship with Him and sharing the gospel. He has also given us a group, we are called as Christians to gather together and to work together. So it’s kind of like we’ve been given a really big group project, isn’t it?

So then, how should we get along with these group members we’ve been put together with? Well Jesus actually prays about that too. In verses 20 to 26 Jesus prays the following.

John 17:20–26 CSB

“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

In case you missed it, Jesus is praying that those who believe in and follow Him would be just as united with each other as He is with the Father.

Now I have a question for us today, Fredericton Christian Church. Is Jesus getting what He prayed for right now? When I look around at all the people who believe in Jesus and follow Him, even if I only look at the ones who believe He’s God and believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, I don’t see one unified body. Do you? Either only one church has things right and the rest of us are doomed, or Jesus’ followers are doing a really, really, really terrible job of being united.

What happened? Why did we get this way? That’s a complicated question. There’s a lot of history. There’s a lot of passionate people who beleive they’re defending God’s truth against heretics and other passionate people who believe they’re saving God’s church from heretics. Yet here we are almost 2000 years later with almost 2000 different kinds of churches.

It makes me so sad. What a tragedy that we who were meant to be one united body of Christ to show the world His love are instead so fractured and so often throw stones at one another. What sort of witness does that give the world?

Yet Jesus prayed for our unity. So what’s the deal? Did He get what He prayed for? We know in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays that if its possible He might avoid suffering the cross and in that case we know that He didn’t get what He prayed for. Is this like that? Did He pray for something He knew He couldn’t get? Maybe He knew we would fracture and left us the free will to do so but prayed this as the true expression of His heart and as a reminder of how it should be?

Or maybe we can and should be united with our Christan brothers and sisters, whether they be congregationalists like us or pentecostals, or baptists, or wesleyans, or catholics, or anglicans, or you name it. Maybe we should do everything in our power to see everyone who sincerely believes in and follows Jesus as our brother and sister in Christ.

Now this gets tricky, because I believe there are some truly foundational beliefs that we shouldn’t compromise on. An easy one to give as an example is that we shouldn’t try to unite with those who don’t believe Jesus is God like Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons, even if they claim to follow and believe in Jesus. But we can’t let those extreme cases let us fail to see our real Christian brothers and sisters where we can.

Now I’ll admit that I look at the problem and I look at us as a small church in a small province and I think to myself in despair, ‘what can we do to solve that problem?’ And it’s easy to do nothing instead. But there are a few things we can do. For one we can join Jesus in praying. Prayer is powerful, and it isn’t a small thing to pray for the unity of the church. Secondly, maybe we should start actively seeking how we can connect with other local churches. Not even just thinking fondly of them but asking what can we do together, how can we be united, how can we be more one with each other just as Jesus prayed.

Conclusion

In the end I think there’s huge significance to the words of Jesus’ prayer as we have seen. When the perfect man who is also perfect God gives us an example of prayer I think it’s a no brainer that we should listen in closely. So what does Jesus pray for that we should learn from as His disciples? We hear Jesus pray for our protection. Not that we never face danger or pain or even death, but that our souls would be preserved for Him. We hear Jesus pray for our sanctification. He prays that we should be set apart for Gods work and made more holy in order to do so. Finally we see Jesus pray for our Union, that we would be a visible example of God’s love in the world around us.

I know along the way we’ve looked at a few examples of things we should do inspired by this prayer, but there is one very obvious application that we shouldn’t miss. We touched on it in the last point, but above all we should join Jesus in prayer. If Jesus felt the need to lift these requests before the Father, so should we. We should pray for ourselves and for each other that God would proserve and protect us, that God would Sanctify us, and that God would Unify us.

Let’s pray.