The HP Prayer of Jesus gives us Confidence

The Prayer of Jesus assures us that future believers will continue to come forth (John 17:20a)

Explanation: Jesus has been praying for His twelve disciples, but in these verses He begins to pray for future believers.

Argument: This part of Jesus’ prayer is future, but the wording is a prophetic future. The verb tense used is will believe - not a “may believe” or a “hope some will believe.” Jesus is emphatically declaring that there will be future believers. Through the past two thousand years of Church history, this has been the case and it continues even today.

Application: The Church (in the present time) CAN be encouraged. We are facing perilous times and there are signs of growing unbelief and apathy towards the things of God. We can be confident, however, that Jesus has made, and continues to make provision for His church

Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

God uses the witness of existing believers to bring forth these new believers (John 17:20b)

Explanation: While we have great confidence in Jesus and His ability to do miracles, we struggle with the idea that we are somehow involved in the process of adding to the Kingdom. Make no mistake - Jesus is the ONLY One who is capable of saving lost sinners. He did ALL that was necessary, and we add nothing to His finished work on the Cross.

Jesus does, however, states that these new future believers will believe in Him through the word of existing believers. He is informing us that the lifestyle and words of believers can and will be used to bring lost sinners to an understanding of their need for a Savior.

Argument: Jesus could bring lost people to Himself by His own actions. He could make use of angels. While He could do those things, He chose to primarily work through the fallible witness of human believers.

Application: Pay attention to your Christian witness. Our lives as believers are similar to a window display - we want others to want what we have

The new join the existing believers in the process of becoming unified in purpose (John 17:21-23)

Explanation: Jesus is very specific in praying for His followers to experience unity. He references the Unity of the Godhead as a model. This does not mean that we can ever experience a perfect unity, but the ideal is to be our goal. Jesus prayed for us to experience unity and we are called to this principle.

Argument: This in not about uniformity - we are NOT called to be cookie-cutter Christians. We are called to share the same purpose and goals in the family of faith. We are to be united around the transforming power of the Gospel and to be on mission with Jesus

This supernatural unity - a shared purpose by those with diverse backgrounds - is in itself a witness to the unbelieving world. When the Kosmos confronts the unexplainable, it seeks to understand. The answer is in the Power of our amazing God.

Application: Ask yourself whose agenda you are following - yours or Jesus’? If you are following your own agenda, ask yourself what about your own plan is more important than God’s plan?

Those who are IN Christ will one day experience the full glory of the Savior

Explanation: Jesus shares that His desire is that we may be with Him in a specific place. He wants for us to “be with Him where He is. And, this is an incredible thought: He wants us to behold His glory.

Argument: In His essence, God is Pure and Holy. He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16) and is so pure He cannot abide evil (Habakkuk 1:13). His Glory is such that even the Redeemed cannot behold Him. Yet, Jesus’ prayer is for us to be present with Him and to behold His glory.

This leads us to the truth that we will be changed (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) and we will indeed behold His glory (1 John 3:2)