Intercession

What is intercession?

To intervene on another’s behalf

ex. Going before a judge as a character witness

ex. Using a friend to intercede on your behalf to get a job. You know someone who has a connection with a company that you really want to work for.

There’s many examples of intercession in the Bible:

In Genesis 18, Abraham interceded for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah that he would spare the cities if there just a handful of righteous people living there

In Exodus 32, Moses interceded on behalf of the people of Israel, that God wouldn’t let them die in the wilderness but that he would spare them and guide them to the Promised Land

In Joshua 7, Joshua interceded on behalf of the people of Israel that God wouldn’t let them fall to the Amorites and other peoples of Canaan.

However, no other intercession is quite like the intercession of Jesus. We don’t see anything like this passage here in all of Scripture. We see that Jesus lets us in on the intimacy he has with the Father. It reveals his character and compassion for his disciples. But it also shows the great sovereignty that he has over all of time.

Some would say this is the TRUE Lord’s Prayer.

The glory of Christ

“Father the hour has come, Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” ” All throughout John Jesus has said over and over again “My hour has not yet come, my time is not here” or something of the sort.

The Gospel according to John 1. Jesus Prays for His Glorification (17:1–5)

That God’s appointed hour has arrived does not strike Jesus as an excuse for resigned fatalism, but for prayer: precisely because the hour has come for the Son to be glorified, he prays that the glorification might take place. This is God’s appointed hour; let God’s will be done—indeed, Jesus prays that his Father will accomplish the purpose of this appointed hour. As so often in Scripture, emphasis on God’s sovereignty functions as an incentive to prayer, not a disincentive

Jesus, while he spent his time here on earth, was not singularly focused on his own glory. We see that in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45, that he came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many. This task and mission that he came to achieve was directly given by the Father.

“since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”

Right here, we see a bullet point of Jesus’ purpose on earth. He came not in heavenly glory, but with FULL heavenly authority to give eternal life.

Eternal life, as we see it here, is not so much about everlasting life as it is about personal knowledge of an everlasting God. (repeat)

Jesus doesn’t say that Eternal life is about living forever in a place called heaven as much as it is about knowing and personally experiencing an everlasting, compassionate, loving, and incredibly gracious God for all of eternity. It’s not as much about going to heaven and escaping the pangs of this world, as we will see later when Jesus prays specifically for his disciples. Jesus says this about eternal life: This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed” Jesus is saying “Father, I laid aside my glory for a time to complete what you set out for me to accomplish. The hour has come for this to be completed. Now give me back the glory that I took off.”

Before Jesus walked on earth, he existed in eternal, Holy Glory. An other-worldly glory. And for the Father’s plan to be unfolded in front of all of creation he had to take off that glory, as Philippians 2:5-8 says

Philippians 2:5-8 “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus existed in eternal, Holy glory with the the Father. But he laid that aside for a time to take the form of a human, born in a very human way, but still totally separate from nature. He laid his Godly glory aside so he could step into humanity and bear our cross…To bear our shame, so that we might experience life and abundant joy.

The manifestation of Christ

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” The word “manifest” here means to reveal or make known. To give to a great extent so that one can understand. He’s spent days, and weeks and months and years pouring himself out to the disciples. Not only that but to the entire region!

He’s manifested and revealed the name of God to the people. He’s spent precious, valuable time revealing and exposing the nature of God and his intentions with mankind.

God gave them into Jesus’ care for a short time, and in that time they learned to keep the word of God. We could look deeply into discipleship just in this one verse. Jesus recognized that he was tasked with stewardship over the disciples. To take care of them and to teach them to keep God’s word. To be faithful and godly people, seeking to glorify the Father.

“How does this manifestation of Jesus and his mission from the Father help us understand our responsibility in way of discipleship?”

“I have given them the words you gave me...”

Intercession for the disciples

See the love and care that he has for his disciples, his best friends...

“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are minem and I am glorified in them.”

He says I am not praying for the world, but I am praying for those most dear to me, whom you have given me to steward and love well.

There are specific ways that Jesus prays for his disciples, and the first that we see is for UNITY. The text says,

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

He knows his hour has come. He knows that soon he will be glorified on the cross, bringing forth God’s plan, and then he will be gone from the world…These disciples have heavily relied on Jesus and now he’s concerned. He’s concerned that the glue will come undone, so to speak. It’s certain that they could have fallen away, especially considering the various trials and persecutions that the disciples experienced later in life. Also, the different heresies and false teachings that came up within the church (many unfortunately are still around today). They had every reason in the world to not be unified, and Jesus knew that. So he prays “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be ONE, even as we are ONE.

Folks, we experience a deep, deep divide within the church in America. A divide which can’t be mended by any political platform or party candidate. No legislation or public policy can bring the church together. But Jesus knows that God can bring his people together. A large part in why the Holy Spirit came after Jesus left was to instill unity and bind God’s people together, through thick and thin. We would do well in this season to fall on our face before God and beg that we would be ONE, just as Christ and the Father are ONE.

A second way he prays for his disciples is to not take his disciples out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

“ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

“I do not ask that you take them out..but keep them..”

Jesus’ plan and wish is not that his people be taken out of the world but that they’re kept from the evil one

How many times do we focus our minds on heaven? On escaping this world?

“Sanctify them in the truth...”

Intercession for all time