Jesus Prepares for the Cross Part 3 - Prayer for us
Jesus Prepares for the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are in a series of messages leading up to Easter in just 2 weeks. In 2 Sundays, we will celebrate the resurrection. How I wish the circumstances in the world was different. We had some different plans for this Easter, but we’ll just have to postpone them for another Sunday. What we won’t postpone is the celebration of what Jesus did. That we will celebrate and proclaim.
Today we are in the last message from John 17 where we are examining Jesus’ longest recorded prayer. I believe he wanted his disciples to hear it and he wanted us to read it in our day. I want to read John chapter 17 in full again and I’ll pause after verse 5 to give a recap of the message from a few weeks ago and then I’ll pause after verse 18 for a quick recap of the message from last week and then we’ll read and discuss the rest for today.
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus prays 3 things here: For Glory from His Father, for eternal life for His followers and praise for a finished work.
Jesus’ prayer has been completely answered and fulfilled. Jesus got the Father’s glory and He reflects that back to the father.
Eternal life is being able to know God in full. This begins now as He reveals himself to us in deeper and deeper ways now and will fully reveal himself to us when we leave this world and go to Heaven.
Jesus also praised God for the finished work of the cross even before he headed to the cross. Likewise, we can pray for God’s finished work in our own lives even before the time comes, because God doesn’t start anything without knowing how it will be finished.
Let’s keep reading
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus prayed for the protection and unity of fellow disciples. Not that we would agree to any man’s way, but that we would be in agreement about God’s way.
Jesus prayed for his disciples’ spiritual protection. He prayed that we would resist the temptation to be of the world and not just in it.
Jesus prayed for his disciples’ sanctification. He prayed that the word of truth would pierce our hearts and change us. Also that we all would accept the call to be sent into the world as beacons of holiness and truth - The truth that says to the world: “You are unworthy of love, but God loves you anyway.”
Let’s read this week’s passage
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
The major theme of Jesus’ prayer for us is unity. Being one with Jesus as Jesus is one with the Father. Jesus is praying that all believers would be in unity. There are all kinds of organizations that have tried to unify believers under the same banner, but that is not what Jesus is praying for. He is not praying for an organization or institution - He is praying for the believers to live as he instructed them in the same ways: Dependent on God, selfless, full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control), Loving of God first and then our neighbors.
Unity does not mean the same. The individuals that make up our church are not the same. We all have different gifts and abilities, but in unity we come together to worship. Our church and some of the other Bible believing churches in the area do not look the same. In fact, our worship service on Sunday’s looks different, but in unity we worship the true God, we celebrate the only son of God Jesus and work together to show who Jesus is to our area.
Let’s take a moment and go through each verse one at a time and then wrap things up with what I think Jesus wants from his followers.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
Vs 20
Jesus is praying in the presence of the disciples, in a way, he is telling his disciples here that they will have a message to proclaim and that message will result in others believing in Jesus.
Jesus is not just praying for His current influence, he is praying the influence that happens with future generations.
As a side note, we can be praying for those who would come after us. Those who would believe as a result of our message to them…pray for those who will follow us.
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
vs 21
Just as we saw last week, Jesus is praying that believers would be one and BE IN Jesus/God.
Jesus wants us to be one with Him. If we are one with Him, we will be one with each other.
Underline “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” We are going to come back to this.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—
vs 22
Jesus has given them (us) the same glory that Jesus got.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 3. Jesus Prays for Those Who Will Believe (17:20–23)
Glory commonly refers to the manifestation of God’s character or person in a revelatory context; Jesus has mediated the glory of God, personally to his first followers and through them to those who believe on account of their message. And he has done all of this that they may be one as we are one.
I think of Moses up on the mountain asking to see God’s glory and God tell’s Moses to hide behind a rock and he could see just the back of God just before giving him the 10 commandments for the second time.
This is what it says about Moses when he returned from being with God:
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.
When we have been with Jesus and we are one with him and the father, His glory radiates off of us and people can tell. When when are one with each other and God, then we have what Jesus prayed for here.
23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
vs 23
Us in him, complete unity - that is the catalyst for (and underline this as well):
“Then the world will know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.”
We’ll come back to this as well as the other underlined passage
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
vs 24
Jesus is here praying for us to be with him in order that we would get to see his glory.
Imagine what Moses would have felt and how he looked after seeing a glimpse of the glory of God? That is what Jesus wants for us - for eternity.
He is praying here for our salvation - for our forgiveness - for our reconciliation back to God in order that we would be able to be where he is…in heaven.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
vs 25
underline “they know that you have sent me.”
The world does not have the privilege of knowing Jesus - truly knowing Him. Knowing Jesus is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We have that privilege of knowing God and because Jesus
26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
vs 26
Not only has Jesus made God known, he continues that work today and for eternity.
This is so that the love God has for Jesus would be in us.
And that Jesus himself would be in in us.
Let’s take a quick look at the phrases we underlined:
vs 21 “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
vs 23 “Then the world will know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.”
vs 25 “they know that you have sent me.”
Jesus prayer for us is that we would know that the God the Father sent Jesus. If we understand this, we will understand the depth of the love that God has for us. This understanding results in the glory of God being visible in us just as Moses reflected the glory of God after being with Him. When Moses delivered the commands to the Israelites, they saw that Moses’ face was radiant and they could then know that He had been with God.
God sent Jesus to us
To teach us about the love of the Father
To take our punishment to the cross
To conquer death by rising on the third day
To release the Holy Spirit to us for power, comfort and peace
To intercede on our behalf at the right hand of the father.
In order to be one of the ones Jesus talked about in verse 20 “those who will believe in me” we must come to the place of recognizing Jesus is who he said he was.
Romans 10:9-10 says:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.