Jesus' Prayer

John 17:6-21

In our Wed. night Bible study, we are drawing closer to this moment. We are a few chapters away but in real time this was only a few hours away from chapter 13.

Jesus and the disciples are moving toward the Garden of Gethsemane. In John 18:1 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.” This would of been the entrance into Gethsemane. This was a prayer before the agonizing prayer.

This prayer is very important for us. The reason being is that we can see communication to the Father God from the Son of God. Most importantly this is Jesus intercessory work for us. He does pray for Himself at the beginning, but the majority of the prayer is for the disciples and those that will believe through their teaching.

Another great value is it lays out to us what is really important to Jesus! It summarizes what is needful for us!

Jesus speaks about God’s Word

He also speaks of being One with Them.

One more thing about this prayer: When the Israelites were delivered from slavery, in the exodus from Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. In that 40 years they lived in tents. When they made camp, they would place their tents around a greater tent which was God’s dwelling place, called the Tabernacle. In the midst of the tabernacle was a smaller tent in which no one could go, called the Holiest of Holies. This symbolized the presence of God. This is where the ark of the covenant was with the mercy seat on top of it. All 12 tribes of Israel would pitch their tents around the tabernacle of God. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest (Aaron) could enter and make sacrifices for the children of Israel. He would go in with the blood of the sacrifice and incense. He would take the blood of a slain animal to symbolize the atonement for the sins of the nation, and the incense as the symbol of offering prayer to God to forgive the people on the basis of the atonement.

There is something very interesting about this. The priests would have to wear special clothes, on of which was a robe and the robe was made special. You can read about it in Exodus 28. On their robes would be 2 shoulder pieces and they would take 2 stones and engrave the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. 6 on one stone and 6 on another. They would put them stones in those shoulder pieces.

Scripture tells us this about them.....Exodus 28:12 “And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.”

Jesus is that for us now, Hebrews tells us that He ever lives to make intercession for us today. John 17 is an example of that, so, let’s dig in.........John 17:6-21........

There is so much to get to, but today let’s touch on a few points.......

Keeping the disciples and us.....Spiritual security.

Being separate, made holy (sanctified) by truth, by God’s Word.

Unity.....not church unity, but unity with the Godhead, being one with Jesus.

Jesus tells the Father and reveals to us that He came to reveal to us the Words that He received from His Father, God.

They have received those Words and they have the knowledge that Jesus came from God. They believe!

Jesus then prays not for the world, but for those that believed His Words.....

The world is the fallen system and those who have put their trust in it.......

This gives us a great insight of reality of the eternal, it has no earthly interest whatsoever.

Jesus prays that He is leaving out of the fallen world but the disciples will remain in this worldly system.

With the great foreknowledge of their lives Jesus knows that their walk in this world will not be easy! It was actually filled with persecution.

Jesus asks God to keep them through His Own Name.....just as Jesus kept them and did not lose one but the son of perdition.

Judas is the son of perdition (destruction). He was lost. It is supposed that he was never with Jesus.

It is possible that Jesus chose because of the hardness of his heart to fulfill what God had set forth.

John 6:70 “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

He had this knowledge a year or more before this moment.

This is not the point, none that truly believed went back! Jesus kept them while He was on earth!

He will be leaving soon and asks the Father to keep them as He did! Which we know God did!

God kept them by His Name, which is Truth!

Jesus tells God that He is not asking that they be removed from the world, but while they are in the world, keep them from the evil one. In other words, keep them from fallen into the life of Judas.

One writer calls this Spiritual security. The Lord’s prayer has the same requests Matthew 6:13 “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

I read this: Does the Father hear that prayer to keep and guard His own? He does, He does, and we have testimony to that. In Romans, chapter 8, at the end of the chapter, do you remember these words: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 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, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We can never be separated from the love of God. God will bring us to glory. God will get us to heaven, because we are in His Son, and He loves His Son perfectly, and thus, He loves us as He loves His Son; and that love will bring us to glory.

In Jesus Christ is the key!! I believe sometimes we get confused or blinded, whether by bad teaching or lack of understanding, but we get blinded from this truth.

We think that if things are not going well in our lives that then means that Jesus has left us or He is punishing us.

In some instances we can say it could be punishment, but we must be able to differentiate the world from the Spiritual! We must then allow our lives to be dictated by the Spiritual rather than the world.

This leads to our 2nd point which is being sanctified by the Truth of God. We are set apart from the world, everything in our hearts and minds is dictated by the holiness of God, which are very well aware of through Jesus Christ!

This how we become His, is by His truth! We must pull our hearts and minds away from the worldly and look at the reality of the eternal and we must live accordingly!

Galatians 5:25 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Then I will work backwards and quote Galatians 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Walk in the Spirit, which means put it to action. If we have the Spirit of God, let’s put into action.

John 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:.......”

Living out our lives dictated by the truth of God in Christ Jesus! Following Jesus!

This what we said last week denying ourselves and trusting the Spirit of God!

There is a lot of teachings about God that are just not truth. The world will tell you that it is ok to sin, because you have been forgiven and that there is no reason to repent and turn away from a lifestyle of sin!

Living happily in sin is not walking in the Spirit!

Lastly, the unity....Jesus is not speaking of unity within the church, that is necessary and it is a beautiful thing, but what Jesus is speaking of is greater than that.

Salvation – listen – is not just a ticket to heaven. It is not just forgiveness of sins. It is not just escape from punishment. It is God, listen, pulling us into the eternal life of the Trinity. All of us who are justified literally are pulled into the life of the Trinity. We are in the Father; we are in the Son; we are in the Spirit. The Father is in us; the Son is in us; the Spirit is in us.

The indivisible unity of the Trinity engulfs us and we are one with Christ. That’s why Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. I’m in Christ and Christ’s in me. I’m in the Spirit, the Spirit’s in me. I’m in the Father, the Father’s in me.” That’s why when we talk about joy a little later, Jesus says, “You have My joy.” And when He talks about peace earlier, “You have My peace. Why? Because you have My life.”

So our Lord Jesus goes into the Holy of Holies, bears us on His shoulders, comes before the Father who loves us as much as He loves the Son, and prays to the loving Father to do what the loving Father already has determined to do. He prays in perfect accord with the will of God to bring about our spiritual safety, our spiritual security, and our spiritual unity. We are literally drawn into the love relationship of the Trinity. That’s where we live and move and have our being. It doesn’t yet appear what we shall be, but someday, we’re going to see the fullness of that in His presence.

In Jesus Christ, we have every right to be in the presence of God. Jesus has done everything that was needed for that and because of the work of Christ, God has accepted us into this relationship!

Through this prayer, we see what is really important to God and His Son, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ! It is simple, but unachievable by mere humans!

There is not a smart enough person to figure out a way, we must believe in the Truth of Jesus Christ and allow that to dictate our lives.

There is not a strong-enough self-willed person to fight off the temptations from the evil one. We must believe in the ways of Jesus Christ and follow them, trusting that they lead to everlasting life!

There is not a good enough person to merit enough with God! We must believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ that atoned for our sins against a Holy God!

In the life of faith now, we must believe that Jesus is our incense of prayer, He is making intercession for those that are His!

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”