1st John 2: 1 – 11; Romans 8: 1 – 4, 26 - 27; John
17:20 - 26
The 17th Chapter of the Gospel of John is what I would consider to be the
Lord’s Prayer. What we normally call the Lord’s Prayer is really a prayer model for Jesus’ disciples to
follow. Remember the 12 disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. …. and … when they did Jesus said when
you pray say “Our Father which art in Heaven … “
Here in the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus knows that this is
His last night with His disciples before His death and Jesus prays about those things that are closest to his heart.
There
are three sections to Jesus’ prayer in the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of John
In verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself.
In verses 6-19 Jesus prays for
the eleven disciples and then
In verses 20-26, Jesus prays for all of the believers yet
to come. Yes… that is us … You and I … The Church of Jesus Christ
Look at verse 20 -“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those
who will believe in me through their message” Think about this, one of Jesus’ last prayers while He was on
this earth was for us as individuals and us as a church
We do not want to miss the confidence that Jesus had in the 12 disciples. Jesus knew
they were weak, Jesus knew they did not understand all He had taught them; Jesus knew the great obstacles they would encounter
in carrying on the ministry He had started. Jesus knew that one of them would betray Him, another one would deny Him, and
all would desert Him. But, Jesus looked beyond this and saw the millions and millions of people that would hear and
accept the Good News of the Gospel because of the witness of the original disciples. Jesus looked beyond all of this and saw
the people like you and me who would be just like the original disciples. People that would be weak, people that would not
understand all of His teachings, people that would have to face great obstacles as they shared the Good News of The Gospel.
Jesus’ confidence did not come because of the abilities of the
disciples but rather Jesus is confident because of the unlimited power of Almighty God working
through human beings. Jesus knew that nothing is impossible for God. In Philippians 4:13 we read, “I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me” That is why Jesus prayed for us. Jesus prayed for divine intervention
so that we would be effective in carrying on the ministry Jesus started when He was on earth … a ministry of reconciling
people to God and people to each other.
This morning I want us to spend the next few minutes looking at what Jesus prayed
for you and me on that night before He was betrayed and voluntarily went to the cross to die for you and me.
There are five specific petitions in the prayer that Jesus prayed for us:
First Jesus prayed that we would be one in Christ
We see this petition for unity of Christ in verses 21, 22, and 23.
Jesus prayed that we would be one with Him even as He and His father were one. Jesus
prayed for unity. This desire for unity was not an organizational unity or the goal of the ecumenical movement that we hear
so much about today. Christians will never organize their churches the same way. Individual churches will never worship God
in the same way. All Christians will not interpret all of the scriptures in the same way nor will they believe exactly
the same things. … But Christianity transcends all of these differences since Christianity is totally focused
on the love of Jesus Christ. Being a Christian means having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
Christianity is not just a religion. Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ! Worship is not going through a ritual … worship is an encounter with our living Lord!
The unity Jesus was praying for was not uniformity but Jesus prayed for the unity
of a personal relationship. Jesus did not pray for a luke warm unity. Jesus prayed for a unity that was as real and as
close as the unity that exists between The Father and The Son; a mutual indwelling in which each lives in the other and both
are one. When we as the Church have that kind of unity then and only then will the world believe that Jesus is God and that
the gospel is true.
In the first part of verse 24 Jesus prayed for us to be with Christ
in heaven
Jesus not only wants us to be unified as brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus also
wants us to be with him in heaven forever.
God created Heaven so that we could live with Him through
out eternity. Everything Jesus did while He was on earth was do so we could be forgiven and so we could live in heaven with
Him.
Jesus left heaven so we could go to heaven.
Jesus was born a baby so we could be born again.
Jesus became a man so we could see God.
Jesus paid the penalty of our sin so we could be forgiven.
Jesus suffered and died so we could live forever with Him in Heaven
God is a Spirit and God is eternal. Since God created us in His image … that
means we are spiritual beings temporarily housed in a physical body. Our spirits will live forever. Everybody will live throughout
eternity. The only question is where we will spend eternity. Jesus wants us to spend eternity in heaven with Him. But Jesus
does not force Himself on anyone. We have to choose Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord. We need to remember that God does
not send anyone to Hell …. people choose to go to hell by rejecting Jesus as their personal Savior.
Jesus prayed that we would choose to accept Him as our personal Savior so we could spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
In the second part of verse 24 Jesus prayed for us to see the glory
of Christ
“Glory" is the visible manifestation of all the divine attributes of Almighty
God.
Jesus came to earth to show us The Father. Jesus was the physical manifestation of
God. Remember when Phillip asked Jesus “Show Us The Father”; …. Jesus answered
by saying “If you have seen me you have seen the Father”. Glory is what we see when we look at God.
In verse 22 Jesus says, "I have given them the glory that you gave me."
I trust that all of you have had the privilege of knowing a Christian that radiates.
When someone become close to the Lord the glory of The Lord shines through them. Paul told the church in Corinth;
"We are being transformed into His likeness with an ever-increasing glory."
We also see the object of Jesus revealing His glory in verse 22 …. “that
they might be one as we are one” That glory transforms us even now. The more we focus on Jesus Christ, the more
we become one with Him and the more we will be drawn to fellow believers. Also, the more we are one in Christ
the more glory we will see.
Jesus not only prayed that the present church on earth will see His glory but
that the future church in heaven will see His glory. There is more to come. Christ will fully reveal all of His glory
in heaven: The last part of verse 24 states: "the glory You have given me because you loved me before the creation of
the world." We will have eternity to meditate on the love between the Father and Son!
Next in verse 26 Jesus prayed that we will have the love of Christ in
us
In the 4th chapter of John’s first Epistle we read, “God
is love and that love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not
know God because God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God abides in them”
We can love because Christ first loved us!
Here again we see the desire for us to be one in Christ.
Also in verse 26 Jesus prayed that we will have the Spirit of Christ
in us
We have come full circle and we are back at the unity in Christ. If we have the Spirit
of Christ in us we are one in Christ!
From this passage we see what was really important to Jesus. Jesus wanted all of His
disciples to be united in Him, so that we would continually experience the love, feel the presence, and see the glory of Almighty
God in our lives. Perhaps, you have not experienced the love, the presence and the glory of Almighty God in your life in past
few weeks or Perhaps you never have experienced it. If this is the case then we need to spend more time
in prayer. You see Jesus also used prayer to keep united with his Father and that is the key for us. We need to pray that
God will become real in our lives.
Prayer is the key. Although Jesus was the greatest preacher that ever lived, Jesus
did not resort to preaching for us to feel His presence, Jesus prayed.
Although Jesus was the greatest teacher that ever lived, Jesus did not resort to teaching
for us to experience His love, Jesus prayed.
Although Jesus was the greatest miracle worker that ever lived, He did not perform
miracles in order for us to see His glory, Jesus prayed.
In this prayer we get a glimpse of the love that Jesus has for us and His desire for
us to be united in Him. When we are one in The Lord we will continually experience the love, feel the presence, and see the
glory of Almighty God in our lives. Then and only then will the world believe that Jesus is God and that the gospel is true.
AMEN
