September 3, 2023
When Jesus Prayed For You
Luke 17:20-24
One of the greatest acts of love that we can show for one another is when we pray for each other without being asked. When you care enough for a person that you see has a need and you take them to the Lord, you intercede for them. That prayer is an amazing act of love! I can’t tell you how much it means to our staff when people come and tell us that you have been praying for them. It’s one of the most thoughtful things you can do and means the world to us. In Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in scripture (called His High Priestly Prayer) we see that He prays for Himself and then prays for the Disciples. Before He ends the prayer and is betrayed and arrested, He does something that is almost unimaginable. Jesus prays for you and me!
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. – John 17:20
When I say Jesus prayed for you and me, I’m actually saying that Jesus is praying for those who have responded to the Gospel (called the Disciples message here) and have made Jesus the Lord of thier lives. If you have never accepted this Good News about Jesus then let me give you a chance to do so now.
You are a sinner (Romans 3:23) because you have disobeyed God’s law. That sin has separated you from God (Isaiah 59:2). There is nothing you can do to fix this separation because even when we try to do good (when compared to God’s standards) everything we do is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). While we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts God raised Him from the dead we will be saved from the punishment that our sin deserves (Romans 10:9). It’s the only way to be made right with God. It’s the only true Gospel.
That’s the same Gospel message that the Disciples preached throughout the whole New Testament. It’s also the same Gospel that we are proclaiming today. By believing in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and confessing that He is the Lord of your life that we are saved. It was those who are saved that Jesus was praying for as He closed out his High Priestly Prayer. As we finish up our series on “Powerful Prayers” let’s look at one of the most special prayers prayed in all scripture. We are to focus on what exactly Jesus prayed for and why it matters to us.
Jesus prays for our unity - John 17:21
21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
Jesus starts out this part of His prayer by praying for unity and oneness for all believers just as the Father and Son are one. This is a beautiful depiction of the Trinity that Jesus wants played out in His children. To understand the Trinity, I think we can pull from the book “The Forgotten Trinity” where James White defines the Trinity as “Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. This unity in the Godhead is what Jesus uses as an example for the unity that He prays for and wants in His church. This unity is not uniformity, but rather unity that is perfect. We lost that unity all the way back at the Garden of Eden. It was the first sin and every sin since that has caused this disjointedness. Jesus is praying for unity that was lost. We know that one day that unity will be perfected, but for now, it’s like sanctification. We are going to have to work hard for it. I think another great example of this type of unity is marriage. The Bible tells us when a man and a woman are married they become one (Matthew 19:4-6). We who are married know this oneness is not something that is automatic. It is something that must be worked at and it’s not easy work, it’s hard work. It’s the same in the church. We are going to have to work at it and it’s hard work. There is still diversity because we are not supposed to be Christian clones, rather we all were created with different skills, talents, and ways of thinking. However despite these differences we have oneness in many things - we have oneness in the truth. We each can’t have our own version of the truth. We have one truth and that’s God’s Word. We must draw closer to the truth and proclaim it with our mouths and our lives. We have oneness through the Holy Spirit. It’s a supernatural oneness that can’t happen apart from the Holy Spirit who lives inside of all believers (1 Cor. 6:19). It’s through the Holy Spirit sanctification comes in our lives. The more we are sanctified, or made holy, the closer we become because we all come closer to God through Jesus. It’s also a oneness through love. Jesus said they will know you by your love (John 13:35) therefore we must always be looking for ways to show others the love of Christ through our own love. It’s in these three truths that we must always be united. We can have differences of opinions on how we carry them out because we are equipped differently, but we can never let them fall by the wayside. Jesus prayed for unity and we must fight to maintain it because Satan is doing everything he can to destroy it.
Jesus prays for our glory. - John 17:22
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.
Jesus speaks of the glory that was given to us. This glory is a unifying factor amongst all believers because it unifies us in status and in mission. What exactly is this glory? Paul said he wasn’t going to glory in anything except for the cross. That means the glory we have only comes from the cross of Jesus. When Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 to let your light shine before men so they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. It shows us once again that the glory doesn’t come from us but from the Father who will get the glory. What is this glory that is given to us from God?
It’s the glory of our perfect acceptance before God.
Listen to what Colossians 1:22 says about our perfect acceptance. “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” What a glorious thing that we can stand before a righteous and holy God and be seen as blameless despite our sinful natures. It’s only through the death of Jesus that this can happen, so we must boast in Christ.
It’s the glory of our access to the Father.
In the Old Testament the presence of God dwelt within the Holy of Holies. In Hebrews 10:19, we are told it’s by the blood of Jesus that we have confidence that we can enter into the most holy place. By the blood of Jesus we have access to the Father.
It’s the glory of the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
When we are saved, God lives in us. The Holy Spirit lives in us and will not leave us. There is much more detail we could go into here, but that would take up another entire sermon. We need to understand it was only through the cross of Christ that this is possible.
It’s the glory of victory over death and the grave.
Revelation 1:8 tells us that Christ conquered death and the grave and it’s only through Him that we conquer them as well. It’s the only reason Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 15:55-58 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” Death is conquered and not something to ever be feared, not because of what we have done, but because of the sacrifice Jesus made. Let us glory in the cross!
It’s the glory of being called the children of God.
It’s one thing to be forgiven. It’s another thing to be adopted into God’s family as described in 1 John 3:1. We cost Jesus His life. We were His enemies, yet He still came and laid down His life. That’s enough to sing about for all eternity!
We could go on and on with these but the point is we have immeasurable riches that were given freely (for us at least) through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of these were given in part to bring glory to God and to bring us closer in unity.
Jesus prays for our mission. - John 17:23
23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.
This unity that Jesus prays for has the ultimate purpose of showing the world that God loves them so much that He sent His only son to die for them. It was given to bring God glory and to show all sinners that God offers them forgiveness, healing, and unity with God despite their sins. This is something the church can never lose focus on. We must focus on our unity, the glory we have been given through the cross, and our mission - a mission that was laid out in Matthew 28, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This will be our mission until we are called home. What a glorious day that will be!
Jesus prays for our future. - John 17:24
24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
The last thing Jesus prayed for is our future. Our future is in a place that He has prepared for us (John 14:3). It is a place that is beyond our wildest imaginations (1 Corinthians 2:9). Jesus wants us to be there with Him forever and to see Him in all His glory. He had laid it aside for a time for our sakes and His glory (Philippians 2:7-9). There is coming a day we will see Him in all His glory just like John did in Revelation 1:12-17.
Jesus’ prayer shows us what we must be focused on while we are still here on earth. We must focus on unity, His glory, our mission, and encourage each other with our promised future.
