Are you the answer to Jesus' prayers?
In this blog post, I do not have the audio for this sermon, but I am sharing my notes to this sermon preached on the 9th of April, 2017 at Water of Life Fellowship.
Have you ever thought about this question? Read the thoughts below. I hope you are blessed by them.
Today, is Palm
Sunday. Today is the day we commemorate
Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem before he went to the cross. But, I am not going to talk about that story
today. As you know, in the past several
weeks we have been looking at some of the last actions and words of Jesus. Today we will consider one of his final
prayers.
Now I have always loved
this passage of Scripture. It is
beautiful. It is called Jesus’ “High
Priestly Prayer.” Now, it is not simply
called that because of its intercessory style.
It is not called that simply because Jesus is getting ready to go to the
cross. It is called the “High Priestly
Prayer” because it is modeled after the actions of the High Priest as he would
make atonement for the nation of Israel.
In that ancient ceremony, the priest would first come alone – separate
from all the people before the tabernacle.
There he would purify himself.
Then, he would prepare and offer the atonement before God. Jesus follows similar steps. Notice this pattern as we read the passage
together.
1 ¶ These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;
glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6 ¶ I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them
me; and they have kept thy word.
7 Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8 For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine;
and I am glorified in them.
11 ¶ And now I am no more in the world, but
these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own
name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept
them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is
lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I
speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world
hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world.
17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word
is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and
hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 ¶ Father, I will that they also, whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou
hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O
righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and
these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and
will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them. (KJV)
Isn’t this a beautiful
prayer?! Was it answered? Did you know that you can be an answer to
Jesus’ prayer? So let’s think about it a
little bit. Jesus has finished the last
supper with his disciples. Feet have
been washed. Bread has been broken. Wine
has been drunk. Earnest words have been
spoken. Judas has gone on his errand of
treachery. They are about to make their
way to the Garden of Gethsemane…and Jesus prays the prayer we just read.
A Prayer for Himself (1-5)
First, he prays for himself. Some people might ask why he does this. Simply He demonstrates that even as He faces
the cross, He is in right relationship with His Father. He shows that He understands the scope of His
mission on earth and He is ready to obey the father to complete it. What
was his mission? It was to glorify the Father on the earth. What does that mean? It means that we glimpsed God in the life of
Abraham, we learned more about Him from Moses, we heard His voice calling
through the prophets, but only now – in the life and teaching of Jesus – do we
truly see the Father as He is. Jesus
says that He has finished this part of His mission and it is now time for Him
to wrap it up with His final climactic duty.
In
this passage again He affirms that He and the Father are one and that He is no
mere man. He also indicates that He is
eternal and thereby has the power to grant eternal life. And, He defines
eternal life. What is eternal life?
(pause) “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father any other way but
through Him. To have eternal life, we
must have HIM! If we do not have Him, we
cannot have eternal life. Do you have
Him in your heart today? Do you know Him
and in knowing Him know the Father?
A Prayer for the Disciples (6-19)
The next section of the prayer is the longest part of the
prayer. In this part of the prayer,
Jesus intercedes for His disciples. In
this section of the prayer, you see His passion for and devotion to them. Jesus loved them a LOT!
What I find very interesting here is that He knows they
are all about to forsake Him and run away.
But still He prays for them with all the passion of His heart. If you know someone is about to betray you or
forsake you or hurt and wound you would you still love them? Would you still pour out your heart on their
behalf? Would you already forgive them
before they even commit the crime? Jesus
does.
In verses 6-8, Jesus underscores their faith. They have listened to what He has taught and
have fully accepted Him as the Messiah and believed on the Father through
Him. They have accepted His Words to be
true. As a result, in verses 9-10, Jesus
emphasizes that He is praying specifically for these men. He also prays something very interesting in
verses 11-12. He indicates that while He
has been with them, He has “kept” them.
The word used here is a word that means to guard them, watch over them,
protect them, and keep them. But he now
prays that they will be kept through the power of the Name of God – the power,
authority, knowledge, and doctrine of God.
In other words, God’s name is not some sort of magic spell which will
protect you if it is muttered appropriately.
Rather, if we walk in the words and ways of Christ and bear His name
upon us, we will be protected from evil by the power, authority, knowledge, and
doctrine of God. It is in Him we rest –
not in our own strength.
In the old days you would hear people talk about others
who went out and “made a name for themselves.”
They were saying that these individuals through their own willpower,
strength, and determination had elevated themselves beyond their point of
origin or previous station. But as
believers, we are not simply to make a name for ourselves. Rather we are to rest in His name. And every attitude of our hearts, every
motive of our will, and every action of our lives is to be for the glory of His
name. For it is through His name alone
that we may be elevated out of our original sinfulness and lifted to the higher
station of purity in Christ. Jesus
prayed this would be the case for His disciples.
In verse 13, Jesus prays for their joy that it may be
found in God in them. This is something
that happens presently while on earth.
Do you have His joy in you?
In verse 14, Jesus acknowledges that the world hates them
because He has given them the WORD! The
world may not like us when we live according to the WORD. But live by it we must.
But in spite of the fact that the world will hate us and
despise us and abuse us because of the WORD, in verse 15 Jesus prays something
remarkable: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”
This is why the persecuted Christians beg from around the world, “Pray
not that I will be safe from harm, but rather pray that I will be
faithful.” As parents, our tendency is
to try to shield our children from harm.
We do this physically and spiritually.
But Jesus did not pray for the disciples to be removed from the world,
but rather that they would be shielded from evil. I wonder how often do we make the mistake of
withdrawing from the places where Christ is opposed instead of standing
faithfully there at rest in His love?
Verses 16-19 address a significant idea both in concept
and in Wesleyan theology. It is the idea
of sanctification. Now sanctification
can be taken to mean two things: 1. A setting apart; 2. A purifying. Here the Greek word is hagiazo which means, “to make holy, i.e. (ceremonially) purify or
consecrate; (mentally) to venerate:--hallow, be holy, sanctify.”
Here in these verses we see both a separation from the
world and a purifying of the heart by truth.
Knowing that Jesus is the Truth, it is by Him we must be separated and
purified. Some say, oh, that is not what
Jesus meant here. He was already
sinless. He did not need to be
“purified.” I understand what you are saying, but do you understand that here
he is acting again as the High Priest preparing himself to offer the
atonement. And, in that attitude, He is
praying that His disciples might not only be separated from the world, but that
they would be purified by Him.
There is a lot more I could say about that, but let’s
keep it simple: Have you been separated from the world and all its darkness and
lusts? And, has your heart been purified
by the truth until your every thought is for His glory and every motive is pure
and true? If not, then you are not
sanctified in the way that Jesus here prayed.
If you are not, then come to Him, humble your heart, open yourself to
the truth, and ask that He sanctify you: separating you from the world and
purifying your heart.
Now some would say, oh this prayer is only for the
disciples who would become apostles. But
I think its principles apply to us all.
Why? Because in the very next lines of His prayer, Jesus expands His
focus and says…
A Prayer for Future Believers (20-24)
“20
¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word;” Huzzah! That means that He loves us too. He loves us and prays for us and calls us
also to walk in His Word and ways and to be set apart from the world and
purified by faith. That’s good
stuff! I also find it remarkable that as
He approached the cross thinking of those most dear to Him, He also thought of
us and prayed for us.
I
want you now to pay very close attention to these verses now:
“21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I
in thee, that they also may be one in
us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have
given them; that they may be one,
even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them,
as thou hast loved me.”
What do you see here?
“Unity.” The world thinks they
have a corner on unity in diversity. But
long before the first university, Jesus prayed that all of us would be united
as closely and lovingly and certainly as He is with the Father. This is incredible. Jesus prayed that we would have the same
unity as the Trinity!
This is one of the reasons Satan fights unity in the
church so hard. If he can divide us, he
can destroy us. As a Shepherd, one of
the things I despise the most is anything that attacks the unity of
believers. If Satan can separate us from
each other and from our Lord Jesus Christ, then He can win the battle. So for us to triumph personally and as a
group in spiritual battle there must be two things we seek: sanctification and
unity. We must live together with pure
hearts and then fiercely live in unity with God and with each other. We must dedicate ourselves to each other as
believers and forgive each other, love each other, stand with each other,
defend each other, and resist anything that would separate and divide us and
seek to destroy us. We cannot do this
alone. We must do it humbly with servant
hearts filled with the Holy Spirit and alive in Christ. I cannot tell you how strongly I believe
this. It is only through fierce humble
love to one another that the church will exemplify the name of God and survive
against the enemy. And, Jesus indicated
that this selfless urgent love is how the world would recognize the truth of
His life and message. Only with this
fierce burning truthful united love would the world be able to believe and know
that Jesus indeed makes a difference in the broken hearts of mankind.
A Review of His Mission (25, 26)[1]
Finally, Jesus concludes His prayer reviewing all He has
already prayed and declaring that it is His will that all of us will be with
Him in glory someday. His last words of
the prayer are that we will be filled with all the love of the Father as He is
in us.
Did
you ever realize that Jesus prayed all those things for you? Are you an answer to His prayer? Are you sanctified? Are you filled with His life? Are you ready to go to Glory? Are you fiercely loving others and in so
doing declaring His truth to the world?
If not, surrender your life to Him today that His prayer might be
answered in you.
