Jesus Priestly Prayer – John Chapter 17

John 17: 20-21: ”²⁰I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. ²¹ May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.” (HCSB)  

Jesus Prays for those yet to be brought into His kingdom. That means us- along with many others. His disciples would speak forth the message of salvation and it would “turn the world upside down”! Jesus wants this world to hear His message and to know He was sent with that message by His Father.

The words “one” and “unity” are the same word. As we seek the unity with God that Jesus prayed about, we must have unity within the bride of Christ as brothers and sisters. Paul writes about the unity that needs to be found in the Church:

Philippians 2:2: “²make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” (NASB)  

This becomes possible only when we surrender to the Lord and sustain a humility that is needed to be one in Christ. Paul talks about the attitude of humility that our Lord demonstrated:

Philippians 2: 3-5:  ”Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus…” (NASB) 

As we grow from “glory to glory” our walk should show a Christ-like unity in “a bond of peace”. 

Ephesians 4:1-3:  ”⁴I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, ² with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, ³ endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (NKJV) 

God desires we enter into closeness with Him and be a witness of God’s love to mankind. Let us all seek a unity that reveals the Fathers heart and that many would know that Jesus was sent by the Father- for them! 

Prayer Focus for this Coming Week

• Prayer for God to choose His candidate for the upcoming election.
• Continued prayer for the “40 Days in Prayer” currently underway at Crossroads. That the groups would continue to move as one heart.

Pastor Bill

Jesus Priestly Prayer – John Chapter 17

John 17: 11-12:  ”¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. ¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (NKJV) 

Jesus uses the word “kept” twice in verse 12. The first time, He says:”I kept them in Your name”. The Greek for this word implies a fortress. Jesus was guarding them as no other could do. He was the “Rock” for them. The second use is “Those whom You gave Me I have kept”. The second word for kept in verse 12 is to guard from loss or injury by being watchful. Jesus was watching over them constantly and interceding for them. Jesus is doing the same thing for us in that we too are kept in the Fathers name through Jesus.

In Chapter 13, Jesus states that there will be a betrayal. The disciples are not able to respond to this but Jesus knows Judas will betray Him. In verse 12, Jesus prays to His Father and says “not one of them was lost except for the son of perdition” (i.e. son of destruction). Even though Judas had been with Jesus for three years, he decided to betray Him. The betrayal happened after the foot washing- which Judas participated in. Somewhere along the way Judas had lost his focus, departed from his relationship with Jesus, and in the end, would pay a terrible price. But Jesus stated that this betrayal would turn out to be a fulfillment of the Scripture. Most scholars see this as Psalm 41:9.

Psalm 41:9:  “⁹Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.” (NIV)

David was struggling when he wrote this verse. Little did he know that this simple verse would become an amazing prophecy! This shows how deeply prophetic Gods word is. It also shows how very aware Jesus was of Scripture in His life and His desire to fulfill the prophecies in Gods’ word. Let us pray and study the word of God so we can deepen our relationship with our Lord.

Prayer Focus for this Coming Week

• Prayer for God to choose His candidate for the upcoming election.
• Continued prayer for the upcoming 40 days in Prayer as we begin to intercede for our towns and city.
• Prayer for a revival of prayer and fasting at Crossroads.

                                                                                                                               

Pastor Bill

Jesus Priestly Prayer – John Chapter 17

John 17:13-18: ”¹³Now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have My joy completed in them. ¹⁴I have given them Your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.¹⁵ I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.¹⁶They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. ¹⁸As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth.”  (HSCB)

Last week we looked at the expressions “of the world” and “in the world”. There is so much in this prayer! Jesus also speaks of giving the word of the Father to them. He further states that this word is truth. This is important for us to understand. There are many teachers and beliefs in the world and many of them sound so good. Yet there is really only one source of truth and belief- and that is God’s word and that word comes from the throne of God. Today, people reject the Bible or just add to it to fit their belief system. Yet there remains only one source of truth- the word of God. In fact, Jesus was, is, and always will be THE truth- and THE word:

John 14:6: ” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  (NASB)

Truth is both God’s written word and is a person named Jesus!

John 1:1-2: “¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.”  (NASB)

Revelation 19:11-13: ” ¹¹Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. ¹³ He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” (NKJV)

So, as we walk out our salvation, we do so with “fear and trembling” but with a wonderful foundation of truth. Jesus said we are “sanctified” by this truth. This means we are “made holy”, “set apart” or “consecrated” through Jesus! We are so blessed! Lord God, we seek you and desire to come into your presence. Help us to live out your truth and to stay in your word.

Prayer Focus for this Coming Week

• Prayer for God to touch the lives of those in authority within our towns.
• Prayer for the upcoming 40 days in Prayer as we begin to intercede for our towns and city.
• Prayer for a revival of prayer at Crossroads.

Pastor Bill

Jesus Priestly Prayer – John Chapter 17

John 17: 13-18: ”¹³Now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have My joy completed in them. ¹⁴ I have given them Your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.¹⁵ I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.¹⁶ They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth.”(HSCB)

As we read these marvelous words we see a repeated expression, “of the world”. This is an important phrase. We are “in this world” but not “of this world.”  Jesus was telling His disciples that they must stay in the world to complete God’s work planned for them. Therefore they were to reside or work in the world with an eye towards heaven. Being in the world does not mean we are to assume the nature of the world. Instead, we are to see ourselves as just “passing through” and heading resolutely towards our home in heaven. Since we too are in the world, we need protection from the evil one and the apostle John says it very well:

1 John 5: 19: ”¹⁹We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”  (NIV)

Jesus was all too aware of the power of evil in the world and prayed for protection for His disciples. Even as we walk out the work or lives we have today, we must do so with the knowledge that our Great High Priest, Jesus, is in intercession for us. The pull of the world is powerful but we have our Lord interceding for us.

Romans 8: 33-34: ”³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”  (NIV)

More next week.

Prayer Focus for this Coming Week:

• Continued prayer for the 40 Days in the Word campaign.
• Prayer for God to touch the lives of those in authority within our towns.
• Prayer for the upcoming 40 days in Prayer as we begin to intercede for our towns and city.

Pastor Bill