(John 17:1-26)
One of the most encouraging experiences as a Christian is to be prayed for by someone else – and not only prayed for but prayed with. When someone prays for you in your presence, something special happens in your heart: you feel warmed and encouraged. There’s a sense of intimacy, both between you and the other person and between you and God.
It’s like you’re knocking on heaven’s doors together. It is one of the best ways to build relationships between Christians and one of the surest ways of ensuring unity in the church. It’s pretty hard for division to exist and take hold when people are praying together. So I believe that we do have to pray for one another and also we ought to pray with one another more .
Do you realize that we have someone intercedes on our behalf?
Do you know that someone prays for you? Do you know that someone goes to the Father on your behalf? Who is that someone? Yes, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Listen to these words from Hebrews 7:25: “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” And Romans 8:34 says something very similar: “It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.”
Jesus’ first prayer for us is a prayer for protection. Of course, unlike that young boy, we have the benefit of knowing in advance that our Father is there to protect us; although just like the young boy, we don’t always see our Father guarding us.
Jesus asks the Father to “protect” us. He prays, “Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
A little later he prays, “I ask you to protect them from the evil one.”
Against what are we being protected? Jesus asks that we receive protection from the evil one, that we would be protected when faced with temptation, opposition, persecution, etc. He takes it as inevitable that we will face such things in the world.
But He doesn’t ask that we be removed from these things. As Jesus says, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world.” But while we are in the world, he wants us to be protected and guarded. Now the word that we translate here as “protect” or “guard” , which can also mean “to preserve.” Jesus wants us to be preserved while we are in the world.
Jesus says, “Protect them in your name that you have given me.”
This is the same as saying “Father, help them to remain true to what they have received from me. No matter what they face in this world, no matter how the evil one attacks them, help them to remain in me. Preserve them, protect them, and guard them.”
Jesus’ second prayer for us is a prayer for sanctification. Sanctification here means “to be made holy,” and being made holy means being set apart. Jesus wants us “to be consecrated” for service. It has to do with being set apart for the purposes of God.
Jesus is praying that we would be set apart by the truth of who he is for the purpose of being sent into the world. We are in the world, but we do not, as Jesus says, Being holy, sanctified, and consecrated means that we belong to God.
Jesus’ third prayer for us is a prayer for unity. What does it mean to have unity here? It doesn’t mean that we agree on every single point of doctrine. It doesn’t mean that there is only one denomination. But it does mean that we are united in confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. It means that we confess in a united way that the Father and the Son are one and that the Father sent the Son into the world and reveals who the Father is.
This is not a unity we can achieve by our own efforts. Our unity emerges as a result of our remaining in Jesus – by being focused on him.
Lastly it is very important that we recognize that this passage is a prayer. Jesus is asking his Father to accomplish all these things. He is asking his Father to protect us. He is asking his Father to sanctify us. He is asking his Father to make us one in heart and mind. These are not things we can accomplish. We cannot preserve ourselves.
We cannot sanctify ourselves. And we certainly cannot make ourselves one and create unity amongst ourselves. Jesus entrusts his disciples to God the Father. So should we.
Brothers and sisters!
I want you now to imagine Jesus is sitting beside you and to picture He is praying with you right next to you, bringing your concerns and needs before God.
Can’t it be a powerful picture for you, can it?
