How Our Savior Prayed In The Shadow Of The Cross - Part 4 Series

How Our Savior Prayed in the Shadow of the Cross

Part 4: Christ's Urgent Prayers for His People

The Gospel of John

John 17:9-26

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church – April 18, 2018

(Revised May 13, 2020)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to John 17. Here God's Word continues an in-depth focus on the night before Jesus died on the cross. Led by God's Holy Spirit, John wrote about this night from John 13:1 to 18:27. Surprisingly, almost 6 chapters of John are devoted to this one night, almost a third of the whole Gospel.

*Here in John 17, Jesus and His disciples were very close to the Garden of Gethsemane. But before they crossed over the Brook Kidron, the Lord paused, looked up to Heaven, and began to speak to His Heavenly Father.

*Tonight, we finish looking at this longest of the Lord's prayers recorded in the Bible. Next in John 18, Jesus and His disciples went over to the Garden of Gethsemane where the Lord was arrested.

*We know that Jesus also prayed in the Garden, but the Holy Spirit did not lead John to record those prayers. We also know that this prayer in John 17 is very important, because of all the prayers Jesus ever lifted-up to the Father, only 8 more are recorded in the New Testament. All the rest of those prayers put together total less than 150 words. But the Lord's prayer here in John 17 has almost 400 words. This is a very important prayer.

*God wants us to see how our Savior prayed on the night before the cross, and first, Jesus prayed for Himself. In vs. 1, Jesus "lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.'" Then in vs. 5, Jesus prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." Jesus righteously prayed for God the Father to give His Son the glory He deserved.

*Then, Jesus began to pray for His followers, -- not just for the 11 disciples who were still with the Lord that night, and not just for the other people who believed in the Lord back then. Jesus began to pray for everyone who would ever receive Him as Lord and Savior.

*In vs. 6 Jesus told the Father, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word." Then in vs. 9-10 Jesus said, "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them." Then in vs. 20 the Lord said, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word."

*Jesus began to pray for all Christians. Jesus began to pray for us, and most of this prayer is a prayer for us. We have already seen how the Lord prayed for our protection, our sanctification, and our mission.

*FOR EXAMPLE, JESUS PRAYED FOR OUR PROTECTION IN VS. 11. There Jesus said this to our Heavenly Father: "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." "Keep" them, Father. The word picture means "keep your eye on them to guard and protect them." Jesus prayed for our protection.

*HE ALSO PRAYED FOR OUR SANCTIFICATION. In other words, He prayed for the Father to make us holy. Jesus prayed for the Father to make us like our Savior Jesus Christ.

*He prayed for our sanctification in vs. 16-17, where Jesus said this about His followers: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." Then in vs. 19 Jesus prayed, "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

*How are we sanctified? -- Through the truth of God's Word! Christians: We are sanctified by the Holy Word of God, and by the Holy Spirit of God at work in our lives. That's why 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells Christians, "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." Jesus prayed for our sanctification.

*HE ALSO PRAYED FOR OUR MISSION. We see our mission in vs. 18, where Jesus said this to our Heavenly Father: "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world."