How To Transform The World.

Resurrecting Hope: Overcoming Life’s Greatest Challenges. How To Transform the World.

Text: John 17:20-23NLT

Throughout history the Church has been instilled with hope in the face of life’s trials because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Easter is a reminder that the Christian lives day in and day out with power that can overcome any challenge.

In our darkest days, resurrection gives us light. In overwhelming discouragement— resurrection gives us faith. In the midst of devastating loss, resurrection gives us joy. In times of divisiveness, resurrection gives us something that unifies us.

Listen, The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive, and that gives us hope!

In my humble opinion, the natural (this world), seems—scary, dim, bleak, Covid-19, the war and presently the threat of a nuclear catastrophe! In times like these, I praise God for Jesus’ resurrection power.

For out of His resurrection comes—Holy Spirit, Salvation for all, Comfort, Love, Prayer and Grace, plus anything and everything righteous.

One of the final prayers Jesus prays isn’t just for His disciples, it is for anyone who would— believe His prayer.

This purpose of this prayer is to produce change:

Jesus prays in, John 17:20-23AMP “I do not pray for these alone [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for [all] those who [will ever] believe and trust in Me through their message, 21 that they all may be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe [without any doubt] that You sent Me.

22 I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected and completed into one, so that the world may know [without any doubt] that You sent Me, and [that You] have loved them, just as You have loved Me.

I want to give you 3 points to remember about this mighty prayer:

POINT #1—The Love of God unites us all.

Jesus states, this prayer is an on-going prayer. He prays that mankind will become—one with Him, and His Father.

Observation: I’ve noticed at the end of someone’s life, the conversation that takes place is not about how many more vacations they wish they would— have taken, how they should have purchased that big-screen TV, or how sad it makes them that they didn’t win the lottery.

Rather what people talk about is how they wish they had more time with their families, how they want to heal a broken relationship, or how they would have spent more time helping people.

“These conversations are around the things that truly matter most.’ ‘When time is limited, people speak from the heart.’ Like the words of Jesus in John 17, ’It is these final words that we should pay close attention to.” P.H

Here’s the faithfulness of God—The final prayer that Jesus prayed, was for you.

Did you know that your prayers linger, and stand the test of time? The prayers of Jesus are still coming into fruition.

The love of God is for all people and it is the unifying truth behind His sacrificial work on the cross.

Again, POINT #1—The love of God unites us all.

The heartbeat of Jesus’ prayer reveals that Jesus came to rescue the world.

In the midst of a divided world, we can trust that the love of Jesus knows no bounds.

Psalm 133:1-3TM How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!?It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, Flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.?It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.

POINT #2—Fight for unity.

Think for a moment about your problems or needs. Because Jesus overcame death and the grave, there is nothing that we could possibly come up against that He cannot handle.

The apostle Paul writes in, Romans 8:11TM It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself?

His resurrection was a shock to Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus that first Easter morning. Her thoughts might have been, “If Jesus isn’t alive, I’m still dead in my sins. I’ve believed a lie.”

Peter was restored after his denial of love for the resurrected Christ.

The grace of our Lord Jesus overcame all of Peter’s failings!

Think about this, “Jesus feels our pain, and yet has the power to heal our pain.”

In the late A.W. Tozer’s book, The Pursuit of God, he writes, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow…