Jesus’ Prayer for Believers
Introduction
Intercessory prayer is a powerful thing. It builds me up and encourages me to know that people take the time to pray for me. But what builds me up and encourages me even more when it comes to intercessory prayer is a truth that we can find in the Bible. Romans 8:34 tells us that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Isn’t that amazing? The Lord and Savior of the World, Jesus Christ prays on our behalf. 19th Century Scottish Preacher Robert McCheyne was once quoted as saying, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” These words should ring true in our hearts today also. What are we to fear or worry about, knowing that Jesus Christ is praying for us? This should uplift and encourage each of us today.
Our text today, John 17:6-19 gives us an account of an intercessory prayer from Jesus. Last week, we began looking at Jesus’ prayer shortly before he was arrested; we looked at the first five verses of John 17 and saw Jesus’ prayer for Himself. Today we will look at verses 6-19 to see Jesus’ prayer for His disciples.
John 17:6-9 says,
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”
Jesus clearly states in verse 9 that in this particular prayer, He is praying for His disciples—those who believe in Him—and not for the world—those who don’t believe in Him. Though He originally prayed this particular prayer for the Disciples, as those who believe in Him here today, we can take courage in and ownership of this prayer for ourselves also.
And I suggest to you today that there are three key things that Jesus is praying for on behalf of His believers in our text.
Body
I. The first thing Jesus prays for on behalf of His believers is: Security (John 17:10-16)
A. The security that we have is found in Jesus
1. v. 11, 12
2. Jesus talks about how it is by the name the Father has given Him
3. What does it mean that our security comes from the name the Father had given him?
4. Well, it does not mean that our security comes from the name itself, but instead that our security comes from the one whom the name represents
5. A name is more about the person that the name represents than the name itself
6. When you hear the name Pastor Mike, you don’t think about my name, you think about me…what you think about me I don’t know, but you think about me—the person standing before you, not my name
7. When Jesus says that security or protection is in His name, He means that it is in Him personally
8. So, if we know that our security is in Jesus, it’s worth taking a minute to look at the credentials of Jesus
9. Read “Who is Jesus?”
10. I suggest to you that those are some pretty good credentials
11. Our security is in Jesus, and who better for our security to be in than the King of kings and the Lord of lords
B. This security does not mean that we won’t face hardship or trials, but that Jesus will be with us when we do, so that we will not be overcome by them
1. v. 15
2. He doesn’t ask the Father to take us out of the world, but to protect us from it
3. Dr. David Jeremiah in preaching on storms in our lives once said, “Security is not the absence of the storm; it is the presence of Jesus”
4. Jesus knew that we would face hardships and persecution; He mentioned this in the Scripture
a. v. 14
b. John 15:19-21
i. If we live for God, according to His Word, we will be despised by the world
ii. We must be unashamed to proclaim Christ crucified, and He promises that He will give us security, we don’t need to worry about that
c. Matthew 5:10 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
5. Jesus didn’t ask the Father to take the trials and persecution away, but instead He asked the Father to protect us through it
6. He asked that we be protected from the evil one
7. When Jesus taught us how we should pray in what we refer to as The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6), He prayed, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
a. This does not mean that we shouldn’t be tempted
b. It means that we should not give into the temptation
8. Jesus’ heart is to keep us secure, that we may not fall into the ways of this world, that we may have the full measure of His joy (v. 13)
9. He wants us to have joy even when we’re persecuted
a. This falls in line with the old acronym for JOY
i. J – Jesus
ii. O – Others
iii. Y – Yourself
b. If we want to have joy, we must keep our priorities in this order, meaning that we put Jesus first
c. And if we do that, we will likely be persecuted for it
d. But that’s okay, because we have His full measure of joy to help us through
10. Jesus prays for our security in Him that we will stay strong in our faith and live according to His ways
II. The second thing Jesus prays for on behalf of His believers is: Sanctification (John 17:17-19)
A. What is sanctification?
1. The Greek word used in our text is hagiazo and means “set apart for sacred use or make holy”
2. Sanctification is the idea of being set apart for God’s use
3. Sanctification is the idea of being made holy
4. Being set apart from the world means that we do not live according to our sinful nature; we live according to God’s Word
5. To be sanctified is to live for the spirit and not the flesh
6. It means that we must not be living in sin
B. Why be sanctified?
1. Sanctification is necessary for us to live for and be used by God
2. 2 Timothy 2:20, 21 – “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”
3. In order to be prepared to do any good work, we must be made holy or pure
4. Nobody likes to use a dirty cup
5. God commanded us to be set apart for Him, not indulging in sinful things
a. 1 Thessalonians 4:7, 8 – “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”
b. If we choose not to be set apart from the world then we choose to reject God, there is no other option
C. How are we sanctified?
1. Through Jesus (v. 19)
2. A lot of Scripture teaches this same truth; here are a few
a. Hebrews 7:25-27 – “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
b. 1 Corinthians 1:2 – “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours”
c. 1 Peter 1:14-16 – “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy.” (Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7)
3. We are sanctified through the sanctification of Jesus Christ and not on our own
4. We can never be holy enough
5. But Jesus sacrificed for our sins once and for all when He offered Himself
6. He set Himself apart so that we also may be set apart
D. So when Jesus prays for those who believe in Him, He prays that they would be able to live according to God’s will because of what He was about to do
E. Looking back, we know what Christ did when He died on the cross for our sins, so that we may be sanctified
F. There’s no doubt that this is a process and none of us are completely sanctified, but Jesus prays that we will be set apart from the things of this world
III. The third thing Jesus prays for on behalf of His believers is: Solidarity (John 17:11)
A. Jesus prays that we will be one just as He and the Father are one
B. Jesus wants to see unity among believers and He prays for this
C. Illustration – There was a Peanuts strip once in which Lucy demands that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” Linus asked. “These five fingers,” Lucy replied, “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.” “Which channel do you want?” Linus asked. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and said, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
D. The reality is that much like a hand is stronger with the fingers are unified to create a fist, Christianity is significantly stronger when the body is unified
E. Scripture
1. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12 – “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
2. Body made up of many parts (1 Cor. 12:12-30)
a. v. 25, 26 – “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
F. Jesus desires that we be unified as the body of Christ
G. This is one of the reasons I think everyone should be involved with various ministries that we offer here at this church, such as small groups, men’s ministry and women’s ministry
H. These things help to unify us and therefore create solidarity
I. If our brother or sister falls down, we’re supposed to be there to help them up…and better yet, we should be doing our best to help our brother or sister not to fall down in the first place
J. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we’re not alone in this battle against the ways of the flesh
K. When I was in youth as a teenager, one of my favorite things about going to Youth Convention and Acquire the Fire was being with thousands of other teenagers who were facing the same things I was facing as a believer in Christ
L. There’s something about being with people who share our faith which encourages us
M. This is why the enemy hates to see the body of Believers unified
N. And this is also why Jesus loves and desires this solidarity
O. We must become unified as a body, which means each or us searching our hearts individually (Psalm 139)
P. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so we all need to be spending time during our weeks reading the Word and praying to God, that we may be strengthened
Conclusion
Summary of Three points
Call for believers to search their hearts (Psalm 139)
Altar Call
