Jesus' Prayer

What a blessing it is for us personally to hear these words of our Savior--


Joh 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word


That's you and me Jesus is talking about! Jesus is praying for you and me! This prayer is so important for us. Jesus told us specifically that when we pray we shouldn't do so with vain repetitions, that we shouldn't make a great show of it, no public spectacle when we pray but rather go to a closet and pray there, do so in private rather than put your praying on display. So after being told all this we are greatly privileged, blessed, to hear one of Jesus' prayers. Jesus would go away in private to do most of His praying, but this prayer was one we were meant to hear. A prayer to His Father. Communication with His Father, with God the Father, how amazing is this! We get to listen as Jesus speaks with His Father when mentions US.


Let's really listen to this prayer-- Joh 17:1-26


These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said--

Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.


And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.


And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.


I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.


I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.


And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.


And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.


While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.


And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.


I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.


I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.


They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.


Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.


As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.


Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.


AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!


Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.


Amazing! Jesus doesn't pray for the world! How shocking that news might be for many who preach that we are to pray for the world. Jesus isn't praying for the world. Jesus knows this world as it is belongs to the prince of darkness. Jesus prays for those that God has given to Him. Those God has given to Him do not find this world to be theirs either.


Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.


We are NOT supposed to fit in! We are not supposed to look, be, feel, act like the world! We are not supposed to be like the majority! We are not to have their same thoughts or actions. We are not to seek acceptance from the world. If you are hoping to fit in, hoping that the Lord will answer your prayer to make you more like the world- more acceptable to others- then you are not in harmony with Jesus at all. You've had to have heard that that there is a "right" way and a "wrong" way to do things. The right way to most people is the one that doesn't rock any boats, that doesn't make you stand out in a crowd. The wrong way is to go about it in a way that will cause unrest, unease, making people feel uncomfortable- in a way that doesn't conform. Am I suggesting people who serve their Lord and Savior are to be unruly? No. I'm suggesting that we need to stand up for Christ and not be ashamed of Him and do so in a way that the world may not accept. Don't hide our faith, don't try to fit in with the world just so the world accepts you. What good is having the acceptance of EVERYONE on this world and not having the acceptance of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior? Do your peers accept you? Does your family accept you? Do co-workers accept you? Do your neighbors accept you? Do they all follow the Lord? Are they too not of this world? If they are of this world and not of Jesus then you need to ask yourself if you are conforming to their ways- being accepting of their worldliness- so you are accepted, or are they tolerating your ways, the ways of our Lord?


Jesus lived in this world but wasn't of this world! He is our great example. I want to be of Jesus' world, not this world. The more uncomfortable, the more ill-at-ease, the more strange I feel in this world the better, as long as the world I belong to is the same as Jesus' world.


May God bless us as Jesus' prayer is prayed for us even now. By the mercy of our Lord, by His grace!


In Christ now and forever and ever, always.


Amen.