June 1-3, 2019 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: John 17:20-26 “WHAT JESUS PRAYS FOR”

EASTER 7

June 1-3, 2019

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: John 17:20-26

“WHAT JESUS PRAYS FOR”

1.     Unity

2.     Glory

3.     Love

Sermon Text:   John 17:20-26 (NIV 1984) “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. ²²I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. ²⁴“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world. ²⁵“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. ²⁶I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”



          This past Thursday we once again celebrated the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. In one sense it seems to be an odd thing to celebrate…Jesus visibly leaving. But when you understand that Jesus ascended because His saving mission was completed and that He continues to serve His Church in spectacular ways you understand why it’s something to celebrate. One of those ways is as our intercessor. Jesus intercedes on behalf of the Church for its good. He prays for us. As one verse of the great Easter hymn “I know that my Redeemer lives” puts it, “He lives to plead for me above.” That leads to a question. What does Jesus pray for? Many years ago a fad swept our country that I don’t think would fly any more. WWJD. Do you remember? It stands for What Would Jesus Do and was meant to help Christians think about their actions and decisions. While it could certainly be done right as a guide, kind of like love your neighbor as you love yourself, soon, if you recall, it got ridiculous. People started to ask questions like what would Jesus drive insinuating if you were a real Christian you would only drive an environmentally friendly car and what stores would Jesus shop at and would he really buy a coffee that came from a country where the governments were not democracies on and on it went into silliness. Some Christians shot back with WDJD.  That stands for What Did Jesus Do as they correctly pointed out that more important than what we do is what Jesus did for us. That’s true. What we do is important in that it serves Jesus and shows Him love but nothing we do gets us to heaven. Nothing saves us. What Jesus did does. With that background I would normally hesitate to answer a question like what would Jesus pray for except that the Bible tells us. The portion of God’s Word we are looking at comes from what is known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. It’s part of the extended prayer He prayed in the Upper Room with His disciples the night He was betrayed. As Jesus intercedes for us today we know what Jesus prays for. We see His prayer priorities.

          First of all, unity. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. ²²I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” We know what Jesus prays for as here He clearly says He is praying for all who will believe. He prays for unity among all believers. There is one Lord Jesus Christ. There is one Bible. It makes sense there should be only one Christian church on earth. Sadly we know there are several thousand different church bodies with differing teachings. What happened? The Devil did. Sinful natures did. The Devil knows the strategy of divide and conquer. The sinful nature of man never likes being told what to do or the way it is. From the beginning sinful people have felt free to substitute what they think for what God says. False teaching when it is tolerated spreads and grows and divides. Some have suggested that the way to achieve the unity Jesus prays for is to overlook doctrinal differences and ignore them and let people believe whatever they want about how the world began or what marriage is or what good Baptism does. But that’s not the unity Jesus prays for. “May they be one as we are one.” Jesus and the Father never agree to disagree. The Son submits to the Father and they are one. So how do you get unity? Jesus has told us. “Sanctify them the truth. Your word is truth. If you hold to my teachings you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Brothers and sisters, we get to be part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer. As we devote to God’s word and submit our opinions and wants to what God says and demand that all Christians worldwide do the same and refuse to join with them until they do we are working for what Jesus prays for. Unity. Real Unity.

          Jesus also prays for glory. “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.” Jesus prays for you to have the glory of heaven and to see Him in all His glory. What that full glory is we can only speculate but it’s important that you know Jesus is praying for you to have it and to see it and that He has already done everything needed so you will get it. It’s important that you know that because now following Jesus will not be filled with glory nor does it look like Jesus has glory. When people use the name of Jesus Christ as a curse word or words of anger and are not immediately struck dead for blasphemy He doesn’t look very glorious. When the visible Christian church declines you will wonder about the glory. When Christians try to stay faithful to Christ’s teaching and get ridiculed or shunned is marginalized it will not feel very glorious. But the glory is coming. My dad had many sayings. One oft repeated one to us boys was “Work first, then play.” He was teaching us priorities and responsibility. Do the work, the hard part first. Then have fun. Jesus’ prayer reminds us of the same. Struggle first, then glory. Live in the sin messed world for a short time and then have glory forever. Jesus prays for you to have it and so you will.

          And Jesus also prays for you to have love. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. ²⁶I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” Jesus prays for the love of the Father to be in us. This is not what passes for love for so many people which is like as long as you are pleasing me or tolerate sin and say nothing. It’s the Father’s love. A commitment love. A caring for the needs of other love. It’s important that we have it. Not only did Jesus say that if we hold to his teachings we are really his disciples. He also said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Listen to what He had the Apostle John write in his first epistle. “ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” If we love one another—God lives in us. Look for those ways to care for another’s needs, to forgive, to sacrifice. That’s the love of the Father.

          I certainly have no desire to add more alphabet soup. I’m not suggesting that in addition to WWJD and WDJD that we have WIJPF. I do want you to know that Jesus prays for you and that His prayer priorities are unity, glory and love. Then as we dedicate ourselves to those priorities we find that we get to be an answer to Jesus’ prayers. Amen.