He Prays for You
John 17:20-26 - May 23, 2004
“I’ll pray for you.” Those are comforting words, aren’t they? We take it as a sign of love when someone offers to take the time to pray for us. When a friend, or a relative, or a brother or sister in Christ says, “I’ll pray for you,” we are always thankful for their thoughtfulness.
Although our prayers for each other are motivated by love, the Scriptures also command us to pray for each other. James 5:16 says exactly that, “pray for each other.” In 1 Timothy 2:1 the Apostle Paul urges that, “requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.” In addition to directives like those the Scriptures are also filled with examples of people praying for others.
“I’ll pray for you.” How would you feel if Jesus said that to you? I know it would sure put a smile on my face! My Savior praying for me sounds pretty awesome. Imagine. It would show his love and concern for me. And of course just knowing who he is and what he can do would add to my appreciation of his offer to pray for me.
Thankfully the idea of Jesus praying for us is more than just wishful thinking. The Bible tells us that Jesus does pray for us. Since he has risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven he takes what we express in prayer--our needs, our hopes, and our fears--to God on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus “lives to intercede” for us. And in 1 Timothy 2:5 we are told that Jesus is the “one mediator between God and humankind.”
But Jesus does more than just act like a transmitter for our prayers, more than just a mediator or an intercessor. He has specific things that he too wants to see happen in our lives. And so he also prays for us in addition to bringing our prayers to God. Of course the whole idea of Jesus praying for us when he is also God by being one with God and one with the Holy Spirit boggles our minds. How can God pray to God? Many of the things of God we cannot begin to understand, but the fact that it is still the truth should be a comfort to us. With childlike faith may we accept the awesome truth that our Savior prays for us.
Our Jesus PRAYS for us! So what does Jesus say when he prays for us? The Word of God that we will consider this morning lets us listen in on at least one of Jesus’ prayers on our behalf. Listen to John 17:20, 24-26. (Read text.)
Today may each of you: “HEAR JESUS’ PRAYER FOR YOU”
Whenever we read or listen to something the Lord said we naturally consider the setting for his words. To whom was he speaking? When was he speaking? What did he say before and after? Context is especially important in the case of this prayer for you. Jesus spoke these words on the night he was betrayed in the upper room where he instituted the Lord’s Supper. He was just minutes away from the horrific events leading up to his crucifixion. And yet even then he was thinking of you—he was praying for you.
It is also worth noting that what Jesus was about to do would make the answer to his prayer possible. Experiencing God’s love and having a relationship with him was never going to be a possibility for humans unless Jesus went forward with his mission. His suffering and death in the place of those who had no hope of getting to heaven would allow them to go there just as Jesus prayed they would.
Since there is a progression to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer for us who believe in him, let’s look at the last part of his prayer first. Jesus prayed, “Righteous Father, the world does not know you but I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with whick you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
As you hear Jesus’ prayer for you, you realize that he wants you to grow in faith and love, as you know God’s love better. He also wants to live in you more completely.
How has Jesus made God known to us and how does he continue to make the Creator known? He does that through the Scriptures. In the record of what Jesus said and did we have learned about God’s deep love for Jesus. And every time we read or study the Bible, our knowledge of God grows and our faith increases. Then as Jesus works in us, we come to see more fully the love between them.
So is there anything that could possibly prevent Jesus’ prayer from being answered in our life? Yes, we can stand in the way of the answer to Jesus’ prayer for ourselves. Jesus makes God known to us through several ways. One is with the workings of the Holy Spirit through other believers and through the written Word we call the Bible.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” The Apostle Peter reminded us of this when he wrote, “You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not be carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:17-18)
As you hear Jesus’ prayer for you, realize that he has placed the answer to his prayer right in front of us. Through the Word of God alone Jesus makes God’s love known to us and puts it in us. And through that same Word he lives among us. That is why Paul told the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” (Colossians 3:16)
Sadly our response to the Word doesn’t always reflect what we know about it. We let days or weeks go by without even cracking open the Book. Our sinful nature shows its “know-it-all” attitude as we tune out the message from our Savior. We become content with a little knowledge of God instead of hungering to know more. In our rugged pride we many times try to “go it alone” without the love of God revealed in the Bible. We forget the power is there. And why do we forget? Because we don’t tap into it enough for it to have developed into a routine way of handling our daily stresses.
As hard as it may be to admit and accept it, we have stood in the way of the answer Jesus offers in the prayer he prays for us! And so we don’t know God nearly as well as we could. Jesus’ presence in our lives isn’t as palpable—we can’t feel it--as it could be. And God’s love doesn’t shine as brightly as it could in our thoughts, words, and actions.
Thankfully Jesus continues to pray this prayer for you. Although this prayer in John’s gospel is twenty centuries old its content is still modern. This is the wish Jesus still has for you--he wants you to grow in faith and love and he wants it so bad he prays for you, asking God to give it to you!
And because he wants it so badly for us, he forgives our sins that stand in the way of his prayer being answered and he continually sets the answer in front of us. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and I will continue to make you known.” Why? “so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
So that God’s love and Jesus’ love may be in us and so that Jesus himself may be in us. WOW. Wow. It seems so simple--as we grow in faith and love Jesus’ prayer for us is answered.
“May I pray for you?” I can’t imagine that any of us would tell say, “No thank you.” As I routinely visit sick people in the hospital where I serve as a volunteer chaplain, even those who ask me to please leave their room have never said, “No thank you,” when I ask, “May I pray for you?” And wouldn’t it be unthinkable for us to reject the answer to a prayer on our behalf when the person who prayed it had the power to answer it? Incredible. Mind-boggling. The one praying for us actually has the power to answer his own prayer!
From growth in faith and love we now turn to the goal of our faith. After all that Jesus did to make heaven a possibility for us it shouldn’t surprise us that he wants us to be there with him. He prayed, “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
As you hear Jesus pray for you I hope you catch the deep love he has for you. He wants you to be with him forever in heaven. If it weren’t for his patience, which lets the world continue so that more and more people learn about his love, he would put an end to the old order of things. And if it weren’t for the fact that he has a mission for us to accomplish in life he would gather us all into heaven without delay.
See, in addition to making heaven a possibility through his suffering and death he also shows us how to get there. Jesus began his prayer for you by saying, “I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me” (John 17:20 MSG).
Centuries after the disciples joined Jesus in heaven the message is still bringing people to faith. In that way Jesus’ prayer for you has been answered. And yet Jesus’ prayer for you hasn’t been answered. We aren’t in heaven yet. We can stand in the way of the answer Christ offers.
Let me ask you something. Please raise your hands if you want to go to heaven when you die. Ok. Now. How many of you want to go to heaven today?
Most of us aren’t yet ready to go, are we? The things of this world still hold our attention and love. I wonder why that is. Do we maybe think heaven might be kind of boring? Do we think so much of ourselves that we think there are those on earth who couldn’t possibly get along without us? Or is it our desire for pleasure--“Some day Jesus can take me to heaven but right now I’m having too much fun on earth.”
See how we can sometimes be an obstacle to Jesus’ prayer for us? May we be led to change our thinking and our attitude so that our desire for being in heaven matches the Lord’s desire to have us there—in His time, when our work on earth is done. We are encouraged to look at life as a time of being prepared to enter heaven. We are just passing through. Jesus is praying for us to be where he is, to be with Him and to see his glory. We may live to a ripe old age. Or we may die what the world would say is an “untimely death.” But either way Jesus will welcome us into his glory. Then the prayer he prayed for us so long ago, and continues to pray for us, will be fulfilled.
That should help us to put our lives into perspective. Jesus wants us to be with him in heaven and he will work things out in our life to make that happen once we accept him as our Lord and Savior. Then Jesus will use any troubles, pain, suffering, good times and bad times to steer us in that direction. 2 Timothy 4:18 gives us this assurance: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom.”
“I’ll pray for you.” We love to hear those words. They are even more precious when our Savior speaks them. Today I pray that each of you hears Jesus’ prayer for you. Hear his desires for you. He wants you to know his Father’s love and let it shine in your life. He wants to live in you. And finally he wants to never be separated from you as you live in the place he has prepared for you.
Please pray with me the pray printed in your bulletin: God of wisdom, teach us to know you through listening to your words spoken and modeled by Jesus. Open our hearts and minds to your name so we can know you have always loved us. Amen.
Benediction
The tiny little book in the Bible, Jude offers this encouragement, “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
Children's Sermon
Bring in an elementary map of the United States. Ask the children if they know what it is. Point to the name of our country - United States of America. Explain that a state is one small section of our country with its own boundaries and laws and leaders. Ask if they know what the word "United" means ... then say it means that each of these small sections called states have come together to form one country. Tell them that our Constitution calls it "a more perfect union," a united group called the United States. Then ask them if all the people of the church are also united. See if they know what unites us. Reveal that we are united because we believe in God, and in God's son, Jesus Christ. Tell the story: "Once when Jesus was praying, he asked God to help him unite his disciples. He said that he had taught them about God, and had told them who he was, so that they would believe. Jesus prayed to God for us. He prayed,, 'God, I want them to be with me so they can see how wonderful I am and see the light you gave me. And they are wonderful, too. I did that so they will be united." (John 17:22). Conclude by saying that Jesus wants us to be united in love - to love each other as Jesus loved us and as God loved him - in a more perfect union.
