Imagine Someone you love, adore, admire, and trust, raising their eyes to the heavens to literally see God and commence to pray to God specifically for you!  Imagine Someone who knows you inside and out, loves you no matter what, praying on your behalf, so your life is blessed with protection, wisdom, strength, and maturity by God, the Father in ways you never dreamed possible! 

Wouldn’t that be the greatest prayer ever?! Jesus thought so…

John 17, The Message

Jesus’ Prayer for His Followers

17 ^1-5 Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said:

Father, it’s time.
Display the bright splendor of your Son
So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
You put him in charge of everything human
So he might give real and eternal life to all in his care.
And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
I glorified you on earth
By completing down to the last detail
What you assigned me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor,
The very splendor I had in your presence
Before there was a world.

* * *

^6-12 I spelled out your character in detail
To the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
Then you gave them to me,
And they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for those you gave me,
For they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
And my life is on display in them.
For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;
They’ll continue in the world
While I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a lookout.
And not one of them got away,
Except for the rebel bent on destruction
(the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

* * *

^13-19 Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

* * *

^20-23 I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me.

* * *

^24-26 Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

This is the most powerful, loving, and compassionate prayer offered by our Savior and John records it!  Jesus prayed for that God’s glory and splendor be seen in what was about to happen on the cross He will bear for our sins. 

Jesus prayed for His beloved disciples who left everything to follow Him, learn from Him, knowing they would “do even greater things” as the torch of Truth would be grasped and carried on as they proclaimed to the godless world that God so loved He sent His Son to die for their sins.

Jesus prayed for all who would later believe from the witness of these disciples down through the generations. 

It is good now to center our thoughts prayerfully and gratefully on the specifics of what Jesus prayed for His Beloved then and now.  What Jesus compassionately prayed demonstrates the heart of God and what He wants most from His believers:

• “That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”  (Psalm 46:10)
• “You put him in charge of everything human So he might give real and eternal life to all in his care.  (John 3:16-17)
• They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything you gave me is firsthand from you,  (John 12:49)
• They believed that you sent me.  I pray for them.  (Mark 1:35)
• Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life …So they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind.
• I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing So my people can experience
  My joy completed in them. (John 15:11)
• I’m not asking that you take them out of the world; But that you guard them from the Evil One.  (2 Corinthians 4:4)
• Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth.
• My mission is their mission. (Matthew 28:20)
• Worth repeating…The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, (John 8:28; Philippians 2:2)
• Then the world might believe…  (John 13:35)
  
  
  

Jesus is now our supreme Advocate who goes before the Father on behalf of all who believe and call Him Savior and Lord.  

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. –Jesus, John 14:6



Lord,

How precious is your prayer for believers—and at the same time how very humbling.  You prayed for me before I was born!  I was on your mind as you willing laid down your life for me and others in need of forgiveness.  Your prayer cannot be matched by any human on earth.  You are God.  We are not.  You saved us.  You accomplished what we cannot do for ourselves.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Because of you, we have eternal life!  Because of your prayer for all of us, we have the power to become One with You!  May your goal of being of one mind be our goal in real life lived for you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen