How else did Jesus pray for us?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. This last week we finished up our series in the upper room, the final moments of Jesus life before his arrest, trial and crucifixion. In John chapter 17, we see Jesus pray. We see him primarily pray for us. The course of the sermon.

We talked about joy, truth, mission and love. That Jesus wants us to have all four of those in our lives, detailed what each one of those means. But I also said in the sermon, Jesus actually prays more for us than only joy, truth, mission and love. But we were only going to cover those four because we only had so much time.

Indeed, this chapter is so rich we could spend many, many, many weeks studying just this one chapter.

One of the commentaries I read in preparation for the message was spent 150 pages of commentary on these 26 verses in John 17. So of course we couldn’t cover all of it. But because we have these sermon questions, it gives us to address some more of what Jesus prayed for us. I’ll give you three more petitions that Jesus makes on our behalf from John 17.

One, he prays that his followers would stay in God’s name.

May you keep them in your name, Father, if you want to know how we reach the end as Christians, how Jesus completes the work that he began in us, Philippians 1:6. How he will one day present him before the glorious throne without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. How he accomplishes that is partially, maybe entirely, because he prays for us.

He prays that we would finish the race that is on his mind, as he is in his final moments. That we would be kept in name of God.

Second, similar verse 15, he prays that we would be kept from the evil one. So first, kept in God’s name. Second, kept from the evil one. Jesus is praying for your protection in spiritual warfare, similar to how he prayed for Peter. If you remember, he says, peter, Satan asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that he may not have you.

Because Jesus prays for us, therefore we are protected. You know, James says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Jesus being the most righteous ever, really the only completely righteous ever, is out there praying on our behalf that we would be protected from any evil that may come our way.

And lastly, verse 23, he prays for our unity as Christians, that we would be one, as he and the Father are one. And there is a depth of mystery there that we will probably never grasp.

Maybe in eternity we will. But the unity that is within the Trinity. Jesus prays that his followers would have that same level of. Of unity in some way. The unity within the Trinity must be paradynamic of our potential unity.

And Jesus prays for it. He prays for harmony in his family like we would pray for harmony in our families if we have relational tension with someone and we’re like, lord, can you solve this? Jesus is praying that for his family that we would be united under him. And that’s what he’s thinking about on his final moments before everything gets chaotic and painful for him.

He’s thinking about us.

He’s thinking about what we need to have a fullness of life. And he’s praying that we would indeed have it. Means he loves us, means he’s for us, means he supports us, means that we are top of mind for him, always. Well, thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.