The Prayer of Jesus

For the next few messages I will be digging into this awesome chapter in John 17, where the whole chapter is a prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples of that day and of the days to come. In other words, us! The owner of time itself sees us in the future and prays for us. Jesus involved in what is going on in His time and involved and looking to our time today and every day. Jesus is a very on-time God in many ways, but specifically in looking out for the welfare of those who have surrendered their lives to Him. Oh what a Savior!!!

I spent about an hour yesterday just digesting this chapter and God blessed me as He showed me the awesome power of God now and forevermore. Jesus is about to go to the cross to take the punishment for the sins of the world on the cross and His thoughts go to you and me in the future. I will list the first few verses of this prayer in the following scripture and here is what the Word of God says. John 1:1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. 4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.

Jesus is going to the cross and He is going to complete what had to happen for us to receive the grace God has offered. It is time and He is going to complete that which is set before Him and all the prophecies of the prophets are about to be fulfilled to the fullest!! Our awesome God has given Him authority over the whole situation and over all people and His power is unending and unrivaled and yet, He dies on the cross for you and me. Jesus tells the way to have eternal life and that is as follows; 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

God offers eternal life to all and the way to that eternal life is to know God. The Webster definition of the Word "know" says a lot. Know (def) - be absolutely certain or sure about something. Sounds a lot like faith to me! Paul wrote the following in Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. We get to "know" God as He makes a path through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for each of us to "know" God. The righteousness of God is poured into our soul when we surrender our will to God and believe by faith in Jesus, for not only salvation, but abundant life.

The result is a new creation made possible by the righteousness of God offered through Jesus. The following verse in the Word of God are vital to our understanding of what God did for us and the ramaifications of how it changes our lives. Romans 3: 21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished; 26 for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Our sins are forgiven and we take on the righteousness of God because of what Jesus did with His blood. We are clean. King David wrote in Psalm 51 these words after being confronted by Nathan for committing adultery with Bathsheba. What David was praying in that moment was expanded eternally for each of us when Jesus gave His life for us. Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach wrongdoers Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. This an ongoing action for all who are born again in the Spirit and that is why we are kept in good relationship with our Heavenly Father, because of the eternal action of the sacrfice of the perfect Savior, Jesus. We are new. We are forgiven. We are changed. We live in the purity of our heavenly Father and because of His grace we will never be the same. The result is we have a heart, which we guard, that is given to God and He grows us in this new life and sanctifies us His children to live a better and different life than the world around us. If you are born again that change is permanent and we are continually seeing more and more of the love of God.

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. I cannot saying anything better at this point than what the Word of God says, and it is perfect, as Jesus is perfect.

God is so awesome!! Jesus prays for us. God answers the prayer. We have the benefit of the salvation given to us by a loving God, who calls us His children. Why wouldn't we serve Him with all our heart and life?

Today's Message,

David Warren