Jesus' Prayer: A Model for Our Lives

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John chapter 17 is one of the most remarkable prayers in the entire Bible. John chapter 17 contains the longest continuous prayer we have from the lips of Jesus. We know especially from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus was a man of great Prayer. He prayed often, he prayed deeply, he prayed intensely, but we don't have much of the extended prayers of Jesus except in John chapter 17. [00:00:00]

One of the greatest things we can have in our prayer life is a sense of expectation that God will meet us in prayer. And if you don't have it, then just say, God, I'm gonna have it in your name. I need to have a sense of expectancy. Sometimes our great fault is that we expect very little from God, and then he gives to us as we expect. [00:03:24]

But Jesus lifted up his eyes and he prayed, and he looked up towards heaven. See heavens that this was a prayer of a hope, a prayer of expectancy, a prayer of confidence in God. Now tell you one other thing about this prayer. It was an organized prayer. This is a prayer with a beginning, a middle, and an end. [00:03:44]

Jesus in this prayer, in the verses that follow, is going to give several reasons for that. Please note this: reasons for the prayer. What's the request? Glorify your son. That's the request. But then Jesus is going to give reasons for it, and I'll just kind of click them off. Lord, glorify the son because the hour is come. [00:09:01]

There is a logic to the prayer of Jesus. Father, I make the request, and now I will lay out before you reasons why that request should be answered. Lazy Gemma, I just want to employ, do you ever pray like that? Sometimes our prayer life basically amounts to casting wishes up to heaven, giving God a to-do list. [00:09:51]

Prayer is not all about asking God to do things, but neither is prayer never about asking God to do things. This prayer of Jesus in John 17 is a good mixture of both. There are places where he asked God to do things very clearly, very he makes requests unto God, but there are also other times where he is just communing with God. [00:16:19]

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Still no requests in verses 9 and 10, but now starting at verse 11, we get a request regarding the disciples. [00:17:45]

Now, starting at verse 17, Jesus is going to get into his second request for his disciples. Notice what his second request is. Verse 17, he talks about sanctifying them. He says, Father, sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. [00:20:28]

Jesus says, keep them, sanctify them, but send them, send them into the world. We are sent into the world. By the way, this is where we get our whole concept of the missionary. The Latin verb to send is missio. We get our word missionary from it. It just means someone who's sent, and you know what this means. [00:21:51]

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Now let me just say this is delightful faith, delightful faith number one, that Jesus would pray for you and I. Do you believe that it's possible for God to listen to five prayers at once? I do. [00:22:49]

The first request Jesus makes regarding us, those who would believe after that present generation of disciples, is that they'd be one. The second thing he prays for, look at verse 22, he says, and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. [00:25:20]

Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, and that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Do you understand what Jesus prayed that night before he was crucified? He prayed for you and for I, that we would make it to heaven with him. [00:26:46]

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