6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
After Jesus prayed for Himself - affirming the glory of the cross, expressing the essence of eternal life and rejoicing in the shared glory of the Father - He prays for His disciples.
We call the passage in Matthew 6 the Lord's Prayer - but actually Jesus is not praying in that passage, He's teaching His disciples how to pray. But in this passage, Jesus is praying and He prays out loud so His disciples can hear Him, and it's recorded in scripture so we can hear it too - giving us a "sneak peak" into the intercessory work He's doing for us right now in heaven!
Jesus prays specifically for His disciples and those who will miss Him when He's gone, and in a broader sense He also prays for us. And He has made the very name of God accessible to us, in a way the Israelites had never known previously - they never uttered the sacred name of God. But now, we can! We can have relationship with God Most High!
These disciples, and all believers, have been chosen by God and given to the Son as a gift. You and I are love gifts given from God the Father to Jesus His Son, we're received by Jesus, kept by Jesus and will be raised by Jesus into glory - isn't that amazing?!
MacArthur (emphasis mine)......
And He is simply saying, "Father, I'm praying for them because You gave them to Me. I'm praying for them because they're ours and I'm asking You, Father, to care for them because they belong to us." This is beautiful. We are the personal property of the trinity, beloved and cared for. What a thought. We are the personal treasure of the eternal God.
Jesus prayed that we would manifest the glory of God even in His absence. He didn't pray that we would be taken out of this hostile world. In fact, it is our responsibility to preach the gospel to the unsaved.
But He prayed for their knowledge, for their perserverance and protection, for their joy, for their sanctification, for unity, and for their mission.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 17:20-26
2 comments:
Doesn't it seem impossible sometimes that we could be treasured by God? When I think of it from the viewpoint of a parent, I know that I love my own children and they are a treasure to me, even though they mess up and do things wrong, so I can understand it that way, but when I think of the holiness of God and realize how vile the human nature that we all succumb to at times can be, it seems almost unbelievable that we could be ever purified enough to be in His presence.
Also, I love that Jesus prayed here for his disciples out loud. I find it so hard sometimes to pray out loud in front of people, but at the same time I find it so encouraging to hear the prayers of others sometimes, so I do think it is important to pray aloud. Can you imagine being there and hearing Jesus, the Son of God, praying for you?
God treasuring us, and Jesus praying for us - precious beyond what we can imagine!
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