Jesus Prays for Us, Part 2
John 17:20-26
 
Turn in your Bibles to the seventeenth chapter of John. We're going to conclude, this morning, the seventeenth chapter where we find Jesus praying for us. 
 
In the closing section, verses 20 to 26, there are three features which Jesus presents in His prayer.   We covered one and ½ of them last week.
 
First of all, we looked at the subjects of His prayer. 
Then we began to look at the requests that He makes in His prayer. 
 
Before we finish tonight we’ll see the confidence of His prayer. 
 
We found that He is praying for us.  We are the subjects of His prayer. 
 
And specifically, He is asking God to grant us unity.  It is the desire of Jesus that we have the same kind of unity and oneness that God the Father and God the Son enjoy. 
 
It is that unity that becomes the attention-getter for the world so that they might believe in Jesus.   In reality, since a lost person can’t discern and understand the Bible, the life of a Christian is the only thing the lost world has to evaluate the reality of the life and claims of Jesus. 
 
So that’s the first request, and it has to do with life on earth and it is for unity.
The second thing for which Jesus prays is for eternity and it is
 
2.  Fellowship
 
Verse 24
 
I would say that is perhaps the most thrilling statement that a Christian could ever read.  Jesus Christ wants to spend eternity with us.
 
Notice the phrase "Father, I will".  That is a deep, rich thought.   It means "I have total pleasure in; I delight in;  my high desire is that they also whom You have given me," that is all believers, "be with Me where I am."
 
Is that not a fantastic prayer? Now that certainly is our prayer.  We want to be where He is.
 
But did you know that's His prayer? He wants to be where I am. I want to be with Him, but He also wants to be with me.
 
Why iin the world would Jesus want to be with me? It shames me.  Do you ever have those times when you wish He wasn't around?  You do if you understand your sin.  And yet He diesires, He wills to be with us. 
 
Notice how this works.
 
verse 24 again
 
Now, Jesus' desire is that we be with Him where He is to see His glory. Now wherever it is that He is, it's going to be where He displays His glory.
So it's not just a prayer for this group of disciples to walk with Him down to the garden of Gethsemane.  He is praying beyond that to wherever it is that His glory is on full display.
 
That means it is beyond His earthly life.  On the earth, His glory was veiled away behind His flesh.  In fact, Paul tells us through the Phillipian letter that He emptied Himself of that glory. 
 
Only one time did He unveil a little bit of His glory on the mount of transfiguration.  So Jesus is praying for us to be with Him beyond this earthly experience to the place where His glory is fully revealed. 
 
That means that ultimately, the believer must be in the presence of Christ when He is in full glory. That's Jesus prayer.
 
Let’s look at some of the dimensions of that.
 
There is a spiritual sense of this thought of us being with Him wherever He is that is fulfilled in this life. 
 
Is Christ with you all the time? Didn't He say: "I will never leave you or forsake you?" Didn't He say: "Lo, I am with you always?" Always.
 
Is there any time in the life of a Christian on earth when Christ is away from him? No.
 
We sometimes use that phrase, -- we got away from the Lord. No you didn't. You never got away from the Lord one inch. You lost the consciousness of His presence but you didn't get away from Him. You are hidden in His hand. You are hidden with Christ in God.
So there is that blessed assurance that we are always with Him, but here He's not talking about in this life.
 
In this verse, the specific request is about being with Christ in glory. And there are four aspects to this that we need to get in our mind. 
 
The first one involves death. 
 
You don't ever really get to be with Jesus and see His full glory until you have the wonderful privilege of dying. And then when you get to die, you enter into His presence. And then for the first time you see His full glory.
 
What did Jesus say to the thief on the cross?  "Today you will be with Me in paradise."
 
The key to that is not paradise but “with Me”. 
 
That thief, from the moment that he received Jesus Christ, was to be with Jesus Christ. Now if it was in paradise, he was with Him in paradise. When a believer leaves this world he doesn't go into never-never land.  He doesn't go into soul sleep or any other deal. He goes from this conscious Presence of Jesus Christ to full conscious presence of Jesus Christ.
 
So when a believer dies, in that instant, this prayer of Jesus is answered for that individual as they go instantly into the presence of the glorified Christ and beholds His full glory.
 
 
 
There’s another possibility of this prayer being answered and that is
 
2. Rapture
 
Some believers won’t die. I’m kind of torn on my preference.  There’s a part of me that wants to rapture, but there’s another part of me that wants to experience what happens for the believer who dies.
 
And by the way, if that happens I get both and I’ll get raptured before those who are alive.   You can’t lose as a child of God. 
 
So there is another possibility.  One of these days, this old world will be going through the motions of its day and suddenly the saved of the earth will leave this place in the twinkling of an eye and in that instant be caught away in to the glorious presence of Jesus. 
 
Now, there's a third area, where we get to experience the glory of Jesus and that is
 
3.  The Kingdom
 
After the rapture, there is a seven-year period of time known as the great tribulation that occurs on the earth.  Following that Jesus returns to set up a millennial kingdom, and guess what?  We get to come with Him. 
 
And during that time we will see Him in His glory in the setting of the earthly Kingdom of God.  Is that not what He said in the prayer?  Did He not request that we be with Him, wherever He is?
He didn't say in the prayer I want them to be with Me in heaven because that wasn’t what He wanted.  He says I want them with Me wherever I am. 
 
So we just go where He goes.  And if it's the kingdom, we'll be there.
 
By the way, we get a little sneak preview of that in Matthew 26:26 where Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said -- Take eat, this is My body. And He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying -- Drink ye all of it for this is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
 
Jesus always promised presence whether in heaven or whether in the kingdom.
 
And then fourthly, there is
 
4.  Eternity
 
What about eternity, the new heavens and the new earth, are we still going to be with Him?
 
Absolutely! 
 
Revelation 21:3: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men." And He will dwell with them and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be with them and be their God."
 
In eternity, in the new heaven and the new earth, we will be with Christ.
 
We talk a lot about mansions and all, but the picture is really of a place in the presence of the Father. 
You have a room in the Father's house. The focus is on Christ and you're with Him.
 
Not eight blocks down and four blocks to the right ... you're with Him. That's the point.
 
And so, Jesus prays that we'll be with Him where He is. And my friends, indeed we will be.
 
It's exciting to realize that you will be the constant companion of the glorified Jesus for all the eternal ages.
 
When you start to think about heaven, it's just beyond your comprehension. I don’t really kow how to put that into words. 
 
I like the old hymn says, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine."
 
It will be the conscious presence of the full glory of Jesus Christ. That's why He wants us there. Did you see it in
 
verse 24
 
Jesus wants us to see the full expression of glory that He has had from before the world began. You see, when He came to the world He was veiled. His glory was veiled. And all the time He was in the world nobody ever saw it, but He wants us to see it.
 
But up until the time a person dies or is raptured they can’t know that. Even the people who were on earth when Christ was here never saw His full glory. You've got to get out of this earthly experience to have that privilege.
 
But someday we will see the whole thing. I'll tell you; won't that be a tremendous thing to see? The full blazing glory of Jesus Christ?
 
We'll have to have recreated eyes just to behold it. In fact, the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:21 makes a beautiful statement, he says: "Look ... we look to heaven for the coming of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our lowly body that it may be fashioned like His glorious body."
 
We're not only going to see His glory, we’re going to share His glory.
 
First John 3:2: "We shall see Him as He is, we shall be like Him." We shall be like Him.
 
When Christ who is our life shall appear, Colossians 3:4, then shall ye also appear with Him in  glory.
 
This is Jesus' prayer ... not only that we see it but that we reflect it, to be like Him in all that glory.
 
That's what heaven is, beloved. Heaven is just to be with Jesus wherever He is and to be like Him.  And the display of glory is beyond belief. All of Christ's glory manifested and then flashed through us like flawless prisms.
 
 
 
There was a little blind girl that I read about the other day. She knew of the beauties of the world only from her mother's lips. A noted surgeon performed a series of operations on those always sightless eyes and the operation was successful and she was to see for the first time.
 
On the day those bandages were dropped away, the little girl ran first of all into her mother's arms, then she ran to the window and she ran to the door and she turned around and ran back into her mother's arms and she said this, "Oh Mother, why didn't you tell me you were so beautiful and the world was so wonderful?" And her mother replied, "I tried."
 
And you know, in a sense that will be what it will be like when you get to heaven. Running into the person of Jesus Christ and saying, "Why didn't You tell me Your glory was so fantastic and that heaven was like this?"
 
The Bible says, "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of a man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
 
The Bible says, "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then, someday face to face."
 
That is his request for us.  Now I swould submit to you that the second request is what puts the first request in perspective.  Will you revel in the second part and not accept the first?  Can we be ingrate enough to say, I’ll take the glory but I’m not interested in the unity?
 
Can we be so unthankful to accept eternal glory in the presence of Jesus Christ and not strive to fulfill the answer to His prayer in our own lives with love and holiness while we are here on the earth?
 
So, the subjects of His prayer and the requests.
 
Lastly, just briefly,
 
3.  The Confidence in His Prayer
 
Verses 25 and 26
 
What we have there is really just a long "Amen". 
 
The requests are ended and the last two verses just breathe the confidence that Christ knows the Father will hear and answer.
 
Verse 25
 
He says, “Father, I’m not praying for the world because they don't know You. They have no right to Your care. But Father, I know You and these know that I came from You.
 
Why does He say that? He's simply saying to God -- This is all in the behalf of those who have a right to Your care.
 
I know You -- that's the basis for His asking.
They know You -- that's the basis for His blessing. Father, I’m just praying for them and we are those who know You and Your redemptive act. It's just us, Father, so let it happen as I've asked.
 
He is pleading His right to pray and our right to God's blessing.
 
And by the way, notice that phrase in Verse 25, “righteous Father".  It’s very similar to the “Holy Father” we saw earlier. 
 
Here it is a statement that calls on the righteousness of God as the basis of blessing. God can bless Christ and us because we are righteous. His righteousness can bless us. For a sinner to call on God would be pure mercy, for us to call in the name of Christ is righteousness.
 
Then look at verse 26.
 
He has asked the Father things for 25 verses and now He says, “Father, let it happen, we're Your's”.  And then, He says, “Father, I close with this, I know You're going to hear and answer and I'm going to continue to do My part as well.”
 
This is Christ's promise to continue the work of salvation. It's a pledge to God that Christ will redeem those that the Father gives Him. He asks the Father to respond to His requests and then He says I'll be faithful to My part.
 
You know, this is a beautiful look at what prayer should really be. It's praying and asking the Father to do what He's promised to do and then saying and I'll continue to do what I know You want me to do.
 
It's not really very fair to pray to God and ask God for this, that and the other thing when you're not willing to do what you know God wants you to do.
It's not really fair to spend all your time praying for your unsaved friends when you're not willing to walk over to them and share Jesus Christ with them.
 
Jesus says -- I'm not just asking for You to do it, I'm going to do My part to redeem them.
 
Think about it this way: 
 
Back in John 14:3, Jesus said, "If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am there you may be also."   That’s His promise.
 
Then He said, "Father, make it happen.”  That’s His prayer.
 
And now He says, "Father, I'll continue to do my part."   That’s His pledge.
 
That's real prayer. You take the promise of God, you ask God to make it happen and then you say “and I'll do my part.”
 
Don't make your prayer life so selfish that you ask God to do everything and are willing to do nothing.
 
Finally, notice how Jesus closes His prayer for us.  I have declared Your name and will declare it. Why
 
Last phrase:  verse 26 (love)
 
What’s that all about?  That's salvation.  It's to possess Christ and the love of God. And Jesus says. “I'll do My part to make that happen.“
 
Will you?