The Prayer that Jesus Prayed
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:1-3
Jesus was in constant communication with His Father through the means of prayer. If Jesus, the Son of God who was God incarnate, considered prayer a necessity, where does that leave us, His followers? Does it not behoove us to stay in communication with our Father through prayer? Jesus set the standard for prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 which we call the Lord’s Prayer, but it was actually a pattern for the way that we should present our petitions to the Father. If we must call a portion of scripture the Lord’s Prayer, it would be Chapter 17 of the book of John. In this prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself, for His disciples, and for all who would become His followers.
Our normal posture of prayer is to bow our heads and close our eyes to speak to the Father. Jesus’ posture was to look up toward heaven where His Father was seated upon His throne. Jesus first asked for God to glorify Him, to honor and exalt Him, so that by Jesus’ obedience He could in turn glorify His Father. His work was to do the will of the Father. Jesus has power over all, even those people who reject Him. We can’t believe in Jesus Christ unless God gives us the ability to believe. The desire to know God comes from God. Does God choose us or do we choose Him? Yes. Election is a difficult subject beyond the scope of man’s knowledge and the ability to explain. What is important to remember is that when the Holy Spirit knocks upon the heart of a sinner, he or she is being given the opportunity to repent and place faith in Christ. To save sinners was the reason Jesus gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of men and women in obedience to His Father. There is nothing more essential in one’s life than to repent of sin, trust Christ, and be committed to Him. One of my former pastors said, that everyone who has ever been born is still alive somewhere. either on earth, in heaven, or in hell. Eternity is a long time.
Next, Jesus prayed for His disciples. He knew that some difficulties lay ahead of them after He was no longer physically walking with them. In Matthew 10, He had given these dedicated men instructions and warnings for their future as they would take the gospel to many parts of the known world at that time. Jesus told His Father that His disciples were trustworthy, that they knew that everything that He had taught them was from His Father, and they all were certain that He had been sent by the Father for the mission that He accomplished on the cross. Before His crucifixion and even before His ascension back to the Father, the disciples were still thinking along the lines of an earthly kingdom that Jesus would set up at that time, but after He ascended and sent the Holy Spirit to fill them, they finally understood Jesus’ true mission–to save men, women, boys, and girls from their sin and from God’s wrath through His death on the cross. Jesus also prayed that God would keep the disciples from the world’s evil. He knew that because He was hated, they would be hated as well. He also prayed for unity among the disciples, and that they would be sanctified, that is, more like Christ each day.
Christ also prayed for all those which would believe on Him through the gospel as presented by the disciples, and by all those down through the ages who have dedicated their lives to preach the gospel from one generation to the next. Jesus prayed that all believers would be united in one body, the church, and in one spirit, united by the Holy Spirit who lives within each believer, teaching each to love Christ and to love one another, and in one purpose, glorifying God in every area of life, living before others to influence them for the kingdom of God. We may live in different lands, different cultures, speak many languages, and have various worship styles, but the one “common” denominator, which is not common at all, but holy, royal, and awesome, is Christ.
Finally, Jesus prayed that all whom His Father had given Him, be with Him, so that they could behold His glory, the glory that His Father gave Him because He loved Him before the foundation of the world. As long as Jesus had been on the earth, His glory was not revealed in total. There were glimpses of it thought the miracles Jesus did, but no one had yet seen Him in the manifestation of the Son of God other than Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-2). The world does not know God, but Jesus has declared Him to all those who know Christ. He then asked His Father to instill in His followers the same love that the Father has for His Son and for Jesus to abide within the hearts of all those who believe in Him.