JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES

I pray for you you pray for me (Photo by Pastor Davis)

I PRAY FOR YOU AND YOU PRAY FOR ME

Continuing our Tuesday Day of Prayer, we turn our focus to Jesus second powerful prayer titled, “JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES!”  Before choosing the Twelve, Jesus spent the night in prayer, something we can learn before making major decision of our own.  During their ministry together, we assume Jesus prayers included his disciples.  We know that before the final days, Jesus had been praying specifically for Peter.  The Scriptures also tell us that part of Jesus’ present activity is to pray for us.  Jesus made it clear that although we have direct access to the Father, we are still the objects of his loving concern.

After praying for his own glorification, Jesus turned the direction of his petition to his disciples.  These were the men God had selected to give to his Son as his disciples.  To these men, given to him by the Father out of the world, Jesus had expressed the reality of the Father’s person to them.  And they had kept his word.  Their faith wasn’t perfect, and they would fail their Savior in the coming hours; but their commitment was in the right place, and they would return to this faith and to obedience to God.

THIS IS JESUS PRAYER FOR HIS DISCIPLES

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.  All mines are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. AMEN!  (John 17:6-19 ESV).

Jesus set himself apart to do the Father’s will like a priest consecrating himself to make the sacrifice.  His final act of dedication was his offering himself on the cross.  The purpose of that death was so that the disciples (and all believers) might be entirely God’s possession.  Jesus died to set us apart for him.

Today is Tuesday, our day of Prayer, Praise and Worship.  Jesus prayed for you and I, now let us turn to our neighbor and pray for each other.  “I PRAY FOR YOU AND YOU PRAY FOR ME!” 

We know that God loves the world, but at this time Jesus was focusing on the disciples, not the world.  These disciples were the object of Jesus’ affection and Jesus’ prayer.  He was not praying for the world, because the world was hostile and unbelieving.  Instead, he was praying for those the Father had given him.  “JESUS PRAYING FOR HIS DISCIPLES!”

 

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