Our lesson title for today is Praying for Others. Every Sunday we take prayer request and almost every week we have someone who has a physical issue or someone that has lost a job or someone that is in need of direction and those are very worth while things to bring before God.
Listen to what Ephesians 6:12 tells us: 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
With this truth shouldn’t apart of our prayer focus be in this area? Today we are going to look at praying for others over spiritual issues. I hope we will see how through prayer we can have victory over the spiritual battles that will come our way. I strongly believe we should be praying for each other regularly.
Let’s look at John 17:6-8 and see how Jesus prayed for his disciples (remember these are the last hours with the disciples before Jesus will be taken off and crucified). Jesus said: 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. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For 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.
We see here that as Jesus starts to pray that he is praying for his disciples. He describes them as the ones given to him from God. Jesus also states that they have full knowledge of who Jesus is and why he came and that they truly know who God is. What else does he say about them in verse six? That they have obeyed your word.
The mark of a true Christian is always obedience!
Let’s continue on with John 17:9-12: 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I 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. 12While 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.
In this we see that Jesus establishes that he will be leaving this world and he is very aware of the challenges that the disciples will face without him there. So he starts off “I pray for them, those you have given me”. In Hebrews 7:25 we see that Jesus intercedes for us as believers to God: 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Next we see a wonderful truth and it says: All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.
So we clearly see as believers we belong to Jesus and therefore we belong to God also. What an awesome thought! Before reading this scripture has anyone ever thought that Jesus views us as believers as a gift from God? In chapter 17 it states several times that we were given to Jesus from God. I personally like the way that sounds.
Jesus also states the disciples had brought him glory, as should be our desire and we see Jesus praying that the disciples would continue to bring him glory even after he is gone. As we pray for each other we need to ask God to help us bring glory to him through our lives.
What truth do we learn in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7: 6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Now let’s go back to John 17 to the end of verse 11 and see what Jesus requested in his prayer for the disciples and he said: 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.
What do we see? All throughout the New Testament the bible talks about believers being one or being united. We saw that this was one of the traits of the first church look at Acts 4:32: 32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
Why is this important?
God desires that we be united in love and in holiness in such a way that it separates us from the world. Our pursuit of holiness is a key to staying united. Have you thought about as individuals if we move closer to God we will come closer together as believers (Chair example in center of room).
John 17:13-16: 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. 14I 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. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Here we see Jesus gives us the example of praying for joy in the midst of opposition. This joy is available to us as we stay focused on who it is we serve and just how much that he loves us. I think Romans 8:39 put it perfectly: 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What an awesome love that God has for us and what joy that brings me to realize that truth.
There is another very interesting point made in these verses and that is Jesus did not pray for God to take us out of this world, instead he prayed that we would be protected from the evil one. We also need to pray this for other believers. Has anybody thought about what if once we were saved God immediately took us to heaven to be with him? We would be better off in so many ways. We would be perfectly righteous, we would have perfect and pure motives, we would have perfect fellowship and we would lift up perfect praise and worship for God. So if that is true there must be a very good reason we are left here on earth. What do we believe that is? We are to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
As we realize that is our main purpose here on earth, we quickly see that we do not put the priority on this that we should. This is another area we need to ask God to help us.
Let’s look at John 17:17-19 and see what else we can learn from Jesus prayer: 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Sanctify means to make holy or to set apart for special use. After we have accepted Jesus the way we continue to be holy or to be set apart for special use is through the truth. Where can we find this truth? God’s Word!
This is why it is so important that we be in God’s word daily and to study it. If we desire to be Holy or Sanctified or set apart for special use we must be in God’s word.
As we look at how Jesus prayed for the disciples we see several important issues that we need to be praying for other believers.
We need to ask God to help us to bring glory to him, we need his help in seeing what our main role is while we are here on earth, we need protection against the evil one, we need unity or unhindered fellowship with other believers, we desire to be filled with his joy and we desire to be made holy as we read God’s word.
Also we must remember Jesus expressed this love for his disciples just hours before he was to be crucified. His focus was on them and not on his own situation. Prayer does not need to be only about us as we see from Jesus example there is power in praying for others.
7 months ago
No comments:
Post a Comment