Day 17

Extended prayer of Christ

John 17

Key Verses: 3, 5, 15, 21

Eternal life is knowing the true God. When we know Him, we have eternal life. Life is about relationship. When we have relationship with the true God, we have life. It is eternal life because He is eternal. If I am part of a celebrity’s family, I get celebrity life filled with cameras and autograph seekers. If I am in the family of someone who is unemployed right now, I get a life of concern and frugality. When we are in relationship with the Eternal God, we get eternal life.

Notice with care verse five. Jesus was with the Father before the world began and had the same glory as the Father has. Jesus is saying that He existed before the Virgin Birth, before Adam and Eve, before “In the beginning.” In this prayer Jesus clearly states His pre-creation existence. Only God existed before creation.

Jesus prays for the protection of the disciples, the early believers and for us. But more than protection, He prays for unity. This is not the unity we get at a rally, but unity of a much deeper kind. The unity of being that Jesus shares with the Father and Holy Spirit is the model for the unity that we can share. Jesus says that He did everything just as the Father instructed. Their wills were completely in sync. Nothing that Jesus did was done out of selfish desire or vein conceit. He was always focused on the Father’s will. We can have this kind of unity of purpose as well. But it is more than that. “…you are in me and I am in you… they also be in us….” There is a unity of presence as well. We are in God and God is in us. And all of this so that people will know that Jesus was sent from the Father and that God loves us.

Jesus extended prayer is about mission, the mission of bringing God’s presence within reach. When we believe in Him, then God’s presence stays with us and His love changes our lives. Sin’s penalty is removed and sin’s presence and influence is washed away as we yield more and more to that presence and will. AS we read His Word and allow the sharpening effect of Christian fellowship and prayer, the presence of the Holy Spirit changes us. We continue to yield to His will and we chose obedience. Then we experience God’s love and the world gets to see God’s love in action as we act in His Name.

REVIEW: Acrostic Theme & each chapter’s phrase. Concentrate on GOSPEL OF, chapters 8-15.