Title: Jesus Prays for all who Believe
John 17:20-26

This morning we continue with the third portion of Jesus' prayer in John 17. As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago; everything Jesus desired for His immediate disciples, aside from His physical presence with them, he desired for us, everything he did for them, He did for us, everything He gave to them He gave to us. In what we called His high priestly prayer Jesus prayed for Himself, that God would be glorified by His life, He prayed for those who were His immediate disciples, those He was about to physically leave and whom He is sending into the world to continue or further His ministry in the world. Now in verse 20 we find He includes future generations of believers in all that has been spoken and prayed before. He said, "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, (that's how we know he had been praying for his disciples), but for those also who believe in Me through their word." That's us!

Jesus recognized His ministry on earth was to continue through these men. If we look at it in numerical terms, His ministry was really only about to begin. The major focus of Jesus' earthly ministry was to teach and equip this small group of men. The things he taught, the miracles He performed were used to teach them about God and how men are to relate to God. Those in the crowds and those of us today are really what we might call secondary beneficiaries of Jesus' teaching.

When I say secondary, I'm not implying unimportant, the cross proves our importance. But, Jesus knew He was not going to be physically on earth long enough to reach great multitudes of people, like those in Jerusalem at Pentecost. As a matter of fact, Peter's preaching added more to the church on the Day of Pentecost than Jesus' entire three year ministry. He also knew He would not be here physically for succeeding generations, only a very small percentage of people would actually see Him or hear Him speak. At this point in time, while He was praying this prayer, the cross was looming just hours away, and His physical presence on earth would end in just over a month (Acts 1:3).

What does He pray for? First for the same things He just asked for the disciples, that is protection in the face of adversity - this is not protection from physical harm, although that is sometimes granted, but it is spiritual protection that even in the face of physical harm individuals are spiritually protected. The body may be physically destroyed, beaten down, persecuted, imprisoned but the spirit or the soul belongs to God. We see that evidenced in the life of John who we know was persecuted and exiled to the island of Patmos. We see it in the book of Acts with Peter, Paul, Barnabas and Silas, imprisoned, stoned, persecuted, ship wrecked among other things. Historically we know of many martyrs of the church, and present day persecution continues in many places in the world where believers are losing their lives for their faith.

We also know that while God can and does heal disease, He doesn't always, and even when He does those whom he heals and all of us still face physical death, unless the Lord returns for us before then. But we also know, particularly from Revelation, that believers are victorious even when they undergo various trials, affliction and death, because we are protected by the power of God and will one day stand in His presence.

Also He also prayed for inner joy provided by His indwelling presence with them in the face of these things and He prayed for sanctification, which we said was something immediate upon belief we are marked as His and is something we can define as progressive in that we grow into His likeness.

Jesus now continues the thought He began at the conclusion of verse 11 that of unity. IN verse 11 He prayed, "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, {the name} which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We {are.} Now in verse 21 He prays, "that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, {art} in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us." In verse 22 He asks, "that they may be one, just as We are one." And in verse 23, He says, "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity."

Jesus wants believers to experience a spiritual oneness patterned after the unity He shared with the Father. Paul talks about this unity in 1 Cor 12 in relation to spiritual gifts. He describes this unity as a body in which the different parts with different functions and different purposes are united to form one body. All working together for the common good and edification of the body.

Unity doesn't mean uniformity. In other words there are legitimate differences within the body that don't destroy the oneness of the body.

Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:14-19

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not {a part} of the body," it is not for this reason any the less {a part} of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not {a part} of the body," it is not for this reason any the less {a part} of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? (NAS)

The Bible uses another illustration of this kind of unity in marriage. Jesus quoting Gen 2:24 said in Matt 19:5-6 "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh'? "Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh." There is a spiritual unity within marriage where two distinct individuals come together for a single purpose.

The greatest example of this oneness is that of the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son are distinguishable, the pre-incarnate Word of Jn 1:1 was with God, the Son prays to the Father, the Father commissions and sends, while the Son obeys, yet they are one.

This oneness does not mean, however, that anything can and should be tolerated within the body of Christ. Dr. D. A. Carson points out, "It is a unity predicated on adherence to the revelation the Father mediated to the first disciples through His Son, the revelation they accepted (vv. 6, 8) and then passed on". (V. 20) It's not simply a "unity of love." Some things can be legitimately differed on and some things cannot. Unity does not mean the acceptance or toleration of heresy. It does not mean the teachings of God are to be compromised and it does not mean the ways of the world are to accepted and become the ways of the church.

In Matt 5:29-30 Jesus taught about adultery using intentional hyperbole or intentional overstatement to make his point, but that point can be applied to the unity of the spiritual body as well. He said, "And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. "And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell. (NAS)

Why do we say this is intentional overstatement? Because we know the eye and the hand don't function by themselves. The eye and the hand do what the mind tells them to do. It is not mutilating the body that Jesus was talking about but control of the body against sin. We might think of it this way the tonsils, the teeth, the appendix, the gall bladder among other parts of the body, if left diseased, will destroy the whole body. Remove them in time and the whole body will be saved and unity maintained. The diseased parts work against the unity, because they are destroying rather than edifying.

In the same way, unity in the body of Christ can not be maintained by tolerating things which clearly go against the teaching of Scripture. Jesus prayer for unity means as a body, while believers are still distinct we are to be one in purpose, in love, in action with and for one another. We are to be one in seeking to be obedient to God and His word and growing in Christlikeness and oneness with Him, not in compromising truth and calling it tolerance.

The JFB commentary explains it this way: "It is a union in spiritual life; a union in faith on a common Saviour, in love to His blessed name, in hope of His glorious appearing: a union brought about by the teaching, quickening, and indwelling of the one Spirit of the Father and the Son in all alike; in virtue of which they have all one common character and interest-- in freedom from the bondage of sin and Satan, in separation from this present evil world, in consecration to the service of Christ and the glory of God, in witnessing for truth and righteousness on the earth, in participation of all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.

The purpose of this unity is found in the last part of verse 21, "that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me." Unity among believers in intended to be observable. It has an evangelistic purpose. It is the maintaining of a convincing witness before the non-believing world of the revelation of God in Christ and to His great love not only for those who are His disciples, but for the world as well. John 3:16 reminds us God so loved the world. Jesus said He came to seek and to save the lost. While we were yet sinners the bible says Christ died for us (Rom 5:6), while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, (Rom 5:10)

The Spirit of Christ, illuminating, transforming, and reigning in the hearts of the genuine disciples drawing them together as members of one body, prompting them to loving cooperation that the world may believe Thou didst send Me. Not that everyone will believe, but that everyone might have the opportunity to believe.

When believers show through their lives they have had a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ , their actions and attitudes, which speak louder than words alone, will point to Jesus as the source of their moral and spiritual strength and conviction. The Holy Spirit, in cooperation with this vital, living testimony then works in the hearts of lost men and women convicting and convincing them of their condition as sinners and their need of a Savior, and revealing proof that Christ changes the hearts and minds of sinful persons.

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