How He Prayed: He Prayed for Us | John 17:20-26

Do any of you have friends who have an in-home camera? You can buy some of them that connect to an app on your phone. I want you to imagine for a moment that on Black Friday you purchased the SpaceTime 2000 NestCam with a crystal clear picture and audio feed. You install it in the ceiling-corner of your dining room. It works great, but one day when you tune to check in on Fido, you see a different scene.

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There seems to be a glitch because the camera app is now showing you a live-video stream of the Last Supper. You know it’s the Last Supper because the app’s clock says AD 30~, it’s clearly a middle-eastern house, the long-wooden table is low to the ground, and Jesus and his 12 disciples are sitting on only one side of the table. As you listen in, you see Jesus take the bread and cup with his disciples, Judas leave, and you see what you would expect to see from the Gospel accounts.

After dinner, Jesus lifts up his eyes to heaven and prays. Just like our sermon series in John 17, he opens his prayer by focusing on his Father in heaven. Once he prays for his father to be glorified, he prays for his disciples. You even see him glance around at Peter, James, John, and the others. But once he finishes praying for them, he looks up to the top corner of the dining room directly at you. The 4th wall is broken. He is now praying for you. In fact, he addresses you by name, “I pray for Diana, for Bruce, for Kathy…”

This is what is happening in John 17. First Jesus prayed for his Father’s glory, then he prayed for his disciples, and now he is pray for all believers after his disciples, including us today.

John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, (NIV^®)

Last week I talked about what Jesus prayed for his disciples, and so might be praying for us today. Today I’m talking about what he definitely prayed for us. Do you want to know what Jesus prayed for you?

Jesus prays for our union. (John 17:21-26)

Jesus prays for our union. What is union?

Union: A relationship that binds people together in love, togetherness, mind, and purpose.

Who can we experience union with? Jesus prays for our…

Union with other believers. (v. 21a, 22b, 23b)

Jesus fills this portion of his prayer with repetition and parallel words, but our modern English translations don’t do a great job of showing it. Of the ones I looked at, I thought the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) did the best job.

21 May they all be one,
as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.
May they also be one in Us,
so the world may believe You sent Me.

22 I have given them the glory You have given Me.
May they be one as We are one.

23  I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one,
so the world may know You have sent Me
and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Jesus wants us to be “one”—to be unified, to love each other, fellowship, share the same mind and purpose.

Jesus’ first call, and repeated call, is for horizontal unity among believers. We picture this as a horizontal arrow demonstrating a connection between believers in the local church, but also believers in the universal church. The type of unity Jesus is calling for is global (“may they all be one!”). In the Nicene Creed, we say, “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.” What does that mean? Holy means set apart. Catholic means universal. Apostolic means built on the teachings of the Apostles (NT).

In our Cornerstone Playbook, we say how we try to do this as a church.

We believe that like-minded local churches can help promote the cause of Jesus Christ by cooperating with one another by prioritizing fellowship, mutual accountability, and a unified witness.

We desire to work with “like-minded local churches” who believe the gospel, who want to promote the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus prays for us to be unified with other local churches, and what is taking place all around the globe. We can demonstrate our global oneness by praying for missionaries and financially supporting them. When we had Thierry Mirone preach here that was a chance to show our oneness with the church in France.

We can also show we’re apart of the universal church body by supporting our church conference, the 4Cs and other 4Cs churches. As a church plant, we have a unique opportunity to show our unity by how we interact with our parent church, Immanuel. As we speak highly of the leadership there, and express our gratitude, we are one, and we’re a positive witness for Jesus. But the converse is also true. If we speak negatively of them or any Christ-centered local church, we are a negative witness.

So we should pray for other churches to encourage and support us, and for us to be an encouragement and support to other churches, and do everything in our power to make that happen. Jesus prays for us to have union with other believers. But we can’t do this alone, so Jesus also prays for our…

Union with the Father and the Son. (v. 21b, 23a)

Let’s look at our passage once more for where it speaks of unity with the Father and the Son.

21 May they all be one,
as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.
May they also be one in Us,
so the world may believe You sent Me.

23  I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one,
so the world may know You have sent Me
and have loved them as You have loved Me. (HCSB)

To understand Jesus’ prayer for vertical unity between us, the Father, and himself, we need to understand how Jesus and the Father are unified, not just as God, but in relationship.

1. Dependency – Jesus was dependent on the Father (John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing by himself”) so we are dependent on the Father (complete reliance on God).
2. Work – Jesus did his his Father’s work (John 10:25 “The works I do in my father’s name”) so we do the Father’s work (serving church, serving community, frontline, social justice).
3. Words – Jesus spoke his Father’s words (John 8:28 “speak just what the Father has taught me”) so we speak the Father’s words (truth of Scripture).
4. Being – Jesus shares unity in being with the Father (John 10:21 “You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us”) so we share in the relational aspect of God’s being (through the Holy Spirit in us).
5. Love – Jesus is loved by the Father (John 17:23 “[You] have loved them as You have loved me.”) and he invites us to share that very same love (most important part!).

I want to pause for a moment and have you write something on a piece of paper. Take your bulletin and a pen and write, “The Father loves me.” Do you realize the Father loves you as much as he loves his Son Christ Jesus? How can we possibly know that? Just look at the cross.

At the cross, Christ Jesus makes possible our union with the Father and himself (John 17:3). At the cross, Jesus forgives our sins. He takes on the full wrath of God upon himself so that we can now experience God’s love instead of anger. And because we have been forgiven a great debt, we can now look all around us at our brothers and sisters in Christ within our church, in the next town over, or on the other side of the globe, and we can extend them this same kind of forgiveness and grace. It’s because of the cross that we can be one with the Father and with Christ Jesus, experiencing true spiritual union.

Have you ever seen those Russian nesting dolls? Kathy brought this illustration to the preaching breakfast this week. Apparently they’re called “matryoshka dolls.” They stack one inside the other inside the other all the way down. I saw one picture of a 40-piece set, but I didn’t bring it because I thought you would be too distracted by how great it is. When people look inside of us, they should find the Son’s love, and when they look inside the Son, they will find the Father’s love, and when they look inside the Father they should find our love, and so on and so on. It’s the eternal Russian nesting doll! When they see us, and are around us, we should remind them of Jesus. There’s something different about her! When they hear the teachings of Jesus, it should remind them of us. The Bible says “Love your neighbor.” I know my friend must be Christians because they do that.

Jesus prays for our union with other believers and with the Father and the Son. Prayer ultimately is not about doing something (talking at God), but about being with someone (speaking to and hearing from God). Did you know Jesus desires for you to be with him?

24  Father,
I desire those You have given Me
to be with Me where I am.
Then they will see My glory,
which You have given Me
because You loved Me before the world’s foundation. (HCSB)

Jesus has promised us that one day he will take us to be with him (John 14:2). But until that day, we can have a little taste (a foretaste) of what being with Jesus and the Father is like through prayer. It’s as we are in this relationship, that the world will know Jesus is the real thing. We pray for union for two reasons:

1. 1. So that the world may know Jesus is from God.
   2. So that the world may know the Father loves us.

We find this in verses 23 and 25-26.

23  I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one,
so the world may know You have sent Me
and have loved them as You have loved Me

25 Righteous Father!
The world has not known You.
However, I have known You,
and these have known that You sent Me.

26  I made Your name known to them
and will make it known,
so the love You have loved Me with
may be in them and I may be in them. (HCSB)

Jesus calls us to love one another and the Father as a powerful witness to the world (c.f., John 13:35). If we want better outreach, let’s pray for union with each other, with the Father, and with the Son. At the end of the day, we can’t do this. None of us have the power to experience true union with God or others apart from a work of the Holy Spirit. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to grant us union.

Let’s pray for union with the Father, with Jesus, and with each other.

I don’t know about you but when I hear a sermon on prayer or read a book on prayer, I just want to pray. So that’s what we are going to do. We’re going to spend the next few minutes in corporate prayer as a church. I’m going to lead us through praying what we learned in John 17. I want you to pray with the people sitting in a seat near you. If you’re a visitor, we invite you to participate, but you don’t have to.

We’re going to start like Jesus started his prayer, by praising the Father, by glorifying him. For example, you can pray, “Father, you are glorious or good or kind…” Say a short prayer, and go around (or hop around) your circle as you feel led. Keep praying till I take you to the next prompt.

“Father, you are ___________.”

“Father, would you make us one with ___________.”

“Father, may the world know ___________.”

Please finish your time in prayer as I invite the worship team to lead us into worship. Righteous Father, please give us union with yourself, with Jesus, and with each other… 

Pastor Jonathan Romig wrote and preached this message for the people of Cornerstone Congregational Church. Click here to listen to more sermons or click here to read our story.

*If you listened to the audio or watched the video, Pastor Jonathan said Mark is one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. Please excuse this slip. Mark was not one of the 12 disciples. You can find the full list here, Who were the twelve (12) disciples / apostles of Jesus Christ?

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