Jesus' Prayer in John 17

[Penn]

We have been covering the Gospel of John during the last 10 weeks in our Adult Sunday School class.

Today we went over Jesus Prayer in depth, and it's awesome!

In 17: 1-5, Jesus prays for Himself, that he might resume the glory He left in order to come into the world. He performed His ministry as a suffering servant, and He accomplished the work God gave Him to do.

In 17: 6-19, He prays for the disciples, "so that they may be as one, as we are one". He knew that without unity of the heart and purpose their mission would fail.

The final portion of the prayer (17: 20-26) is for the church universal. Jesus prayed that they may be one, may be filled with the Spirit of the Father who created the universe and of the Son who was The Word made flesh ""so that the world may believe" (21) and "so that the world may know" (23).

 

[Hessian]

Praying for future generations...

I think that strikes me.
How much time do we spend praying for grandchildren (still a decade off for me) or even G-grandchildren....even the remnant of believers who have not compromised or weakened their faith despite the worsening situation (in Islamic or Hindu nations)
Christ presents these followers before the Father...and IDs them as His own.
That...is real security!

 

[Penn]

I think that strikes me.
How much time do we spend praying for grandchildren (still a decade off for me) or even G-grandchildren....even the remnant of believers who have not compromised or weakened their faith despite the worsening situation (in Islamic or Hindu nations)
Christ presents these followers before the Father...and IDs them as His own.
That...is real security!

Indeed!

I was just reviewing a passage which spoke to Jesus' Prayer in John;it was part of a course, called "Disciple" I attended a couple of years ago:

"Before the foundation of the world, before, as God said to Job, "the morning stars sang together" (Job 38:7), God's love for creation was manifested in The Word.
Now, Jesus prayed that God would express that love through all believers to the whole world. His prayer was that all of His disciples would be unified, so that the world would be confronted by a single, loving witness.
What a travesty denominational pride makes of Jesus great prayer.

What a hindrance to our witness is our lack of unity!"

Food for thought.

 

[residentofcre]

Indeed!

I was just reviewing a passage which spoke to Jesus' Prayer in John;it was part of a course, called "Disciple" I attended a couple of years ago:

"Before the foundation of the world, before, as God said to Job, "the morning stars sang together" (Job 38:7), God's love for creation was manifested in The Word.
Now, Jesus prayed that God would express that love through all believers to the whole world. His prayer was that all of His disciples would be unified, so that the world would be confronted by a single, loving witness.
What a travesty denominational pride makes of Jesus great prayer.

What a hindrance to our witness is our lack of unity!"

Food for thought.

I found this quote for today...

"I created your innermost being; I knit you together in your mother's womb.... you are fearfullly and wonderfully made.... don't ever forget that."

Psalm 139:13-14​

 

[2ndAmendment]

All good stuff.

The sermon at our church Sunday was presented by a layman and pointed out another hindrance to the work of Christ in our world. Christians that act one way on Sunday and totally different every other day of the week. The Sermon was based on

Revelation 3:15-16

15'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.

16'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

We need to be "on fire" for Jesus.

Far too many people that claim the name Christian talk a good game while in church or conversing about God but all too often completely change their language when away from church or talking sports or something else. Words change from praise, thanks, honor to God to fxxx, MF, shxx, cxcksxkxr, and all sorts of language that that same person would not dream of using in church. Actions change too. Touching, flirting, and all sorts of promiscuous activity takes place by people, who, in church, are praying, singing in the choir, going to or teaching Sunday school.

The point of the sermon was that Christians need to be "on fire" for God all the time and in every place. Fire changes things. It burns off dross and leaves behind pure gold. Fire changes what is around it; what is around it does not change fire. Christians need to be the same for God no matter where they are and their language and actions should not change. We shouldn't try to "fit in"; we are called to be different. All people around a Christian should notice that the Christian is "on fire" for God.

I thought It was a good message and just wanted to share.

 

[Makavide]

All good stuff.

Far too many people that claim the name Christian talk a good game while in church or conversing about God but all too often completely change their language when away from church or talking sports or something else. Words change from praise, thanks, honor to God to fxxx, MF, shxx, cxcksxkxr, and all sorts of language that that same person would not dream of using in church. Actions change too. Touching, flirting, and all sorts of promiscuous activity takes place by people, who, in church, are praying, singing in the choir, going to or teaching Sunday school.

In other words
“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi

 

[2ndAmendment]

In other words
“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi

 

[Penn]

I was attempting to describe the emotions we all felt in our Adult Sunday School session last Sunday.

You know, you read the Bible, and you glean what you can from the words spoken in it. Much of it is plain and simple; other verses are, or can seem ambiguous, meaning you don't always pick up on what the author is trying to get across to you.

The problem many of us, I think experience, is the expressed emotion behind the words. It's hard to read into a person's mind, when it is expressed in written words.

"I am" He said. I don't know how much the disciples really grasped of that meaning, when He said that. That phrase goes back to the Old Testament, when God told Moses, (I believe,) "I am".

But here, in this prayer that Jesus spoke, at the Last Supper, you finally catch a glimpse of what was going on inside of this man, just as the disciples did in the previous chapter.

They still had their doubts, up until the end of chapter 16. Until then, Jesus had been teaching in parables, so that anyone who could hear, might understand what it was that He was teaching/saying to them.

In John 16: 4-8, He tells them "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now.... it is to your advantage that I go away,...but if I go, I will send Him(the Advocate) to you.
And when He comes, He will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment."
Now, He was speaking to them plainly, and to realize that they finally "caught on", is astounding to witness. Now, they had no doubts as to who He was.

So it was last Sunday, in our class.