JESUS PRAYS . . . BELIEVERS

"My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
that all of them may be one, Father,
just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me,
that they may be one as we are one:
I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me
and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am,
and to see my glory, the glory you have given me
because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
John 17: 20-24

In the last portion of His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays for all who will

become believers through the witness of His disciples.  He prays for unity

with Himself and the Father through the Holy Spirit plus the oneness of all

believers through the word and truth they received from Him.  The purpose

of this unity is that the world may believe and know that the Father sent the

Son to provide living proof of God’s gracious character of mercy, love and truth.  

All believers are sent on the same mission to bear witness to the Father and

the Son. Jesus also prays for all believers to be with Him in heaven to see His

glory. His prayer spans the believers’ whole life from conversion into eternity.

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you,
I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known
in order that the love you have for me may be in them
and that I myself may be in them."
John 17: 25-26

Jesus concludes with an eternal perspective of the present situation.  He

repeats His promise to be with them both now and beyond that they may have

intimacy with the Father through the Son.  The relationship of believers with

the Father will always be mediated through the Son, even into eternity.

Joyce