JESUS PRAYS . . . DISCIPLES

"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.
They knew with certainty that I came from you,
and they believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world,
but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.
And glory has come to me through them.”
John 17:6-10

Jesus prays for those who have been personally entrusted to Him by the

Father to be His disciples.  In the Father’s giving the disciples to Jesus, He

shows the oneness of their relationship. He prays specifically for them to

know and believe the truth He revealed plus respond in obedience which is

the fundamental attitude of a true disciple.  The following prayers about

unity, protection and sanctification are prayers only for His disciples.

“I will remain in the world no longer,
but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--
so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe
by that name you gave me.
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction
so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world,
so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
I have given them your word and the world has hated them,
for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world
but that you protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
John 17:11-16

Jesus prays for unity, not merely of heart and mind, but of a shared life

through their relationship with Him and the Father.  Jesus prays for their

protection from corruption by the world and their own selfish hearts.

Jesus also prays for their protection from the power and deception of the

enemy.  Jesus prays that they might have joy, glorify God and serve their

generation.

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”
John 17:17-19

Jesus prays that His disciples would be made holy – set apart to experience

God’s presence, commissioned for a divine task and become the people of

God who are distinct from the world not like it.

We need to pray for those people God has entrusted to us to disciple – that

we would be Christ-like examples and that they would be unified, protected

and sanctified.

Joyce