Proclamation:
“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 sent Me.” John 17:20-21 (NIV)
Explanation:
These words were spoken by
Jesus, The Christ, and recorded by the Apostle John under the influence of The
Holy Spirit of God. In this chapter,
John records the prayer which Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all future
believers. As Jesus neared the end of
His earthly ministry, He prayed for His disciples. (John 17:1-3) He made it clear that He was not praying for
all of the people in the world, He was just praying for His people. (John 17:9-10) Jesus also made it clear that He was not just
praying for His disciples alone, but also for all of the people who would hear
their message and believe in Him. (John 17:20-21) He also prayed that they would be with Him
where He would be. (John 17:24)
Application:
Once we became a believer, this
prayer that Jesus prayed also applied to us.
He prayed that God, The Father, would keep us safe and protected from
the evil one. (John 17:15) He also
prayed that The Father would love us as He loved Jesus Himself. (John
17:26) It is also important to note that
He prayed that there would be unity among the believers, and that we would be
as one, the unity of the church. (John 17:21)
The more we bicker with other believers, the less likely that the world
will see Christ in us. We need to show
more love towards our fellow believers. Three
times Jesus repeated this command for us to love one another. (John 13:34,
15:12, and 15:17) Jesus prayed for us
because He knew that we would need God’s help to make it in this world. We need to pray for ourselves and for each
other that we might be more loving towards one another.
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