Articles
The Prayer of Jesus
Many people have come to call the prayer Jesus taught His disciples as “The Lord's Prayer” (Matt. 6:9-13), but I believe it would be more correct to identify a prayer He prayed as such. A great example of this, and a great example for us to consider and pray as He did, is the one recorded in John 17. Let’s do that for today’s study.
Jesus Prayed for Himself. (John 17:1-5) His prayer began by praying to the Father that He would glorify Jesus “that Your Son also may glorify You.” This was not a case of “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,” but a case of Jesus desiring that the Son be glorified as His Son, the Christ, and the world’s Savior, and when Jesus was glorified as such, then God would receive glory for His infinite wisdom in conceiving and executing this plan for our salvation, and for the great love and mercy shown toward an undeserving world.
God is still worthy of man also praying for His glory, is He not? Mankind has not become any less sinful and is not any less in need of a Savior, and God’s love and mercy is no less amazing and worthy of praise, thanks, and honor. We should not only be praying for the glorification of Jesus and God the Father, but should also be glorifying them in our lives every day and in all that we do. Let us not forget, as Jesus said, to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). You see, God is not glorified by our words and prayers, but by our lives; let’s ensure we are giving reason for the world to glorify His name by the way we live. When the world sees us living out the gospel and loving one another as Jesus loved us, they will know that we are His disciples (John 13:34, 35), and they will glorify God.
The glorification for which Jesus prayed would come at His crucifixion — as nonsensical as it may seem to mankind. While most every other crucifixion was a cause for shame (Deut. 21:23), the crucifixion was a cause for the glorification of Jesus because of the great price paid and the work it effected in being the sacrifice for the sins of all men of all time. The fact He was willing to do this not for His friends but for His enemies, speaks to the worthiness of us glorifying Him and, thus, glorifying the Father for His incredible wisdom, love, and grace behind the plan. So, when we pray and as we live our daily lives for Christ, let us seek to glorify Jesus the Son and God the Father for what has been done.
Jesus Prayed for the Apostles. (John 17:6-19, 24-26) The next ones for who Jesus prayed were the apostles, ones Jesus described in His prayer as “the men whom You have given Me out of the world…those whom You have given Me” (John 17:6, 11). Jesus prayed the Father that He might “keep through Your name…that they may be one as We are” (John 17:11). The phrase is more correctly translated as “keep them in Your name,” indicating His desire that they be united in their work for the Lord and faithful to His cause, through whatever trials they might face as His apostles.
Jesus also prayed, on behalf of the apostles, “that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13), which seems to point to the joy of Christ to be fully united with the Father in the work of righteousness and salvation — the work He had given them to do as His apostles and the ones who would first bring the good news of the gospel to the world.
And, finally, Jesus prayed the Father, regarding the apostles, “not…that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). In short, Jesus was not asking that the apostles would be protected from all harm [physical and/or spiritual] by removing them from the world from which such dangers would come, but by watching over them in His Providential care as they carried about in the work that had been given them.
Some might point to this as the big failure of prayer since, according to traditional records, almost all the apostles died a violent death, and mainly — if not solely — because of their faith in Christ. But this comes from a misunderstanding about prayer and how, or whether, God answers. Some mistakenly believe God is like some all-powerful genie who grants everyone their wishes, and never allows anything bad to happen. At least to the ones they think are ‘deserving’ of such watchful care. But that has never been the actions of the true God, and comes out of ignorance, rather than facts and consideration of the historical record.
As we consider our own prayers, we would not pray for the apostles, for they died long ago. But can we not pray for those who have given themselves for the work of the Lord today, as they did? While men may not be chosen personally by Jesus to go out into the world and preach the gospel, there have been many individuals since the first century who have given their lives in service to God, and who are worthy of the same requests of God on their behalf. We can and should still pray for dedicated disciples that they may remain faithful throughout their lives as they do this important work, that they may know the joy of being fully united with the Father and the Son in the work of righteousness and salvation, preaching the gospel, and that they should be protected and delivered from the evils of this world as they do that work.
The apostle Paul himself requested prayers on the behalf of himself and his fellow workers, “that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ” (Col. 4:3), and to the Romans requested prayers on his behalf, “that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe” (Rom. 15:31). Obviously, Paul would know the dangers that might come from those who did not believe, for he once lived that life. Things have not changed since the first century, for many who disbelieve strive to silence the truth and make life miserable for those who do believe. We should still pray for the preachers of truth.
Jesus Prayed for All Who Would Be Disciples. (John 17:20-23) I will leave you, the reader, with these words of Jesus, and for what He prayed regarding those who would be disciples because of the apostles’ work: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us,……that they may be made perfect in one.” Without a doubt, Jesus prayed for the unity of all disciples, just as He and the Father were perfectly joined together as one. It is significant to note that reason He so strongly desired this unity: “that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” This unity that Christ so strongly desired was that the world would know Jesus was sent by the Father, and that the Father loved them as He loved the Son.
It is beyond tragic that those who claim to be believers and followers of Christ do not have that unity and, for many, do not desire that unity. Today, there are literally thousands of denominations, with hundreds of human-created creeds, and no real unity at all. Now, more than ever, faithful and true disciples should be praying that professing believers would (1) truly follow the words of Christ, and (2) unite together in the faith and work He has given His disciples to do.
Can we pray as Jesus did? Yes, and we should pray as Jesus prayed. In every way, the disciples of Jesus should be following His example. — Steven Harper
