Title: Jesus' Suffering and Prayer
Contents
Bible Text: John 17:1-21
Jesus' suffering and prayer
Dear saints,
The 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, the verse we read together today, is all Jesus' prayer. It is the intercession and prayer offered to God before suffering and crucifixion to atone for the sins of our lives. In the face of the bitter cup of death and suffering, he offered an intercessory prayer for the sins of his beloved disciples and his chosen people.
Mrs. A. T. Robertson expressed this prayer in the following beautiful style:
“This prayer of Christ makes us drenched in its fragrance like a rose, and it is like a melodious, pleasantly flowing melody, so that our love and longing for this prayer is never substantiated.”
Jesus had already explained his suffering and death many times directly and indirectly, but the disciples did not understand. However, the Lord comforted the disciples who did not understand Him.
He gave us hope by saying, “I have overcome the world.”
And in John 17, the text we read together today, we offer a long prayer to God.
Therefore, today, I would like to consider the characteristics of this great prayer of the Lord by dividing it into three parts by focusing on its meaning.
First, Jesus is praying for the glory he will receive after he has passed through the sufferings of the cross.
Dear saints, Listen to Jesus' first prayer.
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, so that your son may glorify you.”
Jesus knew that the time had now come when the three years of His ministry had ended and He would suffer on the cross. It was a time that God had already decreed before sending Jesus into the world and before the ages. As the Lamb of the Passover in this world, Jesus became the Word in order to fulfill God the Father's plan of redemption. Therefore, Jesus' prayer was a prayer to accomplish Heavenly Father's will. The conclusion of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was that, "Not my will, but your will be done."
In this prayer, Jesus taught us what true prayer is.
Dear saints,
Our prayers are always selfish. I tend to wish for my desires to be satisfied rather than for the will of the Lord to be done. Rather than accomplishing God's will, my greed is being satisfied and there is a problem in trying to rationalize my sins.
Our bigger problem is that we don't even pray at all.
On the other hand, through these prayers, Jesus is testifying that His suffering and death are connected to resurrection and ascension, and ultimately the victory of the gospel is achieved, and God is glorified through that work. This is the conviction that the Son will be glorified, and the way for the Son to glorify the Father is to follow the Father's will and follow the way of the cross.
Therefore, eternal life is to believe in the only God and Jesus Christ whom he sent, and it is God's redemptive movement that has already been ordained before the foundation of the world, and by completing that redemptive movement, God is glorified, so Jesus Christ, the Son, will also be glorified. will be
Dear saints,
This time we think of the Lord's prayer. I can't help but express my gratitude and appreciation. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
In this regard, the Bible testifies:
“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
Nevertheless, the Word became flesh. This is God's only way of salvation. In other words, God Himself became ‘incarnated’, became the sacrifice for sin in his place, and made us believe in him so that he could save people from their sins and give them eternal life. As such, Jesus is the Son of God and came into the world according to God's plan of redemption.
Although Jesus is the true God, he truly has a weak body just like ours.
He prayed, 'The hour has come,' and he obeyed God's will by drinking the bitter cup of suffering and the cross.
That is why Jesus is our Savior.
He has given eternal life to those who believe in him.
If you know this truth, you simply cannot be.
The hearts of those who know this precious gospel of life are always burning with conviction.
We should not be satisfied with just being members of the church who register and attend church occasionally. We must fervently dedicate our whole life to the Lord while giving thanks and being moved by the love of the cross and redemption of the Lord, so that we too must live a life of love, trust, and devotion to the Lord.
Second, Jesus prayed for his beloved disciples before suffering and the cross.
The prayer of Jesus is the prayer of the office of high priest.
A few hours before the terrible suffering of the cross, I prayed for the twelve disciples.
Jesus begins his prayer with words that will teach a lesson to anyone who believes in him. That is, “To those whom you gave me out of the world”, “We have kept your word” and so on. Jesus prayed for his disciples in this urgent time.
So, what was revealed in Jesus' prayer?
The first point in Jesus' prayer was to pray that the disciples would not fall into evil.
“I do not pray for them to be taken out of the world, but to keep them from falling into evil.”
And it was said that the preservation of the disciples would be done through the Holy Spirit, through the name of the Father, the truth.
Dear saints,
Even today, without the Lord's intercessory prayer, we always fail, become discouraged, and fall into an irreversible pit. Although we cannot see Jesus Christ with our own eyes, we can experience the Lord being with us through the Holy Spirit and overcome the world through the Word of God.
We have a problem because we do not know these truths, and we become discouraged.
The second point in Jesus' prayer was the prayer for the disciples to be sanctified.
“Sanctify them with the truth; your word is truth.”
“As you have sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world”
Jesus' prayer like this is that "Man has fallen, but he is sanctified by the truth of God, and he entrusts the missionary mission to the disciples who realize it."
Disciples have a special mission. He demanded that we not only properly discern the truth, but also lay down our lives to work for the gospel.
This prayer of Jesus is primarily a prayer to his disciples. But at the same time, it is also a prayer for us living today. In other words, our Lord is praying for us at the right hand of God even now so that we may live in this sinful world, a city of suffocating sin, with His truth and missionary mission.
Third, in the face of suffering and the cross, Jesus prayed in detail for the church and the saints.
Jesus prayed, “That we too may become one.”
And Jesus prayed that we could finally be with him in the glory of heaven. This means a church union or a Christian union.
And going one step further, it means union with Christ, union with God.
Believers in Jesus have already become one by becoming members of the body of Christ, the church. Today, we too have become one body through one God, one Jesus, one Holy Spirit, one faith, and one baptism.
Coalition is not a forced union. We are members when we are united to one another in Jesus. And only the truth can be one. And we can show our unity only when we receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit and show the world love, kindness, and patience.
But even with this perfect unity, the Lord is praying for the future glory of the church. It guarantees the completion and glory of salvation.
“Father, the one you have given me is with me where I am, and you… I want them to see my glory that you have given me.
Dear saints,
Jesus prayed for us before he drank the bitter cup of suffering on the cross for us. What Jesus prayed for his disciples is also a prayer for us.
Jesus is still offering our intercessory prayers for us in heaven.
He is praying so that we may overcome the world, that we may fight the devil and overcome it, that we may overcome sin.
That is why we are able to overcome the world as we live in the world, but are not of the world, but belong to the Lord.
Therefore, I hope that all of us today also live in a time of hardship, but look to the victory in Christ, just as the Lord foresaw his victory in a time of suffering.
Just as Jesus prayed for us while drinking the bitter cup of suffering on the cross for us, I hope that our believers today can also pray for our neighbors' pain and difficulties.
I pray in the name of the Lord that God's grace, love, and blessings overflow upon all of us.