Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Day 10

John 17

How many times have we had someone pray for us and it comforted our hearts and brought peace to our minds!  I am guessing, many times!  I know that is true in my life.  How awesome it must have been to have Jesus, there in person, praying to the Heavenly Father, and His Word of love pouring over them, washing their souls.  And yet today, Jesus is in heaven, seated on the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.  How blessed we are to not only know them as God, but as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each person in the trinity working to bring all things together for good!

Chapter 17 begins right after Jesus has told the disciples He would be leaving them in chapter 16, He didn't want them to be disturbed by His leaving them. His prayer to the Father was to comfort their hearts, giving  them hope, because He had overcome the world, they would be able to do so also.

As Jesus shares His heart in prayer to the Heavenly Father, He is asking the Father for their protection when He is gone because not only have they believed in Him, but they have also obeyed His Word.  Jesus was asking the Father to glorify Him, because in glorifying the Son, He would bring glory to Himself.  Jesus' glorifying the Father came at a great price.  It came through Jesus completing the Father's will, and that was that He die for the sins of the world.  There is never no glory in death. Jesus' death was cruel and horrible; the glory would come from His ressurection, and His ascension back to the Father's right hand.  Glory came in that Jesus' obedience to His Father's will, resulted in salvation to the whole world through His death on Calvary's cross. 

Jesus told His Father through prayer that what He was praying, was so the disciples would be able to have the FULL MEASURE of JOY within them.

As Jesus is finishing His prayer, He not only includes the disciples in His prayer, but ALL those who would believe in Him through their message.  So for Jesus' to continue to be glorified, we must share what He has done for the whole world through His birth, His death, His ressurection, and His ascension to Heaven.  Our hope of glory is Jesus Christ.  Our hope is that we believe in His second coming!  His is returning for His bride, the church, without spot or wrinkle! 

Hmmm.  I was watching HGTV the other day, SayYes to the Dress.  There was a bride there trying on her altered bridal gown, and there was a wrinkle in the dress.  Well, the mother-in-law was not satisfied until every wrinkle was gone out of that gown.  Then I thought, how picky!  But now that I am thinking on this thought of Jesus coming for His bride without spot or wrinkle, I think I get it.  The only way the church is without spot or wrinkle is by the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary.

All the sacrifices in the Old Testament had to be without spot or wrinkle, and so that is why Jesus had to live a sinless life, or He wouldn't have been the perfect sacrifice for our sins!

Ephesians 5:
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Hebrews 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

1 Peter 1:
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written , Be ye holy; for I am holy.
17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again , not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.


All who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, are His bride.  We are all members of His body, clothed with the bridal gown, awaiting the arrival of our bridegroom.  Although there are many denominations, many churches, which mean many differences and opionions, there is only one thing that matters.  That the true bride of Christ, wearing white, is washed in the blood of the lamb...for whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!  Our sins exchanged for His righteousness, the GREAT EXCHANGE!

If there is any doubt in your heart of being clothed in His righteousness, being a part of the Bride of Christ,
now is the day of salvation.  Now is the day you can exchange all your sins for His righteousness, and become clothed in His Bridal gown, and wait for His return.  Then you too will be able to sit down with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb!.