Have you ever felt quite alone, where you had an urgent need or concern that you wished other believers would pray along with you for, but you had no one to turn to? Sometimes some Christians have felt that way. They had a prayer need, but no one they could turn to who would pray with them for this concern. Perhaps they are shut-ins, and are unable to go to church. Perhaps, depending on where they live in the world, there might not be any churches around for them to go to. Unfortunately there are some churches that do not put a whole lot of emphasis on prayer meetings or even praying specifically for each other. And then there are some people who are very shy or introverted, and have great difficulty in speaking to others, particularly to ask prayer for themselves. In our Scripture passage today, we find some words of comfort for all believers, and particularly for anyone who might feel that they have no one to pray for them. Let’s look into our Scripture for today.
The 17th chapter of the Gospel of John is an account of the prayer that Jesus made to His Father just hours before He would be arrested and crucified. During that prayer Jesus specifically prayed for His disciples. However, He didn’t pray just for them. As we read in our opening verse, Jesus prayed for those who would come to faith in Him through the words of these disciples (vs. 20). If we think about this verse, all of us have come to faith in Jesus as our Savior through the words of the first disciples. Whether we come to faith through direct reading of the Bible, or through a sermon message, a devotional reading, or someone talking to us, we can trace a line back to this group of first believers. Thus, as Jesus said here, He was praying for each one of us. Just hours before His death, Jesus was thinking about and praying for you and me. Not only was Jesus praying for us that evening, but He continues to pray for us today. He is our High Priest in heaven, making intercession for us before the throne of God (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).
One of the things that Jesus was praying about was that His followers, both back at that time, and also today, would have unity among themselves (vs. 21-23). This didn’t mean that we would all be exactly identical to each other in every way. Christians, in the same way as everyone else, have their own personalities, their own likes and dislikes. However, Jesus did not want His followers to be fighting among themselves. God does want us to stand up for and keep good sound doctrine and Biblical truths and beliefs. We should never accept or permit heretical and false teachings into the Church. However, so often we see fighting and squabbles in our churches over minor and inconsequential things. Church members have fought among themselves over such trivial things as what color carpet should be bought, over when during the service the offering should be taken, and who is asked to serve on what committee. Such fighting among each other does not make Jesus happy, nor is it a good witness to the unbelievers in the neighborhood!
Are we helping to build the church with unity? Or is our behavior and actions helping more to tear it down? We can, like Jesus, pray for unity in the Body of Christ. We can avoid gossip and having a mean spirit, and instead build others up, working together in humility. We can give of ourselves, exalting Christ and not ourselves, and refuse to get sidetracked by arguing about divisive matters.
When believers from all different races, ethnicities, ages, and backgrounds are united, the world will begin to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus didn’t pray that we would just tolerate each other. No, He prayed that we would be one with each other, just as He is with the Father. Jesus prayed for unity, not enmity. This can only be brought about by love. The Father sent the Son into the world to save the world. The Son sends us into the world to proclaim that message, and we can’t do that if we are fighting among ourselves.
In closing, there is one more truth to quickly touch on in this passage, and that is the pre-existence of Jesus throughout all eternity (vs. 24). Jesus wasn’t just a good person, a good teacher. He is the Second Person of the Trinity, who existed from all time. Before the world was ever created, God was a Trinity, all loving each other. As I John 4:8 states, God is love, and the Trinity exists in love for each other. We, as God’s children, should always show our love for each other. We should also always remember that Jesus is praying for us!
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