5/24/20 John 17:6-19 “You Need Prayer as Much as Oxygen!”

22 May 5/24/20 John 17:6-19 “You Need Prayer as Much as Oxygen!”

5/24/20      John 17:6-19    “You Need Prayer as Much as Oxygen!”

I love this weekend because it is the unofficial 1^st Sunday of the summer.  I know that the weather has not been the best this spring but I always feel after this weekend that we are mentally in summer even if the weather doesn’t cooperate.  We have a full season of summer ahead so let’s see if we can enjoy it.  This is also the weekend where we honor our military dead along with those friends and relatives who have gone on before us.  Plus this is ascension Sunday where we honor Jesus who ascended into heaven in the plain sight of the disciples.  So there are lots of things happening.  Today we are going to look at part of a prayer that Jesus prayed for these disciples.  This is in anticipation of His leaving very soon.  Let’s see if we can be included in this prayer.

I would like to begin by telling you of an ancient legend of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  He was met by the angel Gabriel who asked him, “Now that your work is finished, what plans have you made to ensure that the truth you brought to earth will spread throughout the world?”

Jesus answered, “I called some fishermen and tax collectors to walk along with me as I did my Father’s will.”  “Yes, I know about them,” said Gabriel, “but what other plans have you made?”

Jesus replied, “I taught Peter, James and John about the kingdom of God; I taught Thomas about faith; and all of them were with me as I healed and preached to the multitudes.”  Gabriel began to lose patience.  “Really now, all this is well and good, but surely you must have other plans to make sure your work was not in vain.”  Jesus fixed a steady gaze upon Gabriel and said with finality, “I have no other plans.  I am depending on them!!”  Jesus was depending on these uneducated, plain, common disciples to take the Message and run.  It is no different today when He gives us this same message and we are told to spread it in all places.

Before we begin, it is very important that we understand what is happening at this time.  This scene is being played out at the last supper.  John describes the happenings at the last supper in a little different manner than the other gospel writers.  For one thing, he is the only writer not to include the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine.  We also need to know that the disciples have absolutely no idea what Jesus is talking about during this prayer.  Jesus has done this to them many times in the past.  He has told them that they wouldn’t understand until after He was gone.  The disciples at this point have no idea of what will happen in the next few days.  I have pointed this out a few times before.  The disciples don’t get it and they won’t get it until after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

So, Jesus decides to leave them with a prayer that He prays out loud so they can hear.  Right before these verses, Jesus prays for himself and following these verses, He prays for all believers.  But in these verses, He prays for the disciples.

Jesus realizes that these disciples are only human.  They don’t understand what is about to happen.  They don’t understand that they will be persecuted in the future.  They don’t understand that Jesus is not the savior from the Romans but that He is the Savior for all humankind.  They don’t understand that it is Jesus who has been protecting them all this time.  They don’t understand that Jesus will leave and the Holy Spirit will come in His place.

We all know from reading the Bible how much the people understood what was going on.  They thought that Jesus was just a man from God who would help them get what they needed.  This came in the form of healings, and food, and water.  Beyond this, they didn’t have a clue.  The religious leaders of the day were little better.  They might have known exactly who Jesus was but they were not about to make it known because that would spell the end of their reign as leaders.

The Romans didn’t really care who Jesus was because all they wanted was a peaceful occupation of the area.  But I think that deep down they might have all been afraid of Him because they realized the power that He had.

The disciples were not better than any of these people.  We like to think of them as those fellows who followed along and listened to every word that Jesus spoke.  We like to think of them as these obedient evangelists who went about the country winning people for Jesus.  We like to think of them as a pretty lofty bunch of fellows.  But the fact is that these guys were just like everyone else.  The only difference was that they had heard all the teachings and seen the healings and miracles first hand.  It wouldn’t be until later that they would understand.  So, Jesus prays for them.

We have the same situations in today’s world.  We need to first realize and acknowledge that God is everywhere and God is working all the time.  And of course, this is the first place where we fail.  We are a country that claims to be 80% Christian, give or take a little.  If I were to believe this figure, it would force me to think, “What kind of God are we worshipping if these terrible things that we do are Christian?”  I don’t even have to delve into the debauchery of this country because there isn’t a person listening who couldn’t think of 20 things that we do that are terribly wrong.  Therefore, I don’t believe this 80% figure at all.

What I believe is that for the most part we are the same as the ancient Jews in our reading.  We want a God that will deliver us from our Romans.  We want God to cure our sick.  We want God to get us out of this terrible financial crisis we are having and cure the coronavirus.  We want a God who will take care of anything that we want.  We want a personal God for our own personal business.  We want to define who God is!  I have said this many times, “The world is not about us.  It is not about me.  It is about God and the glory of God.”  That is what we forget as we try to call ourselves Christians.

And all of this rubs off on the modern disciples.  For the most part we are no better than the disciples who first heard this prayer.  We are constantly making issues where there shouldn’t be any at all.  We like to read the Bible and interpret it in ways that are pleasing to us.  It must be politically correct.  One of my favorite things that I hear from my colleagues and professionals is that we have to look at what is said in the Bible in the context of the times it was written.  And I agree with this for many things in the Bible.

However, when God tells us through His holy word that something is wrong, then it is wrong.  It is not ok to murder and steal in South Dakota.  It is not ok to have different kinds of witchcraft in New York and voodoo in Florida.  And the sad part of all of this is that just because we might be able to do these things in South Dakota, New York and Florida then it stands to reason that we should be able to do them here or anywhere.  The fact is that we should be doing the opposite thinking.  All of these practices are wrong everywhere and we should be trying to eliminate them.  Please realize that I am using these states as an example and they may or may not allow these things to happen.  But as Christians, as disciples, we are to be out front leading the battle against sin.  It is not our job to try to interpret the Scripture so that we can have a nice, touchy, feely, anything and everything goes society.  There will be consequences for sin.  And I think that as disciples we need to brush off this Bible and spend more time reading the message and applying it to our lives.  There is no way that we should be altering God’s word.  Maybe you feel comfortable doing that but I sure don’t.

Now we have noted all the things that had happened then and now.  The most important aspect of this is that once again Jesus prays.  Just think about this for a minute.  Jesus, who is part of the Trinity, prays.  This makes this relationship of the Trinity even more mysterious.  I am not going to try to begin to unravel this mystery today.  But I would like you to note that even Jesus prayed.  This is how important prayer is in our lives, even Jesus prays.

Jesus prayed for his disciples.  God had given these people to Jesus so that He could teach them what they had to do.  All of them were ready except for the one doomed for destruction, who of course was Judas.  Please note that Jesus once again shows us that He knows these things ahead of time, before they happen.

So, Jesus prays this prayer for the chosen ones to continue the fight.  As we saw in the opening, God had chosen fishermen, tax collectors and undesirables to do this massive job.  It would be centuries before Christianity came to the elite and rich of the area.  It would remain a religion for the poor for some time.  Jesus prays for them because He knows they will be hated.  He knows many things will go wrong.  He prays that they will have joy, the joy one gets from being part of Jesus.  He prays for safety from Satan and from the wicked ways of this broken world where they lived.  He knows that they are not part of this world, but they are part of His world.  He prays that they be sanctified by the Word that they preach.  The word ‘sanctify’ means to be made holy.

Jesus loves these people so much that He is trying to give them everything that they need in order to survive and spread the Word.  And most importantly He is giving them a blue print for help.  He is showing them how to pray.  If Jesus had to pray to God, then they had all better learn how to pray.

And this goes the same for us today.  Jesus is showing us how to pray.  Right before this, Jesus prayed for himself and right after he prayed for all believers.  This may be hard for us northern plains people to believe, but it is ok to pray for me.  It is very important that you pray for yourself.  Your prayers won’t do much good if Satan is affecting you.  But pray in a way that is pleasing to God.

Today we have Jesus praying for the disciples.  We need to be in constant prayer for our religious or church leaders.  If you know of someone in your congregation or the community who is a devoted Christian, they need your prayers.  Make a list of people that you know and pray for them every day.  If I didn’t have people praying for me, I would be totally lost.  I don’t come by this naturally.  I also know that we do have people in our area who are real prayer warriors. They need our prayers.

Every disciple of Jesus Christ needs prayers.  We need prayers to have the courage to reach out into our government with the ways of Jesus.  We need prayers to go into our schools with God.  We need prayers so that we can reach out to the really needy of the area.  We need prayers for everything that we do.  Without your prayer support, our disciples can and will become ineffective.  The more prayer support you can give, the better off people will be.

Tim Zingale gives this wonderful example.  One day there was a small boy trying to lift a very heavy stone but he couldn’t even budge it.  His father happened to be passing by and he said to his son, “Are you using all your strength?”  The boy sounded a little exasperated and worn out as he answered, “Yes, I am.  I am using every last bit of energy and strength I have.”

The father looked at the boy and said, “No, you are not using all of your strength yet, because you haven’t asked me to help you.”

So, the boy asked the father to help but they still couldn’t budge the big rock.  So, the father asked the older brother to help but they still couldn’t move it.  Then they asked a neighbor, and another neighbor.  Finally, the stone was moved with all these people giving all their energy and strength to the project.  After everyone had left the father said to the son, “You see when we all work together and use our strength together, we can accomplish some things that none of us could get done by ourselves.  Unity, togetherness and working together can add a lot of strength to any project.”  Prayer works the same way.

As Jesus prays for us, we are to pray for others.  Prayer is one of the wonderful ways that we can all do something for someone.  The more people we have praying for our leaders, our friends and our families the better off we will be and the more we can do.  This is what Jesus is trying to tell us today.  Believers and people need your prayers.  God wants to hear your prayers.  Your prayers are important.

Jesus started this whole thing with twelve rag tag men who were pretty much at the bottom of the ancient social scale.  He started this with some uneducated and poor men and women.  He might have done it like this so that we can see that it takes nothing special from this world to be a disciple of Christ.  We are His disciples, and Jesus loves us enough to pray for us, for you.  You in turn are to be praying for the disciple sitting next to you.  The most important way to be a disciple begins with prayer.  Then God will tell you where to go and what to do next.  The beauty of this whole plan is that God is in charge and not you.  He loves us too much to leave us to our own devices.  Pray to Jesus for His disciples.  You may be pleasantly surprised at the results.  You have a God that loves you and I praise Him for loving me.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.