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Jesus Prays for His Disciples
John 17:20-26
Good News Translation (GNT)
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20 "I pray not only for them, but also for those
who believe in me because of their message.
21 I pray that they may all be one. Father!
May they be in us, just as you are in me
and I am in you. May they be one, so that the
world will believe that you sent me.
22 I gave them the same glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, just as you and I are
one:
23 I in them and you in me, so that they may be
completely one, in order that the world may
know that you sent me and that you love them
as you love me.
24 "Father! You have given them to me, and I
want them to be with me where I am, so that
they may see my glory, the glory you gave me;
for you loved me before the world was made.
25 Righteous Father! The world does not know
you, but I know you, and these know that you
sent me.
26 I made you known to them, and I will continue
to do so, in order that the love you have for me
may be in them, and so that I also may be in
them."
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
Jesus Prays for All Believers
John 17:20-26
Here we see that Jesus was not praying for His eleven disciples alone,
but also for all who have ever believed (and will yet believe) in the Gospel of Jesus.
Now in this third part of Jesus' final prayer, He prays especially for us.
He prays that we might be one. All believers are to be one in mind and heart.
We are to be one in love. We are to be one in Jesus and in God,
just as God and are one in each other.
This oneness is a spiritual oneness.
It is a unity brought about by the Holy Spirit.
Next, Jesus prays that we might remain in Him and in God.
Only when we are united with God and Jesus can we be united with each other.
When we remain in God and in Jesus we will bear fruit.
People will see that we are continuing Jesus' work.
Then, because of the fruit we are bearing in Jesus' name, people will believe that God
indeed did send Jesus into the world.
The two fruits that are easiest for the world to see are our unity and our love.
If Christ's followers demonstrate these fruits, then the world will surely know
that Jesus was sent from God.
Jesus gave His disciples His own glory, which He had received from His Father.
This glory is spiritual life and love. It is the glory of sanctification.
Jesus gave them His glory, that they might be one,
even as He and the Father were one.
Our unity with each other comes from our unity with God and Jesus.
We are in them. They are in us. They are in each other.
We are branches of the same vine. When the world sees our unity,
it will know that God sent Jesus, and that God loves us,
even as He loves Jesus.
The world will know that our unity is not based on human love,
but on divine love.
Think of that! God loves us as much as He loves His own Son Jesus.
And He has made us sons also, because we have believed in Jesus.
But let us ask ourselves something.
Does the world see unity among Christians?
Does the world see love among Christians?
How successful the devil has been in dividing us!
May God forgive us for not having preserved the unity of His church.
Jesus had already told His disciples that He would come back to get them.
Here He expresses this same intention to God.
He wanted His disciples to see His glory, the glory that He had from the beginning.
The world does not know God, but Jesus knows Him.
Jesus came from God to reveal God to men.
He revealed God especially to His closest disciples.
Therefore, He could say to God, "They know that you have sent me."
Jesus said, "I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known."
Jesus continued to make God known to the disciples through the Holy Spirit.
And He is still doing so today.
Jesus makes God known to us through the Holy Spirit,
so that God's love might be in us and so that Jesus Himself might be in us.
Through the Holy Spirit we know God, we know His love, and we have Jesus living in us.
All this is the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is continuing to do this
work in the life of every believer today
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