“CHRIST IN INTERCESSION” (continued) - part 3.

In approaching this subject of the Church’s ministry of intercession, we found two very important features.

The first is the primary objective of intercession - the revelation of ‘the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’.

And the second was that of being absorbed in ‘the will of God’ for ‘the manifestation of that glory’.

Tonight, I would like to look further into Christ in His intercession in John 17. 

And I would like to draw our attention to three points that would - or should - open our understanding about intercession:
     - first, its eternal significance
     - second, its place of power in union with His Father
     - and third, its concentrated outflow.

In respect to these three points, as a reminder, let me first state a few general observations.

This is probably the most remarkable, the most solemn, the most comprehensive expression of Christ’s intercession, of His communion with His Father that Scripture records.

It is so profound and so full of deep, deep expression, that there are things in this prayer that can never be fully explained for the weight it carries is far beyond human explanation and grasp.

We need to remember that this is the prayer of One Who ‘spake as no man ever spake’ (John 7:46), Who prayed as no man ever prayed.

It is the prayer of ‘the Second Person in the Trinity’ Who is interceding before God His Father on our behalf.

Under the shadow of the approaching Cross, He prayed this prayer of intercession that brought the disciples and brings us into the sanctity of the depth of His Person.

Thus, from this priceless representation of Christ’s intercession, the Church can glean some very important gems.

In seriously reading through it, this forces us to admit that we are standing on holy ground.

And, with this in mind, I approach this study with fear and trembling, lest we bring it down to trampling ground.

To make it a matter of common sense would water down its eternal significance and bring it to an earthly rank.

I hope we will keep this in mind as we approach this and that we will always think of it in terms of its heavenly import only.

This is why I do not plan to dissect, analyze, nor systematize this prayer in a critical way.

It, to me, is too reverent and too sacred a passage to do so.

My purpose is only to glean some points that the Church may be able to appropriate and apply in its intercession ministry and these strictly under the direction and power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord willing, then, we will go to work slowly and glean just as much as the Holy Spirit is able to show us that He will apply to the ministry to which the Church has been called.

First, understand that everything about this event witnesses to the importance of intercession - its content and the One Who is praying makes very certain that its importance testifies to its eternal significance.

This is a prayer of a supernatural revelation that admits us to the heart of the Divine, the Secret Place of the Tabernacle of the Most High God.

Thus, what Christ prayed is serious and not to be discarded with abandon.

In communion with His Father, He was expressing those things He was earnestly set upon - the world was His mission, the disciples were in His mind, and the Church was in His heart.

It involves all of the eternal ages to come for it opened heaven to every individual who has ever lived, who lives,
and is yet to live in this world.

I draw your attention to this fact by reading verse 20 of this chapter.

It reads: “Neither pray I for these (His disciples) alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word...”.

He was praying for His whole Church, for all who are ‘born anew by His Spirit’.

So, our blessed Lord is heard communing with His Father about, not only of His coming glory in verses 1-6, and for His disciples in verses 7-19, but He is looking down through the years, which is now nearly two millenniums.

It is a holy, solemn wonder as He looked through the ages in interceding for all who were to be ‘called according to His purpose’.

How unspeakably awesome is this one thought - the  significance of His intercession that would reach into the eternity of the eternities!

And, secondly, there is an air of victorious, triumphal ascendency about it because it is prayed in the place of divine power - in union with the Father.

Let us look at the beginning in verse 1: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father...’ ”.

Christ, in addressing His Father, lifted up His eyes to heaven.

He had just finished His discourse with the disciples, having had His eyes fixed on them.

But, now, as the indication that He was finished talking to them and was about to pray, He looked heavenward.

In spite of the fact that His death was just ahead, He is looking beyond that to the exultation and victory in it all.

What He is imminently facing has no place in His heart in this moment of intercession.

His hour had come and, thus, He was able say to the disciples in John 16:33: “I have overcome the world”.

His work would be completed and exhibited to all creation for the vindication of God’s salvation plan wherein many would be drawn into it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus went on to pray in a triumphant confidence that even looked beyond the immediate victory.

“...He lifted up His eyes toward heaven...”.

This was a gesture that simply showed that He was finished addressing the earthly side of things and elevating His entire Being to the heavenly.

And, in approaching the throne of the Father, He was looking into the majesty and the excellency of His Father to Whom He confidently could go for the answer to His prayer.

And when He was confidently asking with the intent of also receiving, He was expressing the reality of His union with His Father - one Mind with Him, one Heart with Him, one in will with Him.

This was a position He held in the eternity of the eternities, before the foundation of the earth was laid - that union - that Oneness with His Father.

And here we see another glimpse of the intimacy that marks the union of God the Father with God the Son.

He had suddenly stopped addressing His disciples, lifted up His eyes toward heaven, and addressed His Father.

This was done in the only way in which such a union could be truthfully represented in human terms.

He set aside the earthly concern of comforting His disciples and addressed the heavenly arrangement of things as though it was the normal, natural thing to do for Him - which, of course, it was!

He no longer fixed His eyes on the earthly - that ceased in what we could say, in a ‘moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’

I have taken this phrase from 1.Cor.15:52 that reads: ‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed...’.

And, with this change of focus, He prayed a prayer of intercession that would literally ‘rule the world and the ages to come’.

The glory of heaven - His Father’s glory, His glory, the glory of the Holy Spirit - in short, the glory of the Divine Person - was to rain down upon the earth in spiritual power - and, this prayer, prayed in the consciousness of His union with His Father, was the means to that end.

The answer to it, the effects of which is even yet being unfolded, verified that the prayer was acceptable to His Father in heaven.

The answer was and is the token of God’s favor and of the reality of His union and fellowship with Him and the vindication of the Divine Eternal Plan of the ages.

And, last, also notice the weight of the concentrated outflow from the depth’s of His very heart.

This is not sentimental verbiage that was being voiced for the benefit of His disciples to hear.

It was an effectual prayer - prayer that had very vital and very solemn truths of His coming Kingdom in it.

This was a momentous moment in Christ’s earthly ministry that was connected with a tremendous weight of concentration.

This meant that He was standing in the stead of His people bearing everything - I repeat, bearing everything - for which He stood before His Father for His people.

He had become in this prayer what He is in all else to our salvation, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

This place of power to which Christ has appointed His Church - to that full union with Him that assures the answer to intercessory prayer - was Christ’s point of concentration in His intercessory prayer.

And His Church in the earth was to be - in this present dispensation - the starting place of this effectual ministry of His and the ending point of this same ministry.

I refer you to the first few chapters in Acts and Revelation for this fact; Rev.5:9-10; 19:7-9; the entire 21st chapter; and perhaps you can find other passages as well.

The wonderful evidence that the Church is on its right course is the effect of its ministry of intercession, the effect of which is designed to influence with eternal significance. (Isaiah 62:6-7)

The answer to the Church’s intercession is the proof of its proper spiritual import.

It is the evidence of having attained to the certain abiding in Christ where its will is perfectly one with His.

And where it has been found fit to take its place among those God trusts.

Since the Church is abiding in Him, the significance is even weightier.

For - and, please consider this prayerfully and carefully - Christ is actually praying through the Church and shining out through her as the Church prays by the Spirit according to the will of God.

I ask you, could there be anything of greater import and significance than this?

If Christ in this prayer of intercession prayed so that His prayer continues to be effectual even two thousand years later, and only He knows how many more yet, can the Church through Whom He prays now be any less effectual in its intercession ministry?

It is necessary to realize that prayer and repeating prayers just as a perfunctory performance, done routinely or out of mere habit, is a rotten offering.

Natural abilities and educational advantages are admirable in themselves as far as earthly achievements go.

But - they do not figure as factors in this ministry of intercession.

These earthly attainments have no connection with the living God, with intercession that is borne of this vital oneness with Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The kind of intercession that is effectual springs from the deep, overflowing fountains of Christ’s tender compassion and a consuming zeal for the glory of God that is characteristic of the Church’s ministry.

Yes! This is what Jesus conveyed to the disciples when He lifted His eyes to heaven to start this intercession.

They, the Church, would need to make intercession its main business.

There was going to be the imperative need of the furtherance of His Father’s Plan and His blessing that would set in order the heavenly arrangement of things.

And - it would require the setting aside of the earthly and looking to the heavenly, a spiritual work, a work which can come only through His own - a spiritual people.

It would need to devote concentrated time to it as the natural outflow in Christ, to lay aside the earthly and let the heavenly concerns direct it and stand ‘in the stead’ of His Eternal concern.

And, through its ministry, the release of God’s spiritual wonders in abundance would rain down upon His own.

This kind of praying is one of the great needs of the Church today.

It is the Church’s capacity of faith, its thorough consecration and concentration, and the absolute losing of itself in the will and the glory of God that figures in God’s response to prayer.

His answer to the humble, to that ever-present and insatiable yearning and seeking after His will alone, to that intense and quiet heat of one heart with Him is what melts and moves everything for God.

What a ministry the Church faces in its service of intercession!

We, the Church, speak the same heart and mind of Christ with Him as He ‘lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: ‘Father...’.’

So be it, Amen.