“CHRIST IN INTERCESSION” (continued) - part 7.

When we pray, what is our greatest concern in our praying?

What is it that we want most to happen?

In His prayer of intercession, Jesus has a very definite purpose in mind, a purpose that harmonized so perfectly with His Father’s will.

He prayed, in John 17:9: “...I pray not for the world, but for            them which Thou hast given Me...”

But, before we go on into this thought, we first need to thoroughly understand that this prayer in John 17 is Jesus’ prayer to God, His Father. 

This was prayed on the eve before His death, but it is not the conventional prayer of a dying man - not a death-bed prayer.

It is about the full arrangement of the events of Jesus - His death, resurrection, and ascension - and the prayer of the One Who is on the verge of willingly laying down His life to  the completion of that full arrangement. 

He is about to face the Cross that - to the world - would look like total defeat.

But - He had spoken to His disciples in chapter 16, had been engaged in a give and take conversation with them, instructing them, preparing them for His leaving.

And He said, as one of His parting thoughts to them, in 16:33, ‘I have overcome the world’.

He was not expressing a wish or a hope.

But it was a fact that was regarded as already done.  

The use of the perfect tense indicates that. 

‘I have already overcome the world’, He told them, so that He could go to the Cross, as the Conqueror over the world, and complete that Bridge to God’s full arrangement of things.

And, now, He turned His attention from His disciples to His Father in this prayer of intercession for that very purpose.

And, throughout the prayer He spoke exclusively to His Father - He never turned from His attention to His Father to address His disciples. 

They are given the same role as the Gospel readers - all participate in His prayer only by the privilege of overhearing.

We all stand on the side, listening in to this moment of intimate conversation between God’s Son and His eternal Father.

At first, it seems as though this prayer ought not to have been overheard since it is so intimate.

Yet, it is this indirectness of our access to the mind of Christ and His relationship with His Father that gives this prayer its power.

We overhear the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with His Father, a familiarity so close that He has no doubt about His Father hearing Him and answering His prayer.

He could say so confidently to Him, in John 17:25, ‘O Righteous Father: the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee...’.

He is at perfect rest before Him in the completed Plan - ‘The hour is come,’ and now, O Father, ‘let us go on to the next step of the revelation of divine glory’, is how He is continuing.

He is not experiencing agony as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

No, He said that the hour, as the ultimate purpose of His earthly work, had come. 

This was the completion of His revelation of God, the end of His work of showing God to the world in His physical Person.

And, now, to finish it fully, as He entrusted His own future to God, He asked the Father for His divine glorification: ‘...glorify Thy Son...glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’ (vs 1,5,)

And, it would be through His death, that this glory would be extended to the lives of the believing community. (v 24)

John 17:24: ‘Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou hast loved Me before the foundation of the world.’

To whom, then, is His heart reaching in this prayer?

Here - on the eve of His death, we hear Him speaking to God - not about getting Him through the horrendous, tremendous ordeal He is facing - not at all!

But it is on behalf of the faith community - in which He is concerned. 

It would not be to the world, but to His own - His Church.

‘...I pray not for the world - but for them which Thou hast given Me.’

His heart is squarely centered on His Church.

It is very obvious by this that Jesus did not anticipate a speedy end of the history of the world nor of His Church in the world.

The Church would be going on until its work on earth came to its full completion.

And, please notice that He did not give His faith community a name, such as a denomination or a congregation or the like - it is ‘them also that believe on Me through their [the disciples’] word’.

He is praying for that great spiritual community, people from all denominations, from all localized communities of faith, that is held together by common faith in Him. 

He prayed that ‘they would all be one’ and ‘that they also may be one in us’.

His main request was that this enlarged faith community, all believers throughout all time who believe in His Name, would be so incorporated into the incredible, transcendant union that the Father and the Son have, that the world would see it, and by seeing it, - know that the Son of God is exactly who He said He is, and was sent by God to the world. (vs 21, 23)

In overhearing what He prayed, the Church is able to hear what it means that Jesus is the Son of God, the Incarnate Word, the Logos, that He shares the same glory as His Father, and that His prayers and desires are at one with His Father’s.

And it shows the faith community how Jesus and God love each other and how they work together for the future of the Church as it continues to operate in the midst of the world.

The result of such a manifestation in the world of a multitude of men, in all of whom one Life lives and moves,  will be the world’s conviction of the divine mission of Jesus.

So, Jesus, in this prayer, opened up the relationship that He had with His Father. 

And we are able to see that it included what the greatest concern of His heart was - the Church: ‘I pray...for those which Thou hast given Me’.

This is where we are privileged to look into His heart as He is tenderly, ‘shepherding His Sheep’, the corporate Church, into the fold of His care and keeping.

We see that, rather than entrusting the community’s continuance to the community, He is entrusting it to the Glory of the Triune God.

His final words in the form of intercession to His Father before His hour are not last-minute instructions to the disciples nor to the Church - about what it should do in His absence.

No - His words turn to what lies ahead for the Church as He is delegating its future to His Father, asking Him to be responsible for the nurture of the future of the Church.

He positioned the Church toward that day in which God’s governance and care of it would be complete. 

Now - this is a striking theological move! 

This is what will separate the Church from the world, what will give it its identity.

Its life was to rest in and depend upon the divine care and keeping.   

Its future would not ultimately depend on the Church’s own work - but it would rest in and with God.

His Church was to be in His care and protection as it would wend its way through the world’s maze.

This was where the heart of Jesus was reaching in His prayer.

And, then, why was it reaching toward the Church?

‘...I pray not for the world, but for them...’. 

Ah - now what do we see?

There is a stark contrast between the world and the faith community given here.

Here is the principle point: Jesus, in this prayer of intercession, did not pray for the world. 

Neither He nor His people are part of the world and so it does not figure into the Eternal Plan of the ages. 

The ‘world’ stands for the sphere of enmity toward God and the Lord’s Christ, doing and being that which is the opposite of His character and His Person.

The world hates Him and it will, in turn, hate the faith community, even though the Church’s heart of the love of Christ reaches out for the salvation of many in the world.

It is really sad to see how Christians have acted in this regard down through the ages and how so many still do, in spewing their scorn and hatred toward the world and its ways in such a manner that is not becoming to true believers in union with their Savior - in fact, is often downright obnoxious and mean-spirited.

To go about condemning the world for what it is is ludicrous.

By its very nature and enmity against God, it cannot be otherwise. 

It must be what it is or it is not the world.

What makes the world the ‘world’ is its not knowing God through the Son’s revelation of Himself.

Judas’ portrayal of Jesus, to which v 12 alludes, is one example of the destructive power of the ‘evil one’ within the circle of Jesus’ chosen ones.

It is for the preservation of this spiritual unity of His people in the face of the cosmic power of evil that Jesus petitions God.

The community needs His protection and guidance because it is to live out its identity and vocation in the world. - ‘I pray not that Thou should take them out of the world...’. (v 15a)

What makes believers isolated in, and being errant to, the world, is that they know that Jesus had been sent by His Father to make His Father’s Name known, and all that His Name represents.

Thus, He prayed not for the world.

His prayer was for the Church corporate, for its preservation in its course through the world. 

And - what is His primary concern as His heart goes out to the Church?

It is so easy to think that God’s primary concern is centered around ‘me’ and ‘my personal salvation.’

This was typical in the Jesus movement of the early sixties, if you remember.

The idea that God’s salvation was for the larger purpose of the formation of Christ’s Body, the Church and its concerted role in the midst of the world’s lawlessness, was largely  ignored. 

They had expected, at any moment, to be lifted up to heaven, away from all the worldly problems of life.

They were disappointed.

These were those who could not really speak of Jesus as truly ‘Lord’ since so much of the thinking was largely speculative which gave the concern of the Church in their daily living no meaning at all.

And, therefore, a number of them saw no need for participating in the Church and deliberately cut themselves off from ever learning how the Holy Spirit works and ministers in a faith community.

As the result, some drifted into an abyss of self-indulgence, which, of course, contributed to our society’s laxness in moral conduct and behavior.

Of course, we have all gone through much of the same course from the very first day of our transference from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

But - the day does arrive, if we are to continue on in the Eternal Plan of things, to move onward to the larger, grander story of the formation of Christ’s Church and its corporate role in the scheme of the Eternal Plan.

Christ, the Supreme Worker in the Church, has prayed for His continuing ascension ministry in His Church.  

So - He must be allowed to blend together all of the Church’s work and ministry. 

This is the Father’s answer to this intercession for the Church. 

That answer is to be ultimately bound up in the mystery of ‘the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ (Rev.21:2)

Please notice that it is ‘descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God...’ (vs 10-11a)

John described it as that which is yet to come and not a place where believers go at the time of death.

Rather, he has pictured it as a heavenly community becoming tangible on earth among people who call Jesus, ‘Lord’.

This is His great concern and why He prays not only for its preservation in the world, but also the administration of its course.

His heart’s desire is acknowledged in this vision of the heavenly mystery of the Church.

It is coming down from God, an adorned Body.

And, what is the adornment?

Her zenith is reached for she is wearing a crown of salvation and righteousness. (Rev.19:8)

I ask you frankly - does the Church, as we see it today, fit this description?

Has it reached its zenith as the Holy City, a ‘bride adorned’?  

Is the Church ‘filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God’. (Phil.1:11)?

The prophet Hosea, in 10:12 wrote: ‘Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you’.

‘Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God:...’. (1.Cor.15:34)

Could Jesus have seen all of the ages to come and the Church passing through each one, adopting the current world’s trends as its model for righteousness?

We are unable to answer that with any certainty. 

But - we do know that the Eternal Plan for the Church occupied the very center of His heart.

He prayed for the Church to uphold what the Church was to become - ‘an adorned Bride’, dressed in its robes of righteousness.

Now - should this not become the faith community’s greatest concern, and its vision as well, as it wends its way through the world?

Should it not also be willing to give itself to it to the point of saying, ‘I have overcome the world’? 

And, then, to intercede on behalf of those who are to yet join this company, this Holy City, coming down from God? 

This is the vision the Church must carry in its intercession ministry.

It must see this to attain to righteousness, the righteousness of faith in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. 

This is important for ‘where there is no vision the people get out of hand;...’. (Prov.29:18 - Jerusalem Bible)

The laying down of its life that ends the ‘my, me, mine’ grasp of things - for the sake of Christ, the being in an intimate relationship with Him and His Father in all things, the knowing of His mind, the entrusting of all things to Him alone with the knowledge of His governing purposes being carried out in its midst, the manifestation to the world of the Church’s union with Him - all will seal the vision of prophecy - as the Church partakes of Him in His ministry  of intercession.

This, then, is to become God’s answer to Christ’s intercession - God manifesting Himself today through Jesus Christ in His Church, and governing the Church in His way - His way - as the only course of survival in the history of this present world.

Again, I ask you to take this important part of His ultimate plan before the Lord.

Ponder it carefully.

Let the Holy Spirit do His work within our hearts and in our daily walk this week so that we all will willingly come more intimately and fully into ‘the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;...’ (Col.1:9)

That is so necessary to the ministry of intercession.