Jesus Prayed For The World | John 17:20–26

Caleb Suko

Jesus prayed for himself, he prayed for those closest to him and now he prays for millions including you and me! In this prayer we not only see an example of how we can pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world but we also see Jesus’ prayer for us, we see what Jesus wants more than anything else in our lives.

John 17:20–26 (NIV)

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — 23 I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus prayed for all who would believe

We must take a lesson from the heart of Jesus here. He looked out beyond his disciples to the whole world. In this prayer we see all races, all colors, all nations, all languages. The church of Jesus Christ is a vast, multicolored, and multicultural group of people. Jesus did not allow his prayer to be limited by country borders, ethnic groups, or skin colors. When he opened his heart to pray he opened it to all nations!

May our prayers also reach beyond the boundaries of our own nation, our own skin color, our own people. As Christians we should be unique in our world outlook. We do not promote one nation over another but rather we lift Jesus over all nations!

Psalm 22:27–28

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.

It is healthy for us to remember the nations in our prayers. It is good for us to learn of what God is doing in different countries. When we see that our Lord is working in Brazil, just as he is in Burma, when we hear of God’s great deeds in Ukraine but also know that he is working the USA, when we learn of his people in Afghanistan and in Algeria we realize that our God is greater than any God. We realize that the Gospel supersedes cultural and national borders. We realize that we have brothers and sisters in Christ in all countries and all nations!

May we at Odessa International Fellowship have a heart of prayer for all peoples!

We can also see in this prayer for the many that Jesus was in a way prophesying the amazing growth of the Church that would come after his ascension to heaven. Within 40 years the Church would reach all the way to Spain and to North Africa. Within 100 years it would spread all over Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and into Asia.

The growth of the Church is one of the most powerful testimonies of the truth of Christianity. Jesus prophesied.

Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Every kingdom, every organization, every nation will eventually pass away but the Church of God will stand! What a wonderful, humbling and amazing privilege to be part of God’s Church!

Jesus prayed for you and me!

Finally, we must take hope and encouragement from Jesus’ prayer when we realize that he was thinking and praying for you and me! At that moment before Jesus went to the cross, he knew you! He knew your future, he knew your faith, he knew your problems, he knew everything about you. Jesus prayed for you. There is no better person to pray for you than Jesus because Jesus knows you completely!

I once was in Bucharest Romania and I was walking around “The People’s Cathedral” This is the largest Orthodox temple in the world. It was still under construction at the time so to my surprise I saw an orthodx priest standing outside and in front of him was a long line of people. The front of the line faced him and was about 4–5 meters away from him. One by one he called the next person to himself. They quickly came up, shared their prayer request, he put his hands on them, prayed for them and then they walked away.

I talked to one person in the crowd who told me how long she had waited in line just to have this priest pray for her. To me this was sad. On the one hand I was glad that this priest was praying for people. On the other hand I was sad that so many people thought they had to wait in line in order to receive an effective prayer! Friends, Jesus has no lines! You can come to him at any time. Not only that, he has already prayed for you and I will tell you more! Jesus is praying for you now friend!

Romans 8:34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

May we be pleasantly shocked, encouraged, and strengthened in our spirit knowing that Jesus is praying for us at this very moment!

Jesus prayed for unity

The emphasis of this entire prayer is on unity. This was something that we saw earlier in Jesus’ prayer as he talked about the unity he had with the Father and the unity of the disciples. Now he extends this prayer of unity to all of us.

Unity is one of the greatest needs in the church.

Everywhere we look there is division. I don’t just mean divisions of different denominations and such, rather I mean divisions between individuals, divisions where there is some sort of conflict, divisions where there is animosity between people. There was division even in the early church.

1 Corinthians 11:18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

I believe petty arguments, animosity towards one another, and division over foolish things is one of Satan’s greatest weapons against the Church. We must be careful not to fall into the pits of divisiveness as they do nothing but destroy the church. Division will also destroy your own spiritual life. I have seen too many brothers and sisters in the church get caught up in a divisive matter. They stood their ground, they didn’t give in, they made their points, they fought the fight, and they won! But winning cost them, it cost them their spiritual well being. It robbed them of joy, it drained them of their faith, and it squeezed out every last drop of grace in their lives.

Friends, may we know when to give up a fight and turn it over to Jesus. May we keep the unity of the faith in the Holy Spirit, by the grace of Jesus Christ.

That being said, I understand that we can’t always make everyone happy. In fact if we continue with what Paul said here in 1 Corinthians we find the following.

1 Corinthians 11:19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.

Unfortunately, there are times when no matter how hard we try to offer peace, it just won’t happen because the other side is unwilling to allow it to happen. In these situations we must learn to humbly and gracefully walk away and allow God to take care of the matter.

What does unity not mean

First of all let’s clear up some wrong thinking about unity. Here are a few things that unity does not mean.

1. Unity doesn’t mean we all think exactly alike
2. Unity doesn’t mean we all look the same or dress the same
3. Unity doesn’t mean we all have the same likes and dislikes
4. Unity doesn’t mean that we just refrain from arguing and fighting
5. Unity doesn’t mean we all blindly follow the leader of a pastor/dictator

Unity is not the same as conformity

Conformity is what happens when you put extreme outward pressure on something, it conforms to the shape of whatever it is that you are pressing it into! But remove that pressure and it falls apart.

Unity can never be formed by outward pressures but rather is created by internal synchronization.

Biblical unity comes from an alignment at the heart level.

What does unity mean?

1. We have the same heart beliefs
2. We are going in the same direction (towards Christ)
3. We have the same attitude
4. There is peace and harmony in our relationships

Christian unity is unique in this world because it isn’t based upon any outward thing but rather it is miraculously and divinely given to us through faith in Christ. Because of this Christian unity has the power to bring harmony on a far deeper level.

Philippians 2:2–5 (NIV)

2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

All division is the result of sin

We must remember that anywhere that we see division in human relationships, it is always the result of sin. C.S. Lewis in his fictional book “The Great Divorce” describes how a man went to visit hell. When he got there he found it to be an immense but empty city. When he asked where everyone was, someone explained to him that hell was a place where you could get anything you wanted, all you had to do was think about it! People would build themselves magnificent mansions but then they wouldn’t be able to get along with their neighbors. They would fight and argue and as a result would move farther out of town to get away from each other. This would go on centuries and more until that person had so far separated himself that he would be millions of miles from the nearest person. Thus, hell is a place where people are not only moving further away from God but also further away from each other!

How sad that we live today in a world where often people are just separating further and further from each other. The only thing that sometimes keeps us together is just because we can’t make it on our own and so we are forced for financial reasons or other reasons to put up with those around us.

All sin always separates!

It may not immediately separate but it will eventually separate you from others one way or another.

Sin separated us from God!

Unconfessed sin in our life keeps us from having a close walk and fellowship with God.

Sin separates us from each other

You might not think that your personal sin will affect your relationships but it will. One way or another all sin has a way of working itself out of the dark corners of our lives and harming those around us.

Unity is only possible in Christ

True unity is really only possible with Christ and in Christ because only Christ can go into our hearts and synchronize our souls with his and with each other.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:13–14, 19

3 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, … 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,

You may be a foreigner in Ukraine but if you believe in Christ you are no foreigner in the Church. You are no foreigner in Odessa International Fellowship. It doesn’t matter if you’re from Africa, Asia, Europe, or the Americas, you are part of the family!

Unity is a powerful testimony

…so that the world may believe that you have sent me

One more reason why unity is so vital for us is because it is a testimony of God’s unity and God’s power! What greater testimony than to unify two warring parties. When the world looks at the church they ought to see a unity that they have never seen before!

Jesus prayed we would God’s glory

John 17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

We talked about the importance of God’s glory in our prayers earlier as we looked at the beginning of this prayer so I won’t go into detail about that now. However, as we look at this I think we can make several important conclusions.

We need to pray for God’s glory in the lives of others

God’s glory always brings unification when it is sought. However, selfish glory always does the opposite. Self seeking glory pushes others away, pushes others down, and climbs upon the back of others in pursuit of glory.

God’s glory however, aligns us all in the same direction. When we are aligned by God’s glory we are like a field of sunflowers that all look the same direction following the sun. Imagine if each sunflower tried to get every other sunflower to look at him! You’d have chaos and the sunflower field would lose its beauty.

As the Church of God we become beautiful in the eyes of God and others only when we follow after his glory. May we learn to pray for God’s glory in churches around the world, may we pray for God’s glory in our own church. May we learn to see and reflect that glory in our salvation, in God’s great works in our lives, and in his mighty creative powers.

To know God

John 17:26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus prayed for us to know God better and he promised to help us in this task. Knowledge of God is the absolute most important kind of knowledge that we can have. It’s more important than knowing math, science, business, or arts. Knowing God is why we are created!

Notice that Paul said a similar prayer for the Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

What does it mean to know God? It means that we need to read the Scriptures to find out who he is but it is more than that. Knowing means to experience him and to apply the truth of who he is to our lives!

1. To know him is to know and understand his character
2. His power, his justice, his love, his mercy, his holiness
3. To know him is to believe and trust him
4. Trust him for salvation
5. Trust him with the daily matters of our life
6. To know him is to do his will

1 John 2:3–4

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

Jesus prayed that we would have God’s love

John 17:26 ….in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Finally, we see Jesus praying that God’s love would be in us. Notice that all Jesus prays for comes in the context of unity. In fact, disharmony is really really just the absence of God’s love, while true unity is the result of God’s love in us.

Also note here that Jesus doesn’t pray for us to do loving things, or have loving actions but rather that God’s love would be in us! Why is this so important? Because as sinful humans we can, for a time, fake love by doing things that look loving! Then when we see that a person isn’t responding in the way that we would like, we stop doing those kind things. The truth is, loving actions without a loving heart isn’t really Christian love.

Jesus’ love is the defining quality of Christianity.

John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

1. God’s love should be the dominating quality of our hearts
2. God’s love should be the motivating factor in our actions
3. God’s love should be the descriptive characteristic of our lives

Points for reflection

1. Remember that Christ prayed for you
2. Ask God to make this prayer of Christ real in your own life
3. Ask God how you can promote unity
4. Learn to pray for Christians outside of your immediate contact
5. Learn to have a heart for the nations