Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/70

Contributor - Cliff Turkstra

Title - Did Jesus Pray That ?

Topic - Jesus Christ

John 17

Bill plunked himself down on the chesterfield; so wrapped up in his thoughts that he did not even bother to take his coat off. "I wonder what Mary is like?" he pondered. "Do you think she would go out with me? I'd really like to know her. I think she's my type of girl." Hesitatingly he picked up the telephone and dialed her number. His heart was really pounding now. He was sure Mary could hear it when she picked up the receiver. After a short conversation he got up enough courage to ask her out. He just had to get to know her! If you saw the glow on his face you would have thought he were talking to an angel. When she agreed to go out with him he got so excited he forgot what he was going to say. He fumbled for words and then quickly said goodbye. A smile broke across his face as he slowly lifted himself up from his seat. "Now I'll get to know her!" he thought.

Then suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. He sat back down. His mind was really in a whirl now. The picture cleared. Just like that he could picture what the minister was talking about when he said: "If you want to know God, you have to go out with Him. You have to take time out to have contact with Him. It is not enough to just wonder about God, you have to spend time with Him." Bill thought again of the questions he had asked about Mary. They were really a lot like the ones he had asked about God. "I wonder what God is like?" Does He care about me? "I'd like to know Him." "I wonder if He is for me?" With Mary though Bill had taken the next step and asked her out. He was going to take time out and spend it with her so he would get to know her. He was going to find out what she was really like. "Yes," he said to himself: "When am I going to do the same with God?" "When am I going to meditate with Him? read His word? go to church to be with Him?" "The minister is right this time." Bill mused to himself as he determined to start to get to know God the same night.

Reader! What is true for Bill is true for you also. If you think reading this page is meditating with God, you are wrong! Instead take out God's word (preferably in a modern translation) and read John 17 slowly and thoughtfully. Take time to listen to God's word, to what He has to say. If you don't have time for reading and listening to God, forget about reading the rest of this page because Verily, verily I say to you, there is more chance for a Pharisee to get into heaven than for you.

Having read the chapter, did you really listen to this beautiful prayer of Jesus,, which He prayed during the Last Supper? Did you notice he was praying for you (verse 20)? Go through this prayer again. Stop and pause at the first verse. "After Jesus had finished saying this . . ." This means the discussion with His disciples in John 12-16, but in particular this refers to John 16 : 33: "The world will make you suffer. But be of good cheer. I HAVE DEFEATED THE WORLD." Imagine, at the Last Supper Jesus assures his disciples and also us that He has already, before his death, won the victory over the world. What a comforting assurance, what a prelude to His prayer, what a thought to carry with us during this Easter season when we remember the death of Christ!

Read the prayer again. Listen to Jesus just before He dies. Even now as death approaches his concern is for those He is leaving here on the earth, the Christians who will have to face life with its problems; and Christ is concerned with the world - that they may believe (verse 20, 21). Look at verse 3: "This is Eternal Life: for men to know you the only true God." To know God - the Bible uses this same word to describe the husband wife relationship. This is an intimate knowledge, a being so close to God that we know what he wants us to do. What a difference with the daydreaming about God that we so often do. Yes we who are looking toward Eternal Life must work to know God, know His word which is the truth (verse 17). The Bible is God's Word (verse 6), brought through the disciples (verse 20). How well do you know God? Is Eternal Life yours?

Consider verse 9 as Christ prays for His disciples, asking that God will keep us safe. Christ knows the dangers that all Christians face, the temptations that are ever present. It leads Him to ask God to keep His arms around us that we may not turn to the world.

Weep when you get to verse 20, 21, where Jesus prays for all who shall believe, that they may be one, so the world will believe in Jesus as Saviour. His Easter-time prayer is for Christian unity so that the world see what God has done in our lives and come to believe that Jesus really is the Saviour. Is it any wonder that our churches are not growing when we see the division, the lack of unity among Christians? No wonder the world is not being won for Christ! Do not even consider the denomination disunity or the split between East and West in the Reformed Church, just stay close to home. In our classis there is a lack of unity, even among the ministers there is a lack of spiritual unity and fellowship. Go to the individual churches and in most cases there is dissention. Go one step closer to home and look at our families. Is there unity there like the unity between Jesus and God the Father? Every divorce, every separation, every family split spoils our witness to the world that Christ died to save and wants us to win for him. And then to think that Christ gave us the power to be one (verse 22). We must show the world what Christ has done for us, how he enables us to conquer the world as He conquered the world.

Yes, Jesus prays so much in this prayer. Such concern for those who are in the world, who believe on His name.

Such concern for you and for me. Read this chapter again and again. It has done a lot for my life, it can do the same for you.

Please click the "Back" button of your browser to return to previous page.