Click here to view listing below for Rom 8:34
I. "NEITHER PRAY IF FOR THESE ALONE."
A. The prayer now moves into the third phase.
1. He began the prayer talking to the Father about their relationship and asking the Father to glorify Him.
2. He then moved into His requests for the disciples.
3. This portion of the prayer is where we come into remembrance.
B. "On them also which shall believe on Me through their word."
1. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are included in this portion of the prayer.
2. It is always comforting for me to know that Jesus is praying for me.
a.
Isa. 53:12 prophetically declares, "He made intercession for the transgressors." The direct reference is to His prayer, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." I feel that it can be carried on beyond the immediate context.
HEB 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession.
HEB 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
HEB 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
HEB 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
1JO 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate, Christ the righteous:
b.
Romans 8:34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ who has died, ye rather is risen again and is even at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.
II. WHAT IS JESUS PRAYING FOR US?
A. That we all may be one.
1. With people being as diverse as they are, that is a big order.
a. We seem to have differing opinions on so many issues.
b. It is a tragedy that one of the earmarks of the church through the centuries is the divisions.
c. He is not asking that we all have the same doctrinal position on every issue.
d. He is not requesting that we agree on every point.
e. I believe that there is room for divergence of opinions and practices in the church.
f. I don't insist that all believe just as I believe, or worship as I am comfortable in worshipping.
g. I won't try to push my ways on them if they won't try to push their ways on me.
h. There are pastors that have taken issue with our seeking to forgive and restore David Hocking, they have voiced their opinions on the subject, some rather vehemently.
i. They don't have to agree with me, but they have to love me, that is the command of the Lord.
j. I do not have to agree with them, but I have to love them.
2. Chuck Swindol does not agree with us on the David Hocking issue, yet we remain good brothers in Christ. That is the way it should be. He has chosen not to participate in the Harvest Crusade, that is his prerogative, and we should not judge him for it or think any less of the marvelous ministry that God has given to him.
a. Let us allow others their feelings and opinions.
b. But let us be one. Let's not become divisive, for then we are going against the prayer of our Lord.
B. This oneness for which Jesus is praying is likened unto the oneness between the Father and the Son. "As You Father are in Me, and I in You, that they might be one in Us."
1. Jesus in verse 11 prayed for His disciples that they may be one, Jesus said, "As we are."
2. Jesus said in
John 14:20, "At that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you."
3. Paul tells us that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself."
II Cor 5:19.
4. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God."
5. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness."
6. Paul warned the Galatians against biting and devouring one another thus consuming one another.
7. Our real enemy is not another believer in Jesus Christ, no matter how weird their doctrinal position may be.
a. We are not to threaten to shoot them or wish them in hell.
b. We are not to wish evil upon them, or their families.
c. We are to pray for them that are spiteful to us.
8. Satan must have a field day when the church starts aiming their guns at each other.
C. Jesus continued, "That the world may believe that You have sent Me."
1. We should ever be conscious about our witness to the world.
2. When the prophet Nathan rebuked David for his sin with Bathsheba, he declared, "For you have given the enemies of the Lord great cause to blaspheme."
3. We are witnesses, whether we like it or not, the question what kind of a witness am I?
a. Are others convinced of the truth of the gospel by the way I live?
b. Or are they prone to doubt the gospel, and blaspheme by the things I do?
4. Jesus in 13:35 declared, "By this shall men know that you are My disciples, that you love one another."
a. Again the issue is the witness to the world. "Shall men know."
b. If we do not love another, what does that witness?
c. According to John it witnesses that we are liars.
I John 4:20, "If a man say that he loves God and hates his brother, he is a liar."
d. To the world it says that there is nothing to Christianity.
D. "The glory that You have given to Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one."
1. What glory it is to be a Son of God. This glory was given to us by Jesus Christ.
a. As many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to those who believed on His name.
b. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."
2. What glory it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is also given to us by Jesus Christ.
a. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth which the world seeth not.
b. And He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
c. Peter on the day of Pentecost declared to the people that Jesus had ascended into heaven, and being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, has shed forth this which you now see and hear.
3. Again the purpose of giving us this glory is to make us one.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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