Study 14
"HOLY FATHER, KEEP THROUGH YOUR NAME THOSE WHOM YOU HAVE GIVEN ME..." John 17:11
How tenderly, Jesus must have said these words. What love there must have been in His heart, as He prayed for his beloved Disciples. As we read these words, we learn another deep lesson about intercessory prayer. There must be a deep sense of love within the heart if intercession is to be made at all.
Let us try and picture the love that the Lord Jesus had for His Disciples, even as He prayed for them. This love was very real indeed, and most evident in the way He phrased this prayer for His Disciples.
Consider how Jesus regarded His Disciples in the following phrases. Jesus speaks of His Disciples as having been given to Him by His Father.
Consider the sense of concern that Jesus had for His Disciples as He leaves them. "Now I am no longer in the world..." John 17:11
Jesus knew what the world was like. It had been hostile to Him, and He knew only too well that the world would be hostile to His Disciples too. He knew their weaknesses and their strengths. He knew that at this point of time, their weaknesses outweighed their strength, and thus they need all the prayer support they could get.
He also knew that His time on earth was limited! He knew that very soon He would have to leave them. He knew that His Disciples would miss Him terribly and that they would be lost without Him. With this great sense of affection and knowledge of His Disciples, Jesus covered them in intercessory prayer.
Jesus sought His Father's power to keep His Disciples. He invoked His Father's Name. That was "the most powerful thing" He could ever do. He pleaded His Father's own Name to be involved, in the keeping of the Disciples. He knew then, that His Father would keep His Disciples, for had He not invoked His Father's name?
HAVE YOU FOUND IT HARD TO PRAY FOR OTHERS?
Have you wondered why it seems so hard to pray for people? Have you ever thought of why our intercessory prayer ministry is so lacking in passion and power? If we wish to deepen our intercessory prayer life, we would need to deepen our sense of love for people too. Understanding the relationship between a sense of love and intercession, we now understand better just why we do not seem to be able to intercede for too many people easily. The most likely reason, is that we just lack that kind of love that Jesus obviously developed for His Disciples, and thus He was able to pray for them the way He did.
Jesus had carefully cultivated His friendship with His Disciples. He had taught them much. They had been with Him for three full years. They had worked together. They had formed a special sense of camaraderie with each other. It was natural for Him to have this sense of affection for His Disciples. It was in this deep sense of affection that Jesus prayed for His Disciples.
INVOKING THE NAME OF GOD
There is no question about the fact that Jesus invoked His Father's Holy Name. However, we must never imagine that this was just a matter of mechanically proclaiming the Name of God. There was nothing mechanical about the relationship between Jesus and His Father.
The Name of His Father was spoken with a sense of awe, for He addressed Him almost formally as "Holy Father." It constituted a very strong plea on Jesus' part even as He breathed the Name of His Holy Father. As One who was Holy and as One who was Father, Jesus knew that His prayer would not go unanswered.
His Father had always guarded His Name most carefully. His Father had always upheld His Name when invoked righteously. Jesus knew then the sweet assurance that when He offered this prayer, His prayer would be answered.
How we must be challenged to understand God better. How we must learn to plead the mighty Name of our great Heavenly Father. Let us indeed plead that His Name might be glorified through our prayers being answered! Let us be deeply challenged to intercede with even greater conviction.
~ Pastor Charlie Tan ~
1st released on 5 August 2001, ©Bethany Independent-Presbyeterian Church, Singapore