(Study Outline sourced from “The System Bible Study” – “The Book of Life” [Zondervan])
(13). Jesus’ Intercessory Prayer
On completing His last statement we read that our Lord Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed to His heavenly Father. “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” The time had now come for our Lord Jesus Christ to complete His earthly mission by offering Himself as a ransom for sinners, to die on the cross, to be buried, to rise again and to be glorified by His Father to His original position at God’s right hand in heaven. In accomplishing this, eternal life would be extended to all those that His Father had given to Him, and to all those who would subsequently believe in Him. “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” .
He continues by praying for His disciples and comments “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.” He had given to them the words of His Father and they accepted them, and they knew for certain that Jesus had come from the Father . He prays that His Father would continue to protect them “by the power”of His name, even though our Lord would no longer be with them in person to do so. “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” ; the disciples would now be facing the most difficult time of their ministry as they faced a hostile world that would hate them in the same way that their Lord was hated. Our Lord Jesus further asks His Father to “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” , they would be “set apart” or “sanctified” first by the Word of God and secondly by the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus as they began their work of service to further the kingdom “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” .
Our Lord Jesus then concludes His prayer by praying “for those who will believe in me through their message”; He knew that down through the ages there would be many more who would believe in Him, either directly from the ministry of the disciples and apostles, or indirectly from their recorded manuscripts contained in the Holy Scriptures, and His intercessory prayer continues for all believers . His desire for all believers is simple: “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.” . That is His desire for us in this present world but He also desires that in the future – “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.”
And so His work continues through the work of the Holy Spirit, “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.”. The work of salvation continues as each new believer inherits eternal life which our Lord Jesus describes: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” .
(14). The Struggle And Victory In The Garden Of Gethsemane
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death:…. And he….. prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.”
Here we detect the humanity of Christ as He anticipates the approaching suffering on the cross for the sins of mankind, and like any human being, He would prefer another way of dealing with this crisis .
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
He then acknowledges the fact that His Heavenly Father has the power to make any changes, even to deliver Him from His hour of grief and suffering. But as a Son, and as God, He recognizes that there is no other solution – there was no other way to deal with, and to rectify the sin of the world, but for Him to suffer and die; thus, He surrenders to the will of His Father .
(Continued….)