Jesus spent the last few minutes of his last night with his disciples praying. He prayed for himself, for the apostles, and then he even prayed for us, for all of those who would ever believe in him because of their witness. In his prayer for himself, Jesus defined eternal life as knowing, as absolute unwavering and intimate knowing the Father and Son. As we talked about two weeks ago, eternal is not something that happens after we die. It’s not going to heaven when this life is over. Eternal life is living with God, it’s living the life of God, it’s living for Jesus by living like Jesus right here and right now. Jesus then asked the Father to restore the glory that he had had with them before the world was. See, there was a cost to our salvation. Not only in the death of Jesus, but in his life, in the glory that he willingly set aside. That he temporarily sacrificed so that we could be forgiven and redeemed. In our text today, Jesus’ prayers turn from himself to his disciples, to the eleven men that were left, that had walked with him every part of the three years that he was in ministry. In the beginning of the prayer, Jesus talked to the Father about those men. He spoke of his purpose in their lives, their identity in him and then their response to Jesus and his word. In this week’s sermon, Pastor Abie Kulynych talks about those three things, “Jesus’ Purpose, Our Identity and Our Response.”
“Jesus’ Purpose, Our Identity and Our Response,” John 17:6-8
