In the upper room and along the road to the garden of Gethsemane Jesus spoke of the Father to His followers. Now as they arrived at the garden He talked to His Father about His followers. This prayer is what I call the “Lord’s prayer,” and it comes after the Upper Room Discourse as Jesus talks and walks along the road to Gethsemane, and just before His betrayal and arrest.
Here we get a glimpse into what we are told of in Romans 8:34 where Paul said, “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” That is why Jesus is our great High Priest!
Now although we can find other prayers of Jesus, this is by far the longest recorded prayer of His in the Bible, there are other times where we are told that He went up to a mountain to pray and was there for many hours, but we don’t have anything recorded. What we see in this prayer specifically in this section is His inner thoughts with regards to His fellowship with the Father. This prayer is also the longest with regards to far reaching as we will see in verse 20 Jesus says, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word”.
Saints, that’s you and me that Jesus is praying for! It was a full moon the night our Lord prayed for us as He looked up into heaven and into the Father’s face He spoke of us. Ever wonder if Jesus mentioned your name? He has many times and here we see that we were included in His prayer over 2000 years ago. Along with His prayer is His evaluation as to how the last three years have gone, His definition of success if you will.
Jesus prays for three things:
Vs. 1-6 That He would be glorified
Vs. 7-19 That His disciples would be sanctified
Vs. 20-26 That His future followers would be unified