Praying with Appreciation for His Disciples

If it were midnight and you knew that you would be tortured the following day and killed before sundown, what would you be thinking about? What would you be doing? We know how Jesus handled this situation. What did he do? He prayed to the Father. What was he thinking about? We know that he focused on the glory of God rather than his own suffering (John 17:1-5). We also know that he focused on another remarkable theme – his disciples.In his darkest hour, Jesus prayed clearly and intensely for the men who followed him and would carry on the mission he had given them. In fact, the remainder of this lengthy recorded prayer of Jesus is permeated with an intense and obvious interest in his disciples. He prayed for the eleven men who followed him and would become apostles for the church. He also prayed for all other people who would follow him and would make up the church in the centuries to come. He prayed for the apostles and he prayed for you. From this we learn a very important lesson, that Christlike prayer focuses on the disciples God has given to you.We need this reminder. We need it because our prayer lives easily shrink into a jumbled assortment of various requests for health, wisdom, blessing, guidance, conversion, intervention, and so many other things which we believe we need from God for ourselves. Sadly, our prayers often fail to pursue the glory of God above all and through all things. We also fail to seek the spiritual success of other believers, focusing instead on things of a more self-focused nature. Christ did not fail in this way. Rather than pray for himself, he prayed for the glory of God and for the spiritual success of those who would follow him.What is a disciple? We use this word in our church motto, “Loving God, Making Disciples.” It is a word that combine several different ideas. It combines following and learning, doing and teaching. A disciple is someone who follows a teacher by listening carefully to whatever he says and watching carefully whatever he does. A disciple is someone who then chooses to live the same way as his teacher, teaching others to learn to live the same way. As believers, this is what we are supposed to be – disciples. We are supposed to learn what Jesus said and live accordingly. We are also to teach others to do the same. This is how we show our love and loyalty to Christ.Though many followed Jesus during his earthly ministry, only twelve men followed him closely. One of these, Judas Iscariot, betrayed him in the end, so only eleven remained (and some women). These men would go on to spread the truth about Jesus to the world, teaching followers of their own as believers continue to do today. As Jesus prayed before his trial and crucifixion, he focused his prayer not on himself, but on these men.

He had taught them the truth of God.

As Jesus turned his attention to the eleven disciples, he underscored what he had been doing with these men for about three years. He had been teaching them the truth of God. As their teacher, he taught them faithfully and effectively. I will also point out that as their teacher, he not only taught his disciples, but he prayed for them as well. A good teacher does that. He teaches his students and followers what they need to know, but he prays for them, too. We should all follow this example. We should teach others the truth about Jesus, but we should pray for those whom we teach.As a faithful teacher, he fulfilled his responsibility to them. He did not turn in an independent direction, teaching personal philosophies with a selfish agenda, seeking to create a following for himself alone and to make a name for himself. Instead, he manifested the name of God the Father to them. This means that he had made it clear to them or revealed to them the true nature of God through his words and his actions. Everything about God – his goodness, justice, love, purity, power, knowledge, wisdom, mercy, truth, and so many other qualities – Jesus had revealed to these men as completely and accurately as possible.He made it clear to them that whatever he said and did was because God the Father had assigned him to say and do those things (John 17:7). More than his miracles and acts, he focused especially on the words God had given him to say. He said, “I have given to them the words which you have given me” (John 17:8). Jesus taught them the exact words – no more and no less – which God had given him to say to them. In this way, they were followers not of the man Jesus only, but of God himself. Because Jesus is God? Yes. Yet they also followed God because by following the teaching ministry of Jesus, they were following the teaching ministry of God the Father, too.Jesus not only taught these men faithfully, but he also taught them effectively. The result of his teaching was that these men understood what he had told them and then received his teaching and believed it for themselves. He said that they kept the things he taught them (John 17:6). This means that they retained them and did not forget. It means that they embraced these things for themselves, making his teaching a part of their own thinking process and beliefs.Jesus described this attitude of his disciples as “receiving” his words (John 17:7). He also said that they knew what he had taught them in a personal way, having absolute certainty and conviction (“they have known surely”). In fact, they received what he said so strongly that they “believed,” which means that they were so convinced that what he said was true that they trusted his teaching completely, without reservations.

He prayed for them in a special way.

Jesus described the focus of his prayer specifically (John 17:9). He made it clear that he was not praying for people in the world. He was praying only for the men whom God had given him out of the world – these eleven men especially. This does not mean that he would never pray for nonbelievers in the world, nor does it indicate that we should never pray for nonbelievers in the world. Instead, it means that he was giving special, focused attention to praying for his disciples at that time.By giving this special, focused attention to his disciples in prayer, Jesus highlights an important principle which we should understand ourselves as we seek to make disciples for him. Reaching new believers from the world to become followers of Christ will not be effective as it should if those who have already believed on Christ and claim to be following him are not living faithfully themselves. Before you pray for nonbelievers in the world, ask yourself the question: “Are you being a faithful follower of Christ yourself? Are the believers that you know and influence being faithful followers of Christ? From a strategy standpoint, praying for your disciples is a necessary step in the process of reaching nonbelievers from the world.Faithful disciples make disciples. There’s no way around that. Jesus knew that he would soon die on the cross and would soon depart from the world to return to the Father in heaven. The faithfulness of these eleven men would become the foundation of the church for generations to come. Perhaps that is why he prayed for them and not the world.

He prayed for them unselfishly.

Jesus explained to the Father an underlying motive for why he carefully taught them the words of the Father. He did so because these men belonged to the Father (John 17:6). In fact, God had taken these men out from the world and given them to Jesus so that he would teach them his words and so that they would follow him.To understand what this means (in a small way at least), consider the relationship between a parent, a child, and a school teacher. A faithful and reliable teacher understands that the children in her class do not belong to her. They belong to the parents. Therefore, they should teach the children the lessons that the parents intend for them to teach. They should not “do their own thing” and teach the children things which are contrary to the parent’s wishes.Jesus was a reliable teacher for these men. He told them exactly what God the Father intended for him to say. He did not teach his own ideas. He recognized that though God had entrusted these men to his care, they were not his to possess. These were not exclusively his disciples, they were God’s disciples.We would do well today to look at things this way, too.

• Your children are not yours, they are God’s.
• This church is not your church or my church, it is God’s.
• Your disciples are not your disciples, they are God’s.

We would also do well to understand this from the opposite perspective.

• On one hand, God has taken you out from the world so that Jesus can teach you the words and ways of the Father.
• On the other hand, he has taken you out from the world (as your heavenly Father) so that you will sit under the teaching ministry of Jesus and follow him as your teacher.

You see, a parent intends for a teacher to teach his child faithfully. He does not want the teacher to “teach his own ideas” or “push his own agenda.” At the same time, a parent intends for his child to listen, learn, and do what a faithful teacher is teaching in the classroom. Are you an obedient child and a good student in the classroom of Christ where God – your heavenly Father – has put you?

He prayed for them in a favorable way.

As Jesus prayed for his eleven disciples, he did so in a favorable and appreciative way.

• He said that they had kept his word (John 17:6).
• He said that they understood what he taught them (John 17:7).
• He said that they had received and believed what he taught them (John 17:8).
• Then he said that they had glorified him (John 17:10).

The words kept, known, and glorified are given to us in the perfect tense, indicating that something definite and real had occurred of a permanent and lasting nature with these men. I find this is especially remarkable because, as you know, these men had shown repeated evidence of spiritual immaturity, weakness, doubt, and even unbelief.Their failures, doubts, questions, and sins are too numerous to mention. They argued about who would be the greatest. They refused to wash one another’s feet. Peter told the Lord not to go to the cross. In fact, only hours before, they had asked a variety of questions which revealed that they did not understand what Jesus was teaching them about going to his Father, dying on the cross, resurrecting from the grave, and so on. What’s more, shortly after, Peter would go on to deny the Lord three times. All the other disciples would run away from him in fear of persecution. They would return to their former occupations and consider not following Jesus anymore.Yet Jesus prayed for them, understanding the end from the beginning. In Luke 22:31-32, we find that Jesus foretold the denial of Peter, but he said that he had prayed for Peter that his “faith should not fail.” Fail here means to eclipse. Though Peter would falter, and his faith would grow dim, it would not grow entirely dark. Then, when the light would shine brightly again, and he was restored to confidence and commitment to Christ, he would be used by the Lord to teach and disciple others just as Jesus had done for him. He would, in the words of Jesus, “strengthen the brethren.”It is easy to grow weary, frustrated, and unfavorable towards believers who struggle with sin, entertain wrong doctrine, and chase after worldly priorities. This is especially true of those believers whom we are devoted to discipling.

• This may be the children which God has entrusted to some of us as parents.
• It may be the children who we have mentored as a church.
• It may be other brothers and sisters in Christ, adults or not, whom we have invested in by teaching them the words of Christ and showing them his ways.

We need to continue to pray for those who are his disciples indeed, knowing that even the apostles themselves – the direct disciples of Jesus – struggled with such things. They did not appear to be premium examples of Christian character and Christlike qualities. Yet Christ prayed for them, knowing that their original faith in the gospel was a sure thing that would glorify him in the end. He did not pray, “Father, I know that they will glorify you some day and that they will eventually turn out.” No, he prayed with certainty. “They have kept, understood, known, received, and believed your words. They have glorified me.”

Some Personal Application

We need to understand this truth for two reasons. First, we need to maintain this Christlike optimism and confidence for one another as we witness one another’s weaknesses, failures, and struggles. That is the nature of Christian, Christlike love. Paul would later write that, “Love suffers long and is kind … bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-7). I find it remarkable that Paul gave this profound teaching to the church at Corinth, which happened to be a very poor example of following Christ. As you know, they were a church with many problems. Among other things (not to mention some wrong doctrines they were struggling with):

1. They treated preachers as celebrities, dividing into groups based upon which preachers they preferred.
2. They also divided into groups when they ate meals together. The wealthy members would enjoy their expensive food together, and the poor members would eat what little they had in another place.
3. Some were filing lawsuits against others in the church.
4. One member was committing a very inappropriate sin with his mother-in-law and the church did nothing to correct him.
5. They were looking for ways to get attention for themselves, speaking out in worship gatherings, causing confusion and failing to build one another up with orderly, biblical teaching.
6. They were arguing over things like personal diet and holiday preferences.

Yet Paul urged them to love one another in a Christlike way, just as Christ had loved his own disciples to the end (John 13:1). As we all work out Christlike, Christian growth in our lives in a progressive, step-by-step way, day by day, decision by decision, we must be loving and patient with one another, praying for one another as Christ prayed for his disciples. We must also learn to see one another as Christ saw his disciples – as followers who had already believed and glorified him.We also need to be encouraged by the fact that Jesus continues to pray for all who are his disciples today in the same way. “Who is he who condemns? 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” (Rom 8:34). You and I, like the first disciples of Christ, need the assurance that despite our failures along the pathway of following Christ and becoming like him, there is no one that can make a case before God which would convince him to revoke our salvation and to deny his close relationship to us. Our redemption is complete. Our salvation is secure. The work that Christ has begun in us – he will complete it (Phil 1:6). “Faithful is he who has called you who will also do it,” Paul says (1 Thess 5:24).Today, as always, Christ is praying for you, standing between you and the Father (Rom 8:35-39). There is no one who can separate you from him. There is no one who can prevent Christ from bring you before the Father in prayer on the basis of his death and resurrection on your behalf. God has taken you out of the world and given you to Jesus. He is teaching you and praying for you, and he will never cease. I trust that this amazing thing that Jesus is doing on your behalf will encourage you in a very special way.