Jesus Prays for Us
You have heard the term “out of sight – out of mind”
The last few weeks we have been focusing on Jesus’ journey to the cross, we looked at his sacrifice, the work that he accomplished on the cross, His death and last week we looked at His resurrection... we declared He is alive, we believe it, but...
Where is Jesus now? In heaven right? Preparing a place for us to spend eternity? But where is He, what is He really, actually doing?
I had a job once where the person I directly reported to was a thousand miles away. We talked occasionally, and he knew generally what I was doing, I was doing my job & I wasn’t creating any problems for him, so I must have been doing a good job; but he didn’t always know the specific challenges I was facing, or what I was going through to do my job so he didn’t have any problems. There were lots of times I felt “out of sight – out of mind” & I didn’t always feel appreciated or valued, I didn’t think he really knew what I was doing for him.
On the few times a year when we would be together, it was always pleasant, but we didn’t really have a relationship, we were congenial but not close.
Our relationship with Jesus can become congenial but not close and that can happen because in our minds He becomes “out of sight & out of mind”. We occasionally really connect with Him and it is good, but we loose sight of what He is doing for us now – presently – and the significance of it.
We all are very familiar with websites. We use them, we spend time on the web doing any variety of things. What we see when we go to the website is what is called the “user interface”; it is the ‘front end’. This is where the layout is pleasing and hopefully user friendly. But with websites there is also what is called the ‘back-end’. Only a few have access to the ‘back-end’, it is password protected to keep it secure. It is in the back-end of the website where things are put into place, whether it is information or tools or pictures or forms, everything is formatted in the ‘back-end’ so that the website works and the user has a good experience.
We like things to work, and hopefully without a lot of intervention on our part, we want things to work without too much bother where the mechanics and work is invisible to us. So the user has a good experience without being bothered about what it takes to make it work
We can approach our spiritual life like this, we just want things to work, like our prayer lives – without really being bothered about the details of what or how things happen. I just want to go to God whenever, and tell him exactly what’s going on, what I think, what I need or want and go on – in faith – looking for the answer to show up.
How often when we go to God in prayer we forget that Jesus is there and has been there already interceding for us & all the world. This morning I want to bring the ‘back-end’ and make it part of the ‘front-end’ of our spiritual lives. We may not be aware, or remember the implications of
Rom 8:34
34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Acts 7:55-56
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 5
When we get to haven, Jesus is going to be there, when we come before God in prayer, Jesus is there, and has been there, interceding for us
How often do we engage in prayer with little or no acknowledgment that Jesus is even before the throne of God with us, and we need him there. But He becomes ‘out of sight – out of mind’. When we stop praying ‘in Jesus name’ and remove that from our prayer time because it seems like a trite recitation we soon become in danger of loosing sight of the vital necessity to come before God with all kinds of prayers and petitions in the name of Jesus. That the boldness we can enter into God’s presences is because Jesus has, is and will forever be there interceding for us.
This is precisely why Jesus came to earth, died and rose again, so that he might forever intercede for us before God. To forget this or dismiss as a trite thing is to reject the permanent priesthood Jesus died to establish.
Let’s look at this profound truth...
Heb 7:24-25
24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completelyc those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
- Jesus is our Priest before God
As a permanent priest, Jesus stands before God –
Priests were those God specifically chose to interact with and on the behalf of the masses.
They were to make sacrifices for the people and to speak to the people about when and how to make sacrifices. They were the ones who were able to go before God without being killed by God. They were to know the heart and mind of God and communicate this to the people. The priest was to intercede for the people before God.
- Jesus is before God as the only acceptable sacrifice for us
Heb 9:24-26
24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- Jesus presents our sin before God
1 John 2:1-2
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also fora the sins of the whole world.
He is able to save completely...
- He is able – ‘dunamai’ = able with strength, powerfully
- To save – is an ongoing and future action
- Completely = entire, uttermost, fully
Perhaps you have had some one do a job for you and they didn’t complete the job. We recently did a job for the manager of the apartment building where our Bridge Suite is located. Luke, Jim, Alan and I cleaned the roof so we could use it for our Good Friday service. Tina the building manager told me later that she didn’t have high expectations of us cleaning the roof but she was amazed when she saw what we did, “I wasn’t expecting a professional job, but it was excellent” we satisfied her completely.
Jesus satisfies God the Father completely to provide our salvation, on our behalf.
However, there is a condition...
“those who come to God through Him...” Those who come before God with out coming through Jesus have missed the doorway of his goodness, love, grace and mercy, and therefore stand before God to face his judgment alone, without the hope of Jesus salvation, with all their sin exposed.
Rev 21:27
but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Many a person has expressed “I don’t feel worthy to pray to God” and they would be right. Only a fool thinks a clown can stand before a king. But those who come into God’s presence through Jesus should recognize our sin is real and indeed sinful and Jesus saves us completely form our sin.
His salvation covers all our sin, not just the convenient “white lies” but the big and heavy stuff – when you have hurt others or looked to other things to satisfy our hearts when we should have looked to God, when we have done evil and compromised the goodness of Gods image we were made to reflect
Jesus is there to Intercede = confere, entreat, in favour of... Us
Scripture says “he always lives to intercede” for us
He is there because we need him to be there. God wants us to pray to him
1 Tim 2:1, 3-6
2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.... 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men
He is our mediator – our go between. A mediator negotiates for a positive outcome, everything goes through the mediator,
How Jesus intercedes for us...
Jesus acknowledges us, as a shepherd who knows his sheep and while we are still on the earth Jesus prays for us...
John 17:9-10
I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
The ones who come in His name
- Jesus prays for our protection from evil
John 17:5
protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one.
There is power and authority in a name, the name carries the power of the person
John 17:15-16
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
- Jesus prays for strength over temptation
Heb 4:14-16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,e Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Jesus prays for us to be set apart and sent out
John 17:17-18
17 Sanctifyb them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
Jesus prays that we are able to be the people we were created to be. Free to be the reflection of God’s goodness and truth, and so he prays for us to be separated in lifestyle from the rest of the world. Not separated by geography, that we are removed from the world but that we are free to be who we’re inteneded to be before the world. Living God’s truth and actively engaged in the world. Presenting His justice for those who are being compromised by the world. Delivering the wisdom of his truth where the foolishness of humanity prevails. Offering His love where hatred dominates.
We have the strength and protection to do this and more importantly we have access to God himself because of the strength of our salvation.
And One day... we will not be “out of sight & out of mind” We will be grateful that Jesus has been covering the “back-end” for us, and we will know it was actually the “front-end”
Rev 21:22-27
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
One day, because we come before God through our savour Jesus, because we belong to him and our names are in the lambs book of life, we will enjoy living in the eternal presence and splendour of God almighty.
My response today...
— Trust Jesus alone to intercede before God for you
— Recognize that I can only pray to God because Jesus is there for me
— I will begin to live under Jesus Prayer for me:
— Under his protection from evil
— His strength over temptation
— To be set apart and sent out