A Transcendent Prayer
This last week we were praying for Abby our daughter who had a medical procedure done that will hopefully bring the hormones in her body into balance. Maybe we pray for a loved one to be healed or my family member to get a particular job. We pray for specific, physical concerns
Perhaps occasionally we pray more spiritually, That God would save a loved one or help me to know him better, that I may experience his peace in the midst of a difficult situation, that he might help me love a person, or how he would want me to sacrifice something to advance his work somehow.
We may also pray with a greater mission mindset – “use my friend Eddie Wong, to touch many people for your kingdom where he is teaching people to bake bread in China” or that God would open doors of opportunity for our friends starting new churches in different places.
When Jesus comes to this section of his prayer in John 17 he begins to pray in a way that goes far beyond his current time and circumstance. He begins to pray for many future generations in mind. It is a transcendent prayer that we are also a part of.
tran·scend·ent adjective
Going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding. Being superior or supreme.
Theology . (of the Deity) transcending the universe, time, etc. Compare immanent
Transcendent goes beyond and outside the conventional norms we experience in our life…
What Jesus did in his time here on earth went far beyond what we could have dreamed of or accomplished.
John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
He began to turn his attention to all the future ones who would place their trust him, someone they had not seen or experienced in a physical way. The ones who would believe in Jesus because someone told them about Him.
Jesus expected his disciples to carry out his mission by sharing his gospel message.
The power of Christ’s work is in its transcendence, it goes far beyond the time he walked and died in Jersualem. The message of Jesus was about to be completed on the cross in only a few hours from when he prayed these words.
He goes on…
21 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.
All (those who believe) – be one --- Everyone who comes to the point of believing that Jesus is who he says he is and accomplished what he said he did are together, one. This is a little difficult to understand what he is praying here. But he helps clarify what he had in mind…
…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
It is easy to get bogged down in these words and like the saying goes, “you can’t see the forest for the trees”
The goal of what Jesus is praying here is that “the world may believe that you have sent me”
God has been dealing with and relating to humanity since humanity came into existence. God knew that all of humanity had made a significant choice to try to “make it on their own” to live life independent from God. It started in the garden when Eve reached out to take that forbidden fruit, when Adam took it from her and followed her lead and in that action they opened the way for all humanity to live in a dual state of being with God and independent from him. Mostly independent except for the parts of God that we like.
From that point all humanity has been close but separated from him. We know of his existence and long for his love, his goodness and guidance and presence in our lives but our sinful choices have kept him at a distance. We desire to live satisfying our emotional, physical and intellectual longings in our own ways and at the same time desire to satisfy the hunger in our hearts and fill the hole in our souls, but we can’t. Only God’s presence in our lives will do that, but we have chosen to live independent from him.
Like a child who would get a picture of a birthday cake on his birthday – he knows it exists but can’t have it.
Jesus was both man and God. As man, he walked in time and space, occupied a physical body and dealt with the physical demands of life.
At the same time, he was God. God is an eternal being, who has no beginning or end and the work he accomplishes is eternal. It goes far beyond any particular point in time and is not constrained by any point in time. This is not just philosophical / spiritual mumbo jumbo, words that sound good but don’t really mean anything in real life.
God sent Jesus into the world to reconcile us to Himself and return us into a relationship where we would be ‘one’ with both Jesus and the Father. This oneness is like being in the same family. What John talked about in
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
We have a common bond – a family bond. We are not all the same, but we share a resemblance because we share more than the family name but we are family by blood-line, and it is a blood line that is established by Jesus.
Jesus’ work on the cross is an eternal work – it transcends the physical time he died in Jerusalem two thousand years ago. It was an eternal work that enables us – you and I to be part of his amazing work.
Jesus knew this when he taught is disciples in John 10…
John 10:14-16
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Jesus came to lay down his life – and that was an eternal action. Eternity is not only a factor of time but also condition. When Jesus laid down his life for us – those who would believe in him. He said that it would impact many more than the disciples themselves. He said …”I have sheep that are not of this pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. “
Jesus knew his message was also for the gentiles of that time that opened the way for his apostles to take the message all around the world. He also knew that his message would not disapate over time, it was not going to die away, His message was eternal and would effect the condition of humanity from that time on. His prayer to the Father opened the ability for each of us – here today – and in the future to come – to hear and respond to his message.
1 Peter 3:18-19
18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
Now the best news of this great truth…
Not only did Jesus open the way for all humanity to hear and respond to his message and enable us to become part of his family, but when he died on the cross, he died for your sin – all of it.
Romans 6:10
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
When Jesus died on the cross he took all our sin, the sin of the world, the present world and the future world,
He took our past sin, our current sin and our future sin and put it all to death.
This is a great truth that many Christians either do not know or often forget, because it keeps us from living in the power and strength of God.
He died for all your sin. That one action – thousands of years ago was an eternal, transcendent action that carries effect to your life today. His death on the cross forgave your sin of your past, the sin you currently struggle with and the future sin of the rest of your life.
Your sin is no longer held against you, because Jesus died on the cross. It was his blood that was shed to bring you into the blood line of God’s family.
You are free to walk free of the condemnation and weight of your sin, that keeps the hole in your soul festering. He cleanses your heart and heals the hole to make you look like one of his family – and so we listen to him and respond to him, so others can hear of him, see him and respond to him because of our lives.
To walk in this freedom demands our faith – to believe in the work and power of Jesus.
“May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. “
When he lives in us – others should be able to see him - see his resemblance, the blood line should be obvious. We live lives marked by the presence of Jesus in us. We are in an eternal and transcendent relationship.