Continue With Preparing The Apostles For His Departure -Concluding Prayer In The Upper Room

Concluding Prayer In The Upper Room

Making a distinction between his followers and the rest of mankind, Jesus next prays: "I make request, not concerning the world, but concerning those you have given me . . .When I was with them I used to watch over them . . . ., and I have kept them, and not one of them is destroyed except the son of destruction," namely Judas Iscariot. At this very moment, Judas is on his despicable mission to betray Jesus. Thus, Judas is unknowingly fulfilling the Scriptures.

"The world hated them," Jesus continues to pray. "I request you, not to take them out of the world, but to watch over them because of the wicked one. They are not part of the world, just as I am no part of the world." Jesus' followers are in the world, this organized human society ruled by Satan, but they are and must always remain separate from it and its wickedness.

"Sanctify them by means of the truth," Jesus continues, "your word is the truth." Here Jesus calls the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, from which he continually quoted, "the truth." But what he taught his disciples and what they later wrote under inspiration as the Christian Greek Scriptures is likewise "the truth." This truth can sanctify a person, change his life completely and make him a person separate from the world.

Jesus now prays "not concerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith in [him] through their word." So Jesus prays for those who will be his anointed followers and other future disciples who yet will be gathered into "one flock." what does he request for all of these?

Next time: Conclusion of the subject above

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, 1991