Passion Week ~ Yeshua’s Final Discourse ~ Part 6
In our last post, we continued to examine the final days of Yeshua’s life and ministry. This post continues to explore the events that occurred on Thursday Evening (now early on Friday morning in the Jewish culture).
The “True” Lord’s Prayer
Yeshua gave His talmidim a model prayer in Mattityahu 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4, which has been mistakenly labeled the Lord’s Prayer but is not. The following is His prayer to His Father before crossing the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane. Going back to our last post, His talmidim are still with Him.
Yeshua, as our High Priest, prays on our behalf to His Father. In this intercessory prayer, we see deeply into the Messiah’s heart – into the intimacy of the relationship between the Son and the Father, on the one hand, and between the Son and His talmidim, on the other. The depth of this prayer exceeds that possible to any mere human; it presupposes that Yeshua came forth from God, had the Father’s glory before the world existed (v. 5), shares all that belongs to the Father (v. 10), can give the Father’s glory to believers (v. 22), is eternal (vv. 5, 24) and has uniquely intimate knowledge of the Father (v. 25).
1 After Yeshua had said these things, He looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify You – 2 just as You gave Him authority over all mankind so that He might give eternal life to all those whom You have given Him. 3 And eternal life is this: to know You, the One True God, and Him whom You sent, Yeshua the Messiah.
4 “I glorified You on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify Me alongside Yourself. Give Me the same glory I had with You before the world existed.
6 “I made Your name known to the people You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word. 7 Now they know that everything You have given Me is from You, 8 because the words You gave Me I have given to them, and they have received them. They have really come to know that I came from You, and they have come to trust that You sent Me.
9 “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those You have given to Me because they are Yours. 10 Indeed, all I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine, and in them, I have been glorified. 11 Now, I am no longer in the world. They are in the world, but I am coming to You. Holy Father, guard them by the power of Your name, which You have given to Me, so that they may be one, just as We are. 12 When I was with them, I guarded them by the power of Your name, which You have given to Me; yes, I kept watch over them; and not one of them was destroyed (except the one meant for destruction so that the Tanakh might be fulfilled). 13 But now, I am coming to You, and I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have My joy made complete in themselves.
14 “I have given them Your Word, and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world – just as I Myself do not belong to the world. 15 I don’t ask you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the Evil One. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth – your Word is truth. 18 Just as You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 On their behalf, I am setting Myself apart for holiness so that they, too, may be set apart for holiness by means of the truth.
20 “I pray not only for these but also for those who will trust in Me because of their Word, 21 that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are united with Me and I with You, I pray that they may be united with Us so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 The glory which You have given to Me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, just as We are one – 23 I united with them and You with Me, so that they may be completely one, and the world thus realize that You sent Me and that you have loved them just as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am; so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.
25 Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these people have known that You sent me. 26 I made Your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known; so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I Myself may be united with them.” [1]
There is so much more that could be said about this passage, but I would prefer that you take the time to read through it several times with the thought that He is praying for you individually.
In our next post, we move on the Yeshua’s Betrayal and Arrest in Gethsemane.
Click here for the PDF version.
[1] Yochanan 17:1-26.
My Heart is for Israel 