Steve Webb  0:00  
What a prayer!

Steve Webb  0:08  
Coming to you from Riverside, California, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible and podcasting since 2004, I am your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. It's Gospel Saturday and our reading today is John 16 through 18. I'm calling this episode "Jesus' Prayer for You." This should be the last pre-recorded show for a while, Beloved. If everything went according to plan, I got home last night at about 10 o'clock. But since that's the time I tried to get the show published, I pre-recorded this show. Tomorrow when I'm back, I'll give you a quick rundown of the trip. Before we read, let's pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, how we thank you for your Word, and oh my goodness, how we thank you for Jesus and his sacrifice. I pray, Lord, that as we read today, you would make it real to us. Touch our hearts and our minds, Lord. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's begin. 

Steve Webb  1:06  
John, chapter 16. “I have told you these things so you will not be ashamed of Me and leave Me. They will put you out of the places of worship. The time will come when anyone who kills you will think he is helping God. They will do these things to you because they do not know the Father or Me. “When these things happen, you will remember I told you they would happen. That is why I am telling you about these things now. I did not tell you these things before, because I was with you. But now I am going to Him Who sent Me. Yet none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ “Your hearts are full of sorrow because I am telling you these things. I tell you the truth. It is better for you that I go away. If I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When the Helper comes, He will show the world the truth about sin. He will show the world about being right with God. And He will show the world what it is to be guilty. He will show the world about sin, because they do not put their trust in Me. He will show the world about being right with God, because I go to My Father and you will see Me no more. He will show the world what it is to be guilty because the leader of this world (Satan) is guilty. “I have many things to say to you. You are not strong enough to understand them now. The Holy Spirit is coming. He will lead you into all truth. He will not speak His Own words. He will speak what He hears. He will tell you of things to come. He will honor Me. He will receive what is Mine and will tell it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. That is why I said to you, ‘He will receive what is Mine and will tell it to you.’ “In a little while you will not see Me. Then in a little while you will see Me again.” Some of His followers said to each other, “What is He trying to tell us when He says, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and in a little while you will see Me again,’ and ‘Because I go to My Father’?” So they said, “What is He trying to tell us by saying, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” Jesus knew they wanted to ask Him something. He said to them, “Are you asking each other why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and in a little while you will see Me again’? For sure, I tell you, you will cry and have sorrow, but the world will have joy. You will have sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman gives birth to a child, she has sorrow because her time has come. After the child is born, she forgets her pain. She is full of joy because a child has been born into the world. You are sad now. I will see you again and then your hearts will be full of joy. No one can take your joy from you. “When the time comes that you see Me again, you will ask Me no question. For sure, I tell you, My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive. Then your joy will be full. “I have told you these things in picture-stories. The time is coming when I will not use picture-stories. I will talk about My Father in plain words. In that day you will ask in My name. I will not ask the Father for you because the Father loves you. He loves you because you love Me and believe that I came from the Father. “I came from the Father and have come into this world. I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His followers said to Him, “Now You are talking in plain words. You are not using picture-stories. Now we are sure You know everything. You do not need anyone to tell You anything. Because of this we believe that You came from God.” Jesus said to them, “Do you believe now? The time is coming, yes, it is already here when you will be going your own way. Everyone will go to his own house and leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me. I have told you these things so you may have peace in Me. In the world you will have much trouble. But take hope! I have power over the world!” 

Steve Webb  5:12  
John, chapter 17. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” 

Steve Webb  8:38  
John, chapter 18. After Jesus had said these things, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, and He and His disciples went into it. Judas, who betrayed  Him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with His disciples. So Judas took a company of soldiers and some temple police from the chief priests and the Pharisees and came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing everything that was about to happen to Him, went out and said to them, “Who is it you’re looking for?” “Jesus the Nazarene,” they answered. “I am He,” Jesus told them. Judas, who betrayed Him, was also standing with them. When He told them, “I am He,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. Then He asked them again, “Who is it you’re looking for?” “Jesus the Nazarene,” they said. “I told you I am He,” Jesus replied. “So if you’re looking for Me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the words He had said: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. (The slave’s name was Malchus.) At that, Jesus said to Peter, “Sheathe your sword! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given Me?” Then the company of soldiers, the commander, and the Jewish temple police arrested Jesus and tied Him up. First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was advantageous that one man should die for the people. Meanwhile, Simon Peter was following Jesus, as was another disciple. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest; so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. But Peter remained standing outside by the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who was the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. Then the slave girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” “I am not!” he said. Now the slaves and the temple police had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold. They were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself. The high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and about His teaching. “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus answered him. “I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple complex, where all the Jews congregate, and I haven’t spoken anything in secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who heard what I told them. Look, they know what I said.” When He had said these things, one of the temple police standing by slapped Jesus, saying, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” “If I have spoken wrongly,” Jesus answered him, “give evidence about the wrong; but if rightly, why do you hit Me?” Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of His disciples too, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not!” One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?” Peter then denied it again. Immediately a rooster crowed. Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. Then Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have handed Him over to you.” So Pilate told them, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him according to your law.” “It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death,” the Jews declared. They said this so that Jesus’ words might be fulfilled signifying what kind of death He was going to die. Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about Me?” “I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?” “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. As it is, My kingdom does not have its origin here.” “You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” “What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging Him. You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

Steve Webb  13:45  
Did you know that there's a prayer by Jesus about you in the Bible? How cool is that? Jesus prayed for you before his crucifixion. He knew he was soon going to be betrayed and turned over to be beaten and hung on the cross. He knew that his purpose would soon be fulfilled. And he prayed to the Father about many things, and you and I were on his mind. Jesus' prayer in John 17 is a marvelous look into the mind of our Savior in the hours before the sacrifice that would change the eternities of all who believe in him. The events of the coming hours would be the fulfillment of his mission, the reason he gave up the glories of heaven, to be born in a manger some thirty-three years earlier. He prayed to the Father as the Son. He said, "Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that your Son may also glorify You." There had never been a moment when Father and Son were out of touch with one another. Think about that. Jesus was with the Father from eternity past until this very moment when he prayed this prayer. And he knew that in just a few short hours, the Father would turn his face away from him when all the sins of the world would be placed on him. Jesus would be completely alone for the first time in all of eternity. And yet, he thought to pray for you and for me. First, he prayed for the disciples that they would be one as Jesus and the Father were one and that they would have his, Jesus', joy fulfilled in them. What a prayer, the joy of Jesus fulfilled in them. Think about what that means, a perfect pure joy, a joy that comes from knowing that you have perfect oneness with the Father, that there is nothing separating you from him. Pure joy. And Jesus prayed that the Father would not take the disciples out of the world, but that he would keep them or protect them from the evil one, from compromise, from falling away, from anything that would keep them from running the race to a victorious finish. And Jesus prayed that the Father would sanctify the disciples by the Father's truth. "To sanctify" is to set apart for God's purpose. And then Jesus said, "By your truth." How do we know what God's truth is? By reading his Word, hearing it, understanding it, and applying it to our lives. Jesus prayed that God's Word would set the disciples apart for his purposes. Beloved, it is impossible for anyone to live a life of close relationship with God or to be used by God unless he or she is steeped in the Word of God. The Christian life is a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. That's amazing! That relationship is kept alive and healthy and strong by staying in contact one with the other. How do we do that? How does God communicate with us? Well, primarily through the Bible, his Word. We communicate with him through prayer as Jesus did. Now, after Jesus prayed for his disciples, he prayed for you and for me. He said, "I do not ask for these only" (speaking of the disciples) "but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” There is a lot in that prayer, isn't there, Beloved? And there are many takeaways. I really do encourage you to meditate on this part of Jesus' prayer. Get some quiet time with your Bible and with the Lord and slowly read each part starting at verse 20 and then read all the way to the end of the chapter. Evangelist, preacher, Bible teacher, and commentator G. Campbell Morgan wrote about this part of Jesus' prayer, he said, “He prayed for them. He prays for us. He knew His intercession for them would prevail. He knows His intercession for us will prevail. Then let us rest in Him, with the rest of loving obedience and of surest confidence.” Yes, Beloved, we can most assuredly rest in him, despite the gales that blow around us in these troubling times, and yes, they are, we can rest in him. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus prayed for you before he was crucified? What are your thoughts? You have a comment or a question? Contact information will be at the end of today's show. Tomorrow will be Epistles Sunday and we'll read the book of Philemon. It'll be Father's Day in the US and we'll have a time of praise and prayer requests. If there is a prayer request or praise that you'd like to share with the Lifespring family, be sure to let me know. Do it now while you're thinking about it. 

Jingle  19:37  
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Steve Webb  19:48  
I'd love to hear from you. If you have a comment, a question, a prayer request, or a praise report, here's how to reach me. To leave a voice message call the Lifespring Family Hotline at +1-951-732-8511. Or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com if you've got a prayer request or a praise report. And go to comment.lifespringmedia.com if you have a comment or a question. You can email me at steve@lifespringmedia.com, or send a boostagram. Thanks to the team, Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall, and Sister Brittaney. And special thanks to the team members who did extra work to help me put this week's show up in advance so they'd be ready for you while I was in Florida. Extra props to you guys, thanks. God bless you. And, Beloved, thank you for including me in your day today. I'm looking forward to being with you tomorrow with an almost live show. Until then, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.

Announcer  20:48  
Podcasts are cool.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai