At a Glance
Series: Simply Jesus
Scripture: Hebrews 7:25, John 17:1-5, John 17:11-19, Romans 12:2, 1 John 4:4, John 17:20-26
Summary: Jesus Prays to the Father For You is a sermon outline centered on Hebrews 7:25. Something you may not have even known about Jesus… Jesus is alive and well, and having paid for our sins once and for all with his death on the cross, now lives eternally to pray to the Father for you.
Source: Adapted from Brandon Cox sermon outline notes from 2016. Transcript, audio, and video files were not used for this draft.
Review labels: clean
Sermon Notes
This resource draft preserves the outline movement of the source file and is staged for Brandon review before any public update.
Extracted Outline
Jesus Prays to the Father For You
Something you may not have even known about Jesus…
Jesus is alive and well, and having paid for our sins once and for all with his death on the cross, now lives eternally to pray to the Father for you.
Hebrews 7:25 CEV
He is forever able to save the people he leads to God, because he always lives to speak to God for them.
The context – the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus spent the final few hours of his freedom before being arrested there and taken away to stand six different trials.
1. Jesus prays for us to KNOW him… through the cross.
John 17:1-5 NLT
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
The "hour" had come for Jesus to be lifted up and put on display so that the message he had been teaching the disciples for so long would finally make sense.
His desire and prayer for you is to enjoy eternal life by knowing God, by understanding why Jesus came and what he accomplished on the cross.
The cross is where Jesus completed the mission God had for him. And now he has a mission for us – to know him and enjoy him fully, forever!
This is what brings God glory!
2. Jesus prays for us to GROW in him… through his word.
John 17:11-19 NLT
11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. 12 During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold. 13 Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. 14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to this world any more than I do. 17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 19 And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
His desire for us is that we remain united and keep growing through the sanctifying power of the word of God.
The "world" (mentioned 19 times in this prayer) is the human cultural system devoid of God's influence, and God's truth is what pulls us out of it and makes us different.
This isn't merely an external difference, it's an internal one. We're different in how we think because the word of God transforms and rewews our minds.
Romans 12:2 MSG
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
And, as we grow, we enjoy his protection! Our minds are guarded by the truth of his sanctifying word.
1 John 4:4 NLT
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
Let the word have its way with your heart.
3. Jesus prays for us to SHOW him to others… through love.
John 17:20-26 NLT
20 I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
22 I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
25 O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
When we are unified, God is glorified!
When we accept and affirm each other in love, and we show God's love to other people, more people will come to know him, which brings him MORE glory!