“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father” John 17:1

Last week we considered how the Saviour prayed for us even when the hour when He must die on the cross was very near. I think that suggests to us the danger the Lord Jesus knows His people face while here on this earth. Like a ‘good shepherd’, He is watching over and guarding His flock! From His prayer, we can learn about the dangers and trials we may expect in this life.

1. First of all note, nothing glorifies God more than obedience to His commands. The Saviour says in verse 4: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” The Lord Jesus did all that was required of Him and thereby He glorified His Father by finishing the work given to Him to do by dying on the cross for those beloved of the Father from al eternity.

2. Secondly, I want you to notice that the first thing the Lord Jesus prays for is that His people may not be divided! “I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are,” verse 11. Nothing sets forth a likeness to God than His people united even as the Father and Son ‘are one’! Paul dealt with this subject, Eph 4:3, 13-14.

Here is a little rhyme I learned from my mother as a wee boy

Birds in their little nests agree,
It is a shameful sight,
When children of one family,
Fall out and chide and fight!

That is how it ought to be in the ‘family’ of God!

3. Notice that a chief function of the Saviour while he was on earth, was to keep safe His disciples. “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost,” verse 12. The word ‘kept’ means, ‘to watch over, protect, to hold fast’. When the Saviour is ‘with’ us, then we are kept from harm. When we leave His presence, we are in danger. Today, He is still looking after us from heaven.

4. Please note the fate of Judas Iscariot. “ . . . none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled,” verse 12. All who were the children of God, the Lord Jesus kept. Judas was the ‘son of perdition’. He was the ‘son of damnation’, he was a child of the devil. ALL who are not of the family of God are ‘the children of the devil. This the Lord Jesus made plain to His enemies. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.