Jesus Is Alive

Jesus Is Alive

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Each weekday morning, we’re going to spend a few minutes in a passage in John. Here’s the goal: read it, pray it, share it. Every post will have a passage of Scripture, a short prayer, and a question to meditate on and talk about. In a few minutes every day, we can prepare our hearts for all that God has planned in this season of Lent.

Read: John 17:13-26
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [14] 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. [15] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] 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. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] 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. [24] 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. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] 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.” (ESV)

It’s common to wonder what Jesus’s ministry two thousand years ago has to do with us. Are we just remembering a great religious figure? Are we honoring his life and teaching? One of the things we celebrate at Easter is that Jesus is alive! Not in some figurative way, as though only his spirit is living on in us or in the church; we believe that he rose bodily from the dead and lives forever. He is as alive now as he was in the 1st Century.

Here, he prays for all of those who would believe the gospel through the words of the Apostles. Go down enough spiritual generations, and that’s us. Every person alive today who believes the Gospel did so because the Apostles spread the word. By the Spirit, the gospel has gone out to every continent and we pray that it will come to every country, every people group, and every person.

Jesus prayed for this to happen, and he’s still praying for us - even as you read this. Paul says in Romans 8:34, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Our savior is alive and interceding. He is not dead, he has not left us alone, and he will never fail. 

Pray:
God, thank you for raising your Son from the dead. Thank you that the Son and the Spirit are praying on my behalf even as I pray to you now. Give me the confidence that comes from their prayers. Help me to live like Jesus is alive today. Amen.

Share:
How can we see Jesus’s glory today? Why does he pray for this?

How encouraging is it to know that Jesus is praying for us? What difference does it make in your life to know that Jesus is alive?