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Last Words  Week 5 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 7, 2019 · 72 min watch · 3 min read

Last Words  Week 5

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

John 17
John 17:20
John 17:13
John 17:1
John 17:6
John 17:14

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Jesus personally and specifically prays for you — by name — and that prayer covers your past, your present, and your future.

In John 17, the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed not only for His eleven disciples but for every person who would ever believe in Him — which means He prayed for you by name, knowing you before you knew yourself. That prayer reveals the full heart of what Jesus wants for His people: a pardon for the past through salvation, a power for the present through sanctification and mission, and a promise for the future through glorification. Embracing all three is the pathway to the deep, circumstance-transcending joy Jesus says He came to give.

Key points

1
1Jesus prayed specifically and personally for every individual who would ever believe in Him — He already knew your name when He prayed.
2
2The heart of Jesus' prayer is that His followers would be filled with His joy — not circumstantial happiness, but a peace and exuberance that transcends circumstances.
3
3Salvation gives us a pardon for the past — God the Father devised the plan, Jesus purchased it, and the Holy Spirit empowers it, freeing us from both the guilt of our own sin and the wounds of others' sin.
4
4Sanctification means a power for the present mission — Jesus does not pray for us to be taken out of the world but to be protected and sent into it, united around the Word and the mission of pointing people to Jesus.
5
5Christian unity is about mission, not uniformity — Jesus sends His people into the world as infiltrators, not isolationists circling the wagons.
6
6Glorification gives us a promise for the future — Jesus eagerly anticipates being face to face with His people and showing them the full glory of what it was all for.
7
7Joy comes from embracing what Jesus has prayed over us — a pardoned past, a purposeful present, and a promised future — not from using Jesus to pursue the same things the world chases.

Application

Pastor Tim calls the congregation to stop trying to use Jesus as an advantage in the pursuit of the same things everyone else is chasing, and instead to genuinely embrace the three things Jesus actually prayed over them: accept the pardon for your past so you are no longer chained to it; step into the present mission — get into community, serve, give, share your faith, go on offense rather than circling the wagons; and anchor your hope in the future glory Jesus promised, because knowing what you are going to gives you the strength to go through whatever you face right now. The starting point is simply letting it sink in that Jesus, the omniscient God of the universe, prayed for you by name — and still does today.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“we're gonna look at today, John 17 in the series on the last words of Jesus before he's crucified, is is this amazing fact. Jesus prays for you”
From the transcript
“I wanna look at a couple verses before we start going through this prayer. In verse 20, I just wanna point something out here. It says this in verse 20, I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message”
From the transcript
“Verse 13, there's 26 verses right in the middle as I think what Jesus really wants for you and me. And it says this, 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”
From the transcript
“So he starts off in verse one. After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, father, the hour has come”
From the transcript
“In verse six, he starts saying this. I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word”
From the transcript
“So in verse 13, it says what I already said. I want them to have my joy. But then in verse 14, he says, I have given them your word”
Paraphrase of the transcript
I want them to have my joy. But then in verse 14, he says, 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.
From the transcript
“And then he says, look at verse 15. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world, but you keep them safe from the evil one”
From the transcript
“He goes, they do not belong, verse 16, to the world any more than I do. So they we if we believe in Jesus, we don't belong to this world any more than Jesus did”
From the transcript
“Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. So we're united. We need to be united in knowing the word of God and living it out”
From the transcript
“But what for? Verse 18. Just as you sent me into the world, I'm sending them into the world”
From the transcript
“he adds in verse 19, and I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth. He's like, and that's why I died”
From the transcript
“He then goes into verse 20 and prays, hey, I'm not just praying this, I'm praying it for you and I. Verse 20. I already read that. So this is a calling for us and a prayer for us too”
From the transcript
“And so that's how it ends. In verse 21 says, 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”
From the transcript
“And then finally, he says, father, verse 24, 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”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

There is a moment in John 17 that is easy to read past: Jesus lifts His eyes toward heaven the night before His crucifixion, and He prays — not only for the eleven men in the room, but for every person who would ever come to believe in Him. That includes you. He knew your name before you knew His. He knew your story, your failures, your questions, and the exact moment faith would take root in you — and He prayed for you anyway. Maybe even because of all that. Pastor Tim made the point that the God of the universe, who knows everything, chose to intercede for you personally. That is not a motivational idea; it is a staggering theological reality. The omniscient Christ looked down the full corridor of history and saw your face, and what He did with that knowledge was pray. Let that settle in slowly today. You did not earn a place in that prayer. You did not have to perform your way into it. You were simply known — fully known — and prayed for. If the starting place for joy, as Jesus says in verse 13, is embracing what He has prayed over us, then the very first step is letting this one truth become more than a fact you know and become a reality you actually feel: Jesus prayed for you. He still does.

For reflection

What does it stir in you to know that Jesus prayed for you by name, with full knowledge of who you are?

Pray

Pray for the capacity to receive — not just acknowledge — the truth that Jesus knows you fully and intercedes for you.

Jesus says something in this prayer that we might expect to come after the resurrection, or after a long life well-lived. He says He is speaking these things into the world 'so that they will be filled with my joy.' Not someday. Now. In the middle of betrayal, arrest, trial, and death bearing down on Him, joy is what He is thinking about for His people. This is worth sitting with, because the joy Jesus describes is not the kind that requires good circumstances as its raw material. Pastor Tim described it as a peace and exuberance that transcends circumstances — something entirely different from the happiness the world offers and chases. Happiness depends on what happens. This joy does not. Where does it come from, then? Jesus ties it directly to what He has prayed over His people: a pardoned past, a purposeful present, and a promised future. The joy is the fruit of embracing those three realities, not the fruit of circumstances finally cooperating. That means joy is actually available right now, in your real life with all its complications and uncertainties. It does not require your situation to change first. It requires your grip on what Jesus has already secured to tighten. That is a genuinely different way to live — and it is exactly what He wanted for you when He prayed.

For reflection

Is there a place in your life right now where you have been waiting for circumstances to change before you feel joy? What would it look like to reach for this kind of joy in the middle of that situation?

Pray

Pray for a growing understanding of joy that is rooted in Jesus rather than in circumstances.

In the opening verses of John 17, Jesus speaks of the work the Father gave Him to do — and He speaks of it as already finished, even though the cross is still hours away. He speaks of glory shared between Father and Son before the world began, and of eternal life as knowing God personally. It is dense and magnificent, and underneath it is the foundation for what Pastor Tim called 'a pardon for the past.' Salvation, as the sermon laid it out, is a Trinitarian act: the Father devised the plan, Jesus purchased it with His own life, and the Holy Spirit brings it home to each person. What that means for you and me is that we are not carrying the guilt of our past sin on our own shoulders anymore. Nor are we stuck defined by the wounds others inflicted on us. The pardon is complete. The price was paid before we ever knew we needed it. That is worth more than a quick 'amen' and a move to the next thing. Many of us live as though the pardon was issued but we are still on parole — still performing, still trying to make up ground. The invitation here is simpler and harder than that: to actually stop carrying what Jesus already paid to remove. Your past does not get the last word about who you are. He does. And He called you His.

For reflection

Is there something from your past — a sin, a wound, a label — that you are still carrying as though the pardon did not quite cover it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to receive the full pardon Jesus purchased, especially in the areas where guilt or old wounds feel most stubborn.

Jesus says something in these verses that captures a tension His people have wrestled with in every generation: His followers are not of this world, and yet they are still in it. He does not ask the Father to remove them from the world. He asks the Father to protect them while they remain. That is a deliberate choice worth noticing. Jesus is not praying for His people to be sheltered from the world, or to find a safe corner of it to occupy. He is praying for them to be kept — protected, grounded, held — while they stay right in the middle of life as it actually is. The world's values are not their values. Its metrics for success are not their metrics. But its people are the very people Jesus sends them toward. Pastor Tim's language for this was pointed: Jesus' people are not called to circle the wagons. The instinct to protect ourselves by retreating into a closed circle of like-minded people is understandable. The world can feel hostile, and community feels safe. But community in Jesus is not a bunker — it is a base. It is where you are rooted and restored so that you can go back out. Being 'in the world but not of it' is not a passive state; it is an active, daily orientation that requires the protection Jesus prays for here.

For reflection

In what areas of your life do you feel the pull to withdraw or circle the wagons rather than stay present and engaged?

Pray

Pray for the kind of protection Jesus describes here — a groundedness in Him that frees you to engage the world without being shaped by it.

'Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth.' This is what sanctification looks like in Jesus' own words: being set apart and shaped by truth — specifically the truth of God's Word. Jesus Himself was set apart for the mission, and He sends His people in the same way. The process by which we become capable of that mission is the same: immersion in what is true. There is something grounding about this. Sanctification can sound like a long list of behaviors to correct, but Jesus frames it as a shaping — a being-made-holy through encounter with truth. That happens in the Word, and it happens in community where the Word is being studied and lived together. It is not a solo project. This is also where mission and formation are held together. Jesus is not praying for His people to become holier so they can feel better about themselves — He is praying for them to be formed for the purpose of being sent. Sanctification is not the destination; it is the equipping. As you grow in the Word and in honest, trusting community with other believers, something is being built in you that is meant to go somewhere — into your neighborhood, your workplace, your family. The formation and the sending are inseparable in this prayer.

For reflection

How is the Word of God actively shaping your life right now? Where might deeper engagement with it — on your own or with others — open something new?

Pray

Pray for a genuine hunger for God's Word, and for the kind of community where truth is lived out together, not just discussed.

'Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.' The parallel Jesus draws here is striking. The same sending that brought Him from glory into the dust and noise and mess of human life is the same sending He extends to His people. Mission is not a program or a personality type — it is the posture of everyone who has received what Jesus prayed over us. Pastor Tim used the word 'infiltrators' — not in a subversive or deceptive sense, but in the sense that Jesus' people are meant to be present in the world, embedded in it, genuinely invested in the people around them. That looks like being a good neighbor. It looks like staying in hard conversations instead of retreating. It looks like sharing, serving, and sometimes simply showing up. It looks like being someone whose life raises questions that only Jesus can answer. The application is practical: What would it look like this week to go on offense rather than defense? To move toward someone rather than away? That might mean finally having a conversation you've been putting off, getting involved in a place where you can serve, or simply being more present with the people already in your life. The mission does not require a plane ticket. It starts with the person in front of you.

For reflection

Who in your life — neighborhood, workplace, family, or social circle — might God be calling you to move toward with the same kind of intentional love Jesus showed?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the people around you the way Jesus sees them, and for the courage to move toward them.

Jesus ends this prayer with longing. He wants His people to be with Him, to see His glory — the full weight of what He is, unfiltered. He speaks of a love that existed between the Father and the Son before the world was made, and He says that love is meant to be in us. The story does not end with this world. It ends with Him. Glorification — the promise for the future — is not just a theological category to hold in your back pocket. Pastor Tim made the point that knowing where you are going gives you the strength to go through what you are facing right now. That future reality is meant to function as a present anchor. It does not minimize the hardship or the grief you may be carrying today. It means that hardship and grief are not the final word. He is. Take a few minutes today to look back over this week. You were prayed for by name. You were offered a joy that transcends circumstances. You received a pardon for the past, a power and purpose for the present, and a promise that the best is still ahead. The pathway Jesus described is not a strategy for self-improvement — it is a life lived in response to what He has already done. That is what the whole prayer is pointing toward: not your effort, but His finished work, and a future that is more certain than anything you can see.

For reflection

As you look at the full sweep of John 17:24-26 and this week of reflection, what is one thing you want to carry forward — a truth that has settled more deeply, or a step you sense God inviting you to take?

Pray

Pray for a hope anchored in the future Jesus promised — one real enough to give you strength for whatever you are facing today.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Jesus prayed the longest recorded prayer of His life the night before He was crucified — and part of that prayer was for people who hadn't even been born yet, including everyone in this room.

Discussion questions

1
In John 17:20, Jesus prays not just for His eleven disciples but for everyone who would ever believe in Him. What does it tell us about Jesus that He was thinking about future believers in that moment — the night before His crucifixion?
2
In John 17:13, Jesus says He is speaking these things so that His followers can have 'His joy' made complete in them. How would you describe the difference between that kind of joy and the circumstantial happiness most people are chasing?
3
In John 17:15-16, Jesus doesn't pray for His people to be taken out of the world — He prays for them to be protected while they remain in it. What does that tell us about how Jesus sees the relationship between His followers and the world around them?
4
Pastor Tim described two postures a community of believers can take: circling the wagons to protect themselves, or going on offense as infiltrators sent into the world. Based on John 17:18, what does Jesus' prayer suggest He intends for His people?
5
In John 17:24, Jesus expresses an eagerness to have His people with Him and to show them His full glory. How might anchoring hope in that future promise change the way people face difficult circumstances in the present?
6
Pastor Tim challenged us to stop trying to use Jesus as an advantage in the pursuit of what everyone else is chasing, and to instead genuinely embrace the three things Jesus actually prayed over us — a pardoned past, a purposeful present, and a promised future. Which of those three do you think people find hardest to actually receive, and why?

Pray together

Gratitude that Jesus prayed for us by name — and that His prayer covers our past, our present mission, and our future hope

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Last Words

Week 5 · 3 messages

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