We have seen that as the Holy Spirit prays for us "with groanings that cannot be uttered," so Christ is praying in heaven for us. You have two Beings who are praying for you. The Holy Spirit within you is interceding for you with groanings that cannot be uttered (see Romans 8:26-27), and there is never a moment that Jesus is not praying. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. (See Hebrews 7:25.) And the things that He prays for us are the things set forth in this passage.
Jesus never prayed with His disciples. He always prayed alone. When you and I pray-and I've had great times of fellowship with other believers in prayer-we take the place as sinners together before the grace of God. But Jesus couldn't have done that. He couldn't have said to the disciples, "Come on. Let's get down on our knees and cry out to God," because He was God and they were men.
I'll close with a story. It's a story I saw in Time magazine a few years ago. I don't know the end of it, but the beginning makes such a wonderful story that it suffices. Down in Bolivia, the major industry is tin; and back in the old days, Patino was the family that was better known in South America than the Rockefellers in North America. The Patinos were the tin kings. As a family they were worth a billion dollars.
What do you think God left us here for? Stop and think now. Why does God leave us here on this earth? I am presuming that you are a believer in Jesus Christ. If you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, this of course cannot be for you. I must in all fairness, in faithfulness to God, tell you, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ as your Saviour, that you are on your way to a Christless eternity, without hope, and without God. Call it hell, call it the lake of fire, call it what you will, it is separation from God, it is eternal doom, it is eternal wrath, it is eternal judgment. For God has but one will for you, that you should repent, and should come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Now we are ready for our last text, and we go back to John 17. We find out what Jesus did with the glory the Father gave to Him. Let me give you these two texts and then add the third. First, He prayed, "Father, give Me glory, the glory that I had with Thee before the world was." Then Peter says, God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. Now back in John 17:22 we read, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them." This is none other than the Bridegroom's present to the Bride. This is a wonderful thing.
