He is praying for US

About a year ago Ruth and I were sitting in a church while visiting our kids listening to a preacher who was trying to impress someone with his wisdom while expounding on John chapter 17.

He said that Jesus never prayed for the lost of the world, he only prayed for his own, meaning his disciples and his followers.  He was using this text to justify his next statement which said that in his church, “We only pray for our own people, we don’t pray for those outside our church.”

After asking a few questions I found out that his church supports no missionaries and places little effort in reaching those outside of his church.

I have been wrestling with that arrogant statement ever since hearing it.  I am wondering if he echoes the maintenance philosophy of most of our modern day evangellyfish churches whose main focus is to preserve their little “Bless me club.”

If you read Jesus’ prayer in John 17 you will discover that indeed Jesus didn’t say to pray for the lost.  Instead, he told his disciples, we are included in that audience, to pray for the church.  As Jesus looks at the lost, harassed, and helpless multitudes, his concern isn’t that these lost people remain in their hopeless state.  Instead, his concern was that his followers and ultimately his church WOULD NOT GO to the lost world.

Listen to the words of Jesus in John 17:18 as Jesus petitions his father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

Ironically, that pastor was right in believing that Jesus isn’t concerned so much about praying for the lost but his biggest concern is that his church WOULD NOT GO to the lost.  In effect, Jesus had that church in mind as he prayed that prayer in John 17.

Needless to say I was not impressed by the man or his doctrine and I don’t believe that the Lord was either.