Most scholars who harmonize the gospels tell us that Jesus prayed the great prayer of John 17 in the Upper Room after giving instructions to His disciples.  They continue that Jesus joined them in singing the traditional Passover psalms, and then headed to the garden of Gethsemane where he regularly met with them and prayed.

 

Whether He prayed this prayer in the Upper Room or in the quietness of Gethsemane, it remains with us as the greatest prayer ever prayed.  It makes clear that Jesus was and is the greatest overcomer.  The word world is used 19 times in this prayer signifying His spiritual capacity to face and be victorious over every challenge life would bring to overwhelm Him.  He did not have the mind or spirit of a victim, but a victor.  In John 16:33 we hear him saying to us “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!” 

 

 Because He was an overcomer, we (as a community of believers in Him) see His example and find encouragement and strength to enable us, that we too can be overcomers.  The progression of thought in this prayer is not difficult to follow.

 

Jesus first prays for Himself, telling God the Father that His work on earth was finished, followed by prayer for His disciples that God would keep them and sanctify them, and finally He prayed for future generations who would believe through their word of testimony; that we might be a unified body of believers in Him and one day share in His Glory.  It is miraculously in this picture of us praising and worshiping God in our diversity and unity that speaks of God to the unsaved heart.

 

In this prayer, Jesus shares four privileges we have as His children to help make us overcomers:

 

The first is that “we share His life through our witness and testimony”.  John 2:4 tells us that Jesus lived on a divine timetable.  He knew at all times that He was in the will of the Father.  The prophetic psalm (31:15) affirms this privilege, “My times are in thy hand.”  The overcomer must always be aware that the length and experiences of my personal journey in life are in His hands. “All things work together for good”.  Whatever our storms, struggles, or losses, we still have God and each other.

 

The second overcoming principle is that “we know His name.”  This principle speaks to the safety of the believer which is dependent upon the nature of God, not upon our own.  It is God (John 17:12) who “keeps us” whether we face lions dens, fiery furnaces, or fierce faces.

 

The third overcoming principle is “to have His word in our hearts and minds.”  God’s word is a precious gift to us.  It is on His word that the overcomer stands, lives, and has their being.  His word is the overcomers’ prescription for daily living.

 

The fourth principle in this text for being an overcomer is “to live in unity with God and others.” This part of the Lord’s Prayer for spiritual unity is for the whole church, throughout all ages.  We may belong to different fellowships, but we all belong to God and to each other.  Despite our differences, all believers have the glory of God within them.  It doesn’t matter what they look like on the outside.  Our Christian harmony is not based upon externals, but upon the internal dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

 

The power to live as an overcomer lies in our ability to live beyond the characteristics of our first birth:

 

• We must live beyond our natural tendencies to take advantage of others and to exploit the abilities, and disabilities of people.
• We must resist embracing negative attitudes related to race and color. 
• We must let go of biases, prejudices, stereotypes, and judgments based upon the images seen through our eyes. 
• We must be careful not to become prosecuting attorneys and harsh judges instead of faithful witnesses, lest we turn the lost away from God.

 

To truly be overcomers we must build our fellowships on the essential of our new birth; a spiritual condition that the apostle Paul calls a “more excellent way”, the way of love -- loving our God, our enemies, our neighbors and ourselves.  Love is our strongest witness. The lost world cannot see God without it.  We do have our differences, but we have much more in common, and it is what we have in common that creates and maintains our unity.

 

It has been well said that “truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.”  We are told by Dr. Warren Wiersbee that “the mind grows by taking in truth, but the heart grows by giving out love”.  I Corinthians 8:1 tells us that knowledge alone leads to pride, and Philippians 1:9-10 tells us that love alone can lead to wrong decisions.

 

Only when we are yielded to Christ and the cross of redemption can we truly experience the Love of God.  It was at the cross that humanity received the greatest revelation of God’s love.  It was in the unselfish giving of His life for ours that we are set free, the shedding of His blood that we are made clean, and the truth of His resurrection that makes us one.

 

The application of this text is beautifully simple. To be an overcomer one must:

 

• Know we are in Him and He is in us.  We live because He lives.
• Know that we walk in earthly security because we know our eternal security cannot be plucked from His hand. 
• Know that the power to live righteous before Him lies in being intimate with the word of God -- to hide it in our hearts.
• Know that love is the centerpiece of Gods Grace, and that we love Him because He first loved us.  Even as we were yet sinners, He died for us!

 

This scripture is a challenge to each of us to follow the example of our Savior.  Today we can accept that challenge and be the overcomer he has designed us to be.  Amen!