ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) — Two prayers of Jesus during His final 24 hours of life drew focus during the opening session of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Pastors’ Conference June 7 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

The session’s preachers were Stephen Rummage and Herb Reavis. Worship was led by the choir and worship team from Lakes Church in Lakeland, Fla.

Stephen Rummage

Jesus’ heart is for His people to glorify God, live holy lives and be unified, said Rummage, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention. Preaching from John 17:1-26, Rummage said Jesus articulated those principles in prayer the night before He was crucified.

“If you want to know someone’s heart, listen to them pray,” he said, noting that John 17 is the longest of the approximately 25 prayers of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. As Jesus prays, “you hear His heart.”

First, Jesus prayed for Himself and His Father to be glorified. That occurs, Rummage said, when pastors proclaim the gospel in personal evangelism and from the pulpit.

“So many times we get our eyes on something else, even in the church,” he said, “and we stop giving glory to Jesus” by proclaiming “His free offer of redemption.”

Jesus also prayed for His people to be sanctified. Sanctification means being set apart or holy, Rummage said. It entails having full joy in Jesus, being cleansed by the Word of God and being distinct from the world. As a boat in the water is good but water in a boat is bad, a Christian in the world is good but the world in a Christian is bad.

“The world will tell you that holiness and joy are enemies, that you can’t be sanctified and happy at the same time. That’s not what Jesus says,” Rummage said.

Third, Jesus prayed for His people to be unified. That prayer referenced both Jesus’ apostles and every subsequent generation of believers who would come to faith through their witness, Rummage said.

Unity is not uniformity. Rather, he said, it is doctrinal agreement on the teaching of Scripture, spiritual unity like God the Father and God the Son possess with each other and missional unity as believers take the gospel to the world.

“When our hearts are tuned to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the eternal Word of God,” Rummage said, “and when our eyes are on Jesus, when He’s setting the tempo, when He’s calling the tune, then He will use us as He prayed.”

Herb Reavis

Jesus wants His followers to extend and experience forgiveness, said Reavis, pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. He underscored those realities by preaching from Luke 23:32-34, Jesus’ prayer for God to forgive those who crucified Him.

“The final words of Jesus are perhaps his most important,” Reavis said. “On the cross, man was doing his worst, but Jesus Christ was doing His best.” This prayer reveals “some extraordinary truths.”

First, it reveals something about the beauty of Christ.

It was beautiful that Jesus possessed “unshakable faith” in His heavenly Father through the agony of crucifixion, Reavis said. That faith led Jesus to forgive those who killed Him and ask the Father to forgive them as well.

“Victims of crucifixion usually shrieked in pain and cursed and spit on the spectators,” he said. “Christ could have called 10,000 angels to deliver Him, or He could have called down judgment on those people crying, ‘Crucify Him!’ But He did not seek revenge. He was practicing what He preached.”

Second, Jesus’ prayer reveals something about the body of Christ.

The church is Jesus’ body in the world today, carrying out His work, Reavis said. As Jesus died on the cross, the church must pray for people’s spiritual needs, welcome all people and ask God to save them.

God “is still forgiving sinners and saving them from the devil’s hell,” he said.

Third, Jesus’ prayer reveals something about the burden of Christ.

Jesus was burdened not only to forgive sinners but also to live out the commands of Scripture, Reavis said, a pattern pastors must emulate.

“You can stand up in a pulpit, and you can be polished, and you can hold people in the palm of your hand,” he said. “But if in your everyday life you’re not walking in the Word, you’ll be found out and they will not listen to a thing you have to say.”

Jesus’ prayer from the cross should lead every pastor to ensure he has experienced Christ’s forgiveness, Reavis said. Then each pastor should extend forgiveness to those who have hurt him in ministry — in big and small ways.

“Let the whiners whine,” he said. “Let the gripers gripe. Let the pouters pout. Because of a blood-stained cross and an empty tomb, I stand before a holy God forgiven.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Davidid Roach is a writer in Mobile, Ala.)