Jesus prayed for us, then ascended to Heaven

Before Jesus ascended into heaven He prayed for those He was leaving behind and those who would become followers of Christ after them then He ascended into Heaven.

That prayer was for everyone who has accepted Jesus as their Saviour both in the present and in the future..

Jesus Prays for Himself
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Jesus Prays for All Believers
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:

I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17

Many witnessed Jesus ascending into heaven. Here is the record of a historic event:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Role of the Holy Spirit
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever: that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans ; I will come to you.

“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:8-12 NIV

Read more here about this promised Holy Spirit – I LEAVE YOU A COMFORTER

Jesus spoke specifically to those who refuse to believe in Him before He ascended into heaven. He said:
Anyone who believes and is baptised will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.

Then in the view of so many watching…
When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Mark 16:16-19

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvellous love.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen. Ephesians 3:16-21

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