John Chapter 17 (incomplete)

Prayer of the High Priest – Messiah

High Priestly – Messiah

Jesus had ended His teaching of the disciples with a declaration of victory: “I have overcome the world.” This was in anticipation of His work on the cross. After His ‘sermon’ he prays – surely a model for all preachers

Concerning himself

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

It is a chapter in which we see our Lord Jesus Christ addressing a long prayer to God the Father.

It is wonderful as a example of the communion that was ever kept up between the Father and the Son, during the period of the Son’s ministry on earth. It is wonderful as a pattern of the intercession which the Son, as an High Priest, is ever carrying on for us in heaven. Not least it is wonderful as an example of the sort of things that believers should mention in prayer. What Christ asks for His people, His people should ask for themselves. (JCR)

2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Jesus pointed out that the Son glorified the Father by providing eternal life.

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

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

He had finished the work – now he faces death.

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

In the first main division, Jesus prayed concerning Himself.

His glory had been veiled since the incarnation.

This was His unique Shechinah glory, the bright and shining glory that He possessed for all eternity past, but that was veiled by His physical body. It would return to him on ascension to heaven.

Concerning his disciples

6 "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

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

The apostles belonged to Jesus, and that which belongs to the Son, automatically belongs to the Father as well.

God the Father should preserve the disciples because they were His, and God the Son was glorified in them.

10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

The whole purpose of our salvation is to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Jesus was leaving this world. Since He would no longer be physically present to preserve the apostles, God the Father should take on the task of keeping them.

12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

It is not implied here that the son of perdition was one of those whom the Father had given to the Son, but rather the contrary which we find back in John 13:18, Jesus said not all of you, for I know whom I have chosen.

The eleven who truly believed were kept safe. Judas, who never believed, perished. Psalm 109:8; Psalm 41:9

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Now Jesus made it clear that joy comes from the Word also.

The believer does not find his joy in the world but in the Word. Like John the Baptist, we should rejoice greatly when we hear the Bridegroom’s voice! (John 3:29)

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Christ revealed to the apostles, the Father’s word, with the result that the world hated them.

The reason the world hated them was that, while they were still in the world, they were not of the world, meaning they were no longer of this world’s nature and because the world hated them, they would need to be divinely preserved, so He asked God the Father to preserve them.

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Jesus prays for the protection of the apos­tles, particularly from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

The apostles needed protection because while they were no longer of the world, they were still in the world (John 17:16).

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

The truth is communicated in the Word, which is both personal and propositional. As the message about Jesus was heard, believed, and understood, the disciples’ hearts and minds were captured. This change in their thinking resulted in changes in their living.

The same is true of believers today. As we appropriate God’s Word to our lives, we are sanctified—set apart for God and changed in our living in order to honor God (John 15:3 Jesus said, already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you).

18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

God’s message set the apostles apart from the world so that they could accomplish His specific mission not Satan’s.

As Jesus was sanctified or set apart by God the Father for a mission to the world, even so these eleven apostles were also to be sanctified or set apart for a mission to the world.

Just as the Father has sent Jesus into the world with a message, so also Jesus has sent the disciples into the world with a message. The message, is the same, that of redemption in Christ.

19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Was He not already set apart to God and distinct from the world? Yes, but this sanctification refers to His being separated and dedicated to His death. And the purpose of His death was that they also may be sanctified in truth. The purpose of the death of Christ is to dedicate or separate believers to God and His program.

Concerning all believers

20 "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

In one sense Jesus’s prayer that all believers are united in the body of Messiah has been answered.

However, the passage goes beyond the positional unity that all believers share in the body. This prayer included unity of fel­lowship among all believers, and this has not always occurred, nor was this strictly a post-apostolic problem.

Acts and the Epistles record dis­unity among believers even in the first century.

21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Such a unity is possible because of the indwelling of the Godhead in the be­liever.

Disunity, infighting among believers, and undue and unfair criticism among believers have been major stumbling blocks that hin­der people from recognizing Jesus as their Lord, Saviour, and Messiah.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

This prayer will be answered someday, and when it happens, the believers will behold Jesus’ glory, which the Father restored to Him.

Believers will be in glory with the Messiah, but their glory and His will differ. The believers’ glory will be a reflected glory, while Jesus’ glory is an innate glory that is rightfully His. (cf son with moon).

Jesus is the light, and the light of believers in glory in heaven will be a reflected light. They will reflect the glory which is Jesus’ (2 Cor. 3:18). ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.’

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

Jesus’ prayer for believers ends with a call to the Righteous Father. The Father is right (righteous) and the world is in the wrong (the world does not know You).

Because the Father is righteous, he will certainly apply the full merits of Jesus’s redemption to the hearts and lives of the ones He has given to the son.

26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Jesus has known, revealed (John 17:6), and glorified (v. 4) the Father, and so should all believers. The requests of Christ for His own:

1.                   Preservation (v. 11)

2.                   Joy—fullness of the Spirit (v. 13)

3.                   Deliverance—from evil (v. 15)

4.                   To be set apart— “sanctify” (v. 17) 

5.                   Unity— “be one”— (this is not union) (v. 21)

6.                   Fellowship— “be with me” (v. 24)

7.                   Satisfaction— “behold my glory” (v. 24)