The Real Lord's Prayer

Today, as we continue looking at the book of John, we come to a prayer that Jesus prayed on the night before he was crucified. This is a little different than the prayer he prayed on the Mount of Olives - where he sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:39-46).

Here in John 17 we have what some have called the “High Priestly Prayer” or the “Prayer of Consecration.” In this prayer, Jesus prays for himself as he prepares to go to the cross. He also prays for his disciples and then concludes by praying for all believers - in other words, he even prayed for us.

We begin by looking at what...

Jesus prays for Himself (1-8)

John 17:1–5 ESV

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, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Time and again Jesus has said that his time had not yet come, and yet now the time is here. Now is the time for the culmination of his mission.

At Jesus’ heart - he wants to glorify God and knows that God is best glorified when the Son is glorified.

How would all of this happen?

It would happen through the cross, through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. It would happen as the wrath of God is poured out at the same time that the mercy of God is granted. All of this hinges on the cross. Jesus bore our wrath. You see our sin deserves death (Rom. 3:23). Jesus paid that death perfectly.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

In his mercy, God exchanged Jesus life for ours.

Notice, that in his prayer, Jesus notes that God gave him authority over all “flesh, to give eternal life.” He then goes on to define eternal life as knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ. We get to know the one true God through the sacrifice of Jesus. He is the propitiation or replacement for our sin.

As we come to faith in Jesus Christ - ultimately he would be glorified - because he is “the way, the truth, and the life” no one comes to God except through him (John 14:6).

But Jesus doesn’t just make this request out of thin air.

The basis for Jesus’ request here and in the requests to follow is that he has fulfilled the mission that God had placed before him.

John 17:6–8 ESV

“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. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 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.

When we look at Jesus, when we understand what he is teaching, we get to see the true picture of God. He is the embodiment of God. He is the word made flesh. As Tim Mackie and Jordan Zoerner might say - He is the “eden” come to earth - where God and humanity get to fellowship in perfect communion.

In fact, John communicated as much in the first chapter...

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Friend, do you want eternal life? Do you want to be free from the judgment of your sin? Do you want to live the life that God designed for you?

Then come to Jesus. Repent of your sin, turn and trust in his finished work. Walk in his ways. He embodied the life that God intended for all of us - the life that we corrupted with our fallen ways. Come to Jesus!

In addition to praying for himself,...

Jesus prays for the disciples (9-19)

He knows that the next period of time will be very challenging. His crucifixion will be disheartening for them. His resurrection will be exhilarating. His ascension and return to the Father will be a new experience fraught with all sorts of struggles. Anticipating all of that, he prays for two significant things for the disciples.

First of all...

Jesus prays for their security resulting in unity (9-16)

John 17:9–16 ESV

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 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. 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. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

The disciples will carry on the mission that Jesus started. They will act as heralds proclaiming the good news to the world. Even though their message will be good news, the world will not receive it and so Jesus prays that God will “keep” them in His name (11).

But what does that mean?

Let’s consider it from an earthly perspective. When Americans travel abroad (really, when anyone travels) - they travel in the “name” of the country. They may not be travelling as ambassadors, but they will be travelling under all that the nation represents. When troubles come - whether natural disaster or terrorism or even war - the nation often acts to aid. I think this is a bit why news reports are always willing to communicate how many Americans were impacted by such an event.

In a much bigger scale, Jesus’ request here is that as the disciples encounter persecution and trials, that they will be kept secure - that the enemy will not snatch them away - that God will encompass them. It’s as though they are foreigners in a foreign land proclaiming the goodness of a foreign King inviting others into a relationship with Him.

While Jesus’ prayer is specifically for the disciples, Don Carson suggests an extension of this to all believers...

The Gospel according to John (b. Jesus Prays that His Disciples May Be Protected (17:11b–16))

The Christians’ task, then, is not to be withdrawn from the world, nor to be confused with the world ..., but to remain in the world, maintaining witness to the truth by the help of the Paraclete (15:26–27), and absorbing all the malice that the world can muster, finally protected by the Father himself, in response to the prayer of Jesus.

Consider that, as you witness, as you herald the goodness of God, as you share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you do so as a foreigner - but with the protection of God himself. He has more authority and power than any President or Prime Minister or Monarch. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

But notice, that Jesus’ request is not simply for the disciples security. He prays asking that their security result in their unity.

John 17:11 “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.”

When troubles come, our natural tendency is to withdraw to protect ourselves and then to point fingers - to lash out. And yet Jesus request contrasts that as he prays that they would be one - that they would be unified - that they would have each others backs.

The disciples did not always agree on things - but they did seem to press through and remain unified - at least as far as we can tell.

In addition to praying for their security resulting in unity, secondly, ...

Jesus prays for their sanctification (17-19)

John 17:17–19 ESV

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Outside of church circles - we don’t use words like sanctify or consecrate very often. In these verses, the words that are translated “sanctify” and “consecrate” come from the same greek word which means “to make holy.” But what does that mean?

One resource I checked out noted that...

“Sanctification is the ongoing supernatural work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and to conform them to the image of his Son: holy, Christlike, and empowered to do good works.”

Don Carson explains:

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus Prays that His Disciples May Be Sanctified (17:17–19)

In practical terms, no-one can be ‘sanctified’ or set apart for the Lord’s use without learning to think God’s thoughts after him, without learning to live in conformity with the ‘word’ he has graciously given

ILLUSTRATION: military training - growing in knowledge and experience - set apart or sanctified for a specific task/mission.

So this sanctification that Jesus prays for stems from the knowledge that they gained through him, which then gets lived out in their lives.

But Jesus doesn’t stop with his disciples. He expects that their mission to go into all that world and make disciples will be successful. Which means that there will be a whole group of people who will believe in Jesus - but their only encounter with Jesus is through the testimony of the disciples - whether verbally or in the written form that we have before us today. As a result, finally...

Jesus prays for us (20-26)

In reality, Jesus prays for all believers.

As he did with the disciples, Jesus has two specific and significant requests for us.

Firsts of all,

Jesus prays for our unity with one another (20-23)

John 17:20–23 ESV

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 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.

Let that sink in for a moment - Jesus prayed for you and me! That is significant.

But notice, that the same challenge that the disciples faced is the very same challenge that we face. The enemy wants to divide us, to separate us.

So often we want to be right and then willingly and even voraciously argue our side of things, even to the point of belittling and name calling and cancelling. In many ways - this has been a challenge from the earliest days of the church. Since the Reformation - it’s been an especially tricky challenge. If we don’t like something then we just split and divide and start something new - rather than remaining unified and working through our differences.

Carson again notes:

The Gospel according to John 3. Jesus Prays for Those Who Will Believe (17:20–23)

the unity is meant to be observable. It is not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator, but by common adherence to the apostolic gospel, by love that is joyfully self-sacrificing, by undaunted commitment to the shared goals of the mission with which Jesus’ followers have been charged, by self-conscious dependence on God himself for life and fruitfulness

So, what does that mean for us? How do we respond to the unity that Jesus requests?

I think this means that we press through conflicts. We don’t have to always have the same opinion about things. It means not fading into the background or letting others drift off. It means pursuing one another - for the good of the church, for the good of the Kingdom.

Some time his afternoon check out Acts 15. You’ll notice a significant divisive threat and a unifying solution. in that very same chapter you’ll notice a time when the disciples did not remain unified, and parted ways.

Our collective mission is bigger and far more important than our individual squabbles. If there is disunity, then I believe we need to repent where we are participants in the division and seek to make amends.

Finally...

Jesus prays for our unity with Him (24-25)

John 17:24–25 ESV

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

By faith, we “know” Jesus and God the Father. By faith we hope for things to come. By faith we come to him, sacrifice, suffer, and serve for the sake of the Kingdom. Jesus’ request here is that one day we will not only see with eyes of faith but with physical eyes. That we will behold his glory and splendor. That we will see the culmination of our hoping and waiting.

As the Apostle Paul states:

1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Oh what a day that will be.

Closing thoughts.

So as Jesus prays on the night before he is crucified, he prays for himself, his disciples, and all believers. Where is comes to us...

how are we doing at maintaining unity?

How are we doing making the love of God visible to the world around us?

How are we doing persisting in hope if the eternal life that is to come?

Beloved, press on and press through the conflict. Where there is reconciliation needed, seek it out - repent, forgive, be united.

The Apostle Paul, as he was writing to the church at Ephesus wrote to a church that was fraught with division - primarily racial division between Jews and Gentiles. He challenges the congregation there to be one. Let me close with his exhortation.

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Let’s pray.

Benediction:

Romans 15:5–6 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sources:

Beeke, Joel R. and Paul M. Smalley. Reformed Systematic Theology Volume 3: Spirit and Salvation, Wheaton, IL. Crossway, 2021.

Burge, Gary M. The NIV Application Commentary: John. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000.

Carson, D. A. The Gospel according to John. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991.

Crossway Bibles. The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.

Gangel, Kenneth O. John. Vol. 4. Holman New Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.

Milne, Bruce. The Message of John (The Bible Speaks Today). Downers Grove, IL. Inter-Varsity Press, 1993

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