The Lord's Prayer

Overview / Recap

Over the past few weeks, we have seen that Jesus was preparing His disciples for His upcoming death, resurrection and ascension.

Somewhere between the Upper Room (John 14) and our passage this evening, Jesus and His disciples are approaching Gethsemane. Perhaps the prayer recorded in Chapter 17 is from the garden itself before those nearest to Christ fell asleep. We are reaching the climax in John. Jesus announces His hour has come. For the past 3 years there has been a lot of ups and downs. Much terrain has been traversed. In chapter 2 with Jesus’ first miracle, he indicated that his hour had not yet come. Again in chapters 7 and 8, he reiterates his hour has not yet come. In Chapter 12, he shares that his hour is coming (12:27), and now here in Chapter 17 everything has taken place that’s necessary for the hour to come. It is at this climax that Jesus stops to pray.

We have been taught growing up that the model prayer Jesus offers to His disciples’ request of, “teach us to pray,” is called the Lord’s Prayer (see Matt. 6:9-13). I believe what we are going to look and discuss this evening is the Lord’s Prayer.

We will look at John 17 using this basic outline:

Jesus Prays for the Father to Glorify Him

Jesus Prays for the Father to Keep His Disciples

Jesus Prays for the Church to come

Jesus Prays for the Father to Glorify Him

Read John 17:1-5 “1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3 This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ. 4 I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.”

Now that the hour has come, Jesus asks of His Father to glorify the Son so that the Son may glorify you. The glory of God is a noun and means his majesty or his splendor or his display of divine goodness. When we talk about God’s being glorified, we mean the appropriate response given to his goodness displayed. So this request from Jesus is neither misplaced or misappropriated, why?

Deut 21:23 “23 you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” Jesus is about to be cursed. Yet for the goodness of God to be been seen and celebrated, i.e., glorified, God will have to take the disgraceful associations of the cross and make them a badge of honor for his Son. How will he do that? (Answer is in verse 5) - The Father will glorify the Son by restoring him to the position he had with the Father before the foundation of the world. At some time in the future the curse shared in Deuteronomy’s passage will be replaced with the worship of the Lamb in Rev. 5:12 “12 They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

Jesus’ action will secure eternal life for all who know Him. How would you define or describe eternal life?

Eternal life is a relationship with the everlasting God beginning on this side of the grave

Eternal life is living how we’re created to live - in fellowship with our Creator

So if Jesus’ number one priority is to bring glory to the Father, what does that mean for you and me? What does it mean for our priorities and plans? Our goal in sharing the gospel is not to enlist converts but to make worshipers. There will not longer by evangelism in heaven. Evangelism is only necessary where there remain men and women who don’t worship God.

Jesus Prays for the Father to Keep His Disciples

Read John 17:6-19

John 17:6–19 CSB

6 “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. 13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

After praying for God to glorify him, Jesus turns the focus of his prayer to his disciples. The disciples were called by the power of God, and now Jesus asks God to keep them from wandering away. Only the power of God at work in the them makes it possible for them to follow Jesus, obey his command and fulfill his mission. How many times in these first 19 verses does Jesus reference these disciples as “those given to him by the Father?”

n verses 6 - 8, Jesus shares what the disciples have done - notice each of these are in the present perfect tense which illustrates that these actions have been done in the past and remain true now:

1. They have kept (observed and guarded it) God’s word.

2. They received (taken and accepted) it through the teaching of Jesus.

3. They came to understand (personally made known) and believe (faithfully convinced) what God said.

For how the disciples responded, who did the work? What God has done for the disciples leads us to what God will do. Jesus asks his Father,, to protect them by your name. God’s name refers to his character. Jesus taught the disciples about the character and person of God. If the disciples are to faithfully follow Jesus, they must not turn from the truth about who God is.

Jesus continues to pray for their unity - their oneness. How is their oneness compared? To the unity Jesus and The Father have. How would you define unity? Here is a good illustration of unity through the sport of rowing:

Exalting Jesus in John Jesus Prays for the Father to Keep His Disciples (John 17:6–19)

In the sport of rowing, unity is key. Each oar must enter and exit the water at precisely the same time if the boat wants to maintain speed. The way the rowers stay in sync is by listening to the coxswain. The coxswain doesn’t row; he sits in the back of the boat and calls out the strokes. The coxswain is the only one who faces forward, so the entire crew must listen to the coxswain’s commands and respond. When that happens, the boat flies over the water. Unity doesn’t come from everyone rowing their hardest but from everyone submitting to a single voice. As the disciples submit to the voice of God, they grow more and more of the same mind. Their thoughts, desires, and intentions begin to mirror God’s, and they experience a unity unfamiliar to the world.

Jesus prays for their sanctification. To sanctify means to set apart - to make holy - for a special use. They are going to be the first witnesses which will set the world on end. Jesus prays that they are not to be taken out of the world but be protected from the evil one. Their example is to show us what it means to be in the world but not of the world. How do we as Christians deal with this being in the world but not of it?

1. Isolation - believing the gospel needs to be protected instead of shared. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s Word, and they disengage from all non-Christians. These Christians would love to buy 40 acres of land at least 15 miles outside of town and fashion a compound.

2. Inoculation - believing the gospel has made them immune to temptation and worldliness. They hear the call to remain faithful to God’s mission and immerse themselves fully in the world. These Christians minimize the biblical teaching on sin and repentance, choosing to live exactly as their non-Christian neighbors.

3. Insulation - perhaps the best way of being in the world but not of it. These are ones believing a daily focus on the gospel protects us from temptation as we seek to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. Insulation means working diligently to balance faithfulness to the truth and faithfulness to our mission.

Jesus Prays for the Church to come

Read John 17:20-26

John 17:20–26 CSB

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

In the final verses of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus turns his attention to the church which is to come, i.e., those who believe through the word of the disciples.

What is at the essence of the Lord’s request here about these future believers? That they all be one! With the weight of all the world’s sin being placed on his shoulders, Jesus has unity on his mind. Why is unity so important to the life of a church and group of believers?

A lack of unity in the body can give way to:

1. A compromising of the truth. D. A. Carson wrote, Unity is not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator, but by the common adherence to the apostolic gospel.

2. An outlawing of diversity. God made us unique with different spiritual giftings. If left to one’s own devices we may desire uniformity over unity. God desires for all the gifts to be on display. This doesn’t create chaos but rather a harmony within the body.

3. Broken relationships and an incomplete mission. Jesus gives a mission in this passage. As we as believers discover our unity with one another in our union with Christ, we discover a unity of mission. The Father and the Son are unified in their desire to rescue sinners, therefore, it is incumbent upon us to draw closer and closer to Jesus, so that we can all be useful servants in the mission God has called us.

Christ is not praying for us to embrace a concept but a conduct. He wants our lives marked by unity. When one family member hurts, we don’t just take note of it; we hurt as well. Unity takes effort and demands sacrifice.