John 17, "Jesus Prays, 'Hallowed Be Your Name'"

Today we will learn to pray from Jesus. Jesus already taught us about prayer that seeks God and keeps our words few. And He taught us a prayer that begins, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your Name”. To understand what that phrase means a little better, today we will listen in as Jesus fleshes that out in His own prayer to God the Father. You won’t find the words “hallowed be Your name” in this prayer, but you will find Jesus addressing His Holy, Righteous Father, and seeking God’s glory.

This prayer serves two purposes. First, It lets us in on the conversation God the Son had with God the Father about us. What did He say and what difference does it make in our lives? Secondly, we can learn from Jesus’ example. Jesus prays that God would reveal His glory to His disciples and there are implications. God’s name is hallowed and Christ is glorified when through three applications for our lives: we receive eternal life in Christ alone, we keep God’s word, and we live in unity.

Jesus’ Prayer Seeks God’s Glory

Jesus begins and ends this prayer asking God the Father to glorify Him so that He can glorify the Father.

John 17:1 (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,

John 17:4–5 (ESV)

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.

Toward the end of the prayer, Jesus says,

John 17:24 (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.

Doesn’t it seem strange that Jesus is seeking His own glory? How should we understand this?

To glorify someone is to praise or make known their exalted status, to help others feel the weight of a person’s importance. Up until this time Jesus has had His divine nature concealed by His human nature. He is asking the Father to reveal His eternal, divine glory. But the way that glory is revealed is so unexpected, so counterintuitive for human beings, Jesus is asking the Father to help His disciples understand the revelation applies to their lives in three ways.

First, it is the glory of God to grant eternal life to all believers in Jesus Christ.

John 17:2 (ESV)

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

Praying, “Hallowed Be Your Name”, is Seeking Eternal Life in Christ Alone

It is the glory of God to give eternal life, by His own sovereign authority, to all who come to Jesus Christ in faith. The Father draws us to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and the Father grants Jesus, His Son, authority to give us eternal life. The glory of Jesus Christ is revealed when He gives eternal life to those who believe in Him.

And this hallows God’s name. God’s name, which He revealed to the early saints, is YHWH, meaning “The Eternal One”, or “The Everliving One”. So, Jesus can pray,

John 17:3 (ESV)

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

And God has sent Jesus with this special purpose, that we would know God through Him. This is the glory of Jesus. He makes God known.

John 17:6 (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.”

Anyone who believes the gospel of salvation in Christ alone receives eternal life. This glorifies God the Father and God the Son. But in such a radical way, in a way that goes against the grain of human nature, that we might miss it entirely.

Jesus did not seek glory the way people do. He did not please the desires of the masses. He did not seek glory from people. The way of the cross was Jesus’ greatest glory, and His obedience pleased God the Father.

This is the weight of the glory of God, that He would cause His Son to bear the sins of the whole world upon Himself, to crush Him for our salvation, and then to raise Him on the third day.

Am I seeking eternal life in Christ alone? So often we seek eternal life in human achievement. We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to accomplish great things, and we spend so much time asking God in our prayers to bless us in those things. But that’s a prayer He won’t answer. Life is not about you. Look at the way Jesus talks about His disciples in this prayer:

John 17:6 (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.

We belong to God the Father and we are His gift to the Son. Our lives are not our own. We belong to Christ. Our identity is in God, we are kept in His name. Eternal life is knowing God, and you can’t know God apart from the cross of Jesus Christ. It was His crowning achievement. Jesus prays that we won’t miss it.

This leads to the next application.

Praying, “Hallowed Be Your Name”, is Keeping God’s Word

Jesus says those who belong to God, who bear the name of Christ, are those who have kept God’s word.

John 17:6 (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.

In verse 8, Jesus says,

John 17:8 (ESV)

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.

Believing and living in the gospel of Jesus makes us unique in the world. We belong to God, not to this world. We demonstrate our distinctiveness by giving God’s word priority to the ways of the world in our lives.

Jesus goes on to say,

John 17:14–19 (ESV)

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. 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.

To be sanctified means to be set apart or made holy. When we pray, “Hallowed be Your Name”, we are seeking to sanctify, treat God as holy, or set apart God as sovereign in our lives and in our world. We hallow God’s name by keeping His word.

Keeping God’s word is also what sets us apart, makes us more holy; it sanctifies us. But not through our efforts.

In verse 19, Jesus plays with the word “sanctify” to bring us back to the cross. The word in ESV, consecrate, is the same as sanctify. In the Law of Moses, you would sanctify, or consecrate, a sacrifice offering to God. You would set aside a perfect animal as your offering to God. Jesus says, “For their sake, I sanctify Myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.” The reason the ESV uses the word consecrate is that Jesus is using the double meaning of the word. Jesus cannot be made more holy. He is already perfect. But He can be set apart as a consecrated sacrifice. We are sanctified, made holy and set apart for God in this world because Jesus offered Himself as a cleansing sacrifice. You cannot make yourself more holy by keeping God’s word perfectly. There is only one who has ever done that. But His death is a sacrifice to atone for your sins and shortcomings.

Our holiness comes from growing in union with Christ. As Jesus said, we are not of the world just as He is not of the world. Jesus kept the word of God entirely. Our union with Him enables us to do the same. The Father sent Jesus into the world to proclaim His word, so Jesus sends us to do the same.

Jesus sets us apart and sends us into the world. There are others who will believe in Jesus because of our word. Where is He sending you? If it seems a little scary to be sent by Jesus into the world with the word of God, remember He is praying for you that the Father will keep us from the evil one

John 17:15 (ESV)

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

Praying, “Hallowed Be Your Name”, is Living in Unity

The Father and the Son are clearly unified. They share authority and purpose, to give eternal life to believers in Jesus. They have shared glory from eternity past. They speak the same word of truth. They are one in power, protecting us from the evil one. They are united in holiness. They know each other completely.

Jesus prays in verse 11 that our sanctification in the world, being kept in the name of the Father, will result in our unity as well. It would make sense. If our new identity is in God the Father and in Jesus Christ, then we have been invited into the life of God. As Peter says it, we share the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The same kind of unity the Father and Son share is ours too. Jesus prays

John 17:11 (ESV)

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

He goes even further. In verse 22, He prays

John 17:22–23 (ESV)

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.

Perfectly one. What would that look like? The immediate context tells us that it would look like unity in the gospel. Are we united in the mission to tell the world of the love of the Father shown to us in Jesus Christ, His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and the hope we have in His soon return? Or as Jesus says it in verse 21

John 17:21 (ESV)

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.

Our unity does not come from agreeing on every point of doctrine or from our united philosophy of ministry and clever church programs. Our unity can’t be created in church conferences or even in Sunday morning meetings. Our unity comes from being in God. When we are all abiding in Christ, when we are losing our self focus and self absorption in a growing union with God, we will realize the unity we all have.

Unity is not something we create or accomplish. We can’t iron out all our differences. But I have been part of groups of Christians, and maybe you have too, in which everyone was abiding in Christ in their times of prayer, and letting the word of Christ dwell in them richly, and God was directing us according to His word as we were all hearing the same message. And we were hearing about the mission He had for us, to take the gospel to the lost world. That’s what the church can be. That’s what prayer can be. Because this is the nature of the God revealed to us in and through Jesus Christ. He is on mission, to make Himself known to the world. He wants everyone to know His love.

Jesus is still accomplishing that mission. Look at the close to His prayer.

John 17:26 (ESV)

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 is all about hallowing the name of God the Father. To do that, He provides eternal life to reveal the Everliving God. He also offered Himself on the cross as an offering for sin to sanctify us so that we would keep the word of God. And then He sends us out into the world with that word, with the gospel, bearing the name of God to those that do not yet know His love. Are we praying along with Jesus for these same outcomes? Are we united with Him in His desires, His purpose, His seeking for the glory of God to be seen in His body, the church?

John 17:22–23 (ESV)

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.