Jesus Prays For Himself

INTRODUCTION

Looking at John 17-20 through the next several weeks, through Easter Sunday.

3 weeks - Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17)

Good Friday - Jesus’ Arrest and Crucifixion (John 18-19)

Easter - Jesus’ Resurrection and Instruction (John 20)

John 13-16 have recorded the words of our Lord to His disciples the night of the Passover

Thursday night of Passion Week

The night before His crucifixion.

That night, He spent hours with His disciples.

First the Passover meal

Judas was dismissed

He instituted the Lord’s Supper at that point.

He continued to teach them.

They left the upper room and walked to the city of Jerusalem.

He continued His instruction to them

full of promises and pledges

full of warnings and threats.

He tells them:

He is leaving

He will die

He will rise

He will go back to the Father.

He is promising them everything they will ever need.

All the resources of heaven will be at their disposal through prayer.

He will send the Holy Spirit who will bring them the truth.

He promises them peace and love and joy and every virtue.

But as He stands on the brink of His own death, the disciples are afraid, worried, full of doubt and anxiety.

Can’t imagine a world without the Lord they have been with for three years.

The deeper they go into the night, the greater their fears become.

Now, chapter 17 is a prayer that Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of Himself, the Twelve, and the Church.

Read John 17

Today, we are going to focus on verses 1-5, which primarily focuses on Jesus’ Prayer For Himself.

Prays For The Mutual Work Of Glory

verse 1-2

The term “glory” or “glorify’ appears 8-times in the 26 verses.

Twice it is referring to the Father’s glory

Six times it is referring to the Son’s glory

Clearly, this is the main theme of the entire prayer.

The hour has come brings a change to a running theme through the ministry of Jesus.

John 2:4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

John 7:6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.”

John 7:8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.

John 7:30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

John 8:20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Jesus realized throughout His earthly ministry that He was here for a purpose, and that was His focus.

He did not deviate from His course. He knew what He was supposed to do, and He did it to completion.

John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Question: Do you know what your purpose is here on this earth?

You are not a cosmic accident that just happens to be here in the year 2024, some 13-14 billion years after nothing exploded into everything.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made by the hand of God for a purpose.

Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Ultimately, our purpose is to bring glory to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Jesus’ time had come to finally fulfill His purpose: to glorify the Father in death.

Read verse 1

Why did He have to die?

Because authority over all flesh had been given to Him (v. 2)

This authority that has been given to Jesus is authority for judgment!

John 5:27 And [the Father] has given [the Son] authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

Acts 17:31 because [God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Not only is He to judge the world, He is the one appointed to be its Savior.

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Read Isaiah 53:4-6

Through this process, there is glory being given by the Father to the Son...

Philippians 2:9–11 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And there is glory being given by the Son to the Father.

Prays For The Nature Of Eternal Life

verse 3

Through the sacrificial death of Jesus, eternal life can be realized by those whom the Father gave the Son.

Eternal life being knowing the Father and the Son

Matthew 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Eternal life is a personal relationship of intimacy which is continuous and dynamic.

It is not simply endless existence

Everyone will exist somewhere forever

But the question is, “In what condition or in what relationship will they spend eternity?”

D.A. Carson

Eternal life turns on nothing more and nothing less than knowledge of the true God. Eternal life is not so much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting One

To know God is to be transformed, and thus to be introduced to a life that could not otherwise be experienced.

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.

Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ entails fellowship, trust, personal relationship, faith.

Prays For His Return To Glory

verse 4-5

Jesus’ prayer for Himself was based on the completed work that the Father had given Him to do.

He was including the glory which would come through the cross, even though this had not yet happened.

This shows the intention of the Father to redeem the world from the very beginning

Acts 2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Revelation 13:8 and all who dwell on earth will worship [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Jesus desires the glory He had with the Father before the world was created.

Read John 1:1-5

CONCLUSION

The intent and purpose of the life of Jesus was to bring glory to the Father through His obedience.

His prayer, as we have seen so far, has been to that end.

His prayer serves, also, as a model for us because our purpose in life is to bring glory to the Father through our obedience

Jesus’ life and death is defined by obedience.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Lord help us to look beyond our circumstances to the greater purpose.

Hebrews 12:1–2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.