John 17 Bible Study

Context

Jesus' prayer right before He was arrested.

This prayer tells us some of His wishes for us and how we can bring God glory.

Glorified

John 17:1–3 (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.

(That your Son may glorify You, For you granted Him authority)

Give reasons or grounds for our requests in prayer.

(that your son may glorify you.) His purpose is to glorify God The Father

How often do we seek our own glorification in our prayers without recognizing it?

The glorification is the cross

“To men the cross appeared an instrument of shame. To Christ it was the means of true glory.”

Brings The Father glory by showing His wise plan and great sacrifice

(verse 2) Jesus has won the battle against sin for us, so we can be delivered through Him

(verse 3) Jesus is telling us how to acquire eternal life

there are many things he says all of which are true but give us different incite into how we can be saved and how we can know if we're saved

there are 2 words for know in the greek "oida" and "ginosko" gee-no-sko

Oida is a very factually knowledge like 2+2=4

the word used here is ginosko - a knowledge that goes beyond understanding

this is a knowledge that takes time and is never complete

this kind of knowledge is relational to know a friend more than just facts

So this is where the cut off in genuine faith is, the relationship

Matthew 7:23 (ESV)

And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

the word "knew" here is ginosko which backs up what Jesus is saying here

This type of knowledge is used with love

it is used to describe sexual relations between husband and wife

So if we are to know God like this it means we love Him

John 14:15–24 (ESV)

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

our salvation is by faith not by works

but clearly if we have genuine faith we are obedient

John 12:23–24 (ESV)

And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 12:27 (ESV)

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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.

Jesus' purpose on earth was to glorify God, so is ours

We can glorify him by finishing the work that God gives us

which is being obedient to His commandments, including not indulging in sin and spreading the gospel

Disciples

John 17:6–10 (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. 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.

(verse 6) when Jesus says "name" here, he is speaking about god's character

just as when someone says the name "Aaron" you have a connotation to my name

Some translations say manifest which as a verb like it is used here means to display or show

so Jesus displayed god's character to His disciples

Paul says that we are living letters of Christ read by the world

2 Corinthians 3:2–3 (ESV)

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

This means that it is our job to display God's character to the world in our hearts and actions

2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)

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. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

contemplate- katoptrizomenoi- to reflect

John 17:11–12 (ESV)

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.

(verse 11b) we are kept in the character of God so that we can be one as the Son and Father are one

God keeps us in Him which will cause us as the body of Christ to be unified in nature as the nature of the Father and the Son are the same

John 17:13–16 (ESV)

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.

(verse 13) it is Jesus' wish for us that we are full of His joy

can only come from the Holy spirit

fruit of the spirit

allow the spirit to take over

(verse 14) when we take God's word and we accept it we will be hated this is because satan is the ruler of this world John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11

This is a good thing because

James 4:4 (ESV)

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The world in this case is anything contrary to the bible which verse 14 says we are not in

We must rid ourselves of the world

Colossians 3:5 (ESV)

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

If we truly accept God it means we reject the world in every aspect of our life

We don't listen to their music, we don't think their thoughts, we don't watch the things they watch

We're called to be different in every way from the world

Have you befriended the world's music

are the videos you watch from God or from the world, because I know tik tok is not a Holy place

(verse 15) we're not supposed to leave the world just be not of it

this means we can't isolate ourselves to just christians

we have to mingle with the world while remaining boldly of God

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.

(verse 17) sanctified in the greek means to separate from secular things and dedicate to God

Once again Jesus is telling us to reject the world and choose God

since Jesus asks the father to sanctify his disciples, our sanctification is not just up to us we can ask God for help

(verse 18) sanctification is not only in our personal beliefs but in our service and mission

If we were sent into the world as Jesus was then we do as He did

Jesus was sent like this: teaching, living among us, suffering for truth and righteousness, and rescuing people

This is our mission from God

Believers

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.

(verse 21) Jesus calls us (the body of Christ) to be one with Him not just each other

this means we don't compromise the truth to be unified

but we share the truth

(world may believe) Unity in the body of Christ will bring the world to belief

(verse 23) Unity comes from Jesus being within us

we cannot be unified in the same sense with someone who does not have Jesus

John 17:24–26 (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. 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.”

knowing the character of God allows His love to rest in us