The High Priestly Prayer

Introduction

My little boy is three years old. Which means he is now at the age that he picks up on adult conversations that mom and dad are having.

We have to be careful, because he cannot comprehend what we are saying to the fullest extent.

Today, we are let into a conversation that the Godhead has. This is a RARE picture.

We see the work of Jesus from His perspective, AND we see the perspective, possibly better than ever before, of the intentional love of the Father for us.

Explanation

Jesus prays for Himself.

Read John 17:1-5

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.

“The hour has come.”

Now, at multiple times in the book of John, Jesus tells his disciples and others “my time has not yet come.”

These are at key moments throughout the gospel that Jesus says, “My hour has not yet come.”

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

John 7-8 (3x) At the attempted arresting of him for his teaching “Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.”

Now, Jesus hour has come in John 14 and John 17. The hour had come that Jesus would be betrayed. That’s what Jesus tells his disciples in John 14, and its what happens immediately after Jesus prayer in John 18.

What does Jesus as the Father for Himself?

Glorify your son that the Son may glorify you.

“When Jesus asks to be glorified, it means his goodness must be seen and celebrated.” Matt Carter

How can Jesus be glorified if he is about to be betrayed, shamed, and killed?

I have glorified you on earth, so now, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

This answers the question I asked earlier: How can a shamed and killed Jesus be glorified? God will glorify Jesus in that his throne will be restored. His life, his authority, his dominion, and his power will become His again.

This despondency over his life and glory stems from what the Father purposed for Him to do. We see this in verses 3-4.

You have given me authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given me. Jesus is Eternal life only comes by knowing you through me.

Meditation #1: Jesus and the cross is ultimately about the glory of God. The highest and greatest good of your salvation is the glory of God.

Life makes more sense when it is about God.

Thank God that your life, including the aspects that relate to God, are not ultimately about you.

Meditation #2: Your life makes the most sense when you concern yourself with the glory of God above all else. You are meant to glorify God.

Nature Valley commercial: I never knew that feeling so small could also feel so right.

Where do we go on vacation. Places that we feel really small.

Jesus prays for His disciples.

John 17:6–19 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. 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. 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.

Jesus has manifested (to make clear to the eye or mind) God’s name to the people that God gave Him.

Isaiah 26:8 “8 In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.”

The great name of God is the highest good and ought be the complete desire of our souls.

Jesus says, “Father, I (1) gave them your words, (2) have prayed for them, (3) and know that you have given them to me.

Your salvation is extremely God-centric.

You are set apart and saved for God.

The salvation that you partook in and the life you life for the Kingdom has the ability to glorify God.

The disciples have responded to the Word, and they have obeyed it (except Judas).

Jesus prays concerning how God can keep them. He asks God to keep and protect them.

Jesus says this because He believes that God can do it.

He is asking God to do it for the disciples. Jesus is praying for us.

Meditation #3: God’s sovereignty should serve as an incentive to prayer, not a disincentive.

Meditation #4: Pray: God give me a deep desire and love for your glory. Help me treasure it and desire it above anything else.

Henry ducks

Jesus prays for us, or those who would be saved through the ministry of the apostles.

John 17:20–26 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. 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.”

The work of God continues through the disciples to us. Jesus gave the Word to the disciples who gave it to the early church and through tens of thousands of small and large acts of service, we are here today.

What does Jesus pray for us? He prays it, because He knows that God will give it. These are the rest of our meditations.

Meditation #5: We have the glory of Christ through union with Him.

Meditation #6: Christ wants US to see His glory which is the greatest gift that we have ever been given.

Meditation #7: Christ loves you dearly, and His life displays the love of the Father for you.

Invitation