Jesus' Prayer

Intro

John 17

Once upon a time, families would work together at a job to the point where the family was known for the job. A Blacksmith who had sons would often have those sons help out with the work and in the course of time would naturally apprentice under their father and become blacksmiths themselves. Perhaps without even thinking about it, we’ve kind of had this opinion of family businesses for a long time. How many of us think that Jesus was a carpenter before He started His public ministry? It’s kind of a logical conclusion to make based on scripture identifying Joseph as a carpenter, but is there anywhere in scripture that explicitly states that Jesus walked in the footsteps of Joseph? Surely He would have known how to swing a hammer and use many if not all of the tools of the trade, but that’s never been the focus of the scriptures that we have in our hands.

What we do have in our hands are the stories of Jesus carrying on His Heavenly Father’s work and wanting to make sure that there is a legacy that lasts within that ministry. What lengths did Jesus go through in order to ensure that ministry would carry on? Jesus took the time to gather people around Him who believed in His message, in His mission and in His Sonship. He walked with them, trained them, equipped them and sent them out into the world to continue the work of sharing the good news of the coming kingdom of God. But in His final moments before being separated from them, He took time to cover them in prayer.

In today’s look at John 17, we are invited to catch a glimpse of Jesus’ intimate relationbetween Himself and His Father and to learn of His origins and His future, His mission and its success, His concerns and His hopes. (Gary M. Burge, NIVAC: John, p. 461)

True Christian unity flows from deep connection with God through prayer and mutual love, empowering us to reflect God's glory in a divided world.

1. Glorifying God Together

John 17:1–5 NASB95

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

This is it. This is the time. Everything changes past this point. The focus of John’s gospel zeroes in on Jesus’ arrest, trail, execution, etc...

Here in the final moments before all of that, Jesus prays. And how does Jesus start His prayer? Glory! Jesus seeks after God’s glory! Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You! If we can learn anything about prayer from this prayer, start with glorifying God!

The focus of this first part of the prayer is on glorification, of both Father and Son. But there are elements of the salvation message embedded here too aren’t there? Verse 3 gives the readers a reminder that eternal life is caught up in knowing Jesus Christ, and through Christ, the one true God!

This part of Jesus’ prayer sets the stage for understanding what comes next, which has a great emphasis on the unity we ought to have with one another.

2. Guarded and Growing in Faith

John 17:6–19 NASB95

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus declares ownership over His disciples. I don’t want to dive too deeply into the idea of election here, which is a fancy way of saying God has predetermined who will be saved. However, particularly for this portion of the prayer, Jesus is giving thanks to the Father for the provision of those who are immediately following in His footsteps.

Jesus gives praise for those God has sent His way. He was given the opportunity to introduce them to His Father… to reveal or manifest the Father for them. Jesus gives praise that they followed God’s leading in their lives to follow after Him and they received Jesus’ instructions and they not only accepted the instructions, but also have come to understand that Jesus is sent from the Father.

Jesus then prays for His disciples explicitly. Notice that verse 9, Jesus straight out declares that He prays for them, not the world. Jesus declares that all He has is from the Father and that all He has is for the Father. And due to the context of what we are walking through, Jesus is declaring that the disciples belong to the Father too!

What comes next, from verse 11 forward is a touching reminder of the heart that Jesus has for His disciples. He is concerned for them. In His absence, He knows that they will have trouble, but Jesus prays His Father’s protection over them.

Think about that for a moment and ask yourselves if that is something you are praying over your loved ones. Pray for the Father’s protection over them! Protect them by the power of His name!

In His conversation via prayer to His Father, He declares how He has kept them all safe and that the only one that was lost was “the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” Clearly this is referring to Judas.

Jesus is coming to the Father soon and He wants His disciples to know joy fully while He is still with them. He prays for them because they are not of this world any more than Jesus Himself is. Because of His word, the world will hate them.

Notice what Jesus prays in verse 15. This is important. He prays that they would not be taken out of the world, but rather that they would be protected from the evil one. We could examine scripture to find plenty of references to the evil one and how he rules this world, but suffice it to say that the focus here is that they are to remain. They are to remain where the evil one holds sway and influence. They will be hated and persecuted because of Jesus. But Jesus does pray God’s protection over them from the evil one.

Jesus then prays for their sanctification. Sanctification is the action or process of making something or someone holy. Jesus prays to sanctify His disciples. Be made holy! And how are they to be made holy… sanctified? Verse 17 says by the truth, which is God’s Word! Jesus Himself sanctifies them… the Word of God (John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ) sanctifies the disciples.

3. Connecting in Christ’s Love

John 17:20–23 NASB95

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Here is where Jesus’ prayer gets exciting because He is now praying explicitly for us. Before He prayed for His immediate disciples, now He prays for those who believe because of their testimony!

And what does He pray for? Unity! What a concept. What’s one thing that Christians have had a hard time with ever since the church was established? Unity! Pray that we would be one as Jesus and the Father are one. Pray that we would be in Jesus, and Jesus in us, just as Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him.

Notice how Jesus circles back around to the theme of glory, which by way of reminder, is where He opened His prayer. Jesus gave His disciples glory, something that seems to be passed along from disipler to disciple for the express purpose of unity!

The world will know that we are sent by Jesus because of our unity, one iwth another.

How are we doing in this regard? Perhaps this is something we should bump up the priority list in our prayers.

4. United for Eternal Glory

John 17:24–26 NASB95

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

This final prayer for unity reminds us that Jesus’ desire is that we be united in Him. He desires that we will join Him some day in heaven. He desires that we see Him in His glory.

This final part of the prayer calls out to the Father on behalf of us who believe so that He (that is, the Father) will be known to us and that we would make Him known to those around us.

The final words of this prayer… the final words before Jesus’ arrest and betrayal in the next chapter is a declaration to the Father that the love of God would be in us and that Jesus Himself would be in us as well.

Conclusion

Jesus prays. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray. Jesus prays for His disciples. This prayer is a special glimpse into the prayer life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! What can we learn from this prayer? We could learn to pray like this, and that could be a good lesson for us. We could look at this prayer for hints regarding discipleship and how one generation ought to love and care for the next as they train them up to carry on the work that still needs to be done, and that could be a good lesson for us too. We could look at this prayer for encouragement because Jesus literally prays for you and me in scripture, and that could be a good lesson for us.

Ultimately, this prayer comes down to a few good points to ponder and many lessons that we could glean from these verses. Here are some things I would like for us to consider moving forward this week.

First of all, we need to consider the glory of God. When we glorify God through what we say and do, and in particular, when we pray, we are doing a good thing. we are ascribing to God His worthiness. And as we glorify God, others will see us, and it might give us opportunity to share the good news with them about Jesus… to share with them the good news of the God we are glorifying.

Secondly, I want us to consider unity. But consider unity on multiple levels. We should seek unity with God… through Jesus, through the Father, and through the Holy Spirit. We should also seek unity with one another… unity within the church. It’s all well and good that we are gathered here today in this place, unified in purpose. But we ought to seek unity within the greater body of believers all around the world. How can we be united with other churches, even other denominations? It’s a challenge to work with people that we don’t fully agree with, particularly on doctrinal points, but it should be something we strive to consider. There are some points of doctrine that really matter and we should treat heresy firmly. But on points where salvation is not an issue, how to interpret church leadership structures as an example, we should be able to get along with one another enough that we can worship God together.