Jesus' Requests for His Disciples

Introduction:

From Jesus’ prayer, we have been reminded of his relationship to the Father.

This prayer will now shift in focus to his disciples.

Jesus has prayed for himself.

Now he will pray for them.

What do we pray for when we pray?

How concerned with our spiritual lives are we in our prayers?

Do we primarily pray about our physical and material lives?

The Prelude

He establishes why he is making requests of the Father for them.

This may be for the benefit of their ears. A good reminder.

He distinguishes them from the world.

Jesus’ disciples constitute a people separate from “the world.”

The reasons run from John 17:9-11.

They are for you.

We share all things.

I have been glorified among them.

This must refer to their knowledge, beliefs, and practices.

It must also refer, like Jesus with the Father, to their obedience, thus far, to his teaching.

They will remain in the world while Jesus will not.

He is going to the Father.

His departure from them is such a certainty that it can now be spoken of as though it had already happened.

This departure, however, is the triggering event of their need.

It is, then, the reason for his request.

The Request

John methodically records what Jesus requested.

It is orderly and well-considered.

He prays for the following: (unity, protection, and joy).

That they might be one just as we are.

Here, Jesus must have unity in mind.

He may also have the kind of love that existed between him and the Father.

That the Father would keep them in his name.

Jesus has revealed the name of God to them (John 17:6).

This must refer to unity around the person of God.

Jesus does not envision a Christianity enriched by diversity of views.

Unity is a distinguishing trait among true believers.

It may also refer to security of the believer.

It is also the role of God’s Holy Spirit, the ultimate producer of the Scriptures, who provides the guiding light of truth in the absence of the personal teaching of Jesus.

That through remaining in the truth they might have Jesus’ joy fulfilled among themselves.

Godly joy is not an temporary emotion.

It is the permanent state of gladness produced by knowledge of the truth and allegiance, via obedience, to the truth.

John 15:9-17