John 17

John 17:1

W. Jesus Prays for His Ministry (17:1-5) We now come to what is known as the High-Priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus. In this prayer, He made intercession for His own. It is a picture of His present ministry in heaven where He prays for His people. Marcus Rainsford puts it well: The whole prayer is a beautiful illustration of our blessed Lord’s intercession at the right hand of God. Not a word against His people; no reference to their failings, or their shortcomings. … No. He speaks of them only as they were in the Father’s purpose, as in association with Himself, and as the recipients of the fulness He came down from heaven to bestow upon them. … All the Lord’s particular petitions for His people relate to spiritual things; all have reference to heavenly blessings. The Lord does not ask riches for them, or honours, or worldly influence, or great preferments, but He does most earnestly pray that they may be kept from evil, separated from the world, qualified for duty, and brought home safely to heaven. Soul prosperity is the best prosperity; it is the index of true prosperity. 17:1 The hour had come. Many times His enemies had been unable to take Him because His hour had not come. But now the time had arrived for the Lord to be put to death. Glorify Your Son, the Savior prayed. He was looking ahead to His death on the cross. If He were to remain in the grave, the world would know that He was just another man. But if God glorified Him by raising Him from the dead, that would be proof He was God’s Son and the world’s Savior. God answered this request by raising the Lord Jesus on the third day and then later by taking Him back to heaven and crowning Him with glory and honor. That Your Son also may glorify You, the Lord continued. The meaning of this is explained in the next two verses. Jesus glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to those who believe on Him. It brings great glory to God when ungodly men and women are converted and manifest the life of the Lord Jesus on this earth. 17:2 As a result of His work of redemption at the cross, God has given His Son authority over all mankind. This authority entitled Him to give eternal life to those whom the Father had given Him. Here again we are reminded that before the foundation of the world, God marked out certain ones as belonging to Christ. Remember, though, that God offers salvation to anyone who will receive Jesus Christ. There is no one who cannot be saved by trusting the Savior. 17:3 Here is a simple explanation of how eternal life is obtained. It is by knowing God and Jesus Christ. The only true God is in contrast to idols, which are not genuine gods at all. This verse does not mean that Jesus Christ is not the true God. The fact that His Name is mentioned together with God the Father’s as being the joint source of eternal life means that They are equal. Here the Lord called Himself Jesus Christ. Christ was the same as Messiah. This verse disproves the charge that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. 17:4 As the Lord uttered these words, He was speaking as if He had already died, been buried, and risen again. He had glorified the Father by His sinless life, by His miracles, by His suffering and death, and by His resurrection. He had finished the work of salvation the Father had given Him to do. As Ryle puts it: The crucifixion brought glory to the Father. It glorified His wisdom, faithfulness, holiness, and love. It showed Him wise, in providing a plan whereby He could be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly.It showed Him faithful in keeping His promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.It showed Him holy, in requiring His law’s demands to be satisfied by our great Substitute.It showed Him loving, in providing such a Mediator, such a Redeemer, and such a Friend for sinful man as His co-eternal Son. The crucifixion brought glory to the Son. It glorified His compassion, His patience, and His power. It showed Him most compassionate, in dying for us, suffering in our stead, allowing Himself to be counted sin and a curse for us, and buying our redemption with the price of His own blood.It showed Him most patient, in not dying the common death of most men, but in willingly submitting to such pains and unknown agonies as no mind can conceive, when with a word He could have summoned His Father’s angels, and been set free.It showed Him most powerful, in bearing the weight of all transgressions of the world, and vanquishing Satan, and despoiling him of his prey. 17:5 Before Christ came into the world, He dwelt in heaven with the Father. When the angels looked upon the Lord, they saw all the glory of Deity. To every eye, He was obviously God. But when He came among men, the glory of Deity was veiled. Though He was still God, it was not apparent to most onlookers. They saw Him merely as the carpenter’s Son. Here, the Savior is praying that the visible manifestation of His glory in heaven might be restored. The words glorify Me together with Yourself mean glorify Me in Your presence in heaven. Let the original glory which I shared with You before My Incarnation be resumed. This clearly teaches the pre-existence of Christ.

John 17:6

X. Jesus Prays for His Disciples (17:6-19) 17:6 Jesus had manifested the Father’s name to the disciples. The name in Scripture means the Person, His attributes, and character. Christ had fully declared the Father’s true nature. The disciples had been given to the Son out of the world. They were separated from the unbelieving mass of mankind and set apart to belong to Christ. They were the Father’s by election before the world was, and became Christ’s by the gift of the Father, and by purchase of blood, wrote J. G. Bellett. They have kept Your word, said the Lord. In spite of all their failures and shortcomings, He credits them with having believed and obeyed His teaching. Not a word against His people, Rainsford writes, no allusion to what they had done or were about to doforsake Him.17:7, 8 The Savior had perfectly represented His Father. He explained to the disciples that He did not speak or act by His own authority, but only as the Father instructed Him. So they believed that the Father had sent the Son. Moreover, Christ did not originate His own mission. He came in obedience to the Father’s will. He was the perfect Servant of Jehovah. 17:9 As High Priest, He prayed for the disciples; He did not pray for the world. This should not be taken to mean that Christ never prayed for the world. On the cross, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do.But here He was praying as the One who represented believers before the throne of God. There His prayer can only be for His own. 17:10 The perfect union between the Father and the Son is shown here. No mere man could truthfully say these words. We might be able to say to God, All Mine are Yours, but we could not say, All Yours are Mine. It is because the Son is equal with the Father that He could say it. In these verses (6-19), Jesus presents His poor and backward flock, and, robing each lamb in a coat of many colors, declares, I am glorified in them.17:11 Again the Lord Jesus anticipated His return to heaven. He prayed as if He had already gone. Notice the title Holy Father. Holy speaks of One who is infinitely high. Father speaks of One who is intimately nigh. Jesus’ prayer that they all may be one refers to unity of Christian character. As the Father and Son are One in moral likeness, so believers should be united in this respectthat they are like the Lord Jesus. 17:12 While He was with the disciples, the Savior kept them in the Father’s name, that is, by His power and authority, and true to Him. None of them is lost, said Jesus, except the son of perdition, that is, Judas. But this did not mean that Judas was one of those given to the Son by the Father or that he was ever a genuine believer. The sentence means this: Those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition is lost, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The title the son of perdition means Judas was consigned to eternal ruin or damnation. Judas was not compelled to betray Christ in order to fulfill prophecy, but he chose to betray the Savior and in so doing the Scripture was fulfilled. 17:13 The Lord explained why He was praying in the presence of His disciples. It was as if He said to them: These are intercessions which I shall never cease to make in heaven before God. But now I make them in the world, in your hearing, so you may more distinctly understand how I am there to be employed in promoting your welfare, so that you may be made in large measure partakers of My joy.17:14 The Lord gave God’s word to the disciples, and they received it. As a result, the world turned on them and hated them. They had the characteristics of the Lord Jesus, and so the world despised them. They did not fit in with the world’s scheme of things. 17:15 The Lord did not pray that the Father should take believers home to heaven immediately. They must be left here to grow in grace and to witness for Christ. But Christ’s prayer was that they might be kept from the evil one. Not escape, but preservation. 17:16 Christians are not of the world, just as Christ was not of the world. We should remember this when tempted to engage in some worldly pastime or enter into worldly associations where the name of Jesus is unwelcome. 17:17 To sanctify means to set apart. The Word of God has a sanctifying effect on believers. As they read it and obey it, they are set apart as vessels suitable for the Master’s use. That is exactly what the Lord Jesus was praying for here. He wanted a people who were set apart to God from the world, and usable by God. Your word is truth, Jesus said.

He did not say, as so many do today, Your word contains truth, but Your word IS truth.17:18 The Father sent the Lord Jesus into the world to reveal the character of God to men. As the Lord prayed, He realized that He would soon be going back to heaven. But future generations would still need some witness concerning God. This work must be done by believers, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, Christians can never represent God as perfectly as Christ did because they can never be equal with God. But believers are here just the same to represent God to the world.

It is for this reason Jesus sent them into the world. 17:19 To sanctify does not necessarily mean to make holy. He is holy as to His personal character. The thought is that the Lord set Himself apart for the work His Father sent Him to dothat is, His sacrificial death. It may also mean that He set Himself apart by taking His place outside the world and entering into the glory. His sanctification is the pattern of, and the power for, ours, says Vine. We should be set apart from the world and find our portion with Him.

John 17:20

Y. Jesus Prays for All Believers (17:20-26) 17:20 Now the High Priest extended His prayer beyond the disciples. He prayed for generations yet unborn. In fact, every believer reading this verse can say, Jesus prayed for me over 1900 years ago.17:21 The prayer was for unity among believers, but this time it was with the salvation of sinners in view. The unity for which Christ prayed was not a matter of external church union. Rather it was a unity based on common moral likeness. He was praying that believers might be one in exhibiting the character of God and of Christ.

This is what would cause the world to believe that God had sent Him. This is the unity which makes the world say, I see Christ in those Christians as the Father was seen in Christ.17:22 In verse 11, the Lord prayed for unity in fellowship. In verse 21, it was unity in witness-bearing. Now it is unity in glory. This looks forward to the time when saints will receive their glorified bodies. The glory which You gave Me is the glory of resurrection and ascension. We do not have this glory yet. It has been given to us as far as the purposes of God are concerned, but we will not receive it until the Savior returns to take us to heaven. It will be manifested to the world when Christ returns to set up His kingdom on earth. At that time, the world will realize the vital unity between the Father and the Son, and the Son and His people, and will believe (too late) that Jesus was the Sent One from God. 17:23 The world will not only realize that Jesus was God the Son, but it will also know that believers were loved by God just as Christ was loved by God. That we should be so loved seems almost incredible, but there it is! 17:24 The Son desires to have His people with Himself in glory. Every time a believer dies, it is, in a sense, an answer to this prayer. If we realized this, it would be a comfort to us in our sorrow. To die is to go to be with Christ and to behold His glory. This glory is not only the glory of deity which He had with God before the world began. It is also the glory He acquired as Savior and Redeemer. This glory is a proof that God loved Christ before the foundation of the world. 17:25 The world failed to see God revealed in Jesus. But a few disciples did, and they believed that God had sent Jesus. On the eve of His crucifixion, there were only a few faithful hearts in the whole of mankindand even those were about to forsake Him! 17:26 The Lord Jesus had declared the Father’s name to His disciples when He was with them. This meant that He revealed the Father to them. His words and works were the words and works of the Father. They saw in Christ a perfect expression of the Father. Jesus has continued to declare the Father’s Name through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Ever since the day of Pentecost, the Spirit has been teaching believers about God the Father. Especially through the Word of God, we can know what God is like. When men accept the Father as He is revealed by the Lord Jesus, they become special objects of the Father’s love. Since the Lord Jesus indwells all believers, the Father can look upon them and treat them as He does His only Son. Reuss remarks: The love of God which, before the creation of the physical world, had its adequate object in the person of the Son (v. 24), finds it, since the creation of the new spiritual world, in all those who are united with the Son. here on earth was precisely that He might form for Himself in the midst of humanity a family of children like Him. It is because the Lord Jesus is in the believer that God can love him as He loves Christ. So dear, so very dear to God, I cannot dearer be; The love wherewith He loves the Son, Such is His love for me! Catesby Paget The petitions made by Christ for His people, as Rainsford notes, … refer to spiritual things, to heavenly blessings. Not for riches, or honor, or worldly influence, but deliverance from evil, separation from the world, qualification for duty, and a safe arrival in heaven.