1. I PRAY FOR THEM.
John 17:1-11.
During His last pre-crucifixion discourse, Jesus left the upper room with His inner band of eleven disciples, continuing to talk along the way (John 14:31). Then He prayed a very public prayer on behalf of the Apostles, and of the whole Church. This has often been styled as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” - but this prayer is unique in that it was prayed on earth, before Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself, and therefore before He entered the inner sanctuary in heaven where He “ever intercedes on our behalf” (Hebrews 7:25).
The party were quite possibly outdoors when Jesus “lifted His eyes to heaven” (John 17:1). However, such gestures are equally valid wherever we are. It is important that when we pray we do so reverently, recognising the mighty pre-eminence of God.
Jesus addressed God as “Father” (John 17:1), and rightly so. In the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15) we may say “Our Father” in what we call the Lord’s Prayer, but supremely Jesus is THE Son, who was now going to “MY Father and your Father” (John 20:17). This is the same Son who shared in the glory of the Father before the worlds began (John 17:5).
The timing of the events of Christ’s Passion was in the hands of God. The enemy on more than one occasion sought to pre-empt things, but again and again we are told that Jesus’ “hour was not yet come” (John 7:30; John 8:20). Now, said Jesus, “the hour is come” (John 17:1).
Jesus’ view of what was about to happen enabled Him to see beyond His death, resurrection - and even the event of the ascension - to His glorification (John 17:1). The arraignment before the High Priest and the arraignment before Pilate were both in the future, as was His victorious cry of completion upon the Cross (John 19:30). Jesus had such a prophetic certainty about what was about to be fulfilled, that to His mind His earthly work was already finished (John 17:4).
Equally, Jesus was aware of the power invested in Him to bring “all flesh” (John 17:2) under the sound of the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-19), and to give eternal life to such as the Father gave Him (John 17:2). This is a great mystery, wrapped up as it is in what we call the doctrine of election (John 17:6; John 17:9-10). This teaching, incidentally, does not take away from the duty of the individual to respond to the Gospel (John 3:16).
Jesus imparts eternal life in order that His disciples might know the true and living God (John 17:3). This is only possible through “Jesus Christ” - the anointed Saviour - sent by God. It is accomplished through the manifestation of the Father in the Son (John 17:6; John 14:9), the impartation of spiritual knowledge (John 17:7), and the receiving of Jesus’ words (John 17:8).
It is a great marvel that Jesus does not view us as we might view ourselves. It is Jesus’ decided opinion that the men whom He had often challenged with the very littleness of their faith “have kept thy word” (John 17:6), have “received” the words of God, and have “believed” (John 17:8). The Father in heaven also looks upon us not according to the failings of which we are all too aware, but in the light of our association with His Perfect Son.
Jesus’ first petition (John 17:1) had been that the Father would receive Him back into the glory from which He had condescended to come (Philippians 2:6). Now He prayed for His disciples: for the eleven first (John 17:9), but also for all who would follow them (John 17:20). Jesus did not pray for the state of the world, but (in the words of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer) for “the whole state of Christ’s Church.”
The grounds of Jesus’ prayer for the disciples are that they are God’s people, and that they have been entrusted to the Son by the Father. Those who belong to Jesus - and those alone - belong to God. It is truly wondrous that even our little faith and our faltering obedience glorify His name (John 17:10).
Again, Jesus speaks in the prophetic perfect, as if the things of which He spoke had already come to pass (John 17:11). To His mind it was as if He had already left the earth and returned to His Father, and He was aware of how vulnerable His disciples would feel without Him. Jesus had reassured the disciples that He would not leave them comfortless (John 14:18); now He prayed that the Father would keep them (John 17:11); and later He also promised His own continuing presence with us “to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
2. THEY ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD.
John 17:11-19.
In the second part of His prayer, our Lord addresses the “Holy Father” (John 17:11). This epithet is unique, but understandable. Jesus is about to pray for the disciples’ sanctification (John 17:17).
John 17:11. He prays that they will be “kept through the name” of God. Throughout the Old Testament, the LORD had introduced Himself through His various attributes, under various names. Now it is a new name, the name of Jesus, by which we may come into the presence and under the protection of the Father.
Jesus prays for the disciples because they are those whom the Father has given to Him. He prays that they may have the type of unity which reflects the oneness of the Godhead. This is a high standard which Church may aim at, provided it is understood that godly unity does not compromise the essential truths of the Christian faith.
John 17:12. During Jesus’ earthly ministry He had been keeping the disciples on behalf of His Father, like a shepherd guarding the sheep. Now He was about to be taken away from them. At this point in time none of them was lost except, He says, “the son of perdition.”
In the Greek language, the strong term “son of destruction” may refer either to the character or the destiny of Judas Iscariot. Jesus does not finally cast away any whom the Father has entrusted to Him (John 6:37), so either Judas was not a true disciple, or the reference is only to his death rather than his eternal destiny. The expression is a Hebraism, like King David’s use of the expression “son of death” which is translated as “worthy to die” (1 Samuel 26:16; 2 Samuel 12:5).
Jesus was fully aware that the defection of Judas Iscariot was in fulfilment of Scripture (Acts 1:16-20). Thus, the Old Testament is brought forward by the New as being fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Every detail of His ministry had been mapped out beforehand.
John 17:13. Speaking as if His death, resurrection and ascension were already in the past, Jesus was “now” coming to the Father. He left us His peace (John 14:27; John 16:33), and prayed that His joy might be fulfilled in His people. It is truly amazing that Jesus was thinking about His own joy at such a time, but as God He sees the end from the beginning (Hebrews 12:2-3).
John 17:14. In order that the disciples might be sanctified, Jesus gave them the Word. We cannot expect to be “kept” in our Christian faith if we neglect the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We may be hated for living by this standard, but it is inevitable that those who hate the Master will also hate His faithful servants (John 15:18-21).
John 17:15. Jesus emphasises that He wishes His disciples to be kept in the world, but protected from the evil of the world. Sometimes we might hope to be taken out of the world and away from its troubles. Such demands have been refused to saints more eminent than ourselves.
John 17:16. This world is not our home, even as it is not His home. We are just passing through. The world has such a hatred for God’s people, that Jesus repeats the last clause of John 17:14 in full in John 17:16.
John 17:17. Sanctification is a setting apart for a holy purpose. Jesus prayed for the setting-apart of the disciples through the effectual working of God’s Word, the word of truth, in their hearts. Sanctification is also a growth in holiness, so the disciples were to be the holy servants of the “Holy Father” (John 17:11).
John 17:18. The first Apostles, like Paul after them, were “separated unto the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). This separation was for mission. Again, Jesus saw His disciples in the prophetic perfect, as already sent into the world.
John 17:19. Jesus also, even as the prospect of the Cross grew ever nearer, set Himself apart as our priest and sacrifice. He prayed that the disciples through the truth might be separated to the service of the truth. And thus, He won us to Himself, and set us upon the path to holiness.
3. I PRAY ALSO FOR THOSE WHO WILL BELIEVE.
John 17:20-26.
In order that His disciples might be sanctified, Jesus gave them the Word (John 17:14). This Word was to be the means of bringing others to the faith (John 17:20). So, Jesus prayed for those who would hear the gospel from them - including their contemporaries, and those who inherit their legacy through the writings of the New Testament.
It is not inappropriate to pray for our children, and our grandchildren, and those who are bound with us in the covenant of God’s love. We may also pray for those that are afar off, remote from the Gospel because geography or circumstance (Acts 2:39). We may even pray for generations yet unborn.
Jesus prayed that the eleven Apostles would be “kept” in the type of unity which reflects the oneness of the Godhead (John 17:11). He prayed similarly for unity amongst those who would follow them (John 17:21). We cannot, however, expect to be “kept” in our Christian faith if we deny the truth of the Word of God; nor may we base our unity on anything that compromises its teaching.
Despite all appearances to the contrary, we need not doubt that this prayer has been answered. There is an organic unity between Christians, from every culture, denomination, and walk of life. This is reflected in the fellowship and hospitality which born-again believers find amongst those of the same faith wherever they may go in the world.
There is an evangelical unity which needs to be manifested in our lives “that the world may believe” (John 17:21). Ecclesiastical disharmony lends an excuse to those who choose to reject the gospel - and so does uniformity without love. We need to nurture our love, one for the other (John 13:34-35), to bear a credible testimony to those around us.
Jesus says that He has given us His glory (John 17:22). Is He speaking in the prophetic future, as He did earlier in this chapter (John 17:4; John 17:11; John 17:13)? Certainly, we find ourselves being changed “from glory into glory” by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection He spoke of sending them forth to preach the gospel, breathed upon them, and said “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:21-22). The present tense used there may be viewed prophetically, for He also said, “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The “Spirit of glory” (1 Peter 4:14) is the same Spirit who makes possible our endeavours to keep the unity in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).
There is a community of the Father and the Son within the Godhead (John 17:23): we are drawn by the Spirit into that Oneness. We have no relationship with the Father without the Son, because “there is no other name under heaven given among men by whom we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). As each is perfected in love, so our unity is there for all to see.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our peace, who has broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Ephesians 2:14): this was demonstrated in the reconciliatory act of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:23-29). There is but one shepherd and one flock (John 10:16). We are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28): He is our all, and in all (Colossians 3:11).
Brotherly love is not just something that is seen when we “share the peace” in liturgy and worship. Aaron was only anointed once; bur the oil of his anointing filled the whole environment with its pleasant aroma. The “oil” of our Holy Ghost anointing, like the heavy dew of the mountain, brings blessing and fruitfulness and abundant life (Psalm 133).
When Jesus prayed for Himself in Gethsemane, He prayed “Not my will but yours” (Luke 22:42) - but He is not afraid to express HIS will when praying for us (John 17:24). He sees Himself in glory - and us with Him - dwelling in the love which His Father had for Him before the foundation of the world. The Holy Spirit is given as the “pledge” of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14).
It is the tragedy of mankind that the world remains ignorant of the “righteous Father” (John 17:25). This echoes earlier chapters, where the Lord came to His own creation but was rejected (John 1:10-11), and men chose darkness rather than light (John 3:19). The only begotten Son has known the Father, and has revealed Him (John 1:18), and we know Him as the “sent one” of God (Hebrews 3:1).
Jesus declares - and goes on declaring - His Father’s name, displaying His attributes in His Own Person (John 17:26). Jesus prays that we might feel the love with which the Father has loved Him in His ongoing love towards us. He is “Christ in us, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
