John 17:1-12: “Jesus’ High
Priestly Prayer: Part #1”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 16-33 of chapter 16.
1.1.1.
It was perhaps as little as two hours before Jesus was
arrested and tried and sent to crucifixion.
Jesus was with His disciples there in the upper room giving His final
discourse to them comforting them.
1.1.2.
Jesus sought to explain to His disciples the fact that
the Father Himself loves them and that they are the objects of His care and
devotion because they have believed in Jesus.
1.1.3.
Jesus instructed His disciples that they can now go
directly to the Father in their praying and that the Father will answer them as
they are coming to Him in the Name of Jesus.
1.1.4.
Jesus told His disciples that in this world they will
have tribulation but to be of good cheer for He has overcome the world. We discussed what Jesus was referring to when
He spoke of “the world” and His overcoming the world, as well as how
that as disciples each of us has been called to overcome the world through our
faith in Jesus Christ.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
1-12 of chapter 17.
1.2.1.
It has been said that there are 650 prayers that are
recorded in the Bible, however it has always been maintained that Jesus’ High
Priestly Prayer is the greatest prayer that has ever been recorded.
1.2.2.
This prayer was prayed at the conclusion of Jesus’
teaching His disciples on that last evening before His crucifixion, at the end
of Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse which takes up John chapter 13 to 16.
1.2.3.
We often speak of “The Lord’s Prayer” in which
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, however that prayer really should be
called, “The Disciple’s Prayer,” and this prayer should be called “The
Lord’s prayer.” The combination of
both prayers teach us much about prayer.
In this prayer, Jesus did not start off saying, “Our Father,” but
rather, “Father.”
1.2.4.
It has always been a question that people have
considered as to why would God pray.
However, we read in the gospels that Jesus is seen to be praying at
least nineteen times. He prayed before
the big decisions He made, such as the choosing of the twelve, but He also
prayed about the small things in life such as whenever He broke bread. Truly, His prayer life was the result of the
constant and intimate fellowship with the Father that He knew and maintained
throughout His life and in all that He did.
1.2.5.
Matthew
Henry wrote about this prayer saying, “The most remarkable prayer followed
the most full and consoling discourse ever uttered on earth.”
1.2.6.
Melanchthon,
one of the Reformers, once said, “There is no voice which has ever been
heard, either in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful,
more sublime, than the prayer offer up by the Son to God Himself.”
1.2.7.
Theologian
John Brown has written, “The seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, is,
without doubt, the most remarkable portion of the most remarkable book in the
world…It is the utterance of the mind and heart of the Godman, in the very
crisis of His great undertaking, in the immediate prospect of completing, by
the sacrifice of Himself, the work which had been given Him to do, and for the
accomplishment of which He had become incarnate…How ‘full of grace,’ how ‘full
of truth.’ How condensed, and yet how
clear the thoughts, -- how deep, yet how calm, the feelings which are here, so
far as the capabilities of human language permit, worthily expressed! All is natural and simple in thought and
expression—nothing intricate or elaborate, but there is a width in the
conceptions which the human understanding cannot measure—a depth which it
cannot fathom.”
1.2.8.
Warren Wiersbe has written in “Prayer: Basic Training,” which is a book on prayer
based upon Jesus’ prayer in John 17, that this prayer of Jesus is remarkable
for four reasons :
1.2.8.1.Because of the Person who prayed the prayer.
1.2.8.1.1.This was the first person of
the Trinity, the eternal Son of God who had taken on human flesh, praying to
the first person of the Trinity, God the Father.
1.2.8.1.2.The incredible reality of who Jesus is in His deity is
no where clearer that in this prayer in which in verse 18 He prays, “…for
Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.”
1.2.8.2.Because of the occasion that demanded the
prayer.
1.2.8.2.1.This was Jesus at the end of His ministry and His
life just as He is going to the cross in completion of the very mission for
which He came to the earth to accomplish, the redemption of mankind through the
paying of the debt of their sins.
1.2.8.2.2.Everything was in the balance for the Son of
God. He must accomplish mankind’s
redemption and He must make sure that His disciples are kept in the faith and
are faithful to undertake and prosecute the Great Commission He has given to
them to do.
1.2.8.3.Because of the petitions in the prayer.
1.2.8.3.1.Jesus prays for Himself, He prays for His disciples,
and He prays for all of His disciples who shall believe upon Him in all future
generations.
1.2.8.4.Because of the victory it can give us today.
1.2.8.4.1.This prayer is still being answered in the lives of
God’s people to this day, it is an example of Jesus continually prays now as
the intercessor for His people in heaven, and the prayer is an example prayer
for Jesus’ disciples to learn from and follow.
1.2.9.
The key word in the
prayer is “glory,” which is mentioned five times.
1.2.10.Jesus prays
for:
1.2.10.1.Himself:
1.2.10.1.1.A request to the Father to now be glorified since His
hour has now come.
1.2.10.1.2.He is primarily concerned that the Father be
glorified.
1.2.10.2.The disciples:
1.2.10.2.1.Protect and keep them from the Evil One--vs 15.
1.2.10.2.2.Sanctify or keep them in the truth of God’s word--vs
17.
1.2.10.2.3.Holiness, or sanctification--vs 15,17.
1.2.10.2.4.For their mission--vs 18.
1.2.10.3.All disciples present, past, and future:
1.2.10.3.1.For their unity--vs 22-23.
1.2.10.3.2.That they might be with Him--vs 24.
1.2.11.It is much harder to get people to come
to a prayer meeting than it is to a Bible study, yet prayer is such a key to a
Christian’s life as well as the life of the church, as seen by these verses,
one from an Old Testament prophet and one from an apostle of the New
Testament:
1.2.11.1.1 Samuel
12:23, “23 “Moreover, as for me,
far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord
by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.”
1.2.11.2.Acts 6:4, “4
“But we will devote ourselves
to prayer and to the ministry of the word.””
1.2.12.Phillips Brooks once said, "Do
not pray for easy lives. Pray to be
stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal
to your tasks."
2.
VS 17:1-2 - “These
things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His
eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify
Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou
has given Him, He may give eternal life’.” -
Jesus now lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed to the Father telling
Him that the time was now come and for the Father to glorify Him that He might
glorify the Father and have authority over all mankind
2.1.
Since chapter 13, Jesus has been teaching His
disciples many important things they will need to know after He leaves the
earth, and now He begins to pray for them.
2.2.
Jesus prays first concerning Himself as the Son of
God, and then for His disciples and all those who will become future disciples of
His.
2.3.
By far, Jesus prays the shortest amount in His prayer
for Himself.
2.4.
John records that Jesus looked upwards to heaven as He
began His praying. This is a very
unusual posture for prayer and is due to the fact that Jesus now knew that He
was entering into that climactic juncture of His entire mission upon earth, the
procuring of the redemption of mankind.
2.5.
The first thing that Jesus says in prayer is that ‘the
hour’ has finally come. This is ‘the
hour’ to which He has often made mention, first mentioned it to His mother
at the wedding in
2.6.
This hour is the hour in which Jesus is to pay the
price for the redemption of the sins of the whole world. As Jesus began to foretell His immanent death
on the cross in John 12:27, He said, “Now my soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, “Father, save Me from
this hour”? But for this purpose I came
to this hour. Father glorify Thy Name.”
2.7.
Jesus would soon in the
2.8.
Jesus prays aloud for the sake of His disciples so
that they will be instructed later as they remember the things that He prayed
for them. Likewise, 2000 years later we
can read this story and see the heart of Jesus and almost hear the words coming
from His mouth as He prays to the Father just before His death. This was a parting prayer by Jesus primarily
for His disciples to hear.
2.9.
In His praying for Himself, Jesus does not pray with Himself centrally in
mind. In fact, He prays as though He
were a third person in this incident, thus He says, “Glorify Thy Son,”
and , “That the Son may glorify Thee.” Jesus will be glorified by His
being raised from the dead and being given the name that is above every name,
and His blood being accepted as the full payment for all time for sin. The Father will also be glorified when Jesus
does this work for He has brought it all about by the sacrificial giving of His
only begotten Son.
2.10.
Paul wrote in Phil. chapter 2 that it was because of
Jesus’ obedience to the point of death on a cross that He was highly exalted by
the Father. Likewise, Jesus will glorify
the Father by making available the means of grace by which a man or a woman may
come to God. We know that this is true
because verse 2 speaks of the ‘authority over all mankind’ which was
given to Jesus to give eternal life to the ones whom the Father had given to
Him, and to have dominion over all flesh.
2.11.
So, Jesus prays for Himself as the Son, asking to be
glorified by completing His work upon the cross so He can be exalted to His
proper place as Lord over all, and the gospel can then preached to all men.
2.12.
Since we Christians have been bought with such an
incredibly valuable and precious gift, the death of God’s only Son, can we not
live this life and fulfill the calling God has placed upon our lives?
3.
VS
17:3 - “‘And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent’.” - Jesus in prayer declares that eternal life is
knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent
3.1.
In this verse, Jesus makes a proclamation for the sake
of His disciples as He is praying. He
says that eternal life is to ‘know’ the Father and Jesus Christ. This “knowing” of which Paul speaks is
translated from the Greek word “Gnosko” which means to know experimentally or
in actuality. The person who comes to
have a real spiritual relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ is
the one who will inherit eternal life.
There is no eternal life apart from relationship and fellowship with
God. Do you truly ‘know’ the
Lord?
3.2.
This verse is where the name ‘Jesus Christ’
originated, which is used so much by the apostles in their New Testament
writings. Only in this place does Jesus call
Himself by the title, ‘Jesus Christ.’
This title infuses into Jesus’ Name the fact of His being the
Messiah.
3.3.
The name ‘Jesus’ means Jehovah Savior, and ‘Christ’
(or ‘Messiah’) means ‘Anointed One.’ In this title for Himself, it is also
inferred that Jesus must indeed be deity.
No man would ever have such a title, nor could ‘knowing’ any mere
man be placed on the same level as ‘knowing the Father,’ and, nor could
knowing any mere man cause one to be able to possess ‘eternal life.’
3.4.
We Christians ought to be like the apostle Paul who
had as his one great passion to spend His entire life getting ‘to know’
Jesus Christ, because after all ‘knowing Him’ is to know ‘eternal
life’ in the present and future. Is
it your passion to always be getting to know the Lord better?
4.
VS 17:4 - “‘I
glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given
Me to do.” - Jesus states
here in prayer to the Father that He has glorified the Father and accomplished
the work that the Father has given Him to do
4.1.
Jesus was truly the ‘good and faithful servant’
to the Father which He encouraged all of His disciples to be. Jesus speaks in this chapter of all of His
work upon earth as already having been ‘accomplished.’ In John 4:34 Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me
and to accomplish His work,” and now He has been found to be faithful for He has
completed that work that the Father gave Him to do.
4.2.
Jesus states in this verse that He glorified the Father
by simply accomplishing the work which the Father had given Him to do.
4.3.
We Christians ought to have as our goals the two
things which this verse shows were goals which Jesus made and kept until the
end:
4.3.1.
As Jesus’ goal was to glorify the Father on earth, we
ought to be sure that in all we do our lives bring glory to God.
4.3.2.
We ought to set it as our goal as Jesus did to
accomplish all that the Father has given to Him to do.
4.4.
Seeing the obedience of Christ ought to be the
Christian’s encouragement to follow Christ’s example and be obedient to all God
asks of us!
5.
VS 17:5 - “‘And
now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was’.” - Jesus asks
the Father to glorify Him with the Father with the glory which He had with the
Father before the world existed
5.1.
Jesus asks the Father in this verse to ‘glorify’
Himself with the Father, with the glory which He had from all eternity as the
eternal Son of God. Jesus will receive this
glory after His ascension up to heaven 40 days after His resurrection.
5.2.
Jesus must be God the Son, as He here declares the
glory that He had with the Father before anything was created. Only God was around before the world was...
5.3.
Jesus does not ask to be glorified alone but rather to
be glorified ‘together’ with God the Father. There is no competition among the members of
the godhead.
6.
VS 17:6 - “‘I
manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me,
and they have kept Thy word’.” - Jesus tells
the Father that He has manifested the Father’s Name to the men whom the Father
had given Him out of the world, and that these men have kept the Father’s word
6.1.
As Jesus continues to ask to be glorified through His
cross and resurrection, in justification of Himself He brings up the fact that
He has faithfully manifested the Father’s name to His disciples, the men whom
the Father had given to Him.
6.2.
Jesus commends His disciples to the Father as He states
that they have kept the Father’s word.
His disciples have continued in their faith believing in Christ’s word
and the revealed scriptures.
6.3.
Jesus manifested the Father’s Name to His disciples
and the people of this world, are you manifesting Christ’s name to the lost
souls of this world that God has brought into your life?
7.
VS 17:7-8 - “‘Now
they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee; for the words which Thou gavest Me I have
given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came
forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me’.” - Jesus tells the Father that His disciples
have come to know everything that the Father has given Him is from the Father,
including the words He has spoken which Jesus has given to them
7.1.
Jesus’ entire mission on earth was dependent upon His
disciples believing His word and realizing that He is the fulfillment of what
the Old Testament scriptures foretold of the Messiah. It was critical that at this juncture that they
believe in Him and His word.
7.2.
Jesus says that His disciples have come ‘to know’
(“Gnosko” in the Greek again) with experiential knowledge that the Father has
given all things unto Jesus, and that Jesus came forth from the Father. They ‘knew’ that the words the Father
gave to Jesus have been given to them.
8.
VS 17:9-10 - “‘I
ask on their behalf; I do not ask on
behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou has given Me; for they are Thine; and all things that are Mine are Thine, and
Thine are Mine; and I have been
glorified in them’.” - Jesus tells
the Father that He is now praying not for the world in general but for those
whom the Father had given to Him
8.1.
According to Exodus 28,
when the priest enters the holy place he bears the names of the twelve tribes
of Israel upon his shoulders and thus upon his heart, to bring them to
continual remembrance before the LORD:
(Exodus 28:12, 29, “12 “You shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces
of the ephod, as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron
shall bear their names before the Lord
on his two shoulders for a memorial”…29 “Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in
the breastpiece of judgment over his heart when he enters the holy place, for a
memorial before the Lord continually.”) In Jesus’ high
priestly prayer recorded here in John 17, Jesus bears upon his shoulders and
upon his heart not only present disciples but also all who would come to
believe in Him throughout the church age.
8.2.
Jesus prayer was not for the unbelievers of ‘the
world’ at large (refuting the doctrine of Universalism), but strictly for
the ones whom the Father had given to Jesus to follow Him and inherit eternal
life. A little later in His prayer Jesus
also prays for all of us who shall later come to believe in Him.
8.3.
Jesus again repeats what He had said earlier that all
things that the Father has are His, but here He also says that all things that
He has are the Father’s things also.
Again, in the godhead of the Trinity there is no competition, but rather
they all act and react as one and glorify each other mutually.
8.4.
It is one thing to pray,
"All things that are mine are thine," yet only the eternal Son
of God the second person of the Trinity could pray, "All things that
are Thine are Mine."
8.5.
Jesus states here that He
has been glorified ‘in them’ (the disciples), and part of God’s
glorifying His Son involves giving Him a people that are conformed to Christ’s
image and serve and worship Him. Arthur
Pink has written the following about this, “In John 3:16 we learn of the
Father’s love to us; here in John 17 we
behold the Father’s love to Christ. God
so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son; and He so loved His Son as to give Him a
people who, conformed to His image, shall through all eternity, show forth His
praises. Marvellous fact! We are the Father’s love gift to His Son.”
9.
VS 17:11 - “‘And
I am no more in the world; and yet they
themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name
which Thou has given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one’.” - Jesus tells the Father that He is no longer
in the world but that His disciples remain in the world, and then He asks that
the Father keep the disciples in His Name, the Name that the Father had given
Him, that they all may be ‘one’ even as He and the Father are ‘one’
9.1.
Knowing that He was shortly going via the cross to be
with the Father, Jesus is praying for His disciples who will have to stay here
in this world so that they can proclaim to the lost world the glories of His
salvation.
9.2.
Jesus could easily have prayed that His followers be
taken out of the world so that they would not have to suffer, etc., however His
message of salvation must be proclaimed all through the world that whomsoever
believes in Him may be saved.
9.3.
Jesus prays that the Father will keep His disciples in
His Name and that will involve keeping them in the faith and from falling away
to perdition.
9.4.
Finally, in this verse Jesus prays for unity amongst
His disciples. He prays that they may be
‘one’ as He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are ‘one’ in unity
of purpose and mind.
9.5.
In spite of Jesus’ prayer for His disciples, it is a
sad thing that there has been so little of unity of mind and purpose amongst
Christ’s followers down through the ages.
We need to strive as much as we may be able to maintain unity of purpose
and mind in our churches and between our churches, as we all serve the same
Lord who is head over the body.
9.6.
Since such a glorious salvation has been procured by
Christ, His church must stay here to preach that glorious gospel to this lost
world. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:12, that
the angels are curious, perhaps even jealous, of those who are preaching the
glorious message of the gospel. If
creatures as magnificent as angels would desire to preach the gospel, should we
shrink back from declaring how glorious a salvation we have received.
10.
VS 17:12 - “‘While
I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast give Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them
perished but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled’.” - Jesus tells the Father that while He was on
the earth that He was keeping the disciples in the Father’s Name and guarded
them, and none of them had perished but the ‘son of perdition’ that the
scripture might be fulfilled
10.1.
Jesus states in prayer to the Father that while He was
with His disciples He was protecting them from the evil one and from going
astray, however now He prays that the Father would keep them in His Name.
10.2.
Jesus had kept every one who was given Him, however
Judas, who is called the son of perdition (a name also given in scripture to
the antichrist), was not of the same type given to Him, so him He did not keep.
10.3.
In other places in the New Testament it is stated the
following about Judas which indicates that he had not lost his salvation but
never had it in the first place:
10.3.1.He did not believe (John 6:64).
10.3.2.He was a demon (John 6:70).
10.3.3.He was not clean (John 13:11).
10.3.4.He was not chosen (John 13:18).
10.3.5.He was not one of the ones given to
Jesus by the Father for of those Jesus had never lost one (John 18:8-9).
10.3.6.He is called the son of perdition (John
17:12).
10.3.7.He went to eternal damnation (Acts
1:25).
10.4.
The scriptures that were fulfilled with Judas’
betrayal of Jesus are the following:
10.4.1.Psalm 41:9, “9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me.”
10.4.2.Psalm 109:1-18, “1 O God of my praise, Do not be silent! 2 For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth
against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And
fought against me without cause. 4 In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am in
prayer. 5 Thus
they have repaid me evil for good And hatred for my love. 6 Appoint a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand
at his right hand. 7 When he
is judged, let him come forth guilty, And let his prayer become sin. 8 Let his days be
few; Let another take his office. 9 Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow. 10 Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance
far from their ruined homes. 11 Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers
plunder the product of his labor. 12 Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, Nor
any to be gracious to his fatherless children. 13 Let his posterity be cut off; In a following generation
let their name be blotted out. 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, And do not let the sin of his
mother be blotted out. 15 Let them
be before the Lord continually,
That He may cut off their memory from the earth; 16 Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness, But
persecuted the afflicted and needy man, And the despondent in heart, to put them
to death. 17 He also
loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was
far from him. 18 But he clothed
himself with cursing as with his garment, And it entered into his body like
water And like oil into his bones.”.
10.5.
Though we can never quit striving to please God in
this world, and thus prove our
genuineness as Christians, we can however rest that the Father is keeping us in
Christ while we are here!
10.6.
Concerning Judas’s apostasy, Matthew 7:21-23 is a stern warning that a person must
press on in his faith if he is truly a child of God headed for eternal life and
heaven, “21 “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew
you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”.
11.
CONCLUSIONS:
11.1.
Jesus prayed for His disciples saying that they “know”
Jesus Christ, for to know Him is eternal life, do you truly know Him
experientially and truly?
11.2.
You might
“know” the Lord, but is it your great passion in life to always be
getting to know the Lord better and better?
11.3.
As Jesus
was faithful to the end in fulfilling His calling, are you being faithful to
those things that you have been called to do?