John 17 Notes

Prayer for Himself

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
So this is a prayer of Christ. He prays in the Jewish style, face and eyes lifted to heaven. He is soon to be crucified. His prayer is that God grant Him the ability to make God greater. 

Jhn 17:2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Might look confusing at first, so let’s go backwards. God the Father has a people chosen for eternal life.  By His Son He created them.  (Col 1) He then secures them by giving them faith in Christ. He is enabled to do this by Christ’s death.  He has entrusted the Son to safely bring in the sheep to the pen because the Son perfectly obeys the Father.

Jhn 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Know God by knowing Christ is the way to eternal life. Knowing. Know. To see, to understand. To believe.  Unbelief keeps us from God and makes all the other sins effective against us.

Jhn 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
Jesus brings glory by doing what the Father told Him to do. It’s no wonder then that He tells us to obey earlier in John, “if you love me…”

Jhn 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
The second person of the Trinity is now asking the first to be restored to glory.  You would think that if anyone could be restored by power it would be Jesus, but He asks, being emptied, taking the form of a servant, of a man.

Prayer for the Disciples
Jhn 17:6 "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
These people in the world belong to God. The Father wanted them, so He gave them to Christ for protection.  They then are required to believe in Jesus so that they  might have life, and they believe, or as the verse says ‘kept your word’

Jhn 17:7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
Now they understand what Philip asked, ‘show us the Father’ because everything Jesus is is from the Father.  The body soul and spirit analogy might help, with Jesus as the body.  Everything Jesus knows in His earthly body is because of the Father, just as it is with us.

Jhn 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
This is the mission of the Son: to pass along the message from the Father.  Notice that the thing The Father chooses to say is to believe and obey the Son. And the Son says to obey the Father.

Jhn 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
The import here is that Jesus is praying for His sheepies. His people, His elect. He is now specifically excluding others.

Jhn 17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
To my knowledge anytime the Bible speaks of the Trinity it is always careful to follow up with a statement like this. Jesus is given a people to shepherd, a message to preach, a task to do.  He is given words to say, but at the same time we must recognize that there is one God and Jesus is Him.

Jhn 17:11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
When He ascended into heaven He went back to the Father.  He prays now for perseverance, which He prays for in Heaven, on our behalf. He does not make this request known for non-elect.  He also intercedes for us today, asking through us and our prayers for deliverance.

Jhn 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
It was promised that Judas would fall away. It was predestined.  The rest Jesus has guarded (like a shepherd) successfully, for now He will hand everything over to the Holy Spirit. He has completed the work assigned to Him, by God.  He has shown God He loves Him by being obedient to the end.

Jhn 17:13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Without these words we would not have joy or peace or comfort. Without His prayer we would not receive, for God gives when asked, as He loves to be asked. We hear them and learn to ask the same, we hear Him and have joy in seeing Him.

Jhn 17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The world hates Christians because we condemn it as passing away. Because we refuse to participate with it in rebellion to God.  Because ultimately we are beyond the world and above it.

Jhn 17:15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
In the Lord’s prayer we are to ask that God put a hedge around us, to “deliver us from the evil one” to not expose us or test us to the powers of evil.  Those of us who are specially loved by God receive a prayer from God protecting us.

Jhn 17:16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
In the same way Christ was not of the world, we are not of the world. We are separate from it, above it, beyond it. Though we are in the world we are not of it.

Jhn 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Or in other words, sanctify them with your scripture. Breathe understanding into them, let the knowledge of Your words permeate their lives.  Sanctify is to ‘set apart’ to make holy because typically holy means apart.  Sanctification is the process we experience. Father sends the Holy Spirit into us to answer this prayer.

Jhn 17:18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Jesus is fulfilling the commission that God wants, just as He was sent so should He send. If His people are to be like Him then they must do as He does.

Jhn 17:19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
To consecrate is to set apart, to become sacred. Jesus is going to become the holy offering.  By dying on the cross and surrendering His holiness we may obtain it.

Prayer for all the believers
Jhn 17:20 "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
here the prayer extends to us as believers.

Jhn 17:21 that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me.
They will know we are Christians because of our special love, and they will believe that Jesus is real when they see how different we are.  We are adopted, we join the family of Jesus, and when we do the Spirit comes to live in us.

Jhn 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
there is a unity in Christ that connects us directly to God and makes Him our Father. That unity is present only in Christ who was the very first to call God His Father, and gives us that right by His death on the cross.

Jhn 17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
The difference here from 21 is that the world may know God, and we may be shown how much God loves us. He pours His special love upon us in such a way that it is evident to the world.

Jhn 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus desires our salvation. That should be a shot in the arm for assurance of salvation

Jhn 17:25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
Even if we don’t know who the elect are, Jesus does.

Jhn 17:26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
I have and I will continue to save your people, that your love may be multiplied. 

Take-aways:
Jesus prayes and loves His people in a special way.
Jesus prays for our holiness, our endurance, and our faith.
Jesus wants to see us glorify God, enjoy Him, love one another