JOHN 17

OPENS WITH JESUS’ PRAYER TO GOD

John MacArthur’s introduction to this chapter is priceless and powerful. “This is unique among all the portions of Scripture because it is the prayer of our Lord, the Son of God, to the Father. It deserves careful attention. In all honesty, one could be lost for a lifetime in this chapter. It’s truths are so far-reaching, so high, so wide, so deep, so elevated, that it’s almost impossible to extract yourself from the chapter, or from any verse, or even any phrase. The words are simple enough and direct enough, but the truths are really beyond comprehension. The best we can do is touch the edges of these great realities that are in this chapter.

For us, this is a capstone of four other chapters: chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16. Those chapters record the words of our Lord to His disciples the night of the Passover on Thursday night of Passion Week, the night before His crucifixion. That night, He spent hours upon hours with His disciples. First the Passover meal, then Judas was dismissed. He instituted the Lord’s Supper at that point. He continued to teach them.

They left the upper room. They have walked to the city of Jerusalem. And as they’re walking, He continues His instruction to them, full of promises, full of pledges, and full of warnings, and full of threats. He tells them that He is leaving, He will die, He will rise, and He will go back to the Father. He is promising them everything they will ever need. All the resources of heaven will be at their disposal through prayer. They will know the truth because He will send the Holy Spirit who will bring them the truth.

He is promising them peace and love and joy and every virtue. But as He stands on the brink of His own death, the disciples are afraid, worried, full of doubt, anxiety. They can’t even imagine a world without the Lord they had been with for three years. The deeper they go into the night, the greater their fears become. Our Lord is endeavored to allay those fears, and even bring them joy by making all the promises that are contained in 13, 14, 15, and 16. But they’re hard-pressed to embrace them because all they can think about is Him leaving, Him dying.

But all that instruction, all that promise, all that warning is now past, and chapter 17 is a prayer that He prays to the Father, and what He prays to the Father is that the Father would fulfill all the promises He has made, that the Father would bring to fulfillment all the work that He has done. This is a prayer that is remarkable because it demonstrates the humiliation of Christ in a unique way. He is, after all, God, who made everything that is made; and without Him was not anything made that was made. He is God who upholds the entire universe by the word of His power, according to Hebrews 1. He is God who will come to reign and establish His rule in the earth, and then in the new heaven and the new earth forever. He is God. He is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Consummator of the universe.

But in His incarnation set aside his prerogatives, and submitted Himself to the Father. And so in an act of that submission, He prays that the Father will fulfill everything He has promised. As such, He gives us the most magnificent example of the need for prayer. If the Son of God who controls all things, if the Son of God who is the ruler over all things, if the Son of God who is sovereign over all things, if the Son of God who knows all things, who has all power is in a position of depending on God to fulfill all His words, how much more are we dependent on God?”

And now we have this lengthy chapter running all the way down 26 verses. Every single word comes from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ and is part of a prayer to the Father. This chapter has been called the Holy of Holies of Scripture. It is the most elevated, the most glory-filled chapter in the Bible. It is, of course, the prayer above all prayers. But it is also the chapter above all chapters, because it alone is where we see the communion between the Son of God and the Father.

Here, we are ushered into the throne room of God. Here, we eavesdrop on the communion, the eternal communion between the Son and the Father. The veil is drawn back. We’re admitted into the Holy of Holies. We approach the inner communion of the Trinity. The secret place of the Most High God is opened for us. Here, we need to remove our shoes and listen, and humble ourselves with reverent hearts because we are on the holiest of all ground.

You say, “Well, now wait minute. What about the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name,’ and so forth? What about that? Isn’t that the Lord’s Prayer?” It’s called the Lord’s Prayer, but it’s not the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray. It is a pray that He said, “Pray this way.”

But He did NOT pray that prayer. He could NOT pray that prayer. He never prayed that prayer, because that prayer says in part, “Forgive us our trespasses, our sins.” He told us to pray that way. He didn’t pray that way. That was the disciples’ prayer. That’s our prayer. That’s a pattern for our prayer.

The great Philip Melanchthon, friend of Martin Luther, gifted theologian during the Reformation, gave the final lecture of his life; and in that final lecture, he lectured on this prayer. Part of what he said I quote: “There is no voice which has ever been heard, neither in heaven or in earth more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than the prayer offered up by the Son of God Himself.” Plain words, yet incomparable majesty. Simple words, yet profound mystery.

This prayer really marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but it also looks forward to what followed His earthly ministry, and that was His heavenly ministry. And His heavenly ministry was a ministry of interceding for His people at the very throne of God. Jesus could have prayed silently as He always had. The New Testament could have been assembled and this left out. But Jesus was NOT silent that night. He prayed openly, and there’s every reason to believe that the disciples heard this prayer, and it’s recorded by the Spirit of God through the apostle John so all of us can hear it as well. Why? Because it is a model of what He is now doing, interceding for us.

Look, we have four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – to tell us of the 33 years on earth what He did during those 33 years. We have four books. We have only one chapter to tell us what He’s doing now, and has been doing over the last 2,000 years, and will do until redemption is complete. Here is the ONE glimpse into the Christ who has been exalted and ever lives to make intercession for us. This is what Jesus is doing NOW.

Now, the prayer is divided into three parts. The first five verses, Jesus prays for Himself. And then starting in verse 6, He prays for the apostles that are with Him on that very night. And then He closes the chapter by praying for all believers through all the future. But starting in verse 6, everything He prayed for the eleven, He prays for all His people through all history. So He starts by praying for His own glory, and then He prays for the glory of His own people.

It is that interceding prayer that holds us until we stand before Him in heaven. It is this intercession that is the reason why nothing will ever separate us from the love of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus.

The Bible is filled with great prayers. We are impressed with Solomon's prayer (1 Kings 8), Abraham's prayer (Genesis 18), and Moses' prayer (Exodus 32), but this prayer is by far the GREATEST recorded in the Bible.

“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said:”

A person's innermost being is revealed by genuine prayer; this is an unique opportunity to see the nature and heart of Jesus. In this prayer, Jesus will touch on many of themes developed in this gospel: glory, glorify, sent, believe, world, love.

Jesus lifted up His eyes when He prayed.

This is a posture that we do NOT usually associate with deep prayer. We tend to bow our head and close our eyes. This shows us that we should never confuse the non-essential customs of prayer with the essential aspects of prayer.

Verse 1b tells us Jesus asks to be glorified.

"Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,"

Father, the hour has come...

What hour?

What time was it on the redemptive clock? The hour was the crux of history; literally, the crux of eternity. It was the event of forever, and the event of time; the event of the ages, the crossroads. Two eternities were about to meet: eternity past and eternity future, and they would meet at the cross. The hour had come in which the Son of Man, the Son of God, would end His humiliation, would terminate His labors; and He would do that by becoming the sacrifice for sin. And the application of that sacrifice would extend backward through all of human history to every person who had ever believed, and forward through history to every person who would ever believe. He would, in that moment, become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was the hour that fulfilled the divine design, when before the foundation of the world, God ordained that Christ be crucified; and before the foundation of the world, God wrote down the names of those for whom His crucifixion would be, an effective sacrifice for their salvation. It was the moment when all the pre-time, pre-creation, divine purposes of God reached an apex.

It was also the moment in time that had been long awaited. It was the hour when ALL prophecies of salvation were fulfilled, when ALL promises of salvation were fulfilled, when ALL the specific prophecies of Messiah were fulfilled, when ALL the types and ALL the symbols were fulfilled. It was the hour of which the prophet spoke and every godly person longed to see. It was the hour of triumph over the prince of this world. It was the hour of dismissing the old and ushering in the new. It was the hour of salvation, when all that God had promised in salvation was then made possible: no, made actual. Christ actually died for all who believed throughout ALL of human history going back and going forward. It was the hour of the cross.

Here is it, the all, the everything, the climax, the glory hour; to blot out the power of the curse, to reconcile sinners to God, to illuminate the obscured spiritual kingdom. This is the hour. God planned that hour from eternity past. Peter said that on the Day of Pentecost: “This has all happened by the pre-determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” This was God’s plan from the very beginning.

REMEMBER OUR STUDY OF ISAIAH. Go back to Isaiah 53, it’s all laid out in detail there, Jesus not only TOLD Isaiah what would happen. He SHOWED ISAIAH hundreds of years before it came to pass.

So Jesus’ prayer, given deep into the night are we, Thursday night. Now midnight has past. It is in the dark of Friday morning, the day He was crucified. He is outside the wall of Jerusalem. He is on the edge of the Kidron Ravine, through which a brook of water flowed - at this time of year - mingled with the blood of the tens of thousands of animals that were being slaughtered in the temple. It would run down the back slope of the temple and into that Kidron Brook. He would literally be stepping over the symbol of His own blood being offered as the true and only acceptable lamb.

He’s headed to the Mount of Olives just across that Kidron Ravine, and the Mount of Olives has a garden in it called the Garden of Gethsemane.

Glorify Your Son...

Jesus prays first for Himself, but His petition is anything but selfish. His concern for Himself is actually a concern for the glory of the Father...NOT for Himself.

The hour has come … Glorify Your Son...

It is the cross (see John 12:27-33, 13:30-33, 21:18-19) that will glorify the Son. The cross is utter humiliation to the world, but an instrument of glorification in God's eyes.

Are we willing to embrace the glory of God, even if the world sees it as humiliation?

That Your Son also may glorify You...

How does the cross glorify the Father?

The Son glorified the Father by revealing in the act the sovereignty of God over evil, the compassion of God for men, and the finality of redemption for believers.

Verses 2-3 tells us Jesus speaks of the source and nature of eternal life.

"As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

You have given Him authority over ALL flesh...

Jesus claims awesome authority, "authority to determine the ultimate destiny of men.

That He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him...

Jesus Himself is the great and exclusive channel of eternal life.

And this is eternal life, that they may know You...

Eternal life is found in an experiential knowledge (ginosko) of God, and revealed in Jesus Christ.

Earthly Life is active involvement in an environment; death is the absence of that active involvement.

Eternal life means that we are alive and active to God's environment.

If our lives are NOT dominated by God and the spiritual environment, we have the same life as animals, and are dead to God and His environment.

All life comes from Christ - all life, including eternal life. He is the giver of eternal life. All life comes from Him. Biological life comes from Him. Spiritual life comes from Him. Eternal life comes from Him. And He says, “I give that eternal life, that is what I do, to all whom You have given Me. All that You have given Me, I give eternal life.”

I just need to stop there for a minute and say that phrase “all whom You have given Me” appears SEVEN times in this prayer. That is a defining statement regarding believers, you and me, and all believers since the work of Christ was applied. All believers – listen – have been given to Christ from the Father.

We’ve said things about that through the years. It’s a stunning, stunning reality. What is the Father doing? The Father is gathering a bride for His Son. Through ALL of redemptive history, ALL of human history, the Father is gathering people who will make up the ONE bride for His Son. That’s why when you get to the end of the book of Revelation, you go to heaven. It’s a bridal city, and there’s a great bridal festival, and the whole city is adorned for a wedding. When all the saints of ALL the ages are gathered together in heaven, it is a marriage.

All of redemptive history is the Father gathering a bride for His Son because He loves His Son, and He wants His Son to have a bride who will serve Him forever, love Him forever, honor Him forever, glorify Him forever, and even reflect His character, so that – listen – salvation is not a whimsical thing that is designed by people, or that is even determined by individuals. If you are a believer, it is because God GAVE you to Christ, and He gave you because He CHOSE you, and He chose you before the foundation of the world, the Bible says, and He wrote your name down. SEVEN times it refers to believers as those whom the Father gives the Son. It is completely wrong to think that that decision is left to us.

Verses 4-5 tells us The request is again stated, full of faith: Glorify Me.

"I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

So what is eternal life?

Here’s the answer: “‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’” Are you ready for this? Eternal life is the perfect knowledge of God and Christ; that’s eternal life. That’s what it is. That is the definition of eternal life. It is NOT a quantity of time; there is NO time as we know it. It is a quality of existence.

If you can understand it this way, understand it as one moment - one moment in which you have perfect knowledge of God, perfect knowledge of Christ; at the same time, perfect love. To know God, to know Christ, is to love them. The word “know” in the New Testament with regard to salvation carries the connotation of “intimate love.” Not to have eternal life means to NOT know God, NOT know Christ, NOT know divine love. It means to be ignorant, cut off from the life of God - blind, dead.

To have eternal life is to know God and to know Christ. And some day, some day, to know God and to know Christ perfectly; and then to love them with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, even in its glorified capacities. So when we get to heaven, it’s just going to be one moment in which we are consumed with a perfect knowledge and a perfect love of God and Christ. That’s eternal life.

Right now “we know in part,” right (1 Corinthians 13)? “We know in part.” We know God. To some degree, we know Christ. We love God, we love Christ. But when eternal life reaches its perfection, we will both know God and Christ, and love God and Christ perfectly, comprehensively, completely. And we will be consumed in such exhilarated joy that we can NOT comprehend even the most meager part of that.

So the Son says, “Glorify Me, because I’m the One, who being glorified, will give eternal life to the ones You gave Me. This is Your plan, Father. And in order to fulfill it, glorify Me because of who I am, the life-giver.” And then, secondly, He says, “Glorify Me because of what I’ve done.” Verse 4: “‘I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You’ve given Me to do.’”

That second phrase means He’s looking at the cross. He sees beyond it now, hours away - it’ll be over - and He sees beyond it. “‘I have glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You’ve given Me to do.’” What was the work He gave Him to do? Sure, live a sinless life, absolutely. But “‘the Son of Man has come not to be served, but to give His life a ransom for many.’”

I have finished the work...

Jesus, with divine confidence and assurance, sees the work on the cross as already finished.

Even so, God sees the work of transformation and perfection as already completed in us, BEFORE the fact.

The glory which I had with You before the world was...

This prayer could not come from Jesus if He were NOT Yahweh Himself, equal with the Father. In Isaiah 42:8 and 48:11, Yahweh proclaims that He shares His glory with no one. If the Father and Son share their glory, they must BOTH be Yahweh.

With these words, in verse 4, He’s looking past the cross: “I have done the work. I have given My life a ransom for many. So, Father, because of who I am, because of what I’ve done, give Me the glory I had with You before the world was.” The Father answered that prayer. He died later that day, rose on Sunday, forty days later ascended into glory - took His place at the throne - and He EVER lives to make intercession for US.

Verses 6-8 tells us Jesus speaks of His mission among the disciples and their reception of it.

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."

Having taught and encouraged the disciples as much as He could on the eve of their despair, Jesus now does the great thing...He commits them to the Father in prayer.

I have manifested Your name to the men...

Jesus did not simply teach about the name (character) of God, He manifested (displayed) that character.

"God is love" or "God is holy" must be lived as well as believed. Jesus did BOTH for His disciples, and led them into both believing and living what was right before God.

They have kept Your word...

When we think of all the failures and disappointments from the disciples, this is a kind assessment of Jesus. He generously judges His disciples.

They have known surely that I came forth from You...

They may NOT understand everything, but they BELIEVE in the Divine origin of Jesus and His teaching.

We all know it’s going to happen with the eleven. When Jesus is arrested, they’re going to scatter in fear. Their faith is going to be shaken. Their hearts are going to be even more grieved than they have been. But though His suffering is infinitely greater than theirs, though His suffering infinitely outweighs theirs, His love for them causes Him to pray this prayer.

Verses 9-10 tells us Jesus directs His prayer.

"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them."

When Jesus says I do not pray for the world it is NOT out of unconcern for the world's plight. It was because of a focus on HIS OWN disciples. He was praying for the instrument He was creating, through which He would reach the world.

Temptation’s going to come and it’s going to come fast. It’s going to come that very day in the garden. It’s going to overwhelm them. It’s going to cause them to run and Peter to make denials. Our Lord must overpower all of that and bring them to glory, and that’s why He intercedes.

As we look at verses 6-10, He identifies the people He’s praying for, the disciples. Down in verses 11-19, He has more to say in this prayer about them. But He first identifies them in verses 6-10, and He identifies them from the divine side and from the human side. Here we face the interplay of that great mystery of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. It’s presented here in its beauty and its simplicity if also in it’s profundity.

He’s praying for those who are marked by belonging to God and being given to Him from God, and who are marked on the human side by believing, obedient faith. Those two always go together.

All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine...

Anyone can say to God the Father all mine are Yours but only Jesus could say and Yours are Mine.

I am glorified in them...

No one should be glorified in the believer other than Jesus. Leaders have a tendency to glorify themselves in their followers, but it should ONLY be Jesus.

Verses 11-12 tells us Jesus' first request for the disciples: Father, KEEP them.

"Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."

What is the world?

The world is the evil anti-God, anti-Christ, satanically ruled system of evil and sin, composed of demons and all the unredeemed human beings who oppose God, who belong to Satan, and who live in the kingdom of darkness. Within the realm of darkness, there are some sinners who belong to God. “They were Yours – ” Were, not are, were “ – even when they were in the world, they were Yours, and You gave them to Me out of the world.”

So God, for His own glory, made an uninfluenced choice. He CHOSE some people and they are His, even though they are NOT YET saved. They were predestined for justification, they were predestined for adoption, they were predestined for heaven because they were chosen BY God.

There are people throughout all of human history who are born sinners in the world, engulfed in sin, spiritually dead and blind and ignorant, but they are God’s; and in God’s time, He plucks them out of the world, then they become love gifts to His Son. The Father chooses, the Father gives; the Son receives, the Son keeps, and the Son raises, and NO ONE is lost.

Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me...

The basis of Jesus' request is rooted in the name (character) of God. God is glorified by completion of His work in us.

Our continuing on in Jesus is NOT left to our own efforts alone. The world, the flesh, and the devil are so mighty, so pervasive, and so seductive, we could NEVER keep ourselves in our own efforts. If we stay with Jesus, it is because Jesus has prayed for us "Father, keep them."

So if God planned to get us to glory and Christ promised to get us to glory by interceding for us at the right hand of God, “Who is ever going to separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, perils, sword?” Paul had, all in his life, experienced all of those things. No, we’re going to be overwhelmingly conquering through the one who loved us

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name...

Jesus KEPT the apostolic band together and safe during His earthly ministry. He prays that this "keeping" would continue.

None of them is lost EXCEPT the son of perdition...

There was ONE exception to Jesus' work in keeping the disciples, Judas. This is because in fulfillment of the Scriptures, Judas was the son of perdition, the one destined to evil and destruction.

The son of destruction, "the phrase denotes an abandoned character, one utterly lost and given over to evil."

Verses 13-16 tells us Jesus elaborates on the FIRST request: keep them in My joy and away from the evil one.

"But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."

That they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves...

God's purpose is to multiply joy in our lives, NOT to subtract it. The world, the flesh, and the devil would tell us something different, but God wants joy fulfilled in our lives.

The joy of Jesus is always just a faint flicker in the worldly believer; real joy comes from ABIDING in Him.

I do not pray that You should take them out of the world...

This prayer of Jesus cautions us AGAINST seeking refuge in Christian isolation; in modern day monasteries. Then and now, there are false man-created religiosities that teach, believe, and proclaim that TRUE PIETY AND TRUE GODLINESS AND THE VERY BEST are those who REMOVE THEMSELVES from the world, people, and LIVE ISOLATED, SOLITARY lives be it in a MONASTERY, TEMPLE, MOUNTAIN, CAVE, OR SHUT IN IN THEIR HOMES..

JESUS STATES IT VERY CLEARLY AND VERY DIFFERENTLY OF THOSE WHO LOVE AND FOLLOW HIM...Our goal is to be in the world, but not of it, or of the evil one; even as a ship is to be in the ocean, but not allowing the ocean to be in the ship.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world...

Would we have said this about the disciples at this point?

No we would not.

Jesus is showing us RIGHT HERE that we do NOT have to be perfect to be unworldly.

I can’t comprehend what it must have been like for them to hear this, that they are loved by God as the Son of God is loved, that they are the concern of His own heart cry. He is interceding for them. But not just for them, because in verse 20 He says, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone – ” these eleven “ – but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” They’re going to preach the gospel, and they’re going to be used to write the New Testament. “And I’m praying for all who will believe through that revelation.” Praying for them all. And He prays for us out of incomprehensible and infinite love.

Verses 17-19 tells us Jesus' SECOND request for the disciples: sanctify them.

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

Sanctify them by Your truth...

Sanctify means to be SET APART for God's special pleasure and use. It implies holiness, being set apart from the corruption of the world and for God's use.

Jesus did NOT just leave the disciples to sanctify themselves. He prayed for their sanctification. This process, as the keeping process, is NOT left to us alone, as some religiosities falsely teach, believe and proclaim; it is a work of God in us and through us.

“They’re in the world, Father. The world is dark, the world is demonic, the world is dangerous, the world is deadly.” He already told them back in chapter 15, verse 18, the world would hate them because it hated Him. He told them in verse 20, the world would persecute them. He told them again in verse 23 that they would be hated because the world hates Him and hates the Father. In chapter 16, He told them in verse 2 they would become outcasts and they would become martyrs; they would lose their lives. This is a dangerous place for the children of God. They can’t survive without divine support. The temptations of Satan are powerful, overwhelmingly powerful, and they NEED divine protection.

So our Lord then, began in verse 11, starts to ask for some specific things by way of our protection.

Number One: Spiritual security. Spiritual security. “They’re in the world – ” He says “ – and I come to You.” And He’s talking, obviously, about His ascension. “I come to You. Holy Father, keep them, keep them, keep them.”

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth...

The dynamic behind sanctification is TRUTH. The word of God read, heard, understood and applied.

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world...

The thought of service is sandwiched by sanctification. We are set apart for service, NOT for mutual admiration.

Verse 20 tells us Jesus broadens the scope of His prayer for us too.

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;"

I do not pray for these alone...

Jesus prayed for His eleven disciples, but He also had the heart and the vision to pray beyond them. He prayed for those who WOULD COME to faith by the testimony of these disciples. He prayed for us.

Those who WILL believe in Me through their word...

This shows that Jesus expects that the disciples' eminent failure would ONLY be temporary. Others would hear from them, and come to belief in Jesus through the testimony of the disciples.

Jesus went to the cross KNOWING His work would not be for nothing; He was NOT "hoping" on the disciples.

Verse 21 tells us Jesus prays for a oneness among ALL believers, even as among the original disciples.

"That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me."

That they all may be one...

Jesus envisions that great multitude before the throne of God, of every race, tongue, class and social strata; and prays that they may overcome their different backgrounds and understand their unity in HIM.

That they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You...

Jesus did not pray for uniformity, or institutional unity among ALL RELIGIOSITIES as they taught then and even more so today. ONE UNIVERSAL RELIGION...ONE UNIVERSAL CHURCH...all BELIEFS IN THE WORLD BONDED TOGETHER...was NEVER what Jesus meant. Jesus was REFERRING TO a personal dynamic of unity, bringing together JESUS’ BRIDE...JESUS’ FAMILY...JESUS’ CHURCH. NONE OF HIS BRIDE, HIS CHURCH ARE BUILDINGS, NOR RULES AND RITUALS, BUT HIS CHURCH IS JESUS FAMILY...the Church's rich diversity OF ALL...WHOSOEVER WILL COME...WHOSOEVER WILL CALL UPON JESUS.

AND HISTORY, ESPECIALLY RELIGIOUS HISTORY has proved uniformity seeks to unite wheat and tares; it can NOT be done. Unity of institutions does NOT insure unity of the Spirit.

We must believe that this prayer was answered, and that the church is one. Our failure is in failing to recognize and walk in that divine fact.

That the world may believe...

The stakes of the unity Jesus prayed for are high. The spiritual unity of Christians is linked to the way the church represents Jesus to the world.

THERE ARE MANY MAN-CREATED RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS THAT BELIEVE IN JESUS....BUT IT IS THE JESUS OF THE WORLD, OR OF THEIR CHOSEN ISM, THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE JESUS CHRIST, AND HE IS THE GREAT I AM, YAHWEH, MESSIAH, SAVIOR OF THE WORLD FOUND IN THE BIBLE AND IN THE BIBLE ALONE...

That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You...

The foundation of our unity is the same as the foundation of unity between the Father and the Son: equality of person. We are all on the same ground at the cross.

Verse 22 tells us Jesus prays that the church would be marked by glory.

"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:"

The glory which You gave Me I have given them...

There should be a shared glory among believers, the glory of the present Christ. A focus on Jesus in our presence and on HIS Word alone will promote unity.

If we have the glory that the Father gave the Son, remember that it was a glory that often appeared humble, weak and suffering, and was ultimately displayed in sacrifice.

Verses 23-24 tells us Jesus prays for a unity founded in love.

"I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

I in them, and You in Me...

There is a unity of compromise, or of fear or coercion. BUT Jesus wanted a unity of love, and common identity in Jesus.

I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am...

Jesus asks for the consummation of the unity - a promise of togetherness with Him that we can be sure of.

Jesus' strong desire and prayer for His followers was that they be kept, sanctified, and unified. Do we share the same desires? Or are our desires taken more from this world than from Jesus' heart and His Word?

Verses 25-26 tells us The triumphant conclusion to Jesus' prayer.

"O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

I have known You...

As He is about to approach the cross, Jesus is full of faith and triumph. The battle is still ahead, but He goes forth as a conqueror.

Though the whole world said that He was wrong, He knew that He was right. WE SEE THE TRUTH OF OUR JESUS AND HIS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS RIGHT HERE...Jesus' mind is not clouded by confusion or fear.

There are those who teach and proclaim that at this time of night, that Jesus Himself went from being The Son of God, instantly in His heart and mind, to just a human man again. Why? Because they say the REAL Son of God could not be killed. He could not die. So The Son of God left this human body, and this Jesus became just a man who could die.

That the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them...

When you think about heaven and you think about Jesus. When you think about heaven, what do you think about? You think about Jesus. What do you think about?

Kind of an olive-complexioned man with long hair and a nice robe with a rope around His waist maybe. Or maybe, you come out of a Catholic background, when you think in your mind about Christ, you see Him on a cross, because you saw that so long in your life. You can’t sort of get rid of it. Or maybe there are a few of you who even when you were kids saw Christ coming out of a tomb in a picture or something, and maybe He had a glowing light around His head or halo, and that’s the Jesus you think of. Or maybe some of you had a picture in your house of Jesus hanging somewhere – supposed to be Jesus – and you grew up with that, and that’s your view of Him.

You can forget all of that. That isn’t even close; that is not even close. When you see Him as He is, you will see Him the way He is described in Revelation 21.

There’s one light in infinite heaven - it’s Christ. That’s beyond comprehension. “All the peoples will walk by its light. Kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime, there will be no night.”

There’s one light. God lights up infinite heaven with one lamp, and that lamp is Christ - full display, full display. The glory of the eternal Son, incomprehensible to us. We will see Christ in all His glory - limitless. Unlike Moses, who saw a little bit of glory when God tucked Him into a rock, we will see the full, blazing glory. And we will not be consumed, because we will be holy.

Some day when you walk into heaven, whether you go by rapture or by death – we’re all going to go there – you’re going to see such glory radiating from Christ that He’s the only lamp in the infinite, eternal heaven forever. And that glory coming through Jesus Christ, which you will see face-to-face, that glory coming through Christ will demonstrate to you how much the Father has eternally loved the Son to give Him such infinite glory.

The Father loves the Son, and all of redemption is to get us to heaven so that we can see how much the Father loves the Son. We are loved as well. We are loved into heaven, so that we can see how much the Father loves the Son. We will see His staggering, incomprehensible glory; and we will know the fullness of the Father’s love for Him. We will spend forever praising and honoring our Savior and redeemer as we behold His glory.

We will see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ in lighting the eternal heaven. We will see that glory and know that glory as a manifestation of divine love. We will be swept up in that glory. We will become reflectors of that glory. That glory will shine on us and off of us. We will radiate that glory through all of heaven, and we will also swim in that same love. We will be loved by the Father the same way He loves His eternal Son.

The prayer concludes with the great secret of Christian living - Jesus and His love indwelling the believer. J esus Christ is even now praying us into Heaven. Why? Jesus wants us who love him to know NOW....I LOVE YOU... I AM PRAYING FOR YOU. I AM PRAYING YOU, THOSE WHO LOVE ME, AND ARE MY FATHER’S GIFT TO ME. I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS. HANG ON. ABIDE IN ME. LIFT YOUR HEAD. I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH, AS DOES MY FATHER. ONE SWEET DAY YOU WILL SEE ME AS I REALLY AM...

 

TRUTH CARLA KAYE!  JOHN 17 IS THE MOST POWERFUL PRAYER JESUS PRAYED FOR US ALL AND TRUTH OF HIS HEART FOR US ALL!

 

Faith-----I've been following MacArthur for 40+ decades!  He is a wonderful teacher that keeps it "simple" making it easier to see God's truths/principles, & a TRUE servant of Christ who has been faithful & has also NEVER compromised the WORD OF GOD!  What a blessing he has been in my "walk with my Redeemer!"  TY, for sharing his ministry with others, so they, too, maybe blessed exceedingly!  HuGz in His LoVe......Carla 

I THANK THE LORD JESUS FOR JOHN MACARTHUR AND EVERY EXPOSITORY BIBLE STUDY I HAVE GIVEN OVER THE LAST 14 YEARS HAS INCLUDED EXCERPTS FROM JOHN MACARTHUR. I ALSO ENJOY DAVID GUZIK, WHO ADDS EXCERPTS FROM SPURGEON IN HIS EXPOSITORY BIBLE STUDIES TOO!  I SHARED JOHN MACARTHUR SERMONS WITH THE CSN GLOBAL FAMILY EVERY TUESDAY EVENING DURING CSN MOVIE NIGHT TOO CARLA! LOVE YOU RIGHT BACK!