Lesson 5 - John 17:1-11 - THE HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in John 15:26-27; 16:1-15, we covered a section referred to as the Upper Room Discourse, where Jesus issue warned to His disciples about the hatred from the world they should expect to face. We heard Him encourage them with an explanation of what to expect in the future when a "helper" in the form of the Holy Spirit (Gk. Paráklētos) would be sent to empower and guide them in the face of this opposition. We know that this event actually transpired on the Day of Pentecost as reported in Acts 2:1-31, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the 120 believers in the upper room. From this we learned that as modern Christians, we must draw on the power of the Holy Spirit if we hope to be effective witnesses in a world that's largely opposed to God. The comforting truth is, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and tailors His ministry to you personally. He knows what you're feeling and ministers His comfort to you through the Word or through other believers or sometimes through your own unique circumstances. He knows what you need to know and when you need to know it, and His chief objective is make you holy in thought, word, and deed.
This week, in John 17:1-11, we'll cover what Bible scholars generally refer to as Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer" which concludes Jesus' farewell dinner with His disciples in the Upper Room. It's often called the High Priestly Prayer for two reasons: First, Jesus is offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world; and Second, He intercedes for His disciples in the same way that the High Priest interceded for the people of Israel (see, Rom. 8:34). The main theme of the prayer is Jesus' desire for the Father's glory and the wellbeing of His disciples. At the same time, many of the other themes expressed in this gospel reach a new climax here, such as Jesus' obedience to the Father, the revelation of God through the Son, the calling of the disciples out of the world, with emphasis on their mission, their unity, and their destiny. After this prayer, Jesus and His disciples will to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He will be arrested (John 18:1-11).
Read John 17:1-5 - THE HOUR HAS COME
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Note: The following five verses are framed by petitions for glory.
v. 1a: "Jesus spoke these things;" - The phrase "these things" takes in the entire body of teachings that Jesus addressed to His disciples in the previous three chapters (15, 16, and 17).
v. 1b: "and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said," - This posture reflects submission to the Father, and notice that it as addressed to God, not His disciples, though they most likely overheard it.
v. 1c: "Father, the hour has come;" - The "hour" refers to the time of Jesus' crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All of His life, Jesus has been moving toward the cross.
v. 1d: "glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You," - The only way this could happen was for Jesus to endure the cross. Therefore, this petition stands as a testimony of Jesus' commitment to accomplish the Father's will, even to the point of dying on the cross.
v. 2: "even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life." - The Father has glorified the Son by giving Him the authority "over all flesh" (a metaphor for our short-lived, mortal human live) to grant eternal life to all individuals "whom"...the Father has "given Him." Since Jesus was with God in the beginning and at the Creation, and all things came into being through Him (John 1:2-3), He is endowed with all Godly power and authority. Jesus will refer to Christian believers as those whom the Father has given to Him five times in this prayer.
v. 3a: "This is eternal life, that they may know You," - Here, Jesus proceeds to define the essence of "eternal life." Eternal life can be defined as knowing God experientially through saving faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It's important to notice that Jesus describes it in terms of a relationship rather than duration. We typically think of eternal life as life without end, but Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ. Therefore, although eternal life is life without end, its essential character and nature is in its quality-the relationship with God-rather than its quantity.
v. 3b: the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." - Jesus describes the Father here as the only true God, who is only knowable through Jesus Christ whom He sent. The Father sent the Son into the world so that we might see the Father's glory; and by coming into the world, the Son was carrying out a mission assigned to Him by the Father.
v. 4: "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do." - Jesus had "glorified" the Father by all He had done during His incarnation-by His obedience, by His public honoring of the Father, and by His work in the name of the Father. Thus, the Son has done all He can do at this point and soon, He will follow with the absolute completion of His work on the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension.
v. 5: "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." - There is a connection here with Phil. 2:7, where Paul speaks of Jesus having "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (slave), and being made in the likeness of men." But this gospel emphasizes the incarnation-taking on flesh with all its disadvantages like hunger, thirst, pain, humiliation, and suffering-in order to truly live among us. He knows us because He allowed Himself to become one of us. So, in exchange for this, Jesus now asks the Father to return and restore Him to His previous position of glory. This took place at Christ's ascension and exaltation to God's right hand (Acts 2:33). This request attests to Jesus' preexistence with the Father and His equality in the Trinity with the Father.
Read John 17:6-8 - THE MEN WHOM YOU GAVE ME OUT OF THE WORLD
6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
Note: The remaining petitions in Jesus' prayer are for the apostles (eleven at this time but twelve after the selection of Matthias to replace Judas in Acts 1:12-26). Jesus' glorification after the ascension would depend on the wellbeing of those whom the Father had given Him. The length of this prayer reveals that Jesus had more concern for his disciples' welfare than for His own. In view of their weaknesses as ordinary humans, they were in great need of God's grace to sustain them for what they must do in the future.
v. 6a1: "I have manifested Your name" - From the beginning, Jesus' mission has been the revelation of God. He is the logos, the Word sent to reveal God to us. He has made the Father's name known.
v. 6a2: "to the men whom You gave Me out of the world;" - The disciples, the "men" God gave Him are very ordinary. They don't understand what must happen to Jesus and will not be powerful advocates for the kingdom until they are filled with the Holy Spirit.
v. 6b: "they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word." - Here, Jesus affirms that these men belonged to God and that God would protect them. The Eleven have "kept" God's "word" by believing in and following Jesus, even though they have not been steadfastly resolute in their obedience and are afraid and confused about what Jesus has told them must soon take place.
v. 7: "Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;" - They believed what they understood-that Jesus had come from God and that His words were God's words, even though there was much about Him that the eleven still did not understand. Only as people see the Father at work in Jesus do they have a proper concept of God, and the disciples had at last reached this level of understanding: He wasn't simply a man of Galilee but God incarnate.
v. 8a: "for the words which You gave Me I have given to them;" - The terms used here for "words" (Gk. rhéma [hray'-mah]) refers to spoken words, not the Word (Gk. logos [log'-os]), which is a metaphor for God. These rhéma words are Christ's teachings, which He has embedded in His disciple's hearts.
v. 8b: "and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You,." - While the disciples did not fully comprehend all the rhéma words that Jesus taught them, they nevertheless believed that Jesus was the logos-the Father's revelation of Himself through the Son. So, the disciples have hung in there with Jesus through good times and bad because they believe that Jesus "is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God" (John 6:68-69).
v. 8c: "and they believed that You sent Me." - Here, Jesus establishes a chain of custody by which God's words are communicated: The words came from the Father, who gave them to the Son, who, in turn, has given them to the disciples. And of significance, these disciples have "believed" them.
Read John 17:9-11 - KEEP THEM IN YOUR NAME
9 I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
v. 9a: "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world," - This verse must be understood in context. When Jesus states that He does not "ask on behalf of the world," He's not implying that He doesn't love or care about humanity and the condition of their lost souls, but is referring to of the "world" (Gk. kosmos) ruled by Satan which is opposed to God. On the contrary, previously in this gospel, Jesus made it crystal clear that He "came not to judge the world but to save the world" (John 12:47). He will not judge the world until He returns (Rev. 20:11-15).
v. 9b: "but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;" - Those whom God has "given" Him is a reference to His disciples. The reality is that the world/kosmos poses a real threat to these men, and while Jesus is preparing to depart this world, He must leave them behind to continue His work, so He asks for God's loving watch-care over them as they are forced to confront this world. The basis for this request was that because these disciples belonged to God, their wellbeing was in God's special interest.
v. 10: "and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them." - It might seem remarkable that Jesus would claim to be "glorified" in these eleven (later 12) disciples. After all, they are just an ordinary group of men who don't display any unusual intelligence or talents. They seem to be unable to achieve comprehension despite the many predictions that Jesus has shared with them about the future. In short, they just don't seem to 'get it.'
v. 11a: "I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You." - At this time, Jesus is still in the world, yet His death and resurrection are imminent, and He has begun the process by which He will be glorified and will return to the Father. The world/kosmos will kill Him, but He will emerge victorious.
v. 11b1: "Holy Father" - The address, "Holy Father," is found only here in the NT. God's holiness is central to His being and to our understanding of Him, and accepting it is a key to our discipleship.
v. 11b2: "keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me," - Jesus has been the disciples' protector, but now He preparing to depart, so He asks the Father to assume the role of protector over these disciples who are still in but not of the world. Jesus' concern is no such much for the physical danger that these disciples will face (which they will, as detailed in Acts and the epistles), but for their spiritual victory in the face of great trials.
v. 11c: "that they may be one even as We are." - The unity for which Jesus is praying runs much deeper than organizational efforts (in churches or between churches), but speaks of a unity of heart and purpose. Organizational unity is only a first step. We must also be very concerned about disunity between denominations, within congregations, and between individual Christians. Hear that?
APPLICATION-Accomplishing God's Will in a Hostile World.
1. Like Jesus in this example, to accomplish God's will in this hostile world, we must understand and submit in prayer to God's sovereign plan to glorify Himself through the cross. This prayer reveals Christ's raw courage in facing the cross! He was resolute because He knew God's plan and He submitted in prayer to that plan. What we learn here will help us to accomplish God's will when we face the hostility of this evil world. The prayer recorded in this chapter shows us that Jesus was able to accomplish God's will in this hostile world through prayer. We should notice that to be something that He knew the Father had ordained to happen. Before the foundation of the world, God ordained that He and the Son would be glorified through the Son's death, resurrection, and exaltation. Now Jesus says, "It's time! Do what You have ordained to take place!"
2. To reach the world, God uses people whom He has given to His Son, who know and obey Him, whom He 'keeps' while they're still in this world. When Jesus says in v. 10 that these men were the Father's, He is referring to the fact that God had chosen them in Christ before the foundation of the world. God chose not only the apostles, but also all whom Christ would die to save. Thus to reach a world opposed to Him, God uses people whom He has given to His son, who know and obey Him, whom He keeps while they're in this world (that includes me and you). The main principle here is that if you want God to use you in His plan to reach this world, you don't have to have impressive qualifications for the job. Instead, you need to truly believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord and grow to know God and obey His word. By doing this, you put yourself under God's protective keeping, walking in holiness and in unity with other believers.
