John Chapter 17

John:17

In chapters 13-16, John tells us About Jesus last teaching to his disciples in the upper room after the Passover supper before he was arrested. He taught them how to live, Love, trust God, and followed him after he was gone.

John chapter 17: records Jesus praying to God for himself, His disciples, and all believers, just before his betrayal. 

This entire chapter is Jesus’ prayer. From it, we learn that the world is a tremendous battleground where the forces under Satan’s power and those under God's authority are at war.

 Satan and his forces are motivated by bitter hatred for Jesus Christ and Those who belong to him. Jesus prayed for his disciples including those of us who follow him today. He prayed that God would keep his chosen believers safe from Satan’s power, setting them apart and making them pure and holy, uniting them through his truth. 

As John has already made clear, everyone who believes in Jesus receives eternal life (3v16). The father loves the son so much that he desired to give this redeemed humanity to him as a gift. The father gave the son authority over all flesh and then gave us to him so that the king would have a people to rule.

In his prayer, Jesus gave a definition of eternal life. This is important because it does not merely refer to an existence that lasts forever. After all, everyone will live eternally, either in HEAVEN or in HELL. Eternal life, then, is not merely the continuation of life but the experience of God's reality. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent---Jesus Christ. To receive eternal life is to enter into the divine realm with the goal of experiencing an intimate relationship with God through Jesus, a relationship that will grow throughout eternity. It is the uninterrupted, deepening knowledge and experience of God. This is the purpose for which we were created.

Jesus glorified the father on the earth by completing the work he gave him to accomplish. Jesus said that my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. We bring glory to God in the same way-by pursuing his will for our lives. Do you consider doing the will of God to be as desirous and life-sustaining as eating?

While Jesus was with his disciples, he protected them. None of them was lost, except the son of destruction, so that the scripture could be fulfilled. God knew far in advance that Judas would betray the Messiah. Nevertheless, judas's rebellion could not thwart the divine plan. On the contrary, it facilitated it. Judas was the one doomed to destruction, who was lost because he betrayed Jesus and never sought forgiveness. 

(Psal:41v9) says

Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.

Understand that even wickedness falls under the sovereignty of God--not because God prescribes it, but because he uses it. How much better would it be for you to fulfill God's purposes through your obedience than through your rebellion?

Jesus's first petition for his followers is that they remain united. Remarkably he desires that his disciples enjoy a oneness that is like the oneness he shares with the father. His disciples, however, remain in the world. This is an environment of hostility. The mission of the church is to challenge this world. Drawing closer to those who love the truth and bringing them into the flock.

Jesus next point concerns his disciple’s strength in the world. Their assignment is dangerous, and so he prays for their protection. Jesus has given them his word; the spirit will recall it and keep it secure. This divine revelation will become essential equipment in their survival.

He recognizes the power of evil, for he lost one of his disciples to Satan. He understands that representing God in this world is an invitation to genuine battle. His disciples must contend with these powers since they remain in the world. God's name will be a refuge.

Jesus spoke these things to his disciples so that they would have his joy completed in them. Notice that it's his joy. To experience peace in the midst of suffering is for Jesus to share his joy with us, and this comes by means of confidence in his word. But when one receives God's word through Jesus, one also receives the hatred of the world. The world hates the followers of Jesus because they are not of the world, just as (Jesus) is not. 

Christians must function in this world-in our families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, marketplaces, and civic arenas. Yet we're not to adopt the world's perspective or let it dictate our values. We must operate on earth from a heavenly perspective, God's perspective. God's word is to determine our understanding of right and wrong. Though we are in the world, we must not be of it.

Then Jesus prayed, sanctify them by the truth; The word sanctify refers to something made holy (set apart).

To be holy is not a description of perfection (though this is included). It refers to a life that is so aligned with God that it reflects God's passion completely.  His word is truth. This process happens through initializing the eternal truth of God's word. Think of the word like food. You can chew it all day, but unless you swallow it, you receive no health benefits from it. You internalize God's word, not by merely hearing or reading it, but by trusting and obeying it. Then it's work of spiritual transformation is activated in your life.

(2Cor:3v17-18) says

Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit.

Not only did Jesus pray for the eleven disciples in front of him, but also for those who believed in( him) through their word. The disciples/apostles with him that night would proclaim the gospel through their preaching and through their holy-spirit-inspired writings, which would become the New Testament. Therefore, those who believe in(him) through their word includes all those who have trusted in Christ down through the ages. This means that Jesus was praying here for you and me.

He prayed that all believers would all be one-that is, experience unity. Legitimate unity is not uniformity or sameness. rather, Jesus was talking about being unified in God and his purposes. That's why he prayed, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

A football team consists of different players filling different positions with different roles. But the entire team has one purpose: reaching the goal line. Their unity consists of pursuing that one goal according to the rules of the game.

The Church of Jesus Christ is composed of people from every race, ethnicity, gender, and walk of life. But we have the common purpose of proclaiming the gospel and pursuing God's Kingdom agenda. Our effectiveness is determined by our unity. That's why Satan works so hard at causing division among Christians and within churches. Unity in truth is critical to experiencing the presence and power of God. Illegitimate disunity disconnects us from God and causes us to be ineffective in our lives and in our prayers.

(Acts:2v1-2) says When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

(Acts2v43-44) says Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.

(Acts4v24-41) says When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The king of the earth rise up and the ruler’s band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.

Indeed Herod and puntos Pilate met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand and heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

(1Pet:3v7) says Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

When Jesus says that he sanctifies himself, what does he mean? Jesus is recommitting himself to the mission assigned by the father. This priestly mission of service involves his sacrifice. Through his death on the cross. For Jesus, the cross is not a place of shame but a place of honor. The disciples will experience something never known before. His death will enable them to experience a new holiness in a deep attachment with God.

Jesus prayed the father would glorify him in his presence with that glory he had with the father before the world existed. Notice that Jesus clearly affirmed his pre-existence. Before the incarnation, before Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, before the creation week even began, God the son eternally existed in the glorious presence of God the father. And to this glory he would soon return.

Before Jesus came to earth, he was one with God. At this point when his mission on earth was almost finished, Jesus was asking his father to restore him to his original place of honor and authority. Jesus’s resurrection and ascension-and Stevens dying exclamation is a test that Jesus did return to his exalted position at the right hand of the God.

(Acts:7v56) says Look,” he said, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God.

Jesus was the bearer of God's glory, and now the church bears that glory. The thought is of the glory of God passing to Jesus followers indwelling them. The confidence of the church's mission rests here: if it lives in the spirit, if it reflects God's glory and love, if it demonstrates unity, then its testimony will astonish the world. Jesus prays that his followers will see the true glory that has existed in heaven since the beginning of time.

This anticipated glory, however, finds its counterpoint in the prayer's last sentences. Jesus addresses God as “righteous father” reminding us that it is God's righteousness that has led to his justified judgment of the world. Yet all those who accept the son will experience the love known only between father and son. These are the last words Jesus prays before his arrest: that I myself may be in them. His last desire is to love his followers and indwell them.

We should see ourselves as the subject of this prayer. Jesus is our Lord and shepherd as much as he was the shepherd of this small circle of men. Therefore, when he prays he invites us to listen, to hear the quality of the love and honor shared between himself and God. He invites us to listen as he prays for all believers throughout time. We are the church, the body of believers built on the God’s word.