JESUS’ HIGH PREISTLY PRAYER
John 17:1-26 Key Verse 17:1
Jesus wants us to know how he prayed and what his prayer topics are. Our prayer and our prayer topics should be the same as his – to glorify God.
1. Read verse 1a. What had Jesus been talking about just before he prayed?
Verse 1a, “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:” Jesus had been giving his final words to the disciples and trying to get them to see the Holy Spirit as the one who would guide them. Jesus was helping them to depend on the Holy Spirit. See Ch John 16:33
Read verses 1b-5. What was Jesus’ life purpose?
..”that your Son may glorify you.” To give eternal life to those God has given him and to bring glory to God. Jesus brought glory to God through his resurrection. This question then asks us, “What is our life purpose?” Do we have a clear answer like Jesus to glorify God? This should be our prayer.
What was his hope?
Verse 5, “ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus hope is based on the glory he had from the beginning with God. You can look at the Lord’s prayer in Matthew’s gospel and see that Jesus’ is in God. “Thy kingdom come… Thy will be done…”
2. For what purpose did God grant him authority? (2)
Verse 2 ““2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” To give eternal life to those God granted it. Jesus through his death and resurrection was to given authority to grant eternal life to those who believed in him. Jesus authority was not to establish a new society, or introduce new way of thinking, or build an empire, but to grant eternal life.
What is eternal life?
Verse 3, “3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Eternal life is to know God as God and the way and truth of God his Son Jesus Christ. To know God means you are not condemned but know the truth. Knowing God is a personal relationship.
What was the work God gave Jesus to do, the work which he completed?
Verse 4, “4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” The work was Jesus' obedience to the Father's will and Jesus did exactly the Father’s will. God's will was the cross and Jesus completed that work. Also in verse 12, Jesus reported to the Father that he had not lost any one of those God gave him.
How is this work related to eternal life?
Unless Jesus had completed all of God’s work, we cannot know God.
3. Read verses 6-10. What three things did Jesus do to raise disciples?
Verse 6, “6"I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world.”
Verse 8, “8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.”
Also Verse 9, “9I pray for them.” Jesus prayed for us before the Father.
Jesus gave them the word of God, and revealed God to the disciples in order that they would believe in him.
What was the point of his disciple training?
Verse 10, “10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”
And Verse 6b – 8, “They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”
That the disciples may know God and reveal the truth of who Jesus is. Also that they may be brought into a personal relationship with God.
What did the disciples do?
Verse 7, 8a, “7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.”
What did they learn?
Verse 8b, “They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”
4. Read verses 11-19. What is repeated? (11, 13)
Verse 11, “11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.”
Verse 13, “13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
“In the world,” is repeated as well as, “I am coming to you.” The fact that the disciples would remain in the world as their purpose is repeated. The fact that Jesus is returning to his Father in heaven is also repeated to emphasize Jesus nature.
Where was Jesus going?
Jesus was going back to the Father.
What were his prayer topics for his disciples?
Verse 11-12b, “11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
Jesus prays that God would protect his disciples while they were in the world.
Verse 13, “13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
Jesus prayed that the disciples might follow and accept his word.
Verse 15-17, “15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. ”
Jesus prays again that they may be protected from temptation as well as the God may sanctify them through the words of truth, the gospel. Jesus prayed for us to be made holy. Sanctify is translated from the Greek word Hagios – which means to be made or the process of making something holy. Disciples can be sanctified by holding onto the truth of the Gospel.
5. What was Jesus’ plan for them?
Verse 18, “18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Jesus did not want the believers removed from the troubles of the world, but that God would protect them. And that they would go out into the world with this message. Jesus showed his love for them by giving them God’s Holy Mission.
What does it mean that he would sanctify himself for them?
Verse 17, “17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth.” – A disciple who is sanctified by the truth of the word of Jesus can live without falling into the world’s trap.
Verse 19, “19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” To sanctify means to make holy. Jesus took the cross and gave his life – so that others could be sanctified by his shed blood.
6. Read verses 20-26. What are Jesus’ prayer topics for all believers?
Verse 20b, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Jesus prays for unity of all believers in Jesus Christ. And he also prayed that Christians can reveal Jesus Christ in our words. We reveal many things when we speak, but we need to reveal Jesus Christ so that the world will recognize us as a disciple of Jesus according to verse 21.
What is the great hope of all of Jesus’ disciples?
Verse 24, “24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
Jesus’ great hope is that all believers will be in heaven with Jesus and that Jesus may be in each of us just as he is in the Father. We can be one in Jesus through loving each other.
Conclusion: Our lives of prayer should bring glory to God. IS your prayer life like Jesus’?