OUR LORD’S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

Part 4 – Review JOHN 17:1-16

INTRODUCTION TO THE LORD’S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

17:1a  Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven (ouranos - where the Father’s throne is), He said, Father, the hour has come.

Jesus offers up this prayer to His Father just hours before the cross. As Jesus prayed this prayer He rejoiced, knowing that He was ready to accomplish the Father’s eternal plan of redemption.

JESUS’ PRAYER AND ETERNAL PLAN OF GOD - 17:1b-5

vs 1b Father, glorify (doxadzō – exalt, honor, magnify) Your Son, that the Son may glorify (doxadzō – exalt, honor, magnify) You.

Having acknowledged that the hour of His death had come, Jesus immediately requested that the Father would glorify the Son, so that the Son may glorify the Father.

vs 2  even as You gave Him authority (exousia – jurisdiction, power, right) over all flesh (sarkos – all humankind), that to all whom (autos – third person personal pronoun, “to all the particular people”) You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

In keeping with God’s eternal plan of salvation, the Son was given authority over all mankind to grant eternal life to all those whom the Father had given Him.

vs 3 This is eternal life, that they may know (ginōskōsin – they may perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand)You, the only true God (monon alēthinon theon - the one and only real God, “all others are false”), and (likewise to know) Jesus (as the) Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah) whom You have sent.

The only hope of eternal life is to have an intimate relationship with God the Father and God the Son as He is revealed in Scripture. To believe in a god other than the true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture and through His Son is idolatry and you might as well be worshiping a rock or a stick.

vs 4  I have glorified You on the earth, having accomplished (teleiōsas – finished, completed) the work (ergon – the task, assignment) which You have given Me to do.

In God’s perfect plan and in keeping with His perfect justice, the Son had to come to earth in order to save those whom the Father had given Him.

vs 5 Now, Father, glorify (doxadzō – exalt, honor, magnify) Me together with Yourself, with the glory (doxa – honor, majesty) which I had with You before the world was.

Having accomplished everything according to the predetermined plan of His Father, Jesus knew that He would be exalted to the place of honor He enjoyed before His incarnation.

JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES AS THOSE WHOM THE FATHER HAD GIVEN HIM 17-6-10

vs 6  I have manifested (phaneroō – I have revealed You, I have explained You, I have made known) Your name (onoma – your person, your being) to the men whom You gave Me out of the world (to the ones you gave Me from this world); they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept (tēreō – they held fast) Your word.

Christ had manifested by His life and teaching the Father’s character, nature, and attributes to those given Him by the Father out of the world. The aorist tense denotes that this was an accomplished fact, one that Christ had perfectly finished according to the Father’s plan.

In vss 7-8 Jesus is the PROPHET who reveals the Father’s will to those that the Father has given Him out of the world.

7-8 Now (at last) they have come to know (ginōskō – come to understand, to perceive) that everything You have given Me is from You (belongs to You, is really and truly Yours); for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received (lambanō – accepted) them and truly understood (ginōskō – to know positively and in reality) that I came forth from You, and they believed (episteusan – to believe with absolute assurance) that You sent Me.

In vs 9 Jesus is the PRIEST who not only dies for those whom the Father has given Him but he prays for them.

I ask on their behalf (I am praying for those You have given Me Father); I do not ask on behalf of the world (the unredeemed world, the non-elect), but of those whom You have given Me (the elect); for they are Yours (they belong to You).

In verse 10, we see Jesus as KING who is over all things and glorified in all things. and all things that are Mine are Yours (belong to You), and (all things that are)Yours are Mine (belong to Me); and I have been glorified (doxadzō – honored, exalted, magnified) in them (in them My glory is achieved).

JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES AS THOSE WHOM HE IS ABOUT TO LEAVE  17:11-16

Soon Jesus would no longer be in the world to protect and care for His disciples, so He calls on His Father to protect them (“to keep them in His name”).

Jesus prayed in verse 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.

Jesus requests that the Father would keep the disciples in His name; that is, keep them holy as He is holy in the midst of an evil and perverse world.

Jesus prayed in verse 12: While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

The fact that Jesus was praying for His disciples and asking the Father to keep them and guard them produced joy in their hearts. If God is for us who can be against us? Could any disciple of Jesus doubt His love for them?

Jesus prayed in verse 12: While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

The fact that Jesus was praying for His disciples and asking the Father to keep them and guard them produced joy in their hearts. If God is for us who can be against us? Could any disciple of Jesus doubt His love for them?

Jesus prayed in verses 13-16: But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

There is nothing that Satan enjoys doing more than to tempt a professing follower of Jesus Christ to fall into grievous sin or fall away from the faith and dishonor Christ and His church.

Ò  And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; One little word shall fell him. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right Man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing: You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth (Lord Almighty) is His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.