"Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You'" (John 17:1)
We know from places like Romans 8:34 precisely what Jesus was and is doing while seated at the right hand of God the Father – He is making “intercession” for those in humanity, which means He is praying for people like you and me. And you might wonder, WHAT is He praying? We can see in the Gospels that Jesus often went off to some quiet place and prayed. What did He ask for? We can see that He prayed for humanity while on the cross, crying out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). What would have happened to humanity if He had not prayed that prayer? When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He saw more than the physical pain that was soon to be upon Him. This Innocent One knew that He would bear our sins and cried out, “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me” (Luke 22:42).
Blessedly Jesus in the anguish of that moment added, “not My will but Yours,” and the Father said “No” to the Son’s request or we would have no remedy for our sins. Jesus died on that cross for humanity, for you and for me. With Him we have everything; without Him we have nothing at all.
We’re going to look into John Chapter 17 this week, as Jesus called out to the Father in what truly is “The Lord’s Prayer,” opening His heart and showing us our need. The words of that prayer were etched into the heart of the young John the Apostle, who listened intently to Jesus and then, decades later the aging John wrote the words so we would see God’s prayer for us.
Here’s John 17, the cry of the Lord’s heart for people like you and me:
In Verses 1-5, Jesus indicated that the Father would “glorify” the Son and the Son would glorify the Father. Notice the certainty of Jesus’ prayer. There was no doubt in Him. The Son was about to go to the cross and die for our sins and nothing would stop the will of God. The work was already “finished” in His sight. We are given “eternal life” through the Son, defined as personally knowing the Father and the Son. And note here that Jesus was with the Father “before the world was.” There was a time when humanity, this earth, the universe, none of what we call “reality” yet existed. But the glory and love shared by the Father and the Son already was.
Jesus, God the Son, became a man, and as said in Verses 6-8, He “manifested” God’s name to the “men” and women the Father gave to the Son in this world. If you have faith in the Lord, you have been given to the Son by God the Father. Jesus’ disciples had shaky faith at best, but they had heard the words that came from the Father through the Son and did believe that Jesus was sent by God to Israel, to the people of this world – to them. And He has been sent especially to you.
He prays for His people, as seen in Verses 9-11. This is not a prayer for the world, but for those given to the Son by the Father, and He reminds the Father what He already knows: you are His. You belong to the Father and to the Son. I remember a professor in a class in college who held up a coin, a quarter, and told us to look at it. In revealing these verses to us he said, as he closed his fist around the quarter, “You are in Christ,” and as he closed his other fist around the one that held the quarter, he continued, “and you are in God.” Jesus Christ, as said in Verse 10, is “glorified” in His people. It’s not that we have done so well, but that God has provided for us.
And what is His prayer? – That we may be “one” as the Father and the Son are “One.” He did not pray merely that we will be theologically or doctrinally correct in all our thoughts and words, or that we use all the spiritual gifts. He did not pray that we memorize the Bible or pray continually, though those things are good. He asked “that (we) may be one…” We all have a common denominator that is expressed in a children’s song: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, we are weak but He is strong…” Jesus said in another place in Scripture that we must “become as little children” and if we do, we begin to find that we are “one.”
In Verse 12, Jesus brought the ones we call the “apostles” (“sent ones”) to the Throne of God. He “kept them,” just as He is keeping His people right now. We can observe that none of them was lost except Judas Iscariot, the man who was meant to be lost because He never trusted in the Lord, though he had the same opportunity as the other eleven. The betrayal of Judas was foretold by David in Psalm 41:9 – “My friend… who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against Me.”
Those who have faith in the Lord are intended to know His “joy,” as you can see in Verses 13-16, but that joy is not from this world. Just as the world hated Jesus, we will be hated “because (we) are not of the world” anymore, “just as (Jesus is) not of the world.” You might conclude that God would take us all out of this crazy place immediately, but there is PURPOSE for us here, and instead we are to be protected “from the evil one.” We are of God through faith, but we are in this world.
His prayer continues in Verses 17-19, that we are to be “sanctified,” which means we are set apart from the purposes of this world, brought into the Kingdom of God and placed into God’s will. The truth of God’s Word does this work in us. And note that His people are like ambassadors from heaven to humanity. By trusting in Christ we are citizens of His Kingdom, sent here for His purposes and in His time.
And if you don’t think this prayer of Jesus is about you and me, read carefully the words of John 17:20-21 – “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Then His prayer is that you and I will be “one,” in the same manner that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. Have you wondered why the whole world doesn’t embrace the wonderful gift we have in Jesus Christ? Part of the problem is that the world is selfish and does not want to be “one” with God and others. The other problem is you and me – They don’t think He is real because Christians are divided.
The glory of God expressed through us is that we who would normally be suspicious of one another are one in Christ Jesus, whether we “get it” or not (Verse 22). His prayers are always answered and this prayer will come to pass - the divisions between us are only temporary as seen in Verse 23. And all this has a great purpose: “That the world may know that (the Father has sent the Son).” All are to see through our love for one another that God loves us as He loves the Son.
We don’t know where this place we tend to call “heaven” is, even though it is our home. But we are already there, even though we don’t see it because we are with Jesus the King right now. We are to “behold (His) glory” (Verse 24) and we do see His glory right now because of the love of the Father and the Son which is from “before the foundation of the world.”
God the Father is infinitely “righteous” as Jesus expressed in Verses 25-26. He is beyond the ability of this world to understand Him, for He is wonderful. We would not have known Him at all, except that God the Son took human form and declared His wonder first to that ragtag group we call the “disciples” (“students”), and then through them, to the rest of us. They came to know through what He said and did that the Father sent Him, and then shared their eyewitness testimony to all who are willing to read God's Holy Word, the Bible.
Jesus concluded the prayer with these words: “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.” God has literally been shown to us in and through Jesus Christ. The overwhelming aspect of God that we need to see is His love. He really loves you and me. By giving ourselves to the Lord, the love that God the Father has for His Son becomes ours as well. We are one in the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
Thank You Father, that we are one in Christ Jesus. We don’t see it or understand it, we just – receive. We trust in You, Lord, that Your prayer is answered and we are one. Please remove the walls in our hearts that we may truly love our brethren in Christ. In Jesus Name. Amen.
