This matchless chapter contains that great intercessory prayer of Christ for his people which may most properly be called «the Lord's prayer.»
John 17:1. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
What a sight it must have been to see the Divine Intercessor in this his last great prayer before he poured out his soul unto death! We can never read this chapter so as fully to enter into its meaning, for there must always be in it a depth far greater than our experience can fathom. A man must die, and enter heaven, before he can fully realize all that Christ meant when he said, «Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.»
John 17:2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Notice the doctrine of this verse. Here is the mention both of a general and a particular relation to Christ. «Thou hast given him power over all flesh.» Never think of setting a limit to the value of Christ's atoning sacrifice, never dream that you can understand all its influences and all its bearings; by his death, Christ has power over all flesh. But notice also the special purpose and object of redemption, observe how it applies particularly to the elect of God. The motive for the Father's giving to Christ power over all flesh is this, «that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.»
John 17:3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
The knowledge of God, and the knowledge of the Messiah, the Sent One, this is not only life, but it is life that can never die: «This is life eternal.» Have you, dear friend, received this eternal life? Do you know the only true God? Do you know Jesus Christ whom he has sent? Then, at this very moment, you possess eternal life, and you shall never perish, for eternal life is a life that cannot possibly die.
John 17:4-5. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
This is such a prayer as never could have been prayed by a mere man and you cannot understand this prayer at all apart from the manhood and the Deity of Christ combined. No human being could have written such a prayer as this even if it had been proposed to him to write a prayer that should be equally suitable to God and man. It is only suitable to Christ, the God-man, and it is in itself one of the best evidences of the inspiration of Scripture. I dare take my stand upon this chapter alone, and say that here we have the finger of God, the writing of the Holy Ghost, and here we have the very words of him who was God and man in one person.
John 17:6. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
How gracious it was on our Lord's part to say the best he could of his disciples! These twelve men had learned but little of the Divine Word, but they had believed what they had been taught; so Jesus could say of them to his Father, «Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.»
John 17:7-8. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
I want you to notice how the Lord Jesus Christ makes no boast of being «an original thinker.» On the contrary, he says to his Father concerning his disciples, «I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.» I would rather repeat the Word of God, syllable by syllable, than I would dare to think for myself apart from the revealed will of God. What are men's thoughts, after all, but vanity educed from vanity? But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever; it shall abide when even heaven and earth shall pass away. Hence our Saviour lays great stress upon this fact, «I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.» Brother minister, may you and I, when we come to die, be able to say to the Lord concerning our people, «I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.»
John 17:9. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
In this, our Lord's last great intercessory prayer, he was especially engaged in petitions for his own people. There is a sense in which he intercedes for all mankind; but in the higher and more special sense referred to in this verse, Christ's own chosen ones occupied all his thoughts: «I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.»
John 17:10-11. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Christ is God, and therefore, looking into the future, he can speak of his approaching departure as though it had already happened.
John 17:11. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
See the plaintive power of this prayer of a tender heart. First, our Lord shows his love by praying for us, and then by dying for us. Notice what importance he attaches to the unity of his people: «that they may be one, as we are.» Let us all try to «keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of piece.» I suppose that, while we are in this world, we shall never all think alike; but let us all think alike about our Lord, and gather to his name, and feel a holy unity through his Spirit. When shall it be again said that all Christ's disciples have «one lord, one faith, one baptism»? Alas! they rent his seamless robe, and it still remains torn through the schisms and errors which divide his people one from another.
John 17:12-13. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee;
These are sweet words with which to die. Oh, that you and I might have them in our hearts if not on our lips in our expiring moments! «And now come I to thee.» Our Lord thinks nothing of the bloody way by which he was to go to the Father. What though the cross, and nails, and spear, are in the road? He thinks comparatively little of all those terrible things, for he looks beyond them, and he says, «Now come I to thee.»
John 17:13. And those things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Have you ever obtained this blessing, brethren, Christ's joy in you, what is more, Christ's joy fulfilled in you? God grant to all of us to know by happy experience the meaning of this wondrous expression!
John 17:14-15. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
«Do not let the world so besmear and defile them as to do them mischief. Let them keep on as lamps burning in dark places. Take them not out of the world, but keep them from the evil.»
John 17:16-18. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
As the Father took Jesus out of the bosom of his love, and bade him go as his missionary to men, so does Jesus keep us for a while away from the bosom of his glory that we may stop here to be missionaries amongst our fellow-men. Are we fulfilling our calling? Are we justifying the commission which Christ has laid upon us? Oh, that we were doing so to the fullest extent that is possible to us!
John 17:19. And for their sakes I sanctify myself,
«For their sakes I set myself apart,»
John 17:19-20. That they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
This little handful of followers gathered about me,
John 17:20. But for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
In the glass of prevision, Christ saw us, my brethren, and he saw all the myriads, yet unborn, who are to be gathered to his cross, and to bow before his feet, and he prayed for them all: «Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.»
John 17:21-22. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Let us more and more lay aside everything that divides, especially that evil heart of unbelief, and pride, and self-seeking, which is the great sect making faculty. May we get rid of that evil, and come more and more to realize that all men who are really in Christ are of God and must be one. If we are members of one body, one blood courses through our veins, and gives us life. One Spirit is in the one body of Christ. There cannot be two lives, there cannot be two beings within the one body of Christ. All true believers must be one, and truly, if we speak truth to one another concerning our Lord, and especially if we speak much to God together in prayer, we straightway perceive that we are one.
John 17:23-26. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have-known thee, and those have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Here the Master ended his sweet prayer, and went off to his terrible passion in Gethsemane.