Can there be found, in all the records of mankind, in all the documents that have ever been preserved, anything that can match this record of our Saviour's great intercessory prayer? He seems to pray here as if he stood already within the veil; not pleading in agony as he did in the garden of Gethsemane, but speaking with that authority with which he is clothed now that his work on earth is done. There is as much of the divine as of the human in this prayer, and it is remarkable that in it our Lord does not make any confession of sin on account of his people. He does not come before God here, as it were in form a pauper is, with many pleas, but the burden of his prayer is that he may be glorified, and that his Father may be glorified in him. The words of the prayer are amongst the most simple that could have been selected, but oh, the depths that lie hidden beneath them! I do not think that, this side of heaven, any of us can know to the full the meaning of this wondrous chapter. May the Holy Spirit graciously grant us a glimpse of the glorious truths that are here revealed!
John 17:1. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven,-
Not his hands, as we do who are poor suppliants; but his eyes, indicating whither his thoughts went. He «lifted up his eyes to heaven,»-
John 17:1. And said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
No mere man would have dared to pray such a prayer as this. Jesus asks that he may be gloried by his Father that he also may glorify his Father, he put the two things together: «Father, glorify thy Son that thy Son may also glorify thee.» This is not a plea that is fit for merely human lips. It is Jesus the Son of God who, in receiving glory from his Father, is also able to return it to his Father.
John 17:2-3. As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom though hast sent.
See how he puts himself side by side with God as no mere man might dare to do. Only he who was equal with the Father could venture to plead thus, claiming power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him. Here we learn that it is eternal life to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.
John 17:4. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
«My teaching is all done, my ministry is finished; and though there are still some arrears of suffering, yet those shall be fully discharged in due time. ‘I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.'»
John 17:5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
You must try and think of who it is that is thus pleading, for so you will get at least some faint idea of the intercession of our great High Priest in heaven, for after this fashion he still prays to his Father before the eternal throne.
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.
«They were thine, my Father, under thy direct government, but thou hast transferred them to my mediatorial sovereignty, and thou hast given them up to be mine, in a very special sense, beyond all the rest of mankind and this is one of their distinguishing characteristics, that they have kept thy word.'»
John 17:7-8. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them. Is it so with you, dear friend? Have you received Christ's words the very words which the Father gave to him, and which he has in his turn given to you? O soul, thou art indeed happy if this is the case with thee!» I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them,»
John 17:9. And have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world,»
That is, not in the same special sense as he prays for his people, not with that personal pleading which he offers on behalf of his own chosen ones: «I pray not for the world,»
John 17:9. But for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine
In the 6 th verse, Jesus had said to his Father, «Thine they were; « and here, in this 9 th verse, he says, «They are thine.» They still belonged to the Father, the transference of them mediatorially to the Son having made no change in the Father's relation to them.
John 17:10. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
I can understand a man saying to God, «All mine are thine;» but no man, unless he is something more than man, dares to say to God, «Thine are mine.» But Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, gives all that he has to God, and all that God has belongs to him, so that he can truly say, «All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.»
John 17:11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
It has been well said that this expression, «My Father,» is a binding up of the Old and New Testaments in one. The Old Testament reveals the holiness of God, but it is the New Testament that is peculiarly the revelation of God as the Father. We put the two together, as Jesus does, and thus he speaks, «Holy Father, make my people one, and keep them one.» Let us close up our ranks, brethren. Let us love each other more; and as Christ has prayed that we may be one, let us constantly seek to manifest our oneness among the sons of men,
John 17:12-17. 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; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 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. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth:
How wondrously our Saviour's prayer advances! He asks for his people's unity; he asks for their joy, he asks for their preservation, and now he asks for their purification, their sanctification: «Sanctify them through thy truth:»
John 17:17-20. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
«For these who are already converted, I pray also for those who are not yet called by grace.»
John 17:20-22. But for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 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:
Who amongst us knoweth the full meaning of that wondrous declaration?
«The glory which thou gavest me I have given them:»
John 17:22-23. That they may be one, even as we are one: 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, and thou hast loved me.
What a glorious assurance is that! It amazes us to know that the Father has loved us even as he loved his Son.
John 17:24-26. Father, I will that they also, whom thou had given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these 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.