John 17:1-2. 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: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Here we have the two doctrines of a general and a particular redemption. Through his death, Christ has power given him over all flesh, but the distinct, especial object is the salvation of his own «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.
To know God in the sense of being acquainted with him loving him abiding in fellowship with him this is life eternal. To know God in Christ Jesus is to be saved indeed.
John 17:4. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Which no other man could ever have said not even Adam in his perfection, for his work was not finished; and, alas! how marred it was before it came near to finishing! And the most gracious man that ever died could not, in his last moments, say, «I have finished the work which them gavest me to do,» for it was still imperfect. There were many things which he would wish to have done, and many error which he would wish to have rectified; but our Lord is more than man, and rises to this point «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.
«I have disrobed myself to be thy servant. Clothe me again with the garments of my majesty. Let me come back to the palace when I shall have passed through the stream of death.» So far is the prayer for himself. Now he prays for his people.
John 17:6-7. 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. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
«They have not accepted me as a human teacher on my own account, unsent and uncommissioned, but they perfectly understand that there is a union between the Father and the Son. The things that thou hast given me are of thee.»
John 17:8. 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.
There are great depths in these words. One of the greatest of German divines always refused to preach from this chapter, for he said he felt that few of God's people had a sufficient measure of faith to understand it; and when he came to die, he had this read to him three times before he fell asleep. There is a world of wonderful mystery. Though the words are short and plain, yet the sense is fathomless.
John 17:9. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me; for they are thine.
There is an intercession of Christ which is for all the world, but his choicest intercession his effectual prayer is for his own. Nothing, perhaps, makes men so angry as this statement. They cannot endure that God should dispense his gifts according to his own will; but so it standeth true. There is an intercession in which none have a part but his own. «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.
They will be left therefore. The shepherd will be gone. They will seem to be like orphans with their best friend departed.
John 17:11-13. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with therein 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.
He asks not only that they may be kept and so unharmed, but that they may be comforted, and so made glad. O sad hearts, hear your Redeemer's prayer for you and do not doubt that it is answered «that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.»
John 17:14. 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.
If nobody hates you for being a Christian, are you a Christian at all? If you find that you run with the general herd, and swim with the current, can you be a follower of that Christ who was despised and rejected of men?
John 17:15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Not that they should shut themselves up in monasteries and convents. That is not the prayer of Christ. «I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.»
John 17:16-19. 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. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Sanctify myself consecrate myself set myself apart for their salvation that they also might be sanctified, consecrated, set apart through the truth. Now comes a third part of the prayer, in which he pleads for the whole church for that part of it at that time not saved for the unborn ones for us.
John 17:20-21. Neither pray I for these alone, 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.
Our Saviour knew how apt we should be to split up into sects, and to be divided into parties, and so he prays again and again that we may be one. Cultivate the spirit of Christian affection. It there be divisions, let them not come through you. Contend earnestly for the faith, but also let us love one another.
John 17:22-23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; 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, as thou hast loved me.
Surely the passage seems to culminate here. These words rise like the peak of a mighty Alp almost out of our sight into the clear brightness of heaven «hast loved them as thou has loved me.» Now, believer, thou canst not fully comprehend this, but believe it that as surely as the Father loves the Son, as and after the same manner also he loves you without beginning, without measure, without change, without end «Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.»
John 17:24-26. 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 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 we may be in them,
Let us read that wonderful passage again «that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.»
John 17:26. And I in them.
Sacred, mystical union! May our souls enjoy it day by day.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 32:1; John 17:1.