John 17:1. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, thee hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
The hour has come. The most important, the darkest, the most dreadful hour of Christ's life was come. But he had only one thought in his mind. «Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.» Beloved, when our hour comes and we shall have hours of darkness may we have nothing on our mind but that, that God would help us to glorify his name. We shall not dread suffering if that be our one desire, became we shall see that suffering often gives opportunities to God for manifesting his own glory in the patience of his people.
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.
I think this verse is a solution of the problem about general redemption and particular redemption. Christ, by his death, has obtained power over all flesh. There is a universality about his redemption, but the object of it still was that he should give eternal life to «as many as thou hast given me.» There is a specialty and peculiarity about the grand ultimate result and design of the death of our Lord. Let us believe both truths.
John 17:3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Is the knowledge of God life? Is the knowledge of Jesus Christ life? It is even so. But what a blessed form of knowledge this is! It is taught to us by the Spirit of God in a special and remarkable way. This is life eternal.
John 17:4-6. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou invest 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. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
The best the clearest manifestation of the name or character of God is to be found in the person, the life, the work, the love of Jesus Christ. Well did he say in another place, «He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.» «I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.»
John 17:6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
It has been their treasure. They have preserved it as a priceless blessing. They would never let it go.
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 invest 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.
Now that description of the people of God in Christ's day is true of us today. We have received the words which the Father has given the Son, and we believe of a surety that the Father has sent Jesus Christ into the world.
John 17:9. I pray for them:
Oh! how emphatically true this is! Christ always prays for them for them, one by one with most effectual prevalence. It is because- he prays that any of us are preserved. «I pray for them.»
John 17:9. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me:
There is a specialty in intercession, as well as in redemption. «I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.»
John 17:9-11. For they are thine. 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.
And now they are left. Their great guardian and protector has gone. They have no visible Head left. «I am no more in the world, but these are in the world.» You and I know that we are in the world. The world makes us know that. We are in an enemy's country. We are in a land which is not our rest; and however happy our portion may be an Christ the world takes care that we should understand that we are aliens and foreigners in it; hurrying through it towards our abiding home.
John 17:11. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are.
Do all that you can, beloved, to promote the unity of the people of God, not only on the larger scale, wherein all churches snail be brought together in loving accord, but also on the smaller scale among your own friends, and those Christian brethren who are in your own church. Let none of us break the concord. Oh! may we always be of a gentle, generous, Christlike spirit, that we may be one, as the Father is one with the Son.
John 17:12. 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.
It is, perhaps, more wonderful that there were not more like Judas than that there should have been one like him. I wonder whether we can hope that in our churches there would be found as few as one in twelve who are not in heart with Christ. It is very wonderful that the rest should have been kept, and that this son of perdition should have been left to perish.
John 17:13-15. 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.
Either by death, or by shutting them up in monasteries, or causing them to dwell in caverns alone. «I do not pray for that.» Do not take them out of the battle, but save them from the deadly arrow.
Help them to play the man, and win the victory, and not desert the colors.
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.
Do you recognize your mission, dear friends? Do we all catch it? that, as truly as Christ was the messenger of the Father, so every believer is the messenger of Christ. You are sent into this world to do an errand, not for yourselves, but for your Master. Are you doing it?
John 17:19. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Christ sets himself apart for us, that they may set us apart for him. Have you realized this, my brother that you are dedicated to Christ that every breath you breathe, and thought you think, and word you speak, and act you do, should all be done as unto him? He lived alone for you.
Live alone for him.
John 17:20. Neither pray I for these alone.
These saved ones.
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; that they may be one, even as we are one;
Christ prays for us before we believe, and we believe in answer to his prayer. Oh! what glorious words. The very glory which the Father gave to the Only-begotten has that Only-begotten handed over to his people. «that they may be one, even as we are one.»
John 17:23. 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.
Now drink that in all the sweetness of it that the Father has loved his people even as he loved his Only-begotten.
John 17:24. 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 then lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
He will not be in glory, and leave me behind him. He is a bridegroom that cannot be satisfied unless his bride be a partaker of all his joy. He is so one with us, that as the head can never be content to be crowned, and the rest of the body be disgraced, so neither could Christ. We must be, if he wills it, where he is. We must behold his glory; we must share it.
John 17:25. O righteous Father, the world hath not know thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
It is delightful to hear Jesus praying in this way for us, side by side with himself, though we are unworthy of so unspeakable an honour; praying for us as if his own self, his own glory, depended upon our safety. If Christ prayed thus for us, how ought we to pray for one another!
John 17:26. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it:
As long as the Christ lived, he showed forth his Father's glory, and so should we. If we have declared it, we should say, «And will declare it.» «That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.» Thus the glorious union stands. May we always rejoice in it.
John 17:26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.