Jesus' High Priestly Prayer (Part 1c) Series

JESUS’ HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

(Part 1c – Jesus’ Prayer For Himself)

John 17:1-5

Throughout Jesus’ high Priestly prayer it is evident that Jesus’ greatest desire was that God would be glorified. In verse 4 Jesus says “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do”. For us to fully grasp the content of the following verses we must first address the words “glory” and “glorify”. In our modern vernacular these words are seldom used apart from a church context.

The NKJV Study Bible contains a useful word study for the word “glorify”. This Greek term means “to give glory,” or “to make glorious.” It was one of John’s favorite expressions concerning what would happen to Jesus as the result of His crucifixion and resurrection (see 7:39; 12:23, 24). These events would show the world that Jesus was no ordinary man. The resurrection, especially, would show that He was the glorious Son of God worthy of all honor. In His final prayer, Jesus asked the Father to be glorified alongside of Him (that is, in the Father’s presence) by means of the glory He had with the Father before the world existed. In other words, Jesus was praying to enter into that pristine state of coequal glory with the Father, a position He possessed from eternity as God’s only Son (see 1:1, 18). He would enter into that glory in a new way—as the God-man, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. (Nelson, Thomas. NKJV Study Bible, Full-Color (p. 6571). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

Throughout this prayer it is evident that Jesus’ greatest desire was that God would be glorified. He declares that He has “glorified (God) on the earth and finished the work” which God had given Him to do. In the previous verses Jesus has declared that God had given Him “authority over all flesh” so that He “should give eternal life to as many as (the Father) had given Him”. What is this eternal life? Jesus says that it is “knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom (He has) sent.”

Jesus’ hour has come, His death is imminent; in less than 24 hours He will be handed over to His enemies and crucified. Everything that He has done up to this point and everything that would soon take place was all done in order to glorify the Father. Jesus’ entire life and ministry had brought honor and glory to God. His arrival on earth brought God glory. There are over 300 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament scriptures. These passages told where He would be born, what He would do, what He would say, how He would die and that He would rise.

Jesus left Heaven, came to earth and every step of the way He fulfilled these prophesies and in the process brought glory to the Father. He is the promised “seed” who would crush the serpent’s head that God spoke about in Genesis 3:15. He is the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. He was born in Bethlehem just as it was promised in the Book of Micah. Eight days after His birth He was circumcised and then a few weeks later He was dedicated in the Temple, each of these things brought glory to the Father. Even those silent years when Jesus lived in submission to Joseph and Mary in Nazareth brought glory to the Father.

At the beginning of His earthly ministry “Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him” (Matthew 3:13). Matthew goes on to tells us that “when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him”. Following this, the Father spoke from Heaven and proclaimed His delight in His beloved Son: “behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

Every single aspect of His earthly ministry glorified the Father. Every sermon He preached, parable He shared and lesson that He taught, whether publically or privately brought glory to the Father. Every rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees and every word spoken before the Sanhedrin or the Romans glorified the Father. Every piece of bread and fish that was broken and every single fragment that was left over when He fed the multitudes glorified God. Every blind, deaf, mute or lame person that was healed with the touch or His hand or the sound of His voice glorified the Father. Every leper that was cleansed, every demon that was cast out and every corpse that was raised brought glory to the Father. These things glorified God because they revealed Him to the multitudes.