Inside The Prayer Of Jesus.

INSIDE THE PRAYER OF JESUS.

John 17:6-19.

Jesus was aware of the power invested in Him to bring “all flesh” (John 17:2) under the sound of the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-19), and to give eternal life to such as the Father gave Him (John 17:2). This is a great mystery, wrapped up as it is in what we call the doctrine of election (John 17:6; John 17:9-10). This teaching, incidentally, does not take away from the duty of the individual to respond to the Gospel (John 3:16).

Jesus imparts eternal life in order that His disciples might know the true and living God (John 17:3). This is only possible through “Jesus Christ” - the anointed Saviour - sent by God. It is accomplished through the manifestation of the Father in the Son (John 17:6; John 14:9), the impartation of spiritual knowledge (John 17:7), and the receiving of Jesus’ words (John 17:8).

It is a great marvel that Jesus does not view us as we might view ourselves. It is Jesus’ decided opinion that the men whom He had often challenged with the very littleness of their faith “have kept thy word” (John 17:6), have “received” the words of God, and have “believed” (John 17:8). The Father in heaven also looks upon us not according to the failings of which we are all too aware, but in the light of our association with His Perfect Son.

Jesus’ first petition (John 17:1) had been that the Father would receive Him back into the glory from which He had condescended to come (Philippians 2:6). Now He prayed for His disciples: for the eleven first (John 17:9), but also for all who would follow them (John 17:20). Jesus did not pray for the state of the world, but (in the words of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer) for “the whole state of Christ’s Church.”

The grounds of Jesus’ prayer for the disciples are that they are God’s people, and that they have been entrusted to the Son by the Father. Those who belong to Jesus - and those alone - belong to God. It is truly wondrous that even our little faith and our faltering obedience glorify His name (John 17:10).

Again, Jesus speaks in the prophetic perfect, as if the things of which He spoke had already come to pass (John 17:11). To His mind it was as if He had already left the earth and returned to His Father, and He was aware of how vulnerable His disciples would feel without Him. Jesus had reassured the disciples that He would not leave them comfortless (John 14:18); now He prayed that the Father would keep them (John 17:11); and later He also promised His own continuing presence with us “to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

In the second part of His prayer, our Lord addresses the “Holy Father” (John 17:11). This epithet is unique, but understandable. Jesus is about to pray for the disciples’ sanctification (John 17:17).

John 17:11. He prays that they will be “kept through the name” of God. Throughout the Old Testament, the LORD had introduced Himself through His various attributes, under various names. Now it is a new name, the name of Jesus, by which we may come into the presence and under the protection of the Father.

Jesus prays for the disciples because they are those whom the Father has given to Him. He prays that they may have the type of unity which reflects the oneness of the Godhead. This is a high standard which Church may aim at, provided it is understood that godly unity does not compromise the essential truths of the Christian faith.

John 17:12. During Jesus’ earthly ministry He had been keeping the disciples on behalf of His Father, like a shepherd guarding the sheep. Now He was about to be taken away from them. At this point in time none of them was lost except, He says, “the son of perdition.”

In the Greek language, the strong term “son of destruction” may refer either to the character or the destiny of Judas Iscariot. Jesus does not finally cast away any whom the Father has entrusted to Him (John 6:37), so either Judas was not a true disciple, or the reference is only to his death rather than his eternal destiny. The expression is a Hebraism, like King David’s use of the expression “son of death” which is translated as “worthy to die” (1 Samuel 26:16; 2 Samuel 12:5).

Jesus was fully aware that the defection of Judas Iscariot was in fulfilment of Scripture (Acts 1:16-20). Thus, the Old Testament is brought forward by the New as being fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Every detail of His ministry had been mapped out beforehand.

John 17:13. Speaking as if His death, resurrection and ascension were already in the past, Jesus was “now” coming to the Father. He left us His peace (John 14:27; John 16:33), and prayed that His joy might be fulfilled in His people. It is truly amazing that Jesus was thinking about His own joy at such a time, but as God He sees the end from the beginning (Hebrews 12:2-3).