JESUS’ HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER
(Part 2c – Jesus’ Prayer For His Disciples)
John 17:6-19
Throughout our study of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer we have listened as the Savior prayer for Himself. We have heard His declaration of the purpose of His ministry to the Disciples and we will see how He prayed for all who would come to faith in Him. In our selected text for this session we will hear several important requests that Jesus makes to the Father on behalf of the Disciples. As we return to this passage, let us examine:
A. JESUS’ REQUEST FOR THE DISCIPLES
Though His work of redemption is complete and He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus’ ministry of intercession is an active role that continues today. We are unable to enter into the Throne Room and listen to Jesus’ prayers of intercession, but I believe that this prayer gives us a good indication of some of the things that He prays on our behalf. There are several important requests that Jesus makes on behalf of these men who had been faithful to follow Him throughout His earthly ministry. First of all we see that:
1. JESUS PRAYS THAT THE DISCIPLES WOULD BE UNIFIED
v11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
Once again it is apparent that Jesus is anticipating His glorious return to Heaven. He speaks in the past tense as if He has already accomplished the work that had been given to Him and ascended to Heaven. “I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You”. This highlights the reality that nothing and no one would be able to prevent the Savior from carrying out God’s divine plan of redemption.
Jesus addresses the God as “Holy Father”. William MacDonald says that “Holy speaks of One who is infinitely high. Father speaks of One who is intimately nigh.”
Jesus asks that the Father would keep the Disciples and that “they may be one as We are”. The scriptures make it clear that there should be unity among the followers of Christ. Jesus desired that His followers experience the same eternal unity that was enjoyed by all three members of the Trinity. Though He knew that He would soon depart this world, Jesus also knew that His Disciples would remain. It was His desire that they would be united in harmony and love in the same way as the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
Jesus will echo this sentiment in His prayer for all believers in verses 21-23, there He said: “May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me”. The kind of unity that Jesus desires for His Disciples is only possible through the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Not only did Jesus request that His Disciples would be unified, verse 13 shows us that:
2. JESUS PRAYED THAT THE DISCIPLES WOULD BE FILLED WITH JOY
v13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
There were many times in the Gospels when Jesus went away from everyone (including His Disciples) and spent time alone with God in prayer. There was a reason that He prayed this specific prayer in the presence of His followers. He did so as a means of comforting them, encouraging them, instructing them and bringing them joy. In this brief prayer Jesus gave them a glimpse of the prayers that He would be praying for them in Heaven while they remained on the earth.
I am certain that when these men were threatened, beaten and facing martyrdom for the sake of Christ, they were strengthened and encouraged to remember these words that He had prayed on their behalf. It must have been a source of great joy for them to know that their friend, Master and High Priest was on the throne interceding on for them.
- Not only did Jesus pray for His Disciples to be unified, He also prayed that they would endure. Notice:
3. JESUS PRAYED FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE DISCIPLES
v11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Jesus said, “keep through Your name those whom You have given Me”. Knowing that His followers would remain on earth after His ascension, and knowing that they would face temptation, opposition and persecution He asked God to “keep them through His name”. Up to this point in time Jesus had kept them in the Father’s name. v12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept….
While He was with the disciples, the Savior kept them in the Father’s name; that is, by His power and authority. This protecting power of Jesus is seen in the following chapter. When Judas and the soldiers arrived to arrest Jesus, He asked them “Whom are you seeking?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus answered, "I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way," that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, "Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none" (John 18:7-9). Jesus prayed that the Father would continue to keep these men in His name after His departure. Though they faced extreme persecution and ultimately death, these men were safe and secure eternally because of the keeping power of God.
Notice that Jesus did not ask the Father to take the Disciples home to Heaven. v15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. Jesus knew that it was necessary for the Disciples to remain, to grow in grace and to be His witnesses here on earth. It was His divine plan to use these men (and those who would believe in Him through their labors) to spread the Gospel in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” Knowing that they would remain, and knowing all of the hardships that they would endure, Jesus asked the Father to “protect them from the evil one”. Obviously this is a reference to Satan. Jesus desired that His followers be protected from the Devil and all of the evil forces that he has at his disposal.
We are assured that Satan was defeated through the finished work of Jesus Christ. But for the time being he is still very real and very active in this world. As he has done throughout the ages, Satan seeks destruction. He wants to destroy believers, to harm the church, to suppress the message of the Gospel and to stop the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom. Thankfully we can rest in the promise that Jesus gave to Peter that “the gates of hell will not prevail”. (Matthew 16:18 I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.)
Like those first Disciples, we will face Satan’s attacks as long as we are in this world. However, we can rest in the fact that we belong to the all-powerful God and He will protect His own.
The Psalmist proclaimed His confidence in the Lord’s protection in - Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
The Book of Acts and the Epistles show us that the Apostles of the Lord certainly faced much opposition and intense persecution as they served the Lord. Though their lives were far from trouble free, they were able to live and serve with full assurance that nothing and no one could alter their relationship with the Lord.
Paul explained this well in – Romans 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are able to live with the same confidence that Paul proclaimed in these verses. We are also able to live with comfort and assurance that no matter what we face in this life, we are safe and secure because of our relationship with Jesus. Furthermore, we possess great hope in the fact that He is “at the right hand of God interceding for us”. We can be sure that one of the things that He is praying on our behalf is that we would be “protected by the Father”.
- As we continue to verse 16 and 17 we will see that:
4. JESUS PRAYS FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE DISCIPLES
v16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Jesus gives a powerful endorsement of His Disciples in verse 16; He proclaims that “they are not of the world”. Obviously the Disciples were still in the world, but they no longer belonged to this world.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Though these men had many faults and failures, Jesus was confident that they were not “of this world”. He was so certain of this fact that He could confidently say to the Father that “they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world”.
In the same way, we are still in this world, but as followers of Christ we must not be of this world! For us to be completely removed from the evils of this world, we would have to go out of this world. But we cannot isolate ourselves from this world, and that is not what God would have us to do. One of the main reasons that we have been left here is so that we can reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How do we do this? We do this by surrendering to the Holy Spirit within us and proclaiming God’s Word to a lost and dying world. In the process however, we must fight the ever-present temptation to become like the world or to yield to the evil influences in the world. For this to happen, we must read, study, apply and share God’s Word.
In the following verse Jesus said, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”. Sanctification is to set aside something or someone for a particular use. God performs His sanctifying work in our lives through the Spirit and the Scriptures. When we consume and grow in God’s Word, when we obey what we read we are continually set apart and worthy vessels that are suitable for the Master’s use. This was Jesus’ desire for His Disciples back then, and it is His desire for us today. Jesus seeks a people who are set apart for God, not of this world, and vessels that can be used by God to accomplish the task that He has assigned.
John MacArthur says “The idea of sanctification is the setting apart of something for a particular use. Accordingly, believers are set apart for God and His purposes alone so that the believer does only what God wants and hates all that God hates. Sanctification is accomplished by means of the truth, which is the revelation that the Son gave regarding all that the Father commanded Him to communicate and is now contained in the Scriptures left by the apostles.” (Nelson, Thomas. NKJV, MacArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition.)
Jesus loved His Disciples; He called them, choose them and commissioned them to be His representatives on earth after He was glorified. These men were special to Him, so special in fact that He prayed to His Father and made several important requests on their behalf.
1. Jesus asked the Father that they would be unified.
2. He prayed that they would be filled with joy.
3. He prayed for their protection and endurance.
4. He prayed that they would be sanctified.
Back in John 15 Jesus called these men His friends. Because they were His friends He prayed for them. Ultimately Jesus would lay down His life for His friends. This is truly a beautiful passage, but as we continue to read further we will see something even more beautiful and that is the fact that Jesus prayed for us as well. Furthermore, He continues to make requests to the Father on our behalf today!
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