Think with me about the people who have prayed for you in your lifetime. Think about your personal times of crisis where you needed someone to pray for you. Now, when you picture this, who is praying for you? For many of you, your mothers and fathers have prayed for you. I imagine many of your grandparents have prayed for you as well. People who carried your name before God when you were too young to even know what prayer meant. Some of them may have prayed daily, quietly, consistently, without ever telling you. But of all the people who have prayed for you, surely knowing Jesus prayed for you is at the top of the list.
Find John 17 with me, if you will.
Jesus is only hours from His death and resurrection. On the eve of Jesus’ painful death, He prays to the Father. Now, the entire chapter 17 is one prayer from Jesus.
Look with me at what is classically known as the High Priestly Prayer. When you are reading John 17, you’re standing on holy ground.
Today’s Scripture
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:1-5).
Many of you know we have been studying the gospel of John, moving verse by verse, starting in Christmas of 2023. We arrive at what is a really important and theologically rich passage here. We are going to spend only one Sunday because I’m attempting to sync up the end of John’s gospel with our celebration of Easter. Yet, we should do so much more than 1 Sunday on this. Oliver Cromwell’s chaplain preached 45 sermons on this one chapter alone.1
Sermon Preview
1. Jesus Prays for Jesus
2. Jesus Prays for the Twelve
3. Jesus Prays for You
1. Jesus Prays for Jesus
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you’” (John 17:1).
1.1 Who Y’all Sitting With?
Have you seen the little game on social media that usually starts out if you’re stuck on a plane for 12 hours, then it gives some choices on who you would choose to sit next to? You choose once, and you don’t get to switch seats. I have seen this meme with Star Wars characters from the films. There’s a political version where various politicians are scattered throughout, and you must choose who you’ll sit with. I have even seen a Christian version of this where famous Christians are scattered throughout the plane, and you must decide who to sit with. But if I were stuck in any place for 12 hours or more, and I had to listen to any two people, I would choose God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is praying, and maybe the simplest way to define prayer is simply talking with God. Wouldn’t you love to eavesdrop on a conversation between Jesus and the Father? You eavesdrop on God talking to God. It’s as if the veil has been pulled back and you’re getting a glimpse of God’s very heart here. Think of this as the Mount Everest of all prayers.
1.2 The Trinity
The teaching of the Trinity is the background in many places in your Bible. The Trinity is that there is one God who eternally exists as three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Trinity in John 17 is not in the background, instead it’s in the foreground. You cannot miss it. Throughout the prayer, you’ll hear Jesus direct His prayers to the Father (verses 1, 5, 11,21, 24, and 25).
1.3 An Overview
By the way, this prayer isn’t a stand-alone prayer. Instead, this prayer is the capstone to Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. Remember, all of chapters 14 through 16 were the longest continuous message we have of Jesus. Jesus delivers all of this last-minute message just before He is crucified. Now, Jesus prays at this decisive hour. And the Gospel of John offers us the longest recorded prayer Jesus offers in the Bible.
This is a remarkable prayer. Don’t think of Jesus’ thinking in this prayer as linear. Instead, think of it as a spiral. With every step of this prayer, Jesus goes deeper. Jesus is going to circle, where He’s going to add layers of depth along the way.
1.4 The Hour
Jesus begins His prayer with “Father, the hour has come” in verse 1. This is the last of 9 times Jesus has referred to “the hour has come.” Jesus doesn’t mean a precise sixty-minute time. Instead, Jesus knows this is a decisive time. We might say, “The weekend has arrived!” Of course, Jesus is talking about these approximately 72 hours beginning with Jesus’ death on the cross, and culminating with His resurrection. This was the hour to which every hour pointed! This is the hour by which we divide time itself from BC and AD. Stop and consider the amount of planning the Trinity had put into these 72 hours. God had planned this weekend’s events from eternity past, long before Adam and Eve were on the earth. This was the hour when all of humanity and history hung in the balance. And Jesus knew it.
1.5 He Lifts His Eyes toward Heaven
The Bible says Jesus looked up to the heavens as He prayed. Can you picture Jesus looking straight up into the sky? The Bible shows Jesus praying 25 times while He was on the earth. The Bible says Jesus knelt in prayer (Luke 22:41) and fell on His face to pray (Matthew 26:39). Jesus even prayed while lifting up His eyes and fixing His stare on heaven (John 11:41; 17:1). But here, Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven.”
1.6 Father
In the model prayer, Jesus says, “Our Father.” But here, Jesus simply says, “Father.” Later on in verse 11, Jesus will say, “Holy Father.” Remember this: God is our Father when we embrace Christ by faith. This isn’t automatic, but it’s a conscious decision you must make. So, you can enjoy God as your Father when you come through Christ.
Now, Jesus is the Son of the Father in some ways that you and I can never be. If you were there to hear Jesus say “Father,” then you would sense how entirely appropriate it is for Jesus to call God “Father.” When Jesus says “Father,” it shows His love for God. When Jesus says “Father,” it shows His confidence in God. When Jesus says “Father,” it shows His complete resignation to God’s will for His life.2
1.7 Glory
There are six unique “asks” through this prayer.3 Here’s the first one: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”
We don’t often use the word “glorify” in everyday language. The word “glorify” can mean “to praise” or even “to honor.” Yet, here Jesus is asking the Father “to clothe Him in splendor.”4 In fact, in verse 5, Jesus asks the Father to return Him to the splendor Jesus shared with the Father before the world began. To be clear, it’s not just that the Son and the Father seek to clothe one another in splendor. No, because in John 16:14, we see that the Holy Spirit is involved in this, too.
1.7.1 Before the Foundation of the World
Look down at the end of verse 24, where Jesus prays, “you loved me before the foundation of the world.” The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been praising one another, loving one another, and making one another infinitely happy from when eternity had diapers on. God is motivated to receive glory: Everything God has done, everything God is doing, and everything God ever will do is all for the purpose of showing us His glory (Romans 11:36). These Three in One have been pouring love, praise, and honor out to one another from the very beginning of time. Marvel with me how God pulls back the curtain ever so slightly to show us what He’s doing before earth was formed! God creates humanity not because He was lonely – a thousand times no! God was infinitely happy before we came along. God creates us so we can join Him in worship so we can be included in the happiness the Trinity enjoys.
1.7.2 Jesus’ Death
Now in verse 1, Jesus asks the Father to “glorify” so that He can “glorify” the Father. So, it’s a reciprocal clothing of splendor. Here, Jesus is praying that the name of God will stand out before all other names. And how will Jesus receive glory in this decisive hour? Jesus is praying, “Father, send me to my death.” He’s praying, “Now is the time, the time for me to glorify you by dying.” He prays, “Father, send me to my death that I might glorify you.” You and I should regularly pray for God to be honored by the moments of our lives.
1.8 Why Pray?
Note carefully that Jesus says the Father has given Him “him authority over all flesh” in verse 2. If Jesus has all authority answering to Him, why is He praying? Why does the second person of the Trinity, the One who is coequal with the Father and coeternal with the Father, feel the need to pray? Jesus prayed because so much of God’s eternal plans hung in the balance at this hour. When I think of Jesus’ physical agonies, His mental torture, and the spiritual darkness He experienced that weekend, why wouldn’t He pray! When you consider that all the powers of earth and hell were let loose on Him.
When you consider that the Father’s face was hidden from Jesus until Jesus cried, “Why have you forsaken me?” Why wouldn’t He turn to God in prayer? Behold the power of prayer! When you consider that Jesus never even flinched from the torture with anything but submission to His Father and kindness toward those who sought to kill Him, behold the power of prayer! Yet, He accomplished what even 1,000 Samsons couldn’t do. Yes, this was the hour of glory, and not even the shimmering glory of 1,000 angels could compare to Jesus’ accomplishments on the cross.5
Jesus was beaten. They spit on Him. They blindfolded Him and pierced His hands and feet. He was questioned once with Caiaphas, a second time with Pilate, and a third time with Herod. Yet, Jesus didn’t tell anyone off in an angry speech that weekend. Angels and archangels would have failed to accomplish what Jesus did on this weekend of glory. This one man alone bore the enormous load of human guilt for all of us in Christ. Yes, even Jesus needed to pray at this momentous hour.
1.9 A Paraphrase
I like how one Christian paraphrases the essence of Jesus’ prayer here: “Father, please help me to say and to do the right things this decisive Weekend; give me the strength and the wisdom to go through the trials and [the] cross just ahead so that I can make a full and clean atonement for the whole world’s sins, as you and I so deeply want. And then especially, Father, please raise me up again after I am put to death in order definitively to conquer death and to show the world, decisively and comfortingly, that death has, in fact and not just in myth, been conquered in history. I want this Weekend to be everything you and I have hoped it would be for the world and for the Church, the bearer of our message to the world. Please help me and them.”6
1. Jesus Prays for Jesus
2. Jesus Prays for the Twelve
“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9).
2.1 A Prayer for Protection
Jesus now turns to praying for the Twelve Disciples. It’s obvious Jesus is praying for the Twelve because He mentions His time with them at the beginning of verse 12. Jesus knows He’s going away, as you can see in the beginning of verse 11. So, Jesus prays that God will keep His followers safe in verses 11 and 12. Right in the middle of verse 11, Jesus prays for the Twelve’s protection: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me.” Again, in verse 12, Jesus prays, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction.” Then in verse 15, Jesus continues this same theme: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” He’s praying against satanic attack: “Father, help them overcome temptation.” Marvel with me: as Jesus steps towards the cross, He is praying for the protection of His Disciples. He begs His heavenly Father to keep them safe. And God, the Father, answered Jesus’ prayers here. Every single one of those men lived out a faithful testimony for the Lord’s glory.
2.2 A Prayer for Distinction
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
“Sanctify” is the Bible’s way of saying “God, clean them up. Make them holy.” Jesus is praying for the Twelve to be set apart, to be distinct. Repeatedly, the Bible says, “God is holy, and we should be holy” (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter:1:15-16). Earlier this week, I sent a text to someone I greatly love where I encouraged them to set aside daily time to read their Bible and pray.
Here’s what I wrote: “Having a time every day where you read your Bible and pray will help you live by godly convictions. It will act as a compass for a crazy world, so you’ll hear the voice of God.”
Note that Jesus doesn’t want us to withdraw completely from the world as evidenced by His words in verse 15: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Jesus sent the Twelve on a mission as He does every single believer like you and me: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). He wants us to live distinct while in the world. Do you pray for those you love to be sanctified in the truth? Do you pray for your personal holiness? Do you want to live by moral convictions?
2.3 The World
I counted 18 times Jesus uses the word “world” in this prayer.
The word “world” is repeated 18 times in Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is praying about the disciples the relationship with the world. Five times a phrase appears in the same paragraph. It’s the phrase “in the world”, they are in the world. Another 7 times the phrase “of the world” appears.
So, here to sum it up, Jesus says, “Here’s the relationship, and this is why this is so dangerous.” They’re “in the world,” but they’re not “of the world,” and to top it all up, if you look down on verse 14, something else.
“…the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
You’re in it, you’re not of it, the world hates you. It’s hard to be in something that you’re not a part of because it hates you. Don’t be conformed to this world, or don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold, one translation puts it (Romans 12:2). What does it mean to live in the world but not be of the world?
3.4 Letter to Diognetus (Die a knee tus)
20 or 30 years after the New Testament was completed, we have a very, very ancient Christian document.
It’s called the Letter to Diognetus.
Diognetus was a non-Christian, and somebody wrote him a letter trying to explain Christianity. Christianity was taking the world by storm, spreading rapidly, and it was new. Nobody knew much about Christianity. This is how the early Christians were described:
“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life.… With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives.”
“Let me tell you why Christianity is spreading so fast. Christians busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They live in their own native lands, but they live as aliens. For every foreign country is to them as their native land, and every native land is as their foreign country. They marry and have children, but they do not kill unwanted babies. They share their table with everyone, but they don’t share their bed with everyone. They love everyone but are persecuted by all. They are poor and make many rich. They are short of everything and yet have plenty of everything. They are treated outrageously but behave respectfully. They are mocked and bless in return. When they do good, they are attacked. When they are attacked, they rejoice as if being given new life.”
Here’s the paraphrase: “They share their beds with none but their spouses and their money with all.”7
1. Jesus Prays for Jesus
2. Jesus Prays for the Twelve
3. Jesus Prays for You
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).
Jesus prays for all disciples. He prays for all believers everywhere. And He prays for you.
3.1 Prayer Reveals Our Insides
You can learn a lot about a person by listening to them pray. If you could follow me around for a week and listen to my prayers, you would learn a lot about me. You would see my heart.8
How does Jesus pray for you?
3.2 A Prayer for Unity
Jesus prayed “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” in verse 21. A.W. Tozer wrote that you can have 100 pianos in a large hall.9 You can tune the first piano, and then if you tune the second piano to the first, and the third to the second, and all the way to the 100th piano, those 100 pianos would be out of tune, and the result would be ear-screeching disharmony.
On the other hand, if you tune each of those 100 pianos to a single tuning fork, all 100 pianos
would produce beautiful music in harmony.
What’s the lesson? You don’t model your life after me, or her, or him. Our model is Jesus. It’s not just so they will be able to have a nice time together and belong to a great church. It’s “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21). Jesus wants us unified so Jesus’ words are verified and vindicated by the outside world. Jesus is our tuning fork.
3.3 A Pray for Love
Watch how Jesus finished His prayer: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
Jesus prays that we would know the great love that He shares with the Father.
Let me speak to just one genuine child of God for a moment: you don’t understand how unbelievably blessed you are, how incredibly valuable you are, and how unbelievably loved you are.
Conclusion
Every time you witness Jesus praying, it is “Holy Father,” or “Abba Father,” or “I praise you, Father.” Jesus is always saying, “Father,” except one time. One time He cried out to God not as a child. He didn’t say, “My Father.” He didn’t say, “Holy Father.” He didn’t say, “Abba Father.” Instead, on the cross, Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). It happened only once.
What was happening there? Jesus was being thrown out of the family, as it were. He was rejected for us. He got the punishment we deserved, so we can get the love He deserved.
I invite you to pray with me in just a moment. I’m going to invite both believers and non-believers to pray with me in the moments to come.
Believers, don’t pull your stuff together right now. Believers, don’t exit the room right now, getting to your next thing. There is a battle between heaven and hell right now. Pray for those in this room and those on livestream.
Prayer
Father, I take my hands off my life. I stop trusting in the things I’ve been trusting in, and I trust in what you have done for me, and I trust in Christ.
EndNotes
1 R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 390.
2 C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol XXV (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1879), 163.
3 Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012), 960.
4 D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991). 554.
5 C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol XXV (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1879), 166/
6 Bruner, 967.
7 http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010522_diogneto_en.html; accessed February 15, 2026..
8 https://gabc-archive.org/wp-content/uploads/s061420.pdf; accessed February 15, 2026.
9 A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1948), ?.
