John 17--The High Priestly Prayer

John 17
English Standard Version

The High Priestly Prayer
17 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, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 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, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “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. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 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.”

---

Jesus is going to leave most of the disciples behind, but He will tell Peter, James and John to come with Him and to watch and pray with Him as He we filled with sorrow and knew that He was about to be deserted by everyone.  Jesus had some words that He wanted to say out loud to the Father, but He also wanted the three disciples that were closest to Him--His closest friends--to also hear these words and to see the struggle that He faced.  However, we see in other gospels that they were all exhausted from the non-stop action that had been going on pretty much since the resurrection of Lazarus the day before Palm Sunday (so for about a week, as we are definitely after sundown on Thursday night).  The Holy Spirit is going to help John recall the words of Christ here there were prayed during these last hours, even though Peter, James, and John were not very attentive at the time.

Jesus prayed in a way many of us struggle with--He just had a conversation with His Father.  The first thing on Jesus' mind was Jesus would be glorified in a way that would glorify the Father.  He knew that the hour had finally come for why He was sent into the world and we know that the intent of this was that He would be lifted up in a way that would draw all men unto Him so that they would see His glory and glorify His Father in heaven.  (See John 12:32-33).

Jesus, knowing that the disciples are listening, then returns to the idea of the Son giving eternal life to all those who have been given to Him by the Father, and that the Son has been given authority over all flesh.  Why?  So that everyone may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent.  The word "know" that is used here is for a deep, experiential knowledge.  It is not simply an academic knowledge, but is similar to the knowledge that a husband and wife have of each other due to the intimacy where the two have become one.  There is theoretically nothing that they don't know about each other.  God wants that kind of relationship with us where we know that He completely knows us and loves us and we know Him and love Him for all He is and all He has done around us, in us and through us.

Jesus then returns to the idea of glory saying that He has glorified the Father by completing the work that He was sent to do (assuming that Jesus is speaking of what He's about to go through in the past tense because He's committed to go through with it at this point and He knows everything that is going to happen) and His only prayer is that by this the Son would again receive the glory that He had in the presence of the Father before the world came into existence.  The glory of God is something that man cannot look on and live, so Jesus had set this aside for a time, but He is eager to have it restored to Him and to be one with God not only in character and nature, but in essence and glory again.

Jesus now switches from praying about the Father and Son to praying for those who the Father has given Him out of the world--His faithful disciples and the others that have seen and heard and have believed as He walked and talked with for the past three years.  I'm going to just refer to "the Elect" through most of this section, as Jesus is going to apply everything He is saying about those that heard his words and saw His works and believed in Him in the time He was here on earth to those who would come later.  I know this is "reading ahead" a bit, but there is nothing being said in this section that only applies to the Eleven or even to those who believed during the time Jesus was here on the earth.

Jesus says that He has "manifested" the name of the Father among the Elect Since that's not a word we use that often, it means to make known, especially by the ordinary senses, especially the sense of sight.  "To make evident or certain by showing or displaying."  I think this second definition fits with what John is trying to tell us in the Gospel of John because of the "signs" that Jesus performed and Jesus telling the Eleven "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."  His faithful disciples (even those like the woman at the well, the man who was born blind, the demoniac known as Legion, and others) have seen and known who Jesus is by His words and His works (especially the "signs" John talks about), but His purpose in this was to be obedient to everything that the Father told Him to say and do.  So, these words and works are evidence of the existence of, and the nature and character of, the invisible Father God.  Jesus then reiterates that all those who were supposed to believe on the words and works given to Him out of the world by the Father, that is the Elect, have done so.

Jesus continues praying for the Elect as He says to the Father that "all mine are yours and all yours are mine" and He prays that the Son would be glorified in them.  Then Jesus prays for one of the things that I think is deeply on His heart and mind.  He prays for the Elect because He knows He is going away and will no longer be able to protect them or care for them, so He prays for the Father to keep these Elect in His name and that they would be made one just as the Father and Son  (and Holy Spirit) are one.  Jesus also takes this time to say that He has not lost any who belong to Him except for Judas who was not really lost because he never belonged to Jesus but was chosen for the role that he would fulfill so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Verse 13 is a little hard to understand in some of the word-for-word translations, so I'm going to quote it here from a couple other versions that are "phrase for phrase" or "thought for thought" so that I hope you can get a better idea of what is being said:


John 17:13
Contemporary English Version
13 I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do.
​

John 17:13
New International Version
​13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.


John 17:13
New Living Translation
​13 “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.


There are other good translations that I could show you, but I think that probably captures the essence of what is being said a little better than something like the NASB, ESV, or even KJV/NKJV would.  Jesus is returning to the Father and wants the Elect to lean hard on the things that He has said to them so that they may have joy--the kind of joy that Jesus has--even during His absence because it's a good thing that He is returning to the Father and they should be filled with joy because of it.  It is also a prayer for them as they will receive the full measure of the Holy Spirit soon that they will be filled with the joy that comes from God even though they are going to have to live in and among the world and be persecuted and hated by the world because they will not be of this world just like Jesus is not of this world.  Jesus does not pray for them to be taken out of the world but that they would be protected from the evil one who is the ruler of this world for a time.  We know his name as Lucifer, the devil, or Satan.  He is the prince of this world, but he is not the King.

Jesus then prays for the Father to sanctify the Elect--that is to make them holy.  Remember the words written on the turban of the high priest, "Holy unto the LORD" and the commandment to the priests and the people, "Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy." (Leviticus 11:44, 45, 19:2, 20:26 and others).  Jesus asks the father that they be sanctified or washed by the truth because the Word is truth.  (See Ephesians 5:25-26).  Jesus then consecrates (to make or declare sacred; to induct into a permanent office (Jesus being our Great High Priest), see Hebrews 4:14-5:10) so that His disciples could be sanctified--that is made holy--in truth.

Lastly, Jesus is going to pray for the future believers that we may call "the Church" today.  As mentioned earlier, these are also part of the Elect that Jesus was praying for and the first thing Jesus does is to include all future believers into the things that He prayed for those that were alive while He was walking and talking to them here on the earth.  Jesus says that these future believers will believe in Him because of the words of the faithful disciples who are going to be His witnesses and He prays for the sanctification and unity of future believers just as He had prayed for the sanctification and unity of the faithful disciples.

We then see a better description of the unity that Jesus is praying for.  Since we are in Him, and He is in the Father, it is as if the Church is to experience the kind of unity that the Father, Son, and Spirit experience in the Trinity.  This is not simply talking about us being one Body being united under one Head, that is Christ, though it is definitely talking about that (see 1 Corinthians 12).  Then Jesus says something interesting--"the glory you have given me, I have given them."  What does this refer to?  The Holy Spirit?  Does the Church have a glory that we normally don't think about?  I think it's clear by the words of Christ and other Scripture that we do, though it pales in comparison to the glory that is of the Father and the Son.  As we have talked about before, it is like how the glory of the starts and the moon are different than the glory of the Sun.  The sun i bright and blinding and light up everything--it is fierce and both "awful" and "awesome" in its own way and while it is good it is definitely not safe.  The Church on the other hand stands like the moon in the night sky reflecting the glory of God and giving a softer, gentler light in the darkness that doesn't completely expose everything like the light of the Sun, but it tells us the Sun is there and that the Sun will return again soon.  The Church is the light of the world for a time but is evidence that God exists and that the Son of God will be returning one day.

That leads us to the next thing that Jesus prays for...that all of the Elect would one day be united with Him as the Father and Son are about to be reunited.  Jesus prays that time and space would no longer separate Him from the ones that are betrothed to Him because of the great love that He has for us and that we would see the Bridegroom in the fulness of His glory that has been veiled from us for a time, but which will be given to Him once again when He sits at the right hand of the Father and one day when the Father gives the very throne of heaven and earth to the Son once all that is written in the Scriptures has been accomplished.

Jesus' final words here tell us that He knows that not everyone in the world will see an believe.  He has already said in many times that the world that does not know the Father does not know Son because if they knew the Father, they would love the Son as the Father loves the Son.  Jesus says now says this in reverse that He loves the Father and because the Elect love the Son, they will also love the Father.  He has caused them to see the Father and to love Him, and He will continue to do so, for it is the desire of the Son to glorify the Father just as it is the desire of the Holy Spirit to glorify the Son.  Jesus wants us to be loved by the Father like the Father has loved the Son and that He, through the power of the Holy Spirit, would live in and among His people both now and forevermore (as we will see ultimately fulfilled in the New Heavens and the New Earth.