John17: 1 to 5
*“John Knox, on his death-bed in 1572, asked his wife to read to him John 17, ‘where’, he said, ‘I cast my first anchor.’”
*This is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus. .The simplicity and beauty of the words show the person of Christ as a son, a friend, and as advocate/paraclete. AS we hear these words, we are given a standard of prayer that transcends time.
*“There is no voice which has ever been heard, either in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than the prayer offered up by the Son to God Himself.” (Philipp Melanchthon German theologian)
*In this prayer Jesus prays for himself, his disciples and then for all believers. As we break up and examine this prayer, be open to the spirit to receive and be touched.
*Because this intercession corresponds to the role of the high priest elsewhere in the New Testament (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25-26) and because Jesus uses sacrificial language when he refers to sanctifying himself (17:19), this prayer has been known as the High Priestly Prayer. In the fifth century Cyril of Alexandria saw these two activities as fitting for the one who is “our great and all-holy High Priest” (In John 11.8).
*This prayer gathers many of the key ideas found throughout the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Echoes of the teachings of the Lord reflected in this prayer for himself, his disciples and all believes. So, let us begin.
John 17 (HCSB)
:1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said:
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son
so that the Son may glorify You,
2 for You gave Him authority over all flesh;
so, He may give eternal life to all You have given Him.
3 This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God,
and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ.
4 I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.
5 Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You
before the world existed.
*John G. Mitchell (An Everlasting Love [Multnomah Press], p. 321) wrote, “If there is any chapter in the Bible that would reveal the deity of the Son of God and His equality with the Father, it would be this chapter.”
*Steven J. Cole the pastor of Flagstaff Christian Fellowship from May 1992 through his retirement in December 2018 wrote this “This prayer, along with His subsequent prayer in the garden, steeled Christ to endure the hostility of sinners against Himself (Heb. 12:3). To be faithful witnesses in a world that is hostile to the gospel. This prayer reveals Christ’s raw courage in facing the cross! He was resolute because He knew God’s plan and He submitted in prayer to that plan. What we learn here will help us to do God’s will when we face the hostility of this evil world.
*As we look at this prayer you will see some echoes of the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray.
But that is something for another time.
17:1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said:
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You
As he begins to pray Jesus looks up towards heaven and God the Father. This attitude is in marked contrast to His falling on His face in the garden soon after this prayer. This chapter, of all the chapters in Scripture, is the easiest in regard to the words, the most profound in regard to the ideas meant. He prays to the Father, and at the same time teaches His disciples how to pray.
(pat-ayr’) father, (Heavenly) Father, Father this one word fills us with power and majesty. He doesn’t say our father, he doesn’t say my father, but father. A cry of a son to the father of all creation.
Charles Spurgion said of this “Father”! This was the night of his deepest sorrow and his heaviest woe, but he begins his prayer with this tender expression, “Father, the hour is come;” the hour of darkness, the hour of his passion and death, had now arrived.
Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
In truth, our Lord’s lowest moment was his highest glory. He was never more brilliant than when he hung upon the cross, that was his true spiritual throne, so he prayed, “Glorify thy Son,” — Enable him to bear the agony, and to pass through it to the glory.” “That thy Son also may glorify thee.” The death of Christ was a great glorifying of God. We see his love and his justice rendered more glorious in the death of Christ than they would have been by any other method.
Oh, the love of Christ and the love of God did shine, as the greatest sacrifice was made.
By his death the law, the truth, and the mercy of God were honored. By the spread of his gospel and the conversion of sinners; by all that Christ will do, now that he is glorified, to spread his gospel, God will be honored. The conversion of a single sinner honors God;
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
In this verse you get the doctrines of general and particular redemption blended. By his death, Christ obtained power over all flesh; his death had some relation to every man that has ever and will live.,
*William Burkitt in his commentary which C. H. Spurgeon regarded Burkitt’s commentary as a “goodly volume,” and recommended “attentive perusal” of it says
The dignity which Christ was invested with, power over all flesh: that is, authority to judge and sentence all mankind and How Christ came to be invested with this power; it was given him by his Father: Thou hast given him power over all flesh. Hence the Socinians would infer, that he was not God, because he received all from God; but the text speaks not of his divine power as God, but of his power as Mediator and that all mankind is under the power and authority of Jesus Christ as Mediator: he has a legislative power, or a power to give laws to all mankind; and a judiciary power, or a power to execute the laws that he hath given. And to that end for which Christ was invested with this power: That he might give eternal life to as many as God hath given him.
Life eternal a laying out of the plan of God to those that would hear this prayer and a reminder to God of what he has left to do to fulfill that plan.
V3 This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ
The knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ is itself a source of unspeakable and eternal joy.
but a life of acquaintance with God in Christ
(Job 22:21) 21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
that they might know] Literally, in order that they may recognize;
‘the only true God’ is directed against the many false, spurious gods of the heathen. This portion of the truth was what the Gentiles so often failed to recognize.
Simply to have heard that there is a Savior is not to know it. To have been taught in childhood and trained up in the belief of it is not to know it. To know him is to have a just, practical view of him in all his perfections as God and man; as a mediator; as a prophet, a priest, and a king. It is to feel our need of such a Savior, to see that we are sinners, and to yield the whole soul to him, knowing that he is a Savior suited to our needs, and that in his hands our souls are safe.
Albert Barnes wrote “In this verse is contained the sum and essence of the Christian religion, as it is distinguished from all the schemes of idolatry and philosophy, and all the false plans on which men have sought to obtain eternal life. The Gentiles worshipped many gods; the Christian worships one – the living and the true God; the Jew, the Deist, the Muslim, the Socinian, profess to acknowledge one God, without any atoning sacrifice and Mediator; the true Christian approaches him through the great Mediator, equal with the Father, who for us became incarnate, and died that he might reconcile us.”
the One You have sent—Jesus Christ
This portion of the truth the Jews failed to recognize. This is the only place where our Lord gives Himself this compound name, afterwards so current in apostolic preaching and writing. Here the terms are used in their strict signification—”Jesus,” because He “saves His people from their sins”; “Christ,” as anointed with the measureless fulness of the Holy Ghost for the exercise of His saving offices.
V.4 I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.
I have glorified] Better, I glorified. In self-assured anticipation Christ looks backs from the point when all shall be accomplished, and speaks of the whole work of redemption as one act.
All the preparations for that death were made.
He had preached to the Jews; he had given them full proof that he was the Messiah;
he had collected his disciples; he had taught them the nature of his religion;
he had given them his parting counsel, and there was nothing remaining to be done
but to return to God.
Albert barns made this statement about this verse” “I have finished the work.” How happy would it be if men would imitate his example, and not leave their great work of life to be done on a dying bed? Christians should have their work accomplished, and when that hour approaches, have nothing to do but to die, and return to their Father in heaven.
V5 Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You
before the world existed.
With thine own self – In heaven, granting me a participation of the same honor which the Father has. He had just said that he had glorified God on the earth, he now prays that God would glorify him in heaven.
With the glory – With the honor. This word also includes the notion of happiness, or everything which could render the condition blessed.
Before the world was – There could not be a more distinct and clear declaration of the pre-existence of Christ than this. It means before the creation of the world; before there was any world. Of course, the speaker here must have existed then, and this is equivalent to saying that he existed from eternity.
In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god.
Jesus says before this world was formed, I stood in the gap as the true bridge between god and man.
Jesus had laid aside his glory for our sakes, now he asks the father that, his work being regarded as done, his glory may be given to him again.
Great truths simply stated but at times are hard to think about.
Prayer is speaking to father and waiting for an answer. Take your time when praying, sometimes there are public prayers like this one. Most of the times there are those uttered in private that no one ever hears but God himself. Those are the ones we lay bare our souls and minds to the father of all.