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THE LORD'S PRAYER

a) for Himself

John chapter 17:1-4

This chapter contains the Lord's Prayer, in which He prays for Himself, for His disciples and for His church. This is one of the most remarkable chapters in the Bible.

It is, with Solomon's prayer when he dedicated the temple (2 Chronicles 6:14-42), the longest prayer in the Bible. It is said that the Upper Room Discourse is like climbing a staircase or like climbing a mountain, climaxing in this prayer.

This is the Lord's high priestly intercession for us. It is probably a revelation of the communication which constantly passes between Him and the Father in heaven. His entire life was a life of prayer. He began His ministry by going into a solitary place to pray. Often He went up into a mountain to pray and spent the night in prayer. He is our great Intercessor. God always hears and answers His prayer just the way He prays it (chapter 11:41-42).

This prayer contains seven petitions:

1. that the Lord Jesus may be glorified as the Son who has glorified the Father (v. 1 see Psalm 2:9-11)

2. for His restoration to the eternal glory (v. 5);

3. for the safety of believers: from the world (v. 11), and the evil one (v. 15)

4. for the sanctification of believers (v. 17)

5. for the spiritual unity of believers (v. 21)

6. that the world may believe God sent Him (v. 21)

7. that believers may be with Him in heaven to behold and share His glory (v.24).

Five gifts are mentioned, given by Him to those whom the Father gave Him:

1. Eternal life (v. 2);

2. the Father's name (vs. 6 and 26 - see also 20:17);

3. the Father's words (vs. 8,14);

4. His own joy (v. 13);

5. His own glory (v. 22).

Seven times He speaks of believers as given to Him by the Father (vs. 2, 6 [twice], 9, 11, 12, 24). Jesus Christ is God's love-gift to the world (chapter 3:16), and believers are the Father's love-gift to Jesus Christ. It is Christ who commits the believer to the Father for safe keeping, so that the believer's security rests upon the Father's faithfulness to His Son Jesus Christ.

The Lord stopped speaking to His disciples, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and addressed the Father (this was His usual way of beginning his prayers). He then spoke to the Father not only for their benefit, but also for ours, so that we might know what He prays for as our great Intercessor today.

This is indeed the Lord's Prayer, not the Model Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount which He taught to the disciples (for example, it could never be the prayer of Jesus to say, "forgive us our debts, our sins", for He never had any sins). By the same token, we can never pray this prayer of John 17, for this is His prayer.

The Lord first mentioned that the hour was come. This was the hour that had been set back before the foundation of the world, when the Lamb of God was to be slain for the sins of mankind. At this hour all creation would see the love of God displayed and lavished as His son died a vicarious, substitutionary, redemptive death for us, providing proof of His approval and acceptance on the Resurrection.

He began by praying for Himself: "Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You". He had already used the world "glorify" for his death previously (verse 31). He did not ask merely for strength to meet the Cross, but for the power to glorify the Father by his death and resurrection and ascension.

The death of Christ would demonstrate that God is a loving Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Then the Son would be raised from the dead, ascend back into heaven, and receive a name that is above every name, that at His name every knee should bow to Him.

Authority over all flesh would be a presumptuous and impossible claim if made by a mere man (see also Matthew 11:27, 28:18; Luke 10:22); the Lord Jesus has power over all flesh! He could make this universe and every individual in it bow to Him. He could bring us all into subjection to Him and make robots out of all of us if He so wished. But that is the last thing He would want to do.

So He gives eternal life to as many "as the Father has given him" i.e., "whoever believes in Him" (chapter 3:16). That is a legitimate offer to every person. Of course, any one who turns down this offer, will remain dead in his sins and subject to certain condemnation.

The knowledge of the only true God is through Jesus Christ (chapter 14:6-9). It is not the amount of knowledge we have but the kind of knowledge that is important: it is whom we know. In the same way, it is not the amount of faith we have but the kind of faith that is important. Spurgeon said: "It is not your joy in Christ that saves you. It is Christ. It is not your faith in Christ, though that is the instrument. It is Christ's blood and merit."

The facts are that Christ, the Messiah, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Our knowledge of these facts and our response to that knowledge is faith. Faith is trusting Christ as our own Saviour. Life eternal is to know (or to keep on knowing, or to know more and more) the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent; Jesus is His name as Saviour, and Christ is His title: the Messiah, the Anointed One sent by God.

To know Him means to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, which brings us assurance. This is the reason why the study of the Word of God is so important. Without it, people stay on the fringe of things and are never sure they are saved. Anyone without the assurance of salvation is either unsaved or is just a babe in Christ.

Christ was not going to his death a disappointed man, as some people think, but as the Messenger who has successfully completed His task. He hadn't died on the Cross yet; but, as far as God was concerned, He spoke of the future as if it were past. Our Lord Jesus was going to the Cross to die and then would rise again. On the Cross, He said, "It is finished" (chapter 19:30). That meant our redemption was finished. He had done everything that was necessary. We cannot add anything to His finished work.

Therefore, the gospel of salvation is not what God is asking us to do, but what God is telling us that He has already done for us. It is our response to that which saves us.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,

2 "as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.

3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

4 "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.