THE LORD'S PRAYER
b) for His disciples
John chapter 17:5-19
The Lord Jesus prayed for full restoration to the glory and fellowship (chapter 1:1) He enjoyed before the Incarnation (chapter 1:14). This is not just ideal pre-existence, but actual and conscious existence at the Father's side "which I had" (or I used to have), "before the world was": these words reflect the certainty with which Jesus himself spoke of His existence prior to Incarnation. He had made Himself of no reputation, … coming in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7).
The little baby in Mary's lap so much celebrated at Christmas was the Son of God, and He could have spoken this universe out of existence. He wasn't just partly God; He was, and is, the full essence of God. He emptied Himself of His prerogatives of deity and glory for the relatively short time He was on earth.
A lot is made of the shepherds, and the angels and the wise men who came to see Him. He is the Lord of glory, and the whole creation, the whole world should have been at the birth of the Lord of glory when He came to earth. Although He could have claimed such homage, instead He laid aside His glory. Now He was ready to return to heaven, back to the glory which was His own.
By "I manifested Your name …" He again states the successful accomplishment of His task of revealing the Father to His disciples. He regarded them as the Father's gift to him (vs. 2, 6, 9, 11, 12). They had held on to the message of the Father in spite of doubt and wavering (chapter 6:67-71; Matthew 16:15-20). They had come to understand and believe that all He did and told them proceeded from the Father. They knew who He was, that He had come from God, and they believed that God had sent Him (chapter 16:30).
The Lord did not pray for the world at that time, nor does He pray for it today: His ministry of intercession is for His own who are in the world, who have come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). He died for the world, and there is no more He can do for it apart from sending the Holy Spirit into the world to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement.
No creature can say to God "all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine," only the Son of God Himself. He said "I stand glorified in them" in spite of all the shortcomings and failings of His disciples. The whole purpose of our salvation is to bring glory to Jesus Christ.
Christ would no longer be physically present in the world, and His disciples needed care in His absence. He therefore asked the Holy Father (note the name for God) to keep them in His name, that they might be one (in will and spirit) in the same way as He and the Father are one.
We are kept by the Father because we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and our Saviour prays for us. Notice that He wasn't praying to us (or to some church authority); He was praying to the Father. The Father has answered every prayer of His Son, and He has answered this one. We are united by the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. "There is one body and one Spirit, just as we were called in one hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all" (Ephesians 4:4-6).
This is the organic unity which God has made: the Holy Spirit takes all true believers and baptises them into the body of Christ and identifies them in the body of Christ. This body is the only true church of Christ over time and space, and every believer in Jesus Christ is a member of this church.
It is a disgrace that down here professing Christians are divided into denominations, and have set up groups and national and international institutions calling themselves churches under ecclesiastical hierarchies. This prayer has no bearing on the ecumenical movement among them.
The Lord Jesus then declared that, while He was in the world, He had kept the disciples in the Father's name: like a shepherd watching a flock of sheep for his father. He had not lost any of them except for the son of perdition (the name also used for the antichrist - 2 Thessalonians 2:3), which means one who has chosen in favour of final loss (not annihilation). A sad and terrible exception, already forecast in Scripture (Psalm 41:9).
The reason why He made this prayer while He was still in the world was, He explains, so that His disciples might keep on having His joy in their faithfulness realised in themselves. In other words, they would rejoice in the knowledge that He was happy with them. He did not want them to be sad, always pondering on their shortcomings, just as He does not want us to be long-faced, solemn Christians. He came so that our lives might be filled with joy: His joy.
The Lord had given the disciples the Word of God; because they had received it and obeyed it, the world would hate them, just as it hated the Lord himself. The Word of God causes problems in the world today. The Bible is the most revolutionary Book in the world. It is revolutionary to teach that you cannot save yourself, that only Christ can save you, and that the world cannot be cleansed from injustice, hatred, and other ills if it doesn't submit to Him. That's revolutionary, and the world doesn't like to hear it. It prefers to plant a few flowers and try to clean up pollution. The problem is that the pollution is in the human heart.
The Lord says He doesn't pray that his disciples be taken out of this world. This would be full deliverance from evil for them, but they are needed to spread the gospel of salvation to mankind. He does, however, pray that the Father should keep them from the evil one (meaning Satan, but also possibly the evil deed). God gets glory by keeping us in the world today.
We think of the Rapture as wonderful, and as bringing glory to God, and so it will be. The Holy Spirit is weary of this world, and grieved, just like we are, and He is saying "come" just like the bride (Revelation 22:17). But the Lord Jesus prays not that we should be taken out of the world, but that we should be kept from the evil one, Satan. And the Father does what He asks.
We find things to be hard down here, and He said they would be hard, "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Knowing this enables us to endure more easily our problems, tensions, difficulties and temptations. The more we as believers realise that we are not of this world, the better shall we fulfil His will and accomplish His purpose.
To sanctify means to dedicate or set apart persons or things to God (Exodus 28:41; 29:1, 36; 40:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). The believer is set apart from the world, and is committed to a task to be done in the sphere of God's truth, God's Word (not human speculation, but God's message to us) which reveals the mind of God. As we read the Word, we are led to set ourselves apart for His service. We can serve Him only as we know His Word and are obedient to it.
In the same way as Messiah was sent into the world, He sent His disciples into the world - the verb used is apostellô, from which comes the noun apostle. It was the very verb used of the original commission of these men (Mark 3:14) and the special commission (Luke 9:2) and the renewal of the commission after the resurrection (John 20:21).
The Father sanctified the Lord Jesus to his holy ministry (chapter 10:36), and Christ sanctified Himself in obedience to the Father in word and deed for our sakes. In the same way, having been sanctified by the Word of God and the action of Jesus Christ, the believer needs to sanctify himself through further instruction in the Word of God and personal dedication to His service. Just as He set Himself apart for our sakes, we ought to set ourselves apart from the world to serve Him. We have been left in the world to bear a witness to Him, to glorify our Lord and Saviour Messiah.
R David Jones
5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7 "Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
8 "For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9 "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10 "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 "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.
13 "But now I come 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 pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.