John 17:1-11
John 17 is called the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus because He prayed for Himself but also for His disciples and for you and me. This morning, we are going to spend some time with Jesus’ prayer here in John 17.
As we study through Jesus’ prayer in John 17 the next three days, we will observe a number of key words, in fact ten key words in this prayer. Here they are and how many times Jesus uses these words in this chapter:
To give – 17 times
World – 17 times
To glorify – 8 times
To know – 8 times
Word / truth – 8 times
Only / one – 6 times
Name – 5 times
To love – 5 times
To sanctify – 3 times
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FATHER AND THE SON:
A. The Father glorifies the Son:
Jesus’ prayer begins with Him asking the Father to glorify Him, the Son (vs 1). It seems clear that what Jesus is asking is for the Father to raise Jesus from the dead. “The hour has come” in John’s Gospel refers to the hour of His crucifixion. When the Son is raised from the dead, then His resurrection will glorify the Father. The resurrection of Jesus will show to the world that God loves the world; that God hates sin; that God’s plan that was put into motion in the Garden of Eden is a real plan and it is on course to be fulfilled.
The word glorify is found concentrated here in the first paragraph (vss 1-5) and in the next to the last paragraph (vss 22-24). This “glorification” that Jesus hopes and expects in His resurrection is also contingent on Jesus doing what His Father wanted Him to do (vs 4). There is a strong emphasis in the Gospel of John that Jesus did only what the Father told Him to do. That is the essence of obedience. Jesus taught only what the Father told Him to say. That is the essence of sound (healthy) doctrine.
In verse 5, Jesus asks the Father to “glorify” Him with the same “glory” that Jesus had before the “world” (another key word – used 17 times in the text) was created. Jesus, before He came to earth, had the glory of the pure, divine essence, the holy, divine nature before He took on the form of man. He prays that He will receive that glory back once He is raised from the dead and ascends to the Father.
What is the “work” that the Father sent the Son to accomplish? What is the relationship of the Father with the Son?
B. The Father Gave Authority to the Son to Give Eternal Life:
In verse 2, we see that the Father gave the Son authority over all flesh. What does Jesus mean by that? He tells us… that to all whom the Father gave to the Son, the Son could give them eternal life. We see that eternal life comes through the Son. The ones who belonged to the Father who were given to the Son, in this context, are the apostles. They had been faithful Jews, believing in God and following the Law of Moses as closely as possible. What they needed to do, at that point, was to redirect their belief / trust in God to believing and trusting in the Son, Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus is thanking God for – the faith of these followers. It is to them that Jesus has authority to give eternal life.
In this context, eternal life is defined (vs 3) as knowing (another key word, used eight times) the “only” true God and knowing Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. The word / idea of “only” is also a key word in this context, used 6 times. Jesus is clear in this context as He is in everything He says that there is only one way to the Father and that is through the Son and there is only one way to the Son and that is through the Truth revealed by the Son. We’ll see more of the exclusive nature of Christianity once we get to verses 20-23.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue our thoughts from John 17…
Paul Holland
