The Son Prays to His Father

The prayer recorded in John 17, the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, is undoubtedly the greatest prayer ever prayed anywhere. It's not a long prayer, but oh, it is a deep and profound prayer. It is not the length of our prayers that makes the difference; we are not heard for our much praying. It is the depth, it is the strength of our praying that makes the difference.

Our Lord Jesus in John 17 gives to us the opportunity of listening as He talked to the Father. Just think of the privilege we have of opening the Word of God and listening to God the Son talking to God the Father in prayer. And I think it would be good for us today just to get an overview of this chapter. And so let's look at John 17 from three different viewpoints. Let's look at the setting of the prayer, and then the wording of the prayer, and finally the meaning of the prayer to believers today. 

First, the setting of the prayer. Our Lord Jesus had been with His disciples in the upper room. "With great desire," He said, He had wanted to meet with them, and they celebrated the Passover. He instituted the Lord's Supper. He even washed their feet, you'll remember, and He taught them. In John 13:1 through John 16:33, we have our Lord Jesus teaching His disciples about prayer, about the Father, about heaven, about the Holy Spirit, about love—instructing them as to how they can live the Christian life in His absence. Then, having concluded His instruction, our Lord prayed for His disciples. 

Now, this is an important truth; I want you to lay hold of it: the Word of God and prayer go together. Paul in Acts 20:32, when he gave his great benediction to those Ephesian elders, said, "And now, I commend you to God"—that's prayer—"and to the word of his grace"—that's the Word of God. And so the Word of God and prayer go together. Jesus taught the Word and then He prayed, and you and I should do the same thing. Preacher friend, when you get home from church, go off by yourself and pray for your congregation. I like the custom that I have experienced in Canada and in the British Isles—after the service has concluded, when you've sung the closing hymn and you've had the benediction, the congregation sits down. The first time I saw this happen, I didn't quite know what was going on, and then I realized they were meditating on the Word and praying before they left the house of God. 

Now, the Lord Jesus prayed for His disciples because they needed it, and in this prayer, He also prays for us. There's a second aspect to the setting of this prayer: it was not only the climax of His ministry to the disciples before the cross, it was our Lord's preparation for the cross. He was about to endure not just physical agony—many people have been crucified—but the spiritual agony of being separated from His loving Father. He was going to be rejected by His nation, He was going to be denied by Peter, He was going to be betrayed by Judas, He was going to be forsaken by the entire band of disciples. He was going to be abused, His rights were going to be taken away from him, He was going to be crucified. And on the cross, He would suffer the punishment of all the sinners for all the sin of all the world. And in preparation for this, He prayed.

Now, this says something to me about the practical Christian life. Our Lord Jesus approached the cross by praying to His Father. I don't know what you're facing, I don't know what you're going through. You may be contemplating surgery, you may have a lawsuit around the corner. I don't know what's coming into your life. I know this much: the best way to prepare is to pray. The climax of our Lord's ministry to the disciples—the Word of God and prayer go together—and the preparation of our Lord for the cross. He talked to His Father about glory.

The second aspect or viewpoint we want to take is the wording of this prayer. Now, there are three divisions to this prayer. I don't think there's any need to alter this outline; it is the one that everyone uses, and I think it's the right one. In John 17:1 through John 17:5, the Lord Jesus prays for Himself: "Father, glorify thy Son." And His great concern in these first five verses is the glory of God. In fact, five times He uses the word glory or glorify because His great concern is the glory of God.

Now, that says something to me. When I pray, I wonder if my first concern is the glory of God. I doubt that. I'm sure there are many times I have prayed and my first concern was my own comfort or my own desires. When our Lord came to pray, He prayed for Himself, but He prayed that He would bring glory to God. Now, it isn't wrong to pray for yourself. Some unskilled person might look at this prayer and say, "Well, the Lord Jesus opens this prayer praying for Himself." Well, of course! He's God. He's God in the flesh. He's about to accomplish the greatest work ever accomplished on earth. He had every right to pray for Himself. So John 17:1 through John 17:5, He prays for Himself and the focus is on the glory of God. 

Then John 17:6 through John 17:19, our Lord prays for His disciples. Now, this includes us because we are His disciples, but in a very special sense, He was praying for the eleven who were going to be going with Him and then for Him out into the world. In John 17:6 through John 17:19, He prays for His disciples, and there are two fundamental requests here. In John 17:6 through John 17:12, He prays for their security, that they might be kept. And in John 17:13 through John 17:19, He prays for their sanctity, that they might be kept holy. That's important. He prays for His disciples that they might be kept—that's security. And He prays that they might be pure—sanctity. He says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." These are two great blessings that we have in Christ: we do have security and we do have sanctity. We are being kept by the power of God, and we are being made holy as we yield to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Then in John 17:20 through John 17:26, our Lord prays for the whole church. He prays for those who are going to believe on Him through the witness of the apostles and the continuing work of the church. And the focus here is on unity. Over and over again, He talks about "that they might be one." Not uniformity, but unity—that they might have that spiritual oneness among all who believe. 

Why should we study this prayer today? I want you to notice John 16:33, the last thing our Lord said before He prayed this prayer: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace." Now, the better you understand what our Lord taught in the upper room, the more peace you're going to have. Then He went on to say, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." It was not going to be easy. "But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." It's interesting to note that in John 17, the word world is mentioned 19 times. That's astounding, isn't it? 19 times in His prayer our Lord talks about the world.

What is He saying in this prayer? Well, many things, but the one I'd like to emphasize is this: in this prayer, our Lord is telling us how we overcome the world. You see, worldliness is a problem among Christians. Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world." James said, "Keep yourself unspotted from this world." "Whosoever is a friend of the world is the enemy of God." How do we overcome the world? What are the characteristics of the world system around us? I think there are at least four. We're living in a deceived world—living on substitutes. People have idols, they have false gods, they have unreality. A deceived world. We're living in a dangerous world—the devil's out there as a roaring lion trying to devour. The world would capture us, the flesh would ruin us. We're living in a dangerous world. We're living in a defiled world—this world is dirty. We can get polluted by the world. 

Now, would you look at the prayer with this in mind? We live in a deceived world, but in John 17:1 through John 17:5, we have reality in Jesus Christ. "This is life eternal," John 17:3, "that they might know thee the only true God." We have reality in Jesus Christ. We have God's life. John 17:6 through John 17:12, we have security. It's a dangerous world, but we have security because we have God's name. John 17:6: "I have manifested thy name." God's life, God's name.

We live in a defiled world, but we have sanctity because we have God's Word. John 17:17: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." We live in a divided world, but we have unity because of God's glory. John 17:22: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." You see, in this prayer, there are four very marvelous gifts that Christ has given us. His life, John 17:2 and John 17:3, the gift of eternal life—we have reality. John 17:6, God's name—we have security. John 17:17, God's Word—we have sanctity. John 17:22, God's glory—we have unity. No wonder the Lord Jesus said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

John writes his Gospel to give evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ—that He is the Son of God, He is God the Son, He is eternal God. So when you read John 17, you're going to find many, many proofs in this prayer that Jesus is God. He begins His prayer in John 17:1 with "Father." Now, when He taught us to pray, He said pray in this way: "Our Father." But Jesus never prays "Our Father." He prayed "Father"—that direct appeal to God. Now, we often pray "Father," but not in the same sense that Jesus could, for Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.

Notice John 17:2, here's a second evidence that Jesus is God: He gives eternal life. "As thou hast given him power"—and that word power means authority—"authority over all flesh." Now, nobody in this world has authority over all mankind. The greatest dictator, the most far-reaching politician does not have authority over all mankind. Only God can claim that. Authority to do what? That He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And so when you have Jesus as your Savior, you have life. Now, this proves to me that He is God. We could stop right here: only God can give eternal life. 

Notice John 17:3. In John 17:3, He equates Himself with God. Notice please: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ." Now, suppose it read like this: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jeremiah the prophet." "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Thomas the apostle." Of course not! There's only one name that could ever stand equivalent with the Father, and that's the Son, and of course the Holy Spirit, since all three are members of the Godhead. "That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ."

You'll recall in the upper room that the disciples were quite concerned about knowing the Father. In John 14:1, they had questioned Him. John 14:7, Jesus said, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." Philip saith unto Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us"—we'll be satisfied. Jesus saith unto him, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" You see, in John 17:3, He says when you know Jesus Christ, you know the Father, and when you know the Father, you believe in Jesus Christ. "That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ." 

Now, something else is true here. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God. Did you notice that? "Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," there in John 17:3. In John 17:8, "they have known surely that I came out from thee." John 17:18, "As thou hast sent me into the world." John 17:21, "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." John 17:23, "that the world may know that thou hast sent me." John 17:25, "these have known that thou hast sent me." Six times in this prayer, He says, "I have been sent by the Father." Now, in one sense, all of us are sent by the Father. He said, "As the Father hath sent me, so send I you." But there's something different here: He was sent from heaven. When you read the Gospel of John, He said, "The Father sent me. I'm here because the Father sent me." He was sent from heaven. He came forth from the Father and He goes back to the Father. John 16:28: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Now, only God can say that. I have been sent by God as one of His ministers, but not in the same sense as the Lord Jesus. He was sent from heaven. 

Well, let's go on. There are some other evidences in this prayer that Jesus is God, and you better—you had better nail these down because there are all sorts of false teachers running around these days telling us that Jesus is not eternal God. We notice in John 17:5 that He has had eternal glory. "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Now, nobody else could make that statement. None of us was here before the world was. Jesus is here saying, "I had glory with the Father before the world was." In other words, He's saying, "I am God." 

Look at John 17:7: "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee." John 17:10: "And all mine are thine, and thine are mine." Now, I'd have no problem saying to God, "All mine are thine." I've tried to give everything I have and everything I am to the Lord. All mine are thine. But I couldn't say, "and thine are mine." Only God could say that to God. Only God the Son could say to the Father, "All things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee and all thine are mine." Now, in Jesus Christ, we have all of this, but we don't have it eternally because we had to receive Christ as our Savior at some point in time. Eternally, God the Father and God the Son shared all things. 

Let me give you another evidence that Jesus Christ is God from John 17. The word "pray" that He uses in John 17:9, "I pray for them." John 17:15, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world." John 17:20, "Neither pray I for these only" or these alone. The word that Jesus uses for "pray" here means a request from an equal. It's not the regular word for "pray" in the Bible. It's a word that means in the Greek language the request from an equal. I can't use that word because I am not God's equal. When Jesus uses the word, He is saying, "I am God." 

He goes a step further in John 17:11. He says, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." And He develops this further over in John 17:21: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." And of course, the result is "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." His oneness with God. He and the Father are one. Now, when He was here on earth, the Lord Jesus said, "the Father is greater than I," because our Lord was in His humbling state as the Son of Man coming in human flesh. He is eternally one with God. 

Something else, John 17:20: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." Not believe on John the Baptist, not believe on Paul the apostle, but believe on me. Now, we are to believe in God; therefore, Jesus Christ is saying, "I am God." He said to His disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." He is equating Himself with God. 

Let me give you another evidence, John 17:24: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." I can't pray like that—"Father, I will." Here is an assertion, not a request. Here our Lord Jesus as the Divine Son is speaking to His Father and saying, "Father, I will." Only God can talk to God like this. John 17:24 will give one final evidence, the end of the verse: "thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." There it is again. The Father and the Son in loving communion before the world was. Jesus Christ is God. He is the Son of God. He is God the Son. And if you don't believe this, you cannot be saved. I trust that you will trust Jesus today and let Him save you.