Intercession–Jesus’ prayer for His disciples (Chapter 17:1-26) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Intercession–Jesus’ prayer for His disciples (Chapter 17:1-26)

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce   

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts &Gospel music ministry

 

Scriptures reading John 17:1-26

 

            After Jesus said this, looked toward heaven and prayed,

“Father the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John17:1-5)

 

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the Words you gave me and they accepted them, they knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. (vv.6-8)

I prayed for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. (v.11) While I was with them, I protect them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. (vv 9.-12) 

 

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (vv.13-19)

 

My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be ONE. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me .

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be ONE as we are ONE: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete UNITY to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me . (vv.20-23)

 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am., and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (V.24)

Righteous Father, though the world you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (v.25-26)

 

 In chapter 17 Jesus’ prayer also called “high priestly” prayer the Lord prays for (1) His own glorification (vv.1,5) (2) believers’ protection (v.11); (3) believers' sanctification (v.17); (4) the unity of the believers (vv.12-23) ;(5) the ultimate glorification of believers (v.24). It is essentially an intercession for those who will form the church (vv.6-26).

He was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, being seen by the three disciples (Matt.17:1-4; John1:14). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He predicted that He would be glorified and the Father would be glorified in Him. Now He was about to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine element, His divine life, might be released. Also, He would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified.

The Lord’s  prayer concerning the divine mystery is fulfilled in three stages as follows,

First, it was fulfilled in His resurrection in that His divine element, His divine life, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), and His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory (Luke24:26), and in that the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In His resurrection God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts.3:13-15).

Second, it has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life has been expressed through His many members. He has been glorified in them, and the Father has been glorified in Him through the church (Eph.3:21; 1 Tim.3:15-16).

Third, it will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem in that He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the Holy City for eternity (Rev.21:11,23-24). In praying in this way, the Lord unveiled His person, His deity; He is the same as the Father in the divine glory.

Verse 2 This indicates the Lord’s work. The Lord has the Father’s authority over all mankind that He may give eternal life, not to all mankind but only to those whom the Father has given Him-the Father’s chosen onces.

Verse 3 This is Christ’s definition of salvation, especially if we add what is clearly understood : sent to be the Savior of the world (3:16;4:42;6:33;1John 4:14;5:20). Eternal life is the divine life with a special function, that is, to know God and Christ are divine. To know the divine person, we need the divine life. Since the believers are born of the divine life, they know God and Christ (Heb.8:11;Phil.3:10).

Verse 4 This mean that while He was living on earth, the Lord manifested and expressed the Father.

Verse 5 This word strengthens the deity of the Lord’s person. He had the divine glory along with the Father before the world was, in eternity past; hence,He should be glorified now with that glory along with the Father. The Lord participlates in the divine glory not by Himself but along with the Father, for He and the Father are one (10:30).

Verse 6 your name and v.26 means the very name Father. The name God and the name Jehovah were adequately revealed to man in the Old Testament, but the name Father was not, though it was mentioned briefly in Isa.9:6;63:16; 64:8. The Son came and worked in the Father’s name (5:43;10:25) to manifest the Father to the men whom the Father gave Him and to make the Father’s name known to them (v.26). That name reveals the Father as the source of life (5:26) for the propagation and multiplication of life. Many sons would be born of the Father (1:12-13) to express the Father. Hence, the Father’s name is very much related to the divine life. The Father’s words are of two kinds: the constant word (v.6) and the instant words(v.8).Both are used by the Lord to impart eternal life to the belivers who receive both kinds of words.

Verse 10 Since the disciples expressed the Lord, He was glorified in them.

Verse 11 Holy Father keep them in Your name which You have given to Me. The Son’s believers are still in the world. They need to be kept that they may be one even as the Divine Trinity is one, that is, that they may be one in the Divine Trinity. The Son prayed that the holy Father would so keep them. To be kept in the Father’s name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father’s life can participate in the Father’s name. The Son has given the Father’s life to those whom the Father has given Him(v.2); hence, they share the Father’s name by being kept in it, and they are one in it. The first aspect of oneness, the first aspect of the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father’s name and by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers, born of the Father’s life, enjoy the Father’s name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness.

Verse 15 keep them out of the hands of the evil one. The whole world lies in the evil one (1John5:19). Hence, the believers need to be kept out of the hands of the evil one, and they need always to be watchful in prayer that they may be delivered from the evil one (Matt.6:13). The word can be neuter (from evil) or masculine (from the evil one, Satan). It should be noted that Christ does not teach withdrawal from the world but that Christians should be in the world but not of it (vv.14-16).

Verse 17 Jesus prayed for the sanctification, sanctify means to set apart for God and His holy purposes. To be sanctified also is to be separated from the world and its usurpation unto God and His purposes. Not only positionally (Matt.23:17,19) but also dispositionally (Rom.6:19,22). God’s living word works in the believers to separate them from anything worldly. This is to be sanctified in God’s word, which is the truth, the reality.

In the truth, Reality is the Triune God (1:14,17;14:6; 1 John5:6) Since the Triune God is contained and concealed in His word, His word is reality. We are sanctified in the reality of this word. The Father’s word carries the reality of the Father with it. When God’s word says, “ God is light,: it carries God as light in it. Hence, God’s word is reality, the truth, unlike Satan’s word, which is vanity , a lie.(8:44)

Verse 18 The Father sent the Son into the world with Himself as life and everything to the Son. In the same way, the Son sends His believers into the world with Himself as life and everything to the believers.

Verse 19 The Son is absolutely holy in Himself. Yet, to set an example of sanctification for His disciples, He still sancifified Himself in His way of living while He was on earth.

Verse 21 That all of them may be one . All believers belong to the one Body of Christ (1Cor.12:13) and to the same household of God (Eph.2:19). This spiritual unity should be visibly expressed in the exercise of spiritual gift (Eph4:3-16), pray, and exhortation.(2 Cor.1:11;Heb.10:25). This is second aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the Triune God through sanctification, separation from the world by the word of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, separated from the world unto God, enjoy the Triune God as the factor of their oneness.

Verse 22 The glory that the Father gave to the Son is the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature(5:26). The sonship was given so that the Son sould express the Father in His fullness (1:18;14:9;Col.2:9;Heb.1:3). The Son has given this glory to His believers that they too may have the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (v.2;2Pet.1:4) to express the Father in the Son in the Son’s fullness (1:16).

Verse 22 is the third aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, their self-having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way. This is the oneness of the divine commission; it fulfills the Son’s prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers; and that the Father be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son’s glorification. Hence, the ultimate oneness of the believers is 1) in the eternal life of God (in the Father’s name), 2) by the holy WORD of God, and 3) in the divine glory to express the Triune God for eternity. That the Son might accomplish this oneness, the Father gave Him six things: 1. the authority (v.2); 2. The believers (vv.2,6,9,24); c). 3. The work (v.4); 4.The words (v.8); 5. The Father’s name (vv.11-12);  6. The Father’s glory (v.24).That the believers may participate in this oneness, the Son gave them three things: eternal life (v.2), the holy WORD OF GOD (vv.8,14), and the divine glory (v.22).

Verse 23 The Father loved the Son by giving the Son His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory that the Son might express Him. In the same way, the Father loved the Son’s believers by giving them His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory that they might express Him in the Son. This is a story of love as well as glory.

Verse 24 The Son is in the divine glory of the Father’s expression. Therefore, for the Son’s believers to be with Him where He is means that they are with Him in the divine glory to express the Father. The fulfillment of this matter began with the Son’s resurrection, when He brought His believers into participation in His resurrection life, and will consummate in the New Jerusalem, when His believers will be brought fully into the divine glory for the ultimate corporate expression of the Triune God in eternal.

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.