Jesus’s Lasting Prayer (John 17)

In Sermons, The Whole Story, Year 2024 by harvest.admin

Resource by Eric Weiner

Sarah and I finally put together our will last year before we moved to Malaysia. We had been talking about it for years, but had just never gotten around to it. A will – if you don’t know – is a legal document that explains what you want to happen with your assets and dependents after you die. 

Not the most exciting thing to talk about, but it’s something we needed to work through. Honestly, it kinda reminded me of when I was transitioning out of my job in the US. People started talking about me in the past tense. My final days on the job were littered with meetings where I’m listening to people debate who’s going to take all my stuff and who’s going to take all my responsibilities. ”I’m right here!”

That’s what filling out a will felt like. You’re having a meeting where you’re imagining life without you and you’re debating, “Who’s going to take my stuff? Who’s going to be responsible for my kids?” 

But it’s a conversation that brings perspective. I sometimes remind my kids, the way life is right now is just a season. We won’t always live together like this. I won’t always be with you. But as long as you have me, I’ll love you. I’ll be ready to do anything for you. That’s what Jesus is trying to help his disciples understand. 

John spends 5 chapters talking about Jesus’s final night with his disciples. John 17 is the conclusion of that time together. 

And just to recap this for you, Jesus completely flips the script on them. They’re ready take on the world. They’re ready to install Jesus as King. But Jesus tells them he’s about to depart from them and that things are about to get a lot worse. 

So in preparation, he wants to comfort his disciples. He washes their feet, he calls them friends, he tells them to abide in him, that they will overcome the world; their sorrow will turn to joy. That’s all meant to strengthen them for the journey ahead. But it’s also context. Because Jesus says, “I’m leaving, and it’s actually better that way.” 

Now, we think how could it possibly be better for Jesus to leave? I’ll tell you why. Because He’s sending the Helper to fill us, and through the work of the Spirit, Jesus says we will do even greater works in his name (John 14:12).

So, on the final night with his disciples before his death, Jesus prays this prayer. And it can be divided into three parts: 

(1) Jesus prays for himself, (2) for his disciples, and (3) for all believers who will trust in his name. Meaning, in his final moments, Jesus prayed for you. 

Jesus expected his disciples to be gripped by fear at his coming death, but he also expected them to be transformed by the power of his resurrection and the empowering of the Holy Spirit that they would turn the world upside down. 

So, Jesus prayed that we would be held by the truth of the gospel and that we would be the continuation of God’s love to the world. 

So we’re gonna spend the rest of our time unpacking that. 

  1. Jesus prays for himself. 

[v. 1] – When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Now, it might sound strange to us that, with all this build up, on the last night Jesus has with his disciples, he begins by praying for himself. 

You might think, “Well, that sounds really self-serving.” 

But that perception could not be further from the truth. And the key in understanding all of this is for us to ask why Jesus is asking the Father to glorify him. What are the works he’s accomplishing and what is the result of those works? 

In verse 1, Jesus says “the hour has come.” Any time Jesus mentions the hour, he’s always talking about his death. So when he asks for the Father to glorify him, he’s asking God to vindicate his ministry. Jesus came to save sinners.

Every night as I put my kids to bed I ask them, “Did you know that God made everything and he said it was very good?” Yeah. “But did you know that we sinned? We disobeyed God.” And they say, “Yeah, it’s sad.” We’ve all chosen to walk away from God. At some point, all of us have said to God, “Me in place of you.”

But when Jesus says glorify me, he’s doing the exact opposite. He’s not saying make much of me. Or God, give me the glory only you deserve. No, he’s saying, “Use me to make much of You.” 

It’s a posture toward God that echoes the hymnist, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee. Take my mind and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine.” Except that Jesus is already one with the Father. 

And so, these first few verses teach us a lot about the glory and humility of Jesus: 

  •  Jesus is fully God.
  • He’s the Second Person of the Trinity. He’s pre-existent. He always was and always will be. He stood in glory with the Father before the world existed, and he’s going to return to that glory. Jesus will be exalted.
  • And he says, glorify me. The Lord will not share his glory with another. But Jesus says God is glorified through him. 
  •  Jesus chose to humble himself by becoming fully man.
  • He willingly veiled his glory for a limited time to accomplish everything the Father willed him to do. 
  •  Jesus took on flesh to die in our place.
  • As fully God, Jesus possesses the power and authority to reconcile us to the Father, and as fully man, Jesus is qualified to suffer and die as the perfect sacrifice in our place.
  •  The Cross is the path set before the Son to magnify the Father’s love for us. 
  • Jesus’s suffering brings glory to God and salvation to sinners.
  •  Jesus returning to the Father means that what the Father willed Jesus accomplished.
  • If there is no resurrection, there is no salvation. If Jesus’s body is still in the tomb, there is no forgiveness of sins. But, the tomb is empty and the throne is occupied. Meaning, the Savior of the world has been lifted high, and with his authority he intends to give eternal life to those who put their faith in him. 

See, when Jesus asks to be glorified, he’s not being selfish, he’s being humble. Paul puts it like this: “though [Jesus] was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,” (Phil. 2:6-9)

Normally, when you do something worthy of praise, you want people to make much of you and the things you’ve done. And that’s not all wrong. But when Jesus asks to be glorified it’s to (1) fulfill his Father’s purposes, and he did it so that (2) lowly sinners like us might benefit from his works.

IOW – we want God to answer this prayer. Because Jesus is reversing our sinful path. We said to God, “Me in place of You,” but Jesus is God and he says, “My life for yours.”

What about for you? You might be wondering, “How can I know if I’m really seeking to glorify God with my life or if I’m actually living for myself?”

One of the ways we know we’re really serving God is by asking, would we do it even if it didn’t directly benefit us? If the only reward I gained was that my Father in heaven sees me and he was honored by what I did, would I still do it? If the answer is no, then you’re probably living for the earthly reward. 

A second way we know we’re really seeking God’s glory is how we respond to hardship. Remember, Jesus was praying for God to be glorified as he was going to die on the most painful instrument for torture known to man. 

JD Greear puts it like this, “Sometimes God brings glory to himself by how joyously believers suffer.

  • It’s true that God gets glory when sick Christians get well, but he also gets glory when sick Christians die well.

When we say in the midst of confusion and disappointment, I trust God and his loving purposes for my life. And people say, “Why?” And you say, “Because God showed he was trustworthy at the Cross. So, I can trust him in this.” That brings God glory.”

  • Jesus prays for his disciples. 

After praying for himself, Jesus prays for his disciples. But you see how interconnected these requests are. 

[v. 6] – I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 

Jesus is praying for his closest friends. The people who spent the most time with him. The disciples didn’t always understand what Jesus was doing. Sometimes they got things really wrong. But they devoted their lives to him, and they were changed by his life poured out for them. That’s the life of a disciple.

It’s like what we see happen in John 6. John 6 starts with Jesus feeding the 5,000, but it ends with the crowds walking away because they found Jesus’s teachings too hard for them. If the goal of Jesus’s ministry was to grow a crowd, this was a major blow. 

But then Jesus turns to his disciples to say, “Are you guys gonna leave me too?” And Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

That is ground-level Christianity. That’s the foundation you build the rest of the house on. That’s why Jesus says he’s made God known to them. They received Jesus’s words, and they’ve come to know the truth about him. 

Here’s two ways true disciples relate to the truth: 

FIRST – they believe Jesus’s words are divine. 

Christians believe that the Bible tells us the truth about God and ourselves, and that we’re to accept it’s teachings and to be changed by them.

Earlier this week, I had the joy of feasting at a family-style Chinese meal. The table was filled with great dishes. A little bit of vegetables. A whole lot of pork belly and chicken. You can roll the table around and pick off all the food that you want. 

But see, the Bible isn’t like that. You don’t get to pick and choose. You don’t get to pass over the things you don’t like. It’s all or nothing. If Jesus’s words are NOT from God, then we’re not obligated to any of it. But if his words are divine, then we have to accept all of it.

SECOND – He wants us to internalize his words.

Jesus wants us to get these words deep within us. How do you do that?

When I first came to faith as a teenager, that was a big question for me. Now that I believe the gospel, I need to know the words of God. How do I get the words of God in me?

So, I made five commitments that changed my life. I didn’t formalize these or write them down. I actually initially thought of 3, but they’re so connected I added 2 more. I internalized them. I walked in them:

  1. I made a commitment to know God’s Word. 
  2. So I started reading it on my own. But it didn’t take me long to realize I needed help. I remember reading about Jesus turning water to wine and thinking, “That’s cool, but I thought Christians didn’t drink.” I had some questions.
  3. I made a commitment to fellowship with God’s church.
  4. It was awkward going to church alone as a teenager, but it gave me an outlet to be with God’s people and learn the Word. It was worth it.
  5. I made a commitment to gather with smaller groups for Bible study and prayer.
  6. I initially did a lot of listening in those spaces. Then I started contributing. I could be challenged and corrected. I grew. 
  7. I made a commitment to find two or three trusted people ahead of me in the faith.
  8. I remember once admitting to one of the leaders involved in the student ministry I was part of: “The Bible feels like such a big book to me. Can you break it down for me so I can learn the main points?” That guy came back to me with a 1-page, front-and-back sheet of Bible stories that hit the main themes of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. I tucked that in my Bible and feasted.
  9. I made a commitment to say yes to whatever Jesus asked me to do.
  10. And I used the previous four commitments to help me discern that. 

All of that was shaped by a desire to know the Word of God. 

As a teenager with limited knowledge of God, with limited experience, and way too many assumptions, that was the best I could come up with. Doing those things has largely defined my life over the last 20 years. 

What are you willing to do to interalize God’s Word? 

[v. 9] –  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 

Jesus goes on to pray that his disciples would understand what it means to walk in their identity, to be protected from the enemy, and to live on mission for him. 

We need to understand our identity before we live out our mission.

You are not a means to and end for God. He doesn’t love you for what you can do for him. He loves you because you are his. You belong to him. Imagine thinking your standing in your family is based on your performance. On what you can do for me.

To have eternal life isn’t just a knowledge about the things of God. You aren’t saved by knowledge or works. You’re saved by grace through faith. Jesus is saying that eternal life is relational. You have fellowship with the Father through the Son in the Spirit. 

Here’s what’s true about the identity of Jesus’s disciples: 

First, you were once in the world. That means you once walked in darkness. That’s true of every person. 

[John 3:16] – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s not an endorsement. Jesus doesn’t say, “for God so approved of the world,” but that he so loved the world. God pursues those who are running away from him. He called you out. 

Second, Jesus isn’t praying for those in the world. He’s praying for those called out of the world.

Meaning, your relationship to the world is no longer defined by your sinful condition but by your location and mission. You’re not defined by the world. 

Jesus prays for his disciples because they have a unique relationship with him that the world does not yet know. He says to the Father in v. 9, “They are yours.”

You have been set apart. You are in the world, but you’re no longer of the world. IOW, being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean isolation from the world, but learning to live like Jesus in the world. And you can only learn that through fellowship with him. 

One of the ways we’re kept from evil is by knowing the truth.

Even though we’re not of the world, we’re still in the world and susceptible to the Enemy’s schemes. The enemy is the Father of lies, and he wants to sow seeds of division among us. But Jesus wants his disciples to be protected from Satan’s attacks.

[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 ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Oftentimes, we think the best way to fight the lies of the enemy is through avoidance and isolation. To be clear, you shouldn’t do anything that violates your conscience, resists the Spirit’s work in your life, or causes others to stumble. But the greatest way to avoid a lie is to know the truth. 

One of my math teachers in school also worked part-time as a bank teller, which tells you everything you need to know about how well teachers get paid. BUT – an essential task of a bank teller is being able to know real money from a fake. The way banks train you to tell the difference is by oversaturating you with the real thing. See, the more familiar you are with the truth, the more easily you can dispel the lie. And we do that as we abide in Jesus together. 

Jesus sends his disciples into the world to be a continuation of God’s love for the lost.  

Jesus doesn’t want us to play it safe. He doesn’t want us sitting on the sidelines, he wants us playing in the game. But he also doesn’t want us distracted with the sinful practices of our day and lose what makes us distinct. 

[16] – They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Christians should be neither disengaged nor distracted by the world. We should be engaged in the mission. So what does that look like for us? 

Let me put it to you like this: The way our church wants to be engaged in this mission is by advancing Christ’s kingdom through a gospel-movement of disciple-making disciples in KL and the world. That means: 

  • We want to pray for Jesus to reign on earth as he does in heaven and for him to heal every area of life that sin has broken.
  • The gospel is our primary message. We are totally dependent on God’s power to save, and disciples are living proof of that power at work in the world today. 
  • The local church is God’s Plan A for life transformation. As members of God’s church, each one of us plays a vital role in seeing Christ formed in others. 
  • We want to see the nations reached with the gospel. Our starting point is right here in Kuala Lumpur. 

The fact that Jesus doesn’t pray for his disciples to be taken out of the world means that not only are we totally dependent on God to do this, but that God intends to use our witness as evidence of his ongoing love to the world as we call others to know the truth about God. 

  • Jesus prays for the church.

Jesus didn’t just pray for the 12. He prayed for all believers. See, Jesus expected the church to multiply and as they multiplied that they would be unified. 

[20] –  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 

In a community like ours, I can think of all kinds of things that might divide us. 

  • Language 
  • Culture 
  • Life experience
  • Country 
  • Age 
  • Politics
  • Gossip 

Some of those things we should celebrate. Others we need to outright reject. Because entry into the church asks us to cross over all of these dividing lines as we learn to stand together under the banner of Christ. 

Jesus is praying that our life in him would be greater than any other bond that might unite us AND any other barrier that might divide us. And that only works if the gospel is at our center. 

We’re not talking about uniformity. We’re not trying to become cookie cutter Christians that all look the same. But we should be evidence of God’s life-changing work. Don Carson puts it like this: The love that Christians have for one another and the unity they share should be “so compelling, so un-worldly, that their witness as to who Jesus is becomes explainable only if Jesus truly is the revealer whom the Father has sent.”

The kind of unity we’re talking about is only possible if the gospel is true. No other community in the world is like this. 

And listen, Jesus was not naive to the fact that the church would struggle with this. His disciples were made up of immature fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots. People who would have considered themselves mortal enemies. 

He had guys fighting over who would be the greatest in the kingdom. The guy he said would be the rock on which he built his church denied him three times when things got hard. 

So let’s not be so quick to judge one another, but instead, let’s fix our eyes on the Spirit at work among us and trust in the gospel that has the power to save. What is it that most fundamentally shapes your identity and purpose in life? What’s at your center?

Jesus wants you to make the gospel your center. He’s staked his whole life on it. 

In just a moment, we’re going to sing the Goodness of God. Some of you here this morning, you’ve experienced this goodness. You know firsthand what it means to call God Father because you’re no longer of the world. You’ve come to know the Father through the Son. 

And I want you to be encouraged that Jesus is still praying this over you. He’s still interceding for you. He’s still praying that the gospel would bear much fruit in your life. He’s holding you in His Name. 

But to others of us, we don’t really know what that means yet. So as we sing, I want you to reflect on this reality. 

The reason why Jesus is so intent on preserving his disciples is because he loves them and also because he wants you to come to know his love through them. Jesus didn’t pray for the disciples to be taken out of the world. He prayed that we would be sent back into the world just as God sent the Son. And God sent the Son, not to condemn the world, but to save it.

So when you hear us singing: “Your goodness is running after me” I want you to know we’re also singing for you. Jesus is running after you. And our hope is that God will do in you what he’s done in us. Just as we’ve learned to lay down our lives in surrender to Jesus, so can you.Let’s pray. 

[1] Works Consulted: 

  • “Blueprint for Revival: Truth” – Keller
  • “Blueprint for Revival: Community” – Keller
  • “Jesus Final Wishes” – Greear
  • The Gospel According to John – Carson
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