The Effective Prayer of the God-man (John 17:6-19)
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Chosen, Given, and Responding Receptively (verses 6-10)
Jesus says twice that those He’s are praying for are the Father’s (i.e. “they are Yours,” vv. 6, 9). He’s expressing the same idea that the Apostle Paul does in Ephesians 1:4 when he says “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” Not only are they chosen of the Father, but they are given to the Son (v. 6, 9). They were given to Christ by the Father in order for Him to redeem them, ransom them, and reconcile them. The evidence that they were chosen of the Father and given to the Son is that they receive, understand, and believe His Word. They are the ones that have kept His Word (v. 6). All who are chosen of the Father will believe in His Son and will keep His word.
– How does the fact that we are chosen of the Father and given to the Son an encourage you to draw near to God in prayer? How does it affect the way you view His love for you?
Petitions: Keep Them (verses 9-15)
Jesus prays that His Father would keep the disciples in His name. He’s praying that they would be kept from apostasy, maintained in their spiritual life, guarded from falling away, secure in their faith and union with Him. We might read this prayer and think that Jesus’ prayer didn’t exactly turn out the way he’d asked. Hadn’t the disciples left Him when He was arrested? As is the case in our own lives, Jesus saw more in the disciples than they saw in themselves. Jesus recognized that grace was at work in them, and that the grace at work in them was of such a nature so as to never let them fall. He knew that His Father would hold them fast. He would not allow them to be overcome by the evil one. Only Judas was overcome by Satan, but he had been destined to eternal destruction and ruin from the beginning (Ps. 41:9). Those for whom Jesus prayed were kept, and we too are kept in Him.
– What keeps us from stumbling from now until the end (Jude 24)? On what does our endurance in Christ depend? What does 1 Peter 1:5 mean for those of us who are believing in Christ?
Sanctify Them in Truth (verses 16-19)
Jesus then prays that the Father would sanctify them in truth (v. 17). He’s praying that they would be set apart for a holy purpose. They will be kept as they hear the Word, believe the Word, and obey the Word (Ps. 119:9). His prayer is not Christians become isolationists, physically separated and drawn away from the world. Instead, since those who belong to Him have been born from above, not from the world, while they live in the world they are to be light and salt to the world.
We should be looking for opportunities for our lives to intersect those of unbelievers, making friends with the lost. This doesn’t mean becoming relevant by compromising the truth, but rather remaining true to Christ and doing “all things without grumbling or disputing, so that [we] will prove [ourselves] to be blameless and innocent, children of god above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] appear as lights in the world” (Phil 2:14-15).
Our sanctification in truth, our consecration to God, is only possible because of Christ’s own consecration (v. 19). He was set apart to do His Father’s will, and He willingly offered Himself up as a sacrifice to God for His people. He willingly drank the cup with the Father had given Him, so that we can now be sanctified in Him.
– What does it mean to be not be “of the world”? How does the knowledge that we are not “of the world” affect the way we relate to this world, to those around us? Why is it important to know the difference between being “of the world” and being “in the world”?
– In what sense does our sanctification (i.e. being set apart for God) depend on Christ’s sanctification (i.e. being set apart to accomplish His Father’s will)? Could we ever be sanctified apart from His own sanctification? Why not? How does His consecration secure or guarantee ours?