John 17

John 17:1-26

The Gospel According to John John 17:1-26 John 17:1-26. I would ever be careful lest I should appear to differentiate between the value of one part of Holy Scripture and another, but no one will deny that when we come to this chapter we are at the centre of all the sanctities. The mission of our Lord on the earth was ended, completed. I emphasize that phrase “on the earth.” In the fourth verse we hear Him saying, “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” That is “on the earth.” The greatest work yet remained. That was to be done by His lifting up out of the earth. His work on the earth level was already accomplished, completed; and His converse with His own was consummated in the allegory of the vine. Now we are permitted to come into His presence as, under the very shadow of the Cross, He held communion with His Father; and did so audibly, in the presence of our representatives, the first disciples.

Who can doubt that the uttering of this great prayer at the close, while it was strictly communion with His Father, was uttered audibly for the sake of that group of men that were round about Him. They, through this prayer, and we through this self-same prayer, are permitted to come into the sanctity of the thinking of Jesus in the presence of His Father, immediately before His Cross.

The prayer moved on a very definite plane as is revealed in the words He employed with reference to it. Thrice over in verses nine, fifteen, and twenty, we find the words, “I pray.” Once in verse twenty-four we find the word, “I will.” These words reveal the plane upon which He prayed.

The word, thrice rendered “I pray,” in our Version, has a marginal note, which says, “or make request of.” Personally I do not like that marginal note, because the Greek verb He used there means literally, to interrogate. But etymology may often be insufficient for interpretation. The word in use describes a desire uttered in perfect fellowship with the one to whom it is expressed. This word for prayer often occurs in the New Testament, but it is never used of prayer except by John; and he never uses it of any prayers other than the prayers of Jesus.

So that I would render it, “I desire.” That may not be strictly correct etymologically, but I believe that it is strictly spiritual interpretation. He was talking to His Father. He was not asking favours; but in communion, expressing the things upon which His heart was set. In the twenty-fourth verse the American revisers have rendered another word, “I desire,” I think quite missing the mark. I much prefer there, the translation, “ I will." The word there means, I determine. That is all technical, but it does introduce us to the atmosphere of the prayer.

Our Lord was talking to His Father. He had said the last thing to the world. He had said the last thing to the group of men God had given Him out of the world. Now with these men in mind, and with the world in His heart, He was talking to His Father, expressing His desires, and His determination. So we are admitted into the heart of Jesus, and the mind of Jesus, and the will of Jesus, in those over-shadowed moments just before His Cross. The movement of the communion is threefold. His expressed desires at first, concerned Himself. These are found in the first five verses. Then from verse six to nineteen He prayed for the men who were then about Him. At verse twenty we come to the final movement. He said, “Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word.” From there to the end, He was praying for His whole Church, for all who are Christians, all members of the Church of God. All who are members of the one Church of God are so because they have believed on Jesus through apostolic teaching, that is, through these men then gathered about Him, through their witness in speech and by writings.

So our blessed Lord is heard talking to His Father about Himself, about that group round about Him, and through them, looking on down the years that have multiplied into decades and centuries, and now nearly two millenniums, all the hosts who have believed on Him, thinking of them. Into the circle of His thinking, and of His passion, and of His desire, all His Church to the consummation passed as He prayed; Himself, His first messengers, apostles; and all the sacramental host. The plane of prayer was that of expressing in communion, His desires and determination. The subjects of prayer; Himself, His first messengers, and all who should believe on Him through their word. In the first five verses (John 17:1-5) which concerned Himself there were two expressed desires. In verses six to nineteen (John 17:6-19), concerning the men around Him, there were three expressed desires. In verses twenty to twenty-six (John 17:20-26) there were two desires, and one determination expressed.

In the first five verses, two desires were expressed. What were they? Mark the arresting words with which He began: “Father, the hour is come.” All through John we have found references to that hour. It began away back, when talking to His Mother at Cana He said, “Mine hour is not yet come.” Now He said, “Father, the hour is come.” To this hour He had been looking forward from the beginning; for it, He had been preparing in all His teaching, and all His doing; it was this hour which had constituted the underlying passion, urge of His life. “Father, the hour is come.” In the presence of that consciousness, He expressed two desires for Himself. The first is contained in the early verses, “Glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee; even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.”

What is the desire? “Glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.” He did not say, Glorify Me that I may glorify Thee. Of course that is what is meant, but the very method of statement is significant. It was not personal, but relative. He was thinking of Himself in His intimate relationship with His Father, “Thy Son . . . the Son.” Whereas the prayer is personal, as we have said, the first expressed desire maintains His sense of relationship, and all which that meant at that hour. “The hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.” He was expressing His desire that the Son might be glorified. What for? That the Son may glorify the Father.

The deepest passion of His heart was the glory of God. The deepest passion of the heart of Jesus was not the saving of men, but the glory of God; and then the saving of men, because that is for the glory of God.

How that applied to Himself is discovered as we read on. “Even as.” That phrase introduces us to interpretation. “Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He should give eternal life.” Glorify Thy Son, that He may glorify Thee, even as Thou hast given Him authority to give eternal life.

How had God given Him that authority? What does He mean by that “as”? In the tenth chapter we hear Him say, “Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father.” The authority to lay down His life that He might take it again, was in order to place it at the disposal of men.

Now He said, “Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority… to give eternal life.” He was praying for the Cross, the glory of the Cross. Here we miss the whole thinking and heart of Jesus if we imagine that at that moment He was first of all desiring the glory of which He had divested Himself when He came into time and human condition. He was desiring the Cross, because by the way of the Cross, and by the way of the Cross alone, He would put life at the disposal of humanity, according to the purpose of His Father. It was the desire of a great consent. In the twelfth chapter we heard Him say, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified”; and then, “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?” He did not say that; He said, “Father, glorify Thy name.” Now, right on the margin of the hour, He was still assenting, consenting to the Cross, and saying to His Father that the first, surging, urging, passionate desire of His soul was the Cross.

God crowned Him with glory and honour that He might taste death for every man, said an apostolic writer. He had done all that led up to the hour, finished, accomplished everything on the earth level. Now, said He, “Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee.” Then we reach His second desire in verse five. “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” He does not now say, the Son, that relative description. It is now personal, “Glorify Thou Me . . . with the glory J had with Thee before the world was.” Now He was expressing His desire for return to that of which He emptied Himself when He became a Servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. But the desire of Jesus for return to the glory of which He had divested Himself, was only a desire that He might reach it by the way of the Cross. When next we sing,

“In the Cross of Christ I glory” let us remember that was the mind of Jesus Himself, as He went to it. The glory of the Cross! The shadows were gathering. Presently He crossed the winter-torrent of the Cedars into Gethsemane. Then all the darkness of the Cross enveloped Him; but even there He said, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” There was never a moment’s deflection from the doing of the Father’s will, even though in the presence of the gathering storm there was a shrinking. Here as He talked to His Father, His desires for Himself were, first the Cross, and then the glory which comes out of the Cross.

As though He had said,-let me say it softly; there are some things it is so hard to say because they refer to matters which defy speech,-My Father, I emptied Myself to come to this level. I never want to come back except by the way that accomplishes the purpose for which I came. Glorify Thy Son by the Cross. Then give Me again the glory I had, but by that way, and by none other. Then at verse six He began to pray for the men about Him. He first referred to the work He had already done with them. He said, “I have manifested Thy name " to them. What name? God has only one name according to the Biblical revelation. God, is not a name.

It is a designation. The Lord is not a name; it is a title. He has only one name, and His name is Yahweh-Jehovah as we now render it. Jesus had borne that name, linked with the thought of salvation; Jesus the Greek for Jehoshua, Jehovah-salvation, merged into one. “I have manifested Thy name.” That first group of men, as Hebrews, knew that God had one name. God had said, This is My name, My memorial name to all generations. Now said Jesus, “I have manifested Thy name” to them.

I have interpreted the meaning of the prophetic name that Thou didst take for Thyself in the long ago. “I have manifested Thy name unto the men Thou gavest Me.” These men had by no means understood all He had said to them, or revealed to them; but they did know, as He said, what He said was the Word of God, and that He was from God.

For these men He expressed three desires; “Keep them in Thy name . . . that they may be one, even as We are”; “Keep them from the evil”; “Sanctify them in the truth.” Of these the first is inclusive, while the second two interpret. The one desire for them was: “Keep them in Thy name . . . that they may be one, even as We.” The two show how that will be done: “Keep them from the evil,” “Sanctify them in the truth.”

In this connection occurred those arresting words, “I pray not for the world, but for those which Thou hast given Me.” When we read that, at first it appears that Jude was warranted in what he had said in the upper room to the Lord, “What is come to pass that Thou art manifesting Thyself to us and not unto the world?” It looked to Jude for the moment when he asked the question as though our Lord was abandoning the world. Now Jude heard Him pray, and the rest heard Him pray, and they heard Him say this thing, “I pray not for the world.” I read that for years, and did not like it. It did not seem as though Jesus would give the world up. Yet He said “I pray not for the world.” Presently, however, we hear Him say, “That the world may believe . . . that the world may know.” He had not forgotten the world. The world was on His heart, for He was in union with the God Who so loved the world that He gave His Son. What then did He mean?

Simply this: In order that I may reach the world, I am not for the moment praying for the world, but for those through whom I am going to reach the world. He was praying for the instrument He was creating, through which He would reach the world. If this instrument, that is, this company of men, multiplied as they will be down the running ages, if this instrument is to bring belief and knowledge to the world concerning God, then “Keep them in Thy name, that they may be one, as We are one.” “As We are one.” First of all, that is vital and essential oneness. He was one with the Father vitally and essentially. Now He prayed that these, kept in His name, may be one in that way; having a vital relationship. Not the oneness of sentiment or intellectual opinion, but the oneness that is living. One in life, therefore one in light, and therefore one in love. He and the Father were one in essential life. He and the Father were one intellectually in all light and understanding. He and the Father were one in love. Keep them there; keep them in the name I have revealed, and manifested to them. Keep them there, that they may be one as We; one in life, one in light, one in love.

Said He, continuing, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.” Their business is in the world. “I pray . . . that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” But how? “Sanctify them,” separate them through Thy truth”; and then that there might be no mistaking in the lengthening years, He said, “Thy Word is truth.”

This desire for that first group of men applies equally to us all. To the world we are sent, the world as we have seen, hostile, gathering its forces to put Him on His bitter Cross; the world hating Him. But there is He, loving the world. He was not praying for it, at the moment, but He was praying on its behalf, for the men who were to go out into it with His messages, and His witnesses; praying for all such that they might be one, that they might be kept from the evil, and sanctified in the truth.

So we pass. “Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word.” Here for His whole Church He expressed two desires, and one determination. The first desire was “That they all may be one,” not only that first group, but the continuity of believing souls through their ministry, that they all may be one, in the same way. What for? “That the world may believe.” We have often quoted that, and I think perhaps permissibly, in order to show that if Christianity is divided up into all sorts of sections, we cannot expect the world to believe. I am quite sure that the division of Christendom into sects and parties has hindered, when the divisions have created bitterness and separation in spirit. The main thought again, however, is that of being one in vital relationship with each other, because having vital relationship with the Father and the Son. One, that is, in life and light and love. It is the unity, and manifestation of life and light and love according to the Divine, that brings conviction and belief in the world.

Then there is a slight change in the next expression. “That they may be perfected into one.” There is the recognition of a process, the recognition of the fact that the ultimate unity may be postponed in realization; but the desire is that at last it shall come to consummation. What for? “That the world may know.” That is something beyond belief. Here I think He was looking through to that hour, which has not yet arrived, to the great consummation, in which the unity of the Spirit, the unity of all believers with God and with Christ, is completely manifested. In that hour the world will not believe merely; it will know, when Christ shall come to be glorified in His saints to perfection.

Then we have the final “I will,” I determine. This is My will, this is My determination, this is My decision. That “where I am, they also may be with Me; that they may behold My glory.” Where was that? Go back to what He was saying about Himself. He was going to the Cross, and through the Cross to the glory. My determination, My will concerning My own is that they shall have fellowship with Me, in the glory of the Cross, and so in the glory that results from the Cross. In time, with Me by the way of the Cross and in the Cross, in the ages to come, with Me for ever in the glory that is yet to be revealed.

So, our blessed Lord approaching the hour, talked to His Father. Were these prayers of Jesus answered? As to Himself? Yes, He went to the Cross; He returned to the glory. As to His own? Yes, except, as He said, in the case of the son of perdition. The requests were progressive, but they were kept in the name, kept from the evil, sanctified in the truth. As to His Church in the widest outlook? Yes; in the Divine economy the Church is one. The measure of our failure has been the measure of our failure to recognize the fact of unity. The belief of the world has been the result of the answering of these desires of Jesus, and that determination. The knowledge of the world will be the final issue. There is another way of approach to this chapter. It is to ponder it alone; and to say, How far am I a member of that one Church for which He prayed, as He prayed I might be?