John 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

This is one of the most precious Chapter s of the Fourth Gospel. Here the Incarnate Son pours out His divine heart in prayer for Himself, for His intimate friends and for all believers. He prays for you and for me. This is really the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer in Luke 11:1-54 commonly known as The Lord’s Prayer, is not His prayer but one He taught the disciples to pray. In the synoptic gospels there are many references to the prayer life of Jesus but only a few (and those in Gethsemane) tell us of the content of His prayers. But in John’s gospel this one prayer gives special emphasis to the content of His prayers, This is uniquely the private prayer of the Lord Himself. He does not teach the disciples to pray this prayer, He prays things that no man could possibly presume to pray and, in fact, He does not even invite the disciples then present to join Him in prayer.

It has also been called the High-Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ. First, it was offered by Him when He was about to give Himself a ransom for sinners. Second, this prayer gave further occasion to consecrate Himself as both High Priest and sacrificial victim in the approaching sacrifice on the cross. Third, it fulfills the typical rites of the high priest in Israel on the Day of Atonement as he prayed for himself, his fellow priests, and the covenant people (cf. Leviticus 16:6; Leviticus 16:33). Fourth, the parallel terms in the Epistle to the Hebrews and John 17:1-26, have in common the priestly concepts of cleansing, sanctification, perfection and priestly ministry in general.

Hendriksen expresses, to our way of thinking, the real theme of this chapter when he says, The mission of Jesus Christ and of his followers on earth, unto the glory of God, is the theme throughout. In each distinct division of this prayer the glorification of Father and Son is mentioned. Jesus prays that He may be glorified and the Father thus glorified (John 17:1-5); He prays that the eleven disciples may be sanctified and united in order that He may be glorified in them (John 17:10); He prays that all believers in all ages may be one by abiding in His glory (John 17:22).

The prayer of our Lord here is one of the most distinct teachings of the New Testament on the unity of all believers. More than just a mere formal, doctrinal statement, this is a prayer from the very heart of God in the flesh. Most certainly the unity of believers is one of the things with which God is most concerned! We shall outline this chapter as The Lord’s Intercessory Prayer and place it in our continuing outline as follows:

III.

The Word Manifested to The Disciples And Their Acceptance of Him, John 13:1, John 20:31

A.

Private Instructions and Encouragements, John 13:1, John 17:26 (cont-’d).

The Lord’s Intercessory Prayer, John 17:1-26

a.

Prayer for Himself, John 17:1-5

(1)

To be glorified in the Cross

(2)

To be glorified in revealing God to men

(3)

To be glorified with former glory

b.

Prayer for the disciples, John 17:6-19

(1)

That what He taught them should end in His glorification

(2)

That they may have His joy fulfilled in them by remaining in His name

(3)

That they may be sent into the world by being sanctified in truth

c.

Prayer for all believers, John 17:20-26

(1)

That they may be one

(2)

That they may have His glory

(3)

That they may have the love of the Father

SPECIAL STUDY NO. TWO

Excerpts from an essay by Seth Wilson, Dean, Ozark Bible College, entitled,

OUR LORD’S PRAYER FOR UNITY IN John 17:1-26

Why Must We Have Unity of Christians?

1. Jesus wants it that way. It should be enough that Christ prayed for unity of the church, who gave Himself for her, who will claim her for His bride, who will give to her all His inheritance.

2. The Holy Spirit through the apostles urged unity. Read 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:1-6; Philippians 2:2; 1 Peter 4:8-11.

3. The practice of division will condemn us. Read Galatians 5:20-21; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.

4. We are commanded to avoid or turn from those who cause division. Read Romans 16:17-18; Titus 3:10-11; 2 John 1:9-11.

5. That the world may believe. Division among the churches makes it impossible for the schools to teach the certain truths of Christianity, and it gives to every common-school pupil the false impression that religion is not a matter of fixed truth, but only matter of feelings and that every one makes his religion for himself, and it is just as respectable as any one else’s religion, However much we may wish and agitate for the public schools to teach Christianity, they simply cannot do it while divisions continue to exist. The world discounts or disregards the testimony of a divided Christendom, just as we discount the so-called scientific conclusions which differ from and contradict one another while all are represented as assured results. The less we care about contradictions in our testimony, the less the world cares about our affirmations. If it does not make any difference what one believes, it probably does not make any difference whether one believes. If one church is as good as another, possibly none is as good as any, since both statements rest upon the assumption that falsehood is as good as truth, disobedience as good as obedience.

6. Because division comes from putting human authority in the place of Christ. At least in some part it displaces Christ as the head of the church, and that is blasphemy. See Ephesians 1:20-23.

7. Because division comes from putting the words of men in the place of the infallible word of God, At least in some part it displaces the Holy Spirit as the revealer and spokesman of Jesus Christ and His covenant. See 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.

8. Because Christ is one and not divided. We cannot be perfectly united in and with Him without becoming united with each other. If we have the mind of Christ we will have the same mind, and so on through all the characteristics of the Christian which we receive from Christ Himself. Unity is natural and inherent in Christianity; and division among Christians misrepresents its nature.

9. Because division wastes and dissipates the energies and resources of evangelistic workers and supporters; furthermore, it turns a great bulk of religious effort from evangelism to party promotion and party regulation and party contentions. If all the printers-’ ink, if all the hours of study and conference, if all the money and men that have been employed to keep up human institutions had been used to bring men to their Savior, what glorious results might have been! As it is five centuries of vigorous denominationalism leave the churches far from holding their own against an avowedly pagan world. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

To sum up, all the causes of division are sinful; all the results of division are shameful; all the characteristics of division misrepresent Christ and despoil the godly character. Surely division is of the devil and is his best implement for hindering the church from victory. The faith, devotion, obedience and brotherliness that produce unity are godly. The practice of unity is sweet and blessed (Psalms 133:1). The results of unity are faith and its glorious victory. Its goal is that all should be perfected into one in Christ. Can any man doubt that unity is of God and is a prerequisite to a victorious church?

What is the Unity for Which Christ Prayed?

1. Jesus in His prayer describes it briefly, but exactly: as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee. We in them and they in us.

2. Such as the world can see: that the world may believe. The purpose of unity is faith and conformity to Christ. A union without faith and obedience defeats its own purpose.

3. A fellowship of those who are called of God and set apart for His name, to do His work by His Spirit, using His Wordall in every place that are sanctified. Study the word sanctify and its other forms with a concordance, or see the article Sanctification in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

4. It is such a vital relationship as is described by figure of the members of the body in relation to the head (see 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Romans 12:4-5), or of the branches to the vine (John 15:5).

5. Such as existed in the apostolic church when the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul-’ (Acts 4:32).

6. Such as prompted the Gentile Christians to send help to Jewish Christians in time of need (2 Corinthians 8:1-9; especially John 17:5).

7. Such as is indicated in the following words used in apostolic exhortations: speak the same thing, Be perfectly joined together, same mind, like-minded, same love, of one accord, preferring one another, and with one accord and one mouth. See 1 Corinthians 1:10; Philippians 2:2; Romans 12:10; Romans 12:16; Romans 15:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:25-26.

8. Such as is characterized by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one God and Father over all, in all and through all (Ephesians 4:1-6).

Can any man imagine that the state of Christendom today is the unity that pleases the Lord? Note particularly that it was unity in faith, the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. Jesus prayed that those who believe might be one. It was He that said, but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned (Mark 16:16). Paul, who so earnestly urged the Corinthian brethren to unity and love, closes his great letter of correction with this: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema (1 Corinthians 16:22). In Galatians 5:20-21 divisions under every name are condemned, but in Galatians 1:8-9, Paul writes: If any man preach unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema. In the first Epistle of John, Christian love and fellowship are upheld in their true nature and necessity, but in 2 John 1:9-11, Christians are strictly commanded to refuse fellowship to anyone bringing not this teaching. Jesus commended the church at Ephesus because they could not endure evil men and did try false apostles (Revelation 2:2). He held it against the churches at Pergamum and at Thyatira that they had there some that held injurious teaching (Revelation 2:14-16; Revelation 2:20).

Unity of believers with unbelievers is so impossible that intermarriage of the two is not to be attempted (Read 2 Corinthians 6:14, John 7:1). They could have a form of union, but not unity sanctified in Christ. What portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? Or what communion hath light with darkness? How can we hope to promote true unity in Christ while we disregard Christ’s will and harbor unbelievers within the fellowship? Study and apply the following scriptures: Roman. John 16:17-19; Galatians 1:6-9; Titus 1:9-16; Titus 3:10; 1 John 2:18-26; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:5; Ephesians 5:7-12.

PROPOSITIONS from an article by Ernest Beam, CHRISTIAN STANDARD, October 8, 1949

Proposition 1. All sincerely immersed into Christ, with manifest purpose to be governed of Him, are one body in Jesus Christ, though some are now also in denominational churches and others also in church of Christ sects. Proposition 2. All of those in next above are commanded of God to receive one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Proposition 3. The receiving of brethren in Christ is never an endorsement of weakness, immaturity, and error even as Christ’s reception of us is not His endorsement of our weakness, immaturity, and error. Proposition 4. Those who will not receive the brethren but do disfellowship them, or some of them, are, on that account, to be marked, avoided, and rejected, even as the man under the old law who did kill was himself to be put to death. Proposition 5. The Scriptures forbid any sincere brother to violate his own conscience in religious acts and devotions whether that conscience is at present properly taught or not; and the Scriptures forbid the rest of us to ignore that conscience. Nor is our own liberty to be judged of another conscience. Proposition 6. It is not necessary for the brethren to be of the same mind upon meats, days, circumcision, the law, colleges, missionary organizations, orphan homes, instrument, pastor system, cups, war, premillennial views, tobacco, classes, uninspired literature, names, or other such, as conditions of salvation and of receiving one another. Those of Proposition 1 are one body notwithstanding these and like differences. Proposition 7. Division in the body of Christ is always made by the brother who will not fellowship his brother. (This does not mean there are not times that a brother must disown a brother; there are. But the brother who disfellowships always and everywhere makes the divisionthose that should never be, as well as those that must be.) Proposition 8. The brother, though right about every item in Proposition 6 above is not permitted to bind that right, as a condition of receiving, against his brother who does not yet perceive the right. Proposition 9. The receiving of all those sincerely in Christ, by Paul, did not stop him from successful labor to overcome the wrongs of those received, but did enhance the working of it. The receiving by all of us, each of the rest of us, in Proposition 1 above, by the wonderful grace of our God, can and should work the same way. Proposition 10. No more grace is required in my heart to receive my brother, as set out above, than is required in Christ to receive me now and hereafter. (Yea, the comparison is an unworthy one, but is used to turn the mind toward working of grace from us as it has come to us.)

Proposition 11. The Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the apostles were not compromisers and betrayers of the gospel in receiving brethren with error of whom we read in the New Testament; we are the compromisers and betrayers of their gospel when we do not so receive one another.

Proposition 12. The Holy Spirit as certainly commands not to own all those who come among us not of genuine faith in the whole mystery of Christ revealed in Scripture (2 John 1:7-11; 1 John 4:2-3) or who are not of mind to consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness (1 Timothy 6:3) as He does command us to receive the brethren of genuine faith. (We may together own the authority of the dictionary, but fail of meaning, proper usage, and pronunciation in keeping with that authority. We must together own the authority of Jesus and of His Word, or oneness is neither possible nor permitted.)

Proposition 13. It is as hurtfully erroneous to try to make God speak in the field of necessary judgmentthe circumstantials of the gospel left to the judgment of the brethren and the expediency of which changes through the centuries with changing means and agencies of societyas it is not to hear God in the great realm of faith where He does speak. Proposition 14. In all matters of faith a thing must be lawful before it can ever be expedient; in all matters of necessary judgment a thing is not to be judged of right or wrong but whether it, is a good and useful means to attain the given end.

Proposition 15. The use of any and all humanly adopted means and methods must ever be kept within the realm of enabling what God has commanded and never used upon a par with, as an addition to, as a part of, or exalted above the thing commanded or those appointed of God. (The use of uninspired literature to enable the teaching of God’s Word is one thing. But to make use of it as upon a par with, added to, a part of, or exalted above God’s Word, is grievous error not to be tolerated. The same is true of all things whatsoever that have been left to the judgment and wisdom of men.

Proposition 16. To charge a brother with an addition to the Word who uses uninspired literature to enable the teaching of the inspired Word; or to the cup who but uses individual cups to enable the communion of the cup; or to sing who but uses the instrument to enable singing, decency, and order; or to the one organization of the New Testament who but uses colleges, missionary organizations, orphan homes, old folks-’ homes, organized classes, and journalistic organizations to enable orderly obedience to the commands of Godthis is false accusation against brethren and divides those who are of the same faith.

Proposition 17. The adoption of any test of fellowship not clearly demanded in Scripture is to adopt a condition of salvationa new and added commandmentunto the perversion of the gospel. This is the very sin of Galatians the first chapter, and is the sin which has made a multitude of sects particularly among those who do not use the instrument. It is also the sin to which Paul would submit, no, not for an hour.

QUOTED FROM MISSION MESSENGER NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1964, EDITOR W. CARL KETCHERSIDE 2. DO YOU THINK THE PRAYER OF JESUS CAN BE ANSWERED BY RESTORING THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT?

No, I do not. The restoration movement launched by the great heroes of the faith in the early part of the nineteenth century was simply a means to an end. It was never intended to be an end in itself. Alexander Campbell wrote, We only profess to work and walk by the rules which will inevitably issue in a pure speech, and in right conceptions of that pure and holy, and celestial thing called Christianityin faith, in sentiment, and in practice. It is too much to expect of these noble pioneers that they would be able to either discover or translate into practice all that was essential to the accomplishment of their aims. The restoration movement was vital precisely because it was a movement. To return to it at any given point and assert we had arrived would be folly. When a movement ceases to move it becomes a monument to past accomplishments and dead hopes. Alexander Campbell did not believe he had all of the answers. He freely admitted that to enter some areas of consideration we should have to launch upon a wide and tempestuous ocean, for which our slender bark is not at this time sufficiently equipped. This may yet deserve the construction of a larger vessel in a more propitious season. Our task, as I conceive it, is not to restore a movement inaugurated by men but to recapture the ideal of God. We believe that in this we may be aided by restoring to our generation the spirit of the restoration movement. Even this must be regarded as a means to an end.

16. WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND WE SHOULD DO TO RESTORE A PROPER FEELING OF UNITY AMONG THE BELIEVERS?

We should confess to one another that we have been partisan and sectarian in attitude and pray one for another that we may be healed of the ravages upon our hearts of this work of the flesh. We should be brought to our knees in tears over our growing sectarianism. We should set the table of the Lord for every sincere immersed believer and invite all such to sit down around it as our brethren. We should call upon all of them, recognize and regard them as children of our Father. It is time for us to throw off the childish attitude which has characterized the brotherhood and start acting like men. The idea of categorizing those who differ with us as brethren in error, with the implication that we are wholly free from error and know all there is to know, is a little silly when you think about it seriously. The truth is that we are all brethren in error. Not one of us is perfect in knowledge and we all have a great deal to learn. We do not accept one another because we are free from error but because we are free in Christfree to receive one another even while we try to work out our problems together and seek to arrive at a greater understanding. The brethren who accept me will have to overlook a lot of things just as God had to make allowances in order to receive me. I am willing to receive others on the same basis as he received me.

John 17:1-5

**PRAYER FOR HIMSELF

Text: John 17:1-5

1

These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee:

2

even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life.

3

And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.

4

I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.

5

And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Queries**

a.

What hour had come?

b.

Does John 17:2 teach predestination-divine election?

c.

What glory did He have before the world was created?

Paraphrase

When Jesus had said these things, He lifted up His eyes toward heaven and prayed, saying, Father, at last the hour which You have set to culminate Your plan of redemption in Me has arrived. I pray that by My death, resurrection and ascension You will glorify Me with deity before men in order that I may glorify You in all the earth; for this is in harmony with Your giving Me authority over all people in order that I may give eternal life to all whom You have chosen to grant eternal life through their relationship to Me. And the way in which they shall receive eternal life is to know You by submitting to Your will and coming into intimate fellowship with Him whom You sent, even Jesus Christ. I have glorified You on earth having completed the task which you gave me to do. So, now Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I knew with You before My voluntary humiliation, yea, even before the world was made.

Summary

Jesus prays for the Father to glorify Him through the events of His passion about to be enacted. This prayer for personal glory is, however, entirely selfless for its end is to be the glorification of the Father and eternal life to believers.

Comment

Just where Jesus poured out His heart in this prayer is not certain. The references in John 14:31 and John 18:1 seem to indicate some place between the upper room and the city gate that leads across the Kidron valley to Gethsemane. Some commentators think He remained in the upper room until this prayer was ended. The place is not important. The content of the prayer is.

Christ, by saying, Father, the hour is come. reiterates for the eleven disciples then present, and for all believers, His omniscient awareness that there are stipulated times and seasons which the Father has set within His own authority concerning the divine plan of redemption. The Son knows these times because the Father has shown them all to Him (cf. John 5:19-24). Hour is not used in an absolutely literal sense here. That is, Jesus did not expect to be crucified within that very hour. In fact, many hours would transpire before the actual crucifixion occurred but the hours of darkness were now beginning. The time for teaching and pleading with men was over. Jesus was aware all along just how much time He had to accomplish His task on earth (cf. Jn. 24; John 7:6; John 7:8; John 7:30; John 8:20; John 12:23; John 13:1). What a burden to bearknowing the very hour that He must die. What agony to know not only the hour but to know also that He must die alone. What love and majesty that He should bear it willingly, knowing that He had the power to forego it.

In the New Testament the word glory (Gr. doxa) is used to denote honor in the sense of recognition or acclaim (cf. Luke 14:10), and of the praise and reverence the creature gives to the Creator (cf. Revelation 14:7). It denotes majesty (Romans 1:23) and perfection, especially in relation to righteousness (Romans 3:23). In the O.T. the Hebrew word for glory, kabod, gives the idea of being laden with riches, power and position. All of these help explain the glory for which Christ prayed.

Jesus prays first that He might be glorified (honored with majesty, perfection, righteousness, etc.) by the hour that is come. The overall tone of this prayer shows definitely that it is far from being a death knell. It is a victory shout! The hour includes not only the cross but also the resurrection and the ascension. The time has come for the Son who for a little while became lower than the angels (cf. Hebrews 2:5-9), to be exalted above every name (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). The time has come when His divine majesty must, without question, be unveiled. It is almost as if Christ prays, Father, at last the hour for which I have eagerly waited. Now, glorify thy Son! But this is not a selfish request. The reason the Incarnate Son desires to be glorified is twofold. First, as He prays in John 17:1, He wishes to be glorified only that the Father may be glorified. Both the Father and the Son are in complete harmony. What One wills the Other wills; what One works the Other works; what One loves the Other loves. There are no separate interests or aspirations between God the Father and God the Son. Even when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, it will be to the glory of the Father!

In John 17:2 Jesus explains the means by which He was to glorify the Father. The Son was to glorify the Father in giving eternal life to all those whom the Father should give to the Son. The authority over all flesh which the Father gave to the Son no doubt has reference to the same idea Jesus taught in John 5:19-29. Into the hands of the Son the Father committed authority and power over all flesh. Not only flesh but power over all the elements was committed to Him also. John 17:2 is one of the verses in the Fourth Gospel which becomes a frequent battlefield for Calvinistic predestinarians. The Scriptures teach a divine election, but not the extreme view advocated by Calvinists. It ought to be plain to every reader here from verse three that God gives to the Son for eternal life all men who are willing to know (intellectually and experientially) God the Father as He is revealed in God the Son. It seems to us that the N.T. teaching on election is clear enough in one aspect. All men have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. God has not recompensed man with divine justice but has, from divine love, chosen to have mercy and save all who will be saved by grace. God has arbitrarily elected to save whosoever will in Christ Whose body is the church. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). We have access into the grace of God through faith (Romans 5:2). We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus and as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:26-27). The election is provided in Christ. God has provided His divinely inspired revelation, the Bible, to invite and instruct men into His election. But men, created with self-sovereign wills, must respond and surrender their will to His will in order to appropriate this election. Faith which issues in obedience to revealed truth is the response God demands of man.

Of course, divine foreknowledge in all its mysterious ramifications is beyond the comprehension of the finite mind with its limitations. Just how God knows the beginning from the end, how He knows all things before they come to pass, is inexplicable to the human mind. How God knows our destiny ahead of time and still elects us to salvation upon the condition of our response is also unfathomable. All of this we accept by faith in the omnipotence and omniscience of God on the basis of His revelation of Himself in Christ, in time and in Space to the senses of men. See our comments on John 10:1-42 for a further discussion of divine election. We recommend a careful and thorough study of Rom 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36 and Ephesians 1:1-23; Ephesians 2:1-22; Ephesians 3:1-21 in connection with the subject of election.

But how may we know that we are of the elect or not? Some religious teachers say that a person who has fallen away after an initial response to the preaching of the gospel was never saved in the first place. Thus, they say, we may know that such a person was never elected to salvation but has very evidently been elected to damnation and this before he was ever born and apart from any choice he might wish to make after his birth. Such a perversion of the Scriptures makes them worse than useless. What purpose does the Bible serve, with all its exhortations to hear, believe, repent, obey, make one’s calling and election sure, if men are elected apart from any response on their part. Our salvation is conditioned upon our response and our response is faith in Christ which issues in obedience to His revealed will, Let us also direct the reader to a thorough study of John’s First Epistle. There is not in all the New Testament a more lucid discussion of the certainty of salvation in response to the revealed will of Christ (especially 1 John 3:1-24; 1 John 4:1-21; 1 John 5:1-21).

When Jesus said that eternal life is to be found in knowing God and the Son sent by God, He meant more than an intellectual knowledge of God. But He meant at least that knowledge for it is impossible to know God experientially without knowing Him through the intellect. Paul wrote in Hebrews 11:1-6 that any one who comes to God must believe that He exists. There are many exhortations for men to come to an experiential knowledge of Christ (cf. John 7:17; Philippians 3:8-11), but there is only one way to experience any of the love and other characteristics of the nature of God and that is to let His Spirit be born and grow in us through the Word of the Spirit in the Bible. See our comments on the Holy Spirit in Chapter s 14, 15 and 16.

Jesus speaks in the past tense in John 17:4 and, as Hendriksen says, He has a right to speak as if also this suffering (of the cross) has already been endured, so certain is it that he will endure it! The Cross was not an accident nor an isolated event; it was the climax of the work Christ came into the world to perform. That is why the cry of Jesus, It is finished, has always been such a wonderful word to sinful men. It speaks peace to men because it announced the sealing of the covenant of grace, and became the sure foundation upon which to rest their salvation. The work of the Cross, of course, had to be validated by the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb.

The Son has potentially accomplished on earth the Father’s will and mission perfectly; and now what is uppermost in His mind is the continuance of that work in glory (the sending forth of the Holy Spirit; His reigning upon the throne of David; His High-Priestly mediatorship), because in John 17:5 He goes on to ask the Father to glorify Him with the glory that was His before the Incarnation. To go into detail about His pre-incarnate glory would be to speculate idly. But the scriptures are plain enough that the Son enjoyed equality with the Father; the Son, though rich, became poor that we might become rich; He emptied Himself of divine glory and became obedient even unto death. All creatures and all creation sing and shout His praise; all creatures and all creation serve Him.

While on earth His magnificent glory was veiled by the form of flesh, but in Heaven all of His magnificent glory shines forth. In Heaven, the Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, is worshipped and praised as, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and the riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. for ever and ever, (Revelation 5:11-14).

Quiz

What does Jesus mean when He says, the hour is come?

What does the word glory mean?

Is Jesus-’ request to be glorified out of harmony with God’s plan?

By what means is Jesus to glorify the Father?

How does the Father give people to the Son? Is Calvinistic predestination taught here? If not, why not?

How do men know God and the One He sent?

What glory did Jesus know before with the Father?

John 17:6-19

**PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES

Text: John 17:6-19

6

I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word.

7

Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee:

8

For the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that you didst send me.

9

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:

10

and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them.

11

And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

12

While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

13

But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

14

I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15

I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

16

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17

Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.

18

As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.

19

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Queries**

a.

How were the disciples given to Jesus?

b.

How did the perishing of the son of perdition fulfill the scripture?

c.

How is God to keep the disciples from the evil one?

Paraphrase

I have explained Your nature and declared Your will unto the men who were chosen by You, out of all mankind, to be My apostles. They were Yours before, being sincere disciples of Your covenant under Moses, and You directed them to Me through Your Word; and Your Word in the Old Testament, in John the Baptist and in Me they have guarded in their hearts. These men are fully persuaded that all the doctrines and all the miraculous works which You have given Me are all really derived from You. They have come to this persuasion upon the surest evidence for I have taught them no other doctrine but that which You gave Me to teach. Being therefore fully persuaded that My teaching is in perfect harmony with Your divine nature they have accepted and appropriated it in their hearts and have known assuredly that I am the Holy One of Israel truly commissioned by You and have trusted in their hearts that You sent Me. I am praying in the last moments of My life on earth for these men particularly and not for the world in general because they are more especially Your servants for upon these few shall fall the responsibility of carrying on My work of redeeming sinful men. Everyone who serves Me and carries on My work serves You and everyone who serves You serves Me. And every disciple who is true to Me and serves Me in faithfulness and fruitfulness brings honor and glory to Me. And now, having finished the work You gave Me to do, I am no longer to continue in the world but I am coming back to Your presence. These servants of Mine, however, must remain in the world and so, Holy Father, I am praying that You will care for them and guard them in Your Word which You gave to Me in order that when they are sent forth to carry on My work they may be one in doctrine and in deed imitating the oneness of the Father and the Son. During My personal ministry among them I guarded them in the Word which You gave Me and none of them fell away except the son of perdition and his falling away was not due to any defect in My care for him but was because of his own unrepentant rebellion and fulfilled the prophecy of scripture showing the foreknowledge and omniscience of the Father. Now I am coming to You so I am praying and teaching and demonstrating My care for them and Your care for them in order that they may have the joy that I know from Your care made full to overflowing in themselves. I have given them every doctrine and precept of Yours necessary to fit them for converting the world. The world hates them and persecutes them because they will not conform to the world but are endeavoring to be even as I amnot conformed to the world. Nevertheless, Father, I am not praying that You should remove them out of the world and keep them from persecution, but I am praying that You will guard them through the power of Your Word and Your Providence from the fiery darts of the evil one. These men are not of the world for they are Mine and I am not of the world. I pray that, by the sanctifying power of Your Spirit operating upon their minds by Your word, they may be separated from worldliness and dedicated to proclaiming Your Word which is Truth. And, as You sent Me into the World with Your regenerating Truth, I am sending them into the world with Your Word to transform the world. In order that these men may have power to be transformed, separated from worldliness and effective in carrying out their commission I now fully dedicate Myself in atoning death and resurrection. This is the truth which will give them the power for such sanctification.

Summary

Jesus pours out His heart in prayer for this select group of disciples. Upon them shall fall the tremendous responsibility of carrying on God’s message of redemption to all mankind. He prays for their oneness and their sanctification in the Word. He prays that the Heavenly Father will protect them and keep them from the evil one.

Comment

There should not be any problem with how the Father gave these eleven disciples to Jesus, John 17:7-8 are explanatory of Joh 17:6. John 17:6 is even self-explanatory. The Father gave them to the Son by drawing them to the Son (cf. our comments on John 6:41-51). The Father gave them to the Son when the Son manifested the Father’s name to these men. When they received the teachings of Christ and accepted His deity and chose to follow Him it was because the Father had given them to Jesus. By the divine omniscience and omnipotence of the Father these disciples (which included even Judas Iscariot in the beginning) were given the opportunity to hear Jesus preach, witness His miracles and be invited to follow Him. Furthermore, in the divine providence of God, these men were prepared aforetime by the revelation of God to them in the Old Testament. This, we believe, is the significance of the phrase, thine they were. They were sons of the covenant of Moses, sons of Abraham and Israelites in whom there was no guile, i.e., they were sincere and honest men (except for one). Some of them had even become disciples of the Voice crying in the Wilderness, John the Baptist. They were eager to hear and do the will of Jehovah God. But even the prophet of the wilderness was God’s delivery man to give these disciples unto the Christ (cf. John 1:29-34; John 3:22-36). So, these men were called by God through preaching and providencethrough divine doctrine and divine deeds. But each one was chosen on the condition that he answer and respond to the call of his own free will. Each one was tested and each one was free to follow or free to go away (cf. John 6:66-67).

All men are given to the Son through the same plan of redemption. Jesus stated (Matthew 11:25-30) that no one knows the Father except those towhom the Son wills to reveal Him. But Jesus went on to explain that every man who wanted to come to Him might do so by learning of Him. These men, however, were chosen out of the world, i.e., they were called to a special office (cf. Matthew 16:13-20; Matthew 18:18-20; John 20:19-23; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Ephesians 4:11). These men were called to be apostles; given a special office, a special commission, special gifts. It was the will of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:11) to give certain people in the first century church special offices and special gifts for the special reason that the supernatural will of God had not yet been completely recorded in writing. These men were given to Christ out of the world (a group specially set aside from the rest of mankind) to become foundation stones in the church of ChristChrist Himself being the chief cornerstone. And, despite their failure to comprehend the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of Christ, they kept (guarded) the word of the Father as Christ had revealed and taught it to them. They were persuaded of His deity, of His Messiahship. They not only guarded His word but they also preached His word when He sent them forth (Matthew 10:1-42).

They had just proclaimed their belief in the divine origin of His teaching (John 16:29-30). In John 17:7-8 Jesus confirms the sincerity of their former profession. They came to this wonderful knowledge by receiving the words which Jesus taught them and believed them. These men heard His teachings and allowed His word to have free course in them while others who heard His teachings did not (cf. John 8:37, John 5:38). These men were willing to do His will and thus knew His teachings to be of God while others were not willing (cf. John 7:17, John 3:19-21).

McGarvey (Fourfold Gospel) gives four reasons or pleas of Jesus as to why the Father should bless the disciples of the Son: (a) because they are the Son’s property in a special sense as a gift from the Father; (b) because of their reception and retention of the truth and the resulting knowledge and belief; (c) because the Son is glorified in them; (d) and last because the Son must very soon leave them alone in the world, (John 17:6-11).

Jesus emphasizes, in John 17:9, that, at the moment, He is concentrating His intercessory prayer upon this especially selected group of disciples and not upon men (even believers) in general. The prayer for all future believers comes later (beginning at John 17:21). The meaning of Joh 17:9 is, Father, I am now praying especially for these eleven disciples; I am not at this moment praying for any other than these who have been given to Me for a special and an extremely responsible task. Jesus prayed for men of the worldeven for His enemies (Luke 23:34) and taught all His followers to do the same (cf. Matthew 5:44; 1 Timothy 2:1). But here, momentarily, His intercession is on behalf of a soon-to-be bereaved band of intimate friends and co-laborers. The last few hours preceding this prayer has been concentrated on preparing them for the time (soon to come) when they shall be offended and scattered like sheep. They are not only dear to the heart of the Incarnate Son but they are the Father’s dear ones also. The statement in John 17:10 of the relationship between Father and Son is so astounding that it never becomes trite. The Son has the same authority as the Father; the Father has the same love as the Son. Jesus prays fervently for He knows that the Father loves all that belongs to the Son with the same fervency.

Jesus prays a special intercessory pray for these eleven for whatever they say and do from henceforth will reflect and represent Him and His church and whatever reflects and glorifies Christ will glorify God. Jesus is glorified in them because He redeemed them and chose them by gracenot by merit. He is also glorified in them when they, by their transformed lives, let their lights so shine that men may see their good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven. Jesus is glorified when they testify to Him by preaching His kingdom. Whatever they do to bring honor and glory to the Son brings honor and glory to the Father. Therefore Jesus prays that the Father will grant them all that is needful for their carrying out the purpose for which they have been given Him.

One thing that is definitely needed is a oneness of heart and mind and purpose. Jesus would soon leave them. The Word of God Incarnate, the Holy Spirit in the Flesh, kept them (except Judas Iscariot) united in oneness of mind and heart. Jesus, by His constant expressions of love, tender rebukes, stern exhortations and patiently repeated lessons bound them together as one. And now He must leave them in a physical sense, but He prays that His Spirit living in them through His Word and in the Name of the Father may keep them in this oneness. The prayer of Jesus here, we must remember, is specifically for these eleven disciples. The same request is made by Jesus in John 17:20-23 for all who believe in Him. The oneness which Jesus prays may exist in the disciples is a oneness deeper than any organizational union or hierarchical system. Jesus is not praying that the disciples organize themselves into a group with a pope and bishops and laymen. He is praying that they will so partake of the divine nature that there will be a oneness of their spirit with the Spirit of God. As Hendriksen puts it, In God the unity is basic to the unity of manifestation. Before the disciples can present to the world a unified program of evangelization, they must be made one in Christ by allowing His Spirit to live in them. There can never be Christian unity until Christians individually and collectively surrender to the authority of God’s Word and allow His Spirit to dwell in them. We shall say more about this later on. Christ here prays for the spiritual regeneration, sanctification and oneness in the divine name and with the divine nature which brings forth a unified proclamation and practice. Of course, the disciples cannot expect to attain the same essential oneness which belongs to the Father and the Son, nor did Jesus pray for such a oneness. He simply prayed that they might be kept in His name (His name means His mind, will, doctrine, Spirit, personality, authority) in order that they may be one with Christ and with one another in word and deed, similarly as Christ and the Father are one.

Westcott says, … all spiritual truth is gathered up in -the name-’ of God, the perfect expression (for men) of what God is, which name-’ the Father gave to the Son to declare when He took man’s nature upon Him. (Cf. Exodus 23:21) It is this truth with which Christ the Logos captured and guarded (kept) the disciples while He was with them. It was His deity and doctrine which kept them (cf. John 6:68). And not one of them fell away but Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition. The term son was given by the Hebrews to those who possessed the character described by the word or name following (cf. sons of Belial; sons of light, sons of the prophets, etc.). Judas was called by the One who reads the heartson of perdition. Judas was a thief, traitor and murderer from the beginning. But Matthew was a tax-collector and James and John were hot-tempered fishermen. The difference was that the Word of God and the personality of Christ changed their natures when they surrendered their wills to Him. In fact there were many different personalities and persuasions among that band of twelve but subsequent history of the eleven demonstrates the power of the Spirit of Christ to keep them one in love, doctrine and purpose. R. C. Foster says, This prayer, in so far as it applied directly to the early Christians was fulfilled. The apostles stood up on the day of Pentecost an absolute unit in faith and love and in the declaration of a single, tremendous proclamation. The early preaching of the gospel would not have been powerful had it not been for this unity. Difference of opinion as to method (Paul and Barnabas) developed in the apostolic church but unity of faith remained until after the gospel was given its final form in the N.T. (Parenthesis ours).

The title son of perishing was not a title given to Judas by foreordination of predestination apart from his own choosing but one which described the very nature of Judas-’ own willful determination to remain a thief and traitor. There is no indication that Jesus was including Judas in His prayer for the disciples this night. He had prayed many times for Judas, no doubt, just as He had tried by teaching and revealing to Judas that He knew his secret schemes to convert him. But Judas did not wish to be changed and had so completely surrendered to the devil that there was nothing more Christ could do to change him. It was not the fault of Jesus that Judas had capitulated so completely to Satan. Judas was lost by his own free-will determinedly choosing evil in the presence, and under the teachings, and in spite of the warnings, of Jesus Christ. God who, dwelling in eternity, foresees all possible contingencies, foresaw his fall, and foretold it, and made it to serve His purposes of grace in redemption, without having, in the least degree, foreordained it. It is to be remembered that the fall of Judas, terrible as it was, is only one instance out of multitudes in which God permits men to receive gifts which they fling away, and occupy spheres for which in the end they, through their own fault, prove themselves unfit. (Sadler). Neither position in the church nor association with church people assures one of salvation. Judas companied with Jesus Christ, was chosen and named among the -apostles, was given power to work miracles, and was lost!That which avails unto salvation is being kept in the name of God the Father and Christ the Son. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)!

Judas was not compelled against his own will and choice in the course which he followed in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, but his fall and character was foreknown by God and foretold by God and by Judas-’ subsequent choice the prophecy of God did receive a completion or fulfillment. This would strengthen the other disciples afterward when they finally understood that the betrayal of Christ and the apostasy of Judas was not a slip-up on God. They would understand that God foreknew it all and used it all to His eternal purpose of redemption. See our comments on John 13:18.

The road to joy for Jesus was that of conflict, self-denial and then victory. Their joy is at the end of the same road as He shows in John 17:13-14. They were also rejoicing, no doubt, in this audible prayer of the Master as He held them up before the Throne of Grace. They heard Him speak of their oneness and faithfulness and to know that the Master Himself was rejoicing in their stedfastness was a joy to them. Refer to our comments on John 15:1-11 for the joy of Jesus being in the disciples. For a discussion of the hatred of the world toward the disciples see our comments on Chapter s 15 and 16.

In John 17:15-16 Jesus prays about a problem that has plagued Christians since the founding of the church (the problem, in fact, dates back as far as the patriarchs of the O.T.): how may God’s called out people remain in the world and not be contaminated by the world!? The apostle Paul dealt with the same problem in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and 2 Corinthians 6:14, John 7:1. A Christian would have to go out of the world altogether to avoid any association with wicked people. What Jesus means is that Christians must not be of the world. Their natures are transformed rather than being conformed (Romans 12:1-2). The Christian becomes a new man and does not set his mind on things of this world (Colossians 3:1-17). The Christian does not withdraw his leavening or savoring influence from the world but keeps himself pure and true in the midst of the world. He is to help shed the light of salvation in the world and not to be corrupted by it. In the midst of the world the Christian himself is also perfected as he is tried, tested and victorious. Dr. Wm. Barclay has a wonderful note on this subject and we shall quote it here:

The first essential is to note that Jesus did not pray that His disciples should be taken out of this world. Jesus never prayed that His disciples might find escape; He prayed that they might find victory. The kind of Christianity which buries itself in a monastery or a convent would not have seemed Christianity to Jesus at all. The kind of Christianity which finds the essence of the Christian life in prayer and meditation, and in a life withdrawn from the world, would have seemed to Jesus a sadly truncated version of the faith He died to bring to me. It was Jesus insistence that it was in the hurly-burly and the rough and tumble of life that a man must live out his Christianity. Of course there is need of prayer and meditation and quiet times, times when we shut the door upon the world to be alone with God, but all these things are not the end of life; they are the means to the end; and the end of life is to demonstrate the Christian life in the ordinary work of the world. Christianity was never meant to withdraw a man from life; it was meant to equip him better for life. Christianity does not offer us release from problems; it offers us a way to solve our problems. Christianity does not offer us an easy peace; it offers us a triumphant warfare. Christianity does not offer us a life in which troubles are faced and conquered. However much it may be true that the Christian is not of the world, it still remains true that it is within the world that his Christianity must be lived out. The Christian must never desire to abandon the world; he must always desire to win the world.

The Christian is not impertinent when he longs for his home with Christ (cf. Philippians 1:21-24; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10) in heaven away from this world, but the Christian’s task is to plant that longing in the hearts of all men while the Christian himself is a sojourner and a pilgrim here. In this war of ideas and idealsthe war oftruth and falsehoodthe Christian disciple may have protection from the evil one. Jesus prays for the protection of His disciples and that prayer includes the request made in John 17:17 for their sanctification. John wrote later in 1 John 5:18-19, We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. Our protection comes from Almighty God but we avail ourselves of that protection by faith and obedience to His commandments. By faith and obedience to the Word of truth we are sanctified, set aside, set free from sin and the world. Therefore it is in this sanctification by faith that we are protected from the evil one: Not only are we protected but we also enter into battle with the forces of evil by faith and sanctification (cf. Ephesians 6:10-20). Our protection and victory over the evil one consists in fleeing from him and drawing nigh unto God (cf. James 4:7-8).

Sanctification is not something reserved for an elite few. Neither does it come by some mystical miracle worked by God today apart from the supernatural regenerating power of His word which is truth. All men may be purified, reconciled, justified and sanctified by faith in the Person of Christ expressed by obedience to His Word as it is given once for all in the New Testament. To be sanctified means to be called out from the world and set apart. We are called by the gospel as it was preached and recorded by the apostles (1 Thessalonians 2:7-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15). Of course there is a revelation of truth from God in nature and in the providential operation of the Holy Spirit apart from the supernaturally recorded Word of God. But nature and providence are very nearly inexplicable without the special revelation of God in the Word formerly spoken and now written. And so, ultimately, our sanctification to the degree which pleases God rests upon our response to His written Word.

We have what is almost a paradox. Jesus prays that the disciples may be set apart from the world in order that they might be sent into the world. It is not such a strange paradox, however, when one gives it a moment’s thought. What the world definitely does not need is more worldly minded people. What the world definitely has not and cannot do is redeem itself or regenerate itself. The world through its wisdom knew not God and therefore it must have a supernatural wisdom. The world must have messengers who have been reborn with a supernatural nature to deliver to it the message of salvation. And so Jesus prays that these eleven men might so set themselves apart, might deny themselves with the same self-denial which He knew, and thus become messengers fit for the service of God. Jesus Himself has given them the Word of the Father and has prepared them and now He prays that they may continue to grow in this sanctifying power as they are sent forth into the world. Christ not only calls them and commissions them, He empowers them. For their very sakes He sets Himself apart in order that they may have a power with which to be set apart. Lenski says, The sanctification of Jesus for his heavenly mission is to make possible the sanctification of the disciples. They are only to receive sanctification by a gift from the Father. And this gift to them is to proceed from what Jesus now does for them. Out of the one sanctification the other is to proceed; thus the two are placed side by side. Men are made holy first by the atoning blood of Christ applied to their sins through their faith in Him, and their allowing His Spirit live in them. Out of this comes the power for them to sanctify themselves. The power is not resident in men but in God but even God’s power is available only conditionally. The condition is faith-surrender-obedience. Westcott says, The work of the Lord is here presented under the aspect of absolute self-sacrifice. He showed through His life how all that is human may be brought wholly into the service of God; and this He did by true personal determination, as perfectly man. By union with Him they also are -themselves sanctified in truth,-’ through the Spirit whose mission followed on His completed work, and who enables each believer to appropriate what Christ has gained.

There is no possibility of sanctification or holiness apart from a moral response to the supernatural special revelation of God written in the Bible. There is first of all an initial response in initial obedience which brings us into Christ and sanctifies us as the Corinthians were washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord. and in the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:11) when they heard and believed and were baptized (Acts 18:8). But sanctification is a continuing moral response to the call of the Spirit of truth as He calls by the Word of God as it is written upon our hearts. We are to abound more and more in sanctification (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8) by knowing God and receiving His Holy Spirit. We must continue to be led by the Spirit by believing the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13-15), which is the sanctification of the Spirit. We are to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts (1 Peter 3:15) by such a continuing intellectual and experiential knowledge of Him through His Word that we may give answer to every man who asks us concerning the hope that is in us. Hope has a sanctifying and purifying power (1 John 3:1-3), and by the precious promises God has given us in His Word we may escape the corruption that is in the world (2 Peter 1:1-4). Perhaps the plainest explanation of the relationship of a continuing moral response to divinely revealed truth in bringing about a continuing sanctification is found in Ephesians 4:17-32. Here the apostle makes it plain that holiness and sanctification, even after one has become a Christian, is dependent upon one’s moral obedience and practice of the truth. and that truth is in Jesus. Truth is Personal. truth is in the Person of Christ. Truth is He and Him not it. Therefore, He must live His life in us if we are to speak the truth each one with our neighbor. And here is the important part of it all. we know His Person only through our intellectual and moral response to the infallible revelation of His Personality in the written Word of the Spirit, the Bible. Sanctification means primarily singleness of purpose, integration of all the faculties of the person toward one goal. Sanctification in Christ means singleness of purpose toward Him and His Word. Sanctification or the lack of it on the part of individual members in the church is the primary problem with the lack of unity in the whole body of Christ.

Quiz

How did God the Father give these eleven disciples to the Son?

What does Jesus mean, they were given to Him out of the world?

Why does Jesus say He is not praying for the world (John 17:9)?

What oneness does He pray may belong to the eleven disciples?

Why did the son of perdition fall? Was it predestined? Explain your answer.

Why did Jesus pray that the disciples be not taken from the world? How could they remain in the world and not be of the world?

What is sanctification? Who is to be sanctified? How may one be sanctified?

John 17:20-26

**PRAYER FOR ALL BELIEVERS

Text: John 17:20-26

20

Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word;

21

that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me.

22

And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

23

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.

24

Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

25

O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me;

26

and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them. and I in them.

Queries**

a.

Which religious bodies may qualify as the believers for whom Jesus prayed in John 17:20?

b.

What is the glory which Christ gives to believers?

c.

How is Christ to be in the believer (John 17:26)?

Paraphrase

Nor am I praying these things only for these eleven men. I am also praying for all men who shall come to faith and obedience in Me through simply responding to the divinely inspired Word which these apostles shall preach and write. My prayer for all believers is that they also may all be one in doctrine, practice, love and purpose. I am praying that even as You are in Me and I am in You in an organic and essential oneness, all believers may come to this same essential oneness in Us, in order that their oneness will lend impact to the saving efficacy of the Word and the world will believe that I was sent from God the Father. And the glory of the Spirit and the divine nature which You gave Me while I dwelt in the flesh I have given unto all who believe on Me through the Word in order that by possessing this glorious nature all believers may be one even as We are One. My very nature abides in them just as Your divine nature abides in Me in order that they may all be brought to a mature and perfected oneness so that the world of unbelievers may know that I came into the world with a commission from You and that their oneness is a product of Your love for them even as Our oneness testifies to divine love. Father, My desire is that all those whom You have given Me shall ultimately be with Me in Heaven and know the ineffable joy of beholding My glory. They shall see then the divine love with which You have loved Me through all eternity in all its gloriousness. O, Righteous Father, the divine knowledge of You which I possess I manifested to the world but the world rejected Me and did not come to know You. But all My disciples, the ones who receive Me, know that You sent Me for I make Your name and nature known unto them and will continue to make it known to them in the ultimate sense in order that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and that I may be in them also.

Summary

Jesus looks down the corridors of time and His heart is turned in prayer to all who shall believe on Him through the word of the apostles. The oneness of all believers on earth and their ultimate glory and joy is the concern of His heart.

Comment

John 17:20 is one of those verses of the New Testament which is a veritable treasurehouse. Its simplicity leaves no question as to the agency for making men Christiansit is the word of the apostles, Jesus knows no other method but the preaching of the apostolic doctrine in order to bring men to faith. Neither are there any other doctrines or philosophies approved by Christ to bring about unity of all who believe on Him. This same apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:1-6 that only those who hear and heed the unadulterated apostolic doctrine are those of the spirit of truth. All who add to or take away from the teachings of the apostles and practice these perversions are of the spirit of error. The apostle Paul said that belief comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). The apostolic doctrine was completed when the New Testament as we have it today was completed in about 95-100 A.D. There are no other divinely approved or authorized writings. Paul wrote that even though an angel from heaven should proclaim any message other than the apostles he should be anathematized (Galatians 1:8-9). Jude wrote that the only body of apostolic doctrine authorized to be delivered to Christians was delivered once for all time in the New Testament (Jude 1:3). We like what Lenski has to say here, The Word communicated by the apostles is the means for producing faith and making believers. Apart from the Word there is no church, because there is no faith apart from the Word; and the church is constituted out of those and those alone who have faith. The Word is the vital means and the root of faith. At once it appears how dangerous it is to be ignorant of the Word or to alter and to falsify it in any way. It is the preaching and proclaiming and teaching of the message of the apostles in the same way as the apostles proclaimed it that brings men to faith. It must be preached as historically true and accurate; as factually credible; as supernaturally delivered and verified; as demanding a moral response; as being of itself experientially known once it is practiced. It must be preached as absolutely and exclusively authoritative in all realms of life.

It is by this same word of the apostles that individual believers are to be in Christ and have Christ in them and thus grow into the same oneness which Father and Son know. Paul makes it very plain indeed in Ephesians 4:11-16 that we must speak the truth in love in order to grow up into a mature oneness in Christ. And this growing up is laid down as necessarily a cooperative effort. First, apostles and other teachers are set apart in the church to instruct in the Lord’s Word. Second, all members of the body of Christ are to so learn the word of Christ that they be no longer tossed about with every slight wind of new and fanciful doctrine like children. Third, every member of the body is to supply maturity and sustenance to the body, according to the working in due measure of each several part. And so in John 17:21; John 17:23 Jesus makes the oneness of believers as a unified body of individual members solely dependent upon the union of the individual with Him. Christ in the individual and God in Christ and all perfected or made complete in one body. See our special sermon at the end of chapter 16, Christ in You the Hope of Glory, concerning the way Christ is in the individual and the individual knows he is in Christ. The all important focal point is the Living Word of the Living God. By submission to the Will of the Personality (Christ) living in The Word, this Personality (Christ) comes supernaturally to dwell in us and we in Him and all believers in union with one another. The reader is directed to a careful and prayerful study of the Special Study at the end of this chapter on Unity.

In John 17:22; John 17:24 Christ informs us that He has given His glory to all believers and that there is also a glory of His which He desires we behold in the future where He shall be seen with the Father. Christ is speaking here in John 17:22 as if He had already won the victory over the Cross and the Tomb and had ascended to the Father and had sent the Spirit. We feel that the glory which He says He has given to all believers is none other than His divine nature in the indwelling Spirit in all believers. Speaking of the Spirit in Romans 8:1-30 Paul concludes by saying … whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. The same apostle, speaking of the ministration of the Spirit, says, But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit, (2 Corinthians 3:18). Again, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians concerning being chosen in the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth by which God called them though our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, as in the others, the Spirit and the Word and the believer’s Glory are all connected. And so it is that in Ephesians 3:17-19 that Paul tells us we may know experientially, feelingly, by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us by faith the breadth and length and depth and height and the love of Christ which passes knowledge and may be filled with all the fullness of God!! Yes, my friend, we can know the glory which God gave to Christ. Christ offers it to us in the Spirit by faith. The measure to which we may know and feel this glory is dependent upon the measure of our faith and submission to the will of Christ. Of course we must remember that the essence of the glory of Christ is that of selflessness and service. His glory consisted in giving Himself totally to God’s will and man’s salvation. When we are guided by and indwelt by the Spirit this will be our glory also.

There is a glory Christ desires for the Christian yet to be revealed. We are now recipients of this glory in a measure hindered only by our corruptible bodies. But when Jesus comes the Second time we shall receive the consummation of this glory in all its excellence (cf. 1 John 3:2; Philippians 3:20-21). When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory for me. Moses and Elijah appeared in glory (Luke 9:30-31). We shall appear with Him in glory when He appears (Colossians 3:4). We even now partake of the glory to be revealed (1 Peter 5:1). Our light affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17; cf. also Romans 8:17-18; 2 Timothy 2:10), Jesus regained for man the glory which man forfeited when he sinned and Christ brought many sons to glory by His death and resurrection (Hebrews 2:5-18).

John 17:24 through 26 form the climactic crescendo of the whole night’s discourse (Chapter s 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17). He has already expressed His will that all disciples shall one day be with Him in glory (John 14:1-6). He has already explained how and why the world did not know or receive Him, (chapter 16). He has already explained the coming of the Spirit (14, 15 and 16). He has already explained the glory of giving self (chapter 13). And now He sums it all up. He made known the name and nature of the Righteous Father so that the boundless, filling, glorious love with which the Father loved Him may be in the disciples and that He Himself may also be in them. Christ dwelling in our hearts by knowledge and acceptance of the Word is more than a mere intellectual assent to the verities of the Scripture. Christ cannot dwell in us until love of the Father dwells in us, but of course love for the Father comes when we apprehend the love of the Father for us as it is expressed only in the written record, the Bible. It is a reciprocating, circular, triangular affair, with the Father, Son, and believers and the Bible the hub.

We have desisted from making extended comments of our own on unity and have offered a Special Study with comments from three Christian brethren (Bro. Beam now having gone to be with Jesus) who have spent years laboring in this field. We have much we would like to say but these men say it so well in so brief a manner we feel our readers would be the more profited than by our lengthy comments. Rather than an expository sermon on Chapter Seventeen we have chosen to conclude this chapter with excerpts from essays by respected Christian men of long experience in dealing with the problems of Christian unity, Seth Wilson, Dean, Ozark Bible College; Carl Ketcherside, Editor and Lecturer; Earnest Beam, former Minister and Lecturer on the Pacific Coast, now deceased.