John 17 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: John 17:1-5: Jesus prays to be glorified

A. Find Out:

1. What did Jesus do next? v.1a
   • After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed:
2. What was Jesus asking for and why? v.1b
   • ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
3. Where and how did he ask for it? v.5
   • And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
4. What had he done? v.4
   • I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
5. What had the Father given him and for what purpose? v.2
   •  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
6. How had that been realized? v.3
   • Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

B. Think:

1. How, do you think, Jesus wants to be glorified?
2. Why is that a good desire?
3. How had he, so far, performed the task given to him?

C. Comment:

From talking to the disciples, Jesus now turns to talking to the Father. He first of all prays for the big issue, an “overall prayer”, not a small detail one, and one that affects him. Above all else Jesus wanted his Father to be glorified by his life, so he asks in order to achieve that, that the Father would glorify his life through what was about to happen and into eternity.

What does “glorify” mean? It means to exalt and honour. So Jesus was saying that he wanted his Father’s name to be exalted and honoured. God had done that already in one sense by giving him the means (authority) to bring eternal life to whoever will come, and that eternal life was experienced by knowing God Himself, in whom is all life. When any one does truly know and encounter God then they WILL honour and exalt Him, for they will see Him as He truly is and will respond accordingly.

But yet there is (from Jesus’ perspective) a future exalting and honouring to come, the honour that God will get when men see and realize the wonder of the plan of salvation. For that to happen Jesus would have to go through the Cross and fulfil that plan. He would need to be seen to be the redeeming Son of God, who came from heaven and who will return there. His glory means God’s glory.

D. Application:

1. The Son glorifies the Father. His glory is all important.
2. His glory means He is seen as He truly is.

Passage: John 17:6-12: Jesus prays for the disciples

A. Find Out:

1. How does Jesus first describe the disciples? v.6
   • ‘I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
2. What had they come to know? v.7,8
   • Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
3. Who is he praying for and why? v.9
   •  I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
4. What has come to the godhead through them? v.10
   •  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
5. What did Jesus know was to happen so what did he ask? v.11
   •  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
6. What was he able to further say about them? v.12
   • While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

B. Think:

1. In what ways was Jesus able to say that his mission had been a success?
2. So what was he now asking the Father to do?

C. Comment:

As Jesus talks to his Father about what he has done and is going to do, having asked to be glorified that the Father might be glorified, he moves on to talk about the disciples that he has raised up who are to be the ongoing means of the Father being glorified.

First of all, he recognises that all he has achieved has been because it was the Father’s will and the Father’s working. There is a submissive humility in this prayer first of all. This comes out again and again in these few verses. These disciples belong to the Father, not Jesus; all he does is for the Father. The members of the godhead may be co-equal but the Son always submits himself to the Father.

Next he notes the way that they have been identified as disciples: they have received what he has said, they have become believers and he has kept them all safe, with the exception of Judas, up until now. That leads him on to make his request of the Father on their behalf. He simply asks the Father to PROTECT them. Now it appears not so much a physical protection but a spiritual protection that he asks for, as he asks that the result of that protection will be unity. The protection he is therefore asking for is against being lead away from the truth into wrong divisive belief systems.

D. Application:

1. The Son is an example of submission for us. We must follow him.
2. We need the Father’s protection against wrong beliefs.

Passage: John 17:13-19: More prayer for the disciples

A. Find Out:

1. Why was Jesus praying these things? v.13
   • ‘I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
2. What had he given his disciples, with what result? v.14
   •  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
3. What did he ask for them? v.15
   • My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
4. Why? v.16,18
   • They are not of the world, even as I am not of it…. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
5. What did he further ask? v.17
   • Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
6. What was Jesus doing and for what purpose? v.19
   •   For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

B. Think:

1. How were the disciples in “alien enemy territory”?
2. How do the two things that Jesus asked for go together?
3. Why does he ask for them to be sanctified? See footnote in Bible.

C. Comment:

Previously we saw that Jesus was asking the Father to protect the disciples from deception or falling into error. In these verses he continues that prayer. He recognises that he will be leaving them soon and that they are aliens in the world, and that Satan will seek to attack them and lead them astray. His word had come to them and they had responded to that. They were now citizens of heaven rather than of the godless, self-centred world. They were living on this world but they had an entirely different outlook.

They were therefore, in the midst of this godless, self-centred-thinking, they were in the world” but there not of it. The enemy would seek to make them think his way again.

Very well, prays Jesus, protect them from him Father, and set them apart and keep them apart by the truth. May they hold to the truth and be a separate distinct people. How we need to be seen to be that today! Jesus noted that he separated himself off (to the Cross) so that the work of salvation could proceed, and the disciples be truly set apart as a result (when eventually the Spirit would come on and in them and make them even more distinct).  We are today a distinct people, separated to God by word and Spirit. May we not be afraid of being seen as distinct. 

D. Application:

1. God’s word has separated us to be a righteous people.
2. God’s Spirit has separated us to be a holy people.

Passage: John 17:20-26: Jesus prays for future believers

A. Find Out:

1. Who does Jesus now pray for? v.20
   • ‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
2. What did he want for them, demonstrated by what? v.21
   • that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
3. What had he given them for what purpose? v.22
   •  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one
4. What, again, did he want, to what end? v.23
   •  I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
5. What did Jesus want for his followers? v.24
   •  ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
6. What would Jesus continue to do and for what purpose? v.26
   •  ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

B. Think:

1. What things does Jesus ask for the future church?
2. Why does he want these things?
3. How is unity between Father & Son expressed and for what reason?

C. Comment:

Having prayed for his present disciples, Jesus moves on in prayer to pray for his future church. His primary request is for unity.

Within that request let us note first of all the MODEL OF UNITY that Jesus uses: that of Himself and his Father. There was clearly a distinction between them, for one can talk to the other, but there was also a unity of harmony and purpose. But more than that, some how in a way that defies our understanding, they were one in essence as well. Thus the church to come was to be one in purpose but more importantly, one in essence. That would come about as He put His Holy Spirit in each believer. Thus there IS a unity between every believer. We simply need to believe it and act like it!

Next, note the FRUIT OF UNITY that Jesus speaks about: the world will realise that what is spoken is true, that Jesus DID come and STILL lives. Twice he says that the world might believe or know. The biggest hindrance to the Gospel today is the division of the church. The Father has done His part and given us His Holy Spirit, so the means or reality of unity is there, but we have not played our part and ensured that division does not come. It has come again and again (for a variety of reasons) and we need to repent.

D. Application:

1. The sinfulness of man (Christians) brings division.
2. Jesus desires one Holy Spirit-empowered and directed church.