*John 17:1-26
Jesus prays to God the Father, asking to be glorified and for his disciples to be protected and united.
- Jesus’ Prayer to the Father:
- Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven and prays, expressing that His time has come.
- He asks to be glorified so He can, in turn, glorify the Father through giving eternal life to all whom the Father has entrusted to Him.
- Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent.
- Jesus Prays for His Disciples:
- He acknowledges that He has revealed God’s name to the disciples, who have kept God’s word and accepted the truth.
- Jesus prays for the protection and unity of His disciples, requesting that God keeps them in His name and safeguards them from evil.
- He prays that His joy may be fulfilled in them and that they are sanctified by the truth of God’s word.
- Jesus Prays for Future Believers:
- Jesus expands His prayer to include all future believers who will come to faith through the message of the disciples.
- He prays that they may all be unified, just as He is one with the Father, so that the world may believe in Him.
- He asks that they may see His glory and be with Him, sharing the love that the Father has shown Him from before the foundation of the world.
John 17:1-26 shows us Jesus’ deep love and prayers for His followers. He prays for our unity, protection, and closeness to God. This reminds us to stay connected to God through prayer and to love and support one another. We can apply this by praying not just for ourselves but also for others, asking God to help us live in peace and unity. Instead of letting differences divide us, we should focus on what brings us together—our love for God and His love for us. When we live this way, we reflect Jesus’ love to the world.
John 17:1-26 (WEB)
17:1 Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; 2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.6 “I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, 8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would 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 your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.20 “Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, 23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”