Jesus’ Prayer

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

As Paul says, all Scripture is breathed out by God (inspired), but some passages just seem to be more intimate, more “special.”  John 17 is one of those passages.  It’s a prayer.  In fact, it’s the longest prayer in the New Testament and is between Jesus and His Father. It’s about what has been done and what the plan is for the church.  It is Jesus’ final prayer before His arrest. Here are the first five verses:

 John 17:1-5 (ESV)  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

God’s plan of compassion for man and redemption for believers is at hand.  “The hour has come.”  This is the Father and Son working together in their pure love for mankind.  Now mankind will have a pathway to heaven paid for by the very blood of God’s Son:

Acts. 20:28 (ESV)   Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood

Glory appears four times in the first five verses of chapter 17.  The Son will glorify the Father in verses 1 and 4, and the Father will glorify the Son with the “glory that I had with you before the world existed” in verse 5.  This draws our minds back to the first verse of the book:

John 1:1 (ESV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

And, of course, the Word is Jesus.  But I’d like to look at another word, the word glory that I brought up a minute ago.  What exactly does that word mean?  According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, it means “to render conspicuous and glorious the divine character and attributes.”

Both Jesus and the Father will prove their deity and be glorified over the next few days. Jesus will show His power over death by raising His body from the grave, as will the Father and the Holy Spirit:

John 2:18-22 (ESV)  So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²² When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Galatians 1:1 (ESV)  Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead

Romans 8:11 (ESV)  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Together, all three Persons of the Trinity working together would raise Jesus, three Persons, but one God:

Acts 2:32 (ESV)  This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

Why is this important?

In these five verses, we see how much God loves us: He was willing to give His own blood, the blood of His human nature, because of His love and compassion for us.  We see that He, in the Person of Jesus Christ, gave up His glory, the glory He had with the Father, to come to earth, demonstrate God’s love to us, and tell us that God did not send Him to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved. 

Even in the final hours before His death on the cross, Jesus repeated the message: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  It’s a simple message, simple but not easy.  We need only give up the world we love for the treasure we will gain. What treasure? We will receive glory as well.

2 Thess. 2:14  To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Here, the word glory means, “Of that exalted state of blissful perfection which is the portion of those who dwell with God in heaven.” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament)

We have much to look forward to as believers.