Sermon: He Prays for Us

Would you join me as I pray? Our Father in heaven, we surely have reason upon reason to give you thanksgiving. We are so thankful as a church body for your provision for us, and we thank you for this good report of the financial pledges that have come in. Oh Lord, we recognize that it is you who stirs our heart. You are the one who causes us to give generously and cheerfully, so we thank you, and we thank you for your great generosity towards us,

both as a church and as individuals. Certainly financially, but even more importantly, we thank you, oh God, for your generosity in sending Christ to us, that we may be found in Him and saved by His blood. We thank you, oh Lord, for your word. We thank you for its truth. We thank you for its beauty, for the instruction that it provides us. And we ask, oh Lord, as we hear your word read and preached this morning, that it would be

clear, that it would be accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that this word, as it goes forth, would accomplish all the purposes for which you have sent it. Oh Lord, we ask that you would do all of this, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, before we read John chapter 17, I want to prep you, want to orient you to this passage. I said to you just a few moments ago that this is one of the richest passages in all of the Bible.

There's one preacher from the 17th century who said this chapter and this prayer offered by Jesus is the greatest prayer ever offered on Earth, and it followed the greatest sermon that was ever preached on Earth. That's what we have before us. Augustine from the fourth century said about this prayer that Christ made for us, "He made it for us and He also made it known to us. He is so great a master, not only in what He says to the disciples, but in what He says to the Father in

praying for the disciples, and it is to the benefit of their edification." Sometimes we eat meals that are largely forgettable. It's not that the meal isn't good, but it might just be a normal meal, something we've had a week ago and the week before that and the week before that. All of our meals that we prepare for ourselves, they're all aimed at our nourishment. But some are more memorable. They're more sweet and rich and savory than others.

And so it is with the Bible. All of the Bible is written for your edification. Every single passage without exception, but there are some that are especially edifying, especially sweet and rich, and this John 17 is one of them. This is what Martin Luther said about John 17. He said, "In proportion, as this prayer sounds plain and simple, it is in reality deep, rich, and wide, that which none can fathom." This is truly a wonderful passage we're going to read.

So let me just orient you then to the passage real briefly. If there is a theme to this prayer which Jesus offers in John 17, here's a one-sentence summary. Here it is. Jesus' prayer is about the eternal plan of the triune God to make God known in the person of Jesus Christ through the salvation of sinners. This prayer is about the eternal plan of the triune God to make God known in the person of Jesus Christ through the salvation of

sinners. That's the theme of this prayer. If you look at John 17, you'll notice that there are three movements in this prayer, and you can see the movements by how the ESV sets off three paragraphs. So you notice in verse one, verse six, and verse 20, paragraphs are set off. The verses, the headings, the numbers, the paragraphs in the Bible are not part of the original text. They are not inspired. They were added to help us be better readers of the Bible.

And in John 17 in particular, the setting off of the paragraphs helps us to see these three movements in the text. Jesus prays for Himself beginning in verse one. In verse six, He begins to pray for His disciples. And then in verse 20, Jesus begins to pray for you. That's what we see in John 17. So having oriented ourselves to this passage, let's listen carefully now to the reading and preaching of God's word. "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. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence

with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent

me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given

me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but

that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me,

and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me

because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I have made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Well, as I said, we see three movements in Jesus' prayer. Jesus prays for himself in verses one through five. He prays for his disciples in verses six through 19, and he prays for us. He prays for all believers in all ages in verses 20 through 26, and those are the three points this morning. Jesus begins in the first part of his prayer by praying for himself, and the petition which he makes for himself we find in verse five.

He says, "And now, Father, glorify me."

Jesus' petition, this petition that he makes here in this first part of his prayer, is a petition that he can make, and only he can make, based upon his person and his work. What do I mean by that? Well, in verse five, Jesus shows us that he knows who he is. Who he is. Jesus is no ordinary creature. He's no mere mortal, a mere human. He is God incarnate, God in the flesh.

From all of eternity, he is the existing, the eternally existing Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so from eternity, he was receiving the praise of all angels, of all that was created, for it belonged to him as God. He shared the glory which belongs to God alone. In verse five, the petition that Jesus makes is grounded in this reality, that he is the Son of God,

the eternal Son of God, and so he prays, "Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." Now this word glory, we find it all throughout the Bible, and it's a word that is most often used in reference to God. And when it's used in reference to God, the Old Testament word that is used has the sense of weightiness in the word glory, or heaviness. And this word, the sense of weightiness or heaviness, is not

referring to God's body mass index, that God is heavy in weight. God is a spirit. He has no body. So the heaviness or the weightiness of this word, the sense of the word, is about God's glory, his honor, his reverence, how we treat him, how we ought to treat him. If someone were to maybe gently rebuke you and say, "Sir, ma'am, you have treated that matter lightly," they would be saying to you, "I think, it is my estimation that you

have not given the due respect, the due reverence for that thing which you have taken lightly." And so to say that God is weighty or heavy or glorious is to recognize something of God's being, his character. He is glorious in his being. He is glorious in his perfections. And so to give glory to God is to recognize who he is, to revere him as he is, to praise him because he is God, to honor God because he is God. And Jesus asked that

that glory, which is to be given to God and God alone, be given to him. This is a prayer, a petition that only Jesus can make. This is not a petition that any other human being can request or petition of God. "God the Father, glorify me." Only Jesus can pray this particular prayer because of who he is, the eternal Son of God. And he also makes this petition on the basis of his work, the work that he's accomplished. Look at verse four. "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the

work that you gave me to do." That word right in the middle of the verse, accomplished, is a key word, and it's a loaded word with significance for you, dear believer. Jesus does not leave his work undone. He does not leave his work partway done. Jesus completes his work. He accomplishes his work. And why this word is loaded with significance for you is because Jesus is referring to the work of salvation, giving eternal life,

as we see in verses two and three. When Jesus says, "This work that you have given me to do has been accomplished," he is saying, "It is done." Just like those three short words that we cherish from Jesus on the cross, "It is finished. I have done it."

And that means, dear believer, there is nothing for you to do when it comes to your salvation except for trusting in the Savior. That's it. That is it for eternal life, to recognize God as the only true God, and to accept, receive, believe on the Son whom he has sent. Jesus finishes the work of redemption, and so he prays, "Glorify me."

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. When he prays this prayer, you hear allusions to the fact that this plan of God to save a people for himself began even before the world existed. Can you see some of that, hear some of that in Jesus' words? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, agreeing from eternity to save a people for himself, for his own glory.

In order for Jesus to be our Savior, in order to save us, the eternal Son of God had to become man.

And when Jesus, when the Son of God entered the world, when he became a man, took on a nature which he had not had from eternity past, the glory which he had from the beginning, that he shared with God, was veiled in flesh, veiled in skin and bones. Jesus experienced all the weaknesses, all the infirmities of life on Earth that our bodies are subject to in this fallen world. The glory that Jesus had from the beginning as the eternal Son of

God was veiled in some measure. By and large, throughout Jesus' ministry, it went unnoticed

Some caught glimpses of His glory. Maybe you can footnote a couple of these. Just make a note of these and look at them later. John 2, when Jesus does His first sign, turning water into wine in Cana at Galilee, it was said that Jesus manifested His glory. In John 11, when Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus who has been dead for several days, and He raises him from the dead, Jesus says, "Lazarus died in order that the glory of God might be manifest through the

Son." Some caught glimpses of this eternal glory in the person of Jesus, but by and large, throughout His life and ministry, it has gone unnoticed. And so Jesus, as He is completing His work of redemption, that which He was sent to do, as He is anticipating returning to the Father, He prays, "Father, glorify me." Let the world see my glory, who I am, the eternal Son of God, and would You glorify me in Your own presence.

Make it known. So Jesus prays for Himself in this prayer. He also prays for His disciples. We see that the disciples are in view because of verse nine. Jesus says, "I am praying for them." For them. He says, "I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me." Now, when we read this, perhaps you had an objection or a question entered your mind. Why is Jesus praying only for His disciples and not for the world?

I thought that Jesus loved the world, that God loved the world. Why is Jesus not praying for the world, but only for His disciples? Doesn't He love the world?

God loves the world in the sense that God created the world, and that He filled the world with image-bearers to reflect His glory, men and women, boys and girls, young and old. God loves the world because His image, His glory is reflected in the world through people. And we can say that God loves the world in the sense that God appointed His only begotten Son to enter the world to be a savior for the world.

But this text in the Bible reminds us that God has a special and particular relationship with those who have believed on the Son, who have come to Him through the Son. And one of the special privileges that those who have come to God through the Son receive is the prayers of Jesus Christ. That is one of the special privileges believers receive from Jesus. He prays for them. Notice what Jesus prays for His disciples in verse 11.

He prays, "Father, keep them in your name." In verse 12, He will say, "I kept them while I was on earth. Now I am leaving. So Father, you keep them in your name."

Maybe if you have a very special and prized possession, when you have to go somewhere for some amount of time, you hand it off to someone that you trust, to someone you love, someone that you know will keep that prized possession safe. I'm leaving. I cannot watch this. You keep it. Could be a dog, could be a baseball signed by Aaron Judge. It could be any number of things. Keep this safe. Do you notice what Jesus does as He's preparing to leave His disciples in the

world? He entrusts His disciples, whom He has kept, to the Father, to His safekeeping. You've heard Pastor Jason say many times from this pulpit, there are no better hands to be in than God's hands. You are in the best of all hands when you are in the Father's hands. One of the reasons why you are in the best of all hands when you are in the Father's hands is because you are in the most secure hands, the strongest hands.

No one can snatch us from God's hands. Jesus prays, "Father, keep them." He prays that the Father will keep them in and keep them from in this section. So notice he says, "Keep them in your name," verse 11. Our names stand for, represent all that we are. All that we are. And so when Jesus prays, "Keep them in your name," He's praying, "Keep them in your truth, keep them in your love, keep them in your power, keep them in your grace."

Keep them in, and keep them, verse 13, "So that my joy might be fulfilled in them." Keep them so that we will be reunited in your presence, and the joy that I have in saving them and being in your presence, oh Father, might be a joy that's in them. Keep them in, and keep them from. Keep them from. Jesus says in verse 15, "I ask that you keep them from the evil one," or from evil. This is a concern of Jesus. Earlier in chapter 16,

Jesus told his disciples, "I'm telling you about the hatred of the world, so that when the hatred of the world comes at you and you face it all, you will not fall away." You will not fall away. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked for Peter, that he might sift him like wheat, and Jesus prays for Peter. He says, "Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith might not fail." And Jesus is here praying again for this very thing, that his

disciples will be kept from the evil one. He also says at the very beginning of verse 15, "It's not that I'm asking you, oh Father, that you take them out of the world." That might be our first thought, our natural inkling. Think, well, just take them out of the world with you and they'll be safe from the world. Jesus is not praying for that. Notice what he prays instead in verse 18. "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them

into the world." Jesus is going to be sending his disciples into the world to be disciple-making disciples, and so he prays that they might not be taken out of the world, but as they are in the world, that they will be kept from evil.

Many of you are rightly concerned about what you see happening in this world, about what you see happening in our country. Many of you are rightly concerned about the next generation that is to come, that has to live in this world, that has to be believers and keep the faith in this world. It's a good concern. I share that same concern.

My first thought when I think of keeping my kids from the world is to think, how do I find Rapunzel's tower and lock them in the tower so that the world cannot get to them? That's my first thought.

Jesus' first thought is not to take his disciples out of the world, but it's to ask the Father to keep them safe in the world. Jesus here is not prescribing what we ought to do with young people, how we should necessarily think about the decisions we make for our kids, how much they should be involved in the world or not, what they should be involved in or not. There's wisdom that's needed as we think about what we should be involved in personally, what our kids should be

involved in, what believers who are mature and less mature should be involved in in the world. As you're thinking about what you can do, about what you can do for the next generation, here's something you can do that's following the example of Christ. Pray that the Father will keep them. The Father will keep them. As kids become teenagers and they face all kinds of challenges of being a teenager in this world, in this age,

Father, keep them. As kids mature and go off to college, and they face in college and on college campuses all sorts of challenges in this particular age of life, Father, keep them. That's what Jesus prays for his disciples. And he makes a second petition in verse 17. Sanctify them. Keep them from evil and sanctify them. This would be a great petition to add to make a two-part prayer. Father, for our next generation, for our kids,

would you keep them and sanctify them? One of the chief ways, the chief ways that God keeps us from the world is by keeping us in the truth, keeping us in his word. It's one of God's chief ways of keeping us from the world is by keeping us in the truth of his word. See that in verse 17, and that is why, dear friends, you hear repeated once and again our encouragement to be regularly attending public worship, hearing God's word,

the truth of God's word read and preached And that you would be doing so in your own homes. Reading God's word, listening to it, meditating upon it, believing it, practicing it. Jesus' prayer for his disciples is, "Father, keep them and sanctify them." And then finally, we see in verses 20 through 26 that Jesus prays for us, for you. It's what he says in verse 20, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their

word." Want to make two quick observations about that verse, verse 20. Very obvious, simple observations. The first is this. Because these disciples to whom Jesus is speaking with were not only eyewitnesses to the truth, they were the authors of the Gospels. The fact that you have come to faith through the word of Christ, through the scriptures, is testimony that you are an answer to Jesus' prayer. Jesus has prayed for you,

and you are the answer to his own prayer. That's a first observation. A second is this. Jesus says that there are some who will believe in him through the word of the disciples that have not yet come to faith. This is great encouragement, a great thing to be praying to the Father, that more would come to know Jesus Christ and the Father who sent him. And it also gives us confidence about the success of evangelism, and some confidence about the success as we send

out missionaries to foreign fields. There are some who have not yet believed in Jesus Christ as their savior, but will.

There are some that have yet to believe.

Jesus' petition for all believers in all ages is that we would be one, that we would be united. And as we are one and united, that we would resemble and reflect the unity of God the Father and God the Son. So this unity that Jesus is praying about is not a unity that's merely outward or

simply uniformity for the sake of unity.

Jesus says the unity that he has in mind is not a unity that is without respect to the truth.

Jesus is speaking about all kinds of truth here. He wants us to be united in the truth. Jesus' prayer is not necessarily for ecclesiastical unity, that there would be one church in the world that all believers from everywhere enter into. Jesus is praying for a spiritual unity, a unity that we will share one with another in the generation in which we live.

Jesus' desire for us is that we would have the same mind among us, that we would share love for one another, that we would share a common purpose in making God's name known throughout the world. And you see, that's the reason for Jesus' petition. The reason Jesus prays that we would be one is so that others would see, the world would see,

that he has loved us as he has loved the Son. "The world may know that the Father sent the Son," verse 23.

I'm not going out on a limb when I say that the world in which we live is a divided world. Everybody says it.

There's divisions in all sorts of different ways, across different lines, different places, in different ways. We live in a divided world. And so when Jesus prays that the disciples would be unified, would have a common love that is evident, a shared purpose in the world, they would be caring for one another. Jesus is anticipating the effect, the power of that witness convincing the world, convincing some in the world,

that there is a God. There is a God who has sent His Son to redeem the world. It's worth remembering not only that the world will hate believers, but that the world will be watching you, believers. They are watching you to see if the message which you proclaim to be true makes any difference, whether it has any effect, whether it's really true Not just from your lips, but from the way that you interact, from your character,

how you relate to one another. We can positively attest to the truth of who God is and the truth of Jesus Christ in the union that we share one with another. And so Jesus prays that we would be one. And then finally, in verses 20 through 26, Jesus expresses a final desire as he closes his prayer. Jesus' desire is that we may have the privilege of being with Jesus in the very presence of the eternal God, that we may see his eternal glory

fully, in all of its splendor, in all of its beauty, in all of its majesty, in all of its perfection. And Jesus prays that we may be objects of his eternal love.

That is Jesus' desire for you, believer in Christ. That is Jesus' prayer for you,

that you might have the unspeakable privilege of knowing God and knowing Christ, and seeing God and seeing Christ in all of his glory. That is why Jesus came into the world and took on flesh. That is why he suffered. That is why he was obedient to the Father, even to death on a cross. That is why he died in your place. It is why he has gone to the Father. It is why he will return.

Even now, Jesus' son is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. Dear believer in Christ, Jesus is coming back. He will return. And when he returns, you shall see him, and you shall be made like him, sanctified through and through, glorified. And on that day, when Jesus comes for you, he will take you to be where he is in order that we may be with him as well. So beloved in Christ, this is Jesus' prayer. This is his desire. Would you keep your eyes fixed

on him? Keep your hearts set on him until he returns. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for your Son. We thank you that you sent him into the world for us. We thank you for the work that he accomplished on our behalf. We thank you, oh Lord, that his work is not done, that he continues to save sinners. We ask, oh Lord, that you would continue to bear witness, even through us, to the truth of

your gospel, to the truth of Jesus Christ. We pray, oh Lord, that you would comfort us, encourage us with this prayer of our Savior. We pray, oh Lord, we pray just as our Savior prayed, that we may see his glory, the glory that he has shared with you from before the world existed. Oh, how we long to see you, to be made like him in every way. And so we ask, oh Lord, come quickly. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. It's in his name we pray.

Amen.