I have been looking at John’s Gospel and I want to invite you to consider Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel:
“17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 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. 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.
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. 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 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.
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.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
This chapter represents the conclusion to the Last Discourse of Jesus in John’s Gospel, and here, more than ever in John, we cross the threshold of eternity. I say this because although still in the world, Jesus looks on His earthly ministry as a thing of the past. Jesus is still in the world, and tells His disciples this: “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” Verse 13. But Jesus looks on His earthly ministry as a thing of the past: “4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” Verse 4. In John’s Gospel we rarely see Jesus in prayer, and when He prays, it is to teach His hearers about the source of His glory. In this long discourse of Jesus in John’s Gospel, a Discourse that spans many chapters, we see Jesus praying at the grave of Lazarus: “Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’” John 11:41-42. And then after raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, and here He prays: “27 Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name” John 12:27-28!
And now in chapter 17 we see Jesus praying, seeking the source of His glory. Jesus is now the source of our eternal life which is the fruit of His glorification. He prays thus: “1 Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed:
‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began’” Verses 1-5.
Only when Jesus is glorified is the glory of the Father fully evident: “37Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 38 ‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” John 7:38-39.
And we see Jesus’ reference to the Divine Name (“I AM”): “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. 7 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” (Verses 6-8).
These verses (17-19) are a promise of a Divine Mission for the disciples, a mission that will be given them on Easter night after the sacrifice has been completed: “17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (Verses 17-19).
These verses show us the centrality of Goof Friday and Easter Sunday, for here Jesus is fully glorified, and this Divine Mission is also the purpose and mission of our life, that we will live a life sanctified by the truth, the Word of God. So in your prayer today, pray that you may live in that Divine Mission and follow Christ all the days of our life. Pray that you always remember that Jesus sends us into the world just as his father has sent Jesus into the world. May we complete our mission in the mercy of Jesus Christ, and through Him and Him alone.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you”
Isaiah 60:1.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God’” John 11:40?
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:9-11.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” Ephesians 1:17-21.
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