The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus - Jesus Prays for His Disciples part 1

Well take your Bible this morning, turn to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. You should know by now where that portion of scripture is. I pray that you're studying there very well, even studying ahead as we're seeking to digest this portion, this chapter starting in verse 1. Now we've gotten a really good start so far in the chapter. We have learned that chapter 17 is commonly called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. As a matter of fact, many Bible translations, that is a caption, a title given above chapter 17. And that's what we have, this high priestly prayer of Jesus.

Now I've adopted this title, I've used this in the title of the messages. And that will follow us all the way through the chapter. Last week's message was the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Jesus prays for Himself. We covered verses 1 to 5. And I shared with you the great trouble that was in my heart because I really wanted to call this Jesus Prayer for Glory because that is what we see in those verses. Jesus is praying for Himself. He's praying for Glory for Himself as He is facing the cross. And then He is praying for Glory for the Father. Now we know by now that this is no ordinary prayer here in chapter 17.

Not that any prayer of Jesus would be ordinary. It's probably better said that this prayer is a very unique prayer. This prayer is like no other prayer found in the Scriptures. Here Jesus takes the disciples to the very highest mountain peaks of communion with His Father. Verses 1 through 5 He requests Glory to be given to Himself and to the Father as He is completing this work of redemption. Next He takes these men to the highest mountain peaks of intercession. He makes great intercession for His chosen disciples. And then at the end of the chapter He moves to intercession for all believers.

Of course this is a reference to all believers everywhere at all times and that includes us. Now specifically for these disciples. And here in this prayer there are many purposes but I want to point out one great purpose and that is spiritual growth or sanctification. We've seen that all through these chapters since the Last Supper. Jesus is working in them for personal sanctification and growth. As the disciples see and they hear Jesus praying. They hear Jesus articulate God's saving purposes which have been determined from eternity past. This had to be a wild moment for them because this included them.

They saw themselves in these eternal plans. They hear Jesus intercede for them as well. And half of the prayer concerns them. From verses 6 to 19 those verses solely concerned them. And then in verses 20 to 26 those are prayers for all of the church that would include us. But what do we see? This is for spiritual growth in them. That is why I include chapter 17 with chapters 13 to 16. Part of the farewell discourses. And this was all for their preparation and spiritual growth and sanctification. Now let's read our verses together starting in verse 6. We're just picking up right where we left off.

We'll go down to verse 10 which is where we will stop this morning. Verse 6 Jesus says, "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 the truth that you came, that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me." Verse 9, "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." Now I will give us the title of the message and not just the title but how we will break down these verses. Again I'm carrying this title, the High Priestly Prayer, all the way through these verses. So we see Jesus' prayer for His disciples. This is a part one because that's what we pick up with next week starting in verse 11. So we see the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Jesus prays for His disciples. Now we'll spend a little bit of time in the beginning of verse 6. We see the work of Christ in them. And then we see verses 7 and 8, we see they believed in Christ as the Son.

And that is connected to the end of verse 6 as well. And then we see they were given to Christ from the Father verses 9 through 10. Just like last week after we divide the verses, I will make some great spiritual observation and then make some application for us at the end of the message. So you see our major truths before you, the outline. So let's look at our first major truth out of verse 6, "The work of Christ in them." Go back to the verse. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world." Here in verse 6, we have a transition from verses 1 through 5. In verses 1 through 5, we see Jesus pray for Himself.

This was not a self-centered prayer. No, He is praying for Himself. He prays for glory for Himself and ultimately for glory for the Father. But here in verse 6, we see Jesus begin to shift. He begins to pray for His disciples. And praying for His disciples, Jesus soars to the mountain peaks of intercession. Jesus soars to the mountain peaks of high priestly work because that's what intercession is. Now, I want to make two observations out of verse 6, this first portion of verse 6. The first observation is this. Jesus manifested God's name. Go back and look at the verse. "I have manifested your name." Now, there are two key words here.

You need to make note of them, write them down, maybe mark them in your Bible. That is the word manifested and the word name. All of the translations we study say the same thing. So note those two words, and these words are important. First I want us to look at the word manifested. This word means to make known. It means to reveal. It means to show. But there is yet another layer. If you look at the construction of the language, it denotes that this was a completed work. This was an accomplished task. It was finished. But notice what Jesus revealed. Notice what He showed them. Notice what He made known.

So that leads us to the second word, His name. Look at the verse again. "I have manifested your name." The word name here stands for the whole person of God. This refers to the whole character of God. This refers to God's character, God's nature, and all of God's attributes. So what do we see here? Jesus manifested, revealed, made known perfectly and totally, God's name. Now, for some of you, this might bring you to a question. What did this manifestation of God's name look like? We must see that this came through the person and the work of Christ. Christ was the very incarnation of God in every, every way.

So to these disciples, Christ was the manifestation of God's name, both in what He taught and in who He was. He was a perfect manifestation of God's character, God's nature, and God's attributes. And there are lots of scriptures that tell us this. I will name a few, read a few for you. You can jot these down for your own study. But when we stop back in John, John chapter 12 verse 45, what does He say? And whoever sees Me sees Him who sent Me. Again, in John chapter 14 verse 9, Jesus said to Him, "Have I been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." So how can you say, show us the Father?

Then the book of Colossians tells us this reality. Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, what does Paul say? He is the image of the invisible God. Colossians 1, 19, "For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Colossians 2, 9, "For in Him the wholeness, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." And then in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 1 verse 3, He is the radiance, talking about Christ, of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And He upholds the universe by the power, the Word of His power. So what do we see here? Jesus is the complete and perfect manifestation of God's name to these disciples and to us.

Now our second observation is these chosen men. Go back to the verse, verse 6, "I have manifested, revealed your name to the people whom you gave Me out of the world. For as they were, and you gave them to Me, and they have kept your word." So we see these chosen men, these 11. Here we see who received the manifestation of God's name. This was not a universal or an indiscriminate revelation. This was for certain men, and these certain men are the 11. Now notice that these men were a gift from the Father to the Son. Again, go back to the verse. "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." Now notice the phrase "out of the world." This word "world" refers to the evil world system that is anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Bible, and anti-man. The world is governed by Satan and his demons, and it is comprised of all unregenerate people. But these men were taken out of this world, and they were given to Christ the Son. And it is very important to see this. This is the same truth that we saw back in verse 2. I'll go back up to verse 2. "Since you have given Him all authority over all flesh," that's Jesus, "to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him." And notice this phrase.

"Yours they were, and you gave them to Me." John MacArthur calls this a forceful affirmation that even before their conversion, the disciples, they belong to God. And that's true. Here we see that the eternal is described in time. Here we see that what was determined in eternity past is being worked out in time. So it is important to see what Christ is saying here in this prayer. He is expressing to His Father that He has perfectly revealed Himself, the nature of God, the character of God, the name of God to these men. These were not just any men, but men chosen from the world and given to the Son.

But Jesus is not just praying about what He has done in them. Jesus is beginning to bring these men to His Father in intercession. Now this leads us to our second major truth, our second major truth in our outline. They believed in Christ as the Son. Starting in verse 7, "Now they know that everything that you have given Me is from you." Verse 8, "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." Now here we see a shift. Jesus is praying for His disciples. Now He's not yet making requests of the Father.

He is expressing to the Father what is taking place in the disciples. You might say that Jesus is praying for the progress He is seeing in the disciples because we will see that they are making progress. Now I want to divide these verses. I'm going to make four, or excuse me, three observations here. These are sub-points in our outline. When the first one comes out of verse 7, notice they know that Jesus is from the Father. Verse 7, "Now they know that everything that you have given Me is from you." With the use of this word "no," it seems that there has been a marked change in these men. It can be translated at this present time.

It seems that at long last they have the confident knowledge that Jesus' mission was of a divine origin. All they had seen and heard had finally brought them to this new place. The great miraculous signs had proved that Jesus was from God. His great teaching that they had witnessed proved that He was from God. His prayer life, which they had seen, had proved that He was from God. His great ministry to great sinners had proved that He was from God. Seeing and hearing the Father's approval of His Son proved that He was from God. They finally and wholeheartedly had come to a new understanding that Jesus was from God.

And that is what Jesus is saying to the Father in prayer in verse 7. Go back to the verse. "Now they, the disciples, know that everything that you have given Me is from you." But that does not mean that they understand the significance of the events which are about to take place. The cross and the resurrection back to the Father will not be fully understood until the coming of the Holy Spirit. But they are still at a new place of understanding. They know that Jesus is from the Father. And then verse 8, at the beginning of verse 8, "Jesus gave them the words of the Father.

For I have given them the words that you gave Me." Here Jesus states the origin of the words that He gave His disciples. There is an emphasis placed on the divine revelation of the message which Jesus gave them. His message was not His own, but it was given to Him by the Father to in turn give to these disciples. So Jesus gave them the words that He received from the Father. And then notice the third observation. They believe that Jesus' words were from the Father. Verse 8, "For I have given them the words that you gave Me." And there is a transition.

"And they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you." We have seen that the words Jesus gave them were from the Father. Now we see the reaction of the disciples. Now we see three different ways the disciples react to the message of Jesus. We see this in the form of three verbs here in the verse. The first verb is "received." The second verb is "they came to know." And the third verb is "believed." I didn't read the remainder of the verse, but go back. And they receive them. That's the words. And they have come to know. There's the second verb. "In truth that I came from you." And they have believed.

There's the third verb. "That you sent Me." So first they received. This is the opposite of what so many of the Jewish crowds who follow Jesus did. "You used Me and received and acted on the words of Christ." We saw this back at the end of verse 6. In verse 6 Jesus says that they kept God's Word. Go back up to verse 6. "And you gave them to Me and they have kept your Word." And here in verse 8 we see that they received the Word of God. So there is a receiving work in these disciples pertaining to the Word that Christ gave them. And then second, they've come to know. They came to know that Jesus came from the Father. This speaks of His origin.

Whereas the religious leaders accused Jesus of being from Satan, these disciples came to know that He was from God. And then third, they believed. At the end of verse 8, "And they believed that you sent Me." Here we see that they believed that the Father sent Christ. They were believing that His origin was truly of God. So it is important to see what Christ is saying here in this portion of the prayer. He is expressing to His Father what is taking place in the disciples. Their progress. They know that Jesus is from the Father and He is saying that back to the Father. They have believed His words.

They have received and they've come to know and believe that He is from God. And Jesus is praying that back to His Father. Again, this is not a full understanding because so much is going to take place that they will not understand until the Holy Spirit is given. But they believed in Christ as the Son in a new way here. And then our third major truth is out of verses 9 through 10. They were given to Christ from the Father. 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.

Here we see that Jesus is still lifting His disciples to His Father. Right away in verse 9 we see Jesus' words. I am praying for them. These are the high peaks of high priestly intercession for Jesus as He is bringing these men to the Father in prayer. There are three observations I want to make out of these two verses. First, notice Jesus is not praying for the world. Go back to the verse. I am praying for them and I am not praying for the world. Here in verse 9 it is obvious that Jesus is only praying for His disciples. Jesus makes a strong distinction between His 11 disciples and the world. We see that in the verse.

Now verses like this, they call some of us to say, "What about the world?" Some even say, "What about verses like John 3.16? What does John 3.16 say? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Now we do see God's love for the world. Now I'll break this down in two ways. First of all, we see God's love for the world and what Bible theologians call common grace. This is called common grace. This is a love or a grace that is extended to all peoples of the world even to those who reject Christ. One verse I will give you that reflects this.

Matthew 5 verse 45 says, "For He makes His sun shine on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust." This truth is taught back in Psalm 145 verse 9 and then back over in Acts chapter 14 verse 17. Now this is not saving grace, but this is God's goodness. This is the provisions in life that is called common grace and all of humanity receives common grace. I was witnessing to an individual here a while back and I explained to them, I gave them an example of common grace.

If I'm in an automobile accident and I go to the hospital and a doctor who is unregenerate, lost and outside of Christ saves my life, he is common grace to the culture. Lost individuals enjoy common grace. But second, we see God's love for the world in God's mission through Jesus' disciples and through the church as they carry the gospel to the world. Throughout this chapter it is easy to see that the disciples are to carry out His mission of taking the gospel to the world. We see this later as He transitions to praying for the church in verses 21 to 23.

We see this in the book of Acts as these men and others take the gospel to the known world. We see this in missionaries today. This is being fleshed out as men and women are taking the gospel to the lost. But that's not the focus here with Jesus. You might say, "Pastor, why do you go there? I want you to see how God loves the lost, but we don't see that here." He is praying for this little group that has been given to Him from the Father, the chosen 11. Jesus is not praying for the world. He is praying for these men. The second observation, the disciples are both the sons and the fathers. Look at the beginning of verse 10.

All mine are yours and yours are mine. Here Jesus returns to the truth that has been seen since the beginning of the chapter. In repeating this reality, Jesus is emphasizing His confidence that these 11 disciples truly do belong to God. They belong to the Father and they belong to Him. And then the third observation, Jesus is glorified in them. What does He say at the end of verse 10? I am glorified in them. Here at the end of the verse, Jesus returns to the subject of His first request within this prayer and that is glory. Now here in verse 10, Jesus does not make a request for glory, but He says He has been glorified in the disciples.

Go back to the verse. All mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. As they, the disciples, are expressing and possessing more confidence in their faith, Jesus is receiving glory even right here. So it is important for us to see that these men were part of a sovereign work of God here. Jesus is praying specifically for them. They are His by a gift from the Father. As they are receiving the words of Christ, as they are believing more that Jesus is from God, as they are accepting more and more the truth of the mission that it is from God, He is glorified and they were given to Christ from the Father.

Now in moving away from the verses this morning, I want to make some big picture observations. Occasionally I use that language. I ask you to step back. I ask you to step back and I want us to make observations and then at the end I am going to make application. Now our observations here will be very theological, but they must be seen for us to make application out of these verses and out of these observations. Now the first observation out of these verses, we see the disciples exercise their responsibility to the work of God in their lives. We see this at the end of verse 6 and in verses 7 through 8.

We clearly see language which shows them exercising human responsibility. Some theologians call this human volition. Let me go back to the verses and you will see them exercising responsibility. In verse 6, "And you gave them to me and they have kept your word." Verse 7, "Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you." Verse 8, "For I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and they have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me." So what we have here is the doctrine of human responsibility, human volition.

They are exercising their responsibility as God is working in their life. The second observation is we see the sovereign work of God in their lives. Last week I mentioned the doctrine of election and we see this in verse 6. If we go back, "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world." We see this in verse 9 as well. We see this in verse 10. We see this back in verse 2 that we studied last week. And this is clearly what Bible theologians call the doctrine of election. Now we must see that these two doctrines must be seen.

The Scriptures clearly teach, and I like what John MacArthur calls, "dual realities." Now I have used the illustration of train tracks in the past. These train tracks, they run parallel to one another and they run all throughout the entirety of God's Word. The track of God's sovereignty, God's choosing, who will be a part of his redeemed people. It runs all throughout God's Word. And then the track of man's responsibility toward God in either rejecting the gospel call or receiving God's offer of salvation. It runs throughout the entirety of God's Word. And we must see these dual realities.

We must see these two tracks which run all throughout God's Word. Now sometimes we see some are one more prominently than the other. At times one seems to be hidden. It's nowhere to be found. And then there are times when both are clearly seen, and that's what we have in John chapter 17 here. Both tracks are in the Word of God from the Old Testament to the Gospels and in the theological writings of the Apostle Paul. So these two doctrines are here. Dual realities, train tracks running through the Word of God. Now I want to give you a word of explanation and a word of warning. Here's the word of explanation.

From the human perspective, there is a great mystery here. We cannot reconcile these great doctrines in our minds. But from the divine perspective, from the mind of God, these truths are perfectly harmonious. There is no contradiction in the Word of God or in the mind of God. So that is our explanation. We cannot reconcile these. They are a mystery. Now the word of warning here. We cannot fully explain how these doctrines work together either. We must teach these truths as the Bible sets them forth, and then we must stop. We can't go beyond what the Bible says. And I need to repeat this because many do. We can't go beyond what the Bible says.

Remember the illustration of the train tracks? What happens if we move one of the rails of the train track? We have catastrophic derailment. And that is what happens when we alter one of these theological tracks. If we tamper with the clear teaching of either God's sovereignty or man's responsibility, we derail into bad doctrine. I'll give you one good example. This is one that violates God's sovereignty, and many of you have heard this. I've heard preachers say it like this. Well, you know God, He looked down the tunnel of time and He saw who was going to choose Christ and believe in Christ, and then God, He chose them in Christ.

The problem with that is that is a direct violation of many passages of Scripture. That is a direct violation of the sovereignty of God. And that is a direct violation of what we see in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. Just as He, as God, chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Does that look like God is looking down the tunnel of time? No. This says in Ephesians that God determined these things before the foundation of the world. We see this in Colossians 3, 12, Titus 1, 1, and what happens here is this destroys the sovereignty of God. This makes man the captain of the whole ship, and it leads to other damnable heresies as well.

Now, I'll give you another mistake that others make, and that is making man a mere robot. That is ignoring or trampling over the choice and the responsibility of God, and many people do that. They make man a robot. Now, I'm going to pause there because we're going to deal with this more next week. Now, what am I showing you? If we alter the rails in any way, it will lead us sometimes subtly to derailment. Now, an application, I want to say this before we close. We must study these doctrines as they come to the surface. This is the beauty of verse by verse, word by word, chapter by chapter, book by book, studying through the Word of God.

It forces us to study these doctrines, and we must not have fear. We must not fear anything that we encounter in the Word of God. Some people are afraid to discuss the issue of tongues in the book of Acts. Why be afraid of God's Word? Dive into it and see what God's Word says. So we must strike out any fear. There have been times in your pastor's life when I didn't want to deal with certain issues in the Word of God and the life of the church. Why? Fear. We must not be fearful, and we must study the difficult doctrines, and then we must accept the mysteries. It's okay to explain it to a point and just say it is a mystery.

And let me let you off the hook. When you deal with God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, when you get to the end of that road and there's a knot in your stomach and you can't explain it, don't feel bad. I feel the same way. It's there in the Scriptures. Just declare it with no fear and accept the mysteries here. We're not God. We can only explain according to what the Scriptures say. But then we proclaim these realities. We proclaim them. We must not sidestep them or run from them. We proclaim them, and then we step back and watch God work.

See, church, when we sit back and realize that only men and women come to true faith in Christ when God brings them to Christ, that lets us off the hook. We don't have to coerce people. We don't have to lead them in some cheap, weak prayer. We proclaim these realities. Our sons and our daughters will never be saved unless God the Father moves them to the Son and the Son gives them eternal life. Isn't that what we learned last week? We proclaim these realities, and then we watch God work. So I encourage you, don't be afraid. Let's study these doctrines, and let's proclaim them, and let's watch God work.

Now I have one more word of encouragement before we close. There's some of you. As I've been going through the message and going through these verses, some of you said, "I don't know, Pastor, if I see that." You go back and study those verses. It's there. As Jesus is praying to the Father, He is bringing before the Father their responsibility. He's bringing before the Father the works of God the Father from eternity past. He's bringing these realities to the Father, and we're seeing them work out in time. Go study. Look at these verses. Examine what we've looked at, and you will see these beautiful doctrines.

Mysteries, yes, but yet you will be compelled to proclaim these realities. What do we see? See how I preach the prayer of Jesus. Wonderful intercession. Jesus is praying for His disciples. May the Lord enable us to accept by faith what His word says, and may it work in such a way where it brings about a sanctifying work in us as well. Let's pray, and then we'll dismiss.