“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.” John 17:1
It was just before the betrayal of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, that He was with His disciples, in particular John. During that last meeting with His disciples, knowing full well what was before Him, and as the Scriptures tell us, “He loved them to the end,” He gave to them, and to us today, some of the greatest lessons in prayer, and essential subjects that need always to be dealt with, all for the glory of His Father, and the highest blessing of those whom He loved. We know that John was very close at hand during this time, for he wrote down the exact prayer that the Lord Jesus prayed, capturing it in its beauty, power, and provision. In it He will reveal those essential elements in prayer which were not only to be fundamental, but the means by which the Father would respond to meet the greatest needs of the disciples of His day, and our own.
Christ begins with the glory of the Father, that by the Father’s work in answer to prayer, Christ would be able to face and endure the cross, accomplishing redemption for every man. Secondly, all would be based upon the authority that the Father had entrusted to Him, and Christ’s corresponding authority to give Life, eternal Life. Christ’s work to that point was accomplished, soon to be entirely fulfilled on the Cross. So, this prayer would be an essential part of that finished work which He would not only pray, but leave with the disciples, so that they too would pray according to it.
The first thing was Christ’s appeal to the Father to glorify Him with Himself. The profound call of Christ’s heart was for the manifestation of the glory of the Father, in fullest, yet controlled measure, so that by that glory, the revelation of Himself, Christ would be able to honor and glorify the Father. In essence, Christ called for the sunshine of the Father’s face and blessing, and the consistent fulness of His glory by the Spirit, so that He could accomplish the work of redemption on Calvary.
It would be then that Christ would declare to the Father, “I have manifested your name to the men whom You have given Me.” (Jn. 17:6) He then declares, “I have given them the words which You have given Me.” (v.8) Why is this so very important? It is by the revelation of the Father, according to His name, and the Words of the Father, that faith is born, the result being, “…and they have believed that You sent Me.”
Christ then prays, “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” (v.11) So, the disciples, having come to Christ by the sovereign work of the Father, and given to Christ, have come to faith because of the revelation of the Father in Christ, and the living words of the Father given by the Spirit. Essential to the protection, preservation, and provision of His disciples, His sheep, is the keeping power and authority by the Father. It is essential that the disciples be “…kept from the evil one.” (v.15) Just as essential is the revelation and the grasping of the revelation, that God the Father had given the disciples to the Son, so that “…they may be ONE as We are.” (v.11)
Jesus’ objective in praying in such a manner was so the disciples would truly know Him, and this by His joy being fulfilled in them. (v.13) He then prays that they would be sanctified by the word of the Father, completely set apart unto Him, so that being one with Christ and the Father, the world would see and know that God the Father had truly sent His Son into the world. Not only would the disciples know Christ’s joy, but also His love. His prayer is for God’s glory to be revealed in them, because of oneness with God.
Dear Father, Teach us to pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.