A.Although many people know Matthew 6:9-13 as “the Lord’s prayer,” this passage is actually a model prayer taught by Jesus.
1.In this passage, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray by giving an example prayer.He did not offer this prayer to the Father Himself.
2.The elements of this example should always be in our prayers (reverence and submission to God, regard for His kingdom, petitions for blessings, forgiveness, guidance, protection, etc.).
B.The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John contain many examples of the Lord praying, but John 17 is the most extensive record of any of the Lord’s prayers to the Father.
1.Every event of the Lord’s life was attended by prayer, and many are recorded in the Scripture.In fact, a study of Christ’s life will teach us how to pray.
2.The prayer recorded in John 17 is extraordinary because of its circumstances.
a.It was given at the conclusion of the Lord’s final directions to His apostles in which He had washed their feet, predicted His betrayer, announced His departure, foretold Peter’s denials, promised the Holy Spirit, and many other things (John 13-17).Certainly, they remembered the important things He taught them and how He prayed on that night.
b.It was the Lord’s final words spoken before He left the confines of the upper room for the betrayal in the garden, the trials of Jerusalem, and the crucifixion at Calvary.It was important for the Lord to speak these words to the Father in the presence of His apostles before His sufferings began.
C.Let us now consider John 17, the Lord’s prayer, in three divisions: the Lord’s prayer for Himself, the Lord’s prayer for His apostles, and the Lord’s prayer for all believers.
II.BEFORE WE BEGIN…
A.A major theme in John 17 is what the Father gave to Christ and what Christ gave to the apostles and us.
1.The Lord acknowledged that the Father gave Him authority over mankind (v. 2), believers out of the world (v. 2, 24), work to do (v. 4), the apostles (vv. 6, 9), His words (v. 8), His name (vv. 11-12), and His glory (vv. 22, 24).
2.Christ also stated that He had given specifically to the apostles God’s word (vv. 8, 14), protection (v. 12), and sanctification (vv. 17, 19).
3.To all believers, those whom God gave unto Christ, He gave them eternal life (v. 2), God’s word via the apostles (v. 20), glory (v. 22), and love (v. 26).
B.It is worth noticing this theme because the flow of blessings from the Father to Christ, to the apostles, and to us ties us all together in unity.It is important to understand that everything that Christ and the apostles have given us came from the Father (vv. 7, 9-10), and we share these things together in unity.
III.THE LORD’S PRAYER FOR HIMSELF
A.This part of the Lord’s prayer is found in John 17:1-5.
B.In His prayer for Himself, Jesus declared that the time had come to finish His work of glorifying the Father.
1.When Jesus said, “The hour has come,” He was speaking of the time of His own crucifixion and resurrection.Compare this passage with John 13:31-32.
2.Notice that Jesus glorified the Father by accomplishing the work that the Father gave Him to do (v. 4).This work was to make the Father known to mankind through Himself and to lead them to eternal life (v. 3; see also John 1:18; 3:16; 14:6-9).
C.With His work complete, Jesus requested for the Father to glorify Him.
1.The glory Christ requested was the glory that He had before the world was (see John 1:1-3).This is the same glory Peter, James, and John had glimpsed at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-9).
2.Notice that Christ’s request for glory was so that He could further glorify the Father (v. 1).
a.Jesus had glorified the Father on earth through His work (v. 4).
b.Now He sought to glorify the Father from heaven.
IV.THE LORD’S PRAYER FOR HIS APOSTLES
A.This part of the Lord’s prayer is found in John 17:6-19.
B.In His prayer for the apostles, Jesus recalled how He had guarded them while He was with them.
1.Jesus said that He had kept the apostles in the name of the Father and guarded them (v. 12).By context, we understand that He did so through the constant admonition of the word of God, which they had kept (v. 6).
2.The Lord acknowledged that He has lost one, Judas Iscariot, in order to fulfill the Scripture (Ps. 41:9; 69:25; 109:8; Zech. 11:12).
C.Knowing that He was about to leave the apostles, Jesus requested that the Father keep them from Satan and sanctify them from the world.
1.Notice the Lord’s concern for His apostles who were about to be left in the world without Him.He knew that the world hated them (v. 14) and that Satan would seek them (v. 15).
2.Christ asked that the same protection He had personally given the apostles would be continued (notice v. 11, “keep them in Thy name”) so that they would be united.
3.The protection of God from the world and Satan would be available to the apostles through the sanctifying power of God’s truthful word (v. 17).
a.While Jesus was with them, He provided God’s word directly to them.
b.After He departed, God’s word was provided by means of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17; 26; 15:26-16:15).Christ did not name the Holy Spirit here, but the Spirit is certainly the subject of His petition to the Father (compare v. 19 to John 16:7).
V.THE LORD’S PRAYER FOR ALL BELIEVERS
A.This part of the Lord’s prayer is found in John 17:20-26.
B.In His prayer for all believers, Jesus asked that they would have unity in the likeness of Himself and the Father.
1.All that the Lord had prayed on behalf of the apostles was extended also to those who would believe in Him through the apostles’ word (v. 20).
2.The Lord had prayed for the unity of the apostles earlier (v. 11), and now He expanded that prayer regarding all believers in Him.
a.He prayed that their unity would resemble that of Himself and the Father (vv. 21-22).
i.From the beginning, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been as one in the Godhead (the word “God” in Genesis 1:1 is the plural noun elohiym).They are three persons, but they act as one.
ii.Jesus and His Father were united in mind and purpose in all things, and He desired the same for His followers (see John 5:17-24; 8:58; 12:44-45; 14:6-11; 1Cor. 1:10).
iii.This unity was more than simple harmony (i.e., absence of strife).This unity was a state of spiritual sameness in all things.
b.Such unity in His believers would lead the world to know that Christ was sent from God and that God loves all believers (v. 23).
i.Men left to themselves do not achieve perfect unity.Division and strife characterize men’s dealings with one another.
ii.Men guided by God’s holy word do achieve unity, and that unity will be the evidence of God’s presence.
C.Jesus also asked that His believers would witness His heavenly glory and share in the love of God.
1.Christ requested that His believers would come to be with Him in order to see His true glory (v. 24).Not only will believers see His glory, but they also will share it (v. 22; see 1John 3:2).
2.Christ knew the love of the Father, and He passed that love of God on to His believers (vv. 24, 26).
VI.CONCLUSION
A.It is humbling to know that on the night in which Christ would be betrayed and led away to His death, He was praying for us.
1.So many things might have been on His mind at that time, but He thought of us.
2.Surely, if He could pray to the Father on our behalf at that time, then we can work to be the answers to His prayers today.
B.Let us always be mindful of the desires of our Lord so that we may indeed behold His glory in the place where He now is.
