17:1When 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, 2since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
6“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. 7Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8For 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. 9I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11And 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. 12While 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. 13But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14I 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. 15I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that 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. 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I 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. 24Father, 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. 25O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26I 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.” (ESV)
I read this chapter the other night, And I feel like I have never read it before… I’m sure I’ve skimmed over it sometime in my life, but it never hit me like it just did. This is our creator and savior pleading on our behalf in total sacrifice and humility.
In Verse 4 Jesus acknowledges that God the Father gave him specific work while he was on earth. He gave us a model of fulfilling an earthly calling. What is awesome is that he can rightly claim that he brought the Father glory in everything that he accomplished because he did not waver from his work in any way.
In verses 6-8, he tells us that one of his tasks was to manifest the name of the Father to the people. He was given words from the Father, and gave them to his followers and because he gave the words to his followers and his followers believed them, they where brought into the truth. This was of course before the crucification so the disciples believed in something that hadn’t even happened yet. The Words of our God are life, and we can fully trust that the words of Jesus Christ are those very same words.
Verse 14 Jesus starts off by once again showing the awesome power of the Word of God; the fact that as his followers received the Word, they simultaneously became separated from the world. The receiving of the Word of God for these men was a sort of baptism into a new life for them. This shows the amazing power the Word has to change a man, Nothing cuts deeper. In verse 15, Jesus prays for our protection from the enemy (how awesome is that?), knowing that we have to live our lives and (hopefully) fulfill our mission on earth in the midst of a raging and dangerous battle. We are clearly foreigners since our conversion and so he goes on to ask the Father to “Sanctify” (Set us apart for the work of God) in the truth (Sanctify), 2nd Timothy 2:4 follows this theme:
4No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. (ESV)
15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, (ESV)
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