Jesus Prays for His Disciples, Part 1
John 17:6-11
Turn tonight to John 17. We are studying the prayer of Jesus recorded there. It is known as the High Priestly Prayer. As we have seen in the last two weeks, verse 1 through 5 deals with Jesus praying for His own glory. The focus of this part of the prayer is the cross. The cross, we discovered, is a place of glory because it was there Jesus provided eternal life for us, He gave perfect obedience to God and God provided absolute vindication to His claims as Messiah.
In this next section, verses 6 to19 where we will begin to study tonight, we find Jesus praying for the disciples who were alive at the time of His death.
Then in verses 20 to 26, He prays for all Christians throughout all ages to come.
And so once Jesus prays for His own glory in the cross, once that is accomplished, then He focuses on His followers, both then and now.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the experience of John 17 is transitional in that we see Jesus moving from His work on the cross to the next phase of His ministry on our behalf which is intercession.
We never want to limit or minimize the work of the cross. But it’s not all there is to it. The resurrection provides for us a living Savior. And as Hebrews 7 reminds us, “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”
So as we come to his second section of John 17 we get to see a little glimpse of this intercessory work on our behalf.
In fact, the prayer is called the High Priestly Prayer because that was the work of the High Priest. The High Priest was an office instituted by God to have someone in His presence on behalf of the people.
Now the problem with that was it was temporary. It didn’t last. You know why? The high priests kept dying.
Every priest died. That’s what makes the ministry of jesus so significant because Hebrews 7:25 says our High Priest, Jesus Christ, ever lives to make intercession for us.
Now the on.ly way He could qualify to be our High Priest was to go to the cross, die in our place, and raises back to life.
So that’s what we see unfolding in chapter 17. First of all the cross had to take place. It did. And now we move on to the intercessory ministry.
Now in this next section, verses 6 to 19, Jesus prays for His immediate disciples. That means this prayer is specifically for the eleven Apostles and the other disciples that were still with Him.
How many were there? We don't know, maybe as many as 500. That's how many saw Him after His resurrection. There were 120 in the upper room praying together, waiting for the Spirit of God and so perhaps somewhere around 500 would be a maximum.
Now to cover this section will take us a couple of tries. Eventually we are going to see three things from this section.
We see the subjects of His prayer, the reasons for His prayer and the requests in His prayer.
Let’s read the text and get it in our mind, then we’ll get started.
John 17:6-19
First of all, see
1. The Subjects of His Prayer
In verses 6 - 8, Jesus describes who it is that He's praying for.
For whom is He praying? The men whom You have given Me out of the world. That's who. Later on we'll see that it's a direct reference to the Apostles and those disciples who believed in Him.
Now understand, He's specifically praying for them, but by virtue of this being the revealed Word of God, it is a pattern of His mediating work for all believers.
Think about the practicality of this prayer. For three and ½ years now they’ve spent their lives with Him. They’ve depended upon Him. They’ve come to know and love and trust Him. And now the thought of losing Him must have paralyzed them.
And Jesus certainly knew that even with all the promises that He'd given them, what was about to happen was going to be traumatic.
They were going to scatter as sheep without a shepherd and He knew that. And He knew that it would hurt. And He knew that it was going to be a shock like no shock they had ever had.
And so, He comes to the Father, and He prays for them. And essentially what we see here is Jesus entrusting these that He has personally and physically cared for to the care of the Father while He was going to the corss and tomb.
Now after the cross, the Holy Spirit will come and live within them. But in the meantime so they are never without the presence of God, He hands over the task of caring for them to the Father while He goes to the cross to die for them.
You know, you'd think that Jesus Christ somewhere along the line would get a little bit preoccupied with His own problem, but He never does. All He can think about is -- Father, Listen, I love them so much I'm going to go die for them, and while I'm dying for them will You watch them?
What a precious thought is that! He is so concerned with them. I like to know that, don't you? He cares about me.
Now notice what He prays.
verse 6
Remember we are talking about the subjects of His prayer. Now watch this: Jesus is about to put His followers on divine welfare. He is committing them into the Father's unlimited care.
He gets to the specific requests in verses 12 or 13 or so. But before He does, He gives their credentials as to why they deserve divine welfare. I mean if you get assistance, you’ve got to qualify.
Why do these followers of Jesus qualify for this divine welfare system?
There are two qualifications necessary.
Reason number one is in verse 6:
1. They belong to God to begin with
This isn't really welfare; this is just taking care of Your own kids. They belong to You. So Jesus is saying, “Father, they have a right to Your care because they're Yours to begin with. They’ve belonged to You since before the foundation of the world.”
He's just asking the Father to do what’s already in His plan to do to begin with. Jesus always prays so good. You will always find Him praying consistent with the known plan of God.
Think about how that impacts your life. That's how Jesus intercedes for you and me. Have you ever thought about that? He looks down at us and He says. “You know those down there, Father? They need Your welfare, they need Your grace. And after all, Father, they deserve it not because of their own polished holy character but because they're Your's. You chose them.”
And so, that's the first credential.
Then you find the second credential right at the end of verse 6:
2. They’ve kept Your word
Here we find that balance we discussed this morning. On the one side there is God’s responsibility; on the other, man’s response.
Salvation involves the choice of God and the obedience of man. So here we have the human side of having the right to receive God’s care.
You have called them out of the world; they’ve responded to the Your Word (the gospel), therefore they are entitled to your care.
Notice verse 8
That's what separated the men from the boys in terms of discipleship. Jesus went into Galilee, for example, and He started healing people and He started feeding the multitudes and they loved it. Free food! Healing! They loved it! Boy that Jesus is something. Let's get Him a crown and make Him king.
Great popularity. All of a sudden, He said -- Now I want to talk to you about sin. And whew, they were gone like a vacuum.
And He started talking about judgment. He started talking about other things and one by one, they left. In fact, we are told in John chapter 6 they turned around and didn't follow Him anymore.
You see, they could take His person up to a point, but just couldn't take what He said, see. When He started talking about sin, repentance and saying He was God and all of that, they couldn't hack that.
And so, Jesus says -- This is the real stuff, Father, because they have kept the things that I said which are Thy words. They’ve received the truth.
Listen the issue of the day is obedience to the things that He said. That's the issue.
And He amplifies this so graphically in verse 7 by saying what they believed.
The first thing they knew was that everything He did, He did by the power and the will of God.
Everything He did, that he taught, that he said, the miracles, truths, principles, doctrines, whatever He gave them was from God. They believed indeed that God was in Christ.
And the authentication of that is found in verse 7
Then look at verse 8
They believed what He said and did, and what did they do with it?
They received them." Listen, it's not enough to be enamored with the person of Jesus. It's not enough to think religious thoughts.
The only way a man ever comes to God, the only way a man ever knows God, the only way a man is ever put on divine welfare, the only way a man will ever be blessed by God, the only way a man will ever inherit eternal life, the only way he'll ever spend eternity in a glorious heaven in a place prepared by the Father in the Father's own house, is when he agrees that Jesus is God in human flesh and everything He said was of God.
And so, we see that Jesus Christ accredits this little motley group of Galilean hicks and a few other more elevated individuals who belonged to that little band, He gives them the right to all of the care of the Heavenly Father by saying these are the ones who believe that I have come from You.
And so, Jesus Christ prays for this group. And the two things that give them credential to be blessed by God was God's own choice and their own faith.
You know, have you ever thought about what a wonderful thing that is? Have you ever just thought how Jesus prays for you like this?
I just try to picture that, and I hear Jesus saying,
“Father, you know that Tolbert guy down there in Ardmore? He's got a lot of problems.”
And maybe God says, “Yeah, I know. He’s a mess.”
And maybe Jesus says, “But you know, You chose him. And by the way, He’s depending on You. His faith is genuine. He really loves You.”
And it's on that basis, those two things, that Jesus Christ pleads on my behalf.
Is that not humbling? Did you ever think about what you provide (or maybe don’t provide) for Jesus to use as He goes to God on your behalf?
I’m telling you, every time I think about that I am convinced of how little I deserve and how great are my sins, and I can’t help but come away from that more thankful for grace.
The Subjects of His Prayer.
Then think about,
2. The Reasons for His Prayer
Verses 9-10
That’s a rather shocking statement there in verse 9. Jesus says, “I don’t pray for the world. I pray for the ones you’ve given me.”
Did you ever think about that? That makes me wonder about something. Does Jesus pray for the unsaved? The Bible doesn't say.
Is there ever an illustration anywhere of Jesus praying for someone who didn't love Him?
Yes. One was all I could find. It's recorded for us in Luke 23:34 and it says this ”Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
That's the only time you ever see Jesus pray for an unbeliever.
There are lots of times He redeemed them out of unbelief. But as far as praying for them as, that's the only time.
So what’s the point? It’s not to say that Jesus doesn't care about the unsaved. Obviously He does.
It's not that Jesus Christ doesn't care; it's that the only prayer that Jesus can ever pray, if indeed He does pray, for an unbeliever is that an unbeliever stop being an unbeliever.
But the focus here is intercessory prayer. He cannot pray in any kind of an intercessory way for the Father to bless an unbeliever. His intercessory ministry is reserved for believers. He ever lives to make intercession for us, not unbelievers.
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, God is not concerned with blessing you. You're not the object of His blessing. Christ does not intercede on your behalf. He intercedes for those that are His.
And in that thought we discover the reasons for His prayer.
He gives two reasons why He intercedes for us.
1. We are His personal possession
verses 9-10
He says -- I'm praying for them because they're our's, Father. They're ours to care for. Do you know why Jesus intercedes for you? Because you belong to Him. Is that not exciting? We are God's personal possession. I belong to God and so do you.
The world looked at that motley little group of disciples and all those few little Christians and they thought they were the least of all things. They saw nothing about them to mark them as special in any way, but they were wrong, like they're always wrong.
That little motley group just so happened to be the personal treasure of the eternal God.
That’s why it's so ridiculous for Christians to worry and to fret. Look who’s caring for You. Take notice of who’s identified Himself as the Shepherd and caretaker of your soul. All who are Christ's belong to God, as personal possessions. You want to know the reason, then, that He prays for us? We're His ... we belong to Him.
Here’s the second thing.
2. My Glorification on the Earth Depends on Them
Verse 10b-11
Did you get the point of that? Jesus says, “Father, bless them because I'm leaving and coming to You and if I am to be glorified anymore, it will have to be done through them.”
Listen, God wants to care for you because He wants the Son glorified in and through you. Jesus says, in effect, I'm leaving and the glory that I have displayed in this human body is over. But these remain, Father, to display My glory. If the world is ever going to see the glory of God, they're going to have to see it in them.
That’s why we spent several weeks recently talking about how to glorify God. That’s why the Bible says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God, that Christ may be glorified in your body whether by life or by death."
The glory of God was revealed in a body -- Jesus Christ – and guess what? It still is!
So, Jesus says -- Father, there are some reasons, there are some reasons to bless them ... they're our's, plus they're the vehicle for glory and the world must see it.
Let me close with this. Just in case you haven’t caught it yet, God cares about you.
If you’ve never been saved, God loves you so much He sent Jesus to die on a cross so you could be saved.
And if you are saved, you can’t even begin to imagine how much God loves you. He longs to bless your life. He loves to honor your obedience. And He desires to show the world what a wonderful God He is through you.
I read sometime ago about a house fire that broke out. The father of the house was home with his four children. He thought the best thing to do would be run outside and hook up a water hose and try to put it out.
But what happened was he got caught on the outside with the children trapped inside.
And so, he began to work his way around the house smashing out the windows with his bare arms to try to reach the children, but the heat would throw him back and the fire. And he went from room to room and he was unable to get in and when it was all over with, he was completely shredded to the bone on both of his arms.
And in spite of all he could do, he stood on his front lawn and watched his children burn to death.
Did you know there is a God Who one day unbared His arms, reached into the very flames of hell and snatched us from the burning, so we could be saved?
That's the God who cares for us. And that's the God to whom Jesus prays for you and for me in a continuous intercessory ministry ... even as He did for these beloved then. Let's pray.
