John 17John 17

Jesus Prayer – Lesson TwoJesus Prayer – Lesson Two

Review - Review - God’s Love for His Church

Lesson 1 – Love between Jesus and the Father

Lesson 2 – Jesus’ Prayer for the Disciples – God’s love for the Church

Lesson 3 – Jesus’ Prayer for the Disciples – God’s love produces unity

Lesson 4 – Jesus’ Prayer for all believers present and future

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God’s Love for the Church-John 17:6-19

• V. 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.

Key PointsKey Points

What does manifested mean? – to make known, to reveal.

To whom did Jesus manifest the name of God?

Yours they were: Everything and everyone belongs to God by virtue of creation, but here possession by redemption is in view. God gave the elect to the Redeemer:“you gave me” (cf. Heb 2:10-13) – a commentary

Please turn to Heb. 2:10-13 and read as a group

How does this passage relate?

Please turn to John 6:44 and read as a group

How does this passage relate?

Key Points continued

…and you gave them to me.

•Christ declares that the chosen always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishesthem from the reprobate, not by faith, or by any merit, but by pure grace…(Eph. 2:8)

We are a gift by which we enter into the guardianship of Christ

…and they have kept your word.

Having been received by Christ, we are gathered by faith into the fold. The word of God flows out to the reprobate, but it takes root in the elect, and therefore they are said to keep it.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 7. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

Key notes

• Believers feel that all they possess is

heavenly and divine.

There is no hesitation on behalf of the

believers, as they perceive God in Christ.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 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 have sent me.

Key notes v. 8

• Jesus doctrine is obviously not earthly in nature but rather He only taught what He received from the Father.

• Christ was a faithful witness of God to the disciples, so that their faith was founded exclusively on the truth of God, since the Father himself spoke in the Son.

• We need to focus on Christ, so we form an accurate conception of Him that He belongs to the Father.

• The disciples believed in Christ, but the Pharisees wanted to stone Him for blasphemy.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 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.

Key notes

Jesus’ work of redemption has particular reference to the elect – those whom the Father has given Him.

Turn in your Bibles and read John 10:14, 15: 27-29. How does this apply to the passage we are working on?

He (Jesus) declares that in this instance he is praying for his own flock, which he received from the hand of the Father.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

The church was given to Jesus by the Father. Jesus is glorified by the Church.

Turn in your Bibles and read 1 Cor. 10:31. How does this apply to what you are learning?

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 11 And 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.

Jesus is again speaking of the cross as it has already happened because He is so committed to obeying the Father.

He prayed here for His disciples because they would have to face the world’s temptation and hatred without His immediate presence and protection.

Turn in your Bibles and Read John 15:18–16:4.

Based on the eternal nature of immutable God (“name”), He prayed for the eternal security of those who believed. He prayed that as the Trinity experiences eternal unity, so may believers.

Turn in your Bibles and Read Romans 8:31–39.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 12 While 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.

Key Notes

Turn in your Bible and Read Psalm 41:9.

Jesus understood many Scriptures as containing prophetic announcements of various details of His Messianic career.

He stressed that all these announcements would be fulfilled because they were the Word of God.

Key Notes

“I have guarded them…”

Jesus acted as the Good Shepherd to His flock, and protected them from harm. Here is one of many references to Perseverance of the Saints, where those that are truly His, He will keep. The only exception was Judas Iscariot.

Q: How does one understand the violent deaths of all but one of the 12?

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

“And these things I speak in the world…”

Jesus here is talking about praying out loud in the hearing of His Disciples, and the reason behind it. Jesus’ ministry is about to come to an end, and the disciples do not understand what is about to happen, or where it is Jesus is going. They are full of anxiety and worried. Jesus is calming them by communicating to the Father out loud where they can hear.

“That they may have my joy fulfilled.”

The joy that the disciples have comes directly from Jesus, and not by any other means. In Christ alone is there peace and joy.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 14, 16. I 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.

“…they are not of this world.”

As true disciples of Christ, they are reborn, they are new creatures. They no longer look or act like the rest of the world, as they follow the teachings of Christ. The early church faced violent persecution, as many died for their faith. 11 of the 12 disciples lost their lives violently because of their steadfast dedication to Jesus.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Key Notes

• refers to protection from Satan and all the wicked forces following him (Mt 6:13; 1Jn 2:13, 14; 3:12; 5:18, 19).

• Though Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was the defeat of Satan, he is still loose and orchestrating his evil system against believers.

•He seeks to destroy believers (1Pe 5:8), as with Job and Peter (Lk 22:31, 32), and in general (Eph 6:12), but God is their strong protector (12:31; 16:11; cf. Ps 27:1–3; 2Co 4:4; Jude 24, 25).

Taken from The Reformation Study Bible.

Key Notes

*Note that Jesus did not pray that His followers would be free from worldly Persecution.

*Physical and Social troubles are still game, but that Jesus prays that His church will be protected from Satan.

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Sanctification is the process of becoming more Christ-like, more holy and perfect, as God is perfect. (Eph. 1:4)

Is this happening in your life?

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Jesus came to spread the Good News. (John 12:47) Just as Jesus came to save

the world through the spreading of the Gospel, likewise he has sent His church out to share the Gospel with others. This is a definition of Missions.

Q. Does this definition of Mission fit ourcurrent practices?

Key Notes

John 17:6-19John 17:6-19

• V. 19 And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Key Notes

I consecrate Myself.

Meaning only that He was totally set apart for the Father’s will (cf. 4:34; 5:19; 6:38; 7:16; 9:4). He did that in order that believers might be set apart to God by the truth He brought. From The MacArthur Study Bible.

Calvin, John: Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Vol.2. Grand Rapids:Baker Books, 2009.

MacArthur, John: The MacArthur Study Bible : New American Standard Bible. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006.

Sproul, R.C (Gen. Ed): The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version.Orlando: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.