Jesus Prays for His Disciples, Part 1
John 17:6‑11
Turn in your Bibles to the seventeenth chapter of John, continuing in our study of the gospel of John, as we go through verse by verse ... we have come to chapter 17, as we have taken great length to give you an overall view of chapter 17 and the importance of it so I don't want to belabor that point this morning. But you do understand, I trust, the total significance of this particular chapter.
As we have seen in the last two weeks, verse 1 through 5 deals with Jesus praying for His own glory. Then I told You that verse 6 to 19, Jesus prays for the disciples alive at the time of His death. Verses 20 to 26, He prays for all Christians throughout all ages to come. This then has become known as the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ, prayer in which He, in a limited sense, prays for His own glory in verses I to 5 and then from verse 6 to 26, prays for those whom He loves and who are His very own.
And may I hasten to add this thought? (Clears throat) ... excuse me. The reason that Jesus prays for Himself and for His own glory in verses 1 to 5 is because His glory is to be found ... where? ... at the cross. And unless the cross be accomplished, there will be none of these who will belong to Him that He can pray for. And so before He can begin to pray for us and those He loves in verse 6, He must pray that He be glorified in His cross because it is the cross that draws us to Himself and makes us His own and then He begins to intercede for us. And so, we've seen in the last two weeks, that Jesus must, needs pray for His own glory in the cross, once that is accomplished, we then become His and He prays for us interceding on our behalf.
And so, we come to the tremendous passage that opens us the ... opens to us the inner sanctuary of the trinity. We are on holy ground. There is no more holy ground than this in all the Word of God. This is sacred territory. We are standing, hearing the Son of God talk to the Father God, the intercommunication of the trinity, deep, mysterious and beautiful. And it's a glorious picture of Christ's intercessory prayer ministry on our behalf.
Now prayer is a tremendous thing. We saw the Spirit of God move on so many hearts. The greatest miracle, friends, the greatest miracle which we Christians experience, watch it, is communion with the living God. It's exciting, isn't it? Just to realize it as we walk and as we move through our life, we are in constant communication with a living God, the God of the universe. What a fantastic thought that is ... that we can come before Him boldly in time of need to a throne that is not a throne of judgment, as in the Old Testament, breathing out fire, but is the throne of ... what? ... of grace. And He gives grace to help in time of need. Prayer is a tremendous, tremendous thing; the greatest miracle we experience is communion with God.
The fact, also, added to that that others pray for us, that others communion to God brings blessing to us multiplies the blessings of prayer, doesn't it? Fantastic thing it is.
But have you ever thought past that? Prayer is not just a tremendous thing as we pray, as others pray and collectively the body of Christ prospers because we're praying for each other, but did you realize, too, that Romans 8 verse 26, 27 tells us that the Holy Spirit also prays for us? The Spirit of God who dwells within us, whose habitation we are, whose sanctuary we are, whose temple we are, the Spirit of God dwelling within us constantly intercedes for US. He makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; He speaks in a divine language on our behalf. I'll tell you, that's exciting. Not only can I pray, but you can pray. Together we pray. Beyond that, the Spirit of God is praying also ... always according to the will of God. And you know what the result of the Spirit's prayers are? Romans 8:28: "All things work together ... what? ... for good." Why? Because in verse 27 the Spirit's praying for us.
I'll tell you, as if that isn't enough, we come to chapter 17 of John and you know what else we find? There is one other who prays for US. Who is it? Jesus Christ Himself. And where is He? Seated at the right hand of the Father in this picture here interceding for us.
When you put it all together, my friends, and you have tapped divine resources. You and I in constant communion with the living God. The body of Christ praying on our behalf to the living God. The Spirit of God never ceasing in intercession in a divine language on our behalf and Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, praying ceaselessly for us. Ohh, I'll tell you, to be a Christian and to have that kind of resource is indeed the greatest miracle.
And as we come to chapter 17, we just get a glimpse of the intercessory work of Jesus Christ on t he behalf of those He dearly loves. I think I love this chapter as well as I love any other chapter because in it I see more clearly than I think I see anywhere else the tremendous love of Jesus Christ for me. It overwhelms me, it absolutely overwhelms me. And I suppose it overwhelms me because I realize I'm not worth it, tight? I don't deserve to be loved like that. So, I just say ‑- Halleluiah for grace and I don't worry about it.
All right, as we come to this chapter then we're going to see Jesus pray for His own. Now let me lay this thought on you because it's very important. So many times we take Christ and we exalt the cross, you know, the cross is everything and it is. You want to know something? Think of this thought. The cross was only a vehicle to get to the intercessory work. Did you ever think of that? You see, what God wanted was a people for Himself, wasn't it? What Jesus wanted was those who were gathered around Him that He could love and be loved by, He wanted them. What the Father wanted to do was choose out a people of His own that He could love and that He could bestow His love on and bestow His blessing on and that Ephesians tells us He could display before the angels as a picture of His wisdom. God wanted a people of His own.
The reason for the cross was just to secure that people. Then the intercessory work is to enable God to pour out His mercy for all ages. Do you see? The intercessory work, what's going on now in your behalf, and incidentally what Ephesians 2 tells us, will go on forever. He'll pour out His riches in His grace and His kindness forever. That is the thing God really wanted to get at. The cross just opened that possibility. So, when you look at Jesus Christ and you glorify the cross, don't minimize His intercessory work on your behalf. The cross made you His people. The intercessory work is that which allows Him to show His love and to constantly bless you which is why He wanted you in the first place. You got it? That's good, isn't it? I like it. It blesses my heart...to realize that my salvation is not just a negative, it's not just get them out of hell and turn them loose but is to make us His very own in order that He might pour out His love on us and thus His intercessory work becomes as magnificent, as beautiful, as comprehensive as did His saving work on the cross.
And you see, that's exactly what Paul means to tell us in Romans 5:10. And I think I'll take a moment just to read it to you. Romans 5, verse 10: "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God," listen to this, "by the death of His Son." You know, what reconciled us to God was the death of His Son, right? Sure. But watch the next statement. "Much more," ho, ho, ho, you like those two words? You think the cross was important? "Much more being," listen to this, "reconciled we shall be saved by His life." What a thought.
If His death could do so much for you, can you imagine what His living intercession must be doing for you? Ohhh, that's what Paul's saying. Much more ... I mean, in death He could redeem you, imagine what He can do in life and the Bible says, watch this one, Hebrews 7, He ever lives to make ... what? ... intercession for us. Don't minimize the intercessory work of Christ. The cross is fantastic but watch those two words ‑- much ... what? ... more. He only saved you so He could shower His love on you. Boy, you'd think some Christians got saved just to be made miserable. God saved you to shower His love on you. Much more ... His mediation on the throne, friends, is as real and indispensable as His work on the cross and don't you ever forget it. And you're continually being delivered, being saved by His life as He ever lives to make intercession for you. And every ... every grace that comes into your life through ... through all of your existence as a believer is a result of the intercessory work of Christ.
All right, as we come to 17 then this is what we I re going to see. Just a glimpse of this intercessory work on our behalf.
Now, keep in mind that when Jesus had finished His work on the cross, He didn't finish His work. He just started to do something different, intercession. He became the intercessor who is now at the right hand of the Father, carrying on faithful petition for the saints, for our healing, for our helplessness, for our weakness, for our immaturity, for whatever it is, He prays for us. That's His ministry. He knows our limitations. He knows where we're weak. He knows where we hurt. He knows our capabilities and He knows our needs. And the Bible says, I love it, I love it, He says He is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. You know what the word bishop means? Caretaker. He's the Shepherd and Caretaker of our souls.
You see, the High Priest in the Old Testament interceded but his intercession didn't last because it was always ended by death. Wasn't it? Every priest died, that's the book of Hebrews. They all kept dying all the time. And the writer of Hebrews says in verse 25 of chapter 7, "But He ever ... what? ... lives to make intercession for us." It's not only effective, it's unending intercession. That's why Ephesians 2 says that His glories and grace are poured out forever.
Now, may I add that the intercessory work of Christ, a little doctrinal, historical, chronological point here, for your file, may I add that the intercessory work of Christ didn't really begin until after He ar ... He ascended into the Father's presence, right? The Father exalted Him, set Him at His right hand after the resurrection, forty days later, ten days later He ascended. I should say ‑- forty days later He ascended ... 10, the Spirit of God came. But after His ascension, then the intercessory work really began. But John 27 is like a preview. Here is a little glimpse of His intercessory work done in front of the disciples so they could record it for us ... so that we would have a preview insight into the intercessory work of Christ. Oh would we be the losers if this chapter wasn't here. Just to know how Jesus prays for us, fantastic truths. And so, we get a little preview, this is tremendous truth. We look at this marvelous, thrilling chapter and we are enriched as we see the Mediator Jesus Christ.
And as I said earlier, it can't start until He's been glorified at the cross and that's where He purchases us. That's why He has to have verses 1 to 5 first in which He prays that the cross would be accomplished.
All right, now let's look at verses 6 to 19, don't worry, we'll never get anywhere near verse 19. The Lord could come before that. But we will get a good start on it. Now I want you to see in verses 6 to 19, as Jesus prays for His disciples, that it is a very specific prayer, He's praying for the eleven Apostles and for the few disciples that were also with Him. Now you know that there's a difference between an apostle and a disciple. There are only eleven Apostles plus Matthias who made up the twelfth, plus whom? Paul. But then they were specific. But of all of the others who believed in Him, they are all disciples. They are all disciples. Now apostles are also disciples, but not all disciples are apostles, there were only eleven plus Matthias, plus Paul. There are a total of thirteen if you want to include Judas in there; he was by name an apostle, not in fact.
All right, so you and I are disciples but we're not apostles. Right? So, others who followed Jesus were disciples but they weren't in that group that belonged to the Apostles.
Now, Jesus then in this prayer, verses 6 to 19, directs His thoughts to this little group of eleven plus the others who believed in Him. How many were there? We don't know. Maybe 500, for 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. Can you imagine the Son of God in human flesh, 33 years on the earth and when it was all over with, 500 believed? But Jesus was pleased because they were the 500 the Father gave Him, see. And they were the 500 who were about to do the impossible.
Now, as we look at this I want you to see three things: the subjects of His prayer (you have an outline in your bulletin if you'd like to look), the subjects of His prayer (we won't get all of these ... to all of these points), but the subjects of His prayer, the reasons for His prayer and then sometime later we'll talk about the requests themselves, the requests in His prayer.
Let's look at the subjects of His prayer and this is so beautiful and such an insight into Christ. In verses 6 to 8, Jesus describes who it is that He's praying for. Verse 6, "I've manifested Thy name," talking to the Father now, just hours before the cross, "I've manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me and they have kept Thy word."
Now, you see, there He identifies who it is that He's praying for. Who? The men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. That's who. And He's referring to those that are His at that point. And later on we'll see that it's diref ... it's a direct reference to the Apostles and those disciples who believed in Him.
You say ‑- Well, He's just specifically praying for them? Yes, but in a general sense you will see in this the pattern of His mediating work for all believers because it's so ... it's so much the same for us. It's very general.
Now, the disciples, as you know including the eleven and I'll use the word disciples collectively to refer to all of them; the disciples had really depended upon Jesus Christ. So much so that the thought of losing Him paralyzed them, didn't it? And He knew in His own heart that even with all the promises that He'd given them in the table‑talks in chapter 14, 15 and 16, with all of those wonderful promises, it was really going to be trauma when it all finally broke and when they saw what happened, they were going to scatter as sheep just to the winds ... when the shepherd was smitten. 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, not only does He lay on them all these promises one after the other, but He comes to the Father and He prays ‑- Now, Father, make it all happen, care for them. I have to give them to You.
While He was going to go to the cross and bear the sins of the world, He committed them to the care of the Father, that's essentially what we see here. And though Jesus had promised that He would return, in the form of the Holy Spirit, and that that would even be better because He would not be just with them, He'd be in them, though He had given them all kinds of promises He knew that they were still heading to a trial that would shatter them and so He now prays that the Father would keep them. He had always been their guide, He had always been their guardian, He'd always been their all‑sufficient friend, He had borne their infirmities, He had upheld their weaknesses, He had protected them from evil. And He loves them with the fullest capacity of God to love, in the gentleness that is uniquely Jesus Christ; He gives the Father the task of caring for them 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?
I mean, He is so concerned with them. I like to know that, don't you? He cares more about me than I do, or anybody else.
Now, notice what He prays and we'll just move into it, verse 6, "I have manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world." Now I want to stop there for a minute, 'cause there's a footnote there that's very important. In that statement you have the work of Christ ... right there. Jesus came into the world to do this, to manifest the name of God. That little statement there is loaded, friends, grab that one, that is loaded. "I have manifested Thy name ..." Jesus Christ came into this world to declare God, did you know that? He came into this world to manifest God to men.
Now, let me show you two thoughts that are inherent in that statement. Number one thought is: in the Old Testament the use of the expression "the name" was very special. It does not mean simply the name of a person. He's not saying ‑- I have declared the name of God in the sense that I've told people Your name. It's not as if He were to say ‑- Listen, I've told people Your name is Jehovah, now I've done my job ... running around saying God's name is Jehovah. That's not it. It's not like, you know, saying Joe or Mary or Bill, it's not like giving somebody's name. When it uses the word "name" it means the whole character and the nature of the person as far as it is known. And when Jesus says, "I have declared Your name," He means I have revealed Your character. That's what He means.
Illustration: Psalm 9:10 says: "They that know Thy name will put trust in Thee." And the point of the verse is anybody who really knows the character of God will trust Him. Right? A lot of people know His name. Why ... there are some people halfway down the street, they know God's name. They don't know God. They know His name, title and letters, they don't know His character. If they knew His character they'd trust Him. There are people all over the world who know His name. Just listen, next time, in a shop and hear how many people know His name.
In Psalm 20 verse 7 it says, "Some trust in chariots," ridiculous, imagine trusting in a chariot? "Some trust in horses," listen to this, "but we'll remember the name of the Lord our God." And it's talking about putting your trust in a person. The name implies all the character. Psalm 22:22, listen to this, it's a prefacy of the Messiah and it says this, here's the words of Messiah centuries before He was born: "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." And what did Jesus do? He came into the world a Jew and He declared God's name unto the brethren. And what does it mean when it says He declared His name? It means He opened up to men the entire character of God. Did He not manifest God's character? He said to Philip, "Philip, have you been with Me so long and you don't know who I am? If you have seen Me ... what? ... you've seen the Father." He came to manifest God. And when it says "I will declare His name," ohh, it means a lot more than He just gave the title. So, He rightly says ‑- I have manifested Your name.
Oh listen, every attribute of God was on display in Jesus, wasn't it? Boy, there's a Bible study for you. Just get a list' of all the attributes of God out of the Old Testament and go back over that list and mark every New Testament passage where every one of those attributes is on display ... every attribute of God was displayed in Jesus Christ ... every one of them. Most of them all together displayed on the cross. You want to know what God's like? Who do you look at? Jesus Christ. So, He said ‑- I have manifested Thy name. Isn't that a beautiful insight into His work?
Let me give you a second thought here. The name of God was so sacred that no Jew would ever say it. In fact, it was so sacred that they tried to make up a word to substitute for it and they did. They took ... for example, the word for God's name is the verb to be, "I am that I am," remember that's God's name in the Old Testament? I am that I am, see. But the Jew didn't want to say that...no mortal lips could ever say God's name which in the Hebrew is yahweh ... yahweh. They wouldn't say it. Only the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement could say it, and no other time by no other person ... too sacred. But they had to refer to God and they didn't want to say: "Dear you know, so they decided ‑- We'll make up a name. So they took the consonants, the consonants out of Yahweh, YHWH, or JHWH, Hebrew, either way, and they took the vowels out of Adoni which is a word that means Lord and they stuck the vowels out of adoni into the consonants of yahweh and they came up with Yahhovaw or Jehovah. So in your Bible when you read Jehovah, that's a non‑word that has been placed there so that Jews will not have to say the name of God, too sacred to be spoken. But you want to know something wonderful? You know what I can say? I can say God. I can say Yahweh. I can say Jehovah. I can say Abba Father. I can say anything I want. You know why? Because Jesus came to declare and manifest ... what? ... His name. And I don't go to God in any kind of fear and I don't have to go as the high priest, once a year, I can say God's name, it's on my lips continually because Jesus came to place the name of God on human lips, did He not? And when I go to prayer, I talk to God as my intimate Father, I don't go into His presence wit: any fear, I don't go in His presence with any reservations, I go into His presence and I say ‑- Abba Father -‑ which in English is "Daddy," Daddy ... intimate ... intimate.
Yes, Jesus said, I came to declare the name of God. And He did. He showed us God's character and He brought men so near to God that they could speak to God in intimacy ... as a loving Father.
All right, that's just a footnote. Now I'll get to the message. Verse 6, 7 and 8 deal with the subjects of His prayer. Now I want you to watch this. Now Jesus is about to put His beloved on divine welfare, you see. He is committing them into the Father's unlimited grace, right? Where no strings are attached, see ... just complete welfare ... that's all it is. Now before He does this and He doesn't really get to the requests way on down till verses ... well, 12 or 13 or so ... before He does this, He gives their credentials as to why they deserve divine welfare. You know, if you go to get welfare today, you've to to ... you've to fill out all this ... I don't know, you know, I'm not on welfare, but I understand about this, see ... I'm on divine welfare and it's glorious. But anyway, if you go down and get welfare, I understand, you've got to fill all kinds of things and you've got to prove this and prove that and verify this and verify that and so forth and so on so you qualify for welfare. So, you know what Jesus is doing here? He gives the two great qualifications for welfare ... divine welfare. And they are beautiful. And these are the validating credentials for the Father's care for His disciples and He tells Him, ‑- Father, there are two reasons that You should care for these:
Reason number one is in verse 6: "I have manifested Thy name unto the men," watch this one, "whom Thou gavest Me out of the world." Now watch the next three words, "... Thine they ... what? ... were." Why should they be on divine welfare? Well, who do they belong to? They're Your's, Father. This isn't even welfare. This is just taken care of Your own kids. They belong to You. Thine they were, watch it there, and Thou gavest them to Me. Father, they have a right to Your care because they've belonged to You since before... what? ... the foundation of the world.
You see, Jesus is praying and saying ‑- They have a right to Your care because they ... they're Your's, You chose them to be the objects of Your grace. And so, He's only asking the Father to to what He's already designed to do. Right? Jesus always prays so good, Jesus always prays consistent with the known plan of God ... Right? Always ... always! He says ‑- Father, now these are Your's, You chose them, elect before the foundation of the world,' You predetermined to love them. They ... they're the ones that belong to You. You chose to pour Your grace out. Now all I'm doing is saying ‑- Father, go ahead and do it ... do what You designed to do.
Now, 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.
Notice in verse 6 that it says: "... whom Thou gavest Me out of the world." Anybody who is not a Christian is in the world, in the system. And by the wor