The High Priestly Prayer: Part Two | Sermon 02/04/2024

John 17 and the Setting of the High Priestly Prayer

All right, if you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 17. John 17. We're going to be looking at verses 6 through 19 today. The title of the sermon simply is, The High Priestly Prayer, Part 2.

If you haven't seen Part 1, I encourage you to check that out on our website, our YouTube channel, Sermon Audio. But we are in Part 2 of The High Priestly Prayer today. So starting in verse 6, the Gospel according to John, chapter 17.

Hear now the inerrant, infallible words of the living and true God. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me.

I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours. And all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them.

I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in your name which you have given me, and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

I do not ask you take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

For their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church. God, we thank you for this.

We thank you for your word. We thank you, God, for this prayer, that we are witnesses to it in this way, that your holy word has stood the test of time, that today we have it as a testimony of what Christ has done, and what he has petitioned you for regarding us and the disciples.

Lord, help us to see the majesty of this passage. Help us to see your intercession. Help us to see today, Lord Jesus, your love for us in this today, Lord. We praise you. We ask that you would illuminate the scriptures today.

Pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

The Trinitarian Glory of John 17

We saw last week that the Lord Jesus has begun one of the most heavenly and grand prayers that the world has ever seen. This is Trinitarian communication. This prayer pierces heaven. It opens wide its gate and it takes us into the throne room.

We are seeing and reading something that is very unique to the Gospels. In fact, it is even very unique to the entire Bible. This isn't the way that Adam spoke to God. This isn't the way that Abraham spoke to God.

This isn't even the way that Moses spoke to God. This is not like the intercessory prayers of the prophets. It is better. It is better. It is higher. It is not just a supplication, but a communion of equals.

Father and Son, I told you that this prayer in John 17 would be blasphemous if Jesus was not divine, if he was not God. The way he speaks to God presupposes his co-equality, his co-eternality, and co-essence with the Father.

Glorify me, Father. We talked about that, that glory, that God glory, the God-only glory, the kind that he shares with no one. And Jesus says, Father, return me back to that glory that I shared with you, before the creation of the world, in eternity past, before the world was.

And we ended on the fact that it was good and right for Jesus to be zealous for his own glory. He ought to be after his own glory. He's not selfish. On the contrary, on the eve of the most selfless act in history, he is seeking not only his own glory, but the glory of the Father.

And every time that God has sought his own glory, it ends up working for the good of his children, and even his creation. You see, because Christ was after the God glory, and because it has compounded into total and full glory after the cross and resurrection, those two events which are often called his exaltation, because he sought that glory, that God glory, now we have grace.

Now we have grace. That's the thing about God's glory. It is too bright, too brilliant, and too holy and too magnificent that we could not avoid it as people who have inherited eternal life. We will get to see this glory forever.

In that grace, we see his glory. We get to feel it, see it, experience it. We will forever. And so Jesus's prayer shifts. I told you, his prayer can be kind of broken up into a focus of himself and the Father in the first five chapters.

Verses 6 through 19 are about the immediate disciples. And then moving on from 20 onward to the end of chapter 17 are about the disciples who have yet to be, yet to believe, speaking even of us. And so that's what's happening now in this part of the chapter.

Jesus's prayer shifts. He's not going to be talking about the glory of the pre-incarnation reality. It now moves to the ones listening right within his vicinity. They're walking to the garden. He's about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane.

The apostles are with him. And all of a sudden, in their presence, Jesus has stopped. And he looks, and he puts his eyes to heaven, and he prays to the Father. And they're witnessing this right there.

These eleven men who were chosen, and it says, gifted to him. Now I'm certain that it's possible that he's speaking of even the disciples beyond the eleven right here. Maybe the hundreds others that he had during this time.

And absolutely, what we're going to find next week in our final part of the High Priestly Prayer is that these things are in a derivative way for us. But right here, chiefly, Jesus is praying about the apostles.

Right now. In verse 6 he continues, I have manifested your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. So, what do we see first?

First we see that Christ manifested the Father's name to these men. He manifested the Father's name. This means to make something visible. God's name was made visible to these men. And throughout the Bible, God's name is not just a title.

It's not just a title. It is meant to be an extension of himself. God's name is his character. God's name is who he is. God's name is not just that title. And there, in this moment, Jesus would make the character of God known.

He has revealed the name of God in all his works, in all his words. Jesus has shown the name of the Father by raising Lazarus, having power over death and life, healing the man who was born blind, and the lame man who was at the pools of Bethesda, whom he healed, showing that he can reverse the effects of the fall.

Jesus can walk on water. He can tread on the chaotic sea of Galilee during a windstorm, showing he is master over creation and nature. Jesus multiplied the fish and the bread for the 5 ,000, demonstrating creative abilities on demand.

And no doubt, the coming cross at Calvary was a monumental display of God's name. And it's not that his name, God's name, was just out there. I've shown them your name. It's not like his name was just floating in midair and they looked at it.

Jesus says the word, I. I showed them your name. God's name is tied to Christ. The manifestation was through him. And this fulfills Isaiah chapter 52, verse 6. God says, My people shall know my name. They shall know my name.

Which presupposes at that moment, during the exile to Babylon, they did not know his name.

What?

Because his name is beyond the title. His name is beyond words. They did not know his name. And this has now happened. John 1 said, No one has seen God at any time, but the sun has revealed him. The sun has exegeted him in himself.

And I imagine what Jesus might even be referring to as well is all the moments that he declared. What?

I am.

I manifested your name to them. He called himself the I am. He declared, I am the bread of life. The one who has come down from heaven. Looking at that huge lamp in Menorah that was in the center of Jerusalem that lit up the sky during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus and all the people were around this huge lamp, this huge torch, and he says, I'm the light of the world.

I am.

He said it before Abraham was.

I am.

He said, I am the door when God has always been the door. He said, I am the good shepherd when God in the Old Testament has always been the shepherd of his people. He said, I am the resurrection and the life at the tomb of Lazarus.

He said, He is the way to the Father's house. He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. He is the I am. That is the name of God. That is the very name of God.

When Moses is at the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, God appears before him in a theophany, an appearance of God, and he says, Who do I tell? Who do I say who you are to these people? And he says, I am that I am.

I am.

That is my name. That's what God says. He is Yahweh, and Jesus says this. He says he is the I am. He has manifested the Father's name to these men, further showing them who God is because Jesus is God.

Yahweh has come in the flesh. They have seen it. They are beginning to understand it. I have manifested your name to the men who you gave me out of the world. They came out of the world. They were in and of the world, but now they are out of the world and its evil system.

They belong to the kingdom of God. As much as they have believed that they were the ones who chose to follow Christ, it says the Father gave them to Jesus. The Father gave them to Jesus. God is the initiator in this.

He approached them, not the other way around. They belong to Christ. All things, all creatures, all creation belongs to God. In Jesus' incarnation, these men were given to him. They are given specifically during his earthly ministry.

It says here that they have kept the Father's word. They have kept your word. This is logos. They obeyed your logos. In one sense, this could be talking about their obedience in that they have stayed with Christ.

The eleven still follow him. The one who is the most special manifestation of revelation. They have remained as his followers. They have stayed. Even though they have limited understanding, their faith is not compared to the faith that they'll have post-resurrection.

Right now, in this prayer, their faith is compared to who they were when they were in the world. It is contrasted against the world. While everyone else rejected Christ, they have remained. And it's not because they have anything to boast about.

It's not because of them. They have remained because they were, he says, given. They were given and they have remained. They have kept your word. You see, when everyone else left in John 6, do you remember?

Jesus said those hard sayings. He said, eat my flesh and drink my blood. In John 6, we talked about those hard sayings of Jesus and what they meant. And when everyone else left, it says, they stopped following him from that moment forward.

He turned to the twelve apostles and he said, are you going to go too? And they said, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life. Where else can we go? And then Peter said that magnificent confession.

He said, you are of the holy God. You are the holy one of God. And in another sense, what's happening here, when Jesus said they have kept your word, it's like Jesus is saying, Father, they've done all things according to your decree.

They've done all things according to your decree. They've kept your word as you said it beforehand. They have remained because the Father said it. The one betrayer is gone also according to God's word.

So they have remained because of God's word. And the son of perdition, the betrayer, is gone because of God's word. Despite all their failures, when God gives someone to Christ, they will remain. Go to verses 7 and 8.

Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words which you gave me I have given to them. And they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me.

So he's saying they understand now. You might be a little bit confused because at the end of chapter 16, we were talking about the fact that Jesus rebuked the apostles for their lack of understanding.

In fact, they had such limited understanding that He said, in fact, you're going to scatter. You think you get it? You think you know Me? You're going to scatter. You're going to leave Me. But I'm not alone.

My Father is with Me. They had limited understanding at the end of chapter 16. So what is Jesus saying here? Let's think about primarily what they have not understood. What have the apostles not understood?

What they have not understood is that the Messiah must die and rise again. They have not gotten that. The apostles can't fathom it that the Messiah must die and rise again. They don't get the suffering servant element of the Messiah.

They just don't get it. They don't see His kingship properly. They look at the promises of the Messiah that He would be like a warrior king like David. Like David. On an earthly throne. That's what they have not gotten.

But what do they understand about Christ? What do they understand? Despite these things, the apostles have come to a sincere conviction that Jesus is from God. That's what He says. They know that I came forth from You.

He is sent from God, and He is the revelation of God. They believe that. He's able to do things they know only the Father can do. He has God's words in Him.

That's what it says.

Words in verse 8 isn't the typical word logos. It's not even meant to be His teachings or doctrine or anything like that. Jesus says here the word rhema.

Rhema.

That is the word that means each individual word and utterance. Jesus is saying that every individual word that He has ever given them is from the Father and He gave those words to the disciples. They're all of heavenly origin.

And they have accepted and truly understood Jesus is from God. These are the things they know. They know He's the Messiah. They know He's the revelation of God. They know He has the words of God, but they still have not gotten the fact that He must die and rise again.

That's what it is. And so what it says here is that they were given and chosen. This is the amazing balance of Scripture. It says here that they were given and chosen. Those are the words used in the Greek.

Given and chosen. And all at the same time, it says that they received, understood, and believed. Those two things are held up. Of course, all those things, even the belief, and the receiving, and the welcoming, and all those things are gifts.

But what it shows is that the disciples of Christ are not passive. They're not passive. They're active. When Christ saves someone, there is always an active response on the believer's part. There's an activity there.

But go to verses 9 and 10. We have a lot to cover. We're going to keep going through. He says, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours, and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine.

And I've been glorified in them. The Lord Jesus is asking for something on behalf of the apostles in His prayer. And we're going to see that expanded more in a short while. But right here, we see a sharp distinction between the disciples and the world.

Now that distinction, or that contrast, is not so sharp that the Father loses the love that we saw He has in John 3 .16. For God loves the world in this way that He gave His one and only Son. That's not gone.

That love is still there. But it's important to know that once someone belongs to Christ, he or she is not considered by God in simply a general way.

Okay?

There is a specific and personal aspect to our relationship with the Lord. Individuals are fiercely loved. They are loved with precision. God doesn't just generally love you. He precisely and individually loves you.

He loves you with the scope shot, the sniper rifle shot. Each disciple, each name, each person is considered in the mind of Jesus Christ when He makes this request. But the world doesn't get this treatment.

The world won't get this. That's what it says here. He says, I do not ask on behalf of the world. I won't ask this for the world. Because in the end, He makes this request to the Father saying they are yours.

This is why He petitions, Father, they are yours and they are mine. The petition concerning the world is that those who are God's will be brought out. That's what it is. He doesn't pray this specifically for the world, but what we see is in the back of like John 3 .16 and all the other things that we've seen that God has come for the sinful world is that He has loved people in such a way, He has loved those whom He has chosen that they will come out of that world.

It's almost as if their salvation, our salvation is so certain. You and I weren't there back then, but He speaks about it in such a way that we're no longer of the world. He says they're mine. People will abandon the world.

They will join with the chosen who are out of it.

That's the reality.

They'll abandon the world. They'll abandon it. And as a side note, do you see the eternal security in this? It's just shouting out of this. We know who God is, and we know no one can thwart His plans.

Jesus says they are yours. Father, they are mine. Who can take what belongs to God? Who can take what is God's possession? Who can steal from the hand of God? I submit to you, no one.

No one.

What force can remove from His hands those who are God's possession? You see, when we're His, He said no one... In John 10, do you remember? In the Good Shepherd passage, Jesus said, no one can snatch them out of my hand, nor will any of them perish.

He said, my sheep are mine. What force can remove these? You see, I don't get the vacillating, the back and forth aspect of the other side. Love the other side, but I don't understand it. Those who don't believe in the perseverance of the saints, I don't get it when you see a passage like this.

They are yours, and they are mine. And these people will say, well, you don't get human nature. And to that I would say, well, you don't get the character and power of God. I think the character and power of God is stronger than man's ability to sin and leave God.

Because if given the possibility, if it were on us, I think we would all leave God. I think He has to be the one who preserves us. He has to be the one that holds us. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.

Prone to leave the God I love. That is the truth. And so I don't look at human nature and think that that's more powerful than God. He is the one. They are mine, and they are yours. And even though this is talking about the immediate disciples in His time, this is a principle for every disciple thereafter.

We belong to God. We belong to Christ. Who can separate us from them? If God is for us, who can be against us? As the Word says. Now at the end of this here, we see mutual ownership. Do you see that? With those words, they are mine, and they are yours.

Between the Father and Son, what have we seen thus far? We have seen mutual glorification in v. 1. Glorify me and I'll glorify you. Mutual glorification in v. 1. Mutual authority in v. 2. They both have all authority.

Mutual objects of eternal life. This is eternal life. To know the one and only God and to know Christ. That's v. 3. Mutual mission in v. 4. They have the same mission. They want to save people. Mutual eternality in v. 5.

Return to me to the glory that I had with you, that I shared with you before the world was. Mutual words in v. 8. His words are Jesus' words. Jesus' words are His words. Mutual words. And now right here in v. 9 -10, mutual ownership.

Mutual glorification. Mutual authority. Mutual objects of eternal life.

Mutual mission.

Mutual eternality. Mutual words. They have the same words. Then, what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. All things that are mine are yours and yours are mine and I have been glorified in them.

And I'll keep nailing it in, you guys. The deity of Christ. Who can have all things of the fathers if they're just a creature? Who can own and possess all that the Father has if they're just a creature?

No one. No one.

This is unique. This is one of a kind. And it says that this has led to Christ's glory. Now what is incredible to consider is that His glory is about to be exponential at the cross and resurrection. And then you have His glorious ascension and return to His Father.

And that is why His prayer has moved focuses to the disciples. He is leaving. He is about to depart. Look at the beginning of verse 11. It says, I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to you.

What is to happen in the near future is so divinely certain, it's as if it's now. I'm not of the world anymore, He says. His heart and mind are still on the disciples. They will face the world's temptations.

They'll face the world's hatred. They'll face it all. But His mind is still on the disciples. They will face the world's everything without the physical presence of Christ anymore. The physical presence of Christ will be gone.

His physical presence and His guidance and His protection, it will be gone. They are no longer of the world in the sense that they are out spiritually, but physically they're still in it. They will, as we saw, be aided by the Holy Spirit.

In fact, this is not something to be sad about. Jesus is leaving. He's departing. They're going to face what the world has to throw at them without His physical presence there. But do you remember what He said?

He said that it's good.

It's to your benefit that I leave. The Holy Spirit, the Helper, will come. And I will be with you through Him. That's the promise. You see, the ministry of Christ has gone from 12 men to millions of people.

And so the only way to serve and minister to every single believer is that He leaves and the Holy Spirit comes. And so Jesus' ministry has expanded in that way. And He continues to be with them, but He is physically leaving right here.

Jesus then appeals to the first person of the Trinity with love. He looks up once again and He says, Holy Father, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.

He says, Holy Father. You know what I see in that when He says, Holy Father? I see Him acknowledging that God is transcendent. God is above all things. There is a high aspect to who the Father is. And yet, He says, Holy Father.

And there's this relational intimacy at the same time. He loves His Father. That will lead way to later verses when He talks about sanctifying them. Holiness comes from God. Holiness comes from God. And His disciples will need that holiness.

And holiness only comes to us because of the holiness of the Son that is mutually tied to the Father. Now mutual holiness. That name that Jesus revealed to them, the I Am, the works of God, the person of God in Christ, all of it, He says, Father, keep them in Your name.

Keep them in the I Am. Keep them in the person and work of Christ. Keep them in Me. He's saying, keep them in Me. The name which was given to the incarnate Son of God on earth. Keep them in Your name.

And one commentator translates this, Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name. This is often the way the psalmist spoke. Psalm 54 v. 1. Save me, O God, by Your name. And vindicate me by Your power.

Jeremiah shouts, O Lord, we are called by Your name. Don't forsake us. To be in the name of God is to never be forgotten. To be in the name of God is to never be abandoned. And I also think that he's requesting that they remain his disciples.

That even after his departure, the disciples would stay true to him. You see, before Christ, when someone was a master or a teacher and they had disciples, when that master or teacher dies, his disciples stop following him.

They find someone else. Or maybe they become a master and they have people underneath them. When a master dies, the disciples scatter. That's what's always been the case. But this is different. Jesus will die and He'll retain His disciples, and even more so, He'll gain millions of disciples.

It's the only one in history. No one has built followers like this even after their death. This is magnificent. He has brought the revelation of God, the very words of eternal life, and He wants them to stay faithful to those.

And it's incredible to me. He knows that they're predestined. He Himself is sovereign over all things, and yet He prays for them that they be kept. You know? Lord, keep them. He knows they'll be kept, but He prays it anyways.

Like when you and I might pray, O Lord, be glorified, and it's like our prayer could change the glory of God. God will get glory no matter what you and I pray. He will get the glory. There's no question about it.

It's asking what is already certain. So the Son's will is perfectly in line with the Father's. I imagine He said this even for their sakes while they listened. And for our sake as we read, keep them, that we see that Jesus prays for us that you be kept, that you remain a disciple.

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you that you would remain steadfast till you die? Jesus wants you to remain, and He prayed that for you right here. This is the care of the Messiah for His followers, even until the end.

And the purpose of His prayer for their fidelity.

Is what?

That they would be one even as we are one, He says to the Father. That is to say, the disciples of Christ will never remain in unity and oneness together if the Father does not keep them in His name. And the Father and Son don't remain united themselves.

You see,.

Let me explain it this way. Unity between Christians, unity between believers has more to do with the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and them preserving us than our correct and right actions toward each other.

Do you get that? Our unity together, us being one together as a church, has more to do with God being one. Has more to do with their love for each other. We'll see that especially next week in verse 21.

Okay?

I know that's a little cryptic. We'll talk more about that next week. Look at verse 12. Jesus articulates the kind of protection of the disciples He petitions the Holy Father for. He says, While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me, and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

So Jesus manifested God's name to these men who were given to Him by the Father. They believed. They turned. They were brought into God's name, the one given to Christ, and He kept them there. He guarded them.

But He's about to be crucified. He's about to go to the grave. And He'll go in the grave for the next several days. And then, 40 days after that, He'll ascend to heaven. He'll be gone. Now I think His immediate concern is for the next few days while He's in the grave.

Luke 22, verses 31 and 32. It's in your printout. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Do you see that? Do you see that balance again? Jesus prays that Peter's faith will not fail. Then prophetically with certainty says, and when you turn, will you strengthen your brothers? So He prays for him.

He petitions the Father for him. And then with certainty He says, and when you turn, when you come back from denying Me three times, will you strengthen your brothers? That's Luke 22, verses 31 -32. Sure, Peter will deny Christ, but Jesus says He will turn again.

He will repent and He will return. He will come back to the name of God that He has been kept in and guarded in. Jesus makes it as if He never left the name. Do you see that? I was keeping them in the name.

I guarded them in the name. Keep them in the name, Father, and it will be the same for the rest of those who scatter. You see, the rest of the apostles will scatter. They'll run. They'll go to their own homes.

But they'll be kept in the name. They'll be kept in Christ. You see, being kept and guarded by Christ doesn't always mean that you will never doubt. Being kept and guarded by Christ doesn't mean that you will never doubt.

It doesn't mean that you might even step away for a moment. But what it does mean is you will always come back by the power of God. When you are guarded and kept by Christ in His name, whether you doubt or you leave for a short time, God will always bring you back.

See, how could Jesus' prayer not be answered? How could His prayer not be answered? We see then that our faithfulness is just as much or more or really all God's faithfulness. It's all God's faithfulness.

It's Him who brings us back every time. Yes, we're called to be faithful. Yes, we're called to have fidelity to God. Yes, we're called to be obedient. But without God being faithful towards us, none of those things would be possible.

And He's faithful.

He will guard us. He will keep us in the name. That's what it says here. He'll always bring us back. But there was one who didn't come back. Who was there? There was one who did not come back. And I would say who could not come back.

There was one who could not come back. The one whom this prayer is not for. The son of perdition. He's speaking of his betrayer, Judas Iscariot. And this is something that didn't surprise Jesus, did it?

He said it from the beginning of John. He had full awareness that one of His followers He chose would be the one to fulfill the Scripture as the son of perdition. He said it from the beginning. He even named Judas by name.

That he would betray Him. The text that he has in view, the one that this fulfills, is most likely Psalm 41, 9 -10. Even my close friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up. What's going to happen to Jesus? He's going to be raised up. And I will repay Him. Who's going to judge Judas?

Jesus.

Striked Him on the heel. Lifted up His heel against Him. Son of perdition here in the Greek is literally son of destruction. Son of destruction. It speaks of two things. Son of destruction speaks to number one of who He is in His unrighteous and destructive motives and actions.

That's who Judas is. He's destructive. He ruins things. He stole from the money bag. He sought to undermine the ministry of Christ. Destruction is who He is. And the second thing about Him being the son of perdition or the son of destruction is that it's His destiny.