The Prayer of Jesus (John 17)
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jeremy_1_05-08-2026_112235: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10-minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts.
Today, we're talking about prayer. Prayer is something that a lot of Christians struggle with. In fact, I've learned as a pastor that a lot of Christians are deathly afraid of praying in front of other people, because you can learn a lot about someone by listening to them pray, listening to the, what they say to God, how they talk to God. It's very vulnerable.
Now, I don't have that problem of praying in front of people, but I do have a different issue with prayer. I often theologically get stuck in my prayers, where I'll, in a moment, just be praying to God more, organically, relationally, and then I'll stop myself and think, "Theologically, does it make sense what I'm saying right now?"
And I'll literally start editing my own prayers to God. And so even I would say that I don't find it super easy to pray regularly, to have this practice. And so this is something that has been something I've had to [00:01:00] commit to work on and explore in new ways. And today what I want to do is I want to look at an entire chapter of the Book of John.
We're gonna look at chapter seventeen, because this is one big prayer that Jesus prays. And so rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of the theology of this, I wanted to spend an episode just letting this prayer breathe, and I'll make a little bit of commentary as we go along the way. But this gives us the flavor of how did Jesus pray, and what can we learn about that.
So this is John seventeen, beginning in verse one. " After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true [00:02:00] God, and Jesus Christ, the one who you sent to earth.
I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. I've revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me.
They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.'" Now I love in this opening part of the prayer, he talks about eternal life. I don't know if you notice what he says eternal life is, but he says that eternal life is knowing God, which is not the way most Christians talk about eternal life.
That really what it comes down to is knowing and experiencing God. And spoiler alert, you can have that [00:03:00] now. See, we think eternal life kicks in once we die, but that's not the way Jesus is describing it here. That eternal life is to know God. And so I want you to keep note through the rest of this prayer how much of the language is for the here and now, not just someday, but for what they will experience in this life.
Verse nine says, " My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world. They are staying in this world. But I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name.
Now protect them by the power of your name, so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost except the one headed for destruction, as the [00:04:00] scriptures foretold. And now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.
I have given them your word, and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world." This is a heartfelt concern for the people who are following Jesus. See, Jesus didn't come just to share a bunch of ideas that we would adopt. He didn't come just to bring us a bunch of rules to follow of do this and don't do this.
He was bringing actual people along on a journey. He was showing us a way of life, inviting real people into that way. And we can see this in the language he uses as he prays to the Father, he's thinking about the people, not just the ideas or the things that he has left behind. [00:05:00] Verse fifteen, "I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.
They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. And just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth." I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you, and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. Jesus doesn't ask to remove us from the world, which is what a lot of Christians attempt to do or attempt to make our own little world within the world.
But he does ask for us to [00:06:00] be safe in the midst of the world that we will encounter, which would imply we're gonna go through some stuff. There are going to be hardships. Now, many of us don't like this part of the prayer. We would much rather Jesus say, "I'm gonna separate you, and I'm gonna make you your own community, and you'll be forever protected."
And yet that's not the language Jesus prays. Then he prays for unity, that we would have unity the way that he and the Father have unity. Most Christians here jump immediately to the Trinity, but just note that he doesn't talk about the Spirit here. He's talking specifically about his relationship with the Father, which is something we have explored throughout the Gospel of John.
And as that unity is somehow supernatural and mysterious and reveals something about God, that's the unity that Jesus wants for those of us who are following him today. And even us, not even the ones that were there. He says, "And for those who will come after," [00:07:00] so he's including us in this prayer as well.
Verse twenty-two: I have given them the glory that you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am.
Then they can see all the glory you gave me, because you loved me even before the world began. O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do, and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.
So Jesus asks that the world would see God through our unity, through the way in which we partner together, in [00:08:00] the way that we follow Jesus. So just as Jesus has revealed the Father, His prayer is that those of us following Jesus would reveal God to the world as well once He leaves Now I want to close with a quote that, I love this quote.
I've used it before, but I think this is such a beautiful idea of understanding really what Jesus is capturing here, this image he's portraying. The early church father Athanasius said it like this: "He became what we are so that we might become what he is." And that's really the heart of this prayer, that as we see who Jesus is, we realize this is what Jesus is inviting us to experience.
He's not inviting us to worship him from afar and say, "Wow, he was amazing, so good that he could do this." He wants us to be like him. He's inviting us into the way of death and [00:09:00] resurrection and new life, and he's inviting us to experience God in this way and then to reveal the way of God to the world, that we would have the same effect that Jesus did on us.
And that, my friends, is a prayer that we will need to keep praying as we continue to follow the way of Jesus today. I'll see you next time on Rebuilding Faith.
