John 17 - EASTER MESSAGE

By Jeri Young

April 16, 2019

In starting this teaching today, I just want to say that even though ALL of scripture is holy, when we read what we are about to read today, I do REALLY AND TRULY believe that we are standing on Holy Ground. My hope is that when you leave this room today that you will never, ever forget what Jesus prayed for you the night before He died. The apostle John devoted four full chapters (13-17) to this one night in the upper room....even more than he did to the crucifixion. This is the night before Jesus died.

As we read Chapter 17, and the prayer that Jesus prayed that night, we must remember the “where,” “when” and “what” that took place as we place ourselves literally in the room. Did you know that you and I were actually there with Jesus that night as He talked to His dearly beloved apostles. I want you to...right now....picture yourself sitting in that room with Him because ....HONESTLY.....we actually were there. You’ll understand what I’m saying a little further down. So think of it and picture it in your mind as if you....each of you....were there in His midst.

The “where ” is the upper room where they were going to celebrate the Passover Feast. The “when” is the night before He died. It was the last Passover He would partake in on earth before His death. He knew He was going to be beaten almost to death that very night and that He would actually die the next day a most brutal death on the cross. It was what He came here to do.....to save each one of us so that all of our sins: past...present....and future....could be forgiven. WHAT AMAZING LOVE!

He also knew what lay ahead for His brethren....his brothers. Yes, I say brothers because we read in Matthew 28:10, that Jesus, after His resurrection, calls the apostles his “Brethren.” We know this because we read that He tells Mary Magdalene, who came to the tomb early Sunday morning, “go and tell ‘My Brethren’ to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.”

When we give our hearts to the Lord, we become children of God and also His brethren. On that night in the upper room, the humanity of Jesus had to be incredibly sad leaving his beloved brethren, dreading what lay ahead but also looking forward to finally completing what He had come to do and returning in glory to the Father again. None of us could begin to imagine what was going on in the mind of Jesus that night but without doubt, I’m certain those thoughts crossed His mind.

We covered the where and when. Now...the “What.” The What is what He wanted to convey to them. He looked at each one of their faces....rugged men...they were His brethren but they were also like children to Him. He wanted to assure them....to protect them.....and to prepare them....ASSURE them of His love....and PROTECT them by preparing them. He had so much to say to them but He was now running out of time. He must get the most important thing over to them tonight. He wanted to firmly establish His love to them one more time because he knew what they themselves would be facing in the hours ahead and in the long three days before He would be raised to life ...and before they would see Him again. Their world, and everything they believed in, was about to be turned upside down.

He knew that they had marveled at how He prayed to the Father because they had asked Him to teach them how to pray as He did and so He had taught them to pray what we often call the “The Lord’s Prayer” .....the same prayer that we so often pray today. But that beloved prayer was teaching them HOW to pray. While there are many references to our Lord going off to pray......prior to this night, scripture doesn’t really give us insight as to the exact words He might have used when He prayed to His Father. However, here in this passage we get a glimpse. This prayer in Chapter 17 is truly the Lord’s Prayer. In this, almost His last prayer before He is hung on the cross, we hear what was the culmination of His ministry and what was the most important thing He wanted to convey to these men. HE wanted these last words to be imbedded in their hearts and minds. In praying to the Father for the apostles, He is also praying for us.

Listen carefully as we go over these verses. WE ARE IN THAT ROOM with Him just as surely as all of the apostles are. Keep in mind, that with God, time doesn’t exist. John tells us in Chapter 1 that Jesus was in the beginning before everything was created and that everything was created through Him ....even time. Even though Jesus took on human form, he is still 100% God. He is omniscient - all knowing, omnipresent - He is the beginning and the end....He is forever. He has known us by name from the beginning of time. “ Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world...” (Ephesians 1:4)

We were in His Heart and mind just as surely as His brethren apostles were. He knew what we would do every second of every day of our lives. He knew exactly how we would look....He knew every hair on our head. He even specifically mentions you and I in verse 20 of this prayer which we will read today. Everything that He speaks to them, He is saying also to us. In God’s eyes, there is no 2000+ year time frame between us. We are actually there in that room with Him....and so He begins His amazing prayer.

I don’t know what Jesus’ voice sounded like but I think it might have sounded something like this audio reading that I’m about to play. I know there was compassion and love in His voice. I want you to listen closely to what He prays and remind yourself that they are literally the words of Jesus....listen in your mind to what He might sound like (close your eyes if you want) and picture Him praying this prayer. YOU.... ARE in the room with Him. (Play audio of Chapter 17)

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/John.17

(any underlined words in the quoted scriptures below are for my own emphasis in this teaching)

FIRST: Jesus Prays for Himself

17 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

THEN: Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. ¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in our name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify ^[ ⁱ ^] them by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who ^[ ^j ^] will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

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Let’s go over the verses now and take a closer look at them.

In the first three verses, you might notice that Jesus is speaking in the third person. Is this important? Yes. He wants to draw the apostles in. He is praying to the Father BUT he is recapping FOR the apostles so that they will understand.

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

In the first verse Jesus is telling the Father and the apostles - “the hour has come.” These words would immediately make the apostles sit up and listen. Then Jesus gives all to Father God. Jesus came first and foremost to give glory to God the Father. He then prays about eternal life and WHAT is eternal life. He says, “ And this eternal life, that they may know the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Are we not also just as hungry to know about eternal life?

What IS “glory?” It may sound like a strange question but it is important. However, in order to understand the meaning of “glory,” we must first look at God’s “holiness.” To be “HOLY” is to be “set apart.” God is infinitely HOLY. He is infinitely PERFECT, infinitely PURE, infinitely JUST, infinitely BEAUTIFUL. GOD IS LOVE. There is none other like Him. But because we in our human bodies cannot physically see God, “GLORY” is the visualization of....or the ability of....being able to see the attributes of God which speak to or show us Who He is. It is being able to actually see God through the results of His holiness. Isaiah 6:3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” When we look at what God created, the....heavens, the plants and trees, the sunsets, the mountains, human beings, animals, DNA, everything in perfect balance, we see GOD’S ATTRIBUTES...THEY ARE THE “GLORY” OF GOD. JESUS, GOD’S SON, IS THE ULTIMATE VISUALIZATION OF GOD’S GLORY . We pray that we are able to bring “glory” to His name which means that when we pray for those words, we are praying that what we do and how we live will be a visualization of God and Who He is because once we are children of God, He lives in us and our lives should reflect that. We should bring “glory” to God’s name.

Jesus came to earth in human form to show perfectly who God the Father is. In John 14:19, when Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus said, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father’?” Do we sometimes do the same thing and ask ourselves, “How do we know what the God is like?” But throughout scripture both in the Old Testament and the New, God’s word tells us all about God and His attributes. Jesus, Himself, gives us the Father throughout the New Testament and states the Father and the Son are one.

What is eternal life ? It is to know the “one, true God.” When we truly give our heart to the Lord, eternal life begins instantly. At that moment we become a child of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit. Our eyes are opened!

⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Jesus changes now to talking in the first person. He is talking one on one with the Father. By now the apostles are completely drawn in. Are we drawn in also when we read or listen to the words of Jesus, the very voice of God who created the Universe??? Let’s concentrate on what Jesus is saying. He is telling His Father that He is looking forward to going home to be with Him and to be glorified with Him as He was before He took on His human ministry.

“The hour had come, His work is finished .” He is talking as if the next day were already done!!! ....because to Him it was. He knew what lay ahead and had accepted it because He knew there was no other way to save mankind. The next day, by His death, He would open a sinless gateway for us to the Father that had never been opened since the fall of mankind. The next day, the veil in the Temple that shielded God from anyone but the High Priest (as we learned in Tonya’s teaching) would be torn from top to bottom and all believers could enter freely to the Father........ and by His death and resurrection, all of our sins, past, present and future would be covered by His blood and washed clean. In no other way would we have been able to enter into the presence of God or eternity with God.

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Now Jesus, in His prayer, is going to pray directly for His brethren, the small company of men who would start His beloved church, the “bride of Christ.” They were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Jesus knew before the beginning of time, that these 11 mostly uneducated simple men, along with Paul, would build His church.

Jesus prays for His brethren:

⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

Jesus is telling the Father that He believes in these men - that they are true. The apostles needed to hear this. It must have felt like oil for their soul. Can you imagine if you heard Jesus pray to the Father, verbally and out loud, that He believed in you, personally? He does! He absolutely does. Jesus manifested (made known) the Father’s name to the apostles and they received what He taught them as true. His whole focus was teaching them about the Father. Now, even though the apostles were very much alive in the world, because of their belief and commitment to Jesus, they were “ no longer OF the world.” (....just as we who believe are no longer of the world.) Jesus traveled with the apostles for three years daily showing them the love of the Father. Again, I think of what He said to Philip. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” The Father knew what each one of their days would be from the beginning of time. Jesus knew they had “kept” what He had taught them in their hearts. The Greek word for “kept” in Verse 6 means “to guard.” Today, we might say, the apostles “hung on to every word” that Jesus had taught. They received His words and locked His words in their heart to be guarded there forevermore. They deeply believed without doubt that Jesus was the long awaited for Messiah....that He and God were One.

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Oh, how Jesus loved them. He had “set them apart.” He says He is “glorified in them.” How could Jesus ever be glorified in or by the human race??? Here Jesus is talking both present tense and future. He already knows the work they will accomplish...they don’t - they have no idea....but He does. He knows that just as He came to earth to glorify the Father, these men will glorify both the Father AND Him after He ascends into Heaven. He goes on to say, “ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world...” Again, Jesus, is praying in future tense as in His mind the work is already finished, even though to us, the most difficult part was still ahead.

Jesus continues to pray as if the work is done....should we not also pray in the same way....as if the work is done? Yes, as long as it is in the will of God. We read in Psalms 139:4, that God hears our prayers even before they are said.....and in Matt 7:7-8, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. for every one who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” PRAY!!!

....but here’s something else to think about.....I also believe that when Jesus was deep in prayer, He was physically in the world but really no longer IN the world. Think about it. Can we do that? Why did Jesus continually teach us to take everything to God in prayer? As the world spins crazily around us, how can we not get pulled down into the vortex???? Literally go to God in prayer. We are not body first and then spirt.....no, we are spirit first with a temporary housing that is called the body. We are made in the image of God. Our spirit is eternal. We are where our spirit is. Is our spirit with God or is it in the world? When we are one with God, we are NOT “IN” THE WORLD.

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¹³ But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should guard them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

How does Jesus speak of His “joy” when He knows within 24 hours what He will be enduring? He is speaking of the love and joy of knowing God. While without doubt, He was dreading the cross, joy filled His heart at the thought of being reunited with the Father. While we are sojourners here on this earth, it is right to say that “Life is not easy.” Life can have tremendous sorrow but we have joy because we know the love of God and we know, without doubt, because of our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross, that one day we will most assuredly be with God in all of His glory.

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¹⁷ Sanctify them (set them apart) by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified or set apart by the truth.

We are not of this world....nor were the apostles. They were already hated because they were “HIS FOLLOWERS.” Once we become believers and the new person is birthed in our spirit, we are no longer citizens of this world. Paul in Philippians 3:20 tells us: “ ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue ALL things to Himself.”

“Sanctify them by Your truth...” God’s Word is truth. In asking the Father to sanctify the apostles by His truth, Jesus knew this would “set them apart” from the world. The ruler of this world is a deceiver. God’s word is a divider and a purifier.

REAL TRUTH is something we rarely see in the world today. As believers, our journey while we are here on this earth is a continual learning of God’s word and understanding and following of the truth. When Jesus was put before Pilate just hours after He prayed the prayer in the upper room, Pilate asked Him, “What is truth?” It was and is an excellent question. But it is only a good question IF you really want the truth. Pilate was soooooo close. The TRUTH was standing in front of Him and Jesus would gladly have given him understanding. But Jesus knew Pilate’s heart. By worldly standards, Pilate was an intelligent man but Pilate did not want to know the truth because he would have lost all of his worldly possessions, perhaps even his life, if he received...accepted.....and acted upon what Jesus would have told him. But Pilate was not willing. By asking the Father to sanctify the apostles by His truth, Jesus knew this would set them apart from the world and the world would hate them because of His truth.

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Now Jesus prays for you and me and all others who will come to know Him through the teachings of the men who are physically in front of Him. This truly makes chills on me. Jesus says.....

²⁰ “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ”

The “all who will ever believe in me through their message,” is us...you and me. The apostles don’t see us in that room. They can’t even begin to imagine what their work will do or how far their message will spread......but Jesus sees us as clearly as if we were sitting there in that room with Him. Just as the apostles had no idea what their teachings would bring forth, neither do we have any idea of whom we might touch when we share the Gospel......or who will be drawn to the gospel just by watching us live our Christian values every day, hopefully letting God’s light shine through. You and I are like the apostles....in that we have no idea.....but Jesus knew then and He knows now what our belief in and through Him will accomplish.^.

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²¹ that they ALL (both the apostles and all believers after them) may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us , that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Jesus lives in us and Jesus lives in God. Because of Jesus’ love and sacrifice on the cross, we are now one. Because we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in God, we also live in God. Jesus is God. God is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We live in God and God lives in us. Praise God!

Jesus, in His humanity on earth, prayed for you and me 2000 years ago. Today He continues to pray for us as our mediator and High Priest before the throne of God (Hebrews 9:15). “If God is for us, who can be against us.” (Romans 8:31)

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²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that You have sent Me.....

The glory of God, the greatest visualization of God, ***IS*** Christ’s work on the cross. It is the redemption of man - the path BACK TO GOD COMPLETED. Now, finally....once again, as believers in Christ Jesus, we are one with God walking in close communication and fellowship. When He died on the cross for our sins, Jesus made us all one with God.

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This next line often brings tears to my eyes. I can’t even begin to comprehend that the Father could ever love mankind in this way.

“and (so that the world may know)that You have loved them as (the same as) You have loved Me.”

That the Father would love us the same as He loved His Son who sacrificed everything for us while we were still in our sins and completely wretched is too amazing to even begin to comprehend....

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Jesus is praying to the Father in front of the apostles (and to us in written form) that He wants us TO BE WITH HIM IN GLORY....IN HEAVEN....FOREVER. NEVER, EVER DOUBT HIS LOVE FOR YOU. That God would love us...humans He formed out of the earth....as much as He loves His beloved Son, who is One with Him, is too hard for us to imagine.....but it’s absolutely true and we must believe, trust and meditate on it because Jesus prayed it. They are.... the v ery last words of Jesus that were recorded in that room only hours before the death He knew was coming. NEVER FORGET THAT YOU WERE IN THAT UPPER ROOM WHEN JESUS PRAYED . God loved us so much that He sacrificed His only begotten Son so that we could live IN HIM and WITH HIM forever and ever. The work on the cross is the GLORY OF GOD....the manifestation of His PERFECT LOVE for mankind. Praise God for HIS GLORY.

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

CCAG Ministries

John 17 - EASTER MESSAGE

CCAG Ministries

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