This is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer recorded anywhere in Scripture.

John 17 is certainly the “holy of holies” of the Gospel record, and we must approach this chapter in a spirit of humility and worship. To think that we are privileged to listen in as God the Son converses with His Father just as He is about to give His life as a ransom for sinners!

No matter what events occurred later that evening, this prayer makes it clear that Jesus was and is the Overcomer. He was not a “victim”; He was and is the Victor!

The progression of thought in this prayer is not difficult to discover. Jesus first prayed for Himself and told the Father that His work on earth had been finished (John 17:1–5).

Then He prayed for His disciples, that the Father would keep them and sanctify them (John 17:6–19).

He closed His prayer by praying for you and me and the whole church, that we might be unified in Him and one day share His glory (John 17:20–26).

Why did Jesus pray this prayer? Certainly He was preparing Himself for the sufferings that lay ahead. As He contemplated the glory that the Father promised Him, He would receive new strength for His sacrifice (Heb. 12:1–3).

But He also had His disciples in mind (John 17:13). What an encouragement this prayer should have been to them! He prayed about their security, their joy, their unity, and their future glory! He also prayed it for us today, so that we would know all that He has done for us and given to us, and all that He will do for us when we get to heaven.

In this prayer, our Lord declares four wonderful privileges we have as His children, privileges that help to make us overcomers.

We Share His Life (read John 17:1–5)

“Father, the hour is come,” reminds us of the many times in John’s Gospel when “the hour” is mentioned, beginning at John 2:4. Jesus had lived on a “divine timetable” while on earth and He knew He was in the will of the Father.

The word glory is used eight times in this prayer, so it is an important theme. He glorified the Father in His miracles (John 2:11; 11:40), to be sure; but He brought the greatest glory to the Father through His sufferings and death (see John 12:23–25; 13:31–32).

From the human point of view, Calvary was a revolting display of man’s sin; but from the divine point of view, the cross revealed and magnified the grace and glory of God. Jesus anticipated His return to heaven when He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gave Me to do” (John 17:4).

This “work” included His messages and miracles on earth (John 5:17–19), the training of the disciples for future service, and most of all, His sacrifice on the cross (Heb. 9:24–28; 10:11–18).

It is on the basis of this “finished work” that we as believers have the gift of eternal life (John 17:2–3). The word give is used in one form or another in this prayer at least 17 times.

“Eternal [everlasting] life” is an important theme in John’s Gospel; it is mentioned at least 17 times. Eternal life is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son (John 3:15–16, 36; 6:47; 10:28).

What is “eternal life”? It is knowing God personally. Not just knowing about Him, but having a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

Because we share His life, we are overcomers; for we also share His victory!

We Know His Name (read John 17:6–12)

Christ has given His own eternal life (John 17:2), but He has also given them the revelation of the Father’s name (John 17:6).

Jesus took the sacred name “I AM” and made it meaningful to His disciples: “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35); “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11); etc.

In other words, Jesus revealed the Father’s gracious name by showing His disciples that He was everything they needed.

The word Father is used 53 times in John 13–17, and 122 times in John’s Gospel! In His messages to the Jews, Jesus made it clear that the Father sent Him, that He was equal to the Father, and that His words and works came from the Father.

The emphasis in this section is on the safety of the believer: God keeps His own (John 17:11–12).

Our security rests in another fact: we are here to glorify Him (John 17:10).

With all of their failures and faults, the disciples still receive this word of commendation: “I am glorified in them.”

God has provided the divine resources for us to glorify Him and be faithful. We have His Word (John 17:7–8), and His Word reveals to us all that we have in Jesus Christ.

The Word gives us faith and assurance. We have the Son of God interceding for us (John 17:9; Rom. 8:34; Heb. 4:14–16).

We also have the fellowship of the church: “that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:11).

The New Testament knows nothing of isolated believers; wherever you find saints, you find them in fellowship. Why? Because God’s people need each other.

Jesus opened His Upper Room message by washing the disciples’ feet and teaching them to minister to one another. In the hours that would follow, these men (including confident Peter!) would discover how weak they were and how much they needed each other’s encouragement.

The believer, then, is secure in Christ for many reasons: the very nature of God, the nature of salvation, the glory of God, and the intercessory ministry of Christ.

We Have His Word (read John 17:13–19)

The Father gave the words to His Son (John 17:8), and the Son gave them to His disciples who, in turn, have passed them along to us as they were inspired by the Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21).

How does the Word of God enable us to overcome the world? To begin with, it gives us joy (John 17:13); and this inward joy gives us the strength to overcome (Neh. 8:10).

We commonly think of Jesus Christ as “a man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3), and indeed He was; but He was also a person of deep abiding joy. John 17:13 is the very heart of this prayer, and its theme is joy!

We must never picture Jesus going around with a long face and a melancholy disposition. He was a man of joy and He revealed that joy to others.

He did not depend on outward circumstances but on inward spiritual resources that were hidden from the world.

The Word not only imparts the joy of the Lord, but it also assures us of His love (John 17:14). The world hates us, but we are able to confront this hatred with God’s own love, a love imparted to us by the Spirit through the Word.

The Word reveals to us what the world is really like; the Word exposes the world’s deceptions and dangerous devices.

The Word of God not only brings us God’s joy and love, but it also imparts God’s power for holy living (John 17:15–17). The burden of our Lord’s prayer in John 17:6–12 was security, but here it is sanctity, practical holy living to the glory of God.

We are in the world but not of the world, and we must not live like the world.

When you were saved, you were set apart for God. As you grow in your faith, you are more and more experiencing sanctification.

You love sin less and you love God more. You want to serve Him and be a blessing to others. All of this comes through the Word.

With the mind, we learn God’s truth through the Word. With the heart, we love God’s truth, His Son. With the will, we yield to the Spirit and live God’s truth day by day. It takes all three for a balanced experience of sanctification.

It also gives us what we need to serve Him as witnesses in this world (John 17:18–19). Sanctification is not for the purpose of selfish enjoyment or boasting; it is so that we might represent Christ in this world and win others to Him.

We are people “under orders” and we had better obey! Jesus is now “set apart” in heaven, praying for us, that our witness will bear fruit as many repent of their sins and turn to the Lord.

How can we be overcome by the world when we have the Word of God to enlighten us, enable us, and encourage us?

 We Share His Glory (read John 17:20–26)

Here our Lord focuses our attention on the future. He begins to pray for us who live today, for the whole church throughout all ages.

He has already prayed about security and sanctity; now the burden of His prayer is unity. He is concerned that His people experience a spiritual unity that is like the oneness of the Father and the Son. Christians all belong to the Lord and to each other. What is the basis for true Christian unity? The person and work of Jesus Christ and His glory (John 17:2–5).

He has already given His glory to us, and He promises that we will further experience that glory when we get to heaven! Christian harmony is not based on the externals of the flesh but the internals and eternals of the Spirit in the inner person.

We must look beyond the elements of our first birth—race, color, abilities, etc.—and build our fellowship on the essentials of our new birth….when we were put “in Christ” through our immersion in water in order to have our sins forgiven.

One of the things that most impresses the world is the way Christians love each other and live together in harmony. It is this witness that our Lord wants in the world John 17:21 (ESV)  “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians; and what they see in us is what they will believe about God.

In John 17:25–26, there are no petitions. Jesus simply reported to His Father about the ministry in the world, and He made several declarations that are important to us.

He declared that the world does not know the Father, but that we believers know Him because the Son has revealed the Father to us. The world certainly has many opportunities to get to know the Father, but it prefers to go on in blindness and hardness of heart. Our task as Christians is to bear witness to the lost world and share God’s saving message.

He also declares the importance of truth and love in the church. Believers know God’s name (nature) and even share in that divine nature.

It has well been said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. The mind grows by taking in truth, but the heart grows by giving out in love.

Knowledge alone can lead to pride (1 Cor. 8:1), and love alone can lead to wrong decisions (see Phil. 1:9–10).

As you review this prayer, you see the spiritual priorities that were in the Savior’s heart:

the glory of God       the sanctity of God’s people

the unity of the church      the ministry of sharing Gospel with a lost world.