What is Jesus' High Priestly Prayer?

282 Such is the basis of the prayer of Jesus. It was for them that He prayed, not for the world. The world was judged, but the Father had given Him His disciples; most precious truth, source of all our blessings and that which characterises them. Now the Lord, in leaving His disciples, prays for them, and with infinitely touching motives, which open also to our view the sphere into which we are introduced. All belongs to this revelation of the Father in the Son - the Object, and at the same time the Revealer, of His most tender love, and to the introduction of the disciples into the same relationship.

In verses 1-5 the Son speaks to the Father, pointing out that He has glorified the Father on the cross through a work fully completed. He asks for glorification as Man so that He can share with others, communicate eternal life to others. He was now going to leave the world and His disciples, essentially, would take His place on earth while He was going to be away. He commits the disciples to the Father's care, praying for their protection and sanctification (set apart by the Word and by Christ Himself above as the object for their affections), and for their unity, extending this request from the circle of the disciples to all those who would believe through their name.

Prayer for the Disciples. — From asking for Himself He began now to pray for His disciples. And, as they had heard Him speak about Himself, they were next to hear Him speak about them, and that from His point of view. Let us read this in His own words. "I have manifested Thy name to the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given to them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me" (6-8). What a Master to serve! The Lord's estimate of the disciples which of them would endorse as true of himself? The Jews had not the Father's word abiding in them (5:38). The disciples, however, had kept it. For, what the Lord had taught, was that which the Father had given Him. All things that He had heard of the Father He had made known to them (15:15). So hearkening to Christ, receiving His testimony, they kept the Father's word, and they believed in the Divine mission of the Son. For them then He prayed. The incarnate Son petitioned His Father for them. Grace indeed it was. His prayers as the Son, and He the obedient One, must infallibly be answered. They had an interest in them. What saint of God would not value the intercession of Christ on his behalf? What responsible creature in a coming day will not understand the immense favour of any one having been prayed for by the Son of God? Bowing the knee as all will at the mention of His name (Phil. 2:10), every one will assuredly feel, that those were favoured indeed for whom He prayed.

In John 17 we learn something of the quality of the prayer life of the Lord Jesus. It was the Man who was here who prays while at the same time the chapter shows that this Man is the Son. In verse 9 He says: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine.” If we study the word “pray” in this verse we will see that it has the force of someone desiring or demanding something of another who is His equal. In the prayer of this chapter we are listening to a Divine Person, the Son, addressing the Father. Here the Lord is interested solely in His own, those who also belong to the Father, and not in the world in general.

"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee" (vv. 9-11).

It is for these disciples who had received the communications of the Lord, and "believed" on Him, that the Lord prays. Now we are permitted to hear the three great motives that led the Lord to pray on their behalf. First, the Lord says they are given to Him, but nontheless He can say to the Father, "they are thine." He is praying to the Father concerning those who belong to the Father. Secondly, the Lord can plead, "I am glorified in them." The Father had been glorified by the Son in His pathway on earth. Now the Son is to be glorified in the saints as they pass through the world. Thirdly, the Lord pleads, "now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee." While with them the Lord had kept them, now the time had come when He would no longer be with them. The first motive concerns the Father, the second has the glory of the Son in view, and the third the safety of believers.

We have been looking a little at the details of His service in making the Father's glory known. We come now to His requests for the disciples. They are five in number. 1. "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we." 2. "That thou shouldest keep them from the evil." 3. "Sanctify them by the truth." 4. "And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word; that they may be all one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 5. He desires that where He is, they also may be with Him, that they may behold His glory which the Father had given Him, which could not be separated from that love from eternity, of which He was the Object.

HE PRAYS (v. 9). His whole heart is poured out in intercessory communion, and He asks for His own. He stands up on their behalf, having bound up their blessing and preservation with His own glory. He puts them directly into His Father's hands and claims for them that the Father should keep them in His name; sanctify them by the truth, and keep them from the evil that is in the world.

"I pray for them...... that they may be one, as we are...... I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of this world, even as I am not of the world...... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (vv.9a, 11b, 15-16, 20-21).

Just in closing, think of these blessed words in verse 9, "I pray for them". And what does He pray for for His own? He prays for them that they might be kept through the Father's name in a blessed unity of testimony, the stamp of which is on the apostolic writings. There is no doubt about the fact that the unity of verse 11 belongs peculiarly to the apostles and their testimony, but verse 20 brings you in, brings me in, brings us all in. We are the subjects of the intercession of our blessed Lord. Praise God for these blessed things. Let us see these blessed things are practised in our lives. We ascend to these things in the meeting room, but at times we sadly fail to translate them into practise in the privacy of our home life, our every day life. In the meeting room it is easy to be a Christian, but it is not so easy perhaps when we get away from the gathered company of saints of God. May God grant that when we say 'Amen' to this that our Lord says, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world", may we have grace to come under the sanctifying application of the truth of God to be true in practise to what we are in position. Amen.

Having expressed His desires for His own glory and that of the Father, the Lord passes on to unfold the desires of His heart concerning His disciples. First, however, in verses 6 to 8, He recalls His work in the midst of the disciples, and presents, from verse 9 to the middle of verse 11, the great motives for His prayer on their behalf.

Having finished all His words of counsel and comfort to His disciples, words spoken to them that they might have peace in Him though beset by tribulation in the world, the Lord lifted His eyes to heaven and spoke to His Father. He had requests to make for “His own” whom He was leaving in the world. With what awe those eleven men must have heard Him for the things He asked for were so amazing, so infinitely beyond anything and everything that they could have asked or thought; and we may stand in thought with them and share their wonder, for what He asked for them He asked for us also. He had not to beseech the Father on behalf of “His own,” as one might plead with a reluctant and grudging giver, for His Father was one with Him in all His desires for the blessing of those men. They were His Father’s gift to Him and so are we. “Thou gavest them Me,” He said, but in giving them to His beloved Son the Father did not give them away or lose them, for, added the Lord, “They are Thine, and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” It is an amazing thought. The Father and the Son have this mutual interest in all who are Christ’s. They are the Father’s gift to Him, and yet the Father retains possession of them and they were the subjects of these wonderful communings between the Father and the Son. They are more precious to the Lord than crowns and kingdoms and far-reaching fame, they are His most cherished possession, next to the love that gave them to Him; and they are precious to the Father because they are precious to His Son. That is where we stand, fellow believers in our great Saviour; that, my brethren in the divine family, is the place we are given in the thoughts of the Father and the Son.