John 17:6-11

       Jesus has prayed for the Father to glorify Himself by glorifying His Son.  Jesus now prays for the men whom you have given me out of the world (v6).  What a blessing it must have been for the disciples to hear the very Son of God praying to the Father on their behalf.  This is one prayer that we know the Father will answer for there is nothing unworthy in Christ that would prevent such an answer.

            In addition his prayer has merit because of the reasoning behind it.  Consider the basis for Christ’s prayer.  Jesus prays for His disciples because of the three great relationships He spoke of earlier (Ch. 15-16).

            – He prays for them because they belong to the Father and the Son (v6,9,10).

            They belong to the Father in terms of election.  They were His and He gave them to the Son (v6).  Disciples are chosen by God as well as created by God.  They belong to the Son in terms of redemption (1 Cor. 6:19).  But in this passage Jesus reminds the Father that they belong to the Son because He, the Father, has given them to Him (the Son, v6,9).

            Look at the way that everything works for the glory of God in this relationship.  The Father gives the disciple to the Son (v6,9); the Son glorifies the Father (v4).  Then the Son reveals the Father to the disciple (v6); the disciple glorifies the Son (v10).  Our comfort is never the goal of prayer.  Everything is for the glory of God.

            – He prays for them because they are believers together (v6,8).

            They are believers because they have kept the word (v6) which Jesus gave to them (v8).  They have believed the truth about Christ:  that He is sent from God (v8).  But note that what He is praying for is “oneness” (v11).  He is praying that these individual believers will share the same oneness as He and the Father.  We will talk at a later time about the nature of this “oneness”.  For now we are noting that Jesus’ prayer is related to the command He gave them:  to love one another.

            – He prays for them because they are strangers in the world (v6,11).

            This matter of living in an antagonistic world, as did Christ, is easy to understand but it is by no means easy to live out.  It will be difficult and dangerous.  They will be in the world (v11) but not of the world (v14).  They are given out of the world (v6) but will be sent into the world (v18).  Therefore Jesus prays for them.

            Here again we see the grace of God.  He has given us His will to be and do.  And now He is interceding for us in those very issues.  What a wonderful Lord we have.