◄ John 17 Devotional Commentary ►
John 17:1
The prayer of all prayers was prayed by the Lord Jesus as the pivotal hour in the history of the ages had finally arrived. The moment, which was planned in eternity past and towards which every step of Christ's earthly pathway had been progressing, had finally arrived. The Cross, where the blood of the eternal Son of God made Man, had reached its terminus.
The Lord Jesus lived His life following God's divine timetable. Every day read more...
John 17:2
The hour for Christ to be glorified had arrived for, in His wisdom, God chose the sacrifice of His beloved Son on the Cross as the most shattering event of eternity. The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. May we never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ's burden was to glorify, honour, exult, and magnify His Father in heaven. read more...
John 17:3
John 17 is the holy of holies in Scripture, for it contains the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth, by the greatest man who ever lived. It causes us to take off the shoes from off our feet, for the place whereon we stand is holy. And within this sacred text we discover, from the prayerful lips of the Lord Jesus Himself, exactly what eternal life is.
Eternal life is not heaven (our ultimate destination) or the life hereafter, as read more...
John 17:4
This greatest of all recorded prayers of Christ is prayed as He set out towards the Garden of Gethsemane and the Cross of Calvary, and it gives us the most astonishing insight into the heart of God, the glory of God, the plan of God, and the will of God. The only begotten Son of God took on the role of sin substitute (on behalf of fallen humanity) so that we who believe on His name might be reconciled to God - through Him.
Christ read more...
John 17:5
Although Christ was fully God the Son, He lived His whole life in full submission to the indwelling Holy Spirit of God and in total dependence on God the Father, only doing those things which He heard from above. And having completed His work on earth, in spirit and truth, the Lord Jesus set His face as a flint towards His ultimate victory over sin, death, and the satanic forces of evil in heavenly places: the Cross of Calvary.
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John 17:6
This beautiful 'high priestly' prayer of the Lord Jesus demonstrates His humble obedience and unreserved dependence upon God. This prayer of all prayers also displays His utter submission to God's will and the depth of love He has for His Father. But it also highlights the compassionate love that the Saviour has for His people.
Christ knew that the hour to fulfil the sacrificial mission for which He had come to earth had arrived. read more...
John 17:7
The Lord Jesus is the express image of the invisible God, and during His earthly ministry had been revealing the 'I AM' of the Old Testament as the Good Shepherd, the Door of the sheepfold, the Light of the world, the Bread of life, the living Water, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (abundant life, eternal life), for in Him was life and His life is the light of all mankind.
Jesus had glorified the Father in the read more...
John 17:8
Throughout the Old Testament, God gradually unveiled His character, His names, and His attributes to the race of fallen man as, little by little, He unfolded His eternal plan of salvation. But when the fullness of the time had come, God revealed Himself in a new and unique way by sending His only begotten Son as the Word made flesh, to live a perfect life, to die a sacrificial death, and to reveal Himself to a race of condemned sinners.
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John 17:9
The hour had arrived for Christ's betrayal and crucifixion, and the Lord Jesus gave His disciples an amazing glimpse into the intimate fellowship and precious communication which took place between the Father of all mercies and His dearly beloved Son, as Jesus prayed His High Priestly prayer in their hearing.
Christ's sovereignty over all flesh was referenced in His prayer, as was His authority to grant the gift of eternal life read more...
John 17:10
The beautiful unity and cherished communion that we discover existing between the Father and the Son, cannot be better conveyed than through this simple sentence in this most magnificent of all prayers in John 17: "All things that are Mine are Yours, and all that are Yours are Mine."
The equality of the Son with our Heavenly Father is indisputable, for no created being, visible or invisible, whether on earth, read more...
John 17:11
The Word of God is from everlasting, but in the fullness of time the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God incarnate was clothed in human flesh and came to reside in the world that He created, and to live as a Man among those He had made in His own image and likeness. And for a time, the eternal Son of God veiled His glory and shrouded His deity by coming to earth in human form, as the perfect Son of Man, in submission His Father in heaven.
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John 17:12
The Son of God was born into the human race that He Himself created, in order to carry out the will of the Father: that whosoever believes on His sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, might have eternal life and become ministers of reconciliation to a lost and dying world.
The very men who became Christ's disciples were the very people about whom the Lord Jesus was praying in this second section read more...
John 17:14
The Word of God is true, His Word is eternal, and the Lord Jesus has given us the Word of the Father. We have been given the gospel; the good news that God loved the world so much that He sent Christ to pay the price for our sin. He broke the power of sin and death in our lives and freed us from its bondage, forever.
The world is at enmity with the Father, and the world hates the anointed Son of the Father. And we who are read more...
John 17:14
God loved the world so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. He gave us the Word – the Word made flesh – the Word Who was God of God and Light of Light. And the Word came to tabernacle among us, to live as one of us. He came as Man born of a woman – God of God yet Man of man, born into our sinful race as one of us so that He could be the propitiation for our sins and demonstrate the love of God towards us.
Christ also read more...
John 17:16
Just before His death and Resurrection, the Lord Jesus prayed a wonderful prayer - a prayer that demonstrated the intimate relationship with the Father and the Son - a prayer for the protection of all believers during our time in this world - a prayer that Christ Himself would be given the glory He had with the Father before His sojourn on earth - a prayer that asked that all who are in Christ Jesus may be made one as He is one with the Father - a prayer that we read more...
John 17:17
Just before He was taken from His disciples, the Lord Jesus prayed the most beautiful and profound prayer that the mortal ear has ever witnessed. Now that the hour of His crucifixion had arrived, Jesus prayed to the Father for the disciples He loved so dearly, that they would be sanctified in the truth, set apart, and made holy unto Him. Jesus prayed that they would be a consecrated, read more...
John 17:19
The word 'sanctify' means 'set apart' and in this amazing high priestly prayer, where Jesus prays for his disciples to be 'set apart unto God' through the truth of the Word of God, He also sanctifies Himself: "For their sakes I sanctify Myself so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth."
Jesus sanctified Himself to do the will of the Father. He set Himself apart unto God in order to carry out the read more...
John 17:20
Christ's prayer and intercession in John 17 is our only opportunity to take a peep behind the scenes of Christ's intercourse with His Heavenly Father. After praying that He will glorify the Father through His finished work on Calvary, Jesus intercedes for His disciples, whom the Father gave Him out of this world, for these men were to be God's chosen instruments. These were the ones who were to take the good news of the gospel to a lost and dying world.
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John 17:21
Every phrase and every word in this beautiful High Priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus as He faces the shadow of Calvary's Cross, are thoughts upon which we should take time to reflect. From beginning to end, this is a prayer that should cause us to rejoice with great joy and praise God with deep reverence - for we see Christ interceding on our account at the throne of grace.
We discover, in this intimate exchange with His heavenly read more...
John 17:22
The glory of Christ in His humanity is the glory that is given to those that have come into union with Christ as Saviour. In this life, we are being conformed into His likeness day by day, as we submit to the leading and guiding of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And one day, we will be exactly like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; in His glorified body, full of grace and truth.
The unity of spirit, soul, and body that Christ (in read more...
John 17:22
We who were once dead in our sins and eternally separated from God, were drawn near to Him and placed in His family because we trusted in His Son as our Saviour. Not only are we forgiven of our sins and redeemed by His blood, but we have been given the glory that Christ Himself was given by the Father. OH! this is not the glory of His deity, divine nature, omniscient character or almighty attributes, for in Him dwells all the fullness read more...
John 17:23
Throughout His earthly life, the Lord Jesus was demonstrating to His disciples that He was fully God yet fully Man. He was the eternal Word Who was fully Deity that had been made flesh by being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of Mary. He was the one who would suffer and die on a cruel Roman cross. He was the one that was physically thirsty by the well in Samaria and yet He could cry, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever read more...
John 17:24
Our citizenship is in heaven, and one day Christ is coming back to take us to be with Himself in our heavenly home, for He is preparing a place for us in His Father's house.
And just a few short hours before the Son of Man was lifted up on Calvary's Cross as the sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, He prayed to the Father for His disciples and for all who would come to trust in Him as Saviour, through their faithful read more...