Jesus Prays for His Disciples
Salvation from sin, death, judgment, and eternal punishment is for those people who God the Father gave to God the Son before the world was (Jn 17:2, 6, 9, 24). God’s people belonged to the Father; and it was given to the Son, from the Father, to come into the world to redeem them. Redemption of those who were lost in the darkness of sin was accomplished by Him, who is the Light of the world (Lk 1:77; 19:10; Jn 8:12; Col 1:14).
As Jesus prayed His high priestly prayer, it was a prayer for God’s elect, especially those disciples who were with Him for three years (Jn 17:6–19). They were eyewitnesses to the teaching of His Word, to His miracles, to His conflicts with the religious establishment and the devil himself. Jesus’ disciples knew that Jesus was no ordinary man. He was not just a prophet, a philosopher, a teacher, or a guru.
Jesus confessed in His prayer, recorded in John 17, that He had given God’s Word to His disciples (Jn 17). The words He spoke to them were not His own; but they were the words given to Him by the Father (Jn 14:24). The words spoken by Jesus were spirit and life to all who received them (Jn 6:63).
Jesus himself was the Word of God (Jn 1:1), who took on flesh (Jn 1:14). Prior to His incarnation, He dwelt eternally in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Jn 17:5, 24). No one knows God the Father except the Son of God and all whom the Son reveals Him to be, by His own will, which is the will of God because Jesus is the God-man (Mt 11:25–27).
The ultimate objective of everything is for God to be glorified. Jesus, the Word enfleshed, glorifies the Father because He is the Word of truth, a Light unto the Gentiles (Is 49:6; Acts 13:47). For God is true and every man is a liar in a world of lies (Rom 3:4). Hence, Jesus declares, “I am…the truth” (Jn 14:6).
It is the truth, as it is in Jesus (Eph 4:21), that sets free the captives to sin (Rom 6:6) — from bondage to the father of lies (Jn 8:32, 44). Satan has been a murderer from the beginning; and with the power of death, he enslaved men in fear of death (Heb 2:15). For it is appointed once for a man to die; and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27); and although sinners are condemned, already (Jn 3:18), they await the sentence of eternal punishment in fiery hell (Mt 25:41, 46; Rev 20:14–15).
During His earthly ministry, Jesus kept His disciples safe, by guarding them against the wiles of the devil. It was our Lord’s intention, upon His departure to His Father’s house, to pray to the Father to keep them from the evil one (Jn 17:19). The Father answered Jesus’ prayer by sending the Holy Spirit to the elect of the Father, redeemed by the Son, who were made alive in the Spirit (Jn 14:26; 15:26; Eph 2:5).
The regeneration by the Holy Spirit is new life for sinners, dead to God, and helpless without God in the world (Eph 2:1–3, 12). The chosen remnant (Rom 11:5–6), bought for a price by the precious blood of Jesus (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:19), are born again of God (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3). This is the work of the Spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15, 23), who cannot be received by the world (Jn 14:17).
With the knowledge of God, as seen in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6), the believer trusts in the name of Yahweh and His Christ (Prv 3:5–6). In other words, we believe the Word of God that testifies to the Person and work of the one and only Savior of sinners (Acts 4:12; Rom 10:17); for there is only one Name that is above every other name (Eph 1:21; Phil 2:9) and under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved.
It is the Word of truth that fills the Christian with joy. By this Word, the believer is set apart unto holiness and godliness (Jn 17:17). Saints are set apart from the world and all that is in it (1 Pet 1:15–16). Christians are missionaries wherever the Spirit of God leads them. They are witnesses to our Lord Jesus Christ, even to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The first disciples of Jesus Messiah preached the Word to others who Jesus also prayed for in John 17:20–26. It is the preaching of the Word that is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe (Rom 1:16–17; 1 Cor 1:18, 23; 2:2, 4; 2 Tim 4:2). One believes the Gospel of God because the same Spirit of truth that inspires the preaching of the inspired Word, is the Spirit, who attends to the receipt of that Word in the hearts He opens to respond to the good news of so great a salvation (Acts 16:14; Heb 2:3).
The world has not been prayed for by Jesus; but it remains under the righteous wrath of God (Rom 1:18; 2 Pet 3:10–12). God is glorified when He judges sinners and executes the righteous judgment of eternal condemnation. God is also glorified when one sinner repents from sin (Lk 15:7, 10), while on the wide way leading to destruction (Mt 7:13). It is only by His own grace that one is granted the power and wisdom to turn to the narrow way (Mt 7:14; Acts 5:31; 11:18), leading to life — new, abundant, and eternal (Jn 10:10; 17:3; 2 Cor 5:17).
This is eternal life, knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent, in love, for those He gave to the Son (Jn 17:3). It is clear from Scripture that not all people, head for head, are saved by Christ Jesus (2 Thess 3:2). People either belong to the world that is doomed; or they received the Word/Christ (Jn 1:13), by God willing and doing His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). As many as receive the Word, those are the children of God (1 Jn 3:1, 10).
Jesus’ prayer for His own people is a comfort for them because God who hears and answers the prayer of the righteous (Jas 5:16; 1 Pet 3:12), who is Himself the God-man, knows the will of God. Perfectly aligned prayer is a pleasure to the One who is glorified in answering with wisdom and power. Nobody is aligned like Jesus, our great high priest, who ever lives to make intercession for His people (Heb 7:25), even as He did on that night in which He was abandoned by them.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
January 19, 2025
John 17:6–19
