John 17:22

John 17:22 says, And the glory thou gavest me have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.  We as His followers live in the glory of Jesus.  We do not live for our own glorify.  We live in His glory so that we may be united in our service to Him.  If we begin to feel that we need more glory because we do more than other Christians, then unity will not exist.  Verse twenty-three says, Jesus said, I in them, and thou in je, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.  Just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, so are Christians to be.  We are to do this so we can be made perfect in faith and effectively present Jesus to the world.  When we do this, the world will see the love of God for us and through us.  As long as we are divided and bickering with one another as Christians, we cannot effectively present God to the world.  Verse twenty-four continues, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;  that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.  Jesus knew that when we are with Him in heaven, His glory will be manifested.  There will be no doubt.  Jesus also once again declared His eternal existence.  He was before the foundation of the world.  Many religions are based on the teachings of someone who came into existence on a certain day in history.  Christianity is based on One Who always existed.  This is the big divider.  Jesus always was, and He redeemed us, that we can be His forever.  Verse twenty-five states, Oh righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these hath known that thou hath sent me.  The world still doesn't acknowledge that Jesus was sent by God to be the Savior of the world, but we as His followers do.  Verse twenty-six adds, And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.  If we are followers of Jesus, He lives in us through the Holy Spirit and the love of God is manifested in us. There can be no greater reason to rejoice.

John 17:20

John 17:20 says, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word.  The disciples were to reach out to the world with the message of Christ, and Jesus Himself was praying for their success.  Jesus wanted them to be successful, not in material things, but in proclaiming Him to the world.  In this verse, He included us.  We believe because the disciples were successful in reaching the world with the message of Christ.  This verse also includes the ones we reach.  We need to question daily how effective we are in reaching the lost.  Jesus prayed for them, but He also prayed for the disciples and us to reach them.  Verse twenty-one adds, 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.  Jesus prayed that the disciples then, and the ones to come, would be as united as the Father and the Son, and though not mentioned here, and the Holy Spirit are.  I think too often we put qualifiers in front of Christian.  We see the world more from a materialistic view, dividing Christians by nationality.  Often, we seem to feel no real unity with Christians around the world but see them as somehow less deserving of the things of this world than we are.  I have heard religious leaders, when speaking of Christians in the rest of the world say, "That is good enough for them."  This statement implies that we as followers of Christ should expect more than others around the world.  This is not the unity Jesus prayed for.  Even closer to home, we often do not want to be united with other Christians because of race or social standing.  We may occasionally get together with them at church for special occasions, but on a daily basis, we want to be separated from them.  We may occasionally do something to help them materially, as long as it doesn't cost us too much, but on a daily basis, they are on their own.  This is not unity in Christ.  We have to reach out to the lost, yes, but we also need to reach out to other Christians on a daily basis, so that the world may see Jesus in us.  As long as Christians do not embrace one another everywhere in the love of Christ, the world is not going to be reached.

John 17:17

John 17:17 says, Sanctify them through thy truth: Thy word is truth.  Jesus asked the Father to sanctify the disciples through His truth. What does sanctification mean?  It means to be freed from sin, to be made holy, to be purified. We cannot come into the presence of God with sin in our life.  What is the truth that they were to be sanctified through?  The Father's Word, Jesus, the Messiah.  If they could be sanctified by the teachings of the Scriptures, as Matthew Henry seems to see this as saying, then the Word, Jesus, would not have been necessary.  The Scripture helps us understand God, but my understanding is that only through Jesus Christ can we be sanctified or made right with God.  Verse eighteen, Jesus adds, As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.  As followers of Christ, we need to understand our commission.  Jesus was sent into the world to make salvation possible, and He sends us into the world to proclaim that salvation.  No matter what else we may be doing in life, as Christians the spreading of the gospel is our number one task.  It should not be something to work in around the edges of life.  Jesus is our example, and this was always His number one priority.  Verse nineteen continues, And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.  If Jesus is not sanctified, then we have no hope.  He died to pay the penalty for our sins.  If this is not true, then we cannot be sanctified.  We cannot hope to sanctify ourselves.  Just as we must ask God for forgiveness, we must look to Christ for salvation and sanctification. Since a lot was said about sanctification in this passage, I believe that we need to daily apply this truth to our lives. We are set apart to God. Jesus died not only to save us but to sanctify us through Him.  We cannot live by the world's truth but must live by the truth of Christ.

John 17:14

John 17:14 says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  The disciples may have started following Jesus believing that they were going to help rule in a worldly kingdom and be looked up to by all, but Jesus knew the truth. The disciples were going to be hated by the world, just as Jesus was.  We should understand that our calling today as followers of Christ is not to be loved by the world, but to love the world, those who are not Christians, just as Jesus loved them. We are called to be set apart from the world, and because of our profession of faith in Jesus, we are told we will be hated.  This is hardly the escape from the problems of the world that we, as His followers, are accused of.  Verse fifteen adds, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil.  We can look at being taken out of the world in at least two ways.  One is to be literally taken to Heaven.  We know that as His followers, one day we will be taken out of this world, whether by death or the return of Jesus.  The other is to be totally separated from the world with as little interaction as possible.  Jesus said He was not asking for either of these.  As His followers, we must be in the world to witness to the world.  Jesus asked instead that the Father keep us from evil.  Again, this can mean at least two things.  One is that the hatred of the world will not cause us to falter in our obedience to Christ.  The other is that we not be tempted by the evil of the world to allow it to come between God and us. We may be tempted to hate the world, but again, we are called to love.  We may be tempted by the wealth of the world, but we are asked to rely on God for our daily needs.  We may be tempted to feel superior to the world, but we are called to serve.  We are God's representatives in the world, and He will be with us through everything that happens. Verse sixteen continues, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. We are not to be like everyone else in the world, because we follow the will of God.  We cannot profess that what God teaches us is unimportant in certain situations.  We are to bring the lost to Him, and we cannot change His teachings and reach the world.  We must love the lost world as Jesus loves it, even if it costs us everything in this world.

John 17:11

John 17:11 says, And now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.  Holy Father, keep through thine holy name those thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.  Jesus again told the disciples as He prayed to the Father that He was leaving.  His prayer was for unity of His followers that was as close as the unity between Himself and the Father. This still applies to us today.  We are to be as one through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Even if we hold differing views about certain aspects of being a follower of Christ, we are to be united through the cross of Jesus.  Our calling is to present Him to the world, and not to argue amongst ourselves.  Verse twelve adds, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.  Just as Jesus said of the disciples in His day, once we are His, He will not lose us.  There may be some, like Judas, who profess to be His who are lost, but they were never His in truth.  Again, Judas was not ordained for his role as the betrayer of Jesus, but he fulfilled the role of his own free will.  We can take comfort and find peace in the fact that Jesus is never going to lose those that are truly His.  His promises are true and always will be.  If we accept Him as our Savior, we are His forever.  Verse thirteen continues, And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.  Once more, we can be certain that Jesus will never leave us without knowing Who He is and what He did for us.  The disciples were about to face some uncertain days, but Jesus had already told them the outcome, if they would only listen.  When we face uncertain days, we need to remember the outcome and just stay faithful to God. Then, His joy should be fulfilled in us.  We too often act as if the world is going to be victorious and we have no reason to live in joy. Jesus said He told the disciples, and us through the Bible, that He did so that His joy might be fulfilled in them and us.  We need to claim the joy of Christ in our lives.

John 17:7

John 17:7 says, Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.  Jesus was speaking of His role as Savior.  The Father gave Jesus a task to perform, and that was the salvation of mankind.  We cannot make this a statement that God gave certain people to Christ for salvation. He gave Jesus the task of saving all of mankind, but only those who have accepted the sacrifice of Christ are truly His.  We have to continue to emphasize these facts, because Jesus did.  Verse eight adds, For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I have come out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.  We cannot be restored to a personal relationship with God unless we believe the words of Christ and that He was sent by the Father to save the world.  We may not fully comprehend the triune nature of God, but we have to accept that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One.  We cannot pick the parts we want to believe.  Verse nine continues, I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are mine.  This does not mean that Jesus died only for some.  As He prayed for strength and protection for His disciples, He could not pray the same prayer for those who did not believe.  This does not mean that Jesus did not care for the rest of the world, but His prayer for them would have to be that they accept the salvation He came to bring.  As His followers, the disciples had a faith relationship with Jesus, even if it was weak at times.  The same is true of His followers today.  We are His by faith, and even in times when that faith is weak, we are His.  Once we truly accept Jesus as our Savior, He seals us to Himself for time everlasting.  Verse ten concludes, And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.  If we belong to Jesus, we belong to the Father, and if we belong to the Father, we belong to Jesus.  Again, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One.  If we belong to Christ, we belong to the God of the Old Testament.  Our lives should glorify what Jesus did for us on the cross.

John 17:4

John 17:4 says, I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  Though Jesus had not yet gone to the cross, He recognized that it was immanent that He would be crucified.  He was going to complete the work, and part of that had been teaching the disciples and witnessing to the world.  This would be such a great statement for every Christian to be able to make at the end of their life here on earth.  At the end, if we could say we have completed the work that God gave us that He might be glorified. Jesus had a purpose on earth, mainly to make salvation available, and He did it that the Father might be glorified.  We need to live the same way.  Verse five adds, Jesus said, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thy own self with the glory I had with thee before the world was.  Jesus gave up the glory of heaven to come the earth as a mortal man, but now, as His work was being finished, He was asking the Father to return Him to His former glory.  We notice again the eternal nature of Jesus.  He was before the world existed. The only glory we can be restored to is the glory of God.  We cannot save ourselves or others spiritually.  Only Jesus, the Christ, can do this, and by that He is indeed glorified by the Father.  Verse six continues, I have manifested thy name to the men thou gavest me out of the world: Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word.  The disciples were following Jesus because God had given them to Him by their faith.  Jesus taught them Who He was, and they would spread that knowledge of Christ to all the world.  As followers of Jesus today, we have been given to Him by faith in the salvation He made available.  This is nothing we do of ourselves, but it is by the faith that God gives us.  As the early disciples did, we need to keep God's word.  This doesn't mean that they never failed.  It only means that when they did, they asked for forgiveness and strength and continued to witness for Christ.  If we are His followers, we must acknowledge our own inability to save ourselves, ask God's forgiveness, and then continue to work for Him.  It is my understanding that if we do not ask God for forgiveness, but simply decide we will do better on our own without bothering God, then we have become our own savior.  I personally do not see how this can happen.  We must be willing to humble ourselves and admit that we are incapable of reaching God by our own abilities.