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.

John 17:1

John 17:1 says,  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.  After Jesus finished telling His disciples what was going to happen, He then looked to the Father in submission.  He asked the Father to glorify Him.  We don't often think of being glorified as being beaten and nailed to a cross.  Yet, this is what Jesus was submitting to when He made this statement. He was doing it so that after His death and resurrection He would be glorified, and that would bring glory to the Father.  We need to be as submissive today.  We may be called on to suffer in the world to bring glory to God, and if so, we need to say the hour is come and ask that God may be glorified.  Verse two adds, As thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him.  This does not mean that God gives some people to Jesus for eternal life and not others.  This means that some accept the gift of salvation and others do not.  Jesus has the power and paid the price to bring forgiveness to all flesh, or all mankind. We simply have to ask forgiveness, accept the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, then, under the power of the Holy Spirit, live for the glory of God.  Verse three continue, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  Once again, as His followers, we are not waiting for everlasting life with God, but we are living it.  This body may die and be totally destroyed, but the spirit lives forever.  As followers of Jesus, we have life everlasting with God.  If we do not believe, we still have everlasting life, just not with God.  We are given a clear choice.  Only through the cross can we be saved.  Jesus made it possible to know the one true God.  On this fact we cannot waiver.  People of the world may call us narrow minded, but in this case, we must be.  There is no other way to salvation but through Jesus Christ.

John 16:29

John 16:29 says, Lo, now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverb.  Jesus had said the time was coming when the disciples would understand what He had been telling them.  After He then said in verse twenty-eight that He came from the Father into the world and was about to leave the world to go to the Father, they said now we understand.  They were now saying that Jesus was speaking plainly enough for them to understand.  There may be times in our lives as followers of Christ that we suddenly think we realize what God has been telling us for years.  As with the disciples, it just seems clear suddenly.  Verse thirty adds, Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe Thou comest forth from God.  Jesus did not tell them anything new, but suddenly they understood what He was saying better.  When we comprehend something about God that we may have questioned for a long time, it will never be because the truth of God has changed.  Also, we need to be careful that we do truly understand and are not just thinking we do.  The disciples said they now understood.  Verse thirty-one continues, Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe.   Verse thirty-two concludes, Behold, the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: yet, I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.  The disciples were beginning to have faith in their own understanding instead of still relying on the revelation of Christ.  We may at times feel that we understand what the Bible teaches us clearly, but we need to make sure that we are following the leadership of the Holy Spirit as we come to a particular understanding.  Jesus told the disciples they still didn't truly understand and would even abandon Him when the hour was come.  If we are relying on our own strength and understanding, when things go badly, we may not stand firm in our faith.  We must make sure it is God's truth that we are following.  Verse thirty-three states, These things have I spoken unto you, that ye might have peace.  In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.  Again, we are only promised peace in tribulation, not a lack of tribulation, but we are to be of good cheer, because we are saved through Christ.