First Bible Study Blog, John, Chapter 17

A Study of John, Chapter 17
This is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
You will see why….
The scripture is quoted and my comments are in parenthesis. { }

17:1 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 and his disciples had left the Upper Room He went with them to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. Outside, at night, He lifted His eyes to God in Heaven. He said that His hour had come. This was the very purpose for Christ coming into this world.
Jesus always did what brought Glory to God, the Father. And the Father glorified Jesus for bringing Him Glory. If we, as Christians, obey the Father and live according to His commands, we bring Glory to the Father.}

17:2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
{Eternal Life comes only through belief in Jesus Christ.
And we cannot come to the Father except He draws us. We cannot just one day decide, today I am going to come to the Lord. God speaks to our hearths. We are under the power of conviction. We respond. We can accept or reject. It is our God Given Right.
God wants us to choose Him, but He does not force us to.
We can choose to accept Christs’ death on the cross or we can choose to die in our sins and pay the penalty for our own sin…eternal separation from the Lord.
For the wages of sin is death.}

17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
{We, our soul, is going to live eternally somewhere. As a believer, it will spend eternity in the presence of the Lord. Or as an unbeliever, it will spend all of eternity in the dark, outside the presence of the Lord}.

17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
{ Jesus finished teaching the disciples and the work of our redemption was just starting. Notice Jesus said I have finished {Speaking it as if it already were.} Because it was as good as done. This was the work God had given Jesus to do on earth. Have you ever wondered what work God has given you to do? You know, when you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, you could have gone to Heaven right then and there. Wonder why God left you here? To help lead others to Him. Who are you going to take with you?}
17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
{In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. And Jesus was there with Him when He did it. As part of the God Head, the Trinity.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
John 1, In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. Al things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus sat aside His own Glory to come to earth and be our atonement for sin so that we may live eternally in Heaven with the Father.

J17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
{ Just as Jesus declared the word and will of God to all who would believe, we also are to declare the name of the Lord.}

17:7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
{Although the disciple did not completely understand all that Jesus would teach them. They did believe He was the Son of God. And they believed that Jesus spoke the words of the Father. And they had already declared that they believed that Jesus was sent from God.}

17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
{Notice that Jesus prayed for His Own. Not the unbeliever, the world. He died for unbelievers. But here He prays for believers. All are created by God…Believers are given to Jesus. And we Belong to God. We will belong to God forever. Never to be lost again. Jesus died to give us Eternal Life. Not life for a short time. His Death was Sufficient Forever.

17:10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
{When we belong to Jesus, we belong to God. It is popular today for people to say, I believe in God, and yet they do not believe in Jesus. This is NOT POSSIBLE.
We can Not come to God Without Coming Through Jesus Christ.
Jesus said “No man comes to the Father but by Me.”
We cannot KNOW GOD WITHOUT KNOWING JESUS.
And we should be careful to always glorify God in our daily life.
Since the Holy Spirit lives in each believer, if we let the Holy Spirit live through us, we will bring glory to Him.
One of my favorite scriptures is Galatians 2:20
For I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This is allowing the Holy Spirit to live through us.}

17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
{Jesus was not going to take the disciples with Him at this time. They had been close to Him for 3 years. Learning at His feet. Now they would be left in this world as Christ went back to His home in Heaven. Jesus would send to them, and us, a Comforter. The Holy Spirit. Notice that nothing is good enough to take care of us besides the God Head, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He did not leave us in the care of any earthly being. Or for that matter, in the care of ourselves. Jesus ask the Father to keep us through His Name, the name of Jesus, whom we believe. The Same. We are saved by and are not safe in any other name.
And that we may be one with Jesus and God, just as Jesus is one with God.
If the Holy Spirit lives within us, then we are one with the Father.
Because the Holy Spirit is the Father.
Jesus prayed for our security in salvation. We are SEALED. Our name is written in the Lambs Book of Life.
Notice, this is not just the Lambs Book…..But the Lambs Book of Life. Eternal Life.}

{Beginning in this verse, the Lord makes five wonderful petitions for His disciples. These are: (1) security in salvation (John 17:11); (2) victory over Satan's temptations (John 17:15); (3) sanctification through the Word (John 17:17); (4) unity with God and each other (John 17:21); and (5) ultimate glorification with God in heaven (John 17:24). The Father had already promised the Son that not one whom He had given to Him would be lost (John 6:37-39), and we are now given still further assurance through this prayer. The Father will certainly answer the prayer of the Son.}

17:12 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.
{Jesus wanted the disciples and us to know that we were safe in Him even though He was going back to the Father. He is actually sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.}

17:13 And now, come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
{Jesus knew that teaching the disciples these things would bring them joy, knowing that they were safe in the name of the Lord.}

17:14 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 world as a whole rejects the word of God and it rejects those who believe in the word. We are not of this world as we are of the world of Heaven.}

17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
{We are left in the world. Jesus did not pray for the disciples to go immediately to Heaven with Him. Christ work here would be finished, but their work was just beginning.
Jesus prayed that we would be kept from Satan. From Temptation.}

17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
{As believers, we are now children of God. Gods’ home is in Heaven. So is ours. Our citizenship is now in Heaven and we just tarry here until our work on earth is done.}

17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
{When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, we become Justified… Just-as-if -we had never sinned.
And then God begins the work of Sanctification. Setting us apart for His work.}

17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
{Jesus spoke often of God the Father sending Him into the world to do His work.
And Jesus keeps us in the world to do His work. We are to lead people to the Father just as Christ came to lead us, and to prepare, to become the way to the Father.}



17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
{Because Jesus is Sanctified and Jesus lives in us as believers, we also are sanctified.}

17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
{This is my Favorite part. Jesus prays for ME. Those who Shall Believe on Me through their word. We who will later believe on Jesus through the written word that we have. I had read this verse many times, but I well remember the first time that God truly revealed to me that Christ was praying for ME and just before He was about to die. What Love He has for US. He prayed one of His last prayers for us before He died and went on to die for us. How He Loves Us.}

17:21 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.

{Christ’s prayer for unity between us and Him and the Father was spoken 5 times. Jesus wanted us to know we are one with the Father. Forever.}

17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
{Did you ever stop to think that you have the glory of the Father?
If the Holy Spirit lives in us, and the Holy Spirit is Glorified as the God Head.
Then we are also glorified.}

17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
{Jesus is in us, we are in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father, therefore we are all in One.
And God has loved us just as He loved His Son. He sent His Son to Die for Us.
I wonder just how many people we would let our only child die for?
I know it is a common thing to hear these days. “”Not to take things so personally”. But Please, Do Take This Personally. Christ Died for You.}

17:24 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 lovest me before the foundation of the world.
{We are promised that if we abide in Him and His word abides in us that we may ask what we want and it will be given to us. Note here….Jesus always abided in His Father’s will, so we can be assured that these prayers for us are not just going to be answered, but already are.
And notice the wording….If we are truly abiding in Him, our prayers Will be Answered because we will not ask anything outside of His will for us}.

17:25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
{As believers, we can KNOW the Father, because we Know Jesus.}

17:26 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.

{Just as Jesus has declared the name of the Father, so shall we.
And we shall be in Him and He in us.}