United For a Greater Purpose | John 17:1-25

ILLUSTRATION

John Knox was an instrumental figure in the Scottish Reformation in the 16^th Century. He had a very difficult life because of his stand for Protestantism. He was exiled and at the end of his life, he returned to Scotland and helped the church. In 1572 as he was lying in his bed near his death with loved ones and friends surrounding him, he turned to his wife to read various portions of scripture as comfort to him. After reading a couple of passages and prayer, he said to his wife, “Read where I cast my first anchor.” That was a code word. She was never told what passage John Knox had in mind. He had read it often. The passage was John 17. This is Jesus’ prayer.

John 17 can be outlined into three sections.

• v1-5 – Jesus prays for himself.
• v6-19 – Jesus prays for his Apostles/disciples.
• v20-26 Jesus prays for those who believe the Apostle’s message; the church.

JESUS PRAYS FOR HIMSELF

John 17:1-25

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

¹After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ²For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

We looked at v1-5 at our last sermon entitled KAVOD.

This is called the High priestly Prayer of Jesus. Jesus knows that he is going to die the next day. He is like a High Priest here. He is consecrating himself for the holy task that is before him. Jesus is not shrinking back from it.

John 17:19

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in the Old Testament was a crucial annual event in which the high priest made atonement for the sins of Israel. This was the most solemn and holy day of the year for the Israelites, described in detail in Leviticus 16.

Key Elements of the Day of Atonement:

1. High Priest’s Preparation: The high priest, usually Aaron or his successors, had to first purify himself through ceremonial washing and then offer a bull for a sin offering to atone for his own sins and those of his household (Leviticus 16:3-6).
2. Two Goats for the People: The high priest took two goats from the congregation of Israel. One was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people, and the other, called the scapegoat, was released into the wilderness, symbolically carrying away the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:7-10).
3. Blood of the Sacrifice: The blood of the sacrificial bull and goat was brought into the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the tabernacle or temple. The high priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat (the cover of the Ark of the Covenant) and in front of it to make atonement for the sanctuary and the people’s sins (Leviticus 16:15-16).
4. The Scapegoat: After the atonement was made in the sanctuary, the high priest laid his hands on the live goat (the scapegoat) and confessed over it all the sins and transgressions of the people. The goat was then sent away into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the sins of the people away (Leviticus 16:20-22).
5. Fasting and Repentance: The Day of Atonement was a day of fasting and repentance for all of Israel. The people were to deny themselves and not do any work as it was a day set apart for the nation to be cleansed from all their sins (Leviticus 16:29-31).

Purpose:

The rituals of the Day of Atonement symbolized the cleansing of Israel from sin, allowing God to dwell among His people. It pointed forward to the ultimate atonement fulfilled in Christ, who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 9:11-12).

Leviticus 16:30

“Because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.”

This event was central in the religious life of Israel, demonstrating the seriousness of sin and the grace of God in providing a way of forgiveness.

Jesus is a high priest praying for the work of atonement over which he will be supervising.

He is also simultaneously the sacrificial victim.

He is both the high priest of our confession and he is also the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. He is going into the holy of holies, not taking the blood of an animal but his own blood, perfect and without blemish, pleading for our atonement, our reconciliation with God, making intercession for us in the presence of God the Father.

JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS APOSTLES; v6-19

Jesus prays for his apostles, particular for their protection.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus prayed twice for their protection in v11 & 15.

If you read church history, we wonder what kind of protection is that. All apostles all died martyrs’ deaths other than maybe John who may have had a natural death. They suffered abuse, rejection, hardships, and was tortured.

• James was put to death with a sword Acts 12.
• We know from church history that Peter was crucified upside down by Nero.
• Andrew was crucified, tradition says it was on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece as he preached Christ. He was fastened to the cross not with nails but with chords so that his death maybe slow. He used that delayed death to preach to the people who came to see him on the cross.
• James was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa.
• Philip was crucified in Hierapolis (Turkey).
• Thomas was speared to death in India.

How did God answer the prayer? Did God protect the Apostles as Jesus prayed?

Yes, God protected them.

He protected them from the evil one just as he prayed.

He protected them so that they would remain faithful until death.

God protected them to remain in holiness, v17.

He protected them so that every step of the way, they reflected his glory.

The glory of God manifested in their gruesome death. God made his strength perfect their weakness.

Jesus prayed for his disciples because he knew the kind of life they are going to live in this world. If the world was hostile to Jesus, they would be hostile to his apostles. So, he prayed for them.

JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU AND ME

Finally, Jesus prays for the Church. For those who had believed in him through the Apostle’s message. This prayer is for all of us; you and I.

John 17:20-26

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—²³I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus Prayed that We Might be United.

Three times Jesus prays for us on the night before his death that we might be one. This is a big priority for Jesus that we would be one. Unity is a big need in God’s kingdom. Jesus understands that we find it difficult to be one and love each other.

ILLUSTRATION

One man was stranded for many years in a deserted island. After a long time, a ship passing by came and spotted this one lone survivor and went to rescue him. But to the captain’s amazement, there was this one man stranded, now rescued but there were three huts he had built in the island. He just could not hold himself back and asked him, “What do you have three huts, we see that you are just one man here.” Well, the man exclaimed, “This hut is the one I built for my home.” What about that one over there, “That is the one I built to be my church.” Oh! That makes sense. What about that one there, “Oh! That’s where I used to go to church.”

Because of our disposition to find fault, we are not happy anywhere, so we move from place-to-place thinking that we are running away from our problem. But it follows us.

Unity is the Proof that We are His Disciples.

John 13:35

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If you get along with someone, very soon we will realize how hard it is to get along. That is the nature of sin. Jesus knows how hard it is to get along with others. That is why he prayed before he died on the cross three times that we would love one another, that we would be one.

Did this prayer get an answer?

• In Acts 6, there is argument and problem with the Grecian widows and the Hebrew widows. They Grecian widows are feeling that they are getting neglected in the distribution of grains.
• Acts 15:36-40: Paul and Barnabas are having a disagreement. They fall out after the after the 1^st missionary journey. When they set out for the second one, Paul does not want to take John Mark. Barnabas wants to take Mark. They have such an argument that they decided to split.
• The Jew-gentile cultural and religious challenges in the early church caused division.
• 1 Corinthians 1 talks about divisions in the church in the Corinthian church based on their leadership preferences.

It is difficult to love. We know it is difficult to agree with others on all issues. Here is the key:

Our Disagreements are Occasions for the Love of Christ to Become Manifest in us.

Disagreements need not divide us. When you go back, we see that those problems in the early church, are occasions for the love of Christ to become manifest. The racial problems, the Jew-gentile problems all become a means for love to abound in a good way.

The early church found a way through the distribution of grains. The Grecian believers were given the authority to distribute grains.

Paul towards the end of his ministry in 2 Timothy Paul wants Mark to come to be with him at the end of his life and says that Mark is very useful to him.

In our days we have the church split. Some say that we are into church planting which is another word for a church split.

“For ambition has been, and still is, the mother of all errors, of all disturbances and sects.” – John Calvin

It is ambition, it is pride, it is all about me. It’s self-promotion rather than Christ devotion that divides. It is always these personality conflicts that is hinderance to unity in the church.

As we maintain the unity of Spirit, we will allow these differences to become occasions for really impressing the world of our unity.

ILLUSTRATION

In the 1960s, missionary Don Richardson moved to Papua, Indonesia, to live among the Sawi people, a tribe known for their violent headhunting and constant warfare with neighboring tribes. They would hunt or befriend other villagers kill them and practiced cannibalism. Richardson found it difficult to explain the gospel, as the Sawi valued treachery and betrayal as virtues. However, he discovered their unique tradition of exchanging a “peace child” to settle conflicts between warring tribes. A tribe would give one of their children to their enemies as a symbol of trust and peace. As long as the peace child lived, the tribes would remain at peace.

Richardson saw in this tradition an opportunity to explain the message of the gospel. He told the Sawi that God had given His Son, Jesus, as the ultimate “peace child” to bring reconciliation between humanity and God. This resonated deeply with the Sawi people. Through this understanding, they embraced Christianity, abandoned their violent practices, and began to live in harmony. Tribes that once fought and killed each other were now worshipping together, transformed by the power of the gospel even after 60 years.

This story is a powerful reminder of how the gospel speaks into every culture, bringing peace and transformation even in the darkest places. Just as the Sawi people experienced the life-changing impact of the peace child, so can we experience the reconciliation and peace Jesus offers us today.

Christ’s love overcomes these differences.

John 17:20

²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

This is not unity with anybody, but it is the unity among Jesus followers. This is not political unity or for one particular cause. This unity is a type of shared life and unity and oneness that is shared by the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

ILLUSTRATION

In general, dogs and cats are enemies. Dogs chase after cats and kill them. But many puppies and a kitten, raised together, have become inseparable friends in many occasions despite the natural enmity between dogs and cats. When the cat is chased by wild dogs, these dogs protect them.

Love and unity can overcome even the deepest divisions and natural instincts.

Let us not be divided on race, language, or caste challenges India has been facing.

“The cross levels human race and status. At the cross all are equal sinners and transformed as saints by the grace of God.” – Shine Thomas

We are called to overcome the walls of division and hostility that divides us.

Jesus Prayed that We be Might be Sanctified.

John 17:17

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

For most people the idea of being holy is becoming a morally good person. But in biblical understanding to be holy is to be unique. God is unique, set part. The sun is unique from the creation, but gives light and energy to the creation. If one goes out in the sun, one will feel the heat of the sun. You cannot go near the sun.

God’s holiness is like that. God is unique and one cannot approach God’s holiness. Sin takes us away from God.

God has come into the world and created man and made him holy. Man lost it in the garden.

Holiness in the Burning Bush: Then you see God’s holiness displayed in the burning bush.

Exodus 3:5

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 

Tabernacle: In the tabernacle, God’s holiness was in the most holy place where High Priest would go once a year on the day of atonement for the forgiveness of the sins of Israel.

Isaiah’s vision: Isaiah has a vision of the Lord exalted on a throne and the train of his robe filling the temple.

Isaiah 6:3

³And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Isaiah 6:6-7

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Here is the holiness of God coming down from the Lord, touching Isaiah’s lips and making him holy.

Ezekiel: This theme is further developed in Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel has this vision where he’s standing at the temple and he sees water trickling out from it. And then that water turns into a stream and then a grows into a deep river that starts flowing through the desert leaving this trail of green trees behind it. And then it flows into the Dead Sea making everything fresh and alive. So, instead of becoming pure first and then going into the temple, here God’s holiness comes out from the temple making things pure bringing them to life.

Jesus: The theme of holiness is further developed in Jesus. Jesus, he went around touching people who are impure, people with skin diseases, a woman with chronic bleeding, or dead people. Actually, when he touches them, their impurity should transfer over to Jesus, but instead, Jesus’ purity transfers to them and actually heals their bodies. Jesus is like that holy coal in Isaiah’s vision. Jesus claimed that he was the human embodiment of God’s own holiness and that he and his followers were now God’s temple. Now through Jesus followers God’s holy presence would go out into the world and bring life and healing and hope And so this is why Jesus described his followers as having streams of living water flowing out of them.

John 17:17

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

God wants us to live a holy life and be sanctified by the word of God.

Jesus Prayed that We might Missional

John 17:18

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

We have a mission. The world hated Jesus and the world will hate his disciples as well. We are supposed to go into the world with the missional heart of Jesus.

We are sanctified and sent by Christ into the world, into the schools, colleges, software companies, factories etc.

“Every heart with Christ is a missionary, every heart without Christ is a mission field.” Nikolaus Zinzendorf (Moravian church leader)

We are to be influenced in this world. We do not isolate ourselves.

We are to live out the gospel, preach the gospel, support the gospel.

Transition: We are Comforted to Know that Jesus Prays for Us.

Jesus wanted his disciples to be comforted by his ministry of Intercession.

Jesus let the disciples hear this prayer.

You can ask people to pray for you. But it is another thing when you pray just immediately, when they put their arm around you and hold your hands, sit next to you and you start hearing them call upon God to answer this need of yours and reminding the Lord of all the wonderful promises in which we stand. I am sure that everyone of us have had that experience. You can also meet one of our leaders or prayer team members to pray for you. God honours that kind of intercession.

ILLUSTRATION

A couple from our church recently experienced a profound testimony of God’s power in response to prayer. Upon the birth of their daughter, the doctors discovered clots on her brain and informed the parents that she would need immediate brain surgery. The baby was unwell, showing signs of deterioration, and the situation looked dire. The doctors did not give even a week of survival for the child. But instead of giving in to fear, the parents, along with some of us, turned to God in prayer, believing for His healing touch. They did not consent to the surgery, trusting God’s intervention.

By God’s grace, the child is now discharged from the hospital and growing well. What the doctors saw as a medical emergency, God turned into a testimony of His healing power. This story reminds us that God hears our prayers and answers according to His will. When we call on Him in faith, He moves in ways that often surpass our understanding.

Imagine if we have such a comfort if one of our friends is praying for us who are mere flesh and blood, can you imagine what comfort it is for us to know that Jesus is praying for us? Imagine the comfort the disciples had when they saw Jesus praying in the upper room.

The prayer of Jesus transforms our priorities and our understanding of life.

It tells us the purpose of God in our struggles and sufferings of life that you are having?

What is God’s purpose when someone condemns us and brings a charge against us?

Jesus is interceding for us.

Romans 8:31-34

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Jesus’ prayer did not stop there in the upper room some 2000 years ago. Now he is right up at God’s right of the Almighty, praying for you and for me by name.

Hebrews 7:24-25

²⁴but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. ²⁵Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

Aren’t we glad to know that Jesus is interceding for us?

CONCLUSION

This is the end of the passage of Jesus’s Upper Room discourse from John 13-17, a discourse of one night, a couple of hours.,

Jesus in this passage gives his disciples three important ways to live:

1. Love One Another. John 13:34-35. When we love one another, we have a meaningful outreach, by this everyone will know you are my disciples.
2. Remain in Him. To enable them to remain in Jesus and bear much fruit; John 15:5
3. Be United. End of the discourse; in John 17 as he prays for him, the goal of his prayer is that he wants his disciples to be one as God is one; John 1:21
4. Be Holy.
5. Be Missional.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to equip the disciples to do this. We are united in the body of Christ for a greater purpose.

As we conclude, let us remember that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is a powerful declaration of His love and intercession for us. He prayed not just for His disciples, but for all believers, including us. He prayed for our protection, unity, sanctification, and mission. Take comfort in knowing that Jesus continues to intercede for us, lifting us up in prayer before the Father. Whatever trials we face, we are never alone. Amen.