READING
JOHN 17
New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you gloryon earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify mein your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
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. 7 Now 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. 9 I 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. 12 While 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. 14 I 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
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, 21 that 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I 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. 26 I 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.”
DEVOTIONAL
IT'S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIP
by Keacha Rogers
In this Red Lettered chapter of John, Jesus talks to our Father about Their relationship with each other, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with Them. Although He asks the Father to guard our hearts from evil and to make us holy by the truth, the meat of this chapter deals with His prayer for us to be perfected in unity. He prays that we would all be joined together as one just as They are joined together as One. Why? So that we can know the Father like He knows the Father, and so that the world may know that Jesus truly is the Sent One of the Father. Here He is, close to His time of trial, torture, crucifixion, and death, and He focused His prayer on us! Similar to what He did with John at the crucifixion when He asked John to take care of Mary, His mother, Jesus is asking the Father to take care of us. To keep us in His name and to let us be with Him where He was going, after our time on earth is done. What an amazing Savior!
QUESTIONS:
- What changes do you foresee happening in your life now that you know, that Jesus prayed that the relationship He had with the Father on earth is the SAME relationship we can have with the Father on earth?
- Does your view of relationships change at all knowing that before He was taken to trial and to crucifixion, His focus was on unity? How so?
PRAYER plan
PLANS
We want heaven’s unique strategies and ideas for building His kingdom.