DECEMBER 9; DECEMBER 16, 2018
THE GREAT HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER (PART III)
INTRODUCTION:
1. These verses form a fitting conclusion to the most wonderful prayer that was ever prayed on earth. Verses 17-26 contain three most important petitions which our Lord offered up in behalf of His own.
a) He prays for their sanctification. (Verse 17ff)
b) He prays for their unity. (Verse 20ff)
c) He prays that they may at last be with Him and behold His glory. (Verse 24ff)
2. Thus far in our study of our Lord’s great high priestly prayer we have considered:
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRAYER. (VERSE 1a)
II. CHRIST’S PETITIONS FOR HIMSELF. (VERSES 1a-5)
III. CHRIST’S PRAYER FOR HIS OWN. (VERSES 6-16)
A. HIS PRAYER FOR HIS OWN AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THOSE WHO ARE NOT HIS OWN, AND FOR WHOM HE DID NOT PRAY. (VERSES 6-10)
B. HIS PRAYER FOR THEIR PRESERVATION. (VERSES 11-16)
3. Presently, we will continue with Christ’s prayer for His own, which consists of the three additional petitions mentioned above. (Verses 17-26)
C. THE NEXT THING HE PRAYS FOR ON BEHALF OF HIS OWN IS THAT THEY MIGHT BE SANCTIFIED. (VERSES 17-20)
1. Here is the petition. (Verse 17) “Sanctify them through thy truth (through Thy Word), for thy word is truth.”
a) There can be no doubt that here the word sanctify means “make holy.” They were sanctified, because they were “not of the world.” The prayer is for the further confirming and strengthening, of their faith in holiness, and that the work of grace in them be carried higher thorough their sanctification. (I Thess. 5:23)
b) The wisdom of our Lord in making this petition should be obvious; more holiness is the very thing to be desired for all believers.
(1) Holiness is the great proof of the reality of Christianity. Men cannot ignore the evidence of a godly life.
(2) A holy life adorns one’s faith with a beauty that may sometimes win those who are not convinced by the Word alone.
(3) Holy living prepares Christians for heaven. Heaven would be no heaven to us if we entered with an unsanctified character. There must be a moral “meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light,” as well as a title.
2. We have here two arguments to enforce the petition for their sanctification.
a) The mission they had received from Him. (Verse 18)
(1) Christ speaks with great assurance of His own appointed mission. “As thou hast sent me into the world…”
(2) He speaks with great confidence of the commission He had given His disciples. “So have I sent them into the world.”
(a) He sent them on the same errand, with the same design, to preach the same Gospel. (Ch. 20:21)
(b) It magnified their office, that it came from Christ, and that there was an affinity between His commission and theirs.
b) The merit He had for them is another thing here pleaded. (Verse 19)
(1) Christ designated Himself to the office of Mediator. “I sanctify myself.” He devoted Himself entirely to the undertaking, offering up Himself to God as a sacrifice. (See Heb. 9:12-14)
(2) He made the ultimate sacrifice “that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” (Eph. 5:25, 26)
D. HE NEXT PRAYS, ON BEHALF OF HIS OWN, FOR THEIR UNITY. (VERSES 20-22) Next to their purity,He prays for their oneness. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. Unity among brethren is like the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and the dew on Zion’s holy hill. (James 3:17; Psa. 133:2, 3)
1. Those who are included in this prayer; not only this petition, but all the others too. (Verse 20)
a) He prays not only for the eleven who are presently with Him, but for all believers of all times. The propagation of the Gospel began with the eleven and the early church, and has continued from generation to generation down to the present day. (II Tim. 2:2) It is our sacred duty to hand down the pure unadulterated Gospel to the next generation.
b) This prayer is for those who shall become believers, and it also declares by what means they believe. “Through their word.” (See Rom. 10:15-17)
c) It is certainly known to Christ who shall believe on Him. He does not here pray at a venture, upon any contingency regarding the will of man. (Psa. 110:3)
d) Our Lord here prays for all of His elect who shall believe on Him, without regard for their nationality, social status, race, color, or creed.
2. That which is intended in this prayer. “That they may be one.” (Verse 21) The same was said before, (Verse 11),and again in Verse 22. The heart of Christ was clearly much upon this.
a) The oneness for which He prays, no doubt, includes the things of which Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:1-6.
b) He would have all believers animated by the same Spirit. “That they may be one in us.” He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. (I Cor. 6:17)
c) He would have them all to be knit together in the bonds of love and charity, all of one heart. “That they all may be one.”
d) That which Christ here prays for is the communion of the saints. (I John 1:3; Eph. 4:13_
3. Three reasons are given as the basis for this plea.
a) The oneness that is between the Father and the Son. “As thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” All must meet in this center. (I Tim. 2:5)
b) The design of Christ in all of His communications of grace and glory to them. (Verse 22)
c) The good effect their oneness would have upon others. “That the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” (Verse 21) “That the world may know that thou hast sent me.” (Verse 23)
(1) Church unity is an evidence of the truth of Christianity to the world.
(2) Unity in spirit, purpose, and doctrine makes for a powerful evangelical appeal.
(3) Church unity certainly invites the presence and power and blessing of God. (Psa. 133:1-3) Let us therefore make it our endeavor to “keep the unity of the Spirit.” (Eph. 4:3)
E. FINALLY, JESUS PRAYS THAT HIS PEOPLE MAY AT LAST BE WITH HIM IN HEAVEN, THAT THEY MAY BEHOLD AND SHARE IN HIS GLORY. (VERSE 24) “I will,” He says, “that those whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that they may behold my glory.” This is a singular and touching conclusion to our Lord’s remarkable prayer. We may well believe that it was meant to cheer and comfort those who heard it. It has surely been for the immense comfort of the saints ever since as we bury our loved ones who die in the Lord.
1. He had prayed that God would preserve, sanctify, and unite as one those who were given to Him; and now He prays that he would crown all his gifts with their glorification.
a) This is to be our method in prayer, first we must pray for grace, and then for glory. (Psa. 84:11)
b) Our all-wise God is certainly not as the foolish builder, who, without a foundation, built his beautiful house upon sand. God will not glorify any whom He has not first sanctified.
2. In this petition our Lord speaks in a manner peculiar to himself. Though He taught us to pray “Our Father” after His own example, it does not become ordinary petitioners to say, “I will.”
a) This authority belongs only to Deity, and particularly in the case of the Son, to the efficacy of His intercession, as having “with His own blood entered into the holy place.” He, as Mediator, thus intercedes with authority. He is both King and Priest. (Heb. 5:6)
b) This intimates His peculiar authority to give eternal life to as many as were given to Him. (Verse 2)
3. The request itself is that all of the elect might come to be with Him in heaven at last.
a) Notice three things wherein the happiness of heaven consists.
(1) It is to be where Christ is. “Where I am.”
(2) It is to be with Him where He is. We shall not only be in the same happy place where Christ is, but the happiness of the place will consist in His presence. This is the fullness of joy.(3) It is to behold His glory. The glory of the Lamb is the brightness of heaven. (Rev. 21:23) The felicity of the redeemed consists very much in beholding this glory, which is the glory of the Father. (Job 19:26, 27; Heb. 1:3)
b) Our hope of heaven is based purely on the mediation and intercession of Christ, because He has said, “Father, I wlll.”
(1) Our sanctification is the evidence of it, (I John 3:3) but it is the will of Christ that is our title. (Heb. 10:10)
(2) Christ speaks here as if He did not count His own happiness complete unless he had his elect to share with Him in it. (Heb. 2:10)
4. The argument to back this request is founded upon the Father’s love for the Son. “For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.” (See Ch. 5:20)
F. THE CONCLUSION OF THE PRAYER. (VERSES 25, 26) The design of these concluding words is to enforce all the petitions for the disciples, especially the last, that they may be glorified. Two things He insists upon and pleads:
1. The request he had to His Father. (Verse 25) He addresses Him, “O righteous Father.” When He prayed for their sanctification, He called Him “holy Father.” When He prays for their glorification He calls Him “righteous Father,” for it is a crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give.
a) The world (which lies in the wicked one) knows nothing of this Righteous One.
b) But, the eternally loved and well-pleasing Son had known Him in righteousness.
c) The disciples, He insists, are distinguished from the world, in that, they have known the Father through the Son Who the Father sent. Christ had known the Father perfectly, and through His mediation, all fo the elect know the righteous Father as well. (Verse 2)
2. The care He had to His disciples. (Verse 26)
a) He had led them into the knowledge of God, and would yet do so more and more.
b) What He had done for them, He would continue to do, that the love wherewith the Father had loved Him might be in them, and He in them, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. (See Ch. 14:17)
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