Our Lord’s Intercessory Prayer

John 17:1-8, 18-26

GOLDEN TEXT: “Holy Father, keep through Thine Own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are.”—John 17:11

ON THE NIGHT that our Lord instituted the memorial of His death, He was far from being concerned wholly with Himself and His approaching crucifixion. On the contrary, He seemed specially to be thinking of and praying for His disciples. Following the closing words of John 16, in which He encouraged His disciples to faithfulness, He lifted up His eyes to heaven in prayer for them saying, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them.”

In addition to being solicitous for the spiritual well-being of His disciples, the Master also was concerned about the glory of His Father. Realizing that His earthly ministry was nearing completion, He indicated in His prayer that He would be satisfied merely to return to His pre-human condition, hence did not ask for any special reward of glory for the humiliating service He so gladly had rendered on behalf of fallen man.

He had come into the world in order that the world through Him might have life, but He realized full well that His ability to assure the people of eternal life depended upon their learning to know His Father as well as to accept Him as the one whom the Father had sent to be their Redeemer. He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

How truly did Jesus say of His Father, “I have glorified Thee on the earth.” In all that the Master had said and done He had given God the glory. The words which He had spoken were His Father’s words. The works which He had performed were His Father’s works. So wholly was this true that He could truly say, “I and My Father are one.”

It was His Father’s name that Jesus sought to impress upon His disciples rather than His own. He said, “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.” What an impressive lesson in humility this should be for all the followers of the Master! By it Jesus is impressing upon us the fact that even though He is the Head of the church, that God is His Head and that even His followers should consider the Heavenly Father’s will as the supreme issue in their lives. He wants us to follow Him because He is at one with the Father and because His teachings reflect the will of His Father for His followers.

The church’s partnership with the Father and with the Son is beautifully expressed in verse 18 which reads, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” The Father sent Jesus into the world in order that the world through Him might have life. It is the privilege of all of His followers to have a partnership in this glorious project of giving life to mankind. The church does not share in the redemption of mankind but does have the privilege of laying down her life sacrificially with the Master and of bestowing upon all who will accept when the day of their visitation comes, the blessings of life purchased by Him.

In praying specially for His disciples at this time Jesus revealed His clear understanding of the times and seasons of the divine plan. In Psalm 2:8 the Heavenly Father in a promise to His Son says, “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen [nations] for Thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” Jesus knew, however, that this was a request that He would have the privilege of making at His second advent, and that meanwhile the divine plan called for the selection and development of His church, so His prayer was in keeping with that plan.

The Master’s words, “I pray not for the world,” do not indicate that He was not interested in the world. The fact is that He had come to die in order that the world might have life. It was merely that the time for the world to receive its blessings was still future. The work in hand was that of a further preparation for the blessing of the dying race. That work has gone on successfully throughout the entire age. It is now nearly complete, hence the time is near when all the world will know comprehensively of the great gift of God’s love that was represented in Christ, the Redeemer.

QUESTIONS:

What was one of the things which concerned Jesus the most as He neared the close of His earthly ministry?

What was another important concern of the Master as expressed in His prayer recorded in today’s lesson?

Was it a lack of interest in the welfare of mankind that caused Jesus to say, “I pray not for the world”?

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