It’s Tuesday! Woo hoo! Bible Study day! Don’t you just love this day, this time, this regular appointment to focus? It’s the best part of any day to focus on Him. So let’s do this. Today we’re in John 17. I read the NIV but you can read whatever you want. If you have an NIV it’ll be easier to follow along. If you don’t, go here in another tab or window.
You’ll also want something to write with, maybe highlight with, and paper to write on, or if you’re a digital note taker then an app you can use.
Let’s start with a prayer:
Lord Jesus, the fact that these chapters are full of Your words is such a blessing to me. I ask that it is to each one reading this as well. Thank You for this study, these words and the way You’re going to lead us through them today. Thank You for always being right here. Only with You can I even do this. So I praise and thank You for Your presence and Your word and give you every bit of the glory to come. In Your precious name I pray. Amen.
Read John 17:1-5
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
Glory, Glory, Glory.
All those the Father has given him have been gifted with____________. Does this ever bring other Scriptures back. So let’s do a quick review.
John 1:4
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 6:37
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
John 6:68
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Preview of John 17:20
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 5:24
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Repeat of John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 6:40
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Now look at John 17:2
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
What is Eternal Life according to all of the previous verses? Take your time read all those verses slowly and prayerfully. There are many things to see. Here, I’ll give you the first one. It’s divine.
How does all of that grow your faith? Did you see anything? Did those words mean anything not specifically stated to you?
Read John 17:6
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
The footnotes for ‘you’ mean “your name” so it’s more like He’s told us who the Father is, so in His words He has revealed God to them. They in turn reveal Him to us through the words they write. To know and be in Jesus reveals God too, so it’s really just that you must have faith. You must believe in Him. Here He says the ‘they’ He is with have done what?
Read John 17:7-9
What did He give them?_____ do you see that in the verse review above? What does Peter say?
“They knew with __________ that I came from you, and they ____________ that you sent me.”
That my friends, is faith.
Read verse 9 again. Who is Jesus praying for? Who has been given to Him? If you need a refresher, look above to John 6:37. Those are all of us with faith. Every one of us who comes to Him, God has drawn, and He will never let go, He has you in his hand every day of your life from the moment you believe. If you come to Jesus, you are also whose?
Read John 17:10-11
If we change ‘protect them by the power’ to ‘keep them faithful’ does it make a difference to you? Both are helpful, but dependence is something God loves about us, so the first way speaks more of it. You can also hear 2 Peter in that.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
1 Peter 1:3-5
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Rejoice Greatly because all of this is true.
Did you see the second half of the first verse? What do they do and in turn us give him through what we do in faith?
Jesus says ‘protect them’ so that they _______________. That, my friend, is Unity. It’s all over His wishes for us. God in three persons is Unity. In Jesus we can be __________. Beloved ones, it is completely possible because Jesus is calling us all to be one as He the Father and the Spirit are One. We’re all being built into a Spiritual house, it’s
1 Peter 2:5
“you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Read John 17:12-13
He has all the authority. Oh where was that? Oh yes, verse 2. He kept all of them safe while he was with them. He has all of us who believe completely safe today. Eternally safe. There is nothing to fear.
He wants them to have what? He wants us to have it to. Write it out, this is wonderful. There is nothing like Joy.
Read John 17:14-19
We also are not of the world. What two things does He ask God to do? What does He do in order that his doing so will allow us to?
Read John 17:20-23
Jesus Prays for All Believers
See? It’s all over this chapter. He prayed also for us that we could believe through the words written by them, His words written down for us to read by them. His words written in John and Peter and Paul and all the others.
Write verse 23.
Read John 17:24-26
Oh the things He has asked. Let’s list them.
Start with verse 20 above.. Jesus asked God to what for us?
Then focus on verse 26. “That the love you have for me…”
That is ultimate Unity. Being the beloved of the Lord because we’re in Him and His love and joy and all the rest of the gifts are within us through the Spirit who has been given to us.
Thank You, God. Thank You. Thank You Thank You. May every day bring You more and more glory, dear Lord. In Your name we pray. Amen.