1

John 17
Yeshua’s Great Prayer

Prayer (talking to the Creator, which can include asking Him for things) is one of
the most important things we do. Many great prayers are recorded in the Bible. In
this chapter, John records one of the greatest prayers of all - if not the greatest
prayer. It was prayed by The Greatest Person. It was prayed in connection with
one of the greatest occasions - Messiah’s death. It’s a prayer in which Yeshua
asked His Father for important things for all of His followers throughout the
generations to come; and since Yeshua’s prayers are answered, this prayer directly
affects us.

After Yeshua said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

Did Yeshua pray with His eyes open or closed? With His head lowered or raised?

Father, the hour has come.

What is the hour Yeshua referred to? Why is the hour important?

Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

What does glorify mean?

Why would Yeshua ask His Father to glorify Him so He would glorify His Father?

For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all
those you have given him.

Why does the Father granting Yeshua authority over all people glorify the Son,
which in turn glorifies the Father?
 2
The Father gives those human beings chosen for salvation to His Son. The Son
gives those chosen ones eternal life. How does that glorify the Son, which in turn
glorifies the Father?

I’m 63. If I was close to death, and someone could add 17 years to my life, I would
honor that person who did that extraordinary thing for me. God the Father has
authorized Yeshua to give, not 17 years of extra life, but eternal life to every man
and woman the Father gives to the Son. That brings glory to Yeshua, which also
brings glory to His Father.

Yeshua gives eternal life to the ones the Father gives Him. Those to whom the Son
gives eternal life know the Father and the Son. Now this is eternal life: that they
know you, the only true God, and Messiah Yeshua, whom you have sent.

Will the Son give eternal life to agnostics? Atheists? Those who claim to know the
Father but don’t know the Son? Those who practice religions and ideologies other
than Christianity/Messianic Judaism?

When I give my son an important task to accomplish and he completes that task
with excellence, my son honors me. Yeshua honored His Father in the same way. I
have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

What was the work that the Father gave the Son to do?

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before
the world began.

How old is Yeshua?

What does this teach us about the relationship between the Father and the Son?

One of the reasons why the Son came into the world was to reveal what God is
like. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
 3
How did Yeshua give us the clearest revelation of God?

They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. God the
Father is superior to the Son in authority. All things belong to the Father,
including those human beings who are chosen for eternal life. The Father gave
those special human beings to Yeshua. Those chosen ones will obey God’s word.

What was God’s word that they obeyed?

In what ways did God give His word that Yeshua is the Messiah and Son of God?

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 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. Yeshua told the disciples
the truth and they responded with belief. They believed that Yeshua came from
God and was sent by God.

Those who believe the truth about the Father and the Son are in a different
category from those who don’t. Yeshua prayed for those who believe. I pray for
them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are
yours.

Not only is there a sharing of nature between the Father and the Son, there is a
complete sharing of things - including us. All I have is yours, and all you have is
mine. Just as people are concerned about protecting the valuable things that belong
to them and those they love, Yeshua is concerned about protecting those precious
individuals who belong to Yeshua and His Father. Therefore He prayed for them.

Those who have many followers (pop stars, actors, bloggers, tweeters, politicians,
religious or military leaders, etc.) get honor because of their many followers - as
does Yeshua. And glory has come to me through them. Our love for the Son of
God, and our service to Yeshua increases His honor. And Yeshua honors those
who honor Him.
 4
Yeshua prayed for our protection and unity. 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.

What does “holy mean?” Why does Yeshua call God, “Holy Father?”

What does protect them by the power of Your name mean? Why does Yeshua
connect power and protection to the Father’s name?

Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me.
What are the implications of God the Father giving Yeshua the Father’s name?

Protect them by the power of your name ... so that they may be one as we are one.
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. Yeshua’s prayer for protection for His followers included their
unity and for none to be lost.

Yeshua prayed that we would be protected so that we would be united. We need

protection from everything that will try to destroy our unity. Satan and the demons
will try to destroy our unity. Sin, false teaching, pride will destroy our unity. And
Yeshua prayed that we will be protected so that none will be lost - that we will not
fall away; that we will endure to the end and arrive safely at the goal.

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave
me. Yeshua had protected the disciples. He was able to do that because of the
name that the Father had given Him - which included the authority and the
wisdom the Father had given Him.

Yeshua had kept all of the disciples safe except Judas, and there was a reason for
that. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture
would be fulfilled.

Why was Yeshua not responsible for Judas being lost?

 5

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. Yeshua’s teachings during
this Passover Seder, and this prayer which is also full of teaching, were meant to
assure us of the giving of the Spirit, divine protection, salvation and eternal life -
all of which give us joy.

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. Yeshua’s word is the Father’s word.
Therefore it is absolutely true and trustworthy.

Yeshua was never part of this fallen world. He was in the world but not of the
world. Those who accept Yeshua’s word are no longer part of the world. And
since the world is hostile to Yeshua, they will be hated by the world, just as
Yeshua was hated by the world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Yeshua didn’t
pray for us to be taken out of this fallen, at-war-with-God world, but to be
protected from the evil one - Satan, who is the ruler of this world. That means that
we are protected from the power of Satan and the fallen angels. We are protected
from their lies and deceptions.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. Yeshua prayed we would be
sanctified by the truth.

What does sanctify mean?

What are we set apart from?

What does God use to set us apart?

 6
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. Yeshua told His
Father that He sent His followers into the world in the same way the Father sent
the Son into the world.

Why did the Father send the Son into the world? What are the implications for us?

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

Elaborate on the reason Yeshua keep himself holy.

Yeshua prayed for His followers for the generations to come. My prayer is not for
them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.
Although we are many generations from Yeshua’s disciples, we have the very
same message they heard from Yeshua and gave their generation! Their message
has been faithfully preserved in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and
in the other writings that form the New Testament. That message is able to help us
believe in Yeshua the way we need to believe, so that we are saved and protected
and live forever.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me
through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me
and I am in you. Yeshua prayed that His followers would experience the same
kind of unity that He and His Father share.

What kind of unity characterizes the unity of the Father and the Son?

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one -
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.
Just as the Father has given His name to the Son and given all things to the Son, so
He has given glory to the Son.

How much glory is that?

 7
What reason did Yeshua give for giving us glory?

How does us receiving glory unite us?

What effect will our complete unity have on the world?

Yeshua prayed that His followers would be with Him in Heaven and see Him in
His glory. 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.

Why did the Father give Yeshua glory?

When did the Father love the Son?

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know
that you have sent me. 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.

Why did Yeshua call His Father, “Righteous Father?”

Do agnostics, atheists, and those who participate in non-Christian/non-Messianic

Jewish world religions and ideologies know God?

The world doesn’t know God, but Yeshua did. And His words and actions
revealed God to His disciples so that they knew God. And He promised that He
would continue to show them what God is like.

How did He do that? How does He do that?

 8

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.

The more we know about God, the more we are able to be filled with His love, and
the greater the degree that Yeshua is able to be in us - by means of His Spirit
living in us. So, let’s grow in our knowledge of God by being filled with the Spirit
of Yeshua and immersing ourselves in the Word of God. Amen?

What a great prayer!