I Have Given Them Your Word

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.  This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.  Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. John 17:1-5

“These things” spoken by Jesus were the instructions and promises, given over the past 24 hours to his disciples; chapters 13-16 of John’s gospel. It has been a crash course in Church age doctrine, before the Church was actually born. These eleven men were the nucleus of that Church-to-be. Jesus spoke this prayer in their hearing, apparently to be included in the words of faith and assurance they would store in their souls for the coming transitional period, and for the rest of their lives.

Looking up, as if into the face of the Father, he acknowledged that His final hour had come. This final period of earthly incarnation would be characterized by intense physical, spiritual and emotional agony, but in this moment those things were not foremost in His mind. He was eagerly looking forward to His own glorification, and the resulting glorification of the Father through His work. The Father had authorized the Son to do this work, and to make the work known to all humanity. Those who belong to Jesus have been given to Him by the Father, and the Son has given them eternal life.

Eternal life means knowing the only true God (Father) and Jesus Christ (Son) whom He has sent. Jesus referred to Himself here in verse 3 by His full title: Jesus (Savior) Christ (Messiah, anointed one), making clear again that there is only one way of salvation and He is it.

In these words to the Father on that night, Jesus seems to have already spiritually and mentally departed from the earth. He spoke of His assigned work having been accomplished. In the eternal realm, we know it was. His public ministry was over. He saw the work as done, and His Father and Himself as glorified. He saw Himself as already back in the eternal state He had left to come and purchase our salvation. The upcoming hours of agony were apparently just details that He would deal with as they arrived. In His mind, it was a completed fact. He was feeling close to home; close to the glory He shared with the Father “before the world was.”

God the Son came to be the propitiation for our sins; the only possible sacrifice acceptable to the Father. In these opening words of this prayer, He anticipated the completion of that work and the total acceptance by the Father of that perfect sacrifice. This was a precious comfort to Him in these final hours. It would be over soon.

“Father, I’m coming home.”

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;  for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;  and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.  I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:6-19

Continuing His prayer to the Father, in the hearing of His disciples, Jesus now began to make specific intercession for them.

 “I have manifested Your name to them” by teaching them Who and What God is, and about His perfect plan of grace, revealed in His Son. He had taught them to recognize their distinct identification with the Father, through Himself. “

“they were Yours” God knew from eternity past which humans would be willing to believe in Him and be part of His kingdom and His Church (positive volition at God-consciousness). These are the ones who were ready to believe in Jesus when He began His earthly mission (positive volition at gospel hearing). They belonged first to the Father, and He gave them to His Son. These common men had been sincere believers in God as they understood Him, so when the Son actually showed them the reality of God, they accepted the truth from Him. Their lives demonstrated a pattern of commitment to the truth.

“they have kept  (Greek: tereo—guarded carefully, held fast, cherished) Your Word." This is the key to knowing and understanding God. He reveals Himself through His perfect word of truth. Communication of doctrine. Jesus is the Word incarnate. Every Word of God is embodied IN HIM. Our understanding of  and response to that Word determines our own level of spiritual maturity. Emotions cannot think. Our faith depends on keeping God’s Word. Our testimony is the sharing of it.

“the world” (kosmos) is Satan’s domain. Jesus came to redeem His people out of the world. His prayer was for His people, that their faith would be sustained through the remainder of the time they would have to be in the world. In verse 11, we see again that Jesus considered His work complete and Himself already gone from the world and back into His eternal glory. “I’m detached from the kosmos, but these men will have to remain here a while. Please, since they wear Your name and belong to Me, protect them from the evils of the kosmos, as I have done up to now.”  The only one lost was Judas, the “son of perdition” (Greek: apoleia—damnation, destruction, ruin). He, too, was known from all eternity for exactly who he was: Satan’s tool; evil traitor. Sinister component of prophecy.

Jesus was “sensing” home. He couldn’t ask for the removal of His disciples from the world, because they had important work to do in the world, which hated them.  They would surely be harassed by Satan at every turn, if not for God’s gracious guardianship of their lives. Jesus spoke these things in the world, and in their hearing, so that they would have that assuring memory in the days ahead. It would be a joy and comfort to them as they faced the battlefield of the angelic conflict.

“sanctify” means to be set apart for a specific purpose. In this case, the purpose is to do the work of God. Jesus was set apart as the Messiah, the Savior of fallen humanity. He received the chosen ones from His Father and set them apart to continue His work of telling the good news of salvation and growing His Church. He is in the Father, the Father is in Him and we are in Him and in the Father. Those disciples were, and we are, as He is in the world. They were, and we are IN HIM for all eternity, which makes us aliens here, on a mission of mercy.

They were, and we are, sanctified by truth: the Word of God. That Word in our souls is what makes us different from the world. The Word separates. We are separated; set apart; sanctified unto HIM.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;  and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26

Jesus had prayed for His own return to glory, reporting to the Father that He had given His disciples “the words which You have given to Me.” Our Lord's emphasis throughout this prayer was on God's Word. The Father gave it to the Son and the Son imparted it to those men who were given to Him out of the world.  His Word is the basis of our faith. Holding fast to His Word is our security in the devil’s world. That was Jesus’ highest commendation of His people: “they have received the words which You gave Me.” The highest commendation for Himself: “I have given them the words which You gave Me."

There is nothing more important than the Word of God. Without the Word, we are free-falling in a world of confusion. No standards, no authority. Disoriented. Every man for himself. Jesus always quoted and honored the written Word in His teaching. In His time with the disciples, the words He spoke were of primary importance. The miracles performed called attention to His power, but His Words were the life-giving force of His ministry. If what we see, feel and experience conflicts with the Word of God, what we see, feel and experience is wrong. God's Word is more reliable than anything the world offers.

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” 

John 14:23-24: Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

Jesus didn’t pray for the world, because He had made atonement for the world. If His atonement is rejected, there is no more sacrifice for sins. Those who receive and believe His Word, however, are His own, and He prayed for their protection in hostile territory.

In verse 20, we find His prayer for us. We modern believers are those who believe in Jesus through the word of His disciples. They knew Him personally, believed totally in His Word and His work. They continued to believe and honor Him for the rest of their persecuted lives. They faithfully recorded His words and the words later given to them by the Holy Spirit (the New Testament). That written Word, read and studied with reverence and a willingness to understand, does the same thing in modern man that Jesus’ spoken words did for the early disciples. It transforms the person studying and believing it. We become Body of Christ. We are one with Him and with the Father. We are one with all other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The supernatural bond of the Church universal is evidence in the world that Jesus is Who He says He is, and that the Father sent Him. He loves us as the Father loves Him—eternally and completely. His desire is that we be with Him, and He has prepared the way for that reality. We, lowly creatures that we are, actually glorify Him.

Our weakness displays His strength more than angelic might can do. Our poverty displays His fullness more than the riches of heaven. The praises of the redeemed; the grateful love of His pardoned people for the complete covering of our sins….these things manifested in us who are saved by faith in His finished work…these are the things that glorify Him.

Jesus became human in order to redeem humanity. God decreed it so, and He chose to communicate His eternal truth through human language, delivered by men to men in every dispensation.

It was revealed to them (the Old Testament Prophets) that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. I Peter 1:12

The steadfast faith we have in God’s Word is what gives us life and separates us from the kosmos. We who love our Lord will keep His Word, and it will guard our souls. That’s Jesus’ commendation of us to the Father, and it is Jesus’ promise to us.