Final Supplications (John 17:1-26)

by J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead, U.K. | Category: In The Shadow Of Calvary | Dec 1986

Background

The Lord Jesus was still in the Upper Room, alone with the eleven. Judas had gone out to finalize the betrayal. It was night. But there was no darkness in the Room; just joy and serenity radiating from the Son of the Father's love, as He thought of the glory of the finished work, and Home, and of the Father's care for those He would leave behind. He had communed for the last time with His disciples. Now He would audibly, in their presence, commend them to His Father and the eleven would hear the confirmation of His promises to them.

He prayed in two different places that night. The Synoptic gospels record tenderly the garden prayer of Jesus, the Son of Mary. That was an agony prayer, anticipating Calvary and dereliction. But with John it was typically different. He records what was designated by a sixteenth century theologian as "the high-priestly prayer" of the Son of God, thoughtful as to the needs of His followers, calm in His own majestic place in the Father's sovereignty.

Verses 1 - 5

In His sublime opening meditation the Lord Jesus revealed that in His mind, as the eternal Son, His mission on earth was now complete. The "hour" had come at last. It had not come in John 7:30; was on its way in 12:23; now it would be on the morrow. It was the hour of Calvary.

It was the final glory of submission to the Father's will. Through this act of obedience the Father would be eternally glorified and by means of it the Son would grant eternal life to all those whom the Father would give Him. In the temple of His body He had expressed the Father's glory; the work for which He was commissioned had been accomplished; now He longed for the Father to glorify Him alongside Himself with the glory they had shared before the world was. Truly our spirits worship before such fulfilments of eternal forethought.

Verses 6 - 10

Israel had enjoyed majestic names of God. Hebrew expressions in the several forms of El, Jah, Adon; names such as Shaddai; or the various combinations of the divine name such as Adonai Jehovah; these were all rich revelations of God in His power, lordship and covenant relationship.

But the references to Father in the Old Testament had been few. Its full revelation in all its affection was reserved for the day when the eternal Son came in human gentleness.

He had revealed it to the men and women (Gk. anthropoi) God had given Him; but in particular to the eleven men with Him in the Room; men of Israel given by the Father to the Son. They had been His own little fellowship of companions in His experiences. To these He had given the Father's new teaching. They had found it hard at times to receive - But they loyally accepted His deity and held on when others turned back. It was these men, not Israel or the world generally, who were the subject of His prayer. Everything was going to depend on them; and in them by the Spirit's help His confidence would be justified. "I am glorified in them". Such was the appreciation of the One who alone could say by reason of His deity, "All things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine".

Verses 11 - 16

At this point the main burden of the Lord's intercession was revealed. During the period of His ministry He had been central to the little group. He had held them together when their different personalities and backgrounds might have made for division. He had taught them the balanced way of enjoying victory and accepting defeat. He had demonstrated the life of suffering for righteousness' sake and shown them the path of greatness in His

kingdom. He had alerted them to the weakness of self and the power of the Spirit. He had both watched over them and protected them so that the enemy had only been able to destroy the life of the twelfth man. He had kept them safe in the Father's name.

But now He was going Home, leaving them to face a hostile world which would hate them because His word had made them strangers to it. Henceforth their safety from the evil one would lie in their own maintenance of harmony in unity. For this His word, His joy, His intercession were vital. He had earlier referred to "Father" in relation to Himself. Now He referred to "Holy Father" regarding the sanctification of His own men. He made specific request, "Keep them in Thy name, which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are".

Verses 17 - 23

Nor was it simply a matter of leaving the eleven behind. These were the

men to whom He had purposely given the Father's word. They had been His men in training. Now they would become His front4ine men, sent with a sacred commitment into the world, just as the Father had initially sent Him. Under the Spirit's guidance they would oversee the spread of His word to the nations. Only men specifically set apart in the truth of the Father's word could undertake such a task. Not only so, but only those kept together in the same harmony of unity could in due course have fellowship with them, take over from them and continue the same truth of God down the centuries.

So for this He prayed and again the same burden is revealed: "That they may all be one" (v.21); "that they may be one" (v.22); "that they may be perfected into one" (v.23). And it was all for the purpose "that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me" (v.21); "that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovest them" (v.23). Thus He pleaded with His Father for a unity among His followers which the world would both see and know. A unity visible in operation, tangible, recognizable, corporate.

Not surely the unity of the Church the Body, for that Church is necessarily one in a unity which requires no prayerful protection from 'the gates of Hades". Rather it must have been the unity of the churches of God into which the eleven were shortly to be called, together with those who would similarly be prepared to be set apart in the truth of the Father's word.

Through that word of truth they would become "perfected into one". There was a sense of consummation of purpose in the word "perfected". The formation of the churches of God in the post-Pentecost period would be the completion of the purposes of God in testimony for this dispensation. As a result of the Atonement, believing sinners would become members of the Church the Body, with eternal security. They would then be called upon to be baptized as disciples, added to churches of God, and there give individual and collective effect to the whole counsel of God. There' they would be perfected into a corporate unity, and from one point of view the purpose of God in their life would be complete.

It would need the Father's help and the cooperation of willing hearts to maintain the harmony in unity of that testimony. Yet only by this means would the world effectively see and know the reality of the Father's love.

Verses 24 - 26

But He had used the word "may". He knew that He prayed for a unity among His followers which the enemy, perhaps above all else, would attack. The Trinity was united in giving all for it, was so deserving of it, yet would sorrowfully see it fragmented as time went on.

Now the Intercessor "willed" a request in these final verses which the Father will grant one day. As He sat in the Room that night there was no evidence of glory; just the well loved Master in the simple, home-spun robe,

weary from a long day, filled with the sorrow of oncoming betrayal, denial and abandonment. Yet these eleven men had left all in faith to follow Him, won by His love, persuaded as to the ultimate triumph of His cause - How He loved them for it!

So He asked His Father that one day they too might come Home and see His glory, which like the Father's love, He had known before the foundation of the world. The world of men didn't understand. Had they recognized the "Righteous Father" in the Son, they would not be crucifying Him the following day. But He had told the eleven of the Father's love and they had believed it. Henceforth He would rely on them to spearhead the spread of the tidings of the significance of the Father's name, of the reality of the Father's love.

And as He interceded that night in the Room for His own, so we believe

that today, nineteen hundred years later, He still pleads for His followers as He ministers in the heavenly sanctuary. Gladly He must have seen the vast spread of the knowledge of the Father's love. Sadly He must observe that it has not been in the harmony of unity of the Father's word. The words of His prayer are bound to affect our spirits. He would still have us all to be "perfected into one". That, we submit, is the unity which is presented in the New Testament as a unity beyond the unity of the Church the Body. It is the perfecting of disciples into corporate unity in testimony in the fellowship of churches of God. It is maintained by the principle of rule in the kingdom of God under the guidance of the Spirit in a united elderhood.

May the Lord help us not to fail Him in this.

J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead, U.K. | Dec 1986
In The Shadow Of Calvary