Good morning, please open your bibles to John 17.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring Jesus’ prayer to the Father in John 17. This is a prayer that he prayed immediately before his arrest, and one which marked the end of his earthly ministry. Not the end because his life was prematurely cut short, but the end because he had successfully accomplished everything that he came to do, short of the cross. Jesus can speak of the work as already finished, and he can ask the Father to glorify him, because the mission he was sent to accomplish has been brought to completion.
In that sense the prayer serves as a summary of the entire Gospel of John and as a sort of framework for reading it. It shows us who Jesus is as the Son, what his relationship with the Father has always been, for what purpose he was sent into the world, by what means he carried out that purpose, and what the finished work has secured for those who follow him.
The things we could glean about Jesus and his mission from his actions and teaching prior to this prayer, are here stated explicitly. Jesus plainly states why he came, what status he had before he came, and why his earthly ministry took the shape that it did.
A PRECIOUS PASSAGE
This is why this passage is so precious. It’s a record of a prayer from God the Son, to the God the Father, encapsulating the entire purpose of Jesus’ life and death. But, it’s more than a summary. It doesn’t just rehash what we’ve already learned in the Gospel. It also adds tremendous insight into the relationship of the Son and the Father. It brings clarity to why Jesus carried out his ministry the way that he did. It brings new revelation regarding just how Jesus was serving and securing his disciples while he walked with them. Further, it reveals Jesus’ love for those who follow him, and his heart’s desire for each of them.
All this becomes all the more meaningful to us when we consider that this is not just a prayer for his 11 disciples, but is also a prayer for us – something we see in verses 20-21.
So, we’re in no rush to get through John 17. We’re content to spend some time here. We’re kind of like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration saying “it’s good for us to be here.” Why? Because we get to witness Jesus’ glory, and marvel at his relationship with the Father, while also hearing how both the Father and the Son have worked out our salvation.
Let’s read this prayer:
John 17:1-26 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
WHAT WE’VE COVERED
So far in our study of this prayer we have considered who it is that is praying. We explored what it means that Jesus is the Son, tracing the title through the Old Testament from Adam as the image-bearer and son of God, through the Davidic kings, to the unique Son who alone can claim the authority, the mission, and the glory that belong to him. We saw that this is a prayer that could only be offered by that Son to the Father, and only at this hour.
We then turned to the request itself and asked why the Son can pray to be glorified. We considered that he deserves this glory because he is the only obedient Son who has finished the work the Father gave him to do, because he has been granted authority over all flesh, and because he has been the perfect revealer of the Father.
In both sermons we’ve considered the prayer as the word of the Son who has accomplished the mission he was sent to do, and who now asks the Father to glorify him on that ground. Look at verses 4-5:
John 17:4-5 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Well, this morning we’re going to continue our look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17 by focusing on just what this mission was that he was sent to accomplish, and how he went about it. We’re going to do it under four headings.
First of all, as we explore Jesus’ earthly mission, consider:
1. The Authority for Jesus’ Earthly Mission
Look at verses 1-2:
John 17:1-2 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Here Jesus asks the Father to glorify him, and offers as grounds for that glorification, the fact that the Father had given him authority over all flesh. The glory he seeks is the glory that belongs to the one whom the Father has established as the ultimate authority over all mankind. Because the Father has decreed that the Son should hold this authority, it is right that the Son should receive the honour and exaltation that belong to it. The request rests on what the Father has already done in placing all flesh under the Son’s feet (Eph 1:22-23; 1 Cor 15:25ff; Heb 2:7-8).
This is something that we see in greater detail in John 5.
John 5:19-27 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Here we learn that for the purposes of redemption, the Father has entrusted life and judgment into the hands of the Son. The result is that everyone must honour the Son just as they would honour the Father. In other words, the eternal destiny of every individual is now tied up in how they respond to the Son. He says as much in verse 24:
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
All matters of life and judgment are in the hands of the Son. He’s been granted that authority by the Father. In verse 22, it says that the Father has given all judgment to the Son. In verse 26 it says, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
NOT AN ETERNAL GRANT
Some have taken verse 26 as if it refers to some pre-temporal grant of divine life, as if it teaches that the second person of the Trinity has a sort of derived aseity from the Father. Such a take is foreign to the context, and I would say, foreign to scripture. This is speaking of honour, authority, and power granted to the incarnate Son for the purposes of redemption. Jesus has been established as mankind’s ultimate authority, so that the eternal destiny of every soul is now tied to what one does with the Son. The Son is the only saviour and judge, by the Father’s decree. So that, what? Look at verse 24:
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
So, Jesus’ earthly mission is carried out in the authority that he has been given by the Father. It is the authority by which the Son can give eternal life, and by which he will finally judge. Such a position of authority demands honour, exaltation, and glory. That’s why Jesus, in our passage in John 17 ties them together:
John 17:1-2 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Jesus has accomplished the mission that the Father granted him authority to accomplish. Now the time has come for him to receive all the glory that rightly follows from that authority.
This morning, Jesus remains the authority over mankind. Our eternal destinies still rest in what we do with Jesus. This morning, if you’ve come to recognize the authority of Jesus, believing that he is the one that God has established as the only saviour and Lord, then you have eternal life, and your life will reflect that. On the other hand, if you’ve rejected the Son, you can’t claim to have any relationship with God the Father (1 John 5:11-13).
So, that’s The Authority for Jesus’ Earthly Mission. Now, consider:
2. The Scope of Jesus’ Earthly Mission
Here we find something very interesting in this prayer. Focus on verse 2 where we read:
John 17:1-2 …“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Notice the two uses of “all” in these verses. First, Jesus has been given authority over all flesh. That is, over all humankind. And what does this authority grant him the power to do? To give eternal life. But notice that although he has authority over all flesh, it is not to all flesh that he gives eternal life. Instead, it says “to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”
It appears that although Jesus has been granted universal authority for the purposes of his earthly mission, the scope of his mission is much narrower. It appears that he’s been given authority over all, so that he can give eternal life to some.
And, who are the “some?” It says “you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” Here we find that the universal acceptance was never the measure of Jesus’ success. Jesus could pray “mission accomplished” because he had carried out everything the Father had sent him to do, in regard to a certain group of individuals – those whom the Father had given him.
The rest of the prayer makes it explicit that there’s only a certain group of individuals in view. For a sampling, consider these verses:
John 17:1-12 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
…
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
First, Jesus states that he’s accomplished the work that the Father gave him to do, and then offers evidence that the work is complete. That evidence is based entirely on how a select few had received his earthly ministry. Not the crowds. Not the masses. Not the ruling authorities. Not the nation. But, only a select few.
So, who were they? They are Jesus’ eleven disciples. This is abundantly clear in verse 12:
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
So, the success of Jesus’ earthly ministry is seen in that the eleven disciples, whom Jesus says were given to him from the Father, have believed in him (we’ll say more about what this entailed in the next point).
Have you ever wondered at the fact that Jesus was never enamored by crowds? Have you ever noticed that he often taught in a way that drove people away? Have you noticed that Jesus didn’t measure his own success by popularity, or crowd size? In fact, it was often when the crowds were the largest that Jesus gave some of his toughest teaching on discipleship (Luke 14; John 6). Why? Because he desired no half-hearted disciples. He spoke and taught in a way that offended the legalists, that confronted the hypocrites, and exposed the half-hearted. Why? Because the primary scope of his earthly mission was the eleven disciples that the Father had given him. He wanted to see their faith secured. The thinning of the crowds was not a failure of the mission. It was the means by which the given ones were confirmed in their faith.
This philosophy continues to guide us as we consider what it means to be his church. Following his example, we preach the undiminished gospel, and an undiluted call to discipleship. A full building is nothing, and worse than nothing, if it comes at the cost of compromising the gospel. So, we preach the word as it is, that God might use his means to draw whomever he will to his Son.
GIVEN BY THE FATHER
Now, what exactly does it mean that the Father had “given” his disciples to him? Look at verses 6 and 9:
John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
What Jesus is indicating is that there some sense in which those who believed in him, first belonged to the Father. He says, “Yours they were, and you gave them to me. (v6)” And, there’s a sense in which those who have been given to Jesus by the Father, still belong to the Father. He says in verse 9, “for they are yours.”
So, considering the immediate context of John 17, we learn that Jesus’ 11 disciples were given to him by the Father, and that the success of Jesus’ earthly ministry was determined by what he did with these 11. But, we ask, is there a sense in which everyone who comes to Jesus can be said to have been “given” to him by the Father? Yes.
JOHN 6
Turn to John 6 where we find one of those hard sermons that Jesus used to thin the crowds. This is Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse” where he presents himself as the true manna from heaven, and says those very challenging words about eating his flesh (a metaphor that the crowd did not get). Look at how Jesus confronts this crowd that he knew rejected him, starting in verse 35:
John 6:35-40 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
This is a crucial passage in which we find that difficult tension between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
Jesus begins by confronting the crowd over their unbelief. First, he gives an open invitation stating that whoever comes to him (synonymous with believing in him (same verse)), will receive life. Then he calls them out for not believing in him in verse 36. So, we have an open invitation, and human guilt for rejecting that open invitation to life.
But then, in verse 37 the language changes. Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” Here Jesus lifts our eyes beyond human response, and onto divine action. Although we might see men accept or reject Jesus of their own free will, there’s something else going on beyond the sovereign curtain. Those who come to Jesus are those who are first given to him by the Father. And, when the Father gives, they will, without a doubt, come. That fact is, anyone who believes in Jesus does so because the Father first gave them to Jesus.
A TIGHT SEQUENCE
We observe a tight sequence in John 6. All that the Father gives, will come; then, those who come will never be cast out by Jesus. All that the Father gives, Jesus receives, and keeps all the way to the end, when he will raise them up in the resurrection.
But then notice that the language seems to switch back in verse 40,
John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
That sounds a whole lot like human responsibility. It’s those who believe in the Son who have eternal life. They are the ones who will be raised at the last day.
What we learn is that one’s belief in Jesus is the evidence that they were first given to Jesus by the Father. And, that sequence matters. According to John 17, they first belong to the Father, then they are given to the Son, and that giving is seen in their belief in Jesus, and continuation with him (17:6).
Jesus used similar language in John 10 where he spoke of his followers as his sheep. He says:
John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
At first, it seems like following Jesus is merely a matter of human choice. Some hear Jesus’s voice and follow him. Those that follow him receive eternal life and are forever secure in their salvation.
However, Jesus continues in John 10:29:
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Those who hear and follow Jesus, are those who first belonged to the Father – and were given by the Father to Jesus.
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY AND GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IN THE SAME PASSAGES
What we also learn is that scripture is free to use language of human culpability in rejecting Jesus, while stating in the very same passages that it’s only those who given to Jesus by the Father who will believe.
Look at how Jesus’ exchange with the unbelieving crowd ends in John 6:
John 6:63-65 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
So, belief in Jesus is entirely within the sovereign hands of the Father. This is a difficult doctrine for sure. So much so, that many have tried to come up with other explanations for these texts. Explanations that seek to rescue man’s free choice, and to diminish God’s sovereignty. Some might suggest that those who belong to the Father are those whom the Father knows will believe in Jesus, but that doesn’t stand in light of John 6:65:
John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Here we learn that those who come to Jesus are not those who were first pre-disposed to believe. It can’t be argued that the language of “belonging to the Father” is just language describing those whom the Father knows would believe beforehand. That fact is, no one can come to Jesus unless God grants it. Therefore, God’s sovereign working in salvation is never in response to man’s faith, but man’s faith is always the evidence of God’s sovereign working.
BEYOND THE ELEVEN
So then, does this “given” language only apply to the first eleven disciples? No. these are universal realities.
In John 6 the same phrases describe every one who comes to the Son. All that the Father gives will come, whoever comes will never be cast out, and the will of the Father is that none of those given should be lost but should be raised on the last day. The coming and the believing are the evidence that the Father has given – and this is true for all who believe, not just the 11.
John 17 itself carries the language beyond the eleven.
John 17:20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
Future believers are not introduced as a different sort of people who believe first and are then said to have been given. They are included in the same prayer that has already been offered for the given ones, and the authority cited at the beginning of the prayer was given so that eternal life might be given to all whom the Father has given him. The eleven are the present company who have already kept the word and believed. Those who believe through their message are the continuing company of men and women who first belonged to the Father, and were subsequently given to the Son – a reality seen in their faith and in their continuance in it.
As mentioned earlier, these are difficult doctrines. They are most difficult for those who have an unbiblical understanding about human nature. Some would object that God’s sovereignty violates human free will. But again, this sort of objection rests upon an understanding of human nature that is foreign to scripture. It assumes that if God did not act sovereignly to give people to Jesus, that some would, of their own volition, respond to the gospel. That’s not consistent with God’s own testimony about the nature of man.
MANKIND IS ENTIRELY UNABLE
Scripture does not describe fallen man as one who is willing to come to the Son if only left to himself. It describes him as unable and unwilling. Paul writes that “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10–11). The mind that is set on the flesh “is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). The natural person “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Before the mercy of God intervenes, we were “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” (Ephesians 2:1–2). Jesus himself states the same inability when he says that “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” and that “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:44, 65).
The objection that sovereign giving violates a free will that would otherwise respond assumes a nature the New Testament does not recognize. Left to himself, man does not seek, does not submit, and cannot come. The giving of the Father is not the override of a willing heart. It is the act opens one’s heart so that they see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and then come willingly to the one that they now know to be the shepherd of their souls (2 Cor 4:6; 1 Pet 2:25).
BACK TO OUR TEXT
What does all of this have to do with our text in John 17? What we learn is that the scope of Jesus’ earthly ministry was limited to those whom the Father had given him out of the world.
Look again at verses 6 and 9:
John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
The success of the earthly ministry is measured by how faithfully the Son received, taught, and kept those whom the Father had given him. That was the scope of his earthly work.
Jesus on-going ministry today is still carried out among those whom the Father has given him. Men and women who can only be identified by their faithful following of Jesus.
This morning, if you’ve believed in Jesus, thank God. God the Father has delivered you from your spiritual inability, and has given you eyes to see Jesus Christ as his glorious Son. Your faith is the evidence that God the Father has given you to Jesus, and that Jesus has gladly received you, given you eternal life, and promises to raise you up on the last day. That’s not something to begrudge, as if your will has been violated. That’s something worthy of continual praise and thanksgiving.
So, we’ve seen THE AUTHORITY FOR JESUS’ EARTHLY MINISTRY, and THE SCOPE OF JESUS’ EARTHLY MINISTRY. Consider next:
3. The Work of Jesus’ Earthly Mission
If the scope of Jesus’ earthly ministry primarily encompassed those whom the Father had given him, then what exactly was it that he was doing among them? What was it that would determine success? This is somewhat easy to track in Jesus’ prayer because he uses multiple “I have” statements that show just what he accomplished.
First, look at verse 4 where we find the overarching work which all others fall under. Jesus says:
John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
That’s the ultimate work – glorifying the Father on earth. We learn that everything else we’re going to look at serves this greater goal. Jesus glorified the Father on earth by accomplishing the work that the Father gave him, among the people that God gave him. So, what was that work? And what were the intended results?
Begin in verse 6:
HE MANIFESTED THE FATHER’S NAME
John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
To manifest the Father’s name is to make the Father himself known. In Scripture the name stands for the person, the character, and the glory of the one who bears it. When Jesus says that he has manifested the Father’s name, he is saying that he has revealed who the Father is to those the Father gave him. He has not merely spoken about the Father. He has also made the Father known in his own person, in his character, and in his works.
And what was the result of this work among those the Father had given to Jesus?
6…and they have kept your word.
John 17:7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
Jesus revealed the Father as the one who sent his Son as saviour and judge, and those whom the Father gave him responded with obedient faith. They’ve come to believe that God the Father has established Jesus as the universal authority over eternal life, and as the ultimate judge of men’s souls.
This is tightly connected to the next aspect of Jesus’ earthly work:
HE GAVE THEM THE FATHER’S WORDS
John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
To give them the Father’s words is to give them the very message the Father entrusted to the Son. These are not words Jesus invented - they are the words the Father gave him (John 8:28). By speaking what he received, the Son has made the Father’s purpose, the Father’s will, and the Father’s testimony concerning the Son known to them in a form they could receive.
And what was the result of this work among those the Father had given to Jesus? They have received the words. They have come to know in truth that he came from the Father, and they have believed that the Father sent him, and that everything he said and did was from the Father (v7). Through those words they arrived at the certainty that the Son’s origin is from the Father and that his earthly ministry is commissioned by the Father.
Jesus gave them the Father’s testimony regarding himself, and those words have done their work in them.
HE KEPT THEM IN THE FATHER’S NAME
John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
If the manifestation of the Father’s name is the revelation of the Father himself, that revelation includes his word and his will. To know the Father’s name is to know him as the one who has sent his Son, and to know that the Son is the only source of eternal life. Those the Father had given to the Son had come to believe this. Their conception of God had been enlarged and corrected so that it now included Jesus Christ as the sent one. Jesus’ point here is that they had come to believe this, and remained faithful in it – because he guarded their faith. He ensured that they remained faithful, and did not defect – except for Judas (who was never really one of his).
Next, look at verse 18 where we find another aspect of Jesus’ work among those who were given to him:
HE SENT THEM INTO THE WORLD
John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Although Jesus’ earthly ministry first focused on the 11 that the Father had given them, it was not intended to remain limited to them. The eleven would go forth, preaching the same message that Jesus revealed to them, and many would believe in Christ at their word. That’s why he says after his resurrection:
John 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
And why he says in verse 20 of our passage:
John 17:20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
With the 11, Jesus was laying the foundation for his church. Jesus received, taught, and kept those the Father gave him so that they might become his world-changing Apostles, bringing the word of God and his sent-Son all over the globe.
The authority that he had been granted over the souls of men would be delegated to the church which would bring the message of salvation through Jesus the Son to bear upon the whole world. That’s why the great commission begins with a word about his authority:
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So, an element of Jesus’ earthly work was to prepare those whom the Father had given him for their own worldwide mission. Whereas he focused upon the 11, the 11 would reach the world. And today, the church still preaches the message of Christ and his apostles.
So, as we consider Jesus’ earthly ministry among those who the Father gave him, we see that: HE MANIFESTED THE FATHER’S NAME; HE GAVE THEM THE FATHER’S WORDS; HE KEPT THEM IN THE FATHER’S NAME; HE SENT THEM INTO THE WORLD. Lastly, we see that:
HE GAVE THEM THE GLORY THAT THE FATHER GAVE HIM
John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
John began his gospel with these words:
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry he put his God-given glory on display. He did it through his words, and his works. We see this in John 2 as John the narrator describes his first miracle:
John 2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
What we learn from John 17 is that one of the primary purposes of Jesus’ teaching, and miracle-working ministry, was to put his glory on display so that his disciples would believe in him. The apostle Paul uses this idea as shorthand for believing in Christ:
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
To be saved is to come to see the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s this saving revelation that Jesus gave to his disciples. All those whom the Father gave him came to believe that he was the embodiment of the glory of God. This is a saving knowledge which united them to Christ, and to one another.
SUMMARIZING HIS EARTHLY WORK
These, then, are the acts by which the Son carried out the work the Father gave him to do among those who were given to him.
He manifested the Father’s name so that they kept the word and knew that all he had received was from the Father.
He gave them the Father’s words so that they received them, knew in truth that he came from the Father, and believed that the Father sent him.
He kept them in the Father’s name and guarded them so that not one of them was lost except the son of destruction.
He sent them into the world as the Father had sent him, so that through their word others would believe.
And he gave them the glory the Father had given him, so that they might be one even as the Father and the Son are one.
In each of these the Son has finished what he was sent to do. The given ones have received the revelation, held fast to it, and had been prepared to carry it forward. The Father was glorified on earth through the work that has now been accomplished.
CONCLUSION
We have seen the mission the Son was sent to accomplish, and we have heard him report that the work is finished. The Father gave him authority over all flesh so that he might give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him. The scope of that mission was never the whole of mankind in the same way. It was those whom the Father gave him out of the world. Among them:
He manifested the Father’s name,
He gave them the Father’s words,
He kept them in the Father’s name,
He sent them into the world, and
He gave them the glory he himself had received.
In each of these the Son has done what the Father gave him to do, and on that ground he now asks to be glorified.
This morning, if you have come to believe in Jesus Christ as the Father’s sent-Son and only source of eternal life, you are among those whom the Father has given to Jesus. Everything in this prayer, applies to you too.
The Father has given you to Jesus. Jesus has gladly received you. He’s given you eternal life. He’s united you with every other believer. He’s promised you that he will raise you up on the last day. And, he’s presently working to keep you in the faith all the way until the end. In the meantime, he’s commissioned you to go out into the world and to live and preach the message that he is the Father’s only Son, given authority over life and death, and that salvation is only in him.
