Jesus Prays for Disciples

John 17:6-19

Jesus next prays for the disciples the Father has given Him. Notice He identifies them as coming “out of the world”. The word “world” is important in this chapter as we see it used many times. Although we have seen Jesus selecting the disciples earlier in the Gospels, in this passage He identifies the Father as choosing them. Next He reviews their spiritual development and acknowledges that they understand and believe God’s Word. Not only do they understand it, they have faithfully adhered to it.

Then He begins to make requests on their behalf. First He asks the Father to “keep them in Thy name”. I think this is a request for spiritual protection. They will face many trials, tests, and difficulties and will need spiritual strength to get through them. Next He prays for unity for them; “that they may be one, even as we are one”. Unity among these men was critical as they carry out their mission to spread the Gospel. It is equally important to Christians today and Satan loves to create disunity among Christians to negatively impact their testimony.

He also prays that His joy might be made full in them. An attitude of joy is important not only for our own peace but as a testimony to those around us. Others may impact us in many ways, but we control our attitude. We must be careful not to let outside influences rob us of our Christian joy based on our relationship with Christ. Satan tries to make us miserable so that we won’t be a good testimony to others. Jesus next request is that the Father “keep them from the evil one”. He knew Satan would aggressively work in their hearts and minds and that they needed protection.

Jesus then mentions a distinction that we need to keep in mind. We are in the world, but not of the world. We must live in a sin-filled world, but we can distinguish ourselves as Christians by the way we do that. Our priorities and life-style is distinctively different from those who are not Christians.

Finally He asks that the Father “sanctify them in the truth” and reveals for our sake “thy word is truth”. In order to maintain the proper relationship with our heavenly Father, we need to be in the Word daily; reading it, memorizing, it and applying it.

Jesus also prays for us just as He did these men and we will look at those verses next.