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Call to worship: Exodus 28:9-12

Text: John 17:6-19

Summary:

If you could have Jesus pray anything for us, what would it be? What does Jesus pray for His people? John 17:6-19 begins to give us a few definitive answers to such questions. It begins with our Lord's gracious perspective of His people, before moving into His glorious prayers for His people. By grace, we know that He's the Christ of God, and we keep the Word of God. And by grace, though He leaves the world and, for mission, we remain, He departs to intercede for us and hold us fast. The petitions concern His glory in His people, and they are three, and all rooted in the soils of His Word: our perseverance, our joy, our holiness. For this, He also sanctifies Himself to the death of the cross. Is it possible, then, that His prayers for us will go unanswered? Will He Who died for us, Who lives for us, fail to do all His desire for us? Will the Father, having given Christ, refrain from giving us these most essential requests? Surely not.

Sermon Outline:

1. Jesus' grace-filled perspective of His people. (17:6-8)
2. Jesus' glory-minded petitions for His people. (17:9-18)
   • a: For divine and Word-centered preservation. (17:11b-12)
   • For undaunted and Word-centered joy. (17:13-14)
   • For missional and Word-centered holiness. (17:15-18)
3. Jesus' guarantee on His praying for His people. (17:19)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read John 17:1-20.
2. In 17:5, we talked about how His return to Glory is different now than it was before the incarnation. How so? And what does that mean for us, or in terms of His intercession for us?
3. In 17:6-8, Jesus gives His perspective of His people. What has He manifest? What does it mean that He has manifest it? To whom has He made it manifest? What evidences do people give of being one of God's found-elect? See vv. 6c-8. Does anything stick out most prominently?
4. In 17:9, Jesus begins to pray for His disciples. Why not for the world? What does it mean, here, that He isn't praying for the world? Is it that He doesn't love the world? Might it be that His love is not indiscriminate? That He holds a special love for His disciples? That they are the special focus of His concern? What is the situation upon which He bases His prayer for them (v. 10-11)? Have we ever considered that Jesus has tied His glory to His people and to our being His people in the world? Considering it, what does that do for us? How should it sober and shape our lives?
5. In 17:11b, the petitions begin. How would you characterize the petition Jesus makes in 17:11b-12? What does God's Name have to do with it? What does the apostles' unity have to do with it? What does His historical acts of preservation have to do with it? What does Judas have to do with it? How does the Word hold us together? How would characterize the petition Jesus makes in 17:13-14? Consider 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10. Are you marked by the joy of Christ? Do we rest, even rejoice in His Word in trial? Why might we? How can we? How would you characterize the petition Jesus makes in 17:15-18? Are we a missional people? How first are we to be that? What sanctifies us? Why is it critical that we be distinct from the world by being a Word-centered people? How does the cross of Christ relate to the prayers of Christ? Consider Romans 8:32ff.