Gospel of John [17:9-12]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 11. Psalms of the

Title: Gospel of John [17:9-12]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 11. Psalms of the "name" of God.

 

 

JOH 17:9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;

 

JOH 17:10 and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

 

The world are not included here since He is praying for those that the Father has given Him as a gift and who will be the witnesses of Him to the world. They belong first to the Father and the Father gives them to the Son so they equally belong to the Son. The Father withholds nothing from the Son. All things that are Yours are Mine.

 

This is the reciprocal love between the Father and the Son. What One possesses the other has. What Christ possesses in inheritance He has given to each believer.

 

He prays confidently that He has been glorified in the disciples. This shows that the love that He shares with the Father is the same love that He has for the disciples and the Church as a whole. This love has been given to us as a gift, along with righteousness and all the fruit of the Spirit. We should pursue it as much as we thirst and hunger.

 

We would not conclude that they were worthy of this love; no one is.

 

Christ sees a value in them that is not of them. This value is precious in His eyes and so is the object of divine love.

 

They are righteous because they have believed in Him. They will be perfectly justified when He completes His work. These are things that He values and so He prays for them from the viewpoint of the future when their present devotion will become rooted in mature faith.

 

He had warned them that they would soon be scattered and leave Him alone; JOH 16:32. He had warned their most vocal member that before the cock crows he would have denied Him three times. Their unintelligent questions and interruptions in the upper room revealed how far they were from appreciating their Master's purpose or the seriousness of the hour which had now come for Him - and for them.

 

But He looked at them with the insight of faith, hope, and love, and realized their present devotion and their potential for the future.

 

In themselves they were weak indeed, but with the Father's enabling grace and the guidance and illumination of His Spirit, they would fulfill the mission with which they were now being entrusted and bring glory to their Master in fulfilling it.

 

He is so confident of this that He prays, "I have been glorified in them," in the perfect tense. That which promotes His honor promotes your own.

 

JOH 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

JOH 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

Our Lord had finished His work in the world and was on His way to the Father, and would no longer be with His disciples 'in the world' in order to guard them as He had done the last three years.

 

The protection was not necessarily physical but more so, as indicated here, by keeping them in the Father's name. This is obscure until we recognize what the word 'name' means concerning members of the Trinity.

 

The prayer concerns the fact that He will no longer be in the world and so the request is that the Father keep them in His name, the name given to Christ.

 

"Keep" - thre,w[tereo] means to guard as precious, to watch over, or to preserve.

 

Yet the believer faces tribulation in this world, persecution, suffering for His name's sake, so then the guarding does not refer to no problems or sufferings.

 

Christ prays for them to be guarded from the life of sin, evil, walking death, darkness, worldliness, fleshliness, depravity, etc.

 

These things don't depend on whether we experience suffering or not. They depend upon the condition of our soul at any given time. Is the soul taking refuge in Him or has it deposited its life into the world system and the habits of the sin nature? Refuge is one of a hundred words I could use. Faith, motivation, priority, purpose, desire, hope, rest, truth, dependence on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, yieldedness, willingness, genuine humility, submission, love, communion, fellowship, etc.

 

Our Lord protected them through His presence and His teaching. He defended them from their accusers and kept them under His wings.

 

His example, His miracles, His word, His defense against the religious, etc. are all in view in what He did to keep them from going back to the ways of the world and the flesh.

 

Why did they stay with Him? Why didn't they leave His ministry when so many others did? "You have the words of eternal life," Peter declared. These are the words of insight into the person of the Father and the person of the Son and so through these words, and their faith in them, they were kept or protected in His name.

 

In answer to this prayer the Father will provide the Church with the complete canon and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit which keep the positive believer in the sphere of the excellence of God.

 

The guidance, instruction, and power of the Holy Spirit through the word of God keeps the believer in the sphere of the excellence of God. Do we realize what gifts these are? The gospels, the epistles, revelation, and all taught through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, without whom, they would all be foolishness to us. Along with eternal life, what greater gifts could He have given to His Church?

 

JOH 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

JOH 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

"name" - God's titles reveal authority, character, rank, majesty, power, and excellence. His name is associated with His attributes.

 

No one can hold this name. Even those who claim the name "god" are false gods with a minor "g". Only His name is associated with His eternal and perfect attributes.

 

Given to the Son: The Lord Jesus Christ. Master (deity and all authority given to His humanity); Jesus (Savior of all mankind, especially of believers); Christ (anointed One, Messiah, High Priest). All that is Yours is Mine. The I am; the first and the last; the Creator; the Word of life; The Son of God; The Son of Man; the Son of David; the Lamb of God; the Bridegroom; the Great Shepherd; the Light of the world; the Bright and Morning star; the Amen…

 

Attributes: Righteousness, justice, love, truth, immutability, eternal life, sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.