John 17:1-17:12

Jesus' Priestly Prayer - Part 1

There are over 150 prayers in the Bible with The Lord's Prayer being the most recognizable. Now in this seventeenth chapter, we find the most intimate prayer, between Jesus and his Father. Here, after praying for ?this hour,? he makes intercession for the disciples and all future believers, that the Father would be glorified. When we consider the flaws and shortcomings of these disciples, and their lack of faith, we are awed by the depths of Jesus? love and compassion as we study this prayer.

  1. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
  2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
  3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
  4. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
  5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
  6. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
  7. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
  8. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
  9. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
  10. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
  11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
  12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.