John 17:1-26
Jesus Prays for Himself
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane...Jesus knows in the next few hours He would be arrested...He would be anxious, and would find peace in His prayer with His Father...Being who He is, He knows His Father is listening...After all He has been with His Father since the beginning...He says in His prayer, that He has been with His Father before the world began...He is from another world, the world above and understands all things of this world, our world...
Jesus teaches us about prayer...It is important to pray and get closer to God and His Son...We need this connection with Jesus and God...We pray because we need it, not because God needs it...Our prayers is how we seek God...St. Paul teaches us that God made man to inhabit the nations of the whole earth...God is not served by human hands, as if He needs anything from man...He Himself gives life and breath to all men...He determines the exact time and exact place for each of us to live...God did this so man would seek Him and perhaps reach out to Him and find Him...God is not far from each one of us...For in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:25-28)...
Jesus prays for Himself, then He prays for His disciples, and then He prays for believers...Jesus, before His arrest, prayed first for Himself and then He prays for others...The others, who He prays for are those He is closest to, and then He prays for us who believe...
When He prays for Himself, He is praying for the glory of God...When He dies, and resurrects the Son will glorify the Father...His life, then death, then His resurrection show the love and power of God...Jesus' life, death, and resurrection not only showed the love and power of God...Jesus died two thousand years ago, but even today, this shows God's power and love, and His Son will glorify the Father forever...
Jesus prays for His disciples, that they now believe that He came from the Father...Jesus does not pray for the world, but specifically for His disciples, who God has given to Him...He also prays that His Father protects the disciples from the evil one...
Jesus then prays for His believers...He prays that all of us believers be one, just as the Father and Him are One...Jesus prays His believers be brought to unity to let the world know that God sent His Son...This unity will show we are united in love, just as the Father and Son are united as One...
We need to pray to seek Him and find Him...He gives us life and gives us our breath...We must pray for this unity that Jesus prays about, but it is tough for us sinners to be united...We are from earth...There is only One Jesus, but we see many denominations...There is One Jesus, One church...We seek the Truth through our prayers, but we seem only to be able to take in only so much of His Light...Therefore, we can only take in only so much of His Truth...When we get to heaven, we will be filled with the Light and Truth and then understand this unity...He gives us hope because He is this Truth, the Truth...