John 17 - Jesus Prays
Study Passage: John 17
We are in our final week of studying Jesus’ final teachings in the upper room and we’re in for a treat this week. The entire chapter of John 17 is Jesus praying and it’s a great example to us of how to look at prayer and apply it to our lives.
DAY 1 - READ AND REFLECT
READ John 17 all the way through. Now read John 17 again — preferably in a different Bible translation to get a clearer perspective of what the passage is saying. Get in the habit of asking good questions and taking notes!
What observations or questions come to mind?
What repetitive words or phrases do you notice?
What words stand out that are worth looking at in different Bible translation?
TIP: Take note of Jesus’ focus in His prayer. Look for repetitive words or phrases to get a sense of what He cares most about.
DAY 2 - JESUS PRAYS FOR HIMSELF (JOHN 17:1-5)
As Jesus is ending His time with His disciples in the upper room He outpours three prayers in John 17: One for Himself, one for His disciples and one for future believers. There are only a handful of times that the Bible records Jesus’ prayers — this one is the longest. Jesus even instructed His disciples on how to pray during His ministry. Read Matthew 6:9-13. What can we learn about prayer from these verses?
Now read John 17:1-5. This first prayer focused on Jesus, Himself. Or is it? It’s in these verses that He spent the first part of His prayer asking for God to be glorified. As you READ, what themes or repetitive words do you pull out of Jesus’ prayer?
In the middle of Jesus praying for God to be glorified — that God may give eternal life to those given to Jesus — Jesus takes a moment to remind His listeners what eternal life is. But this wasn’t the first time Jesus had mentioned eternal life. In fact, our AUTHOR John captured Jesus talking about it previously. Read John 10:28-30 and 1 John 5:10-13 to gain more CONTEXT on eternal life. What additional details do we learn about Jesus and eternal life, by reading these two passages? Why do you think in these last hours, Jesus is emphasizing what eternal life is?
STUDY TIP: John 17 starts out saying “When Jesus had spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven…” (ESV, emphasis added). Stop. What words? Whenever we see a transitional phase like this, we should always stop and look back at what was just said. Remember, the Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew that didn’t have periods, paragraphs or breaks - so while our Bibles might break up text, we should always make sure we think of it as one connected story. Thankfully, if you’ve been doing this study with us, we know that John 17:1 is talking about ALL the words, direction, and encouragement Jesus had just given His disciples in John 13-16. So we realize that Jesus is transitioning from giving direction to petitioning to God.
Hint: When you see transitional words like “THEREFORE” (or “So” or “However”) you need to stop and ask what it is THERE FOR.
DAY 3 - JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES (JOHN 17:6-19)
In John 17:6-19, Jesus turned His prayer to focus on His disciples (His followers). Jesus expressed that He had revealed God the Father’s name to them and that they now knew that Jesus was from God. To understand the significance of this, we need to know some HISTORY. Read Exodus 3:11-14. Now read John 8:58 (also see John 6:35, 8:12, 10:9- 11, and 11:25). What name of God did Jesus reveal to His disciples that helped them realize that He was the gift God sent them, and that He was all they would need?
As Jesus’ followers remained in the world after His departure, they needed protection because the world would hate them. Jesus prayed for their protection and as we read John 17:17, He continued praying, “Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth” (NIV). The word “sanctify” in the Greek here means to “set apart.” Jesus prayed that His followers were SET APART from the world by the truth. When we are set apart, we are made holy, and we start to replace the lies of the world with God’s truth.
Notice that last line. Christ-followers were to be set apart by the TRUTH. Read John 8:31-32 to gain CONTEXT of another time where Jesus talked about truth to His disciples. What do Christ-followers gain when they set themselves apart by the truth? How do we APPLY this to our life today? How can we set ourselves apart by the truth?
DIGGING DEEPER (optional): In addition to the “word is truth” (vs. 17), what else does Jesus say is the truth? (Hint: Our AUTHOR John talked about it earlier in our study in John 14:6). Reading 2 Timothy 3:16, how can we be confident that the “word is truth”?
DAY 4 - JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS FOLLOWERS (JOHN 17:20-26)
Jesus’ final part of His prayer focused on those that will come to believe from the words of His followers. Can we pause for a second here? Jesus knew what was going to happen in the coming hours. He was headed toward His death, and yet He didn’t focus on Himself, instead He spent the time in the upper room focused on others as He prayed! What do we learn from the example of Christ that we can APPLY in our prayer life today?
In John 17:20-26, Jesus stressed that He desired spiritual unity among future believers, and said the model for unity could be found in the relationship between Him and God. Our AUTHOR John captured how Jesus described His relationship with God in John 5:30 and 8:29. Based on these passages, what does spiritual unity look like?
As you READ this passage, what are the two reasons why Jesus was praying for unity of future believers (Hint: verse 23)?
Jesus ends His prayer focused on love, which is a theme we have seen throughout John 13-17. He prayed that His example of showing who God was would permeate our hearts and minds and that we would understand the deep love of God.
As we head into Easter this week, may you realize that the God that sent His Son into this world to teach us these final teachings, is also the Son that gave His life for us — accomplishing the greatest love story we could ever know.
As we close out this study, read Romans 8:28-39 to understand the height, depth, and unending love we have from our Father in Heaven. This is a love worth celebrating this Easter. This is the love Jesus expressed in the upper room and a love we should take with us this Easter season.
Written by: Heather Erickson
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