The Great High Priestly Prayer: For His Own Text: John 17:6-19
Introduction: Eavesdropping on Eternity
We come now to the holy of holies in the Gospel of John. If the upper room discourse is the inner court of the temple, then this prayer in chapter 17 is the place where the veil is pulled back, and we are permitted to listen in on a conversation within the Trinity. This is not a prayer like the one Jesus taught His disciples, "Our Father who art in Heaven." That prayer was for them, for us. This prayer is His prayer. It is the Lord's Prayer. Here, the eternal Son speaks to the eternal Father, on the threshold of completing the work He was sent to do. To study this chapter is to take off our shoes, for the ground is holy.
This is often called the High Priestly Prayer, and for good reason. The high priest in the Old Testament had two primary functions: to offer sacrifice and to make intercession for the people. Here, on the night before He offers Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus, our great High Priest, makes intercession for His people. He is not praying for the world. He says so explicitly. This is a family conversation. He is praying for those the Father has given Him. This is a prayer drenched in the doctrines of election, predestination, and sovereign grace. If those doctrines make you uncomfortable, it is because you have not yet grasped the profound comfort that Jesus intends for us to find in them.
In the first section of this prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself, for His glorification. Now, in this central section, He turns His full attention to His disciples, the men the Father gave Him. And as He prays for them, He is praying for us, for all who would believe on Him through their word. He prays for our identity, our security, our joy, our protection, and our sanctification. This is not a wish list sent up to a distant deity. This is the report of the Son to the Father, the declaration of the Son's will, which is perfectly united to the Father's will. And because of this, every petition in this prayer is a blood-bought certainty.
The Text
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
(John 17:6-19 LSB)
A People Given and Kept (vv. 6-8)
Jesus begins His prayer for His disciples by reporting to the Father on the success of His mission with them.
"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me." (John 17:6-8)
Notice the grammar of grace here. The initiative is entirely with God. Jesus manifested the Father's name, His character, His very being, to a specific group of men. Who were they? "The men whom You gave Me." Where did they come from? "Out of the world." Whose were they before this? "They were Yours." What was the transaction? "You gave them to Me." Salvation begins in the heart of the Father, in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world, the Father chose a people for Himself and purposed to give them to His Son as a love gift, a bride. This is not an afterthought; it is the central plot of history.
And what is the result of this divine initiative? "They have kept Your word." This does not mean they were perfectly obedient. Peter is hours away from a catastrophic denial. But it means they have received the word, held fast to it, and oriented their lives around it. Their faith, which was itself a gift, latched onto the truth. Jesus gave them the Father's words, and they did three things: they received them, they understood them, and they believed them. This is the anatomy of true faith. It is not a vague feeling or a blind leap. It is a Spirit-wrought reception of, understanding of, and trust in the objective, propositional truth of God's Word. They understood the core of the gospel: that Jesus came from the Father and was sent by the Father.
A Prayer for the Elect, Not the World (vv. 9-12)
Jesus now makes a sharp, crucial distinction in His intercession.
"I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them." (John 17:9-10)
This verse is a rock of offense to the modern evangelical mind, which has been catechized in the mushy sentimentalism of a universal, potential salvation. Jesus says plainly, "I do not ask on behalf of the world." His high priestly intercession is particular. It is for the elect. He is not praying for the salvation of Caiaphas or Pilate or the mob that will scream for His crucifixion. He is praying for His own. Why? "For they are Yours." The basis of His prayer is the Father's sovereign ownership of His people.
This is not to say that God has no love or concern for the world. John 3:16 is still in the Bible. God's common grace extends to all, and the gospel is to be freely offered to all. But the special, saving, covenantal love of God is reserved for His chosen people. And this is a great comfort. It means that our security does not rest on our wavering affections, but on the immutable love of the Father for the Son, and the Son for the Father. Notice the perfect unity and shared ownership: "all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine." We, the elect, are caught up in this divine fellowship. We belong to the Father, who gave us to the Son, in whom the Father is glorified.
Jesus then prays for their preservation.
"And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." (John 17:11-12)
Jesus is leaving. They are staying. And the world they are staying in is a hostile environment. So He entrusts them to the keeping power of the "Holy Father." He prays that the Father would "keep them in Your name," which means to guard them in the sphere of His power and character. The goal of this keeping is unity: "that they may be one even as We are." This is not a call for a bland, institutional ecumenism. This is a prayer for a deep, organic, supernatural unity based on shared life in the Trinity, a unity that reflects the very being of God.
Jesus reports on His own perfect record as their shepherd. "I was keeping them... I guarded them and not one of them perished." The salvation of the elect is secure because Jesus is the one guarding it. Not one was lost. But then He mentions the exception that proves the rule: "but the son of perdition." Judas. Was Judas one of the elect who fell away? Absolutely not. He was the "son of perdition," a title that means he was destined for destruction from the beginning. He was never truly one of them (1 John 2:19). His betrayal was not a failure of God's plan, but the fulfillment of it, "so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." God is so sovereign that He even weaves the treacherous rebellion of sinful men into the tapestry of His perfect redemptive purpose.
Joy and Hatred in the World (vv. 13-16)
Jesus now prays for two seemingly contradictory realities for His disciples: fullness of joy and the hatred of the world.
"But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:13-14)
Jesus speaks these words aloud, in their hearing, for a purpose: that His joy might be made full in them. What is His joy? It is the joy of perfect obedience to the Father, the joy of accomplishing redemption, the joy of fellowship within the Godhead. This is the joy that is to be ours. It is not the flimsy happiness that depends on circumstances, but a deep, abiding joy that is rooted in the finished work of Christ and our secure position in Him.
But this joy exists in a world that hates. The reason for the world's hatred is simple: "I have given them Your word." The Word of God creates a fundamental antithesis between the church and the world. The Word reveals God's truth, and the world loves its lies. The Word exposes sin, and the world loves its sin. The Word declares that we are "not of the world," and the world cannot stand to be told that it is not the ultimate reality. To be a Christian is to be an alien, a foreigner, a citizen of a different kingdom. And so the world, which is under the sway of the evil one, will inevitably hate us, just as it hated Him.
"I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:15-16)
Jesus' solution to this worldly hatred is not monastic retreat. He does not pray for a rapture to snatch us out of our responsibilities. He prays that we would be kept in the world but kept from the evil one. We are to be like ships in the sea. A ship is meant to be in the water, but it is a disaster if the water gets in the ship. We are sent into the world as salt and light, as ambassadors for a rival king. Our calling is not to escape the culture but to confront it and, by God's grace, to conquer it with the gospel. The prayer is for spiritual protection in the midst of the battle, not for evacuation from the battlefield.
Sanctified and Sent (vv. 17-19)
The final petition in this section is for the disciples' consecration for their mission.
"Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth." (John 17:17-19)
To "sanctify" means to set apart for a holy purpose. Jesus prays that the Father would set His disciples apart. What is the instrument of this sanctification? "By the truth." And where is this truth found? "Your word is truth." This is one of the most foundational statements in all of Scripture. Truth is not a subjective feeling or a cultural consensus. Truth is objective, absolute, and located in the very Word of God. The Bible is not simply true in what it says; it is truth. It is the standard by which all other truth claims are to be measured. Sanctification, therefore, is the process of being progressively set apart from sin and set apart to God by having our minds and lives saturated with and conformed to the Word of God.
This sanctification has a purpose. It is not for our own private spiritual enjoyment. It is for mission. "As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world." We are set apart from the world in order to be sent into the world. We are God's special forces, consecrated and equipped with the truth, and then deployed behind enemy lines to proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Finally, Jesus provides the basis for our sanctification in His own. "For their sake I sanctify Myself." How does the sinless Son sanctify Himself? In this context, it means He is setting Himself apart for the specific task of the cross. He is consecrating Himself as the perfect sacrifice. He does this so that we "also may be sanctified in truth." His perfect, once-for-all sanctification at the cross is the ground and power of our progressive, lifelong sanctification by the Word. We are made holy because the Holy One gave Himself for us.
Conclusion: Kept, Hated, and Sent
This prayer is a fortress for the Christian soul. In it, we see that our salvation is not our own project. We were chosen by the Father, given to the Son, kept by the Son, and entrusted back to the Father's keeping power. We have been given the very words of God, which bring us into a collision course with a hostile world. But we are not to fear this hostility, for we are not of this world.
Our calling is to be in it, but distinct from it. And the power for this distinction comes from the Word of truth. As we are soaked in the Scriptures, we are sanctified, set apart for God's purposes. And what is that purpose? To be sent. We are a sent people. We are not here to build a comfortable Christian ghetto and wait for the end. We are here on a mission, commissioned by the King, equipped with His truth, and protected by His prayer.
Therefore, let us take great comfort. The High Priest who prayed this prayer is the same High Priest who now sits at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. His will is the Father's will. His prayer cannot fail. You are kept. You are secure. Now, go into the world He has sent you to, and be what He has prayed for you to be: a people sanctified by the truth.