John 17 Round Two: Jesus Prays and Odd Prayer For Us

What if the most powerful prayer ever prayed over you wasn’t for comfort, but for courage, holiness, and unity? We open John 17 and listen as Jesus looks to the Father on the road to Gethsemane, not asking for escape, but asking that his followers be protected from the evil one, set apart by truth, and sent into the world with a shared witness. This is more than a devotional moment; it’s a blueprint for discipleship that holds up under pressure.

We walk through the context of John’s Gospel, the Last Supper’s aftermath, and why this passage dismantles the idea that the Son is lesser than the Father. You’ll hear how Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God, why shared glory before creation matters for understanding the Trinity, and how that theology fuels everyday faith. Then we press into the practical heart of the prayer: Scripture as the engine of sanctification, unity as the church’s public apologetic, and mission as a step toward need rather than a retreat from risk. Along the way, we highlight how a high view of God’s word stabilizes identity, sharpens discernment, and strengthens resilience when life gets loud.

By the end, you’ll see why Jesus’ priorities for his people still shape our witness: a joy that lasts, a holiness that’s grounded in truth, and a unity strong enough to make the gospel visible. If today finds you wanting deeper roots and a clearer purpose, John 17 is your next step. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find the Bible Breakdown Podcast.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Episode Setup
• 1:00 Resource: SOAP Bible Study
• 2:02 Context For John’s Gospel
• 3:05 Walking To Gethsemane And Leadership
• 4:13 Trinity Clarified Against Modalism
• 5:20 Reading John 17: Glory And Equality
• 7:00 Jesus’ Prayer: Protection And Unity
• 9:20 Not Escape But Endurance
• 10:35 Made Holy By God’s Truth
• 12:05 Unity As Our Witness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, John chapter 17. And if I were to give this a title, it would be Jesus Praise, an odd prayer for all of us. A lot of people call John chapter 17 the high priestly prayer. And if you've been reading through the Old Testament with us, you realize that the high priest would represent the people to God and God back to the people. And so he would bless the nation of Israel. And then also he would take the prayers of the people back to God. And so a lot of people see this as the high priestly prayer. But it's really interesting what it is that he is going to pray for us. You know, there's a lot of things you could hope for, you know, blessings, favor, all the things, but maybe not what you think he's going to pray. We're going to get into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure that you are liking the video, subscribing to the channel on the podcast, leave us a five-star review, and join the discussion, the Facebook group, Bible Breakdown Discussion. And I'm going to add a little moment to these sometimes where I give you a resource right here. And if you really like what we are doing and what we are reading, I want to encourage you to start doing something called soap Bible study reading with us. And that is, you can go to our church's website at experiencerlc.com forward slash the Bible. Okay, the Bible. And you can see the Bible reading plan that our church is doing. Reading through these chapters one chapter at a time. Then we're encouraging you to SOAP Bible study. That's an acronym that means scripture, observation, application, and prayer. I've been doing this for years now, and it is awesome. And so I want to encourage you to go to that resource. Once again, experiencerlc.com forward slash the Bible. And if you are listening to this as the podcast, go to the show notes section and you can see where this is. If you're doing this on YouTube, you can see the link there. Okay. Now, it's really good. You'll enjoy it, but let's dive into John chapter 17, because I'm telling you, the more we dig, the more we find. Now, let me bring you back up to speed where we are, the context. The Apostle John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is writing to us what is going on in the life of Jesus. He's not interested in giving us a blow-by-blow account of the experiences of Jesus. He wants us to grab onto the message of Jesus and really grapple with this idea that Jesus wasn't just a good teacher. He wasn't just a miracle worker. He is God. And he claimed to be God. And we see how seven different times in the New Testament or in the Gospel of John specifically, he would use the holy name of God. I am, and then tell you what he was, an adjective to describe who he is. I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So he's been doing all of that. And then when we left him at the end of chapter 14, he is having the Last Supper with the disciples. And now they are in chapter 15 and 16 walking to the Garden of Gethsemane, which I love, by the way. Think about that. Jesus knew he was walking to be arrested. And he didn't hide. He didn't go in a corner somewhere. He kept walking straight toward where he knew the danger was. And that's what a leader does. That's what the Savior of the world does is they don't run away, they run to the gunfire. Yeah, they run to the danger. And that's what our Savior was doing for all of us. And while he is going, he's talking to them. What we're going to see is at this moment, he looks up to his father and he prays. Now, real quick, think about this for a moment. God exists as an eternal triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit. They are same in essence, different in personhood. And so while they are co-eternal, co-equal, all these wonderful things, they have different attributes. And you can see that throughout the Bible. And this is one of those that to me, you could really see that there are some people who they they're called modalists. And what they what that means is God exists in different modes. That at one moment he's the Father, at one moment he's the Son, one the Spirit, but always one, never three in one. To me, there's a thousand different places to disprove that, but this is one of them because at this moment, the Bible is going to say Jesus is going to look up and he's going to pray to his father. So either Jesus is schizophrenic, or there's a triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, because he's not praying to himself in this moment. And so I want you to think about that. That this is one of the many places that it affirms the try the Trinity doctrine. Okay? But more importantly, let's look at what Jesus says when he's praying, not just for the disciples at the moment, but for his church for all time. So you ready? John chapter 17, starting with verse number one. We're going to read it straight through. Here we go. Verse 1. After saying these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have been given authority. Excuse me, yeah for you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And in this way to have given eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. Pause. I know I was going to read all the way through, but there's so much here. So there's another thing that there's another heretical view that says that the Father is supreme and the Son is subordinate to the Father. Well, we can see right here that they are the same in essence, different in person. And whereas it appears that there was some point before time began, a divine conversation, and the father says, Son, why don't you go and do this? The son says, Good idea, I will go. But there was never a point where the father was supreme and the son was subordinate because it says right there, bring me back to the glory that we shared before the world began. So someone's asked me one time before. They said, Who is greater, the father or the son? And my answer is yes. They are equal, but yet different in how they relate to us, but still equal. They share their glory. Verse 6 I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you. For I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me. Here's the prayer we do it and wouldn't expect. Now I am departing from this world. They still are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name. Now protect them by the power of your name, so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of your the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one of them was lost, except for the one headed for destruction, as the scriptures foretold. Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so that they will be filled with my joy. I have given them your word, and that and that the world hates them because they do not belong to this world, just as I do not belong to this world. I'm not asking you, here it is, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into this world, I am sending them into the world. I will give myself as a holy sacrifice for them, so they can be made holy by your truth. I am not praying, or I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one. For as you are in me, Father, I am in you, and may they be in us, so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, and they may so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you love me even before the world began. O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do, and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed them to you, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them. So notice, first of all, he's showing the difference yet equality of the Father and the Son, but then also notice the prayer that he prays for all of us. He doesn't pray for blessing, he doesn't pray to get us out of the world, he doesn't pray for a lot of things you might expect. He prays that we would be able to make it through the different things. He says, I am now coming to you, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. Can I tell you that because God loves us, he will not always take us out of the world, not always take us out of situations. But what he will always do is he will always walk with us through situations. And there's a thousand reasons why he will do that. Just like if you've ever been in a situation where you look back on it and you say, Oh man, I would never want to go through that again, but I don't even regret it because of what God did in my life during that situation. So God doesn't say, or Jesus doesn't say, take them out. He says, walk with them through. And that's one of the greatest things I can imagine is that no matter what we go through, he is always with us. And I love how he says, make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word because it is true. Can I tell you? We live in a world that wants to slowly downgrade God's word, slowly take it from being divine and holy to really important, to kind of important, to take it or leave it. Can I tell you that the only way God's word is going to be able to move in your life the way it needs to, is you have to put it at the top level in your life to treat it as what it is, holy. Because when it is holy, you're able to receive from it what it needs to. And here's the thing God's word is still true, whether you believe it or not. And that's one of the things I love about Jesus is man, you may have 99 problems, but Jesus isn't one of them. And even when he is walking to the garden, he's going to be crucified. He is praying for them, praying that they would have unity, praying that they would experience the goodness of God in their life. I love that so very much. And he still prays that for all of us. I love that we serve a Savior who loves us the way Jesus loves us. Man, let's pray and talk to him, and then let's finish with our scripture. Can we pray together? Father, thank you so much that you love us more than we can imagine. Thank you, Jesus. That you never walked sideways, you never took a backward step, but you walked straight to the cross and then straight on into resurrection because of your grateful love for us. I pray you'll open our eyes to see that love, and that your hope for us is to then love one another with that kind of selfless love. Thank you for loving us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Don't forget God's word that says John chapter 30. These things are written that you may continue to believe that Jesus is God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name. Man, I love you. I look forward to seeing you soon. I'll see you tomorrow for John chapter 18.