Where to follow Jesus: Sanctification and Glorification
Warm-up: What are your prayer habits, and your joys and/or challenges or frustrations with praying?
Context: In Jn 16, Jesus taught his disciples how to rely on the Holy Spirit to be prepared for their mission and to persevere until He returns in glory. Jn 17 is about the same theme, except that Jesus now intercedes for his followers so that they will indeed partake in justification, sanctification and glorification through faith in Him that is inspired by the words that he received from the Father.
1) vv1-3: Why did Jesus say say this prayer, and why at this time?
- vv1+11+13: What prompted him to say this prayer now? [The hour has come that I am coming to you]
- At what time on the ‘world clock’ is this last hour? cf 1Jn 2:18
- How did Jesus describe in Jn 16 what will happen on earth during this epoch where He reigns from heaven, Jn 16:2; 16:25; 16:31?
- How will His righteousness manifest during that epoch, and what do we find most paradoxical about this, and why? Jn 16:8; Ro 3:21-22]
- v2: granted, give, given: What do these words emphasize?
- v3: What did his prayer aim for?
- Why did this require prayer, rather than preaching?
- Why is it not sufficient to simply ‘inform’ people of who God is?
- What kind of knowledge is this that also required his prayer?
- Accordingly, what effect do you think has this prayer on Christianity to this day?
2) vv4-5: What did Jesus say in this prayer about himself?
- v2: What did he mean by ‘authority over all flesh’?
- v4: What did he pray about his mission?
- v5: What did he pray concerning his divine nature?
- cf Phil 2:8-9 => Did he simply want to return to the same glory that he always had with the Father? Why not? =>
- What do his former and his new glory have in common?
3) vv6-19: What did this prayer say about his followers and about ‘the world’?
- v6: Who made them to become followers in the first place, and what do they mean to God? cf Jn 17:16; 17:19
- v8-10: How do they come to know God?
- v11-15: What are his prayer requests for them?
- v16-19: What is ‘sanctification’:
- v19: In the ritual where the Jewish high priest once a year entered the inner room of the temple, he had to first offer an animal sacrifice for purification to be outwardly clean (Heb 9:7+13). How did Jesus sanctify himself for his disciples? cf Heb 9:11-14
- v18: When and where will such sanctification happen?
- v17: In what sense are his disciples not from this world? Why then are they still in need of such sanctification?
4) In vv20-26, how did Jesus pray for the unity among his followers?
- vv20-21: How did he pray that such unity would come about?
- Do his disciples have to create unity? Why not?
- How are they instead supposed to ‘come into’ the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
- Where does the Holy Spirit feature at all, v3? […through their message: cf Jn 6:63]
5) Observe how many times vv6-26 repeatedly refer to the ‘word of God’, and its truthfulness.
- Why was this so important to Jesus, v3?
- What will the truth in his words accomplish according to this prayer (vv13+17+26)?
6) Personal and application
- What effect has this prayer of Jesus on you as you read it?
- What aspects of this prayer can inspire and mold ours, and how?
- How do you pray for the unity of the church? How does Jn 17 influence how you do that?
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