THE INNERMOST GOD

Verses in John 17 are called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.  Here we are in the enclosure of the Trinity.  And yet these verses are about us.
  The first 6 verses are addressed to all men, everywhere.  The background of these verses is the truth that the Father has come down in the Son, John 5.19-20.  These passages are culminated in 17.7,8.  So Jesus begins His prayer with His Father.
  First, He addresses His prayer to the whole world, 17.1-6.  In v.2 Jesus prays--Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou has given Him, He may give eternal life.  The words, all mankind, are pasns sarkos, all flesh.  There is nothing in the words which would determine one meaning or another.  We have to look at other passages such as John 6.37--All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me.  So to all men everywhere whom the Father has given to the Son, the Son gives eternal life.
  Jesus then explains the qualification, whom the Father has given to the Son, by explaining eternal life.  He says in v.3--And this is eternal life, that they may kow Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.
  What is it to know Thee?  It is knowing that the Father has sent the Son, and given to Him the authority to save.  This is the great culmination of 3.16,17--God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through Him.  That eternal life comes from knowing the Father sent the Son.
  Then in v.5 Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him with the glory which He had before the world began.  This is the glory of the ascension after the resurrection.  So when Jesus has been resurrected He has to say to Mary in John 20.17--Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.  All of this is for the world to believe that Jesus will be resurrected from the dead.  We live because He lives.

HIS OWN
But now in v.6-19 Jesus will speak about His own disciples.  He says--I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gave Me out of the world.  They were Thine and Thou gave them to Me and they have kept Thy word.
  For the next 14 verses what Jesus will say will be for them, not for the world.  These men were chosen by God.  This is in John 6.65, Luke 6.13.  What the world needed to understand in 5.26, the disciples know in v.7.  Then Jesus elaborates on this in v.8--the words which Thou gave Me I have given to them and they received them and truly understand that I came forth from Thee and they believed that Thou did send Me.
  These are stronger words than what Jesus had said before.  He is taking us into the will of the Father.  He is saying the Word of God which He was given--John 5.24--has now been given to the disciples.  The verification of this are the NT letters penned by the disciples and Paul, 1 Peter 1.23-25.
  In v.9 Jesus says He asks on behalf of the disciples, not the world.  He is establishing the covenant relationship with those whom--Thou has given Me.  He does so in order to bring force to what He then says in v.10--all things that are Mine are Thine.  This is the same as 16.15 when Jesus says He will disclose all things to His disciples. 
  Then in v.11,12 Jesus asks the Father to keep His disciples in--Thy name.  What this means is explained by two phrases--that they may be one even as We are one...I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
  He says in v.13--But now I come to Thee and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.  Jesus is speaking personally to His men that His joy is now given to them.  He has said they are to be one, they are to receive His word, and they are to have His joy.  What was given to the disciples, they will give to believers everywhere, John 15.11, 16.14.  Jesus had said in 16.13 that the Spirit of God will guide the disciples as to what 'these things' means, and this is true for the church.
  Now in v.14 Jesus finishes the thought of what the disciples are given.  He says--I have given them Thy word.  Jesus says the world will hate the disciples but the Word which He gives will sanctify them, 17.17, 19.  When we think of--sanctify--we might think of the word, cleanse.  In 17.19 Jesus will sanctify Himself so that when His disciples depend on His word, they will know His word is pure. 
  Here Jesus enhances His prayer for His men.  He prays the Father will protect His disciples from the evil one.  His disciples will not be removed from danger, they will be sanctified, set apart for the use of the Father only.  Jesus is praying that the glory of God will be given from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the disciples--that they may be one just as We are one.

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