John 18:15-19

Peter was hesitant to follow Jesus into the hearing before the high priest. He followed for a while, but he stopped at a distance. He was scared that he would be persecuted too, and he even went so far as saying he did not know Christ! Sometimes, we might want to be an “at a distance Christian,” and we may not even want to call ourselves a Christian. We may say that we believe in Christ, but we aren't one of those uptight Christians. We want to fit in with the world so we are not singled out. However, being a Christian is not something we should shy away from. We should want to identify ourselves with Christ, and we should not be ashamed of following Him. Do you keep your faith secret at your job or at school? Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters, and we should not be ashamed to call Him our Lord and Savior.

John 18:12-14

Here we see Caiaphas and Annas, high ranking members of the Jewish council, caring more about their political ambitions than about their responsibility to lead the people to God. As the nation’s spiritual leaders, they should have seen who Jesus truly was, but they were blinded by their sin. They put their own selfish needs before their duty to the people. In this way, our sin blinds us as to who Jesus is. It is only through the Holy Spirit working in us that we can see Jesus as the Messiah, but we also let our sin blind our judgment. We become more focused on our personal desires and not on Christ, and we fall victim to our temptations. In all we do, Christ should always come first. Are there sinful things you put before Christ that cloud your judgement? In what ways can you remedy this and put Christ first?

John 18:10-11

Peter is so quick to defend Jesus that he cuts and cuts off a man’s ear. However, Jesus stops him and tells him to put up his sword, for He must drink the cup of God’s wrath that was about to be poured upon Him. We are again reminded here of the punishment that Christ endured for us. He did not just suffer for one man’s sin, but for the sins of all His people, and yet Christ willingly took the punishment upon Himself. What a Savior we have, that He would take on the punishment for all of our sins and transgressions. How can we repay Him for what He has done? The truth is, nothing we can do can repay Christ for what He has done, but we can live our lives for Him. We can glorify and praise Him for His sacrifice for us.

John 18:7-9

Christ tells His accusers to let the disciples go, for He is the one that they seek, and the disciples are released. We are reminded here that Christ will never lose one of His people to Satan. His redeeming work on the cross has secured our salvation, so that we may never lose it. If you have ever worried that you will lose your salvation because of the sins you have committed, there is hope. Our salvation does not rest on ourselves; it rests upon Christ. His work on the cross and in the Resurrection was final, and there is no way that we can mess that up. We can have full assurance that, by believing in Christ, we are saved. We should not worry about our screw ups, but enjoy the Christian life that Christ has provided for us.

John 18:5-6

Why would these men cower when Jesus said, “I am He”? In the original Greek, this can be translated as “I AM”, which is saying that Jesus is God Himself. God’s name, Yahweh in Hebrew, stands for “I AM WHO I AM”, and Jesus is saying that He is I AM. These men are cowering because before them stood God Himself, and they were afraid. Do you hear the name Jesus and treat it with reverence, or do you not think anything about it? We often view Christ as our friend, and we don't take Him seriously. We must remember that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is our King. We should hold Him in high regard for who He is and what He has done, and we do this through our thoughts, words, and actions. Do you see Christ for who He truly is, and are you glorifying Him in your life?

John 18:1-4

The time had come for Christ to be delivered into the hands of His enemies. Jesus knew that they were coming to arrest Him before He had gone into the garden. He could have run because of this foreknowledge, but He chose to stay because He knew what He had to do to save His people. If you knew someone was coming to kill you for crimes you did not commit, wouldn't you run? Jesus could have taken the easy way out, but He went because He loved us so much.  This was the only way we could be forgiven, and Jesus put our needs before Himself.  This reminds us of His love, and it also reminds us of how we are to love others.  We are to put their needs above our own, just as Christ did for us. 

John 17:25-26

Jesus is our mediator. He is our link to the Father because He knows the Father. Jesus has come to make the Father known to us. He has made known the name of the Father to church., but the world does not know the Father. It is to the church, the people that God loves, that Jesus makes known the Father; that they might be one with God and united to Jesus. He is the only way we can know God. He came to make known the salvation of God so that men might be saved and restored to know the living God.

John 17:24

Jesus is leaving the church in the world, but not forever. He is praying that His people will be with Him in heaven. Jesus is not using us and leaving us. He loves His church. He leaves us here to do His work and share in His glory. However, He is going to take us home to heaven. He wants us to see the glory and love of the Father that has been ours since the foundation of the world.

John 17:23

Here Jesus expands on the idea of oneness between himself, the Father, and His Church to include being perfectly one. The reasons attached to this need of oneness are that the world would know that Jesus was sent by God and that the disciples are loved by God just as Jesus is loved by the Father. We are close to God and we should be close to each other in the church. There should be a close unity between all believers. The divisions between us should be left at the door and we should be one in Jesus.

John 17:22

We share in Christ’s glory. We do not have the intrinsic glory that is God's alone, but we are connected to Jesus Christ. We are His glorious body and He is the head of the body the church. We share in the work He called His disciples to engage in until He returns. He shares His glory with us by the Gospel working in us and through us.

John 17:21

The idea of oneness is a key component to Jesus’ prayer at several points in Chapter 17. The church is to be one so that the world might believe that Jesus was sent by God. The world can be described by what divides us. We see the division of mankind at every level: global, national, local, and even in families and close friendships. Sinful man is quick to divide. In this context, the church shows a unique unity in Jesus. It is an example to the world of God's power to save through Jesus Christ.

John 17:20

If you are a Christian, then Jesus is praying for you in verse 20.  He is not just praying for His disciples in this chapter, but He is praying for the church He is leaving behind after His death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father. He is not going to ride off into the sunset and forget those He is leaving behind. He is praying for close friends He has known and taught. He is also praying for those that will believe the message He has given to His friends, and this is you. If Jesus ever seems far off or cold to you,   remember this verse and know that Jesus prayed for you.

John 17:19

Jesus is not asking you to go anywhere He has not gone. He has set himself apart. He has lived the life that He has asked us to follow. He has lived for God in a world that hates God. We must follow the God-man Jesus! We must live with a trust in Jesus Christ and with our hope being in him. We must strive to follow Jesus with our whole heart, mind, body, and strength. We must set ourselves apart from the world as the Bible shows us and live for the glory of Jesus.

John 17:18

We are here for a purpose, just as Jesus sent His disciples into the world. He has sent you into the world for the purpose of glorifying Him in this world. We glorify God when we are changed by the gospel and are like a city on hill or stars that shine in the dark night. We are to standout because we are Christians, not by trying to show off our differences, but in our simple humble obedience to the Truth of God in the Word of God by the power of God. Do people see Jesus in you?

John 17:17

To be sanctified is to be set apart. We are to be set apart by the Word of God for it is Truth. Pilate asked,  “What is truth?” (John 18:38) Jesus tells us what is truth and where it can be found: in God, specifically in His word. Are you being set apart from the world? Is it by the power of God’s truth? Is it by the truth that can be found in His Word?

John 17:15-16

Jesus knows that the world in which He is leaving His people is not going to love them. Why not just take them with Him? It would be for their good, but this was not His plan for His people or His church. We are here to fulfill the purpose that He has for us. We are here while He is in heaven, but He is working to protect us from Satan and his world. Although this world is tough, we survive by the grace of God and His almighty protection. We are not of this world.

John 17:14

The message of Jesus is not what the world wants to hear. It hates Jesus and it hates Jesus’ people. The world hates you if you identify with Jesus and seek to follow his law. We can never think that the world is getting better. Our only hope is in Jesus who died to free us from the Fallen World. This world loves what it loves. It loves its ways. It deals with life from a fallen, broken, hurtful spirit. It does not want to change and it refuses the very help that Jesus came to give. It is not simply a lack of education. It is a  heart hardened to God and His salvation.

John 17:13

Jesus’ plan is about to come to its consummation. He has taught the disciples and shown them the power of God. He is about to leave them, which is the whole point of His preparing them. He is wanting them to understand so that they might have the joy within themselves that Jesus has. How can we have joy in the awful world of sickness, death, decay, betrayal, and misery? It is not in others or the things of this world. It is in the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection.

John 17:24

Jesus is leaving the church in the world, but not forever. He is praying that His people will be with Him in heaven. Jesus is not using us and leaving us. He loves His church. He leaves us here to do His work and share in His glory. However, He is going to take us home to heaven. He wants us to see the glory and love of the Father that has been ours since the foundation of the world.

John 17:12

Jesus had been keeping the disciples by His power. He had only lost one, and this was by design. Judas had been exposed at the Last Supper and was even now betraying Christ. Was this a failure of the power of God? Absolutely not! Jesus gives an answer for why he fell away. It was a part of God’s plan so that the scriptures could be fulfilled. Judas was the son of destruction, not one of God’s people. If you are God’s people, God guards you to the end. Romans 8 teaches us that the Gospel, if received and believed, will take you all the way home to heaven.

John 17:11

Here we see the great theme of Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is concerned about His friends and disciples because He is no longer going to be in the world. He is the point of contact for His people and now He is leaving to go back to the Father, so He prays that they would be kept in the Father’s name. This means that they would be kept by the power of God. He prays that they would continue to be one. Jesus expresses the closeness of being “one” by comparing it to the oneness that He and the Father have together. How important for us to see that we are connected to each other in Jesus. He desires and even prays for us to be one by the power of God. How important does this make worship, church, and fellowship?

John 17:10

Christ is glorified in His people. We are the results of His work. He came to earth to be the mediator between God and man. He came to restore to God a people who know, worship, and glorify Him. It is through Christ that the mercy and love of God is seen in the World. It is by the power of the Gospel of Christ that people from all over the earth receive and believe the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is in these people that Jesus Christ is glorified. We are here because of who Jesus is and what He has done.

John 17:9

Why would Jesus pray for His people and not the world? It is because His people are special to Him. You can love children of all sorts and sizes, but you will love your own children even more. This is because they are yours. Note well that Jesus says this in the verse. They are Jesus’ because they were given to Him by the Father. They have always been the Father’s people. This does not mean that the World is not important to Jesus, but it does teach us how much we, His people, mean to Him. He is our Father in heaven, Jesus is our brother, and we are the children of the living God. This means we are special. This means that He sees and knows our troubles and responds because of who were are as His people.

John 17:8

Jesus gave God’s Word to the World. Whoever will receive it and believe it will be saved through the Word of God. Here we see that the disciples did just that; they received and believed the Word. They received the truth and believed that Jesus had come from the Father. This means that He was the chosen one who would bring salvation. The Disciples got it! They have heard the words and received it as from God. They have believed what it taught about Jesus. These were God’s people because they received and believed God’s Word.

John 17:7

Jesus has come to show that He is from God. He has the power of God, which is seen in the power He has to perform miracles. He has the wisdom of God, which is seen in the teaching that Jesus gives in His ministry. As he prays for His people, He acknowledges that they have received the message! He is the Son of God. He and the Father are one. All that He has been given and all that He has shown is from the Father. He has come with the power and the wisdom of the one true God. This is crucial for them and it is crucial for us. They knew the truth of who Jesus is. Do you know Jesus this way?

John 17:6

What does it mean that Jesus manifested God’s name to the people? It means that He has revealed who God is to His people. Jesus has revealed the character, nature, and salvation of God. It is given to those whom the Father has given to Christ out of the World. The World does not see this, but only in God’s elect is it manifested. God’s elect are those God has chosen from the foundation of the World (Ephesians 1). This means that we are secure as God’s people when we know and believe in His Son, Jesus