Jesus prays,

1. For Glory (verse 1)
2. Because He Finished His Work (verses 2-4)
3. For Glory (verse 5)

I was listening to a podcast this week. It was a recap of an interview that the New York Times did with the President this past Wednesday.^[1]

Four of the Times reporters were invited to the Oval Office last Wednesday afternoon for a sit down with Donald Trump. The interview was a "deep probing conversation about this past year, [covering] foreign and domestic issues." But what struck me most about this interview was not the interview itself: Trump was Trump, and the reporters did a good job of pushing him. What struck me was the comments of the reporters about their whole experience in the Oval Office.

In setting up the context of the interview, the reporters described their journey through the rooms in the White House. "We are on our way up through the West Wing, past the press secretary's office, past the cabinet room, sitting under a great portrait of George Washington in his younger days." David Sanger described the context of the invite:

As you know, the relationship between President Trump and the New York Times has been occasionally slightly fraught. And litigious. He sued us over the past few months for $15 billion. But in the end, he very happily agreed to it. And we were told that the moment would be 5 p.m. on Wednesday night. And we actually thought that was a good piece of timing because we figured we would probably be his last appointment of the day. And anybody who has dealt with Donald Trump knows that if you're the last appointment of the day, you're likely to be sticking around for a while. We didn't leave the White House till after 9 p.m.

The New York Times reporters were at the White House for four hours, but starting a bit late and having several interruptions, in all they said that they were able to speak with President Trump for just shy of two hours. Seemingly, what fascinated the reporters most was the activities in the Oval Office. All of these reporters were White House correspondents, which means that they are around Trump all the time. But they aren't normally in the Oval Office. Listen to how Tyler Pager describes his experience:

What was remarkable to me, as we were in there for quite some time, was just watching how the Oval Office operated, and the bubble around the president to support all of his needs, whether that's him pressing the red button on his desk to get a Diet Coke, or the aide that runs out multiple times of the Oval Office to pick up different pieces of paper that he has requested she print out as evidence for whatever point he's making, or just the people walking in and out of the Oval Office with notes, whether that's a foreign leader's on the call or an aide is waiting outside, to him combining meetings. There were documents he had to sign, and he just had that person come in with the paperwork as we were sitting there for the interview. His phone, his personal cell phone was ringing multiple times. He took one call from the Fox News anchor, Brett Baier. But it was really just quite amazing to see how chaotic, frankly, the Oval Office can be.

At one point, the president of Columbia called. Trump didn't kick the reporters out of the Oval Office to take the call. He simply told them to turn off their recording devices. So these reporters were in the room, listening to the conversation between President Petro of Columbia and President Trump of the United States. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, was there. J. D. Vance, the Vice President was there.

The significance of this is that last week, the United States military stormed into Argentina and captured Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Trump has said publicly about how the president of Columbia had better watch his back, because he could be next. Some other New York Times reporters had just been in Columbia, and Petro had told them that this was a very scary moment for Columbia, and that he too feared being captured like Maduro had been the week before. Here he was, calling President Trump.

After the phone call, and after the reporters turned on their recording equipment in time to catch Trump saying, "I hope that was interesting. Was that interesting?" one of the reporters replied, "Very interesting."

Then the interview went on.

Now, I don't know about you, but I would have loved to be there in the room, listening to the conversation between these two world leaders with the power dynamic difference, and with the state of the world. It would have been fascinating.

Well, this morning, as we come to the Scriptures, we have an opportunity to be "in the room." Not with political leaders, but something far more important. We get to be in the room to hear an intra-Trinitarian conversation. We get to be in the room when Jesus, the God-man, prays to his heavenly Father. The content of their prayer has been recorded for us to read. This is not "off the record."

So, if you haven't yet opened your Bibles, please open them to John, chapter 17. This morning, we will be looking at the first five verses. What a privilege we have, of hearing Jesus pray to his Father, shortly before he was put to death. (In chapter 18 of the gospel of John, we will see Jesus arrested and put on trial. In chapter 19, we will see Jesus crucified and buried).

It's a privilege that we have this prayer, because of anyone that walked the planet, nobody has experienced as deep and as intimate a prayer life as Jesus had. When the reporters were in the Oval Office, they had an opportunity to watch and speak with the most powerful person in the world. But we have an opportunity to hear the prayer of Jesus.

On several occasions in the gospels we read of how he prayed. Mark 1:35 says, "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." Luke 5:16 says that this was his pattern to find a place where he was alone to pray. After feeding the 5,000, we read in Matthew 14:23, "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone."

On the night before he chose his disciples, we read in Luke 6:12, "He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God." When he was with his disciples in Caesarea Philippi, we read of his praying alone (Luke 9:18). When he went up the mount of transfiguration, we read that Jesus, Peter, James, and John all "went up on the mountain to pray." Jesus prayed often and alone.

The prayer life of Jesus was so intriguing to the disciples, that on one occasion, when he had finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus taught his disciples to pray, words that we all are familiar with. Let's pray them together:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us,
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

That's the prayer that we should pray. But that's not the prayer that Jesus should pray, as he never sinned. He never needed to pray, "Forgive me of my sin." Rather, he prayed, "Father, forgive them." He said this while being crucified (Luke 23:34). What an act of selfless love. In his moment of greatest physical pain, Jesus was more concerned with the eternal well-being of those nailing him to the cross, than he was of his own well-being. This is but one example of the powerful prayers of Jesus.

In fact, for as often as Jesus prayed, we have only a few instances of knowing what exactly he prayed. Most often, we simply read of how he went to pray, but we have very few instances of what he prayed. We know that before the cross in the garden, he prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42; see also Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34). We know that after he was rejected by the multitudes, Jesus prayed, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will" (Matthew 11:25-26). We know that on one other occasion, when considering his death, Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify your name" (John 12:28).

That's it! That's all of the words that we know that Jesus prayed while upon this earth, except for the words in our passage this morning: John 17. Here we have 26 verses, telling us of the words of Jesus when he prayed. This is in contrast to the five other verses in all of the rest of the New Testament that contain the words of what Jesus prayed. Indeed, we are on holy ground this morning as we enter into the prayer life of Jesus.

This chapter breaks down nicely into three sections. In the first 5 verses, we see Jesus praying for himself. In the next 14 verses, we see Jesus praying for the apostles. In the final 7 verses, we see Jesus praying for us! He prays for all those who would believe in him in future! It's mind-blowing to read. While on the earth, Jesus prayed for you and for me.

However, as I have said, this morning, we will just focus our attention upon the first five verses of John 17. The title of my message is simple: "Jesus Prays for Himself." Let's read John 17:1-5.

John 17:1-5
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed."

These words come in the context of the "Upper Room Discourse," in which Jesus has been seeking to reassure his disciples that all is going as planned. Yes, Jesus is going away from them. But he isn't leaving them as orphans. He will come again to take them. In his absence, Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to be with them to strengthen them to live without him. These words are what John refers to in the opening words of verse 1, "When Jesus had spoken these words."

It seems as if Jesus has considered his counsel to his disciples completed. He has given them all that is needed for them to carry on without him. It only remains for him to pray. For some reason, he lets his disciples hear what he prays, just like President Trump allowed the reporters to hear his conversation with the president of Columbia. For at that moment, "he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.'"

Jesus prays,

1. For Glory (verse 1)

This is my first point. Jesus prays for his own glory. Do you see it there? "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." This shows, right off, that this is not a prayer for us to pray. We pray for the glory of God: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." Jesus prays for his own glory: "Father, glorify your Son."

Now, ultimately, that prayer request will end in the glory of God. "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." This ought to be the heart of all of our prayers, that God would be glorified. Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:20-21, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think… to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations." Psalm 115:1 is our model prayer: "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"

This is the prayer that we pray! The glory is not for us, O LORD! The glory is for you! But Jesus doesn't pray Psalm 115. He doesn't pray, "Not to me, O LORD, not to me, but to your name give glory." No, Jesus prays, "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." "Glorify me that I may glorify you."

It's prayers like this that show the deity of Jesus. In Isaiah 42:8 we read, "I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other." As a good Jewish man who knew the Scriptures, Jesus knew this. Jesus knew that God would give his glory to no other. Yet he still prayed, "Father, glorify your Son."

Jesus is asking here to be placed on a pedestal, where others would look at him and honor him and give praise to him. Jesus is asking for the fulfillment of Psalm 110, which begins this way: "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, Until I make your enemies your footstool.'" Jesus is requesting that he would take the seat at the right hand of God, the most exalted place in the universe, so that others would look at him and worship him! What an amazing request!

Yet Jesus knew that this request didn't come without its hardships. Jesus knew that the path up went down. In fact, Jesus knew that the path to the place higher than any place meant the path lower than any other place. Listen to Philippians 2:7-11:

Philippians 2:7-11
But [he] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is the glory that Jesus was requesting: every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. But that glory meant a death, even death on a cross—the most despised and despicable of all deaths, the most painful and public of all ways to die. Not only in the eyes of the Romans, who considered the cross to be so low that no Roman citizen was allowed to be crucified, but also in the eyes of God, who declared, "cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13).

But Jesus knew that this was the path to glory. We know this because of the way that Jesus began this prayer. Look again at verse 1: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." The gospel of John has spoken much about this "hour." In the early part of the gospel, we read of how the hour had not yet come. That's why Jesus wasn't arrested (John 7:30; 8:20). "No one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come" (John 8:20).

But the turning point comes in chapter 12, as his arrest and death are nearing. Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12:23). In John 13:1 we see the explicit connection made between the hour of Jesus and his death: "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father," and thus, his prayer for glory with the Father at his right hand (Psalm 110:1).

This simple question of application is this: Are you an answer to his prayer? "Glorify your Son." Do you glorify Jesus? Do you confess him with your lips as Lord of heaven and earth? Do you come to Jesus in prayer with reverence and awe? Do your words and actions consistently honor the name of Jesus? If someone would watch your life, would they conclude that Jesus reigns in heaven above?

Is Jesus functionally Lord of your life? Or merely Lord of your theology? Does your life reflect the mind of Christ? Or is Jesus only Lord of your lips? Is Jesus Lord over your decisions in life? When obedience is costly, do you still bow the knee to Jesus? Do you treasure Christ's glory more than your earthly success?

Oh, church family, may we be an answer to the prayer of Jesus: "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you."

Jesus prays,

2. Because He Finished His Work (verses 2-4)

OK, let's move on to my second point. We have seen how Jesus prays for glory (verse 1). Now we see why Jesus prays so. Jesus prays because he finished his work! This is the reason why Jesus is praying for his glory, because he finished his work!

John 17:2-4
Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

I trust that you can see the wording of my point in verse 4. Jesus says that he "accomplished the work" that God gave him to do. That begs the question, "What work did Jesus finish?"

You might naturally think here that Jesus is merely talking about all that Jesus did up to this point. Jesus performed all of the signs that the Father had given him to do. Jesus spoke all of the words that the Father had given him to say. Jesus fulfilled every Scripture that spoke of him. Jesus obeyed every command that the Father had set before him. Jesus revealed all the truth that the Father had given him to make known.

You might think that Jesus is saying, "I have done it all! I have kept your will! There is nothing left undone!" Yet in the life of Jesus, there is still something that at this point in the story is undone. It's the cross. It's the culmination of his work! And it's the work that allows verses 2 and 3 to be accomplished: the giving of eternal life.

Look again at verse 2: "Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him." This is the entire reason why Jesus came to earth: to give eternal life. It's in the purpose statement of the book of John. It has been a while since we said it. Let's say it again.

John 20:30-31
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This is the message of the gospel of John: believe in Jesus, and you will have life! This is the work that Jesus came to accomplish! But it would only come through the cross, which was in the future for Jesus.

But here in verse 4 of our passage, we see Jesus assert that he has accomplished the work that God gave him to do. In this prayer, I believe, there is a sense that Jesus sees his work as good as done. He accomplished it all. He gave eternal life to all whom God had given him.

Picture what's happening here. God gave Jesus some people. The work of Jesus' task was to give eternal life to these same people who God, the Father, had given him. These people are called elsewhere in the Bible, "The elect." Or, "The chosen." Jesus sees the work he was given to do as good as done, even though the cross was before him.

These people come to Jesus by faith. This is the message of Jesus, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). The message goes to all of you. The promise is sure. "Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

On the authority of the Bible I can confidently say: "If you believe this morning upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life." Do you believe in him? This is a message of life! To believe in him means that you will have eternal life!

Now, when we think about "eternal life" we often think about it with reference to time, that our lives will continue forever. Certainly, this is true. But look closely what Jesus says about eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (verse 3).

Here, Jesus says that eternal life is knowledge of God. Now, certainly, it is the true knowledge of God. It's not the sort of knowledge that isn't merely head knowledge, but the sort of knowledge that is personal and penetrates deep into your heart and soul. This is the knowledge that is true and authentic and trusting and loving and intimate and familiar. Such a knowledge of God will be life-giving to your soul, for all time, for eternity. This is eternal life.

When Jesus speaks of eternal life, he focuses on the quality of the life, not the endurance of the life. I think that this is because, when we are with God in eternity, time will be no more. We can't help but to think of life without time. Time marches on. Everything that we experience, we experience in time. Things happen in succession, one thing after another. We can talk about "before" and "during" and "after."

But do you realize that there was a "before time"? In the very first verse of the Bible, we read, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). In other words, there was a time when time began. Before that time, we simply call it "eternity past," that is, before time began!

Certainly, we can't understand this, because we are so wrapped up in this creation of time and space. We are like fish trying to understand what it's like to be dry. We are like shadows trying to understand substance. We are like clay trying to understand the potter. We are like those born blind trying to understand color. We are finite minds trying to understand the infinite.

Yet Jesus in his prayer gives us a glimpse of eternity past. Look at verse 5:

John 17:5
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Jesus prays,

3. For Glory (verse 5)

This goes back to my first point. Jesus prays for glory (verse 5). Before the world existed, before time began, Jesus was with the Father in glory. Jesus is praying for this glory to be restored.

Have you ever thought about what eternity was like before the world existed? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God in three persons were in perfect harmony and perfect happiness. They had perfect communion and perfect joy. They experienced love and unity.

While Jesus was on earth, I'm sure that he sensed a bit of what it was to be out of the eternal fellowship in the heavens. I say that because here, in verse 5, he's praying for it to be restored. "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." "Father, let me enjoy our fellowship and glory once again!"

Yet something would be different about the glory before the world existed with the glory after the world existed. What's the difference? Us! It is the redeemed of the creation of God. It is those (in verse 2) who were given to Jesus. It is those who believe in Jesus. It is those who know the LORD.

This is the reason why the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world: to bring us to be with him. Here's the amazing thing. Jesus wants for us to see his glory. Look down at verse 24:

John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Jesus is praying that someday we will see his glory. He's praying that we will see the love with which the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. This is the intra-Trinitarian love and fellowship that existed before time began. There was a love between Father and Son in eternity past, and Jesus wants us to see his glory.

We understand this impulse a little bit, don't we? When we see something glorious, we invite others to come and see it with us. Picture this: you step outside and see a breathtaking sunset painting the sky in brilliant colors. What do you do? You call out to your family members, "Come out here! You need to see this sky. It's amazing!" They come out, look up, and say, "Wow." You wanted her to see what you were seeing because it brought you joy, and you wanted to share in that joy.

That's how we're made. In this way, we reflect how God is. Christ is glorious. God is glorious. He says to us, "Come. This is so wonderful. Come and see my glory." This is what Jesus desperately wants. He wants us, according to verse 24, to see his glory because it will fill us with delight. That's exactly what it is with God. He wants our joy to join with his joy in his own glory.

This is what Jesus prays for himself, and it flows over to us. He wants to be glorified, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, so that we might see him and glorify him. He went to the cross to accomplish our redemption so that we might see his glory and rejoice in him forever.

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on January 11, 2026 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/podcasts/the-daily/trump-interview.html.