John 17:1-5 The desire of Jesus
Introduction
As a final act of comfort & encouragement before He leaves for
Gethsemane and eventually His arrest, Jesus prays a prayer in the hearing
of the disciples.
In it He prays for them & all Christians that follow, but He begins by
expressing His desire.
He pours His heart out to his Father, no doubt to draw strength, but also to
make it clear that He is willing to go ahead with the mission He was
tasked to do.
From these verses we too can draw strength realising what Jesus went
through for us & that His desire was for us.
1 Jesus wants to bring glory to the Father
The hour of Jesus' suffering was nearly upon Him and He cries out to His
Father asking to be glorified so that He might in turn glorify God the Father.
In the first instant this must refer to the coming crucifixion, (Colossians 2:1315).
His death on the cross means He can save His people & thus ultimately
God will be glorified through the church.
Jesus was willing to complete His mission so that the glory might go to
God. We too must bring glory to God by completing the mission the
church has been given.
2 Jesus wants to give His church eternal life
Although Jesus is given authority over all mankind, His gift of eternal life will
not go to all, (Matthew 25).
Jesus only gives eternal life to those God has given Him, (John 10:14f, 2730).
God always had a plan to save His people and although that is
contested by many people, that is the reality of God's interaction with
mankind for millennia, (Genesis 11:27-12:3, Deuteronomy 7:6-8,
Ephesians 1:4f, 2 Timothy 1:9f).
The purpose of that is so that the Elect (Israel & then the church) would
glorify Him, (Isaiah 43:10ff, Matthew 5:16, John 15:8).
Conclusion
If you are saved by grace, take encouragement from the fact that Jesus
redeemed you through His death on the cross.
On the night before He died Jesus' desire was to give His Father all the
glory & to give YOU eternal life.
God has His church, He knows them. If He is working in you by His Spirit,
that means He really wants you to know Him and simply wants you to
respond to His free gift of faith by repenting of your sin & confessing
Jesus as your Lord & Saviour.