23rd July 2026

It is with a great sense of privilege that we find ourselves able, in John 17:1-11, through the preserving work of the Holy Spirit, to listen in on one of the most intimate, heart-warming and inspiring prayers that Jesus ever offered, before his Father, for our assurance and encouragement.

Somewhere between the departure from the upper room, where, after Judas had left to betray his master, a new command to ‘love one another’ had been given (John 13:34), and the garden of Gethsemane located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the Lord stopped, lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed to his Father (John 17:1). In this prayer of passionate devotion and deepest affection, Jesus offered all the suffering and redemptive work of the coming Cross to the everlasting glory of the one from whose divine presence he was sent. He declared to the whole world the boundless, quenchless love which from eternity has bound the Father and the Son (vv.1-5). Herein is revealed the mystery of the Trinity, and the intrinsic, perpetual, inexhaustible nature of the love of God.

We can see how immeasurable and all-encompassing is the love that flows, endlessly and freely through the eternal Spirit, between the Father and the Son. But how, and in what measure, does the love of God come to us, and who are we in relation to Christ? We are those whom the Father has delivered out of this present evil world and, by grace through faith, has presented us to Jesus, his beloved Son (v.6). We are his and he is ours.  

It is for us, and not for the unbelieving world at large, that Jesus prayed this special prayer of intercession (v.9), and astounding as it surely seems, it is by our faithful witness, by the grace of God, that, not only Jesus, but the Father also is glorified (vv.6-8,10; John 15:8). It is through our participation by the Spirit in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, that we are united to him and are sharers in his glory (John 17: 22). It is on account of our union with Christ, that the Father loves us with the same love, and in the same measure, that he loves his only begotten Son (v.23).

As God is Spirit, so too our new birth is a spiritual birth, and it is in this context that, despite the pressing strains of present circumstances, a Christian can continually experience the presence of God in his or her life, for God is forever in us, and we are in him (v.23). Therefore, the Father does not see Jesus and Christians as separate, but in divine union. There is a blessed oneness, and no power in heaven or on earth can ever separate Christ from his people, all of whom are loved with the same abiding, eternal, inexorable, unflinching, sacrificial love of God.  

‘But’, says the Christian, ‘life is still hard’. Yes, but you are loved with an everlasting love! It  is why God always knows where you are, and what the world of pain and sorrow, of stress and grief, of disappointment and doubt is like for you personally. And in the light of our weakness and the world’s offences, Jesus has prayed for our protection, ‘by the power of [the Father’s] name’, that we may be one in him (v.11), partakers in his sufferings, that we may share in his glory (Romans 8:17).  

It is for individual believers that Jesus offered up himself as the sacrificial lamb of God, made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10), not for his own sake, though all things work together for his glory, but for our perfecting and sanctification. As Jesus’ mediatory prayer reassuringly confirms: ‘For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified’ (John 17:19). 

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church