Calvary Vero Home Groups

Week of 03/29/26

Pastor Jim Gallagher

John 17:1-20

Introduction - Jesus’ Prayer before His Crucifixion

Before His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection, Jesus spends an evening with His disciples and teaches them about the Holy Spirit and abiding in Him, and He prays for them. During this last supper, Jesus talks to the disciples about God and then talks to God about the disciples. The apostle John records His prayer for us in John 17.

1. The Last Supper Prayer: Jesus prays for Himself

John 17:1-5

In these verses, Jesus says that: 

(A) He has glorified the Father (v. 4)

(B) He prays that the Father would be glorified (v. 1)

(C) He asks that the Father would restore Him to glory (v. 5)

Here Jesus places an importance on the idea of glory, the idea of putting the attributes and perfections of God on display for the whole world to see. 

Q. When we look at the life of Christ, in what way do we see God’s glory? How are the beauty, character, attributes and perfections of God displayed in the life of Christ? (John 17:4)

Q. Jesus’s death on the cross is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15. He bruised the head of the serpent (Satan), and He provided atonement for sin and conquered death (Colossians 2:15). How does Christ’s death and resurrection meet your deepest need?

Q. Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life (John 17:2, John 3:16). How does the idea of eternal life with Jesus influence and impact your life here?

Q. What are you doing in your daily life to “know” Christ? (Read John 17:3) The “knowing” here implies an encounter with God that is having continual effect as we walk, grow, and get to know HIm. 

In Job 38:7, the angels sing at the dawn of Creation, rejoicing over Christ’s work. All glory and honor belong to Him. He “took off” some of this glory to dwell among us and die for us. (Other verses Pastor Jim noted when talking of Christ’s glory: 1 Corinthians 15:40-41, Isaiah 42:8, Ezekiel 1)

“The gap that separates the archangel from a caterpillar is finite, whilst the gap between the archangel and God is infinite.”  A. W. Tozer

Q. Have you considered how much Christ gave up to become flesh and dwell among us? (John 1:14; 17:5)

2. The Last Supper Prayer: Jesus prays for His disciples and all future believers

John 17:9-20 Jesus’s prayer for us covers many things. As we take a deeper look, we see the what we have according to this passage:

  • We have been given to Jesus (v. 9; v. 12)

  • We are His (v. 10)

  • He is glorified in us (v. 10)

  • We are kept by His name (v. 11)

  • We are one with Him (v. 11)

  • We have His joy fulfilled in us (v. 13)

  • We have His word (v. 14)

  • The world hates us because we’re not of this world (v. 14; 16)

  • He keeps us in the world (v. 15)

  • He keeps us from the evil one (v.15)

  • We’re sanctified by His Word, which is Truth (v. 17; 19)

  • He has sent us into the world (V. 18)

Q. Discuss the impact of these truths on your life

Q. Do you ever feel pressured to conform to the world and struggle to live abiding in Christ?

“The deepest passion of the heart of Jesus was not the saving of men, but the glory of God; and then the saving of men, because that is for the glory of God.”  G. Campbell Morgan

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the [i]handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” Colossians 2:13-15