SENT
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Lord God, please use your Word to empower me, give me what I need to follow you more faithfully, and bring you glory.
Read JOHN 17:1–19
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Reflect
We have been reading how the preliminary events of Jesus’ passion and glorification play out through the disciples’ eyes. Has this affected how you look at the familiar narratives and tenets of the Christian faith?After speaking at length to his disciples, Jesus now shifts his gaze to heaven. We see the necessity and power of prayer within the context of his close relationship with the Father. He turns to the Father to reaffirm his mission and to declare that his hour has come: now is the time; here is the glory (v. 1; see 12:23). Jesus also reaffirms why he came: to give eternal life. How does he define this (v. 3)? How does this echo why the text of John’s gospel has been written (see 20:31)? We are being invited to believe and have life in his name!
The disciples are being sent into the world in the same way that Jesus was sent by the Father (v. 18). And so, in addition to the preparation Jesus has given his disciples in person, in this prayer, he now asks the Father for their protection and unity. Once Jesus has gone, they will learn how to be a community of believers persevering through troubled times and will need the ‘full measure of my joy within them’ (v. 13; see 15:11).
Apply
Remind yourself how John’s gospel starts: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning’ (John 1:1, 2).
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for enduring the shame of the cross so that I could receive the gift of eternal life. As I look toward heaven and pray, help me to reflect the confidence and concerns that were and continue to be yours.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.