When someone mentions the Lord’s Prayer, what prayer comes to mind? Most people would say the prayer in Matthew 6 or in Luke 11, but the prayer that is really the Lord’s Prayer is found in John 17.

The prayer recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 is simply the answer to a request of the disciples. They asked Jesus to teach them to pray. So, Jesus gave them a model or a sample prayer suitable to their needs. There are certainly things in this prayer for which we can pray. We can pray for daily food. We can pray for God to forgive our trespasses as we forgive others. We cannot pray for the kingdom to come, since the church, the kingdom, has already come. It was established on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

The things Jesus spoke in this prayer were things the disciples would need in their day-to-day lives. They would at times be in need of daily food; they would need help to avoid temptation; they would need forgiveness of sins, and they needed to keep the coming of the kingdom in their prayers.

The prayer in John 17 is different. It is an actual prayer prayed by our Lord to the Heavenly Father.

Jesus had just eaten the Passover with the twelve. He washed the disciples’ feet. Judas had left the group to complete his betrayal of the Lord, and Jesus had foretold Peter’s denial. Jesus then spent some time with the disciples comforting them and giving them a promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, in chapter 17, He prays. This prayer is the longest recorded prayer in scripture, and it is filled with so much love and compassion toward God, toward the disciples, and toward us.

In the first few verses, Jesus testified to the fact that He had glorified God, the Father, in everything He had done on earth. Jesus had proclaimed the name of God in every event that had taken place.

Next, Jesus prayed for His disciples. He called them, “the men which thou gavest me out of the world” (verse 6). He mentioned that He taught them and that they had kept the word. They received God’s words through Jesus (verse 8).

One of the most beautiful things Jesus prayed for was unity. He prayed that they (the disciples) would be one as He and the Father are one (verse 11). Unity was on His mind. Unity had a purpose.

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 17:21)

Being in unity in their teaching and in living their daily lives would show the world that God had sent Jesus. It would show that everything Jesus had taught while He was on earth was true.

This prayer for unity was not only for His chosen disciples but also for the world. He wanted the world to believe in Him and in God. He wanted the world to see how important it was and is to all teach the same thing.

Paul carried out this same message when he spoke to the Galatians in chapter 1, verses 8-9.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accurses. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

 Some things we learn from this prayer:

• We need to pray that everything we do be for the glory and honor of the Father. Everything we do should honor God, not us. We need to pray that God will help us to see our lives as a means to honor and glorify Him.
• We need to pray for our friends, just as Jesus prayed for His disciples. He was leaving them to spread His word to a lost and dying world. He was sad to leave them, and He knew they would need strength to carry on His work.

When we separate from our friends, we need to pray for strength for them to carry on the work of God.

• We need to pray for those that have fallen away. Jesus knew that Judas had made his final choice. We may know those for whom there still may be hope, and we need to pray that they will return to God.
• We need to pray for the world. Jesus knew that you and I would have to make a choice between Him and the devil. That is true of everyone, so we need to pray for opportunities to teach the word and for those whom we teach to be receptive of the word.
• We need to pray for unity, that we will all be one in the Father as Jesus was and is one in the Father.

Sandra Oliver