All Mine Are Yours, and Yours Are Mine – John 17:9-10

Isn’t it encouraging when someone tells you they are praying for you? I’ve had individuals tell me that they are praying for me and it is great encouragement to know that there are those who faithfully pray.

It’s encouraging isn’t it when you’re facing a hardship or difficulty to know there are people who are praying for you in your time of need?

Did you know that if you are a child of God your Lord and Savior Jesus Himself prays for you? He intercedes for you now. Think about what’s going on in your life right now — He intercedes for you now over those things.

I have to tell you that as encouraging as it is to know that some of you pray for me regularly, and as encouraging as it is to know that my wife and my parents and others in my extended family pray for me faithfully, there’s no greater encouragement than to know that Jesus intercedes for me, especially when I think of the implications of that truth seen in the passage we’re looking at today.

John 17, looking at verses 9 and 10.

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

As we’ve seen here in John chapter 17, Jesus’ prayer for Himself was forward looking — He was looking ahead to the cross where He would very soon suffer and He saw the victory that would be His as He obeyed the Father, taking on Himself the punishment for our sins and then being raised from the dead on the third day. He looked ahead to all that and saw victory over Satan and sin and death and He saw the fulfillment of the work the Father had given Him to do.

But His prayer for Himself was brief in comparison to His prayer for the Disciples. As we noted last time Jesus moves from praying about what lie ahead for Him to, beginning in verse 6, praying for the disciples and what lie ahead for them.

The prayer we see here is specifically about the eleven disciples, but the principles of what Jesus prays for them here applies to all believers.

And as we look at verses 9 and 10 what we find here, I think will bring a great deal of encouragement to us as we live our lives for God’s glory, knowing how Jesus intercedes for us and why.

Note first of all that Jesus makes a distinction here about whom He is praying for. Earlier He had prayed saying that He had revealed the Father to the disciples, He had made God known to them, and they had received the words He had given them and had believed and had come to know the truth.

And then in verse 9 He says, He is praying for them. He marks out here for whom He is praying.

9 I am praying for them.

We’re given an early glimpse here of Jesus intercessory ministry which He carries on even now for all who believe in Him. We know, according to Romans 8:34 that Jesus is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. And Jesus distinguishes here that He is praying for His own — He goes on and says,

9 …I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

So it’s clear that Jesus isn’t praying for the world here. Now, this is not to say that Jesus doesn’t pray for or have concern for the world. We know from John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He sent His Son, right? So this is not to suggest that the Lord only cares for His own. But it’s obvious here that the Lord cares for His own in a special way.

And we’ll see it here in a couple of verse, that Jesus is going to pray to the Father, “keep them in your name”, and then a little later we’re going to hear Him pray that the Father not take them out of the world but keep them from the evil one. And then in a few more verses He will pray not only for the disciples but also for those who will believe in Him through their word. And then in verse 23 He will pray that they become one, unified as followers of Christ so, “that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

So yes, Jesus cares for His own in a very special way and what He prays for them here is that ultimately the world will know the Jesus was sent by God the Father and that they might know His deep love for them.

So Jesus isn’t praying for the world here but it is for the benefit of those who are in the world that Jesus prays here especially for His own.

Now just think of that. If you are a child of God this applies to you. Just as Christ prayed here for His disciples He intercedes now for you at the right hand of the Father.

And note why Jesus prays especially for those who have believed in Him.

Verse 9 tells us that Christ prays for those whom the Father has given Him.

If you are God’s child then Christ intercedes for you because you are precious to the Father. And God the Son, to whom you have been given, considers you as precious. He cares deeply for you because you are the Father’s.

For example. And this is going to be a weak comparison but it’s kind of like when your friend gets a new car and he lets you take it for a drive. You desperately want to bring it back without a scratch — you want to bring it back just like it was before you got behind the wheel. So what do you do? You’re careful with it. You try to get familiar with where everything is real quick before you leave the driveway. You don’t want anything to happen to it. And it’s precious to you because it’s your friends car.

Listen — you are precious to the Savior because you are His father’s very own possession.

And because this is true, there’s great encouragement for us here to know that God is pleased to answer all that the Son requests of the Father on behalf of those whom the Father has given Him. So you can be confident that the intercessions the of Christ on your behalf will be answered. Why? Because you are the Father’s and that’s clear in verse 10.

10 All mine are yours…

God the Father hears and answers the intercession of God the Son because those for whom He intercedes are the Father’s own possession. There is such unity between the Father and the Son that there is nothing of the Father’s that is not the Son’s and there is nothing of the Son’s that is not the Father’s.

But note also that there’s nothing here that indicates that the Father answers the prayer of the Son because of what His own do or have done. No, the Father answers the prayer of the Son for the saints because the saints are His very own.

And yes there’s a special communion between the Father and the Son and all that the Father possess are the Son’s. Verse 10 says,

10 …and yours are mine,

All that the Father possess are the Son’s because there is a very special relationship, a special communion, between the Father and the Son. So Jesus can say, and yours are mine. So as God’s child you are precious to the Father and the Son.

Speaking of this special bond and communion between the Father and the Son, Charles Spurgeon says that we learn here that we are treasured by God.

Now, what does this say to me but that the Father and the Son greatly value Believers? What people talk about when they are alone-not what they say in the market, not what they talk of in the midst of the confused mob, but what they say when they are in private-that lays bare their heart! Here is the Son speaking to the Father, not about thrones and royalties, nor cherubim and seraphim, but about poor men and women-in those days mostly fishermen and peasant folk-who believed on Him!

What does Jesus talk to God the Father about? He talks about God’s children — He talks about those who are His — He talks about those who have believed in Him. So when Jesus says, and yours are mine, you can know you are precious in the Father’s sight and you are precious to the son.

Are you a child of God? You are precious to your heavenly Father, you are precious to God the Son. God holds you dear. And the Son intercedes for you and you can rest assured that the Father answers the Son’s intercession on your behalf.

But that’s not the only encouragement and comfort here — Jesus also says in verse 10,

10 …and I am glorified in them.

How is it that Christ is glorified in the children of God? For one, Christ is glorified in those who trust in Him because they are God’s and because they are God’s, God keeps them.

You see, the Son will very shortly in the account before us, go to the cross and will do so out of obedience to the Father and He will bear the punishment for the sins of many. It is this finished work of Christ at Calvary, that once and for all pays they penalty for the sins of those who trust in Him. And those who trust in Christ are kept by God because of the finished work of Christ and this glorifies the Son.

Believers prevail to the end and are victorious with Christ, not because of their own strength, not because of any goodness on their part and not because of their own wisdom or righteousness. But believers prevail because Jesus has paid the price for their sin and because Jesus intercedes for them and because the Father answers the intercession of the Son and all this because the believer is treasured by God the Father and Son.

If you are God’s child you can can rest and take great joy and comfort in this truth, that you are kept by God because of the finished work of Christ. You are not kept by your obedience; you are not kept by your own good works nor your own righteousness; but you are kept by God because of the righteousness of Christ. And it is because of this righteousness, it is because the Son honored the Father that you are assured that as the Son intercedes for you the Father answers.

I shared with you earlier a passage from Romans 8 — but listen now as I share with you the context and the surrounding verses. This is so encouraging and fits so well with the truths we see in our passage:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you are a God’s child that’s about you. Just as our passage in John is about you. And Christ intercedes for all who are His — not some of those who are His, and not just those who we think are the “super saints” — He intercedes for all of those who are His, and they are precious to Him, because they are precious to the Father.

Photo by: asgeirkolberg (Creative Commons)