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THE GREATEST PRAYER IN HISTORYJOHN 17 VERSE BY VERSECOMMENTARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease 
PREFACE
 
As in most of my commentaries, I have collected the comments of many other authors, and I haveadded to my own comments those that add insight and unique ways of expressing those insights.One of the goals is to have all of these comments in one place, thus, making it easier and a timesaver for the Bible student to have this information at his or her fingertips. I have edited much,for some messages by Spurgeon and Pink and others are very long, and so I have quoted justsome of the paragraphs that sum up their comments. For complete messages just type their nameinto a search engine and you can read the full content. Of all the authors I have read there is nodoubt that Spurgeon has the most powerful and delightful comments, but his sermons are so longthat I had to reduce them to a few paragraphs. You need to read his many sermons on this greatprayer to get the full impact of all the precious beauty he was able to bring forth for ouredification. If I have quoted someone who does not wish to be quoted in this commentary, pleaselet me know and I will delete it. Sometimes the author is not noted, for their names were notincluded with their comments, or I have misplaced their names. If I have not given credit toanyone's comments, and you recognize the author, please let me know and I will add their nameto their comments. Some of my sources are old and filled with many spelling errors. I havecorrected a great many, but there are still many not corrected. This is not a finished work, and soif I find new ideas and worthy comments, I will add them, and if you have something that couldincrease the value of this commentary, please email it to me, and I will consider adding it. Myemail isglenn_p86@yahoo.com
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
1. We know that Jesus was a great man of prayer, but it is surprising how few of his prayers aregiven to us in the Gospels. Prayer is usually a private matter, and so most of his prayers are notrecorded for that reason. Of the few that we are told about this one in John 17 is the longest andmost revealing. It has been called His High Priestly Prayer” “The inner sanctuary of theGospels” and “The Incomparable Prayer.” There are longer prayers of Jesus, but they are notrecorded. As someone pointed out, "It wasn't his longest ever because in Luke 6:12 we are toldthat Jesus prayed all night before he chose his apostles, and there were probably other timeswhen he prayed at length." Only two other prayers of Jesus are recorded by John, and they are:At the tomb of his friend, Lazareth, Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you haveheard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standinghere, that they may believe that you sent me" (John 11:41-42).Jesus was making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem when he prayed, "Now my heart istroubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour
’
? No, it was for this very reason Icame to this hour. Father, glorify your name" (John 12:27-28).
 
2. The Gospel of Matthew only has this one prayer of Jesus: "On the cross, we hear the first of three prayers: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). This cryreflects the desperation Jesus experienced when bearing the sins of the world."3. Dr. Luke gives us the most with his four:In Jesus
’
thanksgiving to the Father, he said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to littlechildren. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me bymy Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father isexcept the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Luke 10:21-22
7
).On the Mount of Olives, Jesus said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not mywill, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).Jesus prayed for those who had crucified him: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know whatthey are doing" (Luke 23:34).His final prayer was expressed in a loud voice: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"(Luke 23:46).4. The scarcity of prayers of Jesus makes this long prayer all the more special, for there isnothing like it in all the Bible. It is truly the Lord's Prayer, for it was his personally, and what is
 
called the Lord's Prayer is really the Disciples Prayer, for it is meant for us, and all believers, andnot as a personal prayer of Jesus. We can all pray the Lord's prayer, but nobody but Jesus canpray this prayer, for nobody but Jesus could make the requests that he makes. It is the mostexclusive prayer in the Bible, and is the only prayer that can be prayed by nobody else but theeternal Son of God, and now having taken on a human nature. Since nobody else in historyqualifies, this makes it absolutely the Lord's Prayer. Pink wrote, "In this wonderful prayer thereis a solemnity and elevation of thought, a condensed power of expression, and acomprehensiveness of meaning, which have affected the minds and drawn out the hearts of themost devoted of God’s children to a degree that few portions of Scripture have done."4B. Wiersbe, “"Whether He prayed it in the Upper Room or en route to the Garden, thismuch is sure: it is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth and the greatest prayer recordedanywhere in Scripture. John 17 is certainly the 'holy of holies' of the Gospel record, and we mustapproach this chapter in a spirit of humility and worship.”
 
4C. S. Lewis Johnson, “There is a quaint remark by one of the old Scottish preachers. Trail washis name and he said, "The best sermon that was ever preached in our world was followed by thebest prayer that was ever offered up in it." “P.T. Forsythe once said that, "Thou Jesus Christprayed for the disciples he never prayed with them. He never invited them to a prayer meeting.He never said, 'Let's have a prayer meeting and pray to our Father.'" That was something thatwas unique about our Lord. He never prayed with them although he prayed for them. He gavethem the so-called Lord's Prayer, but actually he never prayed the Lord's Prayer. One of myfriends, a Bible teacher, likes to entitle his sermon on the so-called Lord's Prayer "The Prayerour Lord Did Not Pray." Well, actually he could have entitled it also, "The Prayer our LordCould Not Pray" for in it it has room for the confession of our debts or the confession of our sins.Marcus Reinsford, a great student of the Bible said with reference to John 17 that it is"emphatically the Lord's Prayer". So when we come to John 17 the prayer that is called the highpriestly prayer of our Lord, although it more than that, we come to a prayer that is emphaticallythe Lord's prayer. It therefore is a very valuable thing for us. It is valuable first of all because itgives us an example of the method of our Lord. The disciples had said to him, "Lord, teach us topray." Evidently they had seen him pray and they evidently had heard things that he said andthey saw things that were accomplished through prayer. And so they asked him, "Lord, teach usto pray." Well, this is one of the richest lessons that our Lord has given in prayer, his own prayertime. It also is an illustration of spiritual pedagogy; the teacher, the lecturer, the professor of thepreceding chapters now becomes the intercessor. And of course, that is the proper way to teach.We should teach and we should accompany our teaching with prayer. Even when we arewitnessing, just giving the simple Gospel to our friends, or neighbors, or relatives, we shouldaccompany that with intercession. That's a great illustration for us. And then of course, in theprayer itself we have a tremendous incentive to prayer. It's encouragement for us that we havethis -- what someone has called the holy place of the Bible; to tell out our desires across allmystery, and to bring us to the acknowledgement of our need, and to give us some idea of how weought to approach him.”
 
5. Here are some things others have said concerning this special prayer. The unknown collector of these comments begins by writing, "In John 17 the veil is drawn aside, and we are admitted withour great High Priest into "the holiest of all." Here we approach the secret place of the
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