“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power of the Twentieth century does not reckon with. But we are ‘harmless’ and therefore unharmed. We are pacifist, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the–death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the cross. We are ‘sideliners’- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”

"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. 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." John 17:11-12

Revelation does not mean man finding God, but God finding man, God sharing his secrets with us, God showing us himself. In revelation, God is the agent as well as the object. It is not that men speak about God, or for God; God speaks for Himself, and talks to us in person.  The New Testament message is that in Christ God has spoken a word for the world, a word to which all men in all ages are summoned to listen and respond.  J. I. Packer

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14] The word “seen” is a strong word. It means “to be engaged in careful and deliberate vision which seeks to understand and interpret its object.” Scrutiny is a good word to characterize what John was saying. That is what I am committed to do this year. I am scrutinizing the Word of God so that I may more perfectly know him, love him and rejoice in him. So, I have hunkered down in the gospel of John. The great hope that I have in my study is that he wants to be seen and rejoiced in. That is why he gave us the written Word. God has spoken through the Word and we see him through the Scriptures.

“For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.” --Luther's Tabletalk No.1877 

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. [Ps 1:1-3]

 "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. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 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. John 17:6-8

We have called this a battle prayer because of the urgency and intensity of the requests. First, Jesus prays that the Father would enable him to complete the mission he had been given. To finish, he would have to go through intense pain and suffering unlike any other man has ever endured. Like their Master, his disciples will face the same kind of troubles, so they will need the strength of the Father too. In verse 6, Jesus moves from praying for himself to interceding for his disciples.    

I have divided the passage into three movements: 1] The Son’s mission; 2] the Father’s decision; 3] and, the disciples’ volition. What Jesus prayed then has direct application to our lives now. Listen to him.