John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
 
Who is them? Well, we need to go back to the prior verse to understand this.
 
John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
 
Well, it’s another, “them.” Looks like we need to go back further to find out who is them?
 
John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
 
The “them” are the people that Jesus specifically manifested the Father’s name to, and those that were given to Jesus by the Father for that purpose. The “them” are also those who kept the word that Jesus personally gave to them, or that which Jesus revealed to them about who he is and who the Father is.
 
So, we can conclude that this prayer, so far, is for his followers, the Apostles.
 
Back to verse 9, Jesus says that he is praying for the apostles, not for the entire world, but for them. Why would Jesus single out these 11? Clearly there a many people who believe in him by this time?
 
And, is prayer the best thing he could do in these final moments of his earthly ministry? Wouldn’t you think that some sort of life-long, powerful anointing or miraculous blessing would have been better? Right?! Nope.
 
The whole crux of the passage, for those who dig into such things, is that Jesus is demonstrating the importance he places on prayer by placing it where he does, and the importance of the content of prayer which he raises to our awareness.
 
The prayer of Jesus that the Holy Spirit invites us into seeing, shrinks from the masses to the few. Jesus doesn’t draw into focus the masses, rather he at this moment cuts them out and focuses on where his influence is the strongest. He prays for those that he has spent the most time discipling.
 
In a day where ministry leaders seem to be looking up, and for more, seeing what they can accomplish and how far their breadth of ministry can go, Jesus lifts up the few the Father gave him.
 
Jesus prays for the few that the Father gave to him.
 
Those 11 were his optimum impact. Here we are today, as a result of the investment into the few that Jesus discipled. The God of the universe chose 12. He could have chosen 12,000,000 and we would have completely got that. He chose 12.
 
I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is teaching us through understanding the prayer of Jesus that if we can see who God has given to us, and we take that serious like Jesus did, and we own the necessity of pouring our lives into those that God has given to us, the message of the Gospel will go where the Father wants it to go quickly.
 
Who has God given to you? I know that the answer is not “no one.” When we say “no one” it is because we haven’t yet owned our responsibility to be open to influencing the few God has given to us.
 
There isn’t a person on earth who God made that he didn’t intend for them to influence others.
 
Listen to me carefully, God gives everyone to someone.
 
Father, you are Father, we are many children with one Father. How many orphans walk the earth today who are Fatherless. This breaks your heart, and it breaks our hearts too. Jesus thank you for your prayers in John 17. There we find your heart and focus clear and present. Would it be that we would all focus on the few like you did, rather than the many who walk across our path. Would it be that we would clearly know who you have given to us and who you have not. Thank you Jesus, for you are our Savior and our Lord.
 
Blessings,
Pastor D