Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE LORD JESUS CHRIST PRAYING FOR HIS REMAINING APOSTLES” Part 2
John 17.6-19
How exciting it is to overhear a remarkable conversation between two profoundly interesting individuals.
I have told you before how very keen I was to go somewhere with my mother and one of her friends as a child so that I could listen to their conversations. My goodness, women are so interesting.
Then, there were my two grandfathers. My dad’s father was named Ross, and he was the funniest man I have ever known. A sharecropper for most of his life, my paternal grandfather was an avid fisherman, and I enjoyed going fishing with him so that I could listen to my grandfather talk to just about anyone.
My mother’s father was named John, and I was named after him. Granddad John dropped out of school around third grade to support his mother and siblings, being her firstborn son. My grandfather farmed 180 acres of marginal farmland but made most of his money buying and selling horses, cattle, and hogs, as well as making the best pork sausage I have ever tasted.
When I wasn’t riding in his pickup with him to go to livestock auctions, I was riding with him into Wheeler, Texas, after the midday meal and a brief nap, so he could spend an hour or so with the other men his age playing dominos in the pool hall. So, I would play snooker and listen to those old farmers and Texas cowboys talk about their adventures and experiences.
At home, it was interesting to listen to my dad talking to one of his brothers come to visit us or to take in the activities of a fire boss managing the fighting of a forest fire. Have you ever heard of a fire boss? At least on federal land, when a forest fire breaks out, one man was identified as the fire boss, who was responsible for assigning all men and resources to fight fires in his area. No truck, bulldozer, firefighter, smoke jumper, water drop aircraft, or anything else happens without the direction of the fire boss.
A youngster can learn who is not so foolish as to always insist on playing with his friends. I also remember times when I was privy to meetings while working at Hughes Aircraft Company as a young designer just out of engineering school. On one occasion, while standing at a drafting board with one of the seasoned designers named Bill, a man unknown to you, named Dr. Rosen, walked into the room and began talking to Bill. Who was Dr. Rosen? He was the guy who came up with the idea of the geosynchronous orbiting satellite.
What is a geosynchronous orbiting satellite? It is a satellite that orbits the earth at such a distance directly over the equator that it seems to be stationary so that as the world revolves about its axis, the satellite orbits the earth in the same period and appears to be fixed. Thus, radio, television, and cellular signals can be sent and received to the same place in the sky without antennas adjusting to the satellite’s changing position.
That is why every communications satellite for several years was designed, built, and launched by Hughes Aircraft Company. Don’t think that wasn’t an interesting conversation to listen to. Dr. Rosen was an astonishingly creative and curious fellow who spent most of the time listening to what Bill had to say about satellite design considerations.
Then there were the two older engineers who had worked with none other than Howard Hughes on the design of what was known as the Spruce Goose. At the end of World War Two, when metals were in short supply, Howard Hughes designed an enormous amphibious aircraft built chiefly of wood. It flew one time and for years was parked near the Queen Mary in Long Beach before being relocated to Oregon. But to listen to those two old engineers talk about the genius and eccentricities of the late Howard Hughes was priceless.
How I got into the habit of preferring to listen to the conversations of others, especially older others, I do not know. But I do not regret it for one minute. I guess that listening to adults talking at the dinner table or in the living room was expected and demanded when I was growing up, especially in southern culture. And it carried over into my adult life.
I would suggest to parents that you cultivate the interest of your children to listen to adults engaged in conversation, with two cautions in mind: Make sure that you are discussing matters of interest and importance, so as not to bore your children with trivialities about sports or hobbies. Sports and hobbies are not how men are grown from boys or women are grown from girls. Additionally, engage them in the conversations as they mature, so they have a personal stake in what is discussed. During and afterward, ask them opinions and take them through the thought processes involved in arriving at reasonable conclusions.
I do not doubt that the apostles lived in an era and in a culture where that kind of thing happened frequently. Theirs was an oral culture of listening to elders, unlike ours, which is a disconnected texting primarily to peers culture. By the time the apostles and other disciples began following the Savior, they were already experienced and skilled at listening to learn.
We can imagine, then, when the Spirit of God indwelled them following the Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection when the Spirit brought memories to mind and provided a great understanding of what they had seen and heard, that their recollection of the Savior praying this prayer to the Father was among the most treasured and memorable of their experiences. I speak, of course, of His high priestly intercessory prayer of John chapter 17.
We know the Savior first prayed to the Father for Himself, John 17.1-5. We also know that the Savior eventually prayed to the Father for those believers who would come to faith later, John 17.20-26. At present we are considering that portion of this prayer offered up for these men, the entire prayer being offered before the Lord and these men arrived to the Garden of Gethsemane. That would be me, and I hope you.
In verse 6, we saw that the Lord manifested the Father’s name to these men given to Him and that His perception of them was as completed men, not as works in progress. What a wonderful blessing to know the Savior sees His men as they end up being when fully delivered and in possession of all that has been promised to them in Christ.
If verse six speaks primarily to what Christ declares to the Father that He knows about the eleven, our text for this message, verse seven, is Christ’s declaration to His Father what the eleven know about Him. Please locate John 17.7 and stand for the reading of God’s Word:
“Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.”
In this relatively short verse in the Savior’s prayer to the Father, we will examine the sentence in four parts, discovering what the Lord’s eleven remaining apostles are said by the Savior to know about the Savior. Ponder, with me, the likelihood that the Lord Jesus Christ put into words to the Father in prayer, something the apostles knew but had not recognized that they knew about their Master:
First, LET US PAY ATTENTION TO THE FIRST WORD OF THE VERSE, NUN
It is not always the case that the first word in a verse in our English translation is the first word in the Greek verse it translates. Greek has a number of what are called post positives that can puzzle English speakers. In this verse, however, the first word in Greek is translated as the first word in English.
The word is nῦn. Nῦn is a little word that is referred to as a temporal marker. It is a word that was used to grab the listener’s attention, or the reader’s attention, to make sure your audience has their faculties focused on the narrative in the immediate present.[1] There should be no mistaking the Savior’s use of this little word in His prayer to the Father. There is no need to ensure the attention of the omniscient First Person. The Father is ever attentive to His Son. This word was used to make sure the rapt attention of the apostles was not drifting. The Lord is about to address a matter with His Father that is of keen interest to them, certainly more than they realize. Have you ever been reminded in some way of something you realized you already knew but perhaps had not consciously reflected on your awareness of that knowledge? That is what will take place here.
In His prayer to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ is in no way ambiguous. There is something that has not been true about His remaining eleven apostles throughout His 3½ year earthly ministry, but which is now true. We will appreciate, should the good Lord grant us an opportunity to investigate verse 8 next week, the Lord Jesus Christ providing, for His men and for us, the basis for what He asserts in real time here in verse 7. There is something about now that was not the case then, now that was not the case previously, now that was not the case before.
Next, LET US PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THE LORD ALERTED HIS MEN TO WITH THE WORD NUN
“Now they have known.”
This is familiar territory for some of you, but reinforcement is not harmful:
The phrase that appears in English, “they have known,” translates a single Greek word, ginooskoo. You may recall me mentioning that the two most commonly used words in Greek to convey the idea of knowing are the words oἶda and giná½½skw.
Oἶda broadly refers to knowing something because you figured it out, such as logically concluding something to be true. The word the Lord Jesus Christ chose to use here in His prayer, a form of the word ginooskoo, is the Greek word that refers to learning the meaning of something by some means. Experience or instruction would be the means to knowing for this word ginώskw to be applicable.
The Savior expressed to His Father that these eleven men have come to understand something by means of instruction, experience, or both. As they overhear the Savior praying to the Father, they hear their Lord and Master expressing to the Father that there is something they have now learned.
“Now they have known,” the word nῦn and the tense of the Greek word giná½½skw pronounced á¼”gnookan. It is a perfect active indicative third-person plural. They have come to know, and their insight, what they have learned, they will continue to understand. They will not forget.
Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ is reflecting in His prayer to the Father the reality of what these men expressed to Him moments ago, in John 16.30, where they said,
“Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.”
They, in the present, have come to know something by experience and through Christ’s instruction and will continue to understand what they have learned. The Savior acknowledges that with this phrase in His prayer to the Father.
Third, LET US PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THE LORD DECLARES THEY NOW KNOW
Precisely, what is it that the eleven now know, through their instruction by the Savior or experiences they have had (or both)? Before answering that question, let us consider the scope of our Lord’s comment:
“all things whatsoever thou hast given me.”
The scope of this phrase is at once both limited and limitless.
The final portion of the phrase informs us the Savior is referring to everything the Father has given to the Son. Nothing that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ that did not come to Him from God the Father is excluded. This is obvious from the words “all things.”
Though we do not have time for me to elaborate, allow me to suggest to you that “all things” must at least include James 1.17:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
However, “all things” cannot be restricted to what is referred to by James because James refers only to that which is given to human beings.
There are many things the Father has given to the Son that the Son has not in turn given to anyone else. This would include the entire physical universe that the Lord Jesus Christ created, but that He brought into existence for the Father. Colossians 1.16-17 speaks to but one example illustrating this:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
More to the point of our context in this portion of the Lord’s prayer for His eleven remaining apostles, I would suggest to you that “all things” refers to Christ’s doctrine, that body of truth He proclaimed and taught to His Own.
Finally, THE LORD’s THOUGHT IS COMPLETED WITH THE WORDS “ARE OF THEE”
Let’s consider this phrase from two angles:
Be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is not saying, in this verse, that His apostles know everything He taught them. They have not yet been indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Spirit has not yet brought to mind what they need to know and understand for their apostolic ministries. What He is stating here is that these eleven men are very clear about where the truths He taught them came from. They have no doubt that He came from God and what He taught them came from God.
Though it might seem burdensome for us to review this point, this is a profound concept in Scripture and bears reviewing here:
John 3.34:
“For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.”
John 5.36:
“But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.”
John 8.28:
“Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.”
John 8.29:
“And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”
John 8.38:
“I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.”
John 12.49:
“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”
John 14.10:
“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
We know God is a Trinity, with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit being coequal, co-eternal, Persons comprising the Godhead. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ, while of the same essence and nature as the Father, is eternally subject to Him, stated by the Apostle Paul as “the head of Christ is God,” First Corinthians 11.3.
Part of that incomprehensible mystery includes Christ being given everything He had by the Father. Though I am not suggesting the Savior meant that the apostles completely understood that in its entirety, they had learned that about their Savior. Thus, when He indicated that they were His, they knew that they were given to Him by the Father. Later, when the Savior claimed “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” they also knew that authority was given by the Father.
Imagine overhearing one person speaking to another person about you. That is what this verse is about. The Son of God is speaking to God the Father about these eleven men. They had already overheard their Master speaking to God about what He knew about them. That was verse 6. Now they overhear their Master speaking to God about what they knew about Him!
That must have been interesting. Yet, as they reflected on what the Savior said to the Father that they knew about Him, what they had learned about Him, what they had experienced with Him, they recognized as a true account of their knowledge. They had come to now know something about the Savior they had not previously known.
They had known that He was God’s Son. Those who were at the Jordan River when His cousin baptized Him heard the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Three of them heard God say on the Mount of Transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” And all of them were in Jerusalem and heard God say in answer to the Master’s prayer, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
They had seen Him work miracles. He turned the water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana. He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, as well as Lazarus. He cleansed lepers. He healed a withered arm and restored crippled men. On several occasions, He gave sight to the blind. He took tax money from a fish’s mouth. He walked on water. He cast demons out of a girl and a maniac. He fed thousands on two different occasions. His men saw all those things.
He went to the very headquarters of demonic activity in that region, Caesarea Philippi. He declared that the gates of Hell would not resist the advances of the Church of Jesus Christ. They had an appreciation of the enormous implications of that declaration.
They even grasped that they were in the company of the King of the Jews when they heard “O Lord, thou Son of David,” as Bartimaeus had cried out to Him in Jericho. Then, when they were in Jerusalem, He requisitioned the donkey colt and rode it into the city in fulfillment of prophecy, as the King of the Jews! They knew all those things about their Master.
Yet it was only in the final moments of His three and one-half years of instructing them, perhaps as they walked from the Upper Room during His last discourse before He began to pray this prayer, that He could pronounce they had learned something they had not previously known. They grasped that what He had as it related to His divine mission, His dispatch from glory, His authority to represent God, and even them and what they had been chosen and prepared to do by Him, came from God the Father.
And while they would spend the rest of their lives fathoming the implications of what they had lately learned, they had learned that. And as the Lord declared to the Father that they had learned that, they recognized that they had learned that, and that they knew that ... now.
Reflect with me on those men’s lives. Are you like them? The more time they spent with the Savior, the more He affected them. Even in the last minutes of His earthly ministry devoted to training them, they continued to grow, learn, and understand, until they grasped a spiritual truth the Savior felt was important enough to declare in their hearing to the Father.
Are you like that, or are you sliding in the opposite direction? How long have you been a professing Christian? Do you remember trusting Christ and then attending every regularly scheduled Church service? Do you remember being involved in discipleship? Do you remember reading your Bible? What do you do now?
Do you still attend all the services, or are you comfortable attending only one service a week? Are you still involved in discipleship, or are you comfortable not meeting with someone once a week in that way? Do you still read your Bible to learn and study and grow, or not so much anymore?
The point that I seek to make is that it is better for you to be on the same trajectory those men were on than to be on any other trajectory. I urge you to attend to the welfare of your eternal and undying soul.
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[1] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), pages 681-682.
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church