Calvary Road Baptist Church
“The Lord Jesus Christ Praying For Future Believers” Part 1
John 17.20-26
As He led His remaining apostles from the Upper Room that night before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus and those men made their way toward a familiar resting place just East of the Temple, on the shoulder of the nearby Mount of Olives.[1] The Savior would not return to the Mount of Olives until He comes again in power and great glory. The place was called the Garden of Gethsemane.
Well within the distance an observant Jew was allowed to walk on a Sabbath without violating the Law of Moses, a so-called “Sabbath-day’s journey,”[2] it would surprise me to learn that numerous religious pilgrims who come to visit Jerusalem on high holy days did not resort to the Mount of Olives. They had no other place to sleep at night. This is because the short-term population of Jerusalem swelled to twice the normal on high holy days, such as the Passover observance of that evening and the next day. Hundreds of thousands streamed into the city, with places to sleep and arrangements for eating and ritual cleansing being at a premium. There had to be some overflow onto the nearby Mount of Olives.
But the Lord and His men had not yet arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane. Short of their arrival at that peaceful setting, the Savior stopped offering the most wholly recorded of any prayer He prayed to His heavenly Father found in the Gospel accounts. It is recorded in John chapter 17, and it is referred to as the Lord’s high priestly intercessory prayer.
The prayer is rightly named because, after praying for Himself in verses 1-5, the Savior also prayed for those eleven men accompanying Him in verses 6-19. Concluding chapter seventeen, the Lord prayed for the entire company of His future followers. Of course, included in the final portion of His prayer were those believers in Christ not among the eleven that night, perhaps numbering several hundred.
Included among those believers in Christ being prayed for in this portion of His prayer, those who were alive at that time would include the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well,[3] the woman taken in the act of adultery,[4] the man born blind,[5] the Roman centurion whose servant the Lord had healed,[6] the Syrophenician woman from whose daughter He had cast a demon,[7] His mother Mary, and no doubt His friends who lived nearby in Bethany, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. There were many more that I haven’t the time to mention. For the most part, however, this final portion of the Lord’s prayer to the Father deals with the welfare of the hundreds of millions of believers brought to faith in Christ over the 2,000 years since His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to the Father’s right hand on high.[8]
We begin our consideration of the Lord Jesus Christ’s prayer that deals with these I have mentioned in verses 20-26:
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
You may have noticed, as I read verses 20-26, and if not, I will certainly make mention of it as we proceed, that verses 20-23 record the Savior’s prayers for those who will believe, and verses 24-26 preserve our Lord’s appeal to the Father that all believers in Christ may be perfected so as to someday behold His glory. Let us read verses 20-23 once more, the Savior’s prayers for those other than the eleven who believe and for those who will believe:
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Verse 20:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”
It will help us to clarify the meaning of our Lord’s words in this verse if we treat portions of it separately. There are two identifiable parts to the verse, the initial phrase (“Neither pray I for these alone”) and the concluding phrase (“but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”).
However, I would like to divide the concluding phrase into two parts further. You will see why as I proceed.
THE LORD INITIALLY PRAYED, “Neither pray I for these alone.”
Would this not be a profoundly comforting request to hear the Lord make? For three and one-half years, those men were among the multitudes that sat at the Master’s feet. They not only learned how they should live for Him, but they also anticipated His future accomplishments. And what would those future accomplishments include? Prominent in their anticipation would be the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom and the restoration of the Davidic monarchy. For centuries the Jewish people had longed for a return to the glory days of King David, and a greater than David was here.
How they must have relished their experiences with this One Who performed the miracles of turning water into wine, of walking on water, of calming storms, of cleansing lepers, of raising people from the dead, of restoring sight to the blind, of making the lame to walk again, of feeding the multitudes and healing withered limbs. Then there was the forgiveness of sins. He forgave the woman’s sins at the well, who had been married five times and was at that time living with a man, not her husband. Yet the Lord forgave her, demonstrating to us in the record of God’s Word that a sinner can be forgiven while sinning, the Lord declared in Matthew 9.13,
“for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
And would He not also in a few hours forgive one of the thieves crucified alongside Him? The thief would say to Him,
“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,”
and the Savior would respond,
“Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”[9]
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ did nothing to dispel their anticipations of the future Messianic Kingdom. Christ’s disciples were not wrong about a future Theocratic Kingdom fulfilling God’s covenant promise to Abraham and David and fulfilling several prophetic predictions. They were wrong about the nature of the kingdom’s King and the timing of Christ’s regency on earth. They had thought, as did every other Jewish person who anticipated God’s covenant promises being fulfilled, the Jewish Messiah planned to establish the Millennial Kingdom here on earth at the time of His advent. About that, they were mistaken. They were also wrong about gaining entrance to the kingdom. That was the issue the Lord spoke about to Nicodemus when He declared to him,
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,”[10]
5 ... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.[11]
The Lord’s men and most other Jewish people had not understood the nature of His first coming as the Lamb of God. There would not be a single Messianic advent, but two. The Lord Jesus came the first time to Bethlehem by the virgin birth to offer Himself a sacrifice for our sins, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. That was clearly understood by John the Baptist but not well understood by most others. The Baptist had announced,
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”[12]
Not yet fully grasping the notion of two advents, the Lord’s faithful men were filled with despair and a sense of impending doom when He told them He was leaving and they could not follow.[13]
However, having prayed for their preservation and preparation for ministry in their hearing in John 17.6-19, they began to hear with verse 20 their Lord pray for other believers:
“Neither pray I for these alone.”
That there would be others was an additional encouragement to restore their hope, the sparkle of a distant light. We must always have hope, for, without hope, there is no sense of the future, no contact with eternity. There is something profoundly encouraging to us all about the knowledge that there are others, even if the others are, for the most part, yet future. That there will be others in the future necessarily reinforces the conviction that there is a future and that God’s plan will be completed, His promises will be kept. The covenants He has established will be fulfilled. Those eleven men’s lives were not immediately over. And when their lives were finally over, their lives would not have been lived in vain.
THEN THE LORD TOOK UP THE SECOND PART OF THIS PORTION OF HIS PRAYER FOR LATER BELIEVERS: “but for them also which shall believe on me.”
The first thing you might pick up on, and what the apostles might have picked up on, is the “these” versus “them” contrast. There are words in grammar known as demonstrative pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns “this” and “that” indicate or point out.[14] “These” and “those” and “these” and “them” are pairs of demonstrative pronouns we employ without much conscious attention. When we say or read “these” or “this,” we refer to people or things relatively close by, near us. When we say or read the words “those” or “them” or “that,” we are usually referring to things or people somewhat farther removed from us, not as close to us. In our text, the word “these” refers to the eleven apostles who stood or sat nearby as the Lord prayed. “These” were the remaining eleven after Judas Iscariot’s departure that sealed his betrayal, as they would soon discover.
What is to be said about the group of believers referred to as “them”? First, there is an “also” aspect of the “them” group the Lord refers to here. Then there is a direct reference to the future, the Lord using the word “them.” the word “also” means the group identified as “them” has something in common with the eleven referred to as “these,” otherwise there would be no “also.” What will the future “them” group have in common with the present “these” group? That is the second thing. They “shall believe on me.” What we believers like you and me have in common with the eleven, what “them also” have in common with “these,” is they “shall believe on me.”
What the future “them” will have in common with the present “these” is the only thing that is really and truly important insofar as eternity is concerned. They “shall believe on me,” “also.” That is what I have in common with those eleven men. I, too, believe on Christ. The same is true of you if you are a Christian. Thus, we see that the vital factor that links the Lord Jesus Christ’s remaining eleven apostles with all subsequent believers is faith. The eleven believed in Jesus. Judas Iscariot had a false hope, and when crunch time came, he showed to one and all that he had not trusted Christ. He did not have saving faith.
To be sure, Simon Peter’s faith would waver in a few hours, and he would, as predicted, deny the Lord three times.[15] But Peter’s genuine faith wavered, while Judas Iscariot’s was counterfeit faith that collapsed. Genuine faith does waver from time to time. That explains the father of the demonized child crying out with tears, and saying,
“Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”[16]
It also explains Peter’s restoration to fellowship with his Savior when he repented of those three denials.[17]
IN THE FINAL PORTION OF THIS VERSE, THE LORD SAID, “through their word.”
Hereby the Lord provides an understanding of how “them” will come to be believers, you and me. And would this not, also, be an encouragement to the eleven?
“Them also which shall believe on me through their word.”
It is the ministry of the Word, after all, that the Spirit of God employs to bring the dead to life in Christ, is it not?
James 1.18:
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
That means these eleven guys have to survive long enough to reproduce spiritually, to minister the Word of God to others who would come to faith in Christ. And they did survive long enough.
It is not likely the eleven were very receptive or appreciative of what the Lord prayed in this verse. They would feel the next three days at the time to be the worst days of their lives. But after the resurrection, and following their reception of the Spirit of God to indwell them and to guide them into all truth, these words would be wonderfully comforting and reassuring.[18]
Take a step back with me, so we can separate ourselves from the up close and personal verse we have been focused on. This will give us an overview of what the entirety of Scripture gives to us to understand what has happened between those eleven men and those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as those yet converted to Christ by faith.
Though he was not the first man with saving faith, Abraham was the prototype chosen by God to illustrate the means by which a sinner is justified in the sight of God. We see that in Genesis 15.6, and it is reinforced by the Apostle Paul and by James in Romans 4.3, Galatians 3.6, and James 2.23. Abraham is held up in Scripture as the illustration of Habakkuk 2.4,
“but the just shall live by his faith.”
The issue of how a sinner comes to possess saving faith is clearly shown in God’s Word. Writing to the Corinthian congregation, the Apostle Paul identifies the Author of an individual’s faith as the Holy Spirit of God, Second Corinthians 4.13, “the spirit of faith.” Romans 10.17 illustrates the means typically used by the Holy Spirit to foster a sinner’s faith (what the Lord referred to in our text), where Paul writes,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
To repeat, the Spirit of God authors a person’s faith, using the Word of God and its declaration to sinners. That said, we must remember that faith is God’s gift to the sinner, Ephesians 2.8:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
Correctly understood, the Spirit of God gives faith to sinners so that they will have faith as the means by which they are given the gift of God, which is eternal life.
Where is the Lord Jesus Christ in all of this? He is the great Object of saving faith. If faith is believing, Jesus is the One you must believe in. If faith is trusting, Jesus is the One you must trust to be saved. That is why Peter declared, in Acts 4.12,
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
It is also why Paul and Silas responded to the Philippian jailor’s question,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
with the words,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”[19]
What a remarkable Gospel has been provided for us to declare to a lost and dying world. What a wonderful Savior, Who left heaven’s glory to become a man by the virgin birth, Who lived a sinless life, Who died a sacrificial death, and Who rose from the dead and ascended to heaven a glorious victor!
Of course, He did those astonishing deeds for us because we, being spiritually dead, cannot provide for our own salvation. There is no way any sinner can be reconciled to God apart from the Savior’s saving work on the cross.
That said, is it not a glorious testimony of the Savior’s love and goodness for His Own that, on His way to the cross, He stopped to pray for His own, both those eleven men who were with Him at the time and also for those of us who would come to faith later?
Where else is such a Savior provided for incorrigible sinners like us? If truth be told with irreducible simplicity, there are only two religions known to man. There is that religion that demands of us something, and there is that religion that demands of us nothing.
Using a variety of labels, the Satan-devised, and dominated religion seeks to elevate a person to expect of him some contribution to their salvation. However, that which is provided by God, the Gospel, not only demands nothing from the sinner, it accepts nothing from the sinner.
The Gospel of God’s grace provides a sufficient Savior and provides from the Holy Spirit using the Word of God the faith needed for salvation. The only thing the sinner provides is sinfulness.
Are you included in the Savior’s prayer that we began examining in this message? You are included if you have trusted Him as your Savior. And you can be included if you will trust Him as your Savior. I urge you to trust Jesus now.
__________
[1] Zechariah 14.4
[2] Alfred Edersheim, The Temple - Its Ministry and Services: Updated Edition, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1994), page 137.
[3] John 4.1-42
[4] John 8.2-11
[5] John 9.1-41
[6] Matthew 8.5-13
[7] Mark 7.24-30
[8] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11
[9] Luke 23.42-43
[10] John 3.3
[11] John 3.5-8
[12] John 1.29
[13] John 13.33
[14] Albert H. Marckwardt & Frederic G. Cassidy, Scribner Handbook Of English, Fourth Edition, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967), pages 215, 259.
[15] Matthew 26.34-35, 75
[16] Mark 9.24
[17] John 21.15-17
[18] John 20.22
[19] Acts 16.30-31
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church