Calvary Road Baptist Church

“The Lord Jesus Christ Praying For Future Believers” Part 5

John 17.20-26 

We return to the Lord Jesus Christ’s high priestly intercessory prayer recorded in John chapter 17. Offered up after the Passover celebration and the institution of the communion of the Lord’s Supper in John chapter 13, and the rich conversation that began in that chapter and is found in chapters 14, 15, and 16, it is the most complete of the Lord’s prayers found in Scripture. The discourse in chapters 13-16 comprises the first part of the greatest conversation recorded in the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ interacting with His eleven remaining apostles. Chapter 17 comprises the final portion of the greatest conversation recorded in the Bible, the Savior’s prayer to His heavenly Father.

To be sure, our Lord will pray again in the Garden of Gethsemane not long after this prayer, and He will pray to the Father while hanging on the cross of Calvary. Those prayers, however, are not, for the most part, preserved in Scripture for our benefit.

To refresh your memories about this prayer, recall it falls into three parts. The first five verses record the Savior’s prayer to the Father for Himself. Verses 6 through 19 comprise the Lord Jesus Christ’s prayer for His remaining eleven apostles, the men who were with Him that night after Judas Iscariot left the Upper Room to finalize his conspiracy with the chief priests to betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.[1]

We resume our consideration of the final part of this prayer, found in verses 20-26, with His concern and His requests turned to the Father on behalf of future believers. Since my text for this message is John 17.24, I invite you to stand and read along with me as I read aloud verses 20-24 of John chapter 17: 

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. 

The communion and fellowship that we who are Christ’s disciples have with our Lord Jesus in this life will increase in-depth and quality in eternity. Thus, the goal of every believer’s salvation is their future glorification which includes as yet incomprehensible intimacy with the glorified King of kings. This is well established not only by what the Lord Jesus had recently told His men but by what the Apostle Paul declared in his writings: 

John 14.3:    

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” 

First Thessalonians 4.17:  

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

Colossians 3.4:        

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” 

Suppose you take a step back to appreciate the context of this portion of our Lord’s appeal to the Father, especially in light of our Lord’s impending crucifixion. In that case, you might recognize that verse 24 amounts to the Savior’s last will and testament. Webster’s defines a will as “the legal statement of a person’s wishes concerning the disposal of his property after death.”[2] Does not the Lord’s comment, “whom thou hast given me,” establish that we belong to Him and are His property? And who is the executor of our Lord’s last will and testament but the Holy Spirit of God?

Having begun with broad brush strokes, let us consider the verse by asking the Bible student’s favorite questions. Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? 

First, WE ASK WHO? 

In answer to the Who question, there are three facets for our consideration:

First, to whom is the Lord Jesus Christ praying? That is too obvious for us. The verse begins, “Father.” Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ has always been praying to the Father since the inception of this prayer. Verse one of the chapter begins, 

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father.” 

Remember the disciple’s request that He teach them to pray. In Matthew 6.9, we read the Lord’s initial instruction: 

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven.”[3] 

Be mindful, however, that the Lord’s prayer to His Father and His instructions to His disciples to pray to their Father, though praying to the same divine Person, does not mean any believer’s relationship with the Father is the same as the Lord Jesus’ relationship with the Father. Illustrating this point, in John 20.17, speaking after His resurrection, the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, 

“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” 

He thereby distinguished His eternal relationship with the Father from Mary Magdalene’s and other believers’ established relationship with their heavenly Father. He has always been the Father’s Son, while we become the Father’s sons through the new birth and adoption into the family of God. Because of time limitations, let me summarize who the Savior is praying to by stating that the Father is the First Person of the Triune Godhead, the eternally self-existent One, the spiritual Father of those who are born again by the Spirit of the living God.

Next, we ask the somewhat obvious, Who is praying? The Lord Jesus. And who is He? He is the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, alluded to by God in Genesis 3.15 when He said to the serpent that tempted Eve, 

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 

I am persuaded the words “her seed” in that verse is an intimation of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, explicitly predicted by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 7.14.

The Lord Jesus prayed the words of our text only hours before He became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Second Corinthians 5.21. After this prayer, He would go to the Garden of Gethsemane, suffer the indignity of betrayal, arrest, false trials, and the brutal crucifixion of a Roman cross, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. About Him, the Apostle Paul would later write, 

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

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, 

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” 

Colossians 1.15-17 and 2.9. In his advanced age, the Apostle John would write about Him, 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made, 

John 1.1-3. It certainly is Jesus who is praying. But who is He? What is He? He is the God-Man, the eternal Son of the living God born to the virgin named Mary. His prayer is offered shortly before He completed His mission as our Sin-bearer. He is asking of His heavenly Father.

Third, we ask about whom is He praying? There is no disputing that He was initially praying to the Father about Himself, and then about the eleven and only the eleven, His little flock.[4] But from verse 20, He broadened the scope of His prayer to include all future believers, with the principles of unity being most applicable to future believers who are living for and serving the Savior as members of Church congregations. I point this out for clarification. The Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ is crystal clear to communicate to anyone with the eyes to see that the Gospel is to be preached to everyone, with those coming to a demonstrable and verifiable faith in Christ subsequently baptized by authority granted to a Church, and becoming members of a Church for training and service with other Church members.[5] 

Next, WE ASK WHAT? 

I have already given away my opinion of the answer to the What? question in my introductory remarks, have I not? At least partially.

What we have here can be likened to our Lord’s last will and testament. He approaches death with a declaration of His desires. And what His last will and testament expresses is His desire that “they,” “whom thou hast given” Him, “be with me where I am,” “that they may behold my glory,” “also.”

Our Lord is returning to heaven to be with the Father. There His glory will be on full display. And His desire is that we who have been given to Him be there. That is the crux of the verse, almost. Of course, He has an assignment to carry out first. After all, He came to die.

Knowing what this is, His last will and testament, let us now focus on what He wants. The Lord Jesus Christ expressed His desire to His Father that “they,” “whom thou hast given” Him, “be with me where I am,” “that they may behold my glory,” “also.”

Let me give you two nuggets that I think will help you to treasure this verse expressing the Savior’s desire for you and will fuel your anticipation for the future if you are a believer in Christ:

First, there is the expression “whom thou hast given,” a phrase repeated in a number of verses in John’s Gospel. It is found in John 6.39, John 17.2, 9, 11, and in this verse. “From eternity they had been entrusted to him, in order that in time they might be the reward for his atoning sacrifice. Hence, he desires that all these given ones shall dwell forever in his immediate presence, in order that they may delight forever in the vision of the glory of God in Christ, a vision which begins here on earth (II Cor. 3:18), and reaches its climax in heaven.”[6] What blessed anticipation awaits those of us who are Christ’s given ones.

Then, there is His glory He wants us to behold. He prays to the Father for us to see the glory the Father gave Him. Three of the apostles had witnessed His glory burst forth when He was transfigured.[7] And Christians of every era are given glimpses of His glory.[8] But the Lord wants us to see the fullness of His glory, referred to in the following of many passages: 

Psalm 8.5: 

“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” 

Psalm 27.4:  

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” 

Psalm 24.7-10:

7  Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

8  Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

9  Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah. 

1 John 3.2:

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 

Third, WE ASK WHERE? 

Initially, of course, Where? is heaven. It used to be that believers who passed from this life to the next went to a portion of Sheol, broadly referred to as Hell, identified as paradise and Abraham’s bosom. From Abel’s death to the time of Christ’s crucifixion, believers who died went there.[9] How much of Christ’s glory could be seen from there? We are not told. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changed all that. Now, when believers die, they go to heaven to be with their glorified and raised from the dead Savior, Second Corinthians 5.8. Don’t you know the saints now in heaven rejoice to behold the Lord’s glory. That is the destiny of all believers until the Second Coming of Christ.

After that, however, Where? for us will be here on earth during Christ’s millennial reign. Remember the promise of the last half of John 14.3? 

“I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” 

From the time of Christ’s resurrection, wherever He is, His own will be with Him. When He is in heaven, we will be with Him in heaven. When He reigns on earth, we will be with Him on earth, beholding His radiant glory. While we are with Him wherever He is, the unsaved dead will suffer the torment of the damned in Hell. But the damned will not suffer the torments of Hellfire forever. Hell will deliver the damned up to be judged at the Great White Throne, after which they will be cast into the lake of fire.[10]

Of course, the Millennial Kingdom will last a thousand years. Then a final rebellion against Christ will be attempted, which will fail.[11] Then eternity is ushered in, with Christ’s own being with Him forever and Christ-rejecters suffering in the lake of fire forever. It would not surprise me to discover that in the new creation, Christ’s glory will shine even more brightly than was possible even in heaven, and our wonder at His majestic brilliance will be indescribable. 

Fourth, WE ASK WHEN? 

The answer to this question is not as simple as one might expect. Concerning those who die before the Second Coming of Christ, When? is when you pass from this life to the next to be with the Lord, at least in part. Those saints who have died and gone to heaven have not yet received their glorified bodies. Their glorified bodies will be given to them in the future. But the future is a bit murky. Every Bible teacher agrees about how things turn out, but there are differences about what lies between here and there.

We know the Lord Jesus Christ is returning in power and great glory, but opinions about the details of His return and what He will do when He returns are not unanimous. In the first three centuries of Christianity, there was virtual unanimity that Christ would return to establish His millennial kingdom and rule from the throne of His father, David.[12] But men like Origen and Augustine led a departure from that consensus, and for fifteen centuries, their views held sway in the Roman Catholic Church. Many Protestants embrace that long-held Roman Catholic view, denying the pre-millennial return of Christ.

I insist on the distinction in the prophetic future between the chosen nation of Israel and the Church of Jesus Christ. My convictions about the prophetic future embrace God’s faithfulness to the Abrahamic Covenant. This, I am persuaded, along with a consistent approach to Bible interpretation, suggests an imminent future Rapture of all Church Age believers by the Lord Jesus Christ, followed by His visible and physical return to earth seven years later and the establishing of His glorious millennial kingdom.

Therefore, I would answer the question When? as the time of the Rapture, when Church-era believers dead and alive are taken up by the Savior. When? Those things the Savior prayed for in John 17.24 come to realization when the Rapture occurs when the resurrection of the saints occurs, and glorified bodies are given to believers. However, we do not know the precise timing of that event. To that end, in Matthew 25.13, the Lord said, 

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” 

To the young Thessalonian congregation, the Apostle Paul wrote, 

14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.[13] 

Fifth, WE ASK WHY? 

The Why? is pretty obvious when you think about it. 

But Why? should the Father grant this request? I can think of several reasons why God the Father would grant His Son’s request to show us His glory. It is the culmination of the grand display of God’s wisdom, mercy, and grace in redeeming and restoring that and those ruined not only by Adam’s Fall but also by Satan’s angelic rebellion. The angels beheld Christ’s glory, yet some sinned. But we who have not yet beheld Christ’s glory have come to the Savior by faith, and we most certainly will behold His glory. It is also a grand demonstration of God’s goodness. It is good for God to be glorified by His creatures. It is good for His Son to be glorified by His creatures. And it is especially good for the Savior’s glory to be adored and exalted by those He has redeemed by His blood. There are more reasons you might reflect upon in your meditations. But the reason our Lord expressed to His heavenly Father in this verse is, 

“for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” 

Finally, WE ASK HOW? 

This is our final consideration. How will this portion of our Lord’s prayer be answered?

The answer to this question is unstated, but we know the answer because we know who we are dealing with. We are dealing with God, God’s Son, and God’s Spirit. And with God, not only are all things possible, but nothing with God is impossible.[14]

In less than twenty-four hours, this One praying will give up the ghost. In three days, this One praying will rise from the dead. He will be raised by the One He is praying to. Therefore, understand that How? is not in question. With God, the issue is never a question of ability, power, might, or force. He is able. 

We know from Isaiah 6.2 that the angels who guard the throne of God shielded their eyes from the brightness of His glory. We know that Moses requested that he might see God’s glory, in Exodus 33.18, where 

“... he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.”

The LORD responded by telling Moses, 

20    And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 

23    ... thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. 

Yet three of the Lord Jesus Christ’s apostles witnessed Christ’s transfiguration when His glory burst forth. So, it seems some things have changed.

Angels cannot look upon God’s glory. Moses was not permitted to gaze upon God’s glory. But three of Christ’s apostles were allowed a glimpse of His glory. And in this life, Christ’s followers are allowed an ever so slight notion of His glory.

But our Savior’s desire for us, His prayer to His Father on our behalf, is that we not only be with Him where He is but also that we behold His glory. And He so strongly wants this for us that He prevails upon His Father’s love for Him to answer His prayer.

At this point, words fail in their capacity to express so that we might understand what is in store for those of us who know Christ. Let us bow our heads in wonder to reflect on the greatness of our God, the greatness of our Savior, and the greatness of the salvation He has blessed us with in anticipation of beholding His glory.

__________

[1] Matthew 26.15

[2] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 2092.

[3] Luke 11.2

[4] Luke 12.32

[5]Peter Masters, Church Membership In The Bible, (London: The Wakeman Trust, 2008), W. R. Downing, The New Testament Church, (Morgan Hill, CA: PIRS Publications, Revised 2006), and John S. Waldrip, The Church of Jesus Christ: 28 Truths Every Christian Ought To Learn, (Monrovia, CA: Classical Baptist Press, 2019)

[6] William Hendricksen, Exposition Of Paul’s Epistle To The Romans, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1981), page 367.

[7] Matthew 17.2; Mark 9.2; John 1.14; 2 Peter 1.17

[8] 2 Corinthians 3.18

[9] Luke 16.19-31

[10] Revelation 20.14

[11] Revelation 20.1-10

[12] George N. H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, Vol I, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1978), pages 480, 482-485.

[13] 1 Thessalonians 4.14-18

[14] Matthew 19.26; Mark 10.27; Luke 1.37; 18.27

 

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