Calvary Road Baptist Church
“The Lord Jesus Christ Praying For Future Believers” Part 7
John 17.20-26
Picture a scene from more than 2,000 years ago in which twelve men walk from a Passover celebration in an Upper Room. It is already dark, and the temperature is rapidly dropping, with their breaths sometimes visible against the starlit sky.
A few minutes earlier, one of their numbers had left the Upper Room for a reason unknown to most of them. But the Lord knew. Judas had left to conclude his conspiracy with the chief priests to betray Him for thirty pieces of silver, fulfilling a prediction made by David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, a thousand years before.[1]
The rest did know that their Lord had told them He was leaving them, and they could not come with Him.[2] Of course, Peter challenged the Lord’s declaration.[3] That’s what Peter did. He went on to insist that he would lay down his life for the Lord’s sake. To which the Lord responded by saying,
“Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.”[4]
Leaving the Upper Room, the Lord led the remaining eleven men eastward. They would end up in a familiar place, the Garden of Gethsemane, on the far side of the Temple mount and partway up the Mount of Olives. As they walked, the Lord talked. From time to time they asked a question and the Lord answered them. Their opportunities to interact were rapidly fading.
The record of this conversation in the Fourth Gospel is found in John chapters 14-16. Chapter 17 records the prayer offered by the Savior to the Father somewhere between Herold’s Temple and the Garden of Gethsemane.
I began preaching expositional sermons on this chapter a year ago, with this being my final message in the chapter. In chapters 14, 15, and 16 we find some of the most enriching instruction the Lord had ever taught His men, from promising them a place in heaven with Him, to bearing fruit as branches on Him as the vine, to the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. And now, stopping somewhere along the way and them beginning to notice the coldness of the air, they stand by as their Master prays to His heavenly Father. Try to imagine what it must have been like for those men.
What did they see? Did they see Him stand, sit, kneel, or lay on the ground in prayer? In the Garden of Gethsemane, we are told, He laid on the ground to pray. But we are not told His posture during this season of prayer. And His hands and arms. Were His hands clasped? Were His arms outstretched? Were His eyes open or closed? Was His face tilted heavenward or downward? Jewish men frequently prayed while standing, with their eyes open, arms outstretched, and faces turned upward as they spoke to the God of Abraham. But concerning this prayer, we are given no clues.
What we know of this prayer is its content, more than any other prayer the Lord offered up during His earthly ministry. The Lord prayed first for Himself, verses 1-5. He prayed for the men who stood nearby, verses 6-19. And He prayed for those who would come to believe in Him after them, verses 20-26.
We read John 17.24-26:
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.
When the Lord said, “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it,” how comforting it must have been for those faithful men to overhear the Savior utter those words to His righteous Father. His remarks in verse 26 reveal that the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry of declaring God to the world, which He had done, is a ministry that would continue.
Remember that those men had been sorely troubled by the Savior’s impending departure. This despite His assurance to them of His continued interest in them and an uninterrupted relationship. These words, then, must have further reassured them while also showing what their future ministry would be like.
How fitting that our Lord’s prayer ends with the words, “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” It is all about love for the Savior and His men. What say we consider how many times in the last few minutes the Lord directed and showed His little flock the importance of their expressions of love for each other?
John 13.34-35:
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 14.15:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
John 14.21:
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
John 14.23:
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
John 14.31:
“But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”
John 15.9-10:
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
John 15.12-13:
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15.17:
“These things I command you, that ye love one another.”
John 15.19:
“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
John 17.26:
“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.”
Love for each other. Love is a profoundly important matter to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He seeks to make sure love is a big deal with us. Further, what did the Lord stress when preparing His men for the persecution that they would experience?
Let us now consider this final portion of the Lord’s high priestly intercessor prayer in four parts:
First, CHRIST’S PAST DECLARATION OF GOD’S NAME
“And I have declared unto them thy name.”
The verse begins with the Savior rehearsing to His heavenly Father His activity of making His Father’s name known. Any familiarity with John 1.1-14 reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to be identified as the Word, the lόgoV, that was with God, that was God, that was in the beginning with God, that He made all things, that in Him was life, that He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, that the world knew Him not, that He came unto His own, that His own received Him not, and that He was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. It is no great surprise, then, that the Lord Jesus says to His Father that He has declared unto them His name. Thus, being that the Lord Jesus Christ is the very expression of God, the communication of God, the declaration of God.
The first question is who them? To whom has the Lord Jesus Christ declared, made known, God’s name? Recognizing that, in the main, humanity has been unreceptive to Christ’s declaration, and also that, in the main, His own (meaning, the Jewish people) have been unreceptive to Christ’s declaration, the them referred to in this opening phrase is almost certainly Christ’s disciples as opposed to everyone else. Remember what He declared to His disciples the previous time they had all been in Jerusalem, about four months earlier? In John 10.27, He declared who would listen to Him, hear His words, receive and respond to His declarations:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
Those men, then, the eleven, are the them to whom He refers when, during His prayer to the Father, He said,
“And I have declared unto them.”
The question at this point concerns what He declared to them. What did the Lord Jesus Christ declare to His disciples throughout His earthly ministry? What was the main thrust of His ministry leading up to that point?
“And I have declared unto them thy name.”
In the 21st century, here in what remains of western civilization, someone’s name has little meaning. It is little more than a label for most people. In other cultures, however, there can be profound significance attached to someone’s name. That is certainly the case in the Bible. Therefore, it is important for us to investigate what the Savior meant when He said to His heavenly Father that He had declared to His disciples “thy name.”
Going to the beginning of John’s Gospel account, read John 1.12, where John writes,
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
In this verse, the words “him” and “he” and “his” refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Them” refers to those who come to faith in Christ and become His followers, His disciples and are His sheep. That understood what John meant in John 1.12 by the words “his name” is key to understanding what was meant by the Savior in John 17.26 when He used the words “thy name.” Whether referring to the Son or the Father, the significance of the word “name” is the same.
Notice that John 1.12 refers to those who believe “in his name.” In the ancient world, “name” stood for the whole personality. When, for example, the Psalmist spoke of loving the name of God (Psalm 5.11), or when he prayed, “the name of the God of Jacob defend thee” (Psalm 20.1), he did not have in mind simply the uttering of the name. He was speaking of all that “God” means. The name in some way expressed the whole person. To believe “in the name” of the Word, then, means to trust the Person who is the Word. It is to believe in Him as He is. It is to believe that God is the God revealed in the Word and to put our trust in that God. This is more than simple mental assent. It is not believing that what He says is true but trusting Him as a person. It is believing “in” or “on” Him.
The Greek expression used in John 1.12 was found by archaeologists to be related to bookkeeping records and seems to be linked with the idea of possession and ownership. If the New Testament retains anything of this usage, the expression will convey the additional thought that when we believe, we yield ourselves up to be possessed by Him in whom we believe.[5] There is no way to divorce this understanding of “thy name” from what the Savior declared to His disciples during His earthly ministry time of training them without doing violence to the notion of what “name” was understood by those of that era to mean. What the Savior communicated to His men about a relationship with God was nothing like the halfhearted, lethargic, lukewarm version the Savior condemned in Revelation 3.15-16.
Next, CHRIST’S FUTURE DECLARATION OF GOD’S NAME
“And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it.”
With the opening phrase of the verse rehearsing to the Father what the Lord Jesus Christ had done throughout His earthly ministry, the following phrase is a clear statement of the Lord Jesus Christ’s intentions in the future. The same Greek verb is translated “have declared” in the first phrase and is translated “will declare” in the second phrase of the verse. The only difference is the tenses used for the verb in each phrase. In the first phrase, the tense of the verb identifies a completed action, and in the second phrase, the tense of the verb is future.
This rehearsal to the Father reveals not only what the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplishing during this era in which we live and serve Him but also in the age to come. And what is our charge during this era of history? It is the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Great Commission cannot be executed individually, but can only be addressed corporately, and congregationally, as Churches function as bodies of Christ to live for and serve by preaching the Gospel of God’s grace and thereby declaring God’s name as the concept is properly understood in a Biblical context. But that is not all. Paul informed the Ephesian congregation what was in store for us throughout eternity, in 3.14-21:
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Throughout all ages, world without end, the Church will glorify God, verse 21. How so? We will comprehend, verse 18, and know the love of Christ that we might be filled with all the fulness of God, verse 19. This is what the Savior will use the Church to do forever!
Third, CHRIST’S INTENTION REGARDING THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR HIM
“And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.”
There is a tiny Greek word in the middle of John 17.26, translated by our English word “that.” The Greek word is ἵna, a marker word to denote purpose, aim, or goal, in order that.[6] The Lord Jesus Christ is stating what He sought to accomplish by formerly declaring to His men God’s name and by intending to declare God’s name to us in the future. There is no ambiguity here.
“that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.”
Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 13.13:
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
“Charity,” of course, translating the Greek word ἀgάpe, meaning love.
Of course, faith is important. The Spirit of God is the author of faith, Second Corinthians 4.13, where Paul describes Him as “the Spirit of faith.” The Spirit of God imparts faith to the sinner by means of the preaching of God’s Word, Romans 10.17. That done, the sinner is justified by that God-given faith, Ephesians 2.8 when he trusts the Savior, Romans 5.1. But faith is a wonderful means to a most glorious end and not the end itself. As well, hope is important. The confident expectation of future blessing based on the promises of God; our blessed hope is the anticipation of Christ’s return for us, Titus 2.13. But there will come a day when faith will be no more, and hope will have been realized. When we are in the Lord’s presence in glorified bodies, only love will remain. And that love will endure, as Paul predicted in First Corinthians 13.13. It is to this end the Lord prays in John 17.26. The whole purpose of declaring God’s name in the past, and in the future, which has as its goal the conversion of sinners, with the goal of sinners brought to Christ is knowing Christ, and by Him knowing God, and by that means coming to experience the love in us that God has always had for His Son.
What is the greatest gift God could possibly give to undeserving sinners? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6.23. But why does the Lord Jesus Christ declare God’s name then and now so that we might be saved and come to know God? So we might experience the love of God that His Son has experienced throughout eternity. The Savior wants you to have what He has always had and cherished, His Father’s love. But there is more.
Finally, CHRIST’S INTENTION REGARDING THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR HIM
“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.”
Let us be clear to understand what this final, short phrase does not mean. Since the incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ has had a body. Hebrews 10.5 reads,
“a body hast thou prepared me.”
Since the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus Christ has occupied a human body, except for that brief time between the death of His natural body and the resurrection and glorification three days later.
Christ’s physical body never indwelt anyone else’s physical body. Christ’s glorified body has never indwelt anyone else’s physical body since our glorified Lord is enthroned at the Father’s right hand in glory.[7] Nowhere does the Bible teach that a sinner is saved from sins by asking Jesus into his heart.[8] There is never an occasion when the Lord Jesus Christ indwells any believer. However, several passages show that the Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly represented by the indwelling Spirit of God who does abide in the child of God in a way the Savior has not, does not, and will not.[9]
This final phrase of the verse means that just as the Savior’s desire was for the Father’s love for Him to be in them, so His desire was for His love for the Father to also be in them.[10] Thus, we are given two simultaneous purposes for the Lord Jesus Christ’s declaration of the Father’s name in the past and the future. So those who come to know Christ in the past and the future will, through faith and then by the fulfillment of hope, experience God’s love for His Son and the Son’s love for His Father in our lives.
Reflecting on what it must have been like to watch and hear the Lord Jesus Christ pray to the Father for them and us, one has to wonder.
Did those men pay much attention to their Lord as He prayed? Or were they distracted by the cold? Perhaps they were distracted by Judas Iscariot’s departure a few minutes ago, though they likely still had no idea what he was up to.
I think it is unlikely they comprehended much of what the Lord prayed. After all, their behavior later did not suggest they took much seriously. They slept in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though He had urged them several times to pray. Then they ran, with only Peter and John following at a distance. And Peter denied the Lord three times!
Let me suggest the Lord’s prayer had little effect on them at the time or several days after. I think it was after the resurrection, and particularly after the risen Savior gave them the gift of the Spirit to indwell them, that their memory and understanding of what had occurred and what they were taught began to take hold.
That given for your consideration, do not let pass the thrust of this final verse of our Lord’s prayer. From what He prayed, we know what He did before He was crucified and why He did it. He declared, made known, communicated to those men the name of God and all that suggests, both before then and since then. The Savior has not stopped doing that through teaching and preaching God’s Word to this day.
To what end? That you and I will experience the love God has for His Son and the love God’s Son has for His Father. How wonderful must that love be to experience if the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven’s glory, suffered through a human though sinless experience among sinners, and then suffered the death of the cross so that we might be saved from our sins and experience such love.
You have never been loved like God loves. You will never love like God loves. You have never been loved like Jesus loves. You will never love like Jesus loves. What a barren existence you must always endure should you never know the love of God in Christ.
__________
[1] Psalm 41.9
[2] John 13.33
[3] John 13.37
[4] John 13.38
[5] Leon Morris, The Gospel According To John - Revised Edition - NICNT, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), pages 86-88.
[6] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), pages 475-477.
[7] 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
[8] There is no contextual consideration justifying Revelation 3.20 to refer in any way to a person’s heart.
[9] Romans 8.9-11; Ephesians 3.17; Colossians 1.27
[10] This is an example of ellipsis of repetition, where the final phrase’s meaning is inferred from the third phrase of the verse, per E. W. Bullinger, Figures Of Speech Used In The Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1968), pages 112-113.
Question? Comment?
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Fill out the form below to send him an email. Thank you.