WWUTT 986 I Do Not Ask for These Only?

John 17 and Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples and Future Believers

When Jesus prayed for his disciples, he prayed not only for the disciples who were with him, but even for us, that we would be unified. And not just unified with our fellow believers now, but Christians who have even gone before us when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .wutt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back again to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus. To keep all the things that we've been reading about in this prayer in context, I'm going to start again at the very beginning and read through the whole chapter, and then we'll pick up where we left off last week.

Lifting his eyes to heaven, Jesus said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

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. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, 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.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scriptures might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

I have made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. It's always profitable for us to read the word of God together, and I hope that reading through this prayer again has been a blessing to you.

I hope that our study of this prayer in John 17 has been uplifting and encouraging and has been wondrous to you, to hear the gospel proclaimed in this prayer that Jesus has lifted up on behalf of his disciples to the Father.

It's in verse 20 where we pick up again, Jesus saying, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. So remember, we've had this prayer broken up into three parts.

First, Jesus prays for himself, verses one through five. Then he prays for the disciples who are with them, verses six through 19. But as I had pointed out last week, it's not exclusively the disciples that are with him he is praying for.

There's also mentions of us in that particular section, especially where Jesus says in verse nine, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

So he's not just talking about the disciples who are with him there. He's also praying for us. And very clearly he prays for us when we get to verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

Remember, I've mentioned several times before that as we go through a study of the gospel of John, sometimes Jesus would say something one way, and then he says it again, but gives a greater expounding reason or explanation of it.

And this would be one of those instances where when we get to verse 20 and Jesus says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That doesn't mean that that part in the prayer is the first place that Jesus has come to pray for us.

For any time Jesus has prayed for his disciples, that is a request for us as well, or any instruction he's given to his disciples. That would also pass to us who are disciples of Jesus. We being followers, learners of our Lord and Savior.

Where Jesus says back to verse nine again, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. We see that distinction between Jesus' disciples and the world, even where we pick up today in verse 20.

It would be okay for you to read that particular verse, verse nine again. I'm not praying for the world, but those whom you have given me out of the world, for they are yours. The text doesn't explicitly say that, but it's certainly implied.

And we're not adding anything to the text or changing the meaning of it by putting those particular words in there, because there is a clear distinction between those who belong to Christ and those who belong to this world and the ruler of this world who is Satan and will be destroyed with Satan when judgment comes upon the world.

So Jesus says, I am not praying for the world. He's not praying for every single person who will ever live, but he's praying for those whom you have given me out of the world, because that's who we are.

We were once part of the world. We walked in this world as sinners. We were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air who is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived, carrying out the passions of our flesh and the desires of the body and the mind.

Okay. So there was a time when we were just like them and we deserve the judgment of God like the rest of mankind. But God was rich in mercy and called us out of the world. We were once born in that same wretched sinfulness that every human being is born with having descended from the line of Adam.

But by the grace of God, we have been called from that to be a holy nation, to not be of the world, but to be called out of the world and be followers of Christ, the king, king of kings and Lord of lords, not the prince of the power of the air or the ruler of this world who will perish with it, but the one who sits in throne over all of creation, who rules over all we've been called out of the world to be his kingdom people.

So when Jesus says, I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me out of the world, it is because we belong to God. We belong to the father. We have been adopted into his family through faith in Jesus Christ, the bloodline of Christ.

So now to verse 20, where Jesus prays more explicitly for those disciples who would come to faith in the generations that were to follow. Verse 20, I do not ask for these only these disciples who are with him, but also for those anyone who would become a disciple after who will believe in me through their word.

What we're reading now is the word of John. It's the word of God. Of course, these are the words of Christ. If you've got a red letter Bible there in red, but who wrote it, who testified to the fact that Jesus said these things, the apostles did, you know, even even understanding that basic point will help you or help anybody that that even you're explaining the inerrancy of the word of God to somebody else, you're helping someone else to understand, according to second Timothy three, 16, all scripture is breathed out by God, OK, when you're helping someone understand that a good way to help break it down for them is is to help them realize when they're reading the gospels, they're not simply reading the words of Christ as though Jesus had sat down with pen and parchment, started writing down the things that he wanted us to know.

We're reading the testimony of the apostles. So what we read even in Paul's epistles are the testimonies of the apostles. Well, we read in first and second Peter, in James and in Jude. These are the words of the apostles.

Just because it's not in red ink doesn't mean Jesus did not say it. As a matter of fact, he said all of it. Genesis one to Revelation 22, because as we had said for us at the start of this study of John in John, chapter one in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God.

And that is Jesus Christ. He is the very spoken word of God. And what he has said has come from the father to us that we may know the father's will and believe in him and follow him and become his children.

I do not ask for these only, Jesus says. He is also asking for those who will believe through their word. We came to faith hearing the word that was preached by the apostles. They preached it. They wrote it down.

It's in our Bibles. Somebody else learned this and they provided for us a basic gospel understanding that we would know that God has come to man, the incarnate son of God who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins as an atoning sacrifice, was buried in a tomb, but rose again to defeat death for us so that whoever believes in him has their sins forgiven by his blood and eternal life by his life.

And he is ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and there before the father is interceding for us. We have fellowship with God in heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Someone delivered that kind of a sermon to us and said, repent of your sins and follow Jesus and you will be saved for the judgment of from the judgment of God. And we heard that message and we believed it.

And by faith we have been saved. But what they were preaching, what that evangelist said to you or that pastor you may have heard or if it was a family member or a friend that shared the gospel with you, what they shared with you was what they got from the apostles who got the message of the gospel from Jesus Christ himself and testified to the things he said and he did.

We come to faith by this witness. And this is why, as the apostle Paul puts it in the Ephesians, that the foundation of the church is built upon the apostles with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

He's the marker. He's the first stone that was laid. He's the most important stone for the rest of the building is going to be built according to that stone. But then the foundation that was laid, the rest of the church is built upon that foundation is the apostles, the message and testimony that they went out proclaiming in obedience to the Lord Christ.

So we have come to faith by the teaching of that word and we've come to understand it and have therefore become his disciples. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Now notice something there where Jesus says in verse 21 that they may all be one. That's not just talking about the unity that you are to have with brothers and sisters in Christ that you know and that you go to church with.

Of course, that that's certainly where you're going to be exercising a growth in oneness and unity and maturity. You're going to be doing that with your own brothers and sisters in the Lord that you know face to face, that you attend church with, that you fellowship with, pray with, do devotionals with, you rejoice with those who rejoice, you weep with those who weep, you care for those who need it, you let those care for you who want to bless you in that way.

Through these things, we are growing in love and maturity and unity in Christ Jesus with those we personally know. But what Jesus is praying for here is not just that we would grow in unity with the people we know.

It's even that we would grow in unity with those who came before us, those who have been a part of the church of Jesus Christ for the last 2 ,000 years, those who have all since died and gone to be with the Lord.

But it's as if they've only fallen asleep the way Paul puts it with the Thessalonians. They haven't died. They've just gone to sleep. And then here's what's going to happen when Christ returns. The dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are left will be caught up with them.

So we will all be with the Lord. And the way Paul puts that to the Thessalonians, there is the picture of us all moving together as one. We will all be one together in glory with our Lord Christ. And as it says in Hebrews 11, for without us, without we who believe today, even those who have gone before us cannot be fully sanctified.

The full sanctification reaches its culmination at the return of Christ. Then we will all be joined together as one, and we will be that full purified bride for Christ as the Father had intended. That bride of Christ has not yet reached its fulfillment because Christ has not come back yet.

But each one of us, as we are growing in the faith, we are being added to that bride. Those who have already come before us, they have lived out their Christian faith. They have died. Their sanctification has come to an end as far as their responsibility is concerned.

But as we continue to be sanctified and growing in holiness, we're even sanctifying them. There might be a deeper lesson for another time, but go and read Hebrews 11 if you want to understand that further, so that we may all be one.

Even we now would be one with the reformers. We would be one with the Puritans. We would be one with the early church fathers. Everyone who has come to faith in the history of the church is being added to this bride, the inheritance of our Lord Christ, because he did the Father's will.

That they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me. And I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Now that statement there in particular, the world may believe that you have sent me, that could pertain to those who are still caught up in the world that need to be called out of the world to become followers of Christ.

As we look at the church and we hear the gospel being proclaimed, and we understand justification and sanctification and glorification, as we come to faith through the gospel that was taught to us, then we get called out of the world.

We believe those who are in the world may believe that you have sent me, that God so loved the world he sent his son, and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So that's one understanding of that.

Another way to understand that, though, is that as the church becomes one and is fully sanctified, purified, and is one with the Father in heaven above, on that day that Christ comes back, we're all gathered together with him, and we will forever be with the Lord.

As that happens, all the rest of the world is going to see it, and they're going to believe, and it will actually be to their destruction rather than to their salvation, because the end has come, and it will be added to their destruction because of this.

So that's two possible ways that we could read that, understanding that we get called out of the world to become followers of Christ, and then as the followers of Christ reach their full culmination, the rest of the world would see that Jesus Christ, whom they had rejected, was with the Father, and he whom they rejected has now become their judge.

The glory that you have given me, Jesus says in verse 22, I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. Jesus has promised us this glory. This is our glorification that we will receive.

Now, the way the Apostle Paul talks about it in Romans 8, we are glorified now in the sense that we've been promised glorification, and so since we have been, according to Colossians 3, been seated with Christ in God, our glorification is a guarantee, and so it's as if we've already received it, and we need to live as though we have received it.

But it will not become a full reality for us, as though we understand we've been saved from sin completely until we leave this life and we go to be with our God forever in heaven, where we're incorruptible at that point, sinless, holy, as he is holy, perfect forever in his presence.

That's the full glorification that we will receive at the end, but in the meantime, we do have it now, considering that it has been promised to us and sealed by the Holy Spirit. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.

Let's conclude with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your Son, that we may be forgiven our sins, and I pray that we would come to know your Word all the more fully, so that we may grow in our faith and our sanctification, as Jesus prayed, sanctify them in your truth, your Word is truth, that we may preach this Word to others and more may be added to the body of Christ, that we may be one just as we see unity in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So may we experience that same unity as the body of Christ. Keep us until that day of redemption, that day of glorification, when we will be forever with our God in glory. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.