That They Believe You Sent Me
In chapter 17 of John, we find the Lord’s Prayer, one which Yeshua Himself prayed. It is the prayer of the Son of God to God the Father, and the outstanding thing here is that this prayer is spoken out loud, so that those then as well as we today, may be privy to the words of this communion between the Messiah and the Father.
It is a rare privilege to be invited to this precious moment. And while this prayer comes right before Yeshua is arrested, judged and crucified, we see at this point that His main concern was not about what He was to endure on the Tav. His thoughts were for His disciples because He was soon leaving them and so He showers them with promises of blessings.
This prayer was not only for them. His thoughts and concerns were and are for us as well, whom He also foreknew for He mentions us. See verse 20 where He says, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, (speaking of the disciples) but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” This prayer is addressed to all those who will believe in Him because of the Word that the disciples brought to us; these are the words found in the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament.
It is a short prayer and takes about 5 minutes to read. On the surface it seems simple enough for a child to understand, yet it contains such deep things that through these last 2000 years, many could not explain its depth. At some point His Words literally transcend time and space. Here Yeshua speaks as if He already died and resurrected. While this prayer is called the High Priest’s Prayer, Jesus had not yet ascended to heaven to take this position. He also says things that make us realize that this is a divine prayer as spoken by the Omniscient and Omnipresent Savior. For instance in vs.5, He speaks of Who He was even before the creation of this world. He says, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This verse is among the rare ones which projects us to eternity past where, as John previously said, the Word was with God and the Word was God. (John 1:1). This is an impossible concept to grasp and understand except by faith.
And to add to this, Yeshua gives us in vs.8 another peek into the hereafter. After speaking with the believers He says, Truly, they understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. What does it mean that Jesus came forth from the Father? Yeshua was not created, rather we are told in the first chapter of John that He is the Creator and the Life Giver, and if He came forth from God, it means that He is divine Himself.
But how did this happen? This is when we remember the words of Paul when He says in 1Corinthians 4: 6, “That you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.” If Paul who went to heaven and back, concluded that there are some areas we ought not venture into how much more should we guard that boundary and not assume to cross it.
What we are given in this prayer, is a great present, a privilege to begin to perceive, not to necessarily unravel, because it is far beyond our capacity to do so, but to realize that precious and profound things exist and are waiting for us to be unveiled. It is like an advertising brochure which shows us just a few pictures of an existing place so that our anticipation and hope of meeting God soon, would increase all the more.
And among the many other truths we find in this chapter, it is also here where we are given a detailed definition of this major teaching of the Bible; eternal life. John 17:3 reads, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom You have sent.” The outworking of Eternal Life is to know God and His Son Yeshua. Simple, is it not? To be saved is to know God and His Son and the Greek word to know, requires much more than a simple head knowledge, it requires investigation and understanding; it implies intelligent comprehension. Behind this word, ginosko, lies the constant progression and growth in knowing God with even deeper affection.
To know and believe that God exists, and that Yeshua exists is not enough; we are told that even demons believe and tremble. To know Yeshua is to live according to His precepts and constantly grow in the knowledge of God and make the necessary changes in our lives.
And while Jesus, in this chapter, explains the benefits and blessings of salvation, He goes further by explaining the way of sanctification, or the way to better know Him; He emphasizes the Word of God which He repeats at least 6 times. We are told in vs.6 that those who know God, keep His Word. Here Eternal Life is linked with the written Word of God. Yeshua said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word.” This is the mark of a true believer; one who keeps His Word. It is he or she who lives according to God’s precepts. The word keep in the Greek, tereo, means to observe, to guard, to protect. The verb is in the perfect active indicative; meaning it was done and is being done, on and on; for at the end, no one ever finishes growing in God. It is an eternal undertaking we begin here on earth.
It is then in vs.8 where we are given a process to get this great gift of salvation. Try to figure out this process. Yeshua says, For the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Notice the procedure here; from receiving the Word, to truly understanding it to finally believing it.
Once the person receives it and allows the Spirit of God to work in his heart and soul, he will understand the Word of salvation, that it is pure and without mistakes or error. This is a process that comes through faith and through reading the Word. The result is that the individual then believes that God is the only true God and Yeshua has come forth Him to save us.