Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20000329.htm

JOHN: TRIUMPHING IN LIFE'S MOST CRITICAL ISSUE
Part IV: Presentation Of The Messenger Of Salvation
D. Christ's Credentials Revealed In His Preparations For The Cross
4. Christ's Credibility Seen In His Intercession For The Church In VIEW Of His Coming Cross
c. Christ's Credibility Seen In His Intercession For US Future Believers
(John 17:20-26)
  1. Introduction
    1. If Jesus is the real Messiah and Incarnate God, then His death on the cross demands He vindicate His identity to non-eyewitness men today who are to believe in Him in spite of the cross.
    2. The intercession of Jesus for US later Christians who believed through His apostles' words to us gives man today ample evidence that Jesus is truly Messiah and Incarnate God (cf. Jn. 20:30-31) as follows:
  2. Christ's Credibility Seen In His Intercession For US Future Believers, John 17:20-26.
    1. When Jesus prayed to the Father in front of His disciples, He stated in that prayer that He made the prayer public for their knowledge so that they would have His joy fulfilled in them, John 17:13.
    2. Beyond thinking of His apostles, Jesus was concerned that His prayer would affect us who would believe on Him via His apostles' words, Jn. 17:20. Thus, Jesus revealed His thoughts on US future believers to the initial disciples so that, through their testimony, men could combine with His recorded words about US with our walk with Him for faith that He is indeed God's Messiah and Incarnate God (Jn. 20:30-31):
      1. First, Jesus wanted later humans to know that He prayed for the spiritual communion we believers have in Him and with one another as an evidence of the reality of our Christian faith, John 17:20-21:
        1. Jesus wanted later people to know He asked the Father that we believers today might have spiritual unity with one another and with God in our individual walks with God, John 17:20-21a. (15:4-6)
        2. His intent was that this unity of us later believers with one another and with the Father long after He had left the world would itself testify that Jesus was sent by the Father, 17:21b.
      2. Second, Jesus wanted later people to know it was God's assignment that WE believers, like Him and the early apostles, similarly have our own cross-before-the-glory pathways of the Christian walk so our unity with one another and God would mature, John 17:22-23:
        1. Throughout John's Gospel to this point, Christ's path of the cross-en-route-to-the-crown is seen as the path of God's true glory, Morris, The Gospel According to John, p. 735 (cf. Luke 9:23 et al.)
        2. Accordingly, as we believers can all testify with the "cross" experiences in life that come as an inevitable outgrowth of living upright lives (cf. 2 Timothy 3:12; John 15:20), and through these events we have to depend on the Lord and grow closer to Him, becoming perfectly united with fellow suffering saints and maturing thereby in the Lord, the world has great evidence that Jesus is the Messiah and Incarnate God by way of our own fellowship of sufferings with Him, Phil. 3:10-11.
      3. Third, Jesus wanted future mankind to know He planned for us believers to be with Him in heaven one day to behold the glory the Father gave to Him as a reward for His going to the cross, John 17:24:
        1. In heaven, it will be one day seen that the only human Who lived a perfect enough life to administer God's wrath on all of this world's injustices will be Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, Revelation 5:1-7.
        2. When He begins to move to judge the world's injustices, we with the angels will praise Him and laude Him for having gone to the cross and saved us from wrath, and for doling out justice, 5:8-14!
      4. Fourth, Jesus wanted future men to know that His evidence of working in our lives as believers to show His love to us and through us testifies to His reality as Messiah and Incarnate God, John 17:25-26.
Lesson: Jesus wanted people in OUR day to know (1) the UNITY we believers TODAY have in Christ with each other and God, which unity testifies of the credibility of our Christian faith, (2) the maturity we gain in unity with other believers and t he Lord in bearing a cross of persecution in living for Christ, (3) our hope of seeing His glory in heaven and (4) our growing awareness of His love to us and in us in our lives (Jn. 14:21, 23) were all things He actually prayed to the Father would come int o existence before He ever went to the cross. Thus, in SPITE of the cross, from uniting these words with our lives today, men today have ample evidences that Jesus is Messiah and God Incarnate!