“They Have Kept Your Word”

We’re going to read from the Bible, in John 17, as we continue to work our way through what we refer to as the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. The high priests in the Old Testament eventually stopped praying, because they died. Jesus—the writer to the Hebrews tells us that he ever lives to make intercession for us.[1]

But we’ll read these opening verses of John 17:

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and 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[’m] praying for them. I[’m] 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[’m] no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I[’m] 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.’”

Amen.

Our God and Father, we thank you that you’ve given us your Word. All that we need for life and for godliness is contained in it.[2] And we pray that as we listen to your Word expounded, that we might hear the voice of your Son, and that in hearing his voice we might trust, obey, and follow him. And we ask it in his name. Amen.

Well, you know, when you watch somebody, for example, paint—sometimes when they do that outdoors and you come alongside them—if you’re to stand behind them and see what they’re doing, you may catch something of their imagination or, certainly, of their ability to take what they see and translate it onto a canvas. To listen to somebody teach gives us the opportunity to understand the progression of thought in the individual’s mind—hopefully a measure of logic. To hear somebody play a musical instrument provides us with an opportunity, perhaps, to be stirred in a way that doesn’t happen on any other occasion.

But to listen in as somebody prays is to be made privy to the very essential longings of the human heart. That is one of the reasons why public prayer is so very difficult, I think, for all of us, whether we gather in a small group or where we have a responsibility such as mine today. Because in many ways, it is our prayer life that reveals what’s going on in our hearts. Spurgeon, when he was teaching his students in this respect, he said to them, “When you are a pastor in a church, you can invite someone else to preach for you, but don’t invite anybody else to do your pastoral prayer.”[3] And what he meant by that, of course, was “Your awareness of your congregation and their awareness of you will come out clearly in prayer.”

Now, I say all of that by way of introduction because here we are, joining the disciples as they are given the opportunity to listen to the Lord Jesus as he prays. They are within the threshold, hours away from all the agony of Calvary. And they doubtless put their hands over their mouths as they heard Jesus begin to pray first of all for himself and then, quite remarkably, to begin to pray for them: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” He’s referring to his disciples—to his eleven disciples.

Jesus came into the world in order to call them out of the world. And it is this small group of individuals who are able to listen in on Jesus as he prays—these eleven who have enjoyed the privilege of spending three years in the company of Jesus. Most recently, they’ve listened to Jesus as he has been preparing them for his departure. They’ve been struggling to imagine how they will possibly manage without the physical presence of Jesus. He has, as he’s taught them, assured them that they will not be left “as orphans,”[4] as he puts it, but the Holy Spirit will come. And indeed, he goes on to tell them that it is actually—while they may not feel this—it is to their advantage that he goes away, because the Holy Spirit will come and bear witness about Jesus.[5] And he says, too, “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”[6] “The Holy Spirit will bear witness to me, and you in turn will do the same.”

To listen in as somebody prays is to be made privy to the very essential longings of the human heart.

They must have wondered how that was going to be. Because let’s be honest: They weren’t exactly what you would call straight-A students, were they? If we just run in our minds back through the Gospel record, we realize that there was plenty that Jesus might have had occasion to use as an occasion of reproof.

I thought about it this week in relationship to a song, as usual. But we used to sing as children in Scotland,

When mothers of Salem
Their children brought to Jesus,
[Those] stern disciples drove them back
And bade them depart.

“Move back,” they said.

But Jesus saw them ere they fled
And sweetly smiled and kindly said,
“Suffer [the] little children
To come [to] me.”[7]

But the straight-A students had decided, “No! We’re not doing children’s ministry. You just keep on your way.”

Or, for example, remember when they have returned from a visit to a village of Samaria, and the response to their work in Samaria has been not what you would call exactly positive. And so the students—that’s the disciples—they say… This is what they say to Jesus: “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?”[8] Jesus said, “No. I don’t want you to do that.”

Or, for example, after Jesus has said to them, “It is a reality that I, the Son of Man, will go up to Jerusalem, I will suffer at the hands of cruel men, I will be crucified, and I will rise again”[9]—and the Gospel writer on the back of that says, “[And] an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.”[10]

So you see, as we read the Gospels, we see ourselves as well as seeing Jesus, don’t we? Wrong ideas, strange thoughts, and a lot of preoccupation. They were students in the school of Christ, and the Lord Jesus is aware of the fact that they are about to be scattered. They’re all about to go to their own homes. They will move away from him like frightened sheep, and they will leave him alone. They’re about to forsake and deny their Master.

Frankly, if you think about it, the harvest of Jesus’ ministry as he comes to the end of three years doesn’t look particularly strong, does it? Who does he have? He has eleven Galilean artisans as a result of three years of labor. And for these individuals now he bows before his Father, and he prays.

In due course, they’re going to be sent out. “As the Father sent me, so I send you,”[11] he’s going to say to them. And as a result of them being sent out, they’re going to become the seed of a great, worldwide harvest—these individuals, this eleven—so that this morning, when we pray for the work of the gospel throughout the world, the reason the gospel is throughout the world is because of the immediate work of those for whom Jesus prays.

But let’s not miss this: They are actually a sorry picture. They’re unstable. They’re shaky at best. But notice: They are those whom the Father has given to Jesus out of the world. And as a result of that divine decree by the Father in eternity to provide to his Son those whom he has given him, they are secure in Christ.

What I want us to understand this morning from this is just, I think, three things. If we look at it this way, let’s consider, first of all, the Father’s gift to his Son; then let’s consider the work of Jesus in relationship to that; and then let’s consider the response of the disciples themselves.

The Father’s Gift

Verse 6—let’s just make sure we understand it: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Jesus is speaking to the Father. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

Now, we spent a fair amount of time on this matter when we studied in John chapter 6, and I’m not going to rehearse it again. I commend to you our studies in John 6 if you are trying to work your way through this thought. It is the matter of the doctrine of election—that God from all of eternity has purposed to have a people that are his very own and that he’s elected them to salvation, and he has given this company to his Son. That’s what Jesus is referring to here. The doctrine is in the Bible not so that we would be confused by the fact that we find it difficult to put these two elements together—the divine sovereignty of God and human responsibility—spending all our time trying to reconcile what need not be reconciled. Both truths sit side by side in Scripture.

I came across a quote, actually, from Harry Ironside, the one-time pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. And addressing this, presumably, he had occasion to tell his congregation that he heard of a man called Sam Hadley. And this man, Sam Hadley, had been listening to people in a context of some small size, and these people were giving testimony to how it was that they had trusted in Jesus. Hadley, having listened to this, stood up and said, “Many of you have been telling how you found Jesus. I have no such story to tell. I never found Him, for I was not looking for Him, but He found me, and drew me to Himself.”[12]

Now, when we go on in a moment or two and we see the response of the disciples, the sovereign purpose of God does not run counter to the response of the individual. You know that to be true. Perhaps someone led you to Christ, and you were together over a period of time, talking and reading and thinking, and eventually, the day came where you bowed down your knee, as it were, and you gave up the arms of your rebellion, and you trusted in Jesus, and you walked away from the coffee shop or from the Bible study—whatever it might be—a different person. But so many years have elapsed since then. And in the ensuing period of time, you’ve begun to track back down through the line. And you’ve gone way beyond the book that you were given. You’ve gone way beyond the conversations that you had. You’ve gone back behind that and back behind that and back behind that. And you say to yourself, “I think this must have begun in eternity.” And you would be absolutely right.

Loved before the dawn of time,
Chosen by my Maker,
Hidden in my Savior,
I am his and he is mine,
Cherished for eternity.[13]

Cherished is a great word, isn’t it? I used it yesterday, because it’s in the marital vows: “to love and to cherish till death us do part.” To cherish someone is to protect and to care for them in a loving way. And Jesus is now praying to the Father, and he recognizes that the Father cherishes those whom he has given to the Son.

Jesus’ Work

So, the Father has given them. And the Son in turn, you will notice—still in verse 6—has manifested God’s name. What does that mean? “I have manifested your name.” Well, he has revealed the Father. Right at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, we find that this comes across with clarity: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”[14]

And by the time you get to the end of the Gospel of John, you find the same thing. This is what it says—John 21: “After this Jesus revealed,” or manifested, “himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed,” or manifested, “himself in this way.”[15] So that was the part that Jesus played: making the Father known. Remember, he says, memorably, “When you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”[16]

But it doesn’t just say that. It says, “I have manifested your name.” “Your name.” You see, the name expresses the totality of the person, the whole of the personality. Names, by and large, in Western culture mean… I don’t want to say “very little.” Everybody’s name is an important thing. But it doesn’t mean what it meant in the ancient world, and it doesn’t mean what it means in parts of the wider world—perhaps in Africa and in Asia—where names are given in order to at least express a hope concerning the entire entity of the individual. We tend to use names as a means of just distinguishing between James and William, so that when you call the name, you have the opportunity that someone will reply.

But no. I don’t know how many of you, if I asked you, “Is there a cornerstone in this building?” how many of you would say yes. And then if I asked you, “Have you ever seen it?” then the number would be smaller. And then if I asked you, “Could any of you tell me exactly what it is?” we would be down to just a handful, probably. But it’s Psalm 138:2, and the second half of verse 2: “For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

Now, what Jesus is pointing out here is this: that to believe in God is to believe in him as he is. It is to believe in God as God has revealed himself in the Word and in the works of Jesus, primarily. That’s why, again, at the beginning of John’s Gospel, when he’s describing the way in which Jesus has come into the world and his own people have not received him, it says that he came to them, they did not receive him, “but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become [the] children of God.”[17]

So in other words, it is not possible to understand this apart from the words and the works of Jesus. When we were in Matthew 11 and dealing with 28, 29, and 30, that was preceded by verse 27, where Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

To believe in God is to believe in him as he is. It is to believe in God as God has revealed himself in the Word and in the works of Jesus, primarily.

Now, this is very, very important. And incidentally, you shouldn’t be deceived or go offline as a result of the word “I have manifested.” Those of you who drive along 306 from north to south, depending on what time you arrive at the little area beyond 422: of all the things that are held up for our opportunity there—there’s beer and nuts and a variety of things as you go past—but every so often when I’m coming past, it just has a big word there, and it just says “Manifest.” “Manifest.” I don’t know if you’ve noticed that. I don’t know if you know what it means. I don’t suggest that you follow up, because it is actually a New Age thing. Manifestation is a New Age spiritual practice where you try and imagine and create from within yourself a reality that as yet does not exist.

As a Christian, you know that’s bogus. Because God is the ultimate reality. And when Jesus comes down into time and lives as he lives and speaks as he speaks and acts as he acts, he is manifesting the name of the Father to his disciples in order that they who have now been called into his train, as it were, are suddenly realizing, “This is amazing!”—James and John and Peter and Levi and Thomas and all of the people walking along with Jesus, and now Jesus is praying for these folks, and he’s telling the Father that he has manifested his name.

You’ll notice, actually, in 6, 7, and 8, he hasn’t even asked the Father for anything. But in verse 8 he also goes on to say, “For I have given them the words that you gave me.” “I [gave] them the words that you gave me.”

So, declaring the name of God is directly related to declaring the word of God. And the word of God has been given to Jesus in order that he might speak it. This is important too. Because Jesus doesn’t say, “Father, I’ve shared a few ideas with them,” or “Father, I’ve conveyed our philosophy to them,” or “Father, I’ve set an example for them.” You will find when you talk to people that there are many people who think that that is all that Jesus came to do: came to give some general principles to be considered, came to provide an example so that people could try their best to be like him. Jesus does provide an example. Jesus does provide principles. But that’s not why he came. He came as we’ve been singing this morning.

The Bible knows absolutely nothing of the idea that we may simply pick and choose from among the general scheme of things. And people ask—I wonder if they ask you; they certainly ask me from time to time in a context—they’ll say to me, “Why do you folks over there pay so much attention to the Bible? Why are you always on about the Bible? I mean, why can’t you just lift your gaze from those pages and get to the real heart of the matter?” Some of them ask me that because their background is Roman Catholic, and as Roman Catholics, they have come to believe—they have been taught—that you have a very short homily, and you have a relatively longer Eucharist; that in most places, the pulpit is off to the side, and altars are central to the sanctuary. And they may even be gated away so that only those and such as those will be going into this precinct.

Now, what is going on there? This is what they believe: Jesus is encountered in the Mass. Protestant theology: Jesus is met in the Word. We share in the celebration of Communion as a once-for-all sacrifice so that all who trust may be cleansed by the blood of Christ. We do not rehearse it week by week or day by day. And if a person comes to believe that that is the case, then you will understand why your devout Roman Catholic friends not only go to Mass on a weekly basis, but some of them go to Mass every single morning before they go to work. I understand that, in the same way that I hope you and I read our Bibles every single morning before we go to work. Our desire is the same desire. Jesus says, “I have given them your words, the words that you gave to me.” So this is actually theological. It’s theological.

In fact, the scribes back in John chapter 7, they had occasion to say to one another, “How is it that this Jesus—this Jesus of Nazareth—how is it that this man is able to teach like this, and yet he has never studied?”[18] What they’re saying is “He didn’t go to our proper rabbinical schools. He hasn’t graduated from the place that you’re supposed to graduate from.” And Jesus says to them, “My teaching is not my own; I’m simply teaching he who gave me what to teach.”[19]

Now, if you want to, just turn here, and let me just reinforce this, because this is of vital importance—Jesus saying, “Father, I have manifested your name to them, and Father, I have given them the words that you gave me.” John chapter 12. John 12. And where shall we go? Verse 44. Well, 44’s perfect. John chapter 12:44:

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

And you find that repeated again and again.

Now, it’s not the Bible that saves us, when we talk about the importance of the Bible and the Word of God. No, we’re saved by the one to whom we’re introduced in the Bible—that the Bible, as we say to one another, is a book about Jesus, all the way from the beginning to the end, pointing to him, referring to him. Because he is the Savior.

If it was just simply a knowledge of ancient texts, whether ours in English or others in Aramaic or whatever it might be, then we would simply be in the position of the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day when Jesus looks at them and he says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have … life; … yet you refuse to come to me.”[20] You can read all you like, but until the light shines into your heart and shows you who Jesus is, how he has come, why he has come, then the Scriptures will be just a closed book to you.

So the gift of the Father is the gift of the disciples to the Son. The work of the Son is, then, to manifest God’s name and to declare God’s words.

The Disciples’ Response

What, then, of the response of the disciples? “Now they know that everything … 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.”

It’s not the Bible that saves us. No, we’re saved by the one to whom we’re introduced in the Bible.

In other words, what he’s saying is “These disciples that you have given me have kept your word. Now…” I don’t know whether “Now” is logical here, from 6 to 7, or temporal. I think probably temporal: “Now, in this moment…” “Now they know that everything … you have given me is from you.” And their certainty about these things has come about how? Well, it’s come about by actually hearing the words that Jesus spoke and taking him at his word.

When, earlier in the year—May, was it?—I had the privilege of being in Albania… And my host in Albania, as some of you will know, is a fellow called Andy. He’s a pastor there. And as he had picked me up from the airport and was driving me to our destination, I tried to find a little more about him than I knew. His parents were both teachers, both Muslims by background, avowedly atheistic at the same time. He’s brought up in a context where the only reason anybody would ever believe in God, said his father, is just to fill in the gaps in their miserable life to try and give them something to hang on to. And that was really Andy’s position.

And I can’t give you his whole biographical sketch, but at the end of the line, I said to him, “Yeah, but what was it that turned the tables for you?” He said, “A friend gave me a Bible.” “A friend gave me a Bible.” And he said, “I began to read the Bible, and it annoyed me intensely. And I would talk to my friend, and we would argue, and we’d debate.”

But that’s all in the past now. Because, you see, Andy was chosen before the foundation of the world. Along the journey of his life in that context, his eyes were opened, his ears were unstopped, and he believed. He’s included here, actually: “I have given Andy the words you gave me, and he’s received them, and he’s come to know in truth that I came from you.” Pretty good, isn’t it?

Notice what it says. The verbs are important: “They have”—verse 8—“they have received them,” or embraced them, or accepted the truth that Jesus brought from the Father. Remember again in John 1: “But as many as received him, believed in his name…” They have “received.”

Secondly, they “have come to know.” They “have come to know.” Read verse 7 carefully. Jesus doesn’t say in verse 7, of the disciples, “Now they know everything”: “Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.” Because the fact of the matter is, there is much that they still do not know. In the previous chapter, in chapter 16—I think you’ll find it there, right around verse 12—yes, he says to them—says to these disciples that he’s referring to now—“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” This is an ongoing process. But “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all … truth.” That’s not a promise for us. That’s a promise for the apostles, so that they, having been guided into all truth, will then write the truth—the truth will be recorded—so that we might have, then, in our Bibles the very truth of the words that God spoke through his Son, the Lord Jesus.

As Jesus speaks to them even now and describes them now, they still don’t have a clear grasp of what it’s going to mean for him to die and, certainly, to be resurrected. They don’t have an understanding of how it is that in Jesus, all these Old Testament pictures of Prophet, Priest, and King and Suffering Servant find their fulfillment in Jesus. They don’t know all of that as yet. But they do know—they do believe—“that you have sent me.”[21]

You see, we often say, don’t we, that you don’t have to take your brain out to become a Christian? Which is a silly picture, really, in many ways. But when the Bible speaks of knowledge in this way—this receiving, this believing knowledge—the knowledge is not abstract. It’s not abstract. It’s not like 2πr—which, of course, is not abstract when you’re doing math. But I mean, it’s not, like, out there. No, it’s right in here. It’s “KAT,” K-A-T: knowledge, assent, and trust.

Now, let me end by this: I want to speak first of all to the person who’s saying, “Hang on, wait a minute,” and then to the rest.

You might be saying to yourself, “This is all very well. I hear what you’re saying. I’m not sure I accept it, and frankly, from where I’m standing, I don’t even see it. I just don’t see it.” Good.

There is a church building—there are a lot of church buildings in Edinburgh—but there’s a church building in Edinburgh at the west end of Princes Street. It sits over the Princes Street Gardens and underneath the shadow of the castle. It has the most magnificent stained-glass windows. But when you stand outside on the average rainy Wednesday and look at this building, the stonework combines with the windows to look just gloomy as can be. You have to step inside the building for the light to shine through and declare the magnificence of the window. On the outside, it will mean relatively little to you. On the inside, you will say, “I see it.” You see, if you’re standing on the outside, of course you can’t see it.

An encounter with Jesus is a crossroads encounter. Bible class in Scotland, we used to sing,

I met Jesus at the crossroads,
Where the two ways meet.
Satan, too, was standing there,
And he said, “Come my way.
Lots and lots of pleasures
I will give to you today!”

But I said, “No! There’s Jesus here.
Just see what he offers me:
Down here, my sins forgiven;
Up there, a home in heaven.
Praise God, that’s the way for me.”

I’d never have known how beautiful the windows were had I not gone inside. I’d never have known what a wonderful Savior Jesus is until I heard him say, “Come to me,” and I came.

Final word of encouragement to those of us who are not wondering about this, but we are seeking to follow Jesus: Like the disciples, we’re not all straight-A students in this venture. At least I haven’t met many. I meet one regularly in the morning when I brush my teeth, and I know that he is not a straight-A student in the service of Christ. Jesus had plenty of reasons for saying to his Father something along the lines of “Father, I can’t believe these guys you’ve given me. I mean, they don’t understand this. They haven’t a clue about that. They ask dumb questions regularly. They even ask me after I’ve said it as clear as can be.”

No, no, there’s nothing, nothing, nothing. He says nothing about their faltering, stumbling disobedience. He doesn’t mention their fits and their starts, their stumbles and their falls. And he doesn’t mention ours either. Because their acceptance with the Father is on the strength of what Christ is about to accomplish as he steps out of that garden and into that scene on Calvary. And our acceptance with the Father this morning is on the strength of the selfsame thing: that the Father looks upon us and sees us as united to his Son, that his obedience is a perfect obedience, that his sacrifice for sin is the only sacrifice for sin.

And so here you are this morning, and you’re saying, “I’ve had a… Not my best week, that’s for sure.” And if you were to rehearse many of these things, you would say, “I’m barely in the class, it would seem.” In fact, when people ask you what you know, you say, “Well, I don’t know a lot, but I know one thing.” Like the man who was healed from his blindness, remember? They kept asking him, “Who did this to you? How did it happen?”—asked his parents, asked him. Eventually, he got fed up with them, and he says, “Look, go ask the guy who did it for me. He’ll tell you the answer! He’s got the answer. I don’t know about that. But one thing I know: once I was blind, but now I can see.”[22] “Once I was outside, but now, by grace, I am inside. I was once there. I am now here. How this happened…”

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing [me] of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word
[And] creating faith in him.
But “I know whom I have believed.”[23]

Listen: Weak faith is still faith. Your faith is weak? Welcome to the club!

Jesus! What a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my strength, my victory wins.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!
… What a friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He[’s] with me to the end. [24]

Let’s have a prayer, and then we’ll sing. Let’s bow in prayer. I want to use a prayer written by one of my friends. I wish I had written this:

Father, we are miserable sinners. We confess it and we own it. But Jesus has lifted us out of the miry clay. We confess it and we own it. By the sacrifice of his blood he has raised us to a status far above anything we could achieve on our own. We can keep your Word only by his power within us. May it be true of us as it was true of the original eleven. Father, we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[1] See Hebrews 7:25.

[2] See 2 Peter 1:3.

[3] C. H. Spurgeon, “Our Public Prayer,” inLectures to My Students(Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2008), 61. Paraphrased.

[4] John 14:18 (ESV).

[5] See John 16:7.

[6] John 15:27 (ESV).

[7] William Medlen Hutchings, “When Mothers of Salem Their Children Brought to Jesus” (1850).

[8] Luke 9:54 (paraphrased).

[9] Luke 9:44 (paraphrased).

[10] Luke 9:46 (ESV).

[11] John 20:21 (paraphrased).

[12] Sam Hadley, quoted in H. A. Ironside, Addresses on the Gospel of John (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1973), 745–46.

[13] Stuart Townend and Andrew Small, “Loved Before the Dawn of Time” (2007).

[14] John 1:17–18 (ESV).

[15] John 21:1 (ESV).

[16] John 14:9 (paraphrased).

[17] John 1:12 (ESV).

[18] John 7:15 (paraphrased).

[19] John 7:16 (paraphrased).

[20] John 5:39–40 (ESV).

[21] John 17:21, 25 (ESV).

[22] John 9:25 (paraphrased).

[23] Daniel Webster Whittle, “I Know Whom I Have Believed” (1883).

[24] John Wilbur Chapman, “Our Great Savior” (1910).