John 17:20

My Notes

What Does John 17:20 Mean?

Jesus extends His prayer beyond the eleven disciples in the room to include every future believer: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." The prayer reaches through time. The disciples in the upper room are prayed for, and so is every person who will ever believe through the message they carry. That includes you.

The phrase "through their word" establishes the chain of transmission: the disciples' word produces faith in future believers. The faith is passed from person to person through testimony. The prayer anticipates two thousand years (and counting) of people coming to faith through the preached, taught, shared, and lived word of Jesus' original followers.

Jesus' inclusion of future believers in His most intimate prayer reveals the scope of His love: on the night of His betrayal, hours from the cross, He's thinking about people who won't be born for centuries. He's praying for the woman reading this sentence right now. The prayer in the upper room wasn't just for the first century. It was for you, by name, before you existed.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Does it change anything to know that Jesus prayed for you specifically, by anticipation, on the night He was betrayed?
• 2.Your faith is connected to the upper room through an unbroken chain of testimony. Who was the link that brought the word to you?
• 3.If Jesus thought about you hours before the cross, what does that say about how much you matter to Him?
• 4.Who might you be the 'word' for—the link in the chain through which someone else will believe?

Devotional

Jesus prayed for you. Specifically. By anticipation. On the night He was betrayed, hours before the cross, in the most intimate prayer of His life—He thought of you. "Them also which shall believe on me through their word." That's you. You believed through the word that was passed down from the disciples to the church to the person who told you. And Jesus prayed for you before you were born.

The scope of this prayer is staggering. Jesus is in the upper room. He can see eleven men. But His prayer reaches beyond the room, beyond the century, beyond every generation that will ever exist. He's praying for the Ethiopian woman who believes through a missionary's word in the eighth century. The English farmer who hears the gospel from a traveling preacher in the fifteenth century. The college student who reads John's Gospel in the twenty-first century. You.

The chain—"through their word"—means your faith is connected to the upper room through an unbroken line of human testimony. Someone told someone who told someone who told you. And Jesus prayed for every link in that chain. The prayer that covers you tonight was spoken two thousand years ago by someone who knew you were coming.

If you've ever felt forgotten by God—if you've wondered whether He thinks about you, whether you matter to Him, whether you're on His radar—this verse answers permanently: Jesus prayed for you on the worst night of His life. Before the cross. Before the agony. He prayed for the people who would believe because of the word. You're one of them. You were prayed for before you existed.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture