This evening let me invite you to take up a copy of God’s Word and turn with me to the gospel of John, please; the gospel of John, as we read from chapter 17 and the first five verses together. You will remember that over the last three months as we’ve been looking at John 13 through 16. We’ve spent quite a significant amount of time focusing on the teaching that Jesus Christ was giving to His disciples, these final vital truths that He longed to impart that was going to prepare them for what was about to unfold, not just in the next 24 to 48 hours, but ultimately to secure them in the mission that was going to be commissioned to them. And so He’s been expounding doctrine for four chapters. But as we turn to the verses that are before us this evening, we notice that there is a very clear and distinct change. Now Jesus prays.
One of the things that came to mind as I was going over this again this afternoon and what struck me is the relevance that this has to each and every one of us in our Christian lives. Whether we are preaching or teaching, discipling or evangelizing, the conversations of daily life that we have with those that God brings across our path, it’s important to lace our conversations with somewhat of the message of the Gospel truth that comes from Scripture so that they will go away and ponder. But I think that sometimes we stop there. And I think that part of what Jesus is saying here is, then you need to commit it to the Lord in prayer. Commit those conversations to God that He would use the words that were uttered from your weak mouths, your stammering tongues, that He would use that to pierce, to comfort, to strengthen, and to encourage those that He brought across your path.
So having expounded doctrine for four chapters, here we see Jesus go to His Father in prayer. Matthew Henry writes this concerning these verses. He says, “This is a prayer after a sermon, after a sacrament. It’s a family prayer,” speaking about the Son to the Father. “A family prayer. A prayer before a sacrifice, and it’s a glimpse into Christ’s eternal intercession for us.” It’s marvelously summarized. He’s really encapsulating how the shadows and the types of the Old Testament come to a point at this moment as Jesus is before the Father in preparation for the sacrifice, but it also gives us this wonderful glimpse of the heart of Jesus Christ our Savior as he sits at the right hand side of God the Father Almighty at this very moment in time and how He continues to eternally intercede for those who are His own.
Now as you know, this prayer that is before us is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer. It’s a title that goes all the way back to the early 5th century to Cyril of Alexandria where Cyril and a number of the other theologians noticed that there were incredible parallels between Leviticus 16 and the details of the prayer here in John 17. Of course in Leviticus 16 we have the scenario of the high priest who is preparing to go into the Holy of Holies and he is, once a year, going to offer the atoning sacrifice for the people of God. And in preparation to enter the Holy of Holies, the high priest prays as the representative of the people of God before the face of God before he then offers the sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people of God. And he prays.
And you can imagine. Try and put yourself in the scenario – the situation of the high priest. You can imagine as he is preparing to go into the Holy Place, the Most Holy Place; there’s a sense of his own weakness and frailty that captures him. There is a sense in which he is utterly dependent upon the mercy and grace of God, that as the sinner walks into the holy presence of God, that God in mercy is going to allow him to walk back out. And so he prays. He prays for himself as he enters the presence of God. He then prays for his family and his neighbors as he goes into the presence of God, that he will return from the presence of God. And then of course thirdly, he prays for all the people of God as he represents them in offering sacrifice. And as you go away later this evening and you go and read the whole of John chapter 17 – we’re not going to be able to read that in its entirety this evening – but as you read the whole of John chapter 17 you will see the precise structure that is given to us in the Levitical code for the high priest.
Jesus, in preparing for His ablation, for the pouring out of His life, He consecrates Himself first and foremost to His Father, to God. Then, He prays for His eleven disciples. These are the brothers that He had grown to love with an intensity of love as they shared life together over the last three years. And so He prays that His Father would keep them and that He would protect them, not just in this weekend of trial and difficulty and sorrow, but He would keep them to fulfill the mission that would be given to them. And then of course the prayer expands to all those who will be given to Him from across the nations and down through the ages, that ultimately every single one will be sanctified by the truth that is being accomplished on the cross of Calvary as Christ is glorified in that moment.
Now one more comment by way of introduction. This is the only prayer that we have that is recorded for us in holy Scripture of Jesus Christ as He bears His soul to His Father. We know of many instances where we are told that Jesus withdrew from the crowds and spent some time with His Father, but we don’t know the details of those prayers. We also know that it is Jesus who taught us how to pray. But there’s something that is different about this one. Here, the Holy Spirit has ordained that a prayer be recorded in holy Scripture, an intimate prayer between the beloved second person of the Triune Godhead as He pours out the burden of His heart to His beloved Father. And in it, as we see the burden of His heart as the shadow of the cross looms large, it’s almost as if we’re eavesdropping in on a holy and an intimate moment. And by all accounts, no human being should have access to this kind of communication, but by the grace of God because it’s recorded for us.
And so as we listen in, as we turn to God’s Word and read these few verses, perhaps even trembling, it’s worth being mindful of what one theologian said. He said this, “This is a genuine dialogue between the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit.” And it oscillates between the work that He has accomplished – we’ll see that in vese 4 – and the preincarnate fellowship that He had with the Father – we see that in verse 5 and it’s alluded to in verse 1. So without further ado, let’s turn to God’s Word, let’s read God’s Word, and then we will pray.
This is the Word of God. John 17, reading from verse 1:
“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.’”
The grass withers, the flowers fade, the Word of God stands forever. Amen. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, this evening we once again praise You for Your infallible and inerrant Word. We pray that by Your Spirit You would take it, and like a sword, Lord that You would cut to each of our hearts. Lord, pierce those that need to be pierced, that they may see the glory of Christ. Lord, bring comfort and encouragement to those who are in a place of just needing to know the tenderness and the love of their heavenly Father. And we pray these things and ask this in Christ’s name, amen.
In 2007, Damien Hirst – he’s a popular modern artist – he had a number of pieces that were put on display in the White Cube Gallery in London. And one of those pieces was entitled, “For the Love of God.” It was a human skull comprising 8,601 diamonds with one large pink diamond valued at just under $20 million dollars they say that was placed right in the center of the forehead of the skull. And on this particular occasion – it was only by way of invited guests, and of course you can imagine there was high security – but as the exhibition began, everyone was escorted into a darkened room, absolutely no light whatsoever. And then a single beam of light was turned on and the source of that light was from the midst of the diamond-encrusted skull. And the effect was that there was this glorious array of light that lit up the entire darkened room. And those that were there said they came away absolutely astonished and mesmerized at how that one beam of light had brought such an array of glorious color around that entire darkened room.
You see, it took a single beam of light from the midst of the image of death – that of the skull – in order to bring the room to life that evening and to leave an imprint on those who were present. Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come. My death is upon Me. Glorify Your Son.” In other words, “Let the light shine that the glory of the Son may bring glory to You as My Father.” That’s Jesus’ prayer as we come to these verses. That through these things that must still take place – through the betrayal and through the trial and the verdict and the humiliation and the suffering and ultimately the crucifixion and His resurrection – through all of these things, “Glorify Your Son. But let Your glory be made known through Your bringing glory to Me.” It wasn’t about the glory of the Son. It was about how that would be a refraction of the glory of God back to Him. That’s the purpose here. That’s Jesus’ hearts desire – is that the refracted glory of God’s plan to redeem a people from every tribe and tongue and nation would be seen and it would be known through Him.
Now this phrase, “The hour has come,” that is mentioned in verse 1, it’s a phrase that we encounter on a number of occasions in the gospels, particularly the gospel of John. But in many instances, it refers to – and Jesus has said – that “The hour had not yet come.” You know when the Pharisees are trying to take hold of Him or the crowds are trying to get hold of Him in order to hand Him over to the authority because of what He is doing or because of what He is saying, but the hour had not yet come. But now it is the appointed hour. It is the promised hour; the one that has been eagerly anticipated from Genesis chapter 3 where the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. Where God’s eternal council will meet perfectly in an intersection of the final atoning sacrifice for sinners and for sin. You see, until this night, none of His enemies could touch Him. None of His enemies could touch Him. But now the hour has come. The enemies are gathering as a result – both physical and spiritual enemies, they’re all gathering – and the Lamb is ready and He is consecrating Himself into the hands of His Father. Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.”
And there’s just two things that I’d like us to consider that I’d like to draw out of the passage for this evening. As we consider Jesus’ prayer, He prays that He might be glorified so that the Father in turn might be glorified through His mission and through the appointed means. Through His mission and through the appointed means. Those are the two points that I want us to consider.
Jesus’ Mission
So firstly, glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, through accomplishing the mission. Look at the text with me again. Verse 1 – Jesus prays, “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.” Down to verse 4, “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.”
Just as a slight aside from my notes, one of the things that struck me anew as I was reading this text this afternoon was once again the parallel, the correlation between these verses and where Paul picks up in Philippians chapter 2; what is called the great parabola. The yearning of Jesus’ heart here is that, that which He once experienced, the glory in the presence of the Father that He gave up in order to go through the glory of the cross, is what He yearns and He longs to be back in that place. That place, in the presence of the Father, which He once was in, He longs for that once again. It’s a striking set of verses. And in these final moments, one of the things that ought to strike us and ought to really catch our eye is that Jesus turns His gaze like a flint, His eyes are turned like a flint towards His eternal home. The end is in sight. And so He prays. In fact, there’s a yearning, there’s a yearning for the moment where He will enter in as the King of glory, the Lord mighty in battle, where He is the one that will be adored and worshiped for the victory that has been accomplished on behalf of what the Father has entrusted to Him. And it’s a glory that was His in His Father’s presence from before the foundation of the world. The place of God’s unmitigated beauty and majesty; the place where the perfections of God’s essence and His character and His attributes, they exist in its most pure form. That’s what He longs to be back in the presence of – the place of glory.
And yet even as the text tells us, this is the glory that Jesus Christ Himself, He gave it up as He took on human flesh and was conceived in the virgin’s womb. You remember the beginning of the gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Verse 14, “The Word became flesh and He dwelt among us.” It is the glory that He set aside in order to continue to fulfill the mission that had been entrusted to Him. Look at verse 5 again. “And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.” As the hour approaches, His attention, His hope turns to the fullness of this glory once again. And notice that Jesus’ yearning, His yearning and His longing, it did not imply that He was interested in taking a shortcut. In other words, He wasn’t asking His Father, “Father take Me from this moment in prayer to be in Your presence straight away.” A.W. Pink makes a very insightful comment. He says that, “Jesus knows that He must be glorified in and by and for His sufferings” – “in and by and for His sufferings.” And so He is dependent upon the Father to sustain Him at the cross, to raise Him from the grave, and to set Him at the right hand side of the place of majesty. “Glorify Me so that the glory may be Yours.” As redeemed souls, populate heaven by Your grace.
Friends, there is nothing, there is nothing that brings God greater glory than the completion of the work of Christ through His death, His resurrection and His ascension to the right hand of the Father. There is absolutely nothing. Because in doing that work, He has brought untold numbers of people who have been entrusted to Him into the presence of the Father in heaven. That’s the burden of Jesus. It’s the glory of God. Even though He is the one that will be despised, He is the one that will be hated. Even though He is the one that will face unimaginable horror as the final sin offering, He pours Himself for the Father’s glory. He does it all for His Father as an expression of obedience and love.
And in some sense, as you look at this prayer in its totality, it’s actually a model prayer; it’s a model Christian prayer because it really is a prayer that is utterly and completely selfless. It’s about God’s glory. It’s not about the Son. It’s about God Himself. And that brings it a little bit closer to home. I want to ask you a question because the question is, “What animates our own prayer lives? What animates and governs our own prayer lives?” Is it this deep-seated longing for God to be glorified in our lives and even in our prayers where it’s not about ourselves but it’s about our dependence and upon our resting upon the one who is sovereign and in control. Are our prayers governed by a yearning for people to know this God, this God who would send His own Son so that justice could be meted out, the love of God could be displayed and put on display to a watching world? There is nothing more important.
But the question then arises is, “How does Jesus think He will be able to bring glory to His Father?” How does He intend to glorify His Father? Well look at the text once again. Look at verse 4. “I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do.” And then up to verse 2, “Since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” Friends, the Father has given to the Son a mission. We see that in verse 2 – “to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given to Him.” In order for that eternal life to be passed out as a gift, Jesus Christ’s work needs to be completed and Jesus says that the mission – “I have accomplished the mission” – in verse 4. It’s interesting because He actually says it in the past tense, and yet the cross still lies ahead of Him. But you see at this point, as Jesus is consecrating Himself to His Father, it’s as good as done. He has His eyes set on the cross and nothing is going to deter Him from finishing that which has been set before. “I have accomplished the work that You have given Me to do,” He says.
Two New Testament scholars, D. A. Carson and Kostenberger – I forget his first name – but they both draw attention to the fact that the Greek word that is used here in verse 4, “I have accomplished the work,” is the same root, it’s got the same root in the Greek text, that is cried by Jesus Christ on the cross where He says, “It is finished” – “tetelestai” – chapter 19 verse 30. And hopefully you get to see the connection here because what Jesus is praying here is He is saying that it is as good as done, as I put this in the past tense. “I have accomplished the work.” One theologian said this. “When the Father glorifies the Son, having sustained Him through these hours, and He restores Him to face to face fellowship, He is declaring the acceptance of Jesus’ finished work of atonement. And the triumphant Son, who was glorified in the cross, now brings glory to His Father by securing His people’s salvation.” God is glorified in the salvation of His people. It is done. And this is the burden of our Savior in this prayer. It’s about the glory of His Father. It’s the glory of His Father by accomplishing the mission to save His people. And so He asks His Father, “Glorify Your Son for that purpose and towards that end.”
Let me bring it a little bit closer to home again. Friends, let me ask you, “What motivates our lives and our prayers? Are we still taken in by the passing distractions of this world? Or is it God’s supreme glory that we long and we yearn to be able to live out?” One thing that surely this past year has taught us is that the things of this world can change oh so very quickly. And the disruption to our lives can really shake the very foundations of who we are. And yet it’s exact details like this, these events, that ought to cause us to throw ourselves at the mercy of God, to forsake the things of the world, and to really look at that which counts forever, that which is done for Him. I mean as Presbyterians – David spoke about the Westminster Standards this morning – but the first question in the Shorter Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man?” And, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” It’s to live to the glory of that end; to forsake ourselves, to forsake this world. And we glorify God through obedience to His Word. It’s through acknowledging that we need God’s Word to open up the truth of life, to love the Word, and then to pray that God would help us to be conformed to the Word as we’re transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, being sanctified and to bring forth the fruit in our lives by the work of the Spirit. So I want to implore you this evening – give yourself to the work of obedience. Give yourself to the work of obedience. That’s what brings God the glory. Let that be the longing of our hearts.
The Father’s Appointed Means
And that brings me to the second point, and it’s a much shorter point. And it’s to consider the fact that when Jesus prays, “You must glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You,” it is through Your appointed means; through the Father’s appointed means. Look at verse 3 of the text with me please. Jesus prays, He says, “And this is eternal life – that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Friends, the gift of eternal life is the appointed means for us to enter into eternal life, and that is to have a relationship with the Father. Christ’s longing to be glorified in the cross and the resurrection and His ascension, is so that the Holy Spirit may be sent forth in order to open blind eyes and to soften stony hearts. And in the opening of blind eyes and softening of stony hearts, that all who are given to Him, all who repent and believe, will know the mystery of the glory of Christ and what He has accomplished at Calvary and also the mystery of the glory of the will of the Father as He sent forth His Son to take our place so that we would not face death but that we would know life and life in abundance.
Eternal life is not simply an unending existence. It’s not about reaching the pearly gates and being given a harp and being told, “That’s the cloud you’ll go and spend the rest of your existence on.” Sometimes we have this weird understanding of what the life hereafter is. Nowhere in Scripture do we see that. But eternal life is a vital and it’s a living and it’s a growing organic relationship with God Himself. It is to know God – not simply doctrinally or intellectually, but it’s to know Him experientially, to know who made you and to know who loves you. It is to rightly know Him as the Scriptures have detailed, and not just to know God but to know the one whom He has sent who gives the gift of eternal life Himself. There is an exclusivity to the Christian message.
Thomas Manton, one of the Puritans, says this. He stated that, “This right knowledge excludes all idols and false gods so that we must come through the exclusive door of Christ to God. That’s the order. That’s the order. There is no other.” And so as you come to know God, you must come to know Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” And so my question to you this evening is, as you’re seated here, “Do you know God? Do you truly know God as He is given to us in the Scriptures and have you come through Jesus Christ, the door to the Father?” There is no question that is more important, no question that is more important for us as human beings.
As you read through this entire prayer later on, one of the things that I hope that you will take away is that here is Jesus’ final moments, perhaps one of His final prayers of this kind of intensity, and He’s expressing that which is closest and dearest to His heart. And one of the things that He includes is He speaks of eternal life. Eternal life that He is to give to those who have been given to Him by the Father. There is no greater need. You remember the rich man? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said, “Sell everything and follow Me.” And he couldn’t do it. You remember the parable – “A man finds treasure in the field. He goes away and sells everything that He has in order to purchase the field.” You see, eternal life is this pearl of great price. And Jesus, throughout the gospels and throughout His ministry, is essentially exclaiming, “Do whatever it takes to lay hold of this eternal life. Do whatever it takes to lay hold of eternal life.” Get caught up in the pursuit of eternal matters. Don’t be distracted by the things of this world that are here today and gone tomorrow. You see, nothing is more important.
And quite honestly, nothing is more urgent. Go and reread the conversations that Jesus has with Nicodemus and the woman at the well and the Pharisees and the crowds. He is continuously pressing home the reality of the eternal kingdom and the necessity to come to God, to repent and to believe. And the question that obviously some of us may ask is, “Why the urgency?” You know, “I’m young. I’ve got many years ahead of me. Why the urgency?” It’s simply this. In some sense, it’s a statement of unspeakable horror when you speak about the fact that if you are outside of Christ there is simply judgment and there is everlasting death that awaits. No grace. No love. No mercy. Friends, if you have eternal life and you’ve come to Jesus Christ and you are growing in your knowledge of God, where you have repented of your sin and you’re resting in Jesus, praise God. Praise God for His mercy and His grace to you. However, if you are here this evening, seated here or perhaps even listening in via livestream, and you do not know God, you have not come to the Savior, may I ask you to please spend some time praying, praying that God would open your eyes and that He would soften your heart that you would recognize yourself as a sinner in need of mercy, in need of grace, and that Jesus Christ in this wonderful act where the display of His glory was put on the cross of Calvary as an expression of the love and the justice and the holiness of God, and He did it all for His Father, that somewhere another you would get a glimpse of that and you too would pray, “Father, forgive me, and teach me what it means to rest in Your Son.”
These verses and this entire prayer, it’s a beautiful example of the burden in the heart of our Savior and what He has accomplished and what He continues to do as He sits at the right hand of the Father. Come to Jesus. Continue to come to Jesus and to rest in Him and you will find life and life in abundance. Let’s pray, shall we?
Father, we praise and we do thank You for the display of Your glory in Christ – in His life and His person and His work, accomplished that the glory may go back to You and may be Yours. Father, this evening we do pray, we pray that this evening as we leave from this sanctuary we would not rest until we have reckoned with You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Father, perhaps some of us ought to be reminded of the prayer, the old Puritan prayer, “And now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Father, we pray that You would not allow us to get distracted as we leave the sanctuary this evening. Let us not be deceived into thinking there is plenty of time. God, by Your Spirit, do not allow us to go to sleep this evening until we are assured of our resting and our trusting in Christ, repenting of our sin and believing Jesus, the Door of eternal life. Father, do that for Christ’s sake we pray, and do it for His glory. Amen.