Glorify the Son, John 17:1-5
Remsen Bible Fellowship, 04/29/2020
Introduction
What do your prayers sound like? When you sit down at your table, or lay in bed, or you’re driving to work, what crosses your mind to bring before God?
For many of us, myself included, we rush straight into requests. And the advice we’re often given is to knock that off. Don’t start with your list. Start with God. Acknowledge who he is. Praise him for his excellence and worth. And that’s good advice. Many prayers in Scripture begin by taking stock of who we’re talking to, ascribing him the glory due his name, meditating on his character. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. But that’s not the only way to pray. In fact, in what we refer to as the Lord’s prayer, found in Matthew 6, Jesus is responding to his disciples’ request for instructions on prayer. And the model prayer he gives is full of requests. Coming to God with requests is not wrong. It makes total sense given our neediness as creatures as his abilities as our Creator God. It also makes sense that we as Christians would come to him with requests given that he is not only our Creator, but he is our loving Father as well.
The key question is this: what are you asking for?
This prayer, which encompasses all of chapter 17, falls into three basic parts: Jesus’ prayer for himself (v1-5), Jesus’ prayer for his disciples (v6-19), and Jesus’ prayer for the church (v20-26). This morning we will just tackle part one. Read John 17:1-5
We’re going to jump back into our study of the Gospel according to John, which we’ve been following through the first 16 chapters, and from which we’ve taken a hiatus due to COVID situation. As we reenter this Gospel, we find ourselves looking at what some have called real Lord’s prayer, or the High Priestly prayer, or the holy of holies. It is the prayer Jesus prayed the night of his betrayal. In this prayer we are going to find a number of petitions, a number of requests. And as we see what Jesus prayed for we will be instructed by his priorities. These are priorities which should give us comfort, because they include the salvation of all those whom the Father has given to the Son. It also includes eternal joy and love for all who are secure in Jesus. But these petitions should also radically reshape our own priorities and thoughts, because the ultimate aim that Jesus is seeking is this: his glory, and his Father’s glory.
Context
Jesus’ disciples need courage, they need to take heart. What is the cause for such courage? The overcoming victory of Jesus. And this is the very victory to which Jesus refers when he says, the hour has come. The hour in John’s gospel refers to the time of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation. At least three times (in chapters 2, 7, 8) we read that his hour had not yet come. But in Chapter 12, as we come into passion week, that shifts. Jesus says in 12:23, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. That intensity picks up here in chapter 17, as Jesus shifts his focus from teaching the disciples, and starts praying to his Father.
Verse one sets the context for us. When he had spoken these words. What words? The words of the upper room discourse. The dinner time discussion around the last supper. Jesus has been telling his disciples of his imminent departure, comforting them with promises to send the Holy Spirit and to eventually return and take them to heaven, exhorting them to remain in the vine, and warning them of the troubles which would soon befall them. Chapter 16 ends with these words,
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
Glorify Your Son-v1
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the word did not know him. He came to own, and his own people did not receive him.
What is the basic request of Jesus in these first 5 verses? He is praying for his own glory. Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son.
What is glory? The word which is translated as glory is the Greek word doxa. It carries with it the idea of splendor, greatness, legitimate cause for pride, beauty, brightness. I think of a particular sunrise I watched. It was about 10 years ago. I was part of a group that made a short (five mile) hike up Steamboat Mountain in Montana. Though it’s a short hike, it’s pretty rough and you gain over 3,000 feet of elevation. It was late in the day, so we camped up on top. Then we got up while it was still dark and sat on top of this mountain which looks east from the Scapegoat Wilderness out across the west-central Montana plains. You’re sitting there, way up high, it’s pitch black and freezing cold. The black starts fuzz into gray, and you just keep thinking “will the sun ever rise?” Then, finally, the sun begins to crest over the plains to the east and everything in your field of vision floods with light. And the only word to describe it is glory.
When Jesus asks the Father to glorify the Son, is Jesus asking for God to add this kind of glory to him? No. Jesus is glorious. Hebrews 1:3, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. There is nothing to be added to Christ. And yet, while he walked this earth the glory of Christ was veiled. John 1:9-11 says,
Jesus was seen, but he wasn’t seen. His glory was present in the miracles, in the teaching, in his sinless life, but it was not beheld believingly by most of those who saw him. And he’s asking the Father to change that. Glorify the Son. Make the Son’s beauty, his splendour, his luminous perfection seen by all the earth.
Because of how he exercises this authority. To give eternal life to all whom you have given me. It’s important, especially as we’ll see next week, that this is a distinct subgroup within the broader category of all flesh or all human beings. Jesus has authority over every single human being. And he exercises that authority in such a way that he grants eternal life to a certain group-those given him by the Father.
Is this a selfish request on the part of Jesus? Far from it. Even this request for his glory has a purpose in mind. That the Son may glorify you. Is it for his own sake? No. Jesus’ request for glory is reciprocal; it’s so that the Son may glorify the Father. The unseen God is seen as glorious by the revelation of his glorious Son.
Note how this request parallels the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Let your name be seen as holy, let your glory shine forth like the brightness of the sun. Let all the world see it! How has the Father chosen to reveal his glory most clearly in this world? Through his Son. Colossians 2:9 says, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. God’s ultimate goal in Creation is to glorify himself, and he accomplishes this purpose most completely and finally in the glory of his Son. So Jesus’ request, while it may at first sound selfish, in fact is the most God the Father honoring request he could possibly make.
Why Does Jesus Deserve Glory?-v2
And yet, while Jesus is one the one hand asking for glory that he might glorify the Father, it is also true that in the accomplishment of the Father’s perfect will, the Son deserves the glory given to him. The basis for the glory of the Son is in:
the authority he has received from the Father, Since you have given him authority over all flesh. Note again the reciprocity, the mutuality. No member of the Trinity acts independently or apart from the others. The Son deserves glory because of the great authority given him by the Father. He also deserves glory:
Jesus has come to pay for our sins and make it possible for us to be in communion with God, but he didn’t stop there. In his display of love on the cross he also showed us what the Father is like. In his whole life and teaching he revealed to us the Father, that in coming to know Jesus we would know the Father as well.
There is a particular people, a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 5:9). These are sheep from many folds who come to make up one flock (John 10:16), whom the Father elected in eternity past to give to the Son. The Son has not simply made salvation possible for them on the cross-he has actually accomplished the salvation of those whom he was given.
What is Eternal Life?
How can you know if you’ve received this life, if you’ve been brought into his fold? That should be a pressing question for every human being, and I think it’s why Jesus gives us a clarifying statement in verse three.
What is eternal life? I think many Christians would answer that question something along the lines of: eternal life is having your sins forgiven, or eternal life is going to heaven when you die. Those are fundamental accomplishments of the cross. Apart from Jesus bearing the weight of our sins and absorbing the wrath of God, we are under condemnation and death. Apart from the promise of an eternal home, free from the presence of sin and pain, where is our hope? But these are not themselves the definition of life. How does Jesus define eternal life? Knowing God. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God. Think about what a bold statement this is. How can I know if I’m one of the people Jesus saved, if I’m in his flock? Simple, I just have to know God. Does this strike you as somewhat out of reach for the average sinner-for people like you and me?
John 1:18 tells us, No one has ever seen God. How can we then know him? That verse continues, the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. Knowing the unseen God was beyond reach. It’s possible now via one means: his Son, Jesus. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13
Jesus, after detailing what exactly is the eternal life he has given to those whom the Father gave him, and after stating that he had in fact accomplished the work set out before him, now asks the Father to restore his eternal glory.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:18
How can you know if you’ve been saved by Jesus? Answer this question: do you know him? Have you received him as the way, the truth, and the life? No one comes to the Father except through him.
How has the Son Glorified the Father?
Jesus says in verse four that, I have glorified you on earth. How has Jesus done this? Again, remember that to bring God glory is not to add to his perfection or excellence, which is impossible. It is to make the beauty, the splendor, the God-ness of God seen for what it is: weighty, important, all-valuable.
How has Jesus done this? Through everything he accomplished on earth. He is speaking proleptically of having accomplished all he was sent to do, that is, he speaks of his past accomplishments (perfect obedience, miracles or signs displaying his glory, his perfect teaching) and he also includes what is about to come (the cross/burial/resurrection). He speaks of all of it in this moment as finished. Our minds are drawn back to John 16:28 where Jesus says,
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.
Jesus, the perfect Word of God, was sent by the Father into the world. And now, as Jesus prepares to return to the Father, he prays with this certainty: I have left nothing undone. I have accomplished the Father’s work. And this certainty under-girds his request in verse 5.
And Isaiah 55:10-11, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be the goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Restore My Glory
It is imperative for us to remember that in the Bible as a whole, and John’s gospel especially, Jesus is not a mere man, or even a man who achieves god status. This is the eternal Son of God, the Word. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is God, eternally. What happened in the incarnation was the addition of humanity to that divinity. Which meant, for a time, the laying aside of his glory. Philippians 2:5-8 reads thus,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus, as God, eternally enjoyed the rights privileges, and glories of his eternal power and nature. And yet, out of love for his people and his Father, he laid aside those rights for a time. He never ceased to be God, but for a time he ceased to receive his full rights of worship and being treated as God. But brothers and sisters, this was most certainly temporary. In fact, as Paul continues in that passage from Philippians 2, we find that as a result of Christ’s humiliation on earth, he actually receives a further glory: the glory due a savior: Philippians 2:9-11,
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It is precisely for this that Jesus is praying in John 17.
As we conclude, I want to ask two questions: How does this priority of God’s glory give us comfort? And, how should this priority of God’s glory reorient our values?
How does this priority of the Glory of God give us Comfort?
This priority of God’s glory over everything else should give us comfort, because it is actually the ground for everything else Jesus prays in John 17. Jesus’ requests to keep the believers in his love, to protect them from evil, to give them unity-these are all predicated on the fact that they are means of bringing glory to the Son, which in turn glorifies the Father. Which means that God’s love for you and care for you is not ultimately centered in you. This is good news if you feel, as I often do, like you’re a massive failure that God doesn’t need. You’re right! You are a sinner, you do fail, and you know what? God in his inscrutable wisdom has determined to bring himself glory by saving and using you. If you will quit trusting in yourself and throw all your trust on Jesus, you are as safe as God’s own child-because you have in fact become his child.
This priority of God’s glory over everything else should give us comfort, because it is actually the ground for everything else Jesus prays in John 17. Jesus’ requests to keep the believers in his love, to protect them from evil, to give them unity-these are all predicated on the fact that they are means of bringing glory to the Son, which in turn glorifies the Father. Which means that God’s love for you and care for you is not ultimately centered in you. This is good news if you feel, as I often do, like you’re a massive failure that God doesn’t need. You’re right! You are a sinner, you do fail, and you know what? God in his inscrutable wisdom has determined to bring himself glory by saving and using you. If you will quit trusting in yourself and throw all your trust on Jesus, you are as safe as God’s own child-because you have in fact become his child.
How does this priority of the Glory of God reorient our values?
This realization is comforting, but it’s also challenging. We are so tempted to live in a way that foregrounds whatever seems important to me or comfortable for me or good for me. But Jesus’ prioritization of God’s glory drove him to the cross. He says elsewhere that if we won’t pick up our own cross and follow him we can’t be his disciples: in what way do your personal priorities need to die? How could centering your life on the glory of God in Christ change and shape the decisions you make with your money, the career options you look at, the way you relate to your neighbors, or how you approach friendships?
Brothers and sisters, our highest goal in life should be to know God by knowing Christ. This is eternal life. And such life overflows in making him known, in seeing his glory shed abroad into the hearts of those around us. Jesus prayed for this. Let’s join him in that prayer.