Toughest Message You'll Ever Hear
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The Time Has Come
The Time Has Come
“After Jesus said this” — Everything Jesus prays in chapter 17 is connected to all that He has said and done in chapters 14-16.
“Father” — Jesus looks up to heaven with His eyes open and says, “Father.” This is a picture of the intimacy between Himself and the Father in Heaven…It is a picture of the intimacy available to us as well if we would have faith to believe it.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
Glory of God — Manifestation of God’s divine attributes and perfections.
Some of you have great fathers and others not so much. Others have or had terrible fathers…all of us have the opportunity to have a perfect Father in God through Christ. All of us can have an intimate relationship with a Father who will love us, never let us down and save us from our sin and this present evil age.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
“After Jesus said this” — Everything Jesus prays in chapter 17 is connected to all that He has said and done in chapters 14-16.
“The time has come” — Everything about the life of Jesus had led up to this point. This was more than the grand finale, this was the reason He came…that He might bring glory to the Father in the Cross.
Glory of God — Manifestation of God’s divine attributes and perfections.
God would manifest His divine attributes…His love, mercy, grace and holiness through the cross of Christ.
God would glorify the Son…make much of Him…so that the Son could in turn make much of the Father…
God would be revealed, manifested by saving of the world through the suffering of Christ.
This was the will of the Father…His plan…that Jesus would die a cruel and horrible death in order to glorify the Father and save the world. Jesus’ response to such an assignment was to pray that the Father would accomplish His purpose in His life.
How many of us would pray such a prayer?
How many of us, when faced with the opportunity to glorify God through suffering would pray for the suffering to be taken from us rather than the suffering would accomplish its purpose for the glory of God?
“Human beings thought of the cross as an instrument of shame but Jesus saw it as a means by which He would bring glory to the Father.”
Is it possible for us to see our suffering in the same light? Can we see our suffering as a means to God’s ends? A means by which God reveals His divine nature and perfections…a means by which He reveals Himself to the world? Paul thought so
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Paul did not want to suffer for the sins of the world as Jesus did…but when He suffered for His witness for Christ he wanted to react as Jesus did. He knew that to suffer this way would draw him closer to Jesus and allow others to clearly see Christ in Him.
“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.” — Malcolm Muggridge
Conformed to His death — This is the high price of suffering as Christ did…obedience to Him even unto death.
We often ask the question, “Why am I here?” There is a reason! We are here to bring glory to the Father…that we would be part of the process by which God reveals His attributes and perfections to the world.
Sometimes this is going to bring us trouble!
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus prays, “Make much of me so that I might make much of you.” And this prayer is answered in the lifting up of the Son on the cross of calvary…not the answer many of us would hope to receive…that we might be found worthy of suffering shame or even death for the glory of God.
But this is the call of every follower of Christ…to make much of Him…even when that means suffering for doing so.
“To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.” — Oswald Chambers
The Glory
The Glory
Jesus glorifies the Father by means of the Cross which offers eternal life…the outworking of the glory is salvation.
The suffering of Jesus paid for the sins of the world so that those who have faith might be saved...
God had given authority to Jesus so He might give eternal life to those who would have faith in Him…not everyone would be saved through the Cross…only those who had faith in His sacrifice for their sins.
The glory Christ brought to the Father did not end with His death and resurrection…the affects of His faithful work on the cross brings glory to the Father for all time each time someone new places faith in Him for forgiveness of their sins and eternal life.
God had given authority to Jesus so He might give eternal life to those who would have faith in Him…not everyone would be saved through the Cross…only those who had faith in His sacrifice for their sins.
This is a thought often lost on us…we focus on our pain of the moment and see it as an end rather than a means to an end with lasting effect. We glorify God as we endure the pain by faith. The testimony of such an act has lasting affect for all who will witness it.
When we face suffering of any kind we must do so the way Jesus did…praying, “Father, glorify me in the midst of my suffering so that I might glorify you. So my faith and what I do in the face of this pain might be a lasting testimony to the reality of your existence and your perfect character.”
As we face our times of suffering this way we become an instrument of God’s glory for both that moment and all time.
God had given authority to Jesus so He might give eternal life to those who would have faith in Him…not everyone would be saved through the Cross…only those who had faith in His sacrifice for their sins.
The Purpose
The Purpose
All suffering in the life of the believer might be an occasion for us to glorify God. It is an opportunity for us to make much of Him…especially when it happens as a result of our witness for Christ…show the world He is real and let them see His character as it is produced in us while we suffer.
So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.
The outworking of our faithful suffering is the opportunity for some to be saved…so they might see and receive God through faith in Christ…so they might experience eternal life. That was the outworking of the Cross and that is the outworking of our suffering for salvation found in Christ as well.
Eternal Life — That we might know God
Know — to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel
This is an experiential kind of thing…not just an academic understanding of God but a relational, intimate experience of Him.
This kind of knowing changes us…it transforms us and gives us a new quality of life.
Here is where we receive the privilege of God as our Father…here is where the intimacy is known. Here is where we look up to heaven and say the word, “Daddy.”
The only way to know God is through the revelation he has given through His Son Jesus Christ…and we must remember, the pinnacle of this revelation happened in the Cross.
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“It is not possible to know God in any way that we choose. We must know him in the one whom he has sent, namely Jesus Christ.”
It is not possible to know God in any way that we choose. We must know him in the one whom he has sent, namely Jesus Christ
Jesus is the way, truth and life, no one comes to the Father except through Him. He is the One true God and eternal life is found in no other…Jesus is His Son and the only one in whom God may be found.
Morris, L. (1995). The Gospel according to John (p. 639). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
The Work is Done
The Work is Done
Jesus has completed the work the Father has given Him to do…the finished work culminates in what is about to happen in the Cross and subsequent empty tomb.
All that Jesus did brought glory to the Father…He did it in the work given to Him…and any suffering which resulted from that work was a means by which even greater glory was offered to the Father as well.
Can we see our ministry and life this way? So often we begin to question our ministry and life when hard times arise…but... Could it be that God is simply giving us new and greater ways to offer glory to the Father when we are called to suffer?
Could the struggles we face be something God has allowed in order to complete the work He has given us to do? Just as the cross completed the work the Father had given Jesus to do?
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
We think of these good works as things we do but could they not also be things we suffer…Jesus suffered the cross for the Father’s glory and our salvation.
If the world hates us…remember this prayer is on the heels of chapters 14-16…if they persecute us…could it be that our suffering is simply because we have been found worthy to suffer for the name of Christ…so that we might participate in the sufferings of Christ…be made more like Him and give Him greater glory in the process? So our work might be completed as Jesus’ work was as well?
Jesus sums up the heart of this first section of His prayer in verse 5…a reiteration of His request in verse 1…the time is now…I go to the cross…glorify me in the cross…cloth me with the glory I had with you before the creation of the world.
“In the passion and all that was associated with it Jesus would be glorified with the true glory, a glory continuous with, and indeed identical with, the glory he had “before the world began.”” Morris, L. (1995). The Gospel according to John (p. 639). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Morris, L. (1995). The Gospel according to John (p. 639). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Conclusion
Conclusion
None of us wants to suffer. I don’t, you don’t, there is not a sane person alive who does. None of us want to suffer for the Gospel either…we would much rather thrive in the midst of and because of the Gospel.
The popular message today from so many is that the Gospel will bring you joy, peace, love, happiness, wealth, health. etc etc etc… But the truth is this…while the Gospel can and often does produce in us an assortment of blessings such as these mentioned here…Jesus promised us in that it would also bring us trouble, hardships and persecution.
Isn’t it good to know that when suffering comes it can be for the glory of God if we would be obedient in the midst of the suffering to His will for our life and the opportunity it brings to share the glory of God…His divine attributes and perfections…His character, power and life.
Times of suffering will come to us all…For some it is a troubled marriage…wayward kids, health issues, grief, disappointments of various kinds. We will also be ridiculed, ostracized, persecuted, hated and despised for our faith.
Can we, in those moments, look up to our Father, our Daddy in Heaven and say the words of Jesus? Can we say the words of the disciples found in ?
“Father, glorify me so that I might glorify you. I rejoice that I have been found worthy to suffer for your name.”