Be Glorified

In John 17, we get to see the heart of Jesus. If this were a movie, there’d be a close up shot of His face and the music would crescendo here because we are drawing close to the moment the whole of Scripture has pointed to. This is the Lord’s Prayer. In the other Gospels Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, but here the Lord Himself is praying, offering up to the Father His heart. Some have referred to this as the “Holy of Holies of Sacred Scripture”. Jesus heart open for us to see.

If you’re following along, you no doubt have noticed we are out of order. It isn’t that chapter 16 isn’t significant, it is. All of scripture is God breathed and inspired, sufficient and authoritative for our life. But in order to get us ready for Easter, I felt impressed to move to John 17 today to look at the prayer Jesus offers before He is arrested, tried, and crucified.

It is one of the most important moments in the Gospels.

John 17:1–5 CSB

1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3 This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ. 4 I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.

Praying for Glory

Notice His posture…eyes looking up. It is consistent with the praying posture of the Jews, but more importantly directing His full attention to God.

This “hour” is a constant theme throughout this Gospel. For the last three years the disciples had followed Jesus and heard multiple times that His “hour had not yet come.”

At times this journey has been rough, and other times rewarding. Hazardous on the sea of Galilee or fulfilling experiencing peace on the rough waters.

Now, they approach the final moments of Jesus’ life…the Hour is here. Yet as Jesus looked up in to heaven, He isn’t concerned that the roughest of roads is ahead of Him. He is concerned with the Glory of His Father.

This hour is not just something Jesus has been waiting for, it is an hour all of humanity needed from the very moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. It is the hour for which the Father sent Him.

In this hour, Genesis 3:15 is going to be fulfilled.

The promise of a Rescuer to save humanity from our sin.

All the issues with the former types of redeemers that pointed to our need of The Redeemer like Moses, Abraham, or like the story of Ruth that in fact reminds we are strangers and need a Kinsmen Redeemer, or the story of Esther that shows that God is always active in the affairs of His people moving the story along to this moment. We are reminded of the time of rescue of Daniel in the lions den, or the time of rescue for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The time of rescue in the time of the shepherd boy David who would stand in the face of Goliath and slay the mighty giant.

It is the hour when the game changes.

You might think, “someones death is glorious?” On the outside it will be gory, not glory, but what is happening is glorious because God is fulfilling His promise to save us from our sin through the atoning death of theJesus.

Now, with full trust in what Jesus is about to do on the cross, humanity can have a relationship restored with God the Father.

When Jesus Christ, the Victor, not the victim, will overpower death once and for all. It is at this moment before He takes His final breath, Jesus stops to pray…the hour has come.

Jesus Prays: “Glorify Me.”

He has every right to make this request of God the Father. He is rightly concerned for His glory. Even though Jesus is fully man, He is also fully divine. He came to earth, took the form of a servant (Phil 2) He is one with the Father and is worthy to receive our worship, our affection, and our allegiance.

Philippians 2:5–8 CSB

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

Through the entire prayer, Jesus made only two request for Himself, and both of them are here. G. Campbell Morgan said, “The deepest passion of the heart of Jesus was not the saving of men, but the glory of God; and then the saving of men, because that is for the glory of God.” (HNTC, Morgan, p. 270).

Here in our text, Jesus uses the word “glory.” We get our word, doxology, from this word for glory. We need to remember there are two parts to this:

The noun - His majesty, splendor, His display of divine goodness. (Carson, 129).

The verb - To give glory, praise which is the proper response to His goodness made known.

God is glorious whether we fully understand Him or not, but we glorify God when we see His goodness and celebrate, or rather honor/worship Him because of His goodness.

So when Jesus prays for God to “Glorify your Son” He is asking that his goodness must be seen and honored. So, the greatness of Jesus will need to be displayed, understood, and acknowledged. But there is a problem. The OT book of Deuteronomy says that anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. Well Jesus is about to be hung on the cross or “tree.” So God is going to have to take someone who is “cursed” and turn that around into praise. How is that going to happen?

The Father will glorify Jesus by restoring Him to His eternal position of glory in the Father’s presence. More in a moment.

Follow with me here — Jesus’ hour is coming, and that is going to be the CROSS.

The Cross is a place of shame and curse, yet the Cross displays God the Father and His holiness, His love of holiness, his love of justice in the condemnation of sin, we see his exercising wrath upon His Son who bore our sin and shame.

We also see His love for humanity in the HUGE cost He paid for our redemption. If Jesus had stopped short of the finish line, the Cross, there would be a measure of love that God would not willing to go for us…but the cross proves there is no limit to God’s love when Jesus says, “It is Finished.”

The event that glorified the Son was the Cross and His death.

So Jesus’ divine goodness will be vindicated through the resurrection, displayed through His exaltation, and celebrated at the consummation.

Here, we can say Jesus’ prayer is answered. He is the slain Lamb of God who is the ONLY ONE worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

Because of this hour, He has received and will continue to receive adoration, worship, and the love of millions who those whose sins have been forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus.

As Jesus is praying, “glorify me,” there is a reason He is asking to be glorified...

Jesus Prays: “Glorify Me so that I can glorify You.”

Lest we think Jesus is being self-centered here, look at 1b - “so that the Son my glorify you,”

Jesus desires to be glorified so He can glorify the Father.

From John 1:1, 14 we remember that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God…The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

From Hebrews 1:3 we remember that Jesus is called the “radiance of God’s glory”.

So when we see, read, hear about the Jesus of the Scriptures, we see the PERFECT DISPLAY OF GOD’S GOODNESS.

Specifically, in this prayer, Jesus displayed God’s goodness by securing eternal life for those who belong to Him. Look at verse 2.

The fact that Jesus willingly goes to the cross, conquers death so that we can have eternal life reveals the character of God.

This in turn causes the reaction of praise to God for His goodness, mercy, and grace.

Now, here is the sovereignty of God in that Jesus has authority over all flesh…and that Jesus gives eternal life to everyone God the Father has given the Son. Election is a key doctrine in the Scriptures.

This mutual glory of the Father and the Son was purposed that the Son might give eternal life to all those who were given to Him.”

The death of Christ is for the purpose of giving life. The action here of giving eternal life is done by God. At this point there is no mention of faith on our part, because this is not about our glory, but the Son’s glory and the Father’s glory.

That doesn’t mean faith is absent. We know that we receive salvation by grace through faith.

The Cross is where Jesus will reveal the GOODNESS, MERCY, AND GRACE of God. There have been glimpses all along the way...

His birth, Water to Wine, Walking on Water, Healing the blind man, the lame man, raising Lazarus, feeding 5,000 and another time 4,000…the list goes on and John writes at the end of this letter that more was done not captured in this Gospel, but what is written, divinely inspired by God was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name...

BUT Jesus is praying for this ‘HOUR’ that is now upon Him, and that HOUR is the Cross…Jesus had already brought glory to the Father in His ministry - Look verse 4…this is why Jesus can go to the cross.

You may or may not know this, but the group known as the Unification Church, Rev. Moon founded this group, teach as do many cults, that Jesus failed in his mission. They teach that cross was not the mission God had intended for His Son. It offers only a secondary salvation. They teach Jesus was supposed to set up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. He was supposed to marry a perfect woman and have perfect children. But due to a mistake, Jesus was crucified before this could be accomplished. Thus he can only provide partial salvation. Guess who the next one was to try where Jesus failed, the Rev. Moon.

Now, the imminent glory of the Cross is upon Him because the Cross is the supreme revelation of God’s nature and purpose.

We see the holiness of God and his hatred of sin and his refusal to compromise with sin. We see His justice.

We also see the depths of His love in the cost His paid for our redemption.

Never before had the justice and love of God been displayed together as at the cross. We cannot even begin to fathom how glorious God truly is without the Cross.

In the ‘hour’ the request of Jesus is answered.

The Father will glorify the Son, and the Son reveals the unique and holy goodness of God to the world.

There at the Cross, is Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Praise be to God, Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Jesus is Glorified in Heaven

17:5 - His focus was not only on the glory of the cross but also what was to come. We can only catch a glimpse of what it was like for Jesus before He came to us. We know from Colossians and others that He created the universe. We know that He made himself “nothing” Phil. 2:7 and set aside His heavenly glory with God the Father to come here.

But listen to what Paul says happens in Philippians 2:9-11

Philippians 2:9–11 CSB

9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Revelation 5:12 CSB

12 They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

Jesus’ prayer for glory was answered, and someday every true believer will see it and experience it.

Conclusion

The glory of God must be the top priority of our lives.

Everything you do should have as its purpose the worship of God.

John 4:23-25 & Romans 12:1 (living sacrifices)

Romans 12:1 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

John 4:23–25 CSB

23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

As a follower of Jesus, the details of our lives should point and celebrate the goodness of God.

I know full well that not every day is a day full of circumstances that bring happiness. Often our days have hardship, yet this is why Christ calls us to endurance.

But God is good. God is good because of the Cross.

This is the reason we live our life on mission. Every where we go there is an opportunity to show the goodness of God to someone who does not know of His goodness.

We want others to see and know Jesus the way we do, so we share the Gospel.

Drink from the fountain of God’s goodness, and then tell others around you, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Ps 34:8

What would change in your life if you set God’s glory as your priority?

What Jesus shows us here is that prayer helps to guide you along the narrow road so that you keep God’s glory as the first priority in your life.

1 Corinthians 10:31 - Do everything for glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 CSB

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

The Lord’s prayer acknowledges His primary purpose on earth. Glorify Me so that I may glorify You.

You praying for your marriage? Let your marriage flourish for the glory of God. Ephesians 5:22-26

Ephesians 5:22–26 CSB

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

Praying for your children? Pray they will flourish and be faithful for the glory of God.

Praying for your vocation? Pray that as you work, you do so as for the Lord to the glory of God. Col 3:23-24

Colossians 3:23–24 CSB

23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.

I like the way Chuck Swindoll finished his thought on this as you are praying, “Lord, if this does not bring glory to you, please deny our request and then guide us to accomplish Your will in Your way.”

In order for 1 and 2 to be true, you’ve got to know the One True God, and the One He sent, Jesus. Do you know Him?

I’m not asking if you know information about Him, I’m asking if you know Him relationally?

Do you have a continual relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God?

His entire mission was the glory of God, and the way He brought glory to God, was dying for you. Do you know Him? Do you trust Him? Are you growing in Him?

Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I trust and surrender to you as my Lord and Savior. Guide my life and help me to do Your will. Amen.