The Gospel of John: Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer (1)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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In advance of that, so John chapter 17. John 17.

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When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,

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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.

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And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

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I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now,

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Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

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I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

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Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

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I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

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All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

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Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

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While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

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But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

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I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

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I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

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They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth.

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Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake,

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I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you,

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Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.

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I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me, and love them even as you love me.

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Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

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I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

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We thank you for his ministry. We thank you for his intercession and his advocacy on behalf of your people.

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We thank you, Lord, for the work that Christ accomplished on our behalf, that he transferred us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of your beloved

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Son. And we thank you for the life that we have in Christ Jesus. We thank you for the fellowship that we have in Christ Jesus.

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We thank you that we have the truth, and that truth is Christ Jesus.

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So Lord, help us to understand this truth. Help us to live this truth out in our day -to -day lives.

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We pray, Lord, that as we hear this sermon preached, and as we continue this series in John, that you would help us to be mindful of what these passages mean.

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We pray that you would take these words from our ear to our hearts, that they would become a part of us, and that we would live them out to your praise, glory, and honor.

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Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. About a year and a half now, we've been having this hymn of the month that we focus on, and usually the first Sunday is pretty rough, and by the end of the month, we become more familiar with the tune and the words, but we pick those hymns out so that we might be better instructed.

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The hymnology of our Christian faith and history, and there's a great message in these hymns that we select as well, even though they may be rather difficult for us at first.

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Well, the Lord's Farewell Speech discourse to his disciples concluded at the end of John chapter 16.

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It began with John 13 .31, and it ended with John 16 .33, and now, of course, we next read of our

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Lord's Prayer to his Father, which was expressed thankfully in the hearing of his disciples.

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This prayer includes all 26 verses of John 17 that Jason just read.

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It's commonly referred to as our Lord's High Priestly Prayer. We talk about the

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Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, but really, that's the disciples' prayer. This is the true

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Lord's Prayer, Jesus praying to his Father, in which he intercedes with the

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Father on our behalf. Now, on this occasion, our Savior prayed effectually for his own.

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We know from other places in Holy Scripture that this is a continual ministry of our

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Lord Jesus before his Father. He is our intercessor. Hebrews 7 .25

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states this, wherefore he, Jesus, is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

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And so, what we read that he's doing here in John 17, he does perpetually on our behalf before the

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Father. And through our study of this chapter, John 17, we may learn not only what he prayed on this occasion, but we may be instructed in his ongoing ministry of intercession on behalf of his people.

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Now, for the sake of our instruction, we might describe the major aspects of our

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Savior's high priestly ministry on our behalf, not just here, but his ministry that he is conducting even now.

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John Bunyan wrote a book entitled The Intercession of Christ. It just arrived in the mail this week, and I was able to read it over.

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And Bunyan identified our Savior's priestly ministry of prayer on our behalf in four arenas of our salvation.

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And so, Jesus Christ serves us before the presence of his Father by, one, to pray that all the elect may be brought home to him, that is, to God.

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Two, to pray that their sins committed after conversion may be forgiven them, thankfully.

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Three, to pray that their graces which they receive at conversion may be maintained and supplied.

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And fourthly, to pray that their persons may be preserved to his heavenly kingdom. And that's what he's praying for even now on your behalf, if you're in Christ, or if you're one of the elect and you are going to be in Christ one day.

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These four subjects of prayer on behalf of the people may be simplified. Jesus Christ prays for his own to, first, bring them home, second, cleanse them and keep them, thirdly, give them more grace, and fourthly, preserve them, thankfully.

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And we'll read of these spiritual matters expressed in the chapter before us.

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Now, I want you to notice what Jesus is doing here in John 17. As we read this account, it's as though the

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Lord Jesus is really stepping back from where he was right before his disciples, stepping back from the present time, as it were.

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And he does so in order to describe and depict and to pray for the realization of the overarching purposes of God in all of history.

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And so, in his words, he reaches back before creation, referring to God's initial decree of all that would transpire in the history of this world.

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And then he speaks of the great midpoint in history in which, of course, he and his disciples were standing, that which was just before him and which, through his own glorification, he recovers and restores his fallen people unto the

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Father. But then he looks forward to the consummation, the future, when all things are completed, when he and God his

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Father would display the fullness of his glory to all the redeemed standing in the presence of God.

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So, this is quite a feat that our

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Lord is doing here, the way he stands back, talks of the distant past, of the present, of the distant future.

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And we have it laid out in these 26 verses. Now, this is a chapter that's been given much attention by some of our

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Puritan forebears, Robert Trail. You may not have heard him, but he has four volumes, commentary out.

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He's really quite good. He wrote 16 sermons on this

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Lord's Prayer, and it was in the second of his four volumes. Banner Truth has published that work, the works of Robert Trail.

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Thomas Manton, and I have all 22 volumes of his works, he developed 45 sermons on John 17.

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Now, you think about that, you know, today is what, our 100th sermon? On 16 chapters in John, he dealt with John 17 in 45 sermons.

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And I hope I can read through those in the next few weeks. I don't know, there's a lot of them. It takes up most of volume 10 and into volume 11 of his works.

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His first sermon, by the way, was on the phrase of Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven.

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And so that was sermon one, you know, what that all entails and what that suggests and what that means.

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He was very, very thorough. And so, you know, in order for us to give appropriate attention to the details of this chapter, we'll work through this passage rather slowly and thoroughly.

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I felt a little bad, you know, dealing with that long passage last Lord's Day in John 16.

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But, you know, we're going to slow down here. There are a number of other prayers of our

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Lord Jesus, of course, recorded for us in the gospels. But this one in John 17 stands out quite remarkably, both in its length and its detail and the nature of its content.

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Robert Trial wrote of this prayer, the Holy Ghost seemeth to put a mark of respect upon this prayer above other prayers, which

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Christ conceived in the days of his flesh. Elsewhere, the scripture telleth us that Christ prayed, but the form is not expressed.

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Or else only brief hints are delivered, but this is expressed at large. This was, as it were, his dying blaze.

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Natural motion is swifter and stronger in the end. And so is Christ's love hottest and strongest in the clothes of his life with regard to his human nature.

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And here you have the eruption and the flame of it. He would now open to us the bottom of his heart and give us a copy of his continual intercession.

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See, he's emphasizing that this is ongoing work of intercession of the high priestly work of Jesus.

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This prayer is a standing monument of Christ's affection to the church. It did not pass away with the external sound, or as soon as Christ descended into heaven and sat at the right hand of the

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Father, it retaineth a perpetual efficacy. In other words, these things are just as true and real today as when he voiced them to his disciples.

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The virtue remaineth though the words be over. As word of creation hath retained its vigor these five or six thousand years increase and multiply and let the earth bring forth after its kind.

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So the voice of this turtle, and in old English, King James, when it references the turtle, it's usually a reference to the turtle dove.

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The voice of this turtle dove is ever heard and Christ's prayers retain their vigor and force as if but newly spoken.

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Amen. And again, Pastor Jason read this chapter for us, so we'll not do so again.

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Top of page three of your notes, we may look at a general outline of the entire chapter,

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John 17. We have Jesus prays for himself, verses 1 -5, and then

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Jesus prays for his apostles. This is the bulk of the passage, verses 6 -19.

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And then thirdly, Jesus prays for all true believers, verses 20 -26.

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And so today, Lord willing, we hope to get through the first five verses in which

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Jesus prays for himself. The chapter opens describing our

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Lord Jesus beginning this prayer unto his father, and the first sentence is contained in the first two verses.

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Again, it reads, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

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And so here we read first, Jesus prayed for his father to glorify him.

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The Holy Spirit moved our gospel writer to record our Lord's words of prayers that we might be learned and encouraged by these words and instructed.

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Of course, we know that all of our Lord's petitions were granted by the Father. Not one of his words fell short of realization.

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None of Christ's prayers were ineffectual, like your praying is and my praying is.

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And so what the Lord Jesus requested, the Father granted him. So let's consider what is recorded of our

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Lord in this prayer. First, take note how John described Jesus praying.

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Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven. This posture of praying, looking up to heaven, is not one that's commonly practiced by Christians, is it?

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In fact, it's not found very frequently in the entire Bible. We read of many who lifted up their voices in prayer and they lifted up their hearts in prayer, but they didn't commonly lift up their eyes in prayer, as did our

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Lord on this occasion. Rather, because godly people seem to be keenly aware of their personal sin, they tend not to lift up their eyes, but rather bow their heads and close their eyes in prayer.

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There is the sinner in the temple, which Luke described, but the text collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,

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God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The text collector, a sinner, was humble and needy.

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He understood he had no merit, no claims upon God to hear him. His desperation drove him to the temple, but even then he stayed some distance away, but he pleaded for God's mercy and grace to forgive him of his sin.

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Interestingly, there was also on one occasion that our Lord Jesus himself fell down on his face in prayer to his father.

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And this is the account in Gethsemane, which would occur just a few minutes after this prayer of John 17, right?

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And it's recorded for us in Matthew. Jesus said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

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Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed. He didn't lift up his eyes here.

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He fell on his face and prayed, saying, Father, my Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.

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Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. In his human nature, he was recoiling from the prospect of his suffering, his death, and perhaps most greatly his alienation due to sin being attributed to him.

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Thomas Manton compared these two occasions of prayer of our Lord Jesus, one on his face and the other lifting his eyes toward heaven.

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And lift his eyes to heaven, the scripture taketh notice of the gesture. Christ's gestures are notable, real significations of the motions of his heart.

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In the garden when he began his passion, he fell on his face and prayed. And here he lifted up his eyes.

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When he travailed under the greatness of our sins, his posture is humble. But now when he is trading or petitioning with God for our mercies, he uses a gesture that implies a more elevated and generous confidence.

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Gestures being action suited to the affections are significant and imply the dispositions of the heart.

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I thought that was a very good observation. This manner of our

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Lord Jesus prayed suggests to us his relationship as son to his father. His deity is on display here in lifting up his eyes to the father.

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He's not merely a man, but he is God's son who may stand before his father and look him directly in the face and speak with him with the familiarity and the close relation of a son to a father.

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Even if we were without sin, we would not do so. Because of the infinite degree of difference and distinction between us as mortals and God as immortal, between us as creatures and he is our creator.

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But this was not so with regard to our Lord Jesus. He shared in the glory of his father from eternity.

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And though there are distinguishable persons in the Godhead, the Bible teaches the triune

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God, there is not a distinction in essence. We believe in one God, not three gods. For the father and son are one

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God. And so here the son lifted up his eyes toward his father, a posture that had characterized him from eternity.

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He looked fully into his father's face and prayed for his own. Thankfully, we have

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Jesus Christ as our advocate who represents us and petitions on our behalf to his father.

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And so you may feel quite low at a base like that tax collector standing up far off, not so much lifting up your eyes to heaven.

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But thankfully, if you're a Christian, if you're in Christ, you believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He is before his father's face, prayed for your preservation and your betterment.

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He's our high priest. He represents us. And though your prayers are fleeting and weak and faulty in every way, his aren't.

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And he is standing representing you on your behalf for your eternal well -being.

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If you're in Christ. But Jesus was, of course, in his human nature, lifting his eyes toward heaven.

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Jesus exhibited a confidence in his standing before his father as a man as well, as one who had been faithful and true to God, his father throughout his sojourn in this world.

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The psalmist once wrote, asking the question and posing the answer, who may ascend to the hill of the

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Lord or who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the

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Lord. While Jesus could lift up his eyes to heaven, for he was a righteous man who did all of his father's will.

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He knew that his father delighted in him, for he had shown himself to be as dutiful and devoted son in all his words and ways.

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We read secondly that our Lord Jesus acknowledged before the father that the hour had come.

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Again, verse one. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, said, Father, the hour has come.

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Glorify your son. We've read much in John's gospel about this hour.

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It's a repeated reference. It began back in John 2, verse 4, when

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Jesus first began to manifest himself to others, when his mother all but directed him to solve the problem of the wine shortage at the wedding.

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And Jesus said to his mother, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

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But he proceeded, of course, to turn the water into the wine. And later, when some Jewish leaders attempted to arrest him,

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John gave this word in John 7, 30. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one had laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

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And similarly, in the next chapter, we read these words Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

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But in the last few days before his passion, Jesus began to speak of his hour having arrived.

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John 12, 23, Jesus answered, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

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And then he prayed to his father a few verses later in verse 27 of John 12.

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Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose

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I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And then

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John made reference to this hour once again in John 13, 1. Now before the feast of the

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Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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And now we read here in John 17, 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, said,

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Father, the hour has come. And so John in his gospel, all through the Holy Spirit, of course, the superintending

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Holy Spirit guiding John and the apostle in his writing.

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The use of my hour, the hour, his hour is used by the Holy Spirit to keep before the readers of the gospel, you and me, the importance of his glorification through his death on his cross and his resurrection, as well as his ascension and enthronement.

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As one once expressed, it is the hour for which, in a special sense,

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Jesus had come into the world. Not the hour of his death merely, but the time for his death, resurrection, his ascension, these taken together.

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One hour, one event. The Lord expressed in verse 1b his petition to his father, glorify your son that your son also may glorify you.

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Even though the hour had arrived for Jesus to be glorified, we see no presumption on his part, but rather prayer comes forth from him to his father that he would glorify his son.

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He knew it was in the purpose of God. It was decreed from eternity. It was going to happen.

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Nevertheless, Jesus prayed that his father would glorify him. I think that's significant.

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We are not to be fatalistic or presumptive in our knowledge of what the Lord has in store for his people and the world in which we live.

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We are to be prayerful. Even as we see the day of the Lord approaching when he brings an end to history of this world and he calls us into his presence, we are not to be passive and presumptive, but we are to be expectant and prayerful toward these ends.

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We are to be as Daniel upon learning of the soon release of his people from the exile in Babylon to return to their homeland.

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He learned of the fact, reading Jeremiah's prophecy of their soon release and return, and then he began to pray fervently that God would bring it to pass.

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And we read the reaction and response of Daniel in Daniel 9. In the first year of Darius, the son of Azarias, he would have been the king of the

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Medes, of the lineage of the Medes who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, another word for Babylonians.

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See, the Medes of Persia conquered Babylon. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books, and it was

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Jeremiah's prophecy, the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem.

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So what did he do? You know, he didn't just sit back and, hey, we're going home. Then I set my face toward the

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Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplication with fasting sackcloth and ashes. He knew the decree of God.

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He read it in Jeremiah. And yet, this did not lead him to be prayerless, but rather prayerful.

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Our Lord's hour had arrived that God had decreed he'd be glorified, but then Jesus began to pray that his

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Father would glorify him, even as he knew would come to pass. And so it is. True, God will do whatever he has decreed, not only though the whole world were asleep, but though it were opposed to him.

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But it is our duty to ask from him whatever he has promised, because the end and use of promises is to excite us to prayer.

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I think that's a very, very important principle and lesson for us. Believing in a sovereign

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God, you know, being reformed, should in no way diminish our prayer concerns in life.

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It ought to increase it. We are also to pray even on those occasions, however, when we know that we're about to enter some great trial or experience a great calamity from which we know we cannot escape.

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Thomas Manton wrote, The hour has come, saith Christ, and therefore prayeth. When the sad hour has come, the only remedy is prayer.

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We should not despond, but meet sorrows with a greater confidence. Now, the only way is to pray.

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If we cannot look for a deliverance, in other words, we know it's coming down. We know it's going to happen.

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If we cannot look for a deliverance, we may pray for a mitigation. In other words, a shortening, a lessening, affliction.

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Matthew 24, Jesus told his disciples, Pray that your flight not be in winter, nor on the Sabbath day, when it may be tedious to body and soul.

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A reference to AD 70, when Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans. Pray that you may glorify

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God in suffering, saith Christ. Sue without support in this request. Usually when evils are unavoidable, we give over all our addresses.

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And what he meant by that, usually we stop praying. And we know that there's no way out.

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Yet our condition is capable of mercy. If the hour be come, beg that a spirit of glory may rest upon you.

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Lord, I know things aren't going to fall out very good. We're in, you know, we've got some tough stuff to go through, but may you glorify yourself through us as we go through this.

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Now, again, this is a word of prayer by Jesus offered to his father. It's significant to note the form of the petition.

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I find this very interesting. Normally, when we pray to the father, offering our request to him, we ask

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God to show favor to us, to be merciful and gracious to us in granting our request.

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But here the Lord Jesus did not pray to his father for this request in the same manner that we normally pray.

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Jesus expressed his petition in the form of a command. The verb is in the imperative mood.

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Glorify your son. That's a direct command.

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He's commanding his father. You and I would never do that or shouldn't.

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If you or I prayed in this way to God our father, we should be rebuked, put to shame for our brashness and presumption and disregard of his divine nature.

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But here we have the son of God speaking to his father. And, of course, our

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Lord Jesus is with the father of one substance, power, eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.

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And so there's a boldness on the part of Jesus. But it's right for him, for he is one in essence with his father in the

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Godhead. Glorify me. It's a prayer. But he's speaking very directly to his father.

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But I would also say that the Holy Spirit was suggesting much more to us by our Lord Jesus' pray to his father in the form of a command.

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It's as if Jesus were saying to his father this. Father, you commissioned me long before, even prior to creation, that I should come into this world, become one with the ones you gave to me to save from sin and damnation.

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You promised me that upon the completion of this great work that you would glorify me with the glory that we had in common from eternity.

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I have fulfilled my calling, completed the work to which you sent me. Now fulfill your promise to glorify me.

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I think that is the kind of spirit that we have in our Lord's prayer. Now, more precisely, what is meant or what occurred when

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Jesus Christ was glorified? We talk about being glorified. What does that mean? Well, being glorified speaks of regal, kingly, sovereign authority being conferred upon Jesus Christ.

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For Jesus Christ to be glorified speaks to Jesus Christ being enthroned as the messianic king over the promised kingdom of God.

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Glorify your son. Enthrone me. Inaugurate me as king over the kingdom.

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It is a conferring of authority by God the Father, entrusting and inaugurating his son to be lord of lords and king of kings.

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Glorify me. Revelation 5 speaks to this event, which was the answer to our

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Lord's petition expressed here in John 17. I wish we had time to read the entire chapter of Revelation 5.

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We don't. But in Revelation 5, we read these words of John as he witnessed the heavenly scene.

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I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

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And then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. He came and received the kingdom.

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That scroll represented the authority to execute judgment and bring salvation in the earth.

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And the father gave it to his son, entrusted, you know, the

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God man. There's a man enthroned in heaven now ruling over history.

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The son glorified me, father. Revelation 5 speaks of that event.

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When he came forth from the grave, resurrected, ascended into heaven, came to the ancient of days, according to Daniel 7, 13 and 14, and received from his father a kingdom.

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He was glorified. That's what we have here. And then in Revelation 5, we read of the acknowledgement celebration of the heavenly host upon the enthronement of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God.

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When Jesus prayed to his father, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son. He was asking his father to enthrone him as the

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Lord over creation. Which the father did upon his resurrection and ascension.

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Now, on John 17, there are in these first five verses, there are two purposes that are expressed in purpose closets as to the reason why

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Jesus prayed. And so the first purpose for Jesus's prayer was to be glorified again.

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But the purpose was so that the reason he wanted to be glorified was to the purpose that he would then thereby be enabled to glorify his father.

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That's why he wanted to be glorified. Not because he was in some kind of, you know, power thing, design power, but he wanted to glorify his father.

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And he therefore wanted all authority to enable him to do it even more than he had previously, perhaps.

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And so when Jesus prayed that the father glorify him, he did so with the desire intention to glorify his father with the glory he received from the father.

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you.

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And that clause that begins with the English word that, that's a conjunction. And it's and it's it begins a purpose clause.

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This tells us why he desired the father to glorify him so that your son that I might be able to glorify you.

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And so here we read of the first purpose for which Jesus prayed for glory was so that he might glorify his father.

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Now, the father gave authority to Jesus Christ over all creation because he could trust his son to use that authority and service first to him, his father, and in service to his people and to truth and justice.

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Here we see the divine purpose and will for authority within God's creation. Authority is never to be used to be self -serving.

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That's corruption. But authority is always to be used in service to others.

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And I'm talking not only in the church, but in the political realm, in God's world. Human authority is conferred by God to enable you to serve others better and more fully.

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When a man or woman uses the authority that he or she has to oppress others or to show unjust favor to someone over another, or if authority is used in a self -serving manner, it is sinful and damnable.

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And you go through the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, and there were only a couple of them that, you know, were faithful before the

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Lord. They were all self -serving with the authority they had to rule over Israel and Judah.

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They were not like David, who sought to rule Israel according to the will of his father,

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God in heaven. A wonderful type of our

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Lord Jesus. The fact is, our Lord Jesus never once gave consideration to himself above others about him.

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He always employed his authority in service to others and, of course, most in service to his father.

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And here in John 17, 1, Jesus requests glory or kingly authority in order to glorify his father.

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He desired to have all authority over all creation in order to bring all of creation into subordination and obedience to his father.

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That was the mission on which the father had sent him to reconcile, recover, and restore his fallen creation to full, willful, joyful submission and obedience to God the father.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished this work through his death, his life, death, and resurrection, and through being granted sovereign, kingly authority over all the world.

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God the father could trust Jesus Christ with all authority because he knew Jesus Christ would never use that authority in a corrupt, sinful way, to serve himself, but always in service of others.

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John Gill commented on the words that thy son also may glorify thee. As he had done throughout the whole of his life and conversation, in other words, the way he lived day by day, and by his ministry and miracles, so now it is sufferings and death through the salvation of his chosen ones, in which the wisdom, grace, justice, holiness, power, and faithfulness of God are greatly glorified.

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And in the after discharge of other branches of his mediatorial office, and making intercession for his people, in the ministry of his word and ordinances, by his servants, attended with his

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Holy Spirit, and by the administration of his kingly office. He wanted to glorify his father.

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And we next read in verse 2, how Christ brings glory to his father. Again, Jesus said,

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

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Now, again, the Holy Spirit, you know, every word, every tense of every verb is inspired of God.

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And there's a reason for it. Here, Jesus spoke as though the

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Father had already given him authority over all flesh, even as you have given him.

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The Lord hadn't yet been crucified, the Lord hadn't been buried, the Lord hadn't been risen, the Lord hadn't ascended, the

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Lord had not yet taken that scroll out of the Father's hand, and yet he speaks here as though it were past tense.

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What does that suggest? What's he talking about? God the

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Father conferred sovereign authority upon the incarnate Son of God when he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

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It was then that Jesus Christ sat down on the throne of God, becoming King of kings and Lord of lords.

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It was then the Father highly exalted him, gave him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every nation bow, those in heaven, those on earth.

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But Christ speaks of it in the past tense as though it had already occurred. How can this be?

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Well, it could be argued he spoke in the past tense, although it had not yet occurred in history, because it was so certain it would take place.

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And by the way, we could go to Romans 8 .30 and Paul talks about believers having been glorified, even though we haven't yet been glorified, but he mentioned in the past tense because it's a done deal.

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It's going to happen. So maybe that could be imposed upon this.

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However, we would argue no, but rather the answer that Christ was speaking here.

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The answer is that Christ was speaking of the eternal decree of God to give him authority over the world.

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It's as though Jesus was saying that the Father had given authority in the beginning when the triune God entered into that covenant of redemption, in which

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God purposed to glorify himself in history by redeeming the people from fallen humanity. The Father had glorified his

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Son, that is, had an eternal decree, that is, purposed to glorify his incarnate

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Son by giving him authority over all flesh, all humanity. And so Jesus is speaking about that decree even before creation.

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And so when he said, you know, you have given him authority over all flesh, he's talking about that decree.

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And I think that's right. Donald Carson explained the matter this way. Verse 2b refers to the

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Father's gift in eternity past. See, he's given me this authority and yet he hasn't yet died.

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He's given me this authority in eternity past of authority over all humanity on the basis of the

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Son's perspective, obedient humiliation, death, resurrection, exaltation. It's nothing less than the redemptive plan of God.

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For the second part of the verse makes the purpose of this grant clear, is that the Son might give eternal life to those the

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Father has given him. So again, the

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Son, you know, he's talking from a vantage point of all of history, even before history.

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Father, you've given me all authority. It's in your decree. Bring it to pass. We read that God the

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Father gave regal authority to his Son over all flesh. That's all humanity. When our

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Lord Jesus died and rose again, ascended into heaven, the Father seated him on his throne from which he has ruled over history ever since.

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Over all humanity, not just Christians. Over non -Christian, all people everywhere.

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They don't know it, but they're being ruled by King Jesus. It was then when he ascended and received that authority, the promised kingdom of God was inaugurated.

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John the Baptist had announced the kingdom was at hand. That kingdom was formed when Jesus Christ died, rose, ascended to the throne of his

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Father. The kingdoms of this world are all under the authority of King Jesus. Let's remember that as we are watching things fall apart throughout the world.

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King Jesus is calling the shots, exercising his righteous judgment in history, even as he's saving his people, thankfully.

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This event was prophesied long ago. The reason I want to spend a couple minutes in detail in this is because this is not taught by dispensationalists.

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There are a lot of good dispensationalist men around, but they don't teach this. They argue that this enthronement really is a future messianic kingdom,

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Jewish millennium, a thousand year kingdom after Jesus returns. And yet we would argue through the

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Old Testament, it prophesied of the resurrection, ascension and enthronement of Jesus on the throne of God as the fulfillment, the realization of the promised kingdom to Israel.

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And so God revealed this purpose for his son and visions that he, for example, he gave to the prophet Daniel. And we could go to Isaiah or Jeremiah, Ezekiel, anywhere, but we'll go to Daniel just here and just look at one vision.

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When God had judged his people and sent them into exile to Babylon to be in bondage to their pagan masters, sixth century

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B .C., 587 Jerusalem fell. God promised that he would one day deliver them from their oppressors into the promised kingdom of the

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Messiah. The vision of Daniel, too, speaks of this quite directly of when this kingdom of the

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Messiah would be inaugurated. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream that greatly troubled him.

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You're probably familiar with this dream. He called for the wise men of Babylon to tell him his dream and give him the interpretation.

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They were unable to do so. You tell us a dream, we'll give you the interpretation. No, no, no, we're not going to have that. You tell me what the dream was and then you give me interpretation.

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And nobody could do that, of course, except Daniel. The king had seen a great image, which is described in Daniel 2, 31 and following.

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You, O king, this is Daniel telling him the dream. You, O king, were watching and behold a great image. This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you.

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Its form was awesome. This image's head was that of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

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You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.

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And then the iron and clay and bronze and silver and the gold were crushed together, became like chaff from the summer threshing floors.

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The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

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It's a prophecy of Christ, of course. As this rock cut out of a mountain, and a mountain was the emblem of a kingdom.

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The higher the mountain, you know, on which the capital city sat, the stronger and more defensible that city -state was, that empire was.

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And this is a great high mountain above all other mountains. The kingdom of God is above all other kingdoms.

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And so there were going to be four empires is what the dream revealed to Nebuchadnezzar.

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But the fifth empire will be the kingdom of God. And so Daniel gave

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Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of this dream in Daniel. I didn't list the verses here, but it's here in Daniel chapter 2.

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This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings.

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Nebuchadnezzar probably had more authority in a human being than any other person in all of human history.

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For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell, or the bees of the field, or the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand, has made you ruler over them all.

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You are this head of gold. And then another kingdom would take over.

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Now whereas the king of Babylon, he could be capricious. He could give a law today, change it tomorrow. He had absolute uncontested authority.

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But each of the following empires, there was less authority in the leading leader of the empire.

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And so next, verse 39, after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours.

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Then another, a third kingdom of bronze shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron.

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And as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything. And like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all others.

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And so the second kingdom will not be as pure. The king will not have as great authority.

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And you remember King Azarius. After that wicked Haman got him to pass that law to destroy all the

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Jews in the days of Esther. He couldn't change it, could he? Because of the law of the Medes, once the king made the law, he himself couldn't change it.

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He had less authority than even Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Well, again, verse 41 in our text.

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Whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay, partly of iron. The kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it.

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Just as you saw the iron mixed with the ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron, partly of clay.

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So the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. And as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men.

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They will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And then I am bold and italicized, verse 44.

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And in the days of these kings, the days of this fourth kingdom, the

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God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. The kingdom that shall not be left to other people.

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It shall break in pieces, consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. And as much as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountains without hands, that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great

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God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, its interpretation is sure.

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All right. So God had revealed to Nebuchadnezzar that inclusive of his kingdom, there would arise four worldwide kingdoms, succeeding one another.

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Babylon was the first kingdom, the head of gold, whose king had absolute uncontested authority.

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The second kingdom was Media Persia, later Persia, the chest and arms of silver that had defeated

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Babylon in 539 B .C. The third kingdom was Greece, Alexander the

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Great, the belly and thighs of bronze which defeated the Persians in around 490, 480

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B .C. And then there was the Roman Empire with its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, partly of clay.

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Roman ascended to world domination in the second century B .C. And it was during the days of the

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Roman Empire that God would raise up his Messiah to become king of kings and lord of lords.

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God raised up his son Jesus Christ, who was represented to Daniel as a great stone that struck the image, became a great mountain, filled the whole earth.

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The mountain again is an emblem of the kingdom. The kingdom of the Messiah, the promised kingdom of God, was inaugurated when

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God the Father raised his son, seated him on his throne in heaven. Jesus Christ has had authority over all flesh since his ascension and his coronation.

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He's governing the nations of the world, judging his enemies, even while he's redeeming his people.

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Now, the reason I went into that detail, of course, is our dispensational friends. No, no, no, they would argue he did not become king as promised in the

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Old Testament because that's an earthly Jewish kingdom when he sits literally on David's throne in Jerusalem to the second coming.

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And so they have to go so far as to say the Roman Empire did not really end. It just kind of disintegrated.

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But it's going to have to come back together, you know, during the tribulation, because when the kingdom is established, it's going to come during the days of the

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Roman Empire. So prophecy nuts, you know, they've been talking about the revived Roman Empire for decades and decades.

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I've got books on it on my shelf at home. Now, it's very, very simple and plain and obvious that it was talking about the death, resurrection, the enthronement of Jesus Christ in heaven on the throne of God, and he is now ruling over all the kingdoms of the earth.

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And his kingdom is expanding. It's this great and mighty mountain. Jesus Christ is

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Lord. He's king of kings and Lord of lords. And to me, it's so obvious and simple and easy to understand.

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And I would I would say if you understand that and believe this, you are you are a minor percentage of evangelical

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Christians today. It's incredible to me that such a central teaching of Scripture is people are oblivious to it because it's profound.

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It's significant. Donald Carson wrote of this. Everything and everyone in the universe is subject to this kingdom, whether the point is acknowledged or not.

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No matter. People deny that he's he's Lord. The saving subset of this universal reign, the kingdom which one enters only by the new birth, is a dynamic equivalent of that peculiar exercise of the son's authority that issues an eternal life for all those the father has given to the son.

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Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, we shouldn't be fearful about what's coming down in history.

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You know, it's not going to be fun or pleasant, perhaps, but that's all right. King Jesus is further in his kingdom and we are wonderfully have an opportunity and can participate in this.

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Right. And that's that's what, you know, I don't know. That's my desire as a man and as a church to see the wonderful and glorious field of battle before us.

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And we cannot be defeated. King Jesus is going to further his kingdom.

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Well, top of page nine. We have to wrap this up now. The second purpose for Jesus's prayer is the salvation of the elect.

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First purpose, glorify me that I might glorify you, Father. Second purpose, we read in verse two.

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And so in the second portion of verse two, the second purpose for God, his father, giving him a kingly authority over all the world.

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The first purpose, again, was that he would be glorified, that he could glorify his father. The second purpose for which

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Jesus prayed for glory was to secure the salvation of the elect of God. Jesus prayed,

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh.

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And there's that conjunction that another purpose clause for the purpose that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

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He needed authority over all humanity so he could save his elect out of fallen humanity.

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And the father gave his son authority over the entire human race so he could give eternal life to the ones the father had chosen in eternity out of the fallen human race to give to his son.

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If you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, but you're one of the elect. Of course, there's no way of knowing you're one of the elect if you're an unbeliever in Christ.

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But who knows? You may be. And you will come. Lord is going to see to it he doesn't lose a one.

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You are described if you're Christian as God, the father, having chosen you.

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Not because you're better, special, less sinful, none of that. He's not a respecter of persons. He chose you and gave you an eternity pass in his eternal decree.

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He gave you as a gift to his son. I'm giving you this center. Go out, go down there, become one of them and save them.

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And bring them back and glorify them with us. That's what John 17 is declaring.

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And there's different verses that you can have where the children of God are described as God, the father, having given them to his son.

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I quoted Hebrews 2 .10. We saw it back in John 6 .38. All he has given me,

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I should lose nothing but raise it up the last day. The fact is, God has chosen out of fallen humanity a people for himself, vast in quantity, diverse in ethnicity, rich in diversity.

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Although that word's corrupt these days. The son of God redeemed them from his debt to his death.

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And so, you know, we can join into this great chorus. Again, we read in Revelation 5 of the

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Lord Jesus. Worthy are you to take that scroll. You're worthy to be king of the Lord. To open its seals.

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For you were slain by your blood. You ransomed people for God from every tribe, language, people, nation.

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They're sinners and he saves us. He goes out to save sinners. And you made them a kingdom of priests who are

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God and they shall reign on the earth. And so God's election of his people whom he purposed to save through Christ was wholly due to his sovereign grace.

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People who believe salvation is by the merit of their works think that when we talk about election, we're being arrogant.

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That somehow we're making a claim we're better than others. Paul argued to the Corinthians, he said, you think you're better?

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The fact is, you know, most of us are the worst of the lot. And God chose us in order to glorify himself.

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I've often used the illustration. I used to do quite a bit of body work on repairing cars.

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And, you know, if I wanted to show forth my handiwork, do I just get it? You know, find it.

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Find a pretty good looking car that's got a little bit of oxidation on the paint and make a few door dings here or there.

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Or if I really want to show my skill, do I find a rollover, you know, and go at it and bring that back to pristine condition?

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Well, that's what God is doing in saving sinners. He comes after the worst of us, doesn't he? And saves us.

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And he gets great glory from doing so. And so the idea that somehow we think that we're better than anybody is just absolutely nonsense.

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God saves sinners. And he's a great savior when he saves great sinners.

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He's the greatest savior by saving the greatest sinners. And thankfully he does.

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And so it's not because of anything you did, would do, promised to do, could do, might do.

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It's because of God's sovereign grace. He could have left you in your sin for your just condemnation.

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It would have been just to damn your soul in hell for eternity. And God wouldn't have had to apologize for it.

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You and I would have got what we deserve. But rather he purposed to show forth his love and his mercy and his wisdom and his power, his goodness, through saving us through his son

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Jesus Christ. Well, next week we'll consider the nature of eternal life.

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And it's not just endless duration. Eternal life, according to John's gospel, is a quality of life.

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And this quality of eternal life is knowing God and knowing his son

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Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's the very nature of eternal life, essence of eternal life.

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And it should be our desire and pursuit in this life to know God more clearly and fully as he revealed in the scriptures, revealed through his son in history.

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Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. And we thank you, our

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God, for having recorded for us this wonderful prayer of Jesus here in John 17.

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We pray you give us better understanding and appreciation of who you are, our father, and of the glorious sovereign rule that you've given on to your son.

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And it's an amazing thing that you have purposed to share this glory with us.

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We who have been saved by him. And so help us, our

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God. Help us to be faithful servants of Christ. Help us to glorify you, our

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God, by telling forth this gospel to others in our world. For we ask these things,