The Gospel of John: Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer (6)

In the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered

in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer

for human passions, but for the will of God.

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality,

passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery,

and they malign you.

But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel is preached, even to those who are dead,

so that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

The end of all things is at hand.

Therefore, be self -controlled and sober -minded for the sake of your prayers.

Above all, keeping one another earnestly, loving one another earnestly, since love covers a

multitude of sins.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything, God may be

glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as

though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his

glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon

you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while

doing good.

Let's pray.

Our Father, you are a faithful God.

You're a trustworthy God.

You're a God whom we can entrust our lives, our families,

everything in our lives into your capable hands.

And Lord, we pray that we would do that in the midst of life's uncertainties and difficulties and sufferings.

We pray that we would trust in you.

We pray that you would grow us in our faith.

Help us, Lord, to have a clear picture of who you are.

Help us to have a clear picture of what you've done.

We pray, Lord, that in our suffering, we would glorify you, that we would recognize that it is from your providential

hand.

You are guiding us, you are leading us through the valley of the shadow of death, not around it.

And Lord, we thank you for your comfort.

We thank you for the spirit that you've given to us.

We thank you for the word of God.

We thank you for the church.

And Lord, as we open up your word now and as we continue our worship service, we pray, Lord, that we would

hear what the word of God says and that the spirit would take it from our ear to our hearts and that we would be changed.

We pray, Lord, that our image would be conformed to the image of your son through the power of your spirit.

So help us, Lord, now to be attentive and to direct our focus to the word of God.

Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, let's turn to John 17 one last time.

We've been, what, this is six weeks now that we have been addressing this Lord's high priestly prayer in John 17.

So today, I hope we'll conclude this.

Last Lord's Day, we began to examine the third and final section of this prayer

of John 17.

This third section begins with verse 20, continues through verse 26.

And we were actually able to address in some detail verses 20 through 23.

We're gonna summarize a little bit of that and then go on from verses 24 through 26.

And frankly, when I first looked at these verses, 24 through 26, I thought at first, gee, how am I going

to stretch that out in the time that we have?

And by the time I got done working through this, I thought, how am I gonna be able to express everything in the time and

notes that we have?

It always ends up that way.

There's a lot here, folks, in these few verses.

So in this third section, we had Jesus praying for all believers, of course, verses

20 through 26.

And so let's, again, read this division of this high priestly prayer.

I do not pray for these alone.

He's referring to the apostles there.

But also for those who believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, Father,

are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that

you sent me.

And the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in

them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may

know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am,

that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the

foundation of the world.

Oh, righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and

these have known that you sent me.

And I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which

you love me may be in them and I in them.

I think the ESV has this set forth in one paragraph in its English translation.

Our New King James Version has two paragraphs, verses 20 through 23 and then 24 through

26.

And again, we addressed last week in a measure of verses 20 through 23 in which Jesus prayed that all

believers be one.

He prayed, Christ prayed to his Father on behalf of all those redeemed through his death upon his cross.

And Jesus said he has prayed for those who will believe in me through the word, that is through the

witness of the apostles.

He was prayed for you and for me as believers.

He prayed that true believers would all be one.

We would argue that the Father has granted that prayer.

He's answered that prayer.

We are one, all who are true believers in Christ.

And so all of his people are indeed one as a result of the Father answering this prayer of Jesus.

The Father doesn't answer the prayer of Jesus based on whether or not you and I get together as one.

We are one, it's a spiritual unity that Jesus was praying for and the Father granted

that.

And so this becoming one is not an organizational unity.

It's not a repudiation of all the various denominations and whatnot,

but it's a spiritual unity that we enjoy because every true believer is equally in union with Jesus

Christ through faith.

And that's what Jesus was praying for here.

We are one body of Christ, that is all who are true believers in Jesus Christ.

And not just all who are believers throughout the world today, but all who are true believers

since the days of the apostolic witness and word that we have recorded in our New Testament.

And we're commanded to walk according to this spiritual unity that we may enjoy, that we enjoy with one

another.

Paul wrote of this in Ephesians.

I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all

lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep

the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There's one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope, we were calling one

Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, Father of all, who is above all, through all, in you all.

And so we are also not only in this spiritual union with one another in Christ,

but we are also one in our mutual desire and commitment to proclaim the message of salvation

to the lost world in which we live.

We stated regarding this passage that the major theme of our mission to the

world is quite pronounced in this entire passage.

The purpose our Lord stated for our recognition and life in this unity with him and

with God our Father so that the world might come to know and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the

world.

The whole idea of mission is the major theme of this passage.

Jesus desired his people be united in their self -identification as his people so that they might

proclaim a single message of salvation to the world, as Jesus said to his Father, so that the

world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

D .A. Carson expressed it well.

I think it's probably the best commentary in English we have right now in the Gospel of John.

Although the unity envisioned in this chapter is not institutional, not talking about a one -world

church, this purpose clause at the end of verse 21 shows beyond possibility of doubt

that the unity is meant to be observable.

It's not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator.

We all believe in God.

Let's make that our basis of unity.

No, it's not suggesting organizational unity, but by common adherence to the

apostolic gospel, by love that is joyfully self -sacrificing, by

undaunted commitment to the shared goals of the mission with which Jesus' followers have been charged,

by self -conscious dependence on God himself for life and fruitfulness.

It is a unity necessarily present, at least in nuke, and

that's Latin meaning in a nutshell, amongst genuine believers.

It is a unity that must be brought to perfection.

We have this unity.

We're not here trying to build up our own little kingdom in this little church here.

We are one voice in a local church of this united biblical

voice of the gospel throughout the world.

And then J .C. Ryle in the 19th century in speaking of the spiritual unity that we enjoy wrote this,

the unity which our Lord prays about here is that true, substantial, spiritual, internal

heart unity which undoubtedly exists among all true members of Christ of every church and

denomination.

It is this unity which results from the one Holy Ghost having made the members of Christ what they are.

It is this unity which makes them feel more of one mind with one another than with mere professors

of their own party.

It is this unity which shakes the world, obligates it to confess the truth of Christianity

for the continued maintenance of this unity and increase of it our Lord seems to me in this prayer,

especially to pray.

And we always keep in mind that we're concerned about a world

expression and expansion of the gospel.

And so we rejoice anywhere and anyone that is proclaiming the

true gospel of Jesus Christ is set forth in the Holy Scriptures.

And so when we hear of another church being blessed and doing well, we rejoice with them.

No envy or no jealousy, we're one with them.

I'd hate to think that the greatest blessing to this world and the church is what we're experiencing here.

I'd just like to see God expand his kingdom greatly through all of his churches that are

truly attempting to proclaim the word of God, the truth of God and Jesus Christ as set forth in

the Bible.

Well, now let's examine the second paragraph of this concluding prayer.

And here we read in verses 24 through 26 that Jesus prayed that all believers would be with

him in the presence of his father.

We'll read it again.

Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am that they may

behold my glory which you've given me for you love me before the foundation of the world.

Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you but I have known you and these have

known that you sent me.

And I have declared to them your name and will declare that the love with which you love me may be in

them and I in them.

Let's first consider verse 24.

Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory

which you've given me for you love me before the foundation of the world.

Now that is a full pack sentence.

Let's break it down somewhat.

First, Jesus prayed that true believers would be with him and behold his glory.

So let's underscore once again, identify and consider for whom the Lord Jesus prayed to his father

here in verse 24.

We pointed out earlier that he was praying for all those, all the elect of this church

age who would believe the apostolic witness.

But this is broader here in verse 24.

Here, he's referring to all the elect, all who've been redeemed by Jesus

Christ throughout all of history.

Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me.

Here, Jesus was praying for his elect, all the ones the father had given him, even before

creation.

The father chose individuals, a multitude of them from

every nation and he gave them as gifts to his son and then his son, of

course, was commissioned and committed to go redeem them through his life and through his death.

And so here, Jesus was praying for his elect, all those you have given me.

These ones are not to be limited only to those who had believed on Jesus Christ through the word of the apostles and set forth in

verse 20, that is believers of this church age.

These are ones the father gave to his son.

They're all the elect through all of history, all whom he has redeemed and reconciled through his life and

death on the cross are the subjects of this prayer.

The expression whom you gave me is used five times in John's gospel.

Once in John six, three times in this chapter, John 17 and once in the next chapter,

chapter 18.

Back in chapter six, he declared, this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing, but

nothing of all that he has given me.

There again, the elect, all who were in history who received salvation, but

raise it up on the last day, talking about the future bodily resurrection from the dead.

John 17, six, right here in this chapter, I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave

me out of the world.

Years they were, you gave them to me and they've kept your word.

John 17, 12, while I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you gave me.

I've guarded them, not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction or perdition, that be

Judas Iscariot, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

And then again, in the next chapter, chapter 18, we read another occasion and this is when he's in

the garden of Gethsemane and he asked those who came to arrest him to let his

disciples go free.

You've come for me, you've got me, let them go, is basically what he said.

And so he says to them in verse nine, this was the reason that he said this to let them go,

this was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one.

And so he made that statement in the garden to fulfill the words he expressed here in John

chapter 17.

What was it that Jesus prayed for the elect?

First, that all of the people he redeemed in history would be with him.

Jesus said, father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I

am.

Now there's a sense in which the Lord Jesus is always with his people.

He's with us here, isn't he?

He declared to them, behold, I'm with you always even to the end of the age.

They're in the great commission of Matthew 28, 20.

And we read his words in Hebrews 13, five, that he will never leave you nor forsake you.

There's a sense in which Jesus is always with us and we're with him.

He's always with his people.

And he of course, indwells us, every Christian through the Holy Spirit.

Paul wrote, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the

Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

There's a sense in which we're always with Jesus and he's with us.

But his presence with us now is a spiritual presence, a spiritual knowledge that he is

with us, even within us.

But we are not presently, of course, enjoying his physical presence.

After having been raised bodily from the grave, he ascended to the throne of his father in heaven and he's been there in

his resurrection body these past 2 ,000 years.

Now there's a whole, you wanna talk about a theological problem to deal with.

How can Jesus be in his physical resurrected body in heaven?

Heaven, a physical place?

I don't even know how to work through that.

But he's there as the resurrected Jesus Christ in his glorified body.

He'd been there for 2 ,000 years.

But here, of course, when he prays that we would be with him, he intends to bring

all of the elect to be with him in the presence of his physical body.

He's with us spiritually, but he's praying here that they would be with him,

beholding his glory.

In other words, with him in heaven or when he returns to the earth, new heavens and new earth.

He was praying that they would be with him in his glorified state.

Jesus prayed his father would bring it to pass.

He prayed, father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am, whether it be in heaven or

whether it be, again, when he returns and creates a new heavens and a new earth.

And so when we pass from this life, true believers immediately pass into the presence of the Lord Jesus in heaven, as

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians.

So we're always confident, we don't doubt this, knowing that while we're at home

in the body, physical body, we're absent from the Lord, even though he's with us, we're absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Then we're gonna walk by sight too.

We are confident, yes, well -pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

We may be assured therefore, one day we will be ushered into his presence.

We really cannot fathom what that's gonna be like.

We have some hints of it.

We should be able to confess as Job did long ago.

This is Job when he was scraping his skin with the broken pottery after he'd lost all his

sons and daughters and his wife was giving him a bad time.

He'd lost all his possessions.

I know that my Redeemer lives.

He shall stand at last on the earth.

And after my skin is destroyed, after I'm dead and corrupt and dust in the grave,

after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh, there's bodily resurrection, in my

flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my

eyes shall behold and not another and how my heart yearns within me.

We ought to confess that too.

We're gonna be in his physical presence.

He prayed here to his father.

I pray that all those ones you've given me, all those ones I've redeemed through the cross, that

they will be with me.

And so to what end did Jesus pray for his elect?

Well, Jesus prayed, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am.

Jesus was leaving them, returning to his father.

But their physical separation from him would only be temporary.

They will rejoin him, of course, at his second coming.

Granted, when the Christian dies, their spirit, their body goes in the grave and sleeps, as it

were, in death.

Their spirit goes to be with the Lord.

There's a conscious presence.

There's a peace and rest and joy.

There's probably a sense of communication with other spirits there.

But that's not the true fullness of reality which we are to anticipate.

The great hope is the bodily resurrection of the dead.

And even those before the throne, you read in the book of Revelation, they're crying out, how long, Lord,

before we're vindicated and we're standing in our glorified bodies.

When Jesus Christ returns, he'll be coming for us.

We who believe on him as our Lord and Savior, and then we shall forever be with the Lord.

And this has been the great promise of God and the great hope of the believers since the beginning of time.

Coming into his presence results in bringing us to the fullness of his

blessing upon us.

We haven't experienced the real great transformation that

is before us.

The holy scriptures teach us that a life of true peace and joy and security, which we now enjoy in a measure through

faith, can only be experienced in the presence of God.

For in God, in him, is life.

And that life emanates from him to all that are near him.

Happiness is not found in the things that God gives, but rather,

ultimately, it's in God who gives us all things to enjoy.

You take the things and separate them from God who gives it, and they become deadening.

They become idols.

They don't satisfy.

When we take what he intended for us to use in the manner he prescribed and use it for something other than what he

intended, it rots and spoils and fails to give enjoyment and satisfaction.

Think of the pot of manna.

Gather six days, not on the seventh, you'll have enough.

Gathered on that sixth day to take care of the Sabbath day, but they went out initially, foolishly, and gathered on the

seventh day.

And what happened?

In no time, it rotted, and there were worms in it.

Well, that's what happens in anything when you use it in a way contrary to the way God has prescribed.

It doesn't fulfill.

It doesn't permanently satisfy.

Oh, it might tease you a little bit.

It might give you some thrills, but they're momentary and temporary, and ultimately, they

corrupt, and they cannot bring true peace and joy.

That is in God alone.

In him alone is life, not in the things he gives, but in him, he is

life, and of course, that life is in his son.

Life in the presence of God may be illustrated by Adam and Eve in the garden of God, in

Eden, which is the paradise of God, and there in Eden, of course, there was everything

that was needful and beneficial for the lives of Adam and Eve.

They could live a life of security and peace and joy, presence while in the presence of

God.

They'd walk with him daily in the cool of the day, and so they enjoyed this place of paradise

because God was there, and because he dwelt with his people.

The garden of Eden is set forth in the Bible as a temple.

It was really the first physical temple, and a temple, of course, is where God meets with his people, and the garden

was like a temple, and so God met and interacted with mankind

there in the garden, but when sin entered their lives, it resulted, of course, in separation from the garden,

which was a separation from the presence of God himself, and that's what is significant, not that they were just

taken out of this paradise, but they were removed from the presence of God, which resulted in the

curse, went out into a world that was no longer fruit -bearing.

It was resistant to them.

It was difficult with struggle and misery and death because it was a

separation from the presence of God himself, and so thereafter, Adam and Eve encountered a cursed earth

rather than an earth that yielded readily its fruit to them, but once living in this fallen world,

a place of blessing and security could be found and enjoyed when God met with, when he came to them and

manifested his presence among his people, and so down through biblical history, this has played out.

God carves out a little place where he meets with his people, and there he blesses them.

The whole land of Canaan, the promised land, was God's land where they could dwell with God,

and they could order life according to God's will, and God would bless them.

Remember, in the land, if they obeyed the law of God, they would experience his blessing in his

presence.

The Shekinah glory was with them.

The presence of God protected them, shielded them by a cloud during day from the heat.

The pillar of fire to provide them warmth at night.

God provided them meat.

He provided them the manna.

He provided them the water.

They were secure, and then, of course, once they entered the promised land,

the promised land is set forth as like a new Garden of Eden in which God and his people would dwell,

and then the tabernacle, of course, that Moses built, the people of Israel built there in the

wilderness, and then later, the physical temple that Solomon built, which replaced it, were similar

locations in which God would meet with his people from which he would manifest his saving and life

-giving presence, but we have found in John's gospel

that Jesus himself is set forth not only as the replacement for God's people, he's the true

Israel, the true vine over against unfaithful Israel, but he's also the true temple,

isn't he?

He spoke about the temple of his body.

This is where we meet with God in faith in Christ, and so when we're in right relationship with Jesus Christ,

these blessings and promises of God the Father are enjoyed by us and experienced by us

because he is the true temple, and then, of course, he takes all of his people, New Testament believers, and

he forms us as living stones into a spiritual temple, so the church itself is the temple of God,

and every true local church is the temple of God.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, ye are the body of Christ, ye are the temple of God.

If anybody destroys this temple, God's gonna destroy you.

Don't you be destroying the local church.

God takes it personally, he'll destroy you, is what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians.

It's a temple, and so Jesus, being the true Israel, as well as

a new spiritual temple through whom God dwells, gives life to his people, and so in this

glorious realization of what the people of God enjoy in Jesus Christ, they're formed into a living spiritual temple in

which God dwells with his people and his son through the Holy Spirit,

therefore we enjoy the blessings of God, peace and joy and rest, forgiveness of sins, life,

not based on what's happening around us, but based upon our relationship with God in Christ.

There's a wonderful book written by Greg Beal.

It's been on my shelf probably for three years, and I pulled it off and looked at it.

It's just, I've been intending to read it.

I think I'm gonna start it this week.

Greg Beal, he was our Bolton Conference Speaker a couple of years ago.

We've become friends.

He's a good guy, and he wrote this book, The Temple and the Church's

Mission, A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, and he takes the entire

Bible and shows repeatedly this temple idea and temple theme.

He actually starts out with Revelation 21 and 22 at the end of the Bible, and after he speaks about

that, he set forth how that, Revelation 21, 22, is really the culmination and

realization of all biblical history, which was God dwelling with his people whereby they

experienced fullness of life before him.

He wrote of this, of his study and research of this book.

This book has been the most exciting research project on which I've ever worked.

It's opened my eyes to themes I had only seen dimly, only dimly before.

In particular, I've seen more clearly than ever the themes of Eden, the temple, God's glorious

presence, new creation, and the mission of the church are ultimately facets of all the same reality.

It's my hope that the biblical theological perspective of this book will provide greater fuel to fire the church's

motivation to fulfill its mission in the world.

He tied it all together,.

And that's what, again, we have in John 17, the emphasis of the mission and the temple.

I pray, Father, that they be with me where I am, that they behold my glory,

that they would encounter and experience the love, same love you've had for me from eternity.

And so the theme of God's presence, the church's mission, the final realization of the people of God

dwelling with God has been set forth before us in the Gospel of John, and in particular, in this

chapter of John 17.

With the coming of Christ, the spiritual temple foreshadowed by types and prophecies in the Old Testament see

their realization.

God dwells with his people through his son, Jesus Christ, but their present spiritual relationship will

one day give way to a more full and complete realization in the new heavens.

And the new earth.

We've only got a little foretaste of what's coming.

As John wrote about, same apostle who wrote John 17, who

heard and wrote Jesus praying here, wrote in Revelation

21, "'Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, "'for the first heaven and the first earth had

passed away "'and there was no more sea.'".

Probably most of us love the ocean, can't imagine how can heaven, how can a new heaven and a new earth be without the ocean?

It's because the sea was understood and viewed as a chaotic place and

uncontrollable, except God controls how far the waves come.

And in fact, the ancient people used to view the God of the sea as the God of death, the Egyptian

God of Moth, for example.

And so to portray a new earth without the sea, it conveys the idea of

peace and tranquility and security and blessing and no threat of death.

That's what's being conveyed by the idea of no longer

any sea.

And then John says, "'I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, "'coming down from heaven from God.'".

We're at the top of page five now.

"'Prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband, "'and I heard a loud voice from heaven say,

"'Behold, the tabernacle of God.'".

There you have the temple idea, that the dwelling place of God is with men now, you

see.

The tabernacle on the earth was just a pattern, was based on a pattern that

Moses saw on Mount Sinai, a pattern of the true temple in heaven.

And now we have the full realization, and God will dwell with them, they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there should be

no more death, nor sorrow, no crying.

There should be no more pain for the former things passed away.

And then we drop down, which we could read the entire chapter, but a little farther down, John

says, "'I saw no temple in it.'".

Why?

"'For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

"'The city had no need of the sun or of the moon "'to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.

"'The Lamb is its light, "'and the nations of those who were saved "'shall walk in its light,

"'and the kings of the earth "'bring their glory and honor into it, "'and the gate shall not be shut at all

by day.'".

There will be no night there.

Again, the idea of security.

Night was something foreboding and fearful and dangerous.

Shut the gate to the city at night.

There's not gonna be any kind of threat or danger there.

There's security and safety.

"'And they shall bring the glory and honor "'of the nations into it, "'and there shall be no means entering anything "'that

defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, "'but only those who are written "'in the Lamb's

book of life.'".

And so it is this to which our Lord is praying here in John 17, 24, when he prayed,

"'Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me "'may be with me where I

am.'".

And Revelation 21 and 22 is a prophetic vision of that

realization that we will one day enjoy.

Now, when we're brought into his presence, what will impress us most?

When the Lord returns, all of a sudden, we're in the presence of Jesus Christ, what will impress us most?

We talk about meeting our loved ones and whatnot, and ones who have gone on before.

That'll be a blessing, of course, but what will impress us most upon seeing our Savior,

Jesus prayed, "'Father, I desire they also whom you gave me "'may be with me where I am.'".

And here's a purpose clause.

This is why he prayed this.

"'So that they may behold my glory which you have given me.'".

That's what he wanted them to experience.

This glory was conferred upon Jesus by his heavenly Father when he returned to him, when he

received the kingdom from his Father.

This glory will be very much as when the three apostles beheld him on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew

recorded it in Matthew 18.

Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led him up on a high mountain

by themselves, and he, Jesus, was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

Peter later wrote about this in 2 Peter.

For he, Jesus, received from God the Father honor and glory.

It was a prefigure, a pre -shadowing of what Jesus would receive upon his resurrection and

ascension.

He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory that be God the

Father.

"'This is my beloved Son in whom I well please.'.

And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.".

It was a holy mountain because God was there.

But again, that was a preview of what our Lord received from the Father when he later rose from the dead and ascended into

heaven.

When Jesus spoke of his people seeing him in his glory, he was not speaking of merely the manifestation of

light, however, radiating from his presence.

The glory that is displayed in his appearance reflects the degree of authority, power, and

greatness that he possesses.

That's what glory means.

Now, glory is visible light.

He shined brighter than the sun.

But that is actually a manifestation of his regal authority,

just like how great Solomon was.

Remember what a great king he was?

And that was shown in the kind of robe that he bore.

His robe was great.

No one was dressed quite like Solomon.

And yet Jesus said, "'The lilies of the field were dressed more elaborately than he.'".

But the clothing that King Solomon wore was a reflection of his authority and power.

And that's why in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah is caught up to the throne of God, he sees the regal

robe of God filling the temple, remember?

To show the infinite power and authority of God, the sovereign God, over

his creation.

Now, every Christian presently sees a degree of that glory that emanates from Jesus.

But it's in faith, isn't it?

Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians 3, 18.

"'We all," he's talking about Christians, "'with unveiled face,'' you know, like Moses took

off his veil when he was in the presence of God.

We are looking straight through faith in the face of Jesus Christ, and we see him

glorified,'' we know he is.

"'Behold, in the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.'".

He said, it's like going up and looking into a mirror.

Instead of seeing your reflection, you see the reflection of Jesus Christ glorified.

And he says, as you come to see that, and the Holy Spirit brings this to your understanding, and you begin to order your life

accordingly, the Holy Spirit begins to make you more like what you're looking at.

You become more like Jesus Christ.

And this is how God transforms us.

It's through seeing God in Jesus Christ, and understanding in faith,

but the Holy Spirit making it vivid to us, and living in the light of it, it's transformative.

You know, the sanctification that takes place in the Christian life is not based because he gives us a set of rules and

laws.

That doesn't transform anybody.

It actually condemns them.

It's seeing the glory and authority in Jesus Christ as Lord, God

incarnate.

This is what's transformative, as the Holy Spirit makes this real to our souls.

And so, Paul declared that we're transformed into the same image, that it would be like Jesus Christ, from one

degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

And so, in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, seeing his glory is our comprehension of the degree of authority

that our Lord Jesus presently possesses and manifests in heaven and on earth.

It speaks of the magnificence and the extension of his sovereign rule over all things.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

We believe that, don't we?

He's the one who's controlling history right now.

It's not because of all the jokers in Washington, or in Davos, Switzerland, you know, King Jesus

is calling the shots, and he's saving his people, and he's bringing his judgment upon the unrighteous.

And that's what's taking place in history.

And we are to see that, and understand that,.

And live in the light of it.

And so, the glory of Christ speaks of the magnificent and extension of his sovereign rule over all

things.

Paul was writing that to the degree that we see, that is, contemplate and submit to the royal authority

of Jesus Christ will be to the degree that we will enjoy and experience the moral transformation of our

lives into ones like Jesus Christ himself.

But again, this is what we experience now as Christians.

But one day, every one of us who are Christians are gonna be brought actually into the very presence of

Jesus Christ, and we're gonna see with our eyes, but not just our eyes, we are going to

understand what it is for Jesus Christ to be both God

and man.

When we're brought into his presence, when this takes place, we'll fully see Jesus Christ in all his glory,

and we will then be instantaneously transformed, we'll experience a transformation in

ourselves.

And we too will then become glorified to a measure as we behold his glory.

This is what John wrote about.

First John, beloved, we're God's children now.

We are now, thank the Lord for that.

But what we will be has not yet appeared, for we know that when he appears, we shall be like him,

because we shall see him as he is.

Moses went up on the mountain, saw God, and he didn't realize the glory of God was

reflected in his face.

That's why he put a veil over his face, because the longer he was away from the presence of God, that glory diminished.

He didn't want the people of Israel seeing that glory diminish in his face, because then they would think less of Moses'

authority.

And so we look into the face of Jesus spiritually in this sense, that he is the

glorified, sovereign Lord of history.

Now, there is a theological name placed upon this biblical event of beholding the glory of God on the face of

Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you've heard of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't.

It's referred to as the beatific vision.

Some who are Roman Catholic, perhaps, have a background, recognize this name.

But it's been a matter that not only Rome, but also Eastern Orthodox have promoted now through the centuries,

the beatific vision.

But this vision is not foreign to Protestantism, although it's been kind of lost.

Calvin wrote of it, John Owen did, Jonathan Edwards did quite a bit.

In fact, I came across yesterday a book that speaks about Jonathan Edwards and the beatific vision.

The fact is, the Bible is replete with this idea of seeing God and experience the fullness of blessing for

having done so.

We read of David's words in Psalm 17.

As for me, I will see your face in righteousness.

I shall be satisfied when I awaken your likeness.

Paul stated, again, now we see it a mere dimly, but then face to face.

The Hebrew word for face, by the way, is the same word as presence.

The Hebrew word is panim.

Paneh is the singular, and it speaks about one side of your face.

And when the Bible talks about panim, like Moses, in looking at the face of God, it was like,

it's a plural word, panim, I am is plural.

And it's like both sides of his face are looking.

And so it's present, the idea of presence.

And in the face of God.

And it's a theme found throughout the scriptures.

Moses saw God face to face, and he was thereby transformed.

Paul wrote, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

And then the last vision of the Bible speaks of this event and the result.

John wrote, he, this angel, showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,

proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

And in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree

yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were the healing of the nations.

There should be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it.

His servants shall serve him.

And here it is, they shall see his face, and his name should be on their foreheads.

There should be no night there.

They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign, notice

connected with the kingdom there, they shall reign forever and ever.

Now again, although we speak in terms of our physical eyes, seeing God and seeing the glory of God,

actually this site is of a spiritual nature more so than a physical nature, although the two

are brought together.

Jonathan Edwards wrote this in a sermon.

It was based, I think, on Romans 2 .10, and no, that was a different sermon.

This one is entitled Divine and Supernatural Light.

He talks about the suddenness in which God brings conversion to people.

A sudden and bright light can shine upon a soul, and all of a sudden they're born again.

You come in here, a lost soul, and the Holy Spirit turns on the lights, and you go out a converted person.

It can happen that suddenly and that fast.

And it doesn't always happen, you know, in that significant, remarkable way, but it does happen,

and he preached a sermon on that.

Then he speaks here, positively what is a spiritual divine light is, divine light

defined.

And it may be thus described, a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word

of God.

In other words, all of a sudden, it's like the light is turned on, and you see the relevance of it, the beauty of it,

the incredible weight of it.

They were just words before, but now it's a living reality.

This is because God has given you light, a conviction of the truth and reality of them thence

arising.

This spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these, a real sense and apprehension of

the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word of God, a spiritual and saving conviction

of the truth and reality of these things, arises from such a sight of their divine excellency and

glory, so that this conviction of their truth is an effect and natural consequence of this sight of

their divine glory.

There is therefore in this spiritual light, a sense of the divinity and excellency of the things of earth.

See, it's a transforming thing.

A lot of people have never experienced this.

They're clueless.

A true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things of religion, in other words, Christianity,

a real sense of the excellency of God and of Jesus Christ and the work of redemption and the

ways and works of God revealed in the gospel.

There is a divine and superlative glory in these things, an excellency that is of a vastly higher

kind and more sublime nature than in other things, a glory greatly distinguishing them from

all that is earthly and temporal.

He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it or has a sense of it.

He does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the glory of God in

his heart.

There is not only a rational belief that God is holy and that holiness is a good thing, but there is

a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness.

There is not only a speculatively judging that God is gracious, but a sense how amiable God

is upon that account, how approachable, friendly he is, or a sense of the beauty of his

divine attribute.

This final and full vision of God, which is in the face of Jesus Christ, is the end or the goal of our salvation.

It's not just being saved from hell, although that's what a blessing, but it's more.

It's the experience and enjoyment of the essence and meaning of life being brought into the very presence of God

in whom alone is life.

Here's one description of this.

The beatific vision is understood as the ultimate end of human nature.

It is why we exist.

It relates to human nature, the way the destination functions for those in a race.

It is the ultimate and final human experience, resulting in a perfect and permanent happiness.

I won't read that parenthetic clause.

Theologians have therefore spoken of the beatific vision with alluring and vivid language.

Isaac Watson called it the heaven of heaven and the quintessence of happiness.

Jonathan Edwards writes that the pleasure of seeing God is so great and so strong that it takes the

full possession of the heart.

It fills, it's brimful, so that there shall be no room for any style, no room or in any

corner for anything of an adverse nature from joy.

There's no darkness can bear such powerful light.

At the same time, and in contrast to criticisms that beatific vision implies a static

and overtly intellectual view of heavenly experience, theologians often speak of the beatific vision

in a dynamic terms as an infinitely progressive, expanding reality.

This is something of the paradox of the joy of heaven.

It is perfect, yet always increasing.

We never arrive, never will arrive.

And so here's a summary of what Jonathan Edwards declared in a sermon.

This is the sermon based on Romans 2 .10, talking about how God will confer as a

gift, glory and honor, immortality on the ones who order their life according to his

will, those who are true believers.

Edwards preached on Romans 2 .10 in 1735, claiming to give a description of the consummate and

eternal glory and blessedness of the saints, showing first its nature and wherein it consists and second, its

circumstances.

Edwards provides six major points under his first emphasis.

In other words, what's gonna happen?

Six things he says are gonna happen when we are brought into the presence of Christ.

First, heaven is more glorious than any other aspect of created reality.

God is the builder.

There's no lack of skill in its architect.

Second, as glorious as the heavenly realms are, they pale in comparison to the glorified bodies.

Of the saints.

Third, as glorious as the saints' bodies will be, those will be overshadowed by the glory of the saints'

souls.

Fourth, the saints in heaven will commune in perfect harmony and union with one another.

Fifth, the saints will converse and see Christ in a twofold sense.

Before moving on to the sixth point, we must pause to look at Edwards' twofold delineation of conversing with and

seeing Christ.

First, the saints shall see him as appearing in his glorified human nature with their bodily eyes.

And second, they shall see him with the eye of the soul.

In this sight of Christ, glorified humanity will come to understand Christ's mediatorial role, the eternal

covenants of redemption, Christ's love to them before the foundation of the world, the mystery of the incarnation,

the glorious way of salvation by Christ, a full understanding of the infinite wisdom of God and

contriving the way of salvation.

There, the heart will no longer be dull concerning these things, but will be fully enlightened.

Everything in the work of redemption, Edwards claimed, will appear in its true glory, like the clear hemisphere with the sun

in the meridian, and there shall never come even one cloud to darken the mind.

Christ's exalted and glorified human state will furthermore appear without a veil, and the saints will

have full access to converse or, you know, have communication with Christ.

These conversations will be, first, most free and intimate, and second, they will be with the greatest endearments and love from

Christ to his spouse.

The soul shall, as it were, all dissolve in love in the arms of the glorious Son of God, and

breath itself wholly in ecstasies of divine love into his bosom.

Our Lord had prayed earlier that the Father restore to him the glory he had shared with the Father before his

incarnation.

Verse five.

And here, glory speaks of his regal, sovereign authority as the eternal Son of God.

He here prays that his people will one day see his glory that's been conferred upon him and his glorification.

Father, I want them to be with me so they will see the glory that you have given me.

He's praying, therefore, that his people will behold the manifestation of his divine nature in the form of

unapproachable glory in his glorified human body.

We might say that John himself had experienced this in his

vision of Jesus on the island of Patmos.

You recall how it's recorded in Revelation 1.

He said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

I heard with behind me a voice.

He first heard a voice.

Voice is a trumpet saying, I am the off and the omega, the first and the last.

What you see, write in a book, send to the seven churches, which are in Asia.

Verse 12, I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

What did he see?

Having turned, I saw, and by the way, probably the emphasis there is the importance of Christ's voice.

Not so much as seeing him, but hearing his word spoken to them.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, girded about the chest

with a golden band.

His head and hair were white like wool, white as snow.

His eyes like a flame of fire.

His feet were like fine brass, refined in a furnace.

His voice is the sound of many waters.

He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two -edged sword.

His countenance, or appearance, was like the sun shining in its strength.

And when I saw him, I felt that his feet is dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last.

I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore.

Amen, I have the keys of Hades and death.

And one day we'll see that, won't we?

Just as John saw him on the island of Patmos.

Now, why the father so readily and wonderfully bestowed the glory upon Jesus Christ that he had

requested of him?

Father, glorify me.

We read in verse 24, Father, I desire they also whom you gave me may be with me where

I am, that they may behold my glory which you've given me.

And then he gives the reason.

The conjunction forward is an explanatory conjunction.

He's now given the reason.

For you loved me before the foundation of the world.

The father glorified his son because he loved the son from before the foundation of the world.

The son of God had surrendered the manifestation of his glory when he left his place beside his father,

assumed our human nature.

His glory was not removed.

You cannot remove the divine glory from Jesus Christ.

But in the incarnation, that glory was hidden or rather veiled by his flesh.

Just as the veil in the temple hid the glory of God over the mercy seat inside the holy

of holies, the flesh, the body of Jesus Christ prevented us from

seeing the true glory of his divine nature.

It was hidden from sight.

But the father loved him still, though this glory was not manifested during his earthly

sojourn.

Now, we'll not say that the father loved his son more for what Jesus did in his

incarnation.

That's not possible for God to love more.

He's already loves with an infinite love.

How can you increase that?

That's just an impossibility.

The father loved his son with an everlasting love, but the father was infinitely pleased and proud of his

son, if we can speak in these terms, to glorify his son for the life he lived in his

incarnation while on earth.

But the glory that our father restored to his son upon his resurrection was not just conferred upon the divine

nature of Jesus, but due to his incarnation, this glory of God from eternity was

conferred upon his human nature.

And his human nature, again, is his human soul, his mind,

his emotions, his will, and his human body.

The divine glory that belonged to the eternal son of God was

conferred upon Jesus Christ, the God man.

And so now we have a glorified man in heaven with the full glory

of God upon him, radiating from him.

A man is sitting on the throne of God right now.

And the Bible makes that very clear.

The father conferred all glory to him, the sovereign and royal authority, and it's

manifested in the brightness of his person.

This is what Paul saw on the road to Damascus when he was converted.

He's full of murderous thoughts and intentions to kill Christians, and all of a sudden,

in midday, he says, at midday, at noon, a light shone around us

that was brighter than the noonday sun.

It was the glory of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus indicated that to him.

Paul asked, who are you?

I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting.

He saw the glory of God, as it were, in the face of Jesus Christ.

So when the son returned to heaven upon his resurrection, the infinite kingly

authority over all things was granted to his son.

And the reason that he gave his son that glory is because he loved his son with an

everlasting love.

And one day, the father will give you and me glory as well.

Granted, it will be glory in varied degrees based upon our stewardship of time and resources in this

life, but he will confer glory upon us.

Why?

Because he also loved us from eternity past, is what Jesus is

declaring.

And then we see in verse 25, we gotta wrap things up in about five minutes here, and we'll close, okay?

I realize time is rapidly escaping us.

Jesus relates to his father the content of the faith that was his disciples.

Jesus addressed his father, oh, righteous father.

When Jesus prayed earlier for his father to protect and preserve his apostles for the ministry of the word, he called

upon his father, holy father.

But here he calls upon his father, righteous father.

It was a righteous thing that God confer glory upon his people.

Jesus described the fallen world as ignorant of the true identity and nature of his father.

He said, the world has not known you.

And before we were converted, we were clueless, weren't we?

Even now we're crassly ignorant, but at least we're more informed now than we ever were before.

The world has not known you.

No one can know God.

You can't know God.

I cannot know God.

He's infinite.

That's why we need a mediator, Jesus Christ, to reveal God to us.

The finite cannot comprehend the infinite.

It's not just because we're sinful we cannot truly know God.

It's because we're mortal, we're finite, and that's why we need a mediator, the God man,

to reveal God to us.

The world has not known him, but then Jesus declared, I have known you, and

I've revealed you to them.

They have believed that you have sent me, and that's basically what saving faith is all

about.

You believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God who took upon our human

nature, whom the Father sent into the world to redeem us from our sin, to

save us from our sin, its penalty, its power, its presence.

We did not know God, could not have known God.

It was only because the Lord Jesus himself came and revealed God to us.

And then lastly, Jesus declared on page 10, Jesus had been faithful to his people to

declare and reveal the Father to them, and he commits himself to continue to do so.

Our Lord concluded his prayer in verse 26.

I've declared to them your name and will declare it.

Jesus always brought forward his Father before his disciples to give him the glory in

all that he taught them and all the works he did, and here he also commits, he'll continue to do so.

Jesus Christ is continually setting forth God the Father.

He's revealing him to us, and he glorified him, and we also, by the way, are

to desire and attempt to do the same thing, to make known the glory of God the Father

in Jesus Christ.

And again, he concludes this prayer with a purpose.

The purpose, the reason he would continue to instruct them concerning the Father.

I declare to them your name and will declare it.

The purpose clause, for what end, what purpose?

So that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them.

Knowledge of God the Father by and through Jesus Christ brings us and enables us to receive and

experience and enjoy the love of God that God has for us.

And this is a love not just for his people, but it's a love

that Jesus says will be in them.

And this, accompanying this love of God is the manifestation of Jesus Christ's own

presence with his people.

There is so much here, we can't even feel kind of frustrated, not being able to

express it in a better way, in better terms.

But may the Lord help us as we ponder and meditate upon these matters and maybe read

through this high priestly prayer and ponder it.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for your word.

Thank you, our God, for having recorded this prayer of our Lord Jesus here in

this chapter.

And we're just amazed, our Lord, at the wonder of it, of your promises

that are assured to us in Jesus Christ.

And we pray, our God, that even now in this life, we would see his glory to the

degree possible by finite persons, Lord, this side

of our glorification.

And we pray, our God, we would experience the moral and spiritual transformation as a result.

Help us, our Lord, to become more like Jesus Christ in our attitudes, our actions, and the way

we think, the way we respond and react.

And help us, our Lord, to be burdened about declaring this gospel of Jesus Christ to the world in which you've placed

us.

We pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.