Dec. 17, 2017 PM Service What We Need God’s Glory by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Jesus begins what is rightly called the High Priestly Prayer in John 15

and 16.

As we've gone through those, we see he speaks to the disciples about what is about to

come.

And he speaks to the disciples about where they're going to find their strength and where they're going to find their

hope.

Of course, that is in him, as branches connected to the true vine and such

teaching like that.

And now finally, he comes to this break and prays as it

were about himself.

This High Priestly Prayer, where the whole tone and the direction of this discourse in the upper room

the night before his crucifixion takes a change.

John 17, beginning at verse 1, and we will attend ourselves this morning to the first five verses.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 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 you have given him.

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

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

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

existed.

May God bless the reading and now the hearing of his word.

So I ask you, what is it that you need in your Christian walk?

What is it that is necessary to you?

As you think of persevering in the faith, of enduring in this world where we

are pilgrims and sojourners, what is it that you need?

Now some might answer a question like this and say, well, I need more time in prayer.

Another might take stock and say, well, I really should study the scriptures more consistently, more

often.

And yes, says another, that would be good, but I need more depth, I need to see the deep things of the Lord, I need to delve

into the more wondrous things of God's revelation of himself.

And these are good.

More prayer can only benefit us, get us closer to the Lord.

Bible study, whether it's more in content or more in depth, can only bring good to our souls and mold us more into the image of

our Savior.

These would all be good and right answers, but what is it we really need?

Those previous suggestions can help us in our pilgrimage here.

But the answers I just proposed, all of which I've heard at different times, these things are all things that I need

to do.

And there are things that we need to do.

We do need to pray more, I need to pray more, you do need to study the scripture more, as do I.

You need to know the Lord better by knowing his revelation of himself in the Bible better, as do

I.

We all need those things.

And these are our duties, these are the things that we do.

I will offer you, from the verses here before us in Jesus' beginning, this high priestly prayer,

a slightly different answer, not that there's anything wrong with those others, no criticism of them, they're good answers,

here's another.

But perhaps this answer that I will propose is a bit more foundational.

What we need, before any of these other things, what we need is for Jesus to be glorified

by the Father and for him to glorify the Father.

Before any of these activities that bring good to us and bring more sanctification and more of the image of Christ in

us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the study of his word, through prayer, through submission to

his will, before all these things, all of them being good things, there is this.

We need Jesus to be glorified.

We need Jesus to be glorified by his Father and we need his Father to be glorified by him.

This precedes anything we might do that glorifies God, which according to 1 Corinthians 10 .31

is the purpose for which God has even given us breath.

Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

An instruction from the Apostle which tells us that we can do things, do stuff, I,

you, all whose faith is in Christ, can glorify God.

But of course this glorification of God is secondary to this.

This glorification where the Son glorifies the Father, the Father glorifies the Son must

precede all.

Without that, there is no other glory to be even concerned about.

We are reduced to self -serving works.

But such is not the case because indeed as we will see, God did glorify his Son.

The Son did glorify his Father.

That precedes anything that we might do.

Indeed, our great High Priest does for us what the

priests of old never could.

What is that?

He makes the glory of God accessible.

He makes the glory of God accessible.

He makes it something real and something practical.

Something we can stand before and we were speaking of it this morning in the morning message.

We don't have to run from the glory of God.

We're able to be in the presence of the glory of God, the very glory of God, and

not depart because it's too much for us to handle.

We spoke this morning about the reason for that being a mediated glory.

It's mediated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore we can stand in it as we glorify God even in our worship here this afternoon.

The disciples saw the glory of Jesus.

They saw it on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Peter, James, and John went up there.

And remember Jesus was transfigured before them.

And his clothes shone white as the sun.

And they looked upon that glory.

What glory was that?

Again, from the morning's message.

Not a different glory.

Not that the Son has a glory different from what the Father has or from what the Spirit has.

They saw the glory of God and lived.

And far from having to run out of the tabernacle as did the priests of old, Peter said,

let's build some huts.

Let's stay here.

This is a good place to be, standing in the presence of God.

There wasn't a glory yet to be seen then.

The ultimate sign of the glory is what was waiting, which is the cross.

Jesus' perfect life of total obedience was about to accomplish the goal of it all.

The salvation of sinners.

And here is what is meant that the Father has given the Son authority over all flesh.

For you have given him, given me, really he's saying but he speaks of himself in the third person there, given him authority

over all flesh.

The cross is where God's servant will be pinned helplessly to the tree.

And there his blood will be poured out in place of ours and there his death will satisfy

our proper punishment.

God's wrath will be poured out, God's wrath will be emptied upon him.

And he will suffer in his body, in his soul, what was deserved by

others.

There's a distinction here between all flesh.

You've given him authority over all flesh and then what he says, the people whom you gave me out of the world in verse 6.

We didn't read it in the reading just a moment ago, but that's who he refers to next.

First is all flesh and the next verse, the people whom you gave me out of the world.

All flesh of course means everyone, everyone.

All humanity through all time without distinction, everyone.

He has authority over them.

This is to him by the Father.

It is he who has that authority.

It is he who has that right.

It is he who will sort out the sheep from the goats.

It is he at whose direction the angels will sort out the good from the bad fish.

He, Jesus, not the angels, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the one with that authority over

all.

And within that larger pail, within the larger group of all humanity,

there's a smaller group.

As a smaller group, no one knows who it is but God.

God alone knows how small or how large it is.

But we have some pictures of it, don't we?

This larger, this smaller group within the all flesh, the people whom you gave me out of the world.

Revelation pictures them for us as myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

Jesus speaks of them as those who entered by a narrow gate that only a few were able to find.

Who's he talking about?

The redeemed of the Lord, saints, you, me,

everyone with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is one of these, those whom God the Father gave

God the Son from out of the world, chosen before the

foundations of the world were put in place.

These by name are the Father's bestowment to the Son.

So with eyes to his ultimate place, which is heaven, it says he was looking upwards, looking upwards to the throne,

the one that he left for our sakes, the one he's soon going to return to with glory.

He asks the Father for what it is we need most.

We need God's glory.

We need God's glory.

In verse two, we find the basis for this mutual glorification between Christ and his Father.

Sort of the end game for Christ's universal authority to give eternal life to all

you have given him.

Again, speaking of himself in the third person.

God the Father gave him authority over all flesh and he gives, he has that authority, he alone has

that right to give eternal life to those he has given him.

And then the next verse, those are the ones who God the Father gave God the Son from out of the world.

And so as Jesus begins the end of this discourse, the beginning of

the high priestly prayer which ends this last discourse, he's

anticipating the completion of the transaction.

He will be glorified by the Father, by what?

By obeying him to the death, even the death of the cross.

And that, of course, that reference I just alluded to is Philippians 2 where Paul sets forth the humility of

obedience that was exemplified by Jesus.

And that has but one trajectory.

The apostle writes, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above

every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Of course the apostle here is speaking of the end result of Jesus Christ humbling himself

even to the death, even the death of the cross.

Let this mind be in you also, of course, the beginning of that.

Think like Jesus.

Other serving humility in submission to God the Father's will.

And by that he exalted, lifted on high, returning to the Father's side

and there waiting for his return and for every knee to bow to him and

confess that he is Lord, he and he alone to the glory of God the

Father who gave him the people for whom he died.

Jesus is going to give eternal life to those chosen by and given to him.

Now they are his, but we don't just get handed to him and then Jesus

doesn't just hand out passports to heaven.

Eternal life, which is salvation, which is everlasting joy in the presence of God as we read in the psalm,

that's something to be earned.

Not by you, not by me, not by any works of our hands, not by any

person who's ever lived, but Jesus, not by us, but

for us, for you and for me.

Christ, the next day, will earn this for us at the cross.

The wages of sin is death.

What are the wages of the cross?

By faith in him, life, eternal life, eternal joy in the presence of the

Lord.

What is this eternal life he's speaking of?

What is this wonder set before the Son and accomplished by him for us?

Well, in verse three, he tells us, it is to know both the

Father who gave you to Christ and Christ who accepted you from

his hand.

What is eternal life?

To know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, his Son, your Son,

whom you sent.

Let's spend just a moment here.

Arthur Pink points out here, I quote, the knowledge spoken of here, knowledge of the Father,

the knowledge spoken of here is not speculative, but practical, not theoretical, but experimental,

not intellectual, but spiritual, not inactive, but saving.

In other words, to know God as Christ means here, to know him savingly is an intimate

and determined and trusting knowledge of him and who he is.

It's a knowledge that believes what God says of himself and lives on that basis.

He's the only true God, not one out of a panoply.

Where men fill their pockets with the deities that suit them, not like a man looking at Amazon and

seeing gods for sale over here and some with free shipping, and then just before completing his worries says, well, a Christ might be

nice.

How much would that be?

Oh, that's too much.

He demands repentance.

He demands a life of obedience.

I'll put him back, take him out of my cart.

And these others that remain there, those are more to my liking.

No, there's only one true God.

God the Father, whom God the Son is here praying to.

And as we will see as we finish this part of Jesus' prayer in the next few weeks,

he consecrates himself to them whom God gave him.

No, Jesus means the only true God.

The one who says of himself, declare and present your case.

Let them take counsel together.

Who told this long ago?

Who declared it of old?

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior.

There is none besides me.

This is the only true God.

This is God the Father who Jesus is praying to.

This is God the Father who makes the determination of who his Son will

die for.

Those whom he, God the Father, gave him from out of the world.

It couldn't be more clear.

Christ means the Lord who speaks and whatever he speaks happens.

He means the only true God, the one who mocks idols and beckons them to speak or act, to do anything except that

one thing they are able to do, which is to lead men and women astray.

Do anything good.

Speak something.

Tell us what happened yesterday.

Tell me what happened five minutes ago and what's going to happen in the next two minutes.

The challenge from God to those idols is that mocking.

It's almost that absurd to think that an idol can do anything like that.

No.

There's but one God.

This God who our Savior consecrates himself to for the work of the next day.

God the Father.

Excuse me.

Eternal life, what Jesus is speaking of here, that he's going to give eternal life to those whom the Father gave him.

It's defined according to its giver who is, of course, God.

If men proceed to define it for themselves, they're going to run amuck as they always have

and then they will set for themselves what is needed to have it.

They will decide it for themselves as they always have.

So the idea of knowing God then.

This is eternal life.

They know you, the one true God, the true and living God.

How do we know God?

No one has ever seen God.

The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

We spoke of it this morning.

As Jesus explained him, that's how we know him.

As Jesus who came and explained, who exegeted, who narrated God, who presented God the Father.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

That's how we know him.

If Pink's exposition gives us some practical guidelines, here we have the body of knowledge.

I'm not going to go over it, of course, except to say that the Bible is our explanation of who and what God is.

He is seen in his works.

He's understood in his words.

His works in history are consistent with his person and his words are his self -testimony and his commitments.

The things that God himself, of his own volition, has committed himself to.

In the context of this high priestly prayer, Jesus consecrating himself to the next day's work, his passion, as we

call it sometimes, what has he committed himself to?

He has committed himself, God the Father has committed himself, to actually, in fact, and

truly save those for whom his Son will die the next day.

Actually, in time and space, in history, at the cross, really to

save that people who he gave him.

Paired with knowledge of God the Father is equally to know God the Son.

That you know him, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

The word and, you, the true God, and Jesus Christ, that and

is bigger than its three letters might imply.

It could almost be an equal sign.

One without the other is not the only true God, meaning God the Father without the God the Son.

That's not the God of our Bible.

The Father without the Son has no one to send.

The Son without the Father has no one to save.

If God glorifies the Son and the Son the Father, how can there be any glory if one of them

is left out?

And if no one has ever seen the Father, how can God have dwelt among us?

If God cannot be seen, who is it who was seen on the cross?

And then not seen in the tomb?

And then seen alive before he ascended back to his Father?

See, we worship a thrice holy God.

That's the true God that Jesus says, this is eternal life, to know you, the true God.

And though the Holy Spirit is not much in view right here, he is prominent in the Lord's discourse elsewhere, just not right

here, we affirm with one voice that the only true God is one God in three persons, Father,

Son, Holy Spirit.

So what did the and tell us?

If someone says there is one without the other, then he is not speaking of the only true God.

He is not speaking of eternal life.

Listen to how John explains this in his first epistle, 1 John 5.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born

of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

And so Christ goes on.

I have glorified you on earth.

He says in his prayer to the Father, this prayer of self -consecration, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work

you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence

with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

It's been the briefest exposition of these five verses, what it means,

what Jesus is speaking of here.

Who is this God that Jesus says to know this God, to know God is to have eternal life?

What do we need?

We need to start where Jesus did.

We need him to bring to his fullest expression the glory of God.

We all know 1 Corinthians 10 .31, a precept that too often simply makes us feel inadequate to the task,

and all you do, do all to the glory of God.

But by God's grace, we're actually not.

We're actually not insufficient to the task.

By the power of an indwelling spirit, we can and we do bring glory to him.

Now, I'm not saying we're little gods making the true God anything.

The Lord condescends to notice and take pleasure in the things we do in his name and for the sake of his honor,

and has chosen of himself that these things should bring him glory.

The works we do in his name.

The works we do so that he will get the credit.

The works we do that make little of me and much of Jesus.

The things we do where somebody says, that was a great thing you did, and you give all the praise to Christ our Savior.

Like it or not, you are bringing glory to God.

Not the kind of glory Jesus speaks about where he says, glorify your son and the strong glorify you.

That's a whole different paradigm.

This is God in the process of sanctifying us to himself.

Growing us in the image of his son.

Saying that the things you do in my son's name that are truly by faith in his name, I have

chosen to be glorified by that.

That's what we mean.

God's glory is his chief concern.

He does everything for his glory.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

I mean, in regards to the judgment of sin, what does the scripture say?

Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified, and before all the people, I will be glorified.

After destroying Nabodab and Abihu, for having profaned the just erected

tabernacle.

When Jesus healed the paralytic and forgave his sins, what does it say?

When the crowd sought, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

In regards to the purpose of his people's gathered worship, as we are this afternoon, as we were this

morning, as God willing we will be again Wednesday evening, and God willing again next Sunday.

In regards to that assembly, go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take

pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

Jesus prays for the mutual sharing of glory between him and the Father.

His glory ranks with holiness among his most jealously guarded qualities.

Towards the end of Jesus' prayer, he's going to say, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me,

may be with me where I am to see my glory, the glory that you have given me

because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

And this refers, it seems, to that time when eternal life begins, when we stand in the presence of our

Savior, when we will see him as he is because we will be like him.

Then we're going to see this glory, the same that James and John and Peter saw on the mount.

For now, while the Lord tarries, while we remain here, we trust that this glory is in store for us,

that God will keep his word to his Son and Jesus' word to us.

So what do we need?

What do you need tomorrow when you go about your workaday life?

What do I need tomorrow when I come back to this office and begin studying for next Sunday's message?

What does the youngest believer need?

What does the most elderly believer need?

What we need is God's glory, God's glory seen in his Son, Jesus Christ, to have that always

set before us.

This is our greatest need, to see God's glory, to believe that it is in Jesus Christ that God has

glorified his Son and that the Son glorifies the Father, and as we worship him,

as we faithfully follow him, that we bring glory to his name as well.

Amen?

Let us continue in song with number five.