[0:00] And turn in your Bibles to John chapter 16. John chapter 16 and we'll read from verse 25 through to chapter 17 verse 5.
[0:35] Jesus speaks plainly to his disciples in this passage. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language, but will tell you plainly about my Father.
[0:56] In that day, you will ask in my name. I'm not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
[1:13] I came from the Father and entered the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. Then Jesus' disciples said, Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
[1:57] I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, Father, the time has come.
[2:15] Father, the time has come. Father, the time has come. Father, the time has come. Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
[2:27] Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
[2:42] And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Let's hear the word preached.
[2:56] Well, for some time we were studying great texts from the Bible. We have shifted into great chapters of the Bible. Romans 8 in the morning.
[3:07] And now we come tonight to another one of the great chapters in God's word. I'm speaking of John chapter 17. There's no chapter like it anywhere else in God's word.
[3:20] The entire chapter is Jesus' prayer. And we do have in the gospel some summary statements about Christ's extraordinary habit of prayer.
[3:31] How he would get up before dawn, leave the house, go out and find a solitary place where he could speak with his father. As was his custom, his habit.
[3:42] And the four gospels do give us brief prayers that Jesus made during his life and ministry. But here in John chapter 17 is a whole chapter of Jesus' prayer.
[3:56] And it's a prayer within earshot of John, the apostle, and the other disciples because Jesus wanted them to hear it. And the Holy Spirit brought it back to John's remembrance that he might write it down, that we might hear it.
[4:15] In other words, we too were intended to hear this prayer from the Lord Jesus to his father. Now what makes this chapter so precious then is that it gives us a window into the very heart of our Savior.
[4:31] And it reveals what was on his heart just hours before his arrest, his trial, and his crucifixion. Now he has spent this whole evening alone with the twelve, teaching them, preparing them for what is coming.
[4:47] John gives five whole chapters to this section of this evening and Jesus' words to his disciples.
[4:58] They run from chapter 13 to chapter 17. That's a fourth of his gospel on what Jesus said this one night, showing us something of its significance and importance.
[5:11] It had been a difficult evening for the Lord Jesus, preparing them for his death, these men that he had just had three years with. He ate the last Passover with them.
[5:24] He instituted the Lord's Supper to remind the church to the end of the age of his death and the blood of the new covenant shed for them. He told one of them they would betray him.
[5:35] He told Peter that three times he would deny him. And he told them that all of them would forsake him, leaving him all alone.
[5:46] Hard things to say to his men. He told them that he was going back to his father who had sent him. And that that was good for them that he goes away because if he goes away, he will send to them another helper, the Holy Spirit.
[6:05] To be with them. He told them that their fruitfulness will come from their union and communion with him. Like a branch in a vine. And he told them that they would be hated for his sake.
[6:19] And that those who killed them would actually think that by doing so they were serving God. It's a lot to prepare these ordinary men for.
[6:32] As he's about to leave them. He doesn't want them surprised when these things happen. He says that. I'm telling you these things so that when they happen you will believe me and you will not be surprised by them.
[6:45] But then in conclusion he said, in this world you will have trouble. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And after Jesus said this, he turned toward heaven and prayed.
[6:58] And now brothers and sisters, we're standing on holy ground. The eternal Son of God is praying to his eternal Father in heaven.
[7:09] Tonight we're going to look at the first five verses of his prayer where we see Jesus praying for himself. We'll see in the rest of his prayer some of the things that he prays for us.
[7:22] But in this prayer, the whole of it, we learn things that are most important to him and ought to be of greatest importance to us.
[7:32] The first lesson is the Son's passion to glorify the Father. Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.
[7:45] Now six times in this prayer, Jesus will refer to God as his Father. Holy Father, righteous Father.
[7:57] And the rest of the Bible is keen to let us know that God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That in a special way, he is the Father of Jesus.
[8:13] Jesus is the eternal Son of God. You and I are adopted sons and daughters. But he's the eternal Son. And so in this prayer, we're given a peek into this eternal, inner Trinitarian relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
[8:34] Father, the time has come. Literally, the hour has come. God has a time for everything. And Jesus is aware of the divine timetable for his life and for his death.
[8:51] Now earlier in John's Gospel, on several occasions, we hear things like what he said when Mary tried to involve him when the wine ran out at the wedding in Cana.
[9:04] And Jesus said to her, why do you involve me, dear woman? My hour has not yet come. Again, he said things that the Jewish leaders sent men to arrest him in John 730.
[9:22] And they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Chapter 8, verse 20.
[9:32] He was speaking these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. But now in John chapter 13, earlier this very evening before he had prayed.
[9:50] John records these words in John 13, one. But now or it was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father.
[10:04] And here in this prayer, Father, the hour has come. The hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.
[10:16] Now at first blush, it might sound like Jesus is no different from us sinners. Out for our own glory. For he prays, Father, glorify your Son.
[10:31] Is he just another sinful glory seeker like us? Three things in response. Number one, he's the only Son deserving of glory. He's the Father's perfect eternal Son.
[10:43] He is God. And therefore, he's worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. God says, I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
[10:56] Isaiah 42, 8. So when Jesus says, Father, glorify your Son, it's a proof of his deity. That he is not another God asking God to give his glory to another.
[11:10] No, this glory is his by right. That's the first answer. Secondly, he was promised this glory in that eternal covenant of redemption. In eternity past, between the Father and the Son, the Father chose a people.
[11:25] He gave them to his Son and sent him on a mission to become a man for them, to live and die for them, and by his shed blood to purchase them for God.
[11:35] And as a reward, the Father promised to glorify him, to raise him up from the dead, to receive him back into heaven, to crown him king upon the very throne of God.
[11:49] So here in this prayer, when Jesus says, glorify your Son, Jesus is simply praying the promise, that which God had promised to him, that he would glorify him.
[12:01] And then thirdly, and most importantly, I want you to notice the end, the purpose for which Jesus prays, glorify your Son. Notice, glorify your Son so that, so that your Son may glorify you.
[12:19] So this prayer arises from Jesus' passion to glorify his Father. It's an amazing window into the eternal inner Trinitarian relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
[12:37] And what we learn is that the chief end and the greatest delight of the Son always was and is to glorify God the Father. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
[12:51] But notice the Father's not to be outdone. For his chief end and delight always was and is to glorify his Son. Hence, the Son knows it and says, glorify me, Father.
[13:04] So this triune God is a fellowship of three persons mutually glorifying each other. Here we see it, the Father glorifying the Son and the Son glorifying the Father.
[13:17] Turn back to John chapter 10. And just, I want you to notice this theme. Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is sick.
[13:29] And when he heard this, Jesus said in verse 4 of John 10, this, I'm sorry, John 11. Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death, verse 4.
[13:48] No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it. Now, when you have a reference to God in near relation to God's Son, God stands for the Father.
[14:06] And so what we have here is Jesus saying, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God the Father's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.
[14:18] Well, which is it? Will Lazarus' resurrection from the dead glorify the Father, God the Father, or God the Son? Well, of course the answer is yes and yes.
[14:29] Because what glorifies the one glorifies the other. And that's because together they share but one divine nature. We can emphasize the threeness so much that we forget that they're just one.
[14:45] And we can emphasize the oneness so strongly that we forget the threeness. But what glorifies the one glorifies the other.
[14:58] Don't you know I am in the Father and the Father is in me? He says in John 14, 10. So that the words I speak, I do not speak on my own.
[15:08] They're the words of the Father. And the works you see me do are not mine, but the Father's. It is the Father living in me who is doing his work.
[15:19] So again, we see that what work in raising Lazarus from the dead would be for God the Father's glory is also for God the Son's glory. Then in chapter 12, verse 23, Jesus says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
[15:39] That's his most favorite way of referring to himself. For the Son of Man to be glorified. This hour has come. And then in verse 27, he says, Now my heart is troubled.
[15:50] And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. No. It was for this very reason. I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came from heaven.
[16:03] I have glorified it and will glorify it again. The hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And Jesus is now praying, It's also the hour for you, Father, to glorify your name.
[16:21] Jesus is glorified as the one who came and laid down his life for us. God the Father is glorified as the one who sent Jesus on the mission, equipped him, and gave him up to the death of the cross for us.
[16:35] They both are glorified in the same events. And then in chapter 13, this very evening that we're talking about, when Jesus prays in verse 31 and 32, when Judas, when he, Judas, was gone, 1331, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
[17:03] You see this mutual glorification going on between the Father and the Son. And if God is glorified in him, then God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.
[17:16] So we see this pattern leading up to Jesus' prayer. Father, glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you. It's not just in John's Gospel, it's also in Paul's epistle to the Philippians.
[17:33] You remember chapter 2, where Paul is talking about the way that the Son of God humbled himself and became a man and became obedient unto the death, the death of the cross.
[17:46] Then verses 9 through 11, because, therefore, because he humbled himself, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place.
[17:58] Now there's God glorifying his Son for what Jesus did on the cross. He exalted him. He glorified him. He raised him from the dead, and he raised him up to his own throne.
[18:12] Therefore, he says, God exalted him to the highest place and has given him a name that is above every name. But at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[18:27] Period. Period. To the glory of God the Father. The Father glorifies his Son in exalting him to the glory of God the Father.
[18:44] You see this mutual glorification going on within the Godhead. We don't have time to think of how that is also true of the Holy Spirit, but it is also true of him, even though our text is emphasizing that which goes on between the Father and the Son.
[19:03] The glory of the one wrapped up in the glory of the other. So, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you. Now, this mutual glorifying does include the resurrection and the ascension and seating of Christ in heaven, but first of all, it points to the cross.
[19:26] The hour has come for the cross. And Jesus goes to the cross then with this passion to glorify the Father.
[19:38] To declare his worth. To demonstrate the Father's worth. And nowhere else is the Father's glory seen so clearly.
[19:49] is it Calvary? Where else do we see his love shining forth? His grace, his mercy, his holiness, his justice, his wrath, his righteousness.
[20:03] It's at the cross that the Son will glorify the Father. He is so holy that he will damn his Son when sin is placed on his Son.
[20:14] And yet he is so loving that he will save sinners by damning his Son in their place. But the cross is not only where Jesus glorifies the Father, it's the place where Jesus himself will be glorified because the glory and worth of Jesus is seen at the cross.
[20:37] At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. I first saw the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Paul says, may I glory in nothing else than in the cross of Jesus Christ.
[20:54] The cross is something to boast about, to glory in because there my Savior in dying was saving his people and pleasing his Father all at such great cost to himself.
[21:06] What a sacrifice. None like him. And you know, it is that for which the Son is right now and will be forever glorified through all the endless ages.
[21:22] What is the song of heaven? It is worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The cross worthy to receive glory, honor, praise.
[21:36] The glory of the Lamb of God is seen at Calvary and that's what his reference point is in these statements. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.
[21:49] The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. So the Son's passion is to glorify the Father. Is that your chief end? Is that your chief delight?
[22:00] To glorify God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Not just your confession of faith, yes, it's that, isn't it? But is it your practical reason for doing all that you do?
[22:14] Is it the practical reason for not doing what you don't do? That God's worthiness and glory might be seen.
[22:28] Is it your passion as it was Christ to live, to suffer, to die in such a way that God might be honored? thought highly of?
[22:43] In big things and small things, is this your daily aim? Is that how you live in your family in relation to your spouse, to your children, your parents, in a way that would cause people to think more highly of your Lord?
[23:00] Is it the way you relate in the family of God with your brothers and sisters? is it the way you relate before the unbelieving world at your job, at your school, in your recreations, at the store, on your social media sites?
[23:16] What will this make others think about God? Will it make them think more highly of Him or more lowly of Him? You know, it's a high privilege to bear the name of God, to bear the name of Christ.
[23:30] We carry something of His reputation on earth, don't we? And people form their view of our God by what they see in us. It's a tremendous weight of responsibility, but it's a tremendous privilege as well, to live for the glory of His name, even as Jesus did for the glory of His Father.
[23:53] Well, that's verse one. Now, we took most of the time for that. Now, verse two, and right away we see it's connected to verse one, not just in that two follows one, but the first word is for.
[24:04] It's a connecting word that connects verse one to two. So, Father, glorify your son that your son may glorify you for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
[24:21] So, verse two is explaining verse one. Verse two is telling us how this mutual glorification is taking place between the Father and the Son. and what we learn and what you learn is that your salvation is bound up in this mutual glory fest that's going on between the Father and the Son.
[24:44] That you are involved in that. Your salvation is bound up in that. And so, the second lesson we learn is that the Father gave you to the Son so that the Son might give you eternal life.
[25:01] The Father gave you to the Son that the Son might give you eternal life. Now, there are two different groups of people here mentioned.
[25:14] It says that you, Father, granted to your Son, that's himself, authority over all people. Jesus' sovereign authority is over all people.
[25:25] He's the judge of all. It's from Him that they consist and are held together, that they go on breathing.
[25:39] He has authority over all people. Oh, but the Father, so that's honor and glory that the Father placed upon His Son to give Him authority over all people.
[25:52] But the Father glorifies His Son especially here by giving Him a special people to be His very own. You see that? They're referred to as those that the Father has given Him.
[26:04] You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. So, He has authority over all people, but He wasn't given authority over all people to give eternal life to all people.
[26:23] He was given authority over all people that He might give eternal life to those that the Father had given Him. Now, they are very special people. Again, this takes us into that covenant of redemption before time, before creation, people that God chose out of all sinful, fallen humanity as He thought of us and gave them to His Son.
[26:47] six times in this prayer that we're going to study in chapter 17, Jesus refers to those you have given Me. It's not all people, but it's the chosen people of God, those that He elected for salvation.
[27:05] And this was a personal thing, each one given to the Son by the Father. Father, I pray not for the world, but for those you have given Me, we'll see.
[27:20] So there are people given to the Son, and that's how the Father glorified His Son, by giving them a people. But now notice how the Son glorifies the Father.
[27:31] He glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to all those that the Father gave Him. So the Son comes from the Father with this authority to give eternal life to these the Father gave Him.
[27:51] And He glorifies the Father by doing what He was sent to do, giving eternal life to all those that the Father had given Him.
[28:02] That's you. Your salvation then is bound up in this mutual glorifying between the Father and the Son. Drink that in, child of God, for your comfort.
[28:13] comfort. That you're the Father's love gift to the Son. Before creation, He gave you to the Son in order that He might in turn give you eternal life.
[28:27] And the Son glorifies the Father by doing that. Doing what the Father sent Him to do, giving eternal life to those that He had given Him.
[28:38] And not one of these will be lost. John 3, 6, 37, and 40 to 40. All that the Father has given me will come to me.
[28:50] And whoever comes to me, I will never drive away, for I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day, for my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.
[29:13] And I will raise Him up at the last day. So you see your security, Christian, is bound up here. You're part of this eternal plan. The given ones to the Son are precious to Him as a love gift from His Father.
[29:28] And He'll lose none of them. But we'll do everything needed to save them and raise them up at the last day that not one of them be lost. That's you. Because it's by saving you that the Son brings glory to the Father.
[29:45] So see how your salvation is bound up in this Father-Son glorification of each other. the ultimate purpose of God's plan is not your salvation but God's glory.
[30:00] And you are one of the cogs in that wheel to bring God glory. Isn't that amazing? That you should be, your salvation be involved in the way that the Son will bring glory to the Father and the Father will bring glory to the Son.
[30:16] the wonder of wonder that God's glory should be inseparably linked to saving us. Well that's the second thing. The Father gave a people to His Son that He might give eternal life to them.
[30:35] Thirdly, from this prayer we learn the essence of what this eternal life is. What is this eternal life that the Son gives to those that the Father gave Him? Well, the third lesson is the essence of eternal life is knowing God and His Son.
[30:54] Verse 3, now this is eternal life. Here's the statement. That they may know you. This is all part of His prayer. He's talking to His Father. This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
[31:12] The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God that there is. The God of the Jews is not the true God. The only true God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[31:26] You deny the Son, you don't have the Father. But He is the true God. All other gods are lies. All other gods are just imaginary gods.
[31:38] This is the true God and that you should be given to know Him is eternal life. This is the eternal life that Jesus gives to all that the Father had given Him.
[31:52] That through His death, through His life and death and resurrection, He gives us the stupendous privilege of knowing God. Not just knowing about Him. The devils know all about Him.
[32:03] They know who Jesus is. They know who the Father is. loving relationship, this intimate relationship. And that's eternal life, to know God.
[32:20] Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, this is what the Lord says. Let not the wise man boast about his wisdom, or the strong man boast about his strength, or the rich man boast about his riches.
[32:34] Now, what do people boast about today? Oh, where they receive their degree, some Ivy League, wow, that's amazing.
[32:47] Their strength, their power, whether it's physical, control over people, powerful people, wow.
[32:59] Their riches, we hear so much about Mr. Musk and all these people that have all the money and their power, you see. God says, stop it.
[33:13] Let not the rich man boast about his riches. Let not the strong man boast about his strength, the wise man of his wisdom. No, none of these things are worth boasting about.
[33:26] They're trifles, but let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me. That's what Jehovah's saying, that he understands and knows me, that I am Jehovah, who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth.
[33:44] For in these I delight, says the Lord. So here's the real privilege. Here's something really worth boasting about, rejoicing in, that you know the Lord, the one true and living God.
[33:56] God. This is the eternal life that the Father authorized Jesus to give to those that he gave to him. It's knowing God personally.
[34:11] And that's the promise of the new covenant that Jesus sealed in his blood. Jeremiah 31, 34, they will all know the Lord.
[34:22] Lord. So. They will know the one you father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
[34:40] For it's in knowing Christ that we come to know the Father. He cannot be known apart from the Son. The Son is the image of the invisible God.
[34:53] How are you going to know this God that's invisible? You will only come to know him through the Son. So this eternal life is to know you father and Jesus Christ whom you sent.
[35:08] Because that's the only way anybody can know him. No one has ever seen God but God the one and only.
[35:21] who is at the father's side. He has made him known. John 1.18 1. John 5 20-21 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true even in his Son Jesus Christ.
[35:42] We're in the Father. We're in the Son. He is the true God and eternal life. That is what it means to have eternal life. It's to know the Father, the Son.
[35:56] We only know the Father through the Son. Isn't that what Jesus said when he said I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I'm the truth and you will only learn the truth about the Father as you come to me, the truth.
[36:13] Matthew 11-27 Jesus said all things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him.
[36:31] So we only come to know the Father through knowing the Son. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only in coming to know him that his God and Father becomes our God and Father.
[36:51] So from Jesus' prayer we learn the true meaning of eternal life. It's not just endless duration of life.
[37:03] It's not everlasting existence. Hell is everlasting existence. But it is not worthy of being called life.
[37:15] It's rather called the second death, isn't it? No, eternal life is not only endless duration, it is that, but it is a quality of life.
[37:29] It is a quality of life in which we live this life in fellowship with God as our friend, as our Father, as our Savior, our brother.
[37:42] our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1, 9, God who has called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful.
[37:58] What is calling? It's when God calls us into fellowship with his son. Communion, the word is koinonia, the shared life with his son.
[38:10] what a way to live. That's eternal life, to live the whole of your life forever and ever. A shared life with Christ. John says in 1 John 1, 3, our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.
[38:27] It's eternal life is to know him, to walk with him, to talk with him, to live with him. to know him and have him know us.
[38:42] And so it's a thing that knows degrees. So Paul says, I want to know Christ. He didn't say that when he was on the road to Damascus.
[38:52] He said that many years later when he's writing the letter to the Philippians. He knew Christ, but he still wants to know him. Do you want to know him? Do you want to know him better?
[39:05] That's life. That's eternal life. That's to live alive to the triune God, aware of them, with them, upon them, for them.
[39:17] It begins now in conversion and continues right into the eternal ages to come. Now, is this the eternal life you're looking forward to? I think if you polled most evangelicals in churches, the people that went to church today, most of them would be disappointed to find out that eternal life is knowing God.
[39:37] I think they've defined it in other ways, perhaps that contain elements of the truth, but it misses the kernel. When we have one place that defines for us what eternal life is, Jesus says, Father, it's knowing you and knowing your son.
[39:55] And I think many professing Christians would be disappointed to find out that that's all eternal life is. Oh, you mean it's just knowing God?
[40:07] Ho-hum. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but few want to know God. Few are crying, oh, to know Christ, like the apostle Paul was.
[40:20] to know him with unclouded and unsinning heart and mind. I can't remember if it was Luther or Spurgeon who said it, but from what I know of both of them, either one of them could have said it.
[40:37] I'd rather be in hell with God than to be in heaven without him. What does that say? That means that eternal life is knowing God. And I want to be with him.
[40:50] wherever that is, I want to be with him. So knowing God is the very heart and essence of eternal.
[41:00] It's the abundant life, John 10, that Jesus came to give. It's a knowledge that will suddenly leap forward in heaven as we saw this morning when we see him face to face.
[41:12] And our knowledge of him is not just by hearsay and by reading and by faith, but then it's by sight. And so we will know him richer, fuller, deeper.
[41:25] That's eternal life. So heaven's a prepared place for a prepared people, a people who through saving grace have come in this life to know and treasure nearness to God, communion, fellowship with him.
[41:42] And then in this prayer, we learn the way to glorify God. Jesus says in verse four, I've brought you glory on earth. How? By completing the work you gave me to do.
[41:54] So the fourth lesson is simply the way to glorify God is to finish the work God gave you to do. Jesus was given the work of saving his people to come and become a man for them, to become, to obey for them, the commandments, then to become sin for them, and then to become a curse for them.
[42:12] That was the work that the father gave to him. He was tempted to quit. He was tempted on the cross to quit that work, to come down from the cross and to save himself, showing himself to be the son of God, the king of the Jews.
[42:29] And if he did, we'd be lost forever. I say he was tempted. He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free, but he died alone for you and me.
[42:41] Jesus was no quitter. He drank the cup of wrath, to the dregs, and cried, it is finished. Because that's the way the son brought glory to the father.
[42:53] It was to finish the work that he had given him to do. And in doing so, he left footprints behind as an example for us. How do you glorify God?
[43:05] How do I glorify God? Well, we do so by finishing the work he gave us to do. The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 and verse 24 says, I consider my life worth nothing.
[43:19] If only, if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of his grace.
[43:33] Well, Paul was a preacher and that was his task and that was his work and his whole aim in life was to glorify God. How? By completing the task the Lord Jesus gave him.
[43:47] Do you want to finish well? Do you want to finish the task that the Lord Jesus has given you? What is that task? It's different for each of us. It's all the commands of God. They're the same for us to some extent.
[43:59] Some of you are husbands and some of you are wives. You have different commands in that way. But we all have responsibilities in our callings in life. We all have responsibilities in the family, in the church, to our neighbors, to the people around us.
[44:18] Responsibilities that God has given us. Work to do, good deeds that he's planned in advance for us to do. And we glorify God by finishing the work that he's given us to do.
[44:32] Let's finish well. And then our Lord Jesus says, and now Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
[44:45] He's back to verse 1, isn't he? Father, glorify me. And here we see what kind of glory he's also looking to, the kind of glory he had with the Father in that inner Trinitarian relationship even before the world even was created.
[45:02] And this is just hours from the cross. it tells me that Jesus faced the hardest thing he ever did with an eye on the coming glory.
[45:19] And that really was the application we're coming to this morning in our glorification. Is God going to glorify us? Yes, he is. That's the last link, glorification.
[45:31] And the harder life gets and the more difficult and challenging the task to finish the work, to finish well, the more we need to be looking to that glory that he will grant to us in that day.
[45:52] Keep the coming glory in view if you would persevere to the end and finish the work. Whatever assignment he's given you, whether in scripture or in providence, whether to do the will of God or to suffer the will of God.
[46:09] Jesus did both, actively obeying the commands of God, but also suffering the will of God. And in both, God was glorified.
[46:19] So in your life, so in my life, whatever God's providence has placed upon you, do, suffer, that is unto him. That's the work he's given us to do.
[46:30] May he help us to do so. Nearer, still nearer, close to thy heart. Let's stand and sing as our response to God's word this evening.
[46:43] Our Father, we thank you for the way you love your son, the way you glorified him. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the way you loved the father and glorified him.
[46:56] we thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you have stooped to call us into that glorious fellowship with you.
[47:08] That which you call eternal life, make us to treasure it more and more, to draw nearer to you, now in life, as we will through all eternity.
[47:20] And may that motivate us this week then to finish the work that's before us, and to aim at your glory and all that we do, even as we follow that example of our Savior who did it perfectly, that we might have a righteousness in heaven that is not based on our doing so but upon his.
[47:42] So we would rest our heads upon our pillow tonight. Thank you for the comfort and assurance that we have, that our salvation is caught up in this mutual glorifying of Father and Son.
[47:59] Send us into the world then, thrilled with our privilege, and may others see us and see something of the glory of Jesus in us and come to know him as we tell them the reason for the hope that we have.
[48:15] We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.