The High Priestly Prayer
Jesus Prays for His Glory
(part 2)
John 17:3-5
If one Scripture can have more significance or magnificence than another, then I believe John 17 may be the most unique chapter in the entire revelation of God. In it we are kind of ushered into the Holy of Holies. This is a prayer from God the Son to God the Father to the Son, including the work of the Holy Spirit. So its kind of this interpersonal dialogue between the Trinity that we get to listen in on.
Now, you'll remember that in chapter 16 verse 33, as we saw last week, Jesus had announced His victory at the cross. He said, "I have overcome the world." And He is speaking of a future truth that is yet to be realized, but it is nonetheless, a certainty.
Also, we noted that in order to overcome the world, in order to fulfill all of the promises that He has made in chapter 14, 15 and 16, He must have the Father's will and power to do it. So he makes these wonderful promises and then voices His dependency upon God in order for them to happen.
And that’s what this High Priestly Prayer is all about. Having stated the promises in chapter 14, 15 and 16, He then, in chapter 17, prays, Father, let it be. Father, let it happen.
So the first five verses of chapter 17 are verses in which Jesus prays that those things that He promised will happen. And particularly in these five verses for Himself.
As we saw last week, He is praying that God will glorify Him so that He in turn can bring glory to God.
So He says, the hour has come, the time has come let’s get on with it.
So, the cross, then, is the glory hour. With all of its pain and all of its anguish and all of its suffering, it was still the glory hour and Jesus says let's get at it, Father, let it be.
Now, what we began to llok at last week is the cross was glory for three reasons.
First of all, we saw last week, it was glory by providing eternal life.
Just to look at the cross, you'd say - How could there be any glory in the cross? What a horrible, sick thing it is. And yet it was glory, number one, because it provided eternal life.
Just think about it: the wages of sin was death, but the cross provided for us the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s glorious!
But it took the death on the cross to pull it off.
That is the focus of verses 2-3
So, the cross is glory, first of all, because it provides eternal life.
Now just briefly, because we didn’t take the time last week to cover it, let’s think about this: what is eternal life?
Eternal life is, primarily, not a length of time or even a place of existence. It is first and foremost a person. In fact, you can’t be alive and not reproduce. I have given life to four children. Lisa may have birthed them, but I gave them life.
Therefore, I represent life. I am life. and there is no such thing as something that is not alive that doesn't reproduce. You say - Well, I've never had any children.
Maybe not, but did you realize that in your own body, every seven years, every single cell is reconstructed? You can't be alive without reproducing. Life is the reproduction of itself. That's what it is. There's no such thing as a living thing not reproducing. If you're alive at all, you're reproducing some form of that life.
And so, when I say that Jesus Christ is life, that ... that life is a person, it is also an ability to reproduce that same life. That’s extremely I,portant.
Now, I can give to my children physical life. But I can't reproduce spiritual life. Did you know that? I can't do that. Even though you provide a Christian mom and Christian dad, you don't get a Christian baby. Why? Because eternal life, spiritual life is not ours to give.
As a pastor, I can't give anybody spiritual life. Spiritual life comes from only one person, only one source. Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the life.” There's no life in any other.
So then when we talk about eternal life, when He says He will give eternal life we are talking about the fact that first of all, eternal life is a person who can reproduce the same that he is in somebody else.
Somebody says, I'd like to get that life produced in me. That's good because it needs to be reproduced in you. And verse 3 is all about how it can be reproduced in you.
Verse 3
How is eternal life transmitted from God through Christ to you? By a knowledge of Jesus Christ. We know Christ and we know God and thus we have eternal life.
That’s why I say eternal life is not primarily about a length of time or even spending forever in heaven. It can’t be time because time doesn’t exist in eternity. There will be no yesterday. There will be no tomorrow. They'll be no today. No. The time as a concept won't exist.
What will exist is a new kind of life. What does exist, beloved, in you right now is life eternal. People say - Well, I'm waiting to inherit eternal life. No they're not.
"He that hath the Son ... what? ... you have it right now." You have eternal life right now. You say - what is it?
Now watch this. Whatever it is, Christ had it and gave it to us. And here’s what it is: It is His life in the soul of a man. That's exactly what it is. It's God life in me. And I'm living it right now. I'm living eternal life right now.
And when I die, nothing changes except my capacity to enjoy what I already have right now.
So eternal life, then, is a kind of existence which knows God, which is the life of God in the soul of man and it has no end, that even death doesn't violate it.
And once you get to poking around in that concept, it’s easier to see why the cross is so glorious. It provides for us eternal life!
So Jesus prays, The hour has come, let’s get on with this because through this experience you can glorify me and I can return glory to you by giving eternal life to those you’ve given me!
That’s the first thing he mentions. Look at number two.
Secondly, the cross was glory because in it he not only provided eternal life for us,
2. He Offered Perfect Obedience to God
We Christ and exalt His name because of His obedience.
verse 4
Jesus says - Father, I've glorified You. And that's what He wanted to do is give glory to God. How? I finished what You gave Me to do. I was obedient.
Aren't you glad He was? Aren't you glad He didn't get so upset in the garden when He was sweating great drops of blood that He ran and hid and never went to the cross? You know what it would have meant if Jesus had come and did everything He did and not gone to the cross?
It wouldn't have meant anything ... it wouldn't have meant anything. No, Jesus said - I finished the work which You gave Me to do. And here we go again with Jesus talking about things that haven’t happened as though they had.
It’s the same principle we saw earlier where He makes the statement about overcoming the world.
It’s something that's yet to happen but so inevitable it can't be changed. It was a few hours later that He stood on the cross and said - It is finished. What's finished? The work the Father gave Me to do. Perfect obedience.
So Jesus says - Father, when it's all over, glorify Me, because I was obedient.
Now think abouit the impact of that. Jesus came to reveal to us God's love. Now He could have come and said - God loves you. God loves the whole world. And He could have healed some people who were sick and so forth.
And sure enough, through that, we could have seen God’s love. He could have been kind to little children and He could have loved people. They would have said, sure enough, God really loves us.
But what if He had stopped short of the cross? If He hadn't been willing to die, it would have been saying - God loves you up to a point, but not enough to die for you. But by going to the cross, Jesus made possible these words - "But God proved His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners ... what happened? ... Christ died for us."
Anything short of the cross and the love of God doesn't cut it because it was in the death of the cross that He showed the length, breadth, height and depth of His love. Jesus said: "For greater love hath no man than this, then that a man lay down his life for his friends."
So the cross was glory because it provided eternal life for us, it provided God perfect obedience, and thirdly
3. It provided Christ absolute vindication
When it was all said and done, Jesus was lifted to glory as the Father approved what He did.
Look at verse 5
He had been separated from Him for thirty-three years. He says - Father, in effect, Father, do you approve, if You do approve, if I've done what You want Me to do, bring Me back to the glory I had before the humiliation began. He yearns to go to the Father. He longed to be with the Father.
Did the Father approve? Absolutely! If you want proof, I’ll give you two things.
First is the resurrection. That was God saying - I approve. God raised Him from the dead. The book of Acts says all the way through from chapter 2 to 17, the Father raised the Son, the Father raised the Son, the Father raised the Son. That became the message of the Apostles because that was God's approval of the work of Jesus.
The second proof of God’s approval is His exaltation.
After His humiliation, Philippians 2 says - "And wherefore God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." And so we see God exalted Him in His resurrection and then He exalted Him in His coronation as He lifted Him to His right hand.
So when Jesus said the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, He meant the cross because the cross was the glory hour. It was the glory hour because in it He provided to us eternal life, because in it He provided perfect obedience to God and as a result of it He would personally return to the glories that He had with the Father before the world began. No wonder Jesus looked for the cross. No wonder He said - Father, let it happen.
Now, here’s the final thought: It really doesn't matter whether Jesus died if you aren't willing to receive the gift of eternal life that He gives to you. It's all a waste in your life if you're not willing to open your heart and receive Christ.
It means absolutely nothing to you. But if on the other hand, you respond to Christ and open your heart and receive the eternal life that He gives, then you find a kind of existence you never dreamed possible.
Jesus provided eternal life and you must choose whether or not you will spend it in the presence of God, enjoying the life of God or whether it shall be out of the presence of God in the damnation the Bible calls hell. The choice is yours. Jesus offers you eternal life. I urge you to take it.
