The Glory of the Father and the Son

[0:00] We are doing a slow journey through John chapter 17.

[0:15] ! In my view, the most unique, perhaps the most fulfilling, intriguing, I don't know, put some words in there, chapter in all the Bible.

[0:30] Holy. The Father and the Son. The Son is praying to the Father. And we get to sit at the feet of Jesus for 20, I mean all these centuries, from the 1st century to the 21st century, and listen in.

[0:50] Marvelous. Father, the hour has come. Father, the hour has come.

[1:24] The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

[1:37] Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

[1:48] That will preach. And for a long time. And we've been slowly working, and we'll continue to slowly work our way through this great chapter because this is the marvelous inter-Trinitarian prayer.

[2:06] And we're the fly on the wall. And we're the fly on the wall, as I said last week. We're listening in. And as I said last time also, over and over in the Bible, it says, his hour had not come.

[2:20] His time had not come. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to throw him from the brow of the hill. They wanted to stone him. He slipped through the crowds. His hour had not come. And now Jesus says, the hour has come.

[2:33] And that's the hour of his death. This prayer is ultimately about the salvation of God's people.

[2:45] That includes us. The 21st century, right here in this room. In the opening words of this prayer, which I've read above, the Lord Jesus makes references to the saving purposes of God.

[3:01] And as we go through these this evening, we must keep ever in the forefront of our minds that these purposes are designed to bring God glory.

[3:17] This isn't in the notes, but I'm going to say it. Why are we still here? When God saves us, why not just take us to heaven?

[3:29] You get saved, you go to heaven. Wow. Nothing wrong with that, right? Because God, the Father, is still redeeming people who will worship His Son for eternity.

[3:48] He's still calling out a people. To worship the Lord Jesus Christ. You can read about that in the book of Revelation. And He uses us as the means to do that.

[4:03] Through preaching, teaching, witnessing, living the Christian life. And God's still in the business of saving people. When He's no longer in that business, as far as church age, we'll go.

[4:20] We'll depart. I think that day, that hour. But this is a prayer ultimately about salvation. Now the Lord Jesus is acutely aware of the saving purposes in this prayer.

[4:37] He prayed the prayer. And of course He does. But the first thing we're going to look at this evening is His right, the Lord's right, to offer eternal life for saving purpose.

[4:55] And you know, we often hear of the plan of salvation. I've been hearing about that for a long time. And everybody's got a different plan.

[5:07] I mean, I went through four spiritual laws, and EE, and TEL, and how many others did we ever have here, Mike? We had all these plans of salvation. And humanly, what is described often falls woefully short of the biblical description of salvation.

[5:30] But the truth is that God the Father has a plan to save people. And in keeping with the Father's sovereign plan of salvation, He, God the Father, has granted authority to God the Son over all flesh.

[5:48] And that's a word to describe mankind. I mean, you catch a glimpse of this in Mark chapter 10 when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, what must I do to be saved?

[5:59] And they go through all that. And I've preached on that and probably will again. Jesus didn't do any of the things that a lot of churches and denominations do today and call it salvation.

[6:13] He didn't do any of that. If He'd have told that rich young ruler, you show up at church Sunday or temple Sunday and come forward, you'll be saved.

[6:23] You say these words in the right order but mean them in your heart, you'll be saved. He didn't do any of that. He didn't do any of that. It's a very interesting section of Scripture.

[6:38] I've preached on it many times. God the Son grants eternal life to each and every person that the Father has given Him.

[6:55] And everyone will be saved that the Father has given Him. We call that irresistible grace, by the way. And some, like me, come kicking and screaming. I did.

[7:07] I was 30 years old. I was 30 years old. But God the Son grants eternal life to all that the Father has given Him.

[7:18] And the truth is that not everyone is saved. And that bothers a lot of people. I had a lady in this class and she's a dear lady. I love her because she asks good questions.

[7:28] But she says, well, why doesn't God save everybody? That's the wrong question. Why does God save anybody?

[7:43] Why'd He save me? I didn't know nothing about me. I didn't deserve that. Why does God save anyone? And He does it for His own purpose because He wants to.

[8:01] No one has ever come close to deserving salvation at the hand of a holy and just God. Every human that's ever walked on this earth has deserved death and hell.

[8:13] We are all under a sentence of death when we are born. And babies go to heaven, by the way, if they die. We can talk about that someday. But we're all under a sentence of death from our inherited sin from Adam as human beings.

[8:29] And then, our sins that we have committed. A lot of people say, well, it's not fair about Adam. I wasn't there. Well, your DNA was in Adam. We won't get into that.

[8:40] But have you ever committed one sin? Well, yeah. if no one had sinned till I came along and I sinned and I would have, I would have plunged the human race into darkness and separation from God.

[8:56] My one sin. And it took one sin from Adam, right? God is under no obligation to save anyone from Adam's race.

[9:12] Yet He does this. He saves people and He does it through His Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, dispel this rumor.

[9:22] I hear this crop up here and there. He didn't save us because He was lonely. Have you ever heard that? He wasn't lonely. Trust me. He wasn't lonely.

[9:35] So, how does God save a sinner? He does so through the authority that He has vested in His Son through the cross.

[9:48] It all goes back to Calvary, doesn't it? It goes back to the cross. Everything hinges on the cross.

[9:59] And we all know, of course, that is where the perfect blood of the Lord Jesus was shed. And I cannot overstate this.

[10:11] Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. God said that and that settles it.

[10:22] And I have people that they don't like that. And they've told me that. And my only answer to that is, I'm labor, take it up with management someday. If you don't like that, talk to God about it.

[10:34] Because God said that. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. And I really think the heart of that is we see how serious sin is to God.

[10:48] Even to the point of shedding His own Son's blood. If anyone's not covered by the everlasting blood of the Lamb, they do not enjoy the salvation bestowed by grace upon the people of God.

[11:04] they have to be under the blood covenant of Christ. We appropriated that at Calvary. In His deity, Christ was aware of all this as He came to the closing hours of His life on this earth.

[11:23] And when we get to this point, we're mere hours from the crucifixion. He's going to leave after this prayer and go out and get arrested and tortured and turned over to the Romans and crucified.

[11:38] He is the Creator God. He has all power. Chew on that for a moment. All power.

[11:49] He could have called down legions of angels to protect Him from arrest, torture, and death.

[12:00] I think a legion... Was a legion 72,000 angels? Or a Roman legion 6,000? I know that. I have this vision not based on any Scripture, but just that when that Roman soldier laid Him on the cross and He put that spike and He went like that.

[12:21] I have a vision that a hundred million angels drew their swords and said, just give us the Word. We'll annihilate the human race.

[12:32] You can start over. They'll never know it. And the Lord said, no, put them up. This is the reason I came. He is the Creator God.

[12:49] In one sense, Christ did not choose this path. Instead, He submitted to His captors. He could have called legions of angels.

[13:01] But instead, He submitted to His captors, allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross by evil men. And He allowed this to happen in spite of the fact that He had total control over the very men who were putting Him to death.

[13:21] Absolute control. while they were killing Him, He was providing them with oxygen to breathe. One of the Old Testament prophets said, God holds our very breath in His hands.

[13:37] He allowed them gravity to remain in place on the earth. They'd go floating away. all the benefits we receive as humans, they received.

[13:49] And they were putting the Creator God to death. Jesus Christ has been granted the absolute authority to grant eternal life to whom the Father has given Him.

[14:03] Let me read you a quote from Andreas Kostenberger. He is at Southeastern Seminary. I didn't know that. I thought he was like from 1620 with a name like that.

[14:14] But he's a professor there. Born a Roman Catholic. Got saved and is at Southeastern Seminary. I think that's in Wake Forest.

[14:25] I think. This is what he says. Jesus, Son of Man, who is about to be glorified and will thus fulfill his earthly mission here anticipates his exaltation, his authoritative position subsequent to his crucifixion and resurrection.

[14:48] This authority enables him to bestow eternal life on all those whom God has given him. God granting of authority to Jesus marks the beginning of a new era.

[15:03] All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Jesus including even the authority to judge. And one day he will judge.

[15:15] We will stand before him at the bima which is the reward seat but the unsaved world will stand or lay down and scream before him at the great white throne judgment of the unsaved.

[15:29] Jesus has authority over all creation. elsewhere we learn that the power of Christ is holding everything together down to the subatomic particles.

[15:43] If a physicist is honest and you ask him why do electrons not fly off into space they say we don't know. There's something holding it together.

[15:54] I'm a real fan of astronomy now. I can barely spell the word but I like astronomy and I live up where you can see the sky at night. you know it's very interesting to see all that and realize that the Lord spoke that into existence.

[16:17] He spoke it into existence in a moment in time. And it all came together. when it comes to redemption the Lord Jesus has absolute authority to grant eternal life to those individuals who have been chosen for him by the Father.

[16:37] Only those whom the Father has given him will receive eternal life. That is very upsetting to people because they don't understand the elective purposes of God and to people who were raised to believe that salvation is essentially a work of man and not a work of God's sovereign will.

[17:02] It really bothers them. Bothers them greatly. Well let me tell you something guys. Whosoever will may come. And there's no problem in the whosoever.

[17:15] And there are going to be people from every nation, every race, every tongue. Problem's in the will. The will of absolute freedom to choose died in the garden.

[17:34] I love what Dr. MacArthur says, we have the absolute free will to choose what sin we're going to commit. We can choose what sin we're going to commit. There's no problem with the whosoever.

[17:47] Lots of whosoever's are going to be there. Some worry about those who come to Christ and are turned away because they're not the elect. They picture Jesus as standing at the door of the church and says, you're not coming in here.

[18:00] Put bars on those windows. He's out there as these people drive up and down Highway 75 and says, come all you who are wearing heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Scriptures are clear that no one seeks after God on their own.

[18:21] Being dead in trespasses and sins, humans are incapable of seeking God. We went through a whole seeker movement. It's about gone. There's one seeker in the Bible.

[18:33] The Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. God is the seeker in the Bible. Bible. So then why Christ?

[18:43] Why did Christ come to earth? The central theme of the Bible is Christ. Dr.

[18:54] DeHaan just said, He's in every verse. Sometimes in the shadows, sometimes out front, but until you find Him, you haven't understood that verse of Scripture. You haven't understood it.

[19:07] He's the only source of eternal life. seeking and saving those whom the Father has given Him. And Jesus, it says, has all authority.

[19:18] He says there in this prayer, I have all authority. And that was made very clear during the incarnation. He manifested His divine authority, and these are just a few of the ways He did that.

[19:31] In His teaching. And you know, it upset and amazed the Pharisees and the Pharisees, because He didn't go to our school. He's not one of us.

[19:43] Where did He learn all this stuff? In His teaching, in His healings, in His exorcisms, casting out demons, miracles, by claiming His right, thank goodness, to violate Jewish tradition, and there was hundreds of them, in the cleansing of the temple, in forgiving sins.

[20:07] only God can forgive sins, right? Offering salvation in His name, receiving worship, allowing people to worship Him, and in judging the world.

[20:18] Now, it was on these points that Christ clashed with the Jewish authorities. He got in a lot of trouble with them, didn't He? They knew that only God could do such things.

[20:33] and now this rabbi from Nazareth where no good thing comes, and they said, no prophet ever came from Nazareth. That wasn't true, by the way. I think Jonah came from Nazareth, but other prophets did.

[20:47] They knew, though, that only God could do that. And they were correct. Can't fault them there. What they failed to understand is that Christ was God in human flesh.

[21:00] God came to this earth, took upon Himself human flesh, and pitched His tent with us, tabernacled with us. And they were so angered by Christ and His claims that very early they began to plot His death.

[21:25] And ultimately in the Father's timing, they were able to carry it out. And this prayer is offered just before that is going to happen.

[21:38] But even in the death of Christ, He was under the absolute authority. They were all under the absolute authority of Jesus. And Jesus laid down His own life at the appointed moment.

[21:54] No one took His life. He laid it down. At the right moment, He took it up again. He had the authority to do all this. The Father gave Him all authority on earth and would receive Him back into heaven, seat Him at His right hand, which is the position of power and authority, where He's at this evening, interceding for us.

[22:24] God You know, the message of the cross is very exclusive. I remember a Baptist God accused, said, you guys teach an exclusive religion. And you teach a bloody religion.

[22:36] Yeah, we do. It is exclusive. Only through Christ Jesus and His death on the cross can eternal life be granted to undeserving humans.

[22:51] that's the only basis. And the world hates that. The liberal church hates that. Religion hates that. Politicians hate that.

[23:04] Well, you want to see a politician abandon his face, just elect him to office. Wow. You know, one of the biggest supporters of doing away with abortion in America used to be Al Gore and his wife, Tipper.

[23:21] They were divorced now. But they were, you can't get elected to national office if you're going to do that. Not at his level.

[23:35] So the message of the gospel is exclusive. And because of the cross, Jesus remains the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father but through him.

[23:52] That's the only way you can get there. And he has the right to offer eternal life. Another saving work is this, the relationship he offers to sinners with himself.

[24:06] He says in John 17 3 in this prayer, this is eternal life. He's going to tell us what eternal life is.

[24:17] while eternal life is 500 trillion years from now, we'll still be floating on a cloud. That's not what he's talking about. This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

[24:36] That's eternal life. Knowing the Father and the Son. And I could add through the Spirit. Eternal life comes to those who know the one true God.

[24:49] And the word meaning to know has a much deeper meaning in the Greek language than it does in English. The verb to know in English is to have intellectual knowledge.

[25:01] The verb to know in Greek is to be in an intimate love relationship where there is eternal commitment. The relationship is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Father sent to be the Savior.

[25:19] Depends on him. In this sense, the essence of eternal life is to participate by grace in the life of Christ.

[25:30] That's eternal life. The old theologians referred to this as the life of God in the soul of man. And they wrote about the Puritans, reformers, having the life of Christ in us means we can also have peace, we can have hope, assurance, love, joy, and a whole lot more as we live out the Christian life on this, what Carl Sagan called this pale blue dot in the cosmos.

[26:07] Now, we tend to think of eternal life in terms of quantity, don't we? we like to think of it in quantity. Well, it just stretches out forever and ever.

[26:20] In reality, it's related to quality. It is much more than living forever, it is living in the presence of the Holy Creator God in all His fullness.

[26:36] That's an amazing thought. thought. That's an amazing thought. And because eternal life is given in terms of quality, you know what?

[26:47] We can enjoy it now. We can enjoy it now. Guys, you don't enter into eternal life when you die. Those that know Jesus, they don't enter into eternal life when they die.

[26:59] We enter into eternal life when God saves us and gifts us with His life, which by very definition is eternal because it's God.

[27:12] Eternal God. And that relationship is made possible by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer is in eternal life. We just happen to be in this world where we're not even citizens of this world, but we are ambassadors for the Lord.

[27:29] We're ambassadors. And one day the ambassadors are going to be called home. It's Saturday, I believe, according to YouTube. If I don't show up for the sermon Sunday, check and make sure.

[27:49] Probably means my alarm clock didn't go off. What about the price of eternal life? Verse 4, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

[28:09] If people were to be saved, Jesus had to leave heaven, come to this earth, die, and be resurrected.

[28:23] All those were essential. Every one of them. only then could He save those whom the Father had given Him. Remember, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.

[28:38] He came. He came, born of a virgin, laid in a food trough, in a stable. If I'd written this book, I'd have had him in a palace full of gold.

[28:52] That's why I didn't write the book. The Lord did. The Holy Spirit did. And He came, and He saved those whom the Father had given Him.

[29:04] He came and perfectly accomplished all that the Father gave Him to do. He didn't leave anything undone. I mean, when He got to heaven, He didn't get a grade card that said, hey, 92, that's not bad.

[29:19] My dad would have got a lot of money if I could have got a 62 in some subject. The cross was an accomplishment.

[29:31] It was done perfectly. And during that terrible act, Christ was bringing glory to the Father. And that's difficult for finite human beings, isn't it?

[29:45] And particularly if you've ever seen the passion and the beatings and the scourgings and that was bringing glory to the Father. How was it bringing Him glory?

[29:57] Because He was redeeming a people for His namesake. God was in total sovereign control of all the events leading up to and during and after the cross.

[30:14] So many people say, well, they had to go to plan B. There's no plan B. only plan A. He's redeeming a people for His namesake.

[30:29] God was in total sovereign control of all the events that led to the cross. The disciples came to realize this.

[30:40] It took a while and it gave them great comfort during their earthly ministry. When they finally realized who He was and what He accomplished. And let me tell you something about those guys.

[30:52] They became apostles. Let me tell you about those guys. A man will live for a lie, but he won't die for one. And if they had not seen Him in resurrection, they would have said, you know, I really don't think I want to get my head cut off because I really didn't see Him.

[31:11] I really don't want to get hung on a cross upside down or drawn and quartered or sawn in half or whatever. But they did see Him in resurrection. They did see Him in resurrection.

[31:27] There's a stage play, I've never seen it, but called Lazarus Laughing. And after He was resurrected, He was going around telling everybody in the fictional play, the Pharisees went to Him and said, quit telling people about this or we're going to kill you.

[31:43] And He said, go ahead. I've already been there. And that's why it's called Lazarus Laughing. He starts laughing and going, please, let me help you. I'll draw the sword for you and you can do me in.

[31:57] There was a price. So, the price of eternal life was the death of the Savior. And He died a real death. And you know guys, we can't ever speak of our salvation salvation.

[32:14] In either arrogant or flippant terms. And I think for 40 years I've been praying to get the personal pronoun I or me out of the salvation experience.

[32:28] Don't tell people what we have done. Well, this is what I did. This is what Mike did. This is what Stan did. No. It is what Christ did.

[32:43] It's all about Him. It is what Christ has done for us. He was the willing sin bearer. And you know, one of the immediate things that should do for all of us is compel us to greater obedience when we realize what a magnificent Savior we have.

[33:04] The Lord of the universe. And then finally, I think it's finally, maybe it's not finally. The worship and reverence He deserves.

[33:16] Another saving purpose, to give Him the worship and the reverence that He deserves. Verse 5, Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, and I love this, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

[33:41] How long did they share 100% each of the glory prior to this? Forever. It's eternity.

[33:53] We can't wrap our minds around that. There's no way that we can do that. Forever. having accomplished the great work of redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ deserves full reverence.

[34:12] He deserves worship on this earth during the incarnation. He deserves worship now that He has returned to His rightful throne in heaven.

[34:23] heaven. And we cannot comprehend the glory that the triune God receives in heaven. I gave you a little glimpse of that in Isaiah. The seraphim, remember that?

[34:35] When I filled in? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And the doorposts shook. Isaiah, the greatest prophet, declared judgment on himself.

[34:49] Woe is me, I'm undone, I've seen the Lord. Created angels cry out day and night, holy, holy, holy, and they surround Him. Holy is the Father, holy is the Son, holy is the Spirit.

[35:04] Even the seraphim, which means the burning ones or burning holy angels, they're on fire but they're not consumed, hide their eyes from His supreme holiness.

[35:16] And they fly and declare the holiness of the Lord. Jesus today shares in the glory He had with the Father for eternity. In the incarnation, the Lord Jesus lowered Himself and in humility came to serve.

[35:36] He didn't come to be served. He came to serve. He was life for a ransom and He was for a time equal to men and lower than the angels.

[35:48] Can't wrap my hands around that. He was. But when He ascended, all that changed. And this is what Paul said in Philippians about that.

[36:02] For this reason also, God, talking about the Father, highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[36:41] every knee is going to bow. That day is approaching. It's coming. Saddam Hussein is going to bow.

[36:54] Hitler is going to bow. Nebuchadnezzar is going to bow. They're all going to bow. And here's the beauty and majesty of it all.

[37:05] we don't have to wait for that day to come. We have the privilege and the power and the grace to bow before our God and our Savior now and confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[37:34] Don't wait. for some future time to do that. You can do it tonight before you go to bed. I pray you will. I pray you will.