John chapter 17, and we'll read
verse 1, and we'll read down to verse 3. John chapter 17,
verses 1 to 3, our verses really are 2 and 3 together, but this
is the word of the Lord. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Quick opening summary or statement
if I may. John chapter 17 is a remarkable
passage in Holy Scripture. It's a prayer of the Lord Jesus
Christ and it is addressed as we would expect to the father
by the Son. It is addressed to the Father
shortly before the Lord Jesus was arrested in the Garden of
Gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion. In possessing this chapter in
our Bibles, we have much to be thankful for. First, We may be thankful that
Christ prayed this prayer publicly. I think I mentioned last week
that it is in reality the only full prayer that we have from
the Lord. We have partial prayers, we have
parts of prayers, we have the prayer that the Lord taught his
disciples, but this is the Lord's prayer of intercession. We call
it his high priestly prayer. And he prayed it publicly. Most
of the Lord's prayers were offered privately. And we know he prayed
to his father a lot. Sometimes he prayed all night. Can you think of how long a prayer
that must have been if the Lord was praying all night to his
father? But such was his burden. Such
was the burden for the work that he had to do. Such was his burden
for the people that he loved. that he often resorted to those
quiet places, those secret places, and there he would open his heart,
there he would pray to his father in the wee hours of the morning. Second, we're thankful that John
wrote down and recorded the words of Jesus. This prayer evidently
had a powerful impact upon the Apostle John, and we find reference
to it in John's epistles and later writings. And third, we should thank the
Holy Spirit for including this prayer in our Bibles, spoken
as it was on such an auspicious occasion. and containing as it
does so many unique insights and blessed truths. It is full
of doctrine and it is full of explanations and divine theology. Indeed, let me just emphasize
this by drawing on John's own words in this matter. John tells
us in John chapter 20, verse 30, many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. So there were many other things
that were not written by John in his book. But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing ye might have life through his name. So let
us thank the Lord for John 17. And may we indeed learn from
it, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
we might have life through his name. And it is that life that
we are going to be thinking about today. This prayer is a conclusion
to the Lord's final words of encouragement to his disciples. which we've read in John 14 and
15 and 16. They're the final words of his
teaching and a sermon that he preached to them prior to his
arrest. These men were not overly concerned
at that moment, but soon their world would implode upon them
as the Lord was taken and judged and crucified. And the Lord had
been preparing them for this moment, speaking as they felt
that their life was coming to an end, of an everlasting life,
of an eternal life, of a glorious life, and a life that they would
be the heirs and inheritors of. And it continues to be of great
spiritual blessing and doctrinal significance to the church and
body of Christ today. We mentioned last week that when
the Lord Jesus asked in prayer that his father would glorify
him, saying, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify
thee, that the Lord wasn't seeking personal honour or promotion
or advancement. A little bit like Solomon in
that sense. Perhaps we could again say that Solomon was a
type of the Lord. The Lord was the anti-type of
Solomon in this request. He wasn't seeking personal honour,
he was asking for enablement. He was asking to be fitted for
the task that lay before him. And just as Solomon knew that
he was to judge the nation of Israel, so the Lord Jesus Christ
knew what lay before him. It was a prayer, it was a request
for divine help. And let us just remark upon that.
If the Lord needed help, both in his prayers throughout his
ministry and especially in this moment, How much more ought we,
his church, seek the help of the Father, seek the help of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the great Jehovah.
Remember what we said a few weeks ago, how that all three, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have taken up residence
in us. We speak often of being in Christ,
but Christ is in us. And it is good for us to have
that prayer and go to the Lord and seek his help for the battle
before us. Christ prayed for the Father's
help for the battle that lay before him. And we should do
likewise. And also, let us never imagine
given the fact that the Lord prayed that he might be glorified,
that he might be enabled, that he might be fitted for this great
battle that lay ahead. Let us never imagine that we
have any real concept of what Jesus knew in this moment, about
what our saviour, the God-man, would suffer on the cross. Either
physically, in his perfect body, or spiritually in his perfect
soul. And I know that there have been
many, many people crucified, but no one was ever crucified
like the Lord was crucified. No one was ever crucified in
that perfect body, that sinless body, that holy body. No one
ever had the sins of the the elect of God, the people of God,
the church of God, laid upon them, poured into their soul
like the Lord Jesus Christ had, and enduring so much pain and
suffering at the same time. I dare say that the sole suffering
of the Saviour swamped the pain that he endured in his body,
extreme as that was. And those prayers, that we rightly
call the messianic prayers or the messianic Psalms in the writings
of David and in the book of Psalms, they hint, in ways that are not
expressed in the New Testament, they hint at the pains and the
assaults that the Lord Jesus Christ endured, really that we
know nothing about. The saviour was bruised at the
hand of God. He was punished under the law
of God. He was assaulted by the devil
and his demons. He suffered the contradiction
of men and the contradiction of being made sin for us in his
soul and in his body. And experiencing the reality
of sin of guilt, of heart sorrow for
the first time in his life. Let me quote what is said in
Psalm 22 regarding this. The Lord, there, we put these
words into the Lord's mouth, for they are most surely designed
for us to do so, even though they were written by David so
many years before. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a pot-shard, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought
me, speaking about his father, thou hast brought me into the
dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet. I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. David starts that psalm actually
by saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And who
can tell the depths to which the Lord and body and soul was
cast in these hours of darkness upon the cross? Such was the
magnitude of the task before Him of redeeming our souls and
all the pains which He knew He would suffer, that our blessed
Saviour sought help and strength to endure the approaching ocean
of torment and crushing misery that He must endure. He sought help to face divine
wrath and strength to defeat the enemies and accusers of his
people. The Lord Jesus knew that redemption
of God's elect would exact a great price from him personally. but also he knew that the deliverance
of their souls from condemnation would greatly glorify God and
God's purposes of mercy and love. And so he asks for this help.
Glorify thou me that I may glorify thee. All the attributes of God,
his wisdom, his holiness, his grace, his justice, are supremely
displayed in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So
that the glory of God, as well as love for his people, greatly
motivated our Saviour to suffer and die in our place. The Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. He came into
this world to go to the cross because he loved us. But he came
to go to the cross because this would glorify his Father also. And this leads us to understand
something about the covenant purposes of God. And our verses
today refer to God's gift of eternal life to his chosen people
in the everlasting or the eternal covenant of grace and peace. Eternal life is one of the blessings
won at Calvary by our Saviour for the church. life is Christ's
achievement in his covenant office and consequently it falls to
Christ to dispense the trophies of his triumph to all for whom
he died. Christ won them. He has obtained these trophies
of victory and they are his to dispense. His victory over death and his
conquest of hell and the grave ensures everlasting life for
his people. He told his disciples, Just in
the few minutes before this, it was in the earlier chapters
of John 14 and 15, he told his disciples, Yet a little while,
and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. He says, because
I live, ye shall live also. He's speaking about eternal life.
Believers, all who are in Christ, have the life of Christ. We have Christ's life. We have
new life in Christ. It is a benefit, a blessing of
our union with Christ. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians
chapter 2 verse 20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. So perhaps then it's not surprising
that the Lord often speaks about eternal life throughout his ministry,
as indeed do his apostles who preach his gospel. Eternal life
is regularly, frequently referred to and mentioned in the New Testament. Not that eternal life was unknown
in the Old Testament. In fact, everlasting life is
taught in Daniel in relation to the Messiah Christ where we
read, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. So it was known in the Old Testament,
those who studied these Old Testament prophets knew that there was
this concept, this reality, this matter that had been revealed
by God through the prophet Daniel about everlasting life. Not that
the concept was limited to the actual usage of the phrase. Abraham,
we know, looked beyond this world to a city whose builder and maker
was God. Elijah, another of the prophets,
his translation out of this world in the fiery chariot spoke of
another realm into which he entered where life continued. And as
the Lord pointed out to the Sadducees in his own day, who did not believe
in resurrection from the dead, he said, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob is the God of the living, not the God of the
dead. Even although those men had died
long ago and had left this scene of time and entered into eternity. I just mention for completeness
that generally in scripture, eternal life, life eternal, and
everlasting life, or life everlasting, all mean the same thing. And
believers obtain this new life in Christ. It comes from Christ. New life and Christ's resurrection
life is the essence of our salvation. It is the life that we now live.
And because our life is in Christ, the life of glory, which we anticipate
in heaven, life with Christ, which is eternal life, is ours
also and is ours presently. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
4 says this, So we're talking again about this covenant, this
covenant purpose. This is, in our salvation, the
eternal or everlasting life that we possess. And as the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ has been given power over all flesh. over all men
and women. This authority that the Lord
Jesus Christ is referring to here differs from his power as
the creator God. So as the eternal word, as the
eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ had created all things. And in
that glory, in that authority, in that power as the eternal
son of God, the Lord Jesus, the creator God, the Lord Jesus Christ
had all glory and all authority. But here we're speaking about
an authority that was given to him within the covenant of grace,
under his covenant offices. And this power is committed to
Christ under the terms of the everlasting covenant, the covenant
of grace and peace. It was bestowed for the fulfilment
of his covenant obligations. Christ has power given to him
in this covenant office to rule over all mankind and dispose
of all men and women according to his will. This is Christ's
authority. This is Christ's right. Men want
to think that they are independent, that they have self-determination,
they can do what they want. is telling us here that He has
been given power over all flesh. It is His right to do and dispose
of men according to His will. It was bestowed for the fulfillment
of His covenant obligations. He governs the affairs of the
world. He orders the times and seasons
of all people in this world providentially. That is why we can have such
confidence, such assurance that all things work together for
our good, who love God and who are called according to His purpose.
Because He has that authority and power to do with all men
and women as He will. And He will judge all flesh in
righteousness at the world's end. This is Christ's prerogative
within the covenant of grace. And make no mistake, All flesh
will bow at the name of Jesus. As I live, saith the Lord, every
knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Christ himself tells us in that
day, shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come
ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. Then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. The Apostle Paul summarises this
in a single sentence when he says in Romans 6, 23, the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is the power of the God-man
Jesus Christ to bestow eternal life. It is his gift to give. He does not give it arbitrarily.
He does not give it randomly. He gives eternal life to all
those men and women chosen by God the Father in eternal election. He gives eternal life to those
set apart by God the Holy Spirit in eternal sanctification. He
gives eternal life to those given to him and committed to his charge
to be redeemed from their sin by his blood according to the
terms of the covenant of grace in the eternal council. Elect
sinners, we who are believers, We are not parties to this covenant. There's no duty falls to us in
this covenant. There's no commitment sought
from us. There's no compliance required,
no responsibility asked of us. If there were, we would be insufficient
and therefore the terms of the covenant would fall and all would
be lost. But it is our Lord Jesus Christ
who carries all the weight of accomplishing the covenant's
terms and conditions. The covenant was not made with
us, it was made for us. We are the beneficiaries. It
requires nothing and it supplies everything. Eternal life is given
to us by the Lord Jesus Christ according as he has fulfilled
the terms of the everlasting covenant. Eternal life is the
preserve of the eternal God. It can only be given by God himself. It can only be received by those
to whom it is given. And he gives it to all those
and only those whom the Father has given to him. The power to
give eternal life is proof of Christ's Godhead, since only
the eternal God can give eternal life. And Christ says in Revelation
chapter 1 verse 18, Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. Christ has those keys, and he
is the one that liveth forevermore. He lived and died under the terms
of that covenant, and he now has eternal life to give to his
people. Because he lives, because we
are united to him, because he is our head and we are his body,
all who are his and in him. shall live also. The Saviour's prayer here teaches
us that our experience of life eternal begins in knowing God
and knowing Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel and believed upon
in the gospel. Christ gives eternal life to
sinners by giving them knowledge of the true God in his holiness,
in his justice, in his goodness and in his truth. He gives knowledge
of himself, the mediator between God and man. again in the gospel,
so that as the gospel is preached, the gospel isn't what so many
people think it is, a proposition to be accepted or rejected, a
few simple statements, an ABC, a 1-2-3, that a yes is to be given to in order to
obtain eternal life. The gospel is the whole revelation
of God in the person of Jesus Christ and it is presented to
us that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ will be the beginning and experience of everlasting
life. so that as the Lord Jesus Christ
teaches us of God and teaches us of himself, the mediator between
God and man, sent by God to secure salvation by his blood and by
his sacrifice. Now, since man is fallen, since
we are dead in sin, because we are blind to spiritual matters
and ignorant of the truth, There must be divine regeneration. There must be spiritual light
and illumination in order to know God. The carnal man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. We cannot understand.
We're dead to these things. The vast majority of men and
women in this world have no spiritual insight or understanding. That is a necessity as far as
eternal life is concerned. And this illumination, this regeneration,
this quickening is the work of God the Holy Spirit. To know
God is to know him as the righteous judge whose curse we are under. And such knowledge brings conviction
of sin and fear of everlasting separation. That's why the Lord
says that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit will be to reprove
us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. We become, therefore,
in the knowledge of these things, anxious to learn about mercy,
anxious to learn about grace, eager to know Christ as our Redeemer. Eternal life is not obtained
by this decision of the will. It is Christ's gift to give,
and it is gratefully received as a gift by those who feel their
need of a saviour. We are deservedly condemned men
and women sentenced to death, and eternal life is our undeserved
liberty. and it is gratefully grasped
by needy souls to whom it comes by free and sovereign grace. The saving knowledge of God and
of Christ is the door of entrance to life eternal. And Jesus Christ
alone is the way and the door of the sheep. The Lord is going
to be speaking about his sheep in the coming verses. But Jesus
Christ alone is the way and door of the sheep. He is himself our
eternal life. Having power to open heaven for
us, open heaven to us and grant us access and entrance and safe
passage into the presence of the holy God. Christ has undertaken
to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him.
These are his people, given to him by God the Father in the
eternal covenant. These are his elect. This is
his church, the jewels of his crown, the sheep of his fold,
the bride of his youth, his own spiritual body. Christ gives
us eternal life by the preaching of the gospel and the hearing
of faith. He teaches us about God. He teaches
us about himself. May he grant us ears to hear
and bring each of us into assurance of faith and enjoyment of eternal
life in him. Amen.