Let us turn again to the portion
of Scripture we considered this morning in the 17th chapter in
the Gospel according to St. John. John 17, and I'll read
again at verses 4 and 5. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Earlier then we
were thinking in particular of that glory of God's that was
revealed on earth and revealed in particular in the death, the
crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He says, I have glorified Thee. on the earth. And how was it
that he glorified God? It was by his obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross. I have finished the work,
he says, which thou gavest me to do. And the words, of course,
are very much anticipating what he would utter in triumph from
the cross later as he enters more particularly into that aspect
of his priestly office when in chapters 18 and 19 we see him
as the sacrificing priest, and we come to those words there
in 19 verse 30, when he says, it is finished, and it yields
up the ghost, commends his soul, as it were, into the hands of
his gods, makes his soul an offering, for sin as he finishes the great
work he actually dies what a mystery he was never anything less than
the eternal son of God the eternal son of God and yet he descended
into hell as it says in the creed into Hades literally is what
it's talking about in other words he entered into the realm of
the departed. We knew what it was to endure
death, the separation of body and soul. What a work is this,
what a revelation of God, what a glory. In his highest work,
redemption, see his glory in a blaze. Nor can angels ever
mention odds that more of God displays, says dear William Gadsby. We thought then of that glory
of God on earth, I have glorified thee on the earth. Now I want
us to consider more particularly that eternal glory in heaven
that always has been the portion of Christ as the eternal Son
of God. He says, or he goes on to say
in verse 5, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,
before ever there was any creation. He was there, one with the Father,
one with the Holy Ghost in the great mystery of the Trinity,
the one God of Israel. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and yet God subsisting in those three distinct
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. First of all, I want us to consider
the person who is speaking these words. the person who is making
this particular prayer. Of course, the whole chapter
is really a prayer. As he turns from addressing his
followers, his disciples in the previous three chapters, Jesus had spoken those words
to them and then turning, he lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, Oh, He tells His disciples as He teaches them
to pray, when you pray, say, Our Father. And He Himself, you
see, one with His disciples, He addresses the Father. Who is the One that speaks? Well,
it is, of course, Him who in the eternal Godhead is the Son. He is the Son of God, that One
who was given in the incarnation unto us The child is born. Yes, the child is born. The human
nature is conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin,
who is the mother of Jesus. That's the human nature, but
that human nature is joined to this person, the Eternal Son
of God. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us a son is given. This is the mystery of godliness.
God manifests in the flesh and he is equal to God being in the
form of God we're told being in the form of God he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God because he is equal with
God and in a measure we we see that even as he comes to pray
the words that we have here in verse 9 I pray for them he says
I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given
me for they are thine. Now there are various words that
might be used to explain to us something of what prayer is and
the word that we have here is most interesting because this
particular verb to pray literally means to ask as an equal It's
a request that is being made by people, as it were, who are
of equal status. It's not begging. It's not begging. Archbishop Trench, in his little
work on New Testament synonyms, says, this is not the petition
of a creature to the Creator, but the request of the Son to
the Father. He can speak to the Father in
this fashion. He can address him as an equal
because of course he is that one who is equal with the Father. He can go on to say at verse
24, Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given
me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
And there again he is clearly speaking to the Father as one
who is equal to the Father when we come to God in prayer
how do we pray? well we have that pattern prayer
that the Lord himself taught the disciples and amongst the
petitions were to say thy kingdom come thy will be done thy will
be done in earth as it is in heaven we don't come as Christ
comes here at verse 24 Father, I will. We don't assert our will,
but He is that One who is equal to the Father. And we see it
here in verse 5. Now, O Father, He says, Glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. There is an equal glory, so clear
in what we have in this verse. There's an equal glory and there
is an eternal glory. The eternal glory that belongs
to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's
the only way in which we can rightly understand what the Lord
is saying in this particular verse. You remember how previously
He says, I and my Father are one. He is one with the Father. And this was something that He
clearly made very evident in all His ministry. The Jews understood
that. And that was what so offended
them. What was it that they accused him of when they brought him
before the Roman authorities? When they arraigned him before
Pontius Pilate? It was blasphemy. It was blasphemy. Or remember what we have back
in chapter 5, where we're told there at verse 18 how the Jews
sought the Moor to kill him. because he not only had broken
the Sabbath but said that God was his father making himself
equal with God. They thought he'd broken the
Sabbath because he had healed the lame man on the Sabbath day
but of course he was not breaking the Sabbath, it was their legal
view of the Sabbath that they were so wanting to defend But he wasn't so much that he
had done something on the Sabbath that they considered to be a
desecration of the day. It was because he had also said
that his father worked hitherto and he worked. He had made himself
equal to the father. And that's why they wanted to
kill him. And we see it time and again. They were obviously
aware of who he was because he made it quite clear to them. In chapter 10 and verse 33, the
Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stoned thee not,
but for blasphemy, and because of thou being a man makest thyself
God. Oh, he was present, of course,
in a state of humiliation, and yet, there's that about this
man and his ministry, the things that he does, the miracles he
performs, The miniatures and the exercises that make it so
evident to these Jews that this is one who is saying he is equal
with God, and so at the end they say to Pilate in chapter 19,
verse 7, we have a law, by our law he ought to die because he
made himself the son of God. He made himself the son of God.
His eternal sonship. That was the offence. And how we see Him here in the
prayer as He comes to His Father, as He prays to His Father, we
see Him as one very much aware of His equality with the Father
in the manner in which He speaks and prays. Here in verse 5 He
says, with thine own self. Glorify Thou me, with Thine own
self. It's the nearest personal conjunction
really that we have. Thou one, you see. The Father's
glory is His glory. We have that of course in the
opening words of the prayer. Father, Thou didst come glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. There's a mutual
glory between these two. Such is the intimacy of the relationship. Why He is very God of very gods,
begotten not made, of one substance with the Father. Remember the words that we have
back in the opening chapter? No man hath seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He
hath declared Him and again there the preposition is so interesting
because it literally says that He is into the bosom of the Father
the only begotten Son which is into the bosom of the Father
He is that One who is truly eternally begotten of the Father He was
there with the Father before creation, then was I by Him as
one brought up with Him. I was daily as delight rejoicing
always before Him. Many times we make reference
to those words of the wise man in that 8th chapter. But look at the context. What does he say? There in Proverbs
8.22, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before
His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were
no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth, He was always there in the bosom
of the Father, brought forth from the Father, eternally begotten
of the Father. This is the One who is speaking
in this prayer. He is equal to the Father. And yet, at the same time, at
the same time, He is God's servant. He is God's servant in terms
of that eternal covenant. He is a man, and He is a real
man. Oh, the wonder, the wonder of
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! He thought himself to
be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him
the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Now we see
this so clearly. His humiliation in terms of the
outworking of that covenant in which he so readily undertook
to become God's servant and to become the saviour of sinners,
to identify with sinners. And so he who says, I and my
father are one, can also on another occasion say, my father is greater
than I. And here, in verse 24, he might
say, as an equal father, I will. And yet also, when we see him
in all the agonies of the garden, in his praying there, as he feels
that great burden that is coming upon him, he's going to make
the great sin-atoning sacrifice, what does he say? He wants the
cup to pass from him. But he says, not my will, but
thine be done. Oh, He has come, you see, and
He has come to live as a real man and to live that life of
complete and utter dependence upon His God, upon His Father. We read of God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemning
sin in the flesh. And He does all the will of the
Father He accomplishes all the work that was given to Him. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Oh, how He had finished that
work and finished it so perfectly in His life as we were saying
this morning. He had obeyed every commandment
without any exception. and obey the commandments perfectly,
not just in deed but also in word and in thought. You think
of a man living who never thinks one sinful thought, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. Holy, harmless, undefiled and
separates from sinners. And yet, the real man, he knew
nothing of our sinful infirmities, we are full of sinful infirmities.
At least I'm full of sinful infirmities. How easy it is to see. How easy. It's bound up in our fallen nature,
isn't it? But Christ knew nothing of that,
but he did know what it was to experience our sinless infirmities. A man. A man there is, a real
man. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, we're told. Why? He was tempted in all points. He was tempted immediately after
his baptizing, even under the ministry of the Spirit, led of
the Spirit into the wilderness, and there 40 days and 40 nights. And now Satan comes and attacks
him. And yet he withstands all the
temptations of the great enemy of Saul's. And then the devil
leaves him for a little season, but leaves him to come again,
many a time. Why he says to his own disciples,
ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. Now he was assaulted, and yet
he resists all the powers of darkness. He overcomes all the
temptations of Satan, obeys all the commandments of God, honors
the Lord of God, magnifies the Lord of God. He is that man who is the Righteous
One. I know Adam was created righteous,
upright, in God's image, after God's likeness. But Adam and
Eve, they sinned. they did not continue long in
that innocency our father Adam fell as did Eve but this one
the last Adam or the Lord from heaven he finished he finished
all that work that the father gave him to do and yet he knew he knew so much
of our infirmities he knew what sort of temptations were he knew
what it was not only to be assaulted in his very soul but also to
grow weary in his body are we not told here in chapter 4 where
he must need to go through some area lovely chapter he must go
to that Samaritan woman whom he is to meet there at the well
of Syca. And what are we told? He left
you dear, departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go
through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria
which is called Syca, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus
therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well
and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water and the Lord enters into conversation with her. Of
course when the disciples return they can't understand what he
is doing speaking to the woman of Samaria. But he must needs
go to that woman. There's a purpose of grace to
be fulfilled And you see, strange isn't it, the reason why he sits
at the well is because he's weary. He's weary in body and sometimes
you see the Lord can overrule all our weariness, all our infirmities, all those sinless
infirmities, overrule them for good. Should the Lord lay us
aside in sickness, there's a gracious purpose in it. This is the way
of the Lord. But here we're thinking of the
Lord Jesus Christ and there he tells that woman all things that
ever she did he's not this the Christ she says he's not this
the Christ this man he told me all things that ever I did Lord
the Lord Jesus he knew infirmities he was weary he needed to rest
he had an emotional life didn't he? now we see his emotions there
after the death of his friend Lazarus. How he loved that little family, Bethany,
Mary, her sister Martha, and their brother Lazarus. And Lazarus
had died, and how grief-stricken they were. And yet, see how the Lord sympathizes
with them. He stirred in his own soul at
the scene. He sees Mary weeping. When Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came
with her, he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. His emotions
are stirred. He has an emotional life, the
Lord Jesus, like you and I. He knows what it is, you see.
to feel sadness. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He weeps. Oh, Jesus wept and
there are real tears. And yet he's about to manifest
again something of his glory as God is going to raise Lazarus
to life again. The wonder, you see, of the person
that we're considering here in this chapter. And as a man he prays, he needs
to pray. He lives a life of faith. He
will spend whole nights in prayer to his father. He has to live
that life of utter dependence. This is a man, a person. that we see in our text, who
comes and prays to his father and says, I have glorified thee
on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do, and now, O father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Well,
secondly, let's look more carefully at his prayer. Now the whole
chapter, of course, is in the form of a prayer. And we do,
throughout the prayer, regularly see something of the deity of
the Lord Jesus. There's no disputing that, the
way he speaks. He says to the father in verse
10, All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified
in them. Those who are the father's are
also his. Those who are his are the father's.
There's a mutuality. in these things again at verse
21 he prays that they all may be one as thou father art in
me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world
may believe that they were sent me and the glory which thou gave
us me I have given them that they may be one even as we are
one what remarkable words he is one with the father but he
is he's one with his people That's the wonder of it, you see, this
man. He is God, he's one with God the Father, one with God
the Holy Ghost, but he's also one with all of his people. It's
a remarkable, remarkable prayer. Again he speaks of that glory
in verse 24, remember. I will, he says, Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." How he prays this
remarkable prayer, these various petitions, but coming in particular
to this petition that we have in verse 5. He says to the Father, O Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was. This is that eternal glory
that he is praying concerning the glory that he had with the
Father from all eternity, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. But notice the connection. He
says in verse 4, I have glorified thee He had glorified the Father
on earth by the work, the life, the death, how He had lived, how He had
died. He'd done all for the glory of God and now He asks the Father,
glorify thou me. Again we have it at the beginning
there in verse 1, the hour has come, glorify thy Son. that thy
son also may glorify thee there is clearly here then a a mutual
glory there is a mutual glory and we we see it also in that
in that portion that we read in chapter 13 verse
32 it says if God be glorified in
him He's speaking as a son. Now, verse 31, he says, Now is
the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God
be glorified in him, God shall also glorify in him himself,
and shall straightway glorify him. God is speaking in terms, you
see, of the death, that he must die. He's being betrayed. And
who is this one? Well, look at verse 19, we read
it. Verse 19 in chapter 13, Now I tell you before it come, that
when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am. Again, the
He, italicized, introduced, literally. He doesn't just say, ye may believe
that I am He, ye believe that I am. He is the Great I Am, as
we were saying on Thursday. considering that name of God
there in Exodus chapter 3, the I am that I am. Now is the Son of Man glorified
and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God
shall also glorify Him in Himself and shall straightway glorify
Him. The Father will hear and answer
His prayer and does answer that prayer. why Christ had fulfilled
all His covenant engagements, had He not. He had authority
to lay down His life. He had authority to take His
life again. That was the commandment that
He had received from the Father. He uttered those words, It is
finished, upon the cross. Uttered them in triumph. All
the 70 weeks spoken of there in Daniel 9.24, 70 weeks determined,
he says. Surely 70 is a highly symbolic
number. It suggests to us the very idea
of the perfect works of God. Seven, of course. God rest on
the seventh day. Well, there we have ten times
seven. Seventy. In Daniels 9. Seventy weeks are
determined to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal the vision and the prophecy, to anoint the most holy. It's
all the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he makes his petition. He has glorified the Father.
Now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self. with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was." And so we have
the Father's answer. Or the Father answers the prayer. And we saw it in what we were
reading this morning. Chapter 12 and verse 27, here
is the Lord again, He's emotionally stirred, He's troubled in His
soul. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. All the Lord Jesus doesn't pray
in vain. The Father owns the Son. The Father acknowledges the Son,
approves of the Son. Had He not on two previous occasions
said from heaven, though the voice from heaven saying this
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. We have it at the
baptism and then again in the Mount of Transfiguration. The
Father owns Him, acknowledges Him. and how quickly he is glorified,
or how soon his prayer is answered. Why, the answer comes immediately. We have the prayer in chapter
17, and we have the answer at the beginning of chapter 18.
Even in the very moment of all his humiliation, his prostration
there upon the ground in the garden as he wrestles with God
and then Judas the betrayer comes with a band of men and they're
armed with swords and with staves and they come to take him but
they cannot donate him, they cannot touch him. Remember the
language that we have. In chapter 18, verses 4 to 8,
three times, He declares, I am. He tells them quite plainly,
whom seek you? Jesus of Nazareth, they say.
And He answers, I am. I am. I am. And they fall backward. They
fall backward. They are repulsed in a sense.
They cannot draw near, they cannot touch Him, they can do nothing
against Him. Immediately you see the prayer is answered. We
see in that something of the glories that belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, there's a glory in the humiliation
of Jesus of Nazareth. There's the glories of the cross.
Why? Isn't Satan vanquished? Isn't
Satan vanquished there at the cross? Isn't it the defeat of
all the powers of darkness? He says himself there in chapter
12, 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. This, he said, signifying
what death he should die. In his death he will draw his
people to him. They will be released from all
the thrall of their sins, all the bondage of their sins. Or
they'll be delivered from the very grip of Satan himself. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law. But, says Paul, thanks be to
God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father answers him. The Father glorifies him. And
how ultimately, of course, he is glorified in the resurrection. The grave cannot hold him. Oh,
the grave cannot hold him. The third day he rises again
from the dead. and he's declared to be the son
of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by that
resurrection from the dead this is the one you see whom God has now exalted risen
ascended he has entered into heaven itself unto the sun he
says thy throne O God is forever and ever The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. That's the language that we have
in that remarkable opening chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews.
What does God say to the Son? Thy throne, O God, is God. He never was anything less than
God but now or no more in that state of humiliation. He's ascended
on high. He's received gifts for men.
Yea, for the rebellious all, so that the Lord God might dwell
amongst them." Oh, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is
He doing here? Is this not part of His ministry? Yes, He is addressing His Father. He's in prayer to His Father.
But we have the records. And aren't these things all written
for our learning? or remember how he teaches his
disciples to pray when you pray say our father as we've said
what he teaches so he practices when he comes to pray what does
he say father the hour has come glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee he's a pattern himself in the way he prays He
practices what he preaches. And what do we see in his prayer?
Well, there's earnestness here in his petitions. And he repeats
himself. In verse 1, glorify thy son is
the prayer. Glorify thy son. In verse 5,
glorify thou me. Why? It's the same thing that
he's asking. He doesn't just ask once, he
asks again. Now I know this is a man who
says, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen
do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much
speaking. There are vain repetitions, but these are not vain repetitions.
Why in the garden we're told he prayed the third time saying
the same words. Not all repetition is vain. It
can be a measure of earnestness and urgency. Oh, let us learn
of the Lord Jesus when we pray that we will not take any denial,
that we'll persevere in our prayers, we'll keep pleading with God.
And we will not plead in vain when we come in the name of this
man. the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He is earnest in his petitions and he pleads with God and he
pleads in terms of the words of God and the promises of God.
He reminds the Father, Now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. And he wants his disciples to
see something of that glory Verse 24, Father, he says, Oh, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory, which thou gavest me, for thou
lovest me from the foundation of the world. What is he doing? He's pleading with God. Yes,
he can speak as an equal, And yet at the same time we see
him pouring out his soul in prayer. Oh, is he not to us a wondrous
pattern? We know that this is that one
now, the great high priest of our profession, risen, ascended
on high, glorified in heaven. And what are we told? He is able.
He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by Him for He ever liveth to make intercession for them. All
His very presence there is session in glory at the Father's right
hand where He is. That's a constant prayer. And
we can enter into that within the veil or with boldness we
can enjoy access with confidence by the faith of this man the
Lord Jesus Christ or let us then learn of Christ what real prayer
is as he comes here with his prayers to his father I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify them with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. The eternal glory
then that belongs unto our Lord Jesus Christ. Might it be a comfort to us to know that He
is indeed being glorified, exalted. He's a Prince, He's a Saviour,
He gives repentance. We look to Him for all things.
The author, the finisher of our faith. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to bless His Word to us today. Amen.