now this evening, John chapter
17. This is the Lord's Prayer. And the Spirit of God has been
pleased to record every word that our Lord spoke to the Father. And the Spirit of God was indeed
gracious to these disciples, in that He let them listen to
all of the things that the Lord Jesus had to say to the Father. It is one thing for you and me
to listen as another brother leads in prayer, as I just did
and as some of you do, one of the brethren did back in the
office a few minutes ago. It's one thing to listen to another
sinner pray. And that's a time of seriousness,
it's a time of devotion, it's a time of worship whenever a
person leads us to the throne of grace. And it's an awesome
responsibility and we ask God to enable us to address Him in
such a way that He would be honored and those for whom we speak to
Him will indeed be blessed. But we understand when I pray,
or any of the men pray from this pulpit, or back in the office,
or in the Sunday school classes, as the teachers pray in the Sunday
school classes, we understand we're listening to those who
are defiled by sin approach God. And we understand that. But this
one that these men listened to, and this one whose prayer we
read, He was the one who was without sin. And every word is
vital. You know, I fear so often in
our prayers, in my prayers, and I'm sure you're the same way
in your private devotions, quite often our thoughts and our requests
pertain to to our families and our friends and our congregation
and our health and these sorts of things. And we ask God, the
Lord always filters what we say and makes our prayers acceptable
unto you. But our Lord Jesus, He prays
for God's glory. That's how He begins. Notice
he says here in verse 1, these words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven. He said, Father, the hour has
come. Now we don't lift up our eyes to heaven as such, and it
isn't bodily posture. It isn't real important. I think it's indicative of the
attitude of the heart that we bow before the Lord, but our
Lord Jesus, He could look up into the very face of God because
He's the perfect man. And though He was the submissive
and faithful, very faithful servant of Jehovah, He's equal with God
in every way. But you and I, we bow our heads
and we have to say, Lord, forgive us. He never had to say that.
He never had any sins for which He needed forgiving. And those
sins for which He died were not the sins of His own, except in
this sense, He took them unto Himself as being charged to His
own record. And in the record books of God,
He was guilty of all of our sins. And so, all the charges against
us, being made to be His charges, God had to punish Him. And God poured out His wrath
on Him. But as this one who is God of very God, he can lift
up his eyes to heaven and look right into the face of God. Look
right into the face of the Heavenly Father with whom He enjoyed perfect
fellowship before they ever made the world. And that was an everlasting
fellowship. And this is the One who humbled
Himself. And He came down here to this
earth, so now He prays, 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. Now here's what I wanna talk
to you about for a few minutes this evening as we consider the
study of the Lord's Prayer. I wanna talk to you about seven
gifts given to Christ Jesus. Here they are set forth in this
17th chapter of John. Here are seven gifts given to
Christ. And indeed, we started last week
on this because here it is, the very first one, God the Father
gave to his son all power or all authority. That's what's
being said in the second verse, as thou has given him, as thou
has given him, and we define the word given last week as that
which, is a reward for a work that's been done, or a payment. As thou hast paid me, the Son
of God is saying, for my obedience unto you, And of course, the
Savior is anticipating dying in the stead of His people upon
the cross of Calvary. And with that, just a very few
hours away, He says, You've given Me all authority, all power over
all flesh. There's no one He doesn't have
power over. There's no one He doesn't have
authority over, and He has authority over everybody in order that
He should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given
Him. So number one, the Father gave to His Son all power and
authority. God the Father assigned to the
Lord Jesus this great mission of mercy. of salvation. And as a reward for doing that,
he has lived a perfect life, he's been obedient to the Father,
and now he's going to be obedient in just a few hours until death. And as a reward for his work,
God gave him all power and all authority over all things. Romans
chapter 14, verse number nine. says that to this end Christ
both died and was buried and He arose. That He might be Lord
over the quick and the dead. This is His reward. You read
through the second chapter of the book of Acts. And that which
Peter sets before the people of Israel was this, God has rewarded
Jesus of Nazareth with universal authority over all things. And
he finally says as he reaches a very climactic point of his
message there on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, he says to
the people of Israel, he says, God has made this same Jesus
whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. That's His reward. Now, He's always been Lord. He's
always been God. He's always had all dominion
and all power over all flesh as God. But He came to this earth
and He humbled Himself. And He united His deity to our
flesh. And in our flesh, he obeyed God. In our flesh, he was God's perfect,
faithful, obedient servant. He did everything God required
of him to do. And he left nothing out. You
and I are the servants of God, but we're imperfect servants
of God. We're sinful servants of God.
But our Lord Jesus, He served the cause of God absolutely perfectly. And now He's going to lay down
His life in obedience to God's will. This is the only way God
could be just and save folks like us. The Lord Jesus must
die. He must die an excruciating death. He must die under the wrath of
God. He must die at the hand of God,
because God would exact from Him all the punishment that He
would have exacted from us for all eternity. Because we could
never suffer the full wrath of God and pay our sin debt, but
Christ did. He did. And now this is His reward. All power and all dominion. We don't have a weak Savior.
We don't have a Savior who can't do His will. Why, He does His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what
doest thou? He's been rewarded with universal
sovereignty and lordship. He has lordship over all people. He has lordship and authority
and dominion over all the powers of darkness. Do you remember
when our Lord Jesus, He often confronted people who were filled
with demons? And the demons, especially like
the demons of the man of Gadara, the maniac of Gadara, they said
to him, have you come to torment us before the time? Before the
time of judgment? They said, we know who you are.
You're the son of God. And as the son of God, he always
had authority over the demons. Now, Not only as the Son of God,
but as the Son of Man, He has all authority over demons. All
the powers of darkness answer to King Jesus. He has all authority
over all providence. Who do you think is guiding and
directing all things to the end that He has determined? Our exalted
Savior. You know, I've been watching
on the news, and I'm sure you have all these devastating tornadoes. Who do you think guides those? That's the Son of God. And He
sends them where He will. And I know, I hear what people
say, well, that's Mother Nature angry, angry over the way we're
treating the earth and so forth and so on. Listen, it's not mother
nature. There is no mother nature. There's
the Lord Jesus, who is the sovereign Lord of all, and He controls
all things. The Lord is in the whirlwinds. He's in the storms. All of these
things answer to Him, and the wind can't blow unless He tells
it to blow. It's a great encouragement to
us who are the Lord's people. The wind can't blow in your life. No whirlwind can stir up things
in your life. No time of testing, no trouble,
no affliction can come to you except by the will of that One
who saved you by His bloody death upon the cross of Calvary. and
to know that whatever His purpose is for each of us who are His
children, He's going to fulfill that purpose. He's going to bring
it to pass. And you say, well, I don't understand
how a man or a woman can be afflicted and they lay in their sick bed. I don't understand how that fulfills
the purpose of God. You're not supposed to understand
everything. You just can't do it. That's
beyond, you're never told to understand what God does. You're
just told to believe. Just rest in Him. He knows what
He's doing because He marked out the end from the beginning
and He controls, He dominates everything in between. He's the
one who has all authority over the hearts of people. He's the
one who gives the gift of repentance. In Acts chapter 5, He's been
exalted to give repentance to Israel. Have you repented? Are you repenting? This is a continual thing. We
continually turn from sin. We hate sin and we confess our
sin. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And over and over again we come
to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm sorry. Godly sorry over sin is
a gift from Christ Jesus. He gives the gift of righteousness. We stand perfect before God.
He gives the gift of peace with God. He has the authority to
speak peace to our hearts. You can be in the midst of trouble. All kinds of tribulation can
come up in your life. And people say, I don't know
how you can get through with this. And you get through. these times of trouble because
the Lord speaks peace to your heart. And that's something you can't
even explain. It's one thing for me to say
to somebody who's in a time of tribulation, a time of affliction,
it's one thing for me to say, it'll be alright. You're a child
of God. It'll work out for you good.
It's one thing for me to say that, and I do try to say that,
but it's another thing for the Lord of glory, who is the sovereign,
who has got all power and all dominion over all flesh to whisper
into your soul, it'll be okay. I've been there. I've been there. I know what it means for the
Lord, by His Spirit, through His Word, to just whisper, as
it were, right into my heart, it's going to be okay. And all around you, people are
going to pieces. And you remain calm and collected. And people say to you, and I
remember when my dad died, and I had his funeral. My brother
and I, he gave the eulogy for the family, and then I preached
my first funeral message was my dad. I was 24 years old. And people, and the Lord just
gave me a calmness, didn't he? Nancy was there, of course. And
people said, I don't know how you can do that. Well, let me
tell you, it wasn't me. I was a vessel God used, but
it's the Lord who speaks peace. It's the Lord Jesus, the sovereign,
the one who has dominion over all things. And I hope and pray
to you, and I know there's some people here and some people who
are watching who are having difficult, real difficulties. And I pray
that the Lord will speak peace, as only He can do, because He's
got the authority. He can speak to an angry sea. He can say, peace, be still.
I'll guarantee you he'll be still. He's been given all authority,
all power over all flesh. And here's the second gift. The
father gave the son of people. Look here in the second verse,
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. The Father gave the Son a people. This is nothing less, of course,
than the divine election of some sinners unto salvation in Jesus
Christ, an election which took place before the world was ever
made. Actually, the world was made
in order that man would inhabit this globe. And then our Lord
Jesus would come down to this globe and dwell in a body of
flesh. And in that body, save his people
from their sins. He would rescue the people the
father gave him. Yeah, there are several words
for these people that the father gave him, they're called his
bride. his spouse, his body, his sheep, his temple, his jewels,
his treasure, his heritage. And these would be saved by the
bloody death of Christ Jesus and enjoy him forever. And he
often spoke of these people. He said in John 6, and this is
after he had, you know, he had multiplied the bread and the
fish and fed 5,000 men plus women and children. And there were
a bunch of Jews followed him. Most of them had actually participated
in that feast and that wonderful picnic when they had bread and
fish, all that they could eat. It was a virtual buffet that
our Lord made for them, and they ate of it, and then he left,
and then they followed him. And then the next day, they're
approaching him and talking to him, but most of them didn't
believe him. Just a very, very few believed
him. And he said to these people who
didn't believe, He said, you believe not, but all that the
Father giveth me, they shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. It's clear from the text here
in John 17 too, that the gift of eternal life is restricted
The gift is limited by the very wording of the text. Watch it. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to a particular
people, to as many as thou hast given him. As many as, no more,
no less. It's just like in Acts chapter
13 and verse 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life, that's
who believed. This is a definite number of
people. Many are called, but few are chosen. Here's the third
gift. The father gave the son a work
to do. He gave him a work to do. Verse
four. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. The
father gave him a work to do. This was a divine assignment,
a work. Go back to John chapter 5. Our
Lord uses this word work in the plural sense, John 5 and 36. John 5, 36. He's talking about
the different witnesses that attest to His deity, to His real
identity, John 5 and 36. He has spoken of John the Baptist
being a witness. Now he says in verse 36, but
I have a greater witness than that of John. For the works which
the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear
witness of me that the Father hath sent me. Works in the plural. Works in the plural. What are
the works that he has finished? Well, the work of healing people. That's a work he had done. A
work of revealing the Father to as many as the Father gave
Him. Another work that he did. The work of casting out demons. He did that work. All of these
works that he did faithfully, but it all leads up to one great
work, the work of redemption, the work of salvation. It's like
the Savior said in John chapter four, when the disciples went
to get him something to eat and he came back and he said, I'm
not hungry. And they said, well, who got
you lunch? And he said, my meat is to do the will of him that
sent me. and to finish his work. Finish his work. And what he
was saying simply was this, as food is pleasant and delightful
to the body, well, so doing the will of the Father was delightful
and refreshing and very pleasant to the Savior. In other words,
he took more pleasure in doing the work that God gave him to
do than a hungry man gets pleasure from eating when he's starving.
This was what our Savior lived for. It's what he looked forward
to. That's the reason he said to his disciples concerning that
final Passover that he would eat with them, the last Passover. He said, I have looked forward,
I've longed for this Passover. I've longed to eat this with
you because it would be the last one and then God's Passover lamb
would die. The father gave him work to do
and he said, I finished it. Here's the fourth thing. The
father gave the son all things. Look at verse seven. Go back
to John 17. The father gave the son all things. Verse seven. He says, now they have known
that is these that you gave me. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee. The Father gave
the Son all things. The saints of God are taught
by the Spirit of grace that all things have been given to the
Son of God. All temporal things, the world, and all things in
it. You remember Psalm 24, it begins
this way. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. All of it. Everything in the
world. This is His world. It's not our
world. It's not our earth. It's His. And everything in it and everybody
else in it, there He is by ownership and by creation. The Father gave
the Son all things. He gave Him all things temporal.
He gave Him all things spiritual. He gave Him a people and the
covenant of grace. He gave Him a work to fulfill. And He gave Him exaltation as
a result of doing the work that God gave Him to do. God the Father
gave Him all things. And then watch this, fifthly,
the Father gave the Son words to speak, words to speak in power
and in authority to His people. Look at verse eight. For I have
given unto them the words, the message, which thou gavest me,
and they have received them. They've received the message,
and they've known surely that I came out from thee. I came
out from thee, you sent me. They really believe this. They
believe that I am the Son of God, and they have believed that
thou didst send me. You sent me to save them. The father in marvelous grace
sent his son as that great prophet, a great prophet. What did the
prophet do? He spoke to the people for God.
And here's our Lord Jesus during his four years of, three to four
years of public ministry, probably three and a half, something like
that. and he's conveying to his people the Word of God. The Word of God is being spoken
by him who is the incarnate Word of God, the everlasting Word
of God. He speaks the Word of God. And
you know, he told the Jews, and we won't go back and look at
it in John chapter eight, but he said, the words that I speak
to you are not mine, they're from the Father. And here's what
he's saying, so I don't understand what he's talking about. He's
saying, I never say anything independent of the Father. Everything
he said, everything he did, every move he made was according to
the sovereign will and purpose of the Father, whose purpose
he came to fulfill. He told the Jews back in John
eight, my doctrine is not mine, it's the father's. He's the submissive
one, the submissive servant of Jehovah who preached the father's
will. And then let me give you this,
two more. Number six, the father gave the son glory Now watch
this, verse 22. And the glory which thou gavest
me, God gave him glory. But now wait a minute. You say,
well, what is that glory? Well, let's keep reading. And
the glory which thou gavest me, I gave to them. What kind of
glory is that? Well, it's not the glory of His
deity, because He didn't make His disciples little gods, and
He doesn't make us little deities. That's not the glory that He
gave them. That's not the glory that He
gives to His people. It's not the glory that is essential
to Him. Do you know what the glory of
God is that He gave to His Son? The glory that He then gives
to us? It's the glory of the gospel
of redemption. That's what He gave to His disciples. He says, the glorious message
which you gave Me, I've given to them. And He's still giving
it to His people tonight. It's the only glory that He can
give us that he shares with us. He doesn't share his essential
glory as God. To God be the glory in all things. But this is a glory of a message. The message of how he who is
born of a woman can be clean. And he gave that glory to us.
Do you understand tonight how God can be just, be holy, be
righteous, be perfect, and yet show you mercy without in any
way contradicting His own justice? Do you see why the Lord Jesus
had to suffer, bleed, and die? Do you appreciate who He is and
what He did and why He did it? Well, that means that he has
manifested to you his glory, the glorious gospel of Christ
Jesus. And then one last thing that
the father gave him. The father gave the son a glory
which was unique just to him. Verse 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast
given me. He keeps on bringing up these
people. These people that he loves, these
people that the Father gave him in electing grace. I will. When you pray, you can't pray
I will. You can't will anything. Your will is always submissive
to the Father's will. Well, who can pray, I will, and
it's done. Only one who's equal with God,
this is the Son of God right here. Father, I will, that they
also whom thou hast given me, there it is again, be with me
where I am. And whenever the Lord takes a
brother or a sister home to glory, that prayer is answered for that
individual. Well, what's the reason that
he takes them home? What's the rest of it? That they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. This man, Christ Jesus,
has been exalted. He has been elevated. He has
been magnified. He has been glorified. He went
back to heaven and the Father said, sit here on my right hand
till I make all of your enemies your footstool. And that's where
He sits right now. He's the King of kings and He's
the Lord of lords. And He earned that right as the
God-man. You see, there's one lichen to
ourselves. flesh and bones, one who has
a body, and He's in everlasting glory, and He's on His throne,
and He rules from that throne. He rules to fulfill the sovereign
purpose of the Father, and He rules to do good for all of His
brethren. That's us. That's us. Oh, what a prayer. My, what a
Savior. What a Savior. Our Lord Jesus,
and He's been glorified. He sits upon His throne, and
we worship Him, and yet the King is not ashamed to call us brethren. That's what He calls us in Hebrews
chapter 2. He calls us brethren. Let's sing
it.