Jonathan's bringing the message
tonight. So Johnny if you will come and
preach the word to us If you have your Bibles with
you tonight open them with me to the gospel of John chapter
17 John chapter 17 I'm thankful to have this opportunity
to share this message with you tonight. John chapter 17. I want us to
read verses 1 through 5 and then spend some time looking at verses
1 through 3. Scripture says, 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. 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. You see, back to verse number
one, these words speak Jesus. These are words that we better
hear. These are words that we better listen to. Why? Because
these are the words of the word of God, of the son of God, as
we saw in verse five here, the one that he says, which I had
the glory, which I had with thee before the world was. You see,
the Lord Jesus could speak like none of us could ever speak,
he said. Father, glorify me with that
glory that I had with you before the world was. We need to hear
these words. Why? Not because it's me speaking
or if there was any other man up here preaching tonight, but
because these are the words of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And notice what he says. He says,
Father, the hour has come. You know, many times during the
earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the religious Jews,
the religious leaders of that country would have liked to have
taken him. They would have liked to have
killed him if they could have on many occasions. Why is that? He went about doing nothing but
good, healing the sick, feeding the hungry. He was kind unto
all. He never had a crossword. Why
would they want to kill him? They wanted to kill him because
they hated his message. It was because of his message.
They were offended that he said that he was Jehovah. That he was God manifest in the
flesh. That offended them. He said before
Abraham was. I am. What was he confessing
there? He was confessing as he confesses
here in John chapter 17, that he is the eternal son of God. And he also, this really annoyed
them to no end. He preached and taught that all
their works were of no consequence before God. Oh, they were very
religious, absolutely. And everyone saw them as very
religious. But he said, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. Oh, they
had all these rituals. You know, they had to wash their
hands so many times and wash dishes and this, that, and the
other. And people were very impressed. They were very religious. And
yet the Lord Jesus paid no mind to any of that stuff, other than
to say that they were white war separatists. And that, of course,
angered them. So many times they wanted to
take him, but his hour was not yet come. But now you see the
Lord Jesus says, Father, the hour is come. What hour is that? The hour in which the Lord Jesus
Christ would be turned over into the hands of sinful men. for
them to do unto Him what they wanted to do. That's the hour
that had come. That's what the Lord Jesus told
His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. You remember He asked
them to watch and pray with Him for one hour. Like us, they could
not watch, like me, they could not watch with him, not even
for one hour. He came back and they were sleeping. But he said, behold, the hour
is at hand, and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of
sinners. We shouldn't ever forget that
the Lord Jesus Christ willfully turned himself over to sinners. No man could have taken him unless
he allowed them to take him. We see that God teaches that
in the scripture when they came to arrest him that night. He
asked them, he said, whom seek you? And they said, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they all fell
back, fell back backwards as dead. Why, why do we have that
recorded so that we can see that he went willfully? He knew this
ire had come. And he, the hour in which he
would be turned over into the hands of sinful men, for them
to do to him what they wanted to do, that is to, by wicked
hands, to crucify and to slay him. Also, the hour which the
Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God, would be forsaken if
his father had come. Forsaken, you think about that,
why? Why would Jesus Christ be forsaken of God? I can understand
why I would be forsaken of him, but why him? Because when he
was made our substitute, when God charged the sins of his people,
he was constituted as guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. And when God charged him with
our sins, he became guilty before God. And so therefore God forsook
him, and that hour had come. And you know, we're told that
as the weight of the reality of that hour came into the mind
of the Lord Jesus Christ there in the garden, we're told that
his body sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. And he said,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. You know, believers,
we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal, almighty
Son of God. But we should never, because
of that belief, failed to realize the sufferings that he endured
in our place. You see, as God, we know he was
not able to, God cannot suffer. As God, as God only, he could
not suffer. But as the son of man, as the
God-man, as the Christ, he absolutely, he came to suffer. He suffered
more than any other man that's ever lived upon this earth. Think
about it. He suffered an eternity of hell
on behalf of all God's elect in a few hours upon that cross.
He suffered more. In fact, he suffered so much
that the only way he were able to bear that type of suffering
is because of who he is, that he was God manifest in the flesh.
No mere man could have held up to that type of suffering. But also, you know, the hour
that the Lord Jesus would be glorified had come. So the hour
that he would be turned over into the hands of sinful men
had come, the hour in which God would forsake him had come, but
also the hour in which he would be glorified had come. He told his disciples, he said,
the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides
alone. But if it die, it brings forth
much fruit. And oh, how much fruit, how much
fruit to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ came from his death. I look out on this group here
tonight and I see his fruit. The fruit of the sufferings of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's us in him. Glorify thy
son. You notice he says here, he says,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. Glorify your son. Let's take
a few minutes to think about, first of all, here, how did God
glorify Christ in the hour of his humiliation? How did He glorify
Him in all the sufferings that He bore in our place upon the
cross? How did God glorify Him? That's
what he prayed for here, and we know the prayer was answered,
don't we? His prayers are always answered,
he said that. Father, you always hear me. And God answered this prayer
when he prayed, glorify thou thy son. How did God glorify
him in his hour of humiliation? I have just a few thoughts here
that I'll briefly share with you. First of all, God glorified
Christ in that he testified to the value of his person. He glorified
him and that he testified to the value of his person. What
do I mean by that? The death of one man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, made atonement for the sins, bought the forgiveness,
the remission of sins for all God's elect from all times. How
is that possible that one man's blood could atone for all of,
just the sins of us in this room, just for my sins, how is that
possible? When you think of the millions,
billions, maybe trillions, we know that his blood was shed
to redeem a people so great that no man can number. That's what
the scripture teaches. But how is that possible? Because
of who he is, and God glorified his son. and the fact that his
death would atone for the sins of all of his people. The Lord
said, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins. God glorified his son,
secondly, by bringing a darkness upon the earth in the middle
of the day. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
upon that cross in the middle of the day, God brought a darkness
upon the earth. for three hours in the middle
of the day. You say, do you believe that?
If I don't believe that, then how can I say that I believe
any of the scripture? God brought a darkness, but what
was he doing? He was glorifying his son. He
was witnessing, he was testifying to the fact that the death of
this one was unlike the death of any other. This was the death
of his darling son, of his well-beloved son. And as we sing in that hymn
at the cross, when the sun refused to shine, as our mighty maker
hung upon that cross. And God glorified Christ in his
humiliation by ensuring that all prophecy concerning him was
fulfilled. And then not only was it fulfilled,
it was explicitly fulfilled for all to see. Turn forward with
me here just a couple chapters to John chapter 19. Verse number
23, John 19 verse 23. Scripture says, then the soldiers,
when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four
parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat. Now the coat
was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said,
therefore, among themselves, let us not rent it, but cast
lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Which saith, they parted my raiment
among them. And for my vesture, they did
cast lots. These things, therefore, the
soldiers did." Why did they do it? They did it because they
wanted to do it, but they also did it because God said this
is what would be done when the Christ came. And you see it also
down in verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
he saith, I thirst. Now there was said a vessel full
of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar and put it
upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. He bowed his
head. and gave up the ghosts. What
was finished? That very last prophecy. Of course, all that he would
endure in our place was finished as well. So much that's captured
in that. But every last prophecy concerning
what Christ would do upon this earth when he was here was finished. God glorified him in that he
manifested openly that he was indeed the Christ. Fourthly,
He glorified Christ in his death and the great strength with which
he died. The great strength with which
he died. What do I mean by that? Think about this. After all that
he had suffered, after all that he had been through and endured,
scripture says, yet Jesus cried with a loud voice, said, it is
finished. and he gave up the ghost. Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. God glorified him in that he
died in strength. He died in strength. Fifthly,
by not allowing his body to see corruption, his body lay in that
tomb for three days. It was supernatural that his
body saw no corruption. Amen. A miracle of God. What was God doing? he was glorifying
his son. He would not allow his body to
seek corruption. Why? Because he had done all
things well. And then, sixthly, by raising him from the dead,
he explicitly manifested to all. He glorified his son to all that
his death was successful. That's why he raised him. If he would not have been successful
in paying for the sins of his people, he would still be in
that tomb. But God raised him, proving beyond a shadow, glorifying
him, glorifying to all that he was successful. And notice, the
Lord went on to say here, he said, Father, the hour has come,
glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. I can tell I need to move along
pretty quickly here if I'm going to get through these three verses. And I want to get the first three.
So I want to try to pick up my pace a little bit here. He said
that thy son may also glorify thee. How did the Lord Jesus
glorify his father in his time of humiliation? Let me just give
you four thoughts that I have. And there's so, so many more.
But he glorified, first of all, the love of God. How could God love sinners like
me and like you so much that he would give his only begotten
son to suffer in our place? The Lord Jesus hanging upon that
cross, he glorified the love of God. I'm convinced that all
eternity will be too short for us to ever begin to enter in
and to understand that truth of how God could love sinners
so much that he would give his only begotten son. If it was
not for the faith that God gives us, we couldn't believe it. I
couldn't believe it. The Lord Jesus, he glorified
his father's love for his people. You know, what I said, the reason
I'm convinced of that, Paul said that he prayed that the people
he was writing to would know the love of Christ, which passeth
understanding. That means that goes beyond knowledge. And the love of Christ is no
less or no more than the love of the Father and of the Holy
Spirit for his people. God loved us and Christ glorified
the love of God on the cross. Secondly, he glorified the holiness
of God. You say, what do you mean by
that? He glorified the holiness of God. When God charged his
people's sins to the Lord Jesus Christ, when he became guilty
as our substitute on our behalf, God refused to fellowship with
him. That's why the Lord Jesus cried
and prayed, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God, and
I speak of things that are so far beyond any of our ability
to understand. But he magnified the holiness
of God in that God would no longer fellowship with him during that
time when he was made guilty for our sins. And my friends,
what will become of us if we be found outside of the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ? If God refuses to fellowship
with His well-beloved Son, what would become of us outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ? He glorified, thirdly, the justice
of God, in that when the Son was made guilty, when He bore
our sins on the tree, what did God do? God put him to death. What was the Lord Jesus doing?
He was glorifying the justice of God. And he also glorified
the justice of God, as I said a few minutes ago, that God raised
him from the dead. See, it was not right for him
to remain in the tomb. Why? Because he had paid for
sin. The price was paid. Paid in full. And God's a just God. And since
he's a just God, he must raise him from the dead. But you know
in the scripture, it also tells us that Christ raised himself
from the dead. Father raised him and the son
raised himself as well. And in doing so, he was glorifying
the father. Now notice verse two. He said,
as thou has given him power over all flesh, Just a couple words
on that statement there. The Lord Jesus Christ is King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. All rulers in this earth receive
the leadership that they have from him. He's the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And you know, I've been reminded
of this over the last few weeks as we've seen the suffering over
in the Ukraine. And the heart of all leaders are
in the hands of King Jesus. You say, well, you know, Putin,
his heart's not in his hands. Oh, yes, he is. And you know
what? That's what, when I've had the
opportunity to speak to people and they say, well, you know,
I hope this and I hope that, I say, I just pray that the Lord
Jesus turns his heart. He can. And only he can. And you know what? It's not even
hard for him. He turns the waters withersoever he wills. It's hard
to understand that, isn't it? But that's what the scripture
teaches. He's either king of kings and lord of lords, or the
scripture's not true. We pray for peace, don't we?
We pray, Lord, change his heart. And you know what, he can. We
may get out of here tonight and hear that there's a peace truce,
if he so pleases. That's what he said, as thou
has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou has given him. You see, eternal life is
in his hands as well. All life is in his hands. In
him we live and move and breathe and have our being. We tonight
are sitting here and breathing because he's given us breath.
Physical life is in his hands and eternal life is in his hands.
And I don't have time to speak to this, but can election be
any clearer in the scripture than in this verse? As thou has
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him." You see, it's the Lord that gives
spiritual life, it's He that gives eternal life, it's He that
gives everlasting life to all the elect of God. He gives, the
point that really got my attention here in this passage is He gives
this eternal life in this world. He gives it in this world. Somehow
we have it in our mind that someday when our time on this earth is
done and the Lord takes us home to heaven, that that's when we
will receive eternal life. That's not what the scripture
teaches. He gives eternal life in this world. He said of his sheep, he says,
and I give unto them eternal life. He didn't say he's going
to give it to them someday. He says, no, I give unto them
eternal life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He's not talking
about in heaven. He's talking about on this earth.
He said, barely, barely, I say unto you, he that hears my word
and believes on him that sent me, he has everlasting life. And he will not come into condemnation. But he has passed from death
unto life. He said, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. Not he's gonna have it. He has
it right now, tonight. As we said here, believers, we
have eternal life right now. Not someday in the future, right
now. And he shall not see death. He
will not see death. He told Martha, he said, whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe that? That's what
he asked Martha. Believest thou this? He that
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Eternal life commences
here. It begins for the believer as
soon as he or she is born again. Eternal life begins in that very
instant. It is at that very instant that
we receive the eternal life that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
about here and that we will have throughout all eternity. We have
it already. You see, death doesn't transport
believers into a new life, but it does rid us of the flesh.
It gets rid of this body of death that we carry about. So that
that life, that principle of life, that eternal life that
the Lord Jesus Christ has given us, the flesh, the body of death. Paul said, oh, who shall deliver
me from this body of death that I carry around with me? I praise
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to get rid of us.
When we die, we drop this body of death. But the life, it's
not like we start living instantly. No, we're already living. The
life just passes from this world to the next. Our death will transport us into
a place and a time where we will really enjoy our everlasting
life and our eternal life. But it won't begin there. He
gives this life upon the earth. That's what he says. 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. What is life eternal? That they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. What's eternal life? Eternal
life consists in the knowledge of God. the knowledge of the
only true God. You see, the highest privilege
that any of us, listen to me, the highest privilege that any
of us can ever know is to have fellowship with God. The greatest joy that we can
ever have in this world is when God in his matchless grace and
undeserved mercy chooses to cause his face to shine upon us. And
just give us a glimpse and a taste of knowing him. Oh, may he cause his face to
shine upon us even tonight. You see, if he fellowships with
me, then I know everything's well. If he fellowships with
me, it's well with my soul. Why? Not because of anything
in me, but because of who he is. That means he's chosen. He's chosen for me to be one
of his people. What is it to know God? If eternal life is
to know God, what is it to know God? Well, first of all, it's
not to know that there is a God. All men know that there's a God.
Some just lie more than others, but all men know there is a God. The devils know that and tremble,
the scripture says. And so that's not what it is
to know. So what is it? I mean, we do know that there
is a God, absolutely. But to know God is to know him
as our God. To know him, Jehovah, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, as our God. The God of the living. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. For he's not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. It's to know Him, to know Him. It's to, we reverence Him, don't
we? The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. To know God is to reverence God.
We bow before Him as worshipers. That's what we come here to try
to do, don't we? To bow before Him as worshipers. And we don't have to get down
on the floor to do that in our hearts. to bow before Him as
our God, and we submit to Him, and we seek in our weak, failing
way to serve Him as our God. That's what it is to know God.
It's to be on terms of personal acquaintance with Him. Someone came in here tonight,
they'd never heard the gospel at all, they'd think a madman
was up here. Personal acquaintance with God?
A worm like me? You know what, if the scripture
didn't teach that, I wouldn't have the gall to say it. But
that's what the word, not only do we have personal acquaintance
with our God, he's our father. And the Lord Jesus is our brother.
Wonder of wonders. I would not dare to say so if
our great God and Father didn't tell us so. John said, truly,
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. What, John? Those people you're
writing to, they have communion, fellowship with God and with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, truly. That's who our communion
is with. Paul said, God is faithful by
whom we were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord. God said, I will be their God,
and they will be my people. And part of that is God chooses
to fellowship with us. These are amazing words that
the Lord Jesus spoke, aren't they? And I'll try to hurry to
finish here. To know God is to have a grand
object in life. No matter what our profession,
no matter how good things seem to be going, how bad things seem
to be going, to know God is to have a grand object in life.
Regardless of the circumstances we face and we endure in this
world, the believer knows that we exist for God's glory. The
believer knows what a grand object in life. We exist to glorify
God. And also, we exist so that God
may bring good to us, so that he manifests his love and mercy
and grace and forgiveness to us. What a grand object in life.
I was thinking as I thought about this of the story our Lord Jesus
Christ told of the rich man and of that beggar. The beggar that
was put out there outside the gates of the rich man and had
all the sores and his only friends were the dogs that would come
by to give him some relief. And licking his sores all by
all outward appearance, that man was as pitiful as could possibly
be. And yet, you know, He had a grand
object in life to glorify God and for God to manifest his love
to him. For all we know, he spent every
day out there fellowshiping. You know, God can make a hell
heaven and make, if heaven did not have God, it would be hell.
We have a grand object in life, believers. Let's not forget that. We're recipients of his love
and grace and mercy. Fifthly, to know God is to have
one to fall back on when we don't understand the things that are
going on around us or in us. Isn't that true? To know God
is to have someone to fall back upon when we just cannot understand. I'll be honest with you. Most
of the time, I cannot understand how the things I see around me
and in me bring glory to God. I pray that you can, but I'm
just, in all honesty, I can't. How do I know that? I know it
by faith. That's the only way that I can
know that. There's so many things that we see in this world, children
of God, that we just don't understand, but I like what Spurgeon said. He said, it goes along with the
messages our pastor's been bringing to us on Wednesday night of God
bringing good out of evil. He said, what a wonderful life,
life more abundantly, to know God and to know that there is
a God who will overrule it all. And from the seeming evil, he
will produce a good. And from that good, he's going
to produce something even better to his praise and glory. You
see, to know God is to have one to fall back upon when we just
don't understand. And lastly here, the Lord said
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. You see, there's no knowing God.
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. For there's no coming unto God,
unto the Father, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I'm
the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. Life eternal, yes, is to know
God, but it's to know him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice
he says, through Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. See, that
distinguishes him from other men. He was sent, what does that
mean? He's the one who came from heaven.
The eternal son of God is to know God through the Lord Jesus
Christ and his divine person, who he is. God manifests in the
flesh and to know what he came to do. The only way to know God
is to know the Lord Jesus Christ and what he came into this, on
this earth to do. He was our representative. Right,
believers? He was our representative, living
a perfect life, a life of perfect obedience unto God at all times,
God's perfect servant, so that he could say that he did all
things well. That's what he says here in John
17. He did all things well as our representative. Why is that
important? Because see, knowledge of God
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, if God allowed us to really know
something about him and not know the Lord Jesus Christ, that would
be a knowledge of terror. Why? Because we know we've offended. We would know we'd offended a
holy God, and yet we'd have no way to approach him. We would
have no mediator. See, that's why we must know
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through our representative. and
also as our substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ, I quoted
a while ago, was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. We know God through
the Lord Jesus Christ, through his death upon the cross, through
that perfect substitutionary death, whereby through his sacrifice,
He washed away, he put away every single offense that all his elect
shall ever commit for all times. And through him, we have eternal
life. And apart from him, all we can
expect is a angry God. That's right. I pray that this message will
be a blessing to you like the passage was to me. Lord bless
you.