1. "The less you know, the more you worry. And how little you know makes you painfully aware of how little you can do. What happens now? That question can buzz around your head like a fly that just won't leave the room."

2. "When the ground you're standing on slips, what do you reach out to and grab hold of for balance? When the pillars of your life start to crack, is there any way you could not be anxious?"

3. "What is about to happen to both Jesus and the disciples will look to them like futile defeat. It will tempt them to despair. But what's about to happen is not futile, but purposeful. Not defeat, but victory, not ruin, but salvation."

4. "Jesus says that knowing God is eternal life because God has created us to be loving and longing beings. Our hearts are magnetized by what we desire. We are always going out of ourselves looking for something. That something is ultimately an object of knowledge, of desire, of satisfaction."

5. "Brothers and sisters, meditation is spiritual kneading. It is pressing the truth repeatedly into your soul. Meditation works truth into your soul until it alters the structure of your heart, creating new strands of faith, new strands of hope, new strands of love that weren't there before."

6. "The Gospel is good news, not good advice. Good advice says, study hard for the test, memorize all the vocab, take the practice test a bunch of times, and you'll get a good grade. Good news says, hey, I saw the grade report. You got 100%."

7. "At the cross, Jesus kept an appointment he made in eternity past. Even when staring down a gruesome death, Jesus was in total control. He had all the time he needed together with the Father."

8. "Jesus sought glory in the last place the world would ever look for it, his torture and death at the hands of Rome. The cross is what will make Christ known."

9. "Napoleon Bonaparte once quipped, glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. For Christians, the truth is just the reverse. Obscurity is fleeting, but glory is forever."

10. "Whatever sorrow burdens your heart, whatever sin is causing you to stumble, whatever shame pulls your gaze down, let Christ's prayer for you lift up your eyes and your heart to heaven. That's where Jesus is now. And he's there. Nothing can stop him from bringing you to be with Him."

Observation Questions

1. In John 17:1, what specific request does Jesus make of the Father, and what is the stated purpose of this request?

2. Looking at John 17:2, what authority has the Father given to the Son, and for what purpose was this authority given?

3. According to John 17:3, how does Jesus define eternal life?

4. In John 17:4, what does Jesus say He has done, and how does this relate to His mission?

5. Examining John 17:5, what specific glory is Jesus asking for, and when did He previously possess this glory?

6. How does Jesus' prayer in John 17:1-5 connect with His earlier promises of peace in John 14:1 and 16:33?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Jesus begin this prayer by asking for glory just before His crucifixion? How does this timing help us understand what true glory means?

2. What does Jesus' definition of eternal life as "knowing God" tell us about the nature of salvation? How is this different from just having information about God?

3. How do we reconcile Jesus' statement about the Father being "the only true God" with His own claim to divine glory that He had "before the world existed"?

4. What does it mean that Jesus has "accomplished" His work (17:4) when He hasn't yet gone to the cross? What does this tell us about Jesus' perspective on His mission?

5. How does Jesus' request for glory in verses 1 and 5 relate to His earlier teaching about giving His disciples peace in the midst of tribulation?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time uncertainty about the future made you anxious? How does Jesus' confidence in the Father's plan change how you view that situation?

2. In what specific area of your life are you most tempted to seek glory from others rather than from God? What would it look like to seek God's glory in that area instead?

3. Think about your daily work schedule. Where might you be crossing the line between diligent work and work-worship? What specific changes could help restore proper balance?

4. When did you last take time to truly meditate on God's character? How could you incorporate spiritual "kneading" of biblical truth into your daily routine this week?

5. Which current challenge in your life feels most like "shifting ground"? How can Christ's completed work of salvation provide stability in that situation?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Philippians 3:17-21 - A powerful description of the transformation our bodies will undergo when Christ returns, connecting to Jesus' teaching about future glory.

2. Daniel 7:13-14 - The prophetic background for Jesus' authority over all flesh, showing how He fulfills ancient promises about God's kingdom.

3. Romans 8:28-39 - An extended meditation on how God's sovereign choice and Christ's completed work guarantee our final salvation, elaborating on themes from John 17:2-4.

4. 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 - A rich explanation of how believers are transformed by beholding God's glory in Christ, expanding on the connection between knowing God and eternal life.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Context of Uncertainty and Jesus’ Assurance (John 14:1, 16:33)

II. How Jesus Saves Us: True Knowledge of the Father (John 17:3)

III. How Jesus Saves Us: Fulfillment of the Father’s Plan (John 17:2, 4)

IV. How Jesus Saves Us: Glorifying the Father and Receiving Glory (John 17:1, 5)

V. The Certainty of Salvation and Eternal Glory in Christ (John 17:5; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 3:3-4; 1 John 3:2)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

- Jesus repeatedly assures them of peace despite impending tribulation.

- Chapters 14–16 focus on the Father, Son, and Spirit; Chapter 17 transitions to Jesus’ prayer.

- Jesus’ prayer reframes apparent defeat as purposeful victory.

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- “Knowing” God is not intellectual assent but intimate communion.

- Sinful suppression of truth leads to spiritual alienation.

- Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection display God’s justice and mercy.

- Rejecting Jesus means rejecting the Father (John 17:3).

- Eternal life begins now for believers.

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- Divine election secures salvation, not human effort.

- “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

- His obedience guarantees believers’ security.

- Salvation rests on Christ’s hold on believers, not vice versa.

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- The cross reveals God’s glory (John 12:32).

- Christ’s divinity affirmed through pre-existent glory.

- Christ’s glory becomes the believer’s inheritance.

- Prioritizing God’s glory recalibrates earthly priorities.

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- “Obscurity is fleeting, but glory is forever.”

- Earthly trials cannot nullify eternal promises.

What happens now?

A crucial piece of your life gets knocked loose. Your boss tells you that layoffs are coming, but they don't yet know who or how many. A doctor's face clouds over with concern. They order an immediate test. In times like these, uncertainty anxiety tend to travel together.

The less you know, the more you worry. And how little you know makes you painfully aware of how little you can do. What happens now? That question can buzz around your head like a fly that just won't leave the room. When the ground you're standing on slips, what do you reach out to and grab hold of for balance?

When the pillars of your life start to crack, is there any way you could not be anxious? Uncertainty that prompted anxiety is exactly what Jesus disciples were experiencing on his last night with them. The sermon series we're in the midst of covers John 14:17, all of which focuses on Jesus last night with his disciples. Jesus keeps telling them that he's leaving and that after he leaves they will be exposed to opposition and persecution. His disciples are understandably confused, and not just confused, but perplexed, anxious.

So throughout John 14:16, Jesus comforts his disciples. John's record of this conversation opens in chapter 14, verse 1 with Jesus assurance and exhortation, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. And then the conversation concludes in chapter 16, verse 33, with this stunning word of comfort.

I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Between these brackets of assurance, Jesus conversation with his disciples has three main movements. First, in chapter 14, Jesus teaches his disciples that he is their way to the Father and that he is going to prepare a place for them with the Father. Then in chapter 15, Jesus teaches his disciples that they are completely dependent on him and that they will only bear fruit by living in continual communion with him.

And then in chapter 16, Jesus promises that the disciples will suffer hardship and persecution, and he promises to send the Holy Spirit, who will both instruct and comfort them, and who will convict the world. So one way of summing up all of chapters 14 to 16 is to see the focus shifting from the father in chapter 14 to the Son in chapter 15, to the Holy Spirit in chapter 16, and now in chapter 17. After leading this series of intensive seminars in trinitarian discipleship, Jesus prays. He prays for his disciples, and he prays later in the chapter for our mission in the world that will last until he ushers us into glory. So the Sequence of all of chapters 14 to 17 is first teaching about the Father, the Son and the Spirit, then prayer for the church in the world.

This morning we'll be focusing on just the first five verses of chapter 17. The passage is on page 903 of the Bibles in the pew. Please follow along as I read.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

In these verses, these opening verses of his prayer, Jesus takes us backstage and he shows us how the drama that is about to play out looks from the director's chair. What is about to happen to both Jesus and the disciples will look to them like futile defeat. It will tempt them to despair. But in addition to presenting genuine petitions to His Father Jesus purpose in this prayer is to instruct his disciples in order to comfort the disciples. What's about to happen is not futile, but purposeful.

Not defeat, but victory, not ruin, but salvation. What happens now? Jesus is saying, your salvation happens now. And here's how these five verses are structured in what is technically called a chiasm or an X shaped structure. You could think of it as going out and back or like walking up one staircase and then down another.

So if you glance at verses one and five on the edges of the passage, you'll see that they're basically the same request. Verse one, Glorify your Son. Verse five. Glorify me. And then if you move in one step, verses two and four, as we're going to see, each offer a reason why the Father should answer this request.

And then in the middle verse three is the heart of this part of Jesus prayer and it's the heart of his saving mission. Verse 3. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So in the sermon, we're going to start from the center of the passage and work our way outward. We'll first consider verse three, then verses two and four, then verses one and five.

And the question the whole passage answers is, how does Jesus save us?.1 on verse 3 He gives us true knowledge of the Father. How does Jesus save us? He gives us true knowledge of the Father. Now, to understand verse three, we need to put it in context. So look at verse two.

Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, the question naturally follows, what is eternal life? And Jesus answers in verse three, this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Verse two tells us that the Father gave the Son authority in order that the Son would would give eternal life to all those whom the Father had given to Him. That's the point of Jesus whole earthly mission. It's the point of our whole lives.

It's the point of God having made us in his image in the first place. To know the true God is everything. And yet that's a knowledge we have to be given. We don't have it by nature. Instead, by nature we.

We're all alienated from God. We've all turned away from the true knowledge of God. Even though there's a sense in which we do have the true knowledge of God by being made in his image, by having his moral law written on our hearts so that we have an internal sort of register and record of it. We've also all turned away from the true knowledge of God. As Annie read to us at the beginning of the service in Romans 1:18, Paul says that naturally by their unrighteousness, people suppress the truth.

So if someone ever claims to you, oh, how can God be so unfair as to hold people accountable who don't even know him and couldn't have had evidence for his existence? Romans 1:18 is a great answer. Nobody's purely neutral. Everyone has some knowledge of God which they by unrighteousness suppress. And then Paul in Ephesians 4:18 similarly describes our natural condition in very bleak terms.

He says they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. Ignorance due to hardness of heart. By nature none of us know God as we ought to know Him. As Paul goes on to say in Romans 1:21, by nature none of us honor him as God or give thanks to Him. Knowing God is truth in truth is more than just having information about Him.

It means rightly responding to Him. Again, in the passage we read earlier, verse 25 of Romans 1, we have all exchanged the truth about God for a lie. All of us have failed to love God with our minds. All of us have embraced lies about God rather than the truth. All of us have missed the purpose for which we were created by failing to know God as He really is.

And because God is this world's true and righteous judge, he promises to repay with eternal punishment those who persist in rejecting the true knowledge of Him. But because God is merciful, as verse three of our passage says, he sent He, His Son Jesus the Messiah into the world to give us the true knowledge of him, which is eternal life. Jesus perfectly revealed the character and purposes of His Father in everything he did. And he especially revealed the truth about God. In his saving death.

He revealed God's justice and mercy all at once. By bearing our sin on the cross. Jesus bore the wrath of God that we deserve. And then three days later, he rose from the dead and entered into eternal glory. Instead of eternal death.

Jesus offers you eternal life. All you need to do is repent and believe in Him. Receive him in being sent by the Father. Jesus is the Father's fully authorized emissary and representative. If you accept Christ, you accept the Father.

If you reject Christ, you reject the Father and all hope of eternal life. Look again at verse three in our passage. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Jesus doesn't say that the knowledge of God leads to eternal life, although that's true. Jesus doesn't say that the knowledge of God is one of the benefits of eternal life, although that's also true.

He says the knowledge of God is eternal life. How can he simply equate the two?

Jesus says that knowing God is eternal life because God has created us to be loving and longing beings. Our hearts are magnetized by what we desire. We are always going out of ourselves looking for something. That something is ultimately an object of knowledge, of desire, of satisfaction. We hope God gave us hearts so that he would satisfy them.

He gave us minds so that he would fill them and not fill them with something else, but fill our minds with Himself. Knowing God is not a mere opinion. It's not even merely knowledge of God or knowledge about God. Instead, knowing God is a relationship. Only the true God can satisfy you eternally because only the true God is Himself.

Infinite good, infinite beauty, infinite bliss. Knowing God is eternal life because to know God is to enjoy him as supremely true and therefore supremely satisfying. As one theologian put it, happiness, even the smallest happiness, is like taking a step out of time. And the greatest happiness is sharing in eternity.

Since Jesus addresses the Father as the only true God in this verse, many have wondered, does that mean he's excluding himself from being God? Is this a denial of Jesus divinity? How can Jesus be God if he says the Father is the only true God? 2 Responses. I think there's 2 parts to the answer.

The first is that it is crucial to recognize that Jesus is praying as a man. He's speaking as a human being. As John Calvin put it, christ, who appears in the form of a man, designates under the person of the Father, God's power, essence and majesty. So Christ's Father is the only true God. That is, he is the God who formerly promised a Redeemer to the world.

But there's a second part to the answer here, which is that there is also proof of Jesus divinity in the verse itself. All you have to do is keep reading. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. To know God is to have eternal life. And this knowledge includes the knowledge of Christ.

Jesus doesn't just give this knowledge, he is the object of this knowledge. By including himself alongside the Father in this statement, Jesus indicates that he is not only man, but also God. He is not merely a creature, but also, more fundamentally, the Creator. How could the knowledge of a mere creature be the life of a human soul?

What is the meaning of life? It's a question that's been around as long as people have. It's a question that's fallen on hard times through postmodern skepticism and cynicism. Verse three answers that question. Human life finds its ultimate fulfillment in knowing the Father and the Son who reveals him.

If you're here today and you're not a Christian, we're delighted you're here. You're always welcome here. I wonder how you would answer that question. What is the meaning of life? Lately, our three oldest children, and especially our son William, have become obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes.

If you've never read Bill Watterson's all time great comic strip about the maniacal young Calvin and his tiger companion Hobbes, for one thing, you're in for a treat. I was equally obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes when I was their age. And let's be honest, still am. But also if you've never read Calvin and Hobbes, you might be surprised at how deep some of Calvin and Hobbes reflections are. Meaning of life, for instance.

Calvin says, I'm at peace with the world. I'm completely serene. Hobbes. Why is that, Calvin? I've discovered my purpose in life.

I know why I was put Here and why everything exists. HOBBES oh, really? CALVIN yes, I'm here so everybody can do what I want. Hobbes it's nice to have that cleared up. CALVIN Once everyone accepts it, they'll be serene too.

What can give life a stable, secure, durable meaning, not just for you, but for everyone? What can give life a meaning that can't be crushed by circumstances, strangled by suffering and ultimately erased by death? Only knowing the only true God. Do you know God? Do you have this eternal life?

It is entirely possible to be a professing Christian for years, for decades, even for your whole life and not know God, not actually have eternal life. If you profess to be a Christian, do you know by experience what Jesus is talking about? Does it make sense to you that Jesus would say knowing God is eternal life? Does that resonate with your experience? What it means to know God?

Do you have that kind of knowledge of God? I've got four further points of application from this verse. First, treasure the knowledge of God. Treasure the knowledge of God. Brothers and sisters, members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

If you know the true God, then you have eternal life. No matter how dissatisfying or painful or trying your life might be right now. That's not the only life you have. You have eternal life right here and now through the knowledge of God in Christ. So treasure the knowledge of God that is eternal life.

Prize that knowledge, value it above all earthly goods. Second, seek more of this knowledge of God. Study his word, study his character, study his heart. Seek the knowledge of God more than any earthly knowledge. The better you come to know God, the better you'll see how much you don't know.

The better you know God, the more you'll want to know him better. Third, worship God alone. Worship God alone. Notice how Jesus refers to God in this verse as the only true God. Only implies competitors and true implies imposters.

There are other so called gods out there and they compete with the only true God for your affection and devotion and worship. Today, especially in the west, many of those gods fly under the radar. They do not name themselves as gods or dress as gods, or overtly present themselves as gods. One of those gods is work. A few months ago, Derek wrote an insightful article in the Atlantic Monthly.

His main point, the religion of workism is making Americans miserable. Someone told me the other day that in the consulting firm they work for, the basic attitude is, well, what else are you going to give your life to? Just more work, more work, more work. As if it's just the default setting as if there's not even any competitors worthy to be ranked against the worship of work. It's just expected.

It's normal. Whatever you owe your employers, you don't owe them worship.

Do you worship your work? Hear me out. I'm not saying not to do a good job, not to invest hard. I'm not saying there aren't times to put in extra effort, extra hours. But there is a line between being diligent at work and worshiping your work.

Besides work, do you worship anything above or beside the one true God? Fourth, meditate on who God is for you in Christ. How can this promise of eternal life give you certainty and comfort? One crucial way to get that certainty and comfort is to meditate. Meditation is thinking aimed at your heart.

Meditation is savoring the truth until that truth flavors your soul.

The basic ingredients of meditation are Bible reading, prayer and time. When you make bread or pasta by hand, you have to knead the dough. That's what mixes the ingredients and strengthens the final product. And actually, kneading changes the chemical makeup of the mixture. It's what creates the gluten strands that give bread its unique texture.

Brothers and sisters, meditation is spiritual kneading. It is pressing the truth repeatedly into your soul. Meditation works truth into your soul until it alters the structure of your heart, creating new strands of faith, new strands of hope, new strands of love that weren't there before. So keep pressing the truth into your soul. How does Jesus save us?

He gives us true knowledge of God. And how does he do that?.2 from verses 2 and 4 he fulfills the Father's plan. How does Jesus save us? He fulfills the Father's plan. To get the context for verse two, looking at the end of verse one Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. Then in verse 2, Jesus continues the thought, giving a reason in support of his request. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. When did the Father give the Son this authority? I'm not 100% sure about the timing, but I think it's clear from the verse and from the context that this grant of authority is part and parcel of the Son's incarnate mission.

It has to do with him being sent in the flesh to save us. In other words, it is as a human being that the Son receives this authority from the Father. By contrast, as God the Son, he already eternally possesses all authority. Christ receives as man what he always has as God, Christ receives as man what he always has as God. We'll see that coming up again in verse 5.

This is why John Calvin, not Calvin of the Strip, but the French reformer John Calvin. This is why John Calvin observes, Christ therefore receives authority, not so much for himself as for our salvation. Daniel 7, 13, 14 seems to be in the background here, where God gives this figure, who is like a Son of man, universal authority. So Jesus says, you've given him authority over all flesh. Listen to what God does for this Son of Man.

In Daniel's prophecy, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one shall not be destroyed. For what purpose did the Father give the Son this authority?

He gave the Son authority in order that in turn the Son would give eternal life to all those people whom the Father had given him. This is the doctrine of election. If you're a Christian, your ultimate destiny with God is secure not because of anything you've done. Because God freely chose you in eternity past and gave you as a gift to His Son. This choice was not because of anything good you did.

Instead, it was based entirely on God's free love and mercy. Jesus only gives eternal life to us whom the Father has given him, and he gives eternal life to all those whom the Father has given Him. And if that's challenging to you, or causes questions in your heart or raises doubts or anxieties, what you need to do is repent and believe. If you have repented and believed, keep repenting and believing. Trust in Christ.

That's how you receive that salvation. And Jesus says, on the one hand, all those the Father has given me, I will give eternal life. And he says, whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out. Both those truths are true at the same time.

So the Father gave the Son authority over all. Verse 2 says, all flesh. That means all people. But he gave the Son this universal authority for a specific purpose, to accomplish the salvation of all God's chosen. Look down at verse four.

Verse four refers back to this grant of authority that aims at our salvation. I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And then this becomes the basis for Jesus petition in verse five. And now that is, now that I've completed My work on earth. Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

But we have to ask, has he completed his work? That is, this is before the crucifixion and resurrection on the cross. At the end in John 19:30, Jesus cries out, it is finished. So how can he say that it is finished now? Again, I think there are two parts to the answer.

The first is that Jesus is taking a step back and reflecting on the whole course of his ministry. He's seeing the end coming into view. He can spot the finish line, and he's saying, I've done it. I've fulfilled the mission you've given me. In verse one, Jesus prays, father, the hour has come.

The time is at hand. But of course, his greatest hour of trial lay just before him. So I think the second part of the answer has to be that Jesus is so committed to obeying his Father and so certain of the success of his saving mission that he can pray like it's already done. It's just like we considered in the previous verses a few weeks ago. Just before this, a verse I've already mentioned in the sermon.

John 16:33. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. How does Jesus save us? He fulfills the Father's plan.

He completes his saving incarnate mission. He faithfully executes all the duties of the office of Messiah. If you're a Christian, then Jesus has done all this for you. He completed the work the Father gave Him to do for you. He did this to give you eternal life.

So what should you do? You should rest in his completed work. You should receive the free gift of his completed work for you. You should find your security and stability in God's gracious choice of you and in the Son's sovereignly keeping you. You are the Son's treasured possession.

As Jesus says In John, chapter 10, verses 28 to 30, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Your salvation finally depends not on your hold on Christ, but on his hold on you.

So here are great sources of certainty and comfort. The certainty of God's love. The certainty of Christ's success in saving you. The certainty of of your being kept by Christ's power. Those certainties are Loaded with comfort.

All you have to do is press on them. All you have to do is knead them into your soul. The Gospel is good news, not good advice. Good advice says, study hard for the test, memorize all the vocab, take the practice test a bunch of times, and you'll get a good grade. Good news says, hey, I saw the grade report.

You got 100%. And of course, as Christians, it's not we who got the 100%, it's Jesus who got it for us. That's good news. Brothers and sisters, Christ has fulfilled the Father's plan. Christ has completed your salvation.

Those pillars will never crack. That ground will never slip. When you're struggling and suffering, don't let your emotions outweigh and obscure the truth. Instead, use the truth to train your emotions. Set your mind on Christ's completed work and pray for your heart to follow.

Put yourself into those first disciples shoes. They're burdened and grieved. They're wondering at a loss, what happens now. In verses 2 and 4 Jesus is saying, what happens now is what was eternally decreed to happen. What happens now is so certain that it's like it's already done.

And what's the ultimate goal of this fulfilled plan?.3 from verses 1 and 5.315 he glorifies the Father and receives glory from the Father. How does Jesus save us? He glorifies the Father and he receives glory from the Father.

Look again at verse one. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. The hour has come. Jesus.

Betrayal and trial and crucifixion did not catch him off guard. As he says in John 10, 17, 18 for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

Do you ever feel like time is getting away from you? Your schedule is too full? Demands on your time greatly outpace supply. It's not enough time to finish this big project at work. You've been trying to see a friend for months and you just can't make your schedules fit.

So you become impatient, harried, frustrated.

But this hour did not overtake Jesus. He met it calmly, knowingly, with perfect poise. At the cross. Jesus kept an appointment he made in eternity past. Even when staring down a gruesome death, Jesus was in total control.

He had all the time he needed together with the Father. He is the one who set the date and time of our redemption. In verse one. What does it mean for the Father to glorify the Son, and when does it happen? What does it mean for the Father to glorify the Son, and when does it happen?

Just a little sidebar in case that language of glory is not very familiar to you. Sounds kind of biblical and you know it has something to do with God, but it's not all that doesn't make all that much sense. Basically, there's two halves, two parts to the concept of glory. One is kind of brilliance or beauty or worth of God in himself. God's being is radiant.

God's being is glorious. God intrinsically overflows in unimaginable radiance, brightness, light, majesty, beauty, any good thing you can think of, it's in God to the fullest extent. There's another half to glory, which is then that brightness, that beauty, being seen, being perceived, being remarked on. So God is glorious in Himself, and He is glorified when people recognize it, when people see it. And in this part of Jesus prayer, he's really talking about recognition for the most part.

We'll get into a few nuances, but he's talking about being seen, being manifested, displayed, known. So what does it mean for the Father to glorify the Son, and when does it happen? I think the what is that? Jesus is asking the Father both to sustain him in his suffering and death and to manifest him to the world through his crucifixion and resurrection. He's asking to be sustained, and he's asking to be shown.

Jesus is asking the Father to complete his saving purposes in and through Him. And that includes how the cross will reveal Jesus to the world like nothing before has. As Jesus says in John 12:32, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. The cross is what will make Christ known.

Jesus sought glory in the last place the world would ever look for it, his torture and death at the hands of Rome, and the immediate necessary consequence of the Father glorifying the Son. The Father making the Son known is that the Son will glorify the Father. By revealing the Son to the world more fully, the Father is revealing Himself more fully. The Son glorifies the Father by His faithful obedience and by making the Father's will and wisdom and grace and mercy known. The Son is the Father's Autobiography to the world.

Jesus makes his Father known in all that he does. Then in verse 5, Jesus prays nearly the same thing that we saw in verse one. Again for the context. Remember that in verse four, Jesus declares that he has fulfilled the Father's plan of salvation. Then he prays in verse five, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

So is this the same request or a different one? Is this the same glory or a different glory? I think in verse one, Jesus has the whole path laid out ahead of him. He has the whole picture in mind. His path from betrayal to the cross to the resurrection to his entrance into heaven in glory.

And he describes that whole path that he's going to walk as one of glorifying the Father and being glorified by the Father. And it does seem that verse one focuses especially on the cross. That's where Jesus will be made known. Here in verse 5, Jesus is offering the same petition, the same words, but I think it's from the forward looking standpoint of considering his work as already complete. He's kind of gone to the end of the line in verse four.

And then this is the consequence. This is what happens next. Verse 4, I glorified you on earth, verse 5, now Father, glorify me in your own presence. So this is the consequence, this is the outcome, the result, the reward. Specifically, in verse 5, Jesus prays to obtain the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Now, before the world existed, only God existed. So Jesus is referring to the glory that as Son, he eternally shares with God the Father before the world exists. The only glory there is is the glory of the only true God. And yet that glory is shared. That glory isn't shared between God and anything.

That's not God. But that glory is shared within God, between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. We opened our service in the call to worship by hearing the Lord say, my glory I will not give to another. And the only way this verse doesn't violate that verse is if Jesus is himself, God. God the Son, God the Son, eternally one being with the Father.

So here in verse 5, Jesus prays that as man he would obtain the glory that he always has as God. The glory isn't new, the Son isn't new. What is new is that Jesus is going to receive this as a human being. Why did Jesus go through all this trouble? Why enter into a state in which he lacked glory and then needed to receive glory?

It was all for us, all for our salvation. Everything from Jesus incarnation to his enthronement in heaven is for us. It is to save us. It's all for our salvation, including this bookend of installation and glory. Jesus gained glory to give glory.

He was glorified ultimately in order to glorify us. Now the glory that belongs to us as God's redeemed creatures is radically different from the glory that belongs only to the one true God. But it's still glory. If you want proof, here are four extraordinarily rich passages for you to meditate on this week about the glory that is ours and will be ours when God completes His purposes in us. First is First Corinthians 2, 7 but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

Philippians 3:20, 21 but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to Himself. Colossians 3:3, 4 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

As Irenaeus of Leon, the second century pastor, put it, the glory of the human being is God, and the glory of God is the living human being. Jesus does not gain this glory in the Father's presence in order to lock the door and shut us out. The only reason he gains this glory is so that he can wrap us up in it, so that he can fold us into it, so that this glory that he now has will become our eternal destiny.

Napoleon Bonaparte once quipped, glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. For Christians, the truth is just the reverse. Obscurity is fleeting, but glory is forever. So revel in that glory. Glory in Christ's cross, where this glory is most revealed and displayed.

Revel in it, boast in it, rejoice in it. Fix your hope on the glory that is coming to you at Christ's return, when his glory will become your glory, and long for the personal, intimate sight of God that will satisfy your soul forever.

One of the metaphors the Bible uses for glory is worth and weight. The Hebrew word for glory literally means heaviness, so glory is about gravitational Pull. Metaphorically speaking, God is the most weighty reality. So God's glory should weigh the heaviest in our hearts and affections. God's glory should outweigh any created reality.

And one of the reasons we church members need each other is to help us constantly calibrate our glory scales. What is outweighing God's glory in your heart? How can you get help to get those scales in tune? How can you help a brother or sister come to prize God's glory more than whatever it is they have? More than whatever it is they lack?

More than whatever it is that's leading them away from a life of glorifying God? How can you help a brother or sister make God the center of their solar system rather than the too small sun of self?

Jesus glorified God perfectly. He glorified the Father in all he did, and the Father glorified Him in response. Stunningly, Scripture holds out the same promise to you. Aim at God's glory in all you do, and in the end God will glorify you. As Paul says of the person who's circumcised in heart in Romans 2:29, his praise is not from man, but from God.

What happens now? Does your job get cut or are you spared? At least in this round, does the scan come back positive or negative? Whatever happens, Christ's completed work of salvation offers you certainties that nothing on earth can take away. Your salvation's root is God's free choice of you to be a gift for His Son.

And your salvation's ultimate fruit will be sharing Christ's own glory in the Father's presence forever. Look again at verse one.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven.

Whatever sorrow burdens your heart, whatever sin is causing you to stumble, whatever shame pulls your gaze down, let Christ's prayer for you lift up your eyes and your heart to heaven. That's where Jesus is now. And he's there.

Nothing can stop him from bringing you to be with Him. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for answering Jesus prayer. We thank you for glorifying him and causing him to glorify you. We thank you that he completed our salvation. We thank you that he has given us eternal life through the knowledge of you. We thank you that Jesus presence with you in glory now is our guarantee.

Our guarantee of resurrection, our guarantee of living in your presence. Our guarantee of satisfaction, our guarantee of a life that will be completely free from all that weighs us down now. Father, may your glory weigh heaviest in our hearts and May you enable us to live lives that are lifted up to you in heaven, where Christ is seated at your right hand, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.