Sam Low Glory?

New Year's Eve last year, Sal and I decided it would be a good idea to have some people

over to our house and utilise the balcony that we have, which is a good entertaining

area.

And being who I am, at the last minute I decided that the best kind of drinks holder would

be a fancy one from Bunnings that involves some construction.

So New Year's Eve I went and bought one of those, you know, those kind of fancy looking

metal tubs with a frame that it sits on.

Now, it's a fairly basic frame.

It had a total of four screws that had to go into it and there was four other bits that

kind of had to slot into holes.

So very complex.

Anyway, being me, again, I decided that I would just get stuck into putting it together.

Our guests were already there, so I didn't think too much details-wise.

I just constructed the thing, looked okay, put the tub on, put some ice in, put some drinks

in.

It was at that point that I noticed that there was a bit of play in this frame that was supposed

to hold the drinks, to the point where, you know, you could kind of wiggle it in a circle.

And I figured that's probably not how it's designed.

You know, and it may not last the whole night with a tub of drinks on it, but I figured I'll

just leave it because, you know, it's too hard to fix it.

And it wasn't until I came back to it later on, we had some more friends over later in

the month.

And I realised that, you know, had I looked at the instructions, that there was actually

some design to this thing and it could be much, much more stable.

And so I went about removing the work that I had done in order to stabilise the structure

that was there.

This passage tonight is kind of like that moment where you realise, in spite of all these things

that you've done and this work that you've done, there might be some deconstructing that

needs to happen in order to get to a stable finishing point.

When we think about God and when we approach God and when we think about the way he works

and what he's done in the world, we have a default setting for the way that we want to understand

him.

We take exciting memory verses like John 3.16 which say, for God so loved the world.

And so we just kind of stop there.

That's enough for me.

That's all I need to know.

And so God is love and that's everything.

And see, the problem is it's true.

The Bible says that God is love and love is one of the main reasons he sends Jesus.

But it's not the whole story.

And so the challenge for us tonight is that we've kind of built everything around the idea

that God is just loving and it's just overwhelming and amazing and we might need to come back

a step or two in order to get a more stable picture, a more accurate picture, a more satisfying

picture of who God really is.

So this passage in John's Gospel, chapter 17, and in fact the whole second half of John's

Gospel is preparing for Jesus' death.

It's marching towards Jesus on the cross.

And so it's about the same thing as John 3.16.

But the focus in this passage doesn't seem to be God so loved the world, at least not

in the same way.

So let's have a look at Jesus' prayer in those first few verses and see if we can grab what

the emphasis is here.

After Jesus said this from verse 1, he looked toward heaven and prayed,

Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.

For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those

you have given him.

Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you

have sent.

I've brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world

began.

Jesus' motivation as he comes to the cross is what?

Glory.

The glory of his Father specifically.

He is asking his Father to glorify him, but even that is so that he can glorify the Father

more clearly.

The agenda for him in every request in this prayer, as he prays for himself at the beginning,

as he prays for his disciples next, and as he prays for us last of all, is always that

his Father would get glory.

It's actually the theme of the whole Bible.

Everything in Scripture is guiding towards this agenda.

In fact, it came up for us in our Frontline series that we did just recently.

If you're a guest, Frontline was a series looking at the way God puts dignity wherever we are,

whether it's work or school or home, that he has put value there.

And a verse that popped up time and time again was from 1 Corinthians, which says,

whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

And the reality is, at first glance, this idea of God's glory being the most important thing

can almost feel like it's in tension with God's love for us that we just talked about

from John 3.16.

It seems like a fair question to ask.

Is God doing what he's doing because he loves us?

Or is God doing what he's doing because he's really excited about his glory?

What's his agenda?

How do I work it out?

Is it for his sake or for my sake?

And the temptation for us is because the Bible says both.

And so the temptation is we focus on one and leave the other one behind.

So maybe we focus on the love of God and we kind of just ignore the big responsibility

of trying to glorify God.

And so that can play out by us being people who think, you know, God's loving.

It doesn't really matter what I do.

And so there's no real effort on our part to be trying to grow,

to be trying to grow, to be more like Jesus.

There's no real worry about whether there's sin in our life or not.

Or there's the other extreme where we focus so much on the glory of God

that following Jesus becomes this pressure,

this standard that we've got to live up to.

And we just go through lives feeling guilty,

looking down on other people because they're not trying as hard as we are.

And just in this constant cycle of feeling insecure about God's love

because we're so focused on one half.

Now, before we get on to kind of figuring out what do we do with these two things,

we've got to be clear on what we mean when we talk about glory.

Glory is a great word.

It's a Bible word.

It's a good word.

It helps us to understand who God is.

But it's possible that it's a word that we throw out without thinking about it.

We use the word glory even when we're not talking about God.

We use it when we're thinking about sports teams.

There's the glory of victory.

There's chasing the glory of a title.

There's the glory associated with someone's abilities or skills or intellect.

It's kind of the ideas of honour, the ideas of respect that go with it.

We look up to people for their glory.

And so we want to think about glory as being a description of quality, of essence.

So think about it this way.

Outside on your way in, you saw a little snapshot of the incredible baking skills that Ash Quok possesses.

You may or may not have met Ash before.

But there's a fair chance that even if you know Ash well, you may not have known that he possessed that incredible ability.

I've known Ash for years.

And it's only a couple of months ago when he started working here and started bringing cakes to work, which has been fantastic,

that I got this insight into this incredible ability that he had.

Now, whether I recognise or know he has that ability or not doesn't actually change or diminish the fact that he has that ability.

And just because I know that he has that ability doesn't actually enhance it either.

That ability is there.

It exists.

It's part of who he is.

What's going on when I encounter that ability?

What's going on when you walk outside and take a bite into that cupcake, which you've just purchased to support him on his mission trip to Fiji?

What's going on there?

As you encounter his glory in baking, you glorify him.

You don't add to him.

You don't give him something.

But by experiencing his goodness, by the smile that's on your face, by the tears that are streaming down your face because your wallet is empty and you can't afford a second cupcake,

you communicate something of how incredible Ash is.

And again, you're not adding to him.

You're engaging with something that's already there.

Now, of course, illustrations fail us when we come to God, but it helps us in this sense.

With God, we're not talking about some skill he's got in the kitchen.

We're talking about his character.

We're talking about what makes him him.

It gets expressed in the way he acts, but we're talking about who he is.

He's unchanging perfection.

And when it comes to glorifying God, we don't glorify him by adding to him.

We don't glorify him by giving him something that he doesn't have.

We glorify God by engaging with his majesty and his goodness and his compassion and his love.

We glorify God by experiencing his forgiveness in our own lives.

We glorify God by displaying it because suddenly we are filled with joy and love and security and confidence that our creator loves us in spite of who we are.

We glorify God by giving it to him.

We glorify God as we rejoice in his provision to us.

We glorify God as we turn to him and acknowledge doubt and failure because we're secure in the love that he's shown us.

We glorify God as we glorify God as we joyfully sacrifice other things because he is so satisfying that we no longer need those things to be happy, to be content.

We're not adding to him.

We're just experiencing all that he is and expressing that experience.

We're just engaging with his goodness and that's having an overflow effect to the people around us.

There's an American pastor by the name of John Piper and he articulates it quite succinctly.

He says that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Say that again.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

It's not about giving something to God.

Glory is who God is and us getting to engage with that.

And so what Jesus does when he prays for God's glory here is he's praying that God might be revealed.

That's the agenda for Jesus.

For us to get a glimpse of God's goodness and love and majesty and forgiveness and holiness and compassion in who Jesus is and how he lives.

But the exciting bit comes that even for Jesus himself, living his life for God's glory is ultimately about living his life engaged with and encountering God's goodness.

Does that make sense?

For Jesus to live in a way that glorifies God, that reveals God, the way he does that is not by doing something extra.

But by simply encountering the Father's goodness to him.

I mean, look at the way Jesus prays through this prayer.

He's praying that God would be revealed.

He's praying that God would be revealed.

He's praying having lived a life of perfect obedience to his Father.

He's praying having experienced opposition.

He's praying knowing that he's about to walk to the cross.

And yet this prayer is just saturated with Jesus' awareness that the Father has been abundantly generous and loving in everything that has happened in Jesus' life.

Jesus will be given the highest place of honor through his death.

It's Jesus who gets to be the one who glorifies the Father and reveals him.

And so as Jesus reflects in John 17, look from verse 6.

I pray for them.

Everything.

Everything.

From the disciples that followed Jesus to the power to do miracles, every task that he was given, even the name that he had was a gift given by the Father.

Not a duty, not a responsibility, not a job description to be satisfied.

Even in the cross, Jesus is honored.

Jesus is praying here as he gets ready.

The hour has come.

So Father, glorify me.

He's praying, God, put me on the cross.

Because even that is a gift.

Even that is the path by which you're going to honor me as the Son of God.

And you're going to exalt me and give me the name that is above every name.

Jesus knows that even in the cross, he will be revealed to be the one who takes away the sin of the world.

In his death and resurrection, he will be shown to be the king who rules over all creation.

The point of all this, the reason we need to understand this is that we need to understand that the call and command for us to give glory to God,

for you to, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God, that call and that command is actually a call and command for you to experience the glory of God.

And remember, the glory of God is his goodness.

It's his love.

It's his mercy.

It's his compassion.

What might at first feel like a burdensome instruction, if you're going to be a Christian, you must glorify God, is actually, if you're going to be a Christian, you must be loved by God.

That's what the instruction is.

Those two things sit perfectly together here.

When God calls us to glorify him, he's calling us to be stars, not suns.

He's not calling us to somehow produce something from within ourselves that will help other people see God.

He's saying, be a star.

Get yourself in a position where the sun's light reflects off you.

And so for you to do the reflecting, the showing of God, you've got to be in a position where you're getting absolutely smashed by the light of the sun, where you're getting overwhelmed by it.

When I was growing up, it was really easy to tell whether or not I'd been in the sun because I had two colours, sunburn and peeling.

Being one of five kids, I managed to avoid the sunscreen drill fairly regularly.

And I just loved being out in the sun, swimming, surfing, doing whatever.

And so I was always glowing red.

And I didn't have to tell you where I'd been.

I didn't have to explain that the reason I was red is because I'd been in the sun.

That's how it works.

You know, you see sunburn, you assume sun.

That's what God is asking us to do when he says, glorify me.

He's saying, be sunburned by my goodness.

He's saying, be so loved by me that you can't help but people just see this thing about you that's different.

They see this security and this peace, this joy that comes from being loved by the creator of heaven and earth so incredibly.

The two temptations we talked about earlier, they miss this.

See, if we focus just on the glory and the command and the responsibility to point to God and miss his incredible love,

we're actually shrinking down God anyway because we're missing out on this huge part of who he is.

We're reducing him to just being somebody who gives us tasks to do.

And likewise, if we're over here just enjoying the love of God and don't see anything that he's put in front of us to do,

don't feel any need to try and live out holiness, we've actually reduced God down.

We've misunderstood that he is holy.

And that in his holiness and in his majesty, he has found a way to love us in spite of who we are.

I've had multiple conversations with people recently here and outside of here as well.

People who walk into church often, read their Bible by themselves often, go to Bible study, whatever it is,

and whenever they do, the overwhelming sense for them is that they've just gotten in trouble.

Maybe that's how you feel when you walk into church sometimes.

Maybe that's how you're feeling right now.

Now, you walk in here and you just get told you need to do these things better.

You're not trying hard enough.

You're not doing a great job at glorifying God.

When people look at you, do they really see God?

And you just feel this sense like you're getting in trouble time and time again.

And let me be clear, if that's what people are hearing as preachers,

we need to be careful about what we're saying because that's not the message of the Bible.

But is it possible that the reason we sometimes hear that is because our starting point is that we've got this vision of God that says,

God has requirements for me.

And sure, he's loving, but that's somewhere over there.

Our starting point is to only get half of the picture,

to separate out the love of God and the passion for his glory to such an extent that we can't actually be loved and have God want us to do something.

Whereas that's not what is going on here in John 17.

They're perfectly together.

And the answer is not that we should just stop talking about the things that Jesus demands in the Christian life.

I mean, even in this passage, this incredible prayer,

Jesus demands a bunch of stuff of his followers.

He sets out a bar of what he's aiming at for his people.

Remember, he's actually praying aloud here in chapter 17.

So that his disciples can eavesdrop, can learn and be encouraged.

There's a clue there in verse 13.

He says,

I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they,

the eavesdropping disciples,

so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

And with the disciples eavesdropping,

he prays that they might be sanctified,

that they might be getting more holy,

that they might become more like Jesus.

He prays three times that they might be one,

that they might be unified.

I mean, is there a bigger challenge than that for Christians?

I mean, do you hear that?

That call to be one,

and then sit there and think,

God, are you serious?

I have to love these people?

All of these people?

I mean, it's almost like Jesus is just turning the knife,

just giving them one last shame rebuke prayer.

Have you ever done this?

You might be holier than me.

It's the rebuke prayer that comes out in Bible study sometimes,

maybe even at the front of church.

It's the prayer where, you know,

you've told a secret to your friend who's in your Bible study group,

and they've told everyone.

And so you're angry.

You're hurt.

And so you pray a holy prayer like this.

Say, dear God,

I pray for those among us who are untrustworthy.

I pray that they might know how bad that is.

I pray that they might repent of their sins,

that they might confess and beg forgiveness

from you and from the people they've hurt.

I thank you that I'm not like them.

In Jesus' name.

I'm sure you don't do that,

but maybe you do something kind of similar.

The prayer where you're just letting people know

that actually they're not really living up to the standard

that God set.

It's almost like that's what it feels like here.

Throughout this gospel, the disciples have been shocking.

They've competed for the position of most honour and respect

as Jesus' followers.

We know that now, thousands of years later,

as the church, we don't do a great job at being one,

being unified.

And yet Jesus puts this on the agenda right here.

He prays for it over and over and over again.

And then he just adds salt into the wound by saying,

you know what?

That oneness is going to be the way that other people come to follow Jesus.

So now it's not just us having bad relationships with one another,

but it's other people's salvation.

That's a lot of pressure.

Now there's no question

if we're going to live for the glory of God,

if we're going to reveal him,

if people are going to see him in the way that we live,

then there's going to be some effort required.

We're going to have to fight for it.

We're going to have to battle temptation.

But what this passage does,

what this truth does,

the way that glory and joy,

glory and love can be brought together,

is that it rescues us

from the most difficult question

for anyone who wants to follow Jesus.

That question is,

will I live for God's glory

or will I live for my joy,

for my satisfaction?

Now I don't mean the big overarching philosophical life question,

which path am I going down?

I'm in the moment,

50 times a day,

what am I going to do right here?

I'm driving in the car

and someone cuts in on me.

Do I,

you know,

one finger salute them

and thank them for

giving me plenty of notice

that they were going to come in?

Do I sit on the horn?

Do I,

you know,

express my displeasure

through expletives out the window?

Or do I contain myself

and be happy

that that road user

is making the most

of the small gap

between me and the car in front?

In that moment,

is it about my joy

or is it about doing

what I know God calls me to?

For me personally,

I shared this morning

and I'll share again,

for me,

this moment,

there's lots of them

but one of them is

when I get home every day.

I'm tired,

I'm tired all the time

but when I get home after work,

I'm tired

and I'm about to open the door

and it's a moment of

will I walk in

and find some energy

to play with my boys?

Find some energy

to have a conversation

with my wife

about what she's done today

and give her a chance

to interact with an adult

for a few minutes?

Or will I do

what deep down

I'd really just love to do,

find an excuse

to be by myself

for 10 minutes?

Need to go to the toilet

for 10 minutes?

Lock the door,

hide away from the rest of them?

I've got to make the call.

Do I do what I know

God wants me to do

in that moment

or do I do what I think

is going to make me happy?

That's the tension

that we feel

as a Christian.

That's that pressure

and that burden

that can make us

feel so guilty.

But what this does

is actually rescue us

from that question.

It takes that question away.

Instead of there being

a dichotomy between,

a gap between,

an opposition between

glorifying God

and me being satisfied

and happy

and getting what I want,

what this passage does

is actually draw

those things together.

See, for Jesus,

obeying his Father fully,

even to the point of death,

was his delight.

It was the thing

that gave him greatest joy.

because in it,

in choosing God's will for him,

in obeying,

he experienced

his Father's love.

Even the sending

of Jesus to the cross

was an act of love

from his Father

for him.

It was his Father

taking him

through the cross

so that he might be

lifted up

and so that at his name

every knee might bow

and every tongue confess.

even for us

in this passage.

Did you notice

that as Jesus

prays for unity,

how do we get there?

Let me read again

verse 20 to 26.

Unity is clearly the goal.

He prays it over and over

that we might be one

just like Jesus

and God are one.

So it's not just even

we have to be nice

to one another anymore.

The bar has been raised

even higher.

We've got to love each other

so selflessly

and serve each other

so continuously

that it's like God.

And so you know

if you thought

you were doing okay

sorry

you can't give that

tick anymore.

The bar is up here

but notice how we get there.

Verse 20.

My prayer is not

for them alone.

I pray also

for those who

will believe in me

through their message

that all of them

may be one

Father just as you

are in me

and I am in you.

May they also

be in us

so that the world

may believe

that you have sent me.

So the oneness

will draw others in.

Then verse 22.

I've given them

the glory

that you gave me

that they may be one

as we are one.

I in them

and you in me

so that they may be

brought to complete unity.

Then the world

will know

that you sent me

and have loved them

even as you have loved me.

So catch the logic here.

This passage is dense

and confusing

and sometimes you've got to

read it and re-read it

and re-read it

but what's going on here

is Jesus says

I want them to be one.

I want them to be unified

just like we're unified.

I want them to be in us

and with us.

I want them to experience

all your goodness

and here's why.

Because that unity

will be the evidence

of what he talks about

in verse 23.

He says

they may be brought

to complete unity

then the world

will know

that you sent me

and have loved them

even as you have loved me.

So it will be the evidence

that we have been loved

by God.

So therefore

if it's the evidence

of that thing

it's also the result

of that thing.

If the evidence

of God's love for us

is unity

the path to unity

is God's love for us.

Do you understand

what this is?

What this means is

when you open scripture

when you open the Bible

when you sit in a sermon

when you're in Bible study

and you begin to feel

this pressure

to live up to a standard

really the instruction

every instruction

in scripture

could be boiled down to

you've got to live

for the glory of God.

And what that means is

you've got to live

encountering

the glory of God.

That's the instruction.

The incredible responsibility

of trying to

show God

to the world

is actually

an invitation

to see

and savour

and experience

God in your own life.

It's to be so filled

with God's love

that it fills you up

and overflows

to the people around you.

We have a vision statement

here at St. Paul's.

We exist to know Jesus

treasure Jesus

and represent Jesus

for God's glory

and the joy of all people.

Temptation would be

to see God's glory

and the joy of all people

as separate things.

But that's the point

of what's going on here.

When God is revealed,

that is joyful.

When God gets glory,

the way that's going to happen

is us

enjoying him.

Us being loved by him.

Us being sunburnt

by his goodness

and his compassion

and his kindness

and his provision.

What Jesus is trying

to help us understand

in this prayer

is that in the cross,

God's passion

for his glory

and his love for you

are together

in perfect unity.

It's not a competition.

We shrink God

when we separate them out

and settle for one

or the other.

What Jesus does

for us here

is draw them together

and say,

yes,

God loves you

incredibly.

Enough to send

his son

that you might be

forgiven

even though you

don't deserve it.

Yes,

God is passionate

about his glory

and wants you

to be his representative.

But the way

he makes you

his representative

is by loving you

and sending Jesus

and continuing

to love you daily,

continuing to provide

for you.

Remember the star.

Remember that image.

You are not called

to generate light.

You are not called

to add something

to God.

You are called

to open yourself up

and drown

in his goodness

to the point

where it overflows

and flows to other people.

Today,

God's trying

to lift the burden

from you.

If following him

is something

that feels like

incredibly hard work,

it feels like

just this tension

between am I loved

or am I not quite

there yet,

the message today

is the means

by which you glorify God

is you just

get loved

by God.

You encounter

his love

for you

in Jesus.

You come

to the cross

every day

and be reminded

that I don't deserve it

but God loves me anyway.

You come

to the cross

every day

and you realise

that his love

is not just sufficient

to meet you

where we're at

in your inadequacy,

but his love

is abundant

and excessive

and generous.

Not only does

he forgive you,

he draws you

into his family.

How do you glorify God?

Soak in all

his goodness.

The instruction

in every sermon,

the correction,

the rebuke

and they're there

and they'll come.

When they come

we must hear

come back to Jesus.

Come back

to the love

that God's got

for you.

The need

for rebuke

is the evidence

that maybe

we've stopped

soaking in the

goodness of God.

We've begun

to focus

on the things

we need to do

or say

or think

but the encouragement

here is

if you want

to glorify God,

if you want

to point other

people to him,

enjoy him

yourself.

And the only

place to do that

is Jesus

and his death,

his resurrection,

the concrete,

immovable

illustration

and example

of how God

loves you

and why God

will love you

for all eternity.

Let's pray.

Father God,

we want to

acknowledge that

sometimes following

you does feel

tiring.

Sometimes following

you we feel

like we're

continuing to

fail and we

attempted to

give up.

Sometimes we

do feel this

burden and guilt

when we gather

as your people

when we open

your word.

But God,

we want to ask

that you would

give us eyes

to see Jesus

first and

Jesus most.

Even as we

hear the rebuke,

may that be an

opportunity for us

to again taste

and experience

your love

afresh.

even as we

recognise where

we fall

short and

where we

need to

grow and

where we

repeatedly

fail,

might it

be an

opportunity

for us

to again

experience

that you

love us

unconditionally,

that your

love is

irreversible,

it's eternal,

it's not

going anywhere.

God,

fill us

with your

love in

such a way

that we

are secure,

we are

joyful,

that people

see peace

and joy

in us

that draws

their attention

to you.

even as we

face

situations

and

circumstances

that in

the world's

eyes leave

no room

for joy

or peace,

may we

continue to

enjoy your

goodness,

may we

continue to

delight in

trying to

obey you

knowing that

you have

designed good

things for

us,

may we

continue to

rejoice in

the immovable

hope that

we have in

Jesus,

so that this

world might

know that

there is

nothing

better than

you.

Amen.