Jesus Prays for Your Soul

So John 17.

John 17, historically within the Bible, is known as the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

And so we have to kind of ask ourselves, well, what does all that mean?

Why are they calling this the high priestly prayer of Jesus?

So when we look at Old Testament context, a priest is one who is a mediator between man and God, right?

He comes in and he is the one who worships for the people in front of God.

He's the one who would uh offer up certain prayers or do different ceremonies, uh, all to be able to be this mediator uh between mankind, us, and God himself.

And they were born of a specific line, uh uh a specific tribe where only these type of people and only men of these uh certain people could be a priest uh and facilitate that job.

Uh and then there was the high priest.

The high priest was a very specific priest because not only did he kind of uh have charge over all the other priests within Israel, uh, but he was the only one.

What was unique about the high priest, he was the only one who on the day of atonement could go into the Holy of Holies, where the Lord uh presence dwelled, where his throne was, on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, and he could offer the sacrifice of sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat to be able to pay for or atone the sins of all the people of Israel uh for that year.

So when they're saying this is the high priestly prayer of Jesus, what they're pointing to is that Jesus is the true high priest.

When we look back through the Old Testament, every other high priest that had existed was really just a type or a shadow that was pointing us toward Jesus, who would be the true high priest.

And what we see at Calvary when Jesus' flesh was torn and when he was uh crucified on the cross, the the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from mankind was torn in two.

It was ripped from top to bottom.

And what that allowed for us to understand is that the presence of God was no longer going to be concealed from his people, uh, but it was going to be revealed and given freely uh to his people.

And so we then become not the people who uh uh God does not become to us a God who inhabits the praises of his people.

What I mean by that is there's not a specific geographic location of which God dwells, and we have to come and worship him there.

But in the New Testament reality, God inhabits or dwells with the people of his praise.

And so, us who are believers, if we have confessed faith in Christ, if we have put our trust in his finished work, then Jesus dwells within us by his spirit, and we become a tabernacle.

We become a temple of worship unto the Lord.

And so what Jesus does is he does, accomplishes everything that the high priest of man could never do.

To have to have this sacrifice given constantly, over and over again, year after year, because the sacrifice was insufficient.

The Bible says that the blood of bulls and goats was insufficient to accomplish what we actually needed as mankind.

But the blood of the Son, the true Lamb, uh, was sufficient once and for all to be able to pay the debt of mankind's sin to appease God and allow us to have a relationship with him where we're reconciled back into fellowship with him.

This is the beauty of this office that Jesus actually embodies being a true high priest.

And so in John 17, when we walk into this, Jesus is offering a high priestly prayer to establish himself as the ultimate mediator between man and God.

Jesus is our mediator.

We cannot get to the Father except through him.

We can't go around him or beneath or above him, right?

We can only get to the Father through Jesus, and he becomes the ultimate mediator between us and him.

He is both priest and sacrifice for us.

And the reality of Jesus' finished work on the cross and who he is, he is both priest and sacrifice.

And in those two states, he is both sufficient and efficient.

Here's what I mean by that.

He is sufficient that his blood, his sacrifice of faithful obedience to God, and his blood poured out for us is sufficient for us to be able to be brought back into right relationship with God.

And then it is efficient in that for those who are his, it accomplishes that work and task.

So not only is it good enough, oh, but it actually produces the result that it was looking to produce.

And this is the important part of our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to Christ.

It's not that just Christ's work is sufficient, it's enough, uh, but it is actually efficient in that it accomplishes every single purpose that it intended to.

We don't have to worry about ourselves and our relationship with God because we have Christ.

And we're gonna see how that is actually true within side of this very text.

Because what we're gonna see this morning is that Jesus actually prays for your soul.

He prays in a lot of ways for you in the praying of his own finished work and in the pleading with his own father for things to occur before his death.

He is the priest in that he's praying for God to receive the sacrifice that is to be offered for the sins of the world.

One and only, he is able to offer the perfect sacrifice, one only that Jesus is able to offer.

He's praying as the priest for God to accept this, but then he is also the sacrifice, and that he is the one who will take the wrath of that sin on himself.

Because he is the atonement for all of God's people.

Jesus is setting forth here in this text to accomplish a priestly task and duty.

So when we call this the high priestly prayer of Jesus, John 17, this is kind of what we're looking at, or this is the lens of which we have to approach this passage through of who Christ is and what he's accomplishing for us in lifting up these prayers.

But this morning we're just gonna look at one through five.

So the next three weeks we're gonna kind of break this down into chunks and try to work through it to understand how what it means for us today as his people.

And when we start to approach verses one through five, and we really just kind of look at verse one and two uh in isolation, what we're gonna see is that uh eternal life is revealed in his glory.

So if you're following along with us or if you want to take notes, you can actually get download our app if you haven't done that yet, and you can fill in some of these yellow highlighted words on our app, and you can use those to be able to do devotions and personal study uh through your own time throughout the week.

We want to try to equip you to be able to continue to study God's word in your own private devotional.

Uh but when we look at verses one and two, what we see is that eternal life is revealed in his glory.

Here's what we are gonna try and unpack.

Um, it starts off in verse one.

Let's build some context first.

Well, it starts off in verse one.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, So this is kind of the preamble to John 17.

So we have to ask ourselves, when Jesus has said what words?

Right?

We're not just we're not just airdropping into John 17 as if like Jesus just woke up from a long night's sleep and then we're starting fresh.

No, this is coming through a lot of different discourse and dialogue that Jesus has had from chapters 14 all the way up to the beginning of 17 that he had been having with the disciples.

And so at the very beginning of verse 1, what he's saying is that when he had spoken these words, so Jesus had finished this discourse with his disciples, he lifts up his eyes to heaven and he starts praying in the midst of his followers.

We enter into a prayer being offered by Jesus, but this prayer is following a long-recorded discussion in chapters 14 through 16.

Some of the topics of this discussion was uh, I'm going away to make a place for you.

Right at the beginning of 14, Jesus is talking to his disciples.

He says, I'm getting ready to leave, and I'm gonna go away, and I'm gonna make a place for you, and then I'm gonna come back to get you.

And his disciples are really confused about what Jesus is saying.

In fact, in 14 through uh 16, you're gonna really see Jesus' just frustration with his disciples.

How long he's been with them, how he's been teaching them, he's been speaking to them, the words of the kingdom, he's been revealing himself to them, and they still don't get it.

And so they're asking, like, well, where in the world are you going?

Or what are you gonna accomplish?

Or you're gonna go to the Father?

Well, I want to see the Father.

Can you show us the Father?

And Jesus says, Well, me and the Father are one.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

You can kind of experience Jesus' frustration with his disciples not really understanding still, even as this hour is coming.

We're gonna be talking about that in just a moment.

Another topic, he says, that I and the Father are one.

So he talks about his unity with the Father, that if you have seen him, you have seen the Father, that he is in him, and the Father is in Jesus, and that there is no separation or distinction in the reality of their communion with one another.

Uh, that they are in full communion and unity uh with one another, though distinct in persons.

Uh he says that he is going to promise to send the Holy Spirit in chapter 14.

He that he is going to send a helper, one who would be with the disciples in spirit, present with them as they live on mission with the gospel.

Uh the famous discourse of I am the vine and you are the branches, is seen in 14 through 16.

Uh, the call of the disciples to love one another uh is in this dialogue preceding it.

The disciples' relationship with the world, Jesus tells the disciples, you think they hated me, they're gonna hate you too.

If you say that you love me and that you serve me and you preach my gospel, well then the world is gonna hate you.

And so be ready for that.

Uh, but but he says to love one another.

So he he champions community of the body of believers in the midst of suffering, trials, and persecution.

And then finally, he says the foretelling of his soon-coming suffering.

He tells the disciples that he's getting ready to go and die, and that he's act, they're actually gonna abandon him.

He he foretells the reality that they are going to abandon him at his darkest moment.

But he says this word, he says, But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

And after saying these things, we enter into John 17.

Jesus lifts up his eyes and he begins to pray.

You see, this prayer is an intimate outflow of all the dialogue and teaching that precedes it.

We can't just engage with this in isolation.

We have to look at what Jesus was trying to communicate to his disciples before he prays this prayer for us.

And it's recorded for a purpose.

When we look at the work of the Holy Spirit to be able to give us the recorded uh words of Christ, to be able to give us the scriptures that we have, we have to ask ourselves, now why this prayer?

Jesus prayed all the time.

There's many times where Jesus' action of praying is recording, but what he said is left out of the text.

But here, the very words are recorded for us to be able to have, to cherish, uh, to be able to build up our faith in it.

So just before he enters into this prayer, let's look at John 16, 31 through 33.

He says this.

He says, Jesus answered them, meaning his disciples, do you now believe?

Behold, the hour is coming.

Indeed, it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.

Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

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.

So, what does Jesus open this prayer with?

Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you.

So the hour has come.

What is this hour that Jesus is talking about?

This is the hour of his crucifixion, the hour of his suffering and death under Roman rule and power.

This is something that the disciples never really understood or grasped.

They didn't believe that the Messiah who God had promised would come to redeem his people would be one who would fall, who would die, who would suffer under these authorities of the world.

They thought that he would be a king, that he would be a king of this world, and that he would actually uh overturn these governing powers, these oppressive authorities, uh to be able to bring Israel back to its place of prominence and of blessing and of favor.

But Jesus continually tried to tell them, no, no, I'm I'm here to die.

Throughout his gospels, he gave all types of different examples.

He said, And they said, Well, let us know that you're the Messiah.

Okay, I'll let you know.

I'm gonna give you the sign of Jonah.

What does that mean?

I'm gonna be buried in the belly of the earth for three days, and on the third day, I'm gonna rise again.

He said, You they said, give us a sign.

He said, I'll give you a sign.

You tear down this temple in three days, I'll build it back up again.

He constantly was trying to help them understand that his purpose was to come and suffer and die.

We saw last week in Luke 24 that actually the revealing of all the scriptures, uh, uh, of the prophets, of the psalms, and of all the law was to show that Jesus must come, suffer, but then be glorified and exalted also.

So the hour has come that he must go to the cross for the forgiveness of sin.

And he says this: he says, Glorify your son.

Jesus is praying for the work ahead of him to actually bring glory to himself.

There's a reality where we look at the cross, it's the most one of the most shameful ever known to man ways to die.

Uh the way that it was publicly done in front of all the inhabitants of the city.

It was done outside of the city gates where those who were ostracized and outcast and marginalized, who were not allowed to be a part of the community there had to go.

It was uh done uh oftentimes where the the uh the victim was was naked uh on this cross in front of all people.

They were uh mocked and beaten, and all this shame occurred.

Often it would take several days uh for this person to die of asphyxiation.

Uh ultimately, if you died of a crucifixion, you stopped breathing because you wouldn't be able to lift yourself anymore to gasp for the air that you needed to survive.

So it was a slow, painful death, and then uh typically they would just leave you there for the dogs and birds uh to eat you off of.

They wouldn't even give you a burial, and so at the foothill of this mount called Golgotha was just the remains of its victims.

Somehow Jesus is praying for glory in this hour.

You see, it's the emptying of the sun that will bring the filling of glory, it is the emptying of the sun of Jesus on Calvary that will bring the filling of glory.

The cross was imminent, Jesus' obedience was fortified, and the glory of his resurrection was assured.

Jesus knew that this was his purpose, and he wanted to bring glory, he wanted to have glory be given to him.

But look at the beauty of what Jesus actually prays in this.

You see, me and you, we would pray for glory because we want to be known.

We want prominence, we want blessing, whatever it is.

We would pray for glory for what?

For our own selfish desires.

But that's not the heart and posture of Jesus.

Jesus prays that he might be glorified so that he might glorify the Father.

You see, the end of Jesus' glory is not himself, but it's the glory of the Father.

He's not asking glory for himself as the end result of his finished work, but he's asking it so that he might glorify the Father.

The end of Jesus' glory is the Father's glory.

Ultimately, Jesus is asking for the reversal of the self-emptying work of his incarnation.

Right?

This is what happened when Jesus came to be made flesh, uh, to be born and dwell among men.

This self-emptying reality of his incarnation, that he, though he was God, did not count that as something to be grasped, uh, but that he would empty himself, Philippians would say, uh, so that he might dwell among men.

And so that though though no aspect of his deity uh was was removed from him, when we understand the the the nature of Jesus, that he was 100% man and 100% God, there was an emptying that occurred.

There was a glory concealed uh in his flesh that man would not be able to see.

They got glimpses of it.

When we look at the story of the transfiguration of Jesus, he brings some disciples up to a mountain, he prays.

All of a sudden, there's Moses and Elijah just hanging out, and Jesus transfigures before them.

That's the that's a little bit of his glory that was concealed by flesh, revealed to his disciples, so they might see just a glimpse of who he really is.

And so in Jesus' coming to take on flesh, there was a glory concealed.

But now he's asking that this self-empting work of the incarnation would be reversed.

He prays to be restored to the former glory that he had with the Father in eternity past.

And then he says this He says, Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

So Jesus here in this statement, he's establishing the grounds for why he even has the right to pray this prayer.

When he says, Father, give me glory so that I might glorify you, he immediately establishes the grounds for why he even has the ability to make this request.

It is since the Father has given him authority or power over all flesh.

This means over all of mankind, the Son of God, Christ Jesus, has authority over all who bear his image.

There's not one aspect of man or his existence that doesn't reside fully and permanently under the authority and power of Jesus.

Why has the father given him authority over all flesh?

He says it here in the second part to give eternal life to all whom he has given.

So let's look at the relationship between the Father and the Son.

Because this whole prayer is such a beautiful entering into and a seeking to understand the relationship of the Trinity.

And so we have the Father and we have the Son.

And Jesus is saying this: Father, when you sent me, you gave me people who would be mine, who I had the authority and ability to grant unto them eternal life.

Now I have authority over all flesh.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

But it's the ones, Father, whom you have given me that I have the ability to give eternal life to.

Do you see the submission of Christ, the Son, to the Father?

Where he says the fullness of Jesus' purpose and work was to fulfill the will of the Father.

He did not come to fulfill his own selfish ambitions.

He did not be come to work out his own will and purposes.

He came in submission to the Father that he might fully obey and accomplish what the Father had called him to do.

A very simple understanding of the Trinity, when we look at their nature and relationship with one another, we would say this that whatever the Father wills, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies.

Whatever the Father wills, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies.

Yes, they are one in glory and power and majesty, but yet they are distinct in their persons.

And we see in the very nature of Jesus that the Son is submissive to the Father, and the Spirit is submissive to the Son and the Father.

There is this mutual respect and regard of authority, of headship.

Jesus is telling them in this prayer, why would he pray this out loud?

We have to ask this question.

And I think that it is so that, let me submit this, it is so that his disciples would have full assurance in their salvation.

Look at what Jesus is saying.

Look how comforting these words should be to us.

You see, often when we navigate the topic and discussion of God's sovereignty, for some reason we are so foolish as to imagine that that would mean for us to not pray.

Oh, if God is sovereign, why should we pray?

If God is sovereign, why should we evangelize?

If God has elected or predestined, or if God has chosen, then why should we put human effort behind anything?

What we see in the modeling of Jesus' life himself is that the sovereignty of God prompts prayer.

The sovereignty of God motivates evangelism.

The sovereignty of God causes his people to move.

Why?

Because of the fullness of assurance that they have that what the Father says he is going to do, he accomplishes.

And then the reality of seeing and witnessing the fullness of that will accomplished in the person and work of Jesus gives us full confidence to be able to, when we lift up our voices in prayer, know that we are heard and that the Father delights in hearing our petition, that when we go out to preach the gospel, that it is going to produce the fruit that it is intended to produce.

Because why?

Because Christ Himself has authority over all flesh, and those whom He give the Father has given him will have eternal life.

Church, the sovereignty of God should not cause us to be stagnant in our chairs.

The sovereignty of God should give us all boldness to storm hell's gates.

This is the purpose of understanding the distinctive between sufficient and efficient.

A lot of us in our lives have sufficient things.

You might have a sufficient bank account, but often our sinful posture and behavior isn't efficient in to accomplish what we really want to do with it.

We might have sufficient means for exercising and being healthy, but often our sinful posture and disobedience doesn't allow for us to effectively accomplish that.

Christ isn't just sufficient, and then the rest of it is left up to us.

Man, that's a horrifying place to be.

Why?

Because you and I know that we have the means to accomplish all kinds of great things in our life, and when we lay our heads down at night, we only rest often in our inability to do it.

That's not the Christian life.

It's not that, hey, Jesus has made the way for you.

You just got to walk down the road.

No, Jesus made the way and he carried you down the road because he is sufficient and efficient to accomplish all that he set forth to do.

The Father has given Jesus authority over all flesh and power to give eternal life to those whom the Father has given him.

You see, it is in the glory of the Son that the gift and power of eternal life is revealed for those who are his.

As the Son is glorified, the children of the Father are brought into eternal life.

This is how Jesus is praying for you.

Because if Jesus didn't accomplish what he set forth to do, you and I would be hopeless.

We wouldn't have a chance.

And we all like to think that we are good enough or that we would make the right decisions or that we would choose Jesus if left to ourselves.

No, if left to ourselves, we would be like Adam, and every morning we'd wake up, roll over, and bite the fruit.

We wouldn't make it different.

If you were Adam in the garden, you wouldn't have done anything different.

As the Son is glorified, the children of faith are brought into eternal life.

Verse 3, we see this eternal life is knowledge of the eternal one.

Eternal life is knowledge of the eternal one.

Now, many of you think about eternal life, right?

What do you think about just like unending slip and slides?

And fun, right?

Ice shaved ice everywhere with the tiger's blood syrup just pouring down your hands.

Have you ever had tiger's blood syrup?

It's amazing.

It's like cherry and pineapple.

Um what do you think of eternal life?

Just fun?

Excitement?

Maybe you think of your family that have passed in faith that you get to be reunited with?

Maybe you think of just this paradise of pleasure.

Jesus does this incredible thing in this prayer.

He establishes for us what eternal life is.

And he says it this way: eternal life is that they know you.

The only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, is that they know you.

To know God is eternal life.

You see, we get this so backward.

We think we get to know God to get to eternal life.

Right?

We we think Jesus is that ticketing agent at the front of King's Island that you've got to show, like, oh no, no, me and God are good.

I can get in.

And then you get to all the roller coasters of eternity, right?

That's not the case.

God is not a means to a different end.

God is the end in and of himself.

To know him is eternal life.

We don't get past God and then to all the good stuff.

He is the good stuff forever.

Eternal life is found and realized only in him.

We tend to think that we choose God to obtain eternal life, but we fail to realize that to obtain God Himself is eternal life.

And how do we obtain him?

Through his son.

This is the wrestling of Jesus' disciples in the earlier chapters of John.

Let's read through like seven verses here in John 14 to help us understand this.

He says this in 14, uh, 4 through 11.

He says, And you know the way to where I am going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, uh, no, we don't.

How can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, I am the way.

And the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, Show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Believe me, I am in the Father, and the Father is me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Jesus said, I'm getting ready to go away.

I'm gonna create a place for you.

And I've shown you the way to get there.

And Thomas is like, No, we don't know how to get there.

Where are you going?

And you sense the frustration in Jesus, right?

And he says, I'm going with the Father.

And Philip says, Well, then show us the Father.

He's like, No, don't you get it?

It's you've seen him if you've seen me.

He's the exact imprint and the radiance of his glory, the Bible says.

We can only get to knowing God, which is eternal life through his son.

Let's unpack the statement Jesus makes here in this prayer.

Eternal life is to know God.

He says, the only true God.

There is no other God but Yahweh.

Jesus is making this very clear.

To have eternal life is to know the only true God.

That means every other God, lowercase G God of this world is a false God.

There is only one God who reigns and rules over all creation, who is Yahweh.

And we can only truly know God if we know him through who?

The Son, whom He has sent.

Jesus is His only eternally begotten Son.

And through Him only we can come to know the Father.

And so for us, when we look at Jesus praying for eternal life for us and securing this in his finished work, we cannot think of eternal life as something beyond him.

I remember John Piper once preached a sermon.

He's a pastor and theologian, runs desiring God.

He once said this: He said, Ask yourself this question.

Would you be okay with having heaven if Jesus wasn't there?

Many of us would say, Yeah.

No pain, no suffering, no sorrow, every tear dried up, every illness has been eradicated, that I can live forever and that I am with those of whom I love, right?

Our understanding of heaven.

He says, then it's then heaven is your idol and Jesus is not your God.

We don't go through Jesus to get to something else.

We come to Jesus and we fall down at the foot of his throne.

Because to know him is eternal life.

And so he prays for us to understand and know that.

In verses four through five, we see this eternal life is secured in his finished work.

Eternal life is secured in his finished work.

He says, This, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus is talking about this all-encompassing reality, that there's not, he hasn't died and resurrected yet.

Yet there is so guaranteed the fulfillment of everything God sent him to do that he's able to make this statement here in this prayer.

I've accomplished everything that you've sent me to do.

I have secured it in my finished work.

I have completed it.

There's not one aspect of the mission that Jesus does not perfectly and faithfully accomplish.

Because on the cross we hear him say, It is finished.

It is finished, and Jesus is allowed to rest.

This is the beauty of what we understand.

Jesus' resurrection and he ascends in what he sits down at the right hand of the Father.

What is that?

That's eternally communicating to us rest.

Why is he able to rest?

Because he's finished.

Because he's accomplished everything that he ever set out to do.

And so when we worship a God, we do not worship a God who is continuing to try and accomplish things that he has not yet successfully done.

We worship a God who is seated in a place of rest because he's already finished it.

Jesus says, I've accomplished everything that you sent me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me.

You see, the way Jesus glorified the Father was through faithful obedience, was through doing what me and you could never do.

When Jesus is saying, Glorify me, I've accomplished everything you do.

Why is he able to ask that?

Why is he able to request that?

It's because he faithfully obeyed God.

That's what he uh desired out of us as his image bearers, to faithfully obey him in trust, and humbling ourselves to his will to obey him.

And we disobeyed.

Why?

Because we didn't trust that he was good.

Because we didn't trust that he loved us the way that he said that he did.

But Jesus has glorified the Father in faithful obedience.

This says something about us in our Christian life.

We want to live lives that glorify God.

And so many of us think that this is some kind of abstract ambiguity or thing that we really can't wrap our heads around because we think it's somehow like going to this mission field of these isolated people groups and suffering death and trial and persecution.

We think that it's this extreme act of Christianity.

I'm not saying it's not those things at times, if that means you being obedient to the Father, but where we glorify God most in our Christian life is through the simple, faithful obedience of everyday life.

That's how we glorify the Father.

You want to live a life that glorifies God?

Be obedient.

Be obedient to his word.

Be faithful to the things that he's called you to do.

That glorifies the Father.

A mother nursing her child glorifies the Father as much as a missionary to an isolated people group in the jungles of Guatemala.

Why?

Because God's not asking for extremism, he's asking for faithfulness.

And now Jesus reiterates the desire to be glorified.

But this time he includes this statement that I had with you before the world existed.

Jesus has eternally existed with the Father and with the Spirit in the Trinity.

They have eternally coexisted together simultaneously.

And there was this glory we talked about this, this glory that was concealed in his incarnation.

He's saying, Father, glorify me to the glory I had with you before.

But this time it's going to be different.

Just a little bit.

Because he won't uh uh uh take off his flesh when he goes to be glorified after the resurrection.

No, it'll be in the fullness of glorified, resurrected flesh that he is glorified to the place of where he was with the Father.

And what is that?

That's the hope for us that we in our bodies will also be resurrected into glory.

Our physical bodies will be resurrected into glory in the same way that his is, because when we are in Christ, we are fully in him, and all that he has accomplished for us becomes ours.

So what do we see in the outflow of this verses one through five?

Eternal glory does not come without momentary suffering.

Eternal glory does not come without momentary suffering.

Look at what Jesus is saying.

He's saying the hour is coming.

He's foretelling his suffering and death, but he prays this prayer give me glory that I might glorify you.

Eternal glory that Jesus is calling his, he is laying claim to, does not come without momentary suffering.

One way to understand it is like this: there is no crown without the cross.

There is no crown without the cross.

Jesus, in the glory that he desired with the Father to be glorified, to be set above every name that is ever known to mankind, to be uh lifted up above the all of creation in the cosmos, for the earth to be placed at his footstool.

None of that could have been accomplished or come about unless the cross came first.

There is no crown without the cross.

Jesus couldn't have prayed this prayer.

He couldn't have just come and done no suffering on behalf of us, could have not suffered under the cross and the shame of the cross to bear the fullness of God's wrath and judgment of our sin.

He could not have come and just accomplished glory without first suffering through that.

Why?

Because he's the great high priest.

He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

And then he became the sacrifice for us so that we could be reconciled to the Father, so that we could share in his glory that he was petitioning for in this prayer.

See, many of us, what we want is we want glory now.

We want glory now.

We don't understand a world where suffering is a part of it.

We want to have all the riches and prominence and blessing and favor now.

And we want it absent of suffering.

And this has plagued the church for so long, where there's no theology of suffering.

There's no theology of having to go through trials and tribulations.

It's no, God just wants you to have the best life you possibly can right here and right now.

Because we want our glory now.

And we don't understand the need for suffering.

We don't understand the place for suffering.

That when we suffer with Christ, the Bible says that we will also be glorified with Him also.

But if you look at our culture, it is full of people who pursue glory now.

Social media is filled with people who want glory now.

They want recognition.

They want followers.

They want money.

They want to be able to have multiple streams of income and they want to be able to just travel and live this life where they don't have to actually give account to anyone and they just get all the glory and fame now.

And if anything, our culture is so primed to make anybody the ability to pursue the glory of this world.

Any John or Sally with a video camera and an Instagram account, or just a smartphone and an Instagram account, can pursue the glory of this world with followers and recognition and likes and reposts and all these other things so that they can have glory now.

And you look at it what's happening in culture, everyone is pursuing glory.

Even some of us in this room, we post for glory.

We do things for glory.

We take jobs for glory.

We buy cars for glory.

We build houses for glory.

We do things in our life and we make decisions not based on faithful obedience, not based on what does uh Spirit leading me to do, but because this is going to give me what?

Glory now.

Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16, he said this, then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it.

But ever who loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

What shall a man give in return for his soul?

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

The word of Jesus here in Matthew is this if we pursue glory now, we should not expect glory later.

Everyone who is chasing glory now is going to get paid what they desire.

But they're not going to see the back end of their reality.

This is the glory that you wanted, this is the glory you got, but you're going to discover how eternally unsatisfying that glory is.

But some of us, it's not that we want glory now, it's that we see no end to our suffering.

We are this woe is me people.

We see no reality of victory, uh, uh, of being an overcomer in this world.

We just see no end to our suffering and we allow it to just uh uh cave us in to isolation.

We we sometimes even glory in our suffering.

I know uh some who delight in this reality of suffering because they think that somehow that is making them a more righteous individual, a more righteous person.

And so they they see no end to their suffering and they continually just trot along in life uh through the suffering that they are experiencing in this world.

But we have a promise in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18, it says this for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Many of us can look at the suffering in our lives that we go through, and what do we think?

We think it is an eternal weight.

No, it is not an eternal weight.

It is light, momentary affliction.

We have to get our eyes up and not on ourselves, on Christ, so that we can see that whatever we're going through in this life has no comparison to the eternal weight of glory that we are going to have in him.

Because it is this, that the things that are of this world are not but just transient.

I love how he puts this.

He says, you want to look at the things of this world, you want to look at your circumstance here and now, and you want to think that this is the end.

This is all that I can expect.

This is what the rest of my existence is going to have for me, whatever state that you currently find yourself in.

And Paul says, no, no, that's actually not true.

What you find yourself in right now is transient, it's momentary, it's not gonna last forever.

But it's the things that are unseen, and what is that?

It's the accomplishments of Christ Himself that He has secured for us eternal life in fellowship with Him, and sharers and partakers of His glory.

That's what is never gonna end.

Not the suffering that you're experiencing now, and no one's trying to diminish, in a sense, of the reality.

And rawness of some of the affliction and suffering that you're encountering in your life.

It's not that it's not hard.

It's not that you just need to toughen up and get over it.

It's not those things at all.

It's that you have to set your gaze on him.

This is hard.

This is horrific at times.

But it's transient.

It's momentary.

And it feels like you're being crushed under the weight of it.

But the promises of Christ is no, my glory will crush you.

Not these afflictions.

And he says it in a way that it's preparing for us a weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Here's what's interesting about that.

When we're going through suffering, when we're going through afflictions and hardships, you and I can imagine a better circumstance.

Well, only if A would happen, or only if B would happen, this suffering would be gone.

We can imagine, we can think through, we can fabricate only ifs on the other sides of our suffering.

The problem is what we imagine, what we fabricate as those only ifs on the other side of suffering are so pathetic in comparison to the weight of what he has for us.

We're still thinking so small.

We're still thinking so focused on ourselves, so tiny compared to the glory that He is preparing for us as His children.

Church, if we see no end to our suffering, it's quite possibly because we haven't fixed our eyes upward to the King who is preparing for us a weight beyond our imagination of glory.

Our hope in Jesus this morning is that Jesus secures our eternal life through his suffering and glory.

Jesus secures for you and I eternal life through his suffering and his glory.

Here's what I want you to understand: this has nothing to do with you.

This has nothing to do with you.

Look at the prayer that Jesus is praying.

Father, glorify me that I might glorify you since or because you have given me power over all flesh and the authority to give eternal life to all of those whom you have given me.

If you're sitting in this room and you are trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, if you've applied faith to his finished work, you know what?

Jesus prayed for you.

And that is greater than any prayer maybe you've prayed in your life at some kind of weird Baptist camp, right?

Or at a rally somewhere at a stadium, or if you raised your hand 64,000 times at church when they told you to close your eyes and bow your head?

I see that hand.

Thank you.

It's my tenth time this week, Pastor.

Okay, cool.

This has nothing.

When we focus our salvation on ourselves, man, we're gonna be so frustrated.

We're gonna paint Jesus as such a small savior.

And what are we ultimately doing in some kind of weird, perverse way?

We're making ourselves God because we're saying it's up to us to accomplish it.

And it's not.

It's through his suffering and his glory that our eternal life is secured.

And so what do some of us need to know this morning?

Number one, you didn't know you need to know you are saved.

You are saved.

Some of you in this room, you need to hear this.

You are saved.

Not because of anything that you've done, not because of uh uh of anything in your works or efforts or labor.

You are saved.

Why?

Because Jesus saved you.

You were the one that was flowing down the river of destruction who could not tread enough water to get your head above it to gulp for air.

You had no hope, no power.

Your end was imminent.

And what did Jesus do?

In his power, in his glory, in his might, in the fullness of his accomplished work of the will of the Father, he stretched out an arm that was mighty and strong enough to save, and he plucked you out of that river, and he brought you into himself, and he dried you off, and he brought you into full fellowship with him and the Father.

That's what Jesus accomplished for you.

You are saved, and you need to rest in that.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in rest.

Why are you continuing to strive and work and claw your way through this life to earn the Father's affection?

You can't.

Jesus has already done everything necessary to earn the affection of the Father, and then He graciously, freely, and mercifully applies that to you.

God loves you because He loves Jesus so much.

You are saved.

If you doubt your salvation, you have to at least be honest that you're making an idol out of your own performance.

And if you're making an idol out of your own performance, you're worshiping a God who is only ever going to disappoint you.

I don't want to worship me.

I'm a bad God.

I'm bad, I'm bad everything.

Definitely a bad God.

What I want to do is I want to look at Jesus who says, I have, brother, I have authority and power over you.

And the Father has given you to me.

And I have the authority to give you eternal life.

And I've done it and I've accomplished everything.

Child of God, you are saved.

Rest.

Number two, seek to know God in community.

If our eternal work and endeavor is to know God, then we will know him in the family of God.

Because it is us whom Christ has saved, who will eternally be pursuing the knowledge and unfolding of the glory of God as we seek to know him as his people.

Maybe we should get to practice with that now.

Earth is a great practice plane for eternity.

We should seek to know God in community with one another, as brothers and sisters in the faith.

We should pursue a theological understanding of him.

We should pursue to know his word.

We should pursue to seek him intimately through prayer and fellowship.

We should seek to know God in community.

Because it is in that community of the faith of his children that we will seek to know him for all eternity.

Lastly, we have to understand this.

Church, the world is fading.

The world is fading.

And this isn't some junk about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or the economy or foreign powers or anything else like that.

All of that is garbage compared to eternity.

The Bible knows nothing about America and how awesome it is.

Here's a symptom of our heart.

What we're wanting is we're wanting glory now.

And what we're really saying is we're willing to forfeit a better glory that awaits us to get paid now.

You know who that was?

That was the prodigal son.

The prodigal son said this to his father Father, I'd rather have you dead and have your stuff now.

And the father, in love for him, said, Okay, you can have my stuff now.

Did that satisfy the son?

No, he started eating out of pig troughs.

And what'd he do?

He ran back to the father.

Because to know him is eternal life.

Some of us we want glory now.

We want glory now in some relationship we can't have.

We want glory now in some status that's eluding us.

We want glory now in some false sense of safety and security of our livelihood.

We want glory now, and we're willing to take payment now.

Church, this world is fading.

It's always been fading since Adam fell.

Why?

Because there's another world that awaits beyond our comprehension, whose weight of glory we will be crushed under.

Let's not look at this world to be payers of glory now.

Let's do this.

Let's expect and find joy in a momentary suffering that we might apprehend an eternal glory with him.

Amen.

Let's pray.