The Approach of A Certain Glory

Good morning and welcome to the Hill.

It's good to be together again.

And for those of you who may be visiting, we've been spending the last year going through the Gospel of John.

But if you would turn in your Bible this morning to Mark chapter 14, we're going to start there and then we're going to jump into John.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

As you're turning there, consider this.

Consider how Jesus, if you are familiar with the Gospel of John, and those of us who have been going through it together, consider how we've seen Jesus doing something the last several weeks we've gathered.

We've seen Jesus preparing his disciples for the hour, his hour that was at hand.

Jesus had said that his hour had not come to his mother at the wedding feast in Cana.

And he says, he speaks about his hour had not yet come many times in the Gospel of John, leading up to this moment in his life.

This hour, he mentions it at least seven times, the hour of his divinely appointed suffering and betrayal.

He talks about in verse 36 that if this is possible, if it's possible for the cup to pass him, this cup he has been called by God to drink, this cup of God's wrath, let it pass from him.

He says there in Mark chapter 14, verse 36, that it is he reminds himself and he confesses unto the Father that all things are possible for the Father.

Mark 14:36

All things were possible for God.

So God could have chosen another cup for him to drink.

God could have chosen another way, but he didn't.

He says in verse 1 of John chapter 17, Father, the hour has come.

John 17 · chapter mention

Glorify the Son, that the Son also may glorify thee.

As we see these two prayers side by side this morning, the one that is in Mark and the one that we find in John 17, what we need to realize is that they're the same prayer.

They're part of the same prayer.

In one gospel, some things are highlighted, in another gospel, some other things are highlighted, but these two work together.

They give us a glimpse, a glimpse at how Christ embraced his hour that was coming.

Like an Olympic athlete, like many Olympic athletes at least, Jesus had prepared for one thing his entire life, and it was this hour.

This glimpse into Jesus' life gives us a reminder of his humanity and the weightiness of this cup he would drink, the seriousness of this hour that had come upon him.

It points us to, it helps us understand this moment in Jesus' life, which is why we're glimpsing or glancing into Mark as we continue in John, but it also points us to the first reality of this moment in his life.

God, from the very beginning, had a certain exit plan for his son.

He had a certain glorious end in mind for the one who came to redeem us.

If you looked in Luke, I'm sorry, if you looked in Mark chapter 10, you would see that John and James asked Jesus to sit at his right and his left hand.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And he says, That's not mine to give.

And he asked a question.

He says, Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus is on the cups of doing that very thing, of giving his life as a ransom for many.

So God gives us this glimpse in Mark chapter 14 of this first certain reality.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

You see, this morning, we, as we look at our Savior's hour drawing near, and we look at how he turns from repairing his disciples to praying unto his father, we see in his prayers on this night that he highlights six certain realities, six certain realities of the glory of his hour.

And the first is the agony that he wrestled with.

Consider this.

He was facing certain death.

There's no question he was going to die.

And he knew it.

He was facing certain pain, a certain kind of pain.

He was facing certain separation from God the Father and the Spirit.

His sacrifice was not going to be of another.

It was going to be himself.

It would not be quick and painless, but long and excruciating.

His body would wish he was dead long before it was nailed to the cross.

This is the hour he's facing.

Luke chapter 22, verses 44 says this, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Luke 22:44

This is the moment.

This is where this high priestly prayer, as it's known in John 17, is.

And this is the moment it begins in Jesus' life.

Jesus approaches his hour just the same way he's approached all of his life on earth.

He approaches it as submissive to the Father.

He says in his earthly ministry, I do nothing of my own, I only do what I see the Father doing.

I only say what the Father tells me to say.

So we see him coming willingly, submissively, independently on the Father.

And yet God pulls back the curtain.

This hour is how he's going to do that.

His prayer, as I've mentioned on this night, is not merely a son's conversation with his father.

It is a high priestly prayer.

And it begins here with the son interceding before the father as he approaches that hour of sacrifice.

Why do I call it a high priestly prayer?

Because Jesus, as the book of Hebrews reveals to us, is our high priest who offered the once-for-all sacrifice that saves our souls.

And it tells us in the Old Testament, if we look at the office of the high priesthood, that the high priest did two things.

He prayed for, especially on the day of atonement.

And that's what Jesus is coming to do in this hour, is make atonement.

He did two things.

He prayed for the people and he offered a sacrifice for the people's sin.

So this prayer is called the High Priestly Prayer because here he's praying before he goes to make that sacrifice.

And one of the most important things we should recognize as we look at our Savior in agony here is that the cross was not an interruption of God's plan.

Let me say that again.

The cross was not an interruption of God's plan.

Jesus prays, we see in Mark chapter 14, he confesses that the Father can do anything, that nothing is impossible for the Father.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And he asks the Father in His humanness, in His humanity, he says, Father, let this cup pass from me.

But not my will, but your will be done.

And what didn't happen?

The Father didn't take the cup away.

Jesus didn't get up with a new plan.

He continued on toward the cross.

It is, it was against God's will that Jesus should die in the sense that killing him was a sin.

But it was his will for him to die to save men and women.

The cross is not an accident, it's not a failure, it's not Satan's victory, it's not an unexpected obstacle.

It's not Jesus barely surviving his enemies.

This was, who knows what the what the disciples thought as they see this unfolding before their eyes.

But Jesus knew this was going to happen.

It wasn't a plan B.

It wasn't an adjustment.

It was the hour for which he had come.

It was the eternally purposed act of God's sovereign love.

It was God's chosen, appointed means by which God accomplishes redemption and reveals his glory.

The cross reveals the attributes of God in full balance.

For at the cross, God's holiness, God's justice is clearly seen.

Why?

Because you and I have offended him.

You and I have rebelled against him.

You and I have not trusted him.

You and I have sinned.

And that must be paid for.

So we see it shine forth his holiness, his justice, his righteousness in those ways.

But we see at the same time other attributes of him shine forth just as clearly, if not more brighter, his trustworthiness.

I came for you.

I died for you.

All who trust in me shall be saved.

They shall not be condemned.

Here we see his trustworthiness, his mercy, his grace, his love, his saving purpose all meet that justice and righteousness and holiness at the cross.

In the words of Mark 14, we see that the cross was God's will.

It was the only way he'd have his glory.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

At the cross, if we notice nothing else, we should see God's justice satisfied and his mercy magnified.

But that's not all we see here as we glimpse the Lord's agony.

We also see that by design, Christ's glory and the Father's glory are inseparable.

If you haven't already, turn with me to John chapter 15, where we will spend the rest of our time this morning.

John 15 · chapter mention

Jesus spoke these things, lifting up his eyes to heaven, saying, Father, thou hast come, glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.

We've taken the time to remember that before Jesus says these words, he asked for the cup to pass.

By design, Christ's glory and the Father's glory are inseparable.

That is the certainty we see in this verse.

We see that he isn't seeking something new.

He's like, he's not saying, Lord, I've earned my glory, give it to me.

He's saying, he's not seeking something out of selfish recognition.

He's asking to be glorified so that the Father will be glorified in the way that he has chosen to be glorified.

Father, the hour has come.

The hour I just asked that you might adjust how it comes.

It is come.

Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.

Have your will, O Lord, in me, Jesus says.

That is the central theme of the entire prayer, if you will.

God, may you be glorified, as I do your will.

So we see that the cross is not just a place of agony, but it is itself an act of glory.

Now, normally we would associate glory with what?

That gold medal on that Olympic stand, right?

Or that big bank account.

Or that perfect marriage.

Whatever the case, we we see glory often as power, success, victory, honor, majesty, right?

That's that's winning the the the college national championship.

That's those are the kind of things we associate with glory.

But Jesus is about to be arrested, beaten, humiliated, crucified, and killed.

And he calls this glory.

Why?

Because at the cross of Christ, the character of God is displayed, as we mentioned a moment ago.

His attributes shine forth.

His glory is revealed through Christ's self-sacrificing, substitutionary, self-giving love.

Here at the cross, the soon-to-come supreme moment of Christ's humiliation becomes the supreme manifestation of God's glory.

So the first certain reality we see, brothers and sisters, is that he wrestled with a real agony as he approached this moment of glory.

But the second thing we see in verse 2 is that he was given something by the Father.

Something that matters.

The authority.

Jesus said in his earthly ministry that he was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one went to the Father.

No one came to the Father except by him.

And what's he say here in verse 2?

He says, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, the Son of Man, that is Jesus, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.

This verse introduces us to two truths that belong together.

The first is that he had authority given to him over all humanity.

And we see this earlier in John's gospel in John chapter 5, verse 22, when he says, For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment under the Son.

John 5:22

And this aligns with Paul's teaching, as noted in Acts 17, verse 31, where he likewise presents God appointing Christ as this judge with authority.

Acts 17:31

He, God, has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he is appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising him from the dead.

Acts 17, verse 31.

Acts 17:31

So no, in Mark 14, in these first two verses in John 17, we have no doubt that it is God's will that Christ die in our place and that he be raised again.

But he hasn't just given him this authority that shows that he's more than a good teacher, more than another prophet, more than a religious leader, more than a revolutionary, more and than a martyr or a good example.

He is the Lord of Lords, who possesses authority over all.

But what does he do with that authority?

Why was that authority given?

He's given authority over all humanity, so that to all whom the Father had given him, another phrase from earlier in John's Gospel, he may give eternal life.

Now, Christians split over this.

What does that mean?

Some focus on God's sovereignty and speak of elect and say that God had certain sheep he would give to Christ.

And others speak of the Father's love and the magnification of it, and they speak of it was a group, a group known by certain characteristics, those who trust in him.

And this morning's message is not about that debate.

So we're not going to dive into that.

We're just recognizing it.

But what we see clearly is that his authority has a particular saving purpose.

Christ possesses universal authority, but it's for a saving purpose.

What he does with that is he voluntarily takes your place and my place and makes a way where there was no way for us to be restored unto God.

He came to do the Father's will, and he did so to the full.

He came and lived a perfect, sinless life, which revealed the Father as He is and fully furnished the costly work of redemption, or fully finished the costly work of redemption.

He thoroughly accomplished his mission.

When he was done, nothing could be added.

He has this authority.

The scope of his authority is what?

Universal.

And yet the saving purpose is particular.

He will not save everyone.

He will only save those who trust in him.

I don't care how you dice it up, that's the way it is.

If you don't trust in him, you're not saved.

The merit of the sacrifice is sufficient for all who have ever lived or ever will live, but it does not save all, for it is effective or efficient or successful only for those who believe.

Father gives his people to the Son, the Son gives them eternal life, and this, in this, we see that salvation is God's gracious work.

We see that the Father has a desire to save.

And we see that the Son is in perfect unity with that desire.

We see that the Son did not enter this hour of glory hoping to make a way to redeem his people.

He entered into it to certainly, beyond any shadow of a doubt, make a way of redemption for his people, those who would trust in him.

Salvation is ultimately and completely God's gracious work.

It is his free gift, freely given to all who would receive it.

In this, we see that God is sovereign.

We see that God is benevolent above all.

We see that He took the divine initiative to grant eternal life as a gift, and that such an idea was both His and the Sons and the Spirit's.

This means that the believers such as you and I can have confidence, confidence in the saving work of God.

It shows us that it reminds us that it's not about us being strong enough or good enough or faithful enough.

But it all rests upon Him, on His authority, His sufficiency, and His gracious purpose.

Sovereign Christ does not merely make salvation possible, he ensures it's a reality.

So we see him approaching this moment in that certain agony.

And we see him with that certain preset method through which his glory will come.

That it was something the Father chose and that he submitted to willingly and freely.

And we see that he was granted authority to give life.

But he goes on in this prayer in verse 3 to do what?

To define for us the gift that he gives.

The gift that he gives, he defines, and how does he define it?

This way and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

This is eternal life.

The same eternal life that he spoke of in John 3, 16.

That God had given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, for everlasting life.

So what is this everlasting life?

What does it mean that eternal life is knowing him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he had sent, has sent.

See, Jesus defines here, he defines eternal life as knowing God through him, through Jesus.

Notice what Jesus does not say eternal life is.

It's not living forever, not just living forever.

It's not escaping hell.

It's not avoiding judgment.

It's not having religious experiences or becoming morally better.

It's not possessing earthly prosperity or eternal reward or even going to heaven.

Does it involve those things?

Yes.

But is that what it is at its core?

No.

This is eternal life that they might know you, the only true God.

Eternal life is knowing God.

And this is not merely intellectual knowledge.

This is not merely just knowing about God.

Jesus didn't come so people would know about God.

People already knew about God through the nation of Israel.

Jesus came to reveal the Father more clearly.

He made statements like you've heard it said, but I tell you this.

He taught them to pray unto the Father as Abba, as their father.

You see, biblical knowing God is a personal knowledge.

It's relational.

It's covenantal.

It comes with a commitment from God that God fulfills and is transformative.

It's freeing.

There's nothing more freeing than knowing you're truly loved.

I don't care if you're talking about your good spouse or your best friend or a boss that would go on vacation and leave the company in your hands.

There's nothing more freeing than being accepted.

And there's no one that can accept you more than God.

There's no one that can love you more than God.

And he says, I accept you.

I love you.

I died for you.

And all you have to do is trust me.

Will you do that?

Will you trust me?

That's what he says at the cross as Christ goes to this cross.

And Christ hears for our benefit years later, perhaps, giving us this glimpse into his heart and mind.

But I think he's also reminding himself of the truths he knows to be true as he approaches this hour.

Eternal life is fellowship with God through Christ.

It's both a future promise and it's a present relationship.

It begins now.

Consider these words in 1 John, 1 John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, as John is testifying of what Christ accomplished in his hour.

1 John 1:1–3

He says, What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

And the life was manifested.

And we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Did you catch that?

What was John's good news in these words?

What was he declaring?

He was declaring that you and I might join him and those others who have trusted in Christ in doing what?

In fellowshipping with the Father and the Son, in communing with them, and intimately knowing them.

Let us not forget that God is eternally relational.

When was the last time you thought about that?

God has eternally existed in relationship.

Let me remind you of this, brothers and sisters, is a difference between everlasting and eternal.

You and I are everlasting.

We had a beginning and we will exist forever.

But God is eternal.

There has never been a time that God did not exist.

And he has eternally existed in three persons, a mystery we cannot fully comprehend, but one we can embrace and make because it's in the scriptures, this mystery of the Trinity.

But that God, the one true God, has eternally existed in relationship.

That means the Father has eternally loved the Son.

And the Son has eternally loved the Father.

There's never been a time when the Father did not love the Son.

There's never been a time when the Son needed to earn the Father's love.

And this is the kind of love Jesus says he has for those who trust in him.

The Father has eternally loved the Son, the Son has eternally loved the Father, and the Spirit has eternally loved them both, and they him.

Therefore, the gospel command, because it is a command, he is the king of heaven and earth, he is the Lord and sovereign over all.

The gospel command to trust in Christ is the loving invitation to join him in relationship, to know not only the love of God intimately, but also to know intimately the God of love.

To know in full the very source of life and love itself.

That's how he defines the gift he gives.

I must confess, this verse, verse 3, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, is my favorite verse in all of Scripture.

Because it's what it's where Jesus defines what he came to give me.

It's where Jesus confesses and proclaims that this is what he has to offer.

But it shows us a few other things.

It shows us that God is known in a certain way through the Son.

You can't have a good relationship with God and reject Jesus.

It doesn't work that way.

We do not first know God independently with the option of picking Jesus up or not.

No.

True knowledge of God will always lead us to knowledge of the Son.

The Father is known through the Son.

And this saving knowledge does something in our lives.

It produces growth.

Right?

It produces growth in faith or trust, love, and holiness.

Saving knowledge involves believing and receiving and following and obeying and submitting.

It allows us to say, I know him.

I trust him.

I follow him.

I entrust my life to him.

I love him and I gladly live under his authority.

We don't merely receive something from God.

We receive God Himself and the gospel.

Salvation is knowing God through Jesus Christ.

Eternal life is not merely existence without end, it's fellowship with God.

Salvation is being brought into the eternal, perfect, loving fellowship of the Triune God.

Remember that because we're going to come back to it.

But not only.

He speaks of it as a finished work in this verse.

I glorified in the past you on the earth, having accomplished past hence the work you have given me to do.

Jesus here has in view both what he is about to accomplish and what he has already accomplished throughout his earthly ministry, testifying faithfully and truthfully about God, living perfectly in God's will.

This verse highlights for us his faithfulness in the work acknowledged, that work that he's done up to this point, and the completion of his work that is being set now in final motion.

He came with a divinely appointed mission.

His life was not self-directed, it was directed by the Father.

In the same way that our lives should be directed.

He came to reveal the Father, to call others to come to know him, and to provide a way for such to be possible.

And he could say, I have finished the work.

In fact, in John 19, verse 30, when he's on the cross, he says, It is finished.

John 19:30

And yet he's still going to raise from the dead.

Jesus came.

He can speak, rather, of the work as finished because his entire earthly calling has reached its appointed completion in the unfolding of his hour.

The cross remains immediately ahead, but it is so certain within God's redemptive plan that Jesus speaks of it is already accomplished.

Remember, Christ did not come to merely make possible salvation.

He came to make salvation certain for all those who trust in him.

Christ lived a perfectly obedient life.

We can't remember that.

Where Adam failed, or can't forget that.

Where Adam failed, Christ obeyed.

Where sinners fall short, Christ fulfilled the Father's righteous purpose.

When we trust in him, we don't just get a clear slate.

We get all of his righteousness.

And he takes away all of our unrighteousness.

To speak in banking terms, we don't get a zero balance with all our debts paid.

We get a positive balance with so much money we'll never run out of money.

His obedience was willingly and freely given.

It was deliberate, perfect, and complete, and ever directed toward one end.

The one end we see repeated again and again in these first five verses of his high priestly prayer, the Father's glory.

Ever directed toward honoring the Father and His will.

And these are the reasons why we can say that the cross actually accomplishes redemption.

It's not merely an example of love, it is God's love accomplished in full.

Christ actually does something for sinners when he embraces this hour.

He bears judgment, he pays the penalty, he satisfies divine justice, and he demonstrates the amazing love of God.

That means to be justified.

Believers are not merely pardoned, they are declared righteous.

It means that God, as it says in Romans, is shown to be not only the one who is just, but also the justifier of those who believe.

Christ's effective accomplishment of redemption is the foundation of our salvation, for it is not what we do for Christ, but what Christ has done for us that saves us.

Christ indeed finished his work.

So we've seen this morning that he had a certain agony he wrestled with.

We see that he had a certain glory he was approaching that was preset by the Father.

We've seen that he was given a certain authority.

And with that authority, he gives a certain gift.

He defines that gift as eternal life is knowing God through Jesus, through him.

And we see that he did a certain thing.

He finished a certain work.

But we also see his divinity in this text.

We see not only that he was God's anointed, God's chosen one, God's Lamb who would take away the sins of the world, we see that he was one with the Father.

We see that affirmation in verse 5, our final verse.

He says in verse 4, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

Now, Father, in verse 5, glorify me together with yourself.

With what?

The glory which I had with you before the world was.

This is the climax of verses 1 through 5.

Here Jesus confesses in the course of his prayer that he has always existed, even before being born in the major.

And just as Jesus' words in Mark 14, verses 33 through 42 highlight for us his humanity, so these words should in verse in John chapter 17, verse 5, should highlight or remind us of his divinity.

Mark 14:33–42 John 17:5

Jesus is the eternal Son.

He possessed glory with the Father before the world existed.

And in completing his mission, he will ascend to rejoin the Father in that glory, which only the triune God possesses.

Before the world was, Jesus did not begin to exist in Bethlehem.

Jesus was not merely God's answer to our problem.

He is the eternal Son of God.

This takes us back to John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God, and He was God.

And we go down a few verses and it says, And the Word became flesh.

And we know it's Christ Jesus.

Jesus shared something with the Father, love eternal.

But also he shared glory with the Father.

He doesn't, again, he doesn't say, give me the glory I never possessed, give me a glory I've earned.

No, he says, the glory which I had with thee in the beginning.

He possessed this glory before the world existed.

He was worthy of this glory before redemption.

He was worthy of our love, worthy of our adoration, worthy of our trust before he ever did a thing for us on the level of the gospel.

The good news.

But he did not stop being the divine son.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 through 11, Jesus says, Jesus who, although he, or the author says, Jesus who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:6–11

And for this reason God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.

So at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

I have three young kids.

One's a teenager, the other two are younger, and I want them to know that Dad loves them.

And so I tell them that Dad loves them.

But God, in his graciousness, gives me opportunity to show them that I love him.

Which Christ did upon the cross.

But he did so.

Coming as a in the form of humanity, because in order to be our kinsman redeemer, he had to be like unto us.

But if he had not retained his divinity, he could not have paid the price for us.

The price was immeasurable.

Christ bore the sins of the world.

Christ took upon himself the punishment for all those who will be saved.

He didn't just pay for his sins, which he didn't have any of, but he paid, he didn't pay for one person's sins, he paid for all the sins of all those who would trust in him.

And he gave a great enough payment that he could have saved all who have ever lived.

Christ reminds himself here, he confesses before the Father here that he knows that this is going to be a painful experience.

He knows it so much in his bones that he would ask the Father to let the cup pass, but he says, Not my will, your will be done, Father.

And he stays focused and heading in that direction.

And here he reminds himself of another thing, that he will receive that glory once again.

He is returning to his rightful glory.

This is not merely a receiving of a promotion.

It's not merely a prize earned, although there is a sense in that, a sense in which scripture reveals that he, for this reason, was highly exalted by God.

But it is a restoration of the glory that belonged to the, that all has always belonged to the eternal Son.

Don't you see that John 17, 5 gives you and I and all the world a profound declaration of Christ's preexistence, of his eternal sonship, of his divine glory, of his incarnation, humiliation, and exaltation, of his deity and his divine preeminence.

Christ, the eternal son, has always been who he is.

He didn't cease to be that when he became the Son of Man in time and dwelt upon this earth.

We see in this verse, lastly, the same thing that we saw in verse 1 of John 17, 5.

He said, Father, thou hast come, glorify your son, that the Son may glorify you.

And here he says, Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

What is it that we're seeing here?

We're seeing the glory of Christ is the glory of God.

The Son's glory and the Father's glory aren't competing glories.

The Son's glory is the glory of the Father, and vice versa.

The Son glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son.

The entire redemptive work reveals the glory of the one true God.

Eternal life, the gift, is one and the same as the invitation, fellowship with that God, to know God, to know him in his perfection, in his goodness, and in his benevolent otherness.

One synonym for glory that does not encapsulate all that glory is, but is part of what glory is, is fame.

Christ's fame is God's fame.

Christian.

Begins with God's glory, not man's happiness.

It ends with God's glory, not man's happiness.

And that isn't because God doesn't want us to be happy.

He wants us to be happy.

Jesus says in John 15 that he does the things that he did because he wants his disciples' joy to be made full, mature, complete, perfect, lacking nothing.

He wants them to be as happy as they could possibly be.

But if he put them before himself, he would be an idol worshiper.

If he put them before himself, he would be saying that they are more valuable than him, which is a lie.

He is the very source of life.

He is the very source of love.

We would have no concept of what love is if it wasn't for him.

We wouldn't have any concepts of what life is if it wasn't for him.

So Christianity begins with God's glory, not man's happiness.

It ends with God's glory, not man's happiness.

But oh, are they happy indeed who come to know him through the sun?

No fellowship in all the universe could be sweeter.

To meet and get to know the one that thought you up.

To meet and get to know personally, intimately, forever, the one who gave you the gift you have.

The one who I I could if if somebody shaved my head and told me to count the hairs, I would decline.

I don't want to do that.

It seems like an impossible task, but he knows every hair on your head.

He knows every hair on your head when you came out of the womb, and he knows every hair in your head you're gonna die with, even if it ain't gonna be many.

And he knows all in between.

And that one, the one who thought you up, the one who gave you as a gift to your parents, the one who created your very soul, the one who gave you a neak, a unique, God-given shape.

That one.

Says he wants you to know him.

The glorious son possesses authority to give life to the full.

This morning, you and I in this text, accompanied by Mark's, the words recorded in Mark, have observed something.

What have we observed?

We have observed the approach of a certain glory.

Why do I put it that way?

It seems like an odd phrase.

Because it is the glory of the Son that is chosen for him.

It is the glory which he was predestined for from the beginning of the universe.

From the moment he was born of the virgin's womb.

This was the moment he was heading towards.

So, what's that tell us?

It tells us that there was the approach of a certain glory.

It was certain because it was certain to come about.

It was of a certain or particular nature.

It was to provide something certain.

Fellowship with him.

It was provided for by a mission that was certain to succeed, that had no possibility of failure.

It was accomplished for a certain or particular end that you and I, and even all the world, might see God as He is in all His glory.

Merciful and mighty, perfectly just and perfectly loving and more than able to save.

And that we might know that all this was brought about by a certain one.

Only one accomplished it.

There's only one mediator between God and man.

There's only one way to the Father, that is Christ.

Recognize with me this morning.

Rejoice with me this morning that Jesus, on the eve of his betrayal, came to the Father in three profound roles, yet all with one singular goal.

He went willingly as a submissive son to the Father.

He equally went knowingly as the spotless lamb to be slaughtered.

And he went purposefully as the perfect and eternal high priest to the altar.

Main idea this morning is that the eternal son enters his appointed hour in a certain way.

He enters to glorify the Father, accomplish redemption, give eternal life to his people, and return to the glory he shared with the Father before creation.

The Son who went to the cross is the eternal son who shared that glory with the Father before the world existed.

He was not merely a good man dying for a cause.

The man Christ Jesus who agonized in the garden was faithful to the end.

Upon finishing his work, he returned to the glory he possessed with the Father before the foundation of the world.

And these certain realities we have considered, these doctrines that we've seen highlighted for us this morning, are merely things for us to appreciate or debate.

They are truths that call us to worship.

And more than that, they call us to fellowship with God.

Having prayed concerning his own glory, his authority, his work, his eternal relationship with the Father, Jesus now turns his attention to the disciples the Father has given him.

He's been preparing the disciples, he turns to the Father, preparing himself.

And we'll see next week he's going to turn back to the disciples as he intercedes for them and prays for them and embraces the work that God has called him to do, to make that prayer for them and that followed by that perfect sacrifice.

But this morning, this morning before we close, I want you to consider this.

As the worship team comes back, consider do you want to know God?

Not do you want to go to heaven?

Not do you want to escape hell?

Not do you want to be blessed?

I'm sure you want to be blessed.

I'm sure you want to go to heaven.

If you got any sense.

In Matthew's gospel, it says that many will say at the end, Lord, Lord, didn't I do this for you?

Didn't I do that for you?

But he's going to tell many of them, depart from me.

And he doesn't deny that they don't did those things.

But what he says is, depart from me, for I never knew you.

Do you want to know God?

Jesus said that this knowing God, that's the gift that he gives.

That is the reason he came to live among us.

And that is the invitation contained in the good news that we call the gospel.

Do you want to know God?

If you don't, friends, know this.

Those who don't know him, there's two things that they don't get.

They don't get to know the fullness of his love.

They don't get to know the fullness of his blessings.

Those who reject his offer of love, they don't get to experience that love in full.

And neither do they enter into his heavenly rest, as it tells us in Matthew chapter 7, verses 22 through 23, which I just alluded to.

Matthew 7:22–23

So let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning.

We come before you standing in amazement, humbly, from this glimpse you've given us into the heart and mind of the eternal Son as He approached His hour.

The hour in which He would redeem us.

And yet the hour in which He would face your wrath.

Father, we thank you that came so that we might be able to spend an eternity in happiness and joy in your presence rather than an eternity condemned to torment and pain.

We thank you that you came to give us hope and strength, even in this life, to walk with you.

But above it all, Lord, we thank you that you loved us.

You do love us so much that you want us to know you.

And we desperately need to know you.

We ask that you'd help us.

Help us to trust you, to receive that gift from you.

And Lord, we're all in different places this morning.

Father, some of us have never trusted in you.

Some of us have never received that gift.

Some of us don't know you, we just know about you.

And Lord, those of us here this morning who know you, we have to you and help those who don't to come to know you.

Father, don't let them push it away.

Don't let them be distracted by the enemy and move on to some other thoughts.

Father, help them to come to know the lover of their soul.

Come to help help them to come to know the only ridiculous that cares about them more than anyone could anyone has or ever will.

Father, help them to have the courage, have the humility to speak with those who do know you.

Father, give us the words to say, to help them come to receive that gift.

Father, those of us that walked with you a while, Father, those of us who have done for you.

Like those in Matthew chapter 7 who said, who could say, Lord, we did these things.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

We led worship, we preached, we we we performed miracles in your name, Lord.

We we we loved believing in your name.

Father, help us not to forget that the point is knowing you.

And making you known as you are, so others might know you.

So as John said, that their fellowship can be added to ours, and that their joy can be made full.

We ask these things in Jesus' name.