In Scott Brown's sermon "The Reason for All Things Revealed," he explores the profound significance of Jesus' prayer in John 17:1-5. The sermon highlights how this prayer serves as a window into the divine priorities and the relationship between the Father and the Son. Brown emphasizes that the prayer reveals God's plan for salvation and the eternal love shared among the Father, Son, and believers. The sermon underscores that salvation is not centered on individuals but on glorifying Jesus, who has authority over all flesh and gives eternal life to those given to Him by the Father. Brown also discusses the finished work of Jesus and His pre-incarnate glory, illustrating how the history of the world is intertwined with the history of the Church. The sermon concludes by affirming the security of salvation, which is rooted in God's unbreakable love for His Son.

Please open your bibles to John chapter 17 and we'll be reading from verses one through five. John 17 verse one. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Let's pray. The world was.

Let's pray. Oh Father, you have today set before us something so holy and precious and we all need help now to understand the depth and the height of it. And you know how inadequate I am to communicate such things. But Lord, now we pray that you would pour your Spirit out upon us, that we would be filled up with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and insight, that we might know the height and the depth and the width and the length of your love that we see right here on these words amen please be seated Please be seated. This before us has such remarkable depth and importance for all of us on so many levels.

For me as a pastor of this church, it really is one of those passages of Scripture that helps pastors to fulfill one of their great responsibilities, and that is to protect the purity of the membership of the church, that the church has true Believers in its membership. It really is one of the most important things that elders do Is try to protect the membership of the church as best they know how Now as we as we come to John chapter 17, we've just completed the longest recorded sermon of Jesus in chapters 14 through 17. We've been here many weeks and this longest sermon is now followed by what is thought to be and really is the longest and the loftiest prayer of Jesus. Charles Spurgeon speaks of this prayer saying, Nothing remaining to be done but to die, he gave himself wholly unto prayer. He was not again to instruct the multitude, nor heal the sick, and in the interval which remained before he should lay down his life, he girded himself for special intercession.

He poured out his soul in life before he poured it out unto death." This prayer has been called the Holy of Holies. It is called by most the high priestly prayer. J.C. Ryle says that there is truly nothing that equals it in depth and in scope in all of the Bible. It is such an important prayer to labor over.

John Knox was on his deathbed in 1572 and on his deathbed he called for what he needed the most for his wife to read him the Word of God. And he asked her to read John 17 when he was on his deathbed. And he said to her and those who were listening in the room, It was here that I cast my first anchor, the anchor of his salvation, and then he died reading at the reading of John 17. But it really does cast an anchor for salvation. The gospel is preached so clearly in this prayer.

And so we are brought to the holy of holies. What we'll see here in these verses, in these first five verses that we'll cover today, is what I think an expression of what John writes in 1 John, behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. The children of God are made to be children by the Father and the Son. And I plan to deliver five sermons on this prayer in the coming weeks. There are three sections in the prayer.

The first five verses Jesus prays for himself. We'll concentrate on every verse of that today. Then Jesus prays for his disciples in verses 6 through 19. And then from 19 through 26 he prays for all believers. If you want to boil it down, he makes one great request for himself and the rest for his disciples.

His heart is toward his disciples. Now you who are children, just think about this for a minute this prayer is very interesting The disciples overhear this prayer John the Apostle hears this prayer and he writes it down Have you ever have you ever oh? I'm sure you've never put your ear at your parents window at night and heard them praying or heard them saying something or Heard a plan that they were concocting or knew something about them that you never knew before because you overheard it Well, the disciples have the privilege of overhearing a prayer of Jesus. I want to give you three reasons why this prayer is so critical for us in this church, for our own hearts, for our families, for everything that we are. Number one, this prayer lets us peek into what is most important to the Son of God and His Father.

This prayer reveals the priorities of the Father and the Son. It's so important that we learn to think the thoughts of God to become like Jesus is to think the way that he thinks And what is revealed here are the interests of God, the objectives of God, the priorities of God, and the methods of God in the world. We learn what those are from this prayer. We learn of God in this prayer. When I spent such time concentrating on these first five verses, I wanted to ask all of us, as I have already asked myself, do you love what the Father and the Son love?

Is what is most important to the Father and the Son the most important thing to you? In this prayer you'll see what is most important to the Father and the Son. It's so, you know, we live this life and we're so confused about how to think about anything, particularly our own lives. This passage centers us on what is most important to the Father and the Son. Be ready.

Secondly, Jesus gives us a window of insight into salvation on how God saves sinners and why. How God saves sinners and why. And I want us to ask, is this the hope of my salvation? Is the reality of salvation my hope of salvation? People have thoughts about salvation and often they are very wrong.

This sets it straight. We think of salvation as being centered on us And how it affects us we we think about our personal relationship As the center of our thoughts We base our assurance of salvation on our decision to follow Him. John 17 corrects these things. It corrects the self-centered view of your salvation. And what we learn here is that God did not save you because of you.

God saved you because He wanted to give a bride to worship His Son. You are not the center of salvation. The Son is the center of the reason for all salvation. God wanted to give his son a bride that would find all of their pleasure in him. This is why you were saved.

It wasn't really primarily for you while you benefit greatly, but your salvation is for the purpose that you would worship and praise and love and follow and obey and find all of your delight in the sun. That's why you were saved. This prayer reveals that. And by and that's far more blessed than having your salvation center around you. And thirdly, this prayer helps us to grasp the significance of the history of the world, the way that God and his Son conceived of all of world history.

This prayer puts on display God's thoughts before the foundation of the world. The Father and the Son in this prayer are recounting their plans from the beginning to the end of time and for all eternity. We know that He chose us from before the foundation of the world. That is true. That's in Ephesians 1.

In John 17, there is a divine deliberation between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit about what is history all about? You know many of you many of you moms are trying to teach your children history Here's what history is all about. It's about God rescuing his bride God rescuing sinners convicts the immoral the unjust the untruthful to come and worship his son for all eternity and to find everlasting joy That is the purpose of history That's the purpose of what you're reading in your history books. This conversation takes place before the creation of the world, before the fall of Lucifer, before the fall of Adam, and they are eternally resolved to establish the world and all of world history to rescue a bride. The history of the world only has significance with the church as the center.

The history of the world is the history of the church. And so this prayer reveals not only eternity past, but eternity future. If you look at verse 24, Jesus prays, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me to be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Which you have given me for you have loved me before the foundation of the world So the prayer demonstrates the eternally unbreakable plan of salvation, which is the result of a pact, a conspiracy between God the Father and His Son and His Spirit conceived before the foundation of the world. That's the significance of this prayer and more that will unfold over the coming weeks. Notice in verse 1, Jesus prays.

This is really remarkable. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Jesus prays along prayer. Now we don't have any extended prayers in the Bible from Jesus except this one. We know he prayed at his baptism. He prayed in solitary places in mark 135 he played prayed all night in Luke 6 verse 12.

He prayed at his Transfiguration in Luke 9 29 in John 11 He prayed as at Lazarus grave almost the same language. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father I Thank you that you've heard me and you always hear me And it says And he says that he said that because people were standing by, he wanted them to hear it so that they might believe that he had been sent from God. He prayed all night on a mountain. His twelve disciples were looking for him. Somebody once said that when Jesus went into a town, his first thought was, where's the nearest mountain?

Because he was always departing to go pray on a mountain He did he did teach his disciples to pray a model prayer What he taught his disciples to pray he did not pray. He did not pray. That prayer in John chapter 6 verses 9 through 13, it's a 13 or 15 second long prayer. He taught his disciples how to pray that prayer that he never prayed that prayer. He could not pray that prayer.

He could not pray forgiveness for sins because he never sinned. So he taught his disciples to pray a prayer that he could never pray. He lifted his eyes to heaven. His eyes were on his disciples in chapters 13 through 16 now He takes his eyes his gaze off of them and lifted them up To his father. He is also praying the will of God.

We've been talking about prayer in our studies in John 17. You know, what is prayer? How do we pray? He is praying what He knows to be the will of God. He prays what he knows will come to pass.

This is praying in Jesus' name. We've been talking about the nature of prayer. Prayer is for us to speak the things that please God. We don't pray for our own glory. Jesus is praying things that are consistent with the will of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is a private conversation between Jesus and his father. Now, if you have an outline in front of you, you'll see how I plan to move through this text, and I'd like for us to do that now. I want to identify a particular message in each verse and You have them before you first he prays for His father to glorify him in verse 1 Second he acknowledges his authority to give eternal life in verse 2. Third, he recounts the nature of eternal life in verse 3. Fourth, he rejoices in his finished work in verse 4.

And then finally, he prays for the restoration of his former glory in verse 5. So let's take these one by one. He first of all prays for his Father to glorify him. Jesus spoke these words and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you His glorification is to be the sacrifice for sin and the mediator of a new covenant.

This is his glorification. He is praying about his role as Messiah, as sacrifice, as mediator, and his return to glory. The plea that he delivers is, Father, the hour has come. The hour has come Notice he addresses him as father Which is similar to the Lord's Prayer our father who are in heaven. He delivered he addresses God as his father A father is not an impersonal being.

He is the Father of mercies. God is there. There is a God who is there, and He is the Father of mercies. Richard Dawkins is wrong. Carl Sagan is wrong.

There is something there. God is there, and He is a Father. Praise God for that. And He saves sinners. And He loves his church and he carries his people and he is there and you can speak to him And you're not alone you have a father a Lot of fatherless people in this world if they come to if they come to Christ they have a father Now Jesus uses that word, that beautiful word, Abba, Abba, or Father.

We love that word, don't we? Because our spirits cry out, Abba, Father, Father. And he uses this word over and over again in this prayer. It's here in verse 1, it's in verse 5, in verse 11 it's Holy Father. He speaks it in verse 24, and in 25 he calls him righteous father.

It's the tenderest word to use to address someone that you love. Oh my Father. And then he says the hour has come. His hour has come. Jesus has mentioned his hour several times.

This is the last time he mentions his hour. The hour that he's referring to is the hour that he has made a sacrifice for sin, the hour that he will atone for your sin, the hour that he will come and he will take all of his sin on your shoulders and bear it and you go free. That's the hour that he's talking about and it's been coming and it has already come for us. He to his mother in chapter 2 verse 4 in John He said, My hour has not yet come to his brothers in chapter 7 verse 8. He says, You go up to the feast.

My hour has not yet come. John reports in chapter 7 verse 30, No one laid a hand on him because his hour had not come. And he as he taught in the temple in John 8 20 no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come and at the beginning of this whole discourse in chapter 13 verse 1 Jesus says Jesus John says Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And so, this last time in John 17, 1, his hour has come. What does this mean?

Well, it means many things. One thing is that Jesus is in control of the timeline of history, and he is in control of the whole history of the world from before the foundation of the world the world is not spinning out of control The world is not spinning out of control. America is not out of control. God is in control. He has determined every hour of history.

And this particular hour is the most pivotal hour of all of history. And all of our lives can be traced to this divine deliberation which culminates in the glorification of Jesus Christ on the cross, His burial and His resurrection, and His being seated at the right hand of God. Everything in your life depends on what you believe about that. Everything. He says, glorify your son.

And Jesus is crying out to his Father to sustain him through his hour of glorification, of taking on the sins of the world, to carry him through his suffering, to raise him from the grave, to receive him at his right hand, to intercede for those who would be born again. He's glorified in his suffering. He is the suffering servant and his hour of suffering has come We sang about that earlier today The what is his glorification it is the it is his suffering for sinners his his death his resurrection These are the highest moments of His glorification. If you want to think about the history of the world and your own life, this is the most important thing. Nothing, nothing, nothing is more important than the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His intercession for you if you love Him and are called according to his purpose.

It's also the hour of mocking and piercing and slapping and humiliation and thirst and death, but it's also the hour of a prisoner set free. So he prays, glorify your son. Now son, son is a messianic term. Well you remember the prophecy, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Jesus is fulfilling the messianic prophecies, all of them of the Old Testament.

In Psalm 2, we read of the victory of the Son, kiss the Son lest he be angry with you. This is the whole matter of the grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying so that it might bear fruit. The fruit of life is found in the Son of God, the Messiah. Philippians chapter 2 verse 10, Paul speaks of it, and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So this phrase, Father, glorify your Son, is critical for your understanding of all of history and also of the doctrine of God.

This statement, Father, glorify your Son, is a critical defense of the doctrine of God. Jesus is a different person. God is a different person. The Holy Spirit is a different person. Here the Son, a person, is talking to his Father who is a person.

Modalism argues that there is one God and three different roles. All through the Bible you find these evidences that there are three persons that are different beings. And this distinction was before the incarnation. This distinction was seen in eternity past, which is the context of Jesus' prayer here. Jesus Christ the Son is appealing to another divine person in eternity past to share the glory that they had before the world was created.

And the purpose that your Son may glorify you. So God is glorified in the glorification of his son. It glorifies God that his son would die. The Son is glorified and the Father is glorified. How is that?

How is there glory there? There's glory there because God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit end up to be the most merciful beings in the universe. They receive sinners To the praise of the glory of his grace he receives the undeserving The unlovely, this is your God. You say, oh, I'm undeserving. Oh, I'm unlovely.

Behold your God, the Father of all mercies. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. And He's bringing many sons to glory. So first, he prays for his Father to glorify him. And then second, he acknowledges his authority to give eternal life.

That's verse 2. He acknowledges his authority, his singular authority, to give eternal life. "...as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him." Power was given to the Son of God. Authority over all flesh. He is running everything.

He has authority over all flesh. That means he has authority over everyone on the planet, everyone who has ever been born. Jesus Christ holds absolute authority over every person who's ever been born in the world. Every person. No one is out from under his authority.

In Matthew 28, 18, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And Jesus has authority to give eternal life to all souls in the world, all souls. All who are born have eternal souls. Everyone will live forever, either in heaven or in hell. Your soul never dies, and your body actually is brought back.

Even your body survives forever in a resurrected form. Remember, remember just recently there's all this upheaval in Iran. It was so spurred on by a couple of weeks ago when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by the Iranian military. And the news report that came out of this Ukrainian airliner, it reported that 176 souls were lost. Souls.

Isn't that interesting? That's true. Souls are born into the world. But Jesus has authority. In 1 Corinthians 11.3 we learn that Jesus Christ is the head of man.

In Colossians 2 we learn that he is the head over of all principality and power. The Apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 1 about his authority, and he prays that the Ephesians' eyes of understanding would be enlightened, that they would know the hope of his calling the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what's the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, far above all principality and power." And then he ends this by saying, He is the head over all things. He has all authority over all souls. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

You might as well do it now. You will do it. You either will do it in everlasting anguish and you will bow or you will bow with everlasting happiness. Every knee shall bow. Jesus has all authority.

He is the uncreated, preexistent, self-existent, independent Son of God. He is the uncaused cause bequeathed with unlimited, omnipotent power. Every knee shall bow. Theologians call this the seity of God. He's totally independent of all.

And the power released in his glorification would save sinners and bring them to God. John already spoke about this. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. And he gives eternal life.

Notice the word gives. This is important. He gives that he should give give eternal life to as many as you have given him. Souls are given to the Son by God the Father. That is how your salvation has worked.

The covenant of redemption did not begin with us. It began with God giving His Son a bride. God was glorifying his son by giving him the gift of souls Who would adore him and God desired his son to be glorified? By worshipers In other words God gave his son a church And this is really, really good news. God's love for sinners did not start with his love for sinners.

It started with his love for his son. Therefore, God's love for sinners is as secure as his love for his Son. God's love for sinners is as secure as his love for his Son. Brothers and sisters, be comforted. Be everlastingly comforted by the fact that the breakdown of a father's love for his son will never happen.

To lose your salvation requires a breakdown of the Father's love for His Son. It's inconceivable you are that secure in Jesus Christ. He lays his hand on your head. He holds your hand. He carries you like a father carries his son He loves you and he his love for his son is the basis and ground and the certitude for his love for you It's not your love Your love your emotions your attraction to him will not keep you in him, but God's love for his Son will keep you.

This is why it's so important that you do not see your salvation as dependent on your feelings. You know, when you come in here and you are basing your worship on your feelings and your salvation on your feelings, you've really lost a sense of the doctrine of salvation. Your salvation is based on the truth that God has everlastingly loved His Son and behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God. That's good news. It's not good news that you finally figured it all out and your heart changed and you moved toward God because your emotions move and change all the time.

God forbid that we would have a salvation that's based on our own merits, on our own feelings, on our own attractions. Our worship really is dependent on a truth about God. Praise God for that. I am so thankful for that. Jesus has already spoken about God giving him worshipers.

John 6 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out." In John 6 39 we read, this is the will of the Father who sent me that all he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up on the last day. Seven times in this prayer alone Jesus uses this terminology of gave, gives, or given. You know, the Father has given. We see it here in chapter 17 verse 2. In verse 6 we read I manifested your name to the men you gave me in 17 9 I pray for I pray for them I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given Me, for they are yours." In 1711, now I am no longer in the world but these are in the world and I come to you, Holy Father, keep them through Your name, those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are one in 1712 he says while I was in the with them in the world.

I kept them in your name those whom you gave me in 1724 Jesus prays father. I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me. Your salvation is dependent on the glory that God gave his son and his sons it's a chain of love unbreakable The Bible teaches us that the Father gives sinners to His Son, He draws sinners to His Son, He teaches sinners to love His Son, He ensures that they hear that they are sinners. He saves sinners and he keeps repentant sinners Richard Newton I've been reading him on John 17. He's got a big fat book on this chapter Here's what he says about this verse Not by their own internal quality or disposition, not by their own external action, but by the act of God upon them." He says, there's a certain company of men whom God the Father, in a special manner gives to Jesus Christ.

Behold, what manner of love. This is the doctrine of election. No one will snatch you from his hand. And you know, the doctrine of election is the sweetest doctrine, and it really must be, because it means that God is the one who choose. There's nothing in us that caused our salvation.

It was pure mercy. You know, in corporate America, you always choose the best and the brightest don't you I was reading an article by the CEO of the largest company in the world Amazon he was telling he was telling the secrets of how he finds his employees and he was saying that he only hires brilliant people and he wants to know their IQ and he wants to know all their grades and God is not that kind of CEO He takes the dregs of the earth, He takes the foolish, He takes...He's taking people like us. It's amazing. If God was looking for the best and the brightest, he would not be coming here. It's only the sick who need a physician and that's us.

The gospel in these verses demolishes all human pride in salvation. If you think your salvation comes half from God and half from your own works and from your own heart's desire, you will never worship Him in fullness. You can only worship Him in half because your salvation rests on truth, on a truth about God, not your feelings about God or your attraction toward God. And truth incites our feelings and our attractions. That's why we need the truth in worship more than anything.

I just came back from a conference on worship. Steve Lawson said this, he said the worship of the true God is not enhanced by mood music. It's by the truth, not emotions, by the truth. He said the higher your theology, the higher your worship, the lower your theology, the more you will need props for worship, mood and music and atmosphere. And you will always think that you need to achieve something emotionally rather than to worship God according to the truth that he gave you.

Okay, I'll end this section. He acknowledges his authority to give eternal life. Praise God that he has authority to give you eternal life, and it's not your authority Or your whim of emotion or your feelings, it's more solid than that It's based on his love for his son Thirdly he recounts the nature of eternal life. And this is eternal life. This is verse 3.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So what is eternal life? It is knowing God, knowing the only true God. He's talking about experiential knowledge of God that they may know. The pathway to eternal life is to know Him.

And to know Him is the same thing as loving Him, communing with Him, enjoying Him, desiring Him through Jesus Christ. To know God is to rest your hope in God. It's very much the same idea as believe. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, What does it mean to believe? It means to rest your whole weight.

It means that you really believe Him, that He's really there. Jesus said the unrighteous will go into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life. Eternal life has two sides to it. It is quantitative having to do with the length of time. It is eternal and it is also qualitative.

It is life. In him was life and the life was the light of life of men now Eternal life the way that Jesus speaks about it is something that you experience the moment you're born again You don't wait for eternal life You are either living in eternal death or in eternal life now. Eternal life is not something that you cross a line later. You are either living in one of those lives now. That's why Jesus said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten said that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Have it. Have it now. In John 3.36, Jesus says, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life. In 5.24 in John, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life. It's something that you have.

You have at the moment that you're born again. That was a glorious realization that came upon me when I was first born again. Wow, I have eternal life now. I've already, I've stepped in to everlasting joy. To know the only true God, the only true God.

All other creatures are imposters and pretenders. There is only one true God. And when you believe he's real to you he he means something to you you we were in the car yesterday listening to a sermon by Conrad and Bayway on this verse this one verse And what he said was he says, you can't, if you've been born again, if you have eternal life, he said you cannot continue in secret sin because you know God is there. He says the person who continues in secret sin is most likely not a Christian because they don't really believe that he's real he's a theological idea that they've embraced but he's not there he's not real to them he's like a dumb idol to them And many people name the name of Christ, but he's like a dumb idol. He's not really there.

He's not their helper. They pretend that he doesn't see everything. They act like he doesn't see everything and they don't care because he's not there. Because they don't know him and they don't have everlasting life. They disregard him because they don't have an everlasting life if they have everlasting life they regard him well you can read all about this in the book of first John it's all made very very clear how this all works John makes it very clear that when you know him, you know it, you desire him, you love his people, you are not bitter, You're merciful, you want more of Him, you want to be holy, you do not love the world anymore, you hate the sin that you once loved.

That is the evidence that you've been born again. At the same time, at the same time, everybody can see in the Bible how clear it is that your morality does not save you your morality cannot save you that's the whole story of the rich young ruler he thought his morality could save him you know there hell will be filled with people who did not commit adultery, who did not steal, who did not take drugs, who did not cheat on their wives. Hell will be full of those people, but they did not love him. And many will say, Jesus recounts, many will say, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, perform many wonders in your name? And he will say, I never knew you.

Most terrifying words anyone can hear, I never knew you. You were so moral. You were so powerful. You did so much good in the world. You were such a good preacher.

You were so kind to everybody. You were the nicest guy in your neighborhood. I never knew you." because morality doesn't save either. So he recounts the nature of eternal life, that you know him, you know, you know him and he's there and it means something to you every day and fourthly he rejoices in his finished work verse 4 he rejoices in his finished work I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do when I first wrote this outline I wrote he boasts he boasted in his finished work I don't know if that's the right word, but he definitely is rejoicing in his finished work He did finish the work that his father gave him, or he is getting ready to.

I think he's speaking in terms...it will just be a few hours here before his work is finally done. And he's really praying with pleasure in the work that his father gave him to do hard as it was he endured the cross despised the shame for the joy that was set before him his work is finished and there's pleasure in it pleasure in it. He speaks of what he did and the way he did it. He glorified his Father—that's what he did—and how did he do it? He did it completely.

He finished it. Thirty years of his life summed up. Psalm 40, verses 7 and 8 describes it. I delight to do your will. He delighted to do the will of his Father.

He said, I must work the work of him who sent me. He said, my food is to do the work of him who sent me. So he glorified God by emptying himself, not of his divinity, but he took on the burdens of his flesh. He surrendered his voluntary rights as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and he submitted to suffering for sinners. Living a perfect life, doing miracles that no one else has ever done, it was his greatest pleasure to glorify his father.

He always pleased his father for the joy set before him. He says, I have finished the work which you have given me to do." He's referring to his whole mission coming to a close. In just a few hours he'll hang on the cross and he will say, It is finished. Daniel prophesied it and Daniel 9 24 he finished the transgression. He finished it.

So he rejoices in his finished work and then finally he prays for the restoration of his former glory in verse 5, and now, oh Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." And of course, this is...he's speaking of this final glory. And he prays for the glory that he had before he came to earth in his incarnation. Again, we're talking about the history of the world. These are real things that happened in real time space history. The Lord Jesus existed in eternity past as a distinct person, fully God, co-creator, and he is returning to his shared, united glory.

John's gospel begins with this, by the way. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. My grandchildren are probably hearing that now. They've memorized it many times.

They've recited it. All things were made through him All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made In him was life and the life was the light of men John began his gospel with this Paul tells us in Colossians he was before all things he tells us in Revelation 1 8 He is the Alpha and the Omega. I was reading one theologian on the pre-incarnate glory of Christ. Here's how he described it. In eternity past, Jesus Christ experienced undistracted intimacy, undisturbed felicity, It's undistracted intimacy, undisturbed felicity, undiminished excellency, unparalleled prosperity, unrivaled eminency.

Ineffable happiness between the Father and the Son. And the foundation of the family of God on earth is this family in heaven, existing in ineffable love. This is why the chief mark of the Church is love. This is why a family—a little biological family—should have as its whole objective to be a household of love. And it begins with the love of a husband and a wife.

And it extends to the children. There are very few things more important than you can do for your family than for a husband and a wife to love one another. And maybe when your children hear your prayers, when they have their ear at the door, they'll hear of your love, they'll hear of your unity, They will hear of your undistracted intimacy and your undisturbed felicity and the loving kindness that flows from a marriage. Proverbs 8 gives us a little window of what was going on in eternity past in the glory with which he had before the world began Proverbs 8 30 then I was beside him as a master craftsman I and I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him Rejoicing in his inhabited world and my delight was in the sons was with the sons of men. Glory.

The glory of God the Father. We'll talk a lot more about glory as the weeks press on. We'll give more detail to it. We'll return to this again particularly in verse 24 and we'll speak of this eternal glory with more detail. What is the heart of the glory?

It is the love between a father and a son shared with sinners who are given to the Son of His love. We share in His incomparable glory, His perfect glory, His very nature in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that's why the church is marked chiefly by love. So Jesus reveals the whole purpose of history and your life in these little five verses in his prayer to his Father for glory. He prays for his Father to glorify him. He acknowledges his authority to give eternal life.

He recounts the nature of eternal life. He rejoices in his finished work. And he prays for the restoration of his former glory. Jesus Christ is bringing many sons to glory, and his salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, secured by the love of a father and his son, unbreakable for all eternity. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God.

Do you know Him? Do you know Him like that? I pray that you do. To have Him and to know Him is the greatest treasure in the world. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, we thank you for your prayer. Jesus, you prayed and we have looked into this prayer. We have been bystanders. We've heard glorious things about ourselves. Maybe We didn't know them before, but now we know them.

Thank you, Lord. Amen.