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Easter 7a – John 17:1-11The Gospel reading before us is a few paragraphs from the high priestly prayer of Jesus which fills this entire chapter of John. When we overhear our Lord praying to the Father, we are, of course, being given a glimpse into the very nature of God. Since the Son is God, His earthly speaking to the Father gives us an idea of his heavenly speaking and what goes on between the Father and Son in eternity. So in these rich and deep words, we see four distinct things: how the Father and the Son relate to each other, but we also learn what gifts the Son receives from the Father, how those gifts are passed on to us to give us life in Christ, and then how the life of the Church reflects the life of God and gives glory to God. Please pull out your service flyers so you can follow along in the reading. This message is going to be as much a Bible study as it is a sermon and you’ll want to have the words in front of you. In verse 10, our Lord says, “I am glorified in them” Who’s the them? None other than you, me, and us together with all Christ’s disciples. This is a central purpose of our lives – that we bring glory to Jesus. It’s one of the great purposes for which we were made. But how do we do that? Do you wake up every morning thinking – “Great! Another day to glorify Jesus.” And then do you go to bed at night, looking back over all things you did: went to work—check; bought groceries—check; glorified Jesus—check. Rather, isn’t it the case that it’s not even necessarily clear to us what it means that our lives should bring glorify the Lord. And even if some thoughts of what it might be come to mind, we might well suspect that this is not the daily agenda item that it should be. But before we draw any quick conclusions, let’s spend some time in this text, looking at its details and dwelling on its truths– by the end, I hope you’ll have a good idea of how our lives can and do bring glory to God. To help us through these words, I’ve printed out a diagram to fill in. You can find it ... Let’s begin with the fact that the prayer of Jesus gives us a glimpse into God and start with the circle as the divine eternity, where the Father and the Son dwell. What’s the word that describes what the Father does for the Son and the Son for the Father? Look at verse 1 – “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” Look also at verse 5 – “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” Got it? Glory is what the Son gives to the Father – put that on one line in the circle; and Glory is what the Father gives to the Son – put that on the other line. We often associate glory with God. As one seminary professor put it: “God’s Glory is God’s Holiness revealed; God’s holiness is His Glory concealed.” Glory is what happens when God displays His character. In the Old Testament, the people cried out “glory!” when God visibly and palpably entered the temple as cloud of smoke. They worshiped and gave thanks saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (2 Chron. 7:1). His glorious presence revealed his character – good, loving, faithful God. Other glory sightings took place when God led his people in the desert in a pillar of cloud and fire and when the thunderstorm broke out with trumpet blasts on Mount Sinai. And that’s how we experience it. God shows up among us and we stand in awe, marveling at his power and his goodness. But what about in God? What’s the glory between the Father and the Son? We shouldn’t imagine that there are thunder clouds or trumpet blasts inside God. There glory is a verb: glorify. The Father shows His character as Father in His loving His Son. The Son shows His character as Son in how He loves His Father in return. And what about the Holy Spirit? Shouldn’t any discussion of God include all three persons of the Holy Trinity? So where would you find the Spirit here? In light of the glory. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as the one who glorifies them both. If you were to do a thorough search of word glory in the Bible, you’d often find the Holy Spirit closely connected with glory and with the revelation of the holiness of God. Last week I heard an interview with a family who suffered from a terrible neighbor. The problems came as soon as they moved in. They had come from the city to a more rural area and it was apparent that at least one of the neighbors was not glad for their coming. They were told they didn’t belong. They would get prank calls at all hours. He would yell at them as soon as they stepped out of their house. He killed their cat. He used fertilizer to burn swear words and vulgar pictures into their lawn. He would sit in his driveway with his car lights on -- shining them into their home and watching what they were doing and he would watch for hours. The police wouldn’t do anything unless they could catch the man on video tape. They thought about moving, but the market wasn’t good and they knew their house wouldn’t sell well. One day, however, their rescue came from the man himself. He dumped a bunch of his trash on their lawn and this was the great breakthrough. As the family was picking up the trash they noticed that it was full of personal items. There were bank statements and credit card numbers and social security card numbers. There were also letters written between the family members – the most personal of letters expressing hurt and anger, broken relationships. What interests me is the revelation that the mean neighbor’s own family life was miserably unhappy. I wonder if part of what drove the man to his meanness was the very realization that these new neighbors had something he never had – a happy family life. It’s intriguing to think that those hours he sat transfixed in his car, looking into their family life, he was waiting for the types of things that happened in his home: the yelling, the arguments, the slamming doors. Was he actually longing to be a part of such a family, and knowing that was impossible, he just wanted that happy family to be driven away? When the sinful human considers the perfection of the love between the Father and the Son, the glory they share and the beauty of that self-giving, we have to realize that we naturally have nothing like that. We’re made for such relationships—but our own sin and the sins of others keep us locked out of them. What we see in this diagram is that the love between the Father and the Son doesn’t just stay locked up in God. We don’t stay bitterly closed out, watching through the windows. In fact, what this shows is that the very gifts which the Father gives the Son, flow out to us to embrace us in that divinelove. It’s a love then that we have from God, a love we share with each other, and a love we share with the world. This is the glory of Christ in our lives—that our lives reflect the character of God in the goodness of His love. Let’s read through this passage and see how this comes about. First let’s find the five things which the Son says he has been given by His Father. ...(1-2). He has authority to give eternal life... (2) he has the people given to Him by the Father....(4) He has the work given him to do...(8) the words of Christ are given by God...(11) the divine Name is also given to Christ by the Father and with that his divine being and nature. All those gifts are gifts given to the Son in time and they show the ways that the Son has glorified His father here on earth as the man from Nazareth. “I have glorified you on earth” he says in verse 4 – that is, by giving eternal life to the people God gave and accomplishing his saving work and revealing those words of God. These gifts then directly relate to us and what it means for us to be Christians. Let’s read through the passage again looking for these 4 essentials of the Christian life. You see on the worksheet that the key words are “know, know, keep and kept” Listen for them. ...(3) there are the first two things which Christians know – they know God and they know that the Father sent His Son into the world as the perfect and final revelation of God. You can fill those in on your sheet – Know God, Know Jesus was sent. Now let’s look for a “keep.” ... (6) Christians keep the word of Christ. Every word of Christ is precious. Every verse in the Bible matters. Nothing is to be discarded. We keep Christ’s Word in our minds as we grow in understanding the Scripture; We keep it by faith as we trust in the Word, even when we don’t understand it all. Now, let’s find the last one...(11) Christians are kept in the Name of God. God’s name is put on us in Baptism. God’s power, revealed through His Word, preserves us in the faith and keep’s us as God’s own people. These are what we’re calling the essentials of Christian life – to know God, to know Jesus was sent by the Father, to keep God’s Word and to be Kept by God’s name. These are not essentials because they are things all Christians do. No amount of effort on our part could bring these gifts of Christ into our lives. They are essentials because this is what God does, what God brings into our lives to give us and keep us in the eternal life which Christ gives. See how the essentials of Christian life are directly drawn from the gifts of the Father to the Son. We cannot know God and we cannot know Jesus except that the Son was sent into the world to make himself and His Father known. We keep the word because, as Jesus says in verse 8, “I have given them the word that you gave me and they have received them.” We are kept in the name because, as Jesus says in verse 6, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” Our whole Christian life is a gift. This is all the more apparent in the one thing which Christ does fully for us and does NOT give over to us. Remember in verse 4, he spoke of the work which the Father had given him to do. But there are no works which are passed over to us. The work of salvation is complete, accomplished, as he says. Our works do not have the same function as Christ’s works. His are saving works, ours our sacrifices of thanksgiving, done in gratitude and love for all that Christ did for us. In the last words of this pass, our Lord prays for us. “That they may be one, even as we are one.” That goes in the bottom line on the page. What is this unity? It is the one oneness established by the things which Christians uniquely share—the things that all Christians have and that mark them distinctively as Christians. Nothing other than these very essentials which we’ve been talking about: so in the circle with the arrows pointing inward, write, “one Word, one Name, one faith” – we hold to the one word which Christ revealed from the Father and so we know God by His true name and we are kept in the one true faith. This unity of the Church reflects the unity of God, as we with one mind and one voice proclaim his truth. So put the word “as” between the top circle which represents God and the bottom circle which represents the Church. Jesus prays that we may be one as the Father and the Son are one. This is the unity of the Church and this is how we even reflect the very glory of God in our lives – that we are saved by Christ, receiving eternal life from Him, and that we hold to His teachings. Christ is glorified in you. Yes, there is a place for your works to shine before people and glorify your father in heaven, but that’s not what this passage is about. This is about a deeper glory, a more certain glory. You are the glory of Christ, because you are the trophies of His salvation, the people purchased by his love. You are the ones His Spirit has brought to the truth of God – to know God, to know Christ whom He sent, to keep His Word and to be kept by His name. This is Christ’s greatest glory on earth, indeed, his only glory on earth. For he left behind no monument and no empire. There is not a single artifact preserved in all this world which we can say with confidence “Jesus built this” “Jesus wrote that” or even “Jesus touched this.” Yet still He is glorified. He is glorified in you. You are the only remaining concrete evidence, the visible testimony of His goodness and His love. And that evidence is not that you live a perfect Christian life. You don’t and you won’t this side of heaven. The glory of Christ in your life is that you are perfectly saved, because you have a perfect Redeemer, who has given you the eternal life and the perfect truth of God. And as you share what you know—God and Christ, His Word and His Name—then others too will glorify and praise Christ in this world. |
