a lot of the problems. John chapter 17 with me this morning. Please be in prayer for Brother Shelton and Sister Claire Atkinson. She had her baby last week, still at the hospital. I think they had the baby in NICU for a little bit, but do remember them in prayer if you would. And then I think the next one is Katie. Is Katie next? Is that right? Next this week, Katie? Katie's having her baby a week, baby a week. So pray for these ladies if you would. If you're visiting with us, it is our habit on these Sunday mornings to go through a book verse by verse. We're in the Gospel of John, we come this morning to chapter 17. I will tell you that this is a very heavy doctrinal passage. It is not a narrative, it is not a story, it's not a miracle. It is the Lord Jesus praying. And there are deep, profound truths that are in this chapter. The prayer really divides into three parts. He prays for himself, then he's gonna pray for his disciples, and then he's gonna pray for you and I in this prayer. So the entire chapter, 26 verses, is a prayer. And as you can imagine, God praying to God. The Son praying to the Father. This is not a shallow, trite prayer. What you're gonna read in these verses are some of the most profound, deepest statements that you will read anywhere in Scripture. It is truly holy ground as we listen in on the prayer of the Lord Jesus. And because of that, we have to take our time. We can't rush through this. Now we can get deep into the weeds and get so lost we can't get out. But we don't want to rush over what we read in these verses. It is not entertaining. There's no narrative, but it is very informative. And so I ask you to give me your undivided attention this morning. But John 17 and verse number one, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. And as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I've glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Our Heavenly Father, I come to you this morning seeking your help and your touch this morning. And even as I read these verses, I feel my own unworthiness, my own inadequacy. Who am I to comment on the prayers of the Lord Jesus? And I pray this morning that you would cleanse me of sin and fill me with your spirit. Help me to preach. I know that we can read the verses and we can make comment and application, but we need the Holy Spirit to do a deeper work than even that. I pray that you'd use me for just a few minutes. Help us to somehow enter into the glory of this prayer that we might see our Savior afresh and anew. Speak to our hearts. If there's somebody here that does not know you as their Savior, there's nothing else that matters other than that. Holy Spirit of God, convict their heart. Show them the Savior, that today they'd put their faith in Him. Help us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. He has led his disciples out to the Mount of Olives. He is going to enter very soon into the Garden of Gethsemane for a night of prayer. Along the way in the chapters before that we have looked at, he has discussed many things with them and he knows that this will be his last conversation with them before being crucified the very next morning. And as he ends his remarks with the disciples, he looks toward heaven and he begins to pray. The language is very simple, it is very direct, but the truth, I'm telling you, are beyond our comprehension. And it's amazing to me to even think that Jesus felt the need to pray. Of course, we see him here in his humanity as he has submitted to the Father. He has laid aside the prerogatives of his deity. He has approached the cross with great sorrow and anguish. And in that hour, he felt the need to pray. And if the Savior needed to pray, what does that say about our need to pray? You know, as you read through the gospels, you'll find that Jesus was a man of prayer, but rarely are we told what he prayed. We are told that he prayed early in the morning. We are told that he departed and went away alone and he prayed privately. Several times it says that he prayed all night long, but we're never allowed to listen in on his prayer. Maybe it's just a little snippet here or there, But there's a difference between private prayer and public prayer. Most of his prayers are prayed in private, but in this instance, we're allowed to hear his prayer. And I was thinking about, as I was thinking about this prayer, have you ever heard a praying man pray? That when he prayed, it was almost like He was talking to God directly. You just know there's a difference. There's a difference when just calling on somebody and we just pray and we have our little cliches and there's nothing wrong with that. But every once in a while you hear somebody pray and there's just something holy about that. You can tell this was not his first time praying. You can tell this person knows how to get a hold of God. And so in this chapter, it is unique because we are allowed to bow our heads and listen as the Son of Man prays to the Father. So many commentators have said that this is the Holy of Holies of Scripture. You've never read, you have never heard a prayer like what you read here. It's as if the secret place of the Most High is opened up and we are taken beyond the veil into the holiest ground of all. I have found it interesting that the other three gospels include the prayer that Jesus prays in Gethsemane, but they don't include this prayer. And then John includes this prayer, but he doesn't include the prayer of Gethsemane. But how different were those two prayers? The prayer that he prays in John 17, and then he immediately goes into Gethsemane alone, and he prays there. In John 17, the prayer is sober, but it's calm. But in Gethsemane, it's in agony, sweating as it were, great drops of blood. In John 17, he is standing looking up into heaven. In Gethsemane, he is bowed to the ground, perhaps lying prostate on the ground. In John 17, he's surrounded by his disciples. In Gethsemane, he is all alone. And I have wondered, I have wondered, why are not both prayers ever found in any of the gospels? These two prayers are prayed next to each other, but they're never next to each other in the Gospels. Why does John include this prayer, but not the Gethsemane prayer? Why do the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, why do they include the Gethsemane prayer, but not this prayer? And the most natural explanation is, is that Jesus is emphasizing his deity, while the other gospel writers are emphasizing his humanity. I think that we have to be careful, though, in dividing the humanity and the divinity of Christ, because really, in Christ, humanity and divinity were united, not divided. And I think that we gotta be a little bit careful there. It could be that the disciples are, that the two prayers are kept separate in the gospels because the disciples didn't hear both prayers. They heard this prayer, but not the Gethsemane prayer. And it has to be after the resurrection that Christ tells them about what he had prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. So you have these two prayers together. And then in Matthew chapter six, if you'll look over there quickly, and we'll come back to John 17, but in Matthew six, we have what is called the Lord's Prayer, where the Lord is instructing his disciples on how to pray, and he gives them a model prayer, and he says in verse number, let me see here, verse number eight, or verse number nine, after this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. That's the prayer that he gave the disciples and you and I to pray a model prayer. But you know, he never prayed that prayer. In fact, that's a prayer he couldn't pray. The Lord Jesus never prayed for forgiveness. He never prayed not to be led into temptation. So there's petitions in this prayer that the Savior could not have prayed, but in John 17 there are petitions that only the Savior could pray. So this really isn't the Lord's prayer, this is our prayer. The real Lord's prayer is found in John chapter 17. Now here's what's happening. This prayer marks the end of his earthly ministry and it looks forward to his future ministry in heaven. Now don't let me lose you. Do you know what Jesus is doing right now in heaven? He's praying for you. He's interceding. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore he's able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Romans 8.34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, brother, that's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for them. for us. His present ministry is as our high priest at the throne of God, interceding for us. And in John 17, we get to hear him do that. John's the only one to record the prayer, but I think it's recorded there for you and I to have an idea of how He is interceding for you and I even today. In that he ever lived to make intercession for us, I believe that Jesus is still praying this prayer. Not the same words, but the same petition. When the Bible speaks of Christ as our advocate and as our mediator, that's what he's doing right now for you and I. He's praying for you and I. This prayer is not a model for us. It's not intended for us to pray this prayer. Because the one thing that Jesus asked for is he asked for glory. Well, it wouldn't be right for you and I to ask for glory for ourselves. For one thing, you're not worthy of any glory, right? but Jesus is. It would be a selfish thing for me to pray for any glory, but Jesus is not asking for something that he didn't deserve. And it's hard for us to grasp this, but it was his glory that he laid aside when he came to this earth. Only once did the inner circle of Peter, James, and John get a glimpse of that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. And now he's asking the Father to restore to him the glory that he had before the incarnation. That's what the prayer is about. I tell you, it's a profound truth. Now this morning, in just these five verses where he prays for himself, just for himself, I want you to notice three parts of it. I want you to notice first that he emphasizes his relationship. Look at verse number one. These words spake Jesus, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father. Now that doesn't really mean anything to us. because we've always began our prayers with some version of our heavenly Father. But did you know that in Old Testament times, no Jew ever prayed to God as Father? We referred to God as Jehovah, God as creator, but he did not have that relationship with God as his father. But when Jesus instructed his disciples in Matthew 6, we read it, he said, pray like this, our father, which art in heaven. Here's the reason why. If you don't learn to say father, then you can't pray. Our prayer life is predicated upon a relationship with God. Prayer is to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. And so he emphasizes this, look at verse number five. Verse number five, he says, and now, O Father. Verse number 11, middle part of the verse, Holy Father. Look at verse 21, that they all may be one as thou Father, verse 24. Father, verse 25. Oh, righteous Father. So he is invoking God as his Father. There is a relationship that predicates this prayer. There is an ancient heresy. I'll not get into how it is still alive, but it is still alive. But the ancient heresy is the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. You'll never find that in the Bible. The Bible teaches the universal creatorhood of God. and the universal neighborhood of humanity, but God is not everybody's father. Now, somebody's going to come up after the service and quote Malachi 2.10 to me, so I'll go ahead and quote it to you. Have ye not all one father? Has not God created us? He's our father in the terms of creation, but he's not the father in terms of relationship. Say, how do you know? Because John said in John chapter one in verse 11, he came into his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received him to them. Not everybody, but to them that received it. To them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. When I bow my head and pray and I call out, Father, I'm praying to a personal God. He's not a cosmic force. He's not a powerful force or an abstract concept that's just over the universe. No, He's my Father. All of these false concepts that the world has conjured up for God. He's not the grandfatherly type in heaven that winks at sin. He's not the tyrant that just creates trouble. He's my father. He is everything to me that my earthly father has been and so much more. Father, father begins there. Show you something real quick and I'm gonna move on. The New Testament, you know, was originally written in Greek. But the language spoken by the Lord Jesus and his disciples is Hebrew and Aramaic. And in a few cases in the New Testament, you will be given an Aramaic word without it being translated. Corbin, that's an Aramaic word. Golgotha, Maranatha. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. Those are Aramaic expressions that are in the New Testament. Well, look, if you would, in Mark chapter 14, I'll show you three verses. Mark chapter 14, find Romans 8 and Galatians 4. Let me show you an Aramaic word, and it means something. Look at Mark chapter 4, verse 36. We're in the Garden of Gethsemane now. In Mark 4 in verse 36, he said, this is the Gethsemane prayer, Abba, Father. Note that word, Abba. Come to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and I'm in verse number 15. Romans 8 and verse number 15. You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of bondage whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Father. And then look at Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter number four. And I've written the wrong, I'm sorry, Galatians four, look at verse six. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Three times in your New Testament, you have the word Abba, and it's always followed by Father, Abba, Father. Abba is an Aramaic term, and it's an Aramaic term for Father. And it is usually said by nearly every commentator that it is a word that a child would use for his father so he could literally be daddy. I have literally read commentators that say that we can call God daddy because we come as a little child, it is a term of affection and endearment. I think it's a little cavalier. A little callous, don't you think, to call God daddy? That just seems a little irreverent. So I did a little bit of a deep dive into the meaning of that word and I found there are two elements of that word. There is intimacy and there is obedience. And Abba is really more like sir than it is like daddy. Used only three times in the New Testament. And it really, in all three contexts, you have those two references. Back to Mark chapter 14 again. At verse 36, he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not I will, but what thou will. And he uses Abba alongside of Father. So there's something that Abba captures that Father doesn't capture. There is an intimacy as Jesus withdraws into the garden alone to share a private time with him. There's intimacy, but there is obedience there because the substance of the prayer is his willingness to submit to the cross and to the Father. And then Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight, I should have kept my finger there, but back to Romans chapter eight in verse number 15, he said, we've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, I have a father. We stand, we stand in sonship. We don't stand in the spirit of fear. So we have a close relationship to God. as our father, but if you back up to verse 12 and 13, therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You know what he's talking about? He's talking about being obedient to surrender to the will of God. And then back to Galatians chapter number four, Galatians chapter four, verse number six, he says, and because ye are sons, because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Galatians four, you have to read the chapter. He makes the contrast between servants and sons and says, we are sons. And as sons, we're expected to live an obedient life, not return to the weak and the beggarly elements that the Judaizers are trying to put them under. And so by the Spirit of God, we cry, Abba, Father, saying that we love Him as our Father, but we submit to Him as our Father. And when Jesus said, pray, our Father, He's not saying you don't have to use these exact words, but He's emphasizing the relationship that we have with God through prayer. And if you don't know Him as Father, you have no grounds to pray. So He emphasizes a relationship. We'll come back to John 17, not only a relationship, but He emphasizes a request. Look again at verse number one. These words speak Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Now over and over in the gospels, especially in John, here's what we hear. The hour has not come. The hour has not come. The hour has not come. But now he says the hour is come. What hour? The hour in which he will offer himself as a sacrifice for sins. The hour in which he becomes sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God through him. He lived every moment of his life, every hour, every day, every event, knowing that every day is unfolding as God has planned from eternity past. It is the hour in which all the Old Testament prophecies are gonna be fulfilled in the Messiah. There never been a moment like this and there never will be. That hour is come. And with that in mind, here's the request that he makes. glorify thy son. That's amazing to me. It really is. He is staring at the cross. He is hours away from being crucified in the most horrible way. And this is what's on his heart. Father, when I go to that cross this hour, would you glorify me? Now I can tell you that the men around him are not gonna give him glory. They're going to arrest him. They're going to discourage him. They're going to mock him. They're gonna falsely accuse him. There are gonna be witnesses lie against him. They're gonna take him to a cross. They're gonna crucify him. And even while he's on that cross, they're gonna revile him, cast the same in his teeth. And Jesus knows that, but he prays that the Father that while they're reviling me, that the Father would glorify me. The cross is an instrument of shame. What Jesus is about to do, he's asking the Father to make it an instrument of glory. Father, grant that by means of the cross that I will be glorified. Let me ask you a question. You think Jesus answered that prayer? Now, several of my ameners are not here this morning, so somebody's got to pick up the slack. Do you think that Jesus answered that prayer? We come to church this morning and we sing about the cross and enjoy when we do. He gets glory from that because we see glory in the cross. Have you ever stopped to think that there would have been no glory without the cross? I mean, when you think about this, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, did nothing but good, miracles and healings and helped people. And if he got to this point, perfect humanity, nothing but good, eradicated disease out of Israel and stopped there. Instead of done enough. I don't see any reason to go any farther. I'm not going to the cross, I'll do everything except the cross. We would not be singing and preaching about him this morning. Even son of God, full deity, full humanity, every doctrine that we believe, but if he had stopped short of the cross and said, I've done enough for man, I've done enough good, we would have held him up as a good example to follow, but there's a whole lot of good men to follow. But when he went to the cross, thank God that he went a little farther than anybody else. And because he went to the cross, we give him glory this morning. He said, glorify thy son. But look what else he said. He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. Watch this. Now it's going to get deep. That thy son also may glorify thee. Now that's amazing. He is praying for the Father to glorify him so that he can glorify the Father. John 12 and 28, he says, Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. I'm telling you, it is a mystery that we cannot comprehend. The son seeks to be glorified so he can glorify the father and the father was glorified in the obedience of Jesus Christ and the father gives glory to Christ and Christ gives glory to the father and the father gives glory back to Christ. I'm telling you that the spirit gives honor to the son and the son gives honor to the father and the father He passes the honor back to the son. That's exactly what's happening. Look at John chapter five here real quick. John chapter five. John chapter five and verse 23. that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. You cannot honor God if you don't honor the Son. Any religion that denies the Son also denies the Father. He says in John chapter 13, John chapter 13 and verse number 31, he says, he says, therefore, He says, therefore, when it was gone, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself and shall straightway. I'm telling you, it is such a profound truth that no one member of the Trinity wants glory for himself, but so that he can glory one another. That's an amazing thing to me. And it's going to be by the most terrible means, by being nailed to a cross, that the Father is glorified in the Son. And the Father is going to glorify Him when He raises Him from the dead and at the ascension and set Him down at the right hand of glory. And what the disciples saw was the most tragic thing, actually becomes the most triumphant thing. What they saw is shame the Father saw as glory. But then back in chapter 17, he emphasizes the reason. Why should the father glorify him? We'll look at verse two. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now I find that a little odd. As he has given him power, over all flesh. He's getting ready to be arrested. He's getting ready to be held on trial falsely. He is getting ready to be beaten. In this night, he's going to be scourged. He's going to be led to a cross and crucified. That's what's getting ready to happen. And he says, Here's what it tells me. It appears that he has no power. It appears that his enemies have all the power. It appears that he is powerless to resist them or stop them. But I actually know that he orchestrated the whole thing. When you predict when you're gonna die and how you're gonna die, His life was not taken from him. He gave his life up. And don't you know, don't you know that when the soldiers came to arrest him, he could have overpowered them with just a word. Don't you know that? I mean, he could have done the Benny Hinn thing and just waved the coat over and they just all fell back, just slam off. He could have done that. Right? Don't you know He could have stopped them? He is not the victim. He is the victor. They didn't do anything to Him against His will, but He who has power over all flesh submitted Himself to the nails and submitted Himself to the cross. And for that, He deserves glory. Can I make an application here real quick? I'm trying to be done. Jesus could have interfered in the affairs of men and saved himself a whole lot of pain and a whole lot of suffering, but he wouldn't intervene. And when we have pain and suffering in our life, you know what we ask God to do? Intervene. Stop this. And he has the power to stop the pain. So why doesn't he? He could have stopped it then. He could have stopped it now. I know you have the power to intervene. I know you have the power to take away the affliction. So why don't you intervene? Well, he didn't intervene on his own behalf because he knew that if he endures the pain and the suffering, there is glory that's gonna follow out of that. And it could be that he doesn't always intervene in our life and take away the pain and the suffering because he sees some glory coming out of that suffering. Does that make sense to you? He had power over all flesh, but he didn't use that power so that the Father could be glorified in his suffering. And I want you to know he still has power over all flesh to make everything wonderful. But it doesn't always use that power on your behalf because it may be that the Father is glorified through the suffering in our life. Notice there's another reason, not only because he has power over all flesh, look at verse two again. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. This is life eternal, that they might know the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. You know why he deserves glory? Because he's the giver of eternal life. Our world gives glory to somebody that doesn't do anything glorifying. Right? If you can dribble a basketball, Score a touchdown. All sing and dance on a stage. We give glory to people that have accomplished nothing. Instagram influencer. TikToker. The world makes heroes out of people. America used to have heroes like firefighters. I mean, men that would rush into a burning building and save somebody. We used to honor people like that. That's who we used to put in the parades, but not now. Now we give glory to people that have done absolutely nothing. There is one who charged the gates of hell to rescue every person under the curse of sin. He deserves glory. And I'll tell you why else he deserves glory. Look at verse number four. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I finished it. And by the way, I find it interesting that Jesus speaks of his work as having been complete before he went to the cross. He says, look at it, look at it. He says, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Can I tell you that with God, the future is virtually the present. He speaks of the future as though it were already done because it is as good as done. There is nothing or no one that can stand in his way of him finishing the work that he came to do. So he spoke of it as having been done already. Aren't you glad he's not a quitter? Aren't you glad he went all the way, that he finished the job? Thank God, he deserves glory. Now I tell you this morning, profound truths. And we could spend a lifetime pondering just those five verses we've stated on the level, on the surface level. Great mystery. But here's what you hear, it is God praying to God. It is Christ asking the Father to restore to Him the glory that He had from the beginning. In the next verses, He's gonna pray for His disciples. And then in verse 20, He's gonna pray for you and me. And I've tried to meditate on what it means for the Son. to make intercession to the Father, and be so dependent upon the Father, though He were God Himself, but dependent upon the Father, that He needed to pray. And I know it, I understand it, but I walk away and I don't fully grasp it. So here's what I know. I know that He is worthy of glory, and praise, and honor. That the cross is a symbol of shame, but He made it a symbol of glory. Think about it, our favorite songs are when we're singing about an instrument of torture. Isn't that strange to you? Nobody wears a necklace with a symbol of an electric chair around their neck, right? That would be odd. but yet they wear a symbol of a cross around their neck. They put it on a bumper sticker because he has taken something that is shameful and he has made it something glorious. He has taken something that is ugly and he has made it beautiful. And I want you to know that the Father so far has answered this prayer. The resurrection, the ascension, the exaltation, future kingship is the answer to this prayer. In fact, we come together this morning. to sing and to praise Him. And through our lives, the Father answers this prayer. When you and I go out and we live a life that is commensurate with the life of Christ, He's receiving even more glory. So I ask you this morning, does He get glory out of your life? Is He glorious to you? Do you ever have a moment of worship outside of church? Huh? Just you, just you, just you and the Spirit of God. Or do you have to have a quartet to stir it up? Do you have to have somebody around you say it, amen? But do you ever, outside of church, just you in your normal life, just you and Jesus ever have a moment of worship and just want to give Him glory? Is He lovely to you? Is He precious to you? When you submit to the Spirit and you are conformed to His image, you are giving Him glory. I had a little message I was going to preach. It was preached here probably 30 years ago on how the Spirit gives glory to the Son. I'm not going to preach it. I wish I could. It's been so long. We're talking about the Spirit glorifying the Son. If you wanted to glorify somebody, how would you do that? Anna, come to the piano, I'm done. How would you do that? How does the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, magnify the Son? Write this down. Some preacher, boy, you could preach this somewhere down the road. It really will preach. He glorified the Son by writing a book about Him. Write a book about Him. That would be honoring, would it not? And he wrote a book about him. He glorifies Christ by making believers like him. That would be honoring, wouldn't it? Yeah. And he glorified the son. See if I can remember the third one. He glorified the son by getting a bride for him. That's what the Spirit of God is doing, right? That's honoring, honoring to the son. I asked you this morning, do you have eternal life? Eternal life is defined in verse number three as knowing Christ. You don't get that through your church membership. You don't get that by being a Baptist. You don't get that by being raised in a Christian home. You receive eternal life by receiving Jesus Christ as your savior. It's not something that you earn. It is a gift that is only given when you place your faith in Christ. Aren't you glad to have eternal life this morning? I want him to receive glory.