We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are glad to have you all with us this Lord's Day morning and glad to have a couple of visitors among us. I want to encourage you, if you're visiting us for the first time, grab one of these booklet, Ultimate Questions. We have a stack of these out on the hall table. We want to give this to you as a free gift for joining us. for worship this morning, and there's a sign up on the hall table as well if you want to sign our guest register so that we can have a record of your visit. We would love that. I want to encourage you to look inside your bulletin. You'll see there that we are continuing in the Sunday school hour at 945 every Sunday morning right here in this room. Our Sunday school series through Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel. This morning we were in 1 Samuel 14, the unhindered strength of God. If you were providentially hindered from joining us this morning, that was recorded. You should get that online this week and be blessed by listening to it. You'll see also that there are no Wednesday evening activities this week. There will be the following week. We'll talk about that in a moment. Sermon passage for next week will be John 17, verses 6 through 19, as we begin entering into Jesus's high priestly prayer this morning. I also want to direct your attention across the page to the announcement. It's a busy time of year. It's hard to believe we're already in September. A lot of activities, a lot of things going on. So let me walk through these with you. First of all, the new monthly free online resource that I'll be recommending through the month of September are the selected sermons of George Whitefield, which are 59 sermons by George Whitefield. If you don't know George Whitefield, he was early part of the 18th century. He preached alongside around the same time as Jonathan Edwards during the first great awakening, and just like Edwards, he passed away just before the American Revolution. He is a remarkable preacher, and like Edwards, his sermons are worth reading and meditating on. And there's some really excellent sermons in this collection. If you follow the link there, there are many ways to download this particular collection. You can put it onto an e-book reader. You can download it to your computer as a PDF or a Word document. You can just read it right there online. A lot of different ways. But I would recommend just selecting some of the sermons. There's one he preached. The title of it is The Method of Grace, a great evangelical sermon that I would recommend reading. His farewell sermon is included in there, which is a very good sermon on the Good Shepherd. A lot of excellent sermons by Whitefield that I encourage you to be reading through this month. And then we have several opportunities to serve just right over here where my wife and Susie Phillips are currently serving and caring for the little ones. If you are able to serve in that capacity, see Susie Phillips and she will add you to the rotation to meet that need. Men's Prayer Breakfast is coming up this Saturday, it's September, and so the men will be gathering at 8 o'clock a.m. right here in the Fellowship Hall. This Saturday we look forward to as many men as can join us for that time of delicious food and warm fellowship and intercessory prayer on behalf of this congregation. And then the September conference is upon us, so one week from today. Park Hills Baptist Church right here in Austin. They're located just off of Mopac, south of the river and west of Mopac right there. They are hosting a Christian conference that is absolutely free. It's titled, The Church and Politics Quit or Conquer, Following Christ Through Political Turmoil, an appropriate and apt conference for this year. Doors will open at 4.30. Conference begins promptly at 5 o'clock. There's no childcare provided, but you're encouraged to bring your children into the meeting room. And Pastor Ben Wright of Cedar Point Baptist Church will be speaking on 35 Things We All Agree On. Josh Hayward of Kenney Avenue will be speaking on How to Love Your Political Opponents. And then I'll be there, I'll be speaking on A Biblical Theology of Human Government. We're also going to have a Q&A panel afterwards, and so I think this will be a great time just to learn, to prepare yourself, but also to meet other like-minded brothers and sisters in the Austin area who attend various like-minded churches. Also, I want to point out that on Wednesday evening, September the 11th, so not this Wednesday but the next Wednesday, that'll be the second Wednesday of the month at 630 p.m. We're going to have a lecture right here in this room that I'm going to deliver on knowing God's will for your life. So I've been going on these Wednesday nights lecturing on topics that Dayspringers have raised as something that they want to know about. And this is a common one that I hear from multiple Dayspringers about decision-making and knowing God's will for your life. How do you determine that? We're going to talk all about that on Wednesday evening, September the 11th. We will have a Q&A afterwards, so bring your questions. We'll also have a brown bag supper beforehand at 545 in the Fellowship Hall if anyone wants to come early and eat together. And then a parenting seminar will be led by Juan and Janine Sanchez, along with Josh and Christina Hayward at Kenney Avenue Baptist Church on Saturday, October the 19th. There is a cost, $10 per person. Child care will be provided, and you can register using the link there in your bulletin. I encourage any parents who are interested or if you know of any parents of young children, to point them to this seminar titled, Reaching Your Child's Heart. And then, finally, we have the annual Day Spring Retreat. And so, as I have announced, today is the deadline to register, and there is no more room at the inn. We have filled the place, and so we look forward to a glorious retreat out at the beautiful River End Resort in Hunt, Texas. It'll take place October 25th through the 27th. There are these yellow flyers out on the hall table. If you haven't grabbed one, you really want to do so. It has a map on how to get out there, but it also tells you what to bring, what's there, all the registration and cost information, activities, and so forth, so you'll want to have one of these handy, especially as we get closer to the time. I do want to let you know that any cancellations now that are made after today will incur a one night's room charge, so you just have to be aware of that. And then the deadline to pay for your room isn't until October the 13th, so you have plenty of time to do that. There also remain several service opportunities that you can sign up for, and there's an online sign up for those in the little link given there at the bottom of your bulletin. Finally, one thing, that announcement that is not in the bulletin, we talked about during our Sunday school prayer time, is that Nancy Decker passed away late last night. She was 96 years old, not one of the founding members of this church, but close. She came along a little bit after the founding and has a long and rich history here at Dayspring. Arrangements will be forthcoming, but I can tell you that ex-Day Springer and former elder Max Smith will be officiating her service at a nearby funeral home. And so I want to say just a few things about that. I was thinking of having a congregational meeting afterwards to briefly talk about this since it really is relevant mainly for those of you who have been Day Springers for five years or more. But just a few things I want to say to help sort of shepherd you through this particular circumstances. The first thing I want to do is I want to protect my brother Max from any suspicions that he is somehow inserting himself or sowing any further divisions among us. He is not. He served as Nancy's pastor for many, many decades. And it's Nancy's wishes that her service be officiated by Max and that her sons make the arrangement. So this was her desire, her wishes, which we want to respect. Secondly, I want to encourage you all to attend the funeral. We're not being excluded. Dayspring's invited, and so I want you to feel free to show your respects if you're able to. I realize that years ago, Max did hurt many of you. He hurt me, too. But we have forgiven him, because that's what Christians do as we pray in the Lord's Prayer. We have forgiven those who have trespassed against us. I have every reason to believe that our brother Max, who I understand is a member in good standing at an evangelical Protestant Presbyterian church, that he will proclaim the true gospel, which is a brother of ours, a brother in Christ he holds to. And so we rejoice in that, and we're able to give him the right hand of fellowship, as I have done at many other funerals and weddings that have taken place that we've both attended in the past since the events of five years ago. And then finally, I want to say that I understand that forgiveness is often a process and not just a one-time, you know, punctiliar event. So if these circumstances stir up, you know, within your heart any resentment or anger or unforgiveness, I would just encourage you to come and meet with me so that I can help shepherd you towards forgiveness. So please come see me if that's the case. As we begin worship this morning, I want to encourage you to take your red hymnal, we'll be in the red this morning, and turn with me to hymn number two. You want to keep your finger in place at hymn number two, and please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning, it comes from the great and prophetic 22nd Psalm. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. And he has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard when he cried to him. all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Let us sing together. Worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing his power and his love! Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days, Pavilion in splendor, and girded with praise, O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopies space, His chariots of wrath the deep under clouds form, And dark is His path on the wings of the storm, The earth with its store of wonders untold. Almighty, Your power has found it of old, Established it fast by a changeless decree, And round it has cast like a mantle the scene. Beautiful care, what tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light. It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, In you do we trust, nor find you to fail. Your mercy's how tender, how firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. O measureless might, ineffable love, While angels delight to hymn you above, ♪ A humbler creation though feeble there lays ♪ With true adoration shall live to your praise Let us pray together. Almighty God and our great Father, we praise you, Lord. We thank you so much for giving the victory over sin and death and Satan by sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, to live for us, to die for us, to be raised again for us. including us in him and with him, and having ascended back to you, ensuring that we are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We thank you, Lord God, that in that status and great privilege that we can come before you and worship you this day openly. We pray, Lord God, that your Holy Spirit would be powerful in our midst, convicting us of our sin and challenging us to increased devotion to you, comforting us in all our afflictions and concerns and cares. We pray, Lord God, as we draw near to you through Jesus, our great High Priest, that you would cause us to worship you in spirit and in truth, to give you all the glory Lord, we pray that as we sing, you would remind us of your greatness and glory as we partake of communion. We pray that we might know you with intimacy and with certainty and assurance of your salvation. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would speak to us and through us as we pray and that you would minister to us through the word that is read and preached. We pray, Lord God, that you would draw near to us now and know us that there would be a true relationship of father to children today in this place. We pray, Lord God, that you would ensure that all that we do here would be done humbly and sincerely and in a way that would give all the glory to you. We ask these things in your son Jesus's blessed name. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning, everyone. All right, please turn to hymn 469, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place. How sweet and awesome is the place With Christ within the doors! While everlasting love displays The choices of her stores, While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, Each of us cries with thankful tongue, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room? When thousand makes a wretched choice, And rather starve than come, T'was the same love that spread the feast, And sweetly drew us in. else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come, Send your victorious word abroad, and bring the strangers home. We long to see your churches full, that all the chosen race May with one voice and heart and soul sing your redeeming grace. Amen. As we continue to worship God, please turn to hymn number 286. 286, Worship Christ, the Risen King, and He Has Indeed Risen. Rise, O Church, and lift your voices. Christ has conquered death and hell. See the tomb where death hath laid him in tomb. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the risen King. See the tomb where death had laid Him, empty now its mouth declares. Death and I could not contain Him, for the throne of life He shares. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the risen King. Hear the earth protest and tremble, see the stone removed with power. All hell's minions may assemble, but cannot withstand his power. He has conquered, he has conquered, Christ the Lord, the risen King. Doubt may lift its head to murmur, scoffers, mock, and sinners cheer, but the truth proclaims a wonder thoughtful hearts receive with cheer. Come, He is risen, He has risen, now receive the risen King. We acclaim your life, O Jesus, now we sing your victory. Sin or health may seem to seize us, but your conquest keeps us free. All right. Now we have the reading of God's Word. The reading this morning comes from Ephesians 1, verses 3-13. It says this, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, and all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven, and things on the earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. And in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Amen. That is the word of our God. We celebrate the climactic fulfillment of that great eternal purpose between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit when we celebrate the Lord's Supper as we do every Lord's Day here at Dayspring. And as I've said many times, this sacred meal is a dangerous meal. It comes with a warning. It's not for everyone. Not everyone's admitted to this table. And if the requirements don't apply to you and you're not to be admitted to this table, I just want to encourage you with the fact that we love you and that we're glad that you're here and we just want to warn you and exhort you to pass these elements along as they come by and to think about what they symbolize, what they mean, what they point us to. First and most importantly, this meal is not for those of you who are good, upright people, right? This is a meal for sinners who know that they have no righteousness of their own and they have repented of their sin and desperately turned in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue them from all their sin and guilt and shame. And so we ask that you are one who is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. You're not looking to any goodness or any merit on your part. You're looking to Jesus's merit and to his perfect life that he lived in your place in obedience to the Father, the sacrificial death that he died in your place on the cross, taking the wrath of God against all of your sins so that you've been reconciled to God and made a son in the kingdom. So you're one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to His glory alone. There is no boasting in our salvation. And then secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer, but we do leave the details of your baptism up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your own local congregation so that we might respect the work of our King Jesus as he sovereignly builds his church in the world. As we prepare ourselves for the Lord's Supper and reflect upon the cross, let's ask one another the question, were you there? By turning in the red to hymn number 260, 260, were you there? And let us sing together. Oh. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Were you there? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Were you there? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they pierced him in the side? Were you there? Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? Were you there? Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there? Were you there when he rose up from the dead? Were you there? Were you there when he rose up from the dead? Were you there? Oh, sometimes I feel like shouting glory, glory, The answer to that question is yes we were. Amen. See Romans 6 among other places. Well, years ago, before I was born, in the year 1939, C.S. Lewis, he preached a sermon titled, Learning in Wartime. He was attempting to answer the question as to whether it was reasonable to do something like pursue education or scholarly work when your own nation, your country, is in the midst of fighting a great world war. And his answer, in short, was yes, but I don't bring up his sermon to focus on why learning at all times is a good pursuit. I bring it up because of a warning that Lewis gave in the midst of that sermon. He was speaking of the person who gives himself to scholarship, especially a scholarship in an area like theology, and he wrote these words. The intellectual life is not the only road to God, nor the safest, but we find it to be a road, and it may be the appointed road for us. Of course, it will be so only so long as we keep the impulse pure. That is the great difficulty. We may come to love knowledge or knowing more than the thing known. to delight not in the exercise of our talents, but in the fact that they are ours, or even in the reputation they bring us. Every success in the scholar's life increases this danger. If it becomes irresistible, he must give up his scholarly work. The time for plucking out the right eye has arrived. What strikes me about that quote is just how crafty our enemy is. There are times when he seeks a person's downfall through ways that we're all aware of, like appealing to his unbridled lust, or to a person's bitterness and anger, or his feeling that he deserves more praise and recognition. that he's getting. We've seen those kinds of desires lead to all kinds of moral failings. But as Lewis notes, the devil, he may even take good pursuits, such as learning about God, learning theology, and even corrupt that. tempting us to love knowledge itself and our reputation for being knowledgeable more than the Lord. Which is a reminder for us that there's a great difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Actually knowing him, knowing is relational. It's intimate. You know, when the Bible says that Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore a son, it doesn't mean that Adam knew certain facts about Eve. And when Jesus says in Matthew 7 that many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these good works in your name? And I will say to them, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, for I never knew you. He doesn't mean I never knew you existed, or I never knew all about you. What he means is simply you and I, We never had a real relationship with one another. That kind of knowing, that deep relationship with God, it's only made possible through the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. And this communion with Him is just that. It is an intimate communion with Him and an expression of that intimacy, that knowledge. And so I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment of silence in the presence of our Lord to examine ourselves. Our Heavenly Father, we confess that we came into this world estranged from you and at enmity with you, separated from you, and we would never have come to know you had you not mercifully chosen to foreknow us before the foundation of the world. And then send Your Son Jesus to live for us and to die for us, to reconcile us to You by winning our redemption. And then sending Your Holy Spirit to apply this redemption to us, to make us alive and to indwell us and to lead us to truly know You. And so we thank you for the cross by which we've been reconciled to you, for your son, Jesus, for his body and blood that was given that we might truly know you and truly be known by you. And so we ask you to bless this bread and this cup, sanctify them for their holy use, bless us in partaking of them to do so by faith alone, in you alone, to your glory alone. And so, in a worthy manner, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. This is the body of our Lord, crushed for our iniquities. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. Please turn to hymn number 381 in your red hymnal. Brethren, we have met to worship. Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One come down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join to help us? Moses' sister hated him. Will you help the trembling mourners? who are struggling hard with sin. Tell them all about the Savior, tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray, and holy menna will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other, too. For sinners, too, our God makes all things new. ♪ Then he'll call us home to heaven ♪ At his table we'll sit down ♪ Christ will gird himself and serve us ♪ With sweet manna all around Your red hymnal in hand, please turn to page 819. 819 in the back of the red hymnal. And please stand together. We're going to read responsibly Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Praise his name. Proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory to his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world is firmly established. It cannot be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the sea be rebound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant. then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. They will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Let us pray together. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we do pray that you would come quickly, to judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in your truth. Our hope and our joy is in your unfailing love to your people. We pray for our lost loved ones today, for those whom we so desire to call brother or sister. We lift them up to you and ask that you would save those family members and friends and loved ones who are far off from you. We especially remember to you this morning Nancy's two sons, Stephan and Stephen, and pray that even as they grieve their loss, that you would bring them the blessing of salvation through faith alone in you alone. Be with all who are grieving the death of Nancy. Our God and Father, we thank you for sending your Son, our King Jesus, into the world. We thank you that you do your work of salvation throughout the whole world, and so we pray for Ukraine and Gaza, all the places experiencing war and persecution. We pray for protection over the Karstens and for the beautiful country of South Africa where three people are now murdered every hour. Lord, that you would bring peace through the gospel witness there in that violent land. Lord, we lift this congregation up to you. We ask that you would work here among us to build us up in our faith, build us up in our love, for you and in our love for one another. We pray for our neighbors, we pray for our city, we pray for our country, for Governor Abbott and President Biden and all the leaders in our government, that you would have mercy upon us by guiding them in wisdom. We pray for all of our missionaries, for all of our brothers and sisters who work to tell the world all about Jesus, that your living and active word would go forth in great power and that you would add to your church daily as many as are being saved. We pray that you would be with Pastor Ben Wright this morning as he preaches your word at Cedar Point Baptist Church in Cedar Park. Lord, bless that congregation with unity in Christ around the glorious gospel of his grace. We pray, Lord God, that you would be with your church all over the world. We pray that all Israel might be saved. And finally, oh Lord, we pray that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. You may be seated and our children may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go out, please turn with me in your copy of God's inspired, inerrant word to the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. During our study of the book of John, over the last four months, we've been just looking at this speech that Jesus made to his disciples on the night before he was crucified, his 11 disciples, as Judas has left to betray him. It really runs from somewhere in chapter 13 all the way to the end of chapter 16, this intimate discourse in which Jesus has been intimately preparing his 11 disciples for what's about to take place. We've come now to the beginning of chapter 17, which is technically not a part of that discourse anymore. It's here that Jesus stops talking to his disciples and starts talking to his Father. this prayer that begins in John 17. It runs throughout the entire chapter. If you look at the prayer, you can see that it breaks down really nicely into three paragraphs. So the part we're going to be looking at today is one through five. That's the first paragraph. That's where Jesus prays mostly for himself. He's praying to his Father about what's going on, particularly with himself. We're going to look at that in detail today. And then you've got that long paragraph from verse 6 down through verse 19. That's where Jesus is praying, in particular for the 11 apostles that are around him, listening to him. And as we'll see next week, that applies to us as well. And then from verses 20 to 26, you've got this last paragraph where Jesus turns and just explicitly says, I don't pray for just these 11, but I pray for everyone throughout the centuries who is ever going to believe in me through their testimony, through their word. And he goes ahead and he prays. which is just incredible because it means it's a personal prayer from Jesus, the Great High Priest, the Son of God, to God the Father about you and me, if you're a believer in Jesus today, which is just amazing. But for today, we're just gonna look at the first part, so verses one to five, chapter 17. Look with me beginning at verse one. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, The hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I mean, you can just tell right immediately that these first couple of lines, as we start to read this prayer, as Jesus begins to pray it, he's just dropping us off into the deep end of the eternal plan of our glorious triune God. Right from the beginning, we're talking about things that happened in eternity past. We're thinking about things that are going to happen for eternity future. I mean, just look at the end of verse 5, for example. Jesus asks to be glorified with the Father as he was in the beginning before the creation of the world. It reminds us of the beginning of John, right? John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So we're looking deeply. into the ocean of eternity, into the very beginnings of God's intention to redeem sinful humanity. So in a sense here, Jesus, as he prays, is just kind of pulling back the veil, in some ways more clearly than he does in the entire rest of the book of John, just pulling back the veil for us to see deep into the purposes for which he was about to go to the cross. So here's the main idea of these five verses. The main idea is this, the chief purpose of your salvation is to propel you to worship God the Father and Jesus Christ. The chief purpose of your salvation is to propel you to worship God the Father and Jesus Christ. The old catechism got it right. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In other words, to worship Him. That's why you and I exist. That's why we were created. That's why we were redeemed. That's why Jesus went to the cross. That's why you and I have been saved from our sins. So breaking that down just a little bit more, we see here three main reasons in our passage, three main purposes. for which Jesus went to the cross. So these will be our three sermon points this morning. Number one, Jesus died so that he himself would be glorified. He died so that he himself would be glorified. Number two, Jesus died so that his father would be glorified. He died so that his father would be glorified. And then number three and final point, Jesus died so that God's eternal plan to save us would be accomplished. Jesus died so that God's eternal plan to save us would be accomplished. So not just a short-term plan, but one that goes all the way back to the beginning of everything. God's eternal plan to save us would be accomplished. My prayer is that as we look at this passage today, these five verses, that your own hearts would be stirred up to worship. I pray that you'll see more deeply what Jesus accomplished for you when He died on that cross, and because of that, you will want to worship Him more. Let's start looking at it. Jesus died so that he himself would be glorified. I think that's just clear enough right there in verse 1. Father, he says, the time has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you. So the first thing he says, Father, the time has come, the hour is here. Glorify your son. Verse 5. Now, Father, also glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Now, if you look at verse 5 really, really carefully, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world began. This, by the way, is just one of the strongest affirmations, the clearest statements in the entire Bible of Jesus's pre-existence. So an important truth theologically for you to sort of tuck away into the back of your mind. The really astonishing thing about this request though, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the beginning of the world. The really astonishing thing about that request, the thing that you know, might have caused the disciples a little bit of confusion, is what does it mean for the Father to glorify Jesus, especially when he's just been telling them for the last few hours that what is about to happen to himself is that he is going to be turned over to the Jewish rulers and the Roman authorities, and he's going to be crucified. in the most brutal way possible. So what do you mean by glorify me when you're about to be crucified? I mean, just look at the upcoming headings in your copy of God's Word. If you have a Bible like mine, you have these informative headings over major sections of each book. Look at that and just flip through the headings of the next few sections that are coming up. My ESV Bible has the high priestly prayer here for chapter 17. And then just kind of let your eyes run down the list with me. The betrayal and arrest of Jesus. Jesus faces Annas and Caiaphas. Peter denies Jesus. The high priest questions Jesus. Peter denies Jesus again. Jesus before Pilate. My kingdom is not of this world. Jesus delivered to be crucified, the crucifixion, the death of Jesus. I mean, that's what's coming. It's gonna be betrayal, arrest, a mock trial, denial by one of his best friends, crucifixion, and death. That's what's coming in just the next few hours. And yet here Jesus, at the beginning of chapter 17 in this prayer, he's saying, Father, glorify me." It just doesn't make any sense, right? There's no glory in what's coming to Jesus is there, and yet he's praying, Father, glorify me. What does he mean? Well, I want us to look at a couple of phrases here that I think make it clear what he means when he says, Father, glorify me, even in the shadow of the cross. So first of all, look at that phrase there, The hour has come. Father, the hour has come. What does that mean? Most of you know by now that when Jesus talks about the hour, he's talking about the cross. And for most of the book of John, Jesus is very clear in saying that the hour is not yet here. The hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet arrived. But very recently he has said that his hour has in fact come. So Jesus knew that his death was imminent. He knew it was coming, and he also knew what kind of death it was. I mean, this wasn't just a nice, peaceful death in his bed. It wasn't a death of sickness, even. It wasn't a quick death. It was a crucifixion. There is a fate so vile that Romans wouldn't even subject their worst citizens to it. It was reserved for aliens, for outsiders. And Jesus knew that it wasn't just the pain and the humiliation that was going to make the cross brutal to Him. It was that He knew that when He died on the cross, He would do so utterly alone. All His friends would forsake Him. He would be forsaken by His disciples. He would be forsaken utterly by His own Father. So when He prays here saying, Father, the time has come, He means, Father, the time for all of that. The time for that horror is here. That's what He meant. And in the middle of all that, you've got Jesus praying that His Father would glorify Him. So what does that mean? Well, we've already seen down in verse 5 that it means at least in part that Jesus is asking His Father to return Him to the eternal radiant splendor that He had with God before the creation of the world. And the Father's going to do that. He's going to raise Jesus from the dead. Jesus is going to be seen in splendor for 40 days. Then he's going to be taken up gloriously into heaven at his ascension to reign and rule upon the throne of his glorious kingdom. So there's that, that's part of it. But there's way more to it than that. It is precisely the death of the Son of God that would bring Him the most glory. So of all the things that Jesus did that showed us the glory of God, the one thing that would show us the glory of God the most was His death upon the cross. So for example, in John chapter 12, Jesus says, look, the hour has come, he says, for the son of man, that's himself, to be glorified. And then he says this strange thing. He says, I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. Now you know from one sense that could mean, when I'm exalted above all, when I'm glorified, when I'm raised above all the people of the earth, all men will come to me. That's what lifted up could mean. But those of you who are Christians know that there's another meaning to that. And it's not just lifted up in exaltation and glory at his resurrection and ascension. It's when I'm lifted up on that pole and tacked to it and crucified, I will draw all men to myself. So you see what's going on there in that phrase, when I am lifted up from the earth. He's talking about glorification, exaltation, and he's mixing it all together with his being nailed to and lifted up upon the cross, his greatest glory. would happen through His being crucified. All right, so I wonder now if you're not a Christian, I wonder what you think about that as you hear Jesus's words, as you hear Him taking glory and wrapping it all up together with the crucifixion and saying, when I am lifted up, when you hear him saying, Father, glorify me now that the hour of my death has come, when you hear that, what do you think? I mean, how does it strike you to realize that Jesus thought that the moment of his highest glory was going to be his brutal death? I mean, if all you've thought about Jesus is that he's, you know, this respectable historical figure, this good teacher, I put him up there with Plato and Aristotle and Confucius, just, he's a wise, gifted teacher, right? If that's all that you've thought about him, though, then this kind of thing just doesn't make any sense. Because Plato didn't think that the hour of his greatest glory was gonna be his death. Mohammed didn't think that. Confucius didn't think that. Buddha didn't think that. Aristotle didn't think, nobody thought that. Nobody except Jesus. Which tells you that Jesus thought his death was just enormously significant. Not some sort of unfortunate tragedy, Not a perfect storm of historical events stacked against him. But what's the thing we Christians talk about over and over and over again here? I mean, you only have to have been to Dayspring just once, and you know that we as Christians, we understand Jesus's death on the cross to be hugely significant. And it's because we understand that his death, his death on that cross, it didn't just happen, he did that for us. He died so that we wouldn't have to. He suffered so that we wouldn't have to. He let the curse of God's wrath fall on Him in all of its fury so that it wouldn't have to fall on us. That's the significance of His death to us. That's the significance of His death to Him. More than anything else, His death would bring Him glory. We proclaim His death until He comes. I want you to notice something else in this, one other detail in all of this. Do you notice that this prayer right before Jesus' death is not filled with sadness and dread? Do you notice that it's a glorious, triumphant prayer? I mean, Jesus felt sadness. He felt dread, to be sure. If possible, Father, let this cup pass from me. But he doesn't feel it here, not here. This prayer is just shot through with joy. This is the prayer of a man who's just said up in 1633 that we looked at last week, take heart, I have overcome the world. This is Jesus seeing through all the suffering to the glory of it all. Death is coming. The judgment of God, the wrath of God is about to be poured out on Jesus's head and he prays with joy. It's extraordinary. Jesus's joy was beyond the cross. It was in what the cross would accomplish. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. His joy was beyond his death, and so is yours. One of the most important things that you'll learn as a Christian in this life is to look through and beyond your circumstances, through your suffering, to God's eternal purposes and anchor your joy there. If you try to derive joy from what is happening now in this world, in this age, let me tell you, that project is going to fail. And you'll be doomed to disappointment. You'll be doomed to trying and failing to live a life of joy and just having the whole thing misfire over and over again. And so what do you do? You do exactly what Jesus does here in the midst of His looming death. You lash your shifting, wavering, untrustworthy heart to the bedrock of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you do. You remind yourself over and over and over again that your citizenship is in His kingdom, not here. That your glory is with Him, not here. that your pride and your joy and your wonder is in the circumstances that have taken place in the heavenly places, and that you will fully obtain that at the king's return. That's what you do. That's what Jesus did. Jesus died so that he himself would be glorified. In fact, he was glorified precisely in his death. But secondly, here's the second purpose. Jesus died so that his father would be glorified as well. So Jesus died not just so that he himself would be glorified, but so that his father would be glorified. So look at the next phrase there in Jesus' prayer. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son so that the son may glorify you. So you can see the logic there, right? The ultimate end of Jesus' death, of him you know, delivering himself up, of him being glorified through his death and resurrection and ascension. The ultimate end of that was so that God the Father would be glorified. Now just pause and take note of that for just a second, and notice that this is true of Jesus's life taken as a whole, from start to finish. But here in this prayer, it's just so obvious that Jesus was never self-seeking. He wasn't. He knew that he was gonna be glorified. There's no doubt about that. He knew that he was gonna be exalted over all the earth. He knew that every tongue would confess him to be Lord. Every knee would fall before him. He knew all of that was about to happen, but he wasn't self-seeking in it. In everything he did, Jesus' aim was to bring glory to his Father. His aim is to glorify God. He tells his listeners in chapter eight, I honor my father. I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and he's the judge. In other words, I'm not seeking glory for myself. My father wants me to be glorified. If I glorify myself, he says, my glory means nothing. My father, he's the one. who glorifies me. And then he says, and I'm gonna turn it right back around and glorify him. So you see the same idea in verse four here. Look at that one. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Jesus's whole life from start to finish was oriented toward glorifying God. He worshiped God perfectly. glorified God perfectly, submitted to God perfectly in all of his life as the representative Israelites for all who would believe in him. He's saying every single second of my human life on earth brought glory to God. And how did he do that? Verse four, by obeying God. He did it by obeying his father. I accomplished the work that you gave me to do. He says it in chapter five. I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his father doing, because whatever the father does, the son does also. When he faced the temptations of Satan, the devil, in the wilderness, he obeyed God. And the greatest moment, the moment of greatest obedience to his Father, would be just a few minutes from now in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he would say, Father, let this cup pass from me, let this suffering pass from me, if there's any other way. But father, not my will, but your will be done. If you're gonna call me down this road of suffering, then not my will, but your will be done. He brings glory to his father by obeying him. But there's even more to it than that. There's an even greater way that Jesus glorifies his father. Look at verse two. He says, glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given the Son authority over all flesh in order to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. And you see the logic of how verse two works here. The whole of verse one. the glorify your son so that the Father may glorify you. That whole thing is dependent on, it's based on, it's grounded in the fact that God is giving His own Son authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given the Son. Okay, so what does all of that mean? Well, two things, two parts of it. First of all, Jesus says that the Father has given the Son authority over all flesh. He's given him authority over all flesh. In other words, he's given the Son authority over all human beings. It's what Jesus meant after the resurrection when he said, authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." And that is deeply worth thinking about, because what it means is that Jesus's authority over you as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, it is not dependent upon you acknowledging it. He is your monarch, your crown, your sovereign, whether you acknowledge it or not. He is your judge, whether you acknowledge it or not. I think so many people in our world today think that Christianity is just something you can opt into or out of, sort of like a local gym membership, that you can say, well, I don't want to be a Christian. I'm not a Christian, and therefore, I have nothing to do with that Jesus of yours. It's fine that he's your king, but he's not mine. Oh, yes, he is. Yes, he is. The father has given the son authority over all flesh. The only question is how you're going to experience that authority, that kingship. Like right now, today, the king's hand is extended to you in an offer of mercy. And he's saying, I will save you. He will save you. And as the reigning king, he will pull you right up out of the muck and the mire of sin and rebellion and shame and curse that you're in. He will set you on high with himself. But that offer of mercy, it's not gonna last forever. I mean, one day, everyone will acknowledge Jesus as king. I will, you will, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God. The only question is whether you're gonna do that with rejoicing because you've been rescued and redeemed and saved, or whether you're gonna do that under an iron rod of invincible power. So put your faith in Jesus now. Take his merciful hand, bow your knee, before Him and say, Jesus, I cannot save myself. You stand for me. You save me. The Father has given you authority over all flesh. Secondly, he says that that authority over all mankind was given so that Jesus could give eternal life to all those whom the Father gave Him. So that Jesus could give eternal life to all those whom the Father gave." And we've seen this before over and over again in the book of John. Remember John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. I mean, the Bible is not shy about this. Jesus has been given authority. He is King of kings, Lord of lords over all mankind. And he has been given certain ones as a gift by his father, a people, a kingdom who are going to be his redeemed, cherished, redeemed from their sin, sat on high with him, his people to worship him forever. Look at verse 3, because the eternal life that He gives them there, it's way more than just life that goes on and on and on forever, right? That's how sometimes we think of it. A lot of times, eternal life, that just means life that goes on forever. We're gonna live forever. But that's not what it means. Look at verse three. This is eternal life. This thing that I give to the ones who are mine, this is eternal life, that they will know you, Father, the only true God, and me, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. You see there that eternal life is knowledge of God. But it's not base knowledge, right? It's not academic knowledge. Like, I know these 16 attributes of God, things about God. I have my systematic theology in place. No. It's not just an acquaintance with Him. It's not just information. When Jesus talks about eternal life, He means the whole of the life of the age to come. That's what we pray in this service, every Lord's Day, we pray for that here, what Habakkuk said, that in that day, in the age to come, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The life of the age to come is the life of intimate, loving knowledge of God, knowledge of the glory of the Lord. It's to know the glory, the nature, the character of the Lord, and therefore, because you know him, to worship and adore him. That's the kind of knowledge Jesus is talking about here. And he's saying that kind of knowledge of God issues in worship of him. By the way, that's why Jesus says that you have the life of the age to come right now. You don't have to wait for it. It's not like you're living a temporal life now and eternal life after. It's not like I have eternal life in the sense that I'm not really living it now, but it's a gift that I will receive one day once I get to heaven. That's not it. The life of the age to come has erupted in your soul. It's like lava coming up in your soul. You've erupted as a creation of the age to come, precisely because you know God. And that knowledge of Him leads you to worship Him, to glorify Him. I mean, when we gather in this place to worship God through singing and prayers and listening to the Word of God, when that kind of worship is happening here at Dayspring, that is part of the age to come, because we know God. So you see the circle that's happening here. Father, the time has come. You glorify your son so that your son can glorify you. And the way that's going to happen, God, is that I'm going to do what you and I planned from the very beginning. I'm going to turn and save these people whom you have given me by dying for them in their place. And then they are going to know you and worship you because they know you. Glorify your son so that your son can glorify you by saving the people who will worship and glorify you. It's just this beautiful refracting light of glory and knowledge between the father and the son and his people. Number three, here's the third and final sermon point this morning. Jesus died so that that plan, God's eternal plan to save us, would be accomplished. He died so that all of that would be accomplished. So look back again at verse 2. We saw already there that the Father gave Jesus authority over all humankind, and that out of humankind, He gave Jesus certain chosen ones who are going to be saved from sin and become His own people. Just an absolutely extraordinary thing for Jesus to reveal to us, that His Father gave Him some to save so that they would worship and glorify Him. Do you realize what he's saying there? You realize what he's kind of, he's kind of pulling the veil back and letting you see? He's letting you eavesdrop in, essentially, on an agreement, a plan that was made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit within the eternal Godhead before the foundation of the world. He's showing you a sacred agreement that the three persons of the Trinity made to save a people for God's own glory out of destruction from sin. You're getting to see that right here. Jesus is saying, let me tell you what happened in eternity past. We all made an agreement that we were going to save you. The Father said, I love them. I will elect them. I will save them. I will give them mercy and grace. The Son said, I will become a man and I will die for them in order to get them, in order to rid them of that curse, to rid them of that sin. I will lay down my life for them. The Spirit said, yes, and I will bring them life. When all of that redemption is accomplished, I will apply it to them, and I will take up residence within them. I will dwell with them. I will lead them. I will sanctify them. You realize what a beautiful gift you are to Jesus? Why are Christians said to be sons of God? It's because in Colossians, Jesus is said to be the image of God par excellence, and He is the eternal Son of God. are the Son of God, because Jesus is the Son of God. You reflect Him. You look like Him. There's this intimate relationship between you and Jesus that doesn't exist with anything else in the universe, anything else in creation. God said to His Son, I've made something for you. Look, it's a little you, Jesus. And Jesus said, I love them. I love them, and I'm willing to do anything to save them. Incredible thing. that Jesus did. It's an amazing thing, isn't it, that Jesus saves because He didn't have to. He didn't have to. I mean, God could have left us in our unrighteousness. He could have left us in our sin, in our rebellion against Him, like we talked about last month regarding the fallen angels, but He didn't. I mean, in the middle of the service, we read from Psalm 96. Did you pay attention to the words that we were reading together as a congregation? Because if you did, I don't know if you felt it or not, but as those words were coming off your lips and off of mine, we were basically pronouncing a sentence of death upon ourselves. We were saying that God deserves all the glory in the universe, and we were declaring that the things that we chase after in our own lives, we were declaring those other gods, that they were idols to be worthless and empty. We did that together, and we were calling then on the judge of all the earth, remember there at the very end of the psalm, to come and to judge the world in righteousness. We were declaring ourselves to be guilty, and God could have heard that and judged us for all eternity. But praise God, when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit saw us in our sin, they agreed, they purposed, they planned, they plotted to save so that the Father would be glorified. See, that's what's going on here. When Jesus, at the end of chapter 17, when he gets to the amen of this prayer, he's gonna go to the cross. He's gonna bear all the sins of his people on his shoulders. He's gonna die for them. is going to be forsaken by God for them, so that they won't have to be forsaken ever. And if you're not a Christian, this is good news for you today as well, because the King's hand is out to you. The King's hand is mercifully extended out to you. It's good news to you because God is calling on you right now to do what everyone who is one of Jesus's people ultimately do. Repent of your sins, turn away from your sinful way, and believe in him, trust in him, rely on him alone and no one and nothing else to forgive you of all of your sins. come to Jesus and take mercy from his hand today. And you know, maybe you're sitting there thinking, well, you just said that God has given certain chosen, elect people to Jesus. How do I know if I'm one of those who has been chosen? It's actually not that complicated. You know how you know who are Jesus's chosen people? They're the ones who come to Him. You come to Him. And then you turn around and you look and you're like, oh, that's why I came, because I was a gift from God the Father to the Son from all the way in eternity past. But don't sit there fretting about it now. Come to Jesus. And then you'll know that you were one who was given to Him. Brothers and sisters, there is so much here, so much to fan the flames of worship. I mean, do you realize that you, as a saved and forgiven sinner, are actually an object of wonder to the watching universe? And this is why Peter says that the angels, they look in on this, they look at what's going on, and they just long to look into these things and to grasp them, but they can't. They're just dumbstruck with worship at God's grace and mercy towards rebels like us. And look, it's nothing in you. It's nothing in you that makes the angels worship. Far, far from it. I mean, you see Jesus' words there. You have been given eternal life as a gift because the Father chose for you to have it. He gave you to the Son. I mean, think about that. He gave you to the Son as a gift. You. You, in yourself, the only thing that you managed to accomplish with your life is that you were sunk in sin and shame, just a wretch. You were crushed under God's guilty verdict and doing nothing except walking in darkness, awaiting his judgment. And yet God, in his unending mercy and grace, He reached down into the muck and he lifted up your head and said, hey, you, I forgive you. I love you. And I'm going to make you into a beautiful gift for my son. And the angels worshiped. Do you see how much Jesus loves us? He loves us because we reflect him. He loves us because he wants us to be with himself. He loves us so much that he died so that you could be with him forever. Isaiah 53 says that Jesus will look upon those whom he has saved and he will be satisfied. Jesus is satisfied with you. Are you satisfied with him? Let us pray. Our Lord Jesus, we do worship you and bow before you this morning as the great King of all mankind and the great Savior of your people. Father, we pray that you would do your work of mercy. We pray that you would do your great work of salvation, even among us here this morning. Lord, if there's anyone here who doesn't yet know you and is thinking that they need you, even before they leave today, Lord, we pray that you would give them the faith to put their confidence in your son, Jesus, to trust in him, and so be saved from all their sins. Our Lord, we pray all of this in Jesus' saving name, amen. Please stand together, be sure to greet one another and greet our visitors, and be checking your email as we get arrangements and information on time and place for Nancy Decker's funeral. That will go out churchwide through the day spring email. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.