The Glory & Knowledge of God in Christ Jesus
December 1, 2024 Preacher: Jeff Griffis Series: Communion in Christ's Love
Scripture: John 17:1–5
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The Glory & Knowledge of God in Christ Jesus – John 17:1–5
PRAY
INTRO: The text that was read earlier, Jesus’ opening petition for himself in the prayer of John 17, should blow us away. In defense of most of us, the reason it doesn’t do so is because we haven’t studied it closely and given it sufficient thought and weight. So that’s our goal this morning, to really understand this prayer and let it sink in.
In it…
Jesus prays for mutual glorification in the Godhead through completing the work the Father has given him and through granting eternal life to those whom the Father has given him.
Therefore…
We are indeed privileged among men to know God through Jesus Christ and thereby glorify him as God.
When I am studying texts to teach them, after making sure I have clarity on the content, I immediately begin asking questions of the meaning and purpose of the text. Sometimes then I just lean into these questions in the way I organize a sermon. Here’s the first question, arising right away in v. 1, and it’s a critical one:
Why did Jesus pray? (And why should it matter to us?)
First, why did Jesus pray now at the close of the farewell discourse and in the hearing of the disciples?
John 17:1 ESV
1 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,
John, the author of this gospel account, is evidently able to record the Lord’s words in detail, which is quite plainly a prayer, with Jesus lifting up his eyes to heaven in a customary posture of prayer, and addressing the Father in petition.
And the prayer took place when Jesus “had spoken these words,” referring (almost certainly) to the entire teaching of chapters 13 through 16, as he prepared his disciples for his impending death and resurrection and subsequent departure to glory.
So why pray now, at this moment? The gospel writer Luke records Jesus praying more often than any other gospels, and especially before times where something significant was about to take place.
Here we already have an implication for our application: All moments are appropriate moments of prayer (when we are mindful of our need for God’s help), and yet prayer is especially appropriate in weighty moments, when we understand the major significance or challenge of certain matters before us.
Clearly a supremely critical moment should be noted here, where Jesus acknowledges again that the hour (the time) has come. In John’s gospel this hour Jesus references on various occasions, which looms large in anticipation but had not yet come, has finally arrived at chapter 12. John 12:27-28
John 12:27–28 ESV
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
This time, or hour, is without question a reference to his sacrificial suffering, which has now come, and is in fact a central to the way God intends to glorify his great name in Christ Jesus. [more on this momentarily, in discussion of the mutual glorification of God]
But again, why pray aloud in the hearing of his disciples? Because our gracious Lord wanted them, and us, to possess this prayer. Jesus prays aloud for our benefit. It was for our good, similar to the explanation in John 11:42 when Jesus prayed aloud at the tomb of Lazarus.
John 11:42 ESV
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus prayed aloud for the good of those listening.
See, there should be no question that this prayer in John 17, which we often call the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, is both petition and proclamation. It carries in it both request and revelation. That is why we can title a message on these verses “The Glory and Knowledge of God in Christ Jesus,” because that is what Jesus’ prayer reveals. So the prayer should instill both understanding and confidence in God’s people.
[show the question] I ask again, though, why did Jesus pray at all? If he is the unique Son of God, God the Son in the triune Godhead, why did he pray at all? This is one such place where it is critical that we have a right theological understanding of the incarnation: of Christ’s fullness of deity as well his full, albeit perfect, humanity. To be the perfect human is not to be less human but more human according to God’s intention.
Therefore, as a human, and limiting the full exercise of divine prerogatives, Jesus prays in dependence upon the Spirit and in submission to the Father’s will. Jesus, fully and perfectly human, prayed because he was dependent on the Spirit in submission to the Father’s will.
In fact, the very reason his prayers are a model for us is because Jesus demonstrated dependency on the Spirit in obedience to the Father’s will. One might even use this as a definition of prayer: Prayer is to verbally seek God in relational submission and dependence.
So as we praise and thank God in prayer, we do so in submission and dependence. When we confess our sin, we are agreeing with God because we submit to him and depend upon his forgiveness. And when we petition God, we know he cares and can trust him entirely because of a relationship to him that is submissive and dependent.
As we continue, the relational aspect of this becomes more plain, and is revealed as essential, not only for prayer but for the true knowledge of God.
[show Jn 17:1 again] Now at the end of verse one we see the singular petition of Jesus for himself:
“Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”
Now, just briefly, take note that this is different from the prayers that we should pray, because Jesus is the Christ, the unique Son of God in human flesh. Our prayers are more appropriate in language such as “Father, mold me and use me according to your will and for your glory. By your Spirit, magnify the Son in my life.”
But since Jesus can pray for being glorified in order to glorify the Father…
What is the significance of this prayer for mutual glorification?
Jesus is indeed submitting to the Father’s will, depending on his help by the Spirit, and ultimately praying for the glory of God alone. And yet the unique Son of God can uniquely pray for his own glorification as a means of glorifying the Godhead… which is plainly a claim to deity, since the OT makes clear that “the only true God” (from v. 3) does not share his glory with another (cf. Isa 42:8, 48:11).
Jesus is God. He is God the Son in human flesh and can therefore be glorified as God.
By this type of glory, or glorification, we mean acknowledgement and estimation of the supreme praise and honor and worth that belong to God alone. We do not mean primarily the glory of God in the other Biblical sense in which glory is a description of the visibly brilliant radiance of God’s presence (such as with Moses on Sinai, or the theophany of God’s presence in the tabernacle). Glorify can have that meaning too, of being robed in splendor, which seems to be part of the meaning in v. 5.
Glorify here at v. 1 is mainly to esteem God as he deserves, to magnify the status and splendor of God, who is worthy to be honored and praised. So glory gives the sense of the radiant splendor that proceeds from the supreme status and worth of God, and glorify can mean both to esteem God supremely for his worth, and can mean to be robed in splendor—glorified.
Here Jesus prays that the Son will be supremely esteemed in order that the Father may be praised and honored with the glory he deserves. The God of glory is rightly glorified in being highly esteemed for his worth and what he has accomplished.
And at vv. 2-3 in our Bibles Jesus provides the grounds for this petition of mutual glorification, with a comparison that establishes God’s purpose in sending the Son.
John 17:2 NET
2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.
Just as (or “even as”) is the best translation here, because in Greek it is a subordinating conjunction that provides a comparison. Just as the Son’s glorification is for the purpose of the Father’s glorification (v. 1), so the authority God has given the Son over all flesh (which is a reference to humanity, to mankind)… this ruling authority and power is for the purpose of the Son giving eternal life to those the Father has given to him.
So…
On what grounds does Jesus make this petition?
Jesus can pray for this mutual glorification on the grounds that God has already established that Christ should have authority over all humanity… for the purpose of giving eternal life to those whom the Father has given him.
Everyone and everything is under the scope of this authority, under the authority of God’s eternal kingdom, whether they acknowledge him or not. So too John can say Jesus is the true light from God for the whole world (Jn 1:9) and that God truly has demonstrated his love for the world, the whole of humanity, through Jesus (Jn 3:16). And John will make a broad invitation that all who believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, will receive life in his name (Jn 20:31). Look also at Jn 3:36…
John 3:36 ESV
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Therefore the converse is also true, that whoever does not believe (obey) the Son is under the just condemnation of God.
[display John 17:2 again]
What are we to make of Jesus’ own teaching, and such clear understanding and communication of it from the writer John, of the Father sovereignly “giving” some to the Son, these ones who through Jesus receive eternal life? (cf. John 6:36-37, 10:27-29)
John is not embarrassed to call all men to be saved and let them bear responsibility for any rejection (even as Jesus himself does), while also espousing the plain teaching from Jesus that God receives all the glory for the salvation of those who believe in him to eternal life. Although we do actively believe, we cannot take credit for being believers, for even receiving the gift of eternal life by faith. In other words, who gets the glory? God alone.
And on that note of eternal life, Jesus presses further the grounds for this petition, for the purpose of glorifying God, with a statement (in his prayer) about the meaning of eternal life.
John 17:3 ESV
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Why would Jesus make a statement of truth such as this in his prayer, one that the Father absolutely already knows? In this case, it is certainly for the benefit of those who hear (cf. Jn 11:42).
But when we, in our prayers, state back to God the things that we know are true from his word, such as truths about his character and promises he has made and things we know he desires, we are actively trusting in God and pursuing his will.
There is, no doubt, in his humanity, a sense in which Jesus is doing the same: stating the purpose for which he came in active trust and obedience to accomplishing the Father’s will, the means by which he is glorifying the Father. But he clearly also makes this statement for those who listen and for us who receive it passed down to us in the sacred Scripture.
And…
What’s so important in v. 3 that we need to comprehend and apply in how we relate to God?
Jesus intends that they (and we) should not limit our understanding of eternal life to merely the “life of the age to come” (when we are resurrected to be with him forever), but must realize that such resurrection life in fact begins even now if we come to a true knowledge of God, in the sense of a relationship with him, through Jesus Christ.
Don Carson states succinctly, “Eternal life is not so much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting One.” -D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 556.
The essence of eternal life is to know God. Not merely to know that God exists, the way that you know Donald Trump and Joe Biden exist but don’t actually have a relationship with either. You don’t know them and they don’t know you.
To know God is to come into familial, covenant relationship with him, in which you really know him, the way that my children know me… only this relationship of intimate knowledge is so much better because God is a perfect Father who loves perfectly and leads perfectly and protects perfectly and has a perfect plan that is always for our good and his glory.
To know Jesus as the unique One whom God sent, is to know God himself, for Jesus is God and is the way to God (Jn 14:6). Jesus came not simply to reveal God, but to give us a true knowledge of God, to bring us into relationship with God through him. And by that purpose both he, and we, bring glory to God.
So Jesus returns specifically to the theme of glorification.
John 17:4 ESV
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
When Jesus says I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do… he speaks of not only what he has done so far in proclaiming the kingdom, but is absolutely including the central and essential cross and resurrection that are about to take place. This is called prolepsis, to represent something as if it has already happened or is currently happening, even though it is actually in the future.
Most specifically, what is this accomplishment, this achievement of Christ that God gave him to do?
What is the accomplishment the Father gave the Son to do for which God is glorified?
One of the most astonishing—and distinguishing—claims of Christianity is God’s plan and his glorification through the Son becoming a willing sacrifice to satisfy God’s justice concerning sin, and rising again in order that he may offer forgiveness and justification to the ones who have faith in him alone for salvation. Again, by this achievement, God is glorified. He alone is the one highly prized and esteemed in accomplishing this purpose.
Finally, Jesus concludes this portion of his prayer for glorification with a reference to his completed exaltation.
John 17:5 ESV
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
After completing the work God gave him to do, in his cross and resurrection (and resurrection appearances to many disciples), Jesus would ascend into heaven to be fully glorified, conceived of as being re-clothed in the splendor of the majestic God, which he had in eternity past before the creation of the world.
Who can possibly pray such things?
… as “glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed”?
By my count this is now the fourth or fifth time in as many verses that there is clear evidence of Christ’s deity:
(v. 1) Who can share God’s glory but God?
(v. 2) Who can give eternal life (knowledge of God, relationship with God) but God?
(v. 3) Who can equate knowing him with knowing God?
(v. 5) Who can pray to be restored to the glory he had before the world was created but God?
This is Jesus, the God-Man who brings glory to the Godhead by bringing people into right relationship with God. And God alone receives all the glory for this accomplishment.
We are indeed privileged among men to know God through Jesus Christ and thereby glorify him as God.
DO you know God and glorify him as God? … Do you have faith in Jesus? In other words, do you glorify him as Lord and honor him as God?
Christian, have you exhausted knowing God more fully? Have you reached the limit of glorifying God, esteeming him as highly as he is worth?
May not only our prayers but our whole lives be marked by an awareness and a desire for the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
PRAY
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