My 10 Resolutions for 2008. I have decided that with God’s help, I shall: Give up complaining, focus on gratitude. Give up harsh judgments, think kind thoughts. Give up worry, trust divine providence. Give up discouragement, be full of hope. Give up bitterness, turn to forgiveness. Give up hatred, return good for evil. Give up anger, practice patience. Give up pettiness, put on maturity. Give up gloom; enjoy the beauty that is around me. Give up gossiping, control my tongue.
2008 Predictions: 1. The Bible will still have all the answers. 2. Prayer will still work. 3. The Holy Spirit will still move. 4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people. 5. There will still be God-anointed preaching. 6. There will still be singing of praise to God. 7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people. 8. There will still be room at the Cross. 9. Jesus will still love you. 10. Jesus will still save the lost.
Our Lord prayed as a man, and as the go-between of his people; yet he spoke with self-assurance and power, as one that is equal with the Father. Eternal life could not be given unless Christ glorified the Father, and was glorified by him. The sinner’s way to eternal life is when he comes to this knowledge, By believing he will be made perfect in love for Christ and then He will enjoy happiness that can be found no where else. In these few verses we are taught that our praising God is a needed evidence to show our love Christ. It is through Him we receive eternal life as God’s free gift.
Father Glorify Your Son (17:1-5)
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed and we find four reasons for saying this. It is because of the Person who prayed the prayer. He is the only one who claimed to be God’s Son. It is because of the occasion that commanded the prayer. Jesus in the next day will give His life for a world of lost sinners. It is because of the contents of the prayer. He came to earth for reason and that being complete He was confident that the glory of the Father was done. This leads to the victory in Jesus that He has done what needed to be done to bring us to God.
Let look at three things we find in these first five verses. WHAT IS JESUS ASKING FOR? WHY SHOULD GOD GRANT HIS REQUEST? WHY WAS JESUS’ PRAYER ANSWERED?
I. WHAT IS JESUS ASKING FOR?
A. THE request expressed, “Father, the time has come, Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” “Father, glorify me with your very own radiance, the very radiance I had in your presence before there was a world.”
What does it mean to glorify? It means to bring praise to an outstanding position or form. Jesus was asking to be reinstated the glory He had before the world came into being.
We see here two great truths concerning Jesus.
1. His existed before the world began. Mic 5:2 “Whose goings forth has been from of old, from everlasting.”
2. His Divinity was shared with God His Father alone. IS 42:8 "I am the Lord; that is my name? I will not give my glory to anyone else. I will not share my praise with carved idols.” When the Gospel of John starts it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word was God." Jesus is asking the Father to give back to Him the glorious position He had before coming to earth.
Jesus left heaven to come to earth that He might give his life for our sins that we might go to heaven. He did what needed to be done and now He asks to return to heaven to be with the Father.
II. WHY would GOD (who is holy and without sin) GRANT HIS REQUEST?
A. Jesus prays “that your Son also may glorify You." Jesus wanted to bring honor to his Father. His prayer is not merely personal. He wants to return His glory by honoring the Father. This provides an important pattern in considering our own prayers. Do we always ask for blessings that we might better serve God and do His will? Many of our prayers might go unanswered because they are for selfish reasons. JAM 4:3 “And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong, you want only what will give you pleasure.” The reason we pray is to have our Father’s will in mind. 1 JN 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us.”
B. Jesus said that “you’ve given him authority over all humanity so that he can give eternal life to all those you gave to him.” He had been given Authority to give eternal life.
He had been given Authority to forgive sins. Mt 9:6 “I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He had been given Authority to bring judgment. John 5:26-27 “The Father is the source of life, and he has enabled the Son to be the source of life too. He has also given the Son authority to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man.” He had been given all authority in heaven and on earth. MT 28:18 “Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth.” Because He has this authority He should receive glory and praise.
C. Jesus said "I have glorified you on earth." Jesus had glorified His Father as He walked on the earth. He made His Father’s will and work His chief enjoyment. JN 4:34 “Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.” This is why He came from heaven. JN 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want.” Jesus used His life, His deeds and His words to always glorify His Father. Jesus provides a pattern regarding our own prayers. Do we base our requests solely on promises of what we will do? Do we seek to do His will first, and then ask God to fulfill what He has promised?
D. Jesus said "I have finished the work." His greatest work (dying for our sins) had not yet been done. But its completion was so certain, Jesus could speak of it as done. How could He know what would happen if he was not God? Jesus provides a pattern for the proper place prayer should occupy in our lives. It is not just to be used only in the case of emergencies. It needs to come from a life driven by devotion and service that is dedicated to bring glory and praise to God.
III. Why WAS JESUS’ PRAYER ANSWERED?
A. By making Death important. The importance of Jesus’ death gives Him great honor. As expressed in the book of Revelation. Rev. 5:9-14 and they sang a new song with these words: "You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become God’s kingdom and his priests. And they will reign on the earth." Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: "The Lamb is worthy, the Lamb who was killed. He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.’ And the four living beings said, Amen and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped God and the Lamb.”
B. By being raised from the dead.
1. God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power. Ro 1:4 “And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit.
2. God gave Jesus glory. 1 PT 1:21 “because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.”
C. By being exalted to sit at the right hand of God.
1. EPH. 1:20-22 “He raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church.” 1 PT 3:22 “Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers are bowing before him.” There is no one else to which such a statement has been said. No one else is worthy to sit at the right hand of God.
2. Jesus now reigns with authority over the nations. Rev. 3:21 “I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. “
D. By knowing there is MORE GLORY TO COME.
1. When Jesus returns, He will be glorified in His saints. 2 TH 1:10 “when he comes to receive glory and praise from his holy people. And you will be among those praising him on that day, for you believed what we testified about him.” 2 PT 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.1 TH 5:2 “for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Day of the Lord in the OT it is a time when God will come and intervene with judgment or blessing. In the NT the thought of judgment continues, but it is also the "day of redemption"; the "day of God", or of Christ; and the "last day", the "great Day" or simply "the day". It is the climax of all things. The coming will be as unexpected as that of a thief in the night.
2. He will sit on His throne of glory, as He judges the world. Mt 25:31-32 "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
The words of Paul confirm that God has glorified His Son in Ph 2:9-11 “Having highly exalted Him, giving Him the name which is above every name at which every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord.” We do well to remember. Jesus not only prayed "Father Glorify Your Son" and that we might behold His glory but that we might share in His glory!
Don’t you want to participate in that glory? Confess and obey Jesus as Lord Acts 2:36-38 “So let it be clearly known by everyone in Israel that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah!" Peter’s words convicted them deeply, and they said to him and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter replied, "Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
