Tonight’s passage begins the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Jesus’ time had come. His death on the cross was quickly upon Him. So we will see that in our passage this evening Jesus asked for only two things.
1. He asked that He may glorify the Father in what was about to happen.
2. And that God would restore His Son to His former glory.
READ v. 1. As I just said, Jesus knows that His time has come. This refers to His death. Note that Jesus looked toward heaven and called God “Father.” He was claiming to know God intimately. He was once again claiming to be the very Son of God. Jesus makes two requests in this passage for Himself. Here in v. 1 and the second request in verse 5. We’ll get to verse 5 in a minute.
READ 1-4. The first thing that Jesus asked was, “Father…glorify your Son.” And then He quickly adds, “That your Son may glorify You.” The whole purpose for God’s sending Jesus to earth was to give eternal life to us. So if the question is asked, “How is God glorified in Jesus’ death? And How is Jesus glorified in it all?, the answer is “by us receiving eternal life.” So both God’s glory and Jesus’ glory are found in the completion of the great work of salvation. Several aspects of this glory can be seen.
• First, there is the glory of righteousness which Jesus secured by a perfect life. In other words, He set the example for us to follow. If we follow Jesus’ example and accept Him as personal Savior and as our Mediator before God, then we will be counted as righteous.
• Then there is the glory of the cross itself and what it stands for.
• Of course the glory of Jesus’ resurrection which vindicates beyond question His Messiahship.
• Also, the glory of Christ’s ascension and exaltation which is yet to come in our study.
All of this is summed up in the glory of man’s salvation, in us receiving eternal life.
Now let’s note three things about Jesus’ request to be glorified.
1. How is Jesus glorified? Jesus is glorified by God’s giving Him the power and authority over all people. READ John 5: 24-27.
[ Jesus was the Perfect and Ideal Man because He was perfectly obedient to God, even in dying. His righteousness and death could stand for every person’s righteousness and death. We just have to believe that Jesus’ death covers us. The cross was the means of that death so the cross glorifies Jesus as the Son of Man.
a. Jesus was now ready to make the final sacrifice for man, and He was ready to pay the supreme price to bring about the greatest event in all history: the salvation of man. The cross attracts and stirs men to give themselves to Jesus and to honor and praise Him. It’s in the cross that men find their salvation so the cross is the glory of Jesus.
b. Jesus was now ready to triumph over Satan by breaking Satan’s power over death and over the souls of men. He triumphed over the rulers, and authorities, and principalities, and powers. And He did it all on the cross.
- He destroyed the devil’s work.
- He broke the power and fear of Satan over lives and death.
So there’s glory in the triumph and victory over Satan, especially over one so powerful and influential as Satan. Yes, the cross truly is the glory of Christ.
c. Jesus demonstrated what perfect sacrifice and self-denial, courage and strength, love and compassion really are when He died on the cross. So all this clearly shows the Son of Man’s glory.]
2. The reason Jesus was exalted is the most wonderful news for us. He was exalted and glorified so that He could give eternal life to men. And going hand in hand with this, (and we talked about this 2 weeks ago in our study of the HS), God gives Jesus the persons who are to receive eternal life. We have to be moved upon by the drawing power of God (HS) in order to receive eternal life. That’s why Jesus said, READ John 6:44.
3. Jesus states why He is now ready to be glorified. He had completed the work God had given him to do. In doing the work God had given Him to do, He had glorified God on earth.
And continuing with that thought, it’s no different for us. The only way we can glorify God on earth is to do what God says. If a person wants to glorify God, they will obey God.
READ 5-8. In verse 5 we see the second thing that Jesus asked for Himself and that was to be restored to His former glory. Remember, before Jesus came to earth, He lived with God in the beautiful realms of heaven. That was His preexistent, eternal state and glory with God.
He set aside His glory when He came to earth as Man. He knew that He would return to the Father and be restored to His former glory.
Now, there are 2 reasons why Jesus asked to be restored to His former glory.
1. Jesus had revealed the whole character and nature of God—all that God is. Jesus was claiming to be the very revelation of God, the One who reveals God tom men. You might remember earlier in this study in John I said that if we subtitled this whole study, it would be called Jesus, The Revelation of God.
Jesus revealed God to the people whom God had given him. He shared the message of God, but He didn’t scatter the seed among the unthankful and unreceptive. He even told His disciples not to waste their time on the unreceptive. READ MARK 6:11.
It was God who gave Jesus the believers who were to be shown and taught all about Himself. God is Sovereign, so He led both Jesus and the disciples together. God stirred and led these men, the first believers, out of the world to follow Jesus and to receive and to be shown the revelation of God. Through this revelation they learned of God—of His Person and nature, of His love and salvation—because God drew them to His Son.
The first believers belonged to God. They were His because he drew them to His Son by His Sovereignty and power and by His foreknowledge. He knew that they would believe on Jesus.
And they kept God’s Word. They obeyed and did exactly what Jesus commanded. The men know knew that Jesus was the Son of God. They knew “everything” which He had was given by God. So they knew that Jesus was the very embodiment and revelation of God. READ v. 7 again.
Jesus was looking ahead beyond the resurrection in saying this. It would be the resurrection that would confirm all that He had been revealing to them.
They had now accepted His words as the very words of God. They now knew His origin: He had come from God. The now believed that God HAD sent Him, that HE had come to earth as the Ambassador of God to proclaim and reveal the salvation of God.
In chapter 17 we are going to see that Jesus prayed for Himself, (tonight’s study), He prayed of His disciples, and He prayed for future believers. So we will stop here for tonight and pick it up from here next week. All these prayers He lifted to God just before His arrest.
