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John the apostle introduced his version of the good news by saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The gospel is a story of glory and the Gospel according to John lifts up many of Jesus’ words and works of glory.

We return to our study of John this morning after a nine Lord’s days break. We move into a new chapter, a famous section of Scripture, the favorite part of John for many believers. We will see even more of Jesus’ glory as He prays for a return to glory and for the spread of His glory among men.

We have already seen much of the glory of Christ. What has been your favorite display of the Son’s greatness in the first 16 chapters? The prologue about the eternal was-God-and-was-with-God, all-life-creating Word (1:1-18)? John the Baptist announcing Jesus as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29-34)? The wedding at Cana, the first miracle of party provisions (2:1-11)? The teaching about new birth to Nicodemus (3:1-21)? The woman at the well in Samaria (4:1-44)? The cranky paralyzed man walking again after 38 years (5:1-17)? The feeding of 5000 men and walking on water (6:1-21)? Jesus’ confrontation with religious know-it-alls in Jerusalem (7:1-36)? The nature of sacrifice coming from the nature of God (8:12-30)? The giving of sight to the man born blind (9:1-40)? The good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (10:1-42)? The raising of hope and of Lazarus (11:1-44)? The triumphal entry (12:1-50)? Or was it from one of the parts on Jesus’ final night with His disciples, such as the foot washing (13:1-20), the call and promise for branches to abide in the vine for fruit (15:1-17), or the promise of the Holy Spirit (16:4-15)?

These (and more) were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name (John 20:31). These signs and teachings and interactions show us the glory of the only Son from the Father, and yet, in another sense, we still haven’t seen anything yet.

Which brings us to chapter 17. We usually think of John 17 as Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. It is that, and it is much more than that. Jesus is done talking directly to His disciples. He ended on a note of grave encouragement.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33, ESV)

Of course Jesus had, and hadn’t overcome the world yet. His triumph was certain, but it wasn’t completed. In 17:4 He said, “having accomplished the work that You gave me to do.” He was beginning to tie up the final parts of the project as He prayed.

The prayer is the final part of preparing His disciples. As the two other recorded prayers in John (John 11:41-42; 12:27-28), these words were spoken within their hearing (one of the reasons the apostle John could write it down years later). So this prayer was for them in a couple ways. It is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible and is not the same as His prayer in Gethsemane. Jesus and the eleven were about to head to the garden (18:1), they weren’t there yet.

There appear to be three major divisions of this prayer. Jesus prays for Himself in verses 1-5, He prays for the eleven disciples in verses 6-19, and He prays for us, for all the rest of the sheep who were given to Him by the Father in verses 20-26. We can also categorize all three parts in relation to Jesus’ mission: His eternal mission (1-5), His immediate mission (6-19), and His future mission (20-26), at least from that point on a timeline.

The idea of mission should sound familiar, that is, Jesus, the Son, coming because the Father sent Him. The “Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands” (3:35). The Son sees what the Father is doing and does the same (5:19), including being sent by the Father to give the dead life (5:21, 23). “The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me” (5:36). The Father who sent Him bears witness (8:18). The Father charged Him to lay down His life for the sheep (10:17). “The Father is in me and I am in the Father” (10:38), so “I and the Father are one” (10:30). “I do as the Father commanded me” (14:31). The Son made known all that He heard from the Father (15:15).

Then He said, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father” (16:28). The Father/Son relationship and Father’s assignment to the Son drive the prayer in 17:1-5.

The prayer establishes (or confirms) divine and eternal categories, meaning that the glory we see and hear will cut thought patterns that cannot be ignored. At the same time, there are divine and eternal categories that help us understand the prayer. So as a re-entry into John’s Gospel and as a lead-in to these worldview shaping patterns, rather than follow an outline through the first five verses (we’ll do that next week), let’s read them and consider what is at work behind them.

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. (John 17:1–5, ESV)

Three thought-cutting words: Father, life, and glory.

Father

We’ve read so much about the Father and Son in John. The men are reading Father Hunger for Men to Men. And I’ve been reading some additional pages on the Trinity for the Sunday evening series. Just two days ago I read a description that is easy to take for granted and that accounts for why the world exists. It literally explains why God created and why we’re here. I’ve tried to answer this before, but here’s another scratch at the universal itch.

The most fundamental revelation of God is of Father. More than sovereignty, more than omniscience, more than righteousness, God tells us that He is Father. Because Jesus is eternally Son—our Christology matters—God has always been life-giving. A father is a father only because He has children, because of fruitfulness. God has always been fruitful in life. Who would God be without creation? Who would He be without us? He would still be characterized as life-giving.

[T]he Father is called Father because he is a Father. And a father is a person who gives life, who begets children. Now that insight is like a stick of dynamite in all our thoughts about God. For if, before all things, God was eternally a Father, then this God is an inherently outgoing, life-giving God. He did not give life for the first time when he decided to create; from eternity he has been life-giving. (Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, 24)

Jesus is not who He is apart from His Father; any other Jesus is not true. The Father would not be a Father without the Son; any other God is not true. Not only has God always been loving in relationship, He is always giving life. A non-life-giving God is not the “only true God.” When Jesus tells us “plainly about the Father,” when He invites us to ask the Father, when He tells us that “the Father Himself loves you” (16:26-27), we are the offspring overflowing from His nature.

The world exists because of God the Father (not God the bachelor, not God the recluse, not God the alone-Almighty). We exist because God is Father.

Life

The God of life sent the Word of life to “give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (17:2). Jesus introduced this group in chapter 6.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37–40, ESV)

The bread of life was given by God and God gave the Son a people (6:65). Then the Son as Shepherd laid down His life to give life.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:10–11, ESV)

All of the Son’s mission is connected to the Father:

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14–15, ESV)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27–30, ESV)

The reason for creation, the reason for Adam and Eve and the mandate to multiply and be fruitful, is an overflow of God’s life. The loss of life came with sin. And then the Son’s mission was to come and restore life to the elect.

C.S. Lewis presented the opposing (fictional) view of an elder demon giving counsel to his nephew in The Screwtape Letters:

We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over.

That’s behind our statement in What We Believe in Brief: “From the fullness of His grace He created all things and ordains all things for His glory.”

Glory

Jesus prays for glory. “The hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you” (verse 1). “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had before the world existed” (verse 5). Jesus asks for His honor back, He asks to be reclothed with splendor.

There is the glory of God in the raw and then the glory of God in the flesh. Jesus gave up one kind in heaven in order to show a different kind on earth before going back with both.

We recognize God’s infinite excellencies to the degree that He reveals and enables us to know. He is excellent in power, in knowledge, in holiness. In other words, He is excellent in a number of ways that, of themselves, would only be threatening to us. For example, He would hold a perfect standard, know every way that we fail to meet the standard, and then punish us with the full arsenal of wrath. A God like this would be glorified by taking from us, by demanding from us, by punishing us.

God does take our praise, demand our obedience, and punish those who rebel. But His glory, His infinite excellencies also include His love, fellowship, joy, and life. Eternal life is to know Him, to know His glory (verse 3). God’s glory: we can’t make it more than it is, we can enjoy more of it for what it is.

He invites us to know Him and Jesus Christ. He invites us to abide in Christ for fruit, for ongoing life. He promises eternal life, not merely a length of life, but a kind of life. What kind? His own kind. That is glory.

Conclusion

We are back at the great story, the reason for the existence of everything. When we say that the purpose of God is to be glorified, we are not saying something different than when we say that the purpose of God is to give life. Giving life is who He is. If we want to glorify Him, we must praise Him as Father and Son. If we want to glorify Him, we must believe in Him as the only true God and abide in His Son for life.

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. (J.I. Packer, Knowing God)

Our Triune God shares His joy (17:13). Our Triune God shares His relationship (17:11, 21). Our Triune God shares His love (17:26). He is sharing His life. That’s who He is and that’s why the Son came. That’s also what the Spirit continues to do now, causing men to be born again (3:1-8) and, for the one who believes, causing rivers of living water to flow out of his heart (7:38).

We live in a world of abundance because God is a Father of overflowing life. He is a fountain that flows, a sun that shines, a life that gives life. “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” and we haven’t yet seen His glory in full.